A General Election

Today is one of those days often known in the UK as a General Election. The day every four years (normally) when the UK population comes out to vote for who they would like as their local MP and subsequently as the Prime Minister.

I am someone who on the whole finds politics to be something so riddled with corruption, lies and 'jobs for the boys' that it annoys me more than interests me. I'm a big believer however that I am in a very privileged position of being able to vote in what appears a pretty democratic system and so will cast my vote at every election possible. I also think that everyone else should use that right too - we took our children along to the Polling Container today so I could explain to our eldest (who is 5) what voting is all about and why it's important. I think she understood but we'll see next time it happens.

What really pleased me tonight was that for the first time ever we had to queue to get into the polling station - meaning that lots of other people were making the effort to vote. I spoke to my Mum earlier and she said it was the same at her polling stations so maybe the voting population are actually starting to care!

Right now voting is still open for another 15 mins and the overall results won't be fully known until tomorrow morning, my money is on a hung parliament which I'm hoping and crossing everything does not involve the Conservative party! Who knows - but that's the joy of democracy!

Inspiration

Compared to some people I don’t spend too much time on my daily commute but I must spend about 3 hours each week just sat trundling along in traffic. Of course when this happens it’s hard to stop boredom kicking in and then of course my mind wandering. About a month ago on one of those occasions I started to think if there was anyone in my lifetime who I could say has inspired me – with the exception of the obvious ones like my parents, wife, family and close friends – I struggled, like really, really struggled.

I must have then pondered this for ages, there must be someone out there. I had some great teachers at school who really helped me become who I am today – my art teacher Mr Shevells, Mr Shakespere and one or two others but although they helped me develop I cannot remember anything specifically inspirational.

Since I had this realisation I suppose I began searching for inspiration, while doing my usual trawl and meander through Twitter and YouTube I came across a bloke from New York called Casey Neistat. I found myself watching one of his videos, then another, and another and it’s now got to the point where I look forward to each of his daily vlogs. There’s something about his outlook on life, the way he thinks and things he does I find intriguing and I’m starting to think – inspirational. If you watch his videos the little clips of time-lapse which link the clips to camera are fantastic. I’ve found myself having a go with my iPhone at shooting a few of the out of the window – with admittedly average success but it’s a start. I would never have the confidence to voice over or talk to a camera but if I can practice enough and learn bits of techniques I hope to pull together a video of my own – which of course no one will see but at least I’ll have done it.

I would definitely recommend checking out Casey’s videos just to see what you think for yourself. I may have found someone I find inspirational but I’m going to keep looking for more.

Motivation

It could be said that me and motivation aren’t exactly great friends. I see people around me on YouTube or at work who all seem to have this amazing amount of reason for doing things or the drive and verve for getting somewhere or achieving something – why don’t I have this?

Yes, I’m a very laid back person and often content in my own little world. I’m very happy with my family life – I have an amazing wife and two unbelievably fantastic children but when it comes to motivation – I’m empty!

I often have ideas of things I would love to try or do – mainly when sat in the car in traffic – but when I get home I never do them. I recently wanted to have a go an putting together a short video or presentation thing to upload to YouTube. Not with me in it or voicing over it, just something interesting to watch. I ended up filming my drive to and from work in Timelapse mode on my phone but when it came to editing and putting it together I lost interest quickly and it went nowhere.

I don’t know if motivation is something which comes naturally comes to people, I find that I really need to force myself to do it which sounds to me like I’m trying to motivate myself to motivate myself.

The number of times I’ve tried to start a blog and then lost interest is unbelievable – I again seem to have an idea about what to write about but then very quickly I either forget the idea or dismiss it as absolute arse.

The normal ending of my idea is me spending time sat in front of my Xbox or PC playing something like Advanced Warfare or GTA V – as a 39 year old should I really be doing that?