My Birthday!

First of all, I must be the worst person for keeping things up to date as I have seriously neglected my blog for ages now. Man, it must have been over a week! For this lack of consistancy (I can use big words too!) I apologise most sincerly.
The reasons for this have been (in no particular order):
Homework
Coursework
Revision
Arts Award
Extra revision Sessions after school
Being banned from the computer after staying up too late
Blogger crashing
Internet crashing
Laziness (I have to admit that)

So now I have finally posted. Huzzah! (sorry, always wanted to use that phrase, so british!) And what a fine day to post it is indeed! I am now 15 years of age which means I can...I can...basically just do all the stuff I could do when I was 14! Ummm...I can get into 15 movies now...does that count? Not really. I can't drive or anything so I'd have to mess around with buses to get to the cinema...Ah well. I'm older now and that's that. I found that as you get older, birthdays become less important. I remember when I was little I had loads of partys and was really into the presents but now, (though I still really like getting the prezzies, of course!) I don't really make a fuss of it. Then again I don't really make a fuss of stuff fullstop. Anyway, all I did today was get some presents from my family (you know, stuff like socks. yes, I actually got socks!) and a toy tofu man from my friend (it was weird but fun! I'll post a pic of him soon...) and of course, some chocolate and cards. Some people at school were just like 'It's today? Damn!' and 'I got you a card but it's at home...'
Before you start thinking 'Oh, here she goes...'bout to start ranting about not getting enough cards...*other annoyed mutterings*' I actually have to say I didn't care. The reason for this isn't because I'm weird and am really anti-social (not anymore anyway...ahem) but because everyone was nice to me and I felt...special. I know I sound like a dork but it's true! On your birthday you get a weird inexplicable rush of happiness...not that I'm always depressed. I don't know how to explain it! I'm useless at that sort of thing! Anyway, you get what I mean. Celebrating birthdays gives everyone one day to feel special, which I think is pretty cool. Whoever invented them was pretty awesome!
Okay, so maybe my giving out of chocolate may have made people 'like' me more but they could have just grabbed it off me instead of saying/singing happy birthday, couldn't they. It makes me believe that there still is sanity/common politeness if you look hard enough.
Wow. I managed to make talking about my birthday even more dorky than it already is! What an achievment! At least I didn't list everything I got down (I've forgotten what all eight of the presents I got actually were, apart from the tofu man and this laptop of course!)

Right, as I haven't posted for ages, I will link in the maths test I had to do yesterday into the thought of the day which is:

Are all the tests we have to take (in this country at least, I don't know how many you do I other countries!) really necessary?

They've now scrapped the SATS in this country (which I had to d last year!) mostly due to the mess the marking company made of it (meaning I didn't get my results until about five weeks into term) but partly due to the fact that the government finally realised it wasn't helping anyone really. Apparently children are more stressed in this country than anywhere else in Western Europe but with all the tests we have to do, is it any wonder?
It's not just in school either. We have to pass lots of tests our whole lives. My question to you is: Is all this testing worth it, or is it a useless load of nonsense?
Have fun thinking about it!

P.S. This is shorter than I wanted it to be, but my battery's almost dead!

oh yeah!

oh and enjoy bofire night!

america....are you happy?

I didn't post until now because my Internet kept crashing, not because I was ignoring you, my awesome followers! That my friends will never happen. Ever.

Well, today, how can I skirt around it, the American election. Today, we found out that Barack Obama has become the 44th and (more importantly) the 1st black president of the United States. This in my opinion is a major breakthrough. Out with the old, fuddy duddies of traditional American government and in with the new change.

McCain wasn't going to win and it was obvious to everyone for sometime, especially when Obama came to light. Though nobody had really heard of him until Hilary Clinton dropped out (well, at least I hadn't, you Americans probably had for ages and I was just being ignorant!), his ideals reached out to a lot of people for who the old ways never had. No matter how much he protested, McCain would always be seen as the embodiment of the old regimen and problems that America has had in the past. Obama may not be to really bring about this change (I'm not kidding myself there), but he has a lot more chance than a traditionalist republican!
One of the big successes of Obama's (kind of late) campaign was he made himself internationally known and gathered more support for himself in the younger generations some of which had previously not voted. This was very smart thinking, unlike McCain's choice of Sarah Palin which was extremely stupid after his whole 'Obama's too inexperienced' rant. Palin had never been out of Alaska!
I'm trying really hard not to rant about how awesome Obama is!
Some of you may argue that it doesn't really matter what happens in America for people here in Britain or anywhere else but I think it does for our ongoing relations between the nations (yes, it rhymes!) and his decisions may affect us in future. Everyone I talk to seems to think he's a good thing and my friend (Princess Bala) got me to write DEMOCRAT across her face in body art pen!
Personally, I wish him, and America in general, good luck! I hope things get better for them.

OK, I have to admit, there was another reason I haven't updated for a while.
I have Facebook!
I know what a lot of you are thinking 'We've all had Facebook/Bebo/MySpace/whatever for ages!' But the thing is I've only just got my own e-mail!
Seriously, I didn't have my own laptop/computing device until two months back!
I'm very slow technology wise, we haven't even got any games consoles in our house.
Someone's trying to get me to get Bebo and MySpace now but I don't think I can cope with that much techno babble at once!
So when I logged on to it, lots of people added me who I never really talk to. It was a kind of weird and felt kind of good at the same time! I was really nerdy and felt loved!
Another awesome thing about Facebook is I'm in touch with people I haven't seen in years! That makes all the annoying e-mails you get worth it!
This does actually lead somewhere, before you get all confused and annoyed! My point being that are social networking sites making us less likely to go out and make new friends? Will we all end up glued to computers (and other such things, all you apple nerds!) chatting to people we've never meet, staying inside all day? Or are such sites a good thing? Keeping us in touch with people we'd otherwise never see?

I want to know what you lot think. It really matters to me what your opinions are, it's interesting to find out!)

Ooh, one more nasty brain exercise!)
Thought of the day:
Does the big media coverage of how extremist Muslims blow themselves up give all Muslims a bad name?
It definitely encourages people to think badly of them and the racist remarks I hear support this view. No one seems to think about the fact that Islam is quite a peaceable religion and what they must have experienced to drive them to blow themselves up.

Hmmm...think about that!

P.S. In case you're wondering about the weird reaction thing under the posts now, it's just something I'm experimenting with...

The calm between the storms

Sorry for not posting for a while! I've just had a shed full (well, not quite) of homework and then everything went crazy because of Halloween (little sisters' parties, little brothers' trick or treating, keeping crazy friends under control, the normal!) and yesterday everyone had fireworks, my sister got rabbits and I had to go to the library (I have another nine books so I should be alright for two more weeks!), ugh, too much for my brain to even contemplate doing!

So today I finally get to post.
Probably a lot of you are feeling the strain of having to keep with all these holidays and stuff. I mean for Halloween you have to make sure you have a costume, you don't look too stupid, that you've got enough sweets for all those little kids, that your younger siblings (those of you unlucky enough to have them) are happy and also have enough sweets so they don't have a tantrum. It is so hard to actually get any sweets from around where I live because we live in one of the more 'well off' areas (apparently) which means lots of old people live near us, and you know what that means. 'No trick or treaters here because you're all little hooligans!'
This is definitely not true (at least where I live) because the average age of everyone who goes trick or treating here is only about 9. I mean, sure a couple of houses get egged by a 'hardcore' few, but the number of times that actually happens around here is about twice...in six years. The little kids wouldn't dare go near a rotten egg or know what silly string was. I was given the task of getting my little bro to actually get some sweets. The problem is I never really went proper trick or treating when I was little, so I had no idea where to go. Seriously, I just went to Halloween parties every year. So we (Princess Bala and one my other friends who had decided to come see me) just ended up walking round aimlessly in the cold in our costumes for about half an hour. We went round to see a person I have known for years before she went to a Halloween party because she always has the most awesome costumes! (also, the day after she would have a major hangover. Maddie's parties have a well known reputation)
This year she was cat woman. She had a tail and everything lol! Her mum was just like, um, have some Hula Hoops! That was about all the stuff my little brother got. When we got home again I had to let him have half of what was left of our stock of sweets for trick or treaters and watch Monster House, again.

On Thursday and Friday everyone wore at least one Halloweeny thing to school. I didn't really have time so I just shoved some glitter in my hair but some people got really into it! Many people had wings, tiaras, wands, pointy hats, there was a lot of face paint and someone was the Grim Reaper but no one knew who it was till he took his mask off. Lots of people brought sweets as well. I don't mean the Mars bars that everyone buys at break and lunch, I mean big, huge multi packs! There was also a can of BBQ flavour pringles going round the whole of six-form and year eleven but they were just random.

Some people think (and it is probably true) that holidays are too commercialised nowadays. I mean, what does everyone associate Halloween with. Fancy dress, sweets, chocolate, movies, pumpkins, trick or treating, all kinds of monsters, but does anyone actually remember what the day is 'traditionally' about?(I know some observant people do, but bear with me while I explain it for anyone who doesn't) The actual name of the day is All Hallows Eve, the day before All Hollows or All Saints Day. Before it was 'Christian-ised' it was a pagan festival celebrating the harvest and they believed on this night the boundary between the living and the dead dissolved meaning that there were problems with crops and illnesses. They wore masks and costumes to calm the spirits. Now you know (well, the wikipedia version anyway)

But you know what, I don't think that commercialising the holidays is necessarily a bad thing. I mean we wouldn't have nearly as much fun without trick or treating, pumpkins, fancy dress and all the movies, be they comedy or horror, that are themed around all the 'traditions' of Halloween we have today. What other day do you get to dress up as an emo ninja (like me!), mad scientists, batcats (yes, i know someone who did), witches, vampires, Frankensteins, mummies, werewolves, zombies, whores, practically anything you want to, excluding fancy dress birthday parties? All in all, it's a lot more fun with all the cheesy stuff!

Also, in case you were wondering what I mean in the post title, I have two words for you: Bonfire Night. Will I be able to sleep on Wednesday? No!) I'll be too busy watching fireworks!

Thought for the day (before I forget):

Do you think if cows are one of the main causes of methane pollution, we shouldn't eat/farm so many of them to cut down on green houses and in theory, slow down global warming?

Have fun thinking about that!

Also I want to know about your Halloweens and your costumes!)