I am 17 and I go to college studying German, English and Classics =]
I try to write in this blog, though I have yet to really understand what to put in XD
There was a time, back many months ago when I said I was going to update this. What happened was my inability to ‘HTML’ hindered this and whilst I was attempting to change my title picture, I believe I gave up and began making gifs. Yes.
So.
My life did take a turn. I went to Korea. I have been in Korea since August. It is entertaining to say the least. There are many things I have learnt and will hopefully share with the world. I’m thinking of making a blog entry for every interesting encounter I have made with the culture of Seoul and its youth (mostly).
So. Hopefully I actually do this. I will make sure to now pin this to my browser so that I constantly think of something.
My situation as it stands at the moment is seemingly problematic.
I am planning on going to University in September, and my biggest problem seems to be my nutrition rather than what you would think is most important – the actual work. No, that’s not a problem at all.
The student finance people have been kind enough to give me a maintenance loan which will cover just half of my accomodation, therefore I shall be scrounging off my parents until I find a job – which to be honest, is quite unlikely.
So therefore, to keep myself alive, I have to buy food, and my parents have no faith in me that I will manage this successfully. My family also has this presumption that I can’t live without cheese, literally. It’s a pretty weak opinion, because I can, food just doesn’t taste as good without it.
Anyway, I will likely starve half of the time, considering I have no set list of recipes and such, which I really should make. Plus, some food I just can’t make, I can make macaroni, but obviously that contains a large amount of cheese, and apparently that’s expensive.
I’m digressing, at some point during the next year, it is likely that I will be alone and destitute in my room, my stomach rumbling like a motorbike. This precognition of events triggered a thought in my head that stemmed from the visit of my ‘uncle’ from Boston.
I kindly asked him to bring me some chewing gum, just a bit, because I found a flavour I quite liked. I certainly didn’t expect him to bring back a couple KILOGRAMS of the stuff. I mean, it’s a tad OTT. So at this moment, I have about 2-3 years supply of chewing gum – considering I am not exactly an avid chewer.
Now, back to the present, well the future. When I am groaning for nutrition, looking gaunt and in need of a hug, I will know that locked away in my cupboard is tonnes of chewing gum. So for sure, when I run out of food and money, I’ll always have gum, which to tell the truth is not the happiest of thoughts, even if it is somewhat tasty.
I believe the best solution to this incredible amount of gum is to devise some sort of recipes made from gum. Maybe I can leave it to harden and carve it into shapes of actual food to convince my brain that yes, this is nutrition. And hopefully that old myth of it taking 7 years to digest chewing gum won’t exist.
Now I was just minding my own business, surfing Twitter and what not, when I discovered this little gem:
Joe Jonas’ new single which shall be released tomorrow I believe, and boy is it EPIC. Like I was starting to go off his music, but boy has this dragged me back. I had clicked play, completely disregarding that I had done so, and then the next thing I know, I’m in love!
This song is AMAZING. And it’s so different from what Joe Jonas normally brings out, and I just LOVE IT. I actually will buy this, and that is like really unlike me XD.
Tron Legacy, one of the most anticipated film of the year. Having been 28 years since the first one, the creators would have a lot to work with. I saw Tron Legacy on Wednesday in 3D, and I definitely believe that cinematically the film was amazing. The costumes, interesting and high tech looking, the several weapons and vehicles quite spectacular, but I fell on a flaw.
I don’t usually have problems with films, on occasion I am usually the one who likes the worse films because of their dialogue, acting, scenery or music. This means that my basis for a good film, are completely different from others. However my basis for a bad film, or at least a bad part of a film is the logic of the film. And I don’t mean the logic of whether it makes sense, such as Inception being out of this world and unlikely, but my problem with logic, is when the small intricacies are not explained. Others won’t realise or care, but always do. If you are going to make a film, and it is sci-fi, you must include some details.
There are a lot of problems with Tron Legacy (from my point of view), logic-wise. I personally have not seen Tron, and after watching numerous interviews with the directors and writers for the new one, I was led to believe I did not have to. However, it is quite clear that you should watch the film, to fully understand what is happening.
Within the film, it is made clear that once Flynn (Jeff Bridges) had created The Grid, life forms began to appear without any of his input called ISO’s. This is all clear enough, yet there is no explanation as to where the Programs came from. The audience is only made aware of Clu (a copy of himself) and Tron. Therefore it leaves me thinking, who created the Programs? It was most probably Flynn, but why was this not explained?
Secondly, why is it Clu has the ability to kill or reassign the Programs? I can understand that he was given some power as Flynn’s digital copy, but this to me, does not make any sense. This also leading to the question, how come there are so many Programs? Even after years/cycles of Clu killing them in the games and just plain violence, how is there still so many?
Another problem I have is with Tron, the film is named Tron, you’d think he would have a more prominent part in the film. The guy is on screen for 3 minutes max, doesn’t say anything, and to me he seems more like a character they HAD to add in when they were writing the screenplay, or it wouldn’t have made any sense to name it Tron Legacy. No effort was made to explain why Tron turned bad (I suspect Clu reassigned him) ,you would think, being the first Program, only Flynn would be able to reassign him. And no care was shown from Flynn towards Tron, seeing as how they were clearly very close, and he had saved his life. The probable death of Tron, was a disgrace, and truthfully Tron should have had a bigger part. He could have easily been used in the film as a Darth Vader type character- Having been on the side of good, and then being turned bad because of corruption. Then there could have been this whole scene at the end, where he turns good again. Just my idea, but I feel they didn’t do the character any justice.
Finally, though this problem is small, I still couldn’t get it out of my head. So Quorra is an ISO, and she was saved by someone, and she managed to get to Flynn. Who was this someone? First of all, and secondly how does Zeus know her? When he heard her name, his face was one of disdain, what did that mean? There was no explanation as to how they knew each other, and I hated that, I like when characters have depth, but when you suggest depth and don’t explain it, it’s completely pointless.
Yes, the film was visually good, but the storyline had flaws that I couldn’t let go of. I know I am probably thinking too far into it, seeing as it is a Disney movie for kids, but I can’t help it, I am just that meticulous.
On Wednesday 15th December, I had the delightful opportunity of attending XFM’s Winter Wonderland at Brixton Academy. The event had swiftly sold out, so luckily me and a couple of friends managed to get seating tickets for £25.
Right Cowgirls
We turned up just as the doors opened, and strangely we managed to get really good seats. We also got freebies because of the sponsor – José Cuervo Tequila. Although I did not take the tequila, I did get a lovely straw hat, bandana and a show line-up badge. This seemed to be a good beginning, because I do love freebies.
The show was set to start at 7, and at 7:05 the first presenter got on stage, opening the evening, and welcoming Mona onto the stage.
Mona
Mona was quite good, they weren’t too loud, and they had a couple of good songs. I had previously heard of them before, but had not yet ventured towards their MySpace channel. I thought they were okay at first, but after 3 songs, they sounded kind of similar. It all just merged into one song, however they are still good.
The next presenter came on after the set up, this time being my beloved Dave Berry. I had an inkling who the next band would be, based on the drum set, which was silver.
The Drums, Drums.
Mr Berry Himself
I was correct in thinking the next band would be The Drums.
Just a hint at their Zanyness.
Truthfully this band is the highlight of any night, their songs are all different, both getting you dancing and singing, and also getting you to sort of chill and sway. The guitarist Jacob Graham is also an INSANE dancer. Doing a crazy interpretive dance to “Down by the Water” in its entirety, because of his lack of guitar parts in that song. At the end of the song, he finished with a pose, it was… beautiful.
We then waited while the roadies got on stage and sorted it all out. Waiting for the band we had come forthe band we had previously seen at Shepherds Bush – Two Door Cinema Club.
Two Door
They were amazing as usual, this band fails to disappoint, and they played all of their great songs, I had just wished they could have played more than 5 songs.
Then we waited for the band we had come for – White Lies. I had never seen them live before, and I was looking forward to it. There was speculation that they would sing mostly their new songs, for their new album. I thought I would therefore be disappointed, not because these new songs are bad, which they aren’t. But because I wanted a rendition of their album To Lose My Life.
White Lies ❤
White Lies ❤
However, I was not disappointed. Not in the slightest. It was perfect!
At this point in the night, we had really seen everything we wanted to see. We had come for these opening bands, and to tell the truth the older band, and headliners Manic Street Preachers would have just been an addition.I have nothing against Manic Street Preachers but they are quite old, and I know only one song by them. Which I love, but if they have like 10 albums, it’s highly unlikely they would sing this one song.
We waited around a while, the next band coming on would be Suede who are also from back in the day. I saw that they were setting up for an acoustic performance, so we decided to stay. I have always liked acoustic performances and of course it was good, even if I didn’t know any of the words to the songs.
I enjoyed the night thoroughly, and it is highly likely that if we had stayed for Manic it would have put the icing on the cake. But we did have college the next day, and we were thoroughly beat.
I experienced a first today. The first time I drove in a Rover, and actually the first time I have taken a car from school after school. All thanks to my friend Libby.
Myself, Libby and our friend Harry had a lovely 10-15 minute drive from our college to the next station 2 miles away. After Harry basically begged Libby to drive us there, even though she lives in the opposite way. She of course cracked under his resolve, Harry being Harry. He can be quite persuasive.
Alas, our little drive entailed some interesting conversation, aged sweets which had apparently been continually freeze-thawing over the weeks in her car, and a lovely little karaoke segment listening to Example on Radio 1.
I do hope these little things will happen again, I am certain Harry would definitely enjoy that.
x
P.S. Harry, I just mentioned you like 4 times. There is your recognition 😛
I have decided to improve my German listening and speaking skills seeing as I need a B in my A Level and the exam is in June so I better start now. I came to the conclusion that the best way to learn would be to listen to the language, along with reading it. Therefore I began searching the world wide web.
ZDF.de has always been a great asset to me. I have only used it for listening to the news, which we often do in class. Having been in Germany and watching the channel, I knew that they had various programmes. I started to flick through the pages, and found a show that was in today’s TV guide. The show was called Lena – Liebe meines Lebens (Lena – love of my life). I thought this sounded quite interesting.
ZDF has an archive, so I searched through, found episode 1 and pressed play.
I don’t exactly know what I was expecting, maybe some kind of teen – young adult drama. Light hearted and such. I found that it’s sort of like a soap opera, and I don’t mean like British soap operas (Eastenders, Coronation Street e.t.c) it was like an American soap opera (Bold and the Beautiful, Days of our lives) and everyone knows that entails the trademark dramatic music which changes every other minute, and the dramatic close up shots.
Most of the time I find these type of shows nauseas, and I think that might be because we don’t have shows like this in England. Ours are more normal. Although it was set up like this, I decided to continue watching, and I found it pretty good.
The story line is about a sort of happy-go-lucky girl called Lena, and the story focuses on her family life, and also the other main character David and his family life. They merge and it just goes through the story line. Like Lena’s fathers affair, her boyfriend and his desire to keep her at home with his son. While with David his grandmothers health, and his father’s desire to have the huge house they live in.
I haven’t personally seen a show like it, and I really like how it slowly develops. It doesn’t really rush into anything. And though the music may get a bit crazy at times, they play a few snippets of good songs. In the 2nd episode I heard a little bit of “sex is on fire”, so it can be nice at times.
I also like that it is set in Cologne, and it really emphasises the beauty of Cologne’s surrounding area, along with the city. With scenes like Lena riding around on her bicycle.
It is going to be strange to me for a long time because British soap operas are so dark and lame:
You can just tell from comparing those two pictures how different soap operas clearly are in different countries.
Well I think I am going to continue watching Lena, it is quite interesting and I must say that the characters aren’t too shabby:
Seeing as the Amazon Kindle is one of the bigger things going around right now. And I being a very avid reader of books, have come to the crossroads in which I have to decide whether I should get one or not.
Therefore I have decided to make a list as to why I should get a Kindle, and why I shouldn’t get a Kindle.
To get a Kindle:
Easier to carry around then some books.
Can have the internet – pretty useful
Not too bad to look at
I can carry all my books at once
Not as durable as a book.
Cheaper on the whole
The classics are free
To not get a Kindle:
I like the feel of the pages and the full weight of the book.
A book can prove to be a good weapon
Nobody wants to steal a book
They are special
Can be signed.
Sometimes the e-book is more expensive then the physical book.
Can be shared
I think the idea of a Kindle is better than the actual thing. Like the ability to have your whole library of books in one little machine that doesn’t take up too much room is great. Though a Kindle would reduce the amount of books published, and this may somewhat save trees, it wouldn’t be the same as having the real deal. Having that fresh book smell, and feeling the rough edges and embossed title.
Therefore I doubt I’ll be asking for a Kindle this year, but maybe in a couple of years, when the actual book isn’t as important to me. Or I have the desire to carry around the free classics rather than carrying around several books. Which would make sense when I am in Uni, studying English Literature.
What I would have to decided next is whether I would want the wifi or wifi and 3G version.
I didn’t win the election XD. Suprisingly I don’t mind that much, which I didn’t expect. Maybe because I wasn’t that bothered about it in the beginning, and I have other things to do. Such as the EPQ, which is “Extended Project Qualification”. So for that I have to write an essay about something I find interesting. I’m looking forward to it, thinking of doing something involving English and Literature. I have to give that a lot of thought. Then along with that, there is my personal statement that I have to write. I still don’t even know what I am supposed to do with that. I am soooo clueless.
What I have been trying for the last month is to get a job, and I am failing miserably. Nobody seems to want me, and I feel like I am filling out the applications completely wrong XD. Even though I have no experience beside 2 weeks at New! Magazine.
I have applied to John Lewis, Best Buy, Mcdonalds and even Hobby Craft, which i am extremely qualified for, since i have an art GCSE, and i know a lot about craft. It’s a shame really, since i didnt even get a rejection letter.
I dont know how people handle it, if i just had some experience I could easily get a job, but if you dont have experience you can’t ever get a job. Unless someone pitied me.
I just want something to do, i like working, thats why i apply to things like student union and EPQ, because i think i can do the job well. That’s why i became a senior prefect, and i think that is the one time i have lucked out, since i was picked out of everyone in my year, and their were only 12 places. I think i did the job very well, which is probably how I got into the college i am currently in.
I think the most important thing now, for this summer, is to just get a really good personal statement out of me, so i can manage some how to get into the university of my choice. I really hope that i can at least win this fight.
Because really at the end of the day, i work hard, and i hope its hard enough.
A Slice of Life 