kumkwat

My friend Joni put on my phone calendar a while ago challanges every week that pop up whenever they're due. I just got one saying 'try your hardest to be the nearly-extinct cousin of the pineapple; the kumwat'. Well, I can't be a kumkwat, but I can certainly sharpie one on my hand!

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Brown Army Article

I promised to post my BA article once I'd written it, and here it is!
Any/all feedback welcome! (Unless it's just 'you suck'. That's seriously unhelpful. :-L) 
Warning to any NLCS girl - spoilers for this month's issue! (well, that's kinda guaranteed at it is 1/4 of this week's issue...)
Warning #2: Unless you are an NLCS girl, you may not get some of the jokes. 
Happy reading! 

I have discovered the best, most efficient, absolutely-fool-proof way to procrastinate and put off your homework: Be ‘productive’. Now, this may sound silly, but bear with me.

Stage 1.0) Write a list of what you have to ‘do’ that ISN’T homework. For example, this list may read

·         Sort out bag.

·         Tidy room.

·         Sort all papers on desk into alphabetical order, then size order, then colour-code the above.

·         Organise files on laptop into neat, tidy folders. Colour-code those. (Yes, there is a program to do this! I know, right?!?)

·         Review all emails to be sure that nothing has been overlooked.

·         Catch up on missed TV revision so that you won’t be hopelessly ignorant about the most important aspect of life un-NLCS-like.

·         Write CV. Re-write CV. Re-re-write CV.

·         Search for work experience placements.

·         Re-re-re-write CV accordingly.

·         Post on blog.

·         Colour-code homework diary.

·         Stalk certain male obsessions. I mean, they can help us with our classics work, so it counts, right?!

·         Write Brown Army article.

Look at the above. What two things do they all have in common?

Firstly, they are all technically things that need doing (or may need doing at some vague point in the undefined future) so you don’t feel guilty about not working, and secondly, none of them is actually HOMEWORK, (Alter-ego: Well yeah, you said that at the top... Me: Shhhh....) so your brain stays relaxed and stress-free.

Stage 2.0) Colour code the above list by the categories of ‘must do’, ‘ought to do’ and ‘may possibly need to do at some undefined point in time’.

[Stage 2.1 – add stage 2.0 to end of the stage 1.0 list, then proudly tick it off. See?! Productivity!)

Stage 3.0) Cook. And bake. And cook. And bake some more.

(This works every time. Even to the point where you end up making custard from scratch to procrastinate some more. (*Cough-Louisa-cough-cough*) Then, if you are a Doctor Who fan, eat fish-custard. If not, look worriedly at afore-mentioned fish-custard-eating fans.)

Stage 4.0) Read through all our Brown Army publications and worship us.

Tada! My foolproof way to procrastinate work.

Chocolate-themed gifts of gratitude will be accepted. ;)

Ella J

A very brainy day

I've had a very brainy day today. Not as in very clever. As in full of brains.
I've attended two lectures about the brain/our mind today - the first was at school, during this thing called Senior Societies, in which a bunch of school societies (normally about 5 per week) invite speakers in to talk about a particular subject relevant to that society. Sometimes they're really boring and the whole thing really sucks, especially as they run 20 mins into our lunch hour, but mostly, like today, the talks are seriously great!
This time, psychology soc. invited in a guy to talk about hypnotherapy! I'm not a huge believer in the whole 'lets-psychoanalyze-every-aspect-of-your-life-and-solve-all-your-problems' thing, probably as a rebellion against having a psychotherapist for a grandma and a child-psychologist for an aunt, but I AM really interested in the way certain methods of subconscious suggestions and trance-like states work, especially as one of my close friends (ex-boyfriend actually but never mind) can hypnotize people, and he has done so to a mutual friend of ours right in front of me, before which I didn't really believe in hypnosis at all, and after which I was thoroughly creeped out.
Anyway, this talk was brilliant, so that way mind-y talk #1.
Talk #2 was at the Royal Institute of Science this evening, on 'How the brain works'. It was part of the Christmas-lectures trial runs, so it wasn't exactly the smoothest thing, but it meant that there was more of an unrefined, 'just for interest's-sake', feel to the lecture, and the guy wasn't playing to the cameras like they often seem to do during the real Christmas-lectures.
Also, my friend replied to my GISHWES request to carry her chicken across the road. She said that if I could make sure it wouldn't die, then maybe... Look up GISHWES. Your life will change forever. (In a good way...)
http://greatestinternationalscavengerhunttheworldhaseverseen.com/
Happy Thursday!

Ohmygoshyesterdaywascrazy

So hi.
I didn't update yesterday. Sorry about that. May have something to do with staying up 'till 12:30 essaying. (Yeah, I just verbed essay. Then I verbed verb!)
Yesterday was crazy!
1) Had a meeting with Fothers, the head-of-upper-school-or-something, about setting up a photography magazine called 'Frozen moments'. Go 'yeah!' for photography! And for the second society/club/thingy I've set up in a week! Woohoo! My CV looks soooo good! And I've just landed myself in soooo much more work... I've got to write an article for Brown Army (have I mentioned that?), organize ALC sessions, set up this photography thing, and on top of those I'm helping my friend Amber with a drama backdrop and attending History society on Tuesdays and English poetry-revision sessions on Monday, Wednesday and some Friday lunchtimes!!! AAAAAAGH!!!!
Ok, so mini-rant over.
2) I then had my 6th Form choices talk with the deputy head, which helped with precisely nothing other than getting me very, very scared. Ok, so maybe I'm being overly critical. But still, it wasn't really the most useful thing ever.
3) At lunchtime, we filmed our next video notice for ALC. It. Was. Bloody. Amazing! One of the fabulous things about ALC is it is basically an entire society for awesomely-nerdy stuff. Accordingly, our video notice featured a David Tennant-style trench-coat, two light-sabers, a light-up sonic screwdriver, a fez, a bowtie, and a romote-controlled Dalek. Nerdfighters forever!!!
And then, best of all,
4) I met... *drumroll please* Anjana Ahuja, ex-science journalist for the times! Woohoo! :D Ok, so to some that may not sound that great, but this is me here - science journalism is basically what I want to do with my life. (Well, that or law. I veer wildly. I'm crazy for both.) It was so completely amazing to chat to someone who has basically taken my life-plan, and done it better! I read a couple of her articles first, and she's just great!!!
On the downside, I then only got home at 7pm, and then proceeded, as per her recommendations, to write to a bunch of people in the hope of getting work experience. Then I had supper. So basically, I couldn't start work until 9 15, and I had one whopper of an essay to write. As well as Chemistry questions. And  french essay. And some history. You get the idea. So I couldn't update.

quick post

This is not my post for the day, but I just wanted to say, I think there's a black hole on my desk! Things I literally just had a second ago vanish completely! Aaaagh!

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Sleeeep!!!

How NOT to spend a night if you want to wake up refreshed.
1) Do NOT get to sleep at half-12 despite having gone to bed at 10.30, determined to have an early night.
2) Do NOT wake up at 3am
3) If you DO for some unknown reason wake up at 3am, do NOT then proceed to get out of bed, and send and email on your laptop because, as you are awake already, you might as well send it while you remember, rather than in the morning in a hurry. (WHY????!!!)
4) Do NOT then take another hour and a half to get back to sleep after sending said email.
5) Do NOT forget to set your alarm, so therefore wake up late, have no time for breakfast, and consequently go into school looking like absolute sh**.

I hate Mondays.

On the upside, we had our first ALC meeting today! Woohoo!
For those who don't know, ALC stands for Alternative Language Society. Yes, A.L.S. Spells ALC. Don't ask. We have some quite spesh members... <3 you guys!
We are basically an amazingly awesome (*coughcoughstrange/nerdycoughcough*) society in which we teach people alternative languages such as Elvish, Gallifreyan and Klingon.  'Cos we're that cool. But we had our first session today, and people actually turned up! We had a proper room full of people - 25 at least, from all the different years! Woohoo for spontaneous societies!

And another thing - Brown Army, the school comedy-type-thing publication is coming out soon, so I have to be witty-on-demand! I'll post my article on here once I've written it...

Going to try to make up for last night's fail... Night!
x

Today I'm sad.

I've been doing nervous eating all day - I hate breaking up with boyfriends. Especially when I'm the one doing the dumping. Today I'm sad. I'm sorry Joel. You were great. E x

My puddle-wonderful dog

I took these with my gorgeous dog Barley in the park this morning. Such a stunning day! Just getting ready to go out for the evening now - about to leave for my friend's house to get ready together before we leave for a party. :D

Crazy Friends

This is Fran. This is also typical of Fran. I came into the classroom at lunchtime to find her lying on her back on the desk, flapping her arms and declaring that she was, in fact, a "bzzzzz, bumblebee!!!" I'm worried...

 Again Fran, but this time sane(ish). She has some kinda very awesome obsession with drawing angels on things. That includes me, my hands, my arms, my folders, her arm, her books, any part of Tara she can reach, etc. Oh, and smiley faces. She draws smiley faces EVERYWHERE. It even got the point where I came home and my little brother (the littlest one) asked me why my elbows had smiley faces on them. Anyway, this is her drawing an angel on her wrist in eyeliner.

Ps, the only reason I've only got photos of Fran is that she's the only one who doesn't run away when I get out my camera-phone. Tara positively flees!

Evil/wonderful technology

I both love and hate technology. I love how easy it was to make the video notice for assembly tomorrow. I love the sleek, elegant feel to the final result and I love how many different options there were regarding the colour, font, etc within the video.
And then (yes, this even calls for incorrect grammar!!!!) I hate how it then obstinately refuses to allow me to send the video to the people who need to see it! AAAARGH! I spend almost 2 hours on something and then it just doesn't send???? This is why I both love and hate technology... The beauty, then the obstinate failure.
Though on the upside, I realized I can post photos! :D
Thai curry for supper. My. Mouth. Is. Dying! Sooooo yummy, but I feel like I could breathe flames! (Oooh, breathing flames would be cool though...) Unfortunately the conversation was as heated as the curry... Family - what can you do with them...?

Lovely Jubbly Bubbly

School school school.
You know you're into science when you can spend a chemistry lesson cooing over the effervescing sodium experiment, and lovingly tending the various test tubes in such a manner that Fran eventually compared us to protective mother hens. The only down side was that goggle-marks really suck. (But chemistry is a great time to come up with blog titles - just listen to our cooing over experiments! [See blog title for example].)
Another downside is that I now have white paint all over my hands and arms from painting the backdrop to a school play. Thanks Louisa. There's no such thing as pay-back for paying-back my pay-back because you got paint on me! Its just too convoluted!
On the upside though, my sketch of a skull came out well. There's hope for my Design GCSE yet!
Oh, and I found my fez. :D

Comoginates?!

Made-up word of the day - Comoginates?
IS THIS AN ACTUAL THING? I used it in a sentence, and no-one knew that the frick I was on about! I thought it meant to think something over deeply? Have I just made this up completely?? Oh dear...

Chocolatey Beginnings

When in doubt, choose chocolate.
Its not my motto in life, but it certainly helps.
How do you start a blog that anyone and everyone can read? With chocolate. Dark, rich, slightly bitter chocolate. Always breaks the ice.
Or you can start with raindrops on windows, or light on puddles. Wonderful puddles.
I'm a bit of a romantic, aren't I?
Nothing wrong with that. Well, nothing major.

I'm Ella. (See, I didn't say 'my name is Ella', I said 'I am Ella.' Ie, this is me.) Hi. Nice to meet you.
That's another thing - how do you introduce yourself to the general-wide-public? (Gwp? That doesn't shorten very well... Hmm, I'll need to work on that one...) Chocolate doesn't help this time. (Shock-horror!)You can't hand out chocolate over the internet, although the world would be a much better place if you could.
I think I'm just going to have to trust you to believe me then when I say that it is nice to meet you. Or speak to you. Or type to you.
Words are another thing I like. The process of thinking something, typing it up, putting it on the internet, and suddenly the wholewideworld (www's already taken... That doesn't work either...) knows what you were thinking. Thoughts+Words+Internet=Magic.

This is my Blog. With a capital B.
Welcome to a puddle-wonderful place.