06/12/2013

The Hunger Games Infection



 The first film was so boring that I couldn't pass this by...
On the 21st of November 2013, a new film came out in cinemas entitled ‘The Hungry Games: Catching Fryers’. The sequel to another awful film, the film gained mixed reviews and mixed up the audience’s head with its excruciating screenplay. A few days later, however, the infection started. It’s nearly taken everyone now. Please, if you read this, take heed before it’s too late!

Symptoms

There are four stages that everyone who watches the film goes through:
1.                 -Headaches. For the first few days, whoever catches this infection feels painful headaches. This stage can’t be detected by onlookers unless the recipient of the infection makes it known.
2.                 -Shutdown. From 3 days to a week the second stage kicks in. The recipient will often forget all purposes and bodily function for a few seconds, before snapping out of the temporary shutdown and functioning normally. It is vital that any onlooker treats any action similar to this as indicative of infection: beyond this stage the infection is not treatable.
3.                 -Trance-like existence. After two-three weeks the ‘shutdown’ and ‘non-shutdown’ modes of a person merge until they are perpetually in a trance, unable to think for themselves or respond to stimulus. It is thought that this is the sign that the mind-numbing bore of the film has finally reached their brain. If you can lock these people up or get them out of harming distance, for they do not have long before they reach the final stage.
4.                - Rabid defence. This final stage will take a month or less to kick in, depending on the recipient. Instead of barely functioning, their whole existence is to talk about the film and rave about its merits. DO NOT LISTEN. They are lying. Anything they say about Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson is lying communist propoganda. Cover up your ears and try not to exchange and liquids such as blood or saliva with them, for fear of you becoming infected. If you try to talk about the film in anything less than a shiningly positive manner, they will attack. You won’t survive.

Causes

There is one main way to get the infection, which is where it started. That is by watching this film. Trailers and reviews are short enough that they don’t give a good indication of the film, and hence can’t pass on the infection. The other way to obtain the infection is by hearing enough discussion of the film from someone who has caught it, primarily those who are in the fourth stage of disease. At the moment the only known way of protecting yourself from these monsters is through sufficient hearing protection. The infection is by definition any knowledge, memory or recollection of the film either from first-hand watching, hearsay or prediction about the predictable plot.

Treatment

The infection is only treatable in the first two stages of decay, if the recipient passes beyond these stages they are a lost cause. The best way to treat it is to make them forcibly forget the film, as memories of the film are the cause of the infection. A good method of doing this is alcoholic beverages, as enough of these soon after the viewing could cause the recipient to forget the event. Another method is repeated blows to the head with a heavy blunt instrument, yet this is not advised as some people would like their childhood memories to be remembered.

Prevention

There is one sure-fire way not to get this disease- don’t watch the film and if anyone says they like it, put as much distance between you and them as possible.

At the beginning of the twenty-second century AD, humanity has lost all resemblance of humans. This infection took all that we had and caused the ruination of us all. Please, if you read this, save yourself.
 Tom Bedford 06/12/2013 17:12

27/11/2013

Fallout 4- What Your Woman Really Wants For Christmas!



Inspired by both the Fallout franchise and an article I read called 'What Your Man Wants For Christmas' for English Language A2, this is an advert for a place in an underground Vault in the Fallout universe. If you don't know, it's a post-apocalyptic setting with a twist- it's seen through the eyes of traditional 50s viewpoints, hopes and expectations.
What Your Woman Really Wants For Christmas!

Christmas Shopping. Crowds of people, stacks of useless items, discounted prices. What a drag! Here at Vault-Tec©, we understand the pain that people go through to find a great gift for their loved ones- and we have a solution. Whether you’re looking for a gift for your lovely children, charming wife or irritable in-laws, Vault-Tec © has the perfect present to give everybody- an exclusive place in one of our wonderful underground vaults!

Vault Secure!

Our analysts have spent years studying complicated politics and science- don’t worry, you don’t need to know the details! They discovered that nuclear war is coming soon, and coming fast- but it doesn’t have to come to you! Our vaults are deep underground where even the worms can’t find you, and they are protected by legions of helpful Protectron© robots from our friends at RobCo©. Nothing is getting in or out of those great metal doors- no nasty bombs, scary raiders or ugly ghouls! Send in for an information pack and we’ll send you a free men’s limited edition Vault-Tec© t-shirt! Remember- a safe family is a happy family!

A Brighter Future… Underground!

Vault-Tec© vaults use only the most modern and attractive amenities- we know you’re worth it! Your woman will be comfortable and happy as well as safe in her kitchen with such innovative utilities such as Vault-Tec© toasters, Vault-Tec© fridges and Vault-Tec© ovens. There is also a brilliant Mr Handy in each kitchen from our buddies at Robco©- we wouldn’t want your wife to be left alone in such a dangerous place! When your wife is busy in the kitchen you can also watch your sweet little daughter play on one of the many Giddyup Buttercup toys found in the Vault, or join your little tyke of a son on the shooting range helping to clear out radroaches. There’s never a dull moment in a Vault-Tec© Vault!

Hard Work Is Happy Work!

The world ending doesn’t mean you’re unemployed in a Vault! Each vault needs doctors, teachers, security guards and of course an Overseer amongst other roles. Whatever your skill is, Vault-Tec© could use some-one just like you to make our Vaults the ideal place to live. While you’re supporting your family you will also be supporting your friends- you’ll be the most popular fellow in the Vault! And in our Vaults you don’t need to share your earnings with anyone else- that’s Commie talk, and this is America- land of freedom and peace! If you’re a discerning character who thinks that you were born to lead sign up for a Vault-Tec© leadership course to see if you could make a dashing Overseer, guaranteeing your family the nicest home in the whole Vault!

We’ll Be There!

Vault-Tec© is America’s biggest friend. We want to protect our proud people, their glorious nation and the swell lifestyle that they live, which is why we designed the Vaults for you. Each of our Vaults is designed to last for hundreds of years- we don’t want anyone to leave with that horrid radiation burning away! Included in all Vaults is a wonderful G.E.C.K- Garden of Eden Creation Kit, your very own tool to turn any abominable wasteland into a living, breathing, fertile area of natural beauty, revitalising the Earth once again. All you need to do is add water and stir- even your woman could do it! To top that all off, for each place you book in one of our excellent underground Vaults, we’ll send you and your family one of our limited-edition Vault-Tec© bobbleheads, showing our mascot Vault Boy in amusing positions! Choose between thumbs up, hands on hip or any one of our themed skill bobbleheads- show off the man you really are.

This was going to be part of my coursework but it isn't any more. Tom Bedford 27/11/2013 17:46

13/11/2013

School, UK, Blocks Google.



Prizes if you can guess whose school it was, or who the secret source is.


In a move that surprised exactly nobody, teachers at a secondary school in Bristol, UK, decided late last night to filter the last free website on their school computers- Google.
Speaking on behalf of the entirety of the school staff, the head teacher who will not be named due to legal reasons spoke to us about the decision to block the popular internet search tool. ‘It’s actually a great thing to do to filter websites. It helps the kids learn and puts them out of harm’s way from dangerous people. Why does no-one ever think of the children?’ The website, used worldwide due to its quick speeds and ease of access, was put under lock by the school due to pornographic reasons, stating that ‘the two O’s in close proximity are too suggestive for small impressionable school children.’
Google now joins the growing list of websites that cannot be accessed from school computers, sitting next to websites such as Wikipedia, Youtube and IMDb in the list of websites that are a plague to humanity and could ‘never be educational ever in the history of the world’ as the computer technician told us. ‘Children need to use computers to learn, and they will only do this if we take away all access to any websites with words, pictures or sound files.
                This banning of a website is also a major event for the school servers as it marks an impressive milestone for the quantity of banned websites- from a previous 99% of websites unavailable; the school has now achieved full 100% unavailability for all websites on the internet. The head spoke of this achievement- ‘We are very proud to have reached this impressive figure. We are pleased as previously we were only on 99%, and as everyone knows 100 is a much larger number than 99. Bigger numbers means a better school!’
On the other hand, students are dismayed at the restricted access they are given. ‘We are upset about the lack of Google’ a young male told us ‘I liked to browse the websites that were available to us- or should I say website, the website that tells us the list of websites blocked. It was fun to read the list and try to guess which website came next.’ However our inside source tells us this is not all a bad thing. Speaking discreetly behind the head’s office, he told us ‘maybe now they’ll spend less time monitoring our internet usage and finally process my bloody UCAS application that I sent to them over four goddamn weeks ago’
Tom Bedford 13/11/2013 16:34

11/11/2013

The Christmas Effect II- Return of the Decorations



I wrote this piece as a 2013 follow-up to the previous article which mentions my 'Christmas Effect'.
It’s November now, which means Christmas adverts have been playing for a good month already. By and large it seems we have the same diversity of last year- snow, snowmen, snowballs and (s)no(w)thing else, which upsets me- it’s rare enough to find good adverts during the rest of the year but this is meant to be the season where the marketing department pulls out all the stoppers and goes to town on their budget- instead it seems they spent it on whiskey and carrots. To pay tribute to this dastardly affair, I’ll count you down the three worst adverts I could find (the only three I could remember).
                The first advert I am going to discuss is the Morrisons advert. They slip up right from the start line as Ant & Dec slip in through the background while a poorly animated gingerbread man tries (and fails) to make us remember the one from Shrek. The whole advert consists of the character dancing around a lavishly loaded table covered in food, singing a song (not-so-subtly) stolen from a musical and winning audience sympathy by pelting And & Dec with food. That’s really all there is to say- it’s an advert for Christmas. What more do you want? Push off.
                Tom’s Verdict: It’s slightly Christmassy, but let’s face it a table full of food has been done hundreds of times to the point of cliché. 1/10, good effort.
Next up is the Boots advert.
I’m only joking, we all know how awful their adverts are.
In fact, next is the Marks and Spencers advert, solely because it was the #2 result I found on YouTube. The advert starts with a dog running into a back alley and a woman chasing after it. Sounds eerily like the beginning of an episode of Supernatural, doesn’t it? No demons show up unfortunately, and the woman falls down a manhole into Wonderland. Not exactly sounding festive either, is it? This paves the way for the Mad Hatter’s tea party, in this case your generic Christmas-table shot showing table brimming with food # 135 this year. Gradually the adventure takes the woman through a walking tour of some of M&S’s food, clothing and furniture with a ghastly wailing soundtrack that will give me nightmares for months. The true insult of this advert is the fact that the creators had the audacity to drag it on over two and a half minutes! In that time I could, say, listen to a good song, make myself a nice drink, or microwave my head. There’s snow and food so I suppose technically this is a Christmas advert, but it was too dull and lacking in interest to make it memorable.
                Tom’s Verdict: Sorry, what happened again? 0/10, better luck next time.
The main offender this year is of course ‘The Hare and the Bear’, coming from… Actually, who is it coming from? The only time any company name is mentioned -and it’s John Lewis, for anyone rushing to google- is for a brief second at the end. There are no products visible at any point through the entirety of the advert. The advert consists of Disney-style animations in which a hare and a bear become friends (because screw you mother nature!). They decide to hibernate and when Christmas comes they wake up to open presents under a tree, as animals do, however disaster strikes when the bear forgets to set his alarm clock and wakes up a few seconds later than everyone else. That’s the emotional part. Yup. The music played is a cover of Keane- that’s right, it’s so boring that Keane was deemed too upbeat for it.
                Tom’s Verdict: I’m sure the advert is meant to touch an emotional nerve, in which case the marketing team needs a better surgeon. Overall the overly downcast and ‘artsy’ stylisation of the advert hugely miss the festive spirit. -12/10, NEVER AGAIN.
                Tom’s 2013 Christmas Advert Roundup: No Slade = No good.
Tom Bedford 11/11/2013 (Happy 2 years Skyrim) 19:30

30/10/2013

The Importance of Being Ignorant- The Christmas Effect.



This is a piece I drafted a year ago after the 2012 Olympics, and found myself revising due to the links to 'The Christmas Effect' which I can see springing up already this year.
In terms of patriotic commercialism, Britain’s really outdone itself this year. First the Queen’s jubilee celebrations and now the Olympics, 2012 has seen Britain worship itself in a way I didn’t even think was possible, and I’m sorry to say I found it hard to join in the celebrations. I will tell you why. Let me tell you about this thing that I call the Christmas effect- so named because it is most commonly seen around Christmas.
                It starts around June or July, when you will be watching TV when all of a suddenly and advert for a Christmas product airs. ‘Christmas, in June? Well, that’s odd!’ you think, but it doesn’t show its head for another month or so. You see the advert again, and again. Slowly but surely more adverts creep their way onto your screen.  By October, Christmas adverts are commonplace. By December, you’re sick of Christmas adverts, and Christmas in general.
                This is the problem I have with the Olympics. How can I enjoy something when everyone has been screaming it from the rooftops for months? How can I appreciate something when I’m being told that I must appreciate it? The truth is, any magic for me surrounding the event is ruined by the time it comes around, and I blame the media.
                By August adverts for the Olympics were the only adverts around, and some of them were just plain bizarre. These include, but are not limited to, adverts for washing up liquid (because if your children eat off plates from our competitors, they won’t be successful and fit!) adverts for watches (so you can time Usain Bolt from your own living room!) and, amusingly, an advert for British Airways, because they’re renown for being the best way to enter the country… Apart from in the back of a lorry from France, obviously.
                But are the Olympics really the blessing for publicity that these companies seem to think it is? Sure, most brands have found it as an easy way to flog a product, but weren’t adverts meant to stand out? Be different, and show your product was too? I can’t remember a single advert from the Olympic period, and that’s not a good sign for the marketing departments. A much surer strategy would be to ignore it, or at least show the Go Compare man running the 1500 metres, instead of just deciding ‘Our product is the best because it’s British and the Olympics are here this year!’ Even well-known and respected brands used it as an opportunity to cash in on the public’s crazy patriotism. Lego Olympians, Olympic Top Trumps and even Olympic shops popped up.
                I may seem bitter about the fact that people can finally unite about something, but I am bitter because they’re following the normal human habit- they’re being patriotic because it’s convenient for them at this time. When the world is staring at London it’s easy to say ‘Yeah, our country is perfect!’ But who was being patriotic before? When the country burned from riots, who is being patriotic then? When the politicians are under scrutiny again, or the floods wash away the southern counties for the hundredth time, who is supporting their country then? No, this wave of patriotism is a fad that’ll disappear the next time any of the taxpayer’s money goes the same way.
                Oh, and Olympics is really awkward to spell, did I mention that?

22/10/2013

Reading Festival 2012

A short piece I wrote after attending Reading Festival in 2012, in the style of a news column.


                Reading Festival is a great place to go if you want to meet a wide variety of people- as long as by wide variety you mean ’16-25 year old white male’, and by meet you mean ‘get thrown into’. The festival is poorly organised and the music isn’t even that good, but why do so many people go each year? I found a willing friend and we decided to brave the mud and rain to find out what Reading was really all about.
                The first thing we were told upon entry was ‘don’t camp by the river, it floods.’ Twenty minutes later, after picking a great spot near the arena and even nearer the shops, we discovered to our dismay that we had set up our tent two meters from the river. Set up is an abstract term at best, as our tent was missing a third of the poles and didn’t even zip up properly, but you have to make the best of a bad situation and so we used duct tape to cover the outside of the tent in plastic bags.
                After realising this was a lost cause, we decided to visit our neighbours who were happily painting their faces in toxic waste. ‘Oh yeah, we’re here to see The Cure,’ they said. We made a point never to speak to them again. The toilets were the talk of the town, so we made our way next to one of the various sites of interest. It turns out various means ‘one of two sites, both miles from YOUR campsite Tom!’ but ultimately it was worth it for the comic value of seeing the huge troughs under the toilet blocks already full of waste.
                We received word that the Silent Disco Arena was well worth a visit and I was curious to see what this contradictory name meant. Silent disco? Sounds like my kind of disco! Unfortunately the silent disco was closed and so we found ourselves in the on-site funfair, watching a weird freak-show of super-heroes and other fancy dress characters parade past us in the shower of lights and people that was the funfair. It seemed like everyone attending the festival and their mothers was congregating at the same square foot of turf and it turned into the biggest mosh-pit I saw for the whole weekend, but there was nothing else to do on site for the first day so the large number of people was unsurprising.
                Friday morning, the whole site rose bright and early ready for the festivities to begin, and waited. And waited. This is where I first realised something was fishy, but being the good-natured person I obviously am, I chose to ignore it. The problem was that the arena was only opened at 11, and when you wake up at 7 in the morning (and you WILL wake at 7, everyone else will see to that) you find yourself with 4 hours of waiting and avoiding your Cure-loving neighbours.
                When we were finally let in, got over how small the stage actually was and the fact that no-one good was playing until about 5, and spent our money on extortionately priced t-shirts we realised we were bored. Bored at the biggest festival of the year, you ask? Well yes, we were. Reading has an annoying habit of pandering to the biggest chunk of the audience they can, and this year that meant bringing along way too many ‘hardcore’ bands… (screamo, to me or you). As a result we spent a long time aimlessly wandering, listening to music we hadn’t heard and trying to avoid the screams of bad music. I discovered some new bands which was a bonus, but there are some sounds you can’t remove from your skull.
Tom Bedford 22/10/2013 18:08