Monthly Archives: December 2009

12/23/09

The Fairtrade KitKat

A week or so ago Nestle announced that from January the 4 finger Kitkat would be Fairtrade (link)…which of course for people who Boycott Nestle (largely over their Baby Milk scandels which still continue today) flashes up an ethical dilema…however I don’t think it’s time to start buying from the company who are rated 0.5 out of 20 for ethicalness on ethicalconsumer.org.

Let’s take a look at Nestle as a whole…the company own hundreds of confectionary products, a wide range of instant Nescafe Coffee and not to mention Loreal, Garnier, Go-Cat and Felix (to name a few) yet out of those hundreds of products how many are fairtrade? 1 at the moment and 2 in January.

Nestle’s Partner’s Blend Fairtrade coffee has been available for a good few years now yet where supermarkets have made large amounts of their coffee fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance Certified (as have many other companies) Nestle have done nothing making Partner’s Blend nothing more than a flag they can wave saying ‘Look at us, we support Fairtrade…buy from us’.

If they truly believed in Fairtrade they would be managed to convert the whole Nestle range by now…and it’s the same with the Kitkat.

The 2 Fairtrade products out of hundreds from Nestle is effectively saying ‘We’re going to pay some of our farmers properly and look after communities but we don’t give a crap about the others’.

Cadbury are working on making their whole range Fairtrade and have committed to that…nothing of the sort from Nestle.

So in conclusion Nestle aren’t very nice still! Fact.

12/20/09

Christmas Number 1 is RATM!

I’ve been thinking about this blog for the last 24 hours and what to say as a reaction to the number one and I have to be honest, although I had high hopes for Rage I truly expected to be hearing Joe as number 1 however Rage have just been announced as Christmas number 1.

As I write this blog the interview with the lead singer of Rage has finished and the song is just beginning, I have my stereo turned up loud in celebration and my heart is recovering from the racing it did in the lead up to the results…I have never been so excited about a chart show.

This whole campaign has got me hooked, usually these Facebook campaigns are a load of nonsense but this week has truly shown the power of social networking, sales figures suggest that Rage have outsold Joe by 50,000 which is a pretty big gap (how accurate these are I don’t know but link).

The real achievement of this campaign though is not just the beating of Simon Cowel (who described the whole campaign as bullying…hypocrite!) but the benefit for charity. The Facebook group alone has raised over £50,000 for Shelter and Rage Against The Machine have said they will donate their royalties between Shelter and another charity who help young people learn instruments who can’t afford to.

To go back to the Simon Cowel aspect it’s great to have a Christmas number 1 by some talented musicians rather than a kareoke act puppetered by Simon Cowel…I’m sure Joe can sing but it would be nice to see some talent in the charts…perhaps someone who writes their own songs. I’ve loved reading Simon Cowel’s anger this week at the campaign as he’s watched his ‘secure’ number one slip from beneath him.

I think this’ll be the last X factor Christmas number 1 because now the public have seen what can be done by a grass roots campaign (as Rage say) I think we’ll see more shocks to the charts.

I don’t know how to finish this blog really…I’m off to play the Rage song on CD and head off to a youth group Christmas party…I’m excited and proud of what the online community can achieve when we unite against something…may it continue!

12/19/09

Top Albums Of 2009

As the year nears a close and the battle for the Christmas number one ends tomorrow I thought I’d blog my top 6 albums of 2009. I always buy a lot of music and 2009 has been a good year for music so here is my favourites! (in no particular order)


1 – Bowling for Soup – Sorry For Partyin’ - This was the follow-up for ‘A hangover you don’t deserve’ the band never had, fantastic album full of Bowling for Soup fun – Read my full review here

2. Relient K – Forget & Not Slow Down - One drummer change later and Relient K release what is now my favourite of their career with a fantastic mix of beautiful sounding piano and pop-punk energy – Read my full review here

3. Newton Faulkner – Rebuilt By Humans - The follow-up to his fantastic ‘Handbuild By Robots’ is possibly even better…Newton Faulker does it again…not much more to say on this album…BUY IT!

4. New Found Glory – Not Without A Fight - I had anticipated and looked forward to this album ever since hearing that Mark Hoppus of Blink 182 fame was producing it and I was so right to do so…cracking pop punk album that takes the band back to their ‘Sticks and Stones’ days – Read my full review here

5. Mat Kearney – City of Black and White - I only discovered Mat Kearney this year and liked him so much I ordered both his albums at once. Mat Kearney has a fantastic voice and his music is nice and chilled yet uptempo at the same time…well worth a listen.

6. Lily Allen – It’s Not Me It’s You - I can’t stand her first album but I love this one…I never wanted to though! It’s got a good mix of catchy pop tunes with some interesting lyrics which make you very glad that you’ve never slept with Lily Allen! – Read more of my thoughts on her here

Overall 2009 has been a good year for music but there hasn’t been masses of it released in the pop-punk arena…I’m looking forward to a new Blink 182 album next year, a new Angels and Airwaves album plus a new Sum 41 album! Bring on 2010 music!

12/18/09

Festive Things

So my Christmas shopping is done, I’ve just finished writing my first Christmas song (unless in the bleak midwinter re-write counts?) and I should have a drumless version on my Myspace in the next few days…the lyrics are already up on my lyric blog (it’s called ‘Christmas sucks without her’).

Tomorrow Jo comes to South Cave and we’re off to a 3 course meal at church tomorrow night which I’m looking forward too…gonna have to find my tie!

Finally in this very short update my blog now snows…appropriate I felt for the season and weather…I’m hoping to take some snow photos tomorrow!

12/17/09

Browser Solved!

I’ve solved my browser issue!

As I mentioned on my Google Chrome for Mac review I liked the feel of Chrome but it was a little glitchy…well I have gone back to Firefox but installed the Chromifox Theme which makes it look like Chrome but run with the reliability of Firefox…good browser times!

Link to Chromifox

A less geeky more seasonal blog post coming soon…oh and I may re-install the OS on my Mac!

12/16/09

Chrome?

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything amazingly serious and this isn’t going to be especially serious just geeky!

Since Google released their Chrome browser on Windows I’ve been waiting for the Mac version and finally it’s arrived!

I’ve been using Chrome for a few days now and have some initial thoughts on it.

The design of Chrome is no different to a normal browser other than tabs are above the address bar…this is a good idea and makes your web pages seem better presented and look tidier…it also gives you a bigger maximum browser space for web pages…which I like!

The bookmarks menu below the address bar much like Firefox pulls up logos of the sites (if there is one) making them look very nice and even easier to navigate between.

The biggest thing that confused me to start with was the lack of search box until I discovered that the address bar works as one which is a very neat idea which I also like a lot.

Now for the downside!

On the Mac it’s still in Beta and this means there’s some problems…for example I cannot access my internet banking or some other secure sites (completely random sites that I can’t access) so I keep having to flick back to Firefox.

Also in WordPress when adding a post (such as this) in other browsers you can use shortcuts to make your text bold or italic…not so in Chrome!

So my verdict?

I like Chrome, it has a lot of potential, loads fast and not as glitchy as Safari but I still think I’ll be flicking back to Firefox in a day or so…nice try google!

12/15/09

Christmas Songs

So as Christmas approaches I felt a festive blog was in order…and with Rage against the machine currently winning the number 1 race (I wonder if the x factor release on Wednesday will change that?) I thought I’d do something on music!

On Thursday Jo and myself went to the Sheffield CU Carol concert and I was once again reminded of how ridiculous most carols are…they seem to be mostly made up of nonsense….and it’s riduclous…it’s about the only time of the year when church will allow stuff that almost contradicts the bible.

So here are some of the most ridiculous things from carols and a very very short rant!

One In Royal David’s City

And through all His wondrous childhood, He would honour and obey, Love and watch the lowly mother, in whose gentle arms He lay. Christian children all should be, mild, obedient, good as He’

Now I don’t think this is entirely accurate…firstly did Jesus not annoy his parents (Mary/Joseph) by staying in the temple? Secondly the last bit is complete and utter nonsense…it’s like  a statement from Victorian England (and probably is!).

The First Nowell

And by te light of that same star, three wise men came from country far…

Then entered in those wise men three

Three? Where did three come from? I’m sure even one carol names them…the bible doesn’t give numbers or names when it came to wise men!

O Little Town Of Bethlehem

How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given

Now I have never given birth or been with anyone as they’ve done so but I’m pretty sure that ‘wondrous gift’ was not given silently…in fact I’m pretty sure Mary let out a scream or two.

There’s plenty more nonsense in Christmas especially within the church including female angels, snow (in the bleak midwinter) and something about the little Lord Jesus not crying which I’m pretty sure he must have done at least once!

Part of the Sheffield CU Christmas Carol Concert included a traditional looking looking Christmas scene (done by students) followed by a herd of ‘modern Christmas people’ invading the scene with tinsel, turkey and santa…I’m not sure what they were trying to communicate because the only thing I got from it was ‘secular Christmas is more fun…don’t you think?’

Finally in my Christmas rant the speaker opened to 250 students by talking about Readers Digest…c’mon…know your audience!

12/10/09

Youth Alpha in Schools

This week I was told about an article in The Times Educational Supplement about Youth Alpha being run in schools (link to article) and was forwarded the link to the article. I had heard fairly negative things about the article’s view of alpha but in reading it seems to make sense in the message it’s communicating.

The article primarily outlines that 60 schools across the country are registered to run youth alpha courses, this may include churches that meet in schools.

One part of the article states

Archbishop Blanch CofE High School in Liverpool, now in its third year of running Youth Alpha, has had almost 300 pupils complete the course. It runs for eight weeks in lunch hours. Attendance is voluntary but the sessions are promoted around the school, including during assemblies.

The promotion of Youth Alpha during assemblies seemed frowned upon in the article but the course is voluntary and it seems that there is nothing more wrong with promoting it during assemblies than there is promoting the football team.

The article continues with its main criticism:

Alpha courses have been challenged for offering too limited an interpretation of Christianity and for implicit criticism of homosexuality.

Jonathan Bartley, co-director of Ekklesia, a religious think-tank, said the courses deal with doctrine rather than Christianity as a way of life.

“It’s about sin, hell and the resurrection and what people must do to get to heaven,” he said. “I would be very worried about that adult content being used in schools unless it has been heavily modified.”

The problem with the criticism of Alpha being challenged on it’s view on homosexuality is that this view doesn’t transfer over to youth alpha, the youth alpha course doesn’t even stumble upon the subject. (I’m not convinced that adult Alpha really needs to include the subject).

From my experience of Alpha and Youth Alpha they seem to present a fairly standard overview of Christianity with nothing shocking and nothing that ties into a particular doctrine/denomination and really it’s down to the individuals who plan a course to tailor it to the needs of their group and community.

Would be interesting to hear the views of others on this

12/9/09

Rage Against Number One

The campaign I mentioned the other day to get Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Killing in the name’ has even made it into The Sun! This article suggests that it’s got pretty high chances of being near the top especially if the campaign keeps growing.

Here’s an extract from the article

Angry music fans have launched a Facebook campaign to get RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE‘s 1993 song Killing In The Name to the top spot instead of the X Factor winner.

The lyrics are less family-friendly than your usual Yuletide fare.

But their sentiment has touched such a nerve that more than 400,000 people have signed up already – with more joining by the second.

Bookies have already closed the betting on the Christmas No1 because of the dominance of X Factor in the past few years.

But they have been forced to install the rap-metal classic as their favourite in the “best of the rest” race.

Thanks to the growing army of supporters for the Facebook campaign, the thundering track – which features the refrain “F*** you, I won’t do what you tell me” 16 times – is now ahead of SUSAN BOYLE, LEONA LEWIS, LADY GAGA and ROBBIE WILLIAMS in the odds for the Christmas No2.

So from the 13th December go onto iTunes or Amazon and download the song…let’s beat Simon Cowel!

12/7/09

Jo’s gender change?

Has my fiance changed her gender or has the person who sent me the e-mail (header pictured below) just decided that Jo is a blokes name and I’m therefore their gay youth worker? haha!

gay youth worker

Disclaimer: I am definately straight, Jo is a female and this post is very much tongue-in-cheek

12/6/09

Christmas Number 1?

I usually avoid Facebook groups but one titled ‘Rage against the machine for Christmas number one’ caught my eye (link).

The concept is simple…rather than yet another Christmas number 1 being the result of a tacky-manufactured television show it should be a song that stands for the opposite so the Facebook group (currently with over 200,000 members) is aiming to get ‘Killing in the name’ from Rage Against The Machine’s self-titled album to number one by encouraging as many people as possible to buy it in the week beginning 13th December up to the 20th December.

I think it would be a fantastic thing to see happen for many reasons but primarily because it will show us the power that social networking sites have.

I don’t know how many purchases of a song it takes to get it to number 1 but I’m sure there’s a good chance of it as least getting in the top 40.

To join in visit the website or facebook group

I’ll keep the blog updated on this…also I’ll do some more posts in the coming days on other things!