Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Welcome Aboard the Procrastination Express...

Welcome aboard the Procrastination Express. Sit down, put your feet up... Do everything you've never done before. Do everything you'll never do again. Waste some time. Waste some more.
It's all fine here on the Procrastination Express...

Exams are looming.  Students are cursing. Everyone's worrying. 

Yet procrastination's as rife as ever...

(To clarify, I'm currently multi-tasking, aka revising Psychology and procrastinating at the same time - take that sexism!)

Anyway, in other news, I'm currently kind-of obsessed with this song:
Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros


Tuesday, 22 April 2014

The Book Boyfriend Tag

Hello!

So, today, I'll follow in the footsteps of the lovely Andrea (Sempiternal Reader) and Sarah (A Glimpse of Blue) and give my Top 5 Book Boyfriends.

This seemed relevant...













 Here we go...

1. Xavier (Halo series)

Xavier's the kind of character who seems completely genuine, and would make the most incredible boyfriend! He doesn't back down when his girlfriend Bethany's kidnapped and held hostage in Hell (yep), is absolutely hilarious, occasionally trés sarcastic, and says some of the cutest things I think I might ever have read:

“A man in love can do extraordinary things, I don’t care if you’re an angel, you’re my angel, and I won’t let you go.”  

“I'm afraid that's inappropriate behaviour for the schoolyard," Xavier teased. "I know my charm is hard to resist, but please try and control yourself.”  

“Did I mention I've finally decided on a nickname for you?"
"I didn't know you were looking."

"Cookie," I announced proudly.
"Do you have any cyanide?"
"Well, some of us are just a bit hard to please.”


Unfortunately there's no picture of this character ANYWHERE, and I can't draw, so feel free to use your imagination!!!


2.  Cedric Diggory (Harry Potter)

Let's just get something straight: I love Cedric Diggory!!!

He's probably my favourite Harry Potter character, and he's so brave and kind and smart, and basically everything I could want from a boyfriend.  Oh yeah, apart from the fact that he's dead (nice one, Voldemort (!))

Aww, he's just so nice - especially to Harry - considering that he basically got killed because of him...

Cedric: "Go on, take it! You saved me, take it!"
Harry: "We'll take it together."

The room I spend most of my time in when I'm at school had a Harry Potter sorting quiz, and split everyone into houses, and I was the only one who wanted to be in Hufflepuff because Cedric was in Hufflepuff and I was a little bit obsessed! (I actually ended up Head Girl of Ravenclaw, but I was originally sorted into Hufflepuff???!)














3.  Peeta Mellark (The Hunger Games series)

I'm a Team Peeta over Team Gale ever since I first picked up the first book a few years ago. He's sweet and sensitive and kind, and cares so much for Katniss, but then isn't afraid to play his own game and use his talents to help himself.  And, come on, do you guys remember the cave-shelter?! Reading it was vivid enough - I haven't even got to that scene in the film yet! (I'd much rather the book to the film - I've had the first one on DVD for about 9 months and I still haven't finished it). 










4. Marcus "Radar" Lincoln (Paper Towns)

I don't really know why I like Radar.  He's not a main character, he doesn't really play any massive part in the book, but he seems really smart, and a good friend to Quentin and Ben, and I kind-of felt like I could relate to him when I read the book last summer.
Again, there isn't a picture of Radar anywhere, and I can't draw,
but here's a picture of an actor that http://thetoothpickchick.blogspot.co.uk/ thought
would make a great Radar!!!















5.  Tommy (Never Let Me Go)

Where can I start? Tommy basically embodies another perfect boyfriend for me - sweet, sensitive, not too brash and bold, a bit of an outsider... Ok, so he's from a dystopian sci-fi novella and he was created to be an organ donor, and my dad thought that both the book and the film were 'weird' (I do agree that parts of the film were significantly 'dulled down' compared to the strongly-dystopian book), but I found his character so genuine, and I felt for him so much, and I just wanted to hug him, really, through the whole book...

I don't tend to cry at books/films. I cried when I read about his breakdown in the cow field. I cried when I saw the exact same scene on film (minus the cow field):

"The moon wasn't quite full, but it was bright enough, and I could make out in the mid-distance, near where the field began to fall away, Tommy's figure, raging, shouting, flinging his fists and kicking out.
I tried to run to him, but the mud sucked my feet down. The mud was impeding him too, because one time, when he kicked out, he slipped and fell out of view into the blackness. But his jumbled swear-words continued uninterrupted, and I was able to reach him just as he was getting to his feet again. I caught a glimpse of his face in the moonlight, caked in mud and distorted with fury, then I reached for his flailing arms and held on tight. He tried to shake me off, but I kept holding on, until he stopped shouting and I felt the fight go out of him."


 
Oh, and Andrew Garfield - who plays Tommy in the film - is amazing! (And incredibly handsome!!!)
















Yep, so these are my Top 5 Book Boyfriends.  Feel free to tag yourselves, and give it a go!!! You won't regret it - I promise!!!

Monday, 14 April 2014

The One With All The Brackets

Hellooooooo!

I don't know if any of you are off school/college (etc.) at the moment?
I'm currently on my Easter break, which means two weeks off school to revise for my impending AS level exams (i.e. not a break).  Which is really what I should be doing now.  But two days in, and I'm already drowning in
sphygmomanometers and Kwashiorkor - and feel more like a cardiac surgeon than a 17 year old schoolgirl.

But, anyway, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, the men are fitting a new lamppost outside my living room window...
Life is good...

A bit off-topic, but, in other news, do you guys remember M?
(I'll just link my last reference of him here)
So, yeah, I'm kind-of friends with M now. Not good friends, but he's actually really nice (even if I've heard some stories about him not being so nice), and I can talk to him (sort of - like I told my mum, he's my 'have-a-nice-chat-if-both-in-same-room' friend, not a 'go-out-of-my-way-to-talk-to-him' friend).  And, anyway, there's only so much conversing you can do with someone before you accidentally bring up the time when you almost fell down a waterfall...

P.S. If you're wondering about the relevance of the post title:
1. I've just realised how many brackets I've used in this post.
2. I got a quiz question right on 'Friends' last night.
3. All 'Friends' episodes are named 'The One...'
4. Et voila, FGB's random, pointless post-titlement complete

Saturday, 12 April 2014

Musician's Review #8 - José González

Today's Musician's Review is José González.
José González is a Swedish singer-songwriter of Argentine parentage, whose music is often described as verging on indie-folk.

His cover of Swedish band The Knife's 'Heartbeats', released in the UK in 2005 (in his native Sweden in 2003) had been lying unnoticed in my iTunes library for years, as I kind-of thought that it was some dodgy 'cheesy-disco-trance' thing (not that I'm in any way judging disco/trance music) because it was off a compilation CD that my mum bought me for Christmas when I was about 8 (and judging by some of the stuff I listened to when I was 8, I wouldn't be surprised if it was!)

Last year, however, I finally accidentally listened to the song whilst revising for my exams. I realised that I had no clue what the song was, and had never heard it before, but found its intricate guitar melody and haunting vocals incredibly beautiful.

I was shocked to find out that this beautiful song was in fact the supposed 'cheesy-disco-trance' thing, and then mentally kicked myself for not listening to it earlier.

(And the moral of the story is, listen to the darn song before judging it as 'cheesy-disco-trance')

Above is a video for José González's cover of 'Heartbeats'

10 Things You Don't Know About Me

1. When I was younger, I really wanted to be a writer, and I used to write stories about a magic dog for my cousin...

2. I'm old enough to drive, but haven't started learning yet, because I don't trust myself (if you can't drive a go-kart, you can't drive a car!)...

3. I really like detective/murder-mystery films and TV series'...

4. People tend to argue over whether my hair's brown or black...

5. I have an annoying habit of joining in with other people's conversations...

6. My middle name's a translated version of Mary...

7. When I was little, I secretly dreamt of marrying Peter Parker and going to live in a house with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...

8. As the quintessentially British person I am, I like tea. I don't know why. There's nothing really fun about tea; nothing really special. But yet, I like it...

9. I once watched 'Pirates of the Caribbean' in French in a hotel room in the middle of nowhere...

10. I named my clarinet 'Morris D. Minor'...