Have I won?? - collective ramblings that don't quite make up a whole post each

I don't get how Matt can just leave his blog knowing that one more blog, another collection of words, phrases and maybe a picture, and he's won. Finito. I don't know whether it's my competitive nature or whether I'm just a bad loser. (Don't ever get my parents started on stories about my hatred of losing when I was younger. Apparently I'd throw a tantrum every time I lost a game but I promise I'm not quite that bad any more.) The idea that at any moment, Matt could bring together a collection of words and post them as his 11th 'First 11 of '11' means I can't just leave my posts on number 10.

However, I now have to make this into a meaningful post or Matt won't accept it... So, I've had a couple of ideas for blogs but I haven't really worked out how to expand them beyond the tweet-worthy length or at least beyond a paragraph. Maybe making this into a 'scrapbook blog' except without many pictures would work?

The other day, I was finishing a coke with ice and I thought, "What's the right thing to do with the ice cubes left over at the bottom?" Usually I just crunch them and think nothing of it but it was the interval at a Punt and Dennis show (this may end up getting a blog of it's own, we'll see) and I wasn't sure whether I should crunch the ice cubes whilst in a public place. Me being me, I crunched them anyway but really, what is the right thing to do? What do other people do? I don't like to let them melt into the drink as it waters down whatever it is I'm drinking and letting them melt at the end takes too long and also it's such a measly amount of water in the end, it doesn't feel quite right. Anyway, I tend to forget about them if I leave them and that brings us onto just leaving them which is my least favourite option. I've paid for the drink, I'm not going to not salvage every little bit and also, knowing me I'd manage to spill the melting ice cubes somewhere. Yes, this is one of the many menial things I end up thinking about instead of doing something productive.

On a totally unrelated topic, Matt's blogs (particularly the paintings) are making me want to do some painting or drawing. I did GCSE art and I love painting and drawing and such but since I didn't have enough options to take it for A level, I also haven't really had the time to spread out my painting things on my desk or do a whole picture. Sure, I've done the occasional doodle in class but that's not really the same. They end up being done primarily in Biro and highlighter and of a rather cartoon nature or of really odd mythical creatures. Well, creatures from my very odd brain. I need a nice time to sit down when I'm in the right mood and when I'm not getting distracted by the Internet or movies or anything like that. Free time, free time, where for art thou free time?

Also, exams. Getting so close and I really should be revising. There's that horrible dilemma where you know you should be revising, you know revising is the sensible option, but there is that little, niggly bit at the back of your mind that says 'failing when you haven't revise is better than failing when you have revised'. Of course, that niggle totally forgets about the fact that revising decreases the chance of failing but who said niggles are good at logic?

So, I'm still at school and it's now lunch so now would be a good time to disappear. I'm hungry and I like my food...

So, Matt, did I win?? =)

DFTBA

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Latest book read: Still reading "Friends Like These" I should REALLY REALLY finish it.
Latest film/TV/ watched: The Time of Angels (It was on iPlayer... I got distracted)
Latest music listened to: Ministry of Magic - Lily (Ok, I don't get the references but I like the music! I think wrock needs it's own blog...)
Latest food/sweets/whatever eaten: White chocolate and raspberry birthday cake in mentor
Programs and web pages currently open: In Internet Explorer (because I'm at school):Blogger in draft: new post. youtube

Three Days...

"I mean, what is an un-birthday present?"
A present given when it isn't your birthday, of course."
Alice considered a little. "I like birthday presents best," she said at last.
You don't know what you're talking about!" cried Humpty Dumpty.
 
— - Lewis Carroll

If you know me, you probably know that it's very very nearly my birthday. Three days if you haven't guessed by the title. The one day in the year where I can get people to give me presents and be nice to me just because I exist. when I was younger, I used to love my birthday. I used to get so excited, be counting down for days and weeks before hand and tell absolutely everyone that it was my birthday. Now I'm older, I don't get quite so excited. I've got to the point where getting older means gaining more responsibilities and having to pay more for things. Sure, I'm going to be old enough to vote but to be honest I find that scary and I know next to nothing about the government and sure being 18 means I will be able to drink legally but seen as I'm not fussed about drinking in the first place, that's not really a big thing. 17 was much more exciting as it meant I could start learning to drive but now, 18, and I have to start reaching out into the big wide world.
 
You also get fewer actual presents to open with people opting to give money or just giving a card or people grouping together to get something bigger but I'm not complaining about that. As I've mentioned before, I much prefer presents that mean something, presents that have had a lot of thought put into them, or at least more thought than money, presents with lots of personal value rather than monetary value.
 
In some ways, I agree with Humpty Dumpty. (Now there's a sentence you never thought I'd say!) Un-birthday presents are much better! Not so much because there are more days to receive them but more because they mean more. People aren't getting them because they feel they have to because it's your birthday or Christmas or anything like that. People are giving you a present because they care and because they want to! out of the blue presents as so much nicer, have so much more meaning and are also less likely to end up at the back of the cupboard, forgotten.
 
So the moral of this story is: buy me un-birthday presents! Well, actually you don't have to, however nice it would be as me asking would defeat the object of why I like them so.... yeah.....
 
DFTBA

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Latest book read: Still reading "Friends Like These" I should REALLY REALLY finish it.
Latest film/TV/ watched: The Time of Angels (It was on iPlayer... I got distracted)
Latest music listened to: Coldplay - Lovers in Japan [Osaka Mix]
Latest food/sweets/whatever eaten: White chocolate and raspberry birthday cake in mentor
Programs and web pages currently open: In Internet Explorer (because I'm at school):Blogger in draft: new post. Yup, that's it.

The lows push up the highs

"This place was truly the highest and the lowest of all worlds - the most beautiful senses, the most exquisite emotions.. the most malevolent desires, the darkest deeds. Perhaps it was meant to be so. Perhaps without the lows, the highs could not be reached."

Let's ignore the fact that I'm quoting from 'The Host' and let's ignore the fact that 'The Host' is written by the same author who has written books about sparkly vampires and just think about what that's saying. Now, this isn't the most amazing quote but it is one quote that hasn't been affected by my 'detwilightification'. In so many ways, this idea that the 'lows' emphasise the 'highs' is true and, although I wouldn't necessarily word it like this (not that I've decided how I would word it in something shorter than this blog,) I do agree that so often we don't fully appreciate the good things we have until we've experienced the lows in life.


It's like if you compare the reaction of a child in a poor country to a child in this country when they receive chocolate: they may both be grateful but there is something deeper, more pleasure and a more sincere gratitude in the child from the poorer country. They know what it's like to go without food, they know what it's like to live on only porridge or rice or whatever staple meal they can only get their hands on unlike the child in this country that more often is over-fed than left starving. The poor child, through experiencing the lows can experience the 'high' of getting the treat of chocolate in a much greater and fuller sense than a child in the UK getting a bar of chocolate as a treat.


So often we moan about the bad things. We wish they would never happen and want everything to be clear sunny skies, fluffy little puppies and kittens and magical double rainbows all the time (in a metaphorical sense) and we just don't want the suckish stuff in life to happen at all. Which, in one sense, is perfectly normal to want, bad stuff isn't nice: fact. However, we often forget to look at how the bad stuff has changed us, moulded us, prepared us for what is to come and also helped us appreciate the good things we have got. Losing something could make us look around and find things we had forgotten about and help us appreciate the other many things we have; being ill and missing something minor could help us appreciate the times we have been fit and well for more important things. More seriously, losing a loved one can make you realise how important the family and friends you still have are and help you appreciate them more than before. It's hard to explain in general terms but I think you get the picture.


This week has been a bit like that for me. On Thursday, I had a headache, was generally feeling a bit icky, and on top of all that got rejection emails from two of my four universities in the space of an hour or so. It was one of those days where, I like to think, I had a pretty legitimate reason to feel down in the dumps. However, today I was feeling much better and got an email from the university I most want to go to saying that I've got an interview! Now, either way I would have been overjoyed at this news, however, I think I was much more grateful and more able to appreciate the news when contrasted with the previous days events. Of course, I still have one university to say a thing to me and I still have to get through the interview and not fail at my exams but one of the biggest hurdles is crossed.


In a more meaningful way than expressed by Ronan Keating, life is a roller-coaster and I don't know about you but I much prefer the sort of roller-coasters with the bigger ups and downs. While Stephenie Meyer may not be right about sparkly vampires being intoxicating and her writing clunky at times, I think she means well and I have to admit that I sort of agree with her that "Perhaps without the lows, the highs could not be reached"

DFTBA

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Latest book read: Still reading "Friends Like These" I should REALLY REALLY finish it.
Latest film/TV/ watched: Oops, Tracy Beaker Returns - Latest episode of series 2.... Don't judge me!
Latest music listened to: Snow Patrol - Engines
Latest food/sweets/whatever eaten: A glass of milk (OK, technically I drank that but it's different! The last thing I ate was a sweet. The last of many that I ate this evening as I do every Friday as the result of helping with the tuck shop at Youth Club and having no time before hand to eat properly)
Programs and web pages currently open: In Google Chrome:
Alien President, Snails: Brothers in shells, Cylinder and Miserable, Fort Paradox, The application page for a Doctor Who exhibition pilot, Matt's Blog, (the usual offenders! sorry, the usual delights!), 3 Doctor Who related play.com tabs. (btw, I need to order by friends present. If you're not Rosanna, should I order ONE, TWO, or THREE?) BBC iPlayer - QI and The Time of Angels (pinned to the top of google chrome to be watch when it isn't almost 2am), Blogger in draft: new post, Windows Live Mail

Procrastination 101

1. Make sure you have an important task that you should really be doing
2. Moan about just how much you don't want to do said important task
3. Turn on the computer and load the internet
4. Check YouTube, iPlayer, ITV player, blogger, email, twitter, dailybooth, facebook, any other internet thing you're signed up to
5. Once you're up to date with all the videos, TV episodes, blogs and web comics you follow, go back and re-read or re-watch a few
6. Keep clicking on "recommended video" links on YouTube until you've watched most of the recommended videos
7. Discover a new YouTuber and watch some of their videos
8. Have a look in the recommended areas of iPlayer and ITV player to see if there is anything worth watching
9. Even if there isn't anything worth watching, watch something anyway
10. Check the film section to see if there are any films you fancy watching
11. Set up your computer/laptop to use that spare screen off the old computer that doesn't get used much
12. Have fun fiddling with the settings for the second screen
13. See if there are any DVDs laying about nearby (particularly if they're films or Doctor Who episodes) and watch them
14. Empty the "sent" folder on your phone
15. Empty the "sent", "junk" and "deleted" folders in your emails
16. Reply to your friend's email
17. Check back on YouTube and all the other sites just in case something new has been put up
18. Spam dailybooth with photos
19. Spam twitter with tweets
20. Have a look through the facebook live feed, 'like'ing and commenting on posts
21. Spend half an hour deciding how to re-lace your shoes (spend even longer on it if they're new shoes)
22. Text a friend
23. Get out the things you need for this important task and arrange them ready
24. Tidy your desk a little so you can rearrange the set up of your computer/laptop
25. Write a blog post
26. Make a new playlist including things you haven't listened to for ages
27. Listen to the playlist
28. Check back on youtube and everything once again
29. Watch Wheezy Waiter do handstands
30. Watch a video by the guy you subscribed to mainly for his accent...
31. Re-watch "The Eleventh Hour" for the third time
32. Think about revising before repeating this list a few more times.
33. Realise that the important thing need to be done in the next week or so
34. Do a little work towards it
35. Repeat the list again
36. Realise the deadline is very very close and panic
37. Remember the words of Douglas Adams and take a few deep breaths before getting on and doing the job last minute!

DFTBA

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·         Latest book read: Still reading "Friends Like These" I should really finish it.

·         Latest film/TV/ watched: Currently watching The Eleventh Hour. Yes, I've done most of the things on the list!

·         Latest music listened to: Mike Lombardo - This Time Tomorrow

·         Latest food/sweets/whatever eaten: A Chocolate (I bet you would have never guessed!)

·         Programs and web pages currently open: In Google Chrome:

Alien President, Snails: Brothers in shells, Cylinder and Miserable, Fort Paradox, The application page for a Doctor Who exhibition pilot, Matt's Blog, (the usual offenders! sorry, the usual delights!), Blogger in draft: new post, BBC iPlayer - The Eleventh Hour, Windows Live Mail,  Windows Media Player, 

Hello Dear...

Whenever I get junk emails offering money (you know, the ones from a person claiming only you can claim the money or help them move the money somewhere safe or something like that) I always wonder how on earth anyone can ever take them seriously and be pulled in by them. They're so obviously fake. So fake that they're funny! Here's one I found just now when checking my junk box (just in case a stray offer from a university had got lost in there but my search was in vain.):

Hello Dear,

I know that this proposal might be a surprise to you, but do consider it as an emergency. I am Miss Ojita Edesiri from Liberia in West Africa who is seeking for refugee in Republic of Benin under the (UNHCR) due to the longing civil war in my country.

My (late) father Dr.John Edesiri, was the personal adviser to the former head of states, also a successful business man import and exporter of Cocoa during his life time. But he was killed along side with my mother during the longing civil war and all his properties were totally destroyed.

However, after their death I managed to escape with a very important document DEPOSIT CERTIFICATE (USD$5.9M) Five Million Nine Hundred Thousand United State Dollars deposited by my late father in one of the leading bank with my name as the next of kin.

Meanwhile, I am saddled with the problem of securing a trust worthy foreign personality to help me transfer the money over to his/her country and into possession pending my arrival to meet with him.

Furthermore, you can contact the bank for confirmation, I will send to you the full contact address of the bank, once I get your positive response to help me with the transfer of the funds to your bank account, and help me with the investment of the funds, and my coming over to join with you in your country.

In the light of above I will like you to keep it to yourself and don't tell it to anyone for I am afraid of loosing my life and the money. I wait your positive response.

Remain Bless

Miss Ojita.

Now, starting it with "Hello Dear" just made me laugh from the start! I'm not the biggest fan of pet names, however meaningful or endearing however there was something sweet about this start. Somehow, someone who is obviously out to make money and doesn't care who they get it from managed to make themselves sound like a sweet old lady just saying hello. In an attempt to cover up the fact that they didn't know my name and that it was probably part of a batch of similar emails, they thought the term 'dear' was a good substitute!

We also come across the problem of being able to believe that someone in Liberia who is seeking refuge in another country has escaped with that amount of money and has the ability to reach a computer with internet connection to send this email.

Then again, getting this email did remind me of the book "Yes Man!" No, not the film, the superior book which I highly recommend you read. He replied to one of these sorts of emails with a 'yes' (obviously) and it was funny how long he was able to string the people along with replies of yes and yet not actually giving them any information. I don't get why people would think this is a good way to get money at all and it's amazing, or maybe sad, to see what sort of length people will go to to get rich. As amusing as these emails can be if you don't take them seriously, the reasons why they are sent are such a shame. The reason why they succeed is also just as sad. People being naive enough or desperate enough to think they can get money by replying, to think they even need that money. Money is such a consuming thing if used in the wrong way or put on a pedal-stool. However funny the contents of such emails may be, I don't think this world will ever be free of the sort of people who send these emails.

DFTBA

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·         Latest book read: Still reading "Friends Like These" I should really finish it.

·         Latest film/TV/ watched: Primeval - Oh My Gosh!!! (btw, that's my reaction not the episode title!)

·         Latest music listened to: Alex Day's 'No Sacrifice' currently playing.

·         Latest food/sweets/whatever eaten: A Chocolate (hmm, I think I either need to blog at different times or eat less chocolate!)

·         Programs and web pages currently open: In Google Chrome:

Alien President, Snails: Brothers in shells, Cylinder and Miserable, Fort Paradox, The application page for a Doctor Who exhibition pilot, Matt's Blog, (the usual offenders! lol), Blogger in draft: new post, Windows Live Mail,  Windows Media Player.

A discussion on the increasing significance of ovis aries in the circular nebulous of the world wide web

It is commonly considered an abomination to eat ovis aries (English name sheep) among vegetarian and vegan communities all around the world and the western world is also unconditionally and irrevocably in love with any small fluffy creature that bares the pet name "Shaun the Sheep" however whether ovis aries should constitute part of a healthy human's weekly intake through their main facial orifice remains a largely undecided yet un-debated issue in the modern world around us. Unlike both the pig and the cow, no religious stigma is attached to the consumption of the sheep as far as I am aware however sheep or 'lamb' is not so commonly used in slices to place in sandwiches for the easy consumption at work, school or college at lunch time. It is much more common to have a sandwich with a slice of pig in its centre for consumption at around midday than to have a slice of sheep placed between two slices of bread. This strange phenomenon is the start of a number of other issues that have been overlooked by the world in general however due to the circular nature of the internet, this issue has been increasingly discussed and brought up in small, unknown binary communication channels.


A widely unobserved phenomenon concerning the increasing significance of ovis aries is the ability for misunderstandings and assumptions to fuel the spam bots of the binary world. The liquid discharged from the mammary glands of the female sheep, particularly in the western cultures of the modern day world, is often disregarded as a legitimate and tasty beverage. 42% of the people from the sample of everyday British people that we asked were not aware that the milk produced by sheep was safe for consumption and an even larger percentage thought that it is only possible to drink the milk excreted from a cow's udder. While some understood and comprehended the possibility of consuming other milk besides that produced by bovine, sheep's milk was even less widely known about than goat's milk. This large gap in the education of the member of a nation that was previously very serious farmers is rather worrying however also allows individuals such as Bill Gates to tap into this unused source of potential energy and, much like the lonely assassins, use potential abstract energy to hide their very high energy consumption and make it possible for their employers to check Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Dailybooth all simultaneously on separate computers and electronic devices. However, the decreasing freedom to publish whatever you like on the internet has led to the bizarre paradox of an increase in information and knowledge being leaked onto the internet. This means that an increasing percentage of the population are now becoming aware of the benefits of sheep milk and the potential abstract energy available to large companies is dropping at a steady 4.2% each day.


While sheep milk is three times higher in whey proteins than cow's milk, cows are much more likely to be farmed specifically for the purpose of milking. This contradiction, whenever voiced out loud or considered seriously for over 42 seconds, causes a hole in the fabric of time and space to form and it is such holes that allow telepathic waves of information to seep through from other universes and through the void that stops the universes banging into each other and causing time sensitive earthquakes. Unbeknown to the majority of the world, these telepathic waves are the source of inspiration for many 'creative' individuals. While some have genuinely bizarre minds that allow them to come up with ideas for films, TV shows, music or art, the majority of inspiration is fed by these telepathic waves called "Visionary Transference Beams" or VTBs in scientific circles. VTBs are the main cause of many programs such as Doctor Who and also books such as Twilight which has both positive and negative connotations. Whilst VTB inspiration for Doctor Who means that there is evidence supporting the idea that Time Lords and time travel exists in another universe, the knowledge that VTB inspired Twilight has also caused the controversial suicide of four top scientists and we know that at least two of them mentioned in their suicide notes that they could not even contemplate living a moment longer when the possibility that "vegetarian vampires" exist in another universe remains. However, not all inspiration inspired by the VTBs is accurately transformed into the books, films, TV episodes, music and art we see and hear so it is possible that outlets such as Twilight have been highly corrupted in their transference from VTB.


Aside from causing VTBs, sheep have also been considered as the original creators of the internet. How the internet works is a phenomenon that many are still pondering over and even those who claim to have created the internet and be in control are actually completely clueless and the 42 that are not clueless are in fact sheep in disguise. Contrary to Douglas Adams' books which claim that dolphins are the most intelligent creatures on earth, sheep are actually the most intelligent creatures and at approximately one billion in number, they easily control and monitor the whole of the internet. It is currently unknown why sheep allow so much rude content to remain on the internet however one highly regarded opinion is that the sheep do not wish to intrude on the lives of humans and are in fact monitoring how humans use the internet. The same could also be said about VTBs as, while sheep have full control over the penetration of VTBs through the atmosphere, most are allowed through without tampering or changing. The only exception to this was found when a scientist looked into the VTBs that had inspired Douglas Adams as he wrote the Hitchhiker's trilogy in five parts and small glitches in the information transference was found to have shifted a couple of decimal places in a seemingly random fashion. It was also detected that the origins of these particular VTBs was in fact our universe, another rare phenomenon, and this has led to an almost unanimous belief among scientists that sheep intercepted the signal to protect their identity and ensure their experiment could continue.


Many, upon discovering the intelligence of sheep, have wondered why they allow themselves to be killed and eaten for meat however it has been discovered that each and every owner of a slaughter house is actually a sheep using a shimmer to protect their identity. Each sheep when entering the slaughter house is actually taken through to a pan dimensional room after out of sight of the farmer where they teleport back to their home planet of 'Mutton' (the similarity to the French term for sheep is not accidental) and the meat deposited at the other end is actually an inactive biological replica grown from inactive stem cells with growth rate accelerated by the futon particles discharged as the teleports activate on each sheep's return journey. However, there are a few sheep who enjoy living on earth so much that they stay and are instead teleported to one of 42 fields in Wales which explains why there are twice as many sheep as humans in Wales and each day the number is growing.


It is only recently that the sheep's plans in subtle world domination through the medium of the internet have started to backfire and information concerning their true identity and intelligence has started to leak through and artificial VTBs have meant that some humans have become aware of this truth. Matters are not helped by the small yet significant minority of sheep who have come together to form societies such as 'friends of the humans' in an attempt to give humans the freedom of information that they believe they deserve and have set out to sabotage the original project started on earth 4.2 billion years ago when the sheep founders landed on earth. (It has since been discovered that the original 42 sheep actually crash landed on earth when the pilot went for a toilet break and forgot to put the controls on auto pilot and actually they had been hoping to land on mars to do the same experiment except concerning the martians.) While their identity may become common knowledge in the next few years, 'Friends of the Humans' has released a statement declaring that the investigations into humans is actually coming to an end in 2012. It is possible that in their attempt to broadcast this via multiple VTBs, some of the signals were corrupted and contaminated and may in fact be the origin of the idea behind the world ending in 2012. In reality, only the internet and the existence of sheep will end in 2012 (although no more internet may as well be the end of the world for some) which although, in the long term, will not be too much of a catastrophe as 'Friends of the Humans' is planning on leaving the plans for the internet in Bill Gate's bathroom, this event will have a disastrous affect on the London Olympics with possible shortages of food and chefs who know about this are worried that they will only have pork left to offer as it has also been broadcasted that many sheep will be taking their bovine boyfriends or girlfriends with them.


One riddle that may not be answered before the sheep start disappearing is the reason why some meats, when cooked, are named directly after the animal they come from (such as chicken, lamb [or assumed to come from lamb], turkey,) while others are given seemingly unrelated names (such as beef, pork, ham, venison.) While it is generally assumed that the sheep know the answer, some scientifically minded chefs believe that the answer will be left unknown in order to keep the abstract energy motors running which the sheep set up in order to contain the humans within a certain distance from the earth's surface. However, it is assumed that these motors will start running down once the sheep are all half way home, simultaneously fixing the hole in the ozone and making it possible for humans to understand the food phenomenon.


While sheep as an entity have not been fully investigated as it is believed that they have put a dampener on most brains preventing more than 42% of the brain's capacity to think about sheep at any one time, scientists are hoping to implement a full investigation when the sheep leave in 2012. Until then, VTBs are being recorded onto 42 inch disks to be played back when full sheep thought capacity is returned and a full report will be published on the new internet when it has be decoded, recoded and re-established.


**Disclaimer**
The author holds no responsibility for the gullibility of readers and while some of the facts and figures in this article are true, the author cannot 100% guarantee the reliability of each and every fact contained within the above collection of words.


(DFTBA)

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·         Latest book read: Still reading "Friends Like These" I should really finish it.

·         Latest film/TV/ watched: The Return of Tracy Beaker - Episode 2 still, because Primeval is yet to come up on ITV player

·         Latest music listened to: Back to You by The Mike Lombardo Trio currently playing.

·         Latest food/sweets/whatever eaten: A Chocolate (I see a pattern immerging... This is a different chocolate to earlier and I've eaten dinner between)

·         Programs and web pages currently open: In Google Chrome:

Alien President, Snails: Brothers in shells, Cylinder and Miserable, Fort Paradox, The application page for a Doctor Who exhibition pilot, Matt's Blog, (the usual offenders! lol), Blogger in draft: new post, ITV player on the Primeval page,  Windows Live Mail,  Windows Media Player.

Rambling About The Problem with Social Networks

There are good things about social networks. With ones like Facebook you can keep in touch with friends, twitter can help you keep up with the goings on of your favourite artists, actors, writers, or even those celebrities that are famous for just being famous if that's who you like to follow. Dailybooth and Formspring can cure boredom and gives a field day for psychologists.

Now, I'm not going to say they're all terrible even though they are, at times, a little pointless. If they were totally terrible, why would I have them at all? However, one of the main things I don't like about them is how easily you can post anything. It's one thing posting a little update or a nice comment that spurs a 222 comment long discussion on Doctor Who but it's also so easy to post about something that's made you angry and vent it out on the world. There are some people who use Facebook, Dailybooth or twitter as a place to share or vent something overly personal. You know, the sort of things that really should be told to a best friend or someone else close. I know people need to share how they feel but there are some things where sharing it on a platform where anyone and everyone can see isn't necessarily a good idea. I mean, what do you say to someone you don't know very well who has posted something to do with their depression or something related? I'm trying to be careful and I don't mean that we shouldn't be aware that these sorts of problems exist but it's the public nature of such Facebook, Twitter and Dailybooth outbursts that is the issue. Even if you know them it still doesn't always seem right commenting and replying so publicly and what about the idiots who see and give rubbish advice?

I don't know if I'm making any sort of sense and I'm not moaning as such at the people who post these things. When you feel like that you don't really think about the consequences but I'm more moaning at the system that allow us to post so easily. The system that allows us to post before we have a chance to think over what we're posting and then the thing is online for the world to see.

It's the paradox of the internet. The ability to share like this can be great. Being able to share anything means we can find out so much more, talk to more people, discover so many more cultures and opinions, to be part of a wider community such as Nerdfighteria but with this wider opportunity comes a greater responsibility. It's so easy to share things that we could regret, so easy to share things in a wrong way before thinking about what's been said.

On the other side of the equation, it's also so easy to comment. People can comment and help but it's also so easy for people to comment something idiotic and make the situation worse with their not very well thought out advice or even short comment that's meant to be funny but really don't fit with the situation.

Now, this isn't a very clearly stated opinion because , if I'm honest, I'm not sure quite where I sit with things like Facebook, Twitter, Dailybooth... While I have my issues with them there are also reason I like them. Reasons that mean, for now, I'm keeping my accounts.


DFTBA

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·         Latest book read: Still reading "Friends Like These" I should really finish it.

·         Latest film/TV/ watched: The Return of Tracy Beaker - Episode 2 embarrassingly enough

·         Latest music listened to: Hum the Tune by EddPlant currently playing.

·         Latest food/sweets/whatever eaten: A Chocolate (I see a pattern immerging...)

·         Programs and web pages currently open: In Google Chrome:

Alien President, Snails: Brothers in shells, Cylinder and Miserable, Fort Paradox, The application page for a Doctor Who exhibition pilot, Matt's Blog, (the usual offenders! lol), Blogger in draft: new post,  Windows Live Mail,  Windows Media Player.

Esther 5 v 9 – 14
So , it’s been a long time since the last time we looked at Esther. Does anyone remember what’s happened so far?

Esther had been taken from her cousin, Mordecai, as one of many young women who were to be offered to the king as a potential new queen after he got rid of the previous one and, through an unlikely but amazing string of events, Esther won favour with the king and was chosen to become queen. At the same time, a man called Haman rose in power and was offended when Mordecai refused to bow to him. He was so offended that he wanted to kill the whole of the Jewish race, kill all of Esther’s people. The king agreed for a decree to be issued that meant a day would come when every Jew would be killed. However Esther didn’t know about this but when her cousin Mordecai informed her, she turned to God who we’ve been seeing working quietly behind the scenes, pulling together all the strands that seem to coincidences. We return just after Esther has invited King Xerxes and Haman to a second banquet rather than revealing her request to the king straight away.

Have you ever been having a really good day and you’re in a really good mood then one little thing seems to spoil the whole day and your mood suddenly changes? Our emotions are so fragile and unpredictable and of course Haman was no different. At the point we return, he is chief adviser to the king and very powerful. He has succeeded in forming a plan to eradicate the Jews and had got the king to sign the decree so no one could change it. It even seemed that the queen favoured him among all the nobles as she had invited him alone to a banquet with the king. It’s most likely that Haman didn’t think it could get any better.

Read Esther 5 v 9 – 14

⁹ Haman went out that day happy and in high spirits. But when he saw Mordecai at the king's gate and observed that he neither rose nor showed fear in his presence, he was filled with rage against Mordecai.

    ¹⁰ Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home. Calling together his friends and Zeresh, his wife,

    ¹¹ Haman boasted to them about his vast wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honoured him and how he had elevated him above the other nobles and officials.

    ¹² And that's not all, Haman added. I'm the only person Queen Esther invited to accompany the king to the banquet she gave. And she has invited me along with the king tomorrow.

    ¹³ But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king's gate.

    ¹⁴ His wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, Have a gallows built, seventy-five feet high, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then go with the king to the dinner and be happy. This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the gallows built.

As you can see, Haman’s mood rapidly changed when he passed Mordecai and received no recognition for his status. It sent him into a rage and he rushed home immediately to boast to his wife and friends about all he had and was and yet said that Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate took all the satisfaction away.

Haman was a proud man, boasting about everything, and yet he was also very ungrateful. He had a lot to be grateful for yet he was consumed by his hatred for this one man.

It can be easy to let one little thing ruin our mood however it’s important to try keep things in perspective. We shouldn’t get into a rage over a little thing but try to remember all the reasons why you were in a good mood and try and keep everything in perspective. It doesn’t always seem easy at the time but if you look at the positives, the little thing we got wound up over often seems a little pathetic. If we just take that little extra time to think then we can avoid responding like Haman. While being a better person isn’t what makes us right with God, that doesn’t mean that trying to be a better person is pointless.

When we’re in a bad mood or having problems, we often want to be able to talk to friends or family to help us out and give us some advice. Unfortunately, Haman was mixed in with the wrong people and he was given bad advice. They clearly assumed that the king would go along with whatever Haman wished and advised Haman to build gallows first in anticipation of the king’s approval in the next day or so to Mordecai’s death. This was a big mistake. It is a bad idea to assume anything and I’m sure you’ve heard of the phrase ‘pride before a fall’.

Haman mixed with the wrong crowd. It may have seemed that his friends were supporting him but they were encouraging him in the wrong direction. They were advising him to do what was wrong rather than what was right. What about you? Think about your friends? Do they encourage you to moan about your parents, lie and break rules or do they encourage you to be honest and try and get on better with your family? If it is the first, they are probably not the greatest friends to have around. It is much better to have friends that encourage and help you in the right ways.

So now we leave Haman “happy and high in spirits”. There’s the pride and next we see the fall!


(DFTBA)

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·         Latest book read: Still reading "Friends Like These" I should really finish it.

·         Latest film/TV/ watched: The End of Time (part 2. Just after finishing part 1)

·         Latest music listened to: Currently "This Time Tomorrow" by Mike Lombardo. Although it's now changed to another song of his called Joke.

·         Latest food/sweets/whatever eaten: A Chocolate coin!

·         Programs and web pages currently open: In Google Chrome:

Alien President, Snails: Brothers in shells, Cylinder and Miserable, Fort Paradox, The application page for a Doctor Who exhibition pilot, Matt's Blog, (the usual offenders! lol), Blogger in draft: new post, Esther 5 on Bible Gateway, Blogger in draft: my last post, facebook (on a conversation under one of my statuses that is getting rather long and is of Whovian origin); Windows Live Mail, Microsoft Word x 2, Serif Page Plus 11, Windows Media Player.

Priorities?

So, it's come to that point where everything is building up, exams are looming, interests are conflicting, jobs are being forgotten and I feel like I'm being drowned in a sea of stuff to do. I don't know where to start or maybe it's just the things I should be starting I don't want to start and I end up procrastinating, making the pile grow larger and my stress levels rise further. Now I'm not one for showing everyone that I'm stress and in fact my friends have often told me that surely I don't get stressed by sometimes, unfortunately, I do. I get to that point where I just want to stop, scream and then find some sort of time manipulation device so I have the time to do everything. The time to watch lots of Doctor Who, time to read the books that I so want to read and re-read, time to see my friends, time to take part in as much as possible, time to keep up with the world of Nerdfighteria, and still have time on top of all that to revise and get good grades, time above all that to still go to church and be involved.

Of course, where do I turn when I feel overwhelmed? The realm of fantasy. Whether it's a book or a TV series, I always find myself delving into that world of fiction and fantasy at that time before the exams where they seem far enough away that it seems like you've still got time to revise but also close enough to make you start panicking. When I was younger I'd escape into those worlds just because I enjoyed it but now, is it possible to become addicted to fantasy and fiction? It is possible for it to become a drug, addictive and a place to escape?

And then, the inevitable blog or rant where I have to make the decision. The inevitable point where I go no, revision has to be done, work now and play later. The point where I have to accept that when my parents invade and infiltrate my world of fantasy they're not doing it because they want to destroy my world but because they know what's best for me. It's at this point I set myself a goal, tell myself to revise and resolve to make sure that I keep striving forwards, doing the best that I can.

This year makes it a little harder. While waiting for replies from universities, there's that little niggling thought at the back of my mind saying "what's the point? You could get rejected anyway from all these universities so what's the point of striving for that A when it wont make any difference? They haven't replied yet so they're obviously not desperate to have you." I know that it's silly to listen to that, silly to give up because of one possible outcome. I know I need to focus on what could happen, the positive side. I know that giving up will not help but there's always that niggle. I don't know whether it's lack of trust, lack of hope or just laziness but I'm going to fight it. I have to fight it. Maybe it would be less disappointing if I get a bad mark without revising than with revising but that shouldn't make me give up.

Right, now to act on all of this. Encourage me on my way!

DFTBA

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·         Latest book read: Still reading "Friends Like These" I should really finish it.

·         Latest film/TV/ watched: The Waters of Mars

·         Latest music listened to: Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol

·         Latest food/sweets/whatever eaten: A chocolate from the Celebration tub left over from Christmas to end my dinner!

·         Programs and web pages currently open:

Alien President, Snails: Brothers in shells, Cylinder and Miserable, Fort Paradox, The application page for a Doctor Who exhibition pilot, Matt's Blog, (these are my current tabs that always stay open btw), Blogger in draft: new post, Windows Live Mail (sorry for being repetitive!)

Sad is happy for deep people

I recently re-watched "Bridge to Terabithia" and as I'm pretty sure I didn't bawl my eyes out last time, it got me thinking: how we experience a film or book* isn't just to do with the quality of the acting and plot but also what we know, believe and experience in real life. I mean, how else can you read the same book or watch the same film twice but respond totally differently the second time? How else is it possible for two people to read the same book, watch the same film or watch the same TV series** and react in totally different ways? Even if they're sitting next to each other in the same cinema screen you can end up with one crying their eyes out while the other could be wondering what the fuss is about.

Sure, some of this is to do with personality and while our genes may cause us to tend slightly more to one disposition, so much of our personality is shaped by our experiences, beliefs and our reactions. Of course, those two can, in turn, be pinned on other experiences and events but that just takes us into a paradox and arguments about free will that I'm sure scientists will be trying to unravel for many more years to come.

As I think back at films, books or TV episodes I've cried at (or nearly cried at as I'm not one for crying at everything,) they're not all necessarily typically sad and the ones that are, I'm not necessarily crying at the thing on the screen but because of the very real g it reminds me of. I'm crying because it reminds me of something I deeply miss, something I strongly hope doesn't happen to me, something I long for or someone I've lost. How strongly we respond partly depends on how deeply absorbed in the fictional world we are and partly how deep the feelings go. we may have had a loved one die or had our heart broken and those emotional strings have been tugged, pulling on something deep inside while others may not have experienced the same thing, causing mere scratches on the surface.

How absorbed we get in a film, book or TV series is a funny thing. While a lot of it depends where we are - alone, with family, friends or strangers - and when we are - late at night, lunchtime, an anniversary or something happy or sad - there is also some sort of magic that plays part. A sort of magic that means so many teenage girls (including me) get absorbed by Twilight*** for a bit, a sort of magic that leads to long debates over the Doctor Who Christmas special**, the sort of magic that causes fans like those at Comic-Con, Wrockstock, Vidcon, of followers and writers of trock and wrock and people who will queue for hours to meet actors, authors, TV show creators, script writers, directors and to get into exhibitions. There is that something, that spark that no on can quite explain, that can cause one person to love a film, book or show, to respond in one way, while another can hate it and get nothing out of it.

Now, of course, a lot of that applies to first time views. A lot of that is to do with different people responding differently but what about when it is one person? Why can one person react one way the first time and then respond another way the second time round. how comes I got absorbed into Twilight the first time round but now think it's rubbish? How comes I cried so hard the second time I watched "Bridge to Terabithia" the second time watching but barely shed a tear the first? People change. New things are discovered, new things are experienced, different things and parts of us are lost or broken, faults can be revealed. Over time that unexplainable magic can be moulded, built up or torn down.

Human emotions are such a complex thing. Even beginning to understand them is almost impossible and in some ways, not understanding is probably better. While sometimes the 'behind the scenes' can deepen out love and appreciation and enhance the magic, other times it's best not to know.

I'll leave you with this quote from Inkspell that sums up what could have been a whole extra paragraph quite well:

" 'Isn't it odd how much fatter a book gets when you've read it several times?' Mo had said when, on Meggie's last birthday, they were looking at all her dear old books again. 'A if something were left between the pages every time you read it. Feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells...and then, when you look at the book again many years later, you find yourself there, too, a slightly younger self, slightly different, as if the book had preserved you like a pressed flower...both strange and familiar.'" 

  - Inkspell, Chapter 5 - Cornelia Funke

DFTBA

*side note: I've only just discovered "Bridge to Terabithia is also a novel! Now I need to find time to read that!
**here I was particularly thinking of Doctor Who. My friend prompted a long discussion over the pros and cons of Moffat, Daleks, Martha, 10 v 11 etc on facebook which currently stands at 183 comments.
***may I just say that magic has gone and I have realised the folly of my Twilight-loving ways. Although the books do still sit on my shelf.

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·         Latest book read: Still reading "Friends Like These" I should really finish it.

·         Latest film/TV/ watched: Still the midnight countdown on BBC1 last night but I'm just about to watch Human Nature and The Family of Blood

·         Latest music listened to: Chocolate by Snow Patrol (still)!

·         Latest food/sweets/whatever eaten: A chocolate biscuit at the end of lunch

·         Programs and web pages currently open:

Alien President, Snails: Brothers in shells, Cylinder and Miserable, Fort Paradox, The application page for a Doctor Who exhibition pilot, Matt's Blog, (these are my current tabs that always stay open btw), Blogger in draft: new post, Windows Live Mail

Happy New Year!

So it is now officially 2011... two thousand and eleven, twenty eleven, eleven, I'll decide on a way to say it by the end of the year I'm sure. Today is the 1st of January (well, unless you're not reading it today) and I believe it is tradition to spend this day doing a mixture of looking back on the past year and looking forwards to the coming one. To help do this, my friend Matt proposed the idea of "First 11 for '11". His proposal went as follows:

Re: blogs, the recent Silence of the Sheep hasn’t gone unnoticed.  To help you get back into the swing of things in the blogosphere, I have a suggestion: how about I race you to write a “First 11 for ’11”?  (‘11’ as in ‘2011’, not as in ‘Matt Smith’, although posts about Matt Smith would theoretically be permissible.)  The challenge is very simple: it starts with a blank sheet of paper (or a blank ‘new post’ screen) at one second past midnight on Saturday 1 January, and the first blogger to write and publish 11 substantial and meaningful posts will be the winner.  ‘Substantial and meaningful’ basically meaning that Twitter-esque micro-posts don’t count, and neither do blogs that consist solely of moaning about not knowing what to blog about.  We could possibly also make things more interesting by making a rule that each ’11 for 11’ post must be commented on by the rival blogger.  So… *waves Narsil dramatically at the undead horde* what say you?

So, I have taken him up on this challenge (even if I fail to get the Narsil reference) so, on your marks... get set... go!

Let us begin by looking back over the past year. A year of ups and downs. A year of hard times but also a year where I met a whole new group of friends at Roothill, a year where I went to a gig full of Nerdfighters and got John Green, Alex Day, Tom Milsom and EddPlant all to sign my scrapbook. A year which has turned my scrapbook from a present to a book of memories and a year which has seen the end of Terrie's challenge and BEDESO on my blog. A year of new Doctor Who, passing my driving test, and much more which escapes my memory at the moment in the way things do when you're specifically trying to remember them. I think, when looking back on things, while you shouldn't forget the hard times you should instead focus on what you learnt from those times and also make sure you hold on as tightly as possible to the new memories created. So much has happened in the past year and it's weird to think what was happening this time last year.

It seems a bit pathetic to sum up 2010 in a little paragraph but then again, I have tried to blog about the awesome things and keep records of the memories in places apart from my brain's memory banks. Thank you for sticking with me through my ups and downs, my frequent blogging and my not so frequent blogging, and hope you'll stick with me through '11!

2011 is a daunting year for me. So many big changes ahead and so many unknowns. At the moment I'm still waiting for replies from the universities I have applied to and in September/October time I could either be heading off to Uni or starting a gap year full of things to make sure I get in the next time and have enough money to survive the higher university fees! In the summer I will be sitting my final A level exams before leaving school forever and then spending the rest of the time trying not to think about results day as it arrives in the painfully slow way it does. Basically, I have no idea where I will be this time next year. I could have already spent a few months at uni and have a ton of new friends to celebrate the new year with or I could still be at home, having a gap year. If I'm at uni I could be studying veterinary medicine like I hope or something might have happened that means I went through UCAS extra and I'm instead studying something totally different. I think this is the first year where I literally have no idea where I will be this time next year, where the plans are totally outside my control and the first year where next January will not be spent thinking about going back to school in a day or so.

Usually, people now go on to make new year's resolutions. I made a few last year and promptly forgot what they even were despite writing them on my blog so I'm not going to even bother this year. However, I will tell you a few aims. I aim to continue blogging, hopefully with a few more blog challenges coming up and no long hiatus. I am to survive and enjoy my last year of school and try and get the grades I need. I aim to put God in an even more central position in my life and I aim to remember what he's taught me over the past year, not just promptly forget it.

So here's for '11, a year of uncertainties, a year of massive change but I hope, despite that, it will be a good year.

DFTBA

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·         Latest book read: Still reading "Friends Like These" I should really finish it.

·         Latest film/TV/ watched:

The midnight countdown on BBC1 last night.

·         Latest music listened to:

Chocolate by Snow Patrol

·         Latest food/sweets/whatever eaten:

A banana ("Always take a banana to a party, Rose. Bananas are good")

·         Programs and web pages currently open:

Alien President, Snails: Brothers in shells, Cylinder and Miserable, Fort Paradox, The application page for a Doctor Who exhibition pilot, Blogger in draft: new post, Matt's Blog, Windows Live Mail