Love Hannah

Dear Terrie,

For this blog I have given you two options. Both of these are over 300 words long so they should not break any rules.

A letter to my future self

A letter to my readers

Have fun reading and get ready as the end is nigh!

Love Hannah

X

Hannah’s Googlewhack Adventure

I recently finished reading Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure and was introduced to the world of Googlewhacking. I may not be planning to travel the world to visit Googlewhack results but I did seek to find my own within the hickledy pickled world of the internet.

I found a few almost Googlewhacks, along with some actual ones, but then I began thinking. (I know, “Thinking, Hannah?” I hear you exclaim, “be careful!”) I wondered if I could make myself Googlewhack. Obviously within the highly kinetic world of the internet, this may not be easy. I may manage it once but another day another webpage may take away my glory. Obviously I wouldn’t be able to make it last until I’m so old I’ve got osteoporosis and need a catheter in order to go to the loo but I need to cover all bases.

Firstly, I needed to establish how I was going to do this. I have a blog so the attempt can go on there but I can’t just list a load of words in the hope that I’d be a Googlewhack; I’d have to go about this properly.

Roping in the help of Rosanna, we round a long list of potential Googlewhacks. Like an impala running over the savannah we leapt and bounded around for potential Googlewhacks; Word combinations that brought up results as empty as a search for a tyrannosaurous. These words we scribbled down and I endeavoured to place them all in a blog. Calling the search to a halt so that I could fill my stomach with food via my oesophagus I went away happy, planning how I could use these words.

The problem is, just listing these words would contradict the rules of Googlewhacking. I would have to integrate them into a blog post.

I started drafting, but half way through I realised, if I was going to complete this effectively, I would have to know what these words mean. It’s no good including them if I use them wrongly and cause an inadvertent oxymoron. Research would have to be done; and quickly to ensure that no one else stole my potential Googlewhacks.

I learnt that vermicelli pasta looks like worms and contemplated learning more of the Greek alphabet than alpha, beta, and omega; however omicron was as far as I got. I also discovered that the dictionary on my phone is terrible and decided on looking elsewhere for information.

I could cheat. Well, bend the rules. I could tell you a story of a mouse called gargantuan who lived in a village called darmstadtium. He also has a twin called coeleocanth who discovered that there were two darmstadtiums on the map. Together they set out to find this town. On the way they had to confront a large cat called catanoid before finally reaching their village’s namesake.

Now, I don’t know if this will work and won’t be able to check before I’ve posted. The internet is constantly changing, evolving, developing and inadvertently repeating itself like a time loop or worm hole taken straight out of an episode of Doctor Who. However, if you wish to see, the words I specifically placed in are in bold. Try combining two of them and placing them in Google to see if I appear. Also, if you have issues with spelling or their validity as a word, just leave a comment below.

Happy Googlewhacking!


DFTBA, Terrie, I have not forgotten.

1/5th Life Crisis

Generally, life crises come in the middle of your life. However, Terrie decided that her teenage “Who am I?” was a 1/5th of a life crisis. (She was assuming that, at the age of 16 at the time, she would live to 80.)

I’m pretty sure Terrie isn’t the only teenager to have a 1/5th of a life crisis but seen as Terrie’s has got in the way of blogging, I’m going to moan about that. Terrie has done the almost unmentionable thing of not blogging for over a month. Seen as I’ve been a good girl, I think I can moan about the fact that Terrie has been going out to gigs and parties and neglecting her duty to Terrie-kind to blog. However, I’m sure she’ll fail me if I make this a Terrie hate blog.

Teenage “Who am I” type life crises haven’t really been the sort of thing I do. I may occasionally have an internal confusion but I’m not the sort of pers9on to have an all out rebellion. Maybe it’s because I’m so sure in what I believe or because I’ve got to the stage where I know who I am in a fairly gradual way.

Maybe my rebellious 1/5th of a life crisis is still to come. You’ll miss my blogging for maybe a month or two. The last activity on my Youtube, Facebook, Formspring, and Twitter accounts will remain the same for days on end. You’ll hear rumours of my gallivanting around the world, my large debts and wonder if I was the girl who hijacked the Michael Jackson memorial celebrations.*

However, I think this is very unlikely. I’m pretty happy being an English Nerdfighter with a Christian faith and a love of all things that DFTBA.

This challenge may be nearing the end** but I’m not going to give up. I’m going to try to continue blogging, hopefully long into university life but we shall see, we shall see...



*Apparently I was possibly a cause of his death by saying, on the news that a friend had a ticket to see him, “What would you do if it got cancelled or something?” I’m yet to be questioned on the matter...
**Two more titles left! I’m not sure if Terrie will give me a new challenge or not.

The Power of a Pen

I haven't doodled for a while. Not proper, drawing style doodling that is more than a little flower or swirl in the corner of a page. However, the combination of no more exams, spare paper, a random pen and a relatively easy chemistry topic led me to doodle this, with a little input from Maryam:

 Note: I assure you that I had finished copying up these notes before I doodled over them. But either way, I think this greatly improves the topic!

Note: Just because I’m not a Harry Potter fan doesn’t mean I can’t draw Grandpa Potter!

Note: Maryam's 'no-eye-deer' in the corner

Note: Don’t ask!

Note: DFTBA, Terrie, I have not forgotten!

Nerdy Personal Ads

“Timelady looking for Timelord. Preferably member of Nerdfighteria and must never FTBA. Animal lover preferred, Christian faith compulsory.”

Apparently fish are linked to everything. (When I say apparently, I mean Matt told me that “Fish are connected to everything” when I asked him for blog ideas; so here it goes...) Fish goes to fish fingers which go to fish custard which goes to Doctor Who. Fish goes to the sea which goes to everything salty or watery. Fish goes to baby fish which goes to mating which goes to courtship which vaguely ties in to my topic. However, unlike Siamese fighting fish, human males do not construct a bubble nest made from bubbles held together by mouth secretions to attract a female.

Instead, humans have a wide range of techniques to find their ‘mate’ with varying success rates. Also, we tend to worry much more about looks, personality, height, hobbies, beliefs, whether they squeeze the toothpaste in the middle or at the end, than most animals do. (When I say most animals I mean all animals. Their courtship displays are pretty much only about discovering the counterpart animal which will be the best at producing healthy offspring.) Generally, our first question isn’t “hi, will you be good at giving me kids?”

However, most of us have a mental list of things that we would want our idea partner to be, whether we admit to it or not. Taking some examples from my list: they have to be a Christian; like animals; smart; have a passion in something I think is interesting. We also tend to have those options that would be nice if the person met but insisting on all of them would be a bit superficial and probably leave us with no options: taller than me, a vet, looks like David Tennant...

Some people get their perfect person early on and first time. Others have to wait, just dreaming about them and modifying them as they go while others meet the perfect opposite of their ideal idea and marry them instead. Others are perfectly happy to just dream and not worry if someone exists for them and I say good for them.

I’ll leave you with the video that inspired this title:

LEGGINGS ARE NOT TROUSERS!

I thought the disaster that people call leggings had died out after the 90s. I thought people were smart enough to learn from the mistakes of my childhood and avoid wearing leggings as trousers. (I had a particular favourite pair that was a hideous shade of green and I tended to wear them as trousers with t-shirts.) However, it seems that leggings have returned and refuse to go, like a bit of chewing gum on the sole of your shoe.

Leggings are not all bad. When worn as a footless equivalent to tights with a skirt, I’m OK with that. Worn with short may make no sense (it defeats the object of shorts) but at least it isn’t too inappropriate. The real issue is wearing leggings with a t-shirt. Even a long t-shirt doesn’t quite cut it as it’s still like wearing tights underneath; I still see way more than I need to. Your t-shirt may be long but I’m afraid it just isn’t quite long enough, especially when you bend over, sit down, or stretch up.

The worst offenders are people who wear leggings with ordinary length t-shirts. It looks like they’ve forgotten to put on a skirt! Way too little is left to the imagination and it just doesn’t look right. I think the worst offender was a little girl (although we’ll blame the mum here) who was wearing white leggings with a short t-shirt; White leggings which you could see her underwear through. I really don’t think that is appropriate for a little girl to wear and epitomises all I hate about leggings.

In short, LEGGINGS ARE NOT TROUSERS! So don’t wear them as trousers!

DFTBA, Terrie, I have not forgotten!

Music is my remedy

I know I’ve mentioned this a couple of times before, but today I was reminded once again why I don’t like bus journeys. Normally I put up with it by masking the noise of everyone else with my music but today I reached into my bag and I had left my mp3 at home. This meant I had to endure the conversations of the year 9s on my bus for over half an hour.

They are very loud and certainly reminded me why I need my mp3. I mean, I don’t want to know how many girls the guy has got off with (six by the way), I don’t need to know about the time your friend fainted in the swimming pool changing rooms and I neither want nor need to know about any of your monthly girly problems. I’ve have never and will never want to know who waxes your mum’s legs and I’d rather you kept any negative opinions about P.E. teachers at my school to yourself. Yes, your braces might be hurting but I had to put up with braces too along with half of all teenagers so stop moaning.

Don’t complain about your GCSE homework, you think that’s hard then do my A-level work for me! I didn’t want to know that you haven’t read a book since year 6 because now I’ll judge you because I don’t think not reading books is something to boast about and I certainly don’t want to hear your screaming or swearing. I did not come on the bus to have a sherbet-filled flying saucer packet thrown at me, regardless of how nicely you apologise and the only interest I have in whether you get the AS1 bus or the AS3 bus is that if you get AS3 you’re getting a different bus to me. I’d rather not hear about the secret about Ollie and jam that apparently has nothing to do with actual jam, that what he did was on Facebook by himself or anything else to do with ‘jam’. I don’t need to know that Ollie has a sister and two brothers and I’ve never wanted to know about anyone’s blister, let alone their blister that has attached to their tights. The world will not stop spinning if you do not tell the whole bus about your flowery plasters and I do not want to know more about ‘jam’.

I don’t want to know that ‘jam’ is neither bad nor good and I think the whole bus has established that he can’t tell you. I don’t really need to know that Beth has got them, wait, no, Lauren’s got them, or that you pulled your tights over your skirt following the blister fiasco.

Don’t tell everyone that you’re hungry and certainly don’t put me through the torture of listening about what you had for lunch, and breakfast, in great detail. Knowing whether you cut yourself shaving has never been one of my goals in life (apparently one cut herself shaving just the other day while another never has! I really hope they’re talking about their legs.) I don’t need to know anything about ‘over your dead botty’ or how long you lasted without swearing (less than 13 minutes is pathetic).

I don’t want to know that one of the girls owns guy spray and I don’t want to smell it either. I don’t need to know that your inhaler looks ‘sexual’ or that the under 16 club thought so too. Don’t tell everyone that you want your belly button pierced or that Erica (who apparently is in year 10 and is fat) also wants her belly pierced.

Don’t proclaim the whereabouts of your Nan’s house or gossip about that fat girl who is doing P.E. for GCSE and I don’t wish to know that you think Louise looks like a monkey or that she does karate. I certainly don’t ever want to hear who in your year has had sex and I’m pretty sure they too would also appreciate you not telling the whole bus. Don’t moan about your legs ‘killing’, as you so clearly said, you did a lot of running today so what do you expect!

Thankfully, at that point it was my stop. I was able to exit the horrible gossipy world of the upper deck and finally make it to freedom! I didn’t even jot down everything they said, but a good 90% of it was just gossip. I hate how people gossip and hearing it come from 14 year olds is even worse. This is why I generally enclose myself in the world of my mp3. If I can’t hear it, I don’t know it.



DFTBA, Terrie, I have not forgotten!

"From Margate to Moldova"

Exams... Yes, I’ve got exams and I’m using that as my excuse for the lack of blog under the title “From Margate to Moldova” and why this thing here is in its place. However, I’m not going to totally give up. Terrie may have seemingly totally forgotten about my challenge for her and failed to blog since the 7th May (yes, a whole month!!! Comment possible punishments down below please!) But I’m not going to give up. If I could, I’d somehow use the TARDIS or Bernard’s watch to combat my lack of time and terrible preparation but neither of those actually exists....
(Although I can change the publishing date and as Terrie hasn't been checking, she will never know whether I actually changed it or not...)

I was going to try and get someone else to write my blog for me. However, that didn’t really work... I sort of left it too late for them to write anything sane as well so instead you have to read my nonsensical rambling.

So, where to go with this blog... I haven’t really travelled much, and although this is a line from a Trock song, I talk way too much about Doctor Who. Although, talking of music...

My parents had lunch with my Uncle and Aunt today and apparently they were asking about what I like. According to my Dad, they were fine answering until asked this: what sort of music do I like? Now, my taste in music is pretty bizarre and even I have trouble explaining what sort of music I like and my Dad’s comments about Coldplay and trock may have been true, but not the full picture.

You see, I like quite a wide variety of music, I like to think. I won’t say I like everything because I most certainly do not. I can’t stand half of what’s in the charts but anything with good lyrics, a good tune, and generally sounds good, I’ll probably like. At the moment I mainly listen to artists from DFTBA records but within that you have a total range of genres. You have your more typical love ballad type (very loosely) songs (Erase This), you have more electro music (Tom Milsom), there’s some lovely piano and vocal pieces (Mike Lombardo) and some which have just truly amazing but geeky lyrics (ALL CAPS such as ‘Don’t Unplug Me’ or “World of Warcraft”, Chameleon Circuit with their songs about Doctor Who and Hank Green with ‘A song about an Anglerfish’ and ‘Farmville’). As my Dad said, I also like Coldplay and Snow Patrol is another more mainstream band that I enjoy listening to.

I think, the most general way to say what sort of music I like is with this: I like songs that tell a story; Songs that, without the music, could stand alone as a decent poem and also songs with a strong melody and good harmonies. But as with anyone, this is bound to change and develop over time...

Harry Potter and a little bit of fail...

Quite a while ago, I wrote a blog about Harry Potter as part of Terrie's challenge. In it I did my uttermost best to avoid complimenting Harry Potter and this led to Terrie giving me a fail. Not only did I fail this blog but I also posted another blog a day late and the combined punishment was to read the first 111 pages of the first Harry Potter book.

At the time, I told Terrie that I would do a video about it and, although it has taken me much longer than it should have done... HERE IT IS!!

Please try not to laugh too much at my terrible vlogging skills....



DFTBA, Terrie, I have not forgotten!
Oh, and your book is fine! I promise!

Erase This

As many of you know, I am pretty much obsessed with DFTBA artists. I think the majority of them are absolutely amazing and certainly better than anything in the charts at the moment. My current favourite is the new album by Alan Lastufka and Luke Conard called ‘Erase This’.


I’ve always loved Luke Conard’s music but I’ve only just discovered the lyrical genius of Alan. He wrote the lyrics for Summer of ’09 and Can’t on ALL CAPS’ album Bmin/e and I fell in love with those songs and this led me to find out more about Alan Lastufka. This led me to his new album and I’ve since had it on almost constant repeat. I think it’s really good and combines the singing talent of Luke and the lyrical genius of Alan almost perfectly. So... I thought I’d share it with you. Some of my favourites are on Youtube although there are a few that are missing....

DFTBA Terrie, I have not forgotten!

Me, Me, Me

People these days seem to be obsessed with themselves. They’re focussed on what they can get out of situations; they want to get the best for them. Even if what they’re doing will affect many other people negatively, if they get something positive out of it themselves, they’re much less likely to care. Increasing numbers of people (adults and children) want to become celebrities to become centres of attention and increasingly few people possess the trait of humility. Granted, some people are naturally less concerned about other however that doesn’t explain why so many put helping others as second (or even lower) priority after themselves.

The UK election highlighted this through the general view on taxes and the NHS. People almost unanimously want a better NHS, a better level of FREE health treatment but those same people also want lower taxes. I can understand the poor wanting lower taxes but it really frustrates me when those who can afford it demand for lower taxes or at least protest against tax rises. They request lower taxes because they want more money for themselves, they don’t want to part with their beloved cash. They don’t even begin to think why they pay taxes, the positive contribution that paying taxes has on their country. In the words of Wikipedia:

“Funds provided by taxation have been used by states and their functional equivalents throughout history to carry out many functions. Some of these include expenditures on war, the enforcement of law and public order, protection of property, economic infrastructure (roads, legal tender, enforcement of contracts, etc.), public works, social engineering, and the operation of government itself. Governments also use taxes to fund welfare and public services. These services can include education systems, health care systems, pensions for the elderly, unemployment benefits, and public transportation. Energy, water and waste management systems are also common public utilities. Colonial and modernizing states have also used cash taxes to draw or force reluctant subsistence producers into cash economies.”

(Emphasis added)

I don’t know about you, but I’d quite like most of these to be well funded, even if I’m not the one directly benefitting. However, so many people want the benefits of taxes without the cost of paying taxes. They want free health care, good education, good roads, and a good pension to look forward to, good transport systems and generally for public amenities to be as good and free as possible without any cost for themselves.

The problem is that if no one pays, no one benefits. We’re in a vicious circle where if we aren’t prepared to pay to help others, others won’t be prepared to pay either and we won’t have any benefit either. If we all paid more attention to the needs of others then it would make our lives better as well.

Now, I’m not saying I support a fully communist way of living. That takes things to the extreme where people can become lazy. I don’t think people should gain from being lazy or doing nothing but that doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t look out for each other. People these days have taken it to the extreme where they rarely care for anyone beyond their immediate family.

I think part of why people are so focussed on themselves and so forgetful of the needs of others is because the culture of today is so gravitated towards instant gratification. The instant effect of what we do, here and now. Instant coffee, instant messenger, instant loans, instant holidays, instant access, instant display... instant, instant, instant. People forget the long term affect of their actions on others and themselves. Husbands delve into the world of the instant pleasure of adultery forgetting the long term heartbreak of losing their wife, their family, their respect and their integrity; People dive head long into the instant gratification of reality shows forgetting the short term nature of their ‘fame’ and the horrible side of all parts of their life being on show. People care less and less about the long term option until after they’ve chosen the ‘here and now’ option by which time it is too late.

In its simplest form it’s like giving a child the choice between one chocolate bar now or waiting five minutes for two. If you think about it, you get more from waiting five minutes but it’s so much easier to just eat the one chocolate bar, to get the instant here and now pleasure.

Everyone’s lives are so intricately entwined and people so often forget. To go with the imagery from ‘About a Boy’, we’re not all islands. We’re not all disconnected from everyone else but we’re more like a body. What we do and how we act affects others and similarly, what others do and how they act affects us. We need to work together much more and not be quite so ‘me, me, me’.



DFTBA, Terrie, I have not forgotten... (Even if you have!)

(And on that note, if anyone has any ideas for punishments for Terrie’s failure to blog in well over a week, please post them in the comments! Ta!)

The Really Awkward One

The due date for this blog lies right in the middle of exams. (Literally. I’m 6 exams down and have 6 to go.) I could claim that this inconvenience is why this blog is “the really awkward one” but, in truth, exams haven’t really hindered my blogging.


In reality, the only reason this blog is awkward is because Terrie called it awkward. The word has this odd ability to turn any situation sour, make any situation feel just that little bit awkward.

However, some people are immune to ‘awkward’. You can place them in any odd situation and they will never feel awkward. You could stick them between two people who aren’t talking to each other or between two teachers in the cinema and they won’t blink an eyelid.

Others are not so immune and for you I advise combating awkwardness such as awkward silences with randomness. To cry out “sheep!” or ask someone whether they’d like to have a cup of tea (regardless of tea availability) are sure ways to get some sort of conversation flowing. You may end up with some people thinking you’re a bit odd but I think people should enjoy the little eccentricities of life. Rather than sit there in silence, random phrases to brighten the conversation are much better. They bring the sort of awkwardness I thrive on!

This blog is still really awkward and I’m not sure how to change it. To be honest, I probably can’t just because it’s been labelled with such an odd name. Usually the 300 words fly by but this one is just dragging on... Maybe, to make it fully awkward, I’ll just end it with random words until the limit is fulfilled...

Blob; chimpanzee; buffalo; green; table; stripes; chair; exaggeration; paper; apron; cockroach; paint; procrastinate; elastic; smile.

Al Fresco Revision

I think I can finally say that summer is here without the risk of the sun running back behind the clouds to give us another unexpected cold spurt. I love summer: the sounds, smells, warmth, and the colours. There’s nothing better than walking down the road, sun shining, birds singing and the smell of fresh cut grass in the air. Cool summer evenings are lovely and I could sit on the grass under the dappled shade of a tree for ages.

I’m on study leave at the moment and that means I can go outside to revise rather than being cooped up in a stuffy classroom all day. However, the big problem with al fresco revision is sun burn. I burn pretty easily meaning I have to either slap on layer after layer of sun cream or stay in the shade. Generally, I go for the shade option as, not only does it reduce the likelihood of burning but it’s also that little bit cooler. Nevertheless, this method has a major flaw: the movement of the earth. Yes, I have a bone to pick with the whole spinning thing that the earth does. When it moves, so does the position of whatever piece of shade I’m using. I’ll start out in a perfectly positioned piece of shade, revision notes spread out carefully on the rug I’m using to stop me getting a terrible itchy rash from the grass, shade the perfect mix of shadiness and dappled light; but then, half way through my revision, I realise that the shade has moved and one of my arms is burning in the sun. This then leads to me grabbing the corners of my rug and dragging all my stuff into another patch of shade and rearranging my revision before starting the whole process again. This inadvertently ends up with me constantly moving around the garden and being able to do a good impression of a barber’s pole by the end of the day.

The other issue is the bugs. It’s not that I have entomophobia or anything. For example, an ant somehow found its way onto my desk in my maths exam this afternoon and I was quite happy to let it stay there and (if possible) offer assistance. (Unfortunately, the ant wasn’t particularly good at maths. I think its strong subject was more PE as it was unable to stay still... or maybe gymnastics...) My issue with bugs and insects during al fresco revision is that they have a tendency to accidentally get in the way and get squished. On Saturday I was revising maths outside and a caterpillar found its way between the pages of the mock paper I was going through and deposited its insides all over the pages. I may not have any sort of insect phobia but that does not mean I appreciate their insides being spread over my work.

However, I’m being very English in this blog. I start off saying how much I love summer and somehow manage to turn the blog around so I’m talking about pretty much my only moans about summer and the great outdoors. So I’m going to end this on a positive note; I’m going to think about sunny days on the beach, Friday evenings down the park with the kids in youth club, collecting worms under the trampoline aged 3 or 4 and water fights. Oh, and an awesome ALL CAPS song that I just can’t get out of my head.....

DFTBA, Terrie, I have not forgotten...

Revision?

I’m in the middle of exam period and I’m meant to be revising furiously. However, me being me, everything else seems so much more interesting and apparently I’ve developed compulsive blogitus.


The exams coming up are mainly AS exams (with a few A2 maths exams because I am most certainly crazy) and with 1 exam down I have 11 more to go. Two maths exams are coming up this afternoon and mark the beginning of the end of my study of maths. However, the exam I’m probably most worried about is chemistry. I did appallingly in the mock and it’s full of actual facts you have to remember rather than general rules which I find easy to remember and apply.

Chemistry revision and mocks also involves this:

This is the back of my friend Maryam’s mock paper. Practically the whole class finished with plenty of time left over but I think her doodles express our boredom most vividly.

After our failures of mocks, we went on to revise. However, I didn’t do so well in this respect either. I failed at the first hurdle not even being able to spell Fluorine. (Which again, I misspelt however the wonder of spellcheckers means that my telling you is the only way you will know...)

Now I’ve sufficiently wasted both your time and my time I’m going to go off and have lunch before heading off to my maths exams...

DFTBA, Terrie, I have not forgotten!