Sunday, October 3, 2010

I should really be sleeping

So its ten minutes to 12 on a Sunday night, i have to be up in about 7 and half hours and i decided to update my blog. DISCLAIMER: If this blog is disjointed and makes no sense blame it on the evil tiredness elves.

So I've been in a school for a month now and I've come to the conclusion that its more work then i remember it being. It probably doesn't help that I've taken on an extra subject but still lots of work. Now don't get my wrong I don't completely hate school, in fact I love English, my teacher is awesome and yeah its just generally awesome. So its not that I hate school its more that apart from getting into college I really don't see any use for a lot of my subjects, and that bugs me. Irish for example, I like Irish... well I like the makey upy Irish me and my friends use casually but the subject itself I don't see all that useful. I don't live in an Irish speaking part of Ireland, I don't intend to live in and Irish speaking part of Ireland and in 2 years time when I'm in University (hopefully) I don't see myself worrying about weather I have the right verb ending. To me Irish is really just something I have to do to get to where i want to be, its fun to talk to my friends every now and again in Irish but thats it.

In completely unrelated news....I have solved the Rubik's cube!! kind of... As some of you may or may not know there is a youtuber called Dan Brown and he has a tutorial on how to solve a Rubik's cube on his channel. Pretty much all I did was follow his instructions. Easy as pie. I'm not super fast at it yet, I'm still trying to get under 2 minutes. But it just makes me smile knowing I can do it! Also it was on my list of things to do at some point.

Lastly, as I said English is my favourite subject. Last week my teacher handed us out 2 articles from the Irish Sunday Times, and told us we would have to write a letter to the editor in response to the article in class. So we did. He corrected them and told some of us that our letters were of publishable quality, mine was one these. So i sent it in and this morning when I got the Sunday Times what did i see ?! Thats right, my letter!! I'm still super excited about it. I can't believe it got published! And now for your viewing pleasure is my letter.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

School, Schule, Scoil

I haven't posted anything for a while, sorry about that. But I do in fact have a valid reason for it this time. School has started back up again, and where as for the past 4 years I got by (rather well) with not too much work, this year is a lot more trying.

If your not familiar with the Irish schooling system, in secondary school there are 2 exams. The junior cert after 3 years (doesn't qualify you for anything, won't get you into college, pretty much useless) then some schools offer an optional 4th year, known as transition year of TY. After TY, or third year, if you didn't do TY, you go into 5th year. 5th year is the start of the senior cycle and were a lot of the work for the final exam in 6th year is done. I am in 5th year. It is a lot of work, and I cleverly decided to take on an extra subject, and not just any subject, perhaps the most essay heavy next to English. History.

I love history, it is my second favourite subject, but my god is it a lot of work and learning off. Because its an extra subject I can opt out at any stage, but i really do want to do it and get a good grade.

I really should have mention the exam at the end of 6th year is called the Leaving Certificate. This basically decided if you'll get into your college/university/IT whatever. It is made out to be the be all and end all of your education but really there are countless back door ways into a lot of courses.

Your leaving cert results are transfered into points and certain courses require certain points. The most points you can get is 600. An A1 in a higher level class is worth 100 points and the points decrease as the grades get lower. Most students take 7 subjects, the results from your best 6 subjects are used to determine your points, unless a course has a required subject, then that is used in your points even if you only got a D. If you fail Irish, English or Maths, you have to go through 6th year again and resit the leaving cert (i don't like this rule)

Anyway, for my leaving cert i'm hoping to get 480 - 500 points, i'd love to break 500, but i'd be happy with anything over 450 really. The subjects I'm taking for my leaving cert are: Irish, English, Maths,German, Business, Physics, Music and History. Heres what i hope to get in each of them

English: A1
Irish:C/B2
Maths: A1
German:B2
Business: B2
Physics: B1
Music: A1
History: A1

The courses i'm interested in are Applied Music in Dundalk IT and Media Studies in Maynooth. Dundalk only requires me to get 2 Cs or higher in any 2 higher level subjects and Ds or higher in ordinary level subjects. Seeing as i'm only doing one ordinary level class (maths) i think this is more then attainable. Media however requires me to get an A in English, which is quite difficult. I only got B in the junior cert, but i know that's because i didn't revise my novel well enough and subsequently messed up my novel question.

If i don't get into these courses, there are similar ones around the country. These are just the two i have looked at properly. But if i don't get my points or into any college I think i might go to America for a year or two and try to work on my music. Being a successful musician is of course what i truly want to do, but I know that it isn't the most likely thing to happen in the world.

Back to this years workload, i really went off on a ramble there. Anyway, its not so much that the workload is ridiculously big, its more that I'm doing it properly this year and putting in the effort i should, which i must admit I didn't really do before. This has resulted in both my blog and YouTube being ignored. I'm trying to fix this, but i don't know how often I'll be able to update, we shall see.

Oh and in other news i get to sing a solo in choir on Thursday :D

And y'all need to see this video



Friday, August 27, 2010

So I read.....

I rather like reading, in fact i might go as far to say as its my second favourite pass time (music being the first). Saying that though, my made of awesome librarian mum puts me to shame, she's like a reading machine.

I remember the book that got me reading, The Giggler Treatment. Its a fantastic kids book and ridiculously funny, to this day it still makes me laugh out loud. That was the book that started me reading on my own, but as I have said before, Harry Potter really brought out the love of books in me.

Since first reading, The Giggler Treatment and The Harry Potter Series, i have reread them, many, many,many times. And that for me is a sign of a truly amazing book, wanting to reread it, even memorizing pieces of text, because of the way they speak to you. I wish i could say that every book I've read has been like this, but it hasn't, i doubt anyone can say that every book they've read has been that good. I have of course picked up and struggled through books i haven't liked in the slightest. But all in all I know I've read far more good books then bad.

When i start reading a book, a lot of the time, and this happened more when i was younger, I would just put it down if it didn't grab me right off the bat. Like for instance, Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman. A friend of mine gave it to me as a present, and I just didn't have the patience to sit down and read it through. Mostly because of the long chapters. I found Northern Lights, at first, to be unreasonably long. I have of course read bigger books, but for me the length of the chapters can really drag a book out. So eventually after hearing how good it was from family members I started to read it properly, and wow. It was an amazing book. Long yes, but still amazing. It completely changed my perspective on books, in that now, even if the book had stupidly long chapters and felt very long, i would still give it a proper chance rather then dismiss it.

The reason I'm writing about books, is that I have just finished reading Catching Fire, which if you don't know is the second in the Hunger Games trilogy. It was mindblowingly awesome. But I'm not here to review it. After finishing it I realised that I hadn't been reading as much as i used to and it made me wonder why.

The first reason was obvious really. The internet. I love the internet but I'm sad to say that recently I've taken to reading things online rather then picking up a book. Like I will read a REALLY good fanfiction all the way through in one night, even if its stupidly long, in favour of picking up a book. And yes i know fanfiction isn't as good as most published work, but dammit i do love it. I'm not sure why I've taken to this habit, maybe its the amount of time I'm on the computer anyway. But in my opinion i think its because I can be reading it on an open browser on split screen and still be talking to friends, where as i find that more difficult to do with an actual factual physical book.

The second reason, is an odd one. My mom's a librarian. Now you would think that having a made of awesome librarian mom would be good for my reading habits. But no, this is because, my mom is in the library the whole time so I don't really have reason to go there when she's not. And thats not really very good. Sure every now and again she'll bring me something that looks awesome, but I'm not getting nearly as many books out as I used to.

I have no other real reason, other then laziness on my part. Which is something i plan to fix. I'm going to start reading more actual factual books, that is a promise. I have so many that I have bought shelved and not looked at again, but no more! Speaking of which, Mockingjay tomorrow, you have no idea how excited i am for this book!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

My-Bloody-Space

So several weeks ago i blogged about how i'm going to really try with this music thing and how i want to live my dream. And i do still want to. In fact I've even started busking! I have actually made money doing what i love. Its wonderful!

This new determination made me, on impulse, today decide to have a look at my old Myspace band page (and yes i know i have blogged about social networking before). So i logged on, and sure enough i remembered my password, which in itself was a mean feat for me.

Once i logged on, i realised it was all new and shiny and seemingly more user friendly. So i had a look at my profile. It was just as i'd left it, completely plain, well bar a few really rough recordings i'd uploaded. I decided the first thing i'd do was get a background image for, well no real reason in particular.

I got busy. I went into the edit profile and was about to get to work when i suddenly remembered, i know nothing of HTML or CSS. It was then i remembered why i stopped using Myspace, it was so bloody difficult. Lucky for me however, they had updated it! Basically this meant HTML noobs like me could use it without frying their brains. So i uploaded my background picture, which took like 3 hours, because the pictures i wanted to use weren't big enough and looked awful tiled.

Anyway when i FINALLY got that done and had chosen my colour scheme and all that jazz. I noticed that somehow, at some time,Myspace ( and yes i am blaming them) had managed to put all the information from the bio and what not into a html box. Which is all well and good, but felt rather silly to me.
Firstly because it meant the information was on there twice and secondly because the html box doesn't seem to understand the concept of the enter button.

So i went about my way and deleted it. Only to find that it was still there. This perplexed me. But i reckoned that it was because i hadn't saved or something of the sort. So i went back and did this numerous times, getting more and more frustrated, when i realised that on Myspace changes can take up to 24 hours to update. I felt very foolish.

I was about to decide to give up when i though "hmmm maybe i should upload a new song or two" so i did. Well i tried. My upload attempts failed. Now i would've put it down to my terrible internet had it not been for the fact that i have been able to upload all my songs to Facebook. So Myspace its all your fault. I hope your happy Tom!

Anyway thats my rant over. No real purpose to this blog other then to rant. I hope you don't mind.

Friday, August 6, 2010

There shall be music on the streets of Gorey! ....and Kilkenny

If you've read previous posts on this blog, or are a friend of mine you know that I'm a musician singer/songwritery person. I love music, right now in fact I'm listening to an awesome play list I made yesterday. Speaking of which if any sentences don't have any context in this blog, its because I'm typing what I'm listening to. This happens a bit to often for my liking.

Anyway, to the point. I was in Gorey. Wait that's not the point... I was in Gorey and....oh yeah, i went busking! It was rather awesome. I have some experience performing, I sometimes play a song or two with a band called the shuck dodgers and I have entered the school talent show twice. So really I'm still a novice.

Now I'm not going to say that it was the easiest thing in the world or that i was natural, because well because that's not entirely true. Its easy enough to pick up a guitar and get set up and its even easy enough to start playing. But once you start playing and people just walk straight by and don't eh.. contribute it gets a bit awkward, well for me at least.

Luckily the interest soon picked up, and i was making a bit of money, pretty much doing what i love! Making music. Once I actually got into it and started having a good time, it was really enjoyable and I would have to say the high light of my music...career to date. All in all for an hour and a half's work I made 30 euro which i consider to pretty good.

While I was busking a man with a rather complicated looking camera, came up and asked me if i wanted to be in the paper, of course i said yes. He got some information on me from my dad and asked me a few question, well 2 questions but I'm still counting it as a sort of interview! Its going to be in the south east time soon, I'll probably blog about it again when i get the newspaper.

So that was my first experience of busking! I'm going to Kilkenny tomorrow, and yes i am going to busk again while I'm down there and I can't wait!

Oh and i almost forgot i also get to see the genius that is Mick Flannery live! He is pretty much what i aspire to be as a musician so this is such a big thing to me! I may even get to meet him! And yes i am having a fangirl attack right now.

That's your lot for now folks
Until i blog again, goodbye.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Zip - a short story

Zip

Do you ever just hate it? Hate everything? Life, your family just want it all to go away, to just not be there?

No?

I can’t say it’s the best feeling I’ve ever had.

I’m only 15 years old and my life’s already down the shithole! Mum and Dad dead. My brother tries but you know it’s not the same. He wants to be a parent and a brother at the same time. It don’t work like that. Not in this life. I can’t even remember Mum and Dad. Johnny, that’s my brother, he says I’m better off. I don’t think so. Who is better off not knowing their parents? WHO?!

He....he said, he doesn’t want to remember, that they were bad people. But I don’t reckon so. They can’t have been, they’re mum and dad. Mums and Dads aren’t evil. Everyone knows that.

He won’t even tell me what happened . Just says they’re dead and that’s the best thing for everyone. Course I love him, but I think he’s a right prick about them.

“Zip? Get your ass out here!”

Fuck, that’s El, god I love that girl to bits, but she has the worst timing.

“El, Just leave me alone. You’re not even allowed in here. Boys Toilets. I know your thick but even you can read pictures”

I tried to sound teasing, didn’t sound convincing even to me.

“You know the drill Zip; teachers will tell John if you don’t go”

I knew that, stupid teachers, they knew nothing!

“You just gotta make it through graduation then, you can fuck off for all they care”

I knew that too. They pretend to care, acting in “locy parents” or whatever it is. But they don’t as soon as you graduate and decide you ain’t coming back for more, they’re laughing in front of your face not behind it. I really did not want to have to go into a room full of liars and cheats and bastards and sluts and the general scum of society. That’s what we were, students, teachers, the lot. I’m not all high and mighty, I’m as bad as all of them, maybe worse, but at least I don’t lie
about it.

“Zip come on! You know I’ll drag your skinny ass outta there if I have to!”

Ha! She would and all you know. She has some moves my El.

We’re not dating or nothing, she’s like my best mate! More of brother than Johnny. She has this thing for leather, denim and chains. Got a bit of Goth look about her. I think she’d kill me if I told anyone she loves “The Backstreet Boys” particularly that Jason bloke. Jason Tumblerton or something. Don’t really give two shits about it to be honest. She just El and that’s all I need really.

Me and her don’t look half odd walking round the school. I’m a tall lanky yoke, 6’2 and she’s barely 5 foot not to mention me with my second hand baggy jeans that hang way too low and third hand Nike hoodies and t-shirts, and her with her leather and chains. Some of the lads thinks she’s into chains and whips, you know in the bedroom. I don’t think she is. Not something we really talk about though.

“I’m coming you impatient brat” I’ve always called her brat, little nickname, I’m Zip and she a brat. Hell I’ve been called Zip for so long I barely remember my “real” name. I do though, keeps me, like, connected to my parents.

She pulled me to the hall, little witch, at least I got to sit beside her. She ain’t got no family either. Well she does, but they’re alchos, they’d sell El if it could get them a beer or vodka or something. Never really like alcohol myself, drink it course, everyone in this school does, well cept for El, she doesn’t cause of her parents, but I never really liked it. I just do it.

“Now the last part of this evening’s event. The handing out of certificates”

God I hate my headmaster he can make the simplest sentence sound arrogant, thinks he’s so above everyone.....Did he say certificates ?

“El” I whispered “did he say certificates? And how longs it been since this thing started “

“Yeah he said they’re handing out the certs, and like 2 hours why? “She looked at me kinda weird.

“You okay Zip”

“Yeah I’m fine” I muttered.

Had I just spent 2 hours in my head? Just thinking? I must have, otherwise time was skipping or some other weird sci fi junk was happening.

“Zip!”....”Zip! They called your name! Get up!”

I looked up; apparently it had been a few minutes since they’d called my name. A few minutes too long. I got up and got my certificate, didn’t shake that bastard of a principles hand though. I think everyone noticed but no one seemed to care. Why would they? I wasn’t there responsibility anymore.

The last half hour of that stupid graduation we’re the longest of my life. I could tell I wasn’t the only one itching to get out. Even the teachers were pissed by now.

As soon as the bastard said goodnight, I was out the door. Apparently, I’d dragged El with me. I don’t remember doing that.

“Hey Zip, hold up, I got an idea.” She paused. I dunno why.

“You don’t get nothing from alcohol right?”

I nodded, I didn’t know where this was going, but it was El she had her shit in order so course I gotta listen to her.

“Well, I got some Coke and E the other day, cause you know me and drink, I was wondering you wanna give them a go?”

Drugs? I didn’t know about drugs. Johnny said they were bad. That’s all I’d ever learned about them. “Drugs are bad”, never told why. Still didn’t know if I wanted to take em though, I mean I’d heard some stories of drugs going down the wrong way.

“El, I dunno, I mean like I’ve heard stories, and I don’t wanna get sick or nothing like”

“Come on Zip, it’ll be fine! And them stories are a load of bull! I’m not gonna take them if you don’t!”

Its drugs. What’s the worst that could happen? I always thought them stories were a bit...over the top, and sure I’d heard that they get you feeling good, and I hated most everything , cept El, I needed some feeling good.

“Uh, sure El, I’ll give it ago, you know how this shit works?”

“Course, you think I came here, uneducated?!”

“Bad joke, El”

She took my hand, and pulled me back to the boys toilets.

“What is it with you and boys, toilets El?”

She shot me a death glare I knew she didn’t mean then she gave me a small pill with an “M” on it, looked like the McDonalds logo to me, but I wasn’t gonna argue. She told me to “shove it down my noise hole”, course I did. Then she got this powdered stuff, the coke I reckon. Laid out four lines of it. She took 2 and left me the other ones. I was bit fuzzy cause of the weird M pill, ecstasy I think she called it. But I took the tube, and took my lines. She looked so out of it, I probably looked them same, but man it felt good. So good.

Till I collapsed. I just fell in heap, I couldn’t move, it was so weird. I didn’t have clue what was happening. I was so out of it. I think I heard El scream, I don’t remember though really. I just sorta lay there, not moving. It was the best I’d felt in years. It felt like the life was slipping from me. The hate was going with it. It was the best! Till I realised I was dying.

I hate life, and all that shit, but I don’t wanna die....

I just zoned out for ages. I curled up real tight; I didn’t want the life to spill from me. Then I heard it. The best and worst sound of my life.

“Zip you here?” It was Johnny looking for me. I must have been there a long time cause he works real stupid hours, the get home at 4am kind.

“Zip?.....Oh god no. Zip!”

I heard him fall to his knees, I was trying so hard to say his name, but nothing worked. It was like everything was dead, but my mind was still alive.

“How could you do this Zip?” He was crying, my big brother was crying. He wasn’t my parent no more; right now he was my big brother. And he was crying.

“I thought...I thought if I didn’t tell you about Mum and Dad you wouldn’t do this. But no your here just like they were.”

I didn’t know what he was talking about. Did he think I was dead, like Mum and Dad were?

I needed to tell him I was here. I wasn’t gone. I was still his little bro, alive and kicking.
He looked at me. That’s all he did, look at me.

“So you took after dad, not a one drug kinda man, you like to mix and match”

Dad was a druggie? That was news to me. Was mum one too?

“Mum, always stuck to heroine”

Oh

“Now you’re here, on the floor like they were.”

I heard a noise in the background, like....like..... like a siren.

Then nothing just blackness. And a voice.

“Wake up Zip, you gotta wake up”

So i met Eoin Colfer


Okay, so I have to say this Summer has been pretty awesome. I mean i discovered the awesomeness of Doctor Who, I saw Green Day live and I'm just after meeting Eoin Colfer. A friend of mine said that Summer of 2011 will have a lot to live up to, and he is right.

There's a chain of bookstores in Ireland (it may be in the UK too, i don't actually know), called Easons. They've been having these young adult books signings since May. I went to one for an author called Derek Landy and i was hoping to go to one for Darren Shan but other things got in the way.

Anyway, so my mum entered her name in to win 2 tickets to this Eoin Colfer book signing (if you don't know Eoin Colfer wrote the Artemis Fowl series and the new hitchhikers book) and she won. I think its if you enter your name you can fairly certain you'll win.

I was, naturally, hyper about this, because i do love his books. I had intended to bring the books of his I owned with me, but i forgot, I blame the dentist. My mum and I walked around town for a while because we were early and we don't often get to go down to Dublin. While we wondered around I bought a Sonic Screwdriver, which I love, and the 2 Artemis Fowl books i didn't own. By the time I actually got to the signing I had 5 Eoin Colfer books, despite having leaving my own at home.

My mum and I were relying on my dad to pick us up, and we knew he was going to be lateish. So instead of being first in the line, which I could've been, I hung around for a while. In this time i managed to nab myself 2 posters, which made me very happy.

I should probably mention, that Eoin talked for a while, and is one of the funniest people. Really down to earth and just all round cool guy.

I got into the line, my hands bulging with books and posters and then I met the man himself. Apparently, I seemed familiar. As far as i know we'd never met before....hmmm. So he signed my books and he asked me some general small talk questions, when we managed to get on to the subject of my sonic screwdriver (which I had in my pocket) i then proceeded to take out said screwdriver, hand it to Eoin Colfer and explain how it worked, now this was awesome enough, but then we talked about our favourite sci fi shows! And them two moments have made my year!

I then said goodbye, left, and went home, annoying my dad with my sonic screwdriver all the way home.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Its been more then a week.

So i haven't exactly been blogging every week like I would. Its not that i've been busy or away or anything of the sort. I've just been lazy, as I am most of the time, but i am going to put in more of an effort.

This blog is just a general one to get you up to date with things that are happening, a few of the things i mention I will blog about again, only in more detail.

First things first, i've decided i'm getting a new guitar. A Yamaha APX500 to be exact. Why you ask ? Because it sounds rather nice, the one I have is older then i am and it will just be easier in the long run if and when i start gigging as this one will have an input. So yeah I am rather looking forward to that.

Secondly, I have a new video on youtube, its a lady gaga cover. Her songs are just so coverable. This is a rather short paragraph, I feel its needs one more sentence to be a proper paragraph. I have socks with sheep on, there we go.

I also wrote a new short story, which i will post on here in a day or two. Its a bit like a prequel to Steps, which is already on the blog, but both can be read on their own. Its about an event that i mentioned in Steps, but i won't mention it here in case any of you readers haven't read it yet.

I have a new song to, its about doctor who . Yeah I'm real proud of it. My first venture in to Trock. I feel this is an important moment. I wrote it mostly because I was bored and I had just gotten my sonic screwdriver.

Okay i think that's it for now.

Oh wait did I forget to mention i met Eoin Colfer ? That's going to be my next blog.

I will try to update weekly from now on, I promise.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Blog updates

This is just a short blog to say that i'll be updating weekly not daily from now on :)

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Doctor....Who ?

So you may or may not have noticed that in my blog about my top ten favourites of things i did not menion tv shows. I thought they deserved a blog of their own! That and i forgot to put them in when i was writing that. So here is just a bit about my favourite tv shows, starting with....

Doctor Who. Now i guess i should say now that the only full series I've seen so far is the 5th but i am getting the boxset so will catch up! But I just love this show! The writing is so clever and funny, and the qualtiy acting really does them justice. The characters are just so quirky and loveable and awesome! Just a little note here but i have to say i love Stephen Moffet for putting the doctor in a fez. With villans like the daleks and the cybermen its like a cycle of awesomness. I myself usually forget when shows are on or stop watching halfway through a season but I make a point of seeing Doctor Who week in week out, when its on of course.

This next show i only started watching because my cousins in Australia liked it, and i must say they have great taste! The show I am talkin about is NCIS. If you don't know what that stands for its Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Its like C.S.I but better written, with awesomer characters and just in general its better. Oh and its about crimes involving people in the navy. Abbey, a goth forensic scientist, has to be one of my favourite characters ever! She has some of the best lines ever.
Director Jenny: I'm not really here
Abbey: Do you know how long i've waited to pass into an alternate dimension ?!!
And her relationship with Gibbs, the main investigative dude person is so sweet. I think he's like a father figure to her! Abbey may be my favourite character but i love them all really, from Magee's nerdiness to Dinozzo's well i can't really describe what it is about Tony that i love but its there and of course Davids (Dah Veed) badassedness. I just love the show to bits, i will watch the same episode three times just to get all the witty lines or looks!

Stephen Fry is like an Idol for me. That man is a genius, and he hosts the next TV show in this list Q.I. I love Q.I for its little obscure facts, like the fact that the little shap the ticketman punches out of your ticket is called a didcot. That fact actually first appears in Douglas Adams' "The Meaning of Liff" and of course he created the show. But its the intelligent banter and jokes, and the sometimes not so intelligent banter and jokes that really make me keep watching. Take for instance my favourite scene, well one of them, the tales of obscurity. This is the answer Ronni Ancona gave
when asked what the tales of Obscurity were.
Is this book about the word Obscurity before it got famous, how it was beaten by its adjective father, and left on the doorstep and abandoned by its mother, and then it was the only noun growing up in a house of verbs, and the verbs were always going out doing lovely things, because they're
doing words, and poor Obscurity was stuck inside suffering from asthma, and then after school it was surrounded by quotation marks and got beaten up terribly, and then one day it entered into a reality TV show and it became very famous, and it was much in demand and used to describe all the people that leave Big Brother House?
I really don't think i need to explain why i love this show, do i ?

Pokemon! Now i know I know, aren't I a bit old for pokemon ? Not a chance. I still watch the original series online, can't really beat Ash, Brock and Misty, can you ? It was like the best thing on televison when I was growing up. I didn't get the games until recently, but as a kid i loved the whole friendship thing between the characters and the pokemon. I thought it was really cool that they weren't just pets or tools they were life long friends. And you have to admit the battles were pretty intense!

There are so many other TV shows i could've included Star gate, scrubs, house, bones, futurama and many others, but this is what came out. So what are your favourite Tv shows ?

Saturday, July 3, 2010

My guilty pleasure

We all have them , our little guilty pleasures, weather it be the pop song, you know you should hate or the movie that's so bad you have to love.

Fanfiction....or rather Harry Potter Fanfiction. I love it. Now i don't love all of it, some of it, is really bad. But the ones that are well written, have a good plot and characters and aren't too unbelievable are rather enjoyable to read. The thing I like about it is, that even though the series has ended, we can explore what may, or may not happen. I know there are many Harry Potter fans who did not like th epilogue, and fanfictoin gives you the chance to change what happened. To let characters who died live, to see what happened if a character had never exsisted and well if somethings well written why no read it ?

Now, this is becoming less and less of a guilty pleasure but musicals. I don't know what it is, maybe its the telling of a story through song or the whole putting on a show of it, but I cannot get enough. I can trace the beginnings of this pleasure back to Calamity Jane. It was the school musical in the school last year, and i was put in the chorus and i still remember the songs. " But its Harry I'm planning to marry". I did like the songs in that musical but i wasn't mad into it. Then i discovered Wicked. Now that just blew me away. The songs were incredible, i mean take Defying Gravity for instance ? Such a beautiful song. As much as i love Wicked i have to say my favourite musical, has to be A very potter musical. Combining my love of Harry and his adventures and music! It is just one of the funniest thing I have ever seen. My favourite character in any musical has to be Draco as played by Lauren Lopez ( at least i think thats her name i'm not certain). It is so funny and well timed and just to use an internet phrase EPIC!!

Twilight. Now let me get this straight. I like the books, cause, well they're just a fun read, I don't care about Team Jacob or Team Edward, i am very much team Harry Potter....but i did rather like reading them. Saying that i do enjoy taking the piss out of them as its so easy to do. I have no intention of seeing Eclipse or any of the others movies. I actually hate how people are so obsessed with the characters Jacob and Edward, i mean i'm a Harry Potter fanatic but i love the whole thing not just Harry or any other character.

This isn't a great blog, but i'm trying to blog every day so some of them might not be all that great.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Well that was a bit odd.

Do you ever have really odd dreams ? I do, everything from a weird dream with portal system that i had to jump through to get through the, for lack of better word, "proper" dream to a dream involving a giant evil mushroom, don't remember much of that one though. So i thought I'd share a few of my weirder dreams with you.

When i was younger I had a recurring dream of going fishing, that wasn't the weird part. We'd go fishing for whales inside this giant lake. These whales weren't exactly anatomically correct, they were more like cartoony blue whales, if that makes any sense. So we went out on this little, old creaky boat and we threw in a line and the whale took the bait and sunk the boat. Not being ones to give up we went back again, no no with a bigger boat, the same boat but.....with a car on it. Now i don't really understand how that was supposed to work, and in the end i didn't, the whale sunk that too. Then in a last stitch effort to try and catch this whales we put a bus AND a car on the boat, i still don't understand that logic, and yet again it didn't work. But this time instead of magically appearing on new, with vehicle added boat we were dragged to the bottom of the lake and we had to swim to the top. At this point i should probably mention that the dream had gone from first person to third person and i was now watching someone who looked like Tarzan in a naval uniform swim to the top. Odd one wasn't it ?

A few months ago, I had a weird dream, woke up, fell asleep and had another weird dream, this is the second of those. Basically, i was sent off to a summer camp with my dad to see if we could get along better ,as far as I'm concerned we get along fine in real life, but it was a dream so i'm willing to accept it. Anyway when we got there we were told that the was only 2 other people there, and out of all the people it could have been it was Roy Orbison and Voldemort. At this point my dad had gone missing, and i was left alone with Roy and Voldie, who apparently were the best of buds! I'm still not sure were that one came from.

This one is the most recent, i had it the night before last. In the dream there was a talent show/variety show being held, apparently in my school (which had somehow magically grown an auditorium right beside the P.E hall). So this group were on stage and they had this very tiny drum kit and they broke it. So i went into the sports hall to find a replacement when i saw this evil super secret agent dude on some super secret spy gear that had apparently been hidden under the floor in the P.E hall, i called in my boss, and he saw it too. Seemingly this guy was part of a group of people who were involved in murders, and was trying to sabotage the second drum kit. So anyway we built the second drum kit, got it on stage and then planned to out the secret agent by writing the truth on the soles of some people shows and showing it to the audience and the camera which had somehow got there, and then i woke up.

Lastly, this is a dream that really freaked me out, I had it on the same night as the summer camp dream. My friends and I were adventuring around the world going to each continent. So we decided why not head into the Artic circle. In this dream Michael Jackson had just died of an Ice burg crushing him, in the Artic circle. So we went on up and then we found said ice burg. There was a giant crack in it. So i went up to have a looksie. I looked down through the big crack and what do i see ? Michael Jackson's face and he was croaking for me to help him. That was freaky enough. But then he lifts the ice burg all by his own weight gets up starts walking and then moon walking around the place! I have to say it was really really really weird.

So they are a few of my weird dreams. Whats the weirdest dream you've had ?

Thursday, July 1, 2010

The End


Harry Potter is almost over! Only two more movies, and well then what am i going to go all fangirly over every year ? Of course i could always.....rewatch the movies, reread the books, because really they never get old!

As i'm sure you've guessed i'm a Harry Potter fan, a Huge one! And like quite a few Harry Potter fans i don't want it to end, I want a book eight, nine, ten, because well that epilogue didn't really live up to my expectations, but I know that I most likely won't get them, because its hard enough to write 1 books let alone 7, so maybe it isn't fair to ask for more...

In my last blog i made a list of my top ten Harry Potter characters and Dobby was number 1. He's just so......Dobby. "Master has given Dobby as sock! Dobby is FREEEE" whats not to love ? But of course i do love all the characters even Voldie! I love little things about each of them, I love Bellatrix's madness, I love Hermione's intelligence and I love Tonks' clumsiness. Every characters has a trait that I have grown to love!

I remember when i first saw Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, i was i think maybe 7 or 8 ? But anyway, i was like "but this was in the book and its not there, the book is so much better!". I still maintain that the book is better but i've learned to enjoy the movies in their own right. When i found out the last book was going to be 2 movies i was not happy, at all. I wanted to see the motion picture version of the last in a series i love all in one piece not broken up. But maybe it is for the best. Although it is not the biggest Harry Potter book, there is a lot in it...that and it gives me the opportunity to have a fangirl attack 1 more time.

I think it was either 01, or 00 when i got my first Harry Potter book, i remember having it read to me and then me reading it and the second one, and even bringing it into school so that the teacher would read it to the class! It was a big book for me, now unlike a lot of people, it wasn't the book that got me reading, that was the Giggler Treatment by Roddy Doyle (very funny book by the way). But I think Harry Potter started my love of reading. Made me want to discover new books and read as much as i could.

I consider Harry Potter to be my childhood, it is something i have grown up with. As i got older and more mature so did the books. I can think back 9 years and remember getting the Chamber of Secrets, i don't remember that much from 9 years ago but i remember that. The memories i have of and have had with Harry Potter don't just bring me to Hogwarts in mind but also to real places, like my living room, when i read The Deathly Hallows in 6 and half hours, or my Nanny's spare bed room were i borrowed her copy of the prisoner of Azkaban. I think that, that is the beauty of the books, apart from the fantastic story, and characters and well just general awesomeness of the books, they have played such a big part in my life, that I can recall nearly every moment i've had with them, and for many other things i can't say the same.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Top Ten..... ?

So i was just thinking today about my top ten books, and i thought, well why don't i make a blog about it. So here it is a blog of my top ten favourite books...and top ten favourite other things as well.

Books:

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Looking for Alaska- John Green
I am the Messenger- Markus Zusak
The Shadow of the wind- Carlos Ruiz Safon
Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban- JK Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince- JK Rowling
Paper Towns- John Green
The Poison Throne- Celine Kiernan
Enders Game - Orson Scott Card
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Bands/Artists

Green Day
Mick Flannery
Ingrid Michaelson
Rise Against
Julie Nunes
The Beatles
Bright Eyes
Owl City
The Weepies
Blue October

Songs (on 30/06/10)

Kangaroo Cry - Blue October
Wake me up When September Ends - Green Day
Maybe I will - Julia Nunes
You and I - Ingrid Michaelson
Lua - Bright Eyes
All Star - Smash Mouth
Savior - Rise Against
Pressure - Paramore
The Trial - Pink Floyd
If my Heart was a House - Owl City

Movies

Wall-E
Up
Juno
Lord of the Rings (I'm counting the three as one)
Young Frankenstein
Star Trek
Finding Nemo
Toy Story
Pan's Labyrinth
Monthty Python and the Holy Grail


Harry Potter Characters( the last 2 are in no particular order)

Dobby
Luna Lovegood
Harry Potter
Severus Snape
Hermione Granger
Neville Longbottom
Remus Lupin
Bellatrix LeStrange
Fred Weasley
George Weasley

School Subjects

English
History
Physics
Music
C.S.P.E (even though i don't have it anymore)
I.T
Biology
German
Religion
Irish

That's the lot. I'm sure you'll all disagree with me on most of them, I'd love to hear your thougths.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Time for seconds ?


As some of you may know, Green Day is my favourite band. They just are. I love them, and as you may not know, i saw them last October, and that was a night to remember!

But enough about that, this blog is to tell you about last week, when i saw them again! For me it was too good to be true, twice in 1 year ? It was like wow.

When i saw them back in October, it was an indoor gig, they'd played the O2 depot, formally known as the Point. It was amazing, the best "big" gig i'd been too. I was really close too. I was about 2 people from the barrier. It blew me away. So as the date for the second time came around I wasn't sure if it would live up to that.

This was mainly because it was an outdoor gig, and i haven't had good experience of outdoor gigs, and it seemed to me it was rather hard to get in the pit. But i was still extremely excited.

When i got to Marlay Park (the venue) i saw that the line was fairly long, and i thought all hope of getting in the pit was lost. So i stood in line and then the moment of truth. I GOT A PIT PASS! I was so happy to have that little piece of paper around my wrist that i didn't really care about the waiting

Some how i ended up further up the line then when i'd started, but i wasn't complaining. When we were released in to the field people swarmed to the pit, i took my time and took a spot at the back of the pit as i knew if i went into the masses i'd end up with one too many elbows to the head. I took out my camera and then came on Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.

Now of course I'd heard of Joan Jett, but i knew all of one song, but the set just blew me away. They were some really good songs and i made a note to youtube them when i got home. I played photographer as i always do at gigs, as i like having the memories and well it was a great way to start of. Then came paramore.

I am a Paramore fan, have been since I first bought their album in a small underground record store. I'd seen them before so i knew what to expect and they delivered. I sang along with all the songs, or at least the ones i knew the lyrics too and again took some photos, the thing about Paramores set was that they were a bit more well known among the crowd and really got the crowd pumped up for Green Day.

I personally think Green Day are the best live band in the world, but i am bias. I just love the whole crowd interaction and the way they can play songs from before i was born and then dive into American Idiot. So i had high expectations, even if i didn't think it was going to be as good as before.

They started off with the the first few tracks of the new album and got the crowd going and it was a great start and the rest of the show improved from there. They played such a varied amount of songs, from East Jesus Nowhere, to 2000 light years away to the always funny King for a Day.

Of course the show has a set plan, but we had our own little incidents, like a person dressed as scooby doo got pulled on stage and well that was just awesome, we had a ten year old kid with a thick Dublin accent on for east jesus nowhere who was just so cute, and then we had the woman dressed as a nun who got a kiss from Billie Joe, i think she became the envy of every girl there! But one of my favourite moments was during longview when a young man from wexford got pulled on stage, hugged Billie Joe and sang his heart out. That was pretty awesome in itself, but the best was yet to come, Billie told him to do a stage dive so he moved to the back of the stage as if to run and jump, but it was like a jog and a fall, even Billie said it was "awful". It was just a great unique moment.

My favourite song of the night, well it was really two songs, was Wake me up/good riddance. They sang wake me up and then went into Good Riddance, it was beautiful, at the end of good riddance they sang the last line of wake me up. But i think the most beautiful moment of that song was when he sang the line "here comes the rain again" and it started to rain, it was very apt and brought a tear to many an eye, i think.

I was wrong to think it wouldn't be as good as the first time, it was better, so much better. Perhaps it was because they just put on a better show. But i think it was because i decided to stay back instead of be clobbered by the crowd and i could see everything rather then just one tiny segment of the stage. I just had a better experience i could appreciate it all so much better, and get some better pictures. Best gig of my life to date ? Yes. Best day of my life to date ? Maybe so, i think it just may have been.

there's a picture for y'all to enjoy somewhere up there ^ : )

Football....soccer.....that game with the roundy thing you put in the net

Its world cup time, in fact it has been for a few weeks now! So i think this prompts the reaction

WOOOOOOOOOOOO GO IRELA....wait we didn't qualify, and of course i being Irish, well partly irish, i blame Mr Henry.

But really i don't know why i'm so worked up about it, i'm not that big into soccer. Yes i support a team (spurs) and yes i guess i do follow the Premiership and champions league, but its casually. I can't even name 5 players on the team I support.

But there is something about the irish football team, it just invokes a sense of, for lack of a better word, patriotism. Most people in Ireland will tell you that ireland is a sorry state. Our Government is running us into the ground, we're in debt and don't get us started on those banks! But for football we all join in support behind our team.

Maybe its because we are seemingly always the underdog, that we a small country can make it in the big leagues! I'm not too sure myself, but i know that every time the play i will don a green t-shirt and shout, scream, wince and celebrate from infront of my television.

But of course this year i can't do that, as we aren't there. So this year i'm supporting Holland, as of course i am half dutch, and would you believe it were not doing too badly! Its a nice feeling to have a team that can do well!

This year, as with most years there is some controversy. The ball, the linesman, the goalies..*cough Rob Green cough* and of course the always faithful "why aren't we using technology instead of the human eye" debate! The ball, is a problem i can live with my self, as is the linesmen and the goalies. But the technology argument is one i'm am completely behind. I being Irish, can't really show my support for England, but they should've got that goal against Germany, and it may have changed the game, who knows!

So football, soccer, that game with the roundy thing you put in the net, whatever you want to call it, is here. Its big and its got the noise of a mosquito up to a microphone and well I love it and i don't know why.

Monday, June 28, 2010

oh the memories....

Well people, today is a big day in history, well my history at any rate. Are you ready for it ? I deleted my bebo page!

I know, i know, how could i get rid of my beautiful page, my first social networking experience. Turns out it was rather easy. I've been thinking about doing it for a long time, i mean whats the point of having something there if you never use it ? I went on every now and again, you know to see how things were doing, had any new friend request, did my long lost cousin bob finally find me ?! Turns out he didn't. Nothing new ever happened.

Outside of Taraland, in the real world, bebo has been dying a slow death. Its rivals myspace (a site i hate by the way) and facebook (a site i love) have dominated America, really one of the few places Bebo couldn't get off the ground, and then bebo started to lose its European users, its main market were leaving them for facebook. It just wasn't going anywhere fast.

This is partly why i deleted it, I mean, as a young person of course i feel under pressure to have the newest watchmacallit and the best dohicky, but a lot of the time i can't so this in a way is my version of that. Being on the new trend, saying that though i was on facebook nearly 2 years ago, so i may have been a bit before my time back then.

Another major reason for it, is simply music. Yes, i use social networking sites primarily to interact and talk to my friends, but for me it offers the opportunity to showcase my music and to try and build up a fanbase. I just felt that bebo didn't offer as much as facebook does uploading music wise, and twitter does interaction wise.

I guess a reason i won't readily admit is that, facebook is just that bit more grown up, and i guess i have grown up since i got my bebo page. Hell i've stopped typing like i'm missing half my brain! Thats major progress! I feel like i'm moving on, if that makes sense.

Bebo has many bad memories for me, that mostly take the shape of broken hearts. One in particular is very memrable as it was my first broken heart. That incident also saw that loss of my best friend. I think i've been hanging on to bebo in the hope of repairing not only that friendship but others aswell and that maybe now its gone i have truely left it all behind.

Reading that back, it strikes me that perhaps i'm reading to much into it. Maybe i'm just deleting something i never use.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Music, music, everywhere

So i guess its been a while, and we're gonna have to go throught that awkward getting to know each other phase again, but....awh shucks i just missed you! That and i have something to talk about.

My Music

For the longest time i've been saying "i'm gonna be a musician, a singer/songwriter, i'm gonna do what i love" but really i haven't done much about it. Yes i set up the myspace, which i can't bloody use, and yes i have the youtube, which i can't bloody upload to, and yes i set up the facebook which i both can use and upload to, but it hasn't really done much for me. My fanbase is pretty much friends of either me or my family and well thats not really ideal.

So i'm taking action, later this summer, sometime in July hopefully, i'm going to record 2 demos and send one of them out. That isn't really a big move its going to take me all of a weekend and several envelopes but i think its a big move for me, i'm going to send one to anyone and everyone, maybe someone will listen, maybe they won't.

And i know what your thinking "Isn't she getting a bit ahead of herself, i mean she doesn't even gig!" were you not thinking that ? Well even if you weren't its true, i don't gig, not properly, its not because i don't want to, god how i want do, its because i can't. The only venues i can really play are pubs, and i can't play there until i'm 17. So come this December (or maybe next summer depending on when i can get my stuff together) i'm gonna start gigging, just me and my guitar, and yes i did just quote the belgian eurovision entry.

I guess work experience this year made me realise that i don't want to work in an office or 9-5 I want to be playing music that people like and listen to. I want to do what i love. I know there are so many other people who are like me and nothing happens for them but i'm still gonna try. I've given up on a lot over the past 7 years, friends, boys, dreams even getting good grades in Maths but this is something i feel i have to do.

As you can tell i've been thinking a lot about my future, especially university. Of course i want to go and further my education, but currently i'm thinking about maybe going to American and try and make something happen if nothings happening in Ireland. I just feel that for me personnaly them four years in university might change a lot. I know people who do both, gig and study, and maybe they're not mutually exclusive, but if music is what i want, and it is what i want, then i have to put my everything into it, not just my spare time, i need to give it my all. I'm chasing a dream, and i'm very happy doing so.