New Year’s Resolutions

Another year ends.  So much seems to have happened in the past year, doesn’t it?  I’m not sure I’m even the same type of person I was last time I wrote a new year’s post.

I’m not normally big on resolutions, but last year I did set myself the following goal:

I’ve resolved to work harder and more efficiently this year, and hopefully become a better person for it.  That means no more wasting time sitting in the study area playing video games and bitching about people.  If I’m going to achieve anything, I’ve got to strive for it.

So, how did that work out?  Well, I certainly put lots of effort in last spring and summer, but then I kind of burnt out at the end of the school year.  This year I’ve been nothing short of apathetic a lot of the time.

These past months, I’ve really not been happy with myself, and I haven’t really done anything about that.  So I’ve decided that this year, I will make some proper resolutions, and I’ll do my best to stick to them.

• I will not be too critical of other people, or make judgements based on events that are beyond other people’s control.
• I will not wallow in self pity.
• I will not let other people push me around.  I can make my own decisions.
• I will think before opening my mouth.
• Statements such as “I don’t think you could ever offend anyone” will be interpreted as compliments, not challenges.
• I will have a part-time job by the end of March, and a full-time job by the end of the year.
• I will not procrastinate.  Well, not too much.
• I will take the time to get my head around technology, rather than allowing myself to be mystified by it.  I’ve got an A-level in Media Studies, after all!
• I will learn to play the guitar properly.
• I will never allow myself to become narrow minded.
• I will not drink more than I can handle.
• I will never lick a table.
• I will not lose my temper.
• I will revise for my exams.  Might help.
• I will get some sleep.
• Most importantly, I will not be a prat.

There, I think that’s everything covered.  Now for the hard part – living up to them.  That starts now!

…Well, tomorrow.  Yeah, I’ll start working on those tomorrow.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to all of my readers.

(THANK YOU!)

Special thanks go to sulz, museditions, gentledove, Cat,  cjwriter, timethief, Will Rhodes, crazyasuka, raincoaster, bevchen, JRoller online book reviews, theunhappycamper and everyone else who has commented here over the past year.  Your comments mean a lot to me.  Thank you all so very much!

Happy New Year, everybody!

Chapter 69 – the rant

I only remembered this morning that sulz had done a very similar post not all that long ago.  So everyone will think I ripped it off.  Sorry sulz!  (Read her post, it’s better!)

So, this guy.  You’ve heard of him before.

I may not have all the same things Iaru has, but I have far too many blessings to count.  I’ll remember that next time I’m feeling gloomy.

***

Today has mainly been tidying the house ready for Christmas.  I’m always astounded by how messy the place seems to get each year!

It’s weird not having any Saturday TV shows to watch, but we’re into the Christmas programming now.

An Award and Some Festive Cheer

Hello, ladies and gentlefellows, and welcome to the first non-story-related post in a while!

First up today, sulz has awarded me this trophy:

Yay!!  Thank you very much, sulz!

The cup rewards volume.  In turn, I award it to Gentledove in recognition of the sheer quantity of thoughtful, witty and beautiful poetry to be found on her blogs, http://gentledove.wordpress.com/ and http://gentledove2.wordpress.com/.

I said previously that I’d been a bit of a jerk lately – not that anybody seems to have noticed – so on Tuesday, I was determined to be nice to everyone, and not be mad at anyone.  Everybody immediately noticed that I was happier than I have been lately, although they thought I’d been terrified, not grumpy!  I think I only have five facial expressions: happy, sad, confused, scared and occasionally disgusted (generally speaking, confused is my default expression).

My resolution to not be angry with anyone was tested somewhat by an acquaintance of mine who was being - as usual - exceedingly annoying, and surpassed himself on Tuesday by jumping on my back without warning, falling off, knocking into two of my friends in the process, and then - ignoring my friends’ complaints and distressed noises - proceeding to rant at me for being lousy at giving piggybacks.  In fairness, though, he has been made aware that his behaviour irritates people, and is making an effort to be less annoying, bless him.

Anyway, I’ve been feeling a lot happier these past couple of days.  I gave everyone cards, and we’ve been eating chocolate and generally feeling more festive than usual.  We’re going for a meal on Monday, which should be cool, although it will also be expensive.

Tomorrow after school I will be attending the Sixth Form ”Snow Ball” (ho ho, how very droll), a semi-formal excuse for alcohol for which all guests are required to wear suits.  I haven’t got a suit, but never mind, I’ll improvise something.  Probably something resembling my walrus costume.  Probably without drinking straws, although I suppose they could come in handy.

So, this seems like an appropriate time to wish you a very happy festive season, whether or not you celebrate Christmas.  Have fun!

Current listening: We Are Scientists, “This Scene Is Dead”.

Chapter 67 – the rant

But how will Clouds do any Christmas shopping when she’s not allowed out after school?

Music Tech recording seldom goes this smoothly in my experience, but when it does, it feels very rewarding.  Choosing the right mic for the task is a very important aspect of recording.  I prefer condenser mics over dynamics, myself.  They pick up a lot more.

***

I haven’t seen The Sarah Jane Adventures finale yet, but that’s what iPlayer is for, right?

I have, however, got into a new web series, called With the Angels.  It’s much more grounded in reality than LG15: the resistance, but so far it seems very intelligent and interesting, and the characters seem more “real”.  Whether I like it better than the awesome KateModern in the long run remains to be seen.

I’ve had a tiring day, and I’ve gotten quite annoyed with people over things that weren’t really anybody’s fault.  I’ve realised that I’m being a jerk (that’s the nice word for it).  That all stops now.  I’m going to be full of festive cheer tomorrow at school, I’ll make sure of it!  Some people are in need of cheering up.

Return of the Meme!

It’s a while since I’ve done one of these.

Sulz has tagged me to do a meme!  Yay!  As usual, some of my answers are cop-outs, but I’ve tried, I really have.

4 places I go over and over:

(1) School - I don’t like it, but I seem to keep coming back year after year!
(2) The pub
(3) The Gloucestershire countryside
(4) This computer!

4 people who e-mail me regularly:

(1) Nobody, really.
(2) My friends and I only tend to email when we’re planning to go someplace.
(3) I do get some annoying semi-spam emails on a regular basis.
(4) I haven’t answered this question very well, have I?

4 of my favorite places to eat:

(1) Bella Italia (nearby fancy Italian restaurant)
(2) The Balti (nearby welcoming Indian restaurant)
(3) The local kebab place (they do awesome chips)
(4) Pizza Hut (naturally)

4 places you’d rather be NOW:

(1) Any of the above places to eat
(2) The Costa del Sol
(3) Alton Towers
(4) A more comfortable chair than the one I’m currently sat in

4 TV shows I could watch over and over:

(1) Doctor Who
(2) Fawlty Towers
(3) Fullmetal Alchemist
(4) Red Dwarf

4 movies I could watch over and over:

(1) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(2) Cloverfield
(3) Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
(4) Fantasia

4 people I hope will respond:

(1) Museditions
(2) Gentledove
(3) YOU
(4) The guy in the back row with the funny hat

Another award! Awesome!

The lovely sulz has given me another award.  Thanks sulz!

I have to name 8 other bloggers to give awards to.  Do I read as many as 8 other blogs on a regular basis?

Ahem.  In no particular order, I bestow this prestigious award upon:

• MusEditions
• Will Rhodes
• gentledove
• cjwriter
• dissfunktional
• raincoaster
• crazyasuka
• Adam Robbins

So yeah.  Yay!

This blog has received an award…

Yay!!!

Awarded by
sulz
to BobbyG

Thank you sulz.  I’ll treasure it!

Maybe by posting it here I can get my blog some much-needed street cred.

Interview

I have been interviewed by The Pakistani Spectator.  You can read the interview here.

I’m very vague throughout!

A useful site

Bored and with nothing better to do one ”study” period (i.e. as I am typing this) I was browsing Adam’s website.  It includes a link to this site, which is pretty helpful for the critical research study:

http://www.longroadmedia.com/yr13_research.html

I may make use of it in future (i.e. the next time I am bored with nothing better to do).

YouTube links

Links to the music videos I have analysed so far can be found at the bottom of each analysis.  Unfortunately, something bad happened recently, which I discovered quite by chance when testing out a pair of speakers.  YouTube removed the video of Tribute due to failure to comply with their ”terms of use”.  I don’t know why this is.  After all, the BBC claims that all four major labels make their videos available on YouTube.  Tenacious D are signed to Sony BMG, which is one of the “big four” so there shouldn’t be a copyright problem.

At the moment I’ve simply changed the link to a different person’s upload of the video, but I’m just letting you know that if this persists I might not be able to always provide these kinds of links.