Valentine's Day is upon us again... such joy!
Now, while this day gives people a good opportunity to propose, or the courage to start up a relationship with a long time crush, does anyone else find it rather, well... pointless?
The Real Valentine's day
How many people really know why Valentine's Day is really called Valentine's Day? As it turns out, the original St.Valentine, renowned for his chastity, was actually martyred on Feb 14th of some distant year or another, and is entirely unconnected to the day's events. By 'the day's events' I mean the fact that the Romans took this day to hold their annual 'Lupercalia' which means festival of youth. During the festival, young people picked their sweethearts by lottery. The traditional also stands that the first member of the opposite sex that you see on Valentine's morning is, supposedly, your true Valentine.
This is where, in some glorious, far-off paradise of an afterlife, Freud is shimmying around and pulling funny faces at all those who discredited his work on the Oedipus/Electra complex; because, for most of us, the first people we lay eyes on in the morning are our parents :-/ (note to self; wear a blindfold on Valentine's day in future.) Anyway, my point is, the martydom of a Saint hardly seems relevant to our own, consumerist version of the Lupercalia.
Card Shops
If you walk past any card shop after, say, the 20th January (or maybe even earlier!) all you will see is a mass of pink and red cards, balloons, teddybears, giant love hearts and a menagerie of other badly-designed heart-shaped merchandise. Actually, I believe that Clinton's Cards are selling huge, fabric roses with floppy fabric stems, the bloom of which is about the width of your average car tyre. If anyone, anyone at all can tell me what on earth a woman would do with such a thing (within reason) then please let me know, because it puzzles me greatly!
Also, I'm not the 'greenest' person in the world, but surely making and kind of greetings card, for any oaccasion, uses trees? So why has no-one ever suggested cutting back on the amount of cards that are made? Is it really worth a whole tree to make a bunch of 'Happy Christmas, From The Dog' cards? I know that we have recycling now but please, has it really come to such a point that we need Valentine's cards to let someone know that we love them?
Woo, apologies, greetings cards by themselves are worth a whole blog! - Moving on ...
The Man's Role
It turns out that I am lucky enough to have a boyfriend who absolutely adores Valentine's Day more than most people I know, and i greatly appreciate the amazing bunch of flowers (including Columbian Roses! It was repeatedly stressed) and card that I recieved despite my lack-lustre approach to the day's festivities. Valentine's Day is possibly one of the most stressful days for men. They ask their girlfriends, well in advance, what they would like for the oaccasion and most women say 'Nothing'. And still the man has to face the angry/disappointed face when they give them exactly what they asked for - nothing. Unknown to men, 'nothing' actually means - 'A romantic surprise of some sort'. That in itself could mean a number of cliche scenario's involving rose petals, dimmed light, cheesy music and jewellry.
Why can't women actually answer the man's question truthfully?
A great Valentine's day for me would be a nice meal, payed for equally, either out or in, then home with some choccie to either watch a film/play halo together and then go to bed for some cuddles (and such). But unfortunately my lovely boyfriend studies away and went home yesterday =(.
Bi-polar
Valentine's Day is also a holiday that leaves the whole world thoroughly divided. One half croons at each other in overly-public places, being watched by the other half who skulk in dark corners, rocking back and forth with bitterness. So really they just get their faces rubbed in the fact that they are lonely, which isn't fair at all. There must be millions of depressed, single people out there on Valentine's Day and card shops and restaurants don't do them any favours.
Heart-Broken
I'm sure you get the general gist of my thoughts on the matter by now, but please don't consider me a party pooper =) By all means, be elaborate and whimsical, buy your partners heaps of presents and shower them in love. But ladies, if you asked for 'nothing' and got 'nothing', then be happy, because you have everything you asked for, and not many of us can say that. And Gentlemen, best of luck.
If you need Valentine's Day to assure yourself that you partner loves you more than anything, even when they probably tell you that all the time, then start listening a bit more instead of placing your confidence in giant fabric roses and badly rhymed verses in mass produced Valentine's cards.
In the words of Oscar Wilde, or at least the modern adaptation of his novel, Dorian Gray - Some things are more precious because they don't last.
Happy Valentine's Day!!
Monday, 14 February 2011
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Coasters?...
... No, not the kind that protect precious surfaces from a ring of tea of coffee, or the type that Bernard Black eats in Black Books, but a different kind of coaster altogther. Allow me to give you a scenario ...
There you are in the Uni library surrouded by books splayed open on various pages, paper strewn everywhere, there's even a sheet of bibliographical references stuck to your head as a result of your hourly lament which ivolves you lying, face down on the table in pure academic depression. Sheets of quotes from primary, secondary texts and ponces masquerading as literary critics, all of which have not produced anything remotely useful to you. Which, after two hours, is slightly discouraging. However, in the midst of your fully recyclable mound of unanswered questions, a coaster flounces passed with a comparatively un-creased brow, not a care, book or piece of academic material in sight.
Now, everybody knows a coaster, at least one, anyway. If you happen to know or work with more, then you have my condolences. A coaster, as I have named this strange breed of human being, is someone who applies to university, agrees to spend over £12,000 to get a degree and then does one, two, or perhaps even all of the following;-
A) Do a course that they know involves a lot of reading and then doesn't buy or read any of the material.
B) Turns up to lectures on a minimal basis and yet some how still manages to remain on the course, considering that three consecutive abscences usually gets you the Boot.
C) Turns up for lectures without a pen or paper.
D) Is often asked to leave seminars on account of not reading the given texts.
E) Tells you frankly and proudly how they did all their assignments in one day, or in some other ridiculously short amount of time and still reckon that they have decent marks.
Do feel free to add any more ...
Now, does anyone else find this slightly frustrating?
And don't even get me started on the coasters role in group projects. I myself have been landed with coasters a few times, through college and uni, for group projects and I assure you that you have my sympathies if you have had a similar experience. Their work is usually about a useful as a highly un-coordinated water-skier. Not only are they being dragged behind the boat, they are struggling deftly in its wake; and if the water-skier falls into the sea, the boat has the turn around and fetch them.
As far as I'm concerned, there are plenty of people who have missed out on a place at university that would have put the effort in, and these people were rejected (unknowingly) for coasters who don't give a frisbee about their course. It's a waste of a coasters money, which could be better spent getting plastered or buying things they don't need, and it's a big disappointment to hard working people who have been denied a great oppurtunity. This isn't the Universities fault, anyone can write a convincing personal statement to some degree whether it's honest or not. It's the fault of the coasters themselves and their attitude towards University in general.
If you want to be here, then put the work in, if you're tailgating for the hell of it, then give someone else a chance.
I thought I may as well jump into the blogging world with a bit of a rant :P
There you are in the Uni library surrouded by books splayed open on various pages, paper strewn everywhere, there's even a sheet of bibliographical references stuck to your head as a result of your hourly lament which ivolves you lying, face down on the table in pure academic depression. Sheets of quotes from primary, secondary texts and ponces masquerading as literary critics, all of which have not produced anything remotely useful to you. Which, after two hours, is slightly discouraging. However, in the midst of your fully recyclable mound of unanswered questions, a coaster flounces passed with a comparatively un-creased brow, not a care, book or piece of academic material in sight.
Now, everybody knows a coaster, at least one, anyway. If you happen to know or work with more, then you have my condolences. A coaster, as I have named this strange breed of human being, is someone who applies to university, agrees to spend over £12,000 to get a degree and then does one, two, or perhaps even all of the following;-
A) Do a course that they know involves a lot of reading and then doesn't buy or read any of the material.
B) Turns up to lectures on a minimal basis and yet some how still manages to remain on the course, considering that three consecutive abscences usually gets you the Boot.
C) Turns up for lectures without a pen or paper.
D) Is often asked to leave seminars on account of not reading the given texts.
E) Tells you frankly and proudly how they did all their assignments in one day, or in some other ridiculously short amount of time and still reckon that they have decent marks.
Do feel free to add any more ...
Now, does anyone else find this slightly frustrating?
And don't even get me started on the coasters role in group projects. I myself have been landed with coasters a few times, through college and uni, for group projects and I assure you that you have my sympathies if you have had a similar experience. Their work is usually about a useful as a highly un-coordinated water-skier. Not only are they being dragged behind the boat, they are struggling deftly in its wake; and if the water-skier falls into the sea, the boat has the turn around and fetch them.
As far as I'm concerned, there are plenty of people who have missed out on a place at university that would have put the effort in, and these people were rejected (unknowingly) for coasters who don't give a frisbee about their course. It's a waste of a coasters money, which could be better spent getting plastered or buying things they don't need, and it's a big disappointment to hard working people who have been denied a great oppurtunity. This isn't the Universities fault, anyone can write a convincing personal statement to some degree whether it's honest or not. It's the fault of the coasters themselves and their attitude towards University in general.
If you want to be here, then put the work in, if you're tailgating for the hell of it, then give someone else a chance.
I thought I may as well jump into the blogging world with a bit of a rant :P
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