Paul @ MindSay

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Whatever Sarah was off with last Friday, it must've been pretty bad - as the media studies lesson this morning was cancelled too. I had like two hours to spare as a result, so I went into the LRC and booked myself two hours on a 1st floor PC. Naturally, I got one with the dodgy spacebar and one with a foot missing. Chavs simply delight in snapping them off and stealing them. Lord only knows what they do with all of these hoarded keyboard feet like. I had to resort to using Lisa to prop it up. The iPod Classic is simply the perfect width. :)

Instead of updating some old blogs like I'd planned to - I ended up browsing Wikipedia's list of Xbox titles, looking for any that interested me. For I cannot have a mere two games for Mr. Hunk. I've accumulated a list of around 30 titles - and the best news of all is - the avarage price is £4 per game. :D
I can't wait till I get some Christmas money like. Play.com shall be getting a slew of my orders.

English was a strange lesson - simply 90 minutes of the old 'let's-look-at-a-past-exam-paper-and-whinge-about-how-to-write-an-answer-for-it' lesson. Not at all stimulating. But I did draw some sexy spider diagrams, so. :P

I met up with Shelly at lunch and we sat in our usual spot on the 4th floor stairs. We couldn't sit at our preffered end by the printing rooms - some other random dykes had stolen our idea. So we sat at the other end instead. I was in a cuddly mood - which is rare. I don't seem to be as lapsed as I have been for the past few days. I ate some BBQ Rib flavour Walkers crisps - then proper stuck my tongue down Shelly's throat - because they're her favourite flavour. I felt it was fitting. :P

Photography was yet another lesson of photo editing.
Seriously, if Paul fucking thinks I'm going 25 fucking A3 pages of sketchbook in TWO weeks, he can shove it right up his arse. We told him he doesn't set enough deadlines - and the one time he does set one, it's fucking ridiculous and unachievable. So we've all made a pact to refuse. :)

After college, I took the shuttle bus into town then went to Forbidden Planet to get some presents. I got Ian some Star Wars plushies - a Yoda and an R2-D2. It's tradition - every year I'll get Ian some Star Wars mech. Every year, I'll get Lisa some make-up. Every year I'll get dad some Toblerones. I might get him those new ones that are being advertised. And of course, I got something for Adam. But he's a blog reader - no mentioning of it here. :P

Forbidden Planet is proper expensive like. Not that I'm a tight arse - well, I am a bit - but they charge daft prices for shitty little things. I had to have a serious mooch before I decided on my purchases. :P

When I got home, I watched Miranda with mam - she had it recorded on the DVD harddrive.
Oh, why have I never watched this programme before?! Oh, it's HILARIOUS. :D

In the little gap between this and I'm A Celebrity - I snaffled some wrapping paper and wrapped up what I had left. Now all I need are some boxes of chocolates to go with their gift sets, something else for Mam, something else for Dad and something else for Ash.

Gah, then there's the matter of the bloody CARDS. ARRRGHH.

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Thankfully I didn't have another fucking argument with Shelly today.
No, we were both relativley calm - did our usual act of not doing anything in Photography. Paul is such an arsehole.
We walked into town during our beasty break and Shelly persuaded me to buy a BLT sandwich from Greggs. I wanted to get one from college, but as per usual - when I want one, they don't have one.
They're pretty good though. I'm starting to think I actually do like mayo - just not Helmann's. I like the mayo from Greedy Joe's, I like the mayo from college and now I seem to like the mayo from Greggs. It clearly isn't Helmann's then. :)

Short blog yes - but everyone has days where there's fuck all to talk about.

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After shitting myself all weekend - the coursework discussion with Sarah today wasn't as bad as I'd expected it to be. Last night I'd managed to find the two Rammstein music videos I was using as focus texts on YouTube - one of them even had subtitles. :D

The two I've chosen are Mein Teil and Rosenrot - both chosen for their lack of performances, controversial lyrics, imagery and the narrative-style of the video. Watching them with Sarah, we've both agreed that my Spieluhr video needs to have a lot of fast cuts, lots of alternating shot types and a slight control over the lighting.

Going on what we all learnt from the film trailer - we've concluded that there's one rule I need to follow:
"Film more than what you need." - do clips more than once, film extra bits, film stuff just for the sheer idea that it might come in handy.

I was also relieved to get the approval from Sarah that my script is fine - it's not TOO focused on the narrative, but there needs to be slight less straight shots of lip-synching and some somewhat obscure things adding. On that note, I need to have a think about it.

Photography was a wasted effort - though it did amuse me that Shelly had came in for no reason - Paul wasn't even there so we were sat about doing shite all. Thus, Michelle, Shelly and I spent the whole lesson fart-arsing about on Facebook. Though the college PCs have a cocked up flash-player so it never lets me post status updates to my wall. It's rather annoying, amongst other things. :/

This cunt of a kid decided to be sick on the bus on the way home - right in the fucking middle of the gangway - I had to practically long-jump over it. Bear in mind, this is while the bus is still fucking moving.
I fucking hate kids like.

 

One on One with Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

SUSIE GHARIB: The big topic at the White House today: jobs and the economy. President Obama met with top congressional lawmakers to talk about ways to stimulate the economy. No official word on proposals that came out of that meeting but the possible options include a tax credit for companies that create new jobs and extending jobless benefits. Earlier this week the Obama administration said it has no plans for a second stimulus package. So what's the solution to getting Americans working and the economy growing again? That's what I asked Paul Krugman today, the Nobel prize winning economist and professor of economics at Princeton.

PAUL KRUGMAN, ECONOMICS PROFESSOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: We need lots more -- don't call it stimulus if that's a bad word, but we need lots more government action to create and preserve jobs. Because we stepped back a couple of paces from the edge of the abyss, but that's a long way from having an actual recovery and the job situation still looks dismal for a long ways ahead.

GHARIB: There's some talk in Washington about offering companies that create jobs a tax credit and also extending jobless benefits. Would that do the trick?

KRUGMAN: No, but it would help. I mean extending jobless benefits is absolutely necessary because we're now reaching a point where long-term unemployment is on the rise. We got to have benefits. We can't just let the people fall off the edge and it also puts some purchasing power in the hands of people so at least helps sustain the economy. The job credit is not -- there are a lot of pros and cons but on balance, it's a good thing. If I was up to me I'd probably have a new WPA, but it's not going to happen. So the jobs credit is helpful.

GHARIB: Are you against some kind of second stimulus package is that we just can't afford it. So what's the next best option?

KRUGMAN: That is just not true. It's a deep misunderstanding. First of all, the stimulus package, although it costs money up front, it also helps the economy and so some of the money comes back to you fairly quickly in tax revenues and then it also helps avoid long-term damage to the economy. So really not doing those stimulus packages on an adequate scale, is being penny wise and pound foolish on a grand scale.

GHARIB: So in your view when does the U.S. economy recover?

KRUGMAN: Technically the recession is probably over. GDP is probably growing. Industrial production is growing. So we're no longer in a situation where everything is falling, but gosh, we don't have anything that feels like a recovery until not only jobs start growing, but jobs start growing enough to make a dent in the unemployment rate. And we won't be fully recovered until the unemployment rate is back down to something like 5 percent, which at this point is in the remote missive of the future. We have no idea when that's going to happen.

GHARIB: JPMorgan just came out with a report and they said it's going to take four years for the economy to recover all the jobs that have been lost in this recession. Does that sound about right to you or is that too long?

KRUGMAN: No, that sound about right. I mean this is a financial crisis-led recession. Financial crisis -- recessions are the result of financial crisis are very persistent. Four years is not an unusual number in this case. I mean it took us almost that long to recover all the jobs that were lost in the 2001 recession and that was a much milder affair. So this -- it used to be four years. What I worry about is that we could be looking at a much longer period than that, that we could be looking at a lost decade. That's not my central forecast, but it a real and not negligible possibility.

GHARIB: So are you saying that it's possible that the economy could nose dive from here?

KRUGMAN: No, I don't see a nose dive. But a possibility that the recovery will lose momentum, maybe even a double dip, so we have a second recession, although probably not a severe one. Those are all very real. You try and tell me where a strong recovery will be coming from in the middle of next year. It's very hard to tell that story and it's awfully easy to tell a story where the recovery kind of sputters.

GHARIB: So where do you stand on this whole double dip recession debate?

KRUGMAN: I think it's a little bit less than even odds but it's not that much less. We got an inventory bounce, is a big part of our growth. That will go away. The stimulus will peak early next year. So that will start to fade out. So we have to, if we're not going to have a double dip, something else has to come along and it's not sure that something will.

GHARIB: So if the job situation is going to be bleak for a while, what does that mean about consumer spending?

KRUGMAN: Consumer spending has got almost everything running against it. Half this country is feeling the effects of the joblessness, directly or through people close to them. This is not a small thing. Yes, consumers come roaring back, maybe. There's -- certainly look at individual things. You look at consumer durables and current rates of sale are sort of not replaceable rates. So at some point people start to buy new cars just because their things wear out. But I can't see how a strong consumer recovery is even possible.

GHARIB: If President Obama asks for your advice, what would you tell him is the most important thing he needs to do right now to fix the economy?

KRUGMAN: If I had a single thing that I want most of all it would be a stable state and local governments. That's where we're having a totally gratuitous cutbacks, should not be happening. They're doing double damage. They're both depressing the economy and they're scarring our future because we're losing education. We're losing all these things that are terribly important for people. So I would push for another round of aid to those state and local governments. That would be my top priority.

GHARIB: Professor Krugman, thank you so much for your time, a pleasure talking to you.

KRUGMAN: Thank you.

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I actually expected myself to be going into college for a wasted effort like I normally do on a Friday - but I was proved wrong - we were actually learning about stuff I hadn't already learnt last year - and not wasting my time with coursework planning when mine was planned three weeks ago. :)

Before I set off for the bus this morning, I cleaned my room, hoovered the floor, re-arranged my PS2 games shelf, changed my bedsheets and emptied my bin. I used my time productivley. :)

I had to go into college today as well to pick up the camera Paul told us all to take home over the weekend. One of the heavy film cameras we were using the other week in the lesson. With the annoying manual apature and poxy light meter. Fuck knows what photos I can take to relate to my Addictions project like.

Though I did have to stand in the art corridors for 20 fucking minutes waiting for the technician to finish talking before I even got a camera - and he was snotty to me, saying I need to pay for the film. I was like "FINE, HAVE YOUR FUCKING FIFTY PENCE."
Then Arriva decided to be knobs and have the 64 turn up half an hour late.

I've finally got refunded by Play.com for this GH handheld that didn't bother turning up in time for Shelly's birthday - but surprise surprise - when I went to order another one from a different seller - they'd decided to stop selling them altogether. Gaaahh.

Seriously being fucked around today like.

So instead, I ordered a Guitar Hero poster and a copy of Spyro: Enter The Dragonfly for her instead. Hopefully she'll like them. I still think the GH handheld would have been better though... :(

My fears about Ash and this weird girl were sort of cleared up. Ash came online and I asked her about this person who's supposably like me. Apparently we're a totally different type of weird. And if Ash describes someone as "this girl I'm friends with" - as opposed to "my friend" - she obviously values me higher.




...Well, I hope so......