The Horror of Second Year Halls #2

You'd think one was bad enough right?

But upon living in second year halls for a year, I've discovered a whole new batch of catastrophe's.

First and foremost is the leaky toilet. Discovered only yesterday when I realised there was a large puddle building up behind the toilet. Which is lovely.
At first I thought it was my flatmate, water absolutely everywhere, no idea why.. and it could have culminated behind the toilet, right?
Upon looking this morning, I came to the conclusion that no, she's not quite as messy as I first thought.

Secondly the lovely mildew and mould in the shower. That's always nice. Because of the mould and general wearing away of the stuff that's supposed to seal the shower, it is now also as leaky as the toilet. If not, leakier. Although only when you've had a shower. There's just a nice little pool of water on the floor. Lovely.

Then there was a fire alarm this morning, and my flatmate moving out on Sunday night when I had an exam on Monday. All sorts of enjoyable things about second year halls.

But to be honest, a house can be just as bad as halls.  Except with less people to piss you off, but in much closer proximity. And there isn't cleaners to clear up their mess.

Ode to Imagination.

This blog post is devoted to the imagination. To people. To our world, and most of all, to paper.

Because we can make many many things out of paper.
Books, Notes, Flyers, Posters, Paper Aeroplanes, Newspapers, Papier Mache, Drawings, Paintings, Poems, Brainstorms, Labels, Packaging, Cards.
Anything you can think of really.
Well I wrote a random poem a few days ago, and I'd like to think it's not too bad. And I'd like to share it with you.

A piece of paper can conquer the world,
It has the power to shape and to mould.
Printed in books it sends out a message,
Or used as a visa, allowing safe passage.
Signs and posters to make people think,
Messages to loved ones gone in a blink.
The words themselves can speak so loud,
They speak of things that make us proud.
Religion, fantasy, ideas and notes,
We use it to put our people to vote.
To write stories and make pictures are uses too,
And when each piece is worn out we can start one anew.

As you probably know by now, books and stories are pretty much my thing. I love them. And so for me this was a pretty good poem.

So the suggestion today is to use your imagination and think about how everything has a use. And how important it is for you.

I know, this was a weird post. But don't worry, next time It'll be back with the odd and wonderful!

The Dangers of Walking.

I'm sure many of you have walked at some point. Or ran. Or jogged. Or crawled.
All of which come with their very own unique sets of dangers.

I have done my fair share of walking, which is despicable after the first 15 minutes. Especially in hot weather.
So I'm going to tell you my top walking dangers.
And then give you tips on how to avoid these dangers.

1. Dehydration and getting out of breath. Dangerous rating: 9/10. Why? Because you may die/ feel like dying. Avoiding this is simple, drinking (preferably water, but alcohol makes it less painful) and stopping for a rest.

2. Low hanging branches. These are a very real danger, even for short people. Trust me, I'm short and a branch HAS whacked me in the head. Easily avoided by actually looking where you're going and ducking.

3. Slipping. Wet and snowy/icy weather is a pain in the ass because of this. Who hasn't fallen over in the snow? Avoided by taking careful steps and not leaving banana skins lying around.

4. Falling over/ making a fool of oneself. This can lead to very serious injuries. I mean it. Broken arms galore. So basically, try not to trip over yourself. This has also happened to me.

Man Falling- Wikipedia

5. Hidden rocks and/or invisible dangers. These are complete asses. Absolutely no way to avoid these, except for noting the glint on the glass door before you walk into it.


6. Other overhead catastrophes (ie. Birds and other falling objects). Can't really be avoided unless you look up or hear it coming.

7. Mid-section dangers (ie. Elbows (although for the small this is a head danger and for the tall this is a crotch or rib danger) and also bushes). Mid section dangers basically only make you look like an idiot. Anyone can avoid a bush. So look where you're going.

8. Other obstacles.  Anything. Most of which can be avoided. Some examples are: traffic cones, cars, bikes, signs, trees, statues, people, lampposts, demonic fairies, building sites etc.


To finish off I would also like to warn you of the dangers of walking in all weather. As I've already stated, rain and snow is bad. And also the sun, especially when sticking to the tarmac when stood in one spot in the boiling sun for too long.

Also, large hailstones.

----------------------------------------------------
This one was for you Ed. :D

And here's some random links, because I can:
The Benefits and Dangers of Walking - yes, it's a real one.
Wikipedia's Walking page. Very informative.
Weather page on Wikipedia.
REAL Massive Hailstones.
Hail (hailstones) on wikipedia - you know, if you wanted to know how they're made and stuff.

Dressing for Dinner or Dressing as Dinner? Your Call.

Cheese Shoes (found at Metro.co.uk)

After having a good old look about the Internet for weird news stories, I found a corker.

A pair of shoes made from Cheese. You don't believe me? There's a picture for proof, and HERE's the news article. So, how about some more dairy footwear, anyone?

Picture from Google
Lady Gaga and Meat
Dress.

And let's not forget Lady Gaga's infamous Meat Dress. Which many people had a lot of beef with. (Pardon the pun.) But seriously, what is it with fashion and food?

I reckon I can find some really good food fashion out there though. So this is my post mission.

Food on clothes have always been an idea, we've seen pictures of cakes on clothes, fruit on heads and the cherry fad that happened, don't know if you remember, but not so long ago fruit was all around us. Cherry dresses everywhere. I'll admit, I did really want one, and I did get something with strawberries on it at one point. But it was all in the name of food. Something I love.

But this just seems a little ridiculous.

Picture from Google

Saying this, I did find this very interesting Burger Dress. I actually quite like it. Would never ever wear it, but at least it would certainly make people stop and stare. 

Of course this also makes me think of the poor people who have to parade outside restaurants and cafes trying to lure people in wearing a food costume of their choice, and the unfortunate people at fancy dress parties who think to come as food. Although very original, most people do think it's weird. Personally, I reckon I could get away with it. And everybody should really. Fight the conformity and all.

I also found THIS website hosting some pictures of food as outfits, and personally I adore the bread one. And the Artichoke hearts. But wow. Elegance and food combined.
Plus I can see a massive upside to food as clothing. When you get hungry all you have to do is take something from the piece of clothing. I'm thinking I'm going to have a cake hat.

So to bring this to a close, I reckon food fashion is the way forward, providing it's not past it's use by date. Ew.

Royal Weddings and a Brief, Biased and Odd History of Love.

So, the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton will soon be underway, so I thought it only right to have a look at the great history of love and romance and so on, seeing as it's not long til the big day, and we in England get a day off for it.

As much as it's nice to watch a wedding, especially one as fancy and no doubt beautiful as this one (plus I want to see the dress) I'm not sure I will be able to as I have a distinct lack of a television in my flat. Saying this, I may wheedle my way into spending the day at home or with my sister. Both places have a TV, and other creature comforts that my room sorely lacks.

So, the history of love, in my eyes, goes a little like this:

Prince William and Kate Middleton
From Mirror.co.uk

-St Valentine. I have absolutely no idea what happened there, so a Wikipedia page will be linked to, right HERE. But Valentine's day nowadays is a celebration of all things sufficiently cuddly and love-inducing. It's a couples day. And when you're not one of a couple it's a completely miserable day, considering it's supposed to be about love and happiness.

-Sir Lancelot and Guienevere. Yes, I know it's a legend, and I know that Guienevere was with King Arthur, but honestly, who can say no to a big rugged knight who just wants to whisk you away?

-Shakespeare. Well, he didn't half know how to write about love. Romeo and Juliet, Shall I Compare Thee? (one of his sonnets) and so on. Plus being a poet and playwright that everybody does love seems romantic enough for me. And also I'd say Jane Austen definitely does her bit for old fashioned English romance.

-Love in general. It may sound completely soppy, but as Wet Wet Wet concluded ' Love Is All Around'. And It's true. A million types of love. And isn't that very, very nice?

Images from google

- (carrying on) Love songs. My favourites being old rocky classics such as Aerosmiths' 'Don't Wanna Miss A Thing', Bon Jovi's 'Always' and 'Bed of Roses' and Bryan Adams' 'Everything I do'. But love songs are just generally there to make us all feel very, very soppy and adored. And for the most part I would say they do.

So that's my idea of what the L word is all about. Along with a few weird ideas about literature.
So yes, don't forget on the Royal Wedding day to remember this is all about Love. Not who may be running the country and definitely not about how expensive the dress is. Or how grand the guests are. Although these are definitely points to notice.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Some Links you may find interesting:

BBCs History of Royal Weddings

The Official Royal Wedding Website

List of Love Songs (for weddings apparently)

Last But not Least, the WIKIPEDIA PAGE. (Oh Wikipedia, you are a saviour)

Glorious ghosts or Pestering Poltergeists? Either way its Ectoplasmic!

And now I'll be reporting on the subject of the paranormal.. the.. er... ectoplasmal.. the.. ghostly?
Yep, that'll do.
Our first exploratory step into the world of the paranormal is the creepy and weird world of ghosts.

What are ghosts? Well.. we don't have a damn clue to be honest.
But I'm going ahead and saying ghosts are predominantly known as spirits of the deceased, coming back into the world through the spiritual plain to visit their old haunts (haha, get it?) and generally creep people out.
Ghosts are often called many different things: spirits, poltergeists, souls, apparitions... you name it. And ghosts are believed in all over the world, just with different names, like many other paranormal and mythical creatures. But ghosts are the things that people believe in most.
Wikipedia has a very thorough page on all things ghostly. Click HERE for this page.

Once I think I felt a ghost. And once I thought I saw a ghost. Just a blob, nothing special. But the feeling. Like something touched me when absolutely nobody could have. And just thinking about this is making my skin goosebumpy and eyes water.


An Oiuja Board- Picture from Wikipedia

 Which is a weird thing to do really. Why do my eyes water when I think of ghosts? Strange. But it happens every single time.

So ghosts. could be people, could be remnants of ideas, could be dust particles, could be a trick of the light. Could be a really good way of explaining why we lose things so often.

Of course, people have always tried to prove that they've seen these spectres, from photos, telling of past experiences, video, Ouija boards, and probably the most well known, television programmes.
Most Haunted is probably one of the most well known ones (at least in England, and possibly Ghost Hunters or Ghost Adventures in the USA).
Films are also in on the act. There's the more recent Paranormal Activity (1 and 2), Ghost, Ghostbusters, The Haunting, Casper etcetera. Ghosts and other paranormal ideas, concepts, realities are just another source of enjoyment and interest.
And it's always something good to have a chat about, tell scary stories about and generally worry kids with.

The Day of the Dead -Picture from Google

Something I did find out about in my obvious extensive research (ie. Wikipedia and IMDB search) is the many festivals and general celebrations of death and ghosts and so on. There's Halloween (or All Hallows Eve), The Day of the Dead in Mexico (or All Souls Day, which sounds awesome), The Hungry Ghost Festival in China and many more.

So to finish off, I'm not going to tell you whether ghosts are real or not, because I don't have a clue. But wouldn't it be really interesting if they were?

----------------------------------------------------------------
Also some interesting sites I found along the way:
MostHaunted.com - A website about US most haunted places.
Wikipedia's page on 'Paranormal'
If you're in the UK and want to go ghost hunting, I found THIS website.

2000 Well Placed Clicks.

Just to commemorate, my blog now has over 2000 views.
Thank you very very much for expressing even a slight interest in this here blog.

I am thoroughly indebted to you all.
(Except those who ask for anything in return.)

So yes. Over 2000. Wow.

And I know I can firmly place the blame on the main reason for anyone to visit this website on one person only.

He is known as LIZARD MAN.

And now this blog is a slight shrine to him.
Because he is obviously awesome.
and a big thank you goes to him for upping my pageviews.

I owe you a drink.
(Only redeemable in England, at weekends, with supervision)

The Beginners Guide to Identity.

Upon doing a oddly interesting lecture and seminar on adolescent identity, I decided that Identity would be a great blog idea.

So this is what I came up with:
-----------------------------------------------

Identity, like so many other concepts (Intelligence, Personality) is rather vague. What makes up a persons identity?
There's the official definition, and my definition. I'll tell you mine, its far more interesting.

Identity is anything that you think about yourself: Whether you're a student, mother, Hindu, albino, goth, posh person, yearly income less than £5000. You name it, that's what its about.

But the main things are Politics, Religion, Social Status, Orientation, Gender, Occupation and Nationality. Anything in which you can group yourself in.

To give a bit more of a clue, I'll tell you I'm British, Young Adult, Organ Donor, Criminologist, Loves Books, Clothes and Marzipan, Agnostic, Female, Tattooed, Student, Light Drinker, Dislikes Cats and Cities. Lives in a City.
... But to tell you the truth that just sounds like something you'd find on a dating site.

So yes. Identity is pretty important. It makes you, well, you.
And during adolescence is when you branch out and try out what identity suits you best.

I tried goth, bright coloured, christian, atheist, geologist, teacher and experimented in what I thought about marriage, drinking, the meaning of life, stem cell research. Everything.

It's always good to have a clear idea of what kinds of things you have to offer, what you want to do with your life and what your own thoughts are on hot topics. It's just human nature I guess.

So yes. This was your short guide to identity. Hope you enjoyed reading about what you already basically knew. :)