I wake up every evening with a big smile on my face
And it never feels out of place*
Essay crisis over! Today was crunch time for essay seven out of eight, and so it felt appropriate to wheel out my occasional response to a genuine essay crisis: the handwritten essay. Y’see, unlike my overly-planned typed essays, scrawling something out by hand is a shorter, freer and quicker affair which can be relied upon to get the job done in an emergency. I have genuine sympathy for my supervisor who must try and decipher my jumbled inky characters, but it’s all good practice for the fifteen hours of exams which await in a couple of months anyway.
Despite said crisis I remain in a rather bright and happy mood, in no small part imparted by Abbi’s visit over Sunday and Monday. She has characteristically blogged about it already with great aplomb, but I want to add how absolutely wonderful it was to see her again and spend some time with my surrogate big sister. (This isn’t just because of her gifts, although the homemade brownies and second cheesy mix CD were lovely!) It’s nice that, despite being very different people in many ways, we seem to get on so well via a shared geekiness. This includes the ability to lie awake at night (and in the morning) talking about everything from mental worlds to e-mail newsletters, tweeting in unison, play Peggle Nights into the early hours and both slyly hinting that perhaps a second waffle would be an excellent idea. So here’s to Abbi!
In the legendary waffle house
Superhugs!
My happiness has been sustained today even throughout our revision discussion, whereby my year of Caius historians were summoned and reminded about those upcoming exams of doom. (Though they insisted numerous times that they were intellectually extremely exciting and a ‘challenge’.) I think the really smart move made by our Director of Studies was to combine this meeting with a genuinely delicious lunch – softening the blow quite considerably and putting on hold my plans to run away and join a circus. Revision is looming, however, and to illustrate the difficulty of the task I want to conclude on a final tale of procrastination from last night. I was faced, you see, with a choice between two energy-consuming tasks: plan my essay or write a blog. Now, when this kind of problem emerges I have developed a fail-proof solution which involves ignoring both things completely and improvising something ridiculous. So it was that I spent a considerable amount of time last night exchanging e-mails with Lucy about this video, produced by some current QPCS students about the dangers of drugs and knives, and more precisely whether the dialogue correctly represented a sustainable business model.
No, I’m not talking one flippant comment here. I’m talking about a fully researched debate, utilising reports on the average street prices of various drugs and careful examination of the visual record, to determine which drugs were fictionally being sold and at what profit. Careful conversion between grams and ounces, discussions about geographical disparities in drug prices and the production of audio transcripts all indicate that I spent way too much time on this. But my conclusion is clear: the above video promotes a flawed notion of profit and a dangerously short-term strategy for dealing with suppliers which fatally undermines business and enterprise education. (Sums available upon request.)
(*I just wish to clarify that the complete lyrics to this song should not be read as representing my mood. Nor do I wake up in the evening. It’s just stuck in my head 
)
Thank-you for being such a good host.
1. There is always room for another waffle.
2. I am now addicted to Peggle which I have purchased… damn you!
What is that waffle covered in?
I agree with you, but also see quite a substantial lack of planning and foresight with regard to this whole idea of trading through bins.
What they need, ideally, is a multi-person ‘middle man’ trading partner through which both the goods and the payment are trafficked, for a fee calculated as a percentage of the value of the goods, plus a flat rate additional charge for the risk involved. The flat rate however, would vary depending on the varying risk. Class A drugs and several bloody, incriminating knives for disposal? £50 + 2% of the value of the goods is surely a fair price for security for both parties involved.
Of course, considering this, there really ought to be an overall monitor – to ensure the quality of the goods is fairly and accurately represented, ensure that the trading middle man isn’t taking full payment from both (ignorant) parties, and to ensure that the price agreed is consistent with the market, both locally and within a normalised national data set.
Also, he came quickly enough after the exchange was made that he must’ve been within visible sight of the bin, and Tiverton Green hardly has many places in which to hide. This undermines the whole idea of trading without contact, surely?
Either way, his brother was stabbed *in school* – so the message that ‘if you don’t bunk nothing bad will happen’ is weakened by this ending. The boy who followed the message is the only one who suffers, according to the film. We can’t assume that everyone will follow the message, so why not demonstrate a clear causal link between not following the message and the bad result?
The original would be dealer is actually encouraged to pick up the knife and presumably get into stabbing others himself.
I feel slightly confused by this.
Nonetheless, congratulations on your essay
Cheese!
Although your analysis of the role of an ideal middle-man is clearly sound, I disagree on the need for one in the first place. His suppliers clearly have the infrastructure in place to deal directly with clients, e.g. by employing people to watch bins all day. I mean, they are presumably quite low down the supply chain themselves. Why introduce extra costs and points of vulnerability?
I assumed that the aim of ‘trading without contact’ was a security one, perhaps establishing plausible deniability but mostly to avoid looking like they were dealing drugs in public. (They are willing to text each other directly, after all.) But surely it would be much, much easier just to trade indoors? This would provide an ideal location to ensure that each party was happy with the transaction first-hand.
And your point about the suitability of the ending is an excellent one! The stabbing was bizarre anyway. Far better just to ask the younger brother to walk him to their house.
‘The boy who followed the message is the only one who suffers, according to the film. We can’t assume that everyone will follow the message, so why not demonstrate a clear causal link between not following the message and the bad result?’
He wasn’t the only one to suffer! Surely the bunker was punished by the fact that his brother was stabbed. He’d probably rather himself than his little brother!
And Dom…. 7/8?!
*packs up stuff on your desk and moves out of your room…..*
I see!
Yes, they must be fairly far down themselves, but providing that the middle trading partner could be trusted they might be able to cut costs (no paying people to watch bins) whilst increasing security and customer satisfaction.
Yes, of course – but then where? If part of the advantage is deniability then this is very much compromised if they’re selling drugs in their Mum’s kitchen
Tasha, I know what you mean, but I meant there doesn’t seem to be a causal link between action and effect. Sure, his brother is killed, but this only drives him to further crime. This can be attributed to a much greater societal problem than that of the message, which I feel weakens the strength and directness of the message.
Obviously, Dom, the best solution for everyone here (which doesn’t even require bunking!) would be Stuff, Mr Managing Director…
Absolutely: Stuff would solve all of these problems! Also, it would help if the upper echelons of Stuff had been put on a very generous pension to properly incentive them.
killed?!!
Quite, Dominic, quite…
Tasha, I assumed he was killed – doesn’t he say "its already done" or something alone those lines when his friend suggests calling an ambulance?
Yep. "Its finished". I took that to mean the boy is dead…?
I had to watch the film with no sound…I take it I missed some of the..er..subtler points?
Story of my life
x
Helen
I just had to watch the film, then read this entire thread. MY DRAMA ESSAY WILL NEVER BE FINISHED. Thank you all.
They shouldn’t have called it an anti drugs and knife crime video. Gives away too much. Id rather work out for myself whether they are for or against said crimes. Good editing though considering remel is in year 7 or 8.
Im now going to keep my drug and knife dealing away from tiverton green. In school infact, where nothing bad can happen.
I love this: "Im now going to keep my drug and knife dealing away from tiverton green. In school infact, where nothing bad can happen."
I’m thinking describing it thus may be a trick, a way to even further ingrain their subversion of the whole format – its a satirical look at the business world of today, and its obvious foibles for us all to be aware of in our everyday lives, after all…
Or a *very* well hidden advert for Stuff. The ole "show them the problem, sell them the solution" advertising trick
Oh, and Amber, if you’re looking for another fun read to keep you procrastinating: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081226174833AA5LmiA