Awesome

:) This brought a smile to my face. Little Miles is the son of one of the Blogger developers. Nothing really to do to me but little babies being born are just awesome.

So I'm sitting here while I wait for my vegetarian haggis to simmer and my potatoes to bake feeling good. I've been up and down, on Friday I got kicked in the shin during a kumite session quite hard and cried in front of the whole of the other karate club, I've not cried that much since I don't know when! I now have three injuries on my left leg and two on my right.

The weekend was great despite the immense pain though, Ian and I went south to Alnmouth where I hobbled around and complained of pain. We found a B&B (Westlea) with terrible decor (flowers and porcelain - to quote Guybrush "ugh, porcelain!") but it was cheaper than elsewhere (£25/person instead of £30/person) and was recommended to us by a local. The woman running the B&B was really nice though she kinda looked like Kathy Bates! Apart from the decor, the B&B was quite good. Private shower, good comfortable big beds, biscuits and hot chocolate in the dining room at all times. While we were looking for a place to stay the night it was kinda cool walking into a bar called "the Sun Inn" and asking for a room for the night. I told Ian we should've left our horses in the stable....

The B&B had a wonderful view of the estuary and a playground in front of it! We spent some time on the swings. hee hee. We also went for a walk on the beach at sunset - very gag romantic, I know! But it was nice and we wrote our names in big letters in the sand. Not hard since Ian is three letters and Zara is four! We had dinner at the Saddle Hotel Grill and it was terribly good, Ian had the North Sea Cod with chips and I got the Ham and Mushroom Pie with boiled and buttered potatoes. Prices weren't cheap but they weren't too expensive either, bill came to about £12-13 for just the food. Drinks were ordered at the bar (we both got J2Os). We didn't order dessert - we weren't full but we weren't wanting anything else to eat either! It was quite quiet but we put it down to the season because nobody could complain about the food! After that we had an amazing view of the stars from the playground. That was the first time I've ever seen the Milky Way. We also saw a weird bright star flickering red and blue. I saw it last night as well and texted Ryan who suggested that it might be the Maccholz comet.

Alnmouth was a nice little town - though very unexciting. The beach would be THE attraction at Alnmouth, and it's a nice beach but there's only so much time you can spend there. Luckily just 4 miles away, walking distance or if you're injured or tired or just can't be bothered a £1.80 bus journey away is Alnwick, home of Alnwick Castle, otherwise known as Hogwarts, it's the film location of Harry Potter. Unfortunately we didn't know that! The castle was closed at the time anyway, although we did visit the Gardens which were pretty cool - Ian was super amazed with the water feature and we had a guided tour around the poison garden, most of the plants haven't been planted but it was a quite interesting and educational tour. We also went to the Treehouse which was quite big - the best thing was the gift shop though!

We got the train at 4 after waiting in the train station for an hour (Ian's fault - he was overzealous with not being late) and got home for about 5:30 and finished off our trip with a visit to the fabulous Chocolate Soup.

So now my Haggis is finished and Feihao is back and Eamon's coming on Friday and things are awesome.

Following on from the post underneath the post underneath this one, I just earned another £16 Amazon gift voucher. And I haven't been paid any money from the randomizers yet! (notice the yet, I'm still hoping!)

Just finished my two math assignments that are due in for tomorrow. I'd done most of them, I just needed to write up neat and figure out one or two nit picks. I only started at about 12!

So you know you're a computer science geek when instead of sitting down and calculating out a large-ish Stirling Number [9,4] you write a program to calculate it for you!

My program didn't work on a technicality. I think! Well it won't run because it won't compile properly - I call my stirling number function from my main in Java which is static, so it says I can't call my function from a static context. CJ showed me a way around it quite a while ago but of course I've forgotten! So I sat down and calculated by hand.

Oh, also, if you do want to know the only thing that has paid out for me, it's this survey page. They don't send me too many surveys, but I have recieved a £16 Amazon gift voucher from them once, and I won't forget it! No, I will not get anything if you click that link, there's no referral system.

What have I done? (the Zara, you're such a sucker post)

So I've been signed up to read e-mails for a while. I'm a student! I can't say any of them have ever sent me a cheque... but it's worth a try? Actually I'm earning quite quickly with these two programs, although when I say 'quickly' I mean more than $0.10/month. But if you join up with those links I would've referred you and every time you get an e-mail I get paid too. :D Like, $0.005!

Anyway, point is, these e-mails are usually chock full of other people advertising their ways to earn money easily! and quickly! with no work! on the internet. And you know, I usually don't fall for them. But I read them through anyway to see if they're viable - they're usually not. Most of them don't even tell you what happens, they just say "SIGN UP NOW AND DOUBLE YOUR MONEY!!!!!!!!!" etc.

So what have I fallen for?

I've fallen for randomizers. they're prolific! But actually they're Not A Bad Idea. They've quite pyramidal schemeish actually in that you pay someone to join the program and you earn money by other people joining the program. BUT you don't need to refer anybody yourself! In pyramid schemes you have to directly refer people to join the scheme to make any money, but in a randomizer, other people refer, the page randomizes someone for the joiner to pay, which could be any of the members of the scheme. There's a weighted rotation though, so the more people you refer the more your name gets rotated. The legal part of the scheme is that when you sign up you get stuff - scripts, links, etc.

So now I sheepishly inform you that... yes, I have signed up for not one, but two randomizers. One of them cost me a grand total of $10 and the other $15, but convert it into pounds and that's about £9 and £5.50, which is a sum of money but to be quite honest, not that much. More than anything I'm curious to see if these things work - I am actually quite deliberating setting one up for the UK if I get my membership money back and more. The point is this - it really is a way to earn money by not doing anything. Yes you have to pay a one-off fee, but that's going to someone who paid their one-off fee.... and with any luck you will get at least two random referrals which will pay you and cancel off your fee.

So. Do you think I'm stupid or are you interested? Here are the programs...

Random Cash Unlimited - yes, they all have lame names like these! This is the $15 one, that's because $5 goes to the person who directly referred you, $5 goes to a random member, and $5 goes to 'admin' (see why it would be highly profitable to set one of these things up?)

Five Dollars.biz - This is your basic $10, pay $5 to random member, pay $5 to admin.

If you join one of these - good luck! If you think I'm a sucker and will never get paid, well then you're probably smarter than I am! I will update if I ever get paid.

I am. so tired.

I should've started this friggin essay earlier.

"You're on your own. In a dark alley. Someone grabs you- what do you do?", situation.

The first question that needs to be asked is: "WHAT THE f**k were you doing in the dark, on your own, in that alley anyway? And why weren't you paying attention to the fact that someone was following you?" Was it a time- saving shortcut? Take the long, brightly- lit main road home. Are you drunk? You should be in a taxi. - Steve

I woke up this morning, turned over, and nearly screamed with pain.

I did far too many abs yesterday. Not only that, my sides hurt as do my back my shoulders and my neck tendons. My hamstrings kinda hurt as well, but nowhere as bad as my abs.

I still managed to make it to karate today though, although I was about 45 minutes late. :D "no abs!" I told Steve last night but we ended up doing them anyway. :(

Oh yeah and.... Draco Veritas Chapter 15 Part Two is up now!

And I hate to say this, but some of the fangirls are such losers. *rolls eyes*

highlight below for spoilers.

I don't know why, but for some reason that chapter wasn't excellent to me, despite of the ending. I don't actually sit here and go "why oh why" because I think "hey, Ginny has a time turner! She can go back and save Draco! All she has to do is to get the antidote from hm say GARETH and exchange it with similar coloured liquid and get it back to Draco BEFORE he dies!" Then I go "oh wait, Draco has already died. That means.... he's just pretending! yeah!" And then my head explodes and I decide to start my computer science essay that's due day after tomorrow.

I gave up karate to do homework. I wish I were at karate. I hate homework. Will someone write me a 2000 word essay on p2p programs while I sit here and cry?

Grid.org - Use your computer to help breakthrough science research projects.

Zhao Ziyang dies

A face-shaped imprint
in a heart that beats
slowly, softly
The heart that pretends to be alive
Trapped in iron
in cold snow

Snow that doesn't
provoke excitement
provoke anything
Snow that covers
and softens
and freezes

I wish you were with
me in moments
like these.

Right Lobe in a Left Lobe World

Right Lobe in a Left Lobe World

I'm lonely. :( I miss my last year flatmates. I hate coming home to a quiet flat.

Interesting Hanson survey

rrrr

*yawn*

That's me finishing off my accounts for last semester. Must keep better notes for money this semester!!!

Well. It finally happened. I finally turned 18. The world didn't end. I didn't die. I just.... turned 18.

I was never the kid with my feet firmly on the ground. Actually I hope no kid has their feet firmly on the ground. I always had weird things pop into my head, like "What if I'm the only person that's real and everybody else are robots and this is some training scheme?" (really) or I imagined (and kinda half-believed) that everytime I went around a circular object something in the world would be different, like my mother would be slightly meaner, or nicer, and it was like going into a different "world" (dimension, I suppose I would call it now that I know the word) and each "world" had it's own Zara, but she wasn't there at the moment because she had gone around the circular object (usually a pillar) and onto the next world as well.

You get the gist. But my most potent imagining was that I would never grow up. Because I simply could not imagine myself as an adult, or at any other age further along than I was. I half-believed that something would happen to me before I reached the age where I would be "grown-up". At first I thought it would be 16. But when I reached 16 and was still very much alive, I transferred that age to 18. And now here I am. Still alive. Unchanged. I don't mean "unchanged" in the everyday sense of the word, of course I'm different than I was when I was 16. But I always wished that I wasn't supposed to lead a normal life, that if I was to grow-up, that some sort of destiny was out there for me. That maybe I possessed some kind of magic, and when I reached a certain age (like 18) someone will come and say something like "You knew it all along, and now I am here to show you".

Well, obviously that didn't happen either.

So I suppose I have to accept the facts of life. I have to grow up, just like everyone else. I am normal, just like everyone else. Nothing special will set me apart, and if I want that, I will have to work for it. Just like everyone else.

And you know I was thinking about my childhood, and how probably nobody grasps just how lucky their childhood was. When I say "nobody" I'm just speaking in vague terms here... I know plenty of kids grow up hardly having a childhood, like I suppose kids in Kashmir or Palestine, or East Timor several years ago. But I'm talking about kids like you and me. Do you know how lucky you were to have the childhood you had? I think of everyone who has never had to move even houses when they grow up, and I don't think they realise how lucky it is that they never knew the agony it was to leave friends behind and move someplace else and start fresh and be the new kid at school, and then settle in, and then leave those friends and move again. They can make friends with someone at 5 and still be friends with them at 15. It must be so strange to grow up with someone like that and to know how they were like at 5, and 7, and 10, and 12, and been there with all their different adventures. But then I think of TCKs and think how lucky it is that they have had so many experiences in their lives and been to so many places and been to schools where no one will tear you down for where you come from or how you speak or for even daring to be different and standing out from the crowd.

It is very strange when I think that both opposites, people who have grown up in different countries all their childhood and people who have stayed in the same city all their lives, are both the luckiest and the unluckiest people.

So yeah. I'm 18. And it feels kinda weird to say that. And I've had a pretty good growing-up.

My 'just turned 18' musing. Strange.

There are places I'll remember
All my life, though some have changed,
Some forever, not for better,
Some have gone and some remain.

All those places had their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall.
Some are dead and some are living,
In my life I've loved them all.

(Excerpt from the song "In My Life"
by J. Lennon , P. McCartney
on the album "The Beatles 1962 - 1966")

Karate

I had some karate fighting today... I didn't actually get to fight in the tournament but I fought to place in the BUSA trials. There are only 3 girls in my weight category so I got in as they need 3 people to make a team!

Last night I went to karate training, went to Tescos to get some food and glucose drinks, got home, had a shower, ironed my gi, made and ate a second dinner, and went to bed, where I didn't sleep for a while!

The fighting today was ok, but I wish I'd had more fights to get some practice in, I only fought in two matches and they're 2 minutes each. I'm fast on my feet but once I'm in range I don't actually throw a (good) technique because I'm concentrating too much on not getting hit(!) and getting out before the opponent scores. I'd really like to learn to kick like the other team though, they are excellent head-kickers and a kick to the head earns you 3 points which really helps if you're down a few points in a match.

Ghosts from the past

I've been having a (relatively) lot of contact very recently with people from my past, mainly from KL really. Eamon's coming here (and I am so excited!) to live for a year, I spoke to my cousin Eleanor for the first time in a very long time (and she has a crazy american accent!) on Christmas, and just within a few days Danni and Elaine have both e-mailed which is just crazy!!!! Of course I've always been in contact with Eamon but very soon it will be IRL! And I've kept an eye on Eleanor through her livejournal but I spoke to her on the phone and she spoke back! And Danni and Elaine e-mail me every 18 months or so (though not in tandem) to say that we should keep in contact, but this is all just very very cool put together.

Geophysics

This is so lame. I've done 90% of the work but I'm sure I've left it in Birmingham.

*bangs head off table*

Books to Read:

Books I actually have but stillhave to read/finish reading:

1) Wild Swans, Jung Chang (part way through)
2) Sylvia Plath - The woman and the Work, Edward Butscher (a series of essays on Plath, my Christmas present from Ian! Part way through)
3) The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (Christmas present from Craig! The De Luxe edition, with pictures! I got through the first page)
4) Q - Luther Blissett (a few chapters through)
5) A Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Jules Verne (a few chapters through, but it got boring)


Now I'm going to do my report. Really. I am.
(but my shoulder... huuuurts)

Geophysics practical

I've been wondering all week when my geophysics practical is due in and finally found something which told me tonight.... and of course it's due in in about 10 hours!

Oh well.

Jim the frog with a wig

There was a bald frog named Jim who wore a wig all the time because his mother had given it to him when he turned from a tadpole to a frog!

All the other frogs made fun of him which made Jim very sad, but he wouldn't stop wearing the wig because his mother told him that one day, if he kept wearing it, it would bring him very good luck!

So Jim endured the taunts and the jeers of all the other silly little frogs until one day a beautiful princess came by the lake and saw this wonderful handsome frog in a wig.

"Oh what a handsome and dashing frog!" she said and picked Jim up and kissed him! Jim didn't turn into a prince which offended the princess greatly, but she took him home anyway and they both lived happily ever after with Jim living in a tank in the princess's bedroom.

Tiger Balm iz good

So it was my first day back at karate today and apart from Lisa opening the scab on my foot (that I got from painting Beatrix's room, see picture below, by scraping it off the bottom of a chair) it was pretty good. But my shoulder is killing me! I've been sitting here saying "ow" every few minutes or so and trying to massage it but backing away from the pain, when I suddenly remembered... I have Tiger Balm! And it is soooooooooo good. *sigh of satisfaction*

(check out the website, I just stuck in www.tigerbalm.com to see if it would work and it did!)

Feet

So I decided that my floppy bendy feet are a genetic thing.

Reading "Wild Swans" by Jung Chang and the description of how feet used to be bound, I realised that my own feet, though probably still would be in gigantic pain, would not be in as much pain as other people's feet.

Jung Chang describes how when her grandmother was two years old her mother bound her feet with tight bandages bending all her toes under apart from her big toe and crushing the arch with a heavy rock... I have no arch! And my toes are real bendy! Although my feet are quite big. (Size 7 Docs) So my bendy flat feet could be the product of evolution after all those years of my ancestors' feet being bound so painfully... or I could just be chatting rubbish. :D

I haven't gotten very far into the book as yet, I read it when I was 13 and am re-reading it now and there are a few things which make me understand the nowadays overseas chinese culture better. Like the push from the parents to the kids for success, in old China if you weren't an official, if you weren't somebody, it was likely you would get bullied by officials or somebodies.

I don't have the book on me at the moment but I might come back with a quote. :D

P.s. The link above is to buy "Wild Swans" from my Amazon referral thingy. Just in case you were interested and wanted to buy it, I could slightly maybe earn some money from it. :)

What I would like to do when I get older

Notice that "grow up" has been replaced with "I get older". I hate saying this but... I'm 20!

This is entirely idealistic, not logically speaking. I know I can't do all, if any.

And in no particular order...

1) I would like to work with an NGO like Oxfam or possibly Unicef to help under-priveleged people in underdeveloped countries.

2) Environmentalist. "do something good" for the environment. I don't know what, but I know that the Environment is vitally important and the way that the human race is going we're going to deplete all the world's resources and that would not only be the end of the human race but the rest of the world as well. Apart from cockroaches. And those things make me squirm so I definitely don't want them ruling the earth. I would like to participate in conservation of the rainforest, finding alternative sources of energy, getting these alternative sources of energy USED (hello hydrocell cars...), the preservation of great and beautiful areas of the earth like the coral reefs, getting more things made out of product waste (I saw this at the technology convention in KL when I was there on holiday in the summer, it was a very good idea and it was very viable), planting trees, etc. (if you would like to do some of that in the comfort of your own seat in front of your computer, please click here to go to Redjellyfish.com!)

3) If I ever live in a house with some land (unlikely as I am too much of a city girl) I would like to have some chickens. They would roam free although I would probably have to lock them up at night in the chicken coop to prevent them from being eaten by foxes or cats or whatever the natural predator is in whatever country I'm living in.

That's all for now I think. I would like to do good and raise some chickens.

In e-mail to vashti

So great 20th birthday present the world gave me, this big Tsunami thing. I feel like half the time I'm walking around on the verge of tears. And I know it's stupid because there are so many people are in refugee camps and have needed desperate help all along, but you can almost imagine someone saying "I feel a huge disturbance in the force", just that many lives lost in one movement of the earth! I don't know, maybe it's a wake-up call or something, and it's really amazing because people in Britain have donated so far I think the total is 75 million pounds... that's more than a pound a person which is really really amazing. I donated my birthday money from my mother, 50 pounds, because to be honest there's not really anything I want to buy with it and instead of it sitting in my bank account it could save so many lives. I think it said something like 50 pounds gives 125 families a week's worth of clean water.

But I just know that in a couple of months time everybody would forget about it, and actually I really am tired of just seeing all these news bulletins about how much the death toll has risen and listen to this tragic tale of this somebody who has lost every single member of their family apart from their grandmother who they found floating on a mattress in sea (not actually a real story... so far as I know).

I do want to do something but I've got to finish my degree first, there is no way my mother would forgive me if I left now, and really I have no idea what I WANT to do but I do want to work for an NGO like Oxfam or maybe even work in Unicef.

My mother thinks I'm going to get a REAL career like my cousins and what my sisters are applying for... maybe she'll let me off because I'm the youngest, I don't know.

Where is George?

Dear George,

Where the hell are you! How are you? What are you doing? How do I make contact besides posting letters on a blog and hoping you'd find it someday?

Nature vs. Nurture

So I was sneak-reading over this guy's shoulder on the bus home from the pub last night and we read this article on a kitten cloned. But I thought, what's the point? A beloved family pet's clone won't remember you being their owner, neither will they react the same to you as your pet did, it wouldn't know who you are and it's different experiences will mean it might grow up with a different personality.

Then I stopped myself. I am of course arguing on the 'nurture' side of the nature vs. nurture argument. Yes, I do believe that experiences heavily influence the personality of a person (or, I suppose, more generally an animal), moreso than nature. Yes, nature does play a part, but not as big a part.

Then I thought, perhaps the biggest and best test of this would be for someone to clone Adolf Hitler (not telling anyone, of course) and raise him as their kid (nicely). Of course they'd have to name him something else and not let him grow that awful mustache. I would be willing to take that risk, for someone to clone Hitler, because I do believe that if he was raised in the right environment, he would feel no extreme hatred of certain races of people and not feel the need to exterminate the lives of human beings. I wonder if it's acutally happening?

Dude, the photos do work!

Yeah, so I figured out a way to post photos. ;)

Oh, and the whole Ada Lovelace thing? She was the first female programmer, possibly the first programmer ever! I know, how geeky is that? :D

Beatrix posing by face

Beatrix posing by face
Originally uploaded by Ada Lovelace.

We're painting Beatrix's room in purple and she said I could paint a face! So I did... doesn't it look just like her?
3/1/05

Me and Ian on New Years

Me and Ian on New Years
Originally uploaded by Ada Lovelace.

Taken while waiting for my Dad to show up. "Your face looks funny here" "That's my normal face. What are you saying!?" 01/01/05 01:13 (daylight saving)

Ballooooons

Ballooooons
Originally uploaded by Ada Lovelace.

On George Street. Hogmanay Eve. A girl attached to a giant helium balloon flying. Around 10ish but after the robotic thingy. 30/12/04

Scary thing on George Street

Scary thing on George Street
Originally uploaded by Ada Lovelace.

Robotic thingy that chased people around Geoge Street on Hogmanay eve (30/12/04), about 10ish.

On the 30th we went to my parents' friends' house for dinner, my mom cooked, she brought her famous Malaysian chicken curry (amazing stuff), some kind of lettuce and our rice cooker. Afterwards we headed down to George Street as there was something going on down there... there weren't too many people and there were these crazy street performers... this thing doesn't look it but it was pretty huge and it chased people around, there were a few others as well. Then there were these big white ballooony things and some red women on stilts, as well as a cow that peed at people. It was pretty cool and we stayed for about 1 1/2 hours then got bored and left!

Parents in snow

Parents in snow
Originally uploaded by Ada Lovelace.

28/12/04

Driving back down we stopped for lunch as I was hungry (what a surprise, huh?) at this Italian place. An Italian place! In the Scottish mountains! We had an all-you-can-eat (I always end up feeling slightly sorry for places that I go to an all-you-can-eat, I'm sure they're always happy to see the back of me) which wasn't too bad for a buffet, definitely better than Bambu's all-you-can-eat Scottish breakfast. Ergh. But this picture here is my parents standing in the parking lot. You can see it's snowing again. I love snow. :D

Me making a snowman

Me making a snowman
Originally uploaded by Ada Lovelace.

Me trying to make a snowman. Yes, that's a rock!

28/12/04

My family drove up to Edinburgh on the 27th (Monday) and stayed until the 1st. On Tuesday we drove up to Aviemore and saw all this snow on the way! We parked the car in the parking lot of this chalet and did things with snow. Rachel and I were trying to figure out the technique to building a snowman... the whole rolling a ball on the ground thing! But it didn't work too well so I used that rock as a base to build my snowman on... as you can see it's not so shapely. :D

Me and Ian on the Millennium Bridge

Me and Ian on the Millennium Bridge
Originally uploaded by Ada Lovelace.

23/12/04

Ian and I took a walk across the Millennium Bridge at twilight, it was really nice. We got some strangers to take this photo for us, and then I took a photo for this other guy. It was cool. :) That's St Paul's cathedral behind us with a giant christmas tree. We walked across the bridge and went into the Tate Modern for about half an hour before we had to find Euston train station. The Tube rocked.

View from the Millennium Bridge

View from the Millenium Bridge
Originally uploaded by Ada Lovelace.

This was in London, the view from the Millenium Bridge at Twilight.

23/12/04

Ian in London!

Ian in London!
Originally uploaded by Ada Lovelace.

early morning (somewhat after 11 o'clock) 23/12/04

Ian and I trounced down to London on the 22nd to see Josh Groban in concert and it was very good indeed! I even got my first album signed. He's such a cutie. And Ian liked his shoes! Ian thought he was pretty amazing as well which was great. We were waiting outside for him as well (because I was sad and wanted to see him again and maybe hopefully get a signature) and talking to some Grobies. Some of them were cool, some weren't, though it pains me to say that! The joke of the evening was "The bar!" Basically the security guards told us to get behind the bar, so we did, then some more fans turned up and stood in front of the bar and the security guards didn't say anything. Grrrr. So when Josh's van pulls up they surround the van and no Joshie for me. :( I got him to sign my album just as he was leaving though, but he didn't look too happy. I don't blame him!

After he left Ian and I went into Soho to get some chinese food at the Dragon Inn, it was pretty good and chock full at midnight. We ordered roast duck (which Ian loved), some tofu (which came with pak choi which I loved) and chicken and cashew nuts (over cooked and not so great) with rice. We finished eating around 1:30 I think but Ian saw this girl steal some wine (champagne?) from the chiller (shame on you, you drunken fool!) and confronted her. She told him it was on the bill. Yeah whatever. :/

We took the bus to South Kensington (we were staying just beyond the Kensington High Street) and walked for a while in the wrong direction (and for once I wasn't leading the way!) until this nice man pointed us the direction to go. I really needed to pee by the time we got back around 3. Between the two of us we had 3 teapots of chrystathemum tea at the restaurant. Then it was showers and straight to bed because we had to check out at 11 the next morning!

Obsessions of the human race

Sex and alcohol.

I don't get it.

Don't people ever actually get bored of these things? Everybody in Britain over the age of 13 is obssessed with alcohol and apparently just under half the earth's population thinks about sex every 5 seconds.

And breasts. Those bobbly things that hang from the front of women. Shouldn't they actually seem kind of grotesque? Don't men get TIRED of breasts? Why are they so obssessed with size? Why do otherwise pefectly sane women worry about the size of their mammary glands??? Why in this present day and age where most people are worried about not being overweight do they want to see breasts that belong to women who are probably verging on the unhealthily overweight? Small bums and big breasts, why? WHY WHY WHY??? Furthermore, I must add, slightly less than half the population of the world have breasts. Why the hell don't you get bored of them? Or at least used to them?

Alcohol. Yes, let's all drink ourselves into oblivion, spending lots of money on the way, do things that will make us hate ourselves the next day, damage our bodies and livers, and hamper our growth process. Where where where is the sense in that. Don't get me wrong. I like the taste of Martini and Carlsberg. If I could drink without the fear of killing myself or at least being seriously uncomfortable for the next couple of weeks, I would probably have a few of those some nights. But I wouldn't drink to get drunk. I find most drunk people annoying and unpleasant company, though they themselves might find themselves most delightful. Alkiehol does hamper judgement afterall. But you know, I wouldn't mind it if it was a once in a while sort of thing. Error of judgement or just a "hell let's just get really wasted because we want to". But to do it every single week??? The stupidity blows my mind. And I must ask, why does the boredom not set in? Why do you not get bored of going out and getting drunk every week?

AND SEX. I acknowledge the fact that as living organisms we must as a necessity be very very interested in reproduction and the furtherance of our species. Really. But you know what? I don't get why it must permeate everything. How come when I went to the pub last night half of the conversation was sex-related? How come when I got on the bus back from the pub there was a guy at the back of the bus talking loudly about his sex-life? Why are there so many more dirty jokes than there are clean ones? Why do people feel the need to insert sexual innuendoes into conversations to make them funny? Why does a channel called "Men and motors" show topless women running around and why does a daily popular paper like the Sun always have an indecently dressed woman in their DAILY "Page 3" slot?

Actually what about relationships? Why do people feel that the only ultimate point of life is to be in a relationship? Why do girls constantly look for boys and boys constantly look for girls? Why aren't most people happy being independent? Yes, it's nice to be in a relationship. But being single is great, too. Why in practically every movie the happy ending is that the boy and the girl get together? Why is it that some people's main problem in life is that they can't get a boy/girlfriend? That isn't a problem! Maybe the reason they can't find one is because they're so damn desperate. And why should they be? It's not like not having a boy/girlfriend is the end of the world. There are a million other issues to deal with!

I just feel that relationships are great, but they're not vital. Yes, I'm in a relationship. But was I actively seeking one before? No. It just... happened. And that's what I feel relationships should be about. Just happening. Not actively seeking.

So. Any insights would be welcome!

Wellllllllllllll about photos.... turns out I need to download some software first and since I've left my computer in E-burgh I'll have to wait to get back there on Monday to start doing this blog! But I was going to post you...

1) New Years Eve Eve - random photos of goings-on on George Street
2) New Years Eve - me and Ian
3) Yesterday - my sister posing by a big larger-than-life-size realistic painting of herself done by yours truly

But dudes! I am so excited! And I have noooo idea what to do with the template! this is a random of blogger, I'm liking the lime green....

Over twenty!

I've gone and done it, your favourite blogger has reached over twenty (that's twenty and 9 days to you, buster) and has created a new! and better! blog. With photos! And everything. :)