They're Singing Deck The Halls, But It's Not Like Christmas At All...

So, Christmas has been approaching for some considerable time now and around the Christmas period, everything that goes on seems to be a lot bigger. Things go on in your head that normally would just pass through as normal and then you'd get on with your life but at Christmas, an honest side comes out in people, I interpret this as being honest with myself, not anybody else, just me. The reason for this being if I told people what did go on in my head, other people would soon find out and those people will multiply at an exponential rate until I am stuck in a position where everybody knows my thoughts. Not cool. So yeah, under the honesty umbrella, there can be many different things that can be troubling... Feelings towards other people, pressure of exams/college/work, being afraid to tell people what you really want etc... So over the Christmas period I have been doing exactly this and finding the odd surprise, which is always going to happen, but it is not these surprises themselves that are where you find out who you really are, it isn't until you start to deal with these surprises that you find out how strong your character is and whether you have the desire to fulfil what you find out. 


The quote in the picture (above) was found when I was 'stumbling' on stumbleupon.com and even though my persona suggests otherwise, deep down I am a bit of a romantic. Therefore this quote kinda meant something to me when I read it, because, it is correct in what it says... You shouldn't just settle for second best or someone who isn't going to get the best out of you and vice-versa, you need to find that one person where you both feel something unequivocal and true. I'm not saying just sit around and wait for that person, go out, have some fun and be awesome while trying to find that one. At first, the prospect of finding that person may seem quite daunting but don't be afraid to fail sometimes, be afraid not to try.


To conclude my Christmassy post, I have added a rather well lit American household.

I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.  ~Charles Dickens

Sunset.

Eighteen, Diciotto, Dix-huit, δεκαοχτώ, Mười tám.

So, I'm 18. At last I can stop using my fake ID because I have my own perfectly legitimate one now. But what does it mean? Does it change anything? Physically I am no different but the fact that I am 1 year older means a lot of things: I can legally drink, vote, purchase cigarettes but most of all, I can sign my own consent forms. At first, it took me a while to actually get ID'd, I went out locally and nothing, I even went to the supermarket, purposefully to get asked to show my ID, and nothing. This was until last Saturday when I took a cheeky trip to Skipton for a night out in Strata. And finally I got ID'd, it wasn't really that great to be honest, I don't even think they looked at it, which was a bit of a let down which I quickly forgot about once I was in there. 12-0330, cheeky pull, takeaway and home. A better night than I anticipated.


Anyway, soon this blog will be changing to primarily a photography blog as I am purchasing a DSLR camera which I aim to get as much use out of as possible as I need to get a portfolio together so that I can start up my own part time business when I eventually hit University.


Anyway, the bottom line is, being 18 isn't too different apart from much needed freedom. The next blog should have some pretty sick pictures on so I shall see you next time.

If Music Be The Food Of Love, Play On.

Now for a cheeky insight to my music taste. Many people think that my taste is terrible because it doesn't consist of modern, mainstream music which, in my opinion, is all the same and doesn't have any meaning to it. So my ipod, Nero consists of a vast array of music ranging from Motown to Queen to Plan B. It often gets slagged off by numerous members of my 6th form centre and even some of my teachers! But as far as I'm concerned it is quite clearly a top class range of music.

I'll start with Hall & Oates. I knew the odd one or two of their songs without knowing it was them and then it wasn't until I got into Private Eyes, then I checked out what else they'd done on Spotify and found a load of their other stuff and that was when I fully got into them, I imagine them to be my driving playlist (when I eventually do start driving that is) because of their prominent rhythms throughout their songs and sing-along-ness of them

Next is Marvin Gaye. He's simply a soul legend. If there is any artist that you want to play for a cheeky evening with a girl, he's the man. Just listen to him, What's Going On, Let's Get It On etc, and even his early stuff with Tammi Terrell is still top.

Next, The Four Seasons. Only recently got into this since realising that they sung Beggin' and then realised that they sung a shed load of songs that I didn't even realise. The voice of Frankie Valli and the songwriting of Bob Gaudio created a sound that lasted a generation and still can be heard now and still everybody knows their hits. I don't think there has been anyone or ever will be anyone who has the vocal range of Valli and have the quality and power in the Falsetto range.

Finally, we will have the only modern artist that I can listen to a full playlist of, Plan B. His most recent album, The Defamation of Strickland Banks is actually pretty decent for something modern. Because the album tells a story through the songs, all of the songs lead onto one another and there is mixture of soul and rap so it mixes it up a bit which is good for those who get bored of the same sound going on and on for 50 minutes. So yeah, if you want something modern, get on it.

And It Just Hit Me.

So Thursday was my 6th form Summer Ball, with all the people who I have known for at least the past 5 years and it was a top night. Danced like a pro all night (as usual) and yeah was even better than I expected. But spending that one, last night with all of the people who I've grown up with and chosen to be around for a chunk of my life and in a matter of 2/3 months, they'll be gone. For the past 10 months since I made the decision to re-sit the year I have just got on with it and not properly thought about how it would be but then yesterday, I was laying in bed and then it just hit me that I really wasn't going to be around those people day in, day out, ever again and yes, it's the same for everybody else but in the same way it isn't because I've got a whole year to wait to be in the position that they're going to be in. Yeah, I'll obviously just get on with it and just go with the flow but it just made me think about whether I'd made the most of my years with my friends and stuff, I suppose I do have great memories but there is always going to be the thought of well maybe I should have done things differently to make more of the people around me.

Don't Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow--
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor's cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out--
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

A View From The Bridge.

So over the past few days I've read A View From The Bridge by Arthur Miller about 3 times over to help with one of my friend's drama revision. I read it this time last year at the end of my AS Drama course and enjoyed it then but reading it again, and again, with the accents obviously it really is a top class piece of play writing.


Even though there are essentially 5 core characters in Eddie, Beatrice, Catherine, Marco and Rodolpho, I personally think that the key to making this play truly understandable is Alfieri, he is the narrator of the play and he makes clear what is going on in each section, he also highlights the more important social and moral implications that Miller is portraying thorough the story.


Anyway, you should read it. Twice. Or more. But for me, it hasn't just been reading the play, it's also been good to have fun and spend time with a friend who is also going to university in September and also who I haven't really spent that much time with in a while.

Valentines Day

So I just watched the film Valentines Day for a third time and I've only just got all of the story-lines in full. Surely this says something about the film? To me, it was an American 'Love Actually' set at Valentines Day but with too many story-lines. Normally, I would categorise this film as an easy watching film which it is if you don't try to follow each separate story, but if you do try to track them all, you might want to watch it, have a few weeks off, then watch it again, then have some more weeks off and then watch it again and hopefully by that time you will work out every detail.


The film possibly has the worst/most annoying combination of actors in the Taylor Launter/Taylor Swift story, it doesn't add anything to the plot and is just annoying. On the other hand though, the rest of the sub-plots do have something to relate to and the soundtrack is worth a listen. I'd recommend watching this, maybe more than once though. 6/10.

A Very Married Woman by Jack Vettriano

Three's A Crowd.

So it's the third day of my blog and I don't really know what to write about. I could talk to you about Britains next big mixed gender band, The Boot Tucks; or I could talk about another song or whatever, I'm not really sure so we'll see how it goes. 


I think I'll give a brief insight to my life...

So this picture shows the only shop in the small village that I live in. What used to be a post office is now a small shop/cafe which sells sandwiches and stuff like that. But anyway if I was to bullet-point my life it would look like this... Student at Settle College. Play football for Settle United, used to play rugby for North Ribblesdale. 1 Brother. Ideally I would like to be a theatre production manager although that isn't my dream job, nobody knows my dream job, it's the one thing I like to keep to myself.


Sports... Up until the age of about 13, I was never really any good at anything, I was slow, I had very little skill in anything, I played football but we had 1 game per season so it ended up being pointless. But when I was thirteen, I suddenly quickly developed a sound amount of speed and I got a little better, I joined the local rugby team so played for them through the winter, then I played cricket and threw discus in the Summer months. My natural speed meant that I was an outside half, usually playing outside centre or on the wing although I developed into a utility player over time because I was usually quite big for my age, in one game when I was 16, I played in 8 different positions in one match. Anyway, so on the rugby side, my defence was always terrible as 'I didn't want to mess my hair up' but my attacking ability was always my best assets as I brought offloading into a junior rugby game where nobody offloaded, ever. Onto discus, I'll keep this short, I was area champion for 5 consecutive years and the 2nd best discus thrower in North Yorkshire for my age when I was 14. Cricket, I was never really that great, I got lucky a few times with my bowling and batting and my fielding was always top but who wants to be a good fielder? Exactly. And so I grew tired of rugby and wanted to play football again so I made the step up to senior football, playing for Settle United Reserves, once again filling the role of a utility player, in my first season I played in every position but in goal. Anyway, with any luck, this (below) will be me at some point.

School life... Settle College isn't the best school, I never stop slaggin' it off to be honest and for all it's flaws, it's still the only place where I am a somebody. Over the past 5 years i have developed a persona which will do anything for anyone, and doing it well, therefore gaining a reputation of being someone reliable etc. and so even though I do slag it off, I suppose part of me wouldn't change it, although another part of me wouldn't have stayed there. Anyway, at college I study maths, physics and product design and I hope to go to Uni to do Mechanical engineering and then go into theatre to become a Theatre production manager.


I have five minutes left before it isn't the third day anymore so I better wrap this up. This blog hasn't been that interesting to be honest but I couldn't think of anything else. Goodnight.

These Are The Days Of Our Lives.

So, a second day of my blog and I have one follower, my favourite 'Boot Tucks' member, Genevieve. You may be wondering what 'The Boot Tucks' are but I shall tell you another time.

The title of my blog is title of the Queen song, 'These Are The Days Of Our Lives'. It talks about being young, carefree and having the best times of your life. It was recorded in Freddie Mercury's final few months but even though he was so ill, the video and vocals show the courage of one man to record tracks until the day that he died. Before Sunday when I watched a documentary about Queen I had only really listened to their mainstream songs, most of which appear on the live at Wembley '86 album, but then after seeing the documentary and seeing what the band had gone through and how HIV/AIDS has turned a man who was once such a powerful being with clearly a huge presence into someone who was just skin and bone. Within this skin and bone though there was still that voice. The voice that has entertained millions and held such a presence, for example at Live Aid in 1985 where Queen stole the show because of their sheer ability to perform live at such a high level. So anyway, even though Freddie was a dying man when recording most of Queen's last album, Innuendo, his voice was still incredible. this is why he is such an inspiring man. Back to the original point, Days of Our Lives: this song represents how every person on earth will feel at some point, when their life isn't as good as it once was so they will reminisce about the better times and their youth and wish that they could go back and do it all again. So in my case, I am partly at this stage, even though there will be good memories to come when I eventually reach University, I won't be able to get all of those good times back with my childhood friends.

Anyway, what have I done today? I woke up, revised, ate, mowed the lawn and then went on a cheeky drive with Dad around the countryside. On the whole not such a bad day, driving went okay and got a cheeky text from the (pretend) wife en route. I'm now watching Britain's Got Talent although tonight, Britain hasn't to too much talent apart from a bunch of singing posh kids from Oxford University, they were pretty sweet. Anyway, I have to go so maybe by at some point I shall be driving like the pro in the picture below.

I somehow doubt it though.

The First

So, my first blog. I can't say I've ever been bothered about blogging, I've read the odd one but I decided to start one to fill the hole that will be presented to me when the vast majority of my friends go to University. The reason I'm not going too, is due to the fact that I forgot to do any work in my first year of sixth form and am therefore re-sitting the year. I obviously have friends in my new/adopted school year but it won't be the same without people who I have spent the past, in some cases, 14 years with. And so this blog is my way of connecting with the world that's out there just as my friends will be at their new education establishments.

'The Best or Nothing' is from a Mercedes Benz advert which shows the progression of how one man's dream can develop into such a phenomenon, probably beyond the expectations of anyone around at the time.


I can't tell you what things the blog will contain because unlike Marty McFly in Back To The Future, I don't have a flying DeLorean that can time travel, nor do I have a Tardis, like Dr Who or a Time-Turner like Hermione in Harry Potter, you get the idea. I'm guessing it will involve small reviews of the films that I watch, things that I do and just general activity in the life of a soon to be 18 year old in Giggleswick.