The job I couldn't do.

There was a discussion on Facebook earlier today about the 56 year old British woman who was sentenced to death in Bali for drug smuggling. (If you're unaware of the story, it's here)

The original poster was against the death penalty, and took issue with the Balinese authorities saying that her activities were harmful to Bali as a tourist destination.  He thought their use of the death penalty would stop people going.
My response was that I've been to countries that have the death penalty, and would go to others.  As a tourist it doesn't affect me.  I'm not a drug smuggler.
Then the pr0-capital punishment lobby put their side, saying that it cut crime (erm...there's never been ANY data to prove that it is a deterent), and that she deserved it.  Well, that's their opinion and their entitled to it.
Personally I'm against it, as one innocent who gets executed is one too many.  All the apologies and posthumous acquittals in the world won't bring back the innocent people wrongly executed. But I digress.
The question I asked - which as I write this still hasn't been answered by the pro lobby - was this.  Would YOU be prepared to be the executioner.  If there was a vote on capital punishment in the UK tomorrow, and it passed, would you be prepared to carry out the sentences?  If not, then you would effectively be asking someone to do something that you yourself were not prepared to do.  And that, in my opinion, is wrong.

I would not be prepared to do it.  I could not vote in favour for that reason, and the previously stated reason that one innocent wrongly convicted is one too many, and the fact that the taking of a life even if legally sanctioned, is just plain wrong.  It's still murder. (in my opinion.  Yours may differ, and you're entitled to your opinion, and I don't judge)

Bit of a downer of a post, but it's the topic of the day on FB, so here it is.

HMV saved?

So, it looks like HMV will survive in some form.  Hilco have taken it over, paying less that the £175m debt that the company owed.

At least this means there will still be (some) record shops on (some) high streets.  Now if only they would concentrate on music and stop trying to be a combination of a record shop and electrical shop.  If I want cd's and dvds I'll go to HMV, if I want headphones and mp3 players, I'll go to a hi-fi shop, and if I want tablets, I'll go to a computer shop.  Seriously, stick to what you're good at, music.  Leave the computing (tablets) and audio equipment to the shops that specialise in those.  You're supposed to be a record store, not a department store.  Act like it.

Death of the record store

Years ago when I first got into music, in the early 80's, there was a fantstic choice of record shops in Glasgow.  Small independent shops like Echo, 23rd Precinct, Listen, Bruce's, Missing.  There was a great choice about where you could shop, and they all had their own unique identity.

Then the big chains came along, Virgin, HMV and (briefly) Tower.  They piled high and sold cheap (or not so cheap in the case of HMV), and the small independent specialist shops slowly went to the wall.

Now these small shops were staffed by people who loved music and knew their regular customers.  I could walk into a shop, as the staff to recommend something, and walk out with a record by a band I'd never heard of, and 99% of the time, would love it.  That's how I discovered Guns n Roses.  Live Like a Suicide had just come out on import.  £8 for 4 songs?!  That was a hell of a lot in those days, but I took the advice, and didn't look back.

You could also hang out in these shops, and talk to the staff about music.  The big stores weren't like that.

So, we had a city centre with five huge record shops, one Tower, three HMV and two Virgin, and a few second hand record shop that numbered single figures.  (I'm not counting FOPP here as it was taken over by HMV).

First Tower closed.  Now, out of the big three, the staff there were closest to the small indy shop staff.  They knew about and loved music.  They catered for a huge variety of tastes AND knew what they were talking about.  (That's the only shop I've EVER seen a copy of the Jack Officers album.  A spin-off/side project of the Butthole Surfers).

Then it was Virgin, when Richard Branson sold up.  There was a management buyout which resulted in Zavvi, but as a shop, it didn't last long, and went the way of tower.

Now HMV is in dire straits, and although I wasn't a fan of the shop, and only bought from it when there was a sale on, I hope is survives in some form on the high street, because after the big three pretty much killing off the competition, if it goes, there's only about 4 small independent shops left, and three of them are predominantly second hand stores.

I want to be able to walk into town and browse record shops.  I do buy downloads, but I also buy cd's.  I want to have a choice about where to buy.  Yes, I use Amazon, but I want to shop there because I WANT to not because I HAVE to, which, is the way it looks like things are going.

Nerdgasm. AKA game shopping

I do online surveys that pay me (eventually) in Amazon vouchers.  This is a good thing.  In the past I've used them for cd's/dvd's and ebooks, but just recently I picked up Munchkin Deluxe. Wooohooo!
It's got the original Munchkin plus Munchkin 2, and a cool board laid out like a dungeon, and some figures to  use on it, to keep track of what levels the players are on.

In other game related stuff, I just bought a Lonely Planet guide to Jordan.
How is this games related I hear you ask?
Let me tell you.

I bought it in Waterstones, which gave me the last stamp I needed on my collector card, to get a £10 gift card.  So..........I got Zombie Dice.

Result.

Now all I need to do is get some lucky people and arrange a games night.

New Year and all that

Well, despite a run in with the lurgi, I've survived Christmas and New Year.
The work Christmas do, was terrible.  The food was pretty rubbish.  Out of all the choices, I seem to have lucked out.  The started of duck spring rolls was nice enough, but could have come from Farmfoods or Iceland.  The steak I had was decent enough, but again I lucked out, as I take my steak medium, and there was no choice about how you could get it prepared other than medium or order something else.  Not good.  When it came to desserts, I went for cheesecake, which I always do if it's an option.  Just as well, as the chocolate fudge cake others got must have been lying out for a while, as it had started to dry up.

I didn't hang about for the disco, instead I went for a wander and caught up with a couple of friends for a drink.

Onto the holidays themselves, and there was eating and drinking and visiting friends, and playing boardgames.  We also managed to work through the entire season 1 of Game of Thrones, which was excellent.

I rounded off the holidays by going to see the Hobbit, which was rather good, even it if has been padded out with some bits from other Tolkien books.  I mean it's a short book, and they're stretching it out to a trilogy!  Not that I'm complaining.  More escapist time in Middle Earth for me, so that's all to the good.

And now, sad to say, I haven't won the lottery, so it's back to work.