The Art Con

I sometimes read ‘unions’ as ‘unicorns’. So you can understand my confusion when I read a headline that says ‘New York to Back Same-Sex Unions From Elsewhere’.

When I first saw these screenshots of Windows 7, I thought I was going to keel over and faint. I thought I was going to have to give up all hope that I ever had. But whether or not they’re real mock-ups, very early prototypes, or just some guy who was bored and opened up photoshop, I’m wary, worried and w- I can’t think of another ‘w’ word. But everything that I’ve heard about it so far just makes me wonder, is there really a point to all of this?

It’s coming to the end of the school year. Well, it is the end of the school year except for exams. And I need to get some organisation into the disposal of old school stuff. And burning my uniform and useless notes so that I will never have to see them again. Ok, so I’m not actually going to burn them, but it’s an idea. So I found an old homework diary from Year 7. There’s not much in there. A lot of pages have been half ripped out, probably due to certain acts of note passing back in the day. Nowadays, instead of passing around notes we just talk. Much easier, faster, and your hand doesn’t ache as much.
Inside, there’s the usual timetable, ’school rules’, a list of school clubs that you didn’t know existed, and the boring insert-homework-here section. Except there’s not much homework. I wrote all my homework inside there in the first month – September – but then it just stopped. There’s nothing else after that, and I wonder what happened. Whatever, my homework still got done…I think.
The weirdest thing about my homework diary is the front and back cover. I don’t know what I was thinking in Year 7 but there’s some random short sentences splattered on the covers. And I quote:

‘But what about the cheese?’
‘What cheese?’
‘That cheese’
‘Oh. That cheese…I ate it.’

‘The cow jumped over the moon. No really, I saw it.’

‘Is everybody going crazy? Yes except for hula hoops, they’re just yummy.’

‘I once saw an alien from outer space. It said that they wanted to take over the world. I told them not to and then they said ok and flew away.’

‘I have a sixth sense. The sense to detect when there’s chocolate in the room. But I lack common sense.’

‘Who made up the word fish?’
‘Fish did’
‘But they can’t talk’
‘You’d be surprised. Ever seen Finding Nemo?’

‘If you spun around a million times, what would happen?’
‘You would fall over’
‘But what if you had a donut in your hand?’
‘Then you would fall over, eat the donut, and throw up.’

I have no idea either. What can I say, I was 11…or somewhere around that age.

Is Radio.Blog.Club ever going to come out of hibernation? I didn’t think so.

Now I have a song stuck in my head because I said ‘I didn’t think so’. Doy. Now it’ll be replaying in my head until I play the song. At least I’m not talking to someone. Because if I’m talking to someone and a sentence reminds me of a song, then I get the urge to sing it out loud. Ok, I really need to go listen to that song. And eat. I almost forgot to eat lunch yesterday. Almost. I was ‘working’ on my computer and next thing I know it was coming to 2, and I hadn’t eaten yet. So. Yeh. I’m hungry. Get ready to be eaten pasta.

I always fail to see the bad things about TV shows and movies. I don’t understand how people do it. For instance, I just finished watching 2 seasons of 30 Rock. And then I start reading reviews about how ‘the writing isn’t as good as the first season’ or ‘the finale was definitely the best episode’. It’s all the same to me. Mind you, I can get by with watching movies with all action and no storyline and be happy. People might say Die Hard 4 wasn’t as good as the others, and they might say the same thing about the latest Indiana Jones movie. I haven’t even watched the Indiana Jones movie yet, but I know what I’m going to think of it. I’m going to like it. Heck, I might even love it. I can’t nitpick about the writing of a movie, acting, endings, ‘character development’, inaccuracies, whatever. It’s either boring or not for me. No fancy long educated reasons why I didn’t like it and what I thought was wrong with it. Just a simple ‘Yes it was good’ or ‘No it was terrible’. And you can safely guess the reason why I thought the movie was terrible: boring. Take The Atonement for example. Struggled through 20 minutes of that movie and then I gave up. If something doesn’t happened within 20 minutes of a movie, I switch off. Gone. I’m sure it’s a great movie. I’ve actually heard people saying that they liked it. And I believe them. Really, I do.

The movie can have all the ‘cinematography’ artsy fartsy stuff, and get nominated for a bunch of Oscars, but I don’t care. Clearly, the Oscar people and I have different opinions. But I guess movies need to be all ‘intellectual’ and ‘thought-provoking’ so that the person watching them can feel all ‘intellectual’ and ‘though-provoking’, and then everyone’s happy. But I guess there are lots of movies that I think everyone a lot of people should watch. I would say everyone but I doubt everyone should watch that one movie. The thing is, a lot of people decide to go and see a movie because it won an Oscar. And I quote random person, ‘Oh let’s go see [insert movie name], it won an Oscar.’ I’ve even done it. Why else would I see The Last King of Scotland, Little Miss Sunshine, or even Brokeback Mountain.
I didn’t see those movies just because it looked ‘interesting’. Do I think the movies I watch deserve Oscars more then those? Well, if a little gold person with no genitalia can convince them to watch them, then ok.

Anyway, my point is, I can’t write movie reviews. That’s all that I really wanted to say.

I’m typing with my keyboard on my lap. I do that from time to time.

If you saw a ghost what would you do? I’d give it a chocolate bar. Why? Because then I could eat it after they did. Sharing is caring after all.

I read 46 blogs. I just counted. That’s why RSS feeds are your friends at times like these. I think I read too many blogs. But then again, I don’t. Because there are people in the world who read thousands and millions. Well, not millions, but thousands yes. Or maybe it was hundreds. Either way, I don’t read that much in comparison. I added 3 the other day because of this article about ‘Nine Company Blogs That Are Fun For Anyone to Read’. Except I only chose 3: Aviary, Ning and Signal vs. Noise.

Oh, now I remember what I wanted to talk about. Saturday, ‘I’d Do Anything’. Have people gone crazy?! Yeh, I think the ‘general public’ have gone crazy. Rachel, yes Rachel, got voted out. The last professional and the only person that was remotely capable of playing this role got voted out. I just, I don’t what to do anymore. Just an utter and complete disaster. And I have no idea how this is going to work out. And…and, it’s just…bad.

The Apprentice is on tonight instead of tomorrow. This is just a reminder for me. Because maybe if I type it, I’ll actually remember it. Got it? Good.

GCSEs have started, I’m having chocolate deficiency and I bought 2 packs of black biro pens. You never know. Could come in handy. And it does! See, there’s this new rule that we must write in black ink. So, there you go. I’ve got the black ink and I’m ready to go. But enough of exam talk. That’s not what you’re here for. Wait, what are you here for? You do realise I’m not giving anything away for free. As much as I would like to give away free muffins and chocolate I can’t. It is the internet after all. That kind of thing doesn’t exactly work on here. Maybe in the future though. What with technology advancing and all. Next thing you know I’ll have the ability to teleport such things to you. But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. First we need to figure how to make the smallest one-man helicopter first. Because that’s where priorities lie with some people these days.

Ok, so lets see. Where to begin?
Starbucks got a new logo. I…don’t really know what to say. Except, I think I prefer the old one. Starbucks logos The new one is a remake of the original-original one back in 1971. So I feel like they’re taking a step backward in the logo department. Really, Starbucks, really? I expected a bit more. What happened to the good ol’ companies trying to be ‘hip’ and ‘cool’ and modernising everything.
It’s black and white. Are they trying to work out some way to save money – which they clearly don’t need because of their over-priced drinks and food? I expected more Starbucks. I did.

Speaking of redesigns. Facebook’s getting a makeover to. And in honour of that, Valleywag did an article on how their design has developed since 2005. I’m quite partial to the ‘late 2005′ look. But I’m also all up for the new one that should be coming…’soon’.

Ever since I was a kid I like spy stuff. I don’t know why. I never watched James Bond, I’ve never read a book about it, and I don’t recall what started it. Maybe it was a movie. But what movie? That’s besides the point though. I want this book. When it comes out that is. I found out about it after reading this. And now I want it.

Oh! And I almost forgot. I won a competition. :-D <-see, cheesy grin. Exciting ain’t it? The one that I mentioned in about 50 blogs of mine some time ago. I’m discreet like that. So that was fun.
I better be off. The Apprentice just started so I’ve got to go and start shouting things at the TV and complain how stupid some of them are. I wonder what they do in between tasks. Do they get time off? Lounge around in that big house of theirs. I wouldn’t mind staying in that house.

I’ve got into a habit pronouncing Wednesday as Wed-nesday. And I keep on saying voca-bluary. Words are confusing sometimes. Why is February pronounced Febry?

3 things: Deezer, Virb and Reverbanation. Moosic=Music – nothing to do with cows. I made 3 new accounts yesterday. Because that’s what I do. I find a site. Make an account. If I have the slightest amount of interest in it, I’ll join.
Deezer has become my replacement Pandora. Why it’s better then Pandora: You can play music on demand. As in, you search for it, and you can play it right there and then. The music collection isn’t the biggest but I’ve happily listened to KT Tunstall’s latest album which I haven’t had a chance to hear yet. The music player’s on the side so you can navigate your way around the site while the music’s still playing. Create playlists, and a radio that works like Pandora’s did – base it around artists you like, then tell it what tracks you like and don’t like.
Reverbnation. A bigger version of MySpace Music. It’s kinda like Virb, but not. There’s not much to say about the last two. I thought I’d just put it out there. Because I don’t know how to give proper reviews of things. I prefer to read then write.

Check if a site’s down for everyone or just you with the appropriately named website, Down for everyone or just me?.

I’m finding this section in my blog kinda pointless. Does anyone actually read it? I post things that were in the news days ago, and I mention sites that you’ve probably heard of but I only just head about. It’s me trying to be all I-know-something-you-don’t-know, but you do. Should I post something else instead? Like a 3-eyed fish with a martini in its hand, or a video of chimpanzees dancing the Macarena. People are so easily entertained these days. Or maybe I’ll just cut this bit out altogether. It was always the more boring part anyway. Because we all know you care more about my life then everything else in the world. Uh huh. Did you roll your eyes? Me to.

LifeHacker editor, Gina Trapani, is gay! I know. Surprised? Me to. No one ever told me this. They should consider having some kind of sign to alert me to these things. I just get behind sometimes. So I’ve been reading LifeHacker since, well. Since I could read. Ok that’s a lie, but I’ve been reading it for a long, long time. And I only find this out now?! At least there are some considerate people in the world who – even though they’re a little late in telling me – make things a bit more obvious for me.

---

I just bought Neuromancer (it’s a book). Probably won’t get a chance to read it until who knows when. I have about 50 books that I should be reading but haven’t gotten around to at the moment. I will though. I will. I’ve got Luna, Girl Walking Backwards, a ton of books by David Sedaris, 2 books by Kevin Mitnick, and Jimmy Coates: Sabotage, but I’m getting a little tired of that series at the moment. I also want to get 2 other books on top of that, which can only mean one thing. A lot of reading this summer. A lot of non-existent-reading-postponed-till-after-summer reading.

I’ve watched 3 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. One with Leisha Hailey and two with Clea DuVall. It was gross. It’s quite a good show actually. But gross. Let me quote, ‘Intestines in hand! Intestines in hand.’ The intestines looked like sausages though. Very long, dark red sausages that is. Yeh, that wasn’t a very nice episode to watch. I find it quite funny though, how they have random conversations while they’re operating on someone. I wonder if that really happens. I doubt I’ll start watching it on a regular basis though. I can deal with blood and injuries and everything, but hospitals and operation tables make me a liiittle squeamish. I think it’s all the cutting up of the insides. No career for me as a doctor then.

I share a bathroom with my brother. There are 5 toothbrushes.

Ashley finally got kicked out of I’d Do Anything. Meanwhile I’m still getting over the Rachel and Sarah sing off. Yes, still. But Rachel to win, as long as she’s given a decent song to sing this Saturday. As for the others, I quite like Jodie. Jessie can’t act and her movement/posture is awkward, oh and no matter what the other judges say, I don’t particularly want an Irish accented Nancy. Niamh is, well, boring. She’s pretty good, but she really is too young to be Nancy. Samantha’s…Samantha’s like Siobahn from the Maria series. She’s good but she’d be better suited to a different show.

Willy Wonka, you’re fired.

Addictomatic. The search engine on crack. And it’s tagline is ‘Inhale the Web’ … … … Yes.
When you search for something it’ll give you the latest news, blog posts, videos and images on it. It’s pretty handy. Obviously it won’t be your choice search engine to find out the causes of World War II or where Swiss cheese comes from, but pop in a name of a band, celebrity or some other public figure and you might just find something that you haven’t seen yet.

So, are you fed up with Facebook? The post’s poll seems to prove that people are getting tired of it. And I have to agree. I mean, I’m not completely sick of it, but I don’t really want to be a vampire or a pirate. That’s what Halloween’s for. And I can’t see myself wanting to ‘buy my friends’ either. Don’t get me wrong, they’re great, but…buy them? They’re not teddy bear toys. It’s like putting them up on eBay. Ok, maybe not as bad as that.
But Facebook’s losing it’s appealability to me. I liked it’s simplicity without all the ‘fun applications’. It’s becoming just as bad as MySpace and it’s mind boggling layouts that some users insist on having. It was supposed to be the more sophisticated of the two. But no. It had to succomb to the demands of ‘Which Victoria Secret Angel Are You?’ quizzes, and the ability to bitch slap someone. I thought poking was more then enough to get someone’s attention.

---

It’s been a hot day. My brain’s been switching on and off, meaning I’ve been in and out of day dreams. The on and offness followed me as I was walking back home from school today. So as I was walking down my street, you know, just strolling along, whistling the Friends theme tune, with one hand in my pocket and the other holding the jacket that was slung over my shoulder*. And as I was about to enter the chorus, I stopped. My head tilted to the left, one eyebrow went up and I just looked plain confused. There was a ‘To Let’ sign outside my house. Or wait. Was that my house? Did I go so far into a day dream that I ended up on the wrong street? And that I just drifted towards some stranger’s house.

It looked like my house. The houses next to it looked like the houses that were supposed to be next to my house. The street seemed to give off the yes-you-live-here vibe. But, what was a ‘To Let’ sign doing outside my house? I started walking closer, thinking, maybe my eyesight really is that bad and it’s actually on somebody’s elses house. No, no. It really was on my house. So I walked in, wondering if my parents happened to forget to tell me that they were renting it out. Pretty big news to miss wouldn’t you say? Then I got into my house and nothing seemed different, so I just went upstairs to my room and thought nothing of it.

Turns out, they put the sign on the wrong house. Who does that? If people would like to put our house up for rent, I’d like them to tell us first. It’s the least they could do. So, apparently, it’s coming down ‘First thing tomorrow morning’. I’ve already got GCSEs messing with my head so I don’t need some oops-sorry-wrong-house guy doing that to.

I wonder if anyone called the number on the sign.

I never have to speak Spanish again. Ever. This is a monumentous day. Had my Spanish oral exam, and now there is no reason for me to have to speak it anymore. I’ve been waiting for this day for 5 years. Quite a relief I can tell you that. Adios español. Nice knowing ya. Now you shall be destined to remain in the part of my brain that forgets everything.

So I went out and bought Diva magazine today in order to get the Rachel Shelley article and scan it in for people. Now, normally whenever I go out and buy Diva I buy another magazine to go with it. My way of making it a bit more inconspicuous to the fact that I’m buying a gay magazine. Problem was, I couldn’t find one. Wired? Already got. .net? Already got. PC Pro? Already got. Heat? Are you kidding? No. Computer Arts? Not unless I find at least a fiver coming free with it. T3? Hmm. Guess we’ll have to go with that. Problem was, now I had 2 magazines with half naked women on the front cover. I’ve never bought T3, but I always thought of it as one of those gadget magazines with girls in bikinis posing next to said gadgets. Some kind of marketing ploy? Meh, it was cheaper then any of the other magazines I wanted to get. Anyway so I went with those two. Screw whatever the girl at the till was thinking. Her eyes did widen a bit upon seeing the front cover of Diva. I don’t blame her. It is Rachel Shelley after all.

*Certain descriptions may have been changed in order to protect the privacy of…well, no one. It just seemed more interesting this way. I don’t have a jacket, and if I really was whistling, I wouldn’t be whistling at all. People would think I’m mad.

I can’t really decide whether or not to keep Flock on my computer yet. It’s a ’social web browser’ made by Mozilla. Here’s a more detailed review. The one annoying thing about it is that it only supports 17 services (Hotmail and MySpace isn’t even included). But, it’s early days, so it’s all in the works. I think, for me, it’s just one of those ‘it’s a cool idea, but you can live without it’ kind of things. Mind you my social internet life isn’t as thrilling as real life, so reading how my friends feel like on Facebook isn’t exactly my idea of excitement.

My latest Firefox add-on: Taboo. If you don’t want to bookmark it, Taboo it. That should so be their slogan. ‘Taboo lets you save a page for later (taking a screenshot, and using the Session Saver code to remember scroll location and form fields)’.

Create your own social networking website with Ning. Interesting name choice. It’s like having a Facebook group, but on a larger scale. It’s got potential, especially seeing things like Good Charlotte’s page where they’ve gone all out and put some interesting stuff on there for fans. Now if only there was a band I actually liked that did that. Gotta do some more searching.

There’s a similar website called Grou.ps, where I unintentionally created my own group – seriously, it was an accident. And for some reason 2 people joined it. There’s nothing on there. Why would someone join a group with the tagline ‘This is where I’m going to put some stuff. But I don’t know what yet at this moment in time’? They gots to be crazy, but I found it quite amusing.

---

I found a shop nearby that sells Pocky. But it’s £1.45 so I don’t think I’ll be buying it that often. It’s still yummy though.

I went to see The 39 Steps this week. Tis very good indeed. The staging is very clever and the 4 actors were good to. I didn’t think it was as funny as it was made out to be, but it’s still a fun, light-hearted play. If you ever get a chance to go see it, you should.

GCSEs are starting in about 2 weeks for me. Which means other end-of-year type exams are happening for everyone else. So good luck everyone! Have fun sitting in silence for hours on end, doodling on your exam papers when you end early, and no matter how hot it gets, don’t fall asleep! That would be a very bad idea. For, obvious reasons.

Have a good 3 day weekend everyone. Eat a carrot in honour of Eat-A-Carrot day. It’s good for you.

I totally just made that up. But you can still eat a carrot if you want.