If I can't convince you then nobody can I guess

Today's blog is dedicated to my wonderful best friend Charlie, as it's her birthday! Happy Birthday mon amis! (I've been practicing for my french speaking exam, can you tell?) The title of today's blog comes from A Lack Of Understanding by the Vaccines, which Charlie actually introduced me to.
So today's discussion is how our perceptions of people can change. I got thinking about this when the question was posed "I wonder if we all look and sound different to each person." Honestly I believe we do. At first you may think you hate a person, therefore it's natural you're brain will pick out traits to pin the hatred on, the way they speak, the sound of their laugh, their clothes style. But if you actually got to know a person perhaps you'd begin to see things differently, actually grow to like the sound of their laugh, the way they dress, the way they speak...it becomes lovable. To each person on this planet, I bet they all have a different perception of me, some will find my nerdy ways annoying, others will believe it defines me and makes me...well me. The truth is you can't please anyone, nor can you ever be seen by everyone in the same way.  When people call somone "ugly" they are making the assumption that everyone sees that same person in the same light when in fact they do not. Actually the person who finds the "ugly" person attractive could be their best friend stood right next to them. We can try our best to come across in a particular way, but never can we be sure that everyone interprets us in the way we'd like. It's a never ending battle. So if someone ever tries to bring you down with negative comments, switch off, close your eyes and think to yourself - to someone I am special, they just haven't found me yet.

If you wanna keep your heart then give me mine.

It's back to the normal routine today. I woke up, went to school, came home (although the bus came late so I got home later than planned) and started on the mountains of homework and revision I'm expected to complete.

Thankfully, I have my muics turned on to keep me going, and right now my playlist mainly consists of s.o stereo and a new song of theirs I've just found called "What You Wanted Me To Do" from which I've taken today's blog title. I wish I could tell you something exciting, but unfortuantely I don't have much news to share :(

All I will say on this blog today is that I am shocked by the books in the "young adult section. " I was looking online for ideas of books to read in the future, and found they're mostly supernatural romance novels with some sort of twist or another which will probably be predicatable. I'll admit I am a sucker for supernatural and myth stories, but when every single book you see is about the same subject, it just gets fustrating. It probably puts loads of people off reading because they can't find the right genre, instead they're stuck with romance or nothing. Therefore I think authors should get to work on writing original novels without twisting mythology or legends and putting some "hot supernatural male" into the equation. It's been done successfully by many other writers before and is no longer original. Rant over.

*sigh* On another note it's time to face learning a french speech, doing some chemistry titration questions, doing a creative task for music and the revision I've planned on my timetable. What a fun night this shall be.

S.O stereo

a day of food, friends, facts and fun.

For once my blog title isn't song lyrics, because I couldn't find a song that summed up today perfectly. So I woke up at 10, realised because the clocks had gone forward so I had to get a wriggle on to go to my riding lesson at 10.30. I rode Jaffa, a beautiful chestnut mare over a course of jumps and really improved my position. Hopefully by the end of the summer my riding will have improved even more.

Following this, I rushed to my best friends house for her birthday party. It was an amazing day! We watched both Juno and Kick-Ass, which I'd never seen before and really like now, whilst gorging masses of delicious food including the traditional banana flakes. I think I've never been so full in my entire life! We also got up to general shannanigans, watched some funny youtube vids and talked over skype to a friend we've not seen in a while from our tightly knit group and who will always remain part of our group, no matter the distance :)  I really love my friends to pieces, they really do make my life!

When I got home, it was time to watch Wonders of the Universe, I love the filming of this show, the backdrops and computer animations are awesome and beautiful whilst space has always fascinated me. I've kind of been inspired to get out the telescope again, I haven't in years since I did an astronomy course when I was about 13. Hopefully next weekend there will be no cloud cover so I will actually see something.

I also want to train pokemon. Maybe that could happen too.

Insert interesting blog title here...

As you can probably guess from the title of this blog, I've been neglecting my blog recently, mainly due to an overload of school work, deadlines and other things. Recently, I feel like my life has been on some time loop, because I'll wake up and every single day blends together they're that similar, I guess from now until 19th June when my last exam is, I'll just have to accept the fact that this will be the routine- I just have to grit my teeth and adapt. After all, I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who's made it through times like these.

On a positive note my ICT is finally done! I've spent so long doing it, so hopefully that time will have been well spent, because I'll never get it back! Also, the sun is shining again even in March, its so warm I can actually wear t-shirts and not get cold. I love this weather, its perfect for me, I did my paper round and the sun was setting, it was such a beautiful pink colour!  Bring on the summer if the weather stays like this!

I think the one thing I've missed the most during these past few months of constant work is writing. I've never been able to finish a whole story, but I actually used to write a lot. Mostly I just wrote down the first things that popped into my head for a couple of pages just for the pure enjoyment. I've often thought I'd like to be a writer, but then I'm not sure whether that would take away the fun of it because I like writing just for me. If I write just for myself my work doesn't have to be perfect or make complete sense or even have limits, its my imagination gone wild often. That's why I've set myself a challenge of as soon as exams are finished I'll continue with a story I've already began which has the potential I think to expand to novel size. Right now I refuse to tell you the storyline, but maybe I'll post it another time once the writing has kicked off again. I'm actually really excited about this as it'll give my summer some purpose amongst the days I plan to spend doing absolutely nothing at all.

Also on the summer list of stuff to do is:  read at least a few chapters of a book per day, meet up with my friends and have an amazing time together, do my d of e hike, have a go at writing poetry ( not quite sure how that's gonna work), hopefully have a loan horse again and go out on some awesome hacks in the countryside, update this blog at least a few times a week, go shopping  for clothes for sixth form. High expectations for this summer!

And you seem to, Break like time, So fragile on the inside....

It's the super moon tonight and its amazing how much we take our moon for granted, its only when some unusal occurence happens that we stop to think how beautiful this celestial body in space can be. I really wish I could get the telescope out now to look at it, its been so long since I've had time to appreciate how small we really are in comparison to the whole universe. Today the moon is only less than 2% closer to Earth and yet it feels so strange and wonderful, almost magical. I love it. Yesterday, I gazed out the window and saw my garden bathed in moonlight, so bright I could make out even the trees at the furthest corner of my garden, I wish I'd had someone to share that moment with, because it was one of those that I think left me in momentary awe.  Okay so if you want some facts about tonights supermoon:

Tonight the moon is 225,000 miles away from Earth, the gravity of the moon on Earth is only 3% stronger, tides are only 5% stronger, and the moon has nothing to do with any of the disasters we've had according to scientists, we just like seeing correlations where there aren't any to make some sense of the mess we find ourselves in.

So if you're sat inside, and are planning on going straight to bed without taking a look at our sattelite on its "big night",  take a peek out from your window, see if you can spot it (it's pretty hard to miss unless you've got heavy cloud cover), and admire the beauty of the night. Our moon.

Everywhere I go I'm spellbound...

It's true, I'm "spellbound" by a lot of things in life. Like how amazing my friends are. These past few years, I've felt myself grow so much as a person, my confidence has soared, my happiness levels are higher than ever before despite the stress of exams, my weekends are more exciting and my life is better generally! I owe all these things to them. I think without the simply brilliant friends I have now, I would be a totally different person altogether. We've become so close, I feel I could trust them completely, and although I know that certain friends will be going to different sixth forms next year, I will wish them the best of luck and as I've said previously, will simply demand they keep in touch no matter what! Reflecting back on my years at my secondary school, I believe the best part has been the incredible people, I cannot sum them up in a few sentences they mean so much to me and probably always will. We've shared some fantastic and funny moments, moments which really do make you feel alive as a person, and I'm pretty sure these moments will continue to log themselves in my memory for a long time to come. So this blog is dedicated to you my beautiful, talented, awesome friends, thank you for being there and giving me such wonderful experiences.

I can break the chains that bind you....

"Your only identity is who you are in this moment, and who you are in this moment changes every moment"I found this quote whilst browsing Twitter one day, and ever since then its remained a favourite of mine. Because I can see the truth of it.

Identity defines us an individual, we all want to stand out, to be interesting people, however sometimes I think we try too hard to fit a certain model, to gain some sort of universally recognised stereotyped identity, but this undermines the point of individuality. To be unique you only need to be yourself, because there will be no one else on this planet with exactly the same tastes, thoughts, ideas, expressions and qualities. Sometimes I think society wants to give us an identity, to brand us with their perception of us, often we will be judged on outward appearances, fronts we put on around certain people, our social standing...but is this ever the real identity of a person...I think not. Personally, I think as the quote suggests our identity will change every moment, who we believe we are will alter several times a day, our ideas will change, our opinions will waver or only get stronger. No one can truly look at you and tell you your identity at a given moment, they can guess the characteristics that make you unique to them,  but to others the perception will be different, your identity to them will change.

With that, I urge us all to stop trying to fit stereotypes, we should just live our lives to the full, enjoying and celebrating our individual flaires, we shouldn't strive for a fixed indentity and in the process blend in with a flock of others reaching for exactly the same thing...a false identity.

"I've grown certain that the root of all fear is that we've been forced to deny who we are."
"Identity is such a crucial affair that one shouldn't rush into it."
"The identity of one changes with how one sees reality."

Use your words, not mine...

Okay, so I haven't blogged in a while, but the past few days have been pretty hectic and I've not had much and spare time. So in the post I'll give some reflection on the week.

It's not been too bad, although it seems time passed incredible slowly, I'm not sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, as a part of me wants GCSE's to be over so I can move on in my education, but another part wants time to stand still so that I don't have to face the fact that part of my friendship group will be separated from me at the end of the year, though I'm determined we must stay in touch no matter what!

Yesterday, I went on a trip to Cambridge University to do a science masterclass day. I've probably told my main readers pretty much everything that happened on that day by now, but in case you're just a one off reader or I haven't told you...it was amazing! The buildings are so pretty, the city itself is unique, as I don't believe I've ever seen so many bikes in my entire life, and of course the lectures I attended which were about famous scientists, insect reproduction, evolution and genetics, and explosions in space were all fantastic and I learnt loads of new information from them. It's definately confirmed to myself that whatever happens in the future, I want a career in some aspect of science.

Onto the world now, Japan has been hit by a massive earthquake which also triggered a tsunami, leaving many dead, missing or homeless. Please give keep them in your thoughts today. We are part of a bigger picture and although its easy to forget, we should remember that right now, no matter how bad we think our personal problems are, there's someone else out there who's worse off.

Summer is looking as if its coming closer, the weathers improving, the evenings are getting lighter, and the promise of future plans lingers in the air, a constant incentive to keep slogging away at work. I hope this coming summer will be the best yet, I hope that my daydreams about endless days spent in the company of friends and family will be true, as after all it is the promise these dreams give us that keeps us going.

None of these pictures are mine (full credit goes to amazing people on tumblr) but if you want more pics like these to see go to my tumblr http://www.strangecharm94.tumblr.com/ :)

Another monday goes by....

Yep, it's the dreaded Monday again, and its been pretty bad to be honest. A french speaking exam is creeping closer, and appears determined to ruin me, simply due to the fact that I haven't been able to fit time in to practise as what with ICT project deadline, Science ISA's and general homework and revision, I really haven't had much time to myself, in fact I rarely finish school related work until around 10ish at night...eurghh. 

I guess this is what my life is going to become from now on, what with the summer main exams also looming (36 days till the first) and the prospect of summer is at the moment a beacon of hope, the main incentive for me to continue slogging away, because I have a feeling that as soon as exams are over the feeling of utter freedom will be immeasurable.

In the very little spare time I have at the moment, I'm reading 1984 by George Orwell, I've only read three chapters so far and I'm in awe with how much of a skilfull writer Orwell is, combining political issues into a story that keeps your interest and challenges your beliefs about society. The whole idea of constantly being watched seems to be somewhat accurate nowadays with all these security cameras seemingly watching our every move, and Orwell even descibes "telescreens" which sound exactly like our plasma TV's, one of the details which I believe helps make his idea of an alternative futuristic 1984 realistic. Again I suggest you read it, I'll probably do an in depth blog once I've read the whole thing ;)

That's about it for today people, I probably should go back and do some more french, but the prospect of learning over thirty questions and answers seems unbearable right now at 9.30pm, I'll just have to hope the pressure tommorow will enhance my memory magicallly or something. Actually scrap that, I wish suddenly I would recieve a letter from Hogwarts saying they'd made a mistake and I could do magic after all, then I'd set off to Hogwarts immediately and never have to talk about my holidays in french ever again. If only....

Up Down Strange Charm Top Bottom

Okay, so it's been a couple of days since I last posted on here, mainly because I've had nothing to say of great importance or interest. So today I decided to explain where my username strangecharm comes from and how amazing our universe actually is. This started as a conversation I was having based off a great song by Hank Green called "Strange Charm" (Look it up on youtube). I'm not going to pretend I know all of the vastly complicated physics behind these things but I'm going to do my best to explain some of it, sorry if I'm not entirely correct :)

So, atoms (which have misleading names as "atom" comes from the greek for "that which cannot be divided") are made up of neutrons, protons and electrons...but what makes up them?  The answer is supposedly these fundamental pieces of matter called quarks. There are six types of quarks, called Up, Down, Strange, Charm (yes my name is two of the quarks, I'm a science nerd alright...) Top and Bottom. These quarks usually pair up together. Protons are actually made up of three different pieces (have I lost you yet?).  Well in simple terms a quark is just a piece of a proton or neutron. Physicists call things made up of quarks hadrons.  Quarks can't be alone, there is always more than one of them. If a hadron has three quarks we call it a baryon, which protons and neutrons are, and if it has a quark and an anti-quark (basically opposite of the quark) then it's called a meson.

What amazes me is the fact that these pieces of matter make up everything along with other things such as leptons and bosons (but I won't go into them now), yet are not actually made up of anything else as both they and electrons are fundamentals according to theory.... mind blown. 

And that concludes me nerdiness for this blog. Fini.