30 Day Picture Challenge: Day Five

Day Five: A picture of your favourite memory.

My amazing hat cake!

It was hard to choose my favourite memory, as there was so much to choose from! And if I'm honest, I don't know if this counts, as I was very drunk and my memory is slightly fuzzy! 

But anyway, my 18th Birthday party wins!

As you can tell from the cake, it was a hat themed party. Basically, you could be anything you wanted, as long as the costume incorporated a hat. Me and my brother were pirates, and my mum was a bar wench...

AAAARRRRRRRR!

There was some absolutely amazing costumes, including pilots, cops and robbers, gangsters....my gran and granddad were Laurel and Hardy haha!

We also held a best costume competition, which Emily won...

Noddyyy!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, it was just an amazing night! The room was full of people I love and we just had a great time. If my 21st party is anything like my 18th, I will be a very happy chappy! :D 

30 Day Picture Challenge: Day Four

Day Four: A picture of your night

Book.

Hot Vimto

 Yes, I'm cheating and using multiple pictures, just to emphasise how uneventful my night has been! I also wrote a uni blog (didn't have much to say for that either!), and OH...I succeeded in getting my sims 3 family to their fourth generation. I know, it's quite an achievement. Yes, I am very proud of myself. (That's not sarcasm either, considering how many times the bloody thing has crashed recently...maybe the two are not unrelated!)

The four generations of the Parker family. So proud :')

30 Day Picture Challenge: Day Three

Day Three: A picture of the cast from your favourite show

Gilmore Girls

I don't think that my love for Gilmore Girls is much of a secret! Gilmore Girls is the story of single mum Lorelai and her daughter Rory, who have an incredibly close relationship. It follows their lives over seven years, and through too much coffee and junk food, talking nonsense way too fast, and just general insanity, it teaches us a good few lessons about people, relationships and life. 

There are too many reasons why I love this show to mention here, but here are a few. The script is hilarious, but packed with intelligent humour, not just easy, cheap laughs. It's honest and even though the characters found in Stars Hollow are a little insane, they are believable and you learn to fall in love with every one of them (even Taylor.) 

The main reason I love Gilmore Girls however, is that it's basically an on screen portrayal of me and my mum. Like Lorelai, my mum had me at a young age (18), and I think that age gap plays a big part in how close we are. Me and my mum watched all seven seasons together over the summer, and it was amazing just how much we could relate to the characters and the situations they get in! 

Barlow-Edwards Girls.

Here's my favourite ever scene from all seven seasons...

Rory Graduates from Chilton ...Unfortunately I couldn't embed it, but click and watch anyway, it makes me cry every time! :)

30 Day Picture Challenge: Day Two

Day 02 - A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest

Me and Emily.

There was a few people I could have chosen for this one, the first person I thought of being my mum. But I'm using her for another day, and I don't want to cheat by using the same picture/person twice. 

Anyway, that's Emily! We met in the first year of college, and Emily practically lived at my house during second year! I just love the fact that we can be silly together and do things like spending months constructing a 'drunken dictionary', and staying up all night after a night out, just laughing at scouse postman Pat! We probably know way too much about each other, but it just shows how comfortable we are. Also, she is slightly 'fixated' with my bottom...I caught her squeezing it in the middle of the night once, just seeing if it really is as hard as it seems, or if I tense it....weirdo, I know. ;) 

30 Day Picture Challenge

So my friend Caitlin started this '30 Day Picture Challenge' on her blog, (http://thecaitfiles.blogspot.com/, it's very cool, you should check it out.) She invited me to join in, and it looks rather fun, so I thought I'd give it a go! Here's the challenge...

Day 01 - A picture of yourself with ten facts

Day 02 - A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest

Day 03 - A picture of the cast from your favorite show

Day 04 - A picture of your night

Day 05 - A picture of your favorite memory

Day 06 - A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day

Day 07 - A picture of your most treasured item

Day 08 - A picture that makes you laugh

Day 09 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most

Day 10 - A picture of the person you do the most ****** up things with

Day 11 - A picture of something you hate

Day 12 - A picture of something you love

Day 13 - A picture of your favorite band or artist

Day 14 - A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without

Day 15 - A picture of something you want to do before you die

Day 16 - A picture of someone who inspires you

Day 17 - A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently

Day 18 - A picture of your biggest insecurity

Day 19 - A picture and a letter

Day 20 - A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel

Day 21 - A picture of something you wish you could forget

Day 22 - A picture of something you wish you were better at

Day 23 - A picture of your favorite book

Day 24 - A picture of something you wish you could change

Day 25 - A picture of your day

Day 26 - A picture of something that means a lot to you

Day 27 - A picture of yourself and a family member

Day 28 - A picture of something you're afraid of

Day 29 - A picture that can always make you smile

Day 30 - A picture of someone you miss

So here goes... Day One: A picture of yourself with ten facts.

 Sorry for cutting you out, Tash!

Fact One: I like to think I'm clever...I'm just incurably lazy.
Fact Two: This is because I have no self discipline. 
Fact Three: I want to volunteer somewhere and make a big difference. I read a 'gap year diary' by a girl who spent a few months at an elephant orphanage in Sri Lanka...I would love to do that!
Fact Four: I'm failing at following the daily reading plan at the back of my Bible. I neglected it for too long, and although I'm trying to catch up to the right date, I have to admit it is quite hard going at times. Again...no self discipline. 
Fact Five: I'm finding it very hard to come up with ten facts that aren't already on my facebook page! 
Fact Six: I'm looking forward to moving back to Manchester and being an 'adult', but I'm also terrified of losing the security blanket of education that I've clung to for the last 17 years.
Fact Seven: I have indescribably terrible taste in men. 
Fact Eight: Uni has sucked the fun out of writing for me. However, it helped create my dream of being an editor. (Yes, that was incredibly cheesy, I apologise.)
Fact Nine: I get fixated on things very easily. I genuinely think this is a very mild form of OCD. I HATE the word 'obsessed' with a passion, because it has negative implications and it's been used way too much in my past. 
Fact Ten: I'm incredibly shy, which can have one of two results when I meet new people; I either appear standoffish and rude because I don't say anything, or I say too much. It just takes me a while to relax and make my mind up about people, before I let them in. 


Well there you go :) I think everybody should have a go and do their own challenge! 

...Oops Take Two

So yeah, I read over that blog and realised how utterly pointless it was, and then remembered it was because I didn't say anything I had actually wanted to say in it! So here's attempt number two...


The Graduation Bucket List isn't going very well. Basically because we don't have money or time to do anything! I'm thinking it's probably going to all be done in May, after the dissertation has been handed in, and we've got money and not a lot of rent to pay. We have managed to watch a Basketball game, and sing at karaoke, so that's something! The Big Snowdon Climb has been scheduled for July...9th July to be exact, which is perfect because it's the biggest challenge of them all, and it's the weekend before graduation!


Graduation week is also the week the final Harry Potter film comes out. I think that is a clear, very sad, sign that it's finally time for us to grow up...

Image from Google!

Anyway...The other thing I wanted to talk about is about a blog I've been following, by a woman who goes by the pseudonym of 'Cop's Wife'. You may have heard of her. Her blog is called 'Nerdy Apple Bottom.' Here's a link... http://nerdyapplebottom.com/

Anyway, in November she posted a blog about her son (not unusual, as most of her posts are about her kids), and his unusual choice of Halloween costume...Daphne from Scooby Doo. This child, 'Boo', is FIVE years old. Since then, Cop's wife has been posting updates about the reaction of their church to the event, and the blog she posted about it. 

Basically, the pastor in her church, along with the elders, have punished her for sticking up for her kid. Here's her list of events:

10/29/10 Halloween party at preschool
11/02/10 Published blog post.
11/04/10 Blog picked up by national and international print, broadcast, and digital outlets. Goes viral
11/05/10 Call from Pastor at church
11/06/10 Pastor met with Elders from church to discuss my “spiritual care” and decided I had broken 8^thCommandment by bearing false witness
11/08/10 Text from Pastor while we were in NYC for Today Show
11/09/10 Call from Pastor to schedule a meeting
11/10/10 Meeting in Pastor’s office, Squirt, my youngest, was present
2.5-month window with little to no contact
01/26/11 2^nd and final meeting in Pastor’s office

(Nerdy Apple Bottom)

As a result of all of this, Boo has had to change schools. A five year old has had to change schools because he wanted to dress up as a female character from his favourite TV show. I'm shocked and seriously confused by this. I'm a Christian, I go to church. This isn't how real Christians act, in my opinion.  That whole thing wasn't about religion, it was about control, and the pastor wanting power. Isn't God supposed to love us all unconditionally? Maybe the pastor should take a leaf out of His book, and stop trying to bully his (now ex-) church members.

Cop's Wife concluded that although she has given up on the church for now, she hasn't given up on God and her faith, which I think is a really promising end to the story. Obviously not as promising as everybody looking at a five year old in a Halloween costume and laughing about it, but the second best thing. Hopefully in time, she'll be able to go to a new church, with a less controlling pastor!

I'm also going to a new church when I move back to Manchester. It's got nothing to do with the people at the church I go to now, or the church itself. I love going there, especially with my mum and brother, when Cameron has a church parade, and hopefully I will still keep going to those. But the majority of the members are on the...older side! The church I've found is in Manchester city centre, and it's non-denominational, which is perfect for me because I can't get my head around all the different types of Christianity. We all believe in the same thing, right? Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's just how I see it. It also caters for the younger members, with loads of different groups and events to get younger people involved and interested. 

There's one thing they do in particular that I love about them. A lot of churches probably do similar things, but it just adds to the pros of this particular one. About four times a year, they have what they call 'VIP nights', where they invite homeless people into the church, give them new clothes, hair cuts, blankets etc, and provide meals and entertainment. I absolutely love the idea, and I really can't wait to get involved! My mum is also going to get involved, as 'volunteer at a soup kitchen/something similar' is on her 40th list! 

Anyway...here's the website of the church, if anybody is interested!    

 http://www.makingjesusfamous.org/photo-gallery/

That's enough from me for one day! Laterz! 

Oops!

So I've lived up to what I said about the lack of regular updates! To say I've been busy would be a lie, unless it was busy doing nothing! I guess my excuse is that writing (yet another) weekly blog for uni puts me off writing one for fun! Oh well, I'm here now!

So, I've just looked in my diary and found out that it's 6 weeks until I have to have my dissertation pretty much finished and ready to be bound, and a measly 13 weeks until my last ever university deadline. Scary stuff! 

However, one thing that made it better yesterday was (finally!) getting the marks back for the second module I did last semester, E-Publishing. I managed to get a 62, which is a 2:1, which I'm very happy with because it's made up for my Writing for Performance  marks (58), to drag my semester marks up to a 60, which will do for now! I'm happy that I got quite good marks for E-Publishing especially, seeing as that's kind of that I'm doing my dissertation on!

 Anyway, what I'm taking ages to say is that it seems if I get 2:1s this semester, especially a good one for my dissertation, I could still graduate with a 2:1...which makes me very happy!

So it's time to get my head down and get a degree. The problem is that March/April are big months in my social calendar (wow, that was so cheesy), which sounds like a pathetic excuse, and probably is, however; this year it's my best friend's 21st, then mine 11 days after that, and then I'm going on holiday six days after that. So they're quite unavoidable, big things on the calender. What I need is time management. Well actually, I'm quite good at the whole 'being organised' thing; I have all my notebooks and folders and textbooks all neatly arranged. I have about 4 different deadline sheets/timetables. I even have a motivation wall...

 I suppose being slightly OCD helps with the whole organisation. It's just the doing  part that defies me. That's the thing I need to work on. Not sitting there and thinking 'let's do some work' and then two seconds later going 'ooooh shiny distraction!' Or even, writing a blog post about how bad I am at actually doing work!