I am a Pinterest addict, but it’s taking longer for people to become acquainted to it than I initially thought, so why not have a section on my blog where I repost my most inspiring finds?
Introducing Moxie Pin. Because, sometimes, all we need is a string of obvious words which somehow makes us feel better. Enjoy ♥
Has it really come to this? Are we such a nation of lazy bums and uninspired twerps that we are resorting to reprinting an article which can be found in the same magazine back in September 2010?
Flicking through last Sunday’s Flair magazine I had a very odd sense of deja vu. The photos in the magazine looked familiar and at first I thought I had seen an article about this particular house on Homeworks. But then, while continuing flicking through, a typo hit me straight in the face. No I hadn’t seen this article in Homeworks, I had seen this same article in Flair, WITH THE SAME MISTAKE, and blogged about it in an article titled; The lost art of proofreading in local publications.
it’s more OF a room, not more OR a room
On the bottom you can see this is a May 2012 publication of Flair
I was gobsmacked, and worst of it all I still don’t know what’s worse; the fact the article was reprinted or the fact that they didn’t even bother to go through it once more to see if it all looks OK. This is the attitude which I absolutely loathe in this country, and if you’re reading this and agree then please share using the below ‘share’ buttons.
Maybe someone will take notice, and maybe some day, in a perfect world, we will have proper magazines with our Sunday newspapers, with people who actually care about what is written and printed. Not some magazine whose only purpose is to be used as a vehicle to get as much adverts crammed inside; no substance just boring, dull, pointless advertorials.
Yes! A lot has changed…
Since I wrote my last blog about the two main political parties on Twitter quite a few things seemed to have changed on the twittersphere. Back in January, the PN were in a very sorry Twitter state, shameful would probably have been the best word, and the PL were slightly in advantage, not doing great mind you, but decently.
Three months have passed and the PN have blossomed – impeccable activity, use of hashtags, adding media to their tweets. The launch of mychoice.pn seems to have a very positive influence. Their Klout score (which actually measures an account’s influence on followers) has gone up from 20 to 36.
On the other hand the PL’s Klout score has gone from 32 to 26. Why? Well because they still use Twitter to regurgitate whatever they say on Facebook. At this point I am even doubting if they actually know their Twitter password.
Specifically those thoughts about Nikita Alamngo’s blog about the launch of mychoice.pn
Airports; don’t you just love them? In the age of web check in, even if I do check in online I still like coming to the airport earlier so I can stay at some departure gate coffee shop. I just love the feeling of transit, that feeling of going somewhere different, and with Apple by my side, I’m never bored.
At this moment in time I’m waiting to board a flight to London and I’m killing a little bit of time going through my RSS feed. Apart from the fun blogs of Snuffalicious and the sweet blogs of Claire’s Online Chronicles, I also read some bitterness from Nikita Alamango. My oh my, what an angry, full of resentment, blog that was.
She talks about the launch of the PN’s electoral website; www.mychoice.pn, and she seems to be really ticked off that the PN want to engage with the people. She seems to be really pissed off because now Lawrence Gonzi wants to talk, when till now he has never listened. Without going into the merits of how accurate that is, I think the launch of this website is a very positive thing,
When Franco Debono had his 15 minutes in the spotlight and there was a feeling that a general election was in sight for March 2012, I blogged about the state of the Twitter accounts of Malta’s 3 parties. You can read my conclusions here, but in a nutshell my view was that none of the parties were using Social Media properly; there was no engaging with the people, it was mere one way communication.
With the launch of mychoice.pn, the PN are addressing just that, the vacuum of two way communication online. The website is in itself engaging; inviting you to share your thoughts and connect through Facebook and Twitter, and if you have any questions, there is even an explanatory video by Lawrence Gonzi in form of a mini FAQ. Thumbs up also on the design which is fresh and flowy. Probably the only disconcerting thing about the whole website is the fact that a user needs to submit an email, mobile number and an ID card number to get exclusive access. While I understand why this has been done (I assume it’s to keep away spammers and time wasters), I’m a little concerned about a certain group of users, which this website is targeting, which won’t be too happy about giving up such information.
But back to Nikita Alamango and her rants, which by all means I’m not dissing. She expressed her opinions, I read, digested and am ready to give my own. Her blog reads like the usual columns on Orizzont; “we, the people, have the right to *insert anything you aspire to here” because that is what our European brothers and sisters have”. OK fair enough, but don’t stop at the tip of your nose. Everyone cannot have everything, and you would be foolish to say that everyone has nothing. Also, whatever happened to working hard for what you want. Why are we living in a country where people expect to be given what they want?
“Students aspire to the possibility of finding job straight out of University and not have education become a political ball in the hands of politicians.”
Well yes that’s what everyone aspires to, but it doesn’t mean that that is what happens. Not everyone manages to find a job straight out of University, especially when we find ourselves in continuos global economic instability. I for one spent a year working in a customer care department, with a Masters degree, but at least I didn’t have to worry about a €30,000 loan I had to take to complete my studies. Nikita seems to forget our education system is not only free but you also get an allowance, which is weird considering she still is a student.
She goes on to attack many other things such as the pensions, free medicines, the free healthcare, and yet again I question if she even bothers to have a look at any news website bar maltastar.com, whose editor was actually the one who caused delays in ICT courses a few years back (talk about a political ball in the hand of politicians).
A rant answered with a rant I guess, but at least I got some things off my chest. I’m tired of reading these regurgitated blogs, over and over again, which go on attacking the myriad of services and opportunities we are more than lucky to have. In the real world, if you want something you have to work very hard for it. The PN may not have all the answers or solutions but neither are they blind to today’s realities.
I went to see the movie with an open mind.
My knowledge of those decades is pretty scarce. This is because of two reasons; firstly because the education system has failed me and many others my age. Mintoff was never mentioned in our Maltese history lessons. All lessons came to an end once the second world war was resolved.
The second reason is because I grew up in a family which was divided; one part was pro Mintoff, one part was anti Mintoff and another part was all for Malta going back under British rule (or at least that was my impression of it).
This is the reason why I’m not going to delve into how accurate the movie was. I’m 28 years old, I didn’t live through those times so I don’t feel like I have the right tools or knowledge to judge. What I am going to say is that, if, like me, you have a gap of such an important time in Maltese history then you’re in luck. I do feel like the movie tried its best to document Mintoff’s life.
Being narrated in an open letter style you do expect a little bias and if you get your knickers in a twist because of this then you should really get out of that bubble you’ve been living in. One thing is sure when the movie comes to an end and the curtains are drawn; Mintoff was human - with his many faults and blessings.
To conclude, the movie is impeccably produced, the animations are stunning and I wholeheartedly agree with Teodor Reljic when he says that this movie is a milestone in Maltese film making.
Watch the trailer below…
Damien Hirst, that inspirational, brilliant, whack job of an artist whose work I find both slightly pretentious and absolutely amazing in equal parts has his first retrospective solo exhibition opening at the Tate Modern, next Wednesday on April 4th.
The cow, the flies, the colourful drugs - but that shark is what does it for me. It’s the reason I have to get my ass to London to experience the real thing, with my own eyes. It will be the greatest thing I’ve ever seen or one big disappointment, either way it will destroy me, and I’m looking forward to that.
The exhibition is open until the 9th of September… if I find an excuse not to go I’ll hate myself for the rest of my life. Self-loathing isn’t really healthy, or flattering for that matter, so here I go checking flight tickets.
Watching Four Rooms on Channel 4 I found out that I get pretty excited at the oddest things. In the first episode of the second season a woman showcased an antique dildo which was handed down by her grandmother. This was also accompanied with a US Patent…
The whole thing was fascinating. An antique dildo, from the Victorian era, made out of steel. It could be opened up for hot water to be inserted for those cold lonely nights. The seller wanted £4,000 for it but it was sold to Jeffrey Salmon for £1,111. However Gordon Watson was ready to pay up to £3,000 for the dildo because he knows of a collector of antique dildos in Belgium. What a marvelous thing, if I ever had to collect anything, antique dildos would probably be it!
And what about the other things on sale in the episode? The chair J.K Rowling wrote Harry Potter on, the original Psycho score music sheet and a set of Francis Bacon’s brushes.
Four Rooms is one amazing series, oddly entertaining and very informative, even though I am quite sad that Emma Hawkins has left the series.
Religion was never my favourite subject at school. Even though I always got really good marks I always thought that those hours learning religion could have been spent more wisely, maybe focusing a little more on my Maths. But this is not a blog about my spirituality. It’s about the newly launched website of the cloistered nuns.
Reading The Times this morning I relished the idea that a group of people which I mistakenly thought were so detached from the world around them would actually launch a website. Do pay a visit to the website, it’s full of incredibly interesting information; they even posted their daily schedule!
So, Sorijiet Benedittini in Birgu, I bid you a very warm welcome to the world wide web.
Apart from the tedious laundry and cleaning of the house, the weekend seems to be a time where I sit down and catch up with whatever there is in the RSS reader and the latest articles I favorited on Twitter during the week.
Saturday was Kony 2012. I spent the whole week seeing both positive and negative comments about Kony2012 and Jason Russell on Facebook and Twitter, so I was curious. I first read how Jason Russell was caught masturbating and vandalizing cars whilst under the influence of whatever (not that it really matters once you’re found masturbating in public). At that point I was ready to forgive the guy for being so stupid, at least he was trying to do something with his life Then I watched the documentary. I was disgusted; an ego-centric, narcissistic video, all about me, me, me (I also do believe the kid will loathe his father in the future for parading him in the so called documentary).
But what shocked me most was the viewership. The video on YouTube reached the 100 millions views in 6 days, which led me to think; are we that thirsty for something to fight for? Is this all we need? A cause which is presented to us well enough, in easy to consume video form? But of course it is easy to be “an activist” when all you need to do is share a video, and there you have it, you’re part of a cause. A cause which is probably doing more harm than good, but who cares, as long as that share made you feel good about yourself for the rest of the week, right?
If you’re one of those who shared the video, I urge you to read the article by Adam Branch “Dangerous ignorance: The hysteria of Kony 2012“. Dangerous ignorance, what a beautiful phrase.
Sunday, I finally had the chance to read all the reflections penned by the first generation of Maltese bloggers for the 7th year anniversary of J’accuse. I do believe that with this series Jacques managed to capture a slice of local internet history. And I really hope he doesn’t castigate me for saying that.
Reading The Malta Independent this morning I couldn’t help but giggle when I read the title to an article by Owen Bonnici. The title was reminiscent of all the Chuck Norris memes you’ll find on the internet, so I was moved to do something similar.
Just in case you think this is all a joke, it’s not, this is the article in question. I don’t know if Owen Bonnici knew this would echo the good old Chuck Norris memes, or maybe I just have a very fertile imagination, but I just had to put it out there.
What are your thoughts?
Joseph Muscat’s image via media.link
