Tag: Celebrities

Guest Post: 7 Reasons Why Volunteering Makes You Cool

Volunteering is something that everyone should take part in at some stage in their lives. It’s an enjoyable and worthwhile experience and benefits others. We should all make time in our lives to help our fellow humans. If you’re still not convinced, here are seven solid reasons you should volunteer abroad.

1. Volunteering Abroad Makes You Well Travelled. If you are a person who loves travelling, and feels the need to seek out further flung places to explore each year, then volunteering abroad is definitely for you. If you are one of the people who likes to brag to their friends that you’ve had lunch with and been accepted into the tiny community of a village no one’s ever heard of, you’ll be right at home when you volunteer abroad. Places like Chisinau or Orhei, Cochabamba, Machu Picchu welcome assistance with open arms, and it’s unlikely your un-travelled friends have heard of any of these towns.

Dave on a double date with his new best mate and their arm candy

2. Volunteering Makes You Feel Awesome Inside. If you have been working the 9-5 and trudging along on the daily commute for some time, in an uninspiring office role for a commercial enterprise, you may feel a little bit like you’re not serving much of a purpose in life. It’s especially common for anyone single reaching the big 3-0 to start to get itchy feet on their career path. Get away and volunteer or teach abroad. You’ll find it hugely satisfying to know that you are helping others to learn and grow and you’ll feel like a part of a community.

3. You’ll Escape The Rat Run. It can be easy to feel hard done by in the UK as the cost of petrol and a pint of milk seems to go up daily, leaving less money in your beer and shoes fund. Getting away from the UK and visiting a developing country to see just how tough life can be for others who don’t have all the creature comforts we do will make you realise you have been taking your rainy days curled up on the sofa in front of “Deal or No Deal” for granted.

4. Your CV Will Be Amazing. If you have been floating aimlessly around the job market along with all the other graduates and unexpectedly redundant workers, you’ll know how tough it is even to get an interview let alone a decent job. Adding a little something different to your CV shows you are adaptable or dependable and will help you stand out from the rest of the applicants.

5. You’ll Have Totally Brilliant New Skills. Volunteering holidays are open to everyone and don’t require any specific skills if you want to take part. However, any skills you might have picked up at high school, in the Boy Scouts or Girl Guides or playing on your X-Box will always be useful somehow. By immersing yourself in a different culture you’re bound to pick up a few words of the local lingo and learn that actually knowing how to tie a reef knot is a good skill to teach to others.

6. Celebs Do It. Yep – all the celebs are doing it – Madonna, Brad & Angelina, Prince William and Kate. Oh and of course Bono, and all the X factor gang who remade the song “Do They Know it’s Christmas?”

7. Volunteering Helps You Be A Better Person. It’s true – if you take in to consideration all of the above, in summary volunteering abroad will increase your geographical knowledge, boost your self-esteem, make you more grateful, boost your employability, enhance your skills and make you look cool. You can’t go wrong really, so get booking that trip!

May 30, 2012
7 Reasons According To Them

Everywhere you go, celebrities are endorsing something or other. Now it’s our turn.*

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"7 Reasons wanted to stop me. They failed. Now I'm going to crush them in my giant hand."

"We will be judged by 7 Reasons. When they want to inflict great pain on the world they will stop writing."

"I've bought a komodo dragon, a cross-eyed opossum, a Kim Jong Il and I've urinated in a policeman's helmet. Thank you 7 Reasons."

"I adore 7 Reasons; it's an absolute joy to read every day. It's an essential lifestyle guide that has taught me so much about cats and biscuits. Both of the team seem lovely, but I especially like the tall, grumpy one with the spell-check facility. And thanks to the other one, I'm planning a trip to Whitstable."

"I'm a devotee of 7 Reasons and can categorically state that it is NOT a cult. Not even close."

"The 7 Reasons Marc Fearns picture book gets me hyped."

"I read 7 Reasons and now I'd give my right arm to beat the French. At anything."

*Only words and pictures have been altered and fabricated in the making of this post. Everything else is real.

June 5, 2011
7 Reasons Twitrelief Is For Twits

Today sees the launch of Twitrelief, a fundraising event for Comic Relief. While I, of course, applaud anyone who spends time raising funds for good causes I can’t help but question what this event has to offer. In a nutshell, people can bid to have a ‘celebrity’ follow them on twitter for a bit. That’s it. A ‘celebrity’ will follow you on twitter. Now, maybe it’s me, maybe I’m cynical, but I just don’t get this celebrity thing. They are just people. Like you and me. So what’s the fascination? Wouldn’t you be happier having someone follow you who wants to read your views on Hob-Nob dunking technique? Judging by the number of bids already in, no you wouldn’t. But that’s really irrelevant. My real issue here is with what the Superfollow – that’s the reward – entails. It’s not much. Which makes all you bidders twits. Absolute twits. Here’s why:

1. Follow Duration. The ‘celebrity’ will follow the highest bidder for a period of 90 days, after which it is up to them whether they wish to continue following or cut the winner form their lives completely. Just imagine how this is going to make the bidder feel. The bidder won’t be able to concentrate for 90 days. All they will be thinking is, ‘Does Fearne Cotton think I’m interesting?’ And then on that 90th day you find out in the cruelest way possible. You slowly scroll down your followers list to see if she’s still there. Only a twit would put themselves through that anguish.

2. Retweet. Part of the package includes the ‘celebrity’ retweeting one of your twitter updates. Just one, in the 90 days. I have two problems here.

One: Surely it goes against the purpose of twitter. The retweet function is for people to pass on things they find interesting, not for Alexandra Burke to retweet winning bidder Susan’s update, ‘gotta luv kfc! lol!’

Two: If the idea of a ‘celebrity’ retweeting your update compels you to bid, you must be a very boring person. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. You are a very boring person who writes very boring updates. Boring updates that no one will ever want to retweet. Not even your own mother. That is why the retweet has become your goal. Your aim. It’s what you live for. The idea of someone retweeting your update thrills you. It’s like the yacht syndrome. I would love a yacht. The longer I go without one, the more I want one. And it hurts not having one. Still, at least I don’t write boring twitter updates. Boring 7 Reasons posts yes, but not boring twitter updates.

3. A Mention. The final part of the package is a mention in a tweet from a ‘celebrity’. What the hell do you have to bid for this for? Just get on twitter and send them a message. They might reply. If they do donate a fiver to Comic Relief. Why not? You would have spent £2,000 on it.

4. Added Bonuses. Thankfully some of the ‘celebrities’ have realised that just following someone for a bit is largely a pathetic reward. So they’ve added a few bonuses into the bargain. Some are quite cool. If you win Neil Tennant for example, you’ll also get his keyboard. Some though, are questionable. Ruby Wax for example. I have always found her questionable, but that has now been exacerbated by what she is offering in addition to the Superfollow. You get to watch her having botox. An event someone currently thinks is worth £102. What is wrong with you? Get some help!

5. Richard Curtis. ‘The Boss’ – not my words, theirs – is not even on twitter. But, he will join just to follow you. So let me work this out. He’s not on twitter so he doesn’t have any followers. Which means when he joins he will retweet your tweet to no one. He’ll also mention you in a tweet. A tweet that will be seen by no one. Apart from you and him. Between you and me, I think you’d be much better off paying all your followers 50p to big you up for the day.

6. Twittish Logic. I didn’t have to write this post. This post could have been called, ‘7 Reasons Twitrelief Is For Geniuses.’. But it’s not. And it’s not because I haven’t seen any evidence of genius bidding yet. All I’ve seen is twittish bidding. If you have a half a brain cell you should be able to work out that when the bidding page says, ‘this celebrity will become your new best friend,’ they are talking absolute bollocks. Of course they aren’t. They will follow you, do your retweet, give you a mention, then dump you. Which is why you must use the opportunity wisely. So here is a piece of 7 Reasons advice right from our hearts. Ignore who the celebrity is, concentrate on the numbers. How many people are they being followed by? Richard Bacon has the most followers by far. Nearly one and a half million. A genius would bid for him in the knowledge that he would generate more publicity for them. They wouldn’t, for example, bid for McFly who have just a meagre 120,000 followers. But being twits of course, McFly’s bid is over £500 and Bacon’s is £45. And he probably bid that himself.

7. Because 7 Reasons Are Not Involved And Quite Frankly We Offer A Better Package. That’s right, we reckon we are a much more attractive prospect than all those ‘celebrities’. And our package is bigger too. Which is why you can now bid for us. Just head over to eBay to bid on the 7 Reasons Non-Twitrelief Superfollow Auction. Rest assured we will give all proceeds to Comic Relief. Thanks for your support.

March 10, 2011