Bestival, De Niro and AQA. Triple threat.

Okay so i just got back from bestival and it was amaaazzzing and just awesome and fat boy slim was incredible as were annie mac, dj fresh and kelis and the village people, terrible grammar I know but i'm still buzzing!!! Was just wonderful and I would LOVE to go back next year!


http://media.digitalphotogallery.com/rfzgmrfxrcph/images/50576ca8-dbd0-11e0-b795-fefd616b8533/502_website_image_sdwn_standard.jpg?20110910181445


SEXY. Was awesome.


In other news, I had a read of an article on 9/11 (okay so this is a bit repetitive but this was interesting) with a contribution fro Robert de Niro who is a native New Yorker. He spoke about rebuilding what was lost, which I thought was a far better way of articulating what needed to be done after the attack as it gives connotations of healing and presents the concept of an actual grieving process (because he used the word 'loss'.) Instead of the reactionary more aggressive notion of 'sticking it' to the terrorists and throwing the new developments in their face as a gesture of triumph and victory. This was in the Observer Magazine btw.


In other other news. I had a remark of my A levels and now have the grades I needed for my insurance choice (Kings College London) which I am thrilled about. However, grades and pride aside - (I still managed to get into the Uni of my choice but on a different course) I can't get over how devastated I was the week of results and how stressful it was to feel i'd failed so badly and wasted my time working so hard. I'm absolutely gutted that through no fault of my own my A level results day was ruined because two papers were marked incorrectly and it resulted in feeling depressed for weeks combined with the terrifying prospect of having an empty lonely gap year, consequently I spent two weeks manically trying to get jobs in ski resorts. AQA thoroughly screwed me over with one of my A levels and if I'm being honest it scares me how powerless you are, because your college/place of education puts their trust in these exam boards, not you, then they are left to oversee everyone's exams and therefore in a sense well being and they are just as likely to mess up as any other organisation. I really dislike having to put events down to bad luck, and having to make up excuses for myself because at the end of the day 99% of what happens to you is down to you and there's no use shying away from the fact that you are in control and hence to blame or to praise for the course of your life. However, in this case, I feel thoroughly unlucky, and am having to put these events down to another non entity which is fate. Sounds ridiculous I know but if there's nothing I could have done about this situation then what other reason could there be for it's happening other then the idea that urm, everything happens for a reason? Perhaps I should turn to religion, at least there's a whole bible full of reasons for why things happen.

I think when conspiracy theories 

concern events that have involved larges losses of life they become insensitive and tortuous for families of the deceased. I'm not proposing that we stop questioning the state and start taking everything our governments and politicians say as completely legitimate, but nearly 3000 people died in 9/11, and that's a lot of people who should be left to rest. 

Ground Zero to World Trade. Or should I say Tirade.

I know i've blogged about this before but I'm rarely able to consolidate all my thoughts into 5 minutes of blogging, mainly because I have a rather 'sporadic' train of thought *cough* easily distracted. Now i'm not paranoid, I'm just pointing something out - they're building a subway station underneath ground zero.


 'As above, so below'


Okay, so the new 'transportation hub' will make the site more accessible to those who want to remember 9/11 however, the 'multi-story central transit hall designed in the style of Grand Central Terminal, incorporating a lower concourse, an upper (balcony) concourse, a public waiting area, and first-class retail amenities' doesn't cause the words 'remembrance' and 'reflection' spring to mind, more so exuberance and commercialism. Considering they're building on what is essentially a graveyard, I'm still not convinced this is appropriate. 


http://www.wtc.com/about/transportation-hub 

They're back and they're pretty awesome!

To my readers from across the pond!

Can I just say how excited I am about the prospect of being able to study in North America next year! :D

The only way is Essex.

It seems that the above title is indeed true. This is regarding the eviction of 400 people from an illegal traveller site in Essex, which is under the jurisdiction of Basildon Council. 


'A United Nations committee has called on the government to suspend the eviction but the council said it would be going ahead' 

Witches

If someone could explain the white witch phenomenon to me i'd be very grateful, I'm interested to see if their magic actually works. I'd also like to know what happened to the dark witches, or if there are any local warlocks. When I was about 7 I went for a walk on the forest and found some rather intriguing looking fire circles so I may start camping out in the woods with my dad's night vision goggles (he bought them for badger watching) to try and see what my local coven is up to. They advertise for more members in the village bakery, but i'm not totally convinced I'm that magical at this point in my life, and do you have to go already convinced of your magical ability? What happens if you go to a coven and you don't know any spells, or know how to make them up? I think ill start tying string to objects and pretending to levitate them. Also a lot of the people in the coven have white witch bumper stickers on their cars which kind of ruins the surprise, however the fact that they give away their identity as a witch says to me that they're not up to anything too sinister because it would be too easy to track them down. How I love rural England.

But

This my favourite poem, it's by Rudyard Kipling. Let us forget for a moment that he was a staunch imperialist and a champion of the British Empire.

IF.....

IF you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!' If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, ' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!