Of exhaustion and coca cola

The last two weeks have been the most hectic of my life:
Thursday: Music exam
Friday: Music exam
Monday: Media moderation, school concert
Tuesday: Music exam

And it goes on:
Wednesday: Japanese mock
Thursday: University convention
Friday: Music exam.

As Emma would say, FUCK MY LIIIIIIIFE! Still, I am beginning to gradually tick things off my stress list. I seriously need a notepad specifically for lists. I write lists of things to do, lists of stuff to buy, pointless lists like ranking orders of vocalists/countries to visit/political parties, and fuck knows what else.

Anyhow, due to the above list, I am absolutely exhausted. The only thing that stopped me from dropping off at like five o'clock was a can of coke. Woo, caffine! Yesterday we had the school concert, which was awesome (save the out of tune recorders, I didn't even know that was possible!) And I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor is bloody hard to sing without a northern accent.

Today's music is from Tarot's new album. For reasons unbeknownst to me I find the video absolutely hilarious, but the song is good :)



I'm also loving this:


Peace&Love

Of a newly revised bucket list.

- Study music at university.
- Tour Europe by train and visit every capital city.
- Learn to walk in slip on shoes.
- Join some kind of group of political activists.
- Join a band.
- See the Northern Lights.
- Read all the works of Shakespeare.
- Go scuba diving.
- Meet Tuomas Holopainen.
- Dye my hair some insane colour.

I'm sitting here surrounded by stray paper, a vegetarian cookbook and my beloved iPod. And it's bloody freezing.

Spring is finally upon us. I hate spring, basically due to the weather (I'm British, all I do is complain about the weather!). It's mild and rainy, the inbetween season. And I like extremes. Still, it's a time for new beginnings. I think I'm going to fiddle around with the colourscheme on this thing.

Easter holidays - a bittersweet feeling. On one hand it's great to be off school and to be able to go out and do all kinds of crazy things with my friends and boyfriend, but on the downside I will be spending nearly all of it working. A/S level exams are painfully close.

We didn't make the media deadline, which sucks. I don't want it to sound like I'm blaming someone else for my own mistakes, but to be honest, the teachers were the ones who never gave us any equimpment with which to do the aforementioned coursework, and thus it is ALL THEIR FAULT. Ah well... we're nearly done, so we'll be getting it in as soon as humanly possible.

Today's music is Leverage. Because the vocals from 3.34 to 3.45 made my heart skip a beat.


Peace & Love

Of A level exams and chocolatey missions

I had my first A/S exam today. Critical Thinking. What a bloody nightmare. It's a silly subject, but by Tuesday it'll ALL BE OVER! And I am so glad I did some revision even though both of our teachers and the textbook told me not to bother.

On the plus side, I found some new ambitions in life:

.Get a batchelor of arts degree in music.

.Assist Georgie and The Smithster with running their Californian bar.

.Introduce Finland to the concept of "Hole In The Wall."

Today we went on an epic chocolately mission. Upon discovering a box of chocolates in her and Natalie's locker, Jess thought "Ooh, a secret santa present!" since they're still coming in. So we ate some, and then Hayley dropped the bombshell - what if they were for Natalie? So she texted Natalie, and it emerged that they weren't hers, but Steph had been keeping them in the locker.

We panicked, and went down to the local shop to buy Steph some replacement chocolate. We managed to find the exact ones that were missing. Hayley slipped over in the snow in the process.

We got back to school, where we refilled the box of chocolates. Hayley gave it to Steph, and said "We're really sorry, Jess though these were for her so we ate some, but we've replaced all of them!"

Steph goes "Oh don't worry, they were a present for Jess anyway!"

Peace & Love

Of thinking critically

Ten Things I Would Rather Do Than Critical Thinking A/S

(In order of preference)

1. Talk to my friends/boyfriend.

2. Listen to some form of Finnish metal.

3. Eat some soup.

4. Play on the Wii.

5. Decorate a t-shirt.

6. Have a music test.

7. Be ill.

8. Spend three hours in a locked room with a LIVE BEAR.

9. Eat my own foot.

10. Travel billions of lightyears across the universe with nothing but a haggis to guide me.

Peace & Love

Of new beginnings and faded memories

This year I:

Was proud of five GCSE results (I took seven this year)

.B in maths

.A's in English language, additional science and music

.A* in Japanese

Tried four things for the first time

.Playing the bass

.Being vegetarian

.Learning a new language (fairly unsuccesfully)

.Media studies

Saw three bands live

.Kaiser Chiefs

.Nightwish ♥

.Blur

Kicked two bad habits

.Biting my nails

.Being hideously disorganised

Got asked out once.

 -------------------------------

Next year I will

.Work more

.Spend less

.Take nothing for granted

First music post of 2010 goes to Leverage. Not many songs make me cry, but this nearly did.

Peace & Love

Of winter nights and memories

So, December.

Possibly one of my favourite months. I like July too. The year's nearly out already, and not only that but people are counting it as the end of the decade too. That's scary. Essentially it's my first full decade, since I missed out on 1991 and 1992.

This year's been great one, possibly one of the best in my life, even if it's had it's downers. There are some moments I'll remember for the rest of my life, even if they were just little things that made me laugh.

--Frozen Moments In Time--

14th February 2009 - I haven't had so many laughs in a looong time!

11th March 2009 - It was worth eating those chips to see Nightwish live.

8th May 2009 - STUDY LEAVE!

6th - 8th July 2009 - Leavers day, my birthday, Thorpe Park, what a combo!

29th August 2009 - When I got my GCSE results.

28th October 2009 - ♥

And from what I've heard, cheapskating isn't always a good thing. Particularly when the bus catches fire.

I hope everyone's ok.

I'm going to see 2012 with Emma and Hayley today. Fun times!

Not so long ago, I used to do a fair amount of art, even though I'm essentially crap at it. I don't have as much time to do so anymore, but I still love looking at it. Here's some awesome stuff I've found lately.
Light From Emirates
Bananca
Nordic Visions
Utherworlds
Jaques Resch

Peace & Love

Of hopes and dreams

I was talking about this with George, so I decided to make a bucket list.

.Go scuba diving

I love the sea and I've always wanted to try this, but I've never managed it. I go snorkeling on holiday but I'd love to be able to dive down and see all the fish and such.

.Get a band started up

Kind of done this. Myself and Emi had a band practice today, and will hopefully be doing the same every week. We'll find the rest of the members eventually!

.Go To Japan

Done this. I went there about a year ago and it was incredible. I'd love to see my host sister again, and all the people there were just so much nicer that here. I'm almost definite that I'll always be living in England, but if the BNP came into power or something, Japan would be my second choice!

.Go to Lapland and see the Northern Lights

I've had a bit of a thing with the Northern Lights ever since I read the Phillip Pullman book, uh, Northern Lights. Lapland (I've only seen pictures of Finnish Lapland but I'd like to see Swedish Lapland too) seems to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. And I'd like to see Father Christmas.

.Meet Tuomas Holopainen

Nightwish's keyboard player/main man. A bit of a personal hero of mine. I'd just like to see him long enough to say hi or something. I'm not a weird obsessive fangirl, but I do have a massive respect for the guy due to his massive composing skillage.

.Make sure that people know I'm there for them

Sometimes I worry that people don't know this, and I hope some day I'll be able to make it clear.

.Read ALL of Shakespeare's plays

I used to hate this kind of thing, but I love Shakespeare right now. So far I've read Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, Twelfth Night and half of The Merchant Of Venice, all for English Lit. This could take a while.

.Be able to at least make myself understood in a foreign language

I'm not exactly a genius at languages so I don't know whether this will ever be achieved, but I'm in my sixth year of studying Japanese now. I'm also attempting to teach myself Finnish.

.Go to a music festival

Done this. I went to Love Music Hate Racism back in '08, the second time I saw a Damon Albarn related project live. I wasn't really sure what was going on when I went but I left with a totally different view of politics! I'd like to go to Glastonbury or Download or something one day.

.Hurl an onion bhaji at Nick Griffin

I'm pretty sure he's been egged before, but due to his racist views an onion bhaji would just be immense. Plus they're quite tasty.

Peace & Love

Of gigging and Willy Wonka

Well, myself and Emi somehow ended up playing (she was playing guitar & singing a little, and I was singing) in the art corridor on sixth form open evening. Why we got put in front of art I will never know, all the visitors were like "is this music?" and we had to go "No. This is art." But it was fun all the same and we gained three groupies (Steph, Georgie and Will.)

Anyhow, the "setlist" (in no particular order):

Colours of the Wind - From Pocahontas (Me)

Heaven (Candlelight mix) - DJ Sammy (Emi)

Walking In The Air - Howard Blake (Me)

Knocking On Heaven's Door - Bob Dylan (Emi)

My Immortal - Evanescence (Both of us. Acoustic version, nearly all of which was made up on the spot!)

Let It Be - The Beatles (Both of us)

Times Like These - Foo Fighters (First sung and played by Emi, I later attemted to sing along too but since I didn't know the words this was rather unsuccesful)

Sleepwalker (A'cappella version) - Nightwish (Me, with hastily improvised ending after the second chorus due to the bridge type bit being too high and not really wanting to sing the slightly innuendo-y bit in front of the teachers who were walking past at the time.)

Where Will The Birds Fly - Written by us and Aly, played by both of us minus the cello part

Freefalling - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers (Emi)

"Emma's Song" - A song Emi wrote, I don't know what it's called... played and sung by her.

Romanza - Some Spanish bloke (Emi)

Wonderwall - Oasis (Both of us)

In other news, we had book character day today, Ed made an AMAZING Willy Wonka, and I met up with George which was great.

Music today is the newest release from The Rasmus. I don't usually like The Rasmus, but I like this. Plus Nettan is in it which makes it instantly better.

The Rasmus feat. Anette Olzon - October & April

Peace & Love