Darkora - Nik's Blog

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I’ve seen multiple people genuinely asking whats wrong with playing their music on a speaker/their phone in public rather than through headphones. While it baffles me that you can’t reason it out I’m taking it in good faith that you genuinely don’t know - so here’s a list of reasons you shouldn’t:

- It sounds bad. It doesnt matter if people like the song, you might be close enough to your phone speaker for it to sound largely as intended, but everyone else is getting a distorted mess. 

- Unwanted noise is extra stimulation in the already overpowering public space. Yes this is particularly bad for neurodivergent people but I actually want to acknowledge that this effects Everyone. Everyone has a stimulation threshold and unwanted music easily pushes people closer to it.

- Its distracting/disruptive. People want to focus on their own conversations, listen to their own music through their earbuds, or just be alone with their thoughts. Your music is intruding. 

- Differing taste. This one is less significant but people around you just dont always like the same music you do. In extreme cases they might actively hate a song you’re playing. 

- People have the right to as close to silence as they can get. If they’re in a shop playing obnoxious music they can leave, they can change the radio in their car, they can skip the song on their playlist. They have no control over what you are putting on and in bus situations they can’t get away from you. 

- Any other number of reasons; Maybe your music is offensive, maybe its uncensored and there are children about, maybe someone just got horrible news and your perky feelgood song feels like salt in the wound, maybe someone’s sick or hungover or in pain and your music feels like a drill to the skull.  You might think your music is good, it might make you smile after a hard day. Nobody is saying dont listen at all, just put in earphones. To everyone around you its the equivilent of a drunk guy singing loudly and off key at the back of the bus. Maybe it makes some people smile to think he’s having a good time, maybe some people are scared his lack of boundaries will mean he could act out, maybe some people wish he would just shut up. 

Bit of a Rant... don't mind me

While I respect the democratic rights of every person who voted against AV in the recent referendum, I have to wonder what the hell they were thinking. The Government said "Would you like a better chance of the people YOU want being elected to office?" and overwhelmingly the populous shouted "No thanks, we'd rather just get shat on".

With AV a party only needs 30% of the vote to get elected, so that means that 70% of the electorate can vote against someone, yet they still get in? how is this really democracy?

Honestly? We had the chance to turn democracy from "the opportunity to vote for the candidate you dislike least" into an actual choice and yet people turned it down, what the hell?

Admittedly, AV is slightly more complicated than FPTP's "Hurr Durr I puts my X in this little box thing and then I walks away" but it would have meant that we'd actually get the people we voted for rather than the people we voted for instead because you have to vote tactically or otherwise your vote doesn't count.

Granted, FPTP got us where we are to day, but then turn over that statement for a few seconds and then look where we are today, is this really such a good thing?

I've heard it mentioned (as a serious anti AV argument) that "AV means that the second choices of the BNP supporters will get considered too" Well so what? they're still human, twisted perhaps but they live in the same democracy we do, perhaps AV would have given them the opportunity to vote for a more grown up second choice that would have actually made a difference.

All in all, I am actually disappointed in this country, we had a golden opportunity to change things but the whole campaign was a total farce - the anti AV argument was based entirely on lies and the yes campaign was so whimsical that it's not really a surprise that nothing has changed.

Bad country, back in your box.

my blog is, and always will be, a safe place for people who are not confident in their english speaking abilities. you will never be judged or mocked here.

Ouch, right in the feels

I can only apologise.

This guy just needed a hug forever. And ever. And ever.

The Book of Names lists each person murdered at Auschwitz

Day Fifteen - The Greatest Gift

“The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I must admit I don't like writing about stuff like this, I'd rather not rank the gifts I've been given because I feel that a gift is more than just a material present - it also includes the intention and the feeling behind it. So I'm going to sidestep the question and say that they've all been awesome and if you don't like it, you know what to do.

Seeing reasonable people argue about whether or not a fetus is a person is driving me insane. It doesn't matter. it doesn't matter. it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter.

If you don't want to live in a world where the government can strap you down and force you to provide a life-saving organ transplant, you don't want to live in a world where the government can force you to carry a pregnancy to term. A person's right to life does not extend to using another person's body to survive.

I have accepted the lack of internal consistency from conservatives (you have to, to stay sane here), but ffs liberals, shut up about fetal personhood. Stop getting dragged into this debate! It is the wrong framing of the issue and I'm honestly terrified of what any "victory" under it would look like (like, increasing the mainstream acceptability of sentences like "they can't even x, therefore they're obviously not a person!" is chilling, no matter the original context.)

I don't have to donate my liver, I don't have to donate my blood, I don't have to donate my fucking uterus. It's that simple.

(could you imagine the "pro-life" conservatives meltdown if a state tried to institute mandatory blood donation?? I imagine they'd be saying "my body, my choice" pretty fucking quickly... Maybe we should actually do that 🤔)