Do My Survey!

Can you all complete this survey to help my mate and I in our marketing class. The link is:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZPC9JMR

I'll adopt a homeless tree if enough people do it.

"OMG, I Love Your Outfit..."

Well, this is awkward....

Last time I blogged was yonks ago! My apologies for not keeping up. It might be that I haven't had the time, maybe I've been doing other things. Or possibly because Google decided to deactivate my AdSense account for no reason, which I cannot regain, and now I'm not making an earner from blogging. Take the hint, Google.


So what a way to mark my return by talking about AIDS!

I'm kidding.

Something that has made me stand out here, besides my accent, is the way I dress. Now, believe me, I have some fashion sense, but not a lot. I like buying cool clothes and always try to get stuff that is different.

I'm not going into something like: "Americans have no taste when it comes to fashion", because that is not the case. What I'm aiming at is that they can be rather bland, if that's the right word. It's more of a "sheep herd" when it comes to what to wear. People will put on what everyone else is wearing and will remain happy just blending in with the crowd.

Most British people I know try to buy clothes that are different to what's the norm, and I do too. I love my waistcoat with a hood and, although popular in Britain, thin material scarfs are different to what people are used to seeing here.

The American designers like A&F, Hollister and American Eagle are all really good, though. I've made a few purchases there myself. I still think they need a huge injection of Superdry, Topman and River Island into the malls!

A common thing that happens here, is that when people do see others wearing something out of the ordinary and even remotely fashionable, they are quick to draw the "gay" card. To the people that do so, grow up. Surely you know that girls like a guy who can dress well anyway, so you're just making yourself look jealous. Water on a duck's back, my friend.

It might be a self confidence thing, you do have to be brave to stand out. But it's worth it.

This doesn't just apply to lads, girls follow on with this generalisation. Apart from the whole "gay" thing.

So come on people, sharpen up! Let's all look like we're in an episode of Skins!

Help Me Settle A Score Here...

I really need some help here.

It all happened last Monday in my Marketing class. I was sat listening to the lecturer talk about marketing basics; four p's, primary and secondary research, etc; when a suspicious word left her mouth and caused confusion to my brain.

After a few minutes of thought (yeah, my mind works slowly) I sussed it. What I believe she was trying to say was the word 'niche'. As in 'a niche market', small market within a larger market. 

What got me was her pronunciation of it. She said it like: 'nitch'. At first I assumed she mis-said it, but the lecturer used the word with the same pronunciation repeatedly. After asking about a few American mates, I discovered they all say it the same. This is one of those things in life that just instantly ticks you off.

They way I'm used to hearing it is pronounced: 'neesh'. Which I thought was the correct way.

So someone please shed some light on my dilemma. I don't like being wrong...

This isn't the Football I thought we were talking about...

It couldn't be long before I blogged about American Football, could it?

What sparked me to write about it now was the recent game between the Pittsburg Steelers and the Denver Broncos. Or at least that's who I thought was playing... The Broncos won and it was some sort of 'play-off' game which means the Steelers are out. Imagine Chelsea getting knocked out of the FA Cup by Everton for all you 'real' football fans.

But apparently, the final touch-down was from an illegal play by the Broncos. Something like, they had six men in a line rather than the regulatory five. I suppose it's the equivalent to putting an extra man in a rugby scrum, right? So it was unfair and no the Steelers are pissed off. I don't know American Football too well, but it looked like they were being well and truly beat anyway.

So my opinion on the sport? Well first of all, it has a stupid name. It is not 'football'. Football is football (which is soccer for you Yanks). Why didn't you call this sport soccer? Or handball? Or anything other than something that is already a name of another sport?

I don't quite get the rules either. It's far too technical and all 'stop-start-stop-start'. If you throw the ball out of bounds, it's somehow still in your possession... Odd. And the whole, 'you must get this far in this amount of time' is just weird.

Another thing I don't like is the idea of specialised players. The kicker comes on just to take a penalty, I feel like we could utilise David Beckham like this when he's in his forties to just take corners and free-kicks. But they can change players whenever and however they want, as many times as they want. Unlike 'real' football where you are limited to three changes throughout. And the pay of each players varies drastically. A quarterback will be paid loads, whereas, the fat guy who just smashes people is probably receiving an average wage. At least show some consistency, I mean, in 'real' football, we over-pay all the players. Yeah, players like Rooney and Kompany are on wages above most others, but it doesn't depend on their position.

One thing I do like about American Football, though, is that it has a lot more pride involved in comparison to baseball, basketball and hockey. Fans will actually follow their teams and show support. However! (They're had to be a however.) The support shown is still nothing in comparison to 'real' football. We use our sport and team as a lifestyle and it seems as if nothing else matters when our team play. I remember not going to a party once because United lost to West Ham and I was just too depressed to do anything. Damn Matthew Upson.

I think American Football could be improved by making it an international sport, so the U.S can play against other nations. There's no better tournament than something like the World Cup or the Olympics. But who in their right mind would want to see that happen? A world-wide American Football tournament? Americans would. The rest of the world would just turn the TV over to something more entertaining, like Loose Women...

Just doing someone a favour

Because I am nice, I'm doing a post for a friend who needs to raise money for a volunteering trip to Thailand.

I went there once. It was awesome. But I didn't do any voluntary stuff. I rode elephants and junk like a champ.

So the link to her page is: http://www.indiegogo.com/Laras-volunteering-funds

I've already donated, no joke. One dollar of that total is straight from my account.

But seriously, help out if you can and it sounds like a good cause. All these kids want to do is learn in school, whereas, kids like me just wanted to get out of it. So support the dedicated Thai nerds!

PS. Lara - When you return from Thailand, I want you to bring me back one of these, I saw one in a movie from Thailand:

Return of the Brit

It's been a long time coming, but today is the day. You guessed it, it's the day where I am able to blog from the land of the free and the home of the Whopper once more!

My flight got in yesterday morning, fourteen hours direct! Then a five hour bus journey followed by an hours drive. Not a great day, I must say.

So I've had plenty of time to think of things to blog about, and being back in the States will give me even more.

Stay tuned people.

Poll Reminder!

Just a heads up - the poll that you can see in the sidebar just below the money making advertisements is due to close in about two weeks time.

Get your vote in!