First post of 2010

This post is gonna be slightly boring cause I'm doing the obligatory start-of-year 'what is this year gonna be about for me'. I've made a big deal about the end of 2009 and of the decade. That's because it's only just hit me how good these years have actually been. True, there have been really bad bits. But there's no point wallowing in dejection. It's the good bits that jump out at me... Just goes to show how little I appreciate when it's actually there in front of me, doesn't it.

I'm trying to start 2010 refreshed and psyched up, raring to go. It's a fat shame that my exam mocks are scheduled at the beginning of the year, which ruins the new year buzz slightly. Ok go away negative vibes. I LOVE NEW STARTS: 2010, HIT ME.

What I hope to get out of 2010? For things to work out well or at least happen, in terms of

- University/gap year shizz
- Career aspirations (possibly a law/journalism/radio/anything-in-the-music-industry internship)
- The IB. Hopefully I'mmer get my act sorted and focus.
- Lurrrrve. Find a nice boy. If not then I can always hit the bottle. Joking. I'm officially on an alcohol hiatus until the next big thing, which is...probably tomorrow. Ok, again, joking. I'm serious this time. Oh, talk about the devil -
- Alcohol. Develop a healthier attitude towards it.
- The Classics Magazine. Yeah, I really am that much of a classics geek. Improve on the last issue, preferably putting out a BANGIN one, seeing as it'll be my last one.
- Music. Pick up the piano again, and learn to play the harmonica. And stretch my cultural horizons by being open to new genres. More live music!
- Friends. Cherish the ones I have. Reconnect, or get to know them.
- Oh my god how did I not think of this earlier – My body. Lose 15 kg. I'mmer say bye bye to all this podge and cellulite.

I've got more that I could add to this list but I think that's quite enough for you guys. It's the beginning of 2010, I won't bore you (I have the whole of 2010 to do that). What do I look forward to in 2010? Well seeing as I'm not really an early planner, the list for this is relatively short/vague.

- All the upcoming 18th birthdays..alcohol..fun fun fun. (JOKING.)
- Founder's Day.
- The end of the IB. FINALLY. May 2010.
- My four-month (?) summer holiday. Still have to plan that.
- Valedictory Service
- Canons Ball.
- Possibly throwing an end-of-exams party.
- (Hopefully) getting my IB Diploma.
- Reading '10. Camp Ting...IRIE IRIE IRIE.
- Starting university (if I get into one I like), or embarking on an adventure if I choose the gap year path

Clearly I don't plan ahead, at all. All these things are either related to end of exams/leaving school or they're Reading or 18th birthdays parties that haven't even been planned. Hmm, maybe that's a hint as to what 2010 is gonna be about?

Need I say it: Bring on 2010. I'm gonna rip this shit.

xxxx

classics is my bluddy life

[written on Thursday 19 November 2009]:

I have neglected my blog for a few days for the only reason that this week has been very revealing for me. My mock interview, my Classics extension class, my interview practice – they've all told me I've a lot of work yet to do, and I need to invest a lot more of myself into it if I want to get rewards for it. More Classics: unseen translation, the Symposium, Classics Magazine contributor-searching. My life has truly been taken over by Classics, that dead subject that nobody in the real world actually cares about. Oh dear. At this rate, I'm truly on my way to becoming one of those snobby academics who have what none of us want: no life. (That's IF I get working.)

Anyway, I turned down a good friend's birthday dinner this week because of that (Classics, that is). Thanks to my mum, actually, whose guilt-tripping is very effective. I never thought I'd come to see the day that I thank my mum for her 'one reward for every drop of sweat' (charming, I know), but because I stayed in on that day (the day of my disastrous interview practice) I now understand what it is that I need to do.

I'm being really boring aren't I. Kids, that's what Classics does to you. Or at least, it's what your Classics HoD does to you when he makes you realise how little work you'd been doing and how much time you'd been spending on my blog, and, hence, how much more Classics-y you need to get. And that is the sad truth of life. I'm going to be really, really, un-funny if I get into Classics any further.

Ach, I'm so funny.

Ok that is not funny, I gotta stop saying that.

Anyway, I have now worked out my future career plan (the one that I'm aspiring to anyway). It's ambitious, it's heavy, but I wanna do it! And I probs won't reveal it just yet.

xxxx

my life is mighty exciting

Right. So as sky-high figures of people tell me they read my blog (haha, I'm so narcissistic, and I'm so kidding myself), I definitely have to step up my game. You might have noticed a slight change in the layout of my blog. I've got Dante Araujo to thank for designing the basic template. I'm now officially in love with my blog (gahhhhh stop this self-love immediately).

My life is so not worth describing right now. It's just work work work, read read read, blogwrite blogwrite blogwrite. Ok how many of my recent posts have been about school?! The most frequent post tag is 'school'. Oh I am just so cool. That rhymes. (Haha, that just reminds me - we're currently studying Hamlet in English, and in our lesson yesterday, the teacher asked 'who's in the mood to read Gertrude?' There was a ten-second pause, then I said aloud 'that rhymes'. Oh lord, what's wrong with me?)

Blah. So I'm blog-subject-less today.

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I could go on.. but I won't. O. M. G. I am so bored.

Oh! thought of something – I HATE MATHS.

Maths coursework could replace taser guns for the purpose of freakin putting us to sleep with a freakin violence degree of 100. That did not make any sense. This is what IB does to you. Or.. it's just me. I'm literally rambling now. Why can't I do this in interviews?!

Speaking of interviews, in my Extended Essay (4000 word essay we have to write for the IB diploma, no big deal) viva (some kind of post-essay-submission meetinterview) yesterday, I said 'erm' and 'like' way too many times. And was way too stuck for thoughts. That is actually how I'm going to be in interviews. 'Erm...like, you know that ting bruvz... innit that ting... basically... it's like...' Yup, that is me.

I just can't think straight in interview situations, because all I think about is saying something intelligent. Which is what would most please them, but that gets me straying from the path of 'say what you think'. But I don't know what I think because all I'm thinking about is the freakin' fact that this ting is called an 'interview'! Muaha, I'm so calm it's not even funny. Ok that phrase has to go. And so does 'like'. Help me guys...

Oh, another embarrassing moment yesterday morning, at the end of our Latin lesson, my Latin teacher asked one of the girls if she could 'have a word'. Not 'stay behind', but 'have a word'. Meanwhile, I was finishing up the bit of work we were doing in the lesson, and I saw the girl packing up so I assumed they were leaving the room to have this private convo. I sat there. And sat there. And sat there. Writing, of course, not just sitting (I'm not that much of a moron), until I sort of realised...they were waiting for me to leave. Oh joy. As I frantically left, I looked my teacher in the eyes and she kind of gave me this glare. Woops. Why do I get into these sitches...

xxxx

Dorset

[written on Saturday 07 Nov]

I dragged my mum and myself all the way to Dorset last night, to sit the SAT this morning at 7.45. In the morning. A bit of a waste? Hm, I think I failed that test. Because I did not revise enough. What a waste.

On a sidenote, does anyone know anything about the club/bar 'Jewel' in Covent Garden? Or the one in Piccadilly Circus? If you're a clubber extraordinaire reading this (why are you reading my blog) please get in touch : )

Back onto the topic. How awful, I wrote a terrible essay for the SAT. It was about rights – women's rights and LGBT rights. AWFUL. Worst piece of writing I've ever done. Rushed, thoughtless, poorly structured, just... hmm. Ok, I've just realised, what if the marker is reading this blog, they're gonna get majorly influenced. Correction, I've just written the best piece EVER for my SAT, it was an innovative piece that was insightful and masterfully structured and will be groundbreaking towards establishing rights for those mandemz.

...

Yeah.

It was so time-pressured! And the whole you-get-1/4-of-a-point-off-if-you-answer-wrong really threw me off, so that I didn't know whether to risk answering or to leave it blank. Blah. I'll just have to wait for my scores and see if i need to re-sit it. FML. December SAT Subject Tests next.

Travelling was good though. Rushed last night to Waterloo in late afternoon, to get on a train to Poole. I understate when I say that I love journeys. Just, sitting. Not sitting an exam, not sitting listening to a teacher drone on, not sitting in a waiting room. Just, sitting, cause you can. And I did some SAT revision. Go me. Meanwhile, there was a group of uni students sitting adjacent to us, so my SAT revision constituted of eavesdropping on their convos. Listening to them made me sure of how bloody excited I am for uni life – travelling, clubbing, being with friends – living the life, basically. Oh and the studying, obviously.

That's reminded me – I can't get this out of my mind (not to be corny) – but my mum said to me: if I knew that you'd wanted to do Classics (undergrad degree), I wouldn't have sent you to [my current school]. She wasn't angry at all when she said that. It was more mild disappointment/regret/benefit of hindsight. Because she thinks that I deserve doing something high-brow like Law, or something really specialised because I have the brains for it. No comment for now.

Onwards and upwards, I found out You Me At Six have announced a 2010 tour. Support: We The Kings, Forever The Sickest Kids. Sickk. Except, er, not that sick. You Me At Six have really deteriorated since I first heard them (approx early 2008). Back then their sound was so raw it was butchered.

Fine, bad joke.

The 'Save It For the Bedroom' demo is the epitome of their raw sound, with no industrial mainstream riff-raff making sound too clean-cut and Josh's voice still sounding quite fresh and unique. Now it's just.. teenage fangirl material (cause I'm defs not a teenage fangirl). I still like them – I think – just definitely not as much as before.

And We the Kings? I overplayed them back in January/February and am suffering the consequences now. Forever the Sickest Kids? I don't know their songs. I have their album on my iPod, just haven't bothered to listen. I'm such a bad music fan.

But I'm really not. Guess who's seeing Paramore with You Me At Six! And..two other bands, that I WILL look up beforehand! Can't wait. And the day after that gig, is my 18th PARTY. Great start to my holiday. I actually cannot wait to go mad once I'm 18.

xxxx

classics knows best

Oh dear my blog is a little messed up. I tried to stick in some HTML layout code (neek talk) but it didn't really work and I didn't realise that that erased my old layout...Bah. Ah well, it'll have to do with being average-looking.


What's on my mind today... The fact that I've been advised to put everything second to my priority of the moment – Classics. Oh yeah. So all those English, History, Philosophy essays, those Maths and Chemistry five-page-long sets of questions: they'll just have to be 5/20 quality. Well I've achieved that in History already, and in Maths (well ok, I achieved that a year ago). Chemistry won't be hard to be crap at, I've got two English essay deadlines for next week, and I am horrendously behind on Philosophy homework as it is. Oh and those Philosophy and Maths courseworks – wahey!

On a happier note, the Classics extension class today left me feeling really happy, a feeling that is seldom felt after those classes. And that is nothing to do with the fact that MS groaned and snarled about a gazillion times. Also to do with Classics (it really is taking over my life), the Classics soc secretary has coerced me into doing a thank you speech for the Senior Societies speaker (every week, our school invites outside speakers to speak to us because clearly they think we're not spoken to) tomorrow, because apparently I do very little ('what is there to do for the magazine?!') work for the society. Hell yeah I do, people just don't bloody do anything in return so nobody realises that I'm working! Euch, angst. Yeah, not something I'm looking forward to doing. And, another Classics thing I have to sort out is a) a name for the freakin magazine, b) things to actually go into the magazine? Yeah, b) would be quite nice.
Wow, that post is about 80% Classics-centric.
xxxx

good day

So, have not been on for a week-ish. Busy busy busy. That's my week. And snooze snooze snooze (on the bus, cause night time is the new work time)

Anyway, I've only been on for... two minutes, and I have to go now. Got SAT revision to do, for the SAT test tomorrow, in an SAT test center a few million miles away, for the US unis that I don't even know whether I want to go to or not. FML!

One thing that happened this week made me think: just, omg. She's fit.

xxxx