Why I Despair for the Future of TV

Y’know, I find it quite difficult sometimes to imagine the minds of my friends and schoolmates. What do they think of me? Do they know how I think of them? Do they understand the difference between ionic and covalent bonding of atoms?

Because I don’t.

But one thing that I simply cannot comprehend is their love for frankly quite crappy TV shows. Shall I name a few?  TOWIE, Desperate Scousewives – I mean, what? Who? WHY? Why are you watching these stupid shows which just give Britain a bad name? We’re hosting the Olympics this year, for goodness sake! The last thing we need are the other countries turning up and simply assuming that we’re all orange as baked beans with ‘vajazzles’ and no knowledge of how to actually speak PROPER ENGLISH, INNIT?

Am I being too harsh? I don’t care. I live in Essex! I’m not orange! I can write long and complex essays on why John Proctor is the tragic hero of the Crucible! I simply do not care for fake tan, 8 inch heels - and the fact that two of the cast had a conversation about why goats were called goats. Seriously.
I’m paler than most girls, that’s true (I don’t tan) and I don’t spend endless amounts of money on clothes and makeup, but I like to think that people are going to be my friends for my ‘sparkling’ personality and wit.

I’m not the only one who feels like this, and for this I am eternally grateful. Russell Howard, one of my all-time favourite comedians, feels exactly the same way. Did you know that the government says that TOWIE has boosted the economy by people buying fake tan, fake eyelashes, and vajazzles? Whilst the sale of vajazzles has gone up by about 400%, as the wonderful Russell Howard said, “the sales of books have gone down by 800%!” (NOTE: this is not a real figure!)

Just going to say it once – if I end up running a tanning salon and a TOWIE member walks in, beware – you might end up like this:

Still, I do have a little confession of my own.

Easter Holidays are over, and we’re back to school, but I haven’t yet told anyone of my secret. So congrats, internet, you’re the first to know: I may have, sort of, kind of, watched the first series of Glee and completely and utterly enjoyed each episode.

.

This is actually a bit of a shock to me, to be quite honest. When Glee first came out, I had no idea of its existence until that fateful night when I stayed round my best friend’s house. We woke up early, and because the house was frozen, we took our duvets and scrambled down the stairs into the living room, where my best friend gave me the remote.

“Go on,” she said, “You pick.”

She spoke far too recklessly – I had heard of Glee and when I saw it was on, I immediately chose it, hoping to see what all the fuss was about.

Guess what I saw when I turned it on?

A boy. In a leotard. With two other girls, also in leotards. Dancing “Single Ladies”. And dancing it rather well.

I’m sure we can all agree that for a first impression of Glee, it was not proving to be completely and utterly wonderful, but actually rather insane. It wasn’t until later than I learnt that Kurt Hummel was gay, and even though I then understood Glee a little better, I still remember falling about laughing before changing the channel and never watching Glee again.

So, what are your thoughts on TV shows? What are your favourites, and which ones do you hate? Comment below (you don’t need to be a member!) and let me know!

Signing off for now,

ScotsGirl x 

Just A Short One Today

Hello all you lovely readers,

I'm well aware that the blogging well has dried up recently, and I'm very very SORRY! :(
I've been ill with the flu recently, which, although I'm better now, doesn't mean I'm working at 100%. This post is just to explain what's been going on.

School has been school - here in the UK we've just started preparing for our GCSE's - they're not particularly important, just a few exams that kinda, well, determine our entire future. No pressure or anything.

I'm keeping track on YouTube, with a video about once a week, which is splendid for me - that's just right and they don't take too long to film and edit either. That being said, I've been working on a number of projects recently (both blogging and vlogging!) which means that my posts and vlogs haven't been very forthcoming...

I promise that I will get right back to blogging this weekend, as I have several posts which are in the final drafts - ah, the effort I make for you all! But seriously, stay safe, stay kind, and stay happy!

Love,

ScotsGirl x 

A Kony 2012 Reaction - Or One Of Them

It's been a while since I've blogged, but hey - there's always a bright side. Instead, I've updated my YouTube videos - so why not give them a try! :D

Today’s topic: Kony 2012. Yes, I know, I’m headed into dangerous waters – but this is the internet, and if I can’t voice my opinions here, on my own blog, then I can’t voice them anywhere. Plus, it's been a few months since the video was posted so I'm going to assume that this blogpost won't ruffle too many feather. For those of you who don’t know – although I highly doubt that – there is a YouTube video online which is called “KONY 2012”. This is a ½ hour documentary produced by the company Invisible Children, and basically tells the story of the war in Uganda against the LRA (or the Lords Resistance Army) which is led by Joseph Kony, a man who managed to disrupt nearly 2 million lives. The film was very inspiring, and I did learn much about Kony, whom I hadn’t even heard of before the video. Now I know all about the war in Uganda, and how Kony 2012 is our last chance to find him before the world loses interest.

I highly doubt that.

Kony 2012 has not only been viewed over 85 million times, but has also gone down in history as the most viral YouTube video EVER. Indeed, the film got 3 million views in the first 24 hours it was posted – not bad for a small company trying to change things, right? I think it important to mention that Invisible Children has been receiving quite a lot of bad press recently. For those of you who don’t keep up with worldly affairs (or BBC, for us British), Invisible Children has got quite a lot of criticism for both their marketing and the fact that Jason Russell, the film maker and the narrator for the Kony 2012 video was found running around the street in California half naked.

Yes, you did just read that.

I was surfing the Interweb one day when I saw that Kony 2012 was back on the Twitter feed. I got curious, and decided to explore for the latest news – or, in my case, www.bbc.co.uk/news . Almost immediately I had found the source of all the flurrying.  It turns out that Jason Russell was arrested by police and taken to the local hospital, where he was “diagnosed with a mental condition brought on by stress or trauma.” Poor guy. Apparently, he had some kind of psychotic breakdown and is not planning to spend several weeks in the hospital to recover. Needless to say, this doesn’t seem to have boded well for Invisible Children.

But maybe they already have enough to worry about without their lead filmmakers’ breakdown? Critics have heavily targeted the company, claiming about how money donated to them actually goes towards the company's personal needs. Again, I got curious, so I decided to go digging. And what I found was shocking.

Many people have assumed that at least 50% of all the donations goes directly to projects in Uganda. Well, I’m terribly sorry to burst your bubble, but not even 40% gets to Uganda in the first place.  Records from last year show that 32% of all funds donated actually got to projects in Uganda, with the rest going to staff salaries, travelling expenses and making films. I decided to save you the time and made some calculations – from last years’ earnings of $8.8 million dollars for the company, only $2.8 million actually made it to Uganda. Sorry, but I’m pretty sure – and this is just my opinion – that more than this should be going to the Ugandans.

Speaking of the Ugandans, I’m not sure whether you are aware but actually quite a lot of Ugandans were offended by the video. After free screenings in Lira, a town where the LRA once terrorized thousands of people, Invisible Children were forced to close the free screening after “overwhelming negative reactions”. By this I mean that food was thrown both at the screen and at the African Volunteers Group who were running the cinema. Ugandans failed to understand “why there were so many white faces in the video, or why Kony needs to be made famous.”

This comes from the people who have been terrorized by Kony. For goodness sake, Ugandan officials have released several statements declaring that Kony is no longer a threat! He’s not even in Uganda! He has at the most several hundred followers left in the LRA. A government spokesman actually said, “They are a diminished and weakened group with numbers not exceeding 300.”

So what do you think? I think that they have good intentions, and they haven't done too badly so far, but to be quite honest, I think we have a long way to go. So congratulations on making Kony famous – you’ve achieved your goal. Now to actually find him. Good luck, Invisible Children.

DISCLAIMER: I didn’t actually want anyone to be offended by this post. As I said above, this post is my opinion on what the world does.

Love,

ScotsGirl x