Worst Songs Of The Year Article

I've just been reading about the best and worst songs of the year (according to this particular writer). Quite a few of the songs were ones I wouldn't expect to be on there as they seem to have been very popular despite my agreeing to their being crappy songs. For example - Katy Perry's 'I Kissed a Girl' which I kind of like although the lyrics are really stupid, it is unfortunately catchy. Also, 'So What' by Pink, this is also rather daft but it kept playing in the gym so I got used to it, again - catchy. But I decided to put the best part of the article (and most amusing) here on my blog as it is rather well written :P. I admit that I do like this song but I also agree with the writer's argument. I like the tune more than the lyrics. As with most of the secular music I listen to... Though I do like a good love song (sometimes hard to get in this day and age).

Anyway, here's the (rather long) quote :)

It wasn't that there was anything wrong with the tune of Beyonce's If I Were A Boy. The tune was nice. Very nice. Well done that woman who wrote it who wasn't Beyonce.

But the words made us want to buy a bra, wear it until it became fashionable for men to wear bras and then burn that bra in protest and disgust at the ludicrously clichéd portrayal of men within its fake-empowerment verses.

Apparently, if Ms Knowles had danglier genitals, she would: "Roll out of bed in the morning / And throw on what I wanted / And go drink beer with the guys." That's not a boy, that's an unemployed alcoholic! She also imagines: "I would turn off my phone / Tell everyone its broken / So they think that I was sleeping alone."

Again, this isn't the natural behaviour of the Y chromosome. It's the behaviour of a dishonest, unfaithful git which, last time we checked, wasn't exclusive to either gender. What's so awful about If I Were A Boy is that no such man exists and no such relationship exists, except perhaps in beer commercials. The entire song is a lie and an insult to all complex, individual and free-thinking human beings.

Of course, the real lyrics should go something along the lines of: "If I were a boy / I'd pee standing up / Then I'd take my car to the garage / And be amazed that they didn't patronise me about the trouble I've been having with the clutch."

Now that's a song we'd want to hear.

Oh, here's a link to the 'worst songs' article if you're interested :).

Amazon

Oh yes, and I've preordered Sims 3 (come out Feb '09) and bought a 'Casanova' dvd (the tv series - David Tennant) and a Wasgij puzzle! (the 'Time Travel' one I think...)
Rather happy. Anyway, yes, plenty to do. Tarrah!

YouTube

I've just been sorting out my favourites in my 'YouTube' folder. I have deleted quite a few things but I just thought I'd put a quick blog on here about some stuff I like :).
Most of the stuff in that folder is links to people who's fanvideos I like very much (generally Harry Potter fanvids, though there are quite a few other things I have watched - some of the Narnia ones I've seen are quite good, I particularly liked this one - though it is a little depressing).
Yes, anyway, my two favourite Harry Potter fanvid is this one (Hermione/Ron) though this one (Hermione/Harry/'the other woman', lol) comes in close second (despite the daft logic behind the song 'You should have lied'). These were made by the two 'people' whose videos I like the most - Sjjtnj (who are apparently twins - Tabitha and Samantha) and Sirrah78 (Laila). Of all the videos I have watched (or wasted my time watching as the case may be) their videos were some of the most well made ones.

I don't really count the slideshow type fanvideos as they aren't half as effective, though I'm sure they're much easier and faster to make.

I think that there are rules that should be adhered to when creating fanvideos as some videos have good ideas but are screwed up by the choice of scenes. Firstly, make sure you use scenes in a roughly chronological order (not quite as important with single film fanvids as the actors often don't change appearance dramatically over the course of the film but very important with tv or film series), or if you are going to use a 'flashback' then make sure you put the scene in sepia or black and white so as to make it clear that it is a flashback. This is particularly important when trying to make it look like two people (from two different scenes) are looking at/talking to each other (it's just weird to have an 11 year old Hermione looking up at a 16 year old Ron). Also, speaking of using two people from two different scenes - make sure the colours roughly match, e.g. don't use a scene with one person in a cold lighted place against the other in a warm lighting, it just doesn't work. If all else fail then just put them both in sepia (or greyscale) and adjust what you can to make it marginally matching. Also, cutting two people into the same scene is fantastic (I have no idea how it's done) but it looks really weird when one of the people has a much larger head than the other. Try to avoid that.
Those would probably be my main rules, though I do understand how frustrating it must be to have that many limitations (it's hard enough trying to find a scene where someone looks in the right direction without having to try and find one that has the character at the right age and in the right lighting!). This is why I don't make these fanvids, lol.

Anyway, I just have to say that I greatly admire all the people who make these videos as they're amazing and they must take rather a lot of skill! And time. Perhaps when I am rich I will find the time and software to create my own. But for now (and the foreseeable future) I will not be able to do that... Oh well, I've got plenty of other things to do. Such as homework. I've got lots of homework. I'll have to be doing all of that this week before I go back to college.
Hmm, I'd better go...

Updatey :)

Well, quite a bit has happened recently. I've had two uni interviews, one today, one yesterday, both went well - I've definitely been offered a place at the first and the second said it was 'very likely'. Good stuff.

On other notes, it was my birthday yesterday so I am now 'officially' an adult. Or something. *shrug*
I'm pretty sure I'll be forgetting how old I am in the next few weeks, lol.
I'm having a birthday party thingy on the 22nd so that will be fun, haven't figured out what kind of cake I want to have (I'm doing a kids party so I want to have something interesting).
Luckily most people can come which is v. good. Unfortunately Chelsea can't make it, and also Becky messaged me to let me know she can't make it after all :(. I'm meeting up with the lovely Chelsea for lunch tomorrow so that should be good. I meant to ring Becky today to see when we could meet up but I'll probably have to do it tomorrow...

College is now finished! Yay :). Hopefully tomorrow will feel holiday-ish. I really need a holiday I think. I might just give myself this weekend to do nothing and then plunge back into all of my masses of homework and other priorities (organising piano exam/citizenship exam/driving theory and lessons etc.). I think I'll spend tonight trying to tidy my room a bit, and then if I can tidy it enough to have some desk space I might do some present wrapping whilst watching a comedy programme. Good stuff. Though I should really get some sleep at some point...

Ooh, yes, the other thing was that I went Christmas present shopping on Monday and I bought most of my presents for other people but I also saw loads of stuff I wanted, lol. So I shall blog about them here, though I very much doubt I'll get any of it as I don't get that many presents at Christmas and the few people who do buy me presents already have I think... apart from mum and dad possibly. I might start hinting at some point, lol.

1. Wasgij puzzle (the 'look into the future' ones) - they're just so cool aren't they?!
2. Books (though with these I'm more likely to just borrow them from the library when they're finally out) - Necropolis (next in Power of Five Series - Anthony Horowitz), Twilight (Stephanie Meyer - I've reserved this at the library, it'll take a while though...) and Double Cross (Malorie Blackman - Noughts and Crosses series)
3. Humour books - I'm very likely to like almost any humour books, as long as they're fairly clean humour - I like the little books of cartoons, and I was quite amused by the 'Where's Bin Laden' books (style of 'Where's Wally'), though I do of course like the more intellectual humour as well :).
4. A really soft teddy bear - it's this age when you really need a teddy bear again. I saw some really lovely ones in BHS the other day...
5. Glow in the dark poi (I saw them in the Entertainer and they're awesome!)
6. A sonic screwdriver (Ok, so maybe this is just getting to the whole 'but it's so cool!' things rather than things I particularly want to own... but you know)

I'm sure there were other things but I don't remember... Possibly some stuff from Accessorize which is just generally lovely. Auntie Sarah (my brother-in-law's mum) got me a necklace from there for my birthday :). I think that the thing I want the most is the wasgij puzzle... and possibly the teddy bear.

Anyway, I was going to go and do some tidying or something so I'll go do that.
Oh yes! And I just came back home from watching 'Quantum of Solace' with my sister-dear. It was rather good I think though the first one was probably better on the whole. Was still quite cool. My favourite character was definitely Camille.

Sweet Dreams!

Another Forward!

Yes, Catherine is my main source of forwards. Occasionally there is a vaguely entertaining (but poorly punctuated and typed) one.

Here are some excerpts from one called 'Food for mind and humour' (already not promising).

Food for the mind

A radio commentator, Paul Harvey, quoted a United States congressperson, who noted,
“If we educate without religion, we graduate clever devils.”

Students

The college students grabbed a coin, flipped it in the air and said, “Heads, I’ll go to sleep, tails I’ll stay up. If it stands on the edge, I’ll study.”

Student: Sir, I have a complaint. I don’t believe I deserve a zero on that exam.
Professor: Neither do I, but it’s the lowest grade I can give.

Education

A process by which information is transferred from the notes of a professor to the notes of a student without passing through the brain of either.

Handy guide to modern science:
If it’s green or wriggles, it’s biology. If it stinks, it’s chemistry. If it doesn’t work, it's physics.

Military

A sign on a FSB (KGB) desk:
The secrecy of my job does not permit me to know what I am doing.

Religious

Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than walking into a garage makes you an automobile.

I found these fairly amusing. I hope you do too :).

Good Old English

I noticed a little while ago that someone had stuck a series (about 4) of pictures (and captions) drawn in black marker on white paper going down the stairs. I never actually read it properly but it's something about an entity biting a kittens head off I think. I didn't used to go down those stairs much but since English has been moved upstairs I go down there everyday. A couple of days ago I was walking down and I noticed some writing in pencil on one of the pieces of paper. I was quite amused because someone had corrected the grammar of a caption in pencil and then written a technical description of why this was not correct.
You gotta love English students.

Aside from that little story I thought I'd leave with you. I also received a forward from my cousin Catherine the other day which has the title 'Interesting English facts', I don't think all of them are actually only 'English' (such as the ones about peanuts and rubber bands) but I thought I'd put them up here anyway. At the top it says:

Just keep scrolling down. This is very interesting! After reading it, you'll go 'duh, I didn't know that.'

I think my reaction was more like 'I did know quite a bit of that, and why did I want to know all of that?' but it was vaguely interesting anyway. Oh yes, and I can't guarantee that these are actually correct. You know what forwards are like.
I think I'll have to correct some of the grammar and layout of this e-mail as it was another one of those that isn't that great at those things. I'll be so impressed if I ever get a well laid out and correctly punctuated forward. It is so rare.
Anyway, here you go...

'Stewardesses' is the longest word typed with only the left hand.
I knew that.

And 'lollipop' is the longest word typed with your right hand.
Didn't know that one. Mmm, lollipops.

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.
Knew that. We used to have fun trying to make up words to rhyme with these...

'Dreamt' is the only English word that ends in the letters 'mt'.
And that one.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
I'd definitely heard that somewhere before.

The sentence 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' uses every letter of the alphabet.
I thought everyone knew that one!

The words 'racecar', 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).
I knew what a palindrome is, and I'm pretty sure I've seen all of those examples before...

There are only four words in the English language which end in 'dous': tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
Now that one I didn't know.

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: 'abstemious' and 'facetious.'
I knew that there were two words and one of them was facetious.

'Typewriter' is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
I never really thought about this...

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
That's English?

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
Actually that's not true, it has been proven that they actually have a memory span longer than three seconds. I saw it on QI :P.

A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a sec ond.
How nice for it.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
Again, English?

A snail can sleep for three years.
This should just have been the living creatures section of the forward.

Almonds are a member of the peach family.
Oh, maybe not.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
I'm sure I heard this at least 5 years ago...

Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.
I think I heard this somewhere.

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
Oh.

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
How extremely exciting.

If the population of China walked past you, 8 abreast, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
Heard that one before.

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.
It should have been Leonard of Quirm! He would have called it something like 'The Cutting Paper, Card or Other Materials Neatly Device'.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite!
Ok then. Don't let the government take your peanuts!

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
I've heard that one somewhere as well.

The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
Oh I see. Well, that makes sense, I do use my left hand a lot. Plus I use my left hand for the space bar and the caps lock and ctrl keys.

The cruise liner, QE 2 moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
That's not very environmentally friendly now is it.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
He must have been quite disappointed. Unless of course he wanted chocolate sauce.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.
Since when was Niagara Falls in England?

There are more chickens than people in the world.
Note the use of the word 'world', and no use of the word 'England'. That means it's not just an 'Interesting English Fact'.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
This makes it seem like he was born secretly in a bathroom at a teenage prom night.
The quote that I read said "Sir Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' cloakroom after his mother went into labour during a dance at Blenheim Palace".

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
Yep, known that for quite a long time.

At the end there was one of those 'Pass this on and blah blah blah'. They did make it a little different by adding 'They say if you pass this on you will receive a miracle'. But really all that does is make it ok when you don't receive one. But it is better than all of those ones that talk about all the nasty things that will happen to you if you don't send it. I've ignored plenty of those and so far I haven't been haunted by a little dead girl at midnight (I'm usually still awake at that time so I'm sure I'd have noticed) or been murdered in my sleep by another little girl. What is it about the idea of a little girl that it has to be put into so many chain e-mails? Anyway. I'll go now. Hope you enjoyed a few bits of this post :).