Have a meme

10 things you wish you could say to ten different people right now...
a) It saddens me you don't know how important you are.
b) I miss you - I wish we could go back to the way things were.
c) I love you to pieces and I just wish I could tell you that I miss you as much as you miss me.
d) I wish I knew you.
e) Why did you leave me here alone? I miss you so damn much it hurts to breathe.
f) Do you even care how annoying you are?
g) You're a parasite, social interaction is all you think about and if you arent the center of attention you go crazy.
h) I'm worried about you - I hope you're okay.
i)Meh.
j) I wish I knew the truth.

9 things about yourself...
a) I love sushi
b) Reading folklore is one of many my favourite forms of procrastination
c) When I was a kid, I wanted to be a vet.
d) Rather than actual pets, I had a variety of cyber pets growing up. My favourite was a dalmatian called chuff 64 who lived to 100.
e) My favourite Disney film is Mulan.
f) I can't ride a bike. (Though not for want of trying).
g) I can ride a horse.
h) I am a pescetarian - I don't eat meat, but will eat fish without complaint.
i) I like the smell of vanilla.

8 ways to win your heart...
a) Be polite. I like manners.
b) Don't use me.
c) Don't moan about every little thing. That seriously ticks me off.
d) Include me - don't forget about me just because I'm quiet.
e) Eat sushi with me :3
f) Don't treat me like I'm a loser. I know I'm a loser, don't have to be reminded XD
g) Don't be two faced. That REALLY PISSES ME OFF. If you have something to say, say it to my face, even if you think I won't like it.
h) Make me laugh

7 things that cross your mind a lot...
a) ..Hungry...
b) ...Tired...
c) Wonder when .... is coming out.
d) Christmas Time \o/
e) Random songs
f) fklhbddbh Am I going to...
g) Memories

6 things you do before falling asleep...
a) Listen to music
b) Get undressed and stuff
c) Check my emails
d) Reflect
e) Check my phone
f) Think about how tired I am.

5 people who mean a lot...
a) Mother
b) Father
c) Elle
d) Lucy
e) Laney


4 things you're wearing right now...
a) Pink sweater from expo
b) jeans
c) underwear
d) socks

3 songs that you listen to often (currently)...
a) Take on me, Aha
b) Whispers in the Dark, Skillet
c) Echoes, Veronica's Veil

2 things you want to do before you die...
a) Have something notable published
b) Feel I've accomplished something

1 confession...
a) I'm allergic to chilli

Fail in the Kitchen

A slightly humorous anecdote from our kitchen:

If ever there is a food related odour in the kitchen, that is ever so slightly repulsive, one of my flatmates always blames me. Be it burnt toast,egg - I get the glares. I could understand this notion,were it not for the fact that it is completely unfounded - I don't cook very much.

Anyway, yesterday I was in the kitchen and this particular flatmate came in. One of the others had been cooking with eggs and immediately this flatmate just glared at me. The only thing I could think of that she was likely to believe was to tell her I was allergic to eggs.

Forgetting of course, that I was holding my tea for that night, a packet of egg fried rice.

On Christmas Eve

It all started the week before Christmas Eve, a bracing, slippery December morning. The interval between heavy snow and pouring rain, in which breathing itself was an intake of chill.

Tying her scarf the way she always did, she was not unaffected by this change in atmosphere - after all, a cold or a flu virus is a most unattractive thing. But, as she stepped onto the luridly painted bus and reaching out to pay her fare, those kind of thoughts were immediately swept aside and replaced with ones of her destination.

There was a book store in town that up until the fifties had been a tea shop. In her youth, she had visited with her grandmother and been treated to cream tea and scones. Now that she herself was a grandmother, it was a great comfort to revisit and find it relatively unchanged. The young man who owned it upon her return had inserted labyrinthine bookshelves around her beloved tea shop, filled with masterpieces. His dream, he once told her over a cup of chamomile, was to be the next Tim Waterstone. She made it her business to visit the shop once every year to purchase Christmas presents for her friends and family - presents stained with the odour of tea leaves and fairy cakes.

This year she stepped off the bus as usual, ready for a chat with the shop owner. Fumbling in her purse for a handful of change, she turned onto the high street, where she was met with an unexpected and unwelcome surprise. The shop door was barred and padlocked. The store window, usually decorated lavishly with hardbacks was decorated only by orange paint. In the centre was a single sheet of paper written on forlornly with what she identified as the shop keeper’s own hand. Moving closer to read it, she gasped as she saw the contents.

Due to several conversations with her grandchildren and studies of local newspapers, she knew quite well of the latest phenomena that was sweeping the nation. This so called ‘internet’. What she did not, however know was the reasoning behind it. The point of it. What possessed people to spend their lives staring at a screen and furthermore being content? If that was the new generation then she wondered for the world. It was the internet that had caused the closure of her favourite shop - though not personally. As the letter said, it was through internet book sales. She did not need to read the rest, only needed to go home.

Two days after this event occurred, her grandchildren visited bearing sweets from the supermarket. Her eldest granddaughter, more acute than the others, was the first to inquire as to her mood. Much soured by the knowledge her favourite place was gone, she was confused by her granddaughter’s reaction - upon hearing the story, the fifteen year old erupted into laughter and told her that there was quite an easy solution to the problem in the village library.

It was through desperation alone that she followed her granddaughter there - never in all of her years of buying presents had one arrived late. In the back of her mind, she debated the various scenarios that could take place in the library - perhaps a sale of some description?

As they arrived, her granddaughter immediately requested a computer and bewildered she followed. She knew now that this was something new and in the back of her mind a suspicious strand flew. Typing in her details, her granddaughter beamed and asked what it was that she was looking for, leaving the old woman to realise that she was trapped. Trapped between the solid rock of no presents and callous internet. Internet which had thrown her into this mess in the first place.

Sighing inwardly, she pulled a chair from the next table and flopped into the seat. There was nothing left she could do. Reciting the names of several books and absently gazing at the screen while her granddaughter swiftly typed the names into the machine. It was a marvellous thing, she could not help but think - filled with colour and movement from various screens as her granddaughter searched, appearing like some kind of Siren before her. Her mesmerisation, however, was drawn to a close as her granddaughter called to her. That only one name was coming up to sell the books she wanted. Rather than recite it, she showed the web page onscreen.

It was the website of her beloved tea store, established the same day as the young man took over. Although she did not understand at first, eventually she took in that it sold the same books from the shop, but cheaper and in brighter colours. The authors of such masterpieces would surely have turned in their grave to see their fine works bargained off like cheap meat - the same way that she turned in her chair to leave the library.

Perhaps it will come as no surprise to you that nobody got any presents that year.

Incomplete

Transparent, with no finger tips,
Man made you
Just to be
Dependent.
And so I wonder
When was I
Intoxicated
By this mechanical Eden?
Though scentless,
Shapeless,
Without a soul
And no door to walk inside,
I am sheltered
Within this paradise
Of artifice.

Concerning Milk

As I write this, I am wrapped up in a blanket and supping hot chocolate - fighting off flu.

Fresher's week has come and gone, leaving behind a legacy of nasty viruses. Two weeks into the term and classes are all ready looking empty.

I never realised how much I loved my bed until today.

Transistorised, and anodised

I had my first lesson of the second year today - Medieval and Renaissance Literature, i.e. Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales. When I read on the reading list that we were going to study him, I was neither worried nor excited. I studied the Wife of Bath in college, but gained little from it as the teacher I had was very much a joker. While I liked him as a person and found him entertaining, hardly anything he taught me sunk in,as he spent a great deal of his teaching time poking fun at the material. It was not at all fun going into an exam room knowing nothing but a handful of 'handy' anecdotes.

Influences

Here's an idea I got from Dan and stole - an account of my influences. As writers, we are often asked to explain them and the opportunity to get them in writing is rare. So...here they are (you never know, it might surprise you):

I don't remember having a specific favourite book as a child - I loved reading and would engross myself in any book i could find. There are so many books and authors from then that have influenced me - Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, E. B. White. In secondary school, i talked the librarian into letting me read Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected - she believed a book of such macabre brilliance would affect an eleven year old. I believe she was right, for I was never quite the same.

I began to read Harry Potter, on the other hand, at around ten and loved the fantasy aspect of it. Fantasy stories carry a flame for me, as reality in my opinion is quite a boring thing. When i was about twelve, I read 'The Heartstone Odyssey', a story about an Indian dancer named Chandra, who sets out on a mission to find the heartstone for the talking mice who request it of her - a beautifully charming book that I read countless times over the course of my school career. The more I wrote as I grew up, the more I combined normality with something quite impossible. I don't remember at what age I decided I wanted to be a writer -wherever I went I carried a pen and paper and that has always been the consensus. Before I could write, I drew all the time.

Writing for a very long time offers advantages, such as the ability to rifle through scripts produced years before. I know for a fact that I have never really been frightened by the notion of violence, rather, curious of it - because one of my earliest stories involved an axe murderer. I used to be a great animal lover and would go to great lengths to involve a talking horse in the plot. Much of this is down to the fact that at the time I was writing, I was quite young and influenced by shows such as Starla and the Jewel Riders (I miss that show >:) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

When I was in my late teens, I heard for the first time 'Bring me to Life' by Evanescence - back then, it was the anthem to my life and moved me - the lyrics spoke out to me as if I was the only one who heard them.




Evanescence became and still are, one of my favourite bands, I fell in love with their mystical sound. 'Bring me to life' had reached out to me, and now each song spoke to me personally.



Evanescence was one of my first favourite bands and inpspired me to write poetry.

By this point, I was 14 and heavily into the 'mysterious', 'gothic' and 'horror'. I went to my local library, where the librarian recommended Edgar Allan Poe.



The copy of Poe our library had was very battered indeed. Anyway, upon inspection I learned that it contained 'The Raven', a verse I had heard about but never got around to reading. Once I did, I felt like I had skipped the enlightenment level all together. Within days I had scoured our library shelves for everything I could find.

After leaving school, I entered college and began to read the classics. In my first year, i studied 'Wuthering Heights' and 'Frankenstein' and loved them both. In the second, our teacher gave us a booklet with several stories to analyse inside it- one of which was 'The Company of Wolves' by Angela Carter.




Angela Carter has been very influential on my writing in recent years, a favourite author. Her writing is profoundly original, making use of magic realism and science fiction, writing the darker counter parts of Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Little Red Riding Hood and Puss in Boots. Carter skillfully wove themes of gothicism, eroticism, feminism, violence, surrealism, myth and contemporary society into her work. Reading her work gave me high hopes for the careful tapestry I might someday be able to produce.

Up until this point, I haven't mentioned manga, mostly because it didn't enter my life until very late when compared with everything else I have mentioned so far. I didn't pick up a manga novel until I was 16 at least, and even then it was just to ask my friend why the heck it was backwards. Even so, manga and anime are very firm influences in my writing because they are, without a doubt, one of my favourite genres. Mangas such as Death Note and Immortal Rain reinforce what Poe and Carter's writing first defined.

Jumping on the bandwagon

From what I've read, a lot of people are writing about their new houses, so I thought I would jump on the proverbial band wagon. Only a little, since I'm not actually living in a house. Out of everyone I've spoken to, I'm the only person who has lived in a flat again, which I find odd, but *shrug*.

The people I am living with this year (all two of them) are all right I guess. Out of the two of them, I've only met one of them once. I like this arrangement. She's from Liverpool and is a third year. Other than the fact that she studies fashion and enjoys kareoke (¬¬), that's about all I know about her.

Our flat is on the ground floor, unpacking should have been a pleasant experience. But nooooooo.... The douchebags who lived here last year had, to all intents and purposes, trashed the place and the landlords had just painted over everything. Our hoover was broken, we had an iron (no ironing board), my bathroom to be was not clean and neither was the kitchen, the microwave was broken, the internet lead was missing - my mother, let me tell you was having palpitations. It took ages to clean everything, (and everything is clean now) - but the chaos wasn't over.

A couple of days later I was woken up by a car alarm at quarter to 6 in the morning and ended up with an awful headache. Because of the headache, I went to make myself a cup of tea to help myself get back to sleep, forgetting to lock my bedroom door on the way back from the kitchen.

Of course, on any other day, for anybody else, this would never have happened ¬¬.

A few hours later, the door to the flat was flung open and one of the rent collectors came storming in, thudding on everyone's doors. Apparently, someone in our flat hadn't paid all of their rent and they were coming to get it? And apparently they didn't know exactly which room it was, hence the THUD THUD THUD. Of course my bedroom door wasn't locked and of course they came right in DX.

I was only half asleep and all of a sudden they were there. My reaction went along the lines of 'huhWAAHHHH'

Anyway, as it turns out, they were after the room next to mine, which was empty anyway. Bloody typical. And it doesn't end there. Oh no.

On the day we unpacked, I noticed a new building behind our flats and went to check it out - my Dad thinking I was being retarded or lost or something, called me back. Anyway, these past few days I've been searching for a Council Tax exemption form and thinking that I was all of the above since the building I got it from before seemed to have disappeared. I must have seriously travelled all over campus looking for this stupid exemption form (seriously, things a student will do for money off). Anyway, in the end I checked at enquiries and got redirected back to my flat - remember that building I was told not to check out? Turns out that it's the new finance department - got my loan scanned as well while I was there.

You'd think my parents would apologise, though, for dragging me away when I could have made this discovery ago - wouldn't you? Apparently not. The first thing my mother said was: You stupid twonk.

I said 'I love the boy'

In blinded words
I spoke your name
Just like an
Abandoned child.
In the sand
I drew your face
And made it mine.
It isn’t real
It isn’t true
How could I ever
Acknowledge you?
He left me here
To dance and sing
That face I drew
It isn’t him
He found my porcelain
My soul
Shattered both
Made it so
That I should sit
Upon the sands
And trace my finger there.
Painting masterpieces
With a single broken
Finger nail
You came to me
On the shifting tides
I said
‘I love the boy’
Ever lasting?
Ever changing?
I know you are not mine.

Back

So summer is over and I am back. The new flat is bigger than the old one - the bedrooms are twice as big and everything seems the wrong way round. It was trashed when I got here, the ironing board was missing, the hoover was broken and the microwave didn't work; it was like the previous tenants had well and truly destroyed the place before they left and the landlord's answer was to paint over the mess. There was even a chunk missing from the wall in the kitchen, plastered over.

My flatmates seem okay - there are only two of them so far, both of them third year fashion students. It's odd, because they make absolutely no noise. I know this is probably tempting fate, but it's weirding me out. O_o

Haven't got my timetable yet, so I don't know what expect about anything. I've spent most of my time so far wrapped up in bed watching Ugly Betty and eating crisps. I hope my timetable isn't too bad, if it is, then I might actually cry.

Little Miss Muffet

Little miss muffet,
Frozen in habit
Alone on your throne
Like a lost little rabbit
Your coat is unruffled
Your hair is pristine
Your mother thinks that I
Am something unclean
Stroking your lips with
Honey nectar, I see
Smiling, you’ll call me
And say I am ‘Thief’
This spider, this spider
He held you too close
Run, run Miss Muffet
Tell them your woes.

Silent Sally Sue

Dusty doll upon my desk
My dear old Sally Sue
She hasn’t sang me lyrics yet -
Hummed a merry tune
And yet somehow, I know she would
If only I asked her to
Dusty friend upon my desk
My silent Sally Sue.

Dusty doll upon my desk
My faithful Sally Sue
Her lips are sealed together
By some sort of splendid glue
Forever in the likeness
Of a girl of twenty two
That dusty friend upon my desk
My silent Sally Sue.

Dusty doll upon my desk
I named her Sally Sue
She doesn’t tell me stories
Of a world I never knew
And yet I often wonder
Where might they take me to?
The one with all the answers
Is my silent Sally Sue

Another Meme, folks

Mainly because I have nothing interesting to talk about.

1. Name: Sayiu :P
2. Birthday: 18/ 04/ 89
3. Where do you live: In your consciousness. Also Whitters
4: What are you studying/What are you working as: I study Creative Writing/ English. I've never had a job (for many reasons)
5. What makes you happy: *Shrugs* Food and anime, in any order.
6. What are you listening to now/have listened to last: Errrr.... I think it was 'Before the Dawn' By Evanescence (Very beautiful song BTW)
7. What is particularly good/bad about my blog: Good-wise, it contains most of my writing. Bad wise, it can occasionally be very candid, more than it is meant to be.
8. An interesting fact about you: Other than the fact I have never been in employment? Err...I used to play the bass guitar.
9. Are you in love/have a crush at the moment: Maybe
10. Favorite place to be: Whitters Wood
11. Favorite lyric: I have so many, among my favourites are:

I've been looking in a mirror for so long
That I've come to believe my soul's on the other side.
All the little pieces falling, shatter
Shards of me too sharp to put back together;
Too small to matter,
But big enough to cut me into so many little pieces
If I try to touch her

'Breathe no more' by Evanescence

We used to swim the same moonlight waters
Oceans away from the wakeful day
My fall will be for you
My love will be in you
If you be the one to cut me
I will bleed forever

Scent of the sea before the waking of the world
Brings me to thee
Into the blue memory

My fall will be for you
My love will be in you
If you be the one to cut me
I will bleed forever

'Ghost love score' By Nightwish

Is it true what they say,
Are we too blind to find a way?
Fear of the unknown cloud our hearts today.
Come into my world,
See through my eyes.
Try to understand,
Don't want to lose what we have

We've been dreaming
But who can deny,
It's the best way of living
Between the truth and the lies

See who I am,
Break through the surface.
Reach for my hand,
Let's show them that we can
Free our minds and find a way.
The world is in our hands,
This is not the end.

'See who I am' by Within Temptation

12. Best time of the year: Halloween
13. Weirdest food you like: People always look at me funny when I say I like sushi o_o

RECOMMEND
1. A film: Pan's Labyrinth ^^b
2. A book: The Immortal Rain Manga XD
3. A song: Ghost Love Score by nightwish
Ghost Love Score - Nightwish

4: A band: Within Temptation, Ikimono Gakari, Evanescence and Nightwish. That was Four, I know, but I couldn't choose.

Random meme

HAVE YOU EVER---------
* Ever been so drunk you blacked out:

No

* Put a body part on fire for amusement:

Toenails :D DANCE DANCE

* Been in a car accident:

Almost D8

* Been hurt emotionally:

Is there anyone who hasn't?

* Had an imaginary friend:

XDDDDDDDD, His name was Buster ^^

* Cried during a movie:

Nope

* Had a crush on a teacher:

D8 No

* Ever thought an animated character was hot?:

I'm an anime fan, it goes without saying

* Had a New Kids On the Block tape:

Nope

* Been on stage:

Yup, singing and dancing [Bet that's a shocker]

* Cut your hair:

What, myself????

-----------------FAVORITES-------------
* Shampoo:

Dove moisturising shampoo

* Color:
Depends on the mood.

* Day/Night:

Depends on the mood.

* Summer/Winter:

Winter, though not when it's slippy ¬¬

* Lace or satin:

Satin, lace is itchy DX

* Cartoon Characters:

L, Tamaki, kyouya, Kaiba, [blathers on for hours with other random anime chars]

* Food:

pizza, sushi, ice cream, chocolate, cheesecake, berries[blathers on again]

* Fave Movie:

Spirited Away

* Fave Ice Cream:

Bohemian Raspberry

* Fave Subject:

Creative Writing and Dream Study

* Fave Drink:

Cola prolly


------------------RIGHT NOW------------
* Wearing:

Clothes

* Eating:

Megabytes

* Drinking:

I wish

* Thinking about:

What i'm going to be doing later

* Listening to:

Librarians

* Talking to:

Myself

* Watching:

A computer screen

---------IN THE LAST 24 HRS--------
* Cried:

Me? you lieeeeeeee

* Worn a skirt:

For bed maybe

* Met someone new:

In Whitters?

* Cleaned your room:

AHAHAHAHAHAHA, now i know you're lying.

* Done laundry:

Mother did. She believes my skills outshine hers.

* Drove a car:

I have a bus pass, there's not much point.


----DO YOU BELIEVE IN------
* Yourself:

Of course, perception is reality.

* Friends:

What a loaded question O.O

* Santa Claus:

Nope.

* Destiny/Fate:

Yup.

* Angels:

Nope.

* Ghosts:

My Daddy has seen one *nod nod*

* UFO's:

Nope
------LOVE----------
* Bf/gf:

Not at the moment, had one last year though

* Ever been in love:

Yarrr, some say too easily.

* Cheated on anyone:

O.O I'd never do that. [had it done on me ¬¬]

* Ever done a "drunken stupid mistake":

Can't get drunk.

* Ever had a lesbian/gay experience:

Define experience

-----TELL THE TRUTH!!-----------
Would you ever:
* Pay for sex:

No

* Strip for money:

I have standards

* Play strip poker:

If i knew the rules

* Work in McDonalds:

No

* Lie:

Everybody lies.

* Bitch about someone:

Everybody bitches. I'm human.

* What's the best feeling in the world:

Ignorance

Coffee shop, where art thou?

I received some wonderful news recently that made me jump for joy - Starbucks, the megalomaniac coffee chain is finally disappearing from our high streets. I cannot express how happy this made me - particularly since McDonalds is taking their customers.

It goes without saying that coffee shops are so far reachingly middle class nowadays. As a hot chocolate fan myself, yes, I am more than a little biased on this matter, but it's always baffled me why even our smallest towns need more than one in a short radius.

My local town is a historic one, with a medieval market and lots of shops where my Dad went when he was a school boy. There's a miniature sweet shop on the corner, where we used to call on our journeys to and from college. There was only one shop we never explored - the one coffee shop in town, which day in, day out, was filled with what we called disapprovings, sipping their coffee.

All of a sudden, the historic shops began to disappear - a music shop that had survived since the 50s, in which my Dad bought his first CDs, disappeared in favour of a Costa Coffee - just three shops up from the 'disapprovings'. A couple of months later, they demolished the pizza hut in favour of another one. The final blow came at the end of my college year when a book shop fell victim to the foul stench of coffee.

There was a book shop in town - the kind where you can be lost for hours in winding bookshelves, in the midst of titles you have never seen before and will never seen again. It seems odd to me they reduced this shop to a meagre coffee shop; particularly since it had a tea shop on the premises in the first place.

Coffee shops have always been of great confusion to me, possibly because my folks live on the stuff and so biased I may be, but I can't help but confess that the news of Starbucks' imminent decline brought a very large smile to my face.

It's a Weird World

It's a strange world we live in.

In a bid to persuade my father to cut out the coupons for the classic costume drama DVDs free this past few weeks, there's been a lot of newspapers lying around. And since they were lying around, of course I had to read them.

I am disgusted by so called 'feminists' all but legalising murder, at the expense of the percentage of women genuinely abused. They paint a queer picture of women - victims, of evil men, who seek to use and abuse us. These women, though true in their original intentions are NOT feminists. Truth be told, they are the bottom of the feminist barrel. What kind of feminist would paint woman as inferior to men, when the point of the movement was to prove otherwise?

And otherwise, in our society, is so often the solemn truth. Though men are usually envisioned the violent sex, it is women nowadays who commit violent crimes. I read recently of a young woman, jailed for several years, who held down a woman her own age while her [male] friends sexually abused her. I'll never forget the time my aunt [several times beaten by her drunken husband] admitted to threatening to stab him whenever he was too violent.

My views on the matter are thus - one sex should never be greater than the other. We were created equal, and that is how we were intended to remain. All this talk of a female entirely cabinet is folly, it always was going to be - the point of the cabinet was to have a range of views from different stations (or at least it was supposed to be). A female entirely cabinet, though romantic, is completely irrational and unfounded. Women in modern day society ARE more violent than they were before, through alcohol and the 'ladette' culture.

It is true that women are becoming more boyish - to the point where it is affecting our personal lives. Now we women have the right to work alongside men, we have laid aside our femininity for the sake of a [lesser] wage. While we become more and more masculine, pushing off having children, getting married later and later in our lives, the higher ups have the brainwave to bring out cosmetics and [?] tights for men.

Am I the only one thinking huh?

Declined??? WTF

Has everybody else received their reading list? I checked mine recently and was depressed (on an economic level) to see how many books were on it, mostly books I've never even heard of (which isn't so rare, since most of the books I read are pretty well known). Anyway, I scoured Amazon shortly after, picking up every book I find (in the end I got all of them, minus 2-3, for about 30£). I even managed to get a copy of the Great Gatsby for 1p, which I thought was some pretty darn good shopping.

Anyway, I got an email through this morning saying that all payments have been DECLINED, much to my utter gobsmackification. At first I was just confused, but about ten minutes later I realised why. The card I registered on Amazon is about four months expired and I needed to register the new one. It's all sorted now, thank goodness, I think I'd cry if after all the time I'd spent comparing sites was wasted.

Speaking of shopping, I went to Tesco with my Dad this morning and was taken aback by just how meticulously organised our list making skills have become. We started making lists in the back when, when my mother came shopping with us and got so distracted the offers on show that she forgot what we were supposed to be buying. Now our lists have numbered items, in the order we'll find them on the shelves o_0. I wasn't sure whether to think it was amazing or extremely sad.

Reading meme

I've been reading a lot this summer (Has anyone read The Memory Keeper's Daughter? - my mother and I have been arguing over it all week) - hence why this meme seems all the more poignant. Basically, bolden the ones you've read, underline the ones you love, italicise the ones you want to read.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (Read it for English, I didn't like it that much though ¬¬)
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (We are the Deeeeeeead)
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare (I've read some of them)
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (A friend at home has read it three times, it's always intrigued me)
25. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (WHY THE HELL DIDN'T THEY START THE FILMS AT THE BEGINNING WITH THE GUINEA PIGS AND THE POOLS AND THE MAGIC RINGS?)
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (Why is the Lion, the Witch and the Wrdrobe lower on the list than the complete works?)
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres (I've met the author and seen the film - twas rubbish - havent read the book though)
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell (Four legs good, Two legs baad)
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (I was ten, it made me cry)
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro (lol we all end up the Remains of the day)
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White OMFG I loved this when i was little - had to skip the first chapter though :'<
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (aDidn't read it when I was supposed to, now i think it's pretty good)
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

36/100 \o/ I'm better read than I thought ^^

D8 BuT tEh RaBbIt!

Let it be known, that I now believe in the power of the lucky rabbits foot. On the way here, my Dad almost flattened one, and it miraculously survived! Thinking about it, most of the wildlife in Whitters seems to be quite lacking in brain power at the moment. It was only yesterday that my mother was telling about the pheasant that ambushed her while she was trimming the grass in our garden. Flew up into her face, all because it was frightened to death of the carrier bag she uses to scare off the wood pigeons. ¬¬. We're not even sure why it was there; in Whitters, the pheasants live on the side of the village. I can't help but think it was lost. Mother asked grandad - he was a farmer in his youth - and he says they're probably roosting. So great - more pheasants, on completely the wrong side of Whitters, smack in the middle of Fox territory ^^b.

It's not only the pheasants that ambushed my mother of late. You all have them, don't you? Weird neighbours; the kind you see on Escape to the country, who're dead set on retiring to the midlands and setting up a vegetable patch? Enter Chicken George. For years he's been stealing land, getting rid of the horses at the top of our garden and of late we wondered why. Well, it all became clear when i was summoned awake on Sunday morning by my mother's screams. Peeking through my mum and Dad's window, I was much amused to spot four and twenty chickens flapping round the garden - my mum flapping with them, spade in hand, yelling 'GAREEEEEEE'. It was like chicken run - only funnier.

Seems Chicken George moved to the midlands and stole all that land - for a chicken coop.

I remember (Reflections of the First Year)

It's been a crazy year, what with adjustments and workload, I suppose the best way to fully conclude is the same way I did here. So here goes...

I remember the box of food in our front room expanding in size and worrying what would happen if I didn't get in.

I remember being ectastic I was accepted for all the wrong reasons.

I remember cooking my first meal and proudly phoning my mother to tell her all about it.

I remember spending all or at least most of my time on a cushion chair in Pizza Hut.

I remember being worried my Chii ears wouldn't arrive.

I remember standing in my kitchen with Laney, putting onions on cocktail sticks.

I remember one of the first creative writing classes and the flush of despair (zetsubou shitaaaaa) when I didnt have any important objects to put on the table.

I remember having my picture taken for the Derbyshire times to celebrate my achievement and having my hair blown all over the shant ¬_¬

I remember the first (and prolly only) time I visited Mosh.

I remember visiting my friends at Christmas and wondering if I had changed as much as they had.

I remember my Carley rage.

I remember the first time I visited the oriental supermarket.

I remember my first taste of Pocky.

I remember the first assignment I did and how worried I was that it would fail.

I remember the first assignment party.

I remember there being sheep.

I remember being a psychic over animal transformation.

Emotionally blackmailing the poetic license since 1792

Proof that my talents lie not only in the literary field, but the visual one too.

Of Pizza and Pebbles

Our trip to Zizzi's today was preceded by a short, sharp shower of rain. Laney panicked that she would not be able to straighten her hair in time, only to poke me on the shoulder on the corner of her accommodation building as I fought most ungracefully with what can only be described as a mangled umbrella. Sod's law states that of course it should rain drastically on the day we decide to do something that involves going outside.

By the time we actually found the place (I had terrible visions of us turning the corner at Fenwicks, and getting completely lost), it wasn't actually open. Luckily, the nice waitress lady let us in anyway and we ordered drinks (thankfully not water).

Discussion fell to Laney's recent trip to the Somme, which you can read about here; we soon found humour in our personal fail powers. Returning home from France, Laney's coach broke down half an hour away from town, a seemingly recurring event. This brought a smile to my face, as I also have extremely bad luck on motorways, once getting stuck for three hours on what should have been a twenty minute journey.

Hmmm...Laney has the power to stop coaches. I have the power to stop the motorway...What is this; Captain Planet?

Anyway, most of the reason we were in Zizzi's was because of the coupon my dad got for me; i.e it is not the kind of restaurant I would otherwise have heard of. The reason for this became very clear as soon as I sat down and ordered drinks. The glasses our drinks came in were ice cold, and the waitress bringing the drink filled it from the glass in front of us. (the fact that i'm impressed by this shows just how primitive i am).

It was a very oddly decorated place, pretty, but odd. Behind my chair there were a number of pebbles, which if anything, were reminiscent of a feng shui - strange to see in an Italian restaurant.




The strange decoration didn't end at the tables, it also extended to the bathrooms. On our way out we had difficulty finding them because of the odd signs on the doors.



It took us a good fifteen seconds to figure out from the sign on the men's toilets - the same, but upside down - that it's actually a W for woman. But seriously, in what way does that make you think 'toilet'?

At the back of the restaurant there's a giant firey oven, where the chefs stone bake your pizza. It's directly out in the open and if you're seated close enough you can watch your food cooking (wanted a pic of this, but neither of us dared get close enough - which is a shame because it really was enthralling - I've never seen anything like that before).

On the subject of the food we devoured mercilessly? Well worth the effort ^^

Possible Powers of the Magic Water

POSSIBLE POWER NUMBER ONE

It could be a Veritaserum! What better way to get an honest review from your customers?


POSSIBLE POWER NUMBER TWO

It could be a ploy to convince customers that they take an active interest in the field of diet schemes.


POSSIBLE POWER NUMBER THREE

It could be a transforming potion for malignant customers. One sip and they'll turn into a buffalo - both economical and satisfying.


POSSIBLE POWER NUMBER FOUR

It could be infused with an extremely powerful drug that opens your imagination. (That would explain the price at least)


POSSIBLE POWER NUMBER FIVE

It could be a lifechanging reminder of the statement...'The best things in life definitely aren't free, especially not water'.


POSSIBLE POWER NUMBER SIX

...Maybe it actually is gin.

Shadows

I leave the flat soon; it doesn't seem so long since I first arrived here. At the time I was in two minds about the whole thing; I was happy about arriving, about leaving Whitters and taking the first steps towards becoming someone better, but at the same time I wasn't happy at all. No matter how often I complain of how little there is in Whitters, it is a far cry from the truth - everything I hold dear is there.

By coming here I would be far away from my family, from the friends I had come to know, from everything I had come to love in eighteen years of life. Whitters does not have a shopping center or internet access, but it does have so much more.

My shelves are all but empty now, resemblant of the flat much of the time. Three of four flatmates have long left and I assumed i would be long gone before the fourth returned. A few days ago, I was watching a film when the door to the flat sounded, along with voices that still sounded distant to me, possibly because I'd been away from them for so long. It wasnt until the next day and an investigation of the fridge that I understood who it was that had returned. It was Carley and from the looks of things, she wasn't going to be leaving any time soon.

I go to an Italian restaurant tomorrow with Laney; my dad found a coupon in the newspaper for 50% off main courses, which wasn't surprising, considering he works in a newsagents. Anyway, having looked at the restaurant webpage, my opinions are entirely positive, though confused by the pricing system of the drinks. According to the menu, the most expensive soft drink is water, at 3.50. Cola, fanta and even gin are cheaper! I cannot help but wonder if it has magical powers.

Concerning music

There are a great number of things I call a sanctuary in my life: my books, my films... of all of these, however only a couple of things were established before birth. During my early childhood, my mother adored telling me how I would kick in time to Gary Numan - fitting, as my parents were avid concertgoers.

When my dad got me my first CD player I was about 8 years old; up until then I had been hanging around his with my Spice Girls CDs, waiting for him to finish with his Death metal so I could listen to 'Wannabe'. (I didn't mind this very much, he let me look through his lyric booklets, which almost always were filled with naughty words.) I remember him plugging it into my room and telling me that if I had it on so loud that the neighbours complained he would pack my new toy away in the attic. I considered it an instuction in responsibility, though thinking about it now - he probably just didn't want to hear the Spice Girls anymore.

Taking his instructions into account, I was careful to keep my CD player on the lowest volume as possible; careful to analyse the beam that was our attic (just in case our neighbours decided my music somehow was too loud).

Recently, Laney and I got into a debate over our intrument of preference: I prefer the piano whereas Laney prefers the violin.

The truth is, I've always loved piano - back from when I first got my CD player.
Our school had few resources, so made an effort to teach students classical instruments. Our village is known locally for it's brass band and drama association (leave the county and no one has heard). The intrument I loved the most, though was the piano. Our headmaster stood at the front of the hall in assembly and used one to play the hymns and somehow it mystified me, as if somehow it were jumping to life and singing along with us.

i even joined band, not because I was any good, but because I wanted to stand close to the piano. Of course, this proved a bad idea - I was so focussed on the music of the keys that my own performance fell to a shambles and I left within a month.



In my final years of school, a friend of mine began to play the violin. I only ever heard her play once and decided I wasnt as enchanted by her performance as I should have been; to me the violin sounded tearful - its performance sounded like a sobbing kind of mantra.



I would love to learn to play the keys; I hear my grandmother played, so it's in my blood at least. They say it's never too late.

A comedy of sirens

seems only yesterday I blogged about the numerous alarms that go off in my flat every morning. It's been wonderful lately, as my flat mates are in the midst of moving out, so the flat - far from its usual chaos - has been silent.

Last night was the final Abridged evening of the fresher year, complete with crispie cake and pizza. Walking into the kitchen I almost died, as for the first time in weeks one of my flatmates was in there - looking just as surprised to see me.

I don't suppose it mattered much, as Laney and I only left my room to fetch the pizza, and Kajal (my flatmate) spent most of the time packing. This morning, I was woken by my classtime (7am) alarm, followed shortly afterwards by the echoey sounds of Leona Lewis blasted from across the hall.

When the music went off, I thought the flat would be quiet, but apparently not: My phone alarm decided to signal right at that moment.

It's ironic all right.

If War of the Worlds were Ouran...

In my Previous Post, I failed to specify the specific method Laney and I used while revising. Whilst watching our various anime shows, we compared the characters to characters from the novel.

E.g. Ouran High School Host Club



NARRATOR WOULD BE MORI: Mori is a hardworking guy, focussed on the care he has for Hunny-senpai, just like the narrator is focussed on the love he has for his wife.

CURATE WOULD BE TAMAKI: They both overreact and are quite dimwitted in behaviour, despite showing clear intelligence - they are both also extremely fanatical about their food.

ARTILLERYMAN WOULD BE KYOUYA: They are both interested in personal gain and profit and quick to forge a plan.

MARTIANS WOULD BE HUNNY: ...They both wield odd feeding habits and have both been accused of inhabiting another planet.

THE NARRATOR'S WIFE WOULD BE HARUHI: She is extremely domesticated, but on an equal par ot the men around her - just like Narrator's wife.

THE ACCOMPANIMENT OF THE NARRATOR;S BROTHER WOULD BE THE HITACHIIN TWINS: Because there's never one without the other (and they have been known to cross dress).

Freedom ^_^

It seems weird, thinking about packing my things to go home for the summer - doesn't seem so long since I stayed over night last year. Things were so much different then, I was a different person - everything has altered and fitted into routine, only to uproot into disorientation again next September. I wonder what kind of person I'll be next term - or if I'll even change at all?

I am not happy the way things are now; looking in the mirror, I do not see me the way I should. It is the ghostly face of a toddler, abandoned among the crowd. Having chased butterflies into a strange new territory, every face seems frightening, unfamiliar and grey.

I woke a few days ago to find my bottom lip deeply bitten and numb and my limbs aching - I'm not quite sure of the cause; whether it was a violent dream or a seizure.

I did not have much time to dwell on this fact, as I had my novel exam the next day and needed to revise. Laney came over in the afternoon and (in between anime episodes) we discussed War of the Worlds. The exam was this morning - not nearly as eventful as the poetry test (not sure if I'm disappointed about that or not).

The scene we got to analyse was tthe one where the Artilleryman speaks of his plans for the human race. I remember writing about imperialism and darwinism (and possibly gothicism, though it may only have been an annotation).

Now it is over, along with my Fresher year, leaving me with a tonne of free time that I wished I had before. It will be interesting to see just how I do divide my time in the final draftings.

Characters Meme

Write down twelve of your own characters and then answer the questions - NO LOOKING AT THE QUESTIONS BEFORE ANSWERING!! GOT IT? GOOD!


Zeh chars

1. Gurda Von Illyich
-Technically neither living nor dead. She is the ‘boss’ character, revived when her ‘shell’ dies.

2. Isobel Read
- A pirate wench, who toys with witchcraft.

3. Vladimir Von Illyich
-A Romanian lord - believed dead by all contemporaries. He also toys with witchcraft, for the purpose of his people’s safety.

4. Ileana Von Illyich/Lily
-The product of Isobel Read and Vladimir Von Illyich’s brief time together, thrown into poverty after her father’s supposed death.

5. Robert Tully
-A close friend of Vladimir Von Illyich and a close friend of the family,

6. Sylvie Cross
-An apothecary’s daughter, religious and pure.

7. Carver Cross
-The village apothecary. Raised in the north of England, he unknowingly married the daughter of Isobel Read.

8. Freya Seinfeld
-One of Isobel Read’s coven, Freya hails from Germany.

9. Frederick Lundy
-A member of Vladimir Von Illyich’s council, he also a close friend of the family, though holds dark secrets of his own.

10. Cassiopeia Whitley
-Sylvie Cross’s mother, who died of an illness while she was very young.

11. Rosaline Hart
- Another member of Isobel Read’s coven.

12. Elspeth Moore
-An accident prone member of Isobel Read’s coven.




#1. Who would make a better college prof.? 6 ( Sylvie) or 11 (Rosaline)?

Rosaline - Sylvie is only about fourteen with hardly any experience of life. Though, out of the two of them, I deem Sylvie the most trustworthy - so *shrug*.

#2. Do you think 2 ( Isobel) is hot? How hot?

She was certainly beautiful once; I wouldn’t say hot, certainly not to her face.

#3. 12 (Elspeth) sends 8 (Freya) out on a mission. What is it? Does it succeed?

Errr….Elspeth is the ship’s chef, so it would probably be to fetch some ingredients for the next meal. Freya’s not that focussed so she’d probably miss the meal, leaving Elspeth to take the flack.

#4. What is or would be 9’s (Lundy) favorite book?

Marquis de Sade stuff ^^ - he’s a dark horse.

#5. Would it make more sense for 2 (Isobel) to swear fealty to 6 (Sylvie), or the other way around?

The other way round, Sylvie is naïve and Isobel is pretty quick witted, so Sylvie is more likely to be fooled into obeying. Plus Isobel is SCARY.

#6. For some reason, 5 (Tully) is looking for a roommate. Should (s)he share a studio apartment with 9 (Lundy) or with 10 (Cassiopeia)?

Lundy! They’re old friends!

#7. 2 (Isobel), 7 (Carver), and 12 (Elspeth) have dinner together. Where do they go, and what do they discuss?

Well Elspeth would be cooking, so it would be a masterpiece of lamb chops, mulberry wine and apple pie, all served on Isobel’s ship and punctuated by insults. They’d probably be discussing world politics.

#8. 3 (Vladimir) challenges 10 (Cassiopeia) to a duel. What happens?

Cassiopeia seduces Vladimir and snatches a win by kicking him when he‘s not looking.

#9. If 1 (Gurda) stole 8’s (Freya) most precious possession, how would she/he get it back?

She wouldn’t.

#10. Suggest a title for a story in which 7 (Carver) and 12 (Elspeth) both attain what they most desire.

Brains, Brains, Brains.

#11. What kind of plot device would you use if you wanted 4 (Lily) and 1 (Gurda) to work together?

Demonic possession, most likely, there’s no way Lily would work with Gurda.

#12. If 7 (Carver) visited you for the weekend, how would you get along?

I’d get him to teach me how to be an awesome apothecary, and in return take him to see a movie, followed by a meal of his choice.

#13. If you could command 3 (Vladimir) to perform any one task or service for you, what would it be?

LOL - don’t tempt me, the man is prettyful….

#14. Does anyone on your friends list write or draw 11 (Rosaline)?

Err…nooo…

#15. If 2 (Isobel) had to choose sides between 4 (Lily) and 5 (Tully), which would it be?

Lily, hands down. Vladimir was the only guy that Isobel loved and she will always sanctify that truth.

#16. What might 10 (Cassiopeia) shout while charging into battle?

Generic insults.

#17. If you chose a song to represent 8 (Freya), which song would you choose?

Jennifer Knapp, Martyrs and Thieves.

#18. 1 (Gurda), 6 (Sylvie), and 12 (Elspeth) are having dim sum at a Chinese restaurant. There is only one scallion pancake left, and they all reach for it at the same time. Who gets to eat it?

Well, Gurda has possession of Sylvie, and Elspeth is too polite to let Sylvie go without, so both Gurda and Sylvie, technically.

#19. What might be a good pick-up line for 2 (Isobel) to use on 10 (Cassiopeia)?

Isobel doesn’t flirt, especially not with Cassiopeia. But, if you must…

‘You are an oasis in me desert o’life.’

#20. What would 5 (Tully) most likely be arrested for?

Wasting police time.

#21. What is 6’s (Sylvie) secret?

She’s a witch.

#22. If 11 (Rosaline) and 9 (Lundy) were racing to a destination, who would get there first?

Rosa - because she is the most likely to cheat.

#23. If you had to walk home through a bad neighborhood late at night, would you feel safer in the company of 7 (Carver) or 8 (Freya)?

Freya; Carver’s trade is his apothecary shop, he doesn’t know any self defence. Freya is an established witch. Though, she would also probably run off and leave me too.

#24. 1 (Gurda) and 9 (Lundy) reluctantly team up to save the world from the threat posed by 4’s (Lily) sinister secret organization. 11 (Rosaline) volunteers to help them, but it is later discovered that she is actually a spy for 4 (Lily). Meanwhile, 4 (Lily) has kidnapped 12 (Elspeth) in an attempt to force their surrender. Following the wise advice of 5 (Tully), they seek out 3 (Vladimir), who gives them what they need to complete their quest. What title would you give this fic?

Just another day in the loony bin

One hundred minus a day

Yesterday my parents were here - on one of their annual visits. It's quite amusing really; I've known for months that the reason behind them is 'checking up' moreso than 'coming to see', but my mother still has always been extremely careful in her phrasery. This was the first time all year she admitted it.

I'm not going to be in the flat much longer - three weeks at most. It took us months to fill my room in the first place with all the books, DVDs and clothes I have now - equally amusing, since I never got around to using half of them. Emptying my wardrobe yesterday, in an attempt to ease up the signing out effort, we discovered what must have been twenty towels I had never seen before.

And so, as it stands, my dad is in the process of driving everything to Whitters just to make way for my new flat, which funnily enough is just a few yards to the left of this one.

I have no books now except for War of the Worlds, a CD player and no CDs (yeah Saiyu, that was smart), several blank pads of paper, a couple of DVDs (though probably not in the correct boxes) and a half filled box of food.

Only three weeks...only three weeks....

Situations Meme

	Bryan Adams - Summer Of '69
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Situation #1

You happen to be shopping in a near by town. As you are seated in a small cafe', You happen to notice a neighbor's child. They are 14 years old, and with clearly a older person in their late 30's. Someone you have never seen around there house, or at any picnics you have been invited to. They are holding hands and getting a little touchy feely, what do you do?

I would do nothing at that moment in time; it would be wrong to make a judgement when there could be a perfectly acceptable explanation. Instead I would mention it to my mother upon returning home - she knows our neighbours well.

Situation #2

It is Mothers Day! Your Mom lives in the same town that you do. She has always been very critical of you, your whole life. Nothing you have ever done is right in her eyes. Now how do you Honor Thy Mother, and make Mothers Day Special ?

Spend the day with her, just being in her company.

Situation #3

You have been surfing the net, and you come across a blog from a old flame. On it they have posted pictures that you gave them for their eye's only. They also have let a few dark secrets out that you never wanted any one to know but them. What do you do?

E-mail the guy and politely request that he removes them. If he refuses then it's not really a problem. I doubt I would have given him those photos without having some back of him >:3

Situation #4

Your spouse of many years has came down with Alzheimer's disease. There is no none cure for it here but on the other side of the world in a remote rain forest it is said that one can live out there live normally with no sign of the disease. Of course in that part of the world there is no modern convinces....no roads....phones...electricity....stores. You live off the land and travel by mules.......What do you do?

If it helps my spouse recover his mind then i would definitely do it.


(All situations came from this blog)

Cram notes Edition 1

Thom Gun

*Gay
*AIDS
*Drugs
*British Form, American Idioms

Denise Levertov

*Traditional - experimental; change came with to move to America
*Radical manipulation of form
*Black Mountain Poets - Charles Olsen, Robert Creely, Robert Duncan
*William Carlos Williams - wrote in the way people speak

Anne Stevenson

*Married four times ->talks about it a lot
*Somewhat whiny

Ruth Fainlight

*Whiny bitch
*Jewish
*Woman
*Incorporates this into everything

Anne Rouse

*Studied History ->Student Nurse -> mental health charity
*Doesn't seem to like Britain

Eva Salzman

*Dancer ->choreographer before moving to the UK
*Also doesn't seem to like the UK

Love and stop lights can be cruel

I had my first exam two days ago - and a cramming session with Laney to boot. It's probably shameful to admit that I had not revised much beforehand, but considering the paper was on only one of the topics we had covered I was not filled with the urge to be as studious as I knew I should have been.

Luckily, the cramming session paid off as one of the poems (it was a poetry test) was by Denise Levertov, who Laney had explained to me about just the night before. We pinned a sheet on my notice board of stuff to remember about the poets we had studied - things that were indeed extremely unflattering, but would help us to remember. (It was only after she wrote the list that Laney realised her writing was too small to read from her position in the room).

Now the exam is over - and a bizarre experience it was too. It was held in the gym, so many people put their belongings inside lockers on the way in. I did not, because I was convinced I would lose the key. (oh, the IRONY).

The invidulators had pinned maps on the walls highlighted in different colours to represent the different classes, but it may as well have been written in gobbledygook - you never know, I might have understood that, my mother has been known to digress. In the end, Laney and I ended up going into the hall and flagging down invidulators, rather than doing what should have been the obvious thing and spy where our classmates were sitting.

It appears our university has a rather strange timing system where examinations go. Students arent allowed to leave in the first hour (which is fair enough) but not in the last fifteen minutes either. Where's the sense in that? Anyway, we started and, as previously mentioned I was quite ecstatic because there was a Denise Levertov poem - quite a nice one too. I was midway through making an excellent point, when some strange invidulator came and dragged my jacket off my chair (I had planned to leave it with my bag, but forgot to take it off). Anyway she said she was going to put it at the side and then scarpered.

After I finished I looked for said jacket, but it was nowhere to be found - the only place it wasn't? The side. Reluctant to stand rummaging through other people's belongings for too long, I hastily retreated and left the hall, with all intentions of retrieving my jacket later.

I got it back, but it must have taken about three invidulators to get it for me - all this fuss for a jacket? Where did she put it?

At the moment I am preparing for my upcoming novel exam and reading War of the worlds. When I'm not reading that, which usually is the norm, I'm reading lots of manga, which is where I discovered the following.


^^^^ Here is Kaname. He is a vampire. And a boy.



^^^ Here is a character in Ouran High Host club that looks like Kaname. Who is female. And is a maid.

Vincent

Before I die...

-I want to have seen Egypt.

-I want to have bought my parents something ludicrously expensive in return for all of the nappies.

-I want to be on the Waterstones list

-I just want to be happy ^_^

-I want to have been married at halloween with everyone in costume.

- I want to go to Japan and screech KAWAII at a real lolita (possibly get arrested, but who cares, at least I'll have ramen).


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I may add to this later. Right now i cant get that Eurythmics song out of my head... here it is for your own enjoyment:

	Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Buttercups

There are one thousand oceans
And each one is dry
Lurking at the bottom of this
Merciless divide
There are one million buttercups
Which I planted and cried
I knew
You would pick one
And tell me goodbye.

EARTHQUAKE

If asked, those who know me will confess that one of my strangest habits during term time is setting my alarm clock for silly times in the morning. Whenever Elle comes over, its a comedy of sirens, as i have the term time alarm (muffled, as now it's stuffed in my drawer), followed by a medication-reminder alarm a couple of hours later.

The truth be told, the alarm is only half of a strange habit.

I come from a family ripe with sleep afflictions; my dad snores like a moose - if I'm quiet enough in my room I can hear him snoring in his. While my mother doesn't snore, her own problem could be deemed worse - she clicks and sometimes has violent nightmares, which got so bad at one point that she considered sleeping in the bathroom so as not to injure my defenseless dad.

Up until recently, I thought that I had escaped the tradition, but appparently not, for now I know for sure that I hallucinate.

It all started off with stupid small things, like hearing someone shouting me and getting up for breakfast at 4am. Then it moved on to physical things, like shaking - when the earthquake hit, I passed it off as something imaginary. Recently, I was half asleep and the entire room started shaking - I was in two minds whether to get out of bed and wake Elle up or stay where I was.

Thinking about it - it's a good job it wasn't real, I'm not sure how I would have coped during an earthquake with Carley next door.

Since her lessons are over and her exams are almost finished, Chris has been here more than usual. It has also been a time of extreme hot weather. Weather that breeds agitation.

Standing in the kitchen recently making myself some noodles, i was alarmed by the arrival of the pair - Carley in a violet dress and silver kitten heels. Chris in a tracksuit. She shrieked her greeting and proceeded to limp over to a chair, moaning about the weather and pouting at Chris to get her some juice from the fridge easily four meters away from me.

He refused, but his reason was, 'I want the kitchen to be free.'

I'm not sure which was worse, that or Carley's reply of 'But it IS free!'

The Writer's Meme

1. Do you outline?

In my head, usually, though it's always extremely vague. I like to have an idea of certain important events. Writing detailed descriptions makes me want to deviate and write a completely different story.

2. Do you write straight through a book, or do you sometimes tackle the scenes out of order?

As of yet I've only ever finished one of my projects and it was fan fiction so i don't count it. It took me a year and a half - i was nine at the time without a clue of technique, so everything was done by hand and in order.

3. Do you prefer writing with a pen or using a computer?

Computer, defintely *cuddles Tosh*

4. Do you prefer writing in first person or third?

It really depends what it is i'm trying to express. If it's autobiographical, then first person - if it's not, then third person.

5. Do you listen to music while you write?

Yes, my favourite song at the moment is KIRA KIRA TRAIN by Ikimono gakari, though usually i try and listen to music that fits the theme of what i'm writing.



6. How do you come up with the perfect names for your characters?

I steal their mail.

7. When you’re writing, do you ever imagine your book as a television show or movie?

When it comes to my scripts, it's an important factor, so all the time - as for my other work, not so much.

8. Have you ever had a character insist on doing something you really didn’t want him/her to do?

Yes. One of my characters betrayed his marital vows. He was one of my favourite characters and it really upset me.

9. Do you know how a book is going to end when you start it?

Always, though I'm sometimes inclined to change my mind.

10. Where do you write?

In bed, usually.

11. What do you do when you get writer’s block?

Get extremely annoyed and whine to whoever will listen.

12. What size increments do you write in (either in terms of word count, or as a percentage of the book as a whole)?

Errr...I don't keep track...I just write.

13. How many different drafts did you write for your last project?

Three? I dunno.

14. Have you ever changed a character’s name midway through a draft?

I extended a character's name from Rosa to Rosalyn, but deep down i think that was always my intention. It's too easy to confuse me, so changing a characters name really isn't a good idea.

15. Do you let anyone read your book while you’re working on it, or do you wait until you’ve completed a draft before letting someone else see it?

I let my friends read my drafts, sometimes I even spam Laney over MSN as I'm writing :3. I like it when people read the finished version though.

16. What do you do to celebrate when you finish a draft?

Other than start the next one? Errr... Make myself something to eat, normally. I spend hours on my drafts - it's hungry work.

17. One project at a time, or multiple projects at once?

Where's the fun in a single project??? It's multiple all the way!

18. Do your books grow or shrink in revision?

I'm always revising my work. It took me a year to finish a script, because I changed the story round so often.

19. Do you have any writing or critique partners?

Yus, Laney.

20. Do you prefer drafting or revising?

Both I guess, I love getting my ideas into the open and I love going back to them later and manipulating them.

I'd play his double role

I haven't updated lately.

I could give a number of reasons for this; that I have been busy with a stupendous new hobby - perhaps a meaningful job that helps the planet, all the while filling my pocket with fifties? Or even a new man in my life who spends every morning, noon and night making up for his late arrival.

The only problem with this of course is none of it is remotely true - my late updates are due to my own laziness, rather than much else. The upcoming exams have enforced a kind of reluctance upon me; the kind where doing anything remotely productive seems barbaric and inane. I should be counting my lucky stars; of the subjects I'm studying, I have only two exams. I have known students with at least eight to twelve.

Elle visited this weekend - we went to see 'The Eye'. It was a pretty decent film, but I know the japanese one is inevitably going to be better.

Quite recently, Elle has become a fan of DH Lawrence, or more appropriately, Lady Chatterley's Lover. She recently heard of a film adaptation of the book featuring Sean Bean and so has become intrigued. Going into Waterstones, I have never been so embarrassed to ask for a book, considering it was rendered obscene at the time of publication due to its explicit content - particularly since in the end they didn't even have it. We found a copy in the end, hidden away in the corner of WHSmiths.

It proved to be the focal point of conversation the next day, as the painting on the cover basically shows a man's thumb and belt buckle. The thumb though, is really short and squat and Laney, seemed to find this a really obscure sight as her own thumb is really thin and narrow. Since Lawrence hailed from our area, I made the comment that it's a Midlands thing, which prompted a comparison of thumbs.

Regional variations in thumb size...what will they think of next?

I'm afraid of 19 out of 72 common fears...

[ ] the dark
[x] staying single forever
[ ] being a parent
[ ] giving birth
[ ] being myself in front of others
[ ] open spaces
[ ] closed spaces
[ ] heights
[ ] dogs
[x] birds [one of my school friends had parrots and she used to let them fly loose, which really freaked me out]
[ ] fish
[x] spiders
[ ] flowers or other plants

Total so far: 3

[ ] being touched
[x] fire
[ ] deep water
[ ] snakes
[ ] silk
[ ] the ocean
[x] failure
[x] success
[ ] thunder/lightning
[x] frogs/toads
[ ] my boyfriends/girlfriends dad
[x] boyfriends/girlfriends mom
[ ] rats
[x] jumping from high places
[ ] snow
Total so far: 9

[ ] rain
[ ] wind
[ ] crossing hanging bridges
[ ] death
[ ] heaven
[ ] being robbed
[x] falling
[x] clowns
[ ] dolls
[x] large crowds of people
[ ] men
[ ] women
[x] having great responsibilities
[ ] doctors, including dentists
[ ] tornadoes
Total so far: 13

[ ] hurricanes (aren’t they the same as tornados?)
[x] incurable diseases
[x] sharks
[ ] Friday the 13th
[ ] ghosts
[ ] poverty
[ ] Halloween
[ ] school
[ ] trains
[ ] odd numbers
[ ] even numbers
[x] being alone
[ ] becoming blind
[ ] becoming deaf
[x] growing up
Total so far: 17

[x] creepy noises in the night
[ ] bee stings
[x] not accomplishing my dreams/goals
[ ] needles
[ ] blood
[ ] dinosaurs (wtf?)
[ ] the welcome mat
[ ] high speed
[ ] throwing up
[ ] falling in love
[ ] super secrets
Final Total: 19


If you get more than 30, I strongly recommend some counseling
If you get more than 20, you’re paranoid.
If you get 10-20, you are normal.
If you get 10 or less, you’re fearless.
People who don’t have any are liars.

STFU DX -I'M NORMAL

Animal Idol

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Btw, you don't have to reply to this video, I just thought it was cute ^^

Introductions

In a world of body language and missing words, are introductions necessary? Do you even need my name to know what I believe? A picture of my face, perhaps, to enlighten you further.

If I were to stand in front of you and recite these words, would you feel at ease? Knowing the colour of my skin, the style of my hair and tone of my voice, you would make your own decisions of me. There are no faces behind computer screens, only introductions. Introductions for the purpose of vanity and preening, kidnapping and murder.

Behind the faceless screen, who is it that watches you? Who are you and who am I?
I have gone by many names in my lifetime - some bad, some good. All of them were different, but all of them were me. From the Egyptian murderess to the literary genius to the child who believed fairy tales were real - they shaped a greater entity, making the world a happier place. When hostility reigned I became a contemptuous fiend by the name of Nsikhonsou. During times of deep enlightenment I was a silent mastermind named Olivia. During the course of my life, I have never worn the same face twice; even if you saw me, would you know who smiled back? If I showed myself to you, whose name would I bear?

A woman’s job is to find her feet against the blows of the world; just like the geishas of old who learned to walk and dance on blocks of solid wood. We paint our faces and hide away every facet of what we are. Our beauty is our shame, hidden behind a toy box of lingering perfumes.

It is from this toxic reverie that I found my name; a nod in the direction of Sayuri, the geisha queen, a Queen whose palace was filled with masks and fans. A woman like me, whose true face lay forgotten behind a multitude of shells.

After hearing these words, are you even sure was me that said them; who was it that heard?

...Super Action Gothic Ouran

Squuuuuueeeeeee I finally got around to watching Vampire knight the anime...It's actually very faithful to the original graphic novel - a huge sigh of relief all round.

To love a person is...

...to learn the song
That is in their heart,
And to sing it to them
When they have forgotten. - Anonymous

It's been a fairly average day today. I fell out of bed at 9.30 and carried on reading one of the books I purchased from the charity shop. Cordy joked the last time we were there that by third year we could end up buying every book on their shelves - somehow I think the way we're going it could end being true.

Looking at the blurbs, I've noticed something about mainstream contemporary fiction. Most of them entail secrets emerging from the past of a main character, or the secrets of a particular organisation or the secrets of an event. All this seems to prove is not the magnificence of our literature, but the nosy nature of the society we live in - selling glorified gossip magazines as art.

Don't get me wrong, I have read some simply marvellous modern literature in recent years. I remember being given an essay to write on Angela Carter and being taken aback by the way she satirised the techniques of Perrault. I was even more taken aback by the discovery that her death had not taken place until only recently, in 1992. I had half expected her to be Perrault and Barbot de Villeneuve's contemporary.

Books released now seem to follow a Mills and Boon pattern, which depresses me somewhat. I thought the point of writing was be original?




What subcategory of Goth best fits you?
created with QuizFarm.com
You scored as Romantic Goth

You are a romantic goth, better known as a traditional goth. You are probably quickly identified as a goth by outsiders. Black lace, bats, and moonlit cemetaries are just a few of your favorite things. Click on my name to take my other tests if you liked this one.

Romantic Goth		92%
Ethereal Goth		79%
Old-school Goth		75%
Death Rocker		67%
Industrial/Rivet-Head		67%
Perky Goff		67%
Fantasy Goth		58%
Anything-Goes Goth		50%
Cyber-goth		50%
Confused Outsider		33%
Understanding Outsider		33%