Tuesday 31 March 2009

Encounter!!!!

Wow! It was so amazing! Huge youth event in the Guild Hall Preston for those of you who've never heard of it.

The music was fantastic. I discovered why I could never find one of the songs I love that we've sung at Devoted to download--one of the people at Devoted wrote it! It's amazing, based on Timothy where it says don't let anyone look down on you because you're young. Very lively. I was most impressed with their version of Abide With Me, which involved some pretty cool dancing to it.

Very emotional in the second half. Nearly crying at the drama about the girl who ran away from home. Des was speaking, really interesting what he was saying about going home. Will write more about the content on my other blog, http://pointofcontact317.blogspot.com.

Absolutely awesome. If you didn't come this year, you really have to come next year!!!

First World War Trench Warfare (2)

This is another book by Osprey, in the Elite series. Very good book, useful for history too. Gave a lot of detail. I haven't read the first book in this two part series on Trench Warfare in WWI, but it still made perfect sense and was easy enough to follow. It took the time from 1916, though it was an approximate divide. Explained the concept of defence in depth very well (basically, the Germans decided to have a more flexible defence system, with outlying machine gun posts as the first part, then going back into stronger and stronger defences). Also a lot of information about the development of helmets, which, admittedly, sounds rather geeky and pointless, but was well-written and interesting. I'd recommend this to anyone studying A-Level Modern History, as it really clarified a lot of points for me and was readily understandable, whilst giving a lot of detail you quite frankly do not get in the official Edexcel books. For those of you not studying history, well, it's still a very interesting book to read, if you have an interest in the topic. If not, you'll probably find it somewhat boring, as it is a rather specialised book. Also requires, I think, a general knowledge of the First World War, as it does make reference in brief to some of the battles.

Anyway, it's a good book, an interesting one, and it's not too OTT with regard to details. I wonder if that saying came from the First World War...

First Ypres

A somewhat confusing book in the Osprey Campaign series (I seem to read a heck of a lot of those Osprey books). Whether this was down to the nature of the battle itself or the way the book was written, it's hard to say. It may also have been down to the fact that I put it down, read another book in the middle, and came back to it...

Anyway, it was well set out. More detail than perhaps I really wanted. The different armies involved got very confusing, would've helped to colour code which were allied troops and which were German troops. The plans and reasons for the battle was set out well, as was the explanation of the battle itself, though like I said, it did get a bit confusing.

I found the aftermath bit somewhat rushed and poorly done. Might've been better to miss that out entirely, rather than stick in very general points about the remainder of the First World War.

An interesting book, but unless you've a serious interest or are prepared to give it perhaps a bit more of a concentrated effort than I did, I wouldn't really recommend it.

Essential History: Indian Mutiny

Another non-fiction book. You're going to get bored of these :D. It was another one in the Osprey Essential History book. Well laid out, a good introduction to the subject, especially when you know absolutely nothing (as I did before I started reading). It takes you through the underlying causes, which were not just the use of dodgy grease on cartridges, but longer ranging political discontent and discontent in the military that only needed a bit more of a spark to set it off. Didn't go into massive detail over the campaign, but that was probably a good thing as it sounds rather confusing and also somewhat depressing. I wondered at first why we didn't study the Indian Mutiny in history, skipping instead from the Crimean War to the Boer War. I know the reason now. The British Army was actually acting pretty competently in that war, and, not trying to sound cynical, the exam board doesn't want us to think that our army was good for anything.

Like I said, this is very good as an overview. Gave details about some bits, explained the build up and the aftermath well, talked through the key features of the major battles. Well written and interesting, if you have an interest in the subject as a whole. It's certainly a good series for giving you the general knowledge involved with various different wars. Haven't seen any about peace yet though...

Thursday 26 March 2009

Pillars of Fire

Pillars of Fire The Battle of Messines Ridge June 1917 by Ian Passingham is a fantastic book. Non-fiction, but that doesn't make it any less interesting. I posted a few days ago about mines and fighting underground, which I found on firstworldwar.com (great website by the way). This tells the story of that battle in a very gripping manner. Had I not been utterly knackered by half ten the night before last, I would've read until I finished it. As it was, I unfortunately had to leave the book unfinished. I finished it off on Wednesday though, so I did get to finish it pretty quick. Anyway, it's a fantastic portrayal of the battle. Puts it into context a bit, but I have to admit I didn't really pay much attention to that particular bit of it since I've got plenty of the context knowledge already (mostly grouped in at the end). It wove in personal accounts of the battle very well, and the diagrams and maps were actually useful! There was a little bit about how all the various parts of the battle worked, a bit about the planning, and then details of the successes and failures of the actual operation. Well worth reading. though there were things that could be improved on in the battle, which this book doesn't ignore, it makes the point quite eloquently that the tragic waste of lives during Passchendaele could have been minimised had proper lessons been taken from this attack, which showed how to do things right, and the gains that were made taken advantage of right away.

The book was written well, made it very interesting. Not quite as story-like as the Dam Busters book was, but nontheless an interesting read and I'd recommend it as extra reading to anyone studying the First World War.

Six Sacred Stones

Yeh, I've reviewed this one before I suspect, and I should've technically done it a little while ago. However.

A great book. Pure action, it's the sequel to Seven Ancient (or Deadly) Wonders. Read them in order for most enjoyment. Like the other one, it's sole purpose is escapism. Fantastic action sequences, even bigger and crazier than the first. Lily and Alby (the children) seem a lot more realistic in this one, and we meet Jack West's father for the first time too. Very exciting. And dramatic.

One little thing that annoys me. It ends with the hugest cliffhanger you can possibly immagine, and it's a literal cliffhanger too. I'm assuming he survives (read the book to find out what I'm talking about), and I suspect that the maghook has something to do with how he survives although I'm not entirely sure. Can't wait for the sequel to find out what happens next.

Plot wise, it carries on from Seven Ancient Wonders, but on a larger scale. Six diamonds have to be found and placed in the correct spots before a certain date or the world will end is the gist of it. Lots of trap-beating, racing around the world etc. The enemies are not the same, though some of the new allies are of dubious quality. A cracking read. Nice and fast paced. Don't expect complete realism, or any of that. Just expect some of the most incredible action you're ever likely to come across.

Tuesday 24 March 2009

If I was in a movie right now, what music would be playing?

Just found this random question on that plinky thing. Don't want to sign up for it, just want to find the questions and answer them every now and again. Not that I don't have sat next to me a long list of things I should be writing about. Anyway. What music would be playing?

I suspect it would have to be something up beat. I've had a good day. Lively. Slightly hyper perhaps, to go with the fact that I'm typing fast and am kinda in a mood where I want to get stuff done.

Music that goes along with my life: Love Today by Mika. Cool Police by Superhero.

Music I love: Most music. Stuff by Superhero. Most of Mika's songs. Delirious, especially Kingdom of Comfort CD. Stellar Kart's songs. Isle of Life album.

Music I hate: repetitive dance music. Why can't they think of any more words?!

And that's the end of my ramble about music.

Floodgate

If River of Death was mediocre, this one certainly wasn't. Nice twists, an interesting MC who could hold your interest well, and a fantastic plot. Terrorists have decided to start flooding Holland, blowing up the dams. Amsterdam airport is the first target. I started reading it a while back, then remembered I was going to be flying into Amsterdam in a few days and decided maybe not the greatest idea. Not amazingly scary, but it didn't need to be. Well written. Very clever plot. Really recommend it, one of my favourite Alaistar MacLean books for sure.

Gran Torino

We won some free cinema tickets, needed to use them else they'd expire. Looking at the Odeon website, I happened to notice this one, since it had a really high rating. Never heard of it, never seen it advertised, but when I read the description, it sounded like my kind of film. A fifteen though, otherwise I would've perhaps invited Alex along, I bet he'd like it too. Wondered why it was a fifteen, figured it was maybe a bit scary, had a look at the comments that told you why it was a fifteen. Said that the f-word was used repeatedly. I was like 'yeh, that probably means about five times'. Turned out more like five times a second in some parts...

A very unpolitically correct film. Lot of racist jokes from the main character, but as the film progresses it becomes more a form of endearment than a real insult. Kinda stereotypical old style American guy. If you can ignore the swearing, it's pretty good. Got some morals and issues in it, which is nice, but it doesn't intrude on the story, which is basically a Romeo and Juliet without the romance, that being replaced with a kind of father like affection which grows between the two MCs. Worth watching. Although not if you take offence easily.

Sunday 22 March 2009

Warning to French folk

Just discovered something quite interesting. During the Battle of Messines Ridge in WWI, the British started digging 22 mines. 1 was discovered by the Germans who neutralised it. There was underground fighting during the digging of these mines when they ran into Germans engaged in counter mine activities underground. 19 of the remaining 21 were exploded--the other two were too far outside the area of the battle so they decided not to use them. The British then lost the paperwork saying exactly where they were. 1 exploded in 1955, fortunately killing only a cow. The other one is still out there somewhere...

As an interesting extra, the 19 mines going off were loud enough to be heard in Dublin and comprised the loudest man made explosion at that time.

Edexcel GCE History

I haven't finished reading this book, it's my text book for History AS-level. However, I think it's kinda important to warn the whole world about a glaring inaccuracy I have just discovered in it. A large portion of text under the heading Battle of Arras does not belong there. It is in fact talking about the Battle of Arras when it starts speaking about the Messines Ridge etc. I'm absolutely appalled. I found a similar inaccuracy, although perhaps on a slightly smaller and more understandable scale, in our Russia text books, where one of the major WWII battles it talked about was given the wrong year of commencement. I spotted it because I thought hey, the Germans only went into Russia about a month ago, how could they have gotten so far? Looked it up and discovered that the text book gave the date a year before it actually was. That's besides the poor layout of the books. But it really is a bit worrying when you start finding such innacurate information in the text book published by the exam board. Added to that the fact that they didn't even get the Russia books out until we were half way through the year and, well... Take care with them is my advice. Don't believe everything you read.

River of Death

So, I'm a pretty big fan of Alaistar Maclean, but this quite frankly wasn't his best. I'd read it before, but hadn't remembered it well enough to realise that I had until I was partway through. The twists weren't as spectacular as I'm used to from him, although it might have partially come from the fact that I'd read it before and could half remember what happened. Not as good as his others. Still good, and it's a decent enough book, shorter than most of his others too I think given by the fact that it didn't take me as long as usual to read, but not absolutely fantastic.

It's about an explorer who's found this amazing place and a business man who wants to get there, but the businessman is a Nazi and he wants to go there because an ex-friend stole from him and he's hiding out in this place. A decent enough tale, but like I said, not absolutely fantastic.

Saturday 21 March 2009

The National Army Museum Book of The Crimean War

Non-fiction, as you can maybe tell from the title. Lot more informative than the text book, but then, it was just dedicated to the Crimean War and not to the Boer War and the First World War too. Plus I suspect it's slightly longer. Anyway, it's pretty good. The way they've integrated lots of quotes and chunks of diaries is nice, gives you the source material to work from yourself if you want to, and you can see where they're drawing the conclusions from. Interesting, and pretty well written. Very little about the nursing thing, which was a bit of a shame because that's part of what our exam is supposed to be on. Same with the journalists. But then again, it wasn't really specifically on that, it was more about the army itself. Understandable, given it was written by the National Army Museum people. Didn't put much emphasis on the Charge of the Light Brigade or the Thin Red Line, also not so great for the exam. However, as regards the general state of the war, very good. After all, a lot happened, that was just one day of it. So, worth reading if you've an interest. If not, it is a lot to plough through.

Friday 20 March 2009

Sunshine and smiles!

Whoo! Lovely weather these past few days. And Kate let us all go work outside in English, which was great fun. But she's leaving us :(. Really enjoyed having her as our teacher. And yes, I'm definitely British, despite my three-year sojourn in the States. I still talk about the weather. More variation here you see. College was pretty good fun today. Helped by the sun, which put everyone in a pretty good mood. But yeh, it's been good. And cycling was kinda fun, despite the bumpy ride and the fact I got to college about twenty minutes early. Good though. Not too exhausting, but I should sleep tonight. Which'd be nice.

Why the council needs to repave the cycle path...

I had this great idea today. Much faster to come home from college by bike, and a bit faster to go there too, although it is up a big hill. Anyway, coming home, I discovered that the council should maybe do a bit of cycle path improvement works. It is the most bumpy track ever, and I was going down at maybe thirty miles an hour at the top end of things, because it's pretty steep. Got home pretty fast though.

Monday 16 March 2009

Duke of Edinburgh

So, I've been going to a Duke of Edinburgh group in Preston for the past couple of weeks on Monday nights. However, everyone else in the silver group has now dropped out. So I can't do silver. But I've already done bronze, and I don't want to skip and go straight to gold. So for now, I'm just carrying on with the long term bits of the award (which technically I've finished already) and do it next year, when hopefully there will be a silver group. Never mind. I've got a lot on at the moment. I mean, I'm disappointed I can't do it, but looking at it logically, at the moment, I'm: doing five AS-level courses, doing a distance learning theology course, trying to do lots of extra reading so I can get into Cambridge, keeping two blogs, writing stories, wishing I could read more, going to housegroup on Wednesday nights and church twice on Sundays, and I'd like to be able to finish off some model aeroplanes at some point too. Oh, and I'd like to become a CrossRhythms reviewer, and have now decided which CD I'm going to write a review of to hopefully get in. Superhero's The Bicycle Thieves if you're interested. Great CD.

Saturday 14 March 2009

A Prayer for the Dying

If someone put a gun to my head and said I had to pick my favourite book, this would be it. Not my favourite by a long way, I admit it, I like too many books for that to be the case, but if I had to pick one, it would be this one. The ending is phenomenal, quite moving. I've read it half a dozen times now and have thoroughly enjoyed it each time.

Unlike most of the books I read, you could actually study this one. It's got themes and issues, there's a lot of context stuff in there. When the film of this book came out (never seen it), it got banned from a film festival because it was a bit too controversial. It's not the whole themes and issues bit that I really like about it though. It's the characters.

From Fallon, a bitter, cynical man who everyone wants because he was a terrorist for the IRA and who describes himself as 'a corpse walking', to the priest Father da Costa who joined the Catholic Church to get away from the violent side of himself, to the blind girl Anna, Jenny the prostitute who Fallon ends up staying with. And then on the other side of the coin, the undertaker and crime boss Jack Meehan, his younger brother who goes for anything in a skirt, Rupert, they're all created wonderfully, astonishingly realistic. You just don't know how to view Fallon. A cold blooded killer, true, but then he spares the life of Father da Costa who witnesses him murdering a man in exchange for a passport to get away from the country where everyone wants him. You can't help but feel sorry for him, despite the fact that he's a murderer and was a terrorist. He's one of the greatest characters I've ever read in terms of the contradictions in him and yet it all fits together so well. Father da Costa is developed brilliantly too. The little details about him, the way he isn't just your stereotypical priest. Nor is Jack Meehan your standard villain. The funeral business isn't just a legitimate front for him, he enjoys that part too.

The plot itself is great too. The ending is incredibly emotive. Fallon wants to get away from London. Meehan will let him have a passport and money. All he has to do is kill a business rival. But Fallon won't kill the priest who witnesses it. Instead, he goes to confession, admits what he's done to the priest, and the priest then has his hands tied. The secrets of confession cannot be given away. But Meehan is not impressed by the fact that the priest is still alive, determines otherwise. Fallon finds himself responsible for protecting the priest and his neice Anna.

There's action in it, sure, particularly the explosive (literally) last scene, but that doesn't take over the plot. It's not a pure thriller determined to give you the fastest paced read in the world like Matthew Reilly books. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I quite enjoy it, but this one really has good characters. And I mean really good.

I highly recommend it. By Jack Higgins, and well worth reading. I'm using it as my stimulus text for my English Lit coursework, although technically Ash was inspired by Sean Dillon in a series of books also by Jack Higgins. I can see a lot of parallels between my character Ash and Fallon though.

Anyway, this is probably the best book I've ever read. Everybody ought to read it.

Remote Control

You will be pleased to know that I'm now onto the last of the books I read over half term.

Remote Control by Andy McNab is a very good book. It's the first in the Nick Stone series, but unfortunately I'd already read the third one, so I kind of knew roughly what was going to happen, which is never the best position to be in. You really do need to read this one first, otherwise it kind of gets spoilt and there's a nice tense moment but you already know the answer to it.

Plenty of twists involved, a very interesting book for sure. Lots of good, believable action. Part of the reason I really enjoyed it was because I knew it was accurate--Andy McNab was in the SAS and I've read his account of one of the patrols he was involved in. Really good stuff. It means you can enjoy the book even more, and it has that extra realism that comes from knowing things for sure rather than just guessing at what it would feel like (what I do, I admit it).

So, I'd recommend it, but you need to read this series in order. This is the first one, I've just checked, and it's pretty good.

Friday 13 March 2009

Seven Deadly Wonders

I saw complaints on Amazon that this was a cop out, calling the same book by two different names (Seven Ancient Wonders, Seven Ancient Wonders, they're identical). To be honest, I think anyone who buys a book and then complains it's the same as one they've already read and enjoyed is a bit of a twit. If you enjoyed it, surely you'll realise when you read the blurb that it's very similar to the one you read. And then maybe you'll have a little look and realise that 'oh, it's identical, just with a different title'.

Anyway, that little rant aside, this is a very good book. I admit, the character realism isn't always the best (Lily is my main complaint, she's not the most realistic ten-year-old girl ever, but then again, I suppose her unusual upbringing, and her inherited skills would make her a little unusual). But it's more than made up for by the fantastic action. The sheer scale of the book is phenomenal. Matthew Reilly writes the fastest paced thrillers I have ever read. The action is explosive, big scale, great fun. It's not a serious read, it's not the sort of book you sit down and study for English Lit exams. It's the sort of book you pick up to read and enjoy, that you pick up because you feel like getting away from the world for a bit.

It's about a quest to rebuild the capstone to sit on top of the Great Pyramid at Gaza. The complication? Each of the seven pieces is hidden in one of the seven ancient wonders. Clues to their locations have been written in the word of Thoth, a difficult script which gets increasingly complex. The ability to read it has been lost to all but the son or daughter of the Oracle, who develops the ability at the age of about ten. Lily is the child of the Oracle, who died. She's the younger child, the second twin, and the only time that there has ever been more than one child. Rescued by Jack West, they embark upon a race against time to find the golden capstone to save the world from a sunspot that's about to align with us. The extra complication? The older child of the Oracle has been taken by a group of nations from Old Europe, who've set up a powerful expedition force to go find them. And the Americans want in on it too, because whoever recovers the capstone has the ability to rule the world for a thousand years. Jack West is the leader of a group of smaller nations that are determined that the capstone is used only for good, to save the world, to ensure the words of power are not recited over it.

Lots of trap beating, lots of fighting, and a very interesting plot with plenty of nice twists and turns. Oh, and an assault on Guantanamo Bay. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who feels like getting away from the world for a bit. Don't expect complete realism, but the details are often very convincing. It's a book you read to enjoy. So enjoy it.

Thursday 12 March 2009

Dave's Chippy

Went to Dave's Chippy for tea! Yay! Very yummy fish and chips. Moor End chippy in Oswaldtwistle (think that's how you spell it) if you're ever up that way, best fish and chips ever. Celebrating exam results. Good fun.

Day of steps...

Crazy day at college today. Had first lesson as normal--English language. Up on second floor of St Cecilia's, so went up there, which is miles and miles and miles of steps. Not literally, but there's more steps in that building than in any of the others. Then went into town, to pick up my new glasses, stopped off by the car boot and picked up a couple of books. Not the greatest idea in the world, they were pretty heavy. But still. Then down into the basement of St Augustine's to pick up my results. Then back to the main building, down to the canteen. Then up to maths in St Mary's. Then back down again for a half hour break. Then up to second floor of St Cecilia's again. Then down from there, stopped in the library for a bit cos Martin let us go early, then up to sociology, Dave wasn't so impressed with my results, so I'm retaking it. Then finished that early so went down to by the lake with a friend, which was down even more steps. Then back up all those steps and out to top floor of St Mary's. Then down again and hung out outside for a little bit. Then up to second floor St Cecilia's again. Then down all those steps and up to the top floor of St Mary's again. So I'm now kinda knackered. Hardly surprsing I guess.

Exam Results!

Got the exam results from my January modules today. Three A's and a B. 100% in history and maths!!! Really chuffed about that.

Got the B in sociology, which I'm going to retake. I did pretty badly in it to be honest, only just scraped the B. But I did do it straight after my maths exam, so my brain was kinda dead by the time I got to it. Anyway, I'm dead chuffed about getting hundred percent in maths, and especially especially in history!

Wednesday 11 March 2009

Winged Escort

Yeh, I've still not finished writing up all the books I read over half term. Never mind. This is one of two that're left. Try to finish this up soon.

It was really good. A bit confusing at first, but I got to understand it after a little while. I never realised they used biplanes in the Second World War, but it turns out they did. Struggled to put it down, had a nice little romance included, and plenty of action. Worth reading for sure, I'm glad I picked it up (just randomly, mainly because of the picture--I know you shouldn't pick books because of the cover, but I like books about airplanes, so I figured airplane picture on the front, can't go wrong really). By Douglas Reeman, made me want to read more of his if I can find any.

Saturday 7 March 2009

New daily word record!

I've just set a personal best for number of words in a day today. I'm dead chuffed. Even though I'm actually further from finishing When All Was Fair than I was when I started writing this morning, thanks to an unexpected character showing up in Chapter 87...

I managed the grand total of: 12,606 words, in one day.

Now, the reason my poor ever growing, much neglected story When All Was Fair (I started it about this time last year, and have finished several other stories and started about a billion others in the mean time) is now further from finishing than it was at the beginning is the fault of a photographer who showed up to be flown around by Tommy and revealed that Tommy had saved his life during the War. I'd been toying with the idea of putting in some scenes of trench fighting into the story, and Lark gave me a great excuse to go ahead and start weaving in another story line. But I couldn't just have British folks telling their side of the story, because that would be biased and I'm kind of fed up of books that make out the Germans to be evil and the British/Americans to be amazing (although I have to admit I love the Biggles books). So I figured ok, I'll stick in a bunch of Germans on one side of the lines and a bunch of Brits on the other, like I've done for the pilots in Africa. Have used a couple of family connections to tie things together a bit preliminarily, will stick the stories more thoroughly together near the end. One of the aims I had with writing this story was to show both sides as equally good and equally bad, so I have some nasty Brits, some nasty Germans, and a very nasty lady called Erna who flirts with everyone, but I'm not telling you whose side she's working for because that's one of the big shocking revelations :D. Which is why I now have five sets of characters, all of whom are liable to throw random stuff into the mix. I'm also starting to think this might have to just cover one week, or it's going to get unmanageably big. It's nearly hit 125,000 words, and I've covered five days with the three original story lines and added in the first day and a little bit of the new story lines. But I'm thinking two days isn't going to be enough time to tie up all the loose ends I've created all over the place. I still have to let everyone know who Erna's working for for one thing.

But that can wait until tomorrow. For now, I'm just chuffed with how much I've done. And am hoping that it doesn't turn out to be one of these mammoth books that nobody can ever be bothered to read. I can always separate out the trench bit and turn that into another story that's linked in if need be.

Friday 6 March 2009

Finished Editing!!!

Yay! I've just finished editing Nutmeg Angel for the last time. Now I only need to sort out the formatting and then it's all done and it's going up on Amazon for everyone to read! Yay! It's only taken me four years from starting it to get to this point, but hey, that's life. I've written twelve other complete stories in the mean time, and started who knows how many million others. So I think that's pretty good going.

Why stories never ever go to plan

Does anyone know? I don't. I wrote a plan for the next part of When All Was Fair, and within about ten minutes of starting to write from it, I was having to change it and realising that various characters were not behaving as the plan said they would. Although technically Lecker wasn't mentioned in the plan. Technically. But yeh. Oops. Never mind. Provided it ends up ok, and I actually finish the thing at some point, that's fine. It's over a hundred thousand words already, and I'm thinking I'm maybe half way through. At the moment I've got the MCs in 1929 living with the wrong people, which needs sorting out. And in the 1916 part of the story, I have to stop Dirk and Strom hating each other. And maybe put Ratin and Strom into the same room. And have Erna found out. And stuff like that. So there's a lot left. I've discovered, while writing this, why historical fiction tends to be quite long, especially when it's set in two different parts of time. It's because the nature of the story makes it so. You have to get in some good detail about the period, you have to do research into it, and with this I have technically three sets of characters: the Germans in 1916, the British in 1916, and the Americans in 1929, which kind of gives me an excuse for making it massive. Anyway. If anyone has any theories about why stories never go to plan, please, tell me.

College

I hardly ever seem to write about college and stuff, so I will tonight. Especially since we've just moved into St Cecilia's which is our lovely new building. With lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of stairs. And I mean lots. Anyway... Had Sociology first thing, did a test on methodology. Not the greatest subject in the world. Oh, I grabbed a lift in with my dad since he left late, so I did a bit of work on Nutmeg Angel before college (my story). Then off to history, via the careers office and the admissions office in an attempt to hand in the stuff to go on a trip to Lancaster for a HE convention. Did a quiz and a mindmap, quite fun really. Especially the mindmap. I made it all fun and colourful this time. Normally mine end up tiny, but I did it in pencil crayons so I couldn't do it really small. Then dinner. Went to the library, worked on When All Was Fair cos I felt like doing a bit more writing. Then Maths. Integration, which I won't go into out of deference to those of you who hate the subject, but I thought it was pretty cool that you can work out the area under a graph between certain points just by adding powers and dividing and stuff that's really quite straightforward. Then I had a trek down the stairs, out St Mary's, across the road, into St Cecilia's and up two flights of stairs for English. But English was fun. We were talking about diversity and stuff. Kind of interesting to be honest. When she said PSHE I just thought 'oh great, that rot again', but it was fun. And we finished our poster with the amazing pirates on it. And then it was home time. And now I'm here. The end.

Thursday 5 March 2009

The Randomness of the Weather

You can tell I'm British. I'm always moaning about the weather. But it was random yesterdayy. And kind of annoying. I looked out my window when I got up, thought how lovely it looked. Set off for college. Bit chilly, but not so bad. And then it started to snow! Just ranodmly, these massive snow flakes dropping out the sky. I was in my nice white coat, had to put the hood up, but I can't really see with it up. And I got absolutely coated with snow. The aboniable snowwoman, that's me :D.

Monday 2 March 2009

Quiver

On Saturday, a bunch of us from Fresh Manna (the Fresh Manna youth plus a few extras), went out to Blackpool, in a minibus kindly driven by Norma. As you can see, I'm still alive, so she obviously did a pretty good job. Twas amusing on the drive down, we were in a Variety Club bus (they help special needs children), and we waved to loads of old ladies who didn't quite know how to react. :D

Quiver was a youth event run by Elel (I think that's how it's spelt), and it was really, really good. It was aimed at 18-35s, but Megan and I snuck on anyway. They didn't mind. The worship was very good, and then the speakers were also fantastic. I'll write more about it on my other blog: http://pointofcontact317.blogspot.com. But it was well worth going.

Lukas did a bit of drive-by evangilising on the way back... He shouted out the window at a random passer-by 'Jesus loves you!'. Quite amusing. And a good idea. After all, if people go around with lyrics advertising sex pouring out their cars, why shouldn't we go around shouting 'Jesus loves you'?

Tramp in Armour

Another of the books I read on holiday and haven't got round to reviewing yet... I'm not far behind now though.

I've never been all that interested in tanks, but it looked quite interesting, and I'd heard that Colin Forbes was a good author. It's about what happens in WWII, when a tank gets stuck on the wrong side of the German advance. The tank commander determines that he's going to do something about it, once he's worked out what's happened and that his radio is completely useless. There are some nice little action scenes. I thought the last bit was perhaps a little rushed, could've done with more elaboration, and I have no idea what happened to the other guy (sorry about the vagueness, I don't want to spoil it for anyone, this is basically the ending). The characters weren't perhaps developed as much as I would've liked, but they kind of kept dying... I enjoyed it though. The action was good, and it's given me an appreciation of what it was like to be in a tank--it was quite clearly well researched, and there were foot notes at points to explain various things in relation to what was happening in reality at that point. I still prefer airplanes, but tanks are a lot more interesting than I first thought.

Sunday 1 March 2009

Juggernaut

Ok, this is one of the books I read over half term that I've been really behind/lazy about reviewing. It's about what happens when you take a massive truck through a small African country. Sounds kind of boring. I thought so too, but I figured well, it's by Desmond Bagley, it was 50p, I might as well read it. And I was glad I did. You see, when you add in the fact that this truck weighs about three hundred tons and is as long as a football pitch is wide... Then it starts to get kind of interesting. And when the country breaks out into Civil War and the massive truck gets used as a moving hospital and people start trying to kill each other. Well, then it gets very very interesting. I'm quite amazed at how exciting and amusing (at times) this book could be. It just goes to prove that you can write a book about anything and provided you throw in enough twists and whatever it can be very interesting.