Big Brother Is Watching?

There has been much in the news in the US – and thus bleeding in to world news – about the proposed SOPA and PIPA reforms going to Congress some say as soon as next week.

In case you haven’t heard of this – which if you are a frequent user of the internet it is highly unlikely – SOPA and PIPA are both anti-piracy laws several Congressmen and CEO’s are trying to introduce into Government. According to the BBC website, “The US bills are designed to block access to site containing unauthorised copyright material. Content owners and the US government would be given the power to request court orders to shut down sites associated with piracy. Advertisers, payment processors and internet service providers would be forbidden from doing business with infringers overseas. SOPA also requires search engines to remove foreign infringing sites from their results, a provision absent in PIPA”.

You may now be thinking, “Well that’s fine, it won’t affect me as I never illegally download”. That song you listened to on YouTube? Well that’s now banned for breaching copyright laws. Someone posts a link on facebook to a video they don’t have copyright for? Banned. Wikipedia with all of its free information sharing? Well, that’s just got to go. And don’t even get me started on tumblr. And it isn’t that they may just be banned from being viewed anywhere within the United States but due to offices being in the US itself the entire website may have a court ordered closure.

Of course, there are always ways around this. Filters only block words in addresses on the internet, much like school or college filters and if you have the IP address, you can enter this in much the same way and still gain access to the desired site. However, due to a law in SOPA, this would be made highly illegal to share this information and would have consequences.

Other propositions included in the bill are that any person found guilty streaming – not downloading, not file sharing, streaming – you know, that thing you do on YouTube when you watch a video? – ten or more times within six months should face up to five years in prison.

Several websites have protested this – Wikipedia included, who claim that 162 million people saw its blackout page and the message it had to share – claiming it is an infringement on the US constitutional rights to privacy and free speech. Several Republican candidates who originally supported the Bill have since removes their support from it – a move which The Motion Picture Association of America, a strong supporter of the bill, has called “a stunt”. The irony being I guess that if these websites were to shut down – the facebooks and twitters of the world - the film, television and music industry would likely be damaged due to loss of advertising available to the general public.

The Bills, which originally looked to pass now seems to be struggling in support as eight million US citizens contacted their Senate representative and asked them to not back the Bills in the past week. Co-founder Matt Mullenweg of Wikipedia has said, “The authors of the legislation don’t seem to understand how the internet works”.

Even after all of this President Obama still has the power to veto the Bills completely, should it come to Government. In a statement released from the White House at the weekend, they said, “We will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cyber-security risk or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet”.

Concrete Jungle Where Dreams Are Made?

I'm not even sure how to begin to describe New York. Magical is maybe a good adjective? I got overly excited riding in my first yellow cab, seeing the sky scrapers that surrounded everything, towering over the thousands of people scuttling about the streets below, illuminated by the billboards and lights streaming from store windows that were open till 2/3am. As the taxi drove up the avenues, I'm pretty sure I got whiplash trying to twist my head quickly enough to see everything on both sides of the streets. My eyes were virtually popping from my head and I felt as excited as a five year old on Christmas.

I'm not even sure why I wanted to go to New York so much - it's not like other cities where there are hundreds of old churches built by the Romans to see. But there is just something about the city that I knew was captivating. It has always seemed like this magical city where anything can happen. Dreams are made - or broken - wishes granted, loves found.

Well I did fall in love; with the city but it still counts. I've never felt homesick leaving a city I'd spent so little time in before. Three nights - that's all I had. An eight hour flight for a three night visit. Hundreds of pounds spent getting there and being there for just four days.

And it was worth every penny.

It was a record heat wave for January and I couldn't sleep. After being awake for twenty four hours straight and getting a comfortable eight hours of sleep, I found myself wide awake at six am. After various unsuccessful attempts at getting back to sleep - my mind screaming at me that I had just woken up in New York City - I showered, dressed and went out for a walk by eight am. I've never been that wide awake or that happy just ot walk around at eight am before in my life.

I headed to Central Park, grabbing a coffee along the way and just walked. Walked a street that some 8-million people living on Manhattan Island take for granted every day. And I was never more enthusiastic to be walking this street, just watching people walk past me. Joggers and dog walkers alike all taking advantage of the city's good weather. The most amusing thing I saw that morning? Two elderly women who met up to walk dogs and share gossip. I can't imagine anyone in Scotland ever doing this - especially not with the near hurricane weather we've been experiencing the past few weeks.

Other tourist things I did? The Empire State building with its heart-achingly beautiful views. The Rockerfeller Centre and its world famous ice-rink. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. And Times Square.

Times Square - somewhere that had been photographed countless times, been visited by a billion strangers; yet it has somehow never lost a sparkle of its charm. I remember sitting on the red steps, bang in the middle of Times Square that first night, severely jet-lagged having been awake for 20 hours by this point and thinking, "This is it - I'm here". We must have sat there for almost an hour and I could have sat there for much longer. There was so much to take in, so many people and the oddest thing? How warm it felt. A strange combination of hundreds of lights, the subway being near enough street level and an interesting layout of buildings that blocked the wind, it was warm. Not summer warm but not the unbearable winters I have grown up with.

And that doesn't even cover Broadway. I saw a Broadway show. I saw a Broadway show, starring a man I very much admire. And not even just a Broadway show - a Broadway musical! That part hasn't even quite sunk in yet.

And a gig in the Village? I went to the Village. It just sounds cool. "Oh what did you do at the weekend?", "I went to the Village to see a show". And even more - it was a small show that was attended by some of the coolest people I have never dreamed I could meet.

Being the geek that I am, I have always found delight in books. And the books that got me through my parents separation when I was growing up? Harry Potter of course. A magical world that I could escape into for a few hours and pretend that the reality that I was living in wasn't there.

Then this group of kids was brought to my attention - known as Starkids - this group of people all met at college and bonded over their mutual love of theatre. No they didn't "save" me or have any great impact on my life. But they did make me see that it was okay to be as geeky or nerdy or as uncool as you want and you'll still find a great group of people to connect with and call friends - and travel 3500 miles to a city you've never been to, with girls you've met for all of five hours.

And in true New York magical fashion I got to meet some of these people.

And even more than that - a beautiful girl who works in my dream job by day and is a rock star by night. Someone who's show we went to see. A strong, kind person who I have grown to greatly idolise, Miss Mia Swier:

Sure, I didn't get "discovered" or fall madly in love with my ultimate soul mate - but I had what can only be described as the weekend of my life, spent with amazing people being in a magical city doing things that I love. This city was the things my dreams were made of and I am thankful that I got to experience it at young enough an age that I can ensure I will have time to visit it as frequently as possible in the future.

Life is what you make it.

YOU. Not anyone else. We all think we're free yet all seem so unhappy with our current situations or have bad days and are just so generally unhappy.

Why?

You are your own solution to your problems. Why do you feel unhappy? Is it your weight, your looks? Something so superficial as the image you portray?

When did it not become okay to be happy? When you have a good day and are smiling people often ask why? Why can we not choose to be happy until something affects us that makes us unhappy?

I am someone who has always had serious issues with happiness. I want more in life, out of life. I feel like if I could just get that something, everything would be fine. But I don't even know what the something is that I am searching for.

One day I want to be an actress or a singer - then remember I'm pretty bad at both. Then maybe a journalist or something to do with the media sector. I want to live in Paris, New York, London anywhere but home; but don't want to be too far from my family. I start things I never finish. I fall for people I'll never get and shun the one's who show interest because they don't "have quite what I'm looking for", or "maybe there is something better". I'm angry cause I'm lonely but hide away from the people in my life who love me.

I am unhappy because I choose to be. I have ample means in my life for happiness but ignore them because I may not have the material things in life that society has taught us to yearn for.

This year I am choosing to be happy. To love the people in my life who deserve it. To make my life what I want it to be. To chase after the opportunities I have always sought, regardless of fear of failure. I'm not saying I won't have bad days - but I am saying I refuse to let them cloud over the good ones and keep me back from being happy.