Zehnten Tag

Put Your Music Player On Shuffle and Write The First Ten Songs That Play. 

From my main Spotify Playlist (in need of some editing, it seems) entitled ‘Roar’.

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1. I Didn’t Mean It – The Belle Brigade.

2. Show Me How To Live – Audioslave.

3. Substitution – Silversun Pickups.

4. Wash – Pearl Jam.

5. Discipline – Nine Inch Nails.

6. The Captain – Biffy Clyro.

7. Badman – Newton Faulkner.

8. The Walk – Imogen Heap.

9. So Happy I Could Die – Lady GaGa.

10. Thickfreakness – The Black Keys.

Bonus Tracks:

11. Fury – Muse.

12. Dance Yrself Clean – LCD Soundsystem.

13. You Are A Tourist – Death Cab For Cutie.

14. One Day Like This – Elbow (There are many different shades of Roar, y’know).

15. We Can Make The World Stop – The Glitch Mob (If I could choose a soundtrack for the more ass-kicking moments in my life, this would most definitely feature).

I hate hate hate telling people what I’m listening to. I could be World Champion of self-consciousness. Well – go ahead and judge me. And can I just say; all of the songs you haven’t heard of up there, look them up? Shuffle actually did quite well, I think. Interesting selection.

~

Anyway. More importantly than my loser taste in müsyk…

Today the lovely Mr. David Kanigan, of Lead.Learn.Live nominated me for an award…

The Inspiring Blog Award.

So I need to say a big thankyou to him. I would never ever consider my words to be inspiring at all, but I am very flattered that someone out there found something in one or more of my posts that resonated. It means a lot; cheers Dave. ; )

Next thing I’m meant to do after linking y’all to his page and putting the logo up there, is list seven facts about myself. I’ll leave that part out since I just gave you all that music^; that was kinda like telling you some stuff about me, if you listened. Then I have to nominate 5-10 other blogs, and tell them I’ve done so. If you want to accept and pass on the award, those are the rules.

1. Vincent Mars

2. Coco J. Ginger

3.  Pink 

4. Pride In Madness

5. Lesley Carter

6. Cherry Coley

The first two for inspiring me to write by doing so kind of beautifully themselves, and the rest for inspiring me more personally by being continuously supportive of my efforts on here.

In other news, there is a cat – normally a very antisocial little fella – resting his head against my leg and purring while he sleeps. ^-^

Lotsa Love,

~xx~

I continue to struggle for things to say;

Joey continues to be relaxed and photogenic.

*sigh*

~xx~

Mondays

Is for drinking to the seldom seen kid…

.

As they go, today has been a very pleasant Monday so far.

I went to town this morning to buy a birthday card and giant cookie for the birthday friend who doesn’t like cake, (I know, who the hell doesn’t like cake??) and while I was there, two things happened to make me smile.
One was this card I found in Paperchase:

It’s funny ’cause it’s true. :’)

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The other was the scenario that played out when I stopped off at Starbucks to grab a caramel latte for the road home. It went something like this:

Starbucks Guy: Ok, what name is it please?

Me: Why do you need to know my name? I want a coffee not a friend. 

Starbucks Guy: I know, don’t blame me, it’s just this new thing we’re doing… 

Me: Yeah, ok, I know. Sorry. *apologetic face*

Starbucks Guy: *one eyebrow raised smile* …So what is your name? 

Me: Princess Consuela Bananahammock.  

Starbucks Guy: Haha, yeah alright. I’m not writing that… 

Me: Aww, what? Fine. It’s Priscilla… Queen of the desert… 

Starbucks Guy: *laughs* Alright, alright you win. You can be ‘Tall Caramel Latte’ if you’re gonna be like that… 

Me: Tall Caramel Latte will be just fine, thankyou. 

*Conversation follows in which he tries to guess my actual name, assuming it’s something really embarrassing/unusual, and I eventually tell him I’m just Steph and he tells me he’s just Luke, and I contemplate asking him for his number (because he’s kinda cute, actually, and looks likely to be a student) but wimp out.* 

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Perhaps I should have stayed brave and just gone for it, but then he might have said no and that would have just ruined the whole thing. Instead, my day has been made.  : )

Next time I’m totally being Engelbert Humperdinck. And I’m insisting they write it, and I’m starting a collection of cups with ‘my’ name(s) on.

~xx~

Staring into space

Thinking about how I don’t have time to waste on staring into space.

.

Here is a picture of -

uhm,

…ooh.

Here is a picture of a cat who appears to be very proud of the fish s/he just caught/picked up.

StumbledUpon that at some point. ‘s cute, right?

~xx~

Don’t wake me up

Two smiles today. One of which my phone camera was too slow to capture, the other of which it just about got.

I will put the photos of the second thing on here tomorrow, and describe the first thing for you.

So I’ve been in the library all afternoon, trying to write an essay. I’m worn out, grumpy and braindead by the time I finally decide to give up. I step outside into the night, and am hit by a wall of cold. This is bad, because I only have my small jacket on me; it was brilliantly sunny when I left the house at midday. Anyway. I brace myself for the (too long, dammit it’s freezing) 20 minute walk home, and stick my earphones in. (‘The Bitter End’ by Placebo. Inappropriate, but never mind. It’ll do). Begin walking. Halfway down the long straight road that the library’s on, I’m just strolling along lost in my own little world as usual, and someone passes me on a bike. Except there’s something wrong about this. I can tell even though I’m staring at the ground straight ahead as I walk. I look up – to discover that what has actually just passed me is this:

A guy on a bike. Looks probably about 22 or 23 years old. Another guy – if anything, a slightly older guy – behind him on a skateboard, holding on to the bike seat and being towed along. Quite fast.

Got me thinking:

1) Do men ever actually grow up? If so, when?

2) Looks like fun. Reminds me of the time when I did the same thing, but on rollerblades. Except I was probably about 11 then.

3) Life would be so much better if we all did daft things more often.

Anyway. Here is a picture of a tiger being snowed on:

(http://bobbymcleod.redbubble.com/)

…

A friend sent me that picture because it reminded him of some of my drawings.

At first glance, it’s beautiful.

Then when you think about it, it’s a tiger in a zoo.

.

Smile, because it’s better than crying.

~xx~

Ed Sheeran Is My Soulmate

Because my Mum said so.

She said he reminds her of me.

And there’s a cat in one of his videos.

…

True Story.

In other news, I have eaten far too many M&Ms today. I have not written a sufficient number of words of essay, and am consequently feeling like a bit of a failure. I have appeared retarded in the library due to my Ribena carton not having a straw. (I hope you enjoy the image that brings to mind as much as I enjoyed the Ribena). I have pondered the meaning of life, the universe and everything a fair amount. And I have just received some quality advice from a mug:

Referring to ‘Lock your door… every time’, mostly. I mean… Duh.

I like to live life on the edge. I think I will continue to only lock my door sometimes. You gonna stop me, mug?

I repeat; it’s been a less than satisfying day.

~xx~

You,

(So you’re running in a best of three, And you’re gunning For It All, May the King fall…)

…

Not a lot of smiling going on lately. Essays. Stress. Future. Stress.

However,

This still gets me every time:

…

Even on days which, like today, have been kinda sucky.

:’)

~xx~

Pleasantly Caving In,

( I come undone… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s88r_q7oufE&ob=av2n )

The last couple of days in my life have been a little busy. As usual, there have been plenty of smiles, but not all of them ones that I’d like to tell you about in great detail. *wink, wink*

But…

Today, I travelled back to York by train.

Back? Where from, you ask. Like I said, I am infuriatingly reluctant to share details sometimes. This is one of those times.

The train journey lasted roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes. I spent the entirety of that time curled up underneath one of the luggage shelves because there were no seats free and lots of people standing up in the aisles already, and it was beginning to irritate me immensely every time someone tried to move past me and I pretty much had to sit in the lap of/stick my arse in the face of the nearest seated person in order to let people past. Plus my legs were aching. So, after a few minutes of this madness, I moved on. A few more awkward minutes of standing by the carriage doors and I decided I simply couldn’t spend the remaining hour of the journey like that. I found the luggage compartment to be satisfyingly near-empty, so I settled in there.

The looks on people’s faces as they passed through were fantastic.

‘Love, there’s seats in that coach now’ — ‘Are you ok there? I’ve just left a seat, why don’t you go and sit in it?’ — ‘Can I get you anything from the snack trolley, sweetheart? There’s seats on the train now y’know’ — ‘Have you got a ticket? Can I see your railcard? There are seats free down there, now… No?’

All were politely responded to with a quiet ‘Oh no, I’m quite comfortable here now, thanks’, and a little smile to myself as they shuffled on in  mild confusion, and I returned my headphones to my ears.

Call me weird, but I genuinely find sitting cross-legged/ leaning against carriage wall with knees against chest, far more comfortable than the standard posture demanded by train seats. I also prefer being where no other people are. I mean, other people’s luggage chillin’ around me, I can deal with. Oversized middle-aged men with flatulence problems and/or violent colds, and/or munching on disgusting food and/or reading giant newspapers under my nose, and/or absorbed in some sort of offensively important business on their laptop/iPad, casting me disapproving looks every time I shift slightly in the direction of their zone of seriousness, however…

Uhm, I digress.

(But really, is it just me who always finds that those kinds of people are the only ones who ever have empty seats next to them? The only time it hasn’t been an oversized middle-aged man, it was an oversized middle-aged woman cradling an excitable Jack Russell dog. I digress again).

This is not some kind of car-snob rant against public transport. Although, coming from the middle of nowhere I genuinely thought that, like, 5 people in the whole world or something, used trains. Only when I went to uni and started actually using them myself did I realise the truth; the world and his wife – and his dog, apparently – use trains. However, I personally have never had an experience with them that has been any better than a little traumatic. Maybe this is simply due to my being too easily traumatized. I really am at times.

Either way, I rebelled against the traumas today, which resulted in much amusement for myself and possibly (hopefully?) some amusement for the friendly fellow train folk who will likely never know just how comfy the floor of the luggage area is to a tired, tired cat.

I don’t want to leave you without a photo, so here is one of my dog and my cat sharing a bed:

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Probably isn’t as adorable if they aren’t your Floyd and your Joey, but it was the best I could do without resorting to hijacking someone else’s photography skillz.

~xx~

Pencils.

I’m that stubby one that some douche sharpened at both ends,

Some other douche nibbled little teethmarks all along,

Then some other much douchier douche dropped on the floor, mutliple times.

(So that the lead inside is all in little pieces, and every time you try to sharpen it the little pieces just fall out one by one, over and over).

[Minor sense of glee when those jam up the sharpener].  

…

Some of us are standard HBs; somewhere in the middle on every scale, the (almost) all-rounders and the obvious go-to for the lazy. Some of us are beautifully soft 5 or 6 Bs – heaven to handle, better for darker shading and heavier marks, easily broken. Some of us are 3 or 4 Hs; made of tougher stuff but only capable of making fainter marks and showing where the lighter places are. Some of us are charcoal pencils, and will above all else make a mess of the hands of those who use us. 

…

This cat inspires me:

…

I feel closer to chasing bears up trees than I’ve ever been in my life before.

A lot of love going out to the people who have helped me to feel like this.

~xx~

Wednesday’s Smile. [Warning: May Contain Cats].

Because I’m exhausted, and at (the family) home in my super-comfy bed, I am very tempted to go for the quick and easy way out today and just say that the thing to make me smile best was this fella:

Actually, yeah. I will leave it at that.

I promise to write more tomorrow.

It’s (really) good to be home.  :)

~xx~