demonandwizards

Because I couldn't not grab my camera when it started snowing again [again, we may just get a white Christmas at this rate] this morning. My hands almost froze, all in the name of photography/being arty.



I love how pale the sky goes when it snows during the day. ( +6 more )

I don't know why, but I revert to being approximately six years old when I see snow; it makes me want to make a snowman, go sledging, and throw snowballs at Buddy - he's so daft that he doesn't mind, and thinks it's fun. I prefer staying indoors, though, where it's warm.

I have requested to join ONTD. No doubt that this will soon be added to the List of Things That I Regret Doing. Why did I do it? For the lulz/wank opportunities. Which is reason enough to do anything, I think.

EDIT: "I don't see anything wrong with using the word 'gay' to describe something in a negative way, i.e. "that was gay". I think McKellen was going a little OTT by calling it horrifying." LOL, pejorative use of the word gay is liek ~sooooo cool~, you guys.

Yeah, I know I just posted, but I felt that this deserved its own post. ETAs just don't do this justice.

Refusion has Pixie Lott, Little Boots and Girls aloud in her interests...

She obviously isn't a RATM fan. Or even a music fan...

OOOH, ~SICK BURN~. I AM SO HURT BY THIS.

I would really like to know if little brothers are secretly paid to be as irritating as possible.

A little while ago, Stuart [my darling little brother] decides that, snow or no snow, he's going to go to the shop, because he wants some chocolate. He asks me and my mother if we want something, to which I reply "surprise me" because I can't think of anything that I specifically want. All chocolate is good, as far as I am concerned. Off he then goes.

He comes back about ten minutes later, and I hear my bedroom door open. I am playing a spot of Animal Crossing [gotta sell my turnips and make a snowman] so I don't look up. The next thing I know, a Mars Dark is thrown at me, which collides with my laptop on its journey from my brother in the doorway, to my bed. The screen then goes completely white and everything disappears. It's fine now, though.

I tell Stuart to be careful, to which he replies "you said surprise you". Yes, Stuart, I did. I meant surprise me with a chocolate bar. A surprise does not constitute having said chocolate bar thrown at you, and do god knows what to your laptop in the process. Honestly!

Do any of you want a paid account for $9.95, instead of the usual $19.95? Let me know and I'll send you a coupon! I might as well use them up.

The following was posted on Speak You're Branes, and it really truly is one of the most wonderful things I have ever seen in my life. It is to do with snow, and weather, and all that nonsense.

"It must be difficult for Northerners to understand the disruption caused by the snow, because the disruption is primarily being caused to people with jobs."
Greg

Those of you who are not from the UK might not realise this, but no-one in the North of England works at all. I mean it, no-one. We all sit at home on our backsides all day watching Jeremy Kyle (on 30" plasma screens), and waiting for our dole money, which is given to us from taxes paid by hard working Southerners, to get deposited into our bank accounts so we can go down to the offy¹ to buy booze and cigarettes. Whilst we're doing this, our multiple children are out earning their 53rd ASBO, and giving birth to our grandchildren. It's a hard life, but someone's got to live it².

Despite extremely treacherous weather conditions, I managed to make it to college this morning. We watched Proof (which was quite good), and we ate our collective way through a shit-load of food brought in by ourselves and our tutor. There was a lot left at the end of the day, so I have scored three boxes of mince pies, and some popcorn.

After college I went and purchased some proper fairy lights and some balloons from Wilkinsons. I am going to photograph them both later. I think that blowing up balloons can be taken as a measure of how fit you are. I blew one up and, fuck me, it was difficult doing so.

¹ - "Offy" = Off-licence.
² This whole paragraph is facetious. This Greg fellow, he is a twat.

This time the thing I want is an iRobot Roomba; an automatic vacuum cleaning robot that can be programmed to vacuum so you don't have to. How awesome is that? I do not see it as being lazy, I see it as a good use of technology.

The fact that it is a robotic vacuum cleaner is not the main reason that I want it, though. The main reason that I want it is shown in this video I found on YouTube, posted underneath the LJ cut. ( Read more... )

It snowed yesterday afternoon. The snow has stuck and, rather predictably, the country seems to be grinding to a halt already. The news has told us to stay at home, and not go out unless it is absolutely necessary. Pathetic, absolutely pathetic. The slightest icing sugar-like dusting of snow and everyone panics. We haven't even had that much snow where I live. I went outside last night to test the conditions underfoot, and it was not that bad. It was absolutely freezing, though (never have I been more grateful for my pretend Ugg boots).

I finish college for Christmas today. I can't wait.

Whilst on the way to the bus station after college yesterday I had a conversation with my friends, Sarah and Mark, which tickled me greatly. It was about why Sarah and I thought that having a vagina is better than having a penis. The reasons for its superiority that we concluded on were thus:

• We [females] do not look silly naked.
• It is not noticeable when we're sexually aroused.
• We generally do not make a mess when we orgasm.

The whole period thing is a bit of a downer, though. It was such a deep, philosophical conversation; where would any of us be without these conversations?

( Some photographs )

If there is one thing that I am sick to the back teeth of hearing about at the moment, it is the campaign to get Rage Against The Machine to #1 for Christmas instead of the X Factor lad. I do not understand it at all. Nor do I like Killing In The Name (it's utter bilge if you ask me). It seems ridiculous to me that the #1 is going to be taken by a song that is only in the charts because of an internet-orchestrated campaign to seemingly stick the boot into Simon Cowell/The X Factor. Please feel free to hate me for this.

Wouldn't it be weird and crazy if something like an actual Christmas song was #1 in time for Christmas, though?

DAILY MAIL STORY: "Drunks who force themselves on wives or girlfriends should face 'sex breathalyser' and rape charge, says government adviser".

Let's play a game now, shall we? The instructions are very simple:

01) Go to the comments section.
02) Go on "View All"
03) Find the green arrowed comments.
04) Try to keep blood pressure in check.
05) Post the worst ones you can find!

There's lots to choose from, believe me: victim blaming, comments about Baroness Stern is just upset because no drunk men have tried it on with her (obviously a dig at her appearance), the oh-so-tired "feminazi" line.

I despair, I really fucking despair.

Shall I post this to rage_free? What say you, internet?

On my tutor's suggestion, I left college some time before 11:30 yesterday so I could go into Manchester city centre to take photos at the Christmas Market. I had planned on shooting on film yesterday, but we had none (because people get it, and don't pay for it, so no more can be bought). So when this suggestion was made, I almost jumped at it. I went home briefly, as I did not have my DSLR with me, and I went out again at about 1pm, after I had had a coffee and rested for a little bit.

The photos that I took and edited yesterday are under the cut, WHICH IS NOT DIAL-UP FRIENDLY. ( As you will see, I need to go to bokeh rehab )

I do hope you enjoyed that photo spam. I certainly enjoyed taking them. I was a little sad that I did not have a lot of money on me, and thus couldn't buy much. Maybe next year. I did manage to get a Gingerbread Latte, though. I had to. It was as lovely as ever (that said, I remember being quite disappointed with one last year).

On the subject of Christmas, and all things festive, I gave my mother my (very small) Christmas list this morning. I have asked for socks, a Starbucks Candy Mug, and a Diana F+ Mr Pink. I know that I am also getting some Top Gear related stuff, including an I am The Stig t-shirt, as well.

I went for a walk¹ outside of college yesterday afternoon, down the road to Stamford Park where I took some photos that I am going to use as research in the brief I mentioned here. I think it can be quite tricky to try and visually encapsulate these kinds of issues, but I gave it a go, and I am actually really pleased with the photos that I took.

( Black & white, and bokeh. )

Festive market time on Saturday, providing that it's not raining. I must take my yearly photo of this sweet stall. I am tempted to go out later on in the afternoon, as it's getting dark, so I can photograph the lights/Zippy when they come on. I'll see how I feel on Saturday itself.

This is my favourite Christmas song at the moment, because it's just lovely: Wish You Well by A Fine Frenzy

¹ - Doing so is not what you would call fun at the moment, owning to a blister on the sole of my foot.

( Cut for talk of depression/mental health issues )

Why am I choosing to mention this now? My current brief at college is to do with what is your personal Utopia and Dystopia, and I am going to do something to do with this (what is mentioned under the cut). What am I thinking of is something to do with light and dark, I just need to figure out how to portray this visually now.

I would like to include in my research other people's experiences of depression, and similar conditions; how it makes you feel, how you cope, things like that. If any of you have experience of this, then would you be so kind as to leave me a comment telling me of your experiences? Be as in-depth as you see fit. I have enabled anonymous commenting and turning IP logging in my journal off for this purpose, as I realise that this may not be an easy thing to talk about, and you might not feel comfortable doing so under your username. It would help me with my research, and I would really appreciate it.

If you do not want to comment, then perhaps you could email me. My email address is eightsecondpause at aol dot com.

Do you fancy a laugh on this Monday evening? If you do, then I am hoping that I will be able to provide it.

This thread is one of the most ~beautiful~ I have ever seen on the Digital Spy general discussion. It's a tale of oppression and hardship never before seen by man. The OP was innocently driving down some road when all of a sudden "some slim shorted haired woman" (quite how the woman's figure and hair length pertains to this story I do not know), and makes a stop sign gesture. Apparently, "about 100" children then proceed to cross the road, holding our dear OP up for about "5 to 10 minutes".

I doubt this actually happened like this in reality, but let's pretend that it did. How terrible, how dare that teacher try to ensure that the (possibly hypothetical) children cross a road with safety, right? OP says in the opening post "I think this should be stopped and that teacher brought to trial." It's basically all downhill from there on in. The thread has now run to eight pages, because having to stop for a few minutes is clearly an injustice like no other. There's some utter gems of posts from the OP littering the thread, though:

"She should be jailed for her actions as far as I am concerned, as the jumped up Hitler has no right to stop my journey even for 5 seconds"

"No because teachers and police and all such services are quite incestuous by nature. I would of had to go though higher legal channels to get any justice and get his woman struck off for good."

"Well all I can say is I hope you all experience what I did and then you will know that I have a right to be angry. Next time you are getting car jacked or having your life stopped by some school teacher who thinks she is above the law then don't come crying to me about rights."

That last post is my absolute favourite of the thread. Car jacking is now equal to children crossing a road in a safe manner, apparently.

I still don't believe that this scenario actually happened in reality, but the thread gave me a lot of lols nonetheless.

"Pinky" is back for another year. I got it out from the storage compartment under my bed a few days ago, and I decorated it earlier this morning. I don't know if mine is delicious, but it certainly is pink! ( Oh, Christmas tree )

This Digital Spy thread is funny, "why do people who "aren't religious" celebrate Christmas?" Asks someone who's obviously not totally clued up on the history of Christmas. Oh noez, guys. I didn't realise that because I am agnostic I couldn't enjoy/celebrate Christmas! On page three, the OP has this to say; "maybe all non-religious can have a different festival on a different date -say Nov 25th? And leave Dec 25th for those that understand its true meaning." I really want to know who died and made them the Christmas police.

I really must try and get to the festive market in Manchester some time soon (in the next week or two). I'll be upset if I don't get my yearly photo of the sweet stall.