I've just been swimming.

And now im so tired. But it was really fun. And tiring.

I think the last time i went was on holiday in Mallorca.

It was quite a spontaneous thing, i suggested it to sibling number one and she got really excited. So we went. Thankfully i had a pair of swim trunks that fit although i cant remember why i bought them. They were above the knee trunks, which i really dont like. I much prefer surfer-style over the knee board shorts. Okay they aren't very efficient for swimming but they look good. (What? Oh come on, dont tell me you wear super streamlined speedos, or as Pheobe from Friends would say, banana hammocks.) I think this pair is rather funky

I cant remember exactly how many lengths i did in the 45 mins we were there before "Fun Time" started, when a stampeed of little people came charging in, armed with floats and arm-bands, but as my sister only over-took me a few times and i started before her, it must have been around her 35 lengths, possibly 30ish. Im not a very good swimmer, and didnt really have a technique, just went for it in a mix of breast-stroke and normal front swimming. But felt really good afterwards, you know when you get out and your feeling tired, heart beating fast. I like that feeling after exercise, lets you know you pushed yourself.

Towards the end my sister decides to walk through the water and tries to persuade me to do the same, apparently its water aerobics, which then prompts me to mock her with a Baywatch style slow-mo run through the water except without the flowing golden locks, or the red float, or the trunks...or the body.

After getting back i had a bowl of porridge again, this time with cinnamon and pumpkin seeds. Nice. And then sausages, beans, and toast...mmmm!

Now im going to shower and de-chlorinate (eww!) and then get on with the maths homework. I still have two ladders against walls to deal with. And an endless number of integration questions.

Ooh and i just saw The Go! Team performing on Popworld - they are crazy! Bring on March!

Thank anyone and everyone its friday!

What a week its been...

It seems like my exams were ages ago.
And now i can spend this weekend, catching up on all the work i let slack because of them, theres nothing like pondering over ladders against walls and magnitudes of forces and the definate intergrals of random logarithms till you nod of at your desk with boredom. Joy!

I applied for my first ever job today (how lazy i have been, how excited i feel).
I really hope i get it, not just because i spent all of last night generating a covering letter and professional CV from the pathetic "okay children, your doing GCSEs now, time to learn about CVs" excuse for one that previously existed, (its quite hard to write a CV for your first job, well first proper job, because working for family never counts does it, i mean what does one write?), but also because its in a rather funky shoe shop.
This means 2 things: firstly, and less importantly (of the utmost importance to my sister however), there is a possibility i will eventually get discount. Secondly, it will hopefully give me the oportunity to meet some (sexy) nice, friendly, new people.

Someone (another Brit-asian Indian) mistook me for being half Spanish today.
I was really surprised and burst out laughing before dismissing their query and confirming that i was, like them, "fully" Indian.
I was surprised because i'd assumed my race/ethnicity (whatever you want to call it) was pretty obvious, especially to another of the same, but after later telling my sister, she seemed to be able to see how they could have thought that because i am quite fair and have defined facial features apparently. (More European than someone of an Indian-Asian decent?)
I took their assumption as a compliment initially, and later began to wonder why...
Why is it that we (assuming others do as well. Do you?) feel complimented by having certain physical attributes normally associated with other races/cultures?
Im assuming its because society generally views such attributes as sexually or otherwise attractive. And i guess also because it sets us appart from others of the same race, giving us further individuality.

And, if that wasn't enough of a roller-coaster ride of a week, i had porridge for the first time in my life this morning!

Go! Go! Go!

At precisely 10 something pm last night I went here and bought tickets to see The Go! Team at Leciester Uni in March!

I cant wait!

How exciring!

And, I found this post on Shane's Blog which has rare unreleased and non album tracks.

Woo-hoo!

"We are the Go! Team and we're here to rock the microphone..."

We watched that Synaesthesia video that my Biology teacher had promised us today.

It turned out to be an episode of the BBC documentary Horison, titled Derek tastes of earwax (dont ask!).

It was satisfying to find some sort of scientific explaination behind this "weird thing" that I have. The programme focused on the different types of Synaesthesia, introducing the "symptoms", and trying to convey how a Synaesthete sees the world, although i didn't think they did it very effectively as my friends afterwards seemed to belive that i see a rainbow tickertape of letters in front of my eyes every time they say something.

What was really interesting however, was that a man who had become blind after childhood had the same type of Synaesthesia as me, confirming the theory that it is something to do with a mixing of the senses during childhood learing and development.
My teacher proposed the theory that synapses in different areas of the brain which control different senses may be leaking into each other, abnormal spatial summation?

Also, apparently the condition has been found amongst relatives suggesting that as well as being influenced by early environment, it is 70% gene controlled. No one in my imediate family has it however.
Furthermore, 1 in 100 people have some form of it so its not actually that wierd.

Part of the programme was filmed at UCL, where a Senior Lecturer, Jamie Ward is leading research into Synaesthesia. Something he mentioned led me to discover another tangent of synaesthesic behaviour:

DR JAMIE WARD: Lots of synaesthetes said that they have number lines in which numbers were arranged out in space. And this was very exciting because it was as many as 60 per cent of people who have coloured numbers also see numbers being arranged in space, which is a huge percentage of the synaesthetic population.

NARRATOR: But the true revelation came when he ran an experiment with a group of non-synaesthetes.

DR JAMIE WARD: One experiment involves showing numbers on a computer screen and what people have to do is make a decision about those numbers with their left and their right hand. So for example they might judge whether a number is odd or even. And what we find is that people are faster at responding to small numbers such as one or two with their left hand and faster at responding to larger numbers such as eight and nine with their right hand. So it appears as if we all have a number line that runs from one on the left through to nine and so on on the right hand side.

NARRATOR: So it seems we all have a sense of numbers arranged in space. These number lines suggest to Dr Ward a reason why synaesthesia might exist in the human population.

DR JAMIE WARD: One clue for why synaesthesia might survive is that it enables us to deal with abstract concepts such as numbers and other sequences in a very concrete way using our senses.

DR JAMIE WARD: What we do is we actually put these sequences into a special arrangement and this seems to be common to each and every one of us but its something that Synaesthetes are very aware of but most of us are not aware of.

MAN IN PARK:Yeah hi mate, yeah hi.

NARRATOR: So synaesthesia may be a more extreme form of something we've all had to develop.

MAN IN PARK: You've booked a table yeah? What six people, no you need to make it more, about eight.

As the man in the park mentions eight, he moves his hand from infront of him, slightly to the right. Seeing that made me realise i do the same. I associate small numbers, or more specifically, the early part of the day with my left, and larger numbers or the later part of the day with the right.
I could not believe that none of my friends do this, i was convinced that it was something subconscious that everyone did. Do you?

It also went on to mention the kiki-booba test, which 95% of people get right, proving that everyone, to a degree, are synaesthetes. Some how we associate "round" sounds like booooo-baaa with round, curvy shapes, and "sharp" sounds like ki-ki with pointy shapes.

The programme then went on to suggest the benefits of synaesthetes in society and the advantages they have over others...

PROFESSOR VS RAMACHANDRAN: Very often in biology when you find a gene that doesn't have an apparent function, a non-functional gene, there's usually hidden agenda. So what might the hidden agenda be in the case of synaesthesia, why is it so widely prevalent?

NARRATOR: When he looked for answers, one thing in particular struck him.

PROFESSOR VS RAMACHANDRAN: The clue comes from the fact that synaesthesia is eight times more common among artists, poets and novelists than the general population.

NARRATOR: He began to develop a daring theory. Could synaesthesia help explain creativity?

It was really interesting to watch, not only because i have Synaesthesia, but because the brain is so enigmatic. We will probably never discover why or how it occurs, only theories.
However more research into it may now be opening a window into mankinds greatest mysteries and some of our greatest achievements.


The programme transcript can be found here.

*Sees which category he has been placed in in Rob's Blog, and bursts out laughing*

Thats obscurity for you!

Woo-hoo!

I had the last exam today.

Finally i can get back to everything that i had been putting-off due to revision: reading, relaxing, sleeping, watching tv, and most importantly, music!

The exams went okay, and only okay, but that was expected, i'll just have to wait for the results and see how things go.

Reading about dan's recent fitness-feats, reminded me of the lack of exercise and sports i had been doing recently, (Well i had been excercising my brain and had not had time for much else!) so it was great to finally get back into the gym today. I didnt actually have a routine, just ended up doing a bit of this and that, and then played some badminton. And now i have that strangely satisfying ache, which is always a good sign.

But anyway, onto the one thing that has kept me going through the exams, no, its not the new series of Desperate Housewives (although Woo-hoo! for that, god bless channel 4!), its music!

I spent the whole of sunday in the lounge with the matching baubles (that arent there any more due to obvious reasons), with my notes, the fire, and the following few albums...


clap your hands say yeah
I first heard about this band on coolhunting sometime last year.
Indie-pop-funk with a happy upbeat sound. The songs are weaved with layered guitars, low-key bass and some buzzing, fuzzy synth with tight acoustic melodies.
The lead vocalist, Alec Ounsworth has a sort of "indie voice" and has been described as a drunk David Byrne.
He really goes for it in places, yowling and yodeling energetically, but is also charming and soulful in some songs.
"Over and over again", and "Details of the war" are two of my favourite.


clor
A friend recomended this album to me in november. I knew i'd love it as soon as i heard the beat kick-in on the first track "Good Stuff". Its a mish-mash of electro punk-funk and indie, with quirky lyrics, stabbing guitars and electronic drums.
I was surprised just how much i liked Clor and this album (almost as surprised as i was to learn they were former members of Roots Manuva's on-stage band), because i would normally label the above description as 'not my thing' but they provide a fresh sound in a stale, manufactured genre. My friend practically forced this album on me, and im so glad she did. My favourite track has to be "Love + Pain", *begins singing: i was in love....* with "Good Stuff" a close second.


The Go! Team
I dont think there is any type of music genre or instrument that this band doesnt make use of, four (yes four!) drummers, electric guitar, harmonica, a banjo, flute, scratching and even MCing. They are funky in every sense of the word. Euphoric, upbeat folk with tangents of bollywood soundtracks, cheerleading chants, old hip hop and noise guitar bands.
Despite what your thinking, this above concoction, actually crashes together with a bang that works, it makes you feel good, it makes you want to get up and dance, and it makes you want to sing along at the top of your voice! My favourite songs on this are "The whole album"....okay okay...i'll choose...er..."Lady Flash" and "Feelgood by Numbers".

Of course its only after you read this post at abstract boy's blog you realise your actually quite out of date.
But ooh theres a post about clap your hands...


Anyway, im going to go and er...do nothing!

Woo-hoo!
(I've realised i've been saying that a lot recently, any relative of yours Any?)

Had to be there...

Someone just said to me...

"You answer the phone like your on acid or something"

I still cant stop laughing...

(Another) One of those days...

You get home after a not so good day and still have half of it to go.
You decide to blog a bit to 1, procrastinate and 2, de-stress.
You turn your ancient 233mhz processor crappy computer on and sit for 14, (yes 14!) minutes to finally get Blogger up. Slow piece of crap.
You decide to give in to those annoying "bubbles" that pop up every second asking you to clean up your disk space.
Then you get a Norton AV pop-up telling you that you have a lovely trojan horse roaming around your hard drive. NAV then tells you its unable to repair the infected file. (Well what bloody good are you then?!)

And that wasn't what i was going to originally moan about!

I got the results of that Chem mock back today, I got a B. No matter how much revision I do, i just cant seem to push it up to an A. How very very annoying. Possibly as annoying as being stuck in a house with Traci Bingham. "Oh my god Dennis! Thats Awful!" *shudders*
Then I had a Bio mock which wasnt exactly easy. Again i cant tell how i have done but will find out tomorrow. *crosses fingers*
And then, im just about to leave to get the bus home and my bag breaks. (I could laugh if i wasnt so pissed off, because it is really quite comical)

The metal clip on the strap snaps as im trying to bang it back into place.
Metal clip.
Snaps right into 2 bits.
As im just about to get the bus home.
Bloody Ted Baker.

Luckily i managed to find a its-smaller-and-probably-not-as-hard-wearing-but-it-will-do replacement in Topman.

Im going to bed.
Yay!
My favourite place in the whole world!

Extra Attention

Hello all!

Firstly, thanks guys, im feeling much better about everything. :)

I had a mock Chemistry exam today, it was really hard but everyone thought that, including one of my friends who has a brain like a sponge, so i wasnt feeling too bad. Hopefully the results will be okay. The real thing is on Monday!

I thought id grab a quick lunch before going home because it was just easier, and so went to McDonalds with another friend. Well it is "fast food"!

We sat down at a table and began conversing when i noticed i was getting some extra attention from someone sitting about 9 o'clock from me, behind my friend. Im rubbish at guessing ages but they were (im not going to say old), quite a bit older than me, in their late 20s.
You know the feeling when someone is looking at you, i looked up a few times and caught their eye, at which point they flicked back to their friend, which was quite funny. This must have happened about 3 or 4 times. And then just before they left, i could see from the corner of my eye whilst faking being engaged in a deep conversation with my friend, that they were staring at me for quite a while.

It was a little weird because they were several years older than me, but flattering nonetheless.

Destression

Grrrrrrr!

I wish we had "standby" buttons because i'd be smacking mine with a sledge-hammer right now.

Im so frustrated!

Why the *bleep* would anyone need to know the binomial expansion of partial *bleep*-ing fractions anyway?!

Im not going to be one of those depressing people who rant on about how their lives are so crap because their cat ran away, but life is so, for want of a better word, shit at the moment.

A-levels are so stressful. Everyone knows that.
And you have to just pull through. Fact.
But after that, applying to uni.
Even that is stressful.
So horribly, torturingly stressful.

Arguably it depends on your course, I could have done something "easy" where I would have just got offers from some of the six unis i'd applied to. But no, I have to go through all this pressure filled, ultra-competative, only four choices, wait-and-pray for interviews, then again for offers *bleep*-ing crap to do Medicine. Just because I want to do something I am so passionate about.

And then you think...Is life always going to be like this?
And especially a career like medicine, so many hours, so stressful, such hard work. Why am i getting myself into this?
But there have never been any doubts in my mind, I cant think of anything else i'd want to be. The human body is the most amazing thing in the world. I only want to be a doctor. *Begins humming Mylo vs. Miami Sound Machine - Dr Pressure*
So I dont really know what im rambling on about...

I guess im just de-stressing by thought-splurging.
Revising is getting to me i guess, although not in the way i'd have thought. With regards to exams coming up (in a week!!) i feel really complacent and going-with-the-flow-ish. (Which is worrying!)
But overall, im having waves of "destression" (ha! geddit? depression and stress. destression! good huh? I crack myself up...) sometimes, related to all of this.
I fear the fact that i may not get any offers this year and will then have to take a gap year and re-apply. What am i going to do for a whole year?!!

But i guess life is a learning process. And a rollercoaster. It will take you where it wants to go, with the ups and the downs. And all we can do is hold on tight, learn what it teaches us, and try to enjoy the ride...

A Colourful Diagnosis

Wow!

I discovered today that im a Synaesthete.

Well, I always knew I had Grapheme-color synaenesthesia, but I never knew it had a name, or a clinical despcription. I always thought it was just something that i did and never gave it much attention. I thought it was normal, that is until today in our Biology lesson when my teacher began talking about it...

...which then lead to everyone asking me things like "whats monday?!", "what colour is 4?!", "what colour is my name?!" and even a "you never said that. I cant believe you never told me that!"

My Chemical Insomnia

Maybe it was because I watched celeb big brother sandwiched between a double-bill of Invasion and so had a mind buzzing with activity but I just couldn't get to sleep last night. I got into bed at 11pm and the last time I saw the clock on my Hi-Fi it was 12:03am.

And you know when you've been over-doing the Chemistry revision when you recall dreaming of acid-chlorides, HCl and Lithium Aluminium Tetrahydride, and then the dream becomes livid as you keep trying to calculate the product of reactions over and over again in your dream until you wake up thinking about it.
3:07am the clock read.

I lay there trying to clear my mind and fall asleep again. Turning from side to side, re-arranging pillows, even doing my imagine-sinking-into-the-pillow-until-you-fall-asleep thing that I do. Nothing worked. And I felt awful from the cold that everyone in the house now has. Around 3:30am-ish I gave up and got up. My mind still so active, and me feeling wide awake, so...

I sat down at my desk and resumed working through the chapter of the Chemistry revision book that I had been revising the day before, until about 4am-ish when I began to feel tired again - you've just got to love the irony of the human-sub-conscious.

Just after 4am I got back into bed again, but still there was no luck, after having tried all manner of things to tire myself out I just lay there listening to the radio. Minute by minute the night crawled into dawn, and at 5:30am-ish I got out of bed again, feeling like a zombie on an espresso overdose, to meet my parents who had got up for work in the hallway.
Apparently mum was the same, in fact, no one slept perfectly.

By now I was feeling really hungry so I went downstairs into the kitchen to make a sausage toastie with non-meat soya sausages (that are actually really nice), and also thought i'd put the laundry from the washing machine into the dryer. Mum had bought some new bath towels and I dont trust anyone in this house to do the laundry after a particular, no wait, several incidents, which have resulted in me having pink Calvin Klein boxers...and a pink school P.E. shirt.
Trying to decipher the hieroglyphic washing instructions to see whether they could go in the dryer I noticed that they had to be ironed on medium heat - the little iron symbol with 2 dots - which begs the question - who irons their bath towels?! And why?!
My mum insists on ironing all the bed linen which i think is such a waste of time and effort, its just going to get creased again after the first nights sleep in it. Rediculous. Anyway, i bunged them in the dryer regardless and they survived so thats the end of that.

==== We interupt this post to bring you a hilarious comment from Celeb Big Brother UK ====

"You can take a horse to water but you cant make it drink,
you can take a whore to culture but you cant make her think"

- Pete Burns talking about Jodie Marsh

After a hot drink i managed to nod-off at about 7:30am for a couple of hours. I've felt crap all day, in fact, now i can relate to one of Any's T-shirts after that microwave drying experience.

Im going to finish watching the quality entertainment programme that is CBB and then have a hot shower with some Molton Brown eucalyptus shower stuff, and possibly a mug of horlicks, mmmm...

I have to be in school at 8:15am tomorrow for a mock exam! Woo-hoo!

Friends Reunited & One for every day...

One of my closest friends and I had become quite distant over the past few months, mainly due to insecurity on his part and a lack of communication on both our parts.
He came round today before a party (another friends 18th) that we were both going to, to talk. It was good to get everything sorted, as I did miss him, and everything is ok between us now.

The party was good as well, it was great to finally get out of the house and see everyone again. My friends tell me im not normal because i hate holidays and really like school. The reason for this being because i get to see all my friends and have an active routine, whereas in the holidays i just end up getting bored around the house, as with all my friends living quite far away its too much effort to meet up.

All 3 of the girls that fancied me were there as well, but thankfully it wasn't akward between us, well except between me and the younger one who ignored me all evening. Oops!

There was also some really HOT and cute eyecandy, i couldn't tear my eyes away! Even after they lit up a cigarette, which is usually a big turn off for me, the attraction still failed to diminish.

One of the presents that my friend recieved was a book of sex positions - one for every date of the year. (Trust teenagers to get something like that for an 18th birthday present - ooh this reminds me, i've still got to get her something!) Anyway, this provided much entertainment and excitement as people passed it around looking up the particular position for their birthday (as you do when presented with a modernised pocket kama-sutra)
Might I also add to that, looks of awe and confusion as they tried to work out just how? and decipher who's limbs belonged to who in the "diagrams".
I haven't laughed as much in such a long time as i did when my friend (who's birthday it was) cried out with a mixture of awe, surprise and disgust, "Fuck-a-monkey! Look at the one for my birthday!"

Open the box

I've just found the best thing ever!

You know when you hear a great song that you really like, that is not like the stuff you normally listen to, but you like it so much and wish that you knew other songs/artists like it?
Well i've just discovered "the music genome project" which have created Pandora - an internet streaming radio station tailored to your own taste - you enter an artist/track title and it creates a playlist of similar music for you.
Check it out, its great!

Sunblock? In January?

With 2005 being so last week and 2006 being, well...now, all the weekend newspaper supplements/magazines are doing the whole "2005 - a look back" or "2005 - the year in pictures" or "2006 - things to lookout for" etc and frankly, i couldnt give a toss.
What i do know though, is that 2006, well January anyway, is the age of Baywatch dance remixes! Yeah baby!

Already there are 2 dance tracks sampling the Baywatch theme getting airplay on Radio1, Sunblock - I'll be ready, and Naughty boy - Phat beach and rumours of more to join the battle soon.

Both sound great. That is definately a winning combination for a dance hit - bassy beats mixed with a retro tv sample. Whats next i wonder? An A-team remix? Button Moon? Thomas the tank engine? - I guess the Scissor Sisters have already touched on that with Laura.

phat beach is already out, and I'll be ready is released next week, i dont know about the others, but when they are, i'll be ready...

I knew it would happen eventually...
and it finally has...
this household has fallen into disarray.
With everyone except me working now and Dad having had a bad cold recently, everyone is too tired or busy (or lazy) to do anything.
We've all been forced to either learn a few key German phrases or just take a random guess as the Neff microwave/grill/mirror thingy has reset itself and no one can be bothered to set it back to English.
And im being forced to live like a student - no one has done any shopping recently resulting in me having to have castor sugar on my Weetabix this morning and, as someone forgot to do the dishwasher on, i had to eat it with a ladle!

ObscureAzure v1.03

ObscureAzure has been updated (a little) for your blogging pleasure...

New features include:

Exit:
Of my regular readers, i know that 2 work (actually make that 1 because im not sure the other is still a reader), one is at uni, and im not sure about the others, but it may interest you to know that if you are reading ObAz v1.03 when you shouldnt be, you can now click the little "exit" button in the side bar under my avatar to make a safe dash to Google.

New Bloggers&Blogs:
The blog formerly known as Whatevasista by Lovely Jonathan which i found through Dan and Any and have been reading for a while but never got round to linking to till today, and a more recent find - Chav Mum. Both are hilarious!

Because im worth it!:
My blog is worth £2000-ish apparently! - See at the bottom of the sidebar
How much is yours worth?

Closure

The letter that i had been expecting came today from Cambridge.

And as i predicted it read "we regret to inform you" blah blah blah.

What was surprising was that i honestly wasn't upset by it.

Well, of course i'd have prefered to get an offer, but i had been expecting rejection and i guess i didn't really want to go there deep down inside.

It isn't my kind of place, i do want to get a good degree but there, its far too accademic for my liking.

I'd prefer somwhere more "funkier", with people who are more like myself.
I think my mum was more dissappointed than i was, bless her.

Im just hoping i get invited to interviews at the other 3 universities i've applied to, especially the one that i actually really want to go to...


And...good news, kind-of. The friend that i fancy, has got with someone else.
Good news?
Yes because, when they told me i didnt feel anything at all, infact i was happy for them. And i havent thought of them at all over the holidays, so this means that my attraction is based on lust and nothing more.