Lucky it's been a fairly manageable couple of days back at school so far. Only a few minor upsets, and that's just the usual stuff. The birthday(15. gosh) was absolutely wonderful of course and I'm happy with all the stuff I got.
Run through time, no?
I got the expected group of CDs, with a couple of them still in the mail, most of them people at V. Hurts(Happiness), KT Tunstall(Tiger Still), Rihanna(Loud), Eminem(Recovery), The Kills(Blood Pressures), Kele(Boxer), Elbow(Build A Rocket Buys! finally!) Courteeners(St. Jude), Primal Scream(Screamadelica), PJ Harvey(Let England Shake), The Script(Science & faith), and the Submarine soundtrack. Seeing as I've been a tad preoccupied with Manchester Orchestra(listen to the new song, Virgin, it's great) and Cage the Elephant and such, I've only listened to Hurts so far...but let me just say, that album is so good. I'd describe it as the 'perfect pop record' if I didn't take to doing that with a different album every fortnight or so. Better Than Love is beyond catchy, it drives me crazy...and the intro song, it's surprisingly dark, for a pop song. Hurts are interesting, because they're both very 80s and very modern pop, it's strange. It's all Pet Shop Boys synth, with Depeche Mode darkness, plus dub step influences, dance influences, and (heterosexual) sex appeal. It's fuuuuun. I thought I'd drive my parents crazy with the record but, luckily, they really like it too. They're definitely a 'love them or hate them' sort of band...as for me, now that I'm more familiar with them, I'm very excited to see them in August. Also, I got piano versions for Sweeney Todd and Star Wars, like I kept going on about. they're both pretty easy but I can only play easy stuff, so it works well. Unfortunately, no No Place Like London(my favorite ST song after Johanna Reprise), but it has all the other popular ones so it's all good. I got an awful lot of DVDs, not exactly sure why! I got Peep Show Series 7 on DVD(love.) and I've consequentially been reminded of how utterly brilliant all of Peep Show is. It's better to watch them on DVD, because the series are so short it almost seems like they don't flow together when you're just watching them as debuts. I really liked the episodes when re-watching them now. The rest of the family seemed to like them, also, so now I can probably get away with watching them every single day until Series 8 in November...which I'm totally excited for. I'm really worried about Dobby moving in with Mark, though, simply because I adore Dobby and I'll be heartbroken when Mark&Dobby inevitably break up in the next series. Also, in series eight, I need to see more of Sophie(as much as I dislike her), and also I'd like a return of either Elana or, better yet, Nancy. Or Zhara! Zhara's character is so brilliant.
Also got Deathly Hallows Part 1 on DVD. Also, a few months ago, I suddenly remembered Doogle and the Blue Cat...which was my favorite movie when I was, um, eight. if you went through your childhood without Doogle and the Blue Cat, you are missing out on so much. Basically, it's a French kids from from the early 1970s which was (as all good kids films are) probably made on hallucinatory drugs. It's great because the English version is dubbed with a completely different storyline to the original French one, goodness knows why. I'd, um, recommend it if you're into trippy kids stuff. Also, I got the much sought-after original theatrical versions of Star Wars IV, V, and VI. Not only does the nerdiness in me revel in that, but laughing at the crappy special affects in itself is a very fun event. I got the Clangers(haha, love) on DVD as a sort of joke, but also a whole array of old Disney movies...I have them on VHS, not DVD, and I no longer have a VHS player, so re-buying them was good.
Weekend was good. Bought magazines on Sunday and working until 12:30 AM on Monday morning for a science project, no big deal there. But the crux of my weekend is, of course, the new episode of my beloved Doctor Who. So, thoughts--1. I want loads of clothes in Tardis Blue. 2. This episode is...so confusing. 3. What was the point of the whole 'Doctor, I'm pregnant' thing? 4. The orphanage scene was AMAZING to the max, but really creepy even by Doctor Who standards. 5. The guy at the orphanage is my new favorite person, I think. 6. Matt Smith with a beard...like, woah. mind blown. 7. I've just realized, now, how brilliant/terrifying the Silence are. 8. the ending was kind of fast and difficult to follow, but good nonetheless. 9. The bit with the girl at the end...takes 'mind blown' to a whole new extreme. Damn you, Moffat, you Doctor Who writing genius! 10. And, most importantly, the kiss! I wasn't expecting it this early to be honest, but I'm just glad the kiss wasn't with Amy(growl.)...and as It's River's last kiss with him, it's also quite sad. Overall, good episode, I really like it...and I totally just love River.
World Civ is a big nightmare. We finished our projects on civilizations on Tuesday. On Tuesday through Thursday, all the groups put up their posters around the room and we were told to take notes on them. However, it wasn't usual 'take notes' type stuff, we were taking notes on six specific questions that were completely irrelevent to the posters. If nothing else, it was slightly frustrating to think that I did that massive timeline for nothing. He gave us like twnrty minutes on each country, though in reality those notes only too about five. And we spent all of yesterrday doing the shitty essay I have to write tonight, and then watched 9/11 videos. Stayed up to 11:30 last night doing a supremely irritating essay, and did decently on the test today. Time to move out of the middle ages, please.
health was watching the embarassing English puberty vid in one day, and then a crappy TV movie about HIV. Ugh. And I have to do a term project for this silly class--I'm choosing Bi-Bolar. On the one hand, yes, bi polar has been done to death but on the other, remarkably, most people seem to know very little about it still. I'm tired of hearing teenagers talk about how they were so happy one day and then so sad the next and how they're 'totally Bi-polar' and such, so I want to shed a little light on how fucking stupid these people are. Also, today we had symbolic unprotected sex, by exchanging index cards. I got symbolic AIDs. Ah, health class.
I finally finshed my picture in art--we're onto some geometric thing that requires creativity, of which I have little. Mostly I do homework and sit through stupid conversations. (Someone at my table asked today 'Can you die from Aspergers?' The amount of time it took for the others to resolve this girl's question was, um, troubling). Doctor Who has been on my mind too much and a fellow Whovian suggested I do a Doctor Who theme for the next project, but I'm not sure I could make it work. Sigh.
Classifacation of animals in science...going thyrough all the domains and kingdoms and classes and I want to cry with how boring they are, also the teacher continues to bring in skins for no reason...last week she brought in a bear skin, and continued to spend a half hour talking about bears. She called finding wild bears 'summer fun'. Time-waster or what? We went out at the beginning of the week to our environmental site. As per usual, we rushed through our tests in fifteen minutes and then the guys in our group started breaking sticks of increasing sizes with their hands and feet and faces. But, at least its got warm as of late o going outside is far less torturous. Present my awful(really, honestly awful) poster yesterday, to much stress. It's a test grade. I have a quiz next week--always a cause for minor mental breakdowns, as any reader of my blog will know--and then I have to do an organism report on some sort of reed. Fun, no?
Lastly, English hasn't benn too great so far this last week and a half. We've started Tale of Two Cities, hoorah! I guess I'm liking the book so far. My reading comprehension isn't very good so sometimes it's a struggle, but overall it seems to be good. (Apart from Lucie. I mean, what the hell, Dickens? Aren't you supposed to be about over-the-top people and good characterization? Explain yourself.). Unfortunately, my uber pretentious literature-snob of a teacher decided to be particularly irritating about 'one of her favorite books'. We've been put into reading groups. I'm with one girl who I'm pretty sure hates me, another quiet girl who also doesn't seem to like me, and two guys with no interest in doing any work whatsoever. Most of the time she just sits us down with this vast packets, all about analyzing the text, even when I'm pretty sure there is very little that needs to be analyzed. Last week that and vocab(not fun, either) was all we did, even on Friday afternoon. Just packets. Just when I thought things in that class could not got any worse, the teacher announced we would do a graded fishbowl activity. Graded. Basically, we have a four-person discussion going on about one question in the packet and you get a point for every time that you contribute something. Probably is, it creates the most vapid discussions imaginable, because people aren't looking to build off what other people have said, all they care about is saying loads and loads of things. That in itself is something I don't like, but grading it? Scandalous! I didn't contribute for all of the first day, but then the second day I was sitting next to this girl who, while being certainly less shy than I am, didn't want to participate either. Moving onto another question, we just decided to go together. And then, turns out we get the most ridiculous, irritating question in the entire packet to answer, one that I remember not 48 hours beforehand, ranting to my mother about due to its stupidity. It's all like "Defarge talks about the troubles with the French government at the time. Can you draw any parallels to today's world?" WELL, DUH. Anyone above the age of seven could answer yes to that, no? But you want me to draw parallels? Oh yay, you've totally just given a bunch of teenagers a chance to talk about shit they no nothing about! Then everyone else is all like "So, there's corruption...and Africa...and Libra, and, like, world hunger..." and all that jazz that these people seem to think is interrelated, even when it's not. And I'm there thinking, well, um, what do I say? Then we're told to discuss "how does this theme transcend place and time?" and I'm thinking...ugh, again? Cause it's universal? Y'know, bad shit that happens? Does this really need an explanation? Then the question ends and we go back to our seats and I've got a 0 for a participation grade.
The teacher pulled me and the other girl aside at the end of the lesson. The other girl was absent the day before so 'she had an excuse' but I did not. She did say she wanted us to contribute because we were 'two of the most articule people in the class'(which is both innacurate and very flattering) but 'it's no good if you can't voice these opinions to others'. So, shit, guys, I've got to start pretending I've got opinions...quite a feat, right? I did actually wanna say something about Miss Pross at one point, but I was too scared to stand up and sit down at the discussion table, so I didn't, and I regret that.
New Antlers album, ahhh, so good. Not Hospice level goodness, though Hospice is my all time favorite album, so beating that would be quite something. But really quite good.
Sorry it's been too long...I feel like I look unenthusiastic and dull here, which is sad because I had so much to say. Sorry. It has beena good week, really, I've liked it! It's just I'm forgetting what happened a week ago and I'm tired to the point of passing out right now.
So, night!
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