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yep, you read it right.

When the chancellor said that the current oil crisis was that “the oil suppliers needed to increase output” he was wrong-diddly-wrong.

The problem is our dependency on oil.

Look at what this dependency really costs us, and then see if you agree?

The war in iraq. Come on, be honest, Mr Bush… this was really about 2 things, stabilising oil supplies from the middle east and rewarding Haliburton with contracts for the “reconstruction”. (Clever the way they earn money from arms sales to US military, who use the weapons to destroy things, they themselves rebuild! What a great business model, wonder if I could come up with a scam like that… hmmmm?)

Although, having said that, I still think Saddam was a lunatic who needed removing, not sure they did it the right way though.

Polution/Global Warming. Katrina type storms are becoming more ferocious and more frequent because of global warming, which is due (in part) to our dependency on… fossil fuels (including oil). Why aren’t we investing any real money into renewable or alternative sources of energy like Bio Mass??

Our money! The dependency on oil is costing everyone money as the cost of products and travel increases. If we could reduce this by improved publictransport and better energy sources, this could come back down.

And my last bit of ranting… this is only the beginning, to say its a temporary problem is to be increadably short sighted. Recent estimates suggest the worlds oil fields will run dry by 2012, another 2020. one thing is certain, it is a finite resource thats getting harder and harder to find.

When will people stand up and take responsibility? When the worlds in complete chaos because the oil wells have dried up? Hope not…

              

Wow… one of the craziest events I’ve ever been too… and we only went for the sunday! (not sure my brain/sanity could of coped with a whole weekend like that)

Plenty of people “worse for wear” and LOADS of people in fancy dress (mainly because saturday night they broke the world record for having the largest fancy dress party)… add in the usual festival randomness and some wacky bands… you get bestival!

Check out the pics in the gallery “Bestival”, I hope they give a feel for how awesome it was.

mad people, random sculptures and decorations, an 8 wheeled people powered sound system, the toboggan run (quite fast, mainly scary because I started sliding off the back on the winch up to the top… plus the fact Penny had the controls!)…

the backstage pub (press passes rock!) and view down to the main site (day and night), the western themed big top tent, people in costumes, Annie Nightingale (the legend!) and her CH4 film crew that rocked up next to us… the loose cannons (best act here and homelands, respect)…

the bollywood tent (and the films projected onto its roof)… main stage at midday and night, Kid Carpet and his cool guitar n stuff!

Acts we saw:

Shla la la’s - Folk/country act on as we walked in on main stage, watched a bit, didn’t do anything for me.
Johnny (Bugged out) - trade description act! the man played cheese!
Eddy Temple Morris - rocked it in the big top (western themed) indie/breaks stuff (infusion/freeland and a song 2 remix I loved but hadn’t heard before… anyone?)
Kitty Davis + Lewis - amusing country n western, not my bag but the reaction when the mouth organ solo started made it worth while… plus all the people in western get up!
Diefenbach - Lame, name rang a bell so went to check them out, sounded off key though.
Bobby Friction + Nihal - caught the end of the set, liked what I heard got my feet swayin’
Annie Nightingale - She’s one of my heros! looks like your aunty, plays dirty breakbeat! (mixing a bit suspect, but hell everyone in the tent loved her)
Loose Cannons - MC + DJ (with cool spikey hair)Best act we saw (and my favourite set at homelands too), their energy sent the crowd mental.
Bugz in the Attic - Really love their sound (you do too if you like “electro disco” CD’s I’ve done), enjoyed their kind of part live set, DJ + Singer plus guys doing other stuff.
Kid Carpet - I really liked him, thought his crazy technology (he uses kids toy guitars n things) and comedy edge was funny, Penny thought he was just crap.
Howard Marks introducing Super Furry Animals - Mans a legend, didn’t rate SFA… thought they sounded dated (about 96 I’d say).

Planned to end the night with Rob da Bank but was too shattered so headed back to the ferry… ah well… all but 2 I’d of like to see (Ali B clashed with Loose Cannons - arse) and a few random extras… good result!

              

Dear Government Pensions Research People,

There is one very big reason you are overlooking, as to why people are not putting aside money into a pension.

No one trusts the pension funds to not be mis-managed, mis-sold or otherwise messed up!

Why do you seem unable to spot this blindingly obvious problem?

Until you restore that trust, people of all ages are not going to put money into funds they don’t trust. It’s very simple really.

Having those middle aged banker types continuously saying people are unprepared is not going to help. The black hole in the pension funds is there because you (and by you I mean the finance sector) offer financial wisdom which most sane people know to ignore.

“Buy Pensions” (so you can pay back the pension funds you mis-managed?)
“Buy an Endowment mortgage” (Historical, but still your fault mr finance man)
“Buy shares” (Anyone else noticed how “reccomendations” would manly end up losing you money… you have? See Mr Finance man, we’re not thick.)

How many more examples do you want?

My money is going towards building me a business and a property portfolio, so I can look after it myself… not pay some city type who spends his lunch times swigging overpriced champagne.

If I mess up and have to work till I’m 80, so be it.

Kind Regards

Mr Luke Williams Bsc Dip SLC

Ahhhhh feel better now, ta.

              

Nope, not a winge about trains (Although out of the 6 I took in last 2 days, 2 were late) more about passengers.

I’m sat on a train and (for lack of a better easy way to describe him) a young pikey/chav sort sits to 2 seats forward off me… he buys a child return to his destination from the conductor, then cockily opens a can of carlsberg with a defiant kind of gesture.

Duuuuuuuuuuuhhh how thick is he???

Conductor ever so politely says, well, you have 2 choices, buy an adult ticket or surrender this beer to me now. Needless to say he was clever enough to give up the beer. Looked a lot less cocky afterwards. (well it made me chuckle, probably a had to be there thing…)

After he got off these 2 other guys got on and started talking loudly (don’t people know how to talk quietly? Honestly, the youth of today…) about stuff.

Now I was reading a book, trying to learn more about a subject so I can earn money from it… you don’t try and listen but its hard not to pick out bits.

Anyway…

Basically they were saying how lame their lives were working at some shop and how they wished they’d “learnt more stuff” so they could get a better job.

A fraction later they were discussing how there was nothing to do on a train and that they “lost” 3 hours a day sat in a carriage…

HELLO?

I almost felt like saying to them “Look… see this? this is called a BOOK… read them on your journeys and you can learn things… things which make you more valuable… so you can get a better job!”

See, I took the train for 2 reasons.

1) It worked out cheaper than hiring a car.
2) I want to learn some things, that gave me 10hrs on a train to do so.

Call me arrogant but, thats why I’ll do well in my life… and they’ll still be working in a shop.

God, that sounds really big headed of me… actually, no. stuff it. I AM smarter than them, thats not arrogance, its fact and I’m not going to apologise for it… so there… ner ne ner ne ner ner!

Like I always say, Life’s what you make it.

              

Dear Readers,

I would like to announce my conversion to the FSM religion please refer to me as Brother Luke of the Maranello order from now on.

Kind Regards

Brother Luke

PS needed some light relief after a dentist session read it… its actually got a serious point in there too… more later, when injections have worn off

              

I’m feeling controversial today so I’m going to engage you all with a form of Lateral Thinking known as “Po”.

“Po” is a construct invented by Edward de Bono (The Inventor - yes inventor you read it right) of lateral thinking, which means Provocation.

The aim is to change or find new ways of thinking by approaching something from a provocative angle. (Kinda, but for a short description, that’ll do…)

Bullying makes people stronger.

Hmmmmm?

I once said this, to be provocative, but I actually believe it to be true.

Whilst bullying that causes severe mental (and sadly physical) trauma has its bad sides, Being able to stand up to bullying, I think, prepares you for later life.

Life can be savage, constantly changing and offering you challenges. How you cope with these challenges, determines who you are and how the world sees you.

I’ve met so many people in my life that are un-prepared, immature even in their dealings with life, being victims who constantly ask “why do these things happen to me?” rather than taking responsibility for their own lives.

Sure, we all get low sometimes, we all go through testing times… but to succeed in life, to be happy within yourself you need the strength to pick yourself up and say “How can I learn from this, or use this to my advantage?” the time it takes you to make that transistion varies from person to person.

Sometimes, you need help to overcome things, people to bounce ideas and feelings off, yes of course you do, but the strength and desire to change has to come from within.

Be in control of your own destiny my friends!