The world

Everything that involves everything and everyone in the world.

Changes and a visit to Brussels :)

by Matthew

I’ve just had a busy few weeks. I paid another visit to Brussels in July.

I haven’t been there in 13 years but this is the first time I stayed there for 3 days, so I guess that’s what counts right?
Spent time loving the country, the European quarter in Schuman (where all the important EU decisions are made), and eating good food. Travelled on the metro numerous times and visited the nice suburb of Stokkel, enjoyed lunch in a nice cafe there.

I travelled on the Eurostar it was quick comfortable and easy to check in. I can see obvious benefits over any form of air travel. Some characters do ride on trains (they will have you laughing inside).

I brought you readers a few pics. Btw, I did buy Chocolates and have Mussels and Frites ;)..

The Grand place and it's amazing grandeur..

The Grand place and it’s amazing grandeur..

Manneken Pis

Manneken Pis

Another famous Belgian. Tin Tin!

Another famous Belgian. Tin Tin!

The Grand place

The Grand place

I loved it and am planning to do European Voluntary service there. Will see how everything pans out.

Got a few good reads before I start my next university module.

Got a few good reads before I start my next university module.

I’m trying to learn French again. This time to fluency and will do this with German again eventually.

I’m also doing a bit of pre-reading before I start my next OU module in October. I’m really looking forward to starting again after a difficult time with philosophy. This module DD209 – Running the Economy sounds really interesting and sounds like something I can engage with.

I’ve been applying for new jobs. Sick and tired of where I work now. Looking for something PA/Admin based in London. If you know of anything kind readers. Do link me up! 🙂

Getting better at go-karting event by event too. I don’t have any practice time though which puts me at a disadvantage. Last weekend I suffered a high speed accident in qualifying when a wheel came off. I did run wide and bounce heavily over grass and a kerb two laps before which I think broke something. Then in the high speed corner the wheel came off. It was a big impact. I went to hospital after the race. I had some headaches and felt sick as well as neck, back and foot pain! My foot still hurts now it’s very tender. I really should massage it to be honest.

I’m looking forward for the next event. I’ve progressed a lot though despite having little practice time!

The blog is on a much faster server. I’ve switched to VPS.net and they have impressed so far. Still got lots of things I want to install and configure but not much time!!

On top of that I’ve kind of developed something with a nice lady. Shes gone away for six weeks now so have to see how it goes when shes back but good times all round 🙂

How are my readers doing?

Holiday for next year

by Matthew
A Da Vinci holiday

The Vitruvian Man (c. 1485) Accademia, Venice – One of Da Vinci’s most famous works.

I’ve been thinking where to go on holiday next year. I want to keep it factual and just be in awe.. One of my heroes is Leonardo Da Vinci, just a genius in my eyes and I’d love to go to one of the Da Vinci museums in Rome or Florence.

Then there is Sweden where I’d like to spend a week or two. It’s a country I’ve always wanted to learn more about and I’d love to tick it off my list 🙂

I think Italy might be winning me over simply because of the Da Vinci factor. If you don’t know who he is. Please read about exactly who Leonardo da Vinci is.

As for Sweden I’d like to stay in Stockholm visit the city and the countryside if possible. I’d love to see the old town in Stockholm. Try some local food (something other then meatballs!) and I’d love to explore the very cultural heart of Sweden too.

I guess I’ll visit Sweden after Italy. Just gotta begin the big save!! 🙂

Anyway have a good weekend all. I should be doing stuff today but I’ve done nothing… been so lazy. Have fun and stay safe 😉

More freedom? Less freedom?

by Matthew
Freedom - Is the only way!

Freedom – Is the only way!

More freedom? Less freedom? What does the populace want and need?

Happy New Year! Hope everyone have a great one 🙂

Readers of this blog will know that I do like to mention the education system quite a bit in my posts. So, I’ll start with a familiar trend 😉

In the UK the education system is formal and rigid. However, The pupils are given more freedoms then in certain other countries. We have moved away (mostly) from the i’ll teach and you write (no opinion for the pupil) years. Moving on however, There are plans in place to introduce the army into schools to deal with poor behaviour. Is instilling what we call discipline militarily in schools the right way to go about things? Or is it just painting over cracks that lead to a much bigger issue? What are the children rebelling against? Bullying is at crisis levels in UK schools too.

Go into most state and even private schools and you will see shocking behaviour. This seems like outright rebellion of rigid rules to me.

Imagine a school with a progressive, democratic education with punishment delivered by pupils as well as teachers in the school community. You imagined this school. Look what talent it has produced.

Parents and our modern society put ridiculous pressure on children. From a young age many parents map their children’s path out! No wonder why some break out! Life is about the pursuit of happiness not at the expense of others. I know a lot of people are going to suggest that discipline only comes from strict rules being laid down. This is not the case. A needs guidance in a childs younger years and up to their teens they should be enjoying life. Enjoyment in life should continue through adulthood at work or wherever. If the sole pursuit of someones glory is a career thats guided by parents, or lines the pocket with wads of money in the hope of happiness you will not discovery true happiness.

One reason why schools fail so hard is what they produce. All they produce are factory made children ready to serve the state. If you have a child, What would you say if your child said he wanted to become a refuse collector?

This is just from a educational perspective. I feel more school choice is needed.

I don’t feel I’ve explained this as well as I wanted! I never feel I do 🙁

I’ll leave you with a few quotes….

“No one is wise enough or good enough to mould the character of any child. What is wrong with our sick, neurotic world is that we have been moulded, and an adult generation that has seen two great wars and seems about to launch a third should not be trusted to mould the character of a rat” — A.S. Neill

“I would rather Summerhill produced a happy street cleaner than a neurotic scholar.” — A.S. Neill

“The basis of a democratic state is liberty.” — Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC), Politics

Hope everyone has stuck to their resolutions! If any were made 🙂

Enjoy the rest of your January. Fun to all.

Probably one reason why I don’t like football…

by Matthew

A fight during a match between Bradford and Crawley

The players attitudes. The on the pitch spitting, swearing, constantly arguing with the referee. That’s not even including the frequent fights/personal injury caused them on the field. It’s called the beautiful game but every time I watch a game I see something that makes me sick.

It’s not just limited to players. The fans too sometimes have similar attitudes (I am trying hard not to generalise in this post!). Probably following the acceptable behaviour of their favourite player on the field.

Granted not every fan or player is like this but the those that are really show the sport in a bad light.

Some of them just aren’t worth their money. To behave in such a way is unacceptable. Obviously passions run high and a moment of madness can be tolerated from time to time but it’s just so frequent in footy 🙁

It’s not just me a quick google search will reveal similar thoughts too. I wonder why?

Education in the UK (Part 1)

by Matthew

This post has been a long time coming. I’ve wrote so much about how the education system is a failure before in my blog I’m sure. Something I’ll have to search through I think! This time I wanna go into depth.

Real change is needed in our education system. I’m not just talking about university fees which I’ve spoke about before and the Open University tried to make clear in a letter the sent me below 🙂

Open University explains tuition Fees!

Open University explains tuition Fees!

Eric Schmidt criticised the UK education system back in August and I agree with him (and the pirate party appeared to as well). He said the UK had a strong, proud past of scientist and technological pioneers. As someone who left the school system in 2005, I will try and list what I believe is missing to create future pioneers in this country without being boring 😛

A simple IT lesson today isn’t good enough. The children know more and if they don’t in many cases they adapt faster to technology then the person teaching them. Teaching a child or teen how to work with Microsoft Excel or fill entries in Microsoft Access will (mostly) set them up for a lifetime of work. In addition to this even in workplaces other software systems are being used and embraced. A wider range of IT knowledge needs to be added on the curriculum. I can’t speak for the current curriculum though, but I would hope it’s been updated from my recollections. I think in terms of teaching IT in UK schools there should be two separate subject matters one being the traditional information technology and the other being computer science.

Many other subjects particularly at secondary level are stagnant statics. I mean the curriculum doesn’t change year after year. How can the best be provided and given when it isn’t current or broad enough? This is especially true of subjects like history. The history of the Atlantic slave trade or WW2 are both very important components in their own right these are drawn out and analysed far too deeply. International history should also be on the curriculum.

Lets take a look at the very broad (IB course) approved by the UN. It doesn’t just focus on academics. It teaches life skills. It teaches for real life rather then just programming people for work or jobs in a system. Life skills need to be taught that are broad. Enabling students to think about creativity. Not just another robot, so to speak.

A random secondary school 🙂

Teachers in UK schools are often focused on meeting targets and achieving grades. To which most are very misleading and confusing. The problem is the curriculum in schools it just doesn’t allow students to achieve the best. Often students are put in groups in English, Maths and Science. Where they generally perform to the level of the group they are in. Allowing mixed ability students to work together would work best allowing student matching. The aim being that the weaker student can learn with how the strong student does. If lessons are tailored correctly.

We really need to improve our schools. If we don’t, we will need to rely on foreign countries to supply us with brains. We already have problems producing a workforce!

It’s like most of our country at the moment we really need to self sustain more and improve what we have.

I personally feel that I’ve learnt more in the six years out of school, then I ever learnt at school! That cannot be the way no longer. Students need to come out of school ready for the world. I’ve got more to say in part 2 on this series. I actually meant to post this a few months back but didn’t finish it! 🙂

They still don’t understand the cause of the riots…

by Matthew

Kit Malthouse - Deputy Mayor of London

Instead of addressing the cause of the August riots. The deputy mayor is still focusing on what he calls “the large majority of criminals” who took part in the unrest. Can nobody see that unrest just doesn’t happen? It’s a issue with society.

The fact it took our own prime minister three nights to cut his holiday short in Tuscany and return home, just shows what a mess everything was.

People have felt marginalized. Whether through race (ignore what the media feeds you people do get treated differently in this country!), poverty, bailing out bankers, university fees, price increases (due to the global crisis), unemployment or a whole host of issues.

It’s too easy to sit back and say what a bunch of thugs and vermin these people were and not get to the root cause of the situation. I don’t condone this behavior but this is what happens when there is a mismatch in society.

The investigations into what happened do seem to be continuing here.

However, they garner little media exposure. We just hear crap about everyone who took part being hardened criminals to put the population down in their rightful place. The media can influence so many things and bend the truth. Reporters don’t know much of Tottenham and yet much of the reporting was inaccurate at the time. Media can just evoke problems with the masses at sensitive times.

During the riots, We had one reporter(BBC) saying there is a Jewish community in Tottenham. The Jewish community he is referring to is in Stamford Hill a mile and a half up the road. Meaning they had come down (for some unknown reason) when the unrest took place. Inaccurate reporting such as this lead people to believe only a people of one race, or religion is causing the trouble in a particular area. The media really is a lethal thing 🙁

Pah…. I’ve got so much to say on this issue it’d bring my blog database down and render it unusable 😛

Marco Simoncelli death and funeral

by Matthew

Marco Simoncelli

After a terrible few weeks in Motorsport. The death of Marco Simoncelli on 28th October was a big shock. It’s something I meant to post sooner but really couldn’t. I don’t really know what to say. Its a terrible loss to Moto GP and from what I saw he really brought some flair to everything.

Rest in peace Marco.