soundboy

On Christmas Eve I usually don't do very much, but this year I will be going out for a family meal, after my 7 hour shift of course. Previous years I have not done something like this... last year for example I simply went to the rugby club with my dad and my grandfather to play bingo [lol]. So today should be very nice. I get to see some of my favourite people in work just before Christmas and then spend the rest of the night with a bottle of wine and my family. I plan on having a good few drinks tonight!

Now I'm enjoying the BBC's Christmas Eve special of Breakfast. They have a gospel choir on singing Christmas carols, so it's adding to the festive spirit!

Merry Christmas everybody!

- Jingle All The Way
- Santa Claus The Movie
- Gremlins
- Christmas With The Kranks

There's something about Girls Aloud with never fails to put me in a brilliant mood. I reckon Cheryl should hurry up with her little solo career and get back in the game with the other ladies because they do it better as a group to be honest.

So there's five days until Christmas. I finally get a day off work tomorrow, and then I'm working right up until 4pm on Christmas Eve. It's getting so exciting and Christmassy now. I had such a good day in work yesterday. Not only did I sell a large amount of cameras, camcorders and insurance, but I served some of the nicest customers I could have asked for really. I had two old gentlemen shake my hand at the end of the sale and wish me a Happy Christmas, and so many other people thanked me for my time and my help and each one of them just added to my really awesome mood. I can't really think of any poo customers I had yesterday. Not one of them was cheeky and asked for discount, I had to give discount myself because I felt so bad for some of them! I hate that right, I have a proper big sale and then I feel sorry for the customers so I offer them like a fiver off or something... haha it's nothing I know. Ah well, lets see if I can please my manager some more today.

I'm not really sure what to do with my day off tomorrow. I have to go to the dentist at 4, which is a silly time really because what on earth do I do before that? I wonder if tomorrow evening will be our gift exchange/curry night! I'm so looking forward to that. If it isn't tomorrow night then I am considering taking the family to see Avatar. I did say I'd be going on the day it comes out (last Thursday) but I never did get round to it as I was very busy that day. Maybe I'll pop down trostre and try to finally get all of my Christmas shopping done. There's only like 2 things I need to get now, and maybe one small thing each for my parents. I hope people like what I bought for them... I'm so nervous that they won't like it aaah!

Lucy rang me this morning to ask if I've seen the weather. Of course I had - looking out my window is the first thing I do at winter! Apparently her roads are dusted with snow which is going to freeze over. Here, we have perfectly clear blue skies and only a light dusting of frost, so where is my snowy weather? I'm not really bothered, snow gets on my nerves. You can't drive to Tesco, you have to WALK down to the Spar, which feels like you're walking to London on a regular day.

Anyway, I need to get my car ready now. Laters!

I've worked out that my Christmas work rota isn't really all that bad at all. In fact, it makes Christmas come even quicker. Basically, from Friday, I'm working 3 days in a row, then I get a day off. Then there's another 3 days in work and it's Christmas day! After that, another 3 days before my next day off followed by a final 4 days in work with the Sunday all freed up for me to move back to Cardiff! Sound as a pound.

Going to try and finish off my Christmas shopping today in Swansea, and pay a visit to the Winter Wonderland. It will be nice as well, to see Sarah and Hannah tonight. Happy days! I need to get Hannah a Christmas present though, and the other half of Sarah's birthday/Christmas present. Should be a nice day. I set up our new BT Home Hub today. We were without internet last night, so today it has been nice to be connected.

Will update some more later, I'm not really in the mood for writing today. Tarra! x

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/x-factor/6805565/X-Factor-winner-Joe-McElderry-small-boy-big-voice-great-future.html

Have a read of the Telegraph's story on him from this morning, to start you off.

I'm just so happy that Joe won, I didn't actually think he would because I thought Olly had more support, but clearly people know real talent when they see it. He was always the best voice and the nicest boy in the competition, so I think he completely deserved to win. I just hope he remains the lovely person he appears to be, now that his life is going to be very different.

I just purchased his single The Climb on iTunes. It's so much better suited for Joe. His voice sends a shiver through my body every time I listen to it.

If you're a fan, go here http://www.joe-music.com/ and sign up.

I am having the best few days of my life at the moment. Here are the reasons:

- Getting all work done
- Going out/having parties every night this week
- The success of Thursday's party
- Friday's 'chilling, cleaning & moving out for Christmas' day
- Friday's Indian takeaway
- Waking up in a good mood today
- Having a really good time in work
- Mother making deliciouso food
- X Factor result
- Seeing my babes Lindsey & Laura
- Lady Gaga
- Annie
- Getting Christmas Shopping Done
- Looking forward to going back to Cardiff for a few days :)
- Cold wintery weather

... and probably the most important thing so far...

- EVOLUTION FESTIVAL 2010 HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED FOR MAY BANK HOL! I can't frickin wait. I have been on that website so many times checking if the dates were posted. I am going, even if I have to drive up Newcastle on my own. I know Karl will make me feel very welcome! I'm so excited. Don't care who's playing, it's going to be amazing.

Okay, that over, shortly following will be a review of New Moon. Enjoy!

The above emotions are most certainly not on tonight's menu. The room is all set up, the music is rolling and the only thing left to do is take out the trash and put out the mince pies and yule logs. It's looking very very Christmassy here tonight. The guest list is an absolute blur, with people changing their minds and saying they might come or only if they finish their uni work... so I don't really have a clue who is definitely coming. But from what I gather, there will be a fair crowd.

I do think there's too much pressure from society to be in a relationship. Everywhere you go you see dating ads and images of couples and families and it can make single people feel a bit crap. And yes, this is particularly worse around Christmas. For example, you go to a card shop and there are huge sections for 'My Boyfriend' or 'My Wife' and they really sell the whole relationship thing. At the moment, being in university, having a relationship is not one of my key priorities. Yes, it would be nice to have someone (especially at Christmas) and I wouldn't say no if a good opportunity came my way. However, society does sort of subliminally tell everybody that they need to be with someone else, even if people are quite happy on their own.

David Pirie seems like a nice guy to me, and his surname reminds me of that spicy chicken you get at Las Iguanas. I'm just really bummed that I can't get hold of a free copy of A Heritage Of Horror online to do my British Film essay! How disappointing. However, I do have like four other references so I should have a pretty decent bibliography. I have until Thursday to do this, and going into uni on Thursday really isn't important to me at all (except Journalism, of course!).

So today, I'm really not in the mood to write a 2000 word essay. There's still just over a whole bottle of wine, a bottle of stella and a bit of vodka running through my bloodstream and I didn't exactly get much sleep last night after the very random party. Plus, to make things worse, Fearne Cotton is playing Christmas music on Radio 1 and it's getting me into a really Christmassy mood, what with it being the last week of term and all! I believe the plan is to go to North Star tonight, for a few drinks. That makes three nights out of 5 alcohol-tainted. Wednesday will either be a 'relax with a bottle of wine in someone's flat' night, or a 'shit, my essay is due tomorrow and I still haven't written more than the title' night. I will try my very best today to make the latter an extreme last resort. I want to do well on this British Film essay, because I surprised myself and got a 70% in the first assignment. I was genuinely shocked!

I should, according to my current Facebook status, be sleeping right now, but I'm suddenly not so tired, and the drive to do work is quite strong. I think I'll spend as much time as I can this morning doing my essay, then have a lunch break with Lindsey, sort out the Asda shop and start getting the flat ready for Thursday! So, I'm banning myself from the internet for a short while in the hope that I'll fill a couple of blank pages on Microsoft Word. Tra!

I just like getting lost
In a materialistic world.
It helps take away the pains of reality.
Give me expensive coffee,
Give me a new scarf and a knitted cardigan,
Give me all these things and more
Which I don't really need,
Because at the end of the day
They make things easier,
For a while...

It's always nice to go to see a Christmas movie this time of year, and this week has been especially Christmassy, what with putting up the tree and everything, so it seemed like a good week to to see Disney's attempt at Dickens' A Christmas Carol. I'm no Dickens fan, but as a child I grew up watching The Muppet Christmas Carol with Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge. Looking back, it's definitely up there in my top 5 childhood films alongside The Lion King and Home Alone and when i saw Disney's version of this classic novel, I couldn't help but compare it with the Muppet's version.



First thing's first, Jim Carey is no Michael Caine when it comes to playing Ebenezer. I don't know if it's just because I've grown up with the image of Caine as the 'Bah Humbug' king in my mind or whether he really is a better suited actor for the role, but I definitely have a personal preference for him. However, this is not to say that Carey disappointed. It was nice to see him out of the persona he usually plays (Ace Ventura, The Mask, Bruce Almighty even) and he delivered some lines which made me laugh. Overall, he provided a darker Mr Scrooge, a more sinister version of Caine's Scrooge.




Sadly, because of his playing a darker character, the story then seemed too fake, and disjointed. It seemed like he had been completely converted from one extreme to another over night, and I know that's how the story goes, but the way Carey played Scrooge suggested that he'd need a lot more than a visit from a trio of festive ghosts and a glimpse of the sadness that could be to turn him into the Scrooge we see at the end of the film. This is where the film doesn't deliver for me. Other than that though, it was very enjoyable, great for kids (if not a bit creepy at times) and probably the second best 3D movie I've seen so far. Lovely for getting yourself into the Christmas spirit.

If I was a good boy, I would have my main light on and Microsoft Word would be the application I'm typing into at this very moment in time. However, I have lighting set to 'mood' (basically red lamp, plain lamp + Christmas blue lights) and clearly this is not Microsoft Word at all. Hence, I am a naughty boy. I can't even say that Microsoft Word is open in the background, as I just peered down to my dock and noticed that it is closed! This is not good you see. My Consumer Cultures essay is only very slightly written (around about 120 words) and my British Film and Perspectives essays are nowhere to be seen. And to be frank, I have very little time to complete all three of them. So here is my reason for being in the flat, while Lindsey is out galavanting on a 'girly night out' with Rhiannon and Lucy.

On the upside, today is indeed December 1st, yesterday was Cyber Monday*, and in just over 23 days it will be the big day itself - Christmas Day. Jesus' actual birthday. Shit, I haven't got him a card yet... saying that he never gets me one, so fuck it. Yes, and to kick things off in a lovely, festive, joyful way Lindsey and myself pooled together £35.00 and bought everything you need to put up a Christmas tree. It looks BEAUTIFUL! Well, I say 'beautiful' in the context of only spending £35.00 between us, but I will include a picture towards the end, so you can judge for yourselves. Haha, see what i did there? I am so in the Christmas mood, believe me! Has anyone else put up a Christmas tree or any decorations yet? Some people think it's too early, but the way I see it is that I'm only going to be in Cardiff for another two weeks so really, we were rather late putting up ours!

I must mention that I have had a very busy two days since yesterday. After British Film, I became an actor for Jack's scene from 21 and then today I became the Joker for Chris' scene from The Dark Knight. Both were interesting experiences, because I've never had to 'act' before. It was also very enjoyable having my face painted this morning and having a dark, scary, husky voice for the best part of an hour. Good times. Finishing Monday off with an Indian takeaway was a highlight I must say. It was just really nice to chill at The Bakery. I can't remember the last time the lot of us just stayed in, had food and had a nice night in. More of these are needed and requested! As good ol' Brucey would say, 'Life, is the name of the game, and I wanna play the game with youuuuu'. Definitely the quote of the week.

Flat inspections are tomorrow. My room is not very tidy yet, but at least the kitchen and living room is clean + tidy. Henry helped with cleaning the floor, and to be fair everyone has washed up their dishes and cutlery, etc. It's looking pretty good in there. I had to to one very disgusting thing though. I had to clean the bottom of the bin. Oh my god, I don't think I've seen anything so rank in all my days. There was what I assumed was a rotting FIG lying in a mass of fermenting yellow yoghurt which smelled like baby sick, and I had to go in there, armed with nothing but some kitchen roll, and get rid of it. Then I simply sprayed the bin and mixed it with hot water, and voila! Clean. I now need to blitz my bathroom because it hasn't had a 'proper' clean in a while. It looks fine, but I need to get the bathroom spray out and go mad really.

For the first time in ages, it has actually felt like a proper flat here tonight, and by that I mean that I've actually spoken to every single person who lives here tonight. It's mad! Plus, I've spoken to 3 others from above and below! Such a sociable night. Oh and the news/shock of the century is that PHIL HAS MOVED OUT!? I didn't believe it myself until I read the Cambrian Point Facebook wall. He's advertising his room. He didn't even say anything to any of us! How rude is that? Antisocial is what I call it. So at the moment we are a member down here in number 78. He was never really here before anyway, but it feels like we've lost an armchair, or a cupboard door... get me?

I need to go and do all of my ironing now, because there's a big pile of clothes on my bed which only gets bigger as I keep avoiding the ironing. Plus my wardrobe only gets more and more empty simultaneously.
My plan for tomorrow is to have a PJ day and get as much work completed as I possibly can. If I do well I am going to reward myself by going to the cinema :) I will update in due. But for now, happy December 1st and I leave you with what's left over! Goodnight!

*Cyber Monday - Amazon.co.uk's busiest day of the year. Read more about it at the guardian's website. It's a really interesting read.

And our tree:

Here in the flat all on my own, I've been reflecting on myself, which I don't do very often. Anyway, I decided I wanted to try and learn a bit more about myself, and I googled exactly that and clicked on the top hit. I found a website called Queen.com which has a lot of different kinds of tests for personality, IQ, optimism etc. I took the Pessimist/Optimist test and apparently I am right in the middle of the spectrum. I'm neither too optimistic or too pessimistic. Here's what they said about me:

According to your responses, your perspective of humankind is neither naïve nor jaded. Instead of assuming the best or worst of someone, you wait before making a judgment. You prefer to have others earn your trust, and although you won’t necessarily assume everyone has a hidden agenda, you’re also not the type to accept everything people say or do at face value. Tempered with a hearty dose of skepticism, this is a relatively healthy perspective. You may however, benefit from being a little more trusting. Unlike their less positive counterparts, optimists will at least try to find the good in even the most difficult of people, and are much more willing to place their faith in others. Although this doesn’t mean that you should trust the good intentions of everyone you meet, a leap of faith every once in a while couldn’t hurt.

If you want to have a go at some of the tests, go to www.queendom.com and have a looksee :) It's quite interesting.

I haven't had a night like this in a while now. I just can't sleeeep! And not for any bad reasons, just because I can't be bothered to waste time lying in bed unconscious. Tonight I watched Life, then watched some of the Mighty Boosh Future Sailors Tour. After that I watched some One Tree Hill, then I made a video blog, but I can't upload it to my mac yet as my camera doesn't agree with it. I have the lead, but it doesn't recognize. So I'll have to wait until tomorrow and either use Lindsey's PC or go into town and buy a memory card reader that reads XD type cards. How annoying. And it sucks because I literally have not made a video blog in so long, so I was all excited when it turned out alright and I didn't actually look or sound like a perfect twat. However, it's not very exciting mind, I just go on about how I haven't made a video, One Tree Hill, the X Factor and New Moon. Hey, at least I'll have popular tags and people might actually stop and watch my video if they are interested in any of those things. My god I'm typing fast tonight, seriously I think I have got a sudden energy burst from something I've eaten tonight because I'm just full of energy. I bet you can tell by my lack of paragraphing. Oh well, that's it for now. If I'm still awake at 4am I'll blog once more! Until then (maybe...)

Peyton and Lucas lying on top of a motel double bed together, fully clothed in the dark. You could cut the tension with a SPOON. I love One Tree Hill. I'm going to try my best to finish series one this week (in between essay writing) so I can catch up with the rest. I could so spend at least a grand on television shows this Christmas if I had the money to blow. There's One Tree Hill, Smallville, Peep Show, True Blood, Gossip Girl, Gavin & Stacey, the list goes on in the back of my mind. But the truth is, there's not a great deal of stuff I want for Christmas this year. I think I've come up with a list of about 6/7 small things. I want a new phone more than anything I could ask my parents for, and if I get a new phone, I will be buying it and putting the contract under my own name.

I had this weird dream last night that I was going to the cinema to see New Moon for the second time with somebody else. I was not looking forward to it, but not because I didn't enjoy the film, but because I thought it was reality, and I genuinely could not be bothered to see it again. I may review it later on in the week, because right now I can't face it. But in short, it was much better than Twilight in a lot of ways. I enjoyed the presence of the wolves and their lack of clothing when they're in their human form!

Right now I feel like having a really lazy day, kicking off with a proper nice breakfast, followed by going back into bed and watching the entire Lord Of The Rings trilogy from beginning to end with plenty of coffee to go with it. How good does that sound then? Unfortunately I can't do that today, I'm in uni at 1pm. How GAY. And it's raining a lot. I better get a move on...

So the episode ends with Lucas and Petyon driving home really awkwardly after a very saucy moment at the motel. Oh dear, what will Brooke say when she finds out? That's what I love about One Tree Hill.

Consider this: the end of the world actually happens and the world's governments have built ships for only a certain amount of the population to continue our existence. In short, a handful survive and masses are wiped out. So tell me, Mr. Emmerich, if this is what you are basing your movie on, how on Earth (no pun intended) can you justify a happy ending?

The trailer for 2012 looked fantastic. A perfect movie where you can sit back, relax and imagine what you would do if you were John Cusack running away from a recently erupted Yellowstone. It's true, there's nothing quite like a good disaster movie. Laced with special effects, 2012 paints a disturbing image of what apparently, is to come in the not-so-distant future (in fact around about 1127 days and just over 10 hours), but the so-called reality of doomsday depends on what you believe. There is so much evidence out there which stands against the scientific reasons that the world will end on December 21st 2012, that probably the most reliable source would be religion (I know, hilarious, right?). But lets stick within the context of the film and agree that we are all going to die very soon.



First of all, how very predictable it is that Jackson Curtis (Cusack) is divorced from his wife and his two adorable children are beginning to prefer their new dad to their biological father. What more could he ask for then, than the end of the world to bring his family back together again where they can all make a fresh start on a giant steel boat headed for Africa? I mean, fair enough this is a Hollywood blockbuster so there is going to be a narrative based around a small amount of key characters who we know are going to survive. But it just seems like such a waste! The idea of making a film based on 2012 - the doomsday prophecy with more evidence than any other - is so exciting to me. I wasn't expecting such a happy ending. I wanted to see more death, more mass suffering and more of what, if this became a reality, would really happen.

The highlight of the film is by far, the special effects. How stunning it is to see scenes like the Vatican Museum collapse onto the crowds gathered before the Pope and come flying towards the screen. Other thrills are the family's lucky escape out of Yellowstone in a small plane followed by another lucky escape (this time in a much larger plane) out of a crumbling Las Vegas. Both sequences are packed with narrow misses and tight squeezes between buildings and newly formed canyons and it's all very exciting. But probably the most impressive sequence in the film was the high speed limo ride through the crumbling streets of California climaxing with Cusack sending the battered vehicle hurtling through the side of a building, speeding through to the other side of it, right as it is collapsing on itself - pillars bending in half and the roof melting above them. You guessed it, they only just made it out of there in time!



As far as it goes in portraying the end of days, 2012 is a visually stunning movie, a 'just what you'd expect' package of disaster in the form of volcanic eruption, tsunami and plenty of earth-quaking. Unfortunately, as usual, Hollywood simply has to base the narrative around a 'typical' US family and their survival whilst ignoring the billions of people who face extinction, hence ruining the shit-scary myths of what 2012 is supposed to be all about. I guess for me, I'll just have to see what really happens in three years time to be fully satisfied, but for now I think I can make do with Roland Emerich's vision.

I'd love to recreate the scene from High School Musical where the whole canteen bursts into the song, 'Stick To The Status Quo'. It would be like one of the best things to happen in my life if that happened. I mean, just imagine if EVERYONE knew the words and the dance moves, and just made this amazing atmosphere! It would be electric.

Anyway, here's the video in case some of you don't happen to be hardcore HSM fans:

I realised tonight that I don't really care about much.
I haven't really got a clue what the hell I'm doing with my life.
I don't really have anything I strongly stand for.
I don't feel comfortable with myself anymore.
Being on my own scares me, because I don't get on with myself.
I wish I could find a middle ground.
Yikes.

You know, sometimes I wish for a simple life which doesn't include university and getting a degree. Just staying where you come from with a small selection of close friends and family and being happy with what you've got. Sometimes I think like what's the point of trying to get out and do something with your life. Lets be honest here what is the fucking point?

I'm not sure how to feel tonight. I'm rather pleased with myself for doing the most part of my Tele-visions & Imagined Communities essay, but then I feel like I want to have fun... and I can't find a way to do that. I've been watching episodes of One Tree Hill all day, and I've been listening to music, I did all my ironing, I've been online practically the whole time, and now Lindsey and Laura are off out and I don't know what to do with myself.

Here's three things I want to do tomorrow:

- go to the gym, I have to.
- find a post office and send my ink cartridges back.
- finish my essay.

I've been feeling quite strange over the past few days. I think it's got something to do with this time of year and the really shitty time I was going through this time last year. Like, I wasn't looking forward to Christmas last year, because I knew what was coming sooner or later... and I have that sense of apprehension again this year, but this time there's no reason. It's just a reflex I guess. I am okay, but not 100%. I just need to concentrate on the good things in my life.

Plan? Bed, Coffee on draught (I wish) and One Tree Hill. Bliss!

I've changed a few things here & there recently. You may notice, if you read my blog on my home page, that I've changed my emotion smileys to cute little foxes! They are adorable. Also, I've started writing in rich text instead of HTML, because the other day I needed to hyperlink something, and I wasn't sure how to html that. It's easier this way, too.

Anyways, I'm due for a catch up I think. I've been to two gigs over the past two weeks and I haven't written anything about them! And speaking of gigs, I think I'm going to see La Roux in Cardiff SU with my sister and my parents! I know what you're thinking... but my mum is a big La Roux fan and she seemed really up for going to see her, so we tuned it into a family event haha. More about that another time.

So Little Boots came first on 31 October, yes Halloween. Just before we left the flat to travel to Bristol for the gig, Bootsie updated her Twitter asking fans to bring spiders to complete her outfit and saying that fancy dress was 'compulsory'. That left us like 1 hour to get dressed in some kind of Halloween way, when we didn't have any fancy dress stuff. The best we could come up with was me wearing my skeleton top with some eyeliner, and Rosie wearing her black jacket and drawing a spider web over one eye. Fair play it looked great.

-[this is where I left it]-

Right, basically I lost interest in writing back then! Fear not, I am back, but there's no way I'm going back into that post because it would piss me off so much trying to remember everything & putting it in order etc. To cut a long story short, Little Boots was amazing with well good support from Ellie Goulding and Erik Hassle. The Frankmusik gig the Tuesday after was another stunning event. Support from Killa Kela, Aggi Dukes + Starsmith was much appreciated too, and it was also nice to be back in Bristol! I love that city.

Anyway, after that week in Cardiff I came back to Llanelli for a week and I impressed myself by actually doing work for 5 days in a row with nothing but a sober night in spoons and 2 shopping trips to Trostre to take my mind off of it. I did Wii Fit 3 days though, which is more exercise than I've had in weeks, so I felt good about that too. I also started my Christmas shopping and I squeezed a few more shifts of work in to help cover the cost of Christmas!

This week I'm taking it easy, because I have an essay to do and money to save. I've made the decision to not 'go out' until December but I will make exceptions for cinema and meals. I just don't want to waste stupid amounts of money on alcohol and taxis.
So I'm going to leave this here now and get on with my work. Sorry this post is a little muddled and behind-the-times, but at least it's been posted and I can move on to what's actually going on now! Bye!