Waiting for chocolate...

There is no milk, bread or chocolate in the house, so I can't have coffee (AHH!!), chocolate (DOUBLE AHH!!) or even a pathetic 'made-by-me' sandwich until mum gets home from shopping at Trowbridge... :( :P

QI

Ok, so QI is one of my favourite TV series to watch, and it not only tells you awesome facts, but is hilarious. Alan Davies is on the show more times than not, and is used as a joker of the show rather than a know-it-all. Stephen Fry is the TV presenter of QI, and excluding him and Alan, there are three guest stars every show; a lot who show up more than a dozen times usually.^ Here's one I found earlier, I'll replace it later on for something funnier when there's less on my mind.

I also wanted to tell you about this scary parasite that affects pretty much every warm-blooded animal;

The mind-control bug

Toxoplasma gondii

Toxoplasma is a brain-washing parasite. The microorganism infects rodents, acting directly on their brains to eliminate their fear of cats – the hapless victims are then easily caught and eaten. After the bug reproduces, it passes out of the cat, ready to be inadvertently ingested by the next rodent host. This is the regular lifecycle, but Toxoplasma can also find its way into humans from eating raw or undercooked meat, or from close contact with cats. It rarely affects felines but has been linked to some stange behaviour in humans – there’s evidence that the parasite can slow our reaction times, with infected drivers two to three times more likely to be involved in car accidents.

,

This video is of an awesome magician Dynamo, who is probably most famous for walking on water (I suggest looking it up), but my favourite of his is this butterfly act. Enjoy!

Hi...so I almost finished my maquette today, and then Nathan came round afterschool to hang out with Alana, who ended up making a paper version of Iron Giant, which was cool.
I'm tired...

Volleyball

At the beginning of this term, I hated  volleyball. I thought I would die if I didn't escape it some way or another. But, to my surprise, I had fun in volleyball today...although I had to miss my catch-up after school to make my art maquette as my wrist feels like hell, and my fingers have been hit by the volleyball so much they've been made useless. Doing clay work wouldn't be the best thing to do before art class tomorrow...
So, I've decided to do 6th form (or at least hand in my application for it), and I'm choosing Religious Studies, Art, Biology and English Literature. I'm planning on continuing to do the first three for the whole of 6th form, but I'll be dropping out on English if I have to do presentations or speaking tasks, though so far I've been given permission to do speaking tasks either when it's just the teacher present or not at all.
Due to the pain in my wrist, I'm going to stop typing now...

Mynah Bird

Since my video didn't come up, I'd thought I'd put this awesome and hilarious video I found a while back of a Mynah bird (and it is real, as I've been asked many times before).

Fearless

I was just listening to Taylor Swift's 'Fearless' songs, and thought about how it was such an awesome song name, so I started to make up some even more awesome names for songs or bands:
Frog Legs
Inevitably Inferior
Igloo Burglars
Sarcastic Superior
Religion Makers
Awkward Album
Penguin Paradise
Visible Thoughts
Pent-up Voices
Useless Ideas
Indecisive Weather
Hoping for faith
Citizen of Heaven
Expectations of a Pessimist
...Ok, I have to admit this post is more of me mixing words that sound cool together - but I love the last one, and IGLOO BURGLARS?! I thought that was pretty ingenious :P - so I'll try and hold back the next time I decide to make no sense :P

Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever

Ok, so I'm not really that fussed when it comes to Labradors (though I love the white ones on Nintendogs) or Retrievers, but when I first saw this breed of Retriever they immediately became one of my favourite dogs :P It's called the 'Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever'. I also like breeds such as the Russian Toy, Greyhounds and the Pyrenean Sheepdog, though my favourite dog I walk at my Mum's dog walking job is a Bull Terrier named Faith - who's a rescue dog - as she's so huggable XD

Promises

I've noticed a lot of bloggers have been making promises that at some point or another they're gonna have to break. Three of the four people I follow have miraculously posted that they'll post everyday, or make a review on one specific day of the week. How can they possibly know that there aren't going to be inconveniences, such as the internet going down in the area, or the person's laptop/computer breaking down? And anyways, don't people say that a resolution is more likely to be kept if the person keeps it to themselves? I make commitments to this blog, but I have more of a chance at keeping them if I don't brag about it to my readers.

Sherlock Holmes

I know a lot of people have been interested in the new BBC1 Sherlock Holmes series, and since over the past couple of days I've watched the episodes continuously, I thought it worth mentioning on here. The first episode I watched was coincidentally the only one I also have on book; 'The Hound of Baskerville'. I found that one pretty cool, so watched the rest of the episodes after that, then went back to the first series to watch the rest. 

WATCH IT!!

My skills at losing things that are usually crucial to my future

Sorry guys, but I might  not get another chance to post on here today, it appears I've lost my 6th form application, which has to be in by the end of this month. :/ I'll make up for this lame post tommorow by putting some more interesting stuff up :)

Clive Barker 'Thief of Always'

I thought I'd share this amazing book; my mum read it to me when I was little, and since then I've read it over ten times - it's my favourite book, and what makes it unique is that it is perfect for all age groups; the quality of the writing and the storyline is amazing. Undoubtedly worth reading.

Here's a brief summary I found on Wikipedia;  Harvey Swick is a 10-year-old kid who finds himself bored with school, uninteresting teachers, homework, and his day-to-day life. One day, a man named Rictus flies up to Harvey's window and tells him about a kid’s paradise, the Holiday House. At the Holiday House, there are all the sweets a person could ask for, four seasons in a day, Christmas every day, Halloween every night, and everything else you could dream of. Harvey reluctantly goes to the house after a week of thinking, and enters the house through a wall of mist. Harvey enjoys the wonders of Holiday House, and stays there for ten days, becoming friends with Wendell and Lulu, two other kids at the house. However, he eventually starts to suspect that the house is not as perfect as it seems. Upon investigation, Harvey discovers that the house's creator, Mr. Hood, has taken all the children who came before him and imprisoned them in a dark, gloomy lake. After that, Harvey and Wendell are trapped in the house, and escape by following a cat named Blue-Cat through the mist barrier that constantly surrounds the property of the house at night.

Jared Padalecki

My favourite character in Supernatural - next to the Trickster/Gabriel - is Sam, though Dean is seems to be getting better in the recent episodes. If you've seen Supernatural, comment on who your fav. character is; I don't care if I don't know you, I'm just looking to see what the majority vote is.
I found this funny. If you haven't seen Supernatural, or have seen too little of it to understand this pic (firstly, watch the damn near perfect series!) it's basically when Sam has his visions of people dying:

 

World's Smallest Frog

Ok, so another thing you should probably know about this crazed-animal-lover is that I love frogs. And since the world's smallest frog has recently been discovered on 12th January 2012, I thought I'd post it on here. It measures at 7.7mm, and is not only the smallest frog, but is also the world's smallest vertebrate. Here's a picture of it sitting on the equivalent to a 5p sized coin:

'Nerimon'

Ok, so I think this youtuber's (if that's a word yet again) name is Nerimon, otherwise known as Alex Day? (Someone please correct me if I've been mistaken), and I think he's good friends with 'Charlieissocoollike' youtuber Charlie McDonnell...well nonetheless I've put up a link of a funny video of his;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&NR=1&v=_8MeSLMaSQc

Geese and Pigeons

So I just noticed that I haven't mentioned anything on pigeons on my blog! If you should know anything about me, the first thing you'd need to know is that I love pigeons; I rescued a wood pigeon, which I named 'Toot' after the fact that it would whistle through it's nose when it got angry. 'Toot' and several other wild birds (including a collared dove, another wood pigeon, a sparrow, a seagull - the biggest breed - and a blackbird) were successfully released into the wild.
The reason I love pigeons is purely because of how tame they are; for example, the other day I was feeding some pigeons, and managed to get one to feed from my hand whilst flying! I read over the internet that blue eyed pigeons are the easiest to tame, but all the pigeons I've seen down town have orange eyes - which are supposedly the wildest - and yet I can easily get one of them to eat whilst on my hand.
Whilst one the subject of birds, on Friday, I counted 2 geese. But when in town yesterday, I saw probably over 50 geese flying here, who are all on the Devizes crammer now, which was pretty cool to see.

Charlieissocoollike

Ok, so as some of you may know already, Charlie McDonnell is a popular youtuber (if that's a word?) - I thought those who know him would be interested in this clip, and to those that don't know him, enjoy! :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=zx0scEsBGfM

My Pets

Here are a "few" pictures of some of my pets; 

Here are one family of chickens, the calmer ones who don't fight as much, Hazel is the blonde-brown one (an ex-battery who everyone in the family love the most), and the three black - with orange eyebrows - are Baby (the one with the featherless backside), Macbeth (as she has the eagle-like eyes) and Mary (the motherly one).

Here is a picture I took of my Border Collie Kane, in front of the field outside our house last summer.

Here is another ex-battery, Ruth, and - with her head just showing in the photo - Dot.

My grey tabby-cross cat, Cassie, son of Jazz, pictured below. We originally thought Cassie was a girl as the vet's had told us he was, but he turned out a boy with a unfortunate girl name that stuck. Has was born with no hip sockets, which is why he is the one of two of the kittens we kept. We gave the other two kittens to good friends of ours. 

Jazz, the cat who loathes her two sons. She may be the most proud-of-herself cat in the world, but her attitude makes her even more loveable :P

Jazz the grey tabby with Skip the English Toy Terrier. And no, Jazz isn't a big cat, Skip really is "toy sized" :P

My beautiful Border Collie, Kane, ready to go for a walk.

Thought Kane looked sweet in this photo :)

My favourite little dog, Skip, asking to go outside. The picture isn't upside-down, rather Skip is leaning against the door and looking up at me. <3

My group of lovely, interesting and attitude-filled ex-battery chickens <3

And again, my ex-battery chickens; Ruth, Emerald, White-ney, Mrs Cockerel, Dot, Chestnut, Kim (or little Ruth) Hazel, Red and Brittany.

Cassie-cat

Close up of Skip's face...this pic is actually bigger than his head in real life.

Beautiful Jazz :)

Hazel <3

One of the three blackrock chickens.

Ex-battery chicken not too soon after receiving them (they were in much worse condition than looking scrawny when we first saw them, for example, their eyes were bloodshot and an unhealthy red, and they hadn't adjusted to (or ever seen) sunlight.

Ex-battery chicken

Kane being cute <3

Kane smiling happily into the camera, and below, Jazz last summer.

'Vanishing on 7th Street'

Ok, so I've just seen the advert for this film called 'Vanishing on 7th Street', about the Croaton myth - like the one featured in an episode of my favorite series 'Supernatural'. Anyways, since I didn't have anything better to do, I thought I'd put up a link to this awesome advert; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFbBIUcklt8
It has the person who played Tybalt in 'Romeo and Juliet' in it as well! XD

'Forever Yours' by Alex Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOW2eEz9cYk

http://www.friv.com/ <--- Good games site (all free) :P

My love of nature

Ok, so about a year ago I was obsessed with photography, especially of nature;
<This pic is from Devon

 This one from Durdledoor/Lulworth cove. >

< Durdledoor again

 And the rest are from Roundway Hill - a place quite literally outside my back garden.>

Guitar or Piano?

I've been taking a little attention towards trying to learn guitar recently - along with practicing piano/keyboard and beginning to learn juggling - and I'm really kinda confused with what I'm meant to do on the B chord, or the F chord for that matter. How am I meant to make the notes when a.) I have small hands, and b.) there are six places to put your fingers on the F chord (usually people only have five fingers on each hand)?
Some of...no, ALL of the guitar websites explaining how to play guitar are absolutely ridiculous in the fact that none of them make sense, not even the ones for the beginners. The only way I managed to find out some useful information on chords is to just look it up on images instead.
I played keyboard a couple of months ago and managed to learn 'Take On Me' by A-Ha, but found it just a bit too easy to learn, and it becomes annoying when finding the notes over the internet takes longer than mastering the actual music. Then again, piano doesn't hurt as much to learn in comparison to the guitar...

Bath Cats and Dogs Home, Preloved and Oldies Club

So as usual I've been looking up more breeds of animals, and looking on sites such as Preloved - Pet section - and I found this awesome site a couple of weeks ago called 'Bath Cats and Dogs Home', there are some really cute animals available, and even though its mainly cats and dogs, there's this lionhead rabbit named Jason on there who I think is worth showing off to you;
http://www.bathcatsanddogshome.org.uk/rehoming/small_animals/jason/2358/
My lionhead rabbit named Bigwig (who's recently passed away) was a great indoor pet, and I would recommend to nearly anyone to get a lionhead breed above all others.
I also thought - whilst I'm on the topic - it would be worth informing more people of this really good website, where old dogs with less chance of being paid attention are rehomed:
http://www.oldies.org.uk/  
Thought this dog named Clive was pretty sweet too; http://www.oldies.org.uk/?p=57427
And word of warning, I'll most likely be continuing to talk more on animals ;)

Cats

I've had a few slight complaints from my friends who too have blogs, so I thought I'd try to post as much stuff on here as much as my attention span will allow me. I've been looking up cat breeds today - purely because my grey cat Cassie decided to sit on my head when trying to revise (And yes, I often come up with stupid things to do to avoid revision or homework). Apparently there's more than one hundred species, my fav. is the Singapurra and the Savannah (which is hugems). Anyways, I found these cool quotes on cats;
"I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us like equals." by Winston Churchill.
"Women and cats do as they please, and men and dogs should get use to the idea."
"Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as Gods. Cats have never forgotten this."
"No amount of time can ever erase the memory of a good cat, and no amount of masking tape can ever remove it's fur from the couch."
"If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow, but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much," by someone called Mark Twain.