http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19421257
I don't usually post about random news stories, but this one really got to me. Normally, I read articles online, and take an average of around 5-10 minutes to click on something else, move on, and forget about it. However, something really affected me about this tragedy, I don't know if it's because; I was thinking about the concept of "YOLO" again, because I'm thinking about moving into the next stage of my life (university) or whether the sense of human loss and complete injustice is just so obvious after reading it.
Clearly, once several moments had past and I had time to concerntrate I began to think about what a horrible, horrible shock this must have been, not just to those who witnessed the event, but to the parents and family of this young woman, whose life was ended so quickly, and without any kind of explanation, other than perhaps an inexorable fate. May she rest in peace.
It's not nice to think that perhaps the way that you will die has been decided since the day you were born, is it? I suppose that depends to what extent you believe in pre-determinism and stuff though. Either way, this has kind of been a wake up call for me, I've spent the last few days going out for the occasional dinner, going to the theatre, but doing nothing much productive, now however, I feel motivated to have a proper sort through all of my stuff in preparation to leave home in a month, and after that I'm going to start packing to go away for a couple of days.
After all, who knows how much time I have left, or any of us, for that matter.
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
― Francis Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Friday 31 August 2012
Friday 24 August 2012
What goes around comes around!
I was originally going to use this post to talk about the image above, the composition, colours, patterns, and objects in this set, which is nice enough, and one of my best I'd like to think. However, I have discovered something incredible and much more interesting!
I was searching for a title for this post, and noted that recently the quote "and the rest is rust and stardust" keeps being used on tags, posts and picture captions recently so I decided to look it up online. I discovered that this quote actually comes from Vladimir Nabokov's, Lolita, Chapter 25, Humbert's Wanted poem. This fact, whilst interesting, is only the beginning!
I typed the quote into Google, being the curious soul that I am, and found a Tumblr* link with the same title. Tumblr has always fascinated me, because it has the ability to simultaneously amuse and confuse me, and so I love looking at people's Tumblr pages, usually consisting of deep, meaningful quotes in coloured boxes and borders, and pictures of teenage girls, often with their faces hidden, in various states of dress. Anyway, I clicked on the link, and began my habitual scroll.**
And then, to my absolute astonishment, I saw an image that I had once used to edit with GIMP, featured on some strange Tumblr page, whose owner is probably living hundreds of miles away, and will probably never speak to me, or know of me, let alone meet me!
The image has been reposted, liked and commented on thousands of times.
It seems strange that the concept, the idea, has now come full-circle to me! Here's the evidence;
My original post, Feb 2011:
The Tumblr I found the image on today, August 2012:
The number of people who have interacted with this image!: http://drivemysoull.tumblr.com/post/29216309677
*I love Tumblr, but unfortunately I can't make it work. I've tried setting up an account, but if I can't make things work, then I can't make things my own, and then they just don't work for me. I had a Tumblr account for a couple of days though, to try it out, and I had a single, solitary follower! Sorry in advance, if you are that follower, and are wondering what on earth happened to that weird, half-established Tumblr page that you were following! I'll remain forever grateful for that single person, who, for a couple of days, made sure that my Tumblr was not a complete failure!
**I love scrolling Tumblr pages, with rows and rows of images to consider, they're the best because they require the least clicking - very addictive though, it's like constantly spinning a wheel - how do you know when to stop?
I was searching for a title for this post, and noted that recently the quote "and the rest is rust and stardust" keeps being used on tags, posts and picture captions recently so I decided to look it up online. I discovered that this quote actually comes from Vladimir Nabokov's, Lolita, Chapter 25, Humbert's Wanted poem. This fact, whilst interesting, is only the beginning!
I typed the quote into Google, being the curious soul that I am, and found a Tumblr* link with the same title. Tumblr has always fascinated me, because it has the ability to simultaneously amuse and confuse me, and so I love looking at people's Tumblr pages, usually consisting of deep, meaningful quotes in coloured boxes and borders, and pictures of teenage girls, often with their faces hidden, in various states of dress. Anyway, I clicked on the link, and began my habitual scroll.**
And then, to my absolute astonishment, I saw an image that I had once used to edit with GIMP, featured on some strange Tumblr page, whose owner is probably living hundreds of miles away, and will probably never speak to me, or know of me, let alone meet me!
The image has been reposted, liked and commented on thousands of times.
It seems strange that the concept, the idea, has now come full-circle to me! Here's the evidence;
My original post, Feb 2011:
The Tumblr I found the image on today, August 2012:
The number of people who have interacted with this image!: http://drivemysoull.tumblr.com/post/29216309677
**I love scrolling Tumblr pages, with rows and rows of images to consider, they're the best because they require the least clicking - very addictive though, it's like constantly spinning a wheel - how do you know when to stop?
Friday 17 August 2012
Just another day, that I had the best day of my life.
Celebratory set!
I feel like I've been waiting my whole life to post this, honestly.
I feel like I've been waiting my whole life to post this, honestly.
Dream
So, we all have dreams don't we? Funnily enough, although we dream at night, most of our true dreams are things that we carry around during the day, in our thoughts, and in my case this is definitely true - I'd spent the whole week, throughout driving lessons (somewhat distracting!), working, even trips to the cinema (!) thinking about Results day, and what it could possibly mean for me and my friends, but mostly, I must confess, what it would mean for my own future.
Well, there's no doubt that yesterday was one of the most dramatic days of my life, I'd gone to bed at 1 in the morning, and kept waking up, woke up properly at about 6 and had about 1/2 an hour's sleep when my friend rings me to tell me that UCAS track has updated online!
About 5 minutes later, I find out something incredible.
My place at university had been confirmed.
Now, I had no idea of my grades, but after that point I didn't really care, I just kept logging on and off to check that I wasn't still dreaming, having been sleep deprived for several days! The day, however, just got better, my sister got ABCC in her AS results, despite only being predicted BCC, my friends all got into their first or second choice universities, or were able to find spaces at very good universities (University of East Anglia for example) through Clearing within an hour or so. AND, my final grades were A*A*A :o well over what I needed to get in - AAA.
It was incredible, I'm talking; champagne, photos, crying, laughing, lunch AND dinner out, about a million phone calls and a great evening with my friends and family. Seriously, seeing my teachers happy and my family proud was the best thing ever, and yesterday was without a doubt one of the best days of my life. Being able to talk about university without using the word "if" in the same sentence is fantastic, and even better is being able to get excited about the direction my life is going in for the next 3 years, it makes years of hard work and pressure really worth it.
So, the moral of the story is, if you have a dream, work hard and don't let go. Yes, you'll spend some days crying, and some days smiling, you'll have moments of satisfaction and despair (my lowest grade was ironically in History, after an exam paper that had me very worried for 8 weeks! But I got my A and that's all that counts :D). It'll be worth it all, I promise you, being able to look back over the past 4 years or so and have no major regrets is a great feeling. I think several people in my year realised a little too late that working a bit harder, putting in the extra effort and never giving up might have made a real difference to their results.
People might look at someone with As and A*s and think they're a genius, which could be true, but it mostly likely isn't. I know I could have never achieved those grades without solid hard work, and an average of 10 hours of revision a day in the peak of my exams, not even counting the months of coursework and revision leading up to that! I chose to make academia my life, and everyone else must choose what they wish to do with their own life, and, as long as it's their own choice then they've made a good decision, I'd say.
Would I do all of that work over again to get where I am today? Of course!
Sunday 12 August 2012
When will I get my A-level results? What is the weather like here? Is there life on other planets? Read on to find out the answer to two of these three very important questions...
If only I had something more interesting to write about, than the fact that it's 4 days until I get my A2 results, and time has never gone so slowly! But I don't. Recently here the weather has improved (well, until tomorrow that is) and so I've been making the most of bing outside! I can't believe that the London 2012 Olympics is nearly over, after all of the preparation, hype, build up and then the spectacular event itself! It has proved me with a great distraction these last two weeks :p. Hayfever aside, I really love the summer, being able to wear nicer clothes (summer clothes are so much more attractive than practical winter clothes!), go out when I want, generally do what I want...it's a good life, though sometimes I do miss the routine of school.
The image above (another one of my creations on Polyvore) includes classic summer images, and a floral-themed outfit, complete with a matching clutch! I think my favourite part about it is the use of gold frames and the peachy-pink coloured blossom and flowers, it's a very romantic look, and it really shows up the summer sunlight filtering through the pictures, which is just perfect for a dreamy summer afternoon :)
Monday 6 August 2012
Rose-tinted heaven
Found some of my old polyvore images from earlier in the year that I never got to publish on here, despite it being close to 1 'o' clock in the morning, I thought - why not? I need a good old clear out of my drafts, or "ghost posts" as I prefer to call them. Here are some creations that I never found the words for.
Sunday 5 August 2012
London 2012 - Olympic fever!
London 2012
I have returned! And in the last week, I've been in and out of London twice, braving the Tube and trains around central London, including Euston, Victoria, the Circle, Northern and District lines, all whilst carrying a handbag, suitcase and another carrier bag full of books and shoes (i.e, my life in a bag, essentially) - I think that this deserves some kind of recognition! I went over near Canterbury to my Dad's, in case anyone was wondering who on earth would go through such travel chaos at a time like this.
Oh, and it turns out that Victoria is in the direction of the Olympic Park, and I also had the stops for Horseguards' Parade and Hyde Park to navigate around, but I did it, albeit having to literally stop and take cover with my suitcase at times, when the crowds became unbearable, and then I scurried like a little mouse to the stairs, before the next tube could come in!
Whilst I was at the coast I had time to look around the Turner contemporary gallery in Margate, go to the beach at Deal, and walk through Canterbury. Pretty good, except for the weather, I have genuinely never seen a sunny day in Kent, it's like a geographical black hole, or maybe I'm just unlucky.
Anyway, back to London 2012 and team GB. When I left, they had only 1 silver medal I think? What a difference 5 days makes! Currently 3rd on the medal table (which could change in a week) which is an amazing feat considering the size of our population, compared to the USA, Russia or China, which just goes to show, quality over quantity every time. (The same is true of Olympic medals I have discovered, it matters less the no. of silver and bronze, it's all about the GOLD.)
Unless of course, you are discussing Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice;
"All that glisters is not gold."
I have returned! And in the last week, I've been in and out of London twice, braving the Tube and trains around central London, including Euston, Victoria, the Circle, Northern and District lines, all whilst carrying a handbag, suitcase and another carrier bag full of books and shoes (i.e, my life in a bag, essentially) - I think that this deserves some kind of recognition! I went over near Canterbury to my Dad's, in case anyone was wondering who on earth would go through such travel chaos at a time like this.
Oh, and it turns out that Victoria is in the direction of the Olympic Park, and I also had the stops for Horseguards' Parade and Hyde Park to navigate around, but I did it, albeit having to literally stop and take cover with my suitcase at times, when the crowds became unbearable, and then I scurried like a little mouse to the stairs, before the next tube could come in!
Whilst I was at the coast I had time to look around the Turner contemporary gallery in Margate, go to the beach at Deal, and walk through Canterbury. Pretty good, except for the weather, I have genuinely never seen a sunny day in Kent, it's like a geographical black hole, or maybe I'm just unlucky.
Anyway, back to London 2012 and team GB. When I left, they had only 1 silver medal I think? What a difference 5 days makes! Currently 3rd on the medal table (which could change in a week) which is an amazing feat considering the size of our population, compared to the USA, Russia or China, which just goes to show, quality over quantity every time. (The same is true of Olympic medals I have discovered, it matters less the no. of silver and bronze, it's all about the GOLD.)
Unless of course, you are discussing Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice;
"All that glisters is not gold."
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