Russian affairs; no affairs more hardcore.

'This play is dedicated to the memory of the anti-government journalist Georgi Gongadze, whose headless body was found in the year 2000 in the Ukraine.'

Yipes. That is one hell of a quote.

For those of you interested, that is the dedication for The UN Inspector, a play assuming Russia gives a toss what the UN thinks. And since sometimes blogs can be quite intellectual, I figured maybe I should add in some interesting current affairs. And there are no current affairs scarier than Russian current affairs.

Basically, Third President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev has sacked the mayor of Moscow with the backing of President Putin. This may sound relatively small to the culture we're used to; this is similar to Nick Clegg sacking Boris Johnson with the backing of David Cameron. A surprise, and something of a let down since Boris Johnson is just a brilliant man, but no biggie.

Not in Russia, however. In Russia, they reckon that since this Mayor has many powerful connections and is a leader of many people, Russia may become enveloped in Civil War. Putin pretty much leads the army and right now is not to be messed with even with his own soldiers. And the Mayor's connections make him about equally matched.

And the crazy thing is, when we think of Terrorist, screwed up Russia, we think of Stalin's murdering of several million of his own men. At the very least we think of 10 years ago back to that Journalist. But being honest, we live in a pretty scary world and I think we're lucky that even within that world we live in Britain. It was only 2000 when that guy was shot and had his body burned to the point where his mother couldn't identify him. And it was 2008 when that guy was killed with polonium, poisoned in a café of all places!

We live in a pretty terrifying world. And I figured this might be an interesting update on affairs that clings rebelliously to one's mind.

Joshy.

Tumblogbookspace.

Hello all,

Well, seeing the variety of forms in which express themselves via the internet reminded my of my blog! This used to be a place I would post all sorts of ridiculous thoughts and ideas from the lower echelons of society & intelligence to my feelings only a few weeks in with my brilliant Helen. I felt compelled to follow the herd as it tumblrs (get it?) past with a varying complexity and strangeness of people's thoughts and feelings. And perhaps some cool, deep, broodable black and white photos. A picture is a thousand words, so you could say these Tumblr accounts have been used liberally.

Well, I've rambled for a substantial amount of time. But had I anything interesting to say, I would be hosting some kind of Seminar, or posting it somewhere where the whole world might be in awe. But this is an old blog with the dust blown off and I doubt very much that people will read it.

Eitherway, I am very lucky to be able to write like this; I believe the word is, eloquent. I love being able to be in higher sets of school, get grades I'm happy with or when I'm not know how I need to achieve and push further. But mainly, I'm glad I have so many good friends, good people around me that I can talk to in such a similar way. Take Jamie and Alex, par example. They are wonderful friends, and being honest, since a recent chat Jamie is a man much more decent than I thought him to be. And Jamie is very bright, educating, and a great person to be around. Sometimes I'd like to think I am educating to him, about reasoning for things and about, to some degree, rationalisation of what goes on around us.

And Alex, who I can never falter to talk to about Herbert from Family Guy, but likewise has a brilliantly intellectual mind and I feel like these are people I can talk to about anything I would ever choose. These people are brilliant people, and most of all, these people are my friends, who I will admire and respect for I hope, the rest of my life.

And then there is Helen, and there is never a day goes by that I don't see how lucky I am to be with her. This may sound like a lot of crap to you, but Helen is something incredible in my life that I will always try so hard never to lose. There is something very special about being with someone like that, someone who you can hold close and love and cherish and everything that goes with it. There is something very special about having someone like Helen.

So, Sit-Rep. I love my friends. And I love Helen.

Thanks for readin',

Joshy

The UN Inspector

Hello all,

Today, I had YAC (as I do every saturday) and we had a read through of the play, just sitting down. I've come to the conclusion that it's a very funny play, with lots of interesting irony (inc. dramatic irony) and great one liners like 'Get the mob and throw them in prison! There's space now I've realised all the rapists'. If you're available over Christmas, I recommend you come and see it, since it'd be a good laugh and it would nice to have some support.

In a nutshell, it's a corrupt Russian Government that have been fairly busy lining their own pocket with huge sums of money, rigging elections, and the Ministers have been doing all sorts of corrupt activities, like using the yet unopened (because they have no money) hospital as a film set for a popular soap and beating up those who oppose the government. They get word that a UN Inspector is due to arrive to check how they are running the country. Peter Robchinski and Peter Dobchinksi, two aides of the President, find a 'smart' looking man in a Marriott Hotel, believing him to be the UN Inspector, and immediately the President begins to spend tens of thousands of pounds on this over-the-top, arrogant Estate Agent called Martin Gammon.

Everything goes a bit balls-up. But it's very funny, so I recommend you come, see and enjoy.

I'm trying to write a blog post a day, since I do enjoy it, and I thought it would be interesting to write about the play in case anyone was tempted to come and see it.

Joshy xx

Rekindling.

Hello all,

Rekindling is the theme of this. After all, I've just spent one of the most wonderful evening. The ol' crew! No bitching, no competition, no stupid stuff. How brilliant is that?!

Eitherway, thinking of bringing that back reminded me of the blogging craze, which I shall now 'rekindle'.

Anyway, this evening. It was brilliant. Everyone was really getting on, we had the pool (nice and warm, apart from the DAMN HOSE) and we were having a great laugh. There are plenty of photos on facebook obviously, the inevitable result of girl + camera, but hey, so what, we had a great night. There was no horrible stuff, no need to make an impression, no little snippets of favouritism. I mean, being honest, our friendship group's sort of bothering me at the moment. I have the wonderful Helen, of course, and Alex and Jamie who I couldn't live without. And...the others in the group, I think they like me, but in their own way. And that way gives the impression that really, they don't care about me in the slightest. There's so much, that's better than me, like being funny, or attractive, or brilliantly sporty, or just interesting. And it was starting to get to me lately, making me feel a bit down, until after tonight, when I realised I have plenty of friends. I even worried about one particular person, who tonight proved that we are, and can be very good friends. It was a great laugh, in particular mine & Jamie's YAC penguin warm up.

It was a truly brilliant evening :)

Well, this writing has been pretty bad. But it's been a while.

I need to post more.

Joshy xx

Tree-Dwarfism

I've no doubt no one (apart from the person this is about, it is a request blog) will ever read this, blogger has failed to keep our attention for long enough! But hey, I wanted to write something :D

There is such a race called the tree-dwarves, ancient tiny creatures smaller than a human hand that dwell in the bark of trees. They all tiny leaf shoots from the ends of the trees and only come out at night, for their rituals and when they're in mating season.

Love you really becca ;)

Nah, all in all becca's great, and I'm probably a bit too mean. But she's a great friend, and sometimes that's all you need to cheer you up. Even just generally, turning round and finding someone you can always talk to is great. And since becca is that, she's great too :D Maths is always such a lol :) especially when she tries to give me and already broken CD player, and err, snaps the handle. how, tree dwarf, how!

I mean, us being closer friends wasn't under ideal circumstances (fond memories eh becca? ;) ) but I'm glad we are now, I mean, who isn't more glad of a friend? She makes me laugh and smile, and hey, whenever I have a problem, I can always look in an old tree and find a very good friend.

What an odd post! Damn you and your requests becca :L

Josh xx

Ups and Downs :)

Hello all,

As suggested by title, life has ups and downs. Not being one to complain, and frankly if I did I would be a whiner, because I have not much to complain about. Hence why this post is not a whine session, but just a relay of thoughts about sometimes feeling a smidge annoyed but then letting it pass.

well, for a start, the down. There are times when you realise you really can't win. And it's pretty annoying really when you felt a battle, regardless of your ability to win or not, was a bit unnecassary. It was mainly just a repeat of a previous petty kind of...argument, that just saw another peak. But it's still by no means good, especially when you're getting told pretty crap things that make you feel more down. And it was resolved in the end, but not quite how I would have liked. What can I say, you can't win :L and I came out better than I could have.

Anyhow, after that rather enigmatic tale, the up. Most people I know are good, so I can't let a small thing weigh me down. Someone came back from spain today, which made me pretty happy after two weeks xD and I guess after talking to others it's not all so bad. I have people I'm very lucky to know. Why moan about one event?

Life does have ups and downs. But, in most cases, the ups are every day. And they're more special. And sometimes it helps to really appreciate them more xD

Josh xx

Summer!

Hey again,

well, admittedly, this post may seem a little late since we are already about a week and a half in, but the great thing about the summer hols is that a week and a half isn't all that much. 6 weeks! might be 7 actually. But eitherway, the last one we had was quite a while ago and i am very glad it's here now. It was getting to the point at the end of the year where I just didn't care, I wanted to go home and stay there cos it had been a long, but excellent, year.

Anyway, holiday finally upon us, so all is well. For the first little bit I just didn't nothing; it was brilliant. I didn't really feel like doing anything; all good :)

And in the summer you get to see more of friends (out of school) so going down to the river and swimming, chatting and laughing etc was all good fun. I'm enjoying the summer so far :D and of course we've got nicola's party tonight (happy birthday for yesterday + see you tonight, if you read this) which'll mean more having fun and being with people.

The other thing about the summer is we FINALLY get to go on holiday! It's been about a year since we've been on a holiday to anywhere, but now we're going to spain for two weeks and it will be brilliant. We're staying in like a villa thing with a few others next to it, but like portugal (aaages ago) it should be fairly empty, meaning the pool should be fairly empty too :D

All round, summer is good. The summer should be more often.

Josh xx

An excellent, but still rather odd, day

Hello again,

As said before, I have started to get back into writing these things. Today was a very strange day which thankfully due to a few good friends turned out much better than I originally anticipated. The theme for the day (for those not there or not in year 9) was exploring the guided bus through the medium of drama and music. At first, admittedly, I didn't think much of this theme and imagined it would be a tad on the dreary side.

We started off pretty badly actually, the classic 'sugar paper take down notes and plan' situation was the first thing, whilst we also watched a short film on the new guided bus. This turned out to be our theme, making a promotional advert campaign for the new Guided Bus.

My group, consisting of Helen, Katie, Jamie B, Ali B and Jamie (the owly one) started off by making a deliberately very cheesy advert, which was actually not so great and didn't get across the point. So then we joined up with the other people and made a very odd and abstract ad campaign, involving dialog, odd singing, and abstract floaty dancing. It begun with Lucy complaining of congestion, and then Jack jumped out at her and said 'Why not try the Guided Busway!'. Next thing Jamie had burst into song about the Guided Bus, which for us behind the curtains and those watching from the audience was quite amusing, but then once he had finished Emma the curtain opening extraordinaire opened the curtains and we all begun dancing in a very graceful way, whilst Jamie came up to us and said things like 'It's fast' and 'It has free Wi-Fi' and 'It's such a smooth ride' and 'Save the Owls!' and all manner of things, which then lead to us all lying on the floor as the curtain closed. We then got the chance to perform our wonderful jingle, 'Want no fuss? Get the Guided Bus!' and the guy from Cambridge County Council said he liked it the best so, ya never know, we might be millionaires next week :D

Anyway, point being, what might have not been so good was in fact rather a good day, which was as always entirely due to my wonderful friends, who I couldn't live without :)

Josh xx

Summer Concert + people

Hello all,

goodness me hasn't it been a long time since my last blog about ABBA? I suppose I just wasn't in the writing mood, which is silly really, because before in my previous blogs (when I had the writing mood) I enjoyed writing very much.

Anyhow, my last blog was about a musical event and I'm following a similar thing now, with the summer concert.

The summe concert was fabulous; our various repetoire of music sounded great and I think everyone, performers and audience alike, had fun with it all. It was also good to just actually perform some stuff we've all been working on for months or just haven't performed in a while, like I Can't Give You Anything But Love and Tequila Samba and the like. It was fantastic to be performing with everyone once again, especially with those particular songs.

And, you may have seen from the title of this post, there is another part to this blog:

People can change, and even if you thought they were horrible beforehand, they can become decent people. I mean, it gets you thinking whether or not you were truly in the wrong? but then when all's fine and the person is being decent again, that it doesn't matter who was wrong. It's kind of good to have that; going through a patch where you didn't like someone and then them starting to change and apologise is good. And actually, it happens more often that it can seem.

And, in contrast, there are some people who just can be fantastic, and make me laugh, smile and generally be happy. Thanks very much :D

This blog was a bit lamely written; I need to get back to writing more often. I'm losing the ability :)

Josh xx

Looking forward and backward to Abba.

Hey again,

So, Abba has started at last, with the numerous (well, 5) houses performing to the best of their abilities with various Abba songs. I don't know why I just said all that because chances are if you're reading this blog you're involved in it, either by just knowing about it or actually being in one of the house bands.

It's been good, but a bit of a pain. Even before being in it you could kind of see a few discrepancies and problems between people, and getting really annoyed at Abba related occurences. It's great, and it's been a laugh (leg warmers and white fluffy hats, you can't go wrong) but yeah, you can't help the sneaking suspicion that everyone hates each other. Even Mrs Caldwell was thinking it wasn't the best of ideas.

The only other thing that worries me is the result; as Alex said, if it's Brunel who win then everyone will be unbearably bitter and never-ceasingly complain about it being inevitable (sorry guys, not blaming you), or whoever wins other than Brunel will be unbearably smug. So, yeah, even weeks afterwards there'll be people driven slightly apart in the name of Abba. Oh well, it's a laugh, and people will get over it. 

So, more on the performing, it was excellent all round. From the sound, Orwell were great (and yes I will see them, shush Orwell) as were Brunel and Cavendish were actually fairly good. Newton, well I have no idea but I will know on Monday, and hopefully they'll be good, and Wilberforce....weren't great. But practise makes perfect and they'll hopefully get far better. 

Josh xx

Thomas Deacon Academy

Hello again,

As with some other people who will probably read this blog at some point, but in the morning we all went to the Thomas Deacon Academy, a £42,000,000 school that was set up in Peterborough, and it is run exactly how a school should be run.

You can pretty much see the entire Academy from as soon as you walk in, and it's an incredible building; three floors of curving walls with glass panelled classrooms and a web of ariel walkways taking you around your classes, it feels small and big at the same time, it makes you feel tiny by the sheer size of it, but because you can see everything it manages to feel more connected, and ultimately, small. Their resources that they have available are massive, I.T suites with amazing equipment and the sports areas and fitness suite were all filled with fantastic equipment for student use, as well as (one of my favourite bits) they have their own theatre in the Academy, with fold out chairs, proper lighting, the works. The open top library where the only roof is, the roof, looks like such a great place to study and do all the work that goes on. I reccomend you try the virtual tour, it doesn't give you quite the measure of it but it gives you an idea of it's very interesting design.

But that costed 42 million pounds, and as far as I'm aware Swavesey Village College doesn't have the odd 42 million quid to spend on the school, otherwise I think it would be fairly improved. But the attitude within Thomas Deacon doesn't cost; it's simply a matter of enforcing it. The teachers are level with the students, and being treated like sophisticated, mature students means you tend to follow that example. Then there's the zero tolerance policy; any cases of vandalism or serious issues among students means exepellation, which is like the ASBO system. A fairly minor offence means people get let off and let off and let off all the time, as the people say 'well, you can't reaallllyyyy take them down for that' but it means they keep repeating. An ASBO, however, tells them that if they break it there is a serious consequence, which is a completely seperate offense. It's an excellent system. And the teachers monitor the students but aren't always telling them off.

The first step is the teachers, even on our way back, when we were talking about how well the attitude runs at TDA, Alex mentioned something, and Mrs Frampton started making him out like he was stupid and making a fuss. This does of course happen in everyday life, but if an adult acted like that to an adult or even an adult to a child in normal society, it is considered incredibly rude, which it is. But somehow, because she was a teacher, and Alex was a student, he had to be wrong. And it's a bit pathetic, so we need to break from the vicious cycle. But I think we will, with a bit of work.

Josh xx

Options.

Hello again,

As I'm sure many of you have been, I've been at the choices fair, finding out interesting things about my options. It's really good to talk to them, and I think everyone pretty much knows what they're doing for options. In case you were wondering, I'm doing History Modern World, which sounds REALLY interesting and covers a lot of stuff I have no idea about but would like to know, and the whole modern world approach is a bit closer to us so there are some things affecting us today, and when I spoke to Mr. Woolley he said that we might even be covering the Iraq war, which is very influential on our modern world.

Then I'm doing Spanish, which is a great language and I think the fast moving pace of the subject will be challenging but great to study and also means that we can move on to pretty excelled spanish in a two year course, rather than what we do at the moment which kind of prolongs each thing across a few weeks. I'm also doing French because that will be benefitial and helpful, as well as again being my preferred language, and I'd like be bilingual (aside from my fluent language). The only problem was the fact that dual can only be French and German, but I really don't want to do German so I'll just take two options, which is actually ok.

And finally, Drama, which I think will be BRILLIANT. The assessments are very practical and leave everything to you; lighting, scripting etc. so you have your final devised piece. These projects are huge and people work on them for I think about a term, but they're half hour odd performances, and the one in year 11 is assessed by an external examiner, which will be very scary but will make sure we can do the best in our group performance, and ultimately the challenge will be best. Apparently, part of the mark is a theatrical assessment, where the group will see a particular musical or performance and write a evaluative essay on it, which also seems great! But that wasn't on the board so I'm not quite sure.

So, yes, those are my choices, although at the moment I am kind of starting to worry about sixth form and university, what I'll end up studying, but in fact (drama-wise, the most important one for higher level) there are courses for higher level theatrical and acting studies, so it shouldn't be bad at all. Just being this side of the school year system makes you realise the future isn't as future as you might think, if that makes sense.

Josh xx

Little and Nothing about Half Term (and a few reccomendations)

Hello again,

Sorry for the very few posts recently, I've had very little to write about, but now that half term has arrived I'm back on Blogger.

Half term's been pretty good so far, Saturday was just a lazy day but on Sunday I went to see my cousins, who I hadn't seen in nearly a year, and my grandparents too, and then on Monday my grandparents came over for dinner, so I got to see people and was bored at all. Then, tuesday, I was working, but unfortunately very lonely from 11:00 till 5:00, because no one was home except for my dog. He slept, and unfortunately I worked. That's the only bad thing about this half term; the teachers have set homework for someone with no life and no necessity to eat, or sleep. I have 3 assessments, and then a science and french sheet and a MyMaths homework (I have done the french and maths, and I have started on the R.E assessment) but there's so much, and I know Helen has an extra one because of her Child Development. S'not good. And, the media stuff I have to meet up with Harriet and Lucy for, because it's our appendix, so we atleast need to meet at some point. And we need to do some extra adverts.

Although, I do have a few reccomendations for half term, especially as it's only a week:

Don't lie in for ages

this may seem odd, but I've been setting my alarm for 9:30 everyday, and apart from one where I basically hadn't slept, I always got up about 9:35, after listening to the radio for a bit. This is actually much better than it sounds; if you sleep in for ages then you actually feel more tired than if you wake up earlier, but still late enough to feel well rested and half-termish. And, waking up at 12 or whatever actually takes so much out of your day, it means you have no time for any of the enormous workload we have. That may sound geeky, but it's actually just practical. It's much better than sleeping in.

Have a study day

One of the whole reasons that no work gets done is because you don't feel motivated; because you're bored. But inviting someone over to do homework is actually a really good day, and tomorrow I have a study day with Helen, because we have so much similar homework (maths, science, french, geography and r.e; basically everything other than C.D and Media, but from the essay perspective we can help with each other's essays). And company makes it easier, and more fun, actually. I think it'll be great; I reccomend it for those with lots of homework.

Oh, and another cool thing that happened today; someone who worked at spymasters also does short films. This person knew i did acting stuff, and now one of his friends (who also does short films) has asked me to appear in a short film that he's making, over the easter holidays :D I got an email from him today.

Thanks for reading,

Josh xx

by request of helen dickyman

Helen dickman is lovely. She always makes me smile, and she lifts my heart everyday. I love her very very very much xx

Directions to the forgotten village - Just go over Over road.

Hello again,

So, another snow day, well, snow 'remainder of day' as it were, and the normal coffuffell (or however you spell it) at school. As soon as we'd all arrived, the snowfall got really heavy, so of course we had to close the school in the end. After a very confusing fire drill and a 40 minute lesson of pretty much nothingness all round, we were sent home in a bit of a shamble. I wouldn't have actually wanted to be Mr. Bacon at that time, because though it wasn't technically his fault, he must have felt a bit of a fool sending everyone home just a few minutes after they'd arrived.

So, like before, everyone was having fun in the snow. Speaking of which...

You may not know, but little more than a stone's throw away from Over, there is the forgotten village of Willingham; so named for its forgottenness. And it's been forgotten because noone lives there. Absolutely noone, the only people i know are my neighbours, who aren't even that friendly. Well, they are, but we never see them, really, because one works away a lot, and the other is in fact very boring. He's a server technician. I haven't found out if he does Judo yet.

But point being, i wish i had my house, but in Over. Or even Swavesey. Somewhere where i can actually know i can walk to a friends. We're meeting up at Over Green? Go for it, give me a few minutes. But from Willingham you can't do that.

The ironic and interesting thing is, Willingham is probably no further away from Over than Swavesey is, but because i can't call on anyone, and noone is there, it feels miles away. As well as that, Over is partially protected by an incredibly fast moving road, with a higher death toll than a cemetery. It isn't fun. Makes everyone seem ages away.

So I'm sorry i couldn't come down today, but nothing really went well for me. My mum did NOT want me walking down from Willingham, and i wasn't going to a) argue with her or b) Go without her permission, and she gets furious. It isn't worth it, and she wouldn't trust me walking again. I don't like feeling like i can't be trusted with something simple, it's just silly. And my mum's point was made clear to me on the way home, when we saw someone's car in over. More specifically, in a hedge. My mum was not going to be swayed.

So in the end, i was going to catch a bus. I was quite a bit later than i wanted to be, but still going to get down there for 1:20 or so, which wasn't too bad. I was waiting for 15 minutes or so, but i accepted the buses could be late, and i'd got down a little early. First i saw one bus, but it was going a different way. This was a little irritating but not anyone's fault and in fact told me the buses were running, which was good. So then, whilst i'm waiting at the corner, about to go home, I see the bus. I head for the stop, and its there pretty quickly. So i had to start running, but i was running alongside and it's a place the bus normally stops. But bus drivers, in their nice warm buses, aren't the nicest of people. Actually, and don't really support the title of working for public service. He must have seen me, but he completely blanked me, and carried on. I went home. Oh and, just to add, I had lost a glove. I couldn't find it.

So I really didn't mean to leave. I don't choose to live in the middle of nowhere, despite being in the middle of all my friends. Tis silly, really.

Josh xx

SNOW!!

says it all. :D

Comments on a good day.

Hello all,

I had a good day today. Just figured i'd post about it because i haven't written in a while :)

Started off with Art, which is ok, although I'm not very good at it. Actually, that's an understatement, I'm absolutely hideously awful at art and i don't even enjoy it, so I'm looking forward to be able to drop it in year 10, when i finally make my choices. I still like the paintings and drawings that others can create (I'm actually a fan of Escher's work but that makes me sound pompous. I'm really not) and i am totally bamboozled by the artistic talent within Harriet Hall, who is extremely talented (if you don't mind my saying; hi Harriet if you read this) at everything from colours to perspective to everything else included in art and seems to be able to apply that brilliantly. She certainly outstrips me by a long way, which is good actually because i'm not that fussed about being good at it. Really, i'm not, that isn't sour grapes.

After Art, (and break, although break stays fairly consistent) it was maths, something which i do like but Mrs Freer turns into a bit of a bore. The odd thing is, it's not because she's an awful teacher; if she was then she might not be so bad (as we have seen with other teachers who are awful. Gary White, maybe) but she isn't particularly interested either. I remember discussing this with Helen earlier; Ms Daniel and Mr Gent are brilliant, and when we had that one media lesson with Mr Gent everyone listened and contributed intently and after that we were fairly all agreed it was a brilliant lesson. But Mrs Freer is always just..normal. Anyway, enough on the teacher, the subject is actually ok and we're moving quite fast, and I am rather glad we have diverted from Algebra. I think we're all under mutual agreement that that started to turn dull after a while.

After Maths we had enterprise, which is actually a good subject in which i don't have Mrs Harding, which must help to some extent. I'm glad we're doing our own products, the calendars were very nice but dull as anything. In case any of you are interested in potential purchase, our product is MiCase, a personalisable pencilcase that you can stick velcro shapes onto, and also speak to us and get personalised letters in a chosen colour. Prices etc. to be confirmed.

Lunch was the time of eating.

Following lunch was science, a subject which i do enjoy although i don't like our topic at the moment. It's all about radiation, microwaves, the electromagnetic spectrum blah blah, and today we were investigating potential microwave hazards of beans and chocolate bars and stuff. It was, despite the description i have just given, an ok lesson. Although, in this topic, the demonstrations/practicals aren't very interesting, and some of the written work can be a little repetitive. I know we need to study it but i hope we pass over it soon. Still a good lesson though.

And then french, which I do actually enjoy, we were doing a sort of test but not really a test, more just a worksheet. Being next to Jamie was a laugh, but i wouldn't want it permanently (sorry Jamie, no offence) as i would get distracted and i like french. In fact, Mrs Stewart is a good teacher as well, and I feel like we're moving on quicker than we were, which is all good. That's why I wanted to take french, i prefer it as a language but i although think Spanish will be a really nice language and given the choice i would go for Spanish, although french might be more useful. Also, they move really quickly in spanish because it's 5 years work into 2. I did also think about doing French and Spanish, and dropping Product Design, which is something I enjoy but more of a placeholder for my fourth choice, but as my lovely Helen pointed out the workload for both languages would be huge, and i might get confused when putting the newbie language alonside french. I'll think about it, and maybe talk to becky. Hi becky.

And then the science revision, which is as many said like a more relaxed science lesson. We were studying drug trials and reading over pages of information, asking each other questions. I would reccomend them, it's only every other week and I think they'll be benefitial to us.

After science i went to Helen's. Self explanatory ;)

Although i am rather glad the baby didn't cry. I don't know why it didn't though, it technically should have. Still, no complaints. Cept if it starts waking her up in the night more, because i do want her to get sleep. This is of course because i don't want her to lose sleep and feel bad, i want her to always be happy. I also don't want my head torn off tomorrow by an angry Helen if i say the slightest thing. Heya Helen :)

The only bad thing about today was the lack of a few friends, who i hope will all be back soon. I have only spoken to one of them, but she should be back tomorrow. Hey Izzy :)

I hope they'll all be back very soon to lighten my day once again. I wish you all a speedy recovery.

Josh xx

Productivity.

Hello again,

Rest assured this is a normal blog.

I've had a good, productive day today. Woke up at a very nice 11:00 (quite late) and then came downstairs and had a shower and a cup of coffee. I tend to find a shower is a great way to wake up properly, so i was wide awake whilst having my coffee, which always keeps you warm, and thinking about what i had to do. It was a good start.

So, the first thing on my list was to get my hair cut, which i did, and am happier now i have. My hair is obviously shorter (in true nature of a haircut) but it looks pretty good and it means it's no longer in my eyes, which is all good. I got back slightly later than I would have thought, but it really didn't matter. I had another shower to get rid of any remaining loose hair and just to wash it again after cutting, get it back to how hair should be.

Next thing (and this was the biggest, really) was to atleast start my science revision timetable, which i have done. I was watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in the background, and started using my yellow sheet. I think, however, that when Mrs Turner gave that hint to do something different, she meant it. That yellow sheet was a pile of pants. So i moved onto Excel where i have done the Biology and Chemistry modules in a concise and easy to use revision plan. Wonderful. I'm going to do physics tomorrow, after hopefully doing some media work. More productivity.

And the last thing was to tidy my room and sort out stuff for tonight. My room is very tidy and my stuff for tonight took all of 5 minutes. So I've had a pretty damn good day, and all I have ahead of me now is a nice dinner, a great sleepover and a rather wonderful hour before the aformentioned sleepover with helen ;)

Someone said that the best things in life are free. Well, one of these wonderful things (but still free) is productivity; having got done all you wanted to a level which you wanted and feeling good but not worn out by it all, or like you've been overworked. I feel very calm, and i certainly don't feel like I've been busy, even though when i look back i sort of have been. Another good day :)

Josh xxx

g'day guvnor.

Hello again,

Back in ye olden days when joseph bazalgette was a celebrity for creating the sewers, everyone lived by class. You either begged, shined shoes or turned your nose up at the poor and carried on with whatever you were doing, which was guaranteed to be more important than some poor scrounger. Bah, you said, they were just lazy. Things were run by class. And to some extent, there are classes now. And that's what bugs me.

I'm not here to repetitively say 'the chavs' or 'those damn yobbos' because that's incredibly generalised and i sound like a moron from those aformentioned olden days. But unfortunately, i tend to find that we are completely overtaken by a society that just doesn't care. They literally do not care about anything, like they can't see past their own noses. They don't think about where they'll end up, or what will happen to them, or how much annoyance they put on others. They just don't care. As people around them don't care, they don't feel a need to. And seeing as, one of the only things they put importance on is their reputation, or themselves, they prefer to just stay not caring about who else they annoy, or upset.

On top of that, they somehow have managed to completely spare themselves from rational thought, at all. They will say something, and if you do any form of retaliation, they get so hideously offended like you should be bowing down and licking their shoes. It's so aggrivating when they start ganging up on people for something they've done; the fact they are too arrogant to realise. In the past i might have said 'well of course they know. It's just because they need to hold up a reputation, show themselves to be tough' but recently i can't say i've been sure. Maybe they literally find that you are in the wrong. Having never been inside the head of someone like that, i couldn't tell you. And i would say neither could they. I mean, you may beg the question whether or not they are so stupid to genuinely not realise, but then again on multiple occasions i have found people who say such outrageous things that make me hang my head in shame. Like the person who didn't know the spelling of the word awe, or oar, or indeed believe that there were two words, awe and oar. In fact, there's a few more. No doubt she didn't know about them either. And at that talk on rocks (i was forced, i didn't attend out of interest, or even politeness. You have to draw the lines somewhere), when he told us that there were sometimes dinosaur fossils in rocks, someone actually blurted out 'oh, so the dinosaurs were real?' funnily enough everyone else had managed to clarify the dinosaurs existance before the age of 13/14. Certainly no one else shouted it out. And not only was she none the wiser on the dinosaurs, she clearly didn't realise that shouting it out would show the world how foolish a person, namely her, could be. Good lord.

I'm not meaning to rant, y'all understand. It just aggrivates me to know that there are those who don't care about anyone except themselves, or people they are friends with. They are completely oblivious to the world around them, and have a complete disregard for it. The world around them could tell them a lot. They just need to listen. But they never ever do. I mean, some people, like jamie (no offence, you are a good example. Hi jamie) occasionally muck around, but teachers don't mind it so much and are completely aware that they can mention it and jamie is quite capable of being brilliant, and he's very intelligent and can acknowledge where the line is drawn. But they can't. They never stop.

I think i'm safe blogging here, seeing as i doubt any of them have blogspot stuff. Intriguingly, i heard a similar person in question saying 'I'll talk later on bebo, see ya' in a pretty good mirror of what jamie said a few weeks ago.

Precisely. You're welcome to Bebo. I'm steering clear of it.

Josh xx

(a little note: there are actually a few homophones of awe, namely oar, or, ore)

Weekends are overated.

Hello again, 

well, i'm really starting to believe the title, even though i used to think weekends were great. Maybe because i'm having a good time at school, the weekends seem a bit rubbish. I'm not changing into some study-freak who can think of nothing better than science coursework, or maths, but sometimes (including this weekend) I really wish there was only one day of the weekend. Having a rest is brilliant and all, but there a few things i hate more than talking to people (on msn) and when they ask what i've been up to to have to say 'not much, you?' which is just code for absolutely-flipping-nothing. Nothing in the slightest. I wish i could even say something so dull as 'I bought a pair of shoes' but i can't. My parents and brother are working a lot at the weekends (I know it isn't their fault) but it leaves me with very little. That's why i like school at the moment, there's always something new to the day. I'm beginning to find these odd weekends really dull.

Last weekend it was ok; i had friends round for a sleepover and because of that everyone had had a good day and had sunday for a nice rest. But if you've used saturday for your nice rest after a school week, then what of sunday? You've already rested, and now you're being told to rest some more. You can't, there needs to be something new. And there isn't. So i'm not half looking forward to school, even if it sounds stupid to say so. Oh well. Something nice needs to happen. Something that takes up saturday and leaves sunday to the lazy. But even rest gets boring and tedious.

See you all tomorrow, for school. Change, at last.

Josh xx

Hey everyone,

Well, i don't want this to end up like a copy of one of Alex's posts, but I guess it's a similar situation. A very very good day. A very very very VERY good day.

School was good too, i like fridays. Fridays are good. Geography, like german (although i'm coming back to that) isn't really bad at all, and history was fun. It was good to present, after we'd been working on these things for so long we needed a change of topic. German (see, i said i'd get back to it) was good too, Mrs Griffiths is actually a good teacher despite what jamie said about Mrs Woman's Institute.

Media and Drama are my two favourite subjects, and them side by side is very very cool. I am incredibly happy with my group and this coursework is going to be challenging but brilliant fun. I've always liked advertising and this one is far more practical than the others. I'm also happy TO be working in a group; I'm not the fall back on others type and i like to work with others to make sure I'm not the only voice and be able to have fun at the same time.

Drama is always my favourite subject, I think you can be really creative with it and i enjoy it very much. I liked my group too, once again.

But then again, what of school? Helen came back to my house with me. And i have had the most amazing afternoon ever. In fear of copying alex, i feel so close to helen and I never wanted her to leave, But i had to hide it so well for when she left when her mum was there. Dammit. I need to see her again. I love her so so much and that was just proved to me again tonight. I can't live without her.

So all around, a good day. Well, fridays are good.

Josh xx

Lost for words..

The title isn't really true; all i mean is a don't really have anything to write. What does one write in such a blog? I've already written about life being good, and nothing really significant has happened ('cept helen) but i've written about that too. The only thing i can really say is that I'm glad it's the weekend. I'm happy for a break, not a huge rest, but just a chance to relax for a bit. I'm also happy because some people are coming over, and that should be fun. But i worry that soon i'll be going on about life again, and i'd rather not bore you with that. I want to write. But i can't really without sending you to sleep or making you avert your eyes everytime you see such boring material not worthy of a read.

Something interesting needs to happen. 

And the worse thing is, i've sort of played my joker in a sense, because i can't even write about not having anything to write about anymore; i've already used that idea. The most interesting thing happening that i can post about (that i haven't before) is Mr Howell (who does make me laugh) telling us about his intricate ways of sellotaping a pair of jeans to a whiteboard, or playing us another bleeding video clip so that he can join Mr Boughton watching things on the internet and drinking from mouldy teacups. So that's this post idea out the window. Damn

Maybe i should never post this.

Oh well.

Josh xx

Never let it slip through your fingers.

The title says it all.

You could call this post the second part of my previous one about life. Life is pretty damn brilliant at the moment, and some of you know why. And it's to those people i am thankful for, for inspiring this and giving me the title. Cos basically, we can all say 'what ifs' for hundred years, but never let it happen. You might feel better. Wondering what you could have done and wishing you did can eat you from the inside out and constantly play on our mind. You can hate yourself for never taking that one chance, whatever it is, and learning from mistakes is better than dwelling on them. Hence this post. And i am thankful that the chance i got today came and even more thankful i didn't let it pass like some other stuff. Obviously, as it first happened about a million 'what ifs' latched themselves firmly onto my mind, but once I cleared them away there was a clear answer that i had to take. So i took it. And now i'm feeling, fantastic. And i really want it to work. I guess everyone was right, even when i told them to shut up. But i'm happy now. And i think i will be for quite a while.

Never let it slip through your fingers. I didn't, and obviously i wonder what would have happened if i said no. And i bet my life i'd be worse off by a long way.

You might be able to guess what happened. But even if you can't, it's a good message to follow. I'm certainly gonna be happy with her (that was for those who couldn't guess).

Josh xx

The little things in life

Hello again,

I'm feeling happy. I don't know why, I feel really relaxed and calm, and like i have not a care in the world. No worries. It's a good feeling; content. Feeling like there's nothing you could do better. It's a good thing. Don't look at what you don't have, and wish you did. Think about the stuff you have that makes you happy. But however bad you feel, there's always something that can make you feel happy. Like when you're round a fire, even if it's out in the open, and you feel like you have everything, even though all you really have is warmth and light. Little things. They mean a lot. Or music. I'm listening to handbags and gladrags. That's a good song, and it makes you feel pretty happy about everything. You'll find if you think of the things you have, you'll find that they outweigh the things you want by a long way. 

I feel content right now, which is why i'm writing this. It's like you'll always be happy, and it's a great feeling.

I know there wasn't much point to this, but I wanted to write something. And i didn't really care what it was, just so long as i could be writing it.

That's content for you. 

Josh xx

Once in a blue moon.

Hello again,

As much as i'm aware that we have all been given enough homework to last everyone in the school three years solidly, we can't get past the fact that sometimes, we are bored. So why aren't we together having a laugh, rather than being a bunch of lonely teenagers? Maybe i speak only for myself, maybe eveyone's been meeting up without me having a clue. But it seems to me like we go for weeks at a time without seeing each other outside of school. That's why they set up youth centres, to give teenagers something to do other than stabbing each other. I don't want to be convicted of knife crime. I'd rather be with you guys.

So why don't we meet up regularly? I don't mean necessarily the cinema everytime, or something which has to be fitted with a specific date. Just try and find a time when we can all meet up. Not at the same house everytime, cos we don't want to put pressure on parents, but just sometime when we can meet up. I think everyone enjoys it, so why do we let ourselves get bored, when we could be having fun? And, most of the things we try to organise are organised in a half and half share between the night before and the morning after, in some cases, so it wont be that different.

I'm sorry if this blog wasn't very good, I wanted to write something and this thing i was thinking about sprung to mind. Hence why the title is 'once in a blue moon'. 

Couldn't we all meet up more?

Josh xx

can't sleep...

I'm sure many of you will be wondering why i am awake and, of all things, why i am writing about it. I suppose it is to give me something to do whilst's it's dark and there is little else to do when sleep is temporarily unavailable. oh well

Anyways, I find me pretty annoying whilst I can't sleep, cos i do annoying little things that keep me awake. One of them is to stare aimlessly at the ceiling, or the floor, or my chair, or whatever comes to hand. This seriously gets aggrivating as it most certainly does not send me to sleep. I also start to hum odd things, like earlier i was humming Kije's march that had got stuck in my head, and then a few minutes later i found myself starting to hum happy birthday. And the final one is i start to think, and this is really distracting. So I have to give myself something to do, i.e reading or, in this case, writing.

So i guess my last post wasn't my last ever, and i may have caught the blogging bug after all, whatever that is. Or it may end up like twitter, where i thought i'd check it and then swapped it for facebook and left twitter gathering dust in the void of the internet. I wouldn't know.

But regardless, many people have been writing just about life, in general, so i figured i'd 'jump on the band wagon' as it were. And life is good. The build up to christmas (in and out of school) was great and it was fantastic to have a break as the last few weeks had been pretty busy. But then there were those last few days of the holidays where we all become losers and couch potatoes for a bit. I was never doing much, and, from the sound of the msn conversations i was having (my only communication with the outside world) others weren't doing much either. As a result of being bored, noone could be motivational, so we all got more bored. I think many will agree that it's been good to get back to school. Being back with friends and being able to catch up with friends and people has been great. I'm feeling generally happy and my friends just show me why. They split my sides with laughter and i worry that my jaw will soon be stuck in a smile. Or it will hurt to be sad. Maybe that's a good thing. I'm (although it seems loserish to say it) very happy with my test grades, which is nice, and to top it all one of my friends likes me again. Life is pretty good. I certainly don't want it to change anytime soon.

I know many of you will read this and ask why I wrote this. I agree, I have no doubt that i'll read it later and ask myself why i blabbed on at midnight when i should have my eyes shut. But i have to have something to do, and this was the thing i was thinking about, so it made sense. I know i'll hate the morning too, when i wake at a dismal 7:30 when the world has still got the lights off and think 'why on earth was a hitting a keyboard when i should have been asleep?'. Still, I have geography first period to help me catch up on lost rest. No doubt Mr Howell's droning voice will do better than humming, thinking or staring at something.

And hey, if i hadn't written this, i would have probably just thought some more.

Night, everyone.

Josh xx