Post 300ish

 

It is the last week of the Hols, as everyone goes back Monday for Autumn Term so the last minute dashing about for school uniform and stationery rumbles on.

I mean can you ever have enough spare pens and pencils?

It also is just over the Three Hundreth edition of Chris's Boy Talk which started in 2017 which with my maths makes it five years old where we talk about anything and everything broadly connected to boyhood, personal and general.

Like the other blogs, part of the reason it exist at all stems from issues on Tumblr where posting anything that goes against their values and that of some communities is likely to see your account zapped so having somewhere I can just set them out does help not that sometimes you have to be a bit mindful even with Blogger.

I've talked about the issues of uniform, contemporary issues like having to fight for the right to wear short trousers (although they'll let you wear skirts!!!), quality and also about how as adult little boys we like to wear uniform and some of the issues you might encounter with the odd person or two.

I have written at times quite passonately about what I see as our right to be our masculine selves as we see it where sometimes the needs of boys are ignored in a largely outdated battle between the interests of females and males.

No one would argue to discriminate when it comes to employment, opportunities and so girls and women is right but that doesn't mean males need to be more female even if being a bit less competitive and spending more time on raising families not least the next generation of boys is needed.

Females need males, boys and men who are trust worthy, who do what they say and say what they do who will stand up for their rights while being the males they are with their own support mechanisms and yes even spaces for them alone, just as women have. They need a stake in society too.

They also need to let men get on on with their role in raising boys where they have the advantage of having had the life and know their strengths and the pitfalls that boys experience that no woman can ever have any more than Father knows about being a girl. 

Women are the best by actual experience at that so are best entrusted to look after daughters.

It is why it tends to work better for their to be youth organizations that deal with each sex lead more by leaders who are adults of their own sex even if we co-operate and share facilities plus events.

Because this  blog is written by a Little I have written about and around topics connected with the wider Littles Community whatever you may personally do within that life and with no criticism of those who may do things that others don't.

The great uniform debate 2022 style

 

Another summer as no doubt parents are considering all those back to school signs we see on the high street and there is much talk about the cost of school uniform.

One BBC Radio Presenter even suggested we should scrap uniform altogther because of its expense.

My main issue with scrapping uniform is that in the absence thereof, the well off children will come in casual highly branded attire which pretty much rubs it in the faces of those less well off their dire home situations where they may struggle to afford thirty to forty pound sweatshirts or hoodies, the latest trainers and so on.

Some school uniform is expensive and I would question if everything near enough has to be branded and why blazers with sow on badges wouldn't be more affordable but the idea uniform disadvantages the least well off is one I struggle with.

Clearly some families are struggling and proper funding for a uniform grant across the whole of England would help the least well off who currently have to make do with refurbished uniform or hand me downs.

In the meantime a descrete word to the Head of Year explaining your situation may make sense as uniform often isn't the only area some children struggle with, school dinners and trips often are so a word may lead to some advice or agreed relaxation until you are able to fit within uniform rules.

Sorting out terms

It's been a very hot week with temperatures upto 34.4 degrees C making doing anything rather a chore.

Terms can be hard to understand at times and people have sometimes asked about what ALB means and where it all fits in.

This is my easy to understand version.

ALB is the abbreviation for Adult Little Boy. You could say it's more or less the same thing as adult schoolboy but not as centred on Uniform  and school rituals of various sorts.

Think of things this way first time around: He's a boy obviously and has a social life at home, around his friends and various things he is involved in like sports or cubs.

That's one side of his life.

Because he is a boy and is now say over four years, he is now old enough to attend school where apart from learning things (hopefully) he also has a life in school activities and play in the playground.

The fact he goes to school makes him a school boy but he's also a boy maybe a little boy too.

Taking this forward the adult little boy is an (legal) adult who feels he has much of that little boy in him engaging in similar interests.

An adult schoolboy is that same adult little boy who has an interest in his (past) school life.

He wears school uniform, may do some studying similar to what he did and some may attend  recreated school type sessions where he is a pupil and person is playing a teacher/headmaster.

We alternate between the two sides because that makes us the whole person.

Hol thoughts

Warm start day here as I adapt to being a schooboy on holiday.

 At the start of the month it was announced Bernard Cribbins died who was major part of our childhood.

Born in Oldham, Lancashire he got into acting at the age of fourteen, then like many was called up during WW2 in the parachute regiment before resuming.

Purposely I'm ignoring the  the grown up acting he did such as the Carry On films and leap to one of several comedy records he recorded for EMI produced by the legend that was Sir George Martin whose UK Label Parlophone had dance band music and comedy such as The Goons before an infectious Liverpool foursome called Beatles kickstarted the British Invasion.

Over here this was one of the staples of the children's requests show Junior Choice for many years together with Right Said Fred that I loved listening to at weekends as a boy.

Doctor Who is a BBC TV series that is a global sensation with a long history that was popular with children and he took part twice in it.

With the Daleks in 1964

With David Tennant in more recent times.

The Wombles were environmentally friendly superstars in the 1970's and returned in more recent years and he provided the all the voices for the 1973/5 series by Elisabeth Berrisford.

They were filmed by Filmfair in stop motion by Ivor Wood and Barry Leith who gave us many more favourite cartoons such as Ivor The Engine that we saw on the BBC back then.

In Britain, he was a staple of that much missed BBC show Jackanory where across several days leading actors and actresses read stories with vocalization to children.

Here he is as one of the actors tackling J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit in 1976.

Measurement

Things are different than where they were at the start of this whole adventure several years back when things were more in a loop, exploring getting so far and stepping back and when I rather assumed it was all about the clothes.

Well, the clothes were definately in there but since then I can see it's connected more to things such as roles, how I see me in my own mind and how certain medical conditions and boyhood incidents leave me.

That washing line may as well be mine with shorter than most modern boys short trousers, long socks , white or grey shirts and white y fronts all very much on display to the world sending a clear signal a traditional school boy lives here whatever age officially may be recorded and often is seen about in public as one.

It's really more about accepting and being your authentic self on a daily basis, not feeling you have to put on an act for the benefit of others that just makes you feel quite sad as if they cannot accept the real you.

I just feel so much better now.

Lending a hand

 

There is much going on but one thing here has been been an attempt to establish a War Memorial as the original for the district is a few miles away and since the  British Legion branch that held events has merged into a completely different area those things haven't happened here.

The idea is we would hold our own and that locals can pay their own respect to the dead which has support from the local scouts.

Part of getting this off the ground is both fundraising and also getting people to write in support of the idea to the local authority so to that end I have been spending time delivering leaflets on foot to people.

Having been asked if I'd be interested I just did my duty and got the task done to the best of my ability despite things like building works making access difficult and letterboxes with insect laden flowers just above your them to dodge the wasps with.

I rose to the challenge.

An authoritive voice

This week we are going to talk about something that's in one sense a bit removed from what this blog usually talks about but elements do connect with it.

You may of noticed I do like music and that does extend to buying vinyl records, some older used copies and others new either new albums or high quality re-issues from companies that specialize in that.

For the last ten days or so there has been a burning controversy on a music forum and on you tube channels devoted to audio issues concerning one labels product which is quite expensive at around $125 which rather than growing a number of new stampers requires laquers to be individually cut and can only used a few times rather than what has been used for decades

The argument runs by missing out this step you get lower noise and and more precise sound as pressing records has a lot of parallels with using moulds to stamp out plastic items.

This issue blew up because a planned release at years end  for the 40th anniversary of Michael Jackson's Thriller album had a stated 40,000 copies which could not be done especially when they claim to cut each laquer directly from the master.

Again traditionally in the days when any title could sell ten to twenty thousand copies per week an intermediate tape copy was used for that and the quality was such you'd struggle to hear any difference.

Doing this or using a digital copy to generate one is what is being alleged and it is also true to say a number of major labels such as Sony regularly refuse to let out the actual master tapes supplying only 1:1 tape copies or high resolution digital files.

The shocking thing all this is firstly the failure to respond at all to being asked exactly what they do use just tossing out a statement to say the endeavour to produce the very best records they can as if customers who spend a lot of money on these things do not matter.

The other is the lack of transparency in all the material they do put out hinting at mastertapes even though some titles were recorded digitally just saying they were sourced from them not addressing the question of how they cut these.

Getting back to top of this peice it's less about the product, many of which do sound great but just the seeming inability to show intrigrity and come clean.

That's all lots of audio fans are asking for.