No Offence...

At the end of April, Subway was in the news and all over the internet by making the decision to to ban ham and bacon from their stores, replacing it with halal meat in an attempt to please Muslim customers. Now before I go any further, I would like to point out I am in no way prejudiced against them or any other group of any kind; this story simply got me thinking about a wider issue around it.

This whole thing got me thinking about how people deal with offending others, or at least trying not to. I really don't agree with what Subway have done, just changing because they don't want to be seen to be ignoring or offending certain people. It's not that they did it specifically for Muslims, but that my thought was, "What gives any one group the right to demand something over another?"

For example, what about animal rights activists who believe that the way animals are slaughtered for halal meat is inhumane? They're a group that has a strong set of beliefs just like any other, so why should Subway have gone for halal meat instead of making sandwiches entirely filled with vegetables? It's all about trying to be sensitive, but I think sometimes the lengths people go to for fear of upsetting others, and sometimes just in order to avoid judgment themselves, are a little bit ridiculous.

I mean, would chinese takeaways have to start serving bangers and mash just because a group of people said they strongly believed the way they cooked duck was inhumane? No, because that happens to be the way one culture does things, and it isn't harming anybody! Anyone who sets up in any type of business is there to cater for the needs of a particular kind of customer, for a particular gap in the market. So if  anyone doesn't like what they're selling, they could simply go elsewhere (or set up your own business if it's bothering you that much!).

It's not as if Subway had to change entirely because Muslims can't go near 'normal' meat either; you see halal right alongside every other cut of meat in the supermarkets. All they had to do was simply give the option of both types of meat. Then muslims could eat there according to Islamic law, anyone else and the animal rights activists could still eat there according to their beliefs, and subsequently they wouldn't have lost customers from either side.

It seems clear that keeping everyone happy can be a delicate subject, and no-one intentionally wants to offend another or be judged because of it. I just believe the way some people avoid the tiniest possibility of a confrontation can be so trivial; just because a particular solution may be quicker or easier right now, it doesn't mean it's the best one in the long run!

Rachael x

Damn Facebook!!

I knew this would happen at some point. I try to keep things intelligent, you know with quite a few supported paragraphs explaining myself, but I knew that at some point I would post something about a tiny little problem!

Right, Facebook. Today, you changed the layout of the news feed, putting the notifications and message buttons on the right hand side instead of the left. Now, this is NOT LOGICAL!! People read from left to right so naturally go to the left to access or start looking at something - even website pages have to scroll to the right after seeing information on the left, which is what I now have to do with these new settings. So every time I now get a notification, I go back to the top, look at the left, and get annoyed when it's not there!

Yes, I realise that it's hardly much effort to scroll right to click on something. But to me, it's just one of those niggling things that's getting under my skin! Yes, some things like medical research need to change and advance,  but simple things that work (and make logical sense...) already do not. And yes, eventually like all other changes facebook has made, I'll probably get used to it and stop hating it so much. But my point is that even if we do get used to something, it's only because we can't go back to what we were happy with in the first place! We shouldn't have to.

Ok, rant over.

For now...

Neck Nominations

You may have heard of this craze that's going around called 'neck nomination'. It's particularly popular with students, which I guess isn't surprising since it typically involves alcohol. The basic idea is that once you've been nominated, you have 24 hours to film yourself downing a pint of something, upload it, and nominate someone else to do the same so the whole thing keeps going.

Now I'm not much of a drinker so maybe I would think differently if I was, but this is a craze that annoys me. I accept that people drink a lot in social situations, and I have no problem with people drinking more than me; but it's the way people go about these nominations and the content of some of them that frankly, I think is idiotic.

There seems to be an unspoken necessity to 'outdo' the person who nominated you, to show them up and beat not just them but other people who posted an attempt. To be honest, I think this is what's led to some of the most idiotic and sometimes frankly disgusting videos I've seen in a while. As well as people mixing unimaginable amounts of alcohol, there's been people drinking shower gel, bleach, toilet cleaner, basically everything with chemicals in it going, and unbelievably even some with people drinking, ahem, number ones and twos. Literally could not think of a nicer way to put it when we're thinking about this stuff being consumed!! If you thought that was bad, there are some that are so disgusting I don't even want to repeat them here. If you're that bothered, just google neck nomination and animal rights and there's some absolutely horrific examples.

It's not just idiotic and stupid - it's downright dangerous. People have been arrested, hurt and even hospitalized because of some of these stunts. When I saved a draft of this post as I started writing it a few days ago, two people had DIED because of taking part in this so called 'game' in Ireland. Now, more people have died and it feels ever worse since it's closer to home in the UK. It's been taken way too far. This is not a game, people! Should something that brings a person to their death really be defined as amusing or entertaining?! No!

I've seen much better uses of time in response to this crazy idea that's going round. One of my facebook friends used some of her video time to drink something with not a drop of alcohol in it, and most admirably, most of the length of her video was spent raising awareness for a cause she felt passionately about. (On the offchance you might read this, you are AWESOME.) I've even seen something emerge called RAK nominations, random act of kindness! Videos have been posted which simply show them doing something that makes someone's day. Doesn't these kind of things seem like a much better, productive and inspiring way to spend your time?

So if I ever get a nomination, don't expecting me to be downing a pint with all sorts in it. I might just mix a drink with hot chocolate, milk, cream, marshmallows, sprinkles... (ooh rebel!). Then I might just go and buy a homeless person a new pair of socks. Or you know what? I might just go and do all of those things anyway. Without some damned nomination.

My Audience

Well, I found something I want to talk about already! That was quick.

I created this blog yesterday, and made my first post about, ooh, five minutes ago? Then I decided to look at the stats, and found out I had nine views already! Yeah, I hear you saying that nine whole people is a pretty awful number of people to be viewing a blog. But hey, don't put me down, nine feels exciting to me!

Anyway, the point of this post isn't to do with the numbers; it's to do with who these people actually are. At first, I thought these 9 views might just be me looking at my finished blog. And then I realised that it said the audience weren't from my area, and two of them were even from the United States! And I think I would have noticed if I'd suddenly moved to a whole different continent...

Even if they just came across it by accident, I want to know who these people are! On the offchance that they happened upon my blog for some reason other than they made a typo, I want to know how! I don't see why the information blogger gives us about our viewers (ahh, look at me fondly calling them 'my' viewers...) can't be more than just what country they were in, and especially what browser they accessed it on. Really, how is knowing what browser they used going to be helpful for me?

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to know every little detail about their lives. But I do want to know things like what kind of blogs they normally read, if they have any blogs so I can return the favour and read them back, if they found me interesting. Things that if I were ever going to build up an audience of more than nine, it would be actually useful to know!

So if you're one of the first nine people to read this, I appreciate it, even if it was by accident! And if for some reason you actually come back and view this again, I'd love to know all those little things if you feel like commenting :)
Especially you two from the United States. 
You are amazing. 

Rachael x

My Opinion On Everything...

...or just my ranting cynicism? I'm one of those people who has an opinion on everything that isn't boring enough to lose my attention after five seconds. That means I'm pretty damn opinionated about most things in life!

It doesn't necessarily mean that all my opinions are grounded in fact, research, or even that I've thought them through properly - sometimes it does just feel like there's an opinion on something for the sake of having one. That's probably where my opinion is more like the ranting cynicism, the small (and probably unimportant) things like complaining about tiny little continuity errors on the TV or some random post that's slightly annoyed me on the internet. Any excuse for a good rant, me.

Although, shock horror, sometimes my opinions can be on important issues! I actually kind of like debating with people, even more so if I can explain myself well and get them round to my way of thinking! As big headed as it may sound, it's a pretty good feeling when you explain something to a person in a way that makes you go, "Ooh, I actually sounded quite clever there! Go me!", and I don't think there's anything wrong with doing that if it makes me feel good about myself, even if the person doesn't agree with me. I'm not saying I won't ever come round to someone else's opinion, I would just need to be presented with solid reasons for that to happen; if they can't do that, I'll stay pretty grounded with my own opinion, thanks!

So hopefully, in this blog I want to try and get across both of these sides. Especially when I'm on my own, or don't get a chance to voice myself, I think 'Wouldn't it be great if someone could hear what I just thought?', 'This might be a really stupid thing, but I really want someone to listen to me!', or 'You know what, I feel really clever thinking this, people should know of my genius!' Ok, that last one was a bit exaggerated, but basically I just want somewhere to express myself, for someone to take notice, possibly even agree with me...

Even if no-one ever reads this, I think I'll enjoy having an outlet for my own thoughts. Maybe as a reference if anyone asks my opinion on anything, or just to read back on when I'm feeling particularly nostalgic or want to feel good about something I might have said. I can try to say that I'll post regularly, or even just whenever anything comes into my head I feel is worth writing down, but I can't promise anything; depends if it can hold my attention for more than five seconds...