The Megaphone : A Debate Blog

So Sunday night the celebs turned up in force wearing millions of pounds worth of dresses and jewellery that they can never wear again, to the almighty big deal that is the Oscars.

I must admit that I don’t go out of my way to watch the films that win at this event. I’m personally more of a Sundance man.

This event though did make me wonder. What is the greatest film ever made?

My personal favourite film is Garden State, but by no means do I think that is the greatest film ever made, it’s just my personal favourite. According to imdb, the greatest film ever made is The Godfather, scoring 9.1/10 in comparison to Garden State’s 8.0/10 (which I personally think is an outrage, I won’t even put my “I’m just happy to be nominated” face on for that).

So, what do you think the greatest film ever made ever is?

Please place your entries in the ballot (comments) box below.
Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, so I wasn’t going to post today, but I found this article about a guy who says he has lived to 107. Despite smoking his whole life, he has lived to this remarkable age… and the reason he says is because he has never had sex.

Could abstaining from sex be the secret of living a long life?

I wonder if he masturbates…

Also, on a completely seporate note. I was on TV last night on Great British Holiday on BBC4. I’m the guy stood in the rain looking miserable. I don’t remember signing any sort of permission slip for this. I’m gonna take the BBC down.

Let me start this off with a random fact. Apparently there are 55 million blogs out there in cyber land. The chances of you stumbling upon this blog are therefore 1/55000000. Let me put that into perspective for you. The chances of winning the lottery are 1/14000000. The very same odds as you being somewhere you’ve never been before… say on holiday in Croatia, stopping someone completely random on the street and then guessing their phone number perfectly in one attempt. Therefore the chances of you finding this blog are probably the equivalent of guessing that guy’s phone number… then guessing his best friends phone number… and then to make up the extra bit maybe guessing both of their names.

I’m sure having found this blog you feel more wealthy than any number of millions you could have won on the lottery. So congratulations… good job.

Today I want to know if you are a lucky or an unlucky person. What is the luckiest or unluckiest thing that has ever happened to you?

Also are you superstitious? Do you think you will be cursed with 7 years of bad luck if you break a mirror? Would you walk under a ladder? I personally avoid ladders, not because I am particularly superstitious, but if that fat guy stood on it fell, then I would be crushed to death… and knowing my luck he would be fine.

Please write your answers neatly in the comments section below.

Read the rest of this entry »

So last night my parents came up to visit from the Wales. Of course they bought me the first meal I have eaten that wasn’t cooked in the microwave for about a month (I realise that sounds like the food is cooked for a month, but I can‘t be arsed changing the sentence. I thought I‘d write this massive bit of bracketed text instead).

Since their last visit I have moved house. So after food and drinks at the local, I invited them back to my shiny new house and proceeded to show them around. It was then that I suddenly remembered that I couldn’t show them my room… not because I have transformed it into some sort of Quagmire-esque love den or anything. It’s because, despite having lived in this house for four months my bed looks like it belongs to someone who prefers spending money on smack than on modern comforts such as a bed. Despite the incredible comfort of my ‘mattress on the floor and small pile of sheets’, I was too ashamed to show Mamma and Papa Ryan.

So this morning in an incredible invasion of privacy I ask you, in the beautiful, grungy, pain filled voice of Kurt Cobain

Where did you sleep last night?

Read the rest of this entry »

I didn’t mean to get you all a fluster with that suggestive title. The thumbing of which I speak occurs at the side of the road, and involves hitching a ride… it’s impossible to not make it sound like pure filth. I mean hitchhiking.

It is a sad, sad day in the land of… well me today.

Last night I should have been in attendance of the Spinto Band’s final UK performance this year. But as you can see the only money I have at the moment is of the copper and of the chocolate variety. As surprising as it may sound, copper and chocolate are not sufficient currency to exchange for train tickets and hotel accommodation.

The only way I could have made the show (excluding selling unnecessary organs on the black market) would have been to hitchhike. So today I ponder the mystery

Is it ever safe to hitchhike?

I’m not going to lie to you, I am quite a pretty, effeminate looking man. If I were to go to prison for whatever reason, I would most definitely become the favourite prison bitch. This is also the reason I couldn’t bring myself to go out “thumbing”… even for such a worthy cause.

So… would you ever? Have you ever? And most importantly, would you survive? Answers on the back of the postcard below please.

On the upside of the whole Spinto debacle, the Spinto Band managed to find time to send me a personal Valentines card through my creative director at work. I think it was very thoughtful of them… although they did guess their own names wrong, and used ‘too’ instead of ‘to’, meh.

Okay, so unless you have been living underground with Osama Bin Laden for the past month or two, with only rats for company, you will be aware that Wednesday is Valentine’s Day.

For as long as Valentine’s Day has existed, which is… well longer than 23 years anyway, this debate has been as rampant as a rabbit with the horn. Is Valentine’s Day ‘love ly’ or is it the evil spawn of our consumerist society?

I don’t know if this is true (you will find that a lot ‘facts’ I tell you here are things which I have stored in my head, with no clue as to whether or not they are true), but I heard that Valentine’s Day was made up by a card company to sell more cards. Because Christmas, Birthdays, Anniversaries, Get Well Soon cards, Congratulations on Job / Passing Driving Test / Graduating / New Home, Sympathy and Goodbye cards are obviously not enough to keep a card shop above water. So some *cough ’single’* people think that it is merely an invention of those wanting to squeeze out every penny we have managed to save since Christmas, to buy cards, chocolates and saucy lingerie.

While others believe it is the most incredibly romantic day of the year, like say if Paris was to be a day… it would quite likely be Valentine’s Day. It is the one day of the year when you can go out of your way to be cheesily romantic and it won’t seem cheesy. It can be a time when stagnant married couples who have been communicating in grunts for the past 25 years can tell each other they love one another and remember how happy they are to be together.

Now I’m not going to take sides, but I just want to tell my beautiful girlfriend that I love her more than anything in the world, and I’m not going to say if I am excited about the 14th or not… it’s okay she knows I am.

I want to know what you think.

Valentine’s Day: Consumerist creation or ‘love ly’? speak now or forever hold your peace…

Ok, first off let me Welcome you all to The Megaphone.

The Megaphone blog is a place where you can voice your opinions or ideas or solutions to that day’s question… posted by me, Ryan. The subject of these questions will range from “serious” political issues to the utterly ridiculous random crap which occasionaly floats around my head. If you need to know more, please click here to visit the About section.

So without further ado, in the incredibly romantic words of Marvin Gaye let’s get it on.

Tonight is Speed Dating night.

In an effort to get to know every one of you in as short a period of time as is humanly possible, I have decided to employ the tactics used in the speed dating arena. As you can see in the image above I have gone to the effort of wearing a shirt tonight, i suggest you all tidy yourselves up a bit before joining in.

If everyone… and I mean everyone (this blog just won’t work without your help) would care to copy and paste the following 6 questions into the comments box, and then answer all of the questions as honestly as you would at a speed dating event (which may be questionable), then we can get this show on the road.

The Megaphone Speed Dating Extravaganza

Q1. Name:
Q2. Occupation:
Q3. Star Sign (cause some people think it matters):
Q4. What’s the first word that pops into your head:
Q5. First CD or Tape you ever bought:
Q6. The one word which describes you best:

That wasn’t so difficult now was it?

This could be the start of a beautiful relationship.

About The Megaphone Blog

The Megaphone blog is a place where you can voice your opinions or ideas or solutions to that day’s question… posted by me, Ryan. The subject of these questions will range from “serious” political issues to the utterly ridiculous random crap which occasionally floats around my head.

I found in a lot of blogs that i read, the thing i found most interesting was the readers comments. So here I encourage as many comments as are humanly possible. Please leave a comment after every visit, because it really is up to you how interesting and how successful this blog will be.

I predict the best part about this blog is going to be looking back on how opinions change. For instance if I ask about global warming and everyone says “it’s just made up, like iraq having nuclear weapons”. But then when we trawl the archives in ten years time when we have all grown gills and are living underwater, we can post saying nope you guys were wrong in 2007. So don’t be afraid of commenting on old posts from the archives.

If you are a first timer, then I demand you answer the first post… which can be found here.

About Me

I am a twenty something year old male Graphic Designer. I spend far too much of my time sat in front of a computer screen. The Graphic Designer in me is so deeply set that I often find myself rambling on about things like which particular fonts is used on something to my incredibly uninterested girlfriend.

I am originally from North Wales… but I now live and work in the North West of England. The reason I am perfect for this blog, is that I am very inquisitive, and also not very bright…. which means I ask a lot of questions.

I like biscuits a lot. Who would have thought something so good could be so bad for you. I have aged very rapidly. I much prefer staying in and watching a DVD with my girlfriend and a bottle of red wine than going out where there might be other people, perish the thought.

Like everyone, I have some bad habits. I watch hours and hours of TV, then complain there is nothing on and all TV is crap… then I watch some more. My favourite TV show… after Quiz Mania of course, is Family Guy. I have a terrible memory, which often lands me in hot water at work and with my girlfriend. My worst habit by far though has to be procrastination. This could also lead to blogging problems, which I will do my best to avoid.

There are a million more things I could tell you about me, but I fear you are bored already.

Enjoy the blog.

Ryan