The advent of misery porn

Though I love the cinema, I don’t go as often as I’d like because I must confess there really isn’t very much that I can watch…

…or read, for that matter. I’m extremely sensitive when it comes to such things which is odd, because I am the farthest thing from a delicate little flower you can imagine. A damsel in distress I certainly am not!

I think it could be down to my vivid and hyperactive imagination. The contents of horror movies can stay with me for weeks, and even simple sad endings suck the joy outta me for hours, days even…

…crazy I know, but that’s how I am. Since I’ve figured that out – trust me, nothing beats self-awareness – I find that I generally end up watching films in one of the following genres:

• rom coms (I’m sure I have watched Pretty Woman scores of times, and still won’t hesitate to watch it if it came on the box right now!)
• comic book remakes like Batman and Spiderman (the superhero always overcomes evil you see, guaranteeing me my obligatory happy ending)
• action movies without a lot of action or gore (I love the James Bond franchise, but note to the Broccoli family – Daniel Craig is not Bond!)

I’m currently reading…Half of a Yellow Sun

I’m currently reading Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

To be continued.

I’m currently reading…The Shack

I haven’t had any books personally recommended to me for quite a while. I tend to hear about, or get wind of, authors, and then I’ll read one, two, or even three of their books in quick succession.

Or, I get interested in a particular concept or topic – it could be apologetics, legal dramas, the Nigerian Civil War, or a fictional female detective in Botswana – and I sink my teeth into that for a while, until I get bored and move onto the next thing that catches my fancy.

However, this book was recommended in my church a couple of months ago.

Now, I’m very wary of recommendations made from the pulpit as a whole, as after a while one may unwittingly find oneself more engaged in activities of the buying and selling variety, instead of focusing on listening to and imbibing the tenets of godly living. But I felt this book had a fascinating premise…

…and that’s why I’m currently reading The Shack by William Paul Young.

I’m currently reading…How to Win Friends and Influence People

You know how there are just some books that you’ve just always known about?

Well for me, this is one of them. To describe them as popular is an understatement, it’s probably more accurate to say that they are a part of international consciousness!

The title is a catchphrase that has been repeated, parodied and paraphrased countless times, so much that one British writer who put a spin on it to form the title of his own book, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, recently had it made into a Hollywood feature film.

I have always known about this book, but have never really got round to reading it, up until now.

So I’m currently reading How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

I’m currently reading…Letters From a Skeptic

I’m currently reading Letters From a Skeptic by Dr. Gregory A. Boyd and Edward Boyd.

To be continued.

Another point of view…

I came across this piece on the whole youth crime issue by Jenni Russell on the Times Online website.

She has a slightly different perspective to mine - as detailed in my article Our Youth and Knife Crime: what’s to blame? - which I find intriguing.

Click on the link below to have a read, and see what you think.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4493224.ece

Our Youth and Knife Crime: what’s to blame?

These days, the scourge of knife crime and the devastation it leaves in its wake is never out of the news.

As I write, about 20 people have been fatal victims of knife-inflicted wounds in London so far this year, with the perpetrators in the majority of cases being male teenagers. Needless to say, many more people have lost their lives across the United Kingdom, with Glasgow and Manchester also being trouble hotspots.

The government’s response has been weak and disappointing. As with most issues opportunities to come up with solutions are overwhelmed by a nonsensical requirement to be politically correct, and are therefore rendered impotent.

So, the rise in knife crime has been attributed to the following factors in no particular order: absent fathers and the consequent lack of male role models in homes, boredom, lack of adequate facilities for sports and extracurricular activities, lack of engagement in schools, poverty, and single parent households.

While I do not deny the potential for any combination of these factors to negatively impact individual characters in their formative years, it does infuriate me that the government and, by extension the rest of us, are now at the stage where we find it easier to point the finger of blame than to take a good hard look at ourselves and admit that we have a duty to our youth and the rest of society, one which we have shirked and failed.

Come on, Lewis!

Today was my Sports Day.

Well, that’s a tad misleading. Not that I was taking part myself – certainly not in the persistent rain! No…I spent my afternoon watching the British Grand Prix, wringing my hands and sitting on the edge of my sofa.

As you can probably guess I was rooting for Lewis Hamilton all the way, just hoping he would control his car in the inclement weather for the sixty laps round the course at Silverstone, praying he wouldn’t aquaplane off the road and end a third race this season without points.

And he came through! After a miserable couple of races in Canada and France, he won the Grand Prix with a clear sixty-eight second lead, and is now tied at the top of the Drivers’ Championship table with Ferrari drivers Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen.

I’m glad he won, if for no other reason than to silence his critics.

The vagaries of Facebook

I found this fantastic article on Times Online about facebook:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/men/article4249605.ece

Although I’m signed up to the ubiquitous social networking site, I have to admit that my enthusiasm has waned somewhat since I first signed up last October.

It was amusing at first; seeing how many of my friends were already ‘initiated’, browsing through the myriad of applications, posting videos of my ’song of the week’ on my profile page and keeping in touch with loved ones on different parts of the globe.

But I have gradually tired of of getting ’friend’ requests from creepy people I don’t know, and the potential for intrusion. And, there is the small fact that although I’m quite a geeky nerd of a girl, I actually do have a life (thank you, God!)

I’m currently reading…Votewise

I’m currently reading Votewise by Nick Spencer.

To be continued.