'A's across the board. I'm going to Goldsmiths :)

Today I feel a bit like writing.
My balance of my soon-to-be-deceased Halifax account rests at £14.89 after a massive splurge on a delicious-sounding ride cymbal down Wembley Drum Centre yesterday. It may have just been all the shiny lights and loud music, but that place sure impressed me!

Other than that, I bought a piano organ from someone for £10 today. I had some long moments with it after a struggle in and out of the car (and then some to get it in the garage!) It's got some great sounds on it, and I now know exactly what any post-exam loafing is going to consist of...possible pre-exam loafing given the nature of my 'revision'.

I have just under 2 weeks before this is all over and I can chill out in my garden sipping tequila sunrises in my wellies and 4 inches of mud. Can't wait, though I most definitely can wait a very long time before having to sit all those exams. Eurgh.

The Mill Road Community Centre gig was fan-bloody-tastic. Drumming standing up is the bees knees because it means you can dance! We've just booked out The Portland Arms for 22nd July, so watch this space...

x

Hello everyone.

The Jelly Royale need you! We've entered an unsigned band competition and need lots of votes to stand a chance of playing.

If you feel kind today, please click the banner below:




You could even go to Our Myspace to make the vote fair!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4489792.stm

Today a dog, tomorrow...the world!

The Jelly Royale made their first radio apperance yesterday. Go here, click 'listen again', then choose 'The Audio Files from the list.

...and we seem to have got the ball rolling with gigs and things too - check the Myspaz (i.e. the first link) if you can bring yourself to.

Got a few festivals 'dans le sac' also this summer, so go us :)

It's got to that point in the year where the vulnerable retreat to their thermal blankets, and as I lie entwined by exothermic projections of my computer monitor, I wonder what has happened to the year.

Perhaps you too are wondering, regardless- I am going to attempt to recount it.

College is back in fashion, and has been as of August 28th. Collection of my AS levels, despite retrospective fears, proved to be a pleasant experience, and go as follows:

English: 241/300 (A - just)
Media: 282 (A- full marks in both exam papers)
Philosophy: 277 (A - full marks in Moral Philosophy)
Psychology: 263 (A)

Previous speculation was, on all accounts, pretty wrong.

I have now, with the growing pressures of the final A level year, dropped Philosophy. In its wake I have taken up Photography, which compliments future aspiration in Film and Cinematography rather tastily. It has resulted in acquiring a rather unfortunate habit of spending my time crouching and teetering whilst flailing arms and equipment around in public places. Alas, the life of a photographer is bound for utter shamelessness, met with scorn and mockery by onlookers; and fear by those cross-haired in the frame.

English is looking lovely this year. Our texts and the necessary wider reading is teeth-sinkingly fantastic. I've pawed over Rushdie, Kundera, Swift, Orwell, Beckett, Atwood, Walcott, Donne, and Marvell in the last week, and they seem to have made my heart slide to the rhythm of their metre.

Media also seems to be getting its proverbial groove on. British Cinema is the new trend, and I have thus been saturating myself in Vaughn, Ritchie, Simon Pegg and Colin Firth amongst the other, more obscure names that attempt to mimic the reality of wet pavements and glistening leather jackets.

Other stuff:
I am involved to the armpits in The Magnificent Revolutionary Cycling Cinema and spent a wild majority of my summer filming, distributing propaganda, looking stern in meetings and dressing up towards the Big Chill . Their blog tells you more about that, and sums it up rather perfectly.

There was also WOMAD. Amazing as always, only this time I had the lovely Kimberley to dance and pretend to be zombies with.

We also went to France. This was after we broke down on Dover dock at 3am, was towed back to Cambridge to get repairs, and bought ourselves new tickets (thank YOU car insurance). I've never eaten so many mussels in my life, and, in fact, probably never will: I am now, as of 3 weeks ago, a fully-fledged vegetarian.

When I need to juice my writer's fruit, I shall once again return to write here. However, I hope the blossom of this entry is sufficient adornment of your friends page.

And yes, I AM still blonde.

so that's about 8 hours of guitar today. My body hurts but damn, 'twas worth it.

A dull media studies poll for all ye working folk. Yes, I am aware that asking *livejournal-ers* about technology is uber-biased, but I don;t care too much ;).
Poll #942556
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Sex:

Age:

Which of the following do you use in your home?

Which of the following do you use in your workplace?

Do you use any of above for non-work related reasons whilst at work?

3. Do you use any of above for non-domestic reasons whilst at home?

How much time do you spend using the above technologies for work per day? (boundary goes to lower band)

Is technology (as described) a necessity to your job?

Do you feel that your working life has radically changed since the introduction of new technologies?

In what ways?

Do you think that the changes in working life due to technology have been positive overall?

Tickybox?

Well, the computer looks like it's not going to be easy to repair, so Dad has decided to try and speed up my purchase of my own computer (for video editing etc.).

I've just gone and quickly built myself a computer, the specs are ( here )

To me, that looks like quite a good computer (for £750 all incl.).
However, if anyone sees any obvious faults/incompatibilities/unsuitable-ness for editing lots of film, please say so!

Last week was pretty dire, with my computer, the boiler, my parents' bikes, my bike lock key (and therefore lock) and my brother's access to the door all being mercilessly taken away from us.
This in turn has stressed the whole family out no end.

As most of ye are computerly inclined, let's see if you can solve my life *gameshow music*


According to my mother (last person to see the computer (which, by the by, is a Windows XP PC) everything was normal. However, the next morning, the computer failed to work properly.
Unlike other experiences with the computer not working, the *computer* actually appeared tp work fine, but the monitor came up with the message 'no input signal, activate by computer, check input connector'.
We thought that maybe the monitor was the problem, but changing the monitor has no effect. We thought that maybe the cable was the problem, but that too had no effect. I was told that maybe the graphics card may have been displaced, but it looks pretty rock steady to me.

So, kudos to the person who can tell me how to fix my computer and get my coursework off there in time! *gameshow tension music*

Assume there are no loopholes ;)

Poll #930697
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

What's the better night-time activity?

Tickybox...

I've just got back from This Place, which is by far and away the best retaraunt I've been to in a long while.
Great Service, Great Food, Great Music, Great Atmosphere- Algerian styley!
Having never really tried Algerian food before, it definitely deserves some acknowledgement. I particularly recommend the traditional pastries for pudding (just *wow) and, well, everything we tried out as starters and main course was exceptional.

Yum!
So yes, if you're on Mill Road one evening, get yourself down there =D.

(x-posted to myspace and places like that)

Okay, I've become inspired for a filming/art endeavour, but I need some real-life research material.

Basically, the subject of bad dreams came up in conversation, and Mike and I were talking about images that we remember that still terrify us- mine is of this black labrador dog drowned in the bottom of my nanna's swimming pool that I must have dreamed when I was about 5 or 6. It still scares me even now!

So, when you think of bad dreams you've had, what image(s) do you think of?
I'd like as much detail as possible, and maybe some background info, comments on particularly vivid colours, setting etc.

Thank you very much! Both Comments and emails are acceptable =D.

to me!

I am 17 in a week and a day. If anyone has £876 that they'd like to give me, then please feel free to drastically improve my quality of life. Thank you.

Jess

what was that all about?

Here is the first thought that inspired me to post today:

If you cycle the same distance, will the number of calories you burn be the same regardless of whether you're going faster or slower (assume that the conditions are the same).?
I first thought yes, but then I thought that the extra energy taken to make the bike go faster is probably more than that taken when you cycle for more time. But maybe you just lose the calories faster, but the number stays the same.
Any answers?

Secondly, I did a bad deed today.
A spanish-sounding bloke asked me if he was on Newmarket Rd. when we were on Elizabeth Way bridge. I was cycling down it fairly fast and there was lots of traffic so there wasn't an easy way to stop and I couldn't be bothered to anyway in the nasty coldness, so I just said 'yes' and cycled on. On reflection, it would have been better to have said 'no' and cycle off- therefore looking like a bad guy- rather than saying 'yes' but actually *being* the bad guy.

Thirdly, a group of, as much as I hate the word, 'chav' girls walked past my house as I was getting my bike in and the resulting ensued:

Chav Girl 1: You need to dye your roots!
Me : You need to die!

The girls stop in shocked horror and I laugh. I laugh loud and suddenly a party of my close friends and relatives laugh behind me. A bottle of champagne is cracked open and is poured into the glass that has magically appeared in my hand. There is a suggestion of fireworks.

Well, at least that's what *would* have happened had I, master of composure and wit, thought for 2 seconds longer. In fact, I managed a rather choked "You need to stop being a skank" and scuttled off. I haven't been verbally assaulted for a while actually- not really since I've left Chesterton. May be to do with my newly employed hairstyle, which consists of bouffant hair and much back combing.

To end on an 'awesome' (source: Mr. Howes) note.
I got 36/36 (i.e. FULL MARKS) in my Physiological psychology test. I was best pleased.

I'm going to assume that less than 10 people have taken this from filecorinuse and say that he tagged me. Thanks :)

"Each player of this game starts off with 10 weird things/habits/little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 10 weird habits/things/little known facts as well as stating this rule clearly. At the end you need to choose 10 people to be tagged and list their names."

1. I am very much on the pirate side of the ninja-pirate argument.
2. I eat most of my meals with chopsticks (obviously not soup or things you eat with your hands).
3. I have a lazy eye of +6 (measured about 5 years ago) and am very long-sighted. I use no formal eye correction despite this.
4. I have a phobia of quinoa.
5. Being musical is often a direct response to stress. This has gotten me into trouble quite often.
6. I lack the ability to recognise people until they've walked past me or have noticed me first.
7. My first desired job was to be a zoo keeper.
8. I have 8 grandparents, 7 of which are still alive. None of them are close to me, despite half of them living within 10 miles of me.
9. My biggest regret to date is that I might not ever be able to see David Bowie perform live- I *should* have gone to the Isle of Wight when I had the chance.
10. I began this list with number three, four, five, then this. This was the fourth thing I thought of.

Some people say that livejournal is like god- that you only use them when bad stuff happens.
I attempt to defy this belief and post an informative, interesting, and non-negative entry. It occurs to me now that perhaps this belief is what has kept me posting for the last 17 days.
Now it is sunny, and despite several dissatisfactions, I can drive on with the promise of spring in mind.

Anyway, in that time, I have settled back into my regime of work rather well. I guess this could be evidenced through the lack of scarey-ness of my psychology test that I had today.
Additionally, Mike and I have got back together again. Many people have looked shocked and asked why upon knowledge of this, and the answer is simple: I still love him. Silly fool I to have not realised this previously.

My family and I have been in what could be said to be a horrendous rough patch, as in, 10/10 for horrendosity. However, a big family discussion happened yesterday where things were set straight (and we continued to discuss through the arguments that ensued, which made a noticeable change).

So, lets hope these promised things stay- especially the weather *shakes fist*.