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'My Corduroyed Life' - Mark A's Journal
For email forwards...
Got this by email t'other day. It's a bit like a meme really:
1. IF YOU COULD BUILD A SECOND HOUSE ANYWHERE, WHERE WOULD IT BE?
So many pretty places to choose from, but it'd probably somewhere in that Italy because the food is so fantastic.
2. WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE ARTICLE OF CLOTHING?
Currently it is my 'Don't Swallow Your Bubblegum' T Shirt.
3. THE LAST CD YOU BOUGHT?
JZ & Linkin Park - Collision Course.
4. WHAT TIME DO YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING?
7.30ish on weekdays; much later at weekends.
5. WHATS YOUR FAVOURITE KITCHEN APPLIANCE?
Sandwich toaster: Mmmmmm tuna and cheese melt.
6.IF YOU COULD PLAY AN INSTRUMENT, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
I used to be a cellist, but would love to be able to play drums.
7. WHICH DO YOU PREFER, SPORTS CAR OR SUV?
Sports Car.
8. DO YOU BELIEVE IN AFTER LIFE?
Nope.
9. FAVOURITE CHILDREN'S BOOK?
The Tigerskin rug.
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SEASON?
Summer.
11.CHUNKY OR SMOOTH PEANUT BUTTER?
Chunky.
12.WHAT WAS THE LAST MOVIE YOU SAW?
Devil's Rejects.
13.WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE TIME OF DAY?
Hometime.
14.WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST PET PEEVE?
Jobsworths.
15.WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE DAY OF THE WEEK?
Saturday
16. WHAT'S IN THE TRUNK OF YOUR CAR?
Atlas, Car Care kit, Sunscreen.
17. WHICH DO YOU PREFER, SUSHI OR HAMBURGER?
Not that keen on either to be honest.
18. FROM THE PEOPLE YOU WILL EMAIL THIS TO, WHO'S MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST?
Possibly Ta... Fishmonger Malarky now she's back.
19. WHO'S LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
phee.
20. WHO DID YOU RECEIVE THIS FROM?
Careers Pete.
21. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FLOWER?
Syclamon.
22. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ICE CREAM?
Haagen Dasz Cookies & Cream
23. BUTTER, PLAIN, OR SALTED POPCORN (or Sweet)?
Salted
24. FAVOURITE COLOUR?
Blue to wear; pink in general.
25. WHAT KIND OF CAR DO YOU DRIVE?
E Reg Vauxhall Astra estate called Edna.
26. FAVOURITE SANDWICH?
Plain cheddar cheese.
27. FAVOURITE BRAND OF CLOTHING?
Looking in my wardrobe, it appears to be Primark or George!
28. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE MOVIE OF ALL TIME?
I'm tempted to sat Sin City, but that need to be tested for repeat performance. I think I'll have to say 5th Element considering how many times I've watched it!
29. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton.
30.WHAT IS YOUR FULL NAME?
Mark Christopher Adams
31.WHAT IS (ARE) YOUR NICKNAME?
Rob calls me Bambi.
Other people have called me Wrong Mark, Ninja Mark, Gay Mark, and other less polite names in the past.
32.WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norris.
33.WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE TYPE OF FOOD?
Italian.
34.WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE DRINK?
Booze: wine
Non-booze: Dr Pepper
35.FAVOURITE TV SHOW?
Doctor Who.
Have fun,
M x
Current mood:
bored.Current music: Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm by The Crash Test Dummies.
Start with an easy one, eh?
The thing with an essay title like this is simply where to start. With the simple sentence ‘The Quality Of A Society Is Found In How It Treats Its Criminals’, you potentially open a whole crate of cans of worms. Also, seeing as I have done literally no research for this, you have the potential for looking extremely stupid with uninformed opinions.
Perhaps to set the foundations, I might write a little about my general opinion of crime. As a person who has never committed a crime that directly affects anyone else’s lives, I find it difficult to empathise with serious criminals. Of course, I’ve broken the law: I’ve infringed copyright, I’ve spoken on my mobile at the wheel, I’ve speeded, &c. Anyone who has never broken a petty law must have a truly sheltered and frighteningly dull life. When I say ‘serious crimes’, I mean stuff like assault, fraud, arson, robbery, theft, murder, paedophilia, rape, &c. Petty stuff like burning CDs doesn’t really affect anyone else’s lives detrimentally, but going into someone’s house and stealing their most valuable possessions is going to make another person miserable. I just simply find it mind boggling that someone could do something that they irrefutably know will cause another person misery. The idea that there are people out there that can sleep at night after they inflict misery on other people astounds me. It is something that I cannot comprehend.
If one cannot comprehend something, how can one analyse it? I am not capable of deliberately and callously and repeatedly doing something that would make another person miserable, so how can I really understand what is wrong with a criminal. And there is something wrong. People who can do that sort of thing have something different going on inside their head than someone who instinctively know not to go a beat someone up because they’re not the same as someone else, or go and set fire to an old lady’s house because they’re bored, or someone who thinks that it’s okay to traumatise bank clerks with a sawn off shotgun.
If I were in charge of punishment for criminals, I do not know what I would do. We’ve all heard the phrase ‘an eye for and eye’. This kind of makes sense to me, inasmuch as the person who causes misery upon another person deserves the same amount of misery or more back. Kind of a vindictive, enforced karma. The problem with this is that if we keep taking an eye for an eye, eventually we’ll all be blind. As simplistic as these metaphors are, they do kind of make sense. I don’t have a solution to crime. I guess there are just bad people out there that aren’t like you and me. But I also believe that they can change. I do wholeheartedly believe that there is good in everyone, however evil they may have been. I can’t and won’t believe that there are people who cannot be decent if treated decent themselves. I can’t and won’t believe that there are people out there without consciences who cannot have them pricked. I can’t and won’t believe that with the right counselling and rehabilitation some people cannot turn over a new leaf.
I feel that the key to treating criminals is the belief that they can change for the better, and never giving up on that. If a society can do that, and keep doing that never giving up on someone, then it’s a good society.
M
* This is no. 1 of the 13 blog challenges
Current mood:
contemplative.Current music: Loser by Beck.
Well this one is a bit easier…
The answer to this is simply that the Doctor has already been played by a women. Joanna Lumley played the Doctor in the truly awful spoof thing, The Curse of Fatal Death. However, for the sake of my own and various other Who fans sanity, I am going ignore this travesty, and assume that not only is it not part of the Doctor Who timeline, but should be ignored when it comes to Doctor Who lore.
It has been established in Doctor Who lore, thanks to Romana, that Timeladies regenerate into another women. Romana was a Timelady first played by Mary Tamm and after her regeneration by Lalla Ward. In a similar vein is has been established that a Timelord/ lady can be regenerated into someone of any colour as when The Second Doctor (played by Patrick Troughton) was offered a choice of what his next regeneration would look like, he was offered a black guy. So in theory, the Doctor couldn’t regenerate into a woman, but could regenerate into a black/ Asian/ whatever guy.
Brief tangent: how cool would Taye Diggs or Colin Salmon be as the Doctor?!
Being the sad and geeky fanboy that I am, I do, of course know of a spanner to throw in this works. If one goes to the Big Finish website (a company that produces audio plays fully licensed by the BBC and accepted as official Doctor Who stories in a similar way to the Doctor Who Magazine comics), there is a collection of CDs called Unbound. Unbound are alternate realities/ ‘what if’ stories about Doctor Who. In Unbound 6, the Doctor commits suicide to change his appearance and escape the wrath of the Timelords: this establishes that Timelords change sex into Timeladies during suicidal regeneration when the Doctor regenerates into Arabella Weir. So, if we are taking Big Finish into account, Arabella Weir was the first woman to play the Doctor.
Okay, so far I’ve copped out and blithered. Since the 21st Century Doctors, Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant, the title implies who should play the Doctor if Tennant is regenerated into a woman. Lumley is too old now, and I can’t see why Arabella Weir couldn’t give it a go – she was fab in the Unbound thing. In my opinion, Susannah Harker is the right age, and has proved she can play traditionally British and pompous with her costume drama work, yet can be badass when she did Ultraviolet. Another great choice would be the wonderful Julia Sawalha who could be a convincing Doctor too. Another great actress that could bring something to the part is Kate Issit. I do think, however, out of all the picks I’ve made, Susannah Harker, with her blatant Britishness and her cred from already being in a culty TV show, would be my pick for a girl Doc.
Incidentally, I’d have liked to have seen Richard E Grant play the Doctor considering how much I enjoyed Scream of the Shalka. I’m blithering now. I also think that Jack Davenport would make a fine, fine Doctor too. I’m blithering now: don’t you just hate Doctor Who geeks?
Have fun,
M x
Current mood:
geeky.Current music: The Doctor Who theme... Obviously!.