Cops Can Chase But They Won’t Catch Me, Not Before I Get To Speak My Mind, If There’s Still Time…

Talk You Down – The Script

Hey guys,

It’s Saturday right now. I’m rather tired. I’m currently in the office(or whatever one might call it) drinking insane amounts of Coke Zero and listening to Teddy Picker by Arctic Monkeys. There’s a mountain of Playmobil people behind me(’cause they never really get old, do they?) and the guys from Stereophonics are staring me down from the back of this month’s Q. So far, this is a very good day.

Oh yeah, last night! Last night was amazing. I went to see The Script last night and they were so good. I know it’s kind of stupid to talk endlessly about concerts but I love them and I want to remember them…so, yeah, as promised, here was my night.

Me and my family left for Boston so to arrive at 6;30. That was when we got there for Pet Shop Boys back in September, which was the same venue(best venue ever, by the way). When we got there, me and my mom were dropped off outside to join the worryingly-lengthy line appearing two ways outside of House Of Blues, which is right opposite Fenway, by the way.

 I knew The Script were getting popular in this country, but I didn’t think it’d be as big as it was…I mean, it was mostly late-teenage girls in skin-tight dresses and far too much mascara, who stared at me in the way all snobs seem to do. Still, it was a big crowd.

The doors opened at seven and we all rushed in as quickly as people’s high heels and feminine posture would allow, down to the crowd area. Me and my mom got to third-ish row right in front of where Mark(guitarist) would stand. Beside us a group of twenty or so(seriously) girls in the same group, who insisted of trying to stand together despite the annoyance of just about all of them. They hadn’t even worked out the names of Mark or Glen, which I had so take that, but our place in the crowd were good.

We waited for an hour, listening to the completely and utterly kick-ass playlist that was playing in the background; Snow Patrol, The Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, Muse, Kings Of Leon, Coldplay, The Clash, etc. Seriously, House Of Blues? They had picked my musical haven and I was content, even if I couldn’t hear half the time. Att eight Kevin Hammond came on, who were the opening band.

First thing to know about Kevin Hammond; they’re actually a band, not a guy. Second thing to know; for morons who name their band actual names, they’re not half bad. They’re kind of bluesy pop-rock, very similar to The Script in many ways, and despite the usual repitition their contemporaries put forward, they were entertaining enough. They even covered Crazy by Gnarles Barkley which I love but haven’t listened to in a long time. The guys were really nice, though, and everyone seemed to love them( Random Girl Behind ME;” YOU’RE SO HOT”. Kevin;”….what was that?”Kevin; “So, we just flew in from Wisconsin yesterday”… The Only Guy In The Concert; “WILLY OU GUYS MAKE ME SOME CHEESE?!) and it was fun.

After some more awesome background music that no one else really cared about, the band finally came on at nine-thirty-ish. Mark was standing right in front of me!  Couldn’t see Glen, the drummer, since he was on the other side of the room, but oh-my, I saw Danny and he was looking quite good. I realised he has a rather large head, but, you know, not really the end of the world when you compare it to the rest of him.

One of the roadies had put a copy of the setlist down on the stage already, and it was see-through so I could already see it was coming, but they opened with Before The worst. Other than The Man Who Can’t Be Moved that’s probably my favorite Script song. A wonderful chorus, very soaring and catchy and everything. It’s also amazing live, and generally they’re very good live(I saw them Auguast 22nd at a music festival). They did that well, Mark doing that wierd thing when he manuevers his way across half the stage in a matter of seconds, and Danny jumping around in his skinny jeans and leather jacket and touching some people’s hands. <3

Then they played Talk You Down and other than the whole “this is relationship suicide” thing they keep repeating, it’s incredible. Hence the title lyrics. This band aren’t renound for the best lyrics in the world bu these are pretty good! Oh, and of course he changed the lyrics so it’s like “It’s 3am/and we’re you gonna go?/gonna stay with friends in Boston”. The normal lyrics state it to be London, which is cooler. They did that at the festival too. It must suck if the city name is really long.

Then they played Fall For Anything and I didin’t know this but apparently the song’s about Mark’s sister being a slut. Before they got to explain it, they handed the mic to the Can You Make Me Some Cheese guy from earlier, and he shouts “YOUR SISTERS A SLUUUUUT” as loud as possible, which was genius, of course. Then they talked about the irish term “slapper”. I hadn’t heard of that before. :S

After that they played The End Where I Begin, and then THE MAN WHO CAN’T BE MOVED! For a pop-y love song, The Man is incredible. Just genius. So sweet and so pretty and Danny’s voice always sounds so amazing. Genuinely, I think that’s one of the best live songs I’ve ever seen, and me wanting to re-live that was pretty much why I bought tickets for the concert, and it may not be tens of thousands of people shouting along this time, but it was soooo wonderful.

After that they played Breakeven. That used to be my favorite Script and even though The Man Who Can’t is more well-known, Breakeven got a much bigger response. It’s still a pretty song. And it has nice lyrics. They did that really well. After that they played If U See Kay(which preceded the If U Seek Amy phenomenon, by the way) and then Rusty Halo, which is such a cool song I can hardly put it into words. It’s certainly different from their other stuff, I can tell you that much. after that they went off and came back on for I’m Yours, which is probably my least favorite Script song but it was still alright, and then they played Heroes. They played that at the festival and I thought it was a B-side or something. Turns out it’s a David Bowie cover. Cool, eh? David Bowie is pretty damn awesome. During that song they brought on an Irish flag with “Boston” written across it, which sort of pissed me off because, really, why should that be encouraged? I have issues with “I’m part this, I’m part this, and I’m part that” people. Still, it was a nice ending to the night.

After I got a Kevin Hammond CD(they were selling them by the bucketload) and a Script tour book(with a picture of Mark in a bath of skittles) that was that.

Okay, now that that’s over I should say it’s Sunday. I can never seem to be bothered to write a blog post in one day nowadays. I should start doing that again. So far, this day’s been sort of bad, but I say that a lot, so I dunno if I should go into details…it’s one of those days when my forever-fluctuating self-esteem hits rock bottom and I revert to writing emo weirdness in journals and listening to The Fray or The Verve or someone. I need to play some piano because I suck at it and learning anything is taking forever. Oh, and for homework this week, get this, I have to write another poem! This time about a family member who “dazzles” me…God, let the clichés rain forward! Does anyone I know dazzle me? Nah. My immediate reaction would almost always be jealousy. My aunt is cool but with nothing in particular…my mom plays piano and stuff but that’s kind of exactly how Out Of the Dust goes anyhow. I shall fumble my way through it, somehow, despite the mental torture it brings.

Currently listening to; nothing. This is odd. I’m not really in the mood. Oh, but I love Embrace at the moment…and Richard Ashcroft of the Verve and Keane. Really depressing piano-pop stuff. <3

Have a nice weekend!

- PS; it snowed yesterday! This isn’t the first time this year but it has been more substantial than in October. No snow day, though, which I could really use. Tomorrow me and three other girls have to sing a parody of My Life Would Suck Without You in front of 40-something people. Their idea. They wouldn’t listen to me. Oh God, save me please! I’d like to leave school tomorrow with one tiny strand of my confidence/dignity/happiness intact, if that’s okay.

I Want A Perfect Body, I Want A Perfect Soul

Creep – Radiohead

 Radiohead may be the only Britpop band I don’t, like, adore but this song is still so cool. And oddly appropriate.

Okay, here’s the stupid, short, whiny story; English class today. We’ve started reading Out Of The Dust by…er, someone, I don’t really give a damn., to be honest. But it’s pretty much a whole story told in a poem. Oh god, guys, a poem! I know it’s really hypocritical because I adore song lyrics so much, but for the majority, I can’t stand poetry. Poets are genuinely the most stuck-up people in the world. I also can’t write it(as I am avoiding doing now), but today my table group had to write about the Dust Bowl in the south of the US during the ‘dirty thirties’. We looked at pictures, took observations, and then had to write a group  fucking poem. Of course, it was all the same; “sand sand sand, miseray, depression” etcetera. God was it cliché, but then again, poetry seems to ask for it. But, if there’s one thing I hate more than poetry it is this; the forcing of poetry. Poetry and lyrics are sort of designed to be kind of personal, emotion ordeals; and yet, stupid middle schoolers are forced to write about something they dont give a damn about, and it’s just terrible. And you have to write it in one direction, ’cause if you take a road that ain’t “misery” than it apparently “isn’t right”. It irritates me because in our hands, and I’m not blaming us, poems just become words, hollow words, without meaning. It’s rather depressing, and yet, we have to do more and more and more of this fake poetry and it just gets worse by the minute. This led to a mild sort of sadness, which led to irritation, which led to annoyance, which led to full-fled anger. Seriously. But, I guess the real problem is now in the poem I have to write…about, you guessed it(maybe?); myself. And I suck at poetry, but somehow, I still strive for perfection(hence the title? I dunno. I got way off topic and the title means nothing any more. Just enjoy Thom Yorke’s amazing lyricalness) and I can’t write deeply or well if five other people are gonna read it, y’know? That just makes sense!

Ugh, God, I’d better move on…

Anyway,  NaNoWriMo is finally over with as one might have realised(it being December 2nd and all). I finished, kinda. Well, I did 40,160 words(40,000 being my pathetic little goal), though I’m only about 4/5 done. I guess I see the pride in having written so much, but honestly, I don’t think I gained much. I just hurried my way through it, writing uneven chapters, obscene amounts of word count-consuming detail, and in the end not even bothering to edit the billions of typos I came across in my hurry. But I suppose I should start editing the early chapters before it all become unbearably bad and see where I go with it.

Right right right, onto my life lately. I’ve been in a total bloggy mood all week ands haven’t really got the chance to do it. This feels strangely amazing. I really need to get some thoughts down.  Anyway, that was totally out of synch….School this week has been decent, although I miss weekends with a burning passion, even more than before. I had a science quiz today on the states of matter. We’re goin’ waaaay too slowly on science lately, although sadly, I did get a question wrong. He made other people in the class edit the stupid things and, God, words can’t describe how much I hate that! I get all panicky and worried and stuff that, the poor person’s test in front of me is covered in little red scribbles by the end. I’m glad to finally be moving on, though, although we have to go over physical vs. chemical changes yet again. Sigh. It’s pretty easy, isn’t it?! Also I have a math test tomorrow and I’m kinda worried for that but as long as he doesn’t start asking me any of those mind-boggling algebra things, then I’m good. I had gym today for the first time in a couple of weeks due to wonderful wonderful little breaks and I think that was our second to last class of badminton. I still suck, but I’ve learned to stick up for myself and not do a damn thing whatever those bastards say, which I suppose is a plus, right? I heard somebody saying the next unit we’re doing is handball/handtennis which is a good one. Nobody in handtennis is any good so I end up in great company.

Oh, and ’cause the term ends Friday I only have two health classes left!! Ah, I will actually miss it, although my wonderful class group remains the same. I have engineering next time which, for some reason, I find severely depressing in that oh-so-misrabley middle term, but it fits well ’cause the music room is one of the c0lder ones so it works for the summer. I had health 3rd term last year, so the last time I didn’t have it was the beginning of March last year. It’s gonna be weird not to have it. The health teacher, I believe, is one of the ones who isn’t so uptight about end-of-term parties so, I dunno, we  might get that. I’d rather end with that than those stupid “saying no to Pot” skits we’ve been doing lately!

Oh, speaking of parties(or “fiestas”) yesterday as my Spanish teacher’s birthday and behind her back for a month or so, my class had planned a surprise party for her. Every day preceding that some of the guys in my class asked for a fiesta for no reason whatsoever, and we finally got an excuse and, oddly, it worked really well.  My whole Spanish class gathered around a table at lunch(with everyone staring at the mixed-up group, of course) and then snuck around the east side of the third floor up the back stairs, waited for her to get called down to the office, and then ran(holding unsteady plates of food) into the Spanish class, in front of the extremely confused faces of the 7th grade class and the assistant. Then after the bell went we sat down normally until she came and, y’know, she was surprised and anything. But most importantly, we had got things so unexpectedly well organised, she just couldn’t say no to us doing no work whatsoever during the class, and exploited all the cookies and Diet Coke that had been “for her.” Haha, yeah right. Yeah bitches, it may have taken a few months, but we did get our fiesta!

Oh, also on the topic of Espanol, next week some weird Argentinian educational(ugh, the dreaded word, I know) singer is coming to perform in the auditorium of my school, like they’ve done a few times beforehand. My teacher’s kinda crazy over him, weirdly. He’s really annoying but at least we get a few hours out of class….oh, also, we were each assigned roles in the preparation based on our recommendations and everything. I’m making signs, and I can’t believe my luck since I thought that’d be popular especially among the bubblely-lettered giggly girls. I’m currently in a group with a girl I kinda like although rarely talk to, a total fake bitch who for some reason likes me again all of a sudden, and two popular guys, which is kinda an odd group incase you hadn’t seen it. Originally one of the guys(the most annoying one, for the record) had been down as a “dancer.” I think it’s kind of a basic rule of Popular Guy World to exploit your masculinity to humorous extents, so of course, they had to put down a dancer as one of their recommendations, right? And well, my teacher, knowing her, probably took one look at it, thought “Aw, good boys for opening their minds”, and so two of them actually got in! I think they changed in the end, but God, you should’ve seen them in such a  panic when they found out. Serves them right!

Ah, movin’ on. Books. I know it’s pretty retarded for me to talk about literature in a blog post, but hey, somehow it seems important in my life all of a sudden. I finished The Color Purple a few days ago and in the end it was bloody brilliant. You like my wording there? Oh well. I guess the word “Feminist” in a short review in the back of the cover completely gave the wrong first impression but in the end it was amazing. Go read it, please. That is all on that.

Okay, music; Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Blur, Oasis, Suede, etcetera. I like The Maccabbees and Villagers(thank you, Q Magazine <3) a lot. And Wolf Gang, who I just discovered, and is a sort of interesting Britpopy pop-rock sorta deal except, oh my fucking God, HE IS NOT ON AMERICAN ITUNES. This is driving my absolutely insane since it’s happening all the time lately…I dunno, I might try to get my hands on the CD single off Amazong, if it exists, although after the whole Only Revolutions disaster in November, I’m not sure I trust them anymore. Oh, and I ADORE Ladyhawke lately. I keep wanting to type Lady Gaga. But she ain’t anywhere near as good as Ladyhawke’s electro-backgrounded-indie-catchy-rocky-darkish awesomeness.

Gotta go now, I’ve a shitty poem to write, guys.

- Naomi

PS; I’m seeing the Script on Friday! Let the excitement ensue! I’ll be sure to fill you all in on saturday.

Your Everyday Rambles

Wassup Blogosphere?

Ah, do I love days off…Don’t we all? I get to stay up all night and sleep well into the morning, and spend the rest of the day bored out of my mind, and yet, enjoying it because at least I’m not at school, right? Strange, but true. How’s everyone else?

As previously mentioned, I have done very little over the course of the last couple of days. My family didn’t do all the Thanksgiving stuff.  We’re not American and, and I don’t know how specifically American you’d call Thanksgiving or whanot, but therefore we don’t celebrate it. Besides, my nationality being out of the picture, I don’t think I like the idea of Thanksgiving very much. It’s too close to Christmas for my liking, be it over a month away…plus one is supposed to show thankfulness by stuffing their faces for a holiday which is basically about Europeans stealing land from the Native Americans. But hey, let’s not get too into that…oh, wait, I think  just did. Nevermind.

Anyway, because of all that and my common sense to stay away from all things Black Friday, I’ve stayed inside and done nothing very much. My dad’s cleared out the area on the 3rd floor(me and my sister’s bedrooms) because there were boxes of baby toys and my mom’s strange mid-90s clothes and things getting in the way. He has no idea of privacy, though, as he burst his way into my room without asking and in the process I cannot find the Pet Shop Boys poster I got waaaay back in September and was going to finally put up today. Damn. I spent a lot of time online and watching TV and playing my DS, which I haven’t in a year or so. Oh, and I’ve been an angsty whiny teenage girl–more so than most days–and have been avoiding company or happiness or anything that is probably healthy.

I mentioned this in my last post but Wednesday morning the 8th grade at my school played a game of football with the teachers, as is the tradition. It went by surprisingly smoothly, I have to stay! In the morning(“You know it’s gonna be a-alright…doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo dooo dooo dooo dooo…”. Sorry. Random Razorlight lyric splurge.) My team had a sort of breakfast thing because one of the girl’s is leaving. She was pretty cool. We spent a lot of time together in gym last year, more or less because we had no one else to talk to. She never seemed to like me, though. I like the idea of breakfast in school on principle but I’ve never really understand the appeal of doughnuts and muffins early in the morning…or hot cocoa for that matter, which went down a storm. Sugar seems to have very little noticeable effect on me(alhough this is quite the opposite for just about every other girl I know, the idiots), so it neither wakes me up or appetites me. I’m weird in that I’d just want breakfast cereal and apple juice, though that’d be strange in public. Anyway, the game started at nineish and me and the other misfits on the Concession Stand met outside to set up. The French teacher was leading the operation and, as very language teacher seems to be, is completely insane so me and my two best friends wondered away with no problems whatsoever. We met with the people who were being “Super Fans” and talked in the cold November rain(that’s a Guns ‘N’ Roses song, isn’t it?) and shouted  in megaphones to my friend who had the misfortune to be a cheerleader. After the halftime show–a shitty rendition of Dream On by Aerosmith and an even shittier Oh-my-god-this-was-a-disgrace-to-music-even-before-every-living-soul-started-playing-it-oh-my-god-kill-me rendition of Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey–me and my friends found an excuse to wander inside which was so awesome. We scribbled over the whiteboard on my team, cut holes in a window’s mosquito screen in theirs, and sprayed the walls with disinfectant from the lunchroom. Oh wow, we’re so badass, right? We got back just in time for the end of the day. The score of the game? Teachers; 8. 8th Graders; 1. Oh wow.

Later that day me and said best friends went to see 2012. I wasn’t planning on seeing it. I mean, I do love apocalypse theories and history and things, it’s just movies I don’t like very much. I prefer TV. The ony movie I’m actually excited for is Alice In Wonderland which doesn’t come out until, like, March. I do adore movie theater popcorn more than pretty much any other food, though. The plot of 2012 was a bit faulty–and the ending was just crap–but the graphics as one would expect were amazing. I also thought the main character was pretty awesome, and there were no brief but oh-so-awkward sex scenes which most action movies seem to fit in one way or another. It’s made me really excited for the actual 2012, oddly enough!

Also, I wrote all of that stuff yesterday, and now today is Saturday and it is SOOO freaking windy. Beside this window there are some really tall leaf-less trees(I jus asked my mom, and they are Conifers. Silly me.) that are shaking. Every part of them, not just the branches. It’s kinda scaring me. Oh, where was I? Right. I finished The Hunger Games a few days ago and it was brilliant, as I mentioned before. I asked my mom for recommendations and after a very long pause, she handed me something she seemed to deem appropriate. The Color Purple by Alice Walker. It’s really good too, although if all this rape and sexual stuff is more appropriate, do I really want to know what horrors she won’t allow me to read? I’m gonna try to finish that this weekend since I don’t want random questioning at school, o’course.

I had another guitar lesson today and my teacher continues to amaze me with his insanity. He talks about everything. His favorites today were The Beatles, pizza, and the color of the wall. But, still, he can live up to being amazing at the guitar; I cannot. I dunno how long one should take to learn something as basic as Wake Me Up When September Ends, but God, it must be taking me twice as long. Piano came naturally to me and this does not, although I’d by far prefer to go further with this.

I love talking about music. It’s amazing(<3). This week I’ve been listening to The Script because I’m seeing themon Friday. They were kind of one of those bands who I like, but after a while their songs can be annoying. I’m still soo excited for that. And there’s Weezer a few days after that. It isn’t very clear whether the tickets are general admission for that or whatnot so I’ll probably  end up pretty far back. And Arctic Monkeys are still good. And Snow Patrol and Depeche Mode and The Flaming Lips and  White Lies and The Pigeon Detectives and The Liberties and all that. I seem to be increasingly interested in the modern garage rock scene, it seems. Oh, and I’ve been listening to a lot of The Hype Theory and Just Morale. They’re both kinda underground things I discovered off NME. The Hype Theory are a lot like Paramore, though they’re not trying to be obviously emo or nonconformist or whatnot, like lot pretty much all the mainstream pop-punk groups are. They do it for the fun of it, it seems, and they will definitely get a lot more popular in the near future. And Just Morale are kinda like The Liberties and I love their lyrics and they’re catchy and everything. They ain’t even signed though…oh, what a tough life a true indie fanatic must have!

- Naomi

Weekends Rock, Don’t They?

Hi,

Why, hello, blogging universe! How’s it been going? Good, I hope? Unfortunately my normal time spent obsessing over you has been neglected, thanks to, as I have mentioned a thousand times before, good ol’ NaNoWriMo. I apologize for that, if you care, but all this writing is quite miserable lately. My characters are crap, my storyline is crap, my sentences are crap, etcetera. It’s the sort of ordeal when I think all it’s doing is leaving me a worse writer. And like I don’t like writing as much as I did going in. Oh well, I guess. It’s hard to describe how fantastic it feels to be writing–here, now–out of enjoyment and choice, as opposed to “ugh…okay, word count….678 words..ugh….come on, Naomi, hold it together only another half hour to go.” as it has been all week. I’m in the home straight for all of that though, hallelujah.

Right, now moving on. Thanks to the time gap since my last writing(November 12th? Whoa. I left for en eternity…) and to everything that’s happened in between, I guess I’ll just jump from topic to topic in some sort of Minutemade Lemonade-enduced frenzy. Ready, Set, GO.

Okay, where to start? Ah, how about last Saturday. I went to a sort-of-friend’s birthday party. I say friend, but I honestly don’t like her much. That’s sounds cruel, and yes it is, but we don’t talk very often. I don’t talk very often to most people, and therefore I can say how my opinion of a person may be difficult to read. The party was themed as an 1800s(or possibly 1700s….or 1600s….or ignorant) Tea Party(yes, seriously). The theme fell to pieces, although some people showed up in some cheap dresses. I was offered to wear one, as I think the girl was quite desperate to see me in something other than jeans and t-shirts. Dresses don’t work on me. They ended up giggling and dropping poor uses of innuendo at every turn and making those prank calls to people on their contact lists, which in itself is illogical, but somehow they seemed to gather some enjoyment from it. Also, after failing at answering truthfully in a game of Truth Or Dare and playing a game of Wii Fit with a friend and the birthday girl’s 6-year-old brother, my finest anti-social moment so far got to shine. While the others when Hiding and Seeking, I plopped myself out on the bed, grabbed her copy of Taylor Swift’s Fearless and flipped through on a “good lyric hunt”. Yes, I really don’t understand why I thought it a good idea to do such a thing, but I did.

PS; Sadly, the best lyrics are in You Belong With Me, and only because they’re relatable. I like metaphors and poetic-style stuff. And the best of those is “It rains when you’re here/and it rains when you’re gone”. I can’t remember which song that’s from, and I don’t particularly wanr to. But it’s not really like I’d find anything really outstanding, is it?

Okay, next thing, would be school. This week was our first full week since mid October, which is quite irritating. I need my sleep. A few days ago in English we read a few memoirs by Tumon Capote which were interesting. I can’t say I’ve ever been a big fan of memoirs. Life doesn’t have a plot. Memoirs don’t have plots. And what is a good story without a plot? And, of course, we had to make our own. After long verbal fights and headaches from this, I took a short, mundane(but real) setting, and created a story from it. Oh yes, I lied, basically. As a friend said to me online a few days ago, those really are the best kinds. And, guess what, I got a whole four and a quarter pages from a lie. Social Studies lately is making me fall asleep and/or hate this country to pieces, I’m afraid to say. I had a test on the Revolution on Thursday and, God, was studying for that pure torture. Sooo many names, so many battles, sooo much cramming needed. As I sat at the back of the classroom, with my pencil suffocating in my grip and “Bunker Hill, Saratoga, Yorktown” flashing back and forth in my head, I came to the realisation that “if she’s asking me for a French general’s name, I swear I’m just gonna walk out.” She didn’t, though, so unfortunately I did not get to have my diva moment as one might have hoped. Science we’re currently doing some properties of gases and it’s alright but rather repetitive. I wanna move onto the Table Of Elements, damn it! Math is currently hypotenuses of 30/60/90 and 45-45-90 triangles. I get it, but my teacher is just awful and it’d totally make sense if you didn’t get it(which is the case for the majority). No, Mister, whatever array of numbers you decide to put on the board certainly is not 6th grade math, nor is it 7th, or for all that I know, 8th. If you want us to write equations the length of the Great Wall of China, you could go ahead and teach us, right? And he calls this is the basics.

Okay, my writing was just begging for a new paragraph there, though it wasn’t necessary at all. In Espanol we’re started to write poems for the pictures we took ona a field trip a few weeks ago. Last time I checked, poetry was all about metaphors and beautiful language and all that jazz, not using online translating systems to compile 8-10 lines of crap, but hey, I could be wrong. Let’s just say I don’t really think I’m learning anything from that. Tomorrow or more likely Tuesday for Health, my group are doing our project on Stimulants. Have I mentioned this before? I can’t remember. But, as always, my group isn’t exactly the best; There’s me, and there’s the kid who does nothing and doesn’t know how to even when he wants to, there’s the friendly but careless guy who will just talk to the others most of the time but at the end of the day gets a little work done, the annoying popular guy who likes to irritate everyone else, and the stuck up super-competitive “Go go go go go” sort of guy. We shall probably survive with at least a 70%, but my whole class is sick to the core of Jeapordy games so I can’t help but think we won’t hold attention for very long. And lastly, in gym we’ve started to do badminton. I like the game relative to most others but I’m awful at playing. I’m the one who stands at the back of the group, and lunges slightly but misses whenever the birdie comes in my direction. The others say I’m kind of good, but the haven’t seen me put myself into it, really, and then they’d see how much of a failure I’d be. I gave up trying on Friday, but hey, at least we’re at the end of the “Chumps” court, so there’s not that much room for humiliation against the nerds and giggly girls.

Of course as the whole world knows, Thanksgiving’s next week. My school gets half of Wednesday off and it’s a tradition for that morning to be spent having a little 8th grade-vs-teachers football game. The day before last we got given our roles, after giving our recommendations. From an outsider’s point of view, it’s really good because everybody gets to play to their strengths; The sporty people get to play, them, um, cheerleaderish girly girls get to dance, the musicians and actors get into the halftime shows(last year they played Teen Spirit and I died of happiness <3), anybody who loves attention gets to be a super fan, and for everyone else who can’t do anything gets to be in concession. Yes, that’s where I am! Oh, my uselessness makes me so happy sometimes. I get to do nothing with my two friends and all that stuff. It’s actually something to look forward to!

Next thing. Last time I blogged, I believe, I was struggling my way through Great Expectations, yes? At last I finished that, and then I moved onto Oliver Twist. Considering my opinion of the latter, I don’t really understand why I chose that but it was okay. The pace was strange compared to the movie and the characters weren’t as good as Expectations but it was easier to handle and the plot twisted and turned a bit more to my liking. Currently I’m reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and it’s absolutely fantastic. The main character is really realistic compared to the book’s contemporaries, and I like the sci-fi genre in general, and I think the idea is really interesting. Some plot twists later have become obvious to me, I think, but it’s definitely one of the better books I’ve read so far this year and everyone should totally buy it.

Oh, and lastly; music. Only Revolutions by Biffy Clyro hasn’t arrived yet. In fact, Amazon sent an e-mail last week that said it may not get here until Christmas. There’s no way I can wait that long, so I switched an order to Best Buy and I’m hoping that may arrive in a month or so if they’re being nice. I’m trying to avoid the band so the Biffy-less days go by faster but it isn’t working too well. Hank Green(of Vlogbrothers) new CD This Machine Pwns N00bs arrived a few days ago, with the special Pre-order signed guitar pick, and it’s funny and catchy and everything I would expect of it. Lately I’ve been listening to some different stuff, and it’s been quite an interesting time for my music tastes…I’m still really loving Arctic Monkeys and have been listening to Whatever People say I Am That’s What I’m Not on repeat all week and it might just be overtaking Humbug as far as my favorite AC album goes. I’ve lost the CD pamphlet, though. I have terrible luck with CDs. I like The Beatles lately and was listening to Abbey Road earlier and it’s good. I should probably get another Beatles album for Christmas. Magical Mystery Tour, perhaps?  Also I still quite like Ellie Goulding and Under The Sheets is brilliant but I can’t buy it cause I live in this country, The Cure, The Flaming Lips, Josh Woodward, Morissey, Oasis, White Lies, and in particular Turin Brakes. Go listen to Fishing For A Dream. Yes, I don’t know how, but I’ve actually found a sappy folk song I really love.

Oh, and my guitar lessons are going well. My teacher is completely insane of course but it’s all good. I’m starting with Wake Me Up when September Ends. I haven’t liked Green Day in a year or so but it could be worse. Also, yesterday me and my teacher had a competition to guess how old Elvis Costello is and I totally won. He’s 55. Hoorah.

Have a nice week, everyone?

- Naomi

CHARTJACKERS!! <3

Hey,

Why yes, I will begin my blog post with blatant advertising! If you live in the UK or happen to know anyone who lives in the UK, buy/spread the word about a song called I’ve Got Nothing by Chartjackers. Basically, the song was made by the YouTube community and everyone’s trying to get it to number one in the UK for Children In Need, which is a really big charity over there. And for one reason or another, I’m about as desperate as the writers and Chartjackers themselves to get to number one so if you value my sanity UK people, go buy it! And besides, who else is geared for number one right now? N-Dubz and a bunch of X Factor people…yeah, if you have a brain somewhere inside you, the right choice must be pretty obvious to you now.

 But anyway, if my advertisement there didn’t make you fly off somewhere else in anger, then hello there. How’s it goin’? As for me–which, as the writing of this blog, is my number one writing priority-so many things have been happening with me, and yet, so little has happened. To put a spanner in my already painfully bad procrastinated WriMo work, November has just gone and decided to be freakin’ amazing. For one thing, the two best music releases of my 2009 came out on Monday; #1 The Killers’ Live At The Royal Albert Hall DVD and #2 Only Revolutions by Biffy Clyro. Now, I think the announcement needs to be made here and now; I love Biffy Clyro. And that, in a sense, is the way my life has been working for the past month or so…For those of you who aren’t aware of the Biff, then I command you to go head off to YouTube or Last.fm or somewhere this very second. You may not like it, and to tell you the truth, I don’t really know why I like them so much(but part of the reason is me sharing a birthday with 2/3 of the band, of course), but trust me, they’re addicting. Yes, I am talking about almost Killers-level obsession here, folks. Unfortunately, though, they’re pretty underground of in the US(They’re Scottish <3) and therefore getting a hold of the CD is difficult, and the only places that claim to have it, release it on different dates that are in the far November future. So I’ve just ended up ordering it online which, much like the Day And Age phenomenon of November last year, will take many an emotional, painful, excruciating day to get here. Oh god, guys, I love this band and this is so strangely difficult.

 Now, as for The Killers’ DVD, I do own it and, predictably, I adore it. The fans have been waiting so long for an official DVD–not the crappy error-prone ones I’ve come across before–and it’s finally, actually, here. Now, the thing is, my opinions are too skewed by joy for me to do any sort of official review of it, but in this case, I shall continue to give you some odd, irrelevent opinions to ponder on… Okay, to start with, it’s three hours long. At one time, it was difficult, but more is always, um, more, right? Brandon didn’t appear to be wearing guyliner, which disappointed me a fair bit, but not the end of the world of course. I liked how comfortable Brandon seemed to be with the crowd which is odd because he almost never is. The live performances were quite amazing but I’ve seen them live before four times this tour so not much of a big thing there. I loved how they finally did I Can’t Stay, which I only heard live once. I get why they don’t do it, I guess, but it’s still nice live. Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine and Mr. Brightside were especially good, though. I hated when Brandon went into one of the isles and an ocean of giggly girls washed over him. At that point, I died of jealous, but that is the life of a fangirl. I don’t know why but I really liked Losing Touch here and that’s normally one of my least favorites at a Killers show. I was so happy they actually did sweet Talk and This River Is Wild–Sweet Talk in particular, since they’ve almost never played that live and I’ve certainly never seen any live clips of it. I liked the extras, like talking to the fans. One guy with a crazily-stereotypical cockney accent claimed to “have a little man crush on Brandon” which made me laugh so effing much. Oh, and seeing the crew was amazing! I loved how Ronnie randomly kissed Jimmy Carr(comedian) on both cheeks, to which he said “Caroline, it’s over”. Oh, but the best part? I now have actual, physical record of Brandon asking me “if I’m willing to receive this as hard as possible”…oh, I joke of course, but if he keeps saying that every show just for the innuendo, then I love him about a million times more. ALL KILLER NO FILLER! <3

Not that completely and utterly necessary little ramble is over, what have I to talk about? Hmm, very little. Yeah, it sucks, I’m sorry. You may have noticed that the style of writing in this post is more hyper and less angsty than what I normally do. I don’t appreciate seeing this in my writing very much but that does seem to have happened. It’s all that NaNoWriMo stuff that’s done it. Now I just write whatever comes to my mind first, no matter how crap it is(and oh, how crappy it really is…)and no matter the consequences. Ugh, I hate hate I hate it I hate it I tell you! Besides, I haven’t written anything good in weeks, nor enjoyed the writing process very much for that matter. It’s driving me crazy, really. But that’s another story for another day when I’m happy and homework-less. Unlike now.

Naomi

PS; don’t forget…CHARTJACKERS! *fist bumps*

NaBloNeMo

Hey,

That is, National Blog Neglecting Month. I hope you don’t mind too much, right, wonderful readers? I mean….NaNoWriMo is just exhausting. And I’m only doing 1333 words a day, but God, when it’s eight o’clock in the evening and I’ve yet to write another 500 words, read a chapter of Social Studies work, shower, and watch my friends spaz-out on AIM, enjoyment is a difficult little element to the writing process. Also, note to self, next time I decide to incorporate stupid made-up political terms into anything I ever write, make sure to CHECK FIRST that those terms aren’t actually real. Basically, I’m not even a quarter finished yet, and my characters are stupid and my plot is non-existant and my vocabulary is who-knows-where. But hopefully when it’s done I’ll have accomplished something, right?

    Okay, as to my week. For the most part, it’s been nice. We had a day off school Tuesday, in which me and my mom went out to an English food store and I gathered many a sugar-filled delight to add to my surplus of Halloween candy.Ii love days off, though, not that I especially hate school lately. My Social Studies grade is slowly and surely deteriorating as I speak, as I got an 87% on a test last week and a 65%-ish on a homework assignment, mainly for not getting the order of certain pre-Revolutionary events in the right order, since the textbook we’re using being a complete waste of paper and ink. But thankfully we’re finally getting out of that realm of things. We ended with a patchy Loyalists vs. Patriots debate a few days ago. I don’t really iave a damn, but of course I have to be on the Loyalists side just ’cause, and still, I’m always solely brought up. Fuck. Let me ask you this; Why are there a thousand words I’m not suppose to call a black person, and yet, stupid children are allowed to shout “FISH ‘n’ CHIPS EH GUVNA!!” in front of me, and no one says a word? I really honestly don’t understand. Ugh, and besides, it’s a silly little skewed, biased debate that only leads one way; therefore, the exercise is pointless. But at least I wasn’t picked out to do anything other than look disapproving of the matter. As for other school stuff, in Spanish yesterday a boy taped his shoes to the side of a desk while we watched, giggling, for the teacher to notice. She didn’t, thank God, we only mean to tease and get out of writing conjugations, but she’s slowly and surely having a nervous breakdown, we know. And in Health I get to do a nice group little project on Stimulants. Having a class of people fight over a “favourite drug”(“Go get us our meth, Andrew!!”) was so funny, and the project itself, is interesting.

Yesterday me and eleven other 8th graders went to a writing conference in Boston. We had to get to the school for 6:45, which in normal days, is the “Ugh….five more minutes!!!” portion of my morning. Then we went on a bus with the kids from another middle school in town. I got to see my friend Adele’s old friend who I knew from my old Blogspot time…Ah, the fun times…Adele would remind everyone that her CBOX was dead, I would reply with some capitalized song lyrics, the friend would come in with something mis-spelled and annoying, I would reply with something sarcastic and Twilight-related, she would reply with “wuuuutttt????!!!!”, Adele would remind us to keep it friendly, in which the CBOx would die, and the cycle continued. She wasn’t a particularly interesting, fun, or appealing individual IRL, but hey, its nowhere near the grammatical disaster I’d known her as online. I’m not saying I’m the most bohemian person out there, but I just don’t understand why making yourself look stupid is the cool thing online(enlighten me?). When we got there we all had breakfast, and then a group of five or six of us tentatively followed the signs to the first workshop. Being on a university campus, it was more than likely we would get lost…but, somehow, we didn’t. The first one was a two-hour thing on interviewing, which would have been fun for an hour or so, but it was quite tiring. Then me and a friend went to a workshop on Music Videos and Media Literacy. It was a fairly basic level of things, but we briefly saw clips of Buddy Holly by Weezer and Fell In Love WIth A Girl by The White Stripes which was fuuunnnn. After that we went to have lunch, which was a lasagna made primarily of cheese that tasted like vomit(no, I’m serious), and really nice bread, and chocolate cake. Me and some friends wandered around a bit of the campus, bumping into university students and running up and down stairwells. It got irritating, so I sat down in the next class(some guy talking about his persoaln experiences with writing, which was cool) and read through some of the stuff we were given, including a crappy Written-by-teens-for-teens magazine and a stupid box on The Beatles. Overall, it was quite a fun day.

    Oh, yes, today I finally had my first guitar lesson! It got moved or something. My teacher talks a mile a minute but he’s fun. It took him a while to get going with things but at least he did. He asked me to say two bands/songs I liked, and with a limited amount of time I just suggested the first two that came to mind, which happened to be Smile Like You Mean It by The Killers and Live Forever by Oasis. I don’t think I can learn those, but hopefully I shall, and we’ll se how that goes. I should probably be practicing with the basics I was given now, actually.

Keep having fun with NaNoWriMo, guys!

- Naomi

Time To Write? Whoa.

Hiiii

I can’t help but feel I’m doing something wrong when it comes to NaNoWriMo(National Novel Writing Month), which I am participating in. I may only be doing 40,000 words this month rather than the standard 50,000 but I found the writing remarkably easy. That’s 1334 words per day which sounded like a lot but when single-spaced…really isn’t. It was fun. The writing came easily, and watching the word count sore was oddly exciting, and overall I can’t help but look forward to a month of this. You’re all doing it, right, guys?!

Oh yes, on to other stuff. While time has been unusually kind to me today, it’s never completely on my side, and I still have to write a bullshit essay on Veterans Day which I, even as a writer, am dreading. It’ll be so fake and stupid. And besides, it’s supposed to be one page Double Spaces in Font 14. I mean, what the hell, how am I supposed to fit anything into that? It bugs me, but anyway.

 Friday night was simply amazing, in case you care. Me and my two  current best friends(who are so awesome and are quite likely reading this, not that I’m just saying that) went to a special Halloween event at a local-ish Theme Park. The “Outing Club” at my school was also going, as I worked out the day before, so we briefly came into contact with a couple of my 6th grade teachers. I can’t say they’ve changed at all, but perhaps have taken their already annoying personalities to a new extreme? Plus, my sister’s a total Teacher’s Pet this year so I’m like the sibling who wasn’t as good, or something.

The haunted-ness of the theme park wasn’t so great. The ghouls or whatever they are seemed to hover around the entrance picking on the girls who will scream being within two or three meters of them….and, also, I get dizzy on the spinny rides, but just being out with cool people was fun. One of my friends kept saying hi to all the clowns in one of the haunted attractions and we all threw half-eaten candy off the top of the Ferris Wheel(which was my personal highlight) and we ate orange and brown Dippin Dots in the car, despite the almost freezing outside temperature. We’ve decided to do those sorts of things more often, and hopefully we’ll get round to doing the mall trip we’ve been briefly discussing for weeks.

     And in contrast to the day before, Halloween was kind of…awful. And I’m really optimistic about celebrations and parties and things–stuff that doesn’t happen that often–and I can still admit that.

     As I’ve probably mentioned, I was going to a Halloween-themed birthday party for a friend. I say friend, but we aren’t that close. We have some mutual friends and we were in same English and math classes last year, and she’s fun, but we’re not exactly BFFs” or whatever term you wish to use. But more than that, I don’t like a lot of her friends…A couple I’m friends with, a few others besides are nice and I have nothing against, but there’s this group of four or five girls who try waaaaay too hard to be “weird” and “random” and all that. Yes, you know the sort of people I’m talking about, right? Well, we only went trick or treating for an hour, me in my crappy Brandon Flowers costume that no one else gets(as expected) including a trip to my 7th grade English teacher’s house, while me and Adele(www.adelechick.wordpress.com) hid creepily behind a tree.

     Then we all went home for a nice Giggly Girly Hangout party for four hours. Vast amounts of candy and sickeningly-cheesy nachos were consumed, Dr Pepper was spilled on the tan carpet and hastily picked up with toilet paper, and stupid prank calls were made to people on their contacts list. There was a lot of general girl talk which needn’t be talked about in the first place as I see it, and there was the odd scary story. And there was a long game of Truth Or Dare(Which turned into “Choose A Dare or You’re Not Playing”), which resulted in pole dancing, making out with windows, and singing pop songs bra-over-shirt style. Needless to say, I stayed silent and uninvolved the whole night. It’s mostly just sugar-driven obnoxious stupidity, which I tend to avoid at most times. It’s alright for me until I start to be patronized(“Back off guys, I think you’re scaring her. ” What the fuck am I?! A baby?! Some sort of small animal at the zoo?!”).

Okay, so enough of all the complaining! It feels like that’s all I do sometimes. I’ll balance that out by saying today has been lovely…Just relaxed, watching Mythbusters, listening to Arctic Monkeys, reading, writing, etcetera etcetera. Not much to say besides. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up sometime next weekend, if I can keep up with  as well.

Bye!

Hypotenuses And Chemical Bonds And Other Cool Stuff

Heeeey

Something I’ve never understood is the idea that a children’s cartoon character must fit snuggly inter the borders of “smart” and “stupid”". Indeed, I despise the idea(it’s a wonder so many people claim not to be soupcans, with a start like that). And more than once have I seen a character out-of-the blue gain some sort of “genius” level knowledge. Guess what kiddies, it’s easy stuff! In fact, I seem to be lately touching on the topics in hand. Isn’t that awesome? And I do mean hypotenuses and molecules and that fun stuff. The fact that “smart stuff” is now stolen from 8th grade textbooks to entertain children does somewhat disturb me.

But, this does of course mean so much joy on my part. I love school right now. Math is fun lately. He may still publically humiliate me for some reason, but I like being the ”if she says it’s right, then it has to be right” person at my table. I haven’t had that for a few years since everyone caught up. Science is, however, simply amazing. At first all this atom stuff made no sense to me, much to the disappointment of my mom as she wearily explained the simplest ideas, seeing as this is the basics of what is sort of the family career and everything. And not trying to conform to my family’s beliefs or whatever, but it’s so interesting. Of course, nothing can ever beat Cells And Heredity in 6th grade but it’ll do for now. Or where the two cross over would be great, like DNA and things. Nice geeky fun, right here.

In comparison, other things have been a drag. Like English. I’ve spent my evening studying for a test tomorrow. Well, not solely that, I did eat and watch Kaiser Chiefs on TV and white-out over “John smells like poo” in my Spanish book(Ah, public school textbooks. How I adore your character). But I’m going to do horrible…Gosh, am I sick of THEMES. All it is is THEMES THEMES THEMES lately. No longer do I want to skim a 150-page novel looking for mentions of “love” and the forever-over-used “be yourself”. On the test I could just write “bullshit” over and over, since that is what I think of these so called themes. I don’t think, however, that would retain my good appearance with my English teacher.

Speaking of stuff I fail at, you could also add un clase de espanol to that list. Yes, don’t pick me up on however many errors I put into that simple phrase! It seems funny considering I love this language so and yet it takes me twice as long as everyone else to learn the simplest things. Like last night I’d forgotten “They are”, pretty much the simplest you can go after “Hola!”, and I did actually lose a bit of sleep over my obvious stupidity. For the record; Ustedes son. And while I’m here Yo soy muy terrible a clase de espanol. How do you add “I’m so fucking stupid” to that?

Oh yes, my Brandon Flowers costume is nearly done…Just need to find the boots–oh the meddlesome boots!. I got the jacket yesterday. I don’t know why but I feel a bit like a magician in it. And we’ deemed the vest makes me look fat and all in it so now I’m just going without. such a shame, I s’pose.

Great Expectation is driving me up the wall. What exactly is the point? I’ve yet to work it out. It seems to be turning more and more into your typical boy-and-girl type story that repulses me in general. But speaking of that, NaNoWriMo starts sunday! Yay, I’m (not) excited! I’m actually afraid of all the work required…And the fact my story line is awful. I’m pretty much copying The Giver with slight, barely recognizable twists. I wasn’t even trying to do that. But my friend Adele has vowed to do it with me(If I go to some stupid writing thing this next Friday…featuring my 7th grade English story. It’s complicated) and writing is fun so I can only hope it won’t be too bad.

I miss talking about music every post like I used to so I just had to now. Even though there’s not much to inform. I’m randomly obsessed with Arctic Monkeys lately who I am listening to as we speak(“What came first; the chicken or the dickhead?”. I love your lyrics, Alex Turner, even though your hair is starting to look a bit like the guy in we The Kings’s. ). Paramore are still nice, and The Beatles, and Lady Gaga. I keep forgetting to look into new stuff, like that’s something that can be forgotten. Oh but I just found out Weezer are playing here December 7th at the same place as my first Killers concert was so that’ll be great. Hoping I’ll get better seats than last time, though. If it weren’t my first concert, 2nd-to-last row seats would have disgusted me. But it’s a nice arena and Weezer are a nice band. December’s going to be a great, great month.

Oh, and my mom has signed me up, at last, for guitar lessons! My first one’s Saturday morning. I actually got my guitar for Christmas last year but my mom never got round to getting my lessons or forcing me to play…The laziness appears to be hereditary. But I’m so excited because it’s something  I really want to learn and he said I could bring him my iPod so I can play something I’ll love. I just need to clear some older stuff off, then.

- Naomi

Stupid iPod Meme Time, I Think….Yes, I Am Idea-less

Put your music player on shuffle
Post the first 40 songs that come up. You can repeat artists if you want. If you have any repeats, skip to the next track.

1. Help! – The Beatles

2. Mr. Brightside – The Killers

3. One Day Like This =- Elbow

4. Forget About What I Said – The Killers

5. 1985 – Bowling For Soup

6. Youth Gone Wild – Skid Row

7. Grounds For Divorce – Elbow

8. Wire To Wire – Razorlight

9. Rebel Yell – Billy Idol

10. This Boy – Franz Ferdinand

11. An Audience With The Pope – Elbow

12. Human(Pink Noise Radio Edit) – The Killers

13. By Starlight – Smashing Pumpkins

14. Come As You Are – Nirvana

15. Apocalypse Please – Muse

16. Read My Mind(Pet Shop Boys Stars Are Blazing Mix) – The Killers

17. Punk Rock 101 – Bowling for Soup

18. Losing My Religion – R.E.M.

19. Bend And Break – Keane

20. Let’s Dance To Joy Division – The Wombats

21. I Like The Way – Bodyrockers

22. Hypnotize – White Stripes

23. Lazarus – Porcupine Tree

24. You Could Have It So Much Better – Franz Ferdinand

25. Ruby – Kaiser Chiefs

26. Ulysses – Franz Ferdinand

27. Headlights On Dark Roads – Snow Patrol

28. Riot – Three Days Grace

29. Simple Pages – Weezer

30. Prayer of The Refugee – Rise Against

31. Spaceman – The Killers

32. Friday Night – Lily Allen

33. Paprazzi – Lady GaGa

34. The Importance Of Being Idle – Oasis

35. Blink – Chameleon Circuit

36. Halo – Bloc Party

37. Undone(The Sweater Song) – Weezer

38. Burberry Blue Eyes – Razorlight

39. Makes Me Wonder – Maroon 5

40. Hysteria – Muse

1. Which song do you prefer, #1 or #40? Hmm, that’s close. Probably in the long-run #40. One of my favorite Muse songs.

2. Have you ever listened to #12 continuously on repeat? On the remix of it, no, but I have for the original.

3.  What album is #26 from? Tonight; Franz Ferdinand. Super awesome album, by far their best. Gotta love Franz Ferdinand

4.  What do you think about the artist who did #15? They’re amazingly talented and unique, despite their current mainstream popularity, and I love them.

5. Is #19 one of your favorite songs?  No, not really.

6. Who does #38 remind you of? Of accoustic guitars, burberry, people with blue eyes, and V Festival ‘09.

7. Does #20 have better lyrics or music? Totally and utterly, the music. Catchiest song ever, this is.

8. Do any of your friends like #3? No.

9. Is #33 from a movie soundtrack? Nope.

10. Is #18 overplayed on the radio? No, not any more at least. I wouldn’t have known when it was anyway.

11. What does #21 remind you of? Night clubs, really creepy guys, some stupid Top Gear commercial, and weird English radio.

12. Which song do you prefer, #5 or #22? Definitlely #5, although #22 is one of my favorites of the artist.

13. What album is #17 from? I wouldn’t know, sorry.

14. When did you first hear #39? A couple of years ago I guess.

15. When did you first hear #7? Hm, probably in March-ish time. I’d only heard of them about a month before that.

16. What genre is #8? Alternative-soft0ish rock. Yes, not so specific.

17. Do any of your friends like #14? Yes! Several of my internet friends, and one in “real life”.

18. What color does #4 remind you of? The most gorgeous deep purple in the world, probably ’cause of the album cover and all.

19. Have you ever blasted #11 on your stereo? Not regularly, but yes. It’s not really the “blast” sort of song.

20. What genre is #37? I believe the term is geek-rock but that makes little sense to me. I guess it’s alternative.

21. Can you play #13 on any instrument? No.

22. What is your favorite lyric from #30? “We’ve been sweating while you slept so calm in the safety of your home, we’ve been pulling out the nails that hold up everything you’ve known.” Coolness.

23. What is your favorite lyric from #23? “Follow me down to the valley below, you know. Moonlight is bleeding from out of your soul.”. Cliche but it could be worse I suppose.

24. Would you recommend #24 to your friends? I guess so although pretty much no one would like it. I don’t even like it much compared to a lot of their other stuff.

25. Is #2 a good song to dance to? YESS!!!! Well if by dancing you mean jumping up and down and waving your arms about and screaming then this is perfection.

26. Do you ever hear #16 on the radio? I’ve heard the original a couple of times, but not this.

27. Is #32 more of a “nighttime” or “daytime” song? Nightime, hence the “night” in the title.

28. Does #36 have any special meaning to you? No.

29. Do any of your friends like #31? Yes, quite a few of them. I’ve infected their minds with that band.

30. Is #25 a fast or slow song? It’s slow, thinking about it.

31. Is #35 a happy or sad song? It sounds happy…I guess it’s a fearful and panicky song lyrics-wise so I’d say sadish.

32. What is one of your favorite lyrics from #9? Based on the limited choice I guess I’d have to say “in the midnight hour she cried more, more, more.”. WAIT, I TAKE THAT BACK! I can’t choose.

33. Is #34 better to listen to alone or with friends? Definitely alone…alone being idle.

34. When did you first hear #27? Two or three months ago.

35. Name 3 other songs by the artist who did #29 Pork And BEands, Buddy Holly, Perfect Situation.

36. Do you know all the words to #6? I think so, yes. I don’t know why I like the song so much, but I do…

37. Does #28 have better lyrics or music? Music without a doubt.

38. What album is #10 from? I’m pretty sure it’s from You Could Have It So Much Better but I haven’t listened to it in ages…yes, sad.

Thank you, random online person, for giving me so much enjoyment in this!

- Naomi

Welcome To The House Of Fun!

Hellloooooooooooo,

I’d just like to point out that as I speak I am clad in racoon-like eyeliner and a straw hat, while my mom blasts House Of Fun by Madness downstairs. We were dancing a minute ago, too, and I tried to poorly imitate the dance moves of the guy who stood in front of me when I saw The Specials at a festival this summer(You basically lean your body towards the ground, and swing your arms in legs in a circular motion, while unknowingly using your limbs to inflict pain to anyone in a two-meter radius). I believe this is one of those crazy times I’m supposed to recall with great fondness. My family is weird as hell.

While the hat is irrelevant to all meaningful purposes, this eyeliner–or, as it is supposed to be, “guyliner”, but I don’t think I can make that happen right now–is for my Brandon Flowers Halloween costume. My mom was practicing, since I have very little experience when it comes to makeup, and made a mess of it. I scared myself when I walked past the mirror in the bathroom earlier. Plus, I felt I might have well have straightened my hair and taken a MySpace picture. Oh, but actually, my costume is coming along well enough. I got a black shirt today. The sleeves were pre-rolled up to the exactly right point(Not that it would be particularly difficult to do it myself with any other shirt, you know), and although the buttons should be black but aren’t it isn’t that noticeable. The boots have so far proved to be a problem.

Also I went into Borders today since, sadly, I wanted my own copy of The Giver, and they didn’t have it! Such a shame. I’m sure they’d have time to get such a popular book(and they could, I don’t know, alphabetize their CDs while they’re at it).

 Yesterday I got my Progress Report at school–may I add, I got it calmly. Despite my teachers telling all of us the ridiculousness in freaking out over it, loads of people still become a nervous, shaking wreck when they’re given that one little piece of paper in question. It’s funny, really, since it’s not like it matters, you know?

I got an A in English, an A- in Social Studies, an A in Spanish, an A+ in Math, and an A+ in Science. Oh gosh, what has happened here, eh? Those are pretty much the best results I’ve got ever, but it’s different from what I’d expected. Readers will know how much I whine about my Math/Science teacher, and how he hates me, but he actually wrote that I “have an extremely unique talent”. That’s a rare thing. From just three or four sentences he seems to understand me more than most teachers I’ve had in my time. Not that that’s related to being especially talented or whatever! He’s actually pretty cool if you like 1 1/2 hour-long lectures and things. And my LA/Social Studies teacher–who totally loooooooves me, haha–said I “understand the deeper ideas in LA and Social Studies” and that she’s enjoying getting to know me. I’m happy, although it annoys me that she has regarded me(my writing in particular) at such high standard, since I just finished writing an awful homework assignment. I just wanna get my hands on it and edit edit edit until it’s unnoticeable to what it is now. Ugh, I can be a terrible writer when I want to be.

Usual shiz has been happening of my life recently. Music…hmm, what have I been listening to? Right now it is I Feel You by Depeche Mode(The sexiest song ever written, in case you didn’t know). More broadly speaking I’ve been listening to a lot of Lady GaGa–I keep switching back to Lovegame and Boys Boys Boys in particular. Also some Snow Patrol, Athlete, and Muse. And loads of Arctic Monkeys and Paramore. And last night I bought Jasey Rae by All Time Low and I Think I’m Paranoid by Garbage, which are both crazy awesome songs. Especially I Think I’m Paranoid. The little Garbage I’ve come across sounds really cool.

Great Expectations is proving to be, hm, adequate. The word of mouth summaries I’ve heard before are very concise, which leads me to wonder why there’s another 300 pages irrelevant to the so-called “main idea”. Oh, but not just 300–this is a special edition of the book, and has a full 400 pages of afterword. Seriously, what the hell?

I’ve got the coolest homework assignment ever this weekend. This 11-year old, Christoper Sieder or something, was one of those killed in The Boston Massacre and Sam adams organised a huge funeral for him. And we get to write about someone going to the funeral. It’s the first creative writing piece we’ve been given so far this year. It’ll give me a nice chance to go completely overboard with it but I also think I might try to, I don’t know, write it in that old-fashioned style. From my experience it just requires endless use of unnecessary wording, exclamation rules contradictory to those we use today, and the ability to break into semi-colons at any point. Sounds fuuun.

Whoa. Over 800 words. I’m done.

- Naomi