Delirium *sings LadyHawke*

I'm currently sat in my university library, I've been waiting for an hour for some books (as Floor 5 is closed and it is also my second home, it's outrageous). So whilst the man gets everyone's books I am sat here trying to occupy myself and have thus turned to blogging. Ahhh, life. I realised that I can spellcheck all this too, as there is a blogger spellchecker. Internet Explorer - which is what our library computers all have - is the most archaic thing ever. It doesn't have a spellchecker, its slow AND it isn't even pretty. It's shite, basically. I don't know anyone who still uses it, even Meg -who was using it until Marchish this year- has now converted to the other browsers of joy.

Anyway, this blog has no purpose, I'm literally just bored out my face. I can't read any more political blogs, I've got my Google Reader down from 490 to 400 today, that is way more than my brain can deal with. I'm thirsty, hungry and I probably need to pee but I don't want to let my computer out of my sight, because random international students always leap on the computer, despite me being CLEARLY logged on. Anyway, I think I'm going delirious from all the things I just mentioned. I wish this man would hurry up. I want to go home and eat a mince pie. I so don't regret buying those mince pies, I don't give a shit if it's September, mince pies are amazing. In fact that's a lie, not all mince pies are nice, but these Co-op ones are lovely. Right done talking about mince pies.

Erm, today I read about Ed Miliband, Ed Miliband...and like...more Ed Miliband. Seriously, how many words can be written about this? It can't be much more surely? I think I've read everything ever about his election as Labour leader. I can't not read it, as I have a fear of missing out on some crucial information. It's one of the reasons I follow so many blogs, I feel like I need to know a lot of stuff about a lot of things. It gets very tiring. AND I'm not even that good at remembering any of it. I'm alright, but I'm rather clumsy with my knowledge, I tend to remember a lot of useless stuff and then the interesting stuff can only be retrieved once someone says it, which is USELESS. Apparently I'm meant to be getting a degree. Apparently I'm also in 3rd year. Urrgghhh, I need another 3 years at uni at this rate...*ponders about a masters...*

This is the biggest load of bollocks I've ever written. Although if you occasionally read my ramblings you probably have a favourite other shit post. My favourite is the one I did just before my Gender, Culture, Popular Media exam in 2nd year (I still got a 2:1 for that exam, so I can't be that bad at life). That was a stressful time, relieved by shit-blogging. It's very therapeutic (can't spell that, thank God for spellcheck).

I'm going to buy myself a cookie and get my books which should be here at some point...I've been waiting over an hour and a half :( AND I have no bag to carry them home in, so will have a carry a massive pile of books with my actual arms. How stressful is that :|

Oh and for those of you wondering why I'm getting books when term starts on Monday. I'm using my smartz and gettin' em befor everyone else wantz em. BOOM. Intelligence for you there *bows*

God, I properly need some tea...possibly a sleep.

hilarious/slightly cool/ridiculous

A few things (after narrowing it down a bit) that made the past 10ish months hilarious/slightly cool/ridiculous.


- All the day trips we had, whether they were to Stratford-upon-Avon, or to Barton Grange for tea and cake :)

- Going to Portcullis House for lunch with Cat and then pottering down to Tory MP Alan Duncan's office. Sitting on those incredibly padded green sofas watching Sky News, making small talk and waiting for tea. Listening to his John Major & Tony Blair impressions and getting a glimpse of the pictures around his room, including one of him and Thatcher. Cat's interview on the Rotary Club went well, my technology use went well and he said my scarf was nice. Ridiculous.

- Going to the Reclaim The Night march in London. Being slightly amazed by all the police by our sides and the amount of people watching. I don't want to say we were marching, because when there are that many of you and you're all shouting it turns in to a shuffle. So, we shuffled from Whitehall to just by King's Cross shouting a series of rhymes and generally just shouting and saying "wooo" a lot. Amazing experience. At the end of the march we had no voice and our legs has seized up from a lot of shuffling. (The headscarf was only temporary, there was RAIN).

- Going to Paris with Meg, Hannah and Susan. Seeing some old bands that hold an important place in my life. Seeing some bands I have a new found love for. Seeing the Eiffel Tower at night in the pouring rain, being drenched and wandering the streets of Paris attempting to sing Edith Piaf - Non, je ne regrette rien  at the top of our voices. Getting to the metro and singing the "voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir" line and embarrassing Meg (and ourselves) whilst doing so. Beautiful French boys, cheap (and good) wine and a generally amazing festival. Let's not forget about Ugly Naked Guy ;)

- Going to an Object event in London, Caitlin Moran, Susie Orbach, Diane Abbott and some random woman from Object who I didn't really like, were sat about 5 feet away from me. Which was an odd experience. They were hilarious (except that Object woman, it's not that I didn't like her, but her feminist ambitions were so very unrealistic that it made me not like her). Cat and I wandered around the room chatting to all these amazing women about feminist issues. Possibly the most grown-up I've ever felt (okay, except for when I voted) and also the most out of my depth I've felt. Such a weird experience.

Oh, and that whole 'being able to vote in a General Election' thing was quite cool.

Pope? Meh.

I have no opinion on the Pope's visit, I'm genuinely indifferent (hence the 'meh'), I wish people would stop brining up the cost though, it isn't important. Grr. It's a nice place to be, this indifference island. I was going to discuss why I don't care, but it's been done much better over at Enemies of Reason.

However, a couple of things anyway, as I always like a good(ish) write.

I don't like saying I'm an Atheist, but I don't believe in God. I don't really understand it either, but basically I get scared of calling myself an Atheist in case people lump me in with the religion-haters. I am certainly not a religion-hater. I also dislike Dawkins's whole 'religion is awful and it's corrupting our children and soon creationism will be taught in schools rather than evolution and the world is going to crumble if we don't bow down to the superior power of the Atheists' blah, shit. I have no problem with the man, I just think that he's become a big of a figurehead for Atheism and I don't agree with everything he says, so I don't really want to be part of his 'club'. Other than all of those issues, I'm probably an Atheist...maybe. I'm possibly an Agnostic, as I like the idea of something, not necessary a God. I like the idea of a presence, but something entirely subjective.

In general, religion can be nice and it can also be horrible. Like most things :)

(This post had a lot of "I"s in it. Sorry for that. I won't be so self-obsessed next time...)

Cute? You what?

Is being called cute a compliment? I know it's not necessarily a bad thing to be, but it's hardly something people aspire to be, is it? I'm only mentioning this because I'm often told (mainly by males, it'd be a whole different blog if it were women) that I am 'cute'. I never know how to take this, usually I just smile and say thanks,  what else am I meant to do? I can hardly get all defensive and say "WHAT? HOW DARE YOU! I'M A GROWN WOMAN*, HOW CAN I BE CUTE?" A) Because I don't particulary care enough to do that and B) I don't take being called cute as something offensive. I'm not dim, I know they aren't calling me cute in the same way they'd call a hyper toddler smushing cake on their face cute.

I'm intrigued though. Should I be offended? I just looked at the definition of cute and then looked at WeHeartIt pictures of cute and I've decided cuteness is pictures of couples kissing in true sarcastic indie fucks fashion, or small domestic animals.

I have two thoughts on this, my feminist one and my 'pah, just shut up and take the compliment' one.

Feminist one says - Cute is passive, it's informal, it's not taking things seriously. Something which we women totally have a habit for, ya know. It reminds me of an Alan Carr bit, he's discussing how his Dad doesn't trust him with 'man' things because he's gay *rolls eyes* and Alan Carr responds with "like I'm gonna come out of Dixons with a pony, oh what am I like!". I feel like this is what cute is, it's very just-going-to-pat-you-on-the-head-and-let-you-get-on-your-merry-little-way-sweetie.

'Pah, just shut up and take the compliment' one says - Being cute is a nice thing to be. It makes you feel all girly**. The dictionary seem to pounce on the whole 'informal' meaning of cute, and I'm totally agreeing, I am quite informal, I don't see this as a bad things, it helps me make friends easier and means I get on with people easier than if I was a walking piece of boring formalness.

At the moment, whilst I still have my youth, I will continue to enjoy being called cute. Then when I'm 35 I'll probably find it weird, who wants to be middle aged and called cute? It begins to sound tragic and a bit patronising at that age. I don't know why this rule changes when you become a pensioner, (well, I kind of do know, but again, that's another blog/academic-y essay). When I eventually hit 65, any man calling me cute will be on my radar, just sayin'. Gotta have those old lady options open, ya know.

*Okay, so maybe 20 isn't a grown woman (*plays Britney's Not A Girl Not Yet A Woman really loudly whilst singing into a hairbrush*)

**Note how I said girly and not womanly. The fact that men often use words that usually describe young girls to describe women is a bit odd, no?

I read some Marx and I liked it.

A few videos from the past week that have made me happy :)


I read some Marx and I liked it.


The bit where the picture says "didn't you know I was a LAD?" kills me. So funny. This video is true for so many of my friends, we all do arts degrees and watch obscene amounts of crap TV and genuinely fritter away our life discussing crap until stupid o'clock (/until essay deadlines are due, obviously).
If you don't follow the the guy that made this video on twitter, you should. His tweets are hilarious >> @lawrencegemmell.

The BBC are amazing. They have SO many videos up from Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This is one of my favourites > David O'Doherty: My Beefs.

(He does miss out the people who insist on being emo via Facebook. I'm kind of glad though, as those people deserve no more publicity than their own Facebook page.)

Another reason why the BBC are amazing, Grandma's House.

Hilarious. For odd reasons. I love it.








Because I haven't really mentioned music for a while (which is really unlike me), look here :)
http://open.spotify.com/user/sophieb1990/playlist/3gZ9sqBluAUMS0UyyNp9B5

Labour Leadership (for those of you that prefer politics-lite).

I've just watched the Labour Leadership Debate on Sky News, refereed  by Adam Boulton. Sky News clearly wasn't enjoying all the red light and talk of equality and such. They managed to get Adam Boulton to say the lyrics from The Red Flag. You could feel his insides crying.

Quick summaries of things I think. I'm partly doing this so that evaluate what I think. Many a blog and many an article has been read throughout this leadership contest, so typing it all out will be a nice way for me to finally evaluate my thoughts. (Finally evaluate? Surely that's what an evaluation is? It's final. Whatever, it's staying, it makes sense in my head).

I've decided that Ed Miliband is my favourite. I've put a picture up because his brother is in the leadership contest too, and people who aren't as obsessed (/weird) as me don't know the difference, which is fair enough. The main reasons I like MiliE is because I agree with his reasons for why Labour lost the last election completely. I do think that MiliE would be able to take the Labour Party in a different direction, one that actually reconnects with those that are disenfranchised by politics. MiliE is advocating things that I think matter, like the living wage, the graduate tax (rather than tuition fees or general taxation, as I agree with neither of these, it's probably because I want to teach, so I'm a little bit bias) and his views on capitalism and tax are incredibly similar to my own. So yes, MiliE it is :D.

Although, MiliD is kind of hot for a politician. Kind of kills me to say that, but he is. I agree with a few things he says, but his reasons for why Labour lost the election, his views on Higher Education and generally some of the things he says I just don't think are right. Which is kind of annoying, as I like MiliD, he was my favourite for a while, but he's kind of lost to his cooler lefter brother. I think he'd make a decent Labour leader though, I reckon he'd probably be the best out of all the candidates against David Cameron, you can just tell.

Andy Burnham is a treasure. I don't really need to say much more than that. He's clearly mega passionate about his job and generally seems to be a nice guy. I just can't see him as Labour leader...well not at the moment anyway. Oh,  AND he's northern and REALLY cool. Which is really important, clearly. (He's also fabulous).

 Ed Balls is nice enough (although note his lack of smiling in the group picture ^^. That's because Ed Balls smiling just creates some smug layer). I like him more after this debate, which I didn't think I'd ever say :|. I just cannot see him as the next Prime Minister. Come on? Really? I can't be the only one that thinks that. I just cannot see him at PMQs or giving any kind of heart-warming inspiring speech (because all politicians do that...all the time :|). He has this constant air of smugness that I just don't like. He's nice enough, I'd just rather he was in the cabinet, not the Labour leader.

Dianne Abbott needs to stop waving pens round like some giddy wizard. She also needs stop grinning, it's unnerving . Constant pen waving and grinning. I totally do not even ever slightly ever ever think of her being Labour leader. Could you imagine? She's just a bit all over the place. Imagine her trying to argue with David Cameron. There'd be pens waving about and nervous laughter everywhere, urgh. No, thank-you.

Good-day and happy Labour leadership voting to you all :)

Tinie Tempah - Mass Culture is Art

My lovely friend Cat has started a blog called Mass Culture is Art and I get the joy of being a contributor.

My first post is about Tinie Tempah's lyrical masterpiece 'Frisky' (you should all know me well enough by now to detect the sarcasm in my sentences)

"Tempah finds this woman and she is most definitely a ‘winner’. She’s clearly many things that chivalrous Mr. Tempah finds simply spine-tingling. Conditioned hair, a manicure, she talks lots and of course, she looks like a bit of sinner, which is just a nicer way of saying ‘she’s probably up for it’. It's hard to gather whether this song is about a one night stand or Tempah just having sex with a girl that likes him, but he doesn’t really care about that. Although, judging by these lyrics, he doesn't sound too pleasant about whatever it is he feels:

“Girl you better keep your distance I just wanna have eh eh,
I'm on a mission I don't even wanna kiss her,
Honey I won't even miss ya when I'm done with ya”

We all know that ‘eh eh’ is sex, but this song has to be played everywhere, so obviously the lyrics have been edited so they don’t sound at all explicit *rolls eyes*. In the video the two men have a nice laugh after saying ‘I won’t even miss ya when I’m done with ya’, lovely chaps. The fact that he doesn’t want to kiss her shows that he really just wants sex, kissing can often conjure a sense of intimacy that involves feelings, something that Tempah isn’t really looking for (something we've kind of gathered by now.) He has no feelings towards the woman he’s pursuing he wants to ‘pick her up, and put her down’, although he does think she’d be good on television, which is nice of him to notice. [read more]"

http://masscultureisart.blogspot.com/

Rock en Seine, Paris

This summer my holiday was to Paris for a music festival called Rock en Seine. This combines two things I absolutely love, live music and an amazing historical beautiful city. I love gigs, although I've stopped going to them recently because I suddenly feel really old, the crowds are always full of 15 year old children that are  incredibly hyper and generally pissing annoying. I understand being excited, but when that means you look like you've taken too many Es and you can't go 5 minutes without taking at least a handful of pictures of yourself, I don't want to be there to witness the horror.

The Music

The band I really wanted to see was Blink-182. As a mosher/emo teenager they were my life. I don't really listen to them anymore, but they still hold a really important place in my musicy mosher heart. They were amazing live, which I was quite shocked at, as I'd heard otherwise from quite a lot of people. They were amazing, I won't discuss it anymore, they were just fab.
I won't bore you with all the details of the music, you had to be there, definitely. Foals were brilliant live, probably the best I've ever seen. Electric Bloom was AMAZING, everything about the performance was perfect. I think I'm possibly in love with Yannis Philippakis. Well, I would be if it wasn't for a drunk Luke Pritchard coming on stage and being so incredibly drool-worthy. He's just so hot. 

Paris - It's probably better if I show you in pictures :)

The Smiths - Cemetery Gates lyrics at Oscar Wilde's grave.

Notre Dame

Pompidou Centre

Lovely.

Things that need a mention but I will not provide details:

Festival toilets, French boys, ugly naked guy, rain, the spider check song, Meg organised smugness, crepes, the amazing wine board, the amazing festival food, smoking, Patrice, "Yeah yes yeaah yeah yeah", Edith Piaf, singing in the Metro, French PDAs, Hannah's hat, SO MANY MORE (will edit and add when I can remember).