Graduate Limbo

Since graduating I've found life to be a bit weird. I had Results Limbo a couple of weeks ago and now this seems to be some sort of Graduate Limbo. I would sum up my current feelings with the Britney Spears song "I'm not a girl, not yet a woman". I'm not having some sort of age crisis, or self-identification crisis, I'm having a "what on Earth am I even doing with my life?" crisis (all in-betweeny crises can be summed up by that song). I've moved back home and reverted back to my Sixth Form self, except this time I have no definite plan of what I will be doing and when. I see this as some sort of punishment, to be honest. I've always wanted to teach, I've never really cared what, as long as I can teach something to someone (within reason, guyz, come on). Now I've finished full-time education the thing I thought was my vocation is no longer so. This is a bit annoying.

(I've just put that Britney song on. It's so good)

I have had some life progress though. I shall be writing the piece on Gender for GEER's Red Book which comes out in September. GEER (which I occasionally mis-type GEEK for no reason, the letters aren't even near each other on the keyboard *sigh*) is a Labour-Left think tank that aims to move on from Tony Blair's Third Way in a new direction, a direction that doesn't (again *rolls eyes*) cuddle-up to neo-liberalism. So far I've really liked many of the posts that have been written by members of GEER and I'm ridiculously nervous about putting up a post of my own. I'm horribly self-conscious when it comes to my writing. There's no place for self-deprecating humour when I write a "proper thing", it doesn't come across very well. I have the utmost belief in the points I want to put across in the Gender piece and I don't want my own self-consciousness to ruin my argument, there are enough wankers out there who'll try and do that for me *sigh*.

Bright Eyes

Best post ever.

I wasn't originally going to see Bright Eyes, not for any good reason, I just didn't know whether I'd be at uni or at home when the tickets came out. So when someone cropped up on Twitter and said they knew someone with a ticket I was all over that. Joyous.

I'm quite excited. Mainly because they were my 15 year old emo love. Conor Oberst is an intense (but beautiful) man and I'm pretty sure his face IRL will be wonderful. 

I may even cry.

If he doesn't play the following few songs I will be crying both because of rage and because I'm emo.

 

This is a massive weeper.

Anything off Digital Ash will make me happy. I love that album.

Guh <3

I love this song. This is 100% getting played, so I'm not worried *temporarily stops crying*

(I really hate these weirdo lyrics videos) This song is creepy. I kinda like that.

This is also quite creepy. Still love it though.

Basically, lots of their songs and lots of intensity. 

I think this gig will be quite a bit like the Death Cab one I went to. I couldn't bring myself to sing to a lot of their stuff purely because I refused to sing over Ben Gibbard's voice. He is also fab.

State substitution.

'Weak states have been further weakened by an inability to deal with the political and social turmoil and rebellion resulting from globalization. Often economic liberalization and deregulation have been accompanied by a reduction in the role of the state - in both the economy and society, in the developing world (whilst in industrialized countries over the past two decades of globalization, a solid core of governmental activity has remained untouched - and untouchable such as the National Health Service in the United Kingdom). In developing countries where governments were often weak to begin with, `rolling back the state' in order to enhance global competitiveness has left a vacuum of political authority. This has been clearly demonstrated around the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean where after state subsidies and basic services were cut back during the 1980s, Islamic groups and other non-state actors quickly stepped in to substitute for the government: providing health care, soup kitchens, education and other social services. The substitution, however, had deeper implications for the state since many non-state actors did not just provide social goods, rather they mounted a direct challenge to the authority and legitimacy of the state.'

- The Political Economy of Globalization (By Ngaire Woods) 

"Oedipus was the first mother fucker"

People who are younger than you and achieve massive things are rather annoying. I'm only 20 years old (which is pretty young...) yet people younger than me are multi-millionaires. Uhhhh. Saying that, I lack any specific talents; I make a good brew and I'm kinda useful in an argument but you can't really make money off that. Anyway, all of this has a point - I recently went to see Bo Burnham at the Arts Centre on campus. He is younger than me by a whole couple of months. A whole couple of months. Guh.

Bo Burnham is as close to my perfect comedian as I'm ever going to get. He calls himself an 'artist' throughout the show, and whilst he says this in an arrogant and rather satirical tone, there is an air about Burnham that I believe permits him to say he's an artist (maybe it’s just me that thinks this). His show was a wonderful conglomeration of music, comedy and theatricals; and his flexibility as a performer is completely captivating. Naturally I can’t help but sit there with my mouth slightly open and my eyes glazed over as I stare and swoon.

He has a rather camp vibe to him which I’m pretty sure he has because he’s really tall. Pretty much everyone I meet who is tall and skinny also happens to be quite awkward (...and camp); I think it’s because you’re quite aware of your height and so you’re not really sure how to hold yourself and that translates into looking camp (hand on the hip type thing). I only say this because I’m tall(ish, I’m 5’8”) and when I’m surrounded by lots of short women my body language is really awkward (the fact I’ve noticed this is a step towards progress, woo!). His campness is quite charming, there was an amazing bit where he was talking about how his Dad always thought he was gay and how surprised he was by this...he then threw glitter and confetti all over himself in a beautifully camp manner. Love it.

Anyway, here's some of his stuff for you to watch and love. His show was amazing and I would recommend it to anyone. A couple of the new songs he played look brilliant too. You all must go and see his show if you ever get the chance :D 

Two albums are also on Spotify.

(By the way, he took the piss out of Michael McIntyre - it was HILAIR)

Results Limbo

I finished my degree over three weeks ago now, naturally I have done nothing of any importance since then. I've applied for a few jobs, edited my CV, got drunk, danced around the house, got drunk, did a bit of tidying, seen friends for food and brews and slept a lot. It's super nice, if a little empty - I'll worry about the emptiness when I go home in a week...maybe

There's just something really nice about not having my results yet. I've had a few nightmares, which have obviously been horrible. It's not that I think I'll fail, I'm 100% sure I've passed, I'm just worried about what I'll get. Guh. However, now I know when results day is the nightmares have stopped. Thank God.

Current love of life. Need to see the new X Men film so that I can swoon over him more than I already do.

Degree = Finished

Now that my degree is over (I know, how exciting/scary) I will probably using this dear blog to type something a little bit more profound (maybe) to what I usually write across the internet. Let's keep in mind most of my writing on the internet is either in a Facebook chat box or on Twitter, so it's not that hard to write something more profound, all I have to do is probably spell a little better and not think in 140 characters or less. Difficult timez guyz. So yeah, no promises, innit.

I write in such a chatty manner, I'm glad I never have to see "quite informal writing style" on another list of essay criticisms ever again. I don't write like this in essays, but sometimes I get a little chatty and when it's 3am and I'm on 700 words of a 2500 word essay, I'm hyped up due to too much sugar (Haribo and a little sugar in my tea when I'm feeling adventurous) and I would like to be in bed rather than writing about policies that probably didn't work or had some irritating ever-lasting mark of ridiculous (ASBOs, I'm looking at you).

This blog post isn't anything really, I'm just sad that it's all over. I'm currently approaching it with humour, in about a months time expect me to be crying and uploading a picture via iPhone Blogger of me chained to Warwick's University House. Don't do that face at me. It could happen.

Mélanie Laurent.

Mélanie Laurent - Kiss

This whole album is lovely, I particularly like this track though :)

Revising is currently taking place. Finish my degree in a week and a half, eeek!

Things have happened.

Well hello, it's been a while, I'm alive but currently unwell. Hope you're all fabulous!

I should probably write a few things about life and such. Well, I gave up meat for Lent, wrote 19,000 words for my degree, campaigned a lot for Labour in the Local Elections and generally procrastinated by watching TV and listening to a lot of new albums that have been released. That sums up my past month (yes, month!).

Here are pictures to look at and things you should listen to :)

1 - DemocraTea in Curiositea on campus, cheeky election-themed cuppa.

2 - Cake and a Belgian waffle with Danni

3 (left) - Wham bars are always a good mid-essay treat :)

4 (right) - Lots of helium-filled 'Vote Labour' balloons, off on the campaign trail

5 - Evening walk down the prom in Blackpool, lovely.

Cheeky bit of new music :)

The Wombats

Guillemots

Fleet Foxes

Architecture in Helsinki

Beastie Boys

Alexi Murdoch

Gorillaz

History of my relationship with iTunes(ish)

Spotify went offline so I had to resort to my iTunes. Whilst this isn't a bad thing, it is a bit annoying as it's not the most up-to-date music library. I've had this iTunes (on various computers) for probably about 7 years. Obviously before I had my iPod Mini (wahey!) I had Windows Media Player, which was obviously pink and had those pretty visuals. Oh how I miss you simple, non-fucky-uppy WMP (not the pink though, I really don't miss the pink).

As much at I loved my iPod Mini people would ask to borrow it to use in lessons and saying 'no' would also have meant saying 'no' to people who would probably bully me. I hate girls in High School. I didn't want to be deprived of the musical delights of Good Charlotte (Yeah, I know. Just don't). However, they can swivel because I got the best coursework grade in the year for that class, so booo-yaaaahhh. Either way, I won in the end...and I saw Good Charlotte at Manchester Apollo in 2006. (I don't want any other definitions of 'won', thankyouverymuch, sarcy bastards).

Anyway, this was meant to be a blog about iTunes. So yes, I hate iTunes. I don't know if this is because I lack a Mac, or because I'm just doing it wrong; but I'm pretty sure it is just shit. When I first got it it was fine, we were friends, it was pretty simple and I liked having all the cover art on that pretty slide thing. It was definitely an improvement on the pink WMP (visually, anyway). Now it's 2011 it wants me to update it ALL.THE.TIME, it crashes more, it has so many stupid things in the sidebar that my play-lists are half-way down the side (I just want the option to 'hide' the other menus you give me, iTunes, that's not that hard). Also, it's always trying to take me to the fucking iTunes Store, leave me alooonnneeee. When I buy music online I am not buying it from your shop of hell *hmph*

Please file this blog under First-World Problems and White Whine and leave me with my collection of The Cribs albums I've rediscovered (from before Johnny Marr joined and they suddenly got awful).