Fairly Hairy

Today, I have long hair.

You ask almost any guy "long or short" they say long, at least in my experience. Long hair has its advantages - looks more feminine, easier to style, easier to manipulate to how you want it to look. Maybe it does look better. But it's also a lot of effort - washing, drying, straightening, plaiting - it just generally takes eons longer than with a shorter style. Sure it looks good for show - sexy, girly, beautiful, but is it worth it for you, the owner?

However, to keep hair short and sharp involves regular trips to the hairdresser which in my opinion, is not a favourable option. So I keep it long, until it gets so long that it begins to drag me down, such a heavy head of hair that I sometimes wish I could just chop it all off and start again. I am at this point currently. I desperately need a hair cut. It just seems senseless to me to spend the same amount on cutting my hair as it costs for a flight to Europe.

Long Hair or Short Hair?

On the jukebox: Yomanda ~ You're Free

Birthday Bumps

Today, I have scheduled a blog entry.

Since I know I won't be internet-accessed on the 21st July 2008, I am writing this from beyond the screen, as it were. How odd. Anyway, the point is not to make sure you don't miss me too much, but for the fact that it is a certain blogger's birthday today, I knew her from the Halcyon Days of yore, now she's all grown up and out Into the Blue...

Happy 21st Birthday, Hannah!




Direct your own birthday wishes here.
:oD

On the jukebox: The Genie ~ A Friend Like Me

Turning Three

Today, I have celebrated my third anniversary.

"Hi everyone!
This is my blog. You don't know me, yet, but if you look over the following days (or months) more about me and my life may begin to unfold as you learn about things that annoy me very much. You may laugh at some aspects or you may find it totally dull as it is about people and places you neither know nor care about. Whatever you think, feel free to leave a comment, whether you plan to make regular visits, or you are just passing through cyber space, i'd love to hear from you..."

Three years; four names; two sites and countless entries later, here I am. Three years has seen through a hell of a lot: painful heartache, boundless excitement, simple amusements. Three years is an awfully long time, especially in proportion to the pieces of my life that I actually remember. Three years of an almost daily diary-type publication gives a more comprehensive view of feelings present at particular moments than mere memories can manage to conjure up from scratch. I wonder what I'll think when I look back on it all in three years' time?

To you,
The ones who leave their spark,
Upon my own blog spot,
Even if it's just a small remark,
It really does mean a lot.

I'm happy

On the jukebox: Bright Eyes ~ First Day Of My Life :o)

Read Right

Today, I have used an acronym.

Go check out x..k...cd? xckd?

It's only when I go to use some words out loud that I realise how ridiculous they sound. How silly it is when you try to say them rather than type. I've been reading English for over sixteen years now, and although there are some words in the langugage I struggle to pronounce, they are few and far between. But when typing and reading, it's a different situation, as I do use words that simply are unidentifyable by the convention of pronunciation. These little acronyms have been created to make typing life easier, or more quirky.

If I see xkcd on a page, I know immediately what it means, and similarly with bbtmn. That is, I know what it refers to, but I don't know what the letters stand for, if anything, and since they are devoid of vowels or any sort of phonetic construction, to try to speak these outloud without spelling them is virtually impossible.

Once you get past the reading-out-loud stage of education, it's hard to describe or understand the concept of exactly how people read in their heads. Do you read each word or do you recognise it? It's possible to grasp the meaning of a phrase without having to dissect the sentence word for word. Often, you can't see a word you know and not read it, it's a learnt reaction, which is one of the ideas behind this experiment.

Having seen this programme advertised, along with spending time reading with children under eight, it's interesting to see how people learn to read. Reading and writing are abilities that come so naturally to most adults that it's not easy to imagine how a person could not be literate, or that five million people in the UK have a reading age of less than a 12 year old. It's only going back to primary school and struggling to recall my ah, buh, curly ker phonetics that I can appreciate that although my aye, bee, see comes easily now, learning the alphabet and how to spell had to start somewhere.

"How do you spell tissue?"
"T..i..sh..oo...?"

On the jukebox: Jackson 5 ~ ABC

Picture Perfect

Today, I have used my new camera.

After having spilt water on my trusty digital compact camera a couple of days ago - meaning that it now no longer even switches on - I felt compelled to buy a new one. The fact that a holiday is drawing near meant that this decision was more hastily made than I might have liked, but still, I now have a working compact camera, which is a hell of a lot easier to cart about than a DSLR.

Photography is an art that often has me wondering - is it due to the skill of the operator, the luck of the composition or the quality of the equipment? Some days, some situations, some moments, I think - well, you'd have to be completely incompetent to not take a passable photo given the perfect shot in front of you. Is photography a talent to be marvelled at, or just a chance opportunity? Are there good photographers, or only good photographs? Well, I'm sure if you manage enough of the latter, you can be considered to be the former. But what makes a good photo - the technical specifications, or the specific moment caught? Can photography even be considered an art at all? Surely anyone can take a photo, especially if equipped with decent lights, camera and a suitable scene of action.

Just as anything, it's not black and white - a good photographer would combine expert knowledge with creative insight to work out what works for an amazing picture. Sometimes, I feel like photography is an innate ability more than a learned skill. It's part of the reason why I find it so hard to judge, to understand how to measure a talent in something that seems to have no set rules for success. Sure, I know, you can teach someone how to take better photos, and some places you can't fail to take a decent shot but I think part of the skill of a good photograph is the instinctive sense of what makes a good photo - even if you don't know why it is that it works well. I'm not sure if what I'm trying to put across actually makes sense, but whether you speak as a person who is into photography or not, I'd like to know what you think on the matter...

On the jukebox: Irene Cara ~ What A Feeling

Summer Scenery

Today, I have let go of an old companion.



What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.




No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.



No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.



No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.



No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.



A poor life this is if, full of care,



We have no time to stand and stare.



Farewell Fujifilm Finepix F11. You have served me well.
August 2006 - July 2008
RIP

On the jukebox: One Republic ~ Stop and Stare

Be Happy

Today, I have worried.

I want to write. I really do. I just can't find the sentences that don't begin with I. I know that it's not bad to use my blog to write about me, indeed, I start every entry with an "I have" but you know, there's a limit to how interesting that would be. Once you find out all of mememe there is to see, why would you want to listen anymore?

I worry. Too much. About stupid stuff and the rest. About things I have no control over. I worry about what people think of me, I worry that people don't think of me. I worry about whether I'm making the right decision, if it's really because I'm being sensible and can rise above the instinctive feeling to make a path for a happy time, or because it's too much hassle to choose otherwise or, well, any number of other reasons.

There are almost one million words in the English dictionary. It is predicted that the one millionth word will be created in April 2009 sometime. Meanwhile, the average person uses approximately 14,000 words. Even a linguistically gifted person will use only about 70,000 words. Now, I wonder if these are the same type of words that people are using, how much would our 14,000 words correlate with other people's 14,000? Which words in particular would you say you use often, despite the fact that they might seem unusual to other people? I rarely write anything of a creative nature anymore, therefore I have little need to think to extend my verbiage beyond a purely perfunctory sense. So to try to use more interesting language seems futile.

Well, that's where an unplanned mind splurge takes me. Beyond the rigid confines of structure whilst upholding the pompous tone and pretentious manner. Half the time I'm not sure that I use complex words in the correct context, but chances are the people I converse with wouldn't be certain of the appropriate usage either.

Toodle-pip!

On the jukebox: The Boy Least Likely To ~ Balloon On a Broken String