Ok, so this is going to be another rant. It seems that now I've done one I'm not quite able to stop. O.o Ah, well, I suppose you're going to have to bear with me again, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that feels this way, so some of you might relate. Or something meaningful like that. XD
This time, I'm talking about music! ^ ^ Now, you may be thinking "Le gasp! I thought she loved music! What could she possibly be complaining about?" Well, here's what. I love music in pretty much all its forms. What puts me off listening to a song, however, no matter how catchy the riffs or awesome the drum line, is the overly sexualised and suggestive lyrics that kill the otherwise potentially awesome song. It just seems like the only way your song will get on the radio is if it's about some guy, some girl and the girl's demeaning sexual acts in the pursuit of said guy (or variants thereof). Wonderful.
Now, loads of bands I respect and love have the odd song or two that's a bit more suggestive, but the lyrics are generally artistic and poetic as opposed to explicit
The thing is, these bands are usually listened to by people over the legal age (or close to), and they already have the "knowledge of the playground", as it were. But on the radio, everyone has access to the music that's on. There's no need to buy a CD with a little "Parental Advisory" labels to warn you about the content. No, you just hear it. Yes, I sound like I'm about 40 years older than I am. But I think most people would agree with me when they hear a 9-year-old gilr singing Rihanna's S&M at a karaoke. It actually made me want to be sick. Because it's not just a song, it's a message with a melody put to it.
To me, this is much worse than the occasional curse word or two, yet they censor that and not, for example, songs that proclaim "Me like the way that you go down" (with bad grammar to boot). But do people even notice this in an already over-sexualised world? Or is it just another component of the world we're creating with advertising and TV?
Personally, I feel that, as much as music should be allowed to roam free, some of it just isn't appropriate for little children to listen to on the way to school in the car, and as much as it should be the parent or guardian's responsibility to make sure their kids aren't exposed to that, radio stations and music channels should be much more sensitive about the type of music and videos they make available and to whom.

~ Ryan

Things Most Bitter

I don't often do this, but I'm going to take the chance to talk about something that irks me somewhat. I say I don't mean anyone in particular in this... That's a lie. But we can have it for the sake of diplomacy. Well, here's the thing. I don't much like having people hear half of what I've got to say and immediately jump to (the wrong) conclusions and give you a 1 hour long lecture. Yes, I am very annoyed, and this did take some heavy editing of all the brilliant English cursing the first 5 drafts included. I wouldn't mid it so much if it was just the once or twice, but no. It's every single day over every tiniest detail that I utter and sure, maybe I put up with it for the first 7 years years of my life, and sporadically afterwards, but really, there's no need to belittle me just as I'm getting over my life-long self-esteem issues. I mean, way to go. Congratulations.
Now, I'm sure people that do that don't actually mean to do this. I'm sure all they want is to impart their wisdom on us less knowledgeable folk, but consistently raising your voice, getting unnecessarily angry over everything and progressing off-topic to all the other reasons they think I'm incompetent or inadequate? Not cool. Especially after I've told them how this affects me over a hundred times.

Sometimes people just need to stand back and look at what they're doing. And thanks for bearing with my rant.

~ Ryan

I'm back!

Hello, London! I'm back! ... I'm guessing no one really missed me, but meh. Continue to post I shall. When I remember to, that is... ^ ^() Aaaaanyway, I'm pretty much free from almost everything right now. It's a bizarre feeling, not going to school every day, having to specific time to wake up at, going to central London on a weekday... It's insane. I thought I'd start running out of things to do... Luckily we all know that won't happen anytime soon. But seeing as I now have all this time I can use it on doing what really matters. Besides finding the floor in my room. And that is music.
I'm planning on getting quite a few songs done this summer, and hopefully they'll be recorded and fixed up to a listen-to-able level, considering we're not exactly working with pro equipment. (Yes, a few laptops, mics and a pair of headphones... That will work out really well. -.-) So we'll be setting up a new blog that just includes band news and song clips. :3 I'll post the link to it as soon as it's up and running. 
That's for bearing with my shameless advertising...

~ Ryan

A Different Sort of At-Home-ness...

Well, I've officially been in Poland for over 24 hours now. I have to say I forget how much I love this place sometimes. I'm in Lomza right now (where my dad's from) and I really do love being here. Actually, just driving through Poland is pretty awesome. You know how sometimes in RPGs a "village" consists of about 5 houses, a shop and a whole load of farm? Well, in Poland, it's actually like that. We went through one little place where I could count all the buildings in the town on both hands, and that's including the all-purpose store and the chapel. Middle-of-nowhere-ness is kind of epic sometimes. :) There are some amazing views in terms of the countryside as well. The huge birch forests are incredible. I can even forgive them for setting off my hayfever... So long as I manage to find a mushroom or wo. ;)
And then there's some really random pieces of scenery... Like the random section of bridge that was just therein the middle of a field... O_o Anyway, I'll have some photos later, I just don't have my little cable for my phone with me.
Healthcare here is really good, so I got my teeth looked at today. They'll feel funny for a few days because I had them poked and prodded, but I'm getting them varnished tomorrow to stop all the tea and cakes rotting my teeth. Apparently I have good teeth though, I just need to use mouthwash more than I do. :)
As it turns out, I am far too predictable. No, stop looking at me like that, Brendon. ¬ ¬ The point is, most all of the family I have here are people I've very rarely me in my life, and I haven't spent a particularly great amount of time with the, either. So the problem here is that... Well, as much as I love them and all, I... get very nervous and shy and quiet around people I don't really know and attempt to verbally (hopefully physically) hide behind other people when faced with anyone new. It really does take a while for me to get used to someone, and unfortunately I'm not at that stage yet with everyone here in Lomza. I'm meeting one of the few female cousins I have in a few days and I'm almost... dreading it, I suppose. I don't mean to be like that, but it's going to be an uphill struggle for me. -.-
Anyway, I'm enjoying Poland right now and I'll put up some photos when I can and I'll keep updating if anything out of the ordinary happens. :) Do widzenia!


~ Ryan

Belated Respects

Katyn/Smolenks 

~ Ryan

Squish

I originally meant to put this up yesterday but tyring to get home from Southall after the cricket match was a small nightmare, meaning it took just over an hour and a half to get home. After that I really just wanted to sleep. Walking halfway home does that to you. So here it is, the belated one. :) I'll also take this opportunity to say Happy Mother's Day to my epically epic mum (who I may just have accidentally woken up). <3

~ Ryan

Introductions

I've decided I need somewhere for all my ideas to go. And where better than putting everything I think about into miniature 3 to 4 panel pieces? Here's the first. I realised my introduction wasn't a very good one, so here's an equally bad another one. :)

(Also... Bad English. My Vices and Virtues Deluxe version arrived today! I love it, it's incredible. ¦) )
~ Ryan