'If no-one ever hears it, how we gonna learn your song..?' | Morning Musings |

Am I the only one to find it quite creepy/stalkerish how adverts on the websites you go on (Blogs, Facebook, Youtube side adverts etc) target you?  In my final year of uni, around the time I was searching for a flat to live, every single ad I came across online was of estate agents and student flats on the market in Liverpool.  I know how these things work. I think. Something about Google, and our data and our search engine entries right...? This never really bothered me, until Facebook started targeting me with 'Find Muslim singles in your area' adverts. Yep, Facebook knows I'm single, I'm Muslim and is now trying to set me up. (Pffft, I'm shaking the guys off with a stick, blates.)  

I understand that obviously companies need to advertise their products for the wider public, I get it - you created something spectacular that the world just has to see it, one way or another. But when I am shown adverts to join dating sites to meet 'hot singles' in my area, I think something has gone wrong, somewhere. Firstly, how can you advertise love? It's like advertising an emotion. Kind of... Secondly, I feel like we can't even move without getting hit in the face with people telling us to buy this, telling us we need that, telling us that their offer only lasts till Friday (my personal favourites are the 'Buy now, pay nothing for a year!' offers). How often do you go on a site and about 5 billion pop up sites pop up claiming to offer you the latest Apple gadget. How did we move from adverts just being on TV, on billboards and in magazines to being everywhere?! Maaaaaaybe I am a little over sensitive in this issue and no one reaaaally cares but me, but hmmm, it just bugged me quite a bit!

It's alright, Banksy gets me...

Anyway, since uni is over, I have taken up reading again. Not the reading-because-you-have-an-exam-and-know-nothing type of reading but actually reading for fun (what is that?!) Yeah, it's been a while! I am currently reading The Alchemist - has any one read it? It's quite good so far, although I think I did start reading with my expectations way too high, but I am only half way through! 

The Alchemist, The Power of Now, The perks of being a Wallflower

Oh yeah, did I mention... I graduated!! YESSSS; University of Liverpool Law Graduate 2012. Now when people ask me what I do for a living, I look them right in the eye and say with a massive grin on my face that 'I am a graduate, actually' (little do they know that that is code for 'I am currently unemployed, please, please, please give me a job. Please.' NOT that I am desperate.) I actually quite like being able to say that. I keep seeing interviews with recent graduates complain about how their degree hasn't really helped them with finding employment and how uni was a waste of time... and while this may be true for some people, uni is by no means a waste of time. Well, it wasn't for me. I loved it, and I would happily, hands down, do it again - same course, same uni, same people - I genuinely loved the experience and have learnt things about myself I don't think I would have learnt any other way to be honest. I would like to think that the rise in tuition fee's wouldn't have stopped me either but it is very easy for me to say that from where I am at at the moment! 

What do you guys think about uni and tuition fee's? Have you been, are you going, will you go?

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'Miley Cyrus tweets make-up free picture of herself.' Erm, ok...

This legit came up on my Facebook feed. Like you know how Facebook now has a 'Trending articles/videos' feed? Yeah, this was one of them.  Are we so insecure that we need constant validation that celebrities look just like us without make-up on too? That question was a bit strong, I didn't mean to sound so accusing but I think stuff like this is getting a bit... out of hand? It's not the fact that she did it (tweeted the photo, I mean) it's more the fact that someone thought it was important enough to be deemed 'news-worthy' and the fact that it is now a 'trending' article on Facebook. Trending means it generated a load of views right? Why?? I get it though, what celebrities do and how they look is interesting - reading the celebrity section of the Daily Mail is a great way to procrastinate, I have learnt, but I think articles like this are a bit... silly now. Do articles like that even constitute as an article? Do papers like the Daily Mail even constitute as a newspaper? Well, that, is a different topic/discussion all together.  This article (*I don't know where it was from though as I didn't click on it, so it may or may not have been from the Daily Mail.) really got to me for some reason. But of course, as long as they are being written, we will continue to read them, and that is one of my biggest problems with the media.

I want a career in media, eventually, I want to work as a Broadcast Journalists, by Gods Grace, but sometimes I think that the media can really underestimate the public. And they know exactly what they are doing.  Tabloids like The Daily Mail or The Sun, I think, shouldn't be taken so seriously, but it's kind of sad that so many people do take them seriously, and that's where they have them - people who genuinely buy tabloids and genuinely read them and form their opinions from them. Newspapers are given a degree of control over public information; writers know exactly what reaction they want from readers and exactly how they want readers to think and exactly how to make that happen.  Journalism has gone beyond being a 'voice' and giving the public a 'right to know' to being able to fully sway public opinion on a particular issue.  I just think, as much as I want to be a part of it, the media is cunning - they hold the truth, in essence, and can choose how to give it to the public, what parts of the information to give and how some readers may think afterwards. It's just important to keep an open mind, not every article is going to be important or true, words are powerful tools.

'Be as you wish to seem...'

'Some people say dress for the job that you want, well, I say dress like the man you want to be'
 - White Collar, TV Series

Does any body watch White Collar? I love it!! I spent like two days getting through the first two seasons (I know, two whole days but, I regret nothing)  and now on to the third.  Basically I feel like I've watched so many episodes that I have started to convince myself how cool it would be to be in the FBI. Or at least think like an FBI agent... Like being able to pick locks and trip security wires and work under cover and create a new identity just on the spot. Yeah, I am officially hooked.  And that has nothing to do with the main character...if you know what he looks like, then you will know exactly what I mean... if not well then...

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I was watching an episode and there was something someone said that really stuck with me: '...dress like the man you want to be.' Very similar to a quote by Socrates - 'be as you wish to seem.'

Dress like the man you want to be...dress like the man you want to be...dress like the man you want to be...

It may sound silly but there is something quite positive about dressing like the person you want to be. I think that the type of clothes you wear can have a major impact on who you are, your mood and what you are thinking, after all, its the ultimate form of expression isn't it?  At first, I thought this quote was just about suits because, we all know, that a guy in a suit looks so much... classier, but I think this can be applied in general. It's why we have uniforms in schools or in the workplace.  Clothes aren't just things we wear, it's part of our appearance and a small part of who we are and how we choose to express that side of us.  It's the reason why you can put on that dress and feel like a model, genuinely.  I don't know about you but if I simply put on a pair of heels, I instantly feel more confident about myself and where I'm going.  I think it is important to dress like the person we want to be, the person we want people to see you as.  Your style can say so much about you and just knowing that 'yeah, I look good' can give you a little boost.  I say little because, while I think it is important, it is by now means the be all and end all, ultimately, its just an added extra factor.

be as you wish to seem...be as you wish to seem...be as you wish to seem...be as you wish to seem...

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There is something so infinitely true about this. About being as you wish to seem.  A simple yet great example of this would be confidence, or lack of confidence. It's the idea that even though you may be tremendously shy, scared or insecure inside, you put your game face on and do whatever it is you have to do with the confidence, self-assurance and certainty of a hero. And sure enough, that is what you become, eventually. I knew someone at Uni who would walk around like she was Beyonce-friggin-Knowles - so much confidence and yet, before every presentation we had, every-time we had to talk in class or every time she participated in moots she would tell me, in extensive detail, just how much she was really bricking it. But of course, no one knew that.  She seemed confident and extremely self-assured and, to be honest, that can be enough sometimes. If people believe it then soon enough, you will too, soon enough that is who you become.

Being as you wish to seem...  Ultimately, I guess, it's the story of the actor, who has to be a character, so much so that audiences are convinced.

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*On a completely different note, I am trying to sort out the layout of my blog and make it look.. better? If anyone can help and is a whiz at these sorts of things or could point me in the right direction I would love you forever! Thanks!!