This New Year

I am staying in because New Year is probably the worst event/celebration on the social calendar. Although in the paper someone likened new years eve/day to 'shaking the etch-a-sketch of life' and I liked that a lot. But really, New Years Eve is just always awful. At best it is ok but inevitably a let down. And at worst you have an awful night and an even worse hangover to begin the new year with.

The main issues I have with NYE are as follows:

Problem 1. You are supposed to be having funnest night ever and everyone always wants it to be a good night and typically over does it. Many a NYE have I found myself passed out/being sick/being the worlds biggest twat all before the stroke of midnight.

Problem 2. There is nothing to really celebrate. You can stay up till midnight any day you like and the date changes. It's really not exciting. The countdown to the new year is the most anti-climatic countdown in history. Nothing changes, there are no gifts or chocolate eggs to unwrap. No exciting meal to look forward to, just a hangover if you are drinking or if you are sober the desperate hope that this year will be better than the last. Or I suppose a kiss off a stranger you'll regret in the morning, gross.

Problem 3. Everything is about 3 times the normal price

Problem 4. Everywhere is about 3 times as busy

Problem 5. It encourages boasting about who had the best time/went to the best place etc...

OK rant over. I'm going to pretend it's a normal Thursday night and enjoy watching Jon and Edward 'cos apparently they are on telly tonight.

In keeping with the ranty tone of this post I feel it appropriate to draw peoples attention to the brilliant review of 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' by Dr Mark Kermode as I couldn't possibly agree with him more.



I'm also happy he loves The Great Gatsby :D

Because I'm really cool

I was watching Penguin Adventure with Nigel Marven. Anyway, he went to go see some sooty albatrosses and I wasn't very interested as I only watching it for the penguin and seals really. But, the albatrosses were actually pretty cool. They do this really cool synchronised flying in the air with the albatross they spend their life with. The longer they have been together the better they are at the synchronised flying, it's really cute and looks a bit like when Wall.E and Eve are flying in space. Anyway I don't know why, but it made me really happy :)

Wishful thinking

I want to move out and live in a cottage by the sea. Maybe with a nice dog, I would go to work in a cute library and come home to my nice little house and read books and listen to my favourite music and go for walks on the beach with the nice dog.

ROAR!

:D:D:D:D:D

Also I decided I was going to make a Laura sized fleece playsuit thing to wear when it is cold, obviously I knew I would be 100% adding ears to the hood. So I figured I might as well turn it into the costume Max wears in where the wild things are. Yeah! I'm excited and off to buy some creamy fleece material and go out for a cup of tea with Carly :D



If you are poor and have no money or morals you can download the where the wild things are soundtrack here I'm listening to it loads at the moment, Karen O rules so much :)

Christmas!

Was absolutely wonderful and looked a little bit like this:

Hels, Joe and Ben opening gifts in the morn



Hel and Ben



Shortstuff



Ben and Joe



Roast aftermath




Cards, scrabble and magnetic fishing



Overall absolute winner :)

All I want for Christmas is

YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUOOOOHOOOH BAAAAAAAABY

The only Mariah Carey song that doesn't make me want to die, and also probably my 2nd favourite Christmas song ever, Driving Home for Christmas is clearly number 1, luckily radio 2 seem to love it as they play it all the time :D

What I do want for Christmas is to pass my driving test please and for this stupid squint to be gone, I hate my right eye, whyyyyyy whenever I stay awake for more than 24 hours do I get a stupid squint?! Not fair :( I'd say the fun I had on Friday does outweigh the grossness of the return of the squint though, so I guess on balance it's not too bad.

Tempting

Whenever it's the end of the year newspapers, radio shows, magazines, tv programmes and anyone who hasn't been in a coma start making 'top 10 "insert interest" of "insert year" lists'. As it is 2009 people also have the added bonus of, not only having a top ten of 2009, but, they can also have top 10 of the noughties (cringe) or top 100 or whatever. Very exciting. Making this kind of list sounds exactly like the kind of the thing I would love to do. However, I really couldn't tell you if something came out last week or last year, so if I was to make a list of my favourite films, for example, of 2009 I would 100% fail, as I have zero concept of when anything was released and if I saw it in 2009 or 2001. So while I'm very tempted to rank my favourite films/albums/places/whatever of 2009 I think I'll abstain and instead make a 'top ten things I am looking forward to in 2010.

1. Not living at home any more, I'm assuming by December 2010 I'll have moved out.

2. Going to SCANDINAVIA!

3. New years resolutions. Ironically I think they're super lame, but for some reason it's easier to decide to change ones sinful ways in the new year.

4. Cinema: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1/Wolfman/Toy Story 3/Shutter Island/The crazies (looks absurdly stupid but maybe pretty good)/The Lovely Bones/Red Riding.

5. Skiing(?) if Mum doesn't give into Clares selfish demands I am well looking forward to practising jumps and getting on some black runs.

6. Potentially having some sort of career?

7. 2010 will be a year of finishing TV series, The Wire and Deadwood mostly.

8. 2010 will also be a year of reading lots of good books, mostly classics that I ignorantly wrote off as boring in my youth.

9. Visiting Hels in Thailand

10. Festivals! I don't know where I am going to go (apart from the Big Chill because I get money off) but I didn't go to any festivals this year and I miss it lots :(

I am also looking forward to, staying in touch with all my lovely far away friends, the recession improving (well hopefully...) seeing Grizzly Bear, driving - fingers crossed at some point in 2010, if not before, I'll have managed to pass my stupid test.

8

I'm pretty sure this is the best thing I've seen/read all day. Amazing

Festive Penguins!

7

Allison Harvard should 150% have won antm, I'm so in love with her.





beautiful.

4

I am up super early today, I've already been up for 2 hours and it's only quarter past 10. I would like to say that I am up at this early hour because I'm excited about seeing Louise, Claire, Tara and Jess later, but in reality I am hungover. Which is stupidly unfair because all I drank last night was 1 pint of Stowfords, half a can of Old English and a sip of Brothers strawberry cider. Oh and Jon Walls creamy mouthful, but I didn't choose to buy that it was brought for me and therefore doesn't really count. Anyway, being hungover is rubbish, so is waiting for everyone else to wake up, my massive lazy bones sister still isn't up and Libby is sleeping so I have no one to talk to :(

Today I did not know my advent calendar question, I showered and dressed, finished reading Murakami's After Dark, packed all my things for Reading, started reading 9 stories, put on the Bright Eyes Christmas album, ate my breakfast, played with Libby and tidied the kitchen. Quite a productive morning so far.

I am well looking forward to dancing tonight and seeing friends from afar, I know I always say I wish that all my favourite people all lived near me, but I really really do wish this was the case. If Harry Potter was real the number 1 best thing (apart from Sirius) would 150% be apparating. Actually now I quite want to make a list, so

the top 6 best things:

1. Apparition!

2. Dumbledore/Siruis/Gilderoy Lockhart/Snape/Kreacher/Lupin

3. Ravenclaw house

4. Felix Felicis

5. being able to make potions/cast spells

6. Nifflers

And the top 6 worst:

1. Voldermort

2. The Cruciatus curse. Actually, just the unforgivable curses in general.

3. Deatheaters

4. Dementors

5. Umbridge

6. Harry Potter in a bad mood

2

Todays advent calendar question was 'What year was Nelson Mandela released from prison?' I haven't got a clue :(

Heart of Glass

Finished:
Jane Eyre: I liked Jane Eyre a lot. It was unconventional and I thought it was going to have a tragic ending but it was actaully a nice happy ending without being cheesy or clichéd or unlikely. Mr Rochester was a brilliant 'hero' of the story and Jane is easy to relate to, and not an annoying girl (well, except for when she inexplicably leaves Mr Rochester and is a homeless person for a bit). I liked the constant references to Wuthering Heights and the differences between the Jane/Rochester relationship and the the Cathy/Heathcliff one. Overall, it was super, thank you Louise for buying me such a beautiful edition :D

The Reader: I read the Reader in two sittings. It's not a very happy book but it didn't make me depressed either. I liked that it didn't give any definitive right or wrong answers to the philosophical and moral issues raised. Because it's told from Michaels perspective it allows you to feel sympathy for Hanna, Michael and the victims of the Holocaust. Michael is a fair narrator, but sometimes a little inhuman, which he admits. However his 'numbness' towards the Holocaust allows for a greater understanding, if it can be called that, of the actions of the Auschwitz guards.

My costume for Louises. It's not especially 80s but it is inspired by Debbie Harry, who is well hot and totally cool.



Helping Ma Select new furniture for the living room. This was ultra fun, we got to sit on a million sofas and pick out throws and cushions and choose fun colour schemes, yeah! We also got to go out for lunch in Cheltenham so I got the best tomato and basil soup ever, yum

Not finished:
Guitar Hero on medium: Helen and I had a massive session today and I can't play any of the face-melters section for love nor money. I suck :(

My 'to do list' I made forever ago, wahhh

retrieving my phone/contents of my bag from the Marrs bar :(

My Advent Calendar. Mum made us fabric Christmas trees for our doors years ago because we were not allowed a proper advent calendar. The 25 pockets on the tree have a question and a treat inside. But you can only get the treat if you get your question right. However, because Mum is nice, we usually get the treat anyway or Mum lets it roll over to tomorrow. Anyway back in the day the treats used to be raisins or dried fruit or something. But since Clares been around Mum is nicer so now we get a lindt ball, yesssssss :D Anyway Todays question was: Which county supplies Trafalgar Square with its annual Christmas tree? The answer is obviously Norway and I got my lindt ball, yeah!

My roll of film in my holga, I want to get it developed but I still have about 10 more shots, jeeeze.

My birthday chocolate, I'm nowhere near finished and I still have peanut-butter M&Ms leftover from Canada.

Peer pressure

Carly and Jon are a bad influence.

10x10 3x3

10 Things I am fed up with:

1. Applying for jobs I don't even want

2. Applying for jobs I do want, when I won't find out if my application is successful till Match 2010

3. Not having a paied job

4. Job applications in general

5. Living at home and being a million miles away from Malvern

6. Not being able to legally drive

7. Losing my possessions

8. Being clumsy and almost falling down cellar and in the process almost breaking my elbow. I'm also a bit fed up with falling down the stairs at least once a day, I don't know how much more bruising my poor legs can take.

9. Missing people that live far away

10. The internet on my stupid laptop being stupidly slow

10 things about my life that are actaully quite good:

1. Having super fantastic friends

2. Having a super fantastic sister. Clare is good too, but she is also 13 and therefore sometimes quite evil

3. Having super fantastic parents, even Dad isn't so bad at the moment

4. The weekend, my lovely friends and I can go out and dance and have fun

5. Seeing Regina Spektor OR John and Edward on Monday, it's a tough decision that needs much deliberation

6. Having time inbetween job applications and taking the dog for a walk to read good books

7. the builders have finally left, hurrah! Downsides are 'number 8' on the fed up list and also the arrival of the outside builders which, while having less of an effect on my day to day activities, they are still depriving me of sleep from 8am onwards

8. LIBRARY, volunteering is super great :D

9. My sewing machine, making animals/patchwork quilts/bunting/altering charity shop clothes is how I am currently spending much of my time.

10. Fantasies by Metric, I'm listening to it loads again :D Help I'm alive and Gold Gun Girls are brrrrrrrilliant

(11. IT'S NEARLY CHRISTMAS!)

Compassion for crustaceans!

This morning Helen and I were enjoying breakfast and Helen read me this article in the paper

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/ill-have-my-lobster-electrocuted-please-1824925.html

Firstly, I am pretty happy that there is now a humane way to kill the lobsters, even though I wouldn't kill them in the first place, but that's neither here nor there.

Secondly, it made me sad thinking about the horrible way lobsters and crabs die and how its such an everyday occurrence that a lot of people don't really care. I guess crustaceans aren't particularly cute and I guess people don't think they're very intelligent which is why killing and eating them doesn't seem so bad. The saddest/most annoying part is probably this:

"These are sentient animals, who feel pain and distress, and you should not boil them alive, or drown them in fresh water, or cut them in half while they're alive," he (Simon Buckhaven) said. "A lot of people who love to eat lobster do not like preparing it at home because they have to cook it in boiling water. And restaurants are more frequently hearing questions from customers about how their lobster will be killed."

Poor lobsters :( at least now they can die painlessly so well done Mr Buckhaven. It makes me sad when people are distressed or upset by killing animals when they have to see it or read some horrible facts about battery chickens or lobsters or whatever, but then they'll quite happily sit down and have roast chicken for dinner :( originally I wrote a million reasons why I get annoyed with people with like that, but it could probably be interpreted as preachy and annoying, and as I'm not bothered about changing the opinion of anyone bored enough to read this so I shall say no more.

Two of my favourites, numbers AND lists

It is twenty past eight on a Saturday morning and I have been awake for over an hour. This is clearly absolutely ridiculous. I HATE THE BUILDERS. Luckily I am staying at Carlys tonight so I won't have to get up quite so early tomorrow.

Last weeks highlights included:

1. Helen and I have nearly finished Gossip Girl season 1. Hopefully I can persuade Hel to buy season 2 as I still haven't seen the last episode.

2. Jane Eyer is getting really good. Oh Mr Rochester, I think I'm in love with you. I'm enjoying finding out about Mr Rochester's dark past and hearing him so eloquently telling Jane he is in love with her.

3. True Blood. It was a good episode this week, I'm well happy Bill and Sookie are together.

4. Random Thursday night battered-ness. Jon and Carly, Noel Edmunds shirt, sexual flavours, Mike the creep, Natalie Portmans rap, drunken phone calls to Pete and Dan, Natwest steps, silver bullets, no-one remembers the walk home, Carlys ultimate bed, the ultimate darkness of Carlys room because none of the lights work, Sarah apologising to Jon for hoovering?! Deal or no Deal etc etc...

5. Winning £50 in premium bonds.

6. Radiohead Vs Phil Collins day.

7. falling over in the front of the builders, who laughed at me for about an hour without asking if I was ok :( I then had to change clothes so I wasn't covered in mud. Being clumsy is the worst D:

8. Mum made a stollen and the Christmas cake.

Today will consist of:

1. Carly and I going to Birmingham and buying lots of things, or at least Carly will be buying new things, I will try not to buy anything because I'm super poor.

2. I nearly forgot. TV is super mega awesome tonight, X FACTOR! and also if we are home in time and not eating our dinner then Merlin and possibly hole in the wall. I think every time I watch Merlin I wish I was married to Colin Morgan a little bit more.



Ghostbusters is my favourite John and Edward performance so far. Although I love them both, I think John is probably my favourite, amazing.

3. Going to the Marrs with some of the best people I know and dancing till our shoes wear out. (I guess this is technically tomorrow as we won't get there till 1, but whatever)

4. Getting a shakees.

5. Sleeping in the best bed in the whole world and probably only getting about 3 hours sleep because I am going to see New Moon with my sister at 10am at Vue.

I really want to get into my pyjamas and go back to bed now :(

Gahhh

Things I achieved today:

Getting up at the crack of dawn so I can beat the builders and get downstairs before they do.

Failing my driving test. Urgggh, stupid bloody roundabouts. I failed right at the start, so for the rest of the test I was like fuck this and didn't bother driving properly. I only got a few minors though so I guess that's good. I guess I'll pass next time, siiiiigh.

Booking a hair appointment. Finally.

Getting my boots fixed. Hurrah.

Overall, a BAD and EXPENSIVE day :( :(

Tell me anything you want, any old lie will do

Lunch today was home made veggie stew with dumplings AND mash potato. Best Mum ever?? It was so good, living at home is sometimes amazing. I also listened to some Fleet Foxes for the first time in ages, lots of Laura Marling and some She & Him.

This weekend has been pretty good, on Friday night Jon, Carly and I went out in Malvern and all got horridly drunk. So much for staying sober for my 10am driving lesson :( Me and Carly got the really good wine and then we went to ollies and Jon bought us shots and jagerbombs but made us down them :(:( after that I can remember pretty much nothing. Apparently we went to Priors and I danced loads and talked to people from school, ohhhh dear. No one remembers the walk home but I do remember that when we got home we watched Take That videos on youtube and Jon made me cry with laughter for about an hour. We didn't get to sleep till about 5 and then I had to go home at quarter to 8 because my Dad is mental and gives lifts home at the worst times. I somehow got through my driving lesson without being sick all over Colin and then I stayed in bed all day pretending to Mum and Dad that I definitely hadn't been drinking last night and that I was definitely not hungover. Jon text me after my lesson saying him and Carly were still in bed and they had just ordered a large pizza feista :( I nearly cried with jealousy. Apart from the most horrid driving lesson ever and being sick twice all I did on Saturday was watch X-factor. Oh and I had a super lovely chat with Kirsty on the phone.

Today Kirsty, Carly and I went for a cake and a tea/coffee/milkshake which was lovely. We got super excited making plans for Christmas and deciding what we were going to go as to Kirstys Christmas party. Carly is going as a Christmas pudding and I think this is the best costume choice ever. Then Kirsty had to go back to London :( and me and Carly took about 3 hours to decide not to go to the pub quiz.

In conclusion, with the exception of mega hangover-ness a good weekend :)

Librarian!

Today I started at Malvern Library, it was well exciting, I got to issue books and sort out loans and scan things and be nice to people. WELL GOOD. Everyone was really nice and I was promptly invited to the Christmas party, gosh. I was told to bring a bottle of wine even though the party is only two hours long, good lord. I'll be wasted if I'm drinking at least 1 bottle of wine in two hours, apparently Viv (who organises everything) brings wine for everyone on top of your own bottle. I'll have to eat extra loads before I leave the house on that day.

I was also asked if I can help make lanterns with the 7-11 year olds, yes please!! Help decorate for Christmas and most importantly, be a helper for Santas grotto. lol. Apparently Santa is arriving in a Morgan (could they get any more quintessentially Malvern?!) and the grotto is staying in the library. So I have to potentially dress up as an elf whilst getting people to join the library and telling Santa the names of the children in the queue for the grotto. It's actaully pretty exciting and the Christmas lights will be turned on and all the kids will be excited, I'm well looking forward to it :D I also get to read to the small kids on Wednesdays and generally be helpful. Yay library! I don't have a badge though which makes me a bit sad, when I get a librarian badge I will be happy times a thousand :D Hopefully one day I will end up in a super ace library and be head librarian :D



I don't think this is a real library but it would be good if it was, it's well Rivendell!

Yesterday Carly and I watched 'Me, You And Everyone We Know'. I liked it lots, it was really cute and funny and Miranda July is ace. I especially liked that John Hawkes from Deadwood was in it, and it was nice to see him in a comical role. The film also made me really want to start a Hope Chest.



Carly lent me a book of short stories by Miranda July which I'm looking forward to reading but I'm going to have to put it on hold as I have millions of other things on my 'to read list' at the moment. I am most looking forward to reading The Reader. Claire from the vintage shop in Worcester told me I'd love it :) but first I have to finish Jane Eyre. It's quite good at the moment and I really like Jane but so far its no Wuthering Heights, sorry Louise. I'm also looking forward to reading Nine Stories by J.D Salinger that Joe got me for my birthday :)

I also woke up yesterday and went downstairs to find that my dog had devoured an entire loaf of bread whilst she was left on her own. The bread had been left on the side, so she must have jumped up, used her paws to get the bread down onto the floor and then eaten almost all of it. Worst dog ever.

Tonight is pizza Express pizzas for dinner, hurrah Mumbo! And I am well looking forward to going out tonight and seeing JON WALL and CARLY PEARSON :D



The last time Carly, Jon and I went out together, Jon and I were pretending to be a couple so that a creepy man coming on to me would leave me alone. The creepy man then proceeded to tell me that he didn't believe we were a couple because he didn't think I was good enough to be going out with Jon!! And then after that he randomly told Carly that she wasn't good enough for Jon either. What a creep!! Jon did tell him that owed us drinks after insulting us like that though, so we did get a free Gaymers out of it. And it was actaully a really good night, and I think this was the time when we went all the way to Worcester the next day just so we could get Wetherspoons for breakfast, yum.

Sadly, I can't really drink tonight as I have what may possibly maybe, be my LAST EVER driving lesson. Although I'm pretty sure this will not be the case. I am also feeling like I will really easily give into peer pressure and get drunk tonight, oopss.

I also reeeeally really really want to go see The White Ribbon:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/the-white-ribbon-15-1819430.html

It looks ace :D

Barcelona, Betty and Roof

Barcelona

Owen took me to Barcelona for my birthday, yeah! I had a super time :) The plane on the way there was pretty average, a horrid couple were behind us though. The guy 'Matt' was TALKING ON HIS PHONE?! What an idiot. They took a million photos and the girl was super loud and shrieked loads about how she looked fat or stupid in every photo. Anyway we didn't have to see them again until the journey home, horray! The best part of the journey was when we landed and got a fanfare, brilliant.

When we arrived at 5pm we had a bit of an issue using the Spanish ticket machine but got to the hotel safe and sound, yay. Aside from the crazy air con that made you feel like you had a fever, the hotel was lovely. We went out and had a look round some Medieval streets in Barri Gotic, we then got a really tasty pizza that hardly cost anything, I got some mega nice ice-cream and then we went home to sleep. The next day we got up dead early and had a nice pastry for brekkie, we then went for a stroll round the Barceloneta ports followed by a walk up La Rambla and a few markets and then headed to Casa Batllo.

Casa Batllo was sooo good. I wish all architecture was as good as Gaudi, it must have been well revolutionary at the time. Apparently the building is representative of saint someone killing a Dragon. The humped back represents the Dragon, the cross at the top represents the saints sword, slaying the Dragon and the skull balconies represent the helpless souls of the Dragons victims. The inside is possibly even better than the outside. After reluctantly parting with 2 hundred million Euros to get in, we got a highly amusing audio guide and spent a trillion hours admiring the amazing house.

After that we saw the Casa Mila from the outside and I felt all wibbly wobbly. We trekked to Zara so I could buy a nice blue velvet dress (like the fiiiiiiiiilm) and a cardigan/coat/coatigan thingy. Then Owen was rubbish and too tired to do anything so we had a siesta and then when Owen had finally recovered we went to the park near us where there was a giant mamouth statue and a big waterfall thingy. I can't remember what we did after apart from we saw the Spanish arc de triomphe (why is it there??) and went in the well gothic Barcelona cathedral. I think we also had an average pizza/paella for dins followed by more ice-cream.

We woke up not so early on Tuesday as nowhere is open until 10. We went straight to the Sagrada Familia where it was tourist-tastic but also fantastic. I liked it muchly. We then went an absolutely horrid 'museum' that Owen loved. It was a kind of funeral museum I guess. It was impossible to find because it was under a funeral home and you had to ask at the desk. Then a woman took us down in a lift and unlocked some doors so we could get in. When we arrived in the awful room I thought our tour guide woman was going to LEAVE US DOWN THERE ON OUR OWN. I had a mild panic attack, but luckily she stayed put until we left. It was a big massive room with only low lighting and it was all eerie and silent. There were a bunch of horridly creepy funeral carriages with WAX MANIKINS, and fake horses arrrgh. It also had some hearses which could have been cool, especially the Ghostbusters* one but they had coffins and probably ghosts in. it was pretty much the most creepy place I've ever been. Horrid.

After I was mentally stable again we went to Park Güell, much much happier and nicer yay! It was pretty fun and I loved Lizzy the Lizard :D I did not love the crazy tourists or the mental homeless man that wouldn't let anyone in the cool cave though. After the Gaudi park we went to a photography exhibition. It was pretty good, but there was a bull fighting bit which I hated. I read about the photographer and he was Bull fightings number 1 fan :( I wrongly assumed he was anti bull fighting because there were loads of photos of the dead bulls being abused and things. But he said all this horrible stuff about the death of bull being the only way humans can experience true happiness wahh :( :( We then went to an AWESOME Mexican restaurant. They celebrate day of the dead every day there so it had mega decorations and was super cool. They also played the pixies, the postal service, some of the kill bill soundtrack and some traditional Mexican music. We got mega tasty enchiladas and an amazing jug of white wine sangria nomnomnom. (note to self, one jug of sangria between two people is waaaaaaay more than enough)

We then got back to the hotel and were stupid and drunk and I thought I had the best Spanish accent you ever heard and Owen disagreed. We woke up at 5:45 (uuuuugh) so we could get the bus back to the airport and make our flight. We had loads of time to kill at the airport and brought sweets with our Euro change. Sadly we saw the horrid couple again, so we made sure we didn't sit near them again. We landed at Birmingham and got the train back to Malvern.

Overall, a lovely few days in lovely Barcelona :D Thank you Owen times a million trillion :D :D

Ruth

So, when I finally arrived home I found a birthday gift from Ruth waiting for me :D she wrote me a beautiful letter and found me an even more beautiful pet owl. After much deliberation (it was a close call with Maude) I named her 'Betty' and she's amazing. I think Betty and Ruths owl, Stuart would get on brilliantly :) I'm sad I haven't seen Ruth for ages though :( I 100% want to visit when I have some money.



Here you can see Betty looking super cute and me looking like an idiot and a huge geek as I'm wearing my Barcelona t-shirt already, it's well great though, you got pens with it to colour it in!! Amazing :D

Also I did take photos when we were away, honest! But I took all the photos on my Mini so I've gotta go the lab and get them developed and things. So at the moment this post looks horrible and word-o-rama :(

*and speaking of Ghostbusters, I thought John and Edward were done for!! Haha! Hurrah for Simon :D:D:D:D:D:D Goodbye rubbish Lucy. I'm pretty sure she'll be in FHM or something next week though. Sigh.

Aleph-null

So, really briefly, Aleph-null is part of a super great maths theory. Georg Cantor discovered that there are various levels of 'transfinity. Aleph-null is the first level and is the ordinary infinity that people talk about. The next level is Aleph-one which is 2 to the power Aleph-null. Easy!

Today Catherine told me I can start at the library next week, yay! I get to be trained up on computers and meet some cute kids :) :) super news. I also took Lib on a lovely walk and am hopefully going to see Grizzly Bear in March. Yay! Rubbish parts of today are that I really really really hate library job applications. My least favourite question is 'explain about a time when you provided a product or service to a customer'. NO THANKS. Second worst question 'what makes you stand out from other applicants' Ahhhhhrgh! Boasting about yourself is 100% absolutely awful, uuuuurgh.

CRB

I'm not a criminal, huuuuurah! I'm looking forward to calling Catherine from the library today, having a chat with Tara in her lunch break, seeing Peter Clifford Curran at the weekend, wearing my new boots and taking some photos on my neeeew camera, yeaaaah :D Also True Blood is on tonight and I'm going to play some Mario Kart as a reward for all the horrid 2 hour library applications I'll have completed later. I also need to transfer some of my savings into my current account for spending in Barcelona and booking my Scandinavia flights :D:D Owen is back this weekend too so he can watch his animation at the flip festival in Wolverhampton and to take me to Spain :D

It's only 11am but today is looking like it will be rather lovely plus, it's mega sunny :)

Halloween/Birthday treats in London

Halloween was excellent excellent excellent and looked a bit like this:








Loads of great Halloween songs were played such as monster mash, Thriller, the time warp etc etc. Due my lack of left/right awareness time warp isn't exactly great for me but it was fun anyway. Apparently I took a bunch of holga photos but I can't remember taking any so lord knows what they'll come out like, it is probably going to be a pretty embarrassing trip to the lab... Other highlights were JR taxis letting everyone drink/smoke/eat in the taxi there and back. Jess' awesome haggling skills. Firework display. Hot soup. Free vod. Everyone being drunken idiots. Dancing until 4am. Win win WIN!

London was also mega mega fun and also surprisingly successful. It looked somewhat like this:







1. New boots <3 Helen and I were both in desperate need of some winter shoes for our poor feet and against all odds (take a look at me noooooow) we both found some appropriate pairs.

2. DIANA MINIIIIIII, <3<3<3<3<3 mega mega MEGA excitement, I can't wait to take some photos :D

3. Aquarium, the woman in black and my super amazing sister :D

Helen and I had a super two days shopping round London buying cameras, boots, bags and lots of foody/drinky things. Hottie McVampire man in urban outfitters. Enjoying cider in Covent Garden. Eating amazing Mexican and getting tipsy off margaritas at my favourite London Mexican, Cafe Pacifico. Watching the Woman in black and being absolutely bloody terrified. Meeting Yas and staying round hers while falling asleep to Brads dulcet tones in Interview with a Vampire. Getting up horridly early. Enjoying Marks and Spencers porridge for brekkie. Getting 50% off at the aquarium and spending something stupid like 3 hours in there. Going back to Topshop and buying boots for everyone. Meeting Pops on the train. Mum making us gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce for when we got home after our long and tiring journey. Hurrah!

Skelebob!!

Costume number 3:



I have no idea if this will be ok for Rich as I used my clothes to judge how big or small the bones should be... Hopefully it'll be ok :) I well loved making all these costumes, I am clearly my mothers daughter. If I ever have kids they will always have super costumes :D It's annoying I didn't have more time to make the skeleton though, I could have made it way better, the legs look funny in the photo. Ah well.

Anyway, costumes done, I can start focusing on being excited about later, hurrah!!

HALLOWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN IS TOMORROW!!

Yay Ethel! Mum got me the smallest pumpkin I have ever seen, which Dad found hilarious. It's ok though because actually Ethel looks quite cute when she's all small. Sadly Libby hated her, she went mad barking at the pumpkin even though I'd been feeding her bits of Ethels brain for the past 10 minuets.



Giant monster cupcakes :) (you can't tell in the photo but they are in muffin cases so they are pretty much like eating an enormous slice of cake, well by my standards anyway.) I used my Grandmas standard cupcake recipe which was annotated by 6 year old me. My comments were pretty important, things such as ‘get a parent or grandparent to put anything in the oven (advice I should have taken as I ended up burning my finger, owww) and ‘these little cakes would be perfect for a party’ haha. Apparently I also recommend eating the cupcakes with ‘a glass of milk from the fridge’. My dyslexia is fucking awful though literally every single word is jumbled up :(:( I also massively underestimated the tentacles for the monsters so only 1 of them got to look like I wanted it to :(





Bat costumes! As you can see I had more time to make the latter. I decided not to attach a hood to the first one as the material was too slippy to stay on your head. I’m excited to dress up tomorrow :D Jess said her Mums party will have a tonne of free alcohol AND fireworks aceaceace!! Also you can see Iorek in the top photo, yay!

If you couldn't already tell, Halloween is my all time favourite holiday :D even if Mum says it's not a real holiday.

5 reasons why Halloween is my favourite:

1. Its compulsory fancy dress!!! No other holidays force people to dress up, plus Halloween is double great because it has the best theme. Christmas and Easter = horrid slag girls wearing next to nothing with a Christmas hat/bunny ears. Gross. Halloween = vampires/werewolves/the undead/mummys/psycho killers/millions of fake blood etc etc... And even though people do fully slag it up it's not so bad if they are slaggy dead girl, because that is about a million times better than a slaggy rabbit.

2. It reminds me of living in Holland. Dutch people pretty much love anything which gives them an excuse to have a party/dress up. So I really miss people making a big deal of Halloween. I remember when we first moved to England and no one was trick or treating and there were no street parties or fireworks and Helen and I were just like what the fuck?! Where is England's enthusiasm!? Plus in Holland I pretty much always made my birthday the class Halloween party :D so it was good for that reason too.

3. Halloween games!! Bobbing for apples/ghost stories/that thing where you have to eat a doughnut off a string without using your hands/pumpkin carving! etc

4. Everyone starts being mad and doing 'scary' things like staying in haunted houses or Ouija boards and start boasting about various paranormal experiences they've had. Plus all of a sudden everyone wants to watch a horror film, yeah!

5. Halloween food treats! Mum always makes our dinner look like various Halloweeny things, in the past we have enjoyed severed hand, spider cakes, eyeball jelly, bat biscuits, witches brew (soup with food dye in lol) and other Dianne McDowell classics.

I'm now going to make some Halloween decorations for our pitifully decorated house as I'm home alone and (quite obviously) feeling festive :D

Let you fall for every empty word I say

Today was spent being fairly creative. First of all I text Carly asking if I could make her Halloween costume, she complied, so I got to make another bat costume :D I'm still working on the wings for Carly as the material is all slippery and it used to be a Harry Potter cape so I'm trying to work out if there is an easy way to attach a hood to it so it's more like my Bay wings.

Secondly, I asked Mum to get a pumpkin so I can carve it tomorrow, hurrah! I also found some a cupcake recipe and a biscuit recipe so I can get fat and make Halloweeny treats tomorrow and Saturday.

Thirdly, I fixed my scanner (it seems I'm a whizz with technology these days) and scanned all my photos, yeah!

Fourthly, I took Mum and Clare for a bare mad spin in my sick ride. well I took them to town in the C1 because I need driving practice, and I'm scared that on Tuesday Colin is going to tell me I will never pass my test in 50 million years.

Fifthly, I listened to every single Brand New album in reverse order. (Albums, not tracks, obvs)

Diana:









Holga:









I think I shall go see what nice ciders (Aspall Aspall Aspall) we have and read some more Jane Eyre while I wait for Helen to get home from work so we can watch an awesome film like Jaws 3

Hopelessly in love

with my Diana instant back. When I fix my scanner tomorrow I shall scan in the photos and post them. Ahhhhh, I love it! And Alex from lomography emailed me back today after I had to email him asking for some more gel filters because Lib ate mine. He sent me the nicest email ever, asking for a photo of Libby and said the free replacements were in the post, yay lomography!! :D:D:D I also picked up 2 rolls of Holga and my trial roll of Diana F from Palm today, I'm pretty happy with the photos some of them came out way better than expected and Claire Lenten has somehow managed to look flipping stunning in every photo, Shocker! My holga is clearly very kind to people who suffer chin ailments

Anyway, to repeat, I bloody love the instant back :D

Favourites

2 posts in one day? Oh dear... I'm blaming the extra hour. Ok, so my love of lists is returning, my top 5 favourite things right now are:

1. Autumn
Autumn = the return of my red duffel coat/knee high socks/knitted cardigans/lovely autumnal colours everywhere/less guilt about wearing your pyjamas round the house/more crumpets/more cosy-ness etc etc...

2. The National
They are my favourite band right now, yay Carly for introducing me to the understated and reserved indie-pop songs

3. My Diana F+ & instant back
Yeah yeah yeah I know, I talk about it all the time, I'm really boring, blah blah blah I'll shut-up now.

4. Reading
I got loads of books for my birthday and I am well happy to have loads of literature to devour, nomnomnom

5. Olly Murs/John and Edward/Simon Cowell
I know it's super super lame and I should really get a life but Olly, John&Edward and Simon make me smile well loads, yay!

(6. Mystery google
http://www.mysterygoogle.com/ is an oddly addictive way to spend 5 minutes. Definitely not worthy of a top 5 as I've only used it once, but is probably still worthy of a mention. You search for what you want but instead of your search results coming up you get the last person who used googles search result. The best one so far is 'how do you make polyjuice potion?' the fact that there is a person who is looking for a recipe for polyjuice potion makes me stupidly happy)

22/10/09

I'd pretty much just like to say thank you to everyone who made my birthday mega awesome and times ten thank you for gifts/cards/VERY amusing phone calls/texts/messages/gestures of kindness/coming out and celebrating with me. I feel like the luckiest person ever :)

On my actual birthday I just chilled out with my family and drooled all over my camera. I was NOT expecting to get it at all, let alone the polaroid attachment back thingybob. Mum and Dad were super amazing got me 22 presents in a massive lucky dip box(!!!) The camera and polaroid back were the main gift, and the rest were small lovely things including, an animal dominoes set, a sheep tape measure, chocolate raisins, nice underwear, vintage maps, books etc etc... Well done parents :D Helen got us tickets to see The Woman In Black in Covent garden, so I will be 100% terrified but am well looking forward to it :) and Clare got me a lovely necklace and some fat chocolate. I got all my other relatives to give donations to charity instead of buying me something which I'm happy about. I feel so lucky to have got such nice things for my birthday that I am going to increase my monthly amount to charities even though this is probably a bad idea as I have no job and am overdraft central. But There are people who are in horrible situations and need the money a lot more than I do.

Anyway, in the evening of my birthday my family, Owen and I went bowling (where I lost terribly) and had a super tasty meal at the Olive Tree in Ledbury, yay! Then we came home and played Buzz, again I lost terribly, and then as an extra birthday treat we watched question time and I got annoyed with all the politicians and with how the episode was handled in general.

On Friday Carly, Rich, Soph, Owen and I went out to Worcester to have some nice drinks in nice places so I could celebrate my birthday with my friends. We went to the Firefly and played frustration (unsurprisingly I lost) and 'Tension Tower' (Jenga) Which again, I also lost :( We then headed on to Heroes where we played table football and Rich and I lost horribly (my fault) and then we got a super tasty shakeeys, although as always, I got way too much garlic mayo. We then hopped in a taxi and went home. Overall, a lovely night. It was super nice to go out somewhere that is not Malvern and be with some of my favourite people :)

I'm sad that I didn't get to see my other friends and I missed them lots, but hopefully I'm seeing most of them pretty soon anyway :)

Tomorrow is Carlys birthday and her family and my family are joining forces and going out for a joint birthday meal to ZamsZams, I am well excited about this :D Other good news is that Jess is coming home for Halloween :D and Kirsty is home on the 14th! YAY! I am also super super super SUPER excited about being a massive globe trotter and going to Barcelona in November and Scandinavia in December or January :D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Sexy

Is something I am far to clumsy/retarded to ever achieve, but Empire has a 100 sexiest people in movies on its website today which Helen and I read because we are rubbish girls have nothing better to do. It was mostly ok, although Megan Fox is pretty much the most boring choice for number 1 ever and James Franco was 48 Or something ridiculously high like that, whaaaaaaat?! Apparently whoever was voting in this poll thinks Sam Worthington should be higher than James Franco, what is wrong with people?!?!!? And Shia LaBeouf is well hotter than 40-whatever he was. Anyhow the top 5 SHOULD have gone:

5. Edward Cullen (ok this is cheating, but whatever)
4. Harrison Ford
3. Leonard Di Caprio (although if this was Titanic only he'd deffo be number 1)
2. James Franco
1. Christian Bale all the time but particularly as Bruce Wayne/Patrick Bateman-I know it's a bit wrong...

Also Gaspard Ulliel and Gael Garcia Bernal should probably be in this list but apparently Gael is really short and there is only 5 places

http://www.empireonline.com/100sexiest2009/

I'm aware that this probably the worst blog post ever ever.

Lycanthropy

Today the independent had an article on how Werewolfs are experiencing a surge of popularity at the moment. (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/new-moon-rising-return-of-the-werewolf-1805067.html) Probably due to Twilight, and the vampire obsession everyone seems to have at the moment (according to this article the two go hand-in-hand, although, not literally.) Someone in the article said he wasn't surprised about the surge of popularity that werewolves were experiencing as apparently this reflects the grim financial/social situation at the moment 'who wouldn't want to be able to shapeshift into a wolf and run off into the night, howling at the moon, and being able to demolish one's enemies and anxieties?' ha. Anyhow, apparently a tonne of werewolf films are being remade at the moment which doesn't particularly excite me, BUT I noticed that 'An American werewolf in London' is being shown at Vue, how exciting! I'm so going even if I have to go on my own like a huge loser.

ANWYAY, the whole point of this is that I didn't know that a lycanthrope is a Werewolf. I obviously felt pretty stupid and a bit uneducated. Although I do think I have may have already known this and just forgotten. But whatever, this display of general ignorance has made me think I should attempt to extend my vocabulary so I shall re-subscribe to dictionary.com word of the day :) hurrah for learning!

On a completely different note, I would love a pet Arctic fox :D

Claire Lenten, Yasmine Alani, Andrea Haley, Tara Thorpe and Eva Louise Storch

I love you.

!!

chronologically

Lunch! Reading! X-factor/Strictly! Birthday! Bowling! Zam Zams! Halloween! Kirsty! Youves! London! SCANDINAVIA!!!!! Christmas! Ahh! :D:D:D:D:D:D

Idiot box

True Blood
Is quite good, I'm pretty sure I'll be addicted now but not in a 'its a good programme way' more in a guilty pleasure way. I actaully think Anna Paquin is quite good for once and Bill the vampire is pretty hot. Vinnie from Home and Away is Anna's sex crazy brother and is a bit gross. It seems to be getting better, but I think majorly aimed at single women, so far it's pretty Twilight but with loads of blood and sex and no Robert Pattinson.

Strictly Come Dancing
Is annoying because it clashes with X-factor but it was pretty good last week. I really like Chris and Ola, Joe and Kristina and Phil and Katya. Ali Bastian is less annoying recently but Tess Daley is still dead behind the eyes.

Generation Kill
So far I don't like it as much as The Wire and the characters are less likeable but I'll persevere.

Eggheads
Has been quite good recently, yesterday the challengers were well close to beating the eggheads but it was not meant to be. CJ was being particularly gross and Judith particularly bad.

Question Time
I can't decide whether I like Question Time or not, I enjoy watching it I guess, but most of the time it makes me hate everyone apart from David Dimbleby. I nearly always get annoyed with the Lib Dems because they always seem to be saying silly things and making me cringe a bit or be annoyed that I don't like any of the parties. Having said that, Norman Baker was actaully ok last night and didn't say that many things I disagreed with. Surprisingly, I think I was actaully most sympathetic to Damian Greens views last night, although it hasn't done much to change my views on the conservatives as a whole. Dame Joan Bakewell was doing quite well until she started chatting about feminism and how if more women were employed by Royal Mail then there wouldn't be a strike *sigh* Nigel Farage (UKIP) was there, he was obviously a bit of a dick but I guess not as awful as he could have been. Alan Johnson was alright I suppose, he made a quip about Nick Clegg claiming expenses on some napkins but Dimbely quickly put him in his hypocritical place. Umm and he wasn't very liberal about freedom of speech, saying he would never debate with BNP. But overall he was quite good.

In conclusion, not a bad episode and there was the added highlight of an idiot in the audience making a total dick of himself, excellent. And as David Dimbleby pointed out, it was quite pantomime-esk at the end with people booing the BNP and cheering John Sergeant.

X-factor
Oh Olly Murs I don't think I could possibly love you anymore, cutest guy on the planet ever.

Lomo Love

I really really really REALLY want this camera





And while I'm on the subject of cameras if anyone wanted to buy me a LC-A+, colorslapsh or supersampler camera I would be pretty much the happiest person on the planet ever. Also I think I might die with joy if I was the owner of an instant back to go with the Diana F+ Qing Hua *sigh*

In other camera news, today I fixed the flash on my Holga, hurrah!!

After hours of searching

I found all my old pixies albums, yes yes yes!! Carly and I had a nostalgic listen to a bunch of Carlys old mix cds on Friday night because we had no ipod speakers and the radio was dance Ibiza club classics 20million or something horrible on every frequency (well probably apart from radio 6 but we couldn't remember the station) so old mix cds it was.

Anyway the Pixies came on and Carly told me loads of peoples favourites Pixies song. I personally can't really say what mine is because its too hard, I think Holiday Song used to be my favourite, but as soon as I commit to one I remember other ace songs like gouge away (Carlys favourite) or Monkey gone to heaven, or Planet of Sound or Alec Eiffel and Dig for Fire is pretty great too, and then I don't really want Holiday Song to be singled out as better than all the above (but it is REALLY good).

Anyway thats off topic really. So after listening to/discussing the Pixies on Friday I spent this morning searching for my old albums to put back on my ipod and was successful, hurray! I also feel a bit sad that I always listen to music off a computer or through ipod speakers or whatever. I quite wish I had a record player I guess, or at least my old cd player that Clare stole. I miss when I used to go shopping to buy an album and then put it straight in my walkman and listen to it on repeat for a few hours while deciding if track 3 was better than track 10. ipods are obviously great but I guess it's kind of sad that they've taken over.

Maybe this has been brought on by a combination watching high Fidelity (John Cusack isn't as annoying as usual, but someone being called Laura in a film drives me a bit mad) and my recent semi-hatred for digital cameras. Which is probably making me hate all things technological (with the exception of my MacBook). Humm, perhaps I'm just getting old I sound quite like an oap.

Recent Brook Cottage news includes Libby being left unattended and demolishing an entire massive bag of crisps including half of the actual bag and eating a green marker pen and getting green ink on just about everything. The handbrake in the C1 still scaring me despite behaving itself. Everyone being up for going family bowling on my birthday, haha.

Pops turns cinquante-trois

Today was pretty eventful as it was Dad's buffduh so Ma, Hel, O, Pa and I went to the Malvern Hills hotel for lunch where the drinking began. I enjoyed a lovely halloumi and roast pepper baguette (white bread, obvs) We then came back home so Lib didn't destroy the house and played some epic hollywood buzz, Owla clearly reigned supreme with a score of about 10 million, as a reward for coming first we secured as far as I could tell, some sort of torture cave, thanks Buzz.

Then Clare came home from school so we went on a big family walk on British camp, saw the cutest westy puppy ever and then went back to the Malvern hills hotel for more post walk drinks. Then went back home and had more celebratory birthday drinks and snacks, opened birthday gifts, had more drinks, enjoyed Mums 5 star cuisine (no, seriously, that's not sarcastic, Mums cooking is 2nd to none, it looked well masterchef, go Mumbo!) Then ate a lovely home baked birthday cake, had more drinks. By this point the lightweights of family (me and Mother) were fairly drunk and Mum was being a drunken fool and dancing with dog. Owen was then treated to a repeat of Clares epic Canada speech as she still has it written down. Owen went back to Bristol, Clare went to bed and Pops, Mum, Hel and I watched Life and oohed and aahed over the Attenborough/hd/nature goodness and then we watched Ross Noble Australian something and Mum etc.. moaned that Billy Connolly had just done the same thing but on a Harley Davidson and then everyone forgot about moaning and laughed because Ross Noble is sometimes quite funny. Or in Mums case she fell asleep because she always does after about 1 sip of wine.

Overall, a good day involving no arguing and everyone being nice and happy, horray for my lovely family :)

Also, everyone minus Dad and the dog went to see Up yesterday. It was super super great, I loved it. I even liked having the kids in the cinema too because they were mental and laughed at the weirdest things. I quite liked that because I guess when I was younger I would have found that funny too. I also liked that they all cried really loud and didn't care that they were blubbing in public so no-one could probably tell that I was also being a massive wettie and sobbing too. Hopefully it will make people be nicer to old people as well because Carl is amazing :) yay for Pixar, plus I don't think that they are that evil as I saw a quite nice programme about them and they don't seem too bad :)

Then Helen and I watched the OC and Seth and Summer got back together and everything was right in the world

31ST OCTOBER!

I'm super excited about Halloween, I'm going to shamelessly rip off Florence and dress up as a bat :D



I will also be taking inspiration from the super ace bat costume Mum made me for my 6th birthday :D but I think I'll avoid blacking my face up



I am also going to prepare Halloween themed snacks to take to Richards, cobweb cookies! yeah!!

Yay, making clothes/baking/dressing up/getting battered/DANCING! excited :D :D

I am however, quite worried about the pre drinking and watching scary films at Richs as I'm a super massive wimp these days and Rich will probably make us have the lights off, eeeek!

:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(

Second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best second best I hate my life right now times a million :(

Insomnia

At the moment I really can't sleep and now I've fucked up my Ultradian rhythms by having a massive sleep after my driving lesson :( So, I decided to call upon all my 2nd year psychology A level knowledge so I can be like a normal human being and sleep at night and do things in the day. Anyhow this got me thinking about the sleep deprivation studies we had to learn. Hüber-Weidman looked at a bunch of studies and came up with a 'guideline' thing:

After 1 night of sleep deprivation: People reported being uncomfortable, but it was tolerable.

2 nights: People feel a much greater urge to sleep, in particular, when the body temperature is lowest at 3-5am

3 nights: People begin to find tasks involving sustained attention or complex processing much more difficult, especially if they are boring. However when encouraged by an experimenter or if the task is made more interesting the performance greatly improves. As with 2 nights without sleep it is hardest to stay awake in the early hours.

4 nights: Micro-sleep periods (a kind of mini sleep that lasts around 3 seconds, while the person stares blankly into space and temporarily loses awareness) start to occur while the person is awake. People become irritable and confused.

5 nights: Same effects as above, the person may start to experience delusions. Apparently cognitive abilities (e.g problem solving) remain reasonably unimpaired.

6 nights: The person begins to show signs of 'sleep deprivation psychosis', which involves a loss of personal identity, a sense of depersonalisation and increased difficulty in coping with people and the environment.

I really liked the sleep deprivation studies but they weren't very many for obvious ethical reasons. Peter Tripp was said to had suffered long term psychological damage after he stayed awake for 8 days for a charity wakeathon. But then we can't tell if this damage was from the sleep deprivation directly as we don't have a time machine.

Anyway, hopefully tonight I'll sleep well and I won't need to worry about sleep deprivation psychosis. (actually I think when I saw the machinist I used my ultimate psychology knowledge to diagnose Christian Bale with this, but he was also a paranoid Schizophrenic wasn't he? So maybe not? I can't remember...?)

In other news my Mum just made me a lemon and sugar pancake for no real reason and I look about a thousand stone in photos and my puppy is MASSIVE

I have recently discovered that

Capri suns are not as good as they used to be, in fact, they are pretty gross.

I really am awful at xbox.

BUT I'm getting better, and, more importantly, xboxs are actually super fun, FRANCIS!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!

I cannot control my emotions. I even cried on the train home much to my embarrassment and to my neighbours horror. She did ask me if I was ok though even if she was looking at me like I was an absolute mental case.

I think I am addicted to noodles. No seriously.

Right hand turns terrify me.

Laughing With by Regina Spektor is my favourite song right now.

I probably can't afford a hair cut for ages so I might as well get used to having it long and root-tastic.

I can't hack gory films like I used to. I barely saw any of The Fly due to hiding behind my hands/duvet, ridiculous.

I have started biting my nails again, noooooooo :(

A Philosophy lesson

My absolute favourite philosophical argument ever comes from Anselm of Canterbury. Way back in the 11th Century Anselm argued in Monologion and Proslogion for the existence of God using a priori reasoning alone. I took a small extract from one of my 3rd year essays and edited out the complex bits and the less interesting technical logic-y bits in it. Here is Anselms argument and the most famous objection to the argument from Gaunilo:

Anselm’s argument is best understood when set out in logical form as so:
P1 God is ‘that than which nothing greater can be thought’.
P2 Something that exists in reality is greater (Cēterīs paribus) than something that exists in the understanding alone.
P3 If God exists in the understanding alone then we can imagine something greater than God.
P4 God must necessarily exist in reality because otherwise he would not be ‘that than which nothing greater can thought’.
C God exists in reality.

If we accept premises 1-4 so far, then, it appears we must concede that God exists as Anselm’s conclusion follows validly from its premises’. However numerous criticisms have been aimed at Anselm’s argument by attacking the premise’s, perhaps the most famous objection coming from Gaunilo.

Gaunilo worried that Anselm was, as the objection is often put, ‘defining something into existence’ which seems suspicious, as, if Anselm’s argument is correct then we may be able to use this line of reasoning to define other things into existence. Gaunilo attempted to show exactly this. He wrote to Anselm asking him to imagine a perfect island one which is ‘that than which nothing greater can be thought’. To be the perfect Island, according to Gaunilo, the island would have to be more excellent than all other islands, and in order to achieve this it would have to exist in reality rather than just in the mind alone, as an imaginary island would not be the most excellent island. Gaunilo hoped his perfect island example would force Anselm to retract or change his argument.

Unfortunately for Gaunilo, perfect islands do not have the same defining characteristics as God. Things that make an island great may be palm trees or white sand, but palm trees and white sand are certainly not the kind of features Anselm claims God has. With the example of the perfect island there will always be something else we can add to it to make it more perfect. For example, we can continue adding another grain of sand for an infinite amount of time, thus making Gaunilo’s island incoherent. This is exactly what C.D Broad claims.

Broad argued that for something to be the greatest possible being (or in Gaunilo’s case island) there has to be an upper limit, or maximum value to the features ascribed to the being (or island). If this is not the case then it is meaningless to talk of such a being. In Anselm’s case God does have maximal limits, for example if he is omnipotent then it is impossible for him to know any more than knowing all and knowing all true propositions. However in Gaunilo’s case the perfect island does not have intrinsic maximal limits, we can always add one more lake, coconut, grain of sand etc… Because islands don’t have an intrinsic maximal limits Gaunilo’s criticism of Anselm’s ontological argument could be seen as invalid and not as damaging to Anselm’s argument as they initially appear.

I could chat on for hours about the hundreds of rebuttals and objections one can make against Anselm but I can't be bothered right now, plus it would probably be boring for anyone who isn't me. I think one of the main reasons why I love this argument so much is it's simplicity. When I first heard it I was convinced by it. Perhaps this is why I love it so much, no other arguments I have come across in philosophy have actaully made me change my views so radically, even if Anselms argument only convinced me for about a minute.