1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Drove abroad.
Totally killed a car.
Moved out of stockport (to the relatively close Rusholme)
Helped cats give birth.


2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
My new years resolution was to read as many as possible of the Terry Pratchet Discworld series in order. I think i'm on book 7 currently. So i didn't do too badly. My original plan was one a month. This failed. lol.
I don't tend to make serious new years resolutions. But mine would be, to finally get round to volunteering for childline.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Define close. ?? A few people have popped this year.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Not extremely close, but yes, fairly close.

5. What countries did you visit?
Poland

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
A job would be nice. lol. And some money. Not loads. Just enough to pay the rent.

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
A few things i'll remember but i am USELESS with dates.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Finally finishing my fucking horrid masters. Eugh.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not quiting my MA sooner cause i hated it. lol. Not really had a big failure.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
A few usual bugs. One of two faints. A few vomits, lol. No real illness.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My 360. Althought technically it was at the very end of 2007 i have enjoyed its company.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Celebration?
Dave, for not having some kind of male shit fit when i moved in with him i suppose.
:)
Barack Obama.. Thank god the republicans didn't get in!!!!!

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
No ones behaviour has made me appauled. Appauled with a U. tsk. Humans generally have a tendancy to suck.
I guess discovering that two children die every ten days in the UK at the hands of their parents was a bit shit. 1 woman dies a week at the hands of their partner or former partner. This is also shit.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Just general living. House. Car. that kind of stuff. Not really splashed out on anything unusual.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Poland was good. Moving in with dave. Getting a real job, not that its happened yet.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
Not sure... A few. Nothing in particular.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?
More or less the same.
ii. richer or poorer?
Poorer. MUCH poorer.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Everything. Travel. songs. movies. adventure. reading. writing. learning.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
my fucking MA> eugh

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
With dave's family... my family.. just relaxing.

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
Nope. lol. WHAT, i technically already loved Mr.Gordon.

23. How many one-night stands?
47 (beats your 2 dave :P ) None.. None.. tsk...

24. What was your favourite TV program?
Damages was good, not seen enough of it.. Medium.. the CSI's...

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Hate's too strong a word. Theres a few people i'm dissapointed with...

26. What was the best book you read?
Terry Pratchet really is good. I love books. ALL OF THEM :)

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Hmmmmmm... Not sure... a bit of dave's metal has rubbed off... Greig and Rachmaninov i suppose...

28. What did you want and get?
I'm not dead. I have guitar hero :D and books and stuff

29. What did you want and not get?
A job with a good wage.

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
I dont really do films. I watch them and either like or dont like.

31. What was your LEAST favourite film of the year? (I added this one)
sex and the city was poor.

32. What was your favourite theatrical production of this year?
erk. Dont think i've been this year. :S OH YES.. i did.. Wicked, which was, er, wicked?? :S

33. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
23. ate and drank :)

34. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Some more money... Just a decent job. like 17k a year or something.

35. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Adult. sort of. lol.

36. What kept you sane?
I wasn't sane to begin with....

37. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Conor Oberst

38. What political issue stirred you the most?
Barack Obama and the american presidential election

39. Who did you miss?
A few people. I think they might know.

40. Who was the best new person(s) you met?
I didnt meet loads of new people. became closer to a few. :)

41. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
You, and only you, are in charge.

42. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
If i lay here, if i just lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world

Bugger.

My placement ends one week friday. ARGH.

I have handed in all my work, which is good... Only to find that now, i actually have to be a real person....

WHY OH WHY did the job i pick have to have so much responsibility with it..

I have an interview on monday. For a support worker manager post.. Yes thats right folks.. The every day care of older people with mental health problems in stockport will, for a part, rest on my shoulders...

How did that happen!

Ps.. i still have a 6000 word dissertation to write. Five weeks till hand in.. No, i haven't started it.. and No, i don't know what its going to be on....

Taste, Sight, Smell, Sound, Touch.... I think, if i really really had to, i'd give up.... Smell.. lol.. x

If i was stranded on an island with a fictional character... It would be Dr Who (played by David Tennant), mostly because i suspect i wouldn't be there very long.   :D  

And with that, writters block, and bordom with my life, are the reasons why ive abandoned LJ for about.. Er, 6/7 months?

Hmmmm.. I've applied for about 30 jobs, DEAR GOD.... and had three responses.. ONLY THREE!  RUDE FUCKERS.... Also, had one positive one  :D    I now have a job with starts 8th september..  Its teaching.. NO NO.. RUNNING!  ARgh, a GCSE psychology course for adult learners at aquinas college..  They haven't been very helpful.. and unfortunately, i've never ran a course before... so, i'm kind of, confused, and stuck.. and i'm not entirely sure what i'm supposed to do...

Ive made the course handbook..  which i feel is, good....?

Ive applied for a deputy managers post for The Meadows, a centre for older people with mental illness and dementia...
I've applied for a social workers post for learning and physical disabilities in stockport, ive heard nothing back...
I've applied for a parent support advisors post at stockport.,.... not heard anything for that either..

I'm going to apply for a children and families social worker post at manchester city council.. But i dont really want that... because they WORK YOU TO YOUR DEAD>... no really.. :(

And i'm also going to apply for a contact support worker at manchester... this means assessing contact between removed children and their parents, writing reports for court, doing life story work with children, and supervising contact..  hmmmm...

All in all... i'm an adult, applying for real jobs... and, i .. dont.. want.... too......

Well, My date with Anita....   We had a lovely walk and then ate some delicious grub an Umami..  After a long rambling conversation, we had a long walk to AMC and then watched 'Enchanted', which, by the way, is a totally amazing laugh-out-loud film!..  Its awesome... 

As is the lovely Anita, who i am sure i'll be seeing again    :P

A literary character that has changed me would have to be Bertrand Russell.

I was an usual teenager; i felt alienated from my peers, my family and other adults i associated with. I was not interested in the usual things (boys and popular music) and going to a very average high school, i didn't have anyone to open my eyes to politics or philosophy.

I felt a general sense of meaningless. Whilst at college i studied philosophy, met other enlightened beings and began to become more eclectic in my interests. With a lack of belief in individual ability to change the world, with a scathing scepticism of the government and any authority and a deep sense of existential nihilism, i failed to find anyone who seemed to view the world in the same way.

Reading the first chapter of Bertrand Russell's autobiography over a year and a half ago was like reading a mirror image of myself. The same hope that humanity will save itself, the same dispair at the mess it's in, the same deep deep pain at the suffering of manking and its own stupidity. The same aloneness and search for sense of meaning and self.

If someone as intelligent, as profound, as famous, as 'important' as 'Bertie' can have thought the same things as me, and wrote them down in such a beautiful way, then maybe i'm not so mad in thinking the way i do?

Knowing Betrand Russell existed, and shared a worldview with myself, when i'm feeling really nihilistic, makes me feel a little better!

I haven't read his autobiography. Infact i doubt i am a quarter of the way through, and i hope there will always be some bit of it i haven't read, because knowing there is more to read, makes me curl my toes!

01. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?

Applied for a PhD  Got a proper job for 5 months. Got past the 2 year barrier in a relationship without getting bored/plotting their death/generally fucking them over…
Performed in a show on stage

02. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I Don’t make new years resolutions… simply because I never keep them, and I can never think of them in the first place. So no, I probably won’t make any this year…

03. Did someone close to you give birth?

Hmmmm.. No I don’t think so….

04. Did anyone close to you die?

not this year.. i don’t think so...

05. What countries did you visit?

Does wales count? No where this year…

06. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?

A MA… lol.. ive had enough of this course I want to graduate already. A paying job would be nice… Being on a PhD would be great…

07. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

It was a fairly un-eventful year… A few big things happened.. But nothing life changing…

08. What was your biggest achievement(s) of the year?

I haven’t crashed my car, or burnt anything down… Ive passed all my modules with no resubmissions on my course… er, ive not killed dave. Hmmm..

I performed live on stage for three performances in one weekend in the Lowry with a youth theatre group!

09. What was your biggest failure(s)?

Hmmmm…. I don’t think ive had any big failures this year.. ive pretty much pooodled on through…

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

In January I was so ill, I couldn’t swallow, and was being constantly sick.. ended up having a seizure in the a and e department of stepping hill. Er, I nearly had an operation, and then the doctor told me it wasn’t worth the risk at the last minute... lol.. haven’t really been ill tho’

11. What was the best thing you bought?

er. Hmmm... i bought lots of little interesting things... no one big thing

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

?

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

I suspect they already know.. most humans really..

14. Where did most of your money go?

ebay... tsk... and trains.. and petrol..

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

POLAND... er... i dunno.. lots of things i suspect.. a year is a long time! Oh oooo.ooooo..... Avenue Q

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?

for good.... from the musical ‘wicked’

17. Compared to this time last year, are you
i. happier or sadder? About the same i think
ii. thinner or fatter? Hmmm.. bout the same.!
iii. richer or poorer? Slighly richer :D

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?

music, singing, piano and guitar practice, violin and flute practice too. More reading and writing of academic journals. It would have been nice to have published the thing ive been meaning too for 2 years now lol...

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?

my ma.. lol...

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

EATING LOTS OF ROAST POTATOES!!!

21. Did you fall in love in 2007?

I didnt technically fall in love in 2007... but i guess i like dave somewhat..

22. How many one night stands?

None...

23. What was your favorite TV program?

Heroes in my favorite right now. I dont know about earlier in the year. I like top gear, and nigella.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

hmmm.. Yes actually.. i wouldnt say hate, and i certainly dont waste time thinking about them.. but there are certanly a few people that i dont respect anymore..

25. What was the best book you read?

I’ve only just started the selfish gene but thats awesome. Ive been reading betrand russells autobiography for more than 18months. Its HUGE and i’m so busy. But i love it... hmmm. I tend to read about 10 books at a time.. lol. There all good. I love books.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

My own personal bravery at performing live infront of people.

27. What did you want and get?

i’m not sure.

28. What did you want and not get?

a grand piano. A million pounds. And yes yes i know, money doesn’t make you happy, but it helps... an extra day in the week just for pleasure pursuits. Mine would consist of making a pot of tea. Reading a book for 3 hours. Playing piano. Then playing pool and eating good food. yum

29. Favorite films of this year?

transformers was awesome. Avenue Q was awesome, but technically wasnt a film.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I was 22. I feel really old. Lol. I’m not sure, oh had a meal in umami i think. Scott and jim-e came.

31.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Inner peace.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?

I tried to stop rebelling and grow up. I think i succeeded, and i have bought more adult style jeans and trousers. Eg, they arent all baggies lol.. but now that my hair if bright blue.. lol..

33. What kept you sane?

Sane? You are kidding right?

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

I dont have huge crushed on ‘famous’ people..

35. What political issue stirred you the most?

all political issues make me mad.. because they always get it so so wrong.. Id cards, the teddy bear, bush still being in charge, Brown “wheres my fucking pension”.. etc..

36. Who do you miss?

Jacque

37. Who was the best new person you met?

not sure...

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007:

Wisdom, intelligence and humanity are three TOTALLY seperate things, and if a human has once, they do not neccesarily have the others.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

I will never know myself until I do this on my own
And I will never feel anything else, until my wounds are healed

I don't fucking know what i want to be.. Lol.. its a source of constant annoyance.. i'm relively clever, and can learn anything that i put my mind too.. As long as its not bloody algebra...

I am currently interested in the following;

genetics
evolution
evolutionary psychology
evolutionary genetics
neuroscience
neuro-linguistic programming

and there is a branch of child psychology which looks at the development of the childs mind and how early children can identify novel objects using this really cool experimental technique where they monitor the amount of time children look at objects. even new born babies stare longer at an object when you change something.like add an extra ear onto a teddy. its really interesting.!!!

anyway, yeah, im doing an MA in social work, which im probably only going to use for a year to make money to go back to uni and probably do a fucking totally different BSc.. pfff

Hello!! I have not updated in a while, so here is life....

WORK
I only have, god, very few days left... Its been fun, not sure its an appropriate learning enviroment for a trainee social worker considering they do no functions that a social worker does and none of the staff are trained as a social worker.. bloody uni.

UNI
i am going back to uni on the 29th of Oct. I dont really like my course, its interesting, but its not my passion.. and i dont really want to be a social worker.. But im halfway through so i may as well finish.

FUTURE
I want to be a research psychologist, an assisstant psychologist. Or work for a year and then do another MA MSc in something that i really love. Not sure what yet, but it will definately be psychology based.

COLLEGE
i am week 4 into my PGCE. I would love to teach in a college or uni at some point, and so this is like a very basic teaching qual. Its called PTLLS, preparing to teach in the life long sector, its a nationally recognised qualification and accredited by the university of lancaster. Its basically the first module at masters level of the post graduate certificate of ed.

LIFE
My gran is dying of cancer. We all knew it would come eventually, but that leaves mum alone. She isnt married and doesnt have a partner, and however selfish it sounds, whilst i'll always be there for her, i do not want to be responsible for her. or have to move back in with her. So currently im more worried about what mum will do when she dies than losing gran. each copes in their own way.
everybody else in the family is doing ok.
I am generally a nihilist, which is why i suppose i want something to grab me and bite me and infect me with a longing or a passion to study something in particular. But nothing really grabs me at the moment. But i am prepared should something creep into my eyeline.

and finally, DAVE>
Whilst he refuses to marry me yet (:P:P:P) .... I suppose i'll let him off.
He's very cute but bloody chews my ear off with evolutionary psychology all the time, but it isnt so bad cause its interesting.
We are doing good.. and bouncing along :)
still, the quicker we have babies the better if you ask me..!!

((the above, of course, is a lesson in how to wind your dave up with the smallest of comments))

All in all, im a little bit bored, and am waiting for something to inspire me.
But mostly, plodding along at a reasonable pace...xx

Work... I'm day 30... which means 70 days left exactly...! Its going relatively slow.. but its a job so thats to be expected.! lol...

I got £15 pounds from my local paper for having a rant about congestion charges and being choosen as the star letter.. I feel like a right biddy! Hehe... But considering it will cost me an extra £1500 a year just to get about manchester its appualing! grrrrr :/

K the concerned citizen!

Pfff.. anyway.. back to work...

Later i'm going to dave's new house to help sort his room out, put up posters, re arrange it maybe.. get it all nice and cosy! :)