Deathly Confessions

No apologies this time. It's sooner than any other updates for what? The past year? Have been. I'll try and keep them coming quicker. 

My favourite book charter ever is Death. Yep. You read that right: Death. Obviously I mean an anthropomorphic Death (i.e the grim reaper) and not simply the cessation of life. I really hate it when book characters die. Weeeell, not really; I mean the best stories are ones that change your thoughts and feelings, making you feel and breathe along with the characters, and the passing away (I hate this euphemism of death, but it's an easy distinction between Death and, well, death) of characters is often useful in achieving that goal. Anyway, that's a discussion for another day, today I want to talk to you about Death, not death. 

I first fell in love with the personification of Death in the novel 'The Book Thief'. It's brilliant and you should go read it- to quote a school project where I talked about it: "The Book Thief was the first book that broke my heart, ripped up my insides, and then blended them with crushed glass. My perspective on life was transformed."(Confession, 2013). If you're a bit of a reader, you'll know that that's actually a compliment to the book. The Book Thief is told from Death's perspective, with this lovely voice and tone. I was, of course, familiar with the concept of the grim reaper, but a Death with personality and what could almost be called emotions was a startling revelation. 

Just imagine that this is Death, not Sherlock. Or just admire Sherlock. Or both. Both is good. Talking of Sherlock. Season 3 teaser trailer means that a proper trailer is coming soon! *squeee!*

Then I read the Discworld novels. If you don't know what they are, go read this and then you are worthy to be my friend. I'm kidding, I'm happy to be friends with you anyway, it's just that it'll be easier for you to understand my life if you at least know who the most glorious and esteemed Terry Pratchett is. Anyway, back to the Death of the Discworld. He speaks ALL IN CAPITALS, is somehow hilariously comic and deathly (pun unintended until after I'd written it. Then it became very very intended indeed) serious at the same time, is at the head of a family tree (I don't really understand the technicalities either) consisting of a glorious succession of wonderful characters who have their own novels, is visible to all (or is he…?), has a friendly 'Death of Rats' as a sort-of-not-really pet, and often has very deep and philosophical thoughts (such as, 'Cats. Cats are nice.'). I know my attempts at describing his brilliance are hopelessly pathetic, but rest assured, he's brilliant! Please don't take my word for it- go and read!

I'm not really sure what to write as a conclusionary (I'm in a making-up-words type mood right now) paragraph. I guess just that it's wonderful how a character often portrayed as cold or heartless can be rewritten as something entirely different. The Death of The Book Thief is a tired and sad character, the Death of Discworld is technically still cold and heartless, yet endearingly not. Please try reading one, even if Death is not your cup of tea-The Book Thief is acclaimed for many other factors (and trust me, it deserves all the praise it can get) and the Discworld novels (and other Pratchett books) are mostly not Death-centric, and have whole hosts of other brilliant things going for them!

Allon-sy!

xxx

Confession

P.S Yes, I know it should 'technically' be 'deadly' in the title. It wouldn't be such an appropriate title though. Sorry. Not really. 

P.P.S As ever, although never previously stated by me, if any of the images used in this post (or others) are yours and you object to them being used please let us know and we'll remove them straight away :)

Erm.... Hi?

Hello?
...
Is there anyone still out there?
...
Is there anyone still out there willing to forgive us?
...
Yes? No?
...
I'm going to continue anyway, so there.
...

So... it's been a while hey? Let's not let this get awkward :). The reason it's been so long is a plethora of assignments ("But you're only in high-school, it can't be that bad, can it?" Yeah, you're right. 15 massive assignments at the same time really isn't that bad, is it? I mean it's not like Philosopher and I cried ourselves to sleep most nights or anything.), the most notable of which is officially called the 'Personal Project'. Generally that term is met by a variation upon: "JUST NO. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO SAY 'PP' WITHIN A 5M RADIUS OF ME,  OR SO HELP ME GOD, I WILL SHOOT YOU. *sob, sob, sob*". Yeah. It's pretty fun. It is actually a great idea, but the implementation of it is the most ridiculous concept- Once upon a time, not too many years ago, some cruel evil sadistic IB official type person thought 'I've just had the best idea! Let's give already stressed out students a seven month assignment that in terms of the MYP certificate is worth as much as every other subject, but we won't give them any school time to work on. Hahahahahaha!"Basically the project consists of a 'product' and then a report. Students can choose almost anything, but it has to be considered hard enough to make the teachers laugh at our misery, and then we are assigned a 'supervisor' and a 'manager'. My supervisor is lovely, even if we don't quite meet the every second week we're supposed to (we've met a total of 3 times in the whole 7 months. Not that I'm complaining, I hate having someone watching my progress as I work.) and we barely ever come into contact with our manager. The product I chose was a recipe book and an accompanying party, and the report is about the process (choice of the goal, source analysis, etc). The report is 3,000 words, which is double the most we've ever been allowed/made to write before. Anyway, I'm not just going to rant about PP right now, because in a couple of months, once it's all over, I'll write about my personal project and how blurdy brilliant it is! :)

No, for now I kinda just want to ad lib (as in rant with no sense of direction) about whatever I feel like (mostly fangirly stuff). I'm not even going to include the sort of headings that I normally would in a 'write-dump' because I'm 600% done with having to do things in a set format. So there.

The ending to Doctor Who?! What was that?! Aridglugbrkgo! And then Matt Smith is leaving (admittedly, all of us who are bothered to check BBC's twitter have known that for months; but it's only now that other people are getting upset. I knew Matt Smith was leaving before tumblr went crazy. I'm such a hipster) and the 12th Doctor might be a female! I'm not sure I'd like that... Currently I'm backing the Chris Kendall team, despite knowing that there's about a 1% chance it'll actually be him. And then he'll become to mainstream and everyone (In the circles I mingle in at least) will know who he is, and he won't be Crabstickz from YouTube anymore, he'll be the 12th Doctor. Anyway, he's amazing and I love him. Also, I have the rough notes for an essay on the different personalities of the Doctors from the nuWho, which I will write these holidays! I write essays for fun because I'm cool like that. But John Hurt! What is that? Anyway, some friends and I are planning a party for the 50th anniversary and I'm so incredibly excited! I'm not sure if I'm more excited about the 50th anniversary, or the fact that I get to plan and make a whole ton of themed food! Souffle, fish fingers and custard, banana (mock) daiquiris, TARDIS cake, here I come!

Sherlock. Sherlock. Sherlock. *sob*. Why Moffat why? It won't be out until Christmas 2013 at the earliest, probably 2014 :(. Grrr. That's all I'm going to say, because otherwise it'll deteriorate into random typos made by my forehead as I weep into keyboard.

Moomintroll is awesome! It's this Finnish childrens' book series, which is actually amazingly lovely. READ IT.  I need to re-read it, and try to get over my crush on Snufkin and perhaps try not the hate the Snork-Maiden as much as I do. Seriously though, Moomintroll is too good for her! She's shallow and vain and silly and annoying and poor Snork having to put up with her! How nice is Moominmumma though? And Moominpapa! Ha! Moominpapa is wonderful!

Is not Mika one of the most absolutely wonderful musicians ever? He's wonderful. Philosopher and I often will find ourselves sitting there singing his songs in class and then will start an email to our favourite teacher filled with some of his best (and weirdest: 'Sometimes I sit and think about the day that  you're going to die') lines. Don't worry, we never sent it. Oh! On the topi of music: Alex Day is a babe. I don't mean in terms of physical appearance- definitely not my type!- but in terms of just generally being amazing. He's 24 and has practically invented a type of music distribution, almost finished writing a book (Philosopher and I will be lucky to finish our book before we're 24.), and is basically awesome. 'Good Morning Sunshine' is the ultimate happy song, and 'Wish For is You' shall be played at my wedding, whilst 'Forever Yours' is one of the cutest friendship songs.  :)

I saw something the other day that made me laugh. It was a sign saying:
"When someone says 'stop' I don't know whether it's hammer time; in the name of love; or if I should stop, collaborate and listen."
I laughed harder than it deserved. Oh! Whilst we're talking about 'Ice Ice Baby' I would just like to mention that I can rap a fair part of it from memory (as earlier mentioned, I'm really really really cool), and that Vanilla Ice (the artist) is an American who owns a pet goat and a pet Wallaroo. Why? (That was a rhetorical question)

I probably should stop now. Well done if you're still reading this. Normally I do a fair bit of editing and planning to posts, but this is literally just my train of thought and I'm not even going to bother to re-read it at the moment. Philosopher shall judge me, and I'm sure you shall as well. See if I care!

I am actually really sorry about
a) being gone for so long
b) the dodginess (It's now a word. Accept it) of this post
c) My extreme laziness

xxx
Have a good day! (Too lazy to even do a 'cutesy farewell'. *shakes head in disgust at self*)
Confession

Confessions of a Fan-Girl

First up:

Where was this awesome baby made?
http://www.bureauofcommunication.com/

Moving on:

The terms "What is my life?" or "I have no life!" are bandied about pretty freely in the cyber-world. I do, actually, have a life -or am I a mystical robot? Actually I would still have a battery life or something similar, even if I was a robot- but it, like the lives of many victims of various corporations *cough BBC cough*, fandoms, and people *cough Moffat cough Gatiss cough*, consists of a lot of crying and 'feels'. I know these 'feels' well, as I get them daily (Literally. Daily. I will be happily chatting with my friends about tomato relish and then my darn brain will just start looping "This is my note. Always. Bad Wolf. Okay. On my own. War will make corpses of us all." And such like until my eyes are watering and the back of my throat grows tight. It's not always such a varied array of quotes, often there's simply a little gif stuck in my head of Sherlock falling or Snape Dying or Rose and The Doctor kissing or Pippin singing).

It was surprisingly hard to find a good gif for Sherlock.
I suppose no-one really wants to rewatch one of the most heartbreaking moments
over and over and over and over again.

Oh Pip.

I saw this with a friends at their place place, it was the first time I'd been to their place and then I sat on their couch and cried. Mildly awkward.

I am pretty much an ultimate fan-girl- get me in your fandom and I will steadfastly defend you, spend hours researching evidence for/against minor points, quote you daily, lose my ovaries (Gosh I hate that expression) over gifs, cry over aforementioned 'feels', and, perhaps most importantly, you will always hold a special place in my heart. Or maybe just a special place in that empty spot left after my ovaries went boom. (Unless you're Peter Jackson. 'Cause I kinda worshipped the ground under his feet (In a non idolatry condoning manner) until he decided to get all idiotic and make The Hobbit into such (a) terrible film(s). I still love him though.)

Ovaries 

Most people would assume, being a 'fan-girl' I would have at least one, probably more, Tumblr accounts. Haha! No. I have none, I do have a Pinterest account though (Classy, I know.), but that doesn't mean I can't look at other people's Tumblr accounts dedicated to KicktheStickz or Johnlock now, does it? I read fanfiction, quote in everyday conversation, go nutty in the same way that only Chiroptera faeces can over gifs and basically I will one day die from emotional overload. 

I'm crazy as these little fellas!

I don't actually really know where I was going with this, apart from to just tell you all that it's alright: there is someone, somewhere, who feels the same way as you. I'll always be here for when your friends tease you about having no life, because, being the awesome person you are, you can prove you do, as a matter of fact, have a life: "Here listen to my heart beat" (Especially use that one on cute boys ;)). 

If crying or making turtle-waving-fangirling-omg-ican't-asdfghjkl-eek-OMG-gah-whywouldyoudothistome arms makes you happy then that's great- keep up the good work!

Anyway, I'm gonna go stop the tears this post caused with a nice warm shower, a good and a soft pillow. Goodnight all! 

Confession

xxx

P.S Google has gone really freakin' bizarre. Seriously, go click on an image in google images. Arghhh! I feel like I just found out my something is really something totally different. I can't think of a metaphor I'm so weirded out. 

P.P.S Can everyone just appreciate my use of brackets within brackets. Have fun simplifying that one and working out the variable's value.

P.P.P.S It's also possible to be an anti-fan girl. Like me and Twilight; the awfulness of Twilight is one of my favourite soap-boxes, but for now please check out this other amazing person's rant  http://kar3ning.livejournal.com/545639.html (be warned, there is not-so-nice language)

P.P.P.P.S There have been so many sad gifs that you now need some  happy ones :)

P.P.P.P.P.S This is an ironic post script apologising for all the post scripts: I'm sorry.*pause* I'm so sorry.

Philosopher's Best and Worst of 2012

HAPPY JANUARY EVERYONE! Well, the new year is well and truly here (ha, ha haaa... no? Okay) and so far we’ve had TWO EXCITING WEEKS OF 2013 in which ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OF IMPORTANCE has occurred. Wow, ladies and gents. This year really has started with a bang! 

So in lieu of a recap of the last couple of weeks (because that would be even more boring than an un-edited, picture-less write-dump), I’ll treat you to some fond/ghastly memories from the last year. Behold, Philosopher’s Best and Worst of 2012!

The Mayans are either not very good at predicting the future, or history’s greatest trolls. But regardless, this apocalypse was just bad. I mean, for a start, no one actually had a clear idea of HOW the world was going to end. Do we die in flames? Are we drowned by the seas? Do overlarge venus fly traps devour us whole? We’ll never know how we were supposed to die, which means we can never brag about it. “I survived a giant venus fly trap invasion predicted centuries ago!” sounds much better than “I survived something bad that was predicted centuries ago. But I don’t know what it was supposed to be. Maybe getting biscuit crumbs in your tea? That’s pretty bad...”

I like to imagine a parallel universe in which YOLO was used for the forces of good. People would say YOLO in a vaguely comedic way when taking advantage of unique opportunities. It would be a not-too-serious way of saying ‘live in the moment!’. 

But fate had a different destiny for YOLO in mind. Instead, it became the mantra of every annoying teenager with a twitter account. And somewhere, in the dark corners of these hormone-riddled minds, YOLO evolved into a “well-reasoned” argument for any decision. This scope of decisions ranged from “I’m not gonna do my homework, because YOLO!” to “I’m gonna drink this bottle of Methylated Spirits, because YOLO!”. Yes, you certainly DO only live once, as you’re about to find out. 

There was once a middle-aged mother, struggling to come to terms with aging. As a way to express her mid-life-crisis emotions, she decided to write the world’s crappiest book series. And for a while her Twilight Saga was, indeed, the worst piece of fiction that had ever been published. 

But in 2012, another frightening entity emerged- a Twilight Mum also struggling to come to terms with her aging decided that her abomination of a Twilight fan-fiction deserved to become a book. And so the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy crawled from the twisted depths of the well of REALLY BAD IDEAS and was published. 

As it was once put to me, to be human is to strive to be better than you are. We hope to become better people, in one way or another, in the hope of creating a better world. 

But apparently the large majority of the female population FORGOT about such virtues and rushed out to buy their $30 worth of filth, destroying all faith in humanity in the process. I’m just glad that I won’t be the one who has to tell little Tommy the truth about ‘Mummy’s Special Book’.

But don’t despair, my comrades. There were many wonderful things about last year. In fact, I prefer to think of the bad things as small fungus colonies growing on a bright, tie-dyed shirt; excessively annoying, but mostly harmless (if occasionally stinky). And, more importantly, the happy tie dye prevails. Good triumphs over the evils of the mushrooms! Huzzah! Sorry, sorry. It’s late at night and my stock of good metaphors was used up writing our novel. But anyhoo, here are the brightest of the rainbow smudges on the hippy t-shirt that was 2012.

Most people think Curiosity is a cute little car-sized robot pottering around on Mars while some NASA guy fiddles with its remote control. No, my friends. This rover is a work of art. It’s fitted out with some of the most complicated and crazy technology ever devised by man. And IT HAS A LASER. Curiosity can vaporise small portions of ‘interesting surfaces’. There is, of course, a scientific point to the laser (it allows the robot to examine a rock’s elemental composition) but who cares? THE HUMAN RACE HAS SENT A LASER ROBOT TO MARS. That’s a definite win in my book.

If 50 Shades destroyed your faith in humanity, the London 2012 Olympics will almost certainly bring it back. Apart from watching hundreds of athletes running around like lunatics, the Olympics always remind us to take pride in our country. Not because our nation performs well, or because our athletes win gold. No, sirs. We humans don’t get much right. We’re incapable of accepting differences, and yet we cling to them. A difference as stupid as religion or sexuality or even skin colour can bring about a war.

But once every four years, nearly every nation in the world says ‘To hell with it all’. Once every four years, these nations come together in harmony to celebrate our differences; to celebrate each country’s triumphs, to appreciate each and every culture, and to remind us all of the power of peace. At the heart of the Olympic Games is a beautiful glimpse of what World Peace could really mean. The athletes are just incidental.

World Peace and harmony between the nations is great ’n’ all, but horse dancing and incomprehensible Korean is ever-so-slightly better. The ridiculous dancing, the foreign lyrics, the intense stare of destruction as PSY eyed off a blue-clad derriere, the multitude of spin offs (Romney style! Gandalf style! Kim-Jong style!); it was easily the biggest collective belly-laugh of the year. Only one thing can be said for the very best occurrence of 2012:

So, that was 2012. We explored other planets, we came together as one people, we pretended we were riding a horse whilst yelling disjointed syllables that may or may not be words of a foreign language. Happy new year to you all, and I hope that 2013 brings you many significant, inspiring and really weird memories. Especially the weird ones, because they’re always the best :)

Cheers, everyone!

Love from Philosopher

(And sincerest apologies to any regular readers. Although I wish I could post more regularly, I can't force myself to be inspired. My best posts come from out of the blue, and I'd rather be a bit infrequent than spout mediocre posts twice a week. Here's a Gangnam Gif to make up for it :)

Confessions of a Hobbit-aholic

Warning: Spoilers!

The Hobbit movie finally came out in Australia on Boxing day, and I went. It was an event I had been anticipating for months, with fangirling dying cockroach hands being made at every trailer and mention. Frankly though, I was disappointed. Don't get me wrong; it was, as films go, exceptional. The acting, the score, the special effects the scenery (apart from non-moving clouds), the costumes, the shots, the all-round cinematography was, as demonstrated in The Lord of the Rings film, quite phenomenal. However, as film adaptions go, it  figuratively made me cry. The Hobbit is one of my favourite novels of all time, with a firmly cemented place in my top-ten. Semi-similarily, my favourite film of all time is, The Lord of the Rings- I must confess, I have yet to read ALL the books- with no preference of the three. I was horrified at the announcement that The Hobbit was to be made in three parts: I had no idea how it could be done well, and it turns out I was right.The Hobbit, unlike The Lord of the Rings, is not an epic. It is simply a happy little adventure tale about a lovable protagonist, with perhaps one or two undercurrents on the theme of greed and desire.  It's been padded out, altered and tried to be 'deepified'; thus turning it into a foolish parody of a brilliant novel. 

As promised, my third-hand copy of The Hobbit, which I inherited from my Grandparents, who owned it before they had kids. The covers are taped on and half the map is missing. I wouldn't trade it for anything, unless I could save someone's life with it.

The main positives of the film were: the cinematography, as previously mentioned;  the acting, with Martin Freeman as an excellent Bilbo, even if I did sometimes expect Benedict Cumberbatch to rock up and save the day; the intro, with beautiful links to The Lord of the Rings film and the first few lines of The Hobbit novel(albeit, changed ones); the Eagles being almost the only redemption for the end of the film; and, as expected, being able to stare at the gorgeousness of Kili for a fair bit of the film.

Negatives of the film included a vast majority of things, but I'll try to restrain myself. The entire section with Radagast was perhaps more suited to a child's film, as complete and utter comedy. He has a minor mention in The Lord of the Rings books, but does not appear at all in The Hobbit; oddly enough then, he does not appear at all in any of The Lord of the Rings films, but does have an utterly ridiculous and detrimental part in the film adaption of The Hobbit. The new sub-plot of the Orcs was completely unnecessary and ended up detracting.Necromancer? I know it's a small amount of sub-plot in the Hobbit, but do we really want another sub-plot not developed in the books to manifest itself in the films? The music, with throwbacks and repeats of The Lord of the Rings was pretty good, however The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit are from a separate set of films, and so I would have liked an entirely new soundtrack instead of the repeated theme of The Lord of the Rings and  eagle's theme. The bit with Saruman and Galadriel at Rivendell? Unexplained and unnecessary.

And finally, my most important question is simply: why? Why change it at all? Why make it into a film if you're not going to do a good job? Why not leave it as a happy little adventure tale, one a totally different scale toThe Lord of the Rings?

Final rating: 3 stars and it only gets that because of the beautiful cinematography. 

xx

Confession ( who apologises for a drastic change in what she normally writes and also for the huge blocky text!)

Merry December!

I'm back! It must be some kind of record; two posts so close together!
Depending on what you believe: Cheerful Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Yippy Yule, Magnificent Malkh or noteworthy non-religious occasion!
I hope you all enjoy whatever you get up to and stay safe, with all the crazy traffic and eating that occurs as part of many celebrations around this time of year.
I didn't get Philosopher a gift, but I did find her a gif -awful pun intended- that will hopefully make her smile (or make her ovaries burst. Sorry any future Philosopher-lings):

She's probably already seen it, but you can't see a Leo gif too many times!

xxx,
Love Confession.

The Final Confession

So. Apparently the world is supposed to be ending today or something. If that's the case I'd just like to tell everyone that they're wonderful and someone loves them. If that's not the case then you all suck. Kidding! You're all wonderful. But it doesn't really matter because, I'm 100% positive the world is not going to end today, for various reasons:

1) Different time zones. Which one are we going with? 

2) Leap years weren't accounted for.

3) Scientifically, we've got a fair while to go before the world ends

4) Religiously, we're supposed to get all sorts of crazy signs of the coming of the Messiah before he actually comes. Stuff like dragons and kraken and boiling oceans. I think. Maybe.

Enjoy your last day on earth everyone!

xx

Confession

P.S Subscribe, or comment, or like, or something, please? Make my last day happy?
P.P.S I tried to add 'The Final Countdown' as background music, but the technology was confusing so I ate gingerbread and cried in the fetal position instead.

...

I am Viggo Mortensen. I like to tickle feet.

Culinary Confessions

I know I said that I was taking a break sort of thing, but I felt like this was acceptable, albeit slightly weird :)
I'm a fairly easy going person in terms of most things, especially food, but there are some foods that I simply cannot (under)stand :

1) Waldorf Salad:
     It's weirdly creamy but bizarrely grainy. I like all the components individually but together they are really gross.


2) Cooked broccoli or asparagus:
    I love broccoli and asparagus, until they're cooked. I don't mind lightly steamed but cooking just ruins them.



3) Mayonnaise:
    'Cos everyone loves emulsified raw egg and oil.


4) Quiche:
    This is a bad one to dislike as, being vegetarian, a lot of people think to make it for me, which is a lovely action on their behalf; except I really really don't like it.


5) Peanuts:
    So this is really weird, but I actually detest peanuts! There's nothing about them that I like.

6) Cheesecake
    None of my friends can believe this, not even the one who dislikes mangoes. :o
 




The female parental unit fed me basically anything and everything that was edible, within healthy limits obviously, which is probably the reason I'm so unfussy. With the exception of meat, I will eat almost anything, even the things above if it's necessary out of politeness or extreme hunger.

Have a nice evening/morning/afternoon! Enjoy whatever you're doing, but don't do anything I wouldn't! (not that rules out a lot...)

xx Confession

P.S I sat down to make a friend a farewell card *sob* but then ten minutes later I suddenly found myself googling gifs of Honey Boo Boo child. Ahem.

P.P.S Next time, I might leave the computer illustration to Philosopher. What say you?

P.P.P.S I just suddenly got a rush of affection for any readers! So xxxxxx and lots of hugs and smiles laughing! I love you guy <3 ily times a bily! xx

It's Philosophical

I may or may not be a part of the grammar police.

I know, I know. It's a shocking revelation to you all- and you're now going to spend the next half-hour searching through all my previous posts, just to pick out a wayward comma or a misspelled word so that you can brand me a big ol' hypocrite. But still, I do my best not to be too anal. I geddit. Nobody's perfect, everybody makes mistakes, blah blah acceptance blah. But something that makes me want to strangle a flying pig is misuse of the word 'it's'. No, seriously. IT'S so easy to master this sneaky little contraction, and yet no one seems to be able to get it right...

So you know what? I'm going to show you how... right now. Step onto my magical grammar carpet, ladies and gentlemen...

I can show you the woorrlldd... ♫ ♪

PS: Huuuuuggge props to Jason Mecier. Without his wonderful honey Boo Boo trash art, my cartoon would still be lacking a face. Sadly, I lack the personal artistic skills to create a realistic-looking person, so I used Mr Mecier's artwork as a base. I hope you don't mind. Please check out his wonderful website here.

Ciao Confessions

Hey guys! It's been a little bit longer than normal since I've provided something for you guys to read- i.e. more than a week- but it's going to be a little longer still. I'm struggling to write stuff about what I want to, in a way that I'm actually semi-happy with. What I write ends up being boring, unimaginative and not what I want others to read. I'm really sorry, but until I'm happy with what I'm writing you shan't be getting anything. :( Just think of me as being more of a Philosopher at the moment- irregular (but not in need of prunes) but really confident in what she does end up posting! I still love you and hope you all have a super exciting, happy year! If you celebrate it, Merry Christmas
xx
Confession

Confessions of a Procrastination-aholic

Hello! How are you all going? Missing me? I actually did miss you guys, but I'm back now so it's all good :).

Exams finished last Monday, but I wanted to relax, then on Tuesday and Wednesday I made dinner and so obviously couldn't write anything! On Thursday I had sport, on Friday I decided Howl's Moving Castle took priority and then on Saturday I was unwell and had better things to do (like listen to Hamish and Andy while attempting to play the Mincraft demo) but you finally get something today! Now, Philosopher suggested the Story of Exams in gif form because "Everyone likes gifs" but I decided that

http://forums.allkpop.com/threads/when-a-song-isnt-your-cup-of-tea.61288/

so you get this instead:

I'm terrible when it comes to procrastination- I know that's a common illness but I thought I would share my own little anecdotes that you can read whilst procrastinating! Procrastination for me goes in one of two ways: either super (paradoxically) efficient or super inefficient.

Both are equally well travelled!

http://elderhsworwood.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/fork-in-road.html

Pathway One: Instead of actually completing anything productive I organise myself. And then organise a little more. And then reorganise. Repeat process three times. I mean I couldn't possibly ever write ay blogs without an extensive list of topics, with cross-referenced topics, nor could I ever do any study if I didn't have three highly detailed study plans that took an hour to make. And just imagine doing any work without first spending an hour researching and reviewing productivity apps! 

I only own two of these. Better get researching!
http://thelearningexplosion.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/28-productivity-apps-and-tools.html

Pathway Two: Instead of actually doing anything productive I do pointless things. Why would you study or complete homework when you could roughly sketch new designs for the UN website, or make pompoms, or woollen dolls, or gift tags? And looking at hundreds of craft blogs is so much better than commerce could ever be, even if it does make me feel like a 40 year old full-time mother. 

Mine didn't look quite this good :).
http://bleubirdvintage.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/diy-pom-pom-wreath.html

In conclusion, I often end up doing the second half on assignments the night before and writing daily drama reflections on the bus in the morning. I probably should work on these habits, but because I still get good marks and don't get (too) stressed- I only have crying breakdowns about once a term- I've never felt particularly motivated to change; however I know I need to before it's too late and I fail the HSC and Uni. Oh! One more little anecdote: Instead of writing Chapter 4 of GP(our book, for any newcomers), I put together a soundtrack for it, consisting of our characters favourite music O_O. Oops.

Anyway, moving along.... 

Word of the Week is Idiographic:

Relating to, or involving the study, of a specific case or event

Goodbye! Love and hugs to you all! Go and listen to some of your favourite music, while dancing around wherever you are -yes, even in public. Now, let me go do my commerce homework.

xx

Confession

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The Philosophical Vacancy

[Okay, evidently I conveniently FORGOT to tell you that, like Confession, I had to take a hiatus. Oops. I was going to write a post consisting of a giant, size 99pt "DITTO" but then Confession posted again... so that wouldn't have made any sense... and now we're here two months later. I applaud you for sticking around this long. Anyhoo. Onwards!]

As most of you lovely internet ladies and gents will know, the glorious J.K Rowling has released a brand new book. It's called "The Casual Vacancy", and it's effectively Harry Potter without wizards, magic, Hogwarts, evil armies of Death Eaters, and with a big ol' booster shot of REAL LIFE.

Basically, nothing like Harry Potter at all. "The Casual Vacancy" is a book for adults, and J.K. has said that right from the start. She said herself that she wouldn't let anyone 8 or under read it. Does it sound like the wonderful wizarding world of Sir Potter? Not to me. 

I've dived into "The Casual Vacancy" with a healthy pinch of salt. I'm not trying to compare it to Harry Potter; because, personally, I think that's unfair to Miss Rowling. And personally, I like it. It's well written, and even if she wasn't such an amazing part of my childhood, I'd still have bought the book.

 Use hefty pinches of this when reading 'The Casual Vacancy'

And it seems that a lot of critics have also taken my detached attitude to reading- but others, frankly, should not be writing reviews. Feast your eyes upon a selection of the critics, choicely chosen from Wikipedia.

Lev Grossman, for Time: "It's a big, ambitious, brilliant, profane, funny, deeply upsetting and magnificently elegant novel of contemporary England, rich with literary intelligence, and entirely bereft of bulls**t." [say NO to naughty words. Say YES to happy asterisks!]

David Robinson of the Scotsman said: 

"It is far grittier, bleaker (and, occasionally, funnier) than I had expected, and- the acid test- I suspect it would do well, even if the author's was not J.K. Rowling"

The Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, the Daily Mirror, The Economist- all of them had various degrees of positive reviews.

But it seems some reviewers approached The Casual Vacancy without the oh-so-important pinch o' salt. Some reviewers pulled out the forbidden words; HARRY POTTER

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES wrote: "it fails to conjure Harry Potter's magic" while Jan Moir for the Daily Mail said it was "500 pages of relentless socialist manifesto masquerading as literature"

"magic" "magic" "magic"

WHERE IS THE MAGIC? All of these deluded critics cry! 

I respect their opinions, and think it's important to give a balanced view on the novel. But what people HAVE to remember is that "the Casual Vacancy" is not magical. It's not a book about good overcoming evil. It's not a fairytale, or a bedtime story. It's a book about real life, and real life is not magical. It's gritty, and bitter and sad sometimes. There are a lot of things that we don't do right. 

But you know what? It's books like these that inspire change. It's books that SHOW us all the things we're doing wrong- all our mistakes and errors and the lack of magic in our lives. "The Casual Vacancy" isn't there to sugarcoat real life. It's there to present it in the most stripped-back way possible- and to inspire us all to start doing things RIGHT.

So, if you dare, pop down to the local bookstore and buy a copy. Read it, study it, make a judgement on it. Put it on a bookshelf if you like it. Put it in a golden display case if you REALLY like it. Rip it up and use it as toilet paper if you're not so keen.

Wonderful literature? Or super soft, flexible, 2-ply bog roll? You decide!

Well, this post has taken a suitably solemn and, er, vaguely depressing turn. I'll sign off before I start sobbing all over the monitor. 

with lots of casually vacant love,

Philosopher

General Confessions Episode 3

Howdy Strangers! This is just a hiatus from hiatusing (why is this not a word?) and you'll soon never hear from me again for three/four more weeks. Also, due to a official hiatus period, this is simply a write dump consisting of nothing to exciting. I did write a full-blown proper (and I mean proper) confession, but I don't feel quite ready to share it with the world wide web yet. So you'll just have to enjoy the following:

EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!!!!!!!!!

I get frustrated about very little things. Little things like overuse of exclamation marks. They make a story sound like a fangirl gush, halt flow and are aesthetically unpleasing. Take for example: 

"Then I ran into the kitchen and saw my friend Mandy! She was just standing there, doing I'm not sure what, but looking very attractive! Perhaps Luke will ask her out soon!" compared to:

"Then I ran into the kitchen and saw my girlfriend Mandy. She was just standing there, doing I'm not sure what, but looking very attractive. Perhaps Luke will ask her out soon!" 

They both say the exact same thing, however the second one feels easier to read, sounds more mature, won't be read in a silly teenage girl's voice and actually conveys more meaning and emotion as it creates a depth and range of feeling, whilst sentence one simply gushes and sounds fake. Another thing about exclamation marks that annoy me is when people use multiple ones at a time, e.g !! or !!!!!!!!!!!!!!. It is simply unnecessary and distracting to the eye! It makes thing difficult to read and absorb! In fact, I even have an opportunity to use a Terry Pratchett quote here (yay!); "'Multiple exclamation marks,' he went on, shaking his head, 'are a sure sign of a diseased mind'"~Eric. 

CINNAMON CHALLENGE IS FOR SISSIES

So I presume you've all heard of the latest craze in weird things that internet people do: The Cinnamon Challenge. If you haven't basically it involves placing a heaped tablespoon of ground cinnamon into one's mouth. Youtubers do it, bloggers do it, silly people at parties do it. I decided to join the throng and I did it. But I didn't actually decide to join the throng, I simply wanted to try a feat (or treat in the novel) mentioned in the fantastic novel 'What Katy Did'. The feat? To ingest a stick of cinnamon with pleasure. A stick of cinnamon. Ack. I had completely forgotten about this anecdote but remembered it whilst placing the oats away and the cinnamon container caught my eye. I was fairly hesitant as, evidenced by the Cinnamon Challenge, vast amounts of cinnamon is not generally considered a delicacy. I thought about it for a while and finally decided...well, YOLO.  So I began, I grabbed a (small) stick out of the spice box, and bit into it with relish. My thought process as I ate it  is recorded here: 'Wow... this is crunchy... It's just like eating treebark... I'm not getting any flavours yet.... How the hell am I going to swallow this crunched up mess?...Oh... that's actually quite nice, very nutty, fairly flavoursome.... Why do people consider the cinnamon challenge so hard?... Hmmmm, getting a bit spicy now, but nothing I can't handle, in fact it rather adds to the experience.... Oh Yum! Those flavours are really nice... I understand why the Carrs had cinnamon as a treat now... Crunch, crunch, crunch. OH DEAR GOD! IT BURNS, IT BURNS! GET IT OUT NOW!... ew.

That is really gross, my hand is covered in what looks like my baby sisters semi-digested tree-bark... IT'S STILL BURNING DANG IT! Water....oh sweet water.... Now I just need to clean the sink of chewed up tree-bark... fun... well. I won't be doing that again."And thus ended my version of the cinnamon challenge.

Harry Potter and the Magic of Puberty

I know what you're thinking: Oh great! Yet another thing about how all the HP characters ended up being really attractive. But I guess it is kinda cool, cause if I'm attracted to males I get to drool over pictures of Matt Lewis or if I'm attracted to females I get to drool over Emma Watson. 

But no. There will be schmexy pictures cos I want an excuse to dribble over people but I will be focusing on a character renowned for being the...well... opposite of sexy. Firstly, there is of course Tom Felton but he's old news. Today I want to focus on Dudley (gasp!). 

You're probably thinking 'so what? He's still pretty ugly.' WRONG! You see, I have another image to show you....

He's in Merlin which means Fantaboush!

asdfghjkl! How and when did Ickle Dudleykins become so attractive? 

On a side, Harry Potter-related-thing, does this disturb you?

Baby Voldemort doll. Why? 

 Cos it scares me half to death! Some person makes HP themed dolls! 

Supposedly baby Luna doll

So... I'm being lazy and will come back and edit, format, correct, etc some other time than 10:30 on Friday night (woot! I have a life). I'm also going to be too lazy to give you a Word of the Fortnight (I have to learn lists of useless things for exams. I'm not adding to it) but I will give you a few fun updates on life as Confession:

a) Sickness: I am perpetually sick. Week 3 just ended and I've already had 5 days off. Ridiculous. I'm not pulling sickies or even just mildly sick; I am honest to goodness unable to attend school sick. I'm still recovering from Conjunctivitis. I had it in one eye, then that was almost better when I got it in the other eye. What is this? Anyway, to treat my perpetual illness I now have a bright red iron supplement once a day, a bright orange multivit once a day, eye-drops four times a day and oily, wheaty pro-biotic water twice a day. What sheer joy.

b) Our book: We've actually started writing! We've written 2.5 chapters and Confession is probably currently writing the next bit. We're getting through it surprisingly fast- probably as a result of study procrastination and not paying attention in geography- and I'm so glad we spent that 4 months writing back story.

c) New room: I told you this a while ago but I thought I'd tell you a bit more about it now. Basically, it's at the other end of the house to my parents and (soon to be 2) baby sibling(s), it has it's own ensuite (yay!), it is deliciously large and I feel ridiculously spoilt! I still haven't finished decorating, got one more 'Quoting Shakespeare' (gosh I'm a nerd) poster to frame and hang above my bed, but I do have a Discworld poster, a Card wall, some medieval figurines, insufficient book cases, dodgy cardboard boxes full of writing inspirations and a fairy statuette collection. I am just so darn cool.

Now that you've made it through fairly boring write-dump and some even more boring updates of my life you have my full permission to go and read a book, watch a film, dance a hornpipe, learn to whistle and then appliquéing a quilt. Enjoy life, living it to a high potential.
xx
Confession

P.S Comments + other proof that someone, anyone, is actually reading these things are appreciated- even negative feedback is good feedback :)