Monsters, Emotions and Submarines

Hello there. I am in a weird state of limbo as my year two teaching practice has finished yet I’ve still got to endure a week at uni before my Easter holiday actually begins. But before I share my thoughts on all that, I’ve got to catch you up with some of the highlights of the week.

I taught two whole-class lessons this week, both of which were more ambitious than virtually every lesson I’ve done previously (bar the one I dressed up as Captain Cook last year). The first was a maths lesson which cleverly tied up various bits of maths the class had been doing that term. I said that a child had been eaten by a monster and there were eleven possible suspects. The children then had to do maths to eliminate suspects with task including looking at witness statements which said “monster A left his cave at this time” and they had to work out whether the monster could have been at the school in time to eat the child. Eventually ten of the suspects were eliminating, meaning the villain could be found. It was a lesson which engaged the children and tested them on their skills at the same time. Plus some of them genuinely believed the whole scenario, despite the fact the mug shots were obviously cartoons. Seven year olds will believe anything it would seem.

The second lesson involving taking the class down to the school pond. It’s wasn’t exactly ambitious in terms on content as it was just about observing things but I had to make it as engaging as possible and ensure the children were safe in an area where countless things could have go wrong. Fortunately I managed to achieve both these things as even the children who normally avoid doing work seemed pretty keen and I was praised for making safety issues clear and nothing went wrong at all. It’s quite nice to have some proper positive feedback after the knock in self-confidence I got after a tutor from uni observed a lesson last week. I know I need to improve greatly but I already feel that within a week I began to do so.

So that’s it, four exhausting but mostly brilliant weeks over. It ended with me and the other student in the class being presented with a huge card with a photo of the class on and an Easter egg each. A huge majority of the children said they would miss us and I was hugged countless times as the children left the classroom. It was all quite emotional really. I was only there for four weeks, it will be awful leaving the longer placements and at the end of a year once I’m teaching properly. I’m glad of the rest but I really am going to miss going to that school. It was such a lovely atmosphere and I felt like a valued member of the team, something which doesn’t always happen as a student in a school. The teaching was exemplarily and I would say it’s the best school I’ve ever spent any length of time in. I really am going to miss it. And on a less sentimental tone, it was nice to have something worthwhile to fill my time, to actually be doing some teaching, and nice to have some routine in my life as it’s otherwise very disjointed.

I wonder how much I’ve changed in these four weeks too. Physically I’ve properly lost some weight, though I’ll have to wait ‘til I have access to some scales to confirm that. But I think I feel more like an adult and have sort of found that purpose in life I felt I lacked for some time. Actually doing what I think destiny wants me to do is so brilliant and fulfilling and so much better than irrelevant and dull lectures and assignments. I can barely remember a time when my life didn’t revolve around school despite the fact I only started four weeks ago. To be honest the four weeks were the best time in my life for a long,long, long time.

Anyway, now my life returns to that of a lazing around and not really knowing what will happen next but going along with it. That’s probably the best way I can describe student life. Today myself and two friends went on a special trip for our history assignment, which involves making a presentation about how you could do a history trip to a certain place. We decided to go to the Royal Navy Submarine Museum as it looked quite interesting and could be easily linked to World War 2. Getting there was something of a pain as it involved doing the same train journey I’ve done for the past four weeks plus a bit more, a short trip on a ferry and then a ten minute walk. It was probably worth it though as it was quite enjoyable and very useful for the assignment. We’re full of ideas already. There was a “Horrible Science” exhibit which basically just showed the more gruesome bits of submarine life, like the bone saw:

There were a few typical museum exhibits which weren’t hugely engaging but the highlight by far was going inside an actual submarine. The submarine was the HMS Alliance, which was built towards the end of World War 2 and would have been very similar to the submarines which did see active service during the war. It looks pretty impressive from the outside:

It was pretty cool being inside it too. We saw the whole thing, including the torpedo room, the control room and the sleeping quarters. They played some sound effects out through speakers which made it feel even more real. One was what the engines would have sounded like and another was the sound of a ship passing above the submarine. The guy that gave us the tour had been a chef on various submarines and so knew exactly what it was like.

^{The Control Room}

^{Some of the sleeping quarters}

All in all it was great fun and really interesting. I learnt how submarines actually dive and how to escape from a submarine, a piece of information I doubt I will ever need but I’ll bear it in mind just in case. As we were planning a school trip, I was pretty much the resident child. I interacting with everything I could possibly interact with. This included diving through a practice torpedo tube, trying on various outfit, looking through various periscopes and testing out the model sleeping quarter beds. The photos of me the others took are all of me looking ridiculous. Same as usual then.

Well that’s it for today but as placement has finished I shall be back to my usual, more regular blogging schedule. The usual crazy stuff will continue!

Friday Review #15

It’s well overdue so it’s time for another edition of the Friday Review, where I review various things I’ve watched, read and played recently. And by “recently” I mean within the last month. I’ve waited for a time when there’s a whole loads of stuff to be reviewed so let’s get on with this chocka-block post!

Movies

The Muppets

This film could have gone either way. It could have been an insult to a classic following or something great which carried on the great work. Fortunately it’s the second of those. The Muppets film makes the puppets feel modern, without any of the original warmth being lost. The gang are all back (except Rizzo, what the hell happened to him?), there’s some truly great music, a fun story, a nasty villain and some wonderful cameos. A good cameo should not ruin the moment if you don’t know who the person is and the Muppets managed to do that countless times. It was everything I wanted from a new Muppets film and so much more. A great watch for fans and anyone who likes family films. And those songs will be stuck in your head for weeks! ★★★★★

The Muppet Movie

Moving from the new to the old now as I watched the first Muppet movie from 1979. It follows Kermit as he tries to make it in Hollywood, meeting the other Muppets on his journey there and being chased by a man who wants him to advertise frog’s legs. It’s good fun and the opening scene with Kermit sat in the swamp singing “Rainbow Connection” is pure brilliance. The biggest downfall in my opinion is the fact that every few minutes there is another song. That would be OK if the songs were all of a high standard or good fun but many just aren’t. Beyond Rainbow Connection I can only remember the song which played over a montage of Miss Piggy and Kermit falling in love for the first time (speaking of which the old Miss Piggy looks a bit weird.) It’s an enjoyable watch but towards the end you can’t help but groan when another song begins. Decent enough but bettered by many of the newer Muppet films. ★★★☆☆

Johnny English Reborn

Moving away from Muppets now and onto the sequel to the brilliant Johnny English starring Rowan Atkinson as a useless spy. It is often hard for a sequel to keep the qualities that made the original good and though a weaker film, this one isn’t half bad. English has been disgraced after not stopping an assassination in Mozambique. In it he must infiltrate a secret organisation and stop a deadly assassin who is an old woman usually disguised as a cleaner from killing him along the way. It’s funny and exciting at the same time. The character of Bough does not return, probably because Ben Miller is too busy, but there is a sidekick none the less in the form of Tucker, a young agent sent to make sure English follows procedure. Having a sidekick is great as they are the one that knows what they are doing whilst English doesn’t. It’s not as good as the original but if you liked that you will still very much like this.  ★★★☆☆

 

Books

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

After being disappointed by Catching Fire , this book made a fitting end to the trilogy. Katniss has to become the Mockingjay and lead a revolution against the Capitol. It's a bit low on action but when there is action it is brilliant and dramatic. This is the last book and you begin to wonder if anyone will survive.

It's certainly not as good as The Hunger Games but provides a satisfactory ending to the story. We find out who Katniss ends up with and what happens to all the character's we've grown to love or hate. A tear came to my eye at the end which is really a rarity for me. We are taken on such an emotional journey and this is the end. A wonderful finish. ★★★★★

 

 

Whilst I’m here I should talk about the recently released Hunger Games movie. I loved the book trilogy lots and without a doubt it’s one of my favourite trilogies ever. And from what I’ve heard the film version is very good. But I still don’t want to see it. I like my imagination to tell the story. Watching a movie will change everything about the characters and the locations in my mind. It happened with Harry Potter, it happened with A Series of Unfortunate Events and it’s happened with many others too. I’d rather keep my own private version in my head and not let it be tainted by a director's version which is the same as millions of other peoples. Anyway, time for another review!

 

Dracula by Bram Stoker


Wow, what a book. It's a "classic" and I automatically assumed it would have a decent story but be a struggle to get through. But this wasn't so. It's an epic, emotional adventure as group of people band together to face adversity. Dracula appears surprisingly little and that's because his part is fairly insignificant. It's the characters being human and having to face the toughest challenge of their lives. That said, when Dracula does appear he is fearsome, far more scary than the image we are presented with. He looks like an old man at the beginning of the book but the blood he drinks restores his youth. He can go out in sunlight, though his powers are weakened, can transform into a dog as well as a bat and can control mist. The little use of him makes you yearn for more.

I also liked the fact that the book is written as a collection of mostly diary entries, with the odd letter and newspaper report amongst them. It makes it feel much more real, as if someone could have found all the originals and put them in order to create this incredible tale.

On the downside it is long-winded and certainly in some senses of it's time. I quite like the idea of a modernisation of the book, written in modern English and maybe an update with technology. That, as long as the story remained largely unchanged, would make this even better. ★★★★☆

 

You can read reviews of all the books I read on my Goodreads profile here. It’s been a bit quiet of late because I’ve been too busy to do much reading but rest assured that will change now!

TV

Being Human (Series 4)

Having never watched the supernatural comedy-drama ,where a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost live together, before I decided to give it a go this series. I wasn’t disappointed. This series established a new vampire and werewolf replacing the original ones who have both now been killed off. Despite the premise, it’s actually not really much about the supernatural side of things, it’s fitting in when you’re not normal- Being Human as the title tells us. The new characters Hal, the old-fashioned vampire with a dark past and Tom, the child-like werewolf, are really likeable and make the trinity brilliant. Cutler is a suitable creepy villain for most of the series and the ongoing mystery is brilliant. Very funny, very exciting and the best drama I’ve seen this year which is very impressive considering how tiny it’s budget is. ★★★★★

Comics

Kick Ass 2

In this series Kick Ass creates a team of superheroes who try to fight off Red Mist, who now goes by a much ruder name. Things get very dark indeed when Dave’s girlfriend is raped and his Dad is killed in prison, having taken the blame for being Kick Ass. It all ends with an epic fight in Times Square which sort of just dwindles out. The ending was weak and quite light considering the things that had happened before it. The comic felt disjointed as if it was only being made to cash in on the original and Millar was unsure of where to take the story. It’s ok but disappointing compared to the original. A different ending might have improved it significantly. ★★★☆☆

Justice League (First Arc)

The first arc of the rebooted Justice League was set five years before modern day, when the team hadn’t met and were super humans were feared by us normal folk. The gang come together to defeat Darkseid, with Cyborg being created in the process. It’s a great opening arc as it gradually introduces the characters and introduces them to each other. They don’t get on at first but as expected the come together for a greater causes. The Green Lantern banter makes it actually rather funny  too. The final scene with the league being honoured is really awesome and a great way to begin a new era of Justice League. A superb arc by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee which will hopefully lead to many more superb arcs. ★★★★★

 

That’s all for this edition but they’ll be more in a few weeks. As always let me know if you agree or disagree with my thoughts on any of these things in the comments section. I’ll be back tomorrow to let you know how my final week on teaching practice went so watch out for that!

Chart Chasers #8

It’s Monday, you know what that means? Yes it’s Chart Chasers, where I look at the five highest new entries in the UK chart and decided most of them are complete rubbish. At least that’s how it normally works…

We start off today with You Me At Six in at number 23 with a song called The Swarm. The swarm of what? Bees? Locusts? Plastic bags? I think we’d better investigate:

What on Earth was that? Where was the buzzing of the swarm? I doubt insects would be found anywhere near such a racket. Oh and in answer to the question, no, this is not the end of the world. Though if I ever have to listen to that again it will be the end of my world. 1/5.

We’re all the way up at number 6 for the next song. It’s by JLS and they’re very Proud of it. It is the official Sport Relief track so at least it’s for a good cause. Will it be as bad as the band’s usual stuff though?

Well this is awkward. I quite like that. But it’s JLS! I’m not a teenage girl, it is wrong for me to like a song by them. It’s a decent nice-messagey pop song rather than their attempt at dance music which is all dreadful. Not bad really, good effort lads! 3/5.

Next up is Labrinth with Last Time at number 4. Funnily enough, last time Labrinth released a song I really quite like it. But will it be two in a row?

Well that was a weird video! But the song was pretty good, although overused autotune. I can’t work out if the autotune was done for the effect or to make Labrinth sound better. Either way, I still quite like it. 4/5.

At number two is Sean Paul. My heart has just sunk. What rubbish has he got for us this time? This is a track called She Doesn’t Mind. I’m sure she does Sean.

The airports I go to are nothing like that! As expected that was another dreadful song from Mr. Paul. Why he is so popular is beyond me? Plus I despise the use of women in this video. Haven’t we passed the point where women dance provocatively for men to leer at? It would seem not. How sad. 0/5.

Our final song this week is the UK’s new number one and is Part of Me by Katy Perry. Here it is for your earhole’s pleasure:

It’s by no means by fave Perry song, but this was is a decent little ditty. I’m sure it will grow on me too but for now I shall give this 4/5.

That is it for this week but there’s more every Monday! Hurrah!

A is for Adverts

Hello and welcome to the first edition of my new feature, the Into Geek alphabet in which I find a subject to ramble on about which starts with the days letter. A is for adverts.

Adverts. Some are funny, some are entertaining and some are just dam right irritating. And some might be called commercials in other countries but over here they’re ads. But occasionally they tell us something really useful! (The adverts aren’t essential to watch, you can still enjoy the post just the same)

A few years ago NTL had a series of adverts which had the motto “If you can you should” attached to them. And I reckon that is pretty sound advice. For example if you could chat up someone you really fancy then you should as you don’t really have anything to lose and it could end really well. If you’re thinking should I do this or should I do that you think “I can so I should” so you do it. Everybody wins. Except those who don’t.

Guinness used “good things come to those who wait” as a tagline for some of their adverts:

That seems good advice to me. Let me give you an example. If you are desperate for a partner but have no idea where to find one, follow good things come to those who wait and eventually you will probably be happy. If you genuinely believe in this theory then when you do wait eventually good things will happen to you just because you believe in this theory. It’s almost a religion of its own.

Now I find that if you try and follow both the above rules then you end up very confused. Let’s say there’s this really cool pair of shoes you want, but they’re really expensive. Do you follow “if you can you should” and buy the shoes on the first chance you have? Or do you follow “good things come to those who wait” and wait for a while and end up with good things happening to you and getting the shoes for much cheaper than the RRP? If you do an NTL you might end up wasting your money but then again if you do a Guinness you might not be able to get the shoes at all. My answer to this would be to toss a coin. (Actually my answer to any difficult situation is to toss a coin).But it just goes to show that even the best advice can be awkward.

Ah, the genius of Tesco, with their multi-million pound empire of cheap prices and horrible fruit (Have you ever been down the Tesco’s fruit aisle. They really do have the worst fruit of all the supermarkets. How do they manage to get it to be so bad?) Anyway, back to the adverts. “Every little helps”. That’s what Tesco like to tell us. And once again it is absolutely correct. If you pick up every penny you see on the street imagine how much money you’d make. Say you pick up 15p of dropped change every year. If you live for 35 years that’s £5.25 extra you’ve collected. And most people expect to live much longer than that. If you live for 80 years then you’d make £120. That’s a pretty good profit from money found on the streets. And you could easily collect much more than 15p a year if you tried hard enough. So our good friend Mr. Tesco is right. Every little helps.

Right let’s get thing straight here. I am NOT telling you to live your life by adverts. If you did that you’d end up buying loads of rubbish you don’t need and you’d run out of money pretty quickly and end up living on a council estate with a load of chavs. (Apologies to chavs everywhere- by the way, where did you learn to read?) What I AM telling you to do is this: next time to see an advert break, don’t disappear into the kitchen for a drink (Although maybe if you were dying of thirst I’d let you off). Watch the adverts and listen out for great advice, and you life may change forever (Well, maybe that’s a little extreme but hey, you never know).

Of course, many adverts do not give amazing advice and just talk complete drivel. Take the infamous Frosties advert with that annoying song “They’re gonna taste great”:

There are three main reasons why this is a bad advert and a thousand others, so I’ll just go through the main ones.

1) It’s really annoying and the guy can’t sing.

2) It’s really annoying and has the lamest rhymes I’ve ever heard.

3) It’s really annoying.

If you ever go into advertising think of the Frosties advert and don’t make one like it. I’m being serious here, really don’t.

There are many annoying adverts and I could go on all day mentioning them to you, but I won’t as you’ll probably get bored and go home. Unless you are already at home and choose to go somewhere else. So I’ll just tell you about one last type of advert that annoys me. You know adverts are sometimes used in several countries? Well, if you don’t know they are and that’s all you need to know. Often when the advert is shown in a second country it has voiceovers instead of the original voices. In mainland Europe this seems to work really well, but not over here in jolly old Britain. The adverts are clearly dubbed and after only a few seconds you can’t bear it anymore and ignore the rest of the advert. Don’t make an advert like that either.

Now many adverts use the fact that they’ve won an award to plug their product. There are great awards such as “car of the year”, “hair product of the year” and “toothpaste of the year”. This is all well and good, but who the hell votes on these things. I mean, are there toothpaste magazines which ask you to vote for the toothpaste of the year? I highly doubt it, but someone has to decide. Perhaps a group of judges go round trying all the different toothpastes on the market deciding which one is the best and enjoying the benefits of having amazingly clean teeth. Talking of teeth…

Listerine. That amazing substance that does just about everything to make your mouth a much nicer place to be in. (Stop laughing at the back there, it is not funny.)I’ve never used it and I’ve always wondered: does it really make a mini explosion in your mouth and cause your cheeks to blow outwards? Surely it can’t. Can it?

I feel like I’ve shown myself as far too much of a TV addict here. I’ll make one final point and the end. In some adverts a company representative will pop out of nowhere to sort out a stain. What concerns me is the people looking worriedly at the stain never seem to worry that a women dressed in pink has popped into their house and actually seem quite pleased to have been given the advice!

There we go, the first part of my alphabet done. In the coming weeks I’ll be looking at everything from books to the end of the world to the colour yellow. I hope you enjoy it!

Intensity

Wowie, what a week! Few weeks of my life have been quite as intense as this one. It was my penultimate week on placement in school and the pressure was really on.

I was a little down at the start of the week as several of my lessons hadn’t appeared to work that well and the children were still struggling with things. But then on Monday and Tuesday I taught two pretty good English lesson which were both engaging and effective. My self-confidence reached a decent level again. Then on Wednesday someone from uni came to watch me teach a lesson and give formal feedback. The lesson was much worse than the previous two and the woman told me lots of things to improve. In fact she told me that the bit I need to work on is the teaching. Well isn’t that pretty much everything then? Being told your not very good at the thing you want to spend your whole life doing is pretty hard to take. I haven’t really told many people about it as I feel really embarrassed about it. I’m sure the majority of people on my course received gleaming reports but mine was average at best. I really was devastated.

Looking back at the report, things probably aren’t as bad as I first though. Half the targets are things I know I can do and have done in other lessons. The main thing though is the use of my voice as I was told I was a bit monotone and also to be assertive. It’s tricky though, I am a quiet and shy person, it’s just in my nature. It was a particularly bad lesson compared to others and I would have acted much differently had I not had another student, the normal class teacher, a teaching assistant I barely know and the observer all in the room with me. I shouldn’t try to make excuses though, it’s clear that something needs to change. Fortunately I’m only on the second of a four year course so there’s still plenty of time. It just feels like the one thing I was confident about in myself has been taken away from me and that hurts.

Unfortunately I couldn’t do much teaching after that this week because the school was being inspected. British schools are usually inspected every four years. The school was graded as satisfactory but has improved hugely and I know full well it should go up to grading bands and be outstanding. The teachers and staff were all very passionate about this and have been working immensely hard to be the best they can be. They’ve all been panicking though and there was some very stressed teachers and a lot of emotions flying around. I’m an outsider really but I could still feel the stress and the lovely atmosphere of the school changed into something quite horrific. It looks as if the school will be awarded “good” status which is both an improvement and a disappointment. At least the inspection is over but it really was horrific. I was cornered by an inspector at one point and quizzed about phonics and it was really horrible. I just didn’t want to let the school down by saying the wrong thing. Hopefully I did a decent job replying but I didn’t exactly feel very confident after my report from the day before.

So I am very glad it is now the weekend and my unpleasant week is over. A week where I lost my confidence and dealt with immense pressures. Next week can only be better. Still, the early wake ups and the daily commute have just become part of life now. Getting a free paper and reading it on the train every morning is quite pleasant and H is good fun to travel with. We get on the same carriage, sit at the same table and see the same people every day. I love having a routine like that, it’s really very satisfying. The format of the free paper is something like this:

• Main story that all news is covering
• Gruesome story about a horrific murder
• Silly story like “Man Fired for Eating Grape”
• Reviews which say “this was good as expected” or “this wasn’t”
• Horoscope: Due to some made up astronomical happening, you will now be rich/poor/single/in a relationship/dead.
• Dull business stuff
• Sport stuff: Someone scored more somethings than someone else. This is in someway good.

It’s essentially that but with a few more stories in.

I have become addicted to a documentary series about the London underground called The Tube. It’s a great thing to watch before bed as not much really happening and you see lots of trains moving along. It’s quite relaxing but weirdly interesting at the same time. Who’d have thought underground trains would be so fascinating. It’s just the immense scale of it all really, with millions of people travelling everyday and some many possible problems to contend with. Few places have the atmosphere that the tube has. I shall be watching the few I haven’t yet seen very soon. It’s so good!

I think that’s it for now. I’ve got a pretty good weekend planned actually which is unusual. Tonight I find myself going to the student union with a group of people I normally wouldn’t go out with. I’m not quite sure why I decided to go and I shall probably be exhausted by about 11PM as I’ve been up since 6:30AM. No dobut I will end up drinking more than I intend to and feel dreadful tomorrow. We shall see. Thanks for reading and I’ll be back soon-ish!

The New Doctor Who Companion

Yesterday the person who will be playing the next companion in Doctor Who was announced. Her name is Jenna-Louise Coleman and she’s not exactly well-known so let’s investigate further!

 

Her first TV role was in the soap Emmerdale where she played Jasmine Thomas, a lesbian character. A quick Youtube search brings up a video which is the “best of” her character’s relationship with another character called Debbie. It’s typical soap fare so you might not want to watch the lot but it’s an introduction to a young Jenna-Louise.

Jenna-Louise appeared as hard girl Linday James on school drama Waterloo Road, despite the fact she was 23 at the time. She said she found playing a schoolgirl again very surreal.

Jenna-Louise had a small in 2011’s comic book hero movie Captain America: The First Avenger, playing Connie. Her next big role before Doctor Who is as Annie Desmond in ITV’s upcoming Titanic series, penned by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes. That could well be the best opportunity to see what she will be like as a companion. Gamers might also recognise her voice as Melia in Xenoblade Chronicles.

Here’s a little interview with her about being the new companion. It’s not the best interview ever and some of her Who answers are a bit generic but it’s worth watching just for the answer involving an avocado.

Jenna starts filming in May and her first episode will be the sixth of the new series, which will air at Christmas. Doctor Who showrunner said:

"It always seems impossible when you start casting these parts, but when we saw Matt and Jenna together, we knew we had our girl. She's funny and clever and exactly mad enough to step on board the TARDIS.

"It's not often the Doctor meets someone who can talk even faster than he does, but it's about to happen. Jenna is going to lead him his merriest dance yet. And that's all you're getting for now. Who she's playing, how the Doctor meets her, and even where he finds her, are all part of one of the biggest mysteries the Time Lord ever encounters. Even by the Doctor's standards, this isn't your usual boy meets girl."

How exciting, it’ll be interesting to see how she is as a companion and what the companion will be like. And there’s more news on the new series too! Only six episodes will air in 2012, with the remaining eight airing in 2013. The daleks will make a return as will the weeping angels in the fifth episode, the final one Amy and Rory will appear in. Moffat said that someone is definitely going to die and he means it! Though one of the most important rules to remember is that the Moffat lies!

Well I hope you enjoyed this special Doctor Who post and I may well make similar ones in the future if there’s demand. See you all soon!

Chart Chasers #7

Five newly charting songs mostly ripped apart by me. It’s time for Chart Chasers!

At number 30 are LMFAO who are apologising for one of their lame songs and saying Sorry For Party Rocking. I should think so too!

As I expected, it’s another LMFAO crappy track. It’s nothing special yet for some reason people can’t seem to get enough of them. 2/5.

At 24 is Azelia Banks with 212. Miss Banks is probably my least favourite modern day artist. I slagged this track off at the beginning of the year so let’s see if it’s grown on me.

WARNING: This video contains lots of swears

It has actually, but I still detest everything about it. I really hate Azealia’s work. Sorry. 1/5.

Number 16 sees the return of Jason Mraz, hurrah! Like everyone else I loved I’m Yours. This track is called I Won’t Give Up and I’m putting all my hopes in this one being the best of the today’s bunch.

Ah, well that was nice. It’s a bit dull though. A typical ballad by a male vocalist. It’s OK I guess but I can’t say I’m particularly impressed. 3/5.

At unlucky number 13 are Swedish House Mafia with a song weirdly called Greyhound. I have no pre-conceived ideas about the Scandinavian mafia so let’s here it.

That was an advert wasn’t it? The video was weird, the music just sounds like background music and it kept showing us a bottle of vodka. That is an actual sell out. 1/5.

Our highest entry this week is X Factor “winner” Alexandra Burke with our second animal-based title of the week, Elephant. I have little hope for this.

That’s not even good for a Burke song. She has a decent voice but or some reason they’ve decided to use autotune all over her. What rubbish. 2/5.

Oh dear, this wasn’t a good week. I can understand why Gotye are still number one, with a song that has grown on me immensely and I now love. Fingers crossed for some good stuff next week!

How To Blog Part Two

Over a series of posts over the next few weeks I shall be creating a guide for which Bloggers can use to improve their blog. In this second part I shall be focusing how to use social networks and other sites you get people to come to your site.


Twitter
You probably have a Twitter account so why not tweet a link when you write a new blog post. You could create a Twitter account specifically for your blog if you’d prefer. Use the #blog or #vlog tags where appropriate and also check out the trending topics. If your blog post happens to be about one of the trending topics, make sure you use the wording or hashtag of the topic in your tweet. That way more people will find their way to your blog. You could even write blog posts specifically to do with trending topics if you wanted to.

Readers of your blog might want to follow you on Twitter so put a gadget in the sidebar which helps them do this. You can get a widget like mine which shows your recent tweets here. Make sure that the colour of the widget doesn’t clash with your blog background. Alternatively you could just get a button which links to your Twitter profile by clicking here.
Follow @zotwot


Facebook
If you would like your Facebook friends to read your blog, simply post a link to new posts on your profile. However, you can share with more people by creating a Facebook Page for your blog. To create a page click here. Make the profile picture your blog logo and put a link to all your posts here. Pay attention to the page and respond to people if they post something, don’t ignore them. You should make the Facebook page link easier to use by creating a username. Simply click “Edit Page” in the top right hand corner and under “basic information” is the username section.

Like Twitter you probably want to put a link to your Facebook page on your blog. It’s annoyingly more complicated than Twitter but follow the instructions here to get a Facebook “Like” button like mine.


Google+
Google’s new social network provides much the same opportunity  to make a page for your blog. To create a Google+ page click here. It’s very similar to Facebook and if anything a little easier. Share all your posts there and add other bloggers using Google+ into your page’s circles and they might well add the page back.
You can make a profile page to add to your blog here. It’s not as complicated as Twitter or Facebook badges and is essentially just an image you can click. You might want to use a different Google+ logo (search for one) and just put in a hyperlink to your Google+ page.


Other Social Networks
Let’s face it, there’s pretty much an infinite number of social networking sites you could try and use to promote your blog such as Digg, Linked in, Reddit and many more. Try them out and see what works for you. Put a link on your blog, though remember what I said in part one about adding too many things to the sidebar. A good thing to do is to put a link to your blog as part of your profile description on any site. Chances are if anyone’s reading it they want to know more about you and your blog is probably the place to do that.


Blogging Sites
There are lots of sites dedicated to connecting bloggers. With most of these you can create a profile for people to follow you from. There’s always forums as well and I suggest you take part in them lots. Don’t just spam your link everywhere though. A bit of that is acceptable but people tend to get annoying if that’s all you do. Actually take part in discussion on things you are interested in and people will come and check out your profile.

• Bloggers: A great and well-used site. You can vote up people’s blogs and follow blogs through it. You’ll need to get a badge for your blog though.
• Blog Catalog: A similar but slightly less well-used site. Good forums though.
• Blogger Forums: These forums are mostly designed to help out blogger having difficulties. You could provide answers though if you know them. The Coffee Shop forum is a place to share blogs and chat and it’s a great place to meet other bloggers.

Blog Frog
Blog Frog is a little bit different. Whilst it has the same features of most blog sites, it actually lets you make a specific version for yourself, a community. People join and you have forums and all your blog posts are automatically posted there. It’s rather brilliant. Here is mine. Notice that you can make it a page of your blog. To do this, once you’ve set up a community click here. As with other blog sites, go and join other peoples communities and take part in the forum discussions!


Comments
A great way to get people visiting and meet other blogger is by commenting on their blogs. If you see a blog you like, why not add a comment? Even if they don’t come and visit you, at least you’re spreading the word out whilst talking to someone else. And more than anything else, commenting on other blogs is great fun, you never know what will happen next. It’s part of the wonderful thing that is the modern internet. It’s no longer just information, it’s communication!

Twenty Years in the Making

Hello everyone. Once again I must apologise for the lack of posts this week, I was once again very busy with one thing or another. OK, mostly one thing in the form of placement. This week I’ve been teaching group lessons all over the place with bits of guided reading, telling time and writing a myth all featuring in my teaching. It’s been really hard work but it is just so fulfilling. At the end of a lesson it’s a great feeling knowing the children now understand something they didn’t understand before. It’s been another wonderful week although things are about to get more challenging as the percentage I have to teach continues to rise. I know I can teach fairly well but doing it nearly full time will be incredibly hard work and exhausting. Yet still I am really looking forward to it.

The big news this week I suppose is my birthday. I have now reached 20 years of age. Blimey, I feel old. It was my first birthday where I was working but it was a good day nonetheless. The other student in the class, H, got the kids to make a card for me and it is the cutest thing ever. The whole class signed it and it says “Best Teacher” and has a picture of me on the front. The class of course sang happy birthday to me and then proceeded to do the whole “are you one, are you two” thing all the way up to twenty. Now that made me feel old. As I was on placement there was to be no going out and getting drunk this year- I’m saving that for my 21st which quite handily falls on a Friday night. Instead my parents and my brother came to Winchester and took me out for a meal. This was pretty awesome as I’ve not really had time to have proper food for weeks. Having a delicious three course meal was a real treat. They brought along with them a stack load of cards which had come in the post, many of which were stuffed with money. I hadn’t been able to come up with anything I wanted for my birthday so my parents decided to buy me a blu-ray player. I’ve considered buying one before but they were too expensive but now I have one! It’s so much better than my crappy DVD player that was £20 new about four years ago. So I’ve now spent ALL my birthday money buying mostly blu-rays to play on the new player. It’s all very exciting! So I now own, or will own once they arrive here, the following:

• Wallace and Gromit Collection
• James Bond Collection
• Johnny English/ Johnny English Reborn
• Monster’s Inc
• A Bug’s Life
• Torchwood: Miracle Day
• Being Human Series 4

I couldn’t help get a little emotional on the evening of my birthday. It’s the one day of the year that is about you and so you can see what people really think of you. Some people will sent cards and maybe money as they feel they have to but most actually care and want to get me something. I was surprised at certain peoples lack of caring but also by others caring more so it balanced out I guess. But after a really long day I was sat in my room with a desk covered in cards reading loads of messages on Facebook and it was lovely.

Oh dear, I’m beginning to run out of things to talk about . My week has been busy working so there’s not much else to say! On Monday I did have a lovely evening which started when two people were sat at one of the stations our train stops at eating McDonald’s. I couldn’t resist and so myself and two of my housemates went there as soon as I got home and then ended up going to the pub afterwards too. Last night was pretty fun because everyone came into my room for a TV night. We watched some weirdly fascinating documentary about people that do phone sex for a living and then put on The Muppet Movie, which was ok but had far too many songs in it. That was followed by Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Rude Tube which just shows lots of clips from Youtube and then two episodes of The Inbetweeners. It was an awesome night with awesome company.

That will do, a short blog entry is better than none at all. I will try my best to blog more regularly over the coming week. If it hadn’t been my birthday I would have had a lot more time. I hope you all are well and I shall now continue my life as a twenty year old, which is pretty much the same as a 19 year old except I can join 20 Something Bloggers (I’m awaiting approval). See you soon!

Tales From Childhood Part Four

Seeing as though it’s my birthday on Thursday, I felt like this post sort of made sense. Other the years I’ve had a fair few birthdays but being nearly twenty the large majority of those can have said to have been during my childhood. So today I am going to look back at birthdays from that point and remember the highlights (and the lowlights).

My first real birthday party was for my fifth birthday, during my first year of school. I was allowed to invite whoever I wanted and chose my friends and the most talkative people in the class. I’m not sure why i did that but I was only five. My mum and dad booked a birthday party at the local leisure centre where they put on a bouncy castle and a man dressed as a very unrealistic six foot rabbit. That was all a lot of fun and a special card was made from the leisure centre with a picture of all the kids there on it. Here is said picture:

I am the bigger one sat with the “rabbit”. As you can see it is the worst rabbit ever. After all the bouncy castle stuff we had a party meal. Several members of the group were really badly behave and my poor mum and dad had the difficult job of trying to keep other people’s children under control. To this day they look back at that party in horror.

However, my parents were not put off holding birthday parties for me and a year or two later there was another one. Certain individuals may have been banned from being on the guest list though. This party was at a local McDonald’s restaurant, one with a soft play area so we could all go and run around in it. There was a special area set aside for birthday parties. As it was my birthday I received a certificate saying I was an “Honorary Crew Member” and this meant I got to go behind the tills and look around the bit of McDonald’s where they cook the food. At the time it was the best thing ever. I’m thinking that it would take considerably more to impress me these days. I was given a cake and got a really cool present which was a massive container with loads and loads of Crayola crayons in it. I loved it at the time. I’m not really sure whether that was from my parents or McDonald’s, it was never really made clear. I have a picture of this party too! Here’s me blowing out the candles on the cake:

I didn’t have many parties after that because I didn’t really want to have any. And my parents probably didn’t want to organise them either. Until I outgrew them, most of my birthdays were day trips out to places with whichever friend was particularly in favour at the time. In most cases it was my best mate now Chris, but there was the odd year where it was someone else. We went to a local family theme park one year, bowling another and the local aquarium another. I can remember that we each got a souvenir from the gift shop which were tiny little soft toys which had magnets inside so they stuck to things. Of course the next week at school we both brought ours in and found it great fun throwing them up a lamp-post and then climbing on a bench to get them down. Chris’ little lobster though got thrown too high at lunchtime and we couldn’t reach it. It remained on the lamp-post until home time until my dad ,or possibly another parent, used their extra height to reach it down. I still own the little magnetic crocodile I got though it has a slight rip in the lower jaw. It’s stuck to my radiator at home!

How times have changed. This year I’m celebrating my twentieth but because I’m on placement I shall not really be celebrating it. My Mum and Dad are taking me out for dinner but apart from that it’s a normal day. I’m saving the celebration until my 21st, a big birthday which just so happens to fall on a Friday night. I already predict lots of alcohol being consumed. But not this year, I’ll be happy with the food. I shall report my thoughts on being 20 when it happens and may or may not post tomorrow. Just wait and see!

Chart Chasers #6

Hurrah! It’s Monday and it’s time for me to look at the five highest new entries in the UK chart. What on earth is in store for us today?

At number 34 is a new entry from Taio Cruz which also features Flo Rida. It’s not-so-cleverly called Hangover. Another generic party song or something which is as good as Taio’s awesome Dynamite. Time to find out!

Gah, generic party song. As with most of Taio’s back catalogue, it’s a decent track which isn’t particularly special. It sounds like every other Taio Cruz track though fortunately Taio Cruz tracks are pretty catchy. 3/5

Up at nine is Marcus Collins, off of X Factor, singing Seven Nation Army. Yes, another modern rock classic destroyed by a talent show reject. I hope this has some sort of redeeming feature…

Well that was awful in ways I never expected. I didn’t realise it would be be quite such a soul song. It’s clear that Marcus has a decent voice but I wish he could have done his own song rather than covering this and not doing a great job. 1/5.

At number 7 is Tinchy Strider, along with Pixie Lott. It’s an interesting combo which I think might just work. This is Bright Lights.

OK, I was wrong. It’s awful. The Pixie Lott of this song neither looks nor sounds like normal Pixie Lott. And then the rapping pretty rubbish too. I am really quite disappointed in this. It’s pretty awful. 1/5.

The highest new entry this week is at number 5 and is Love Me by Stooshe (and featuring Travie McCoy). I haven’t the faintest idea what to expect!

Um, ok. That was weird. And not in a good way. It’s just drivel. It reminds me of Nicki Minaj but slowed down and English. I hated that. 1/5.

So the highest any song managed this week was 3/5. That’s a bit rubbish. As I usually do five songs and there are only four new entries this week, I can choose the fifth song freely. I’ve seen that one of my fave acts, Marina and the Diamonds, has a new song out called Primadonna. Let’s have a listen!

I really liked that. It’s a catchy modern pop song but with elements of Marina’s unique style in it. I’m really excited about her upcoming album. The first is one of my top three albums of all time. She’s perfect. 5/5.

Oh and if this does chart at some point in the future I’m a bit stuck. I love it though so I’ll probably shove it in again.

That’s it for today, feel free to insert your own opinions below. I will try my best to blog regularly this week but no promises. Just watch this space and if a post appears be pleasantly surprised.

The Daily Grind

Hello lovely person, I hope all is well with you. I must apologise for the low number of posts here this week but I did warn you. This week was the first of four weeks I’m spending in a school doing my second year’s teaching practice. I was quite anxious about how it would go but after only a few minutes in the school I was pretty pleased. In most ways the school is wonderful. The ethos and atmosphere is great and I’ve really looked out with the teacher whose class I have been placed in because she’s a great teacher and really supportive. I spent the first day on a sort of tour of the school in all the different classes and since Wednesday have been in the class I am teaching in.I did a little teaching today which went very well if I do say so myself (and in fact the teacher said it did too) and from next week I shall be doing loads of teaching. It’s going to be awesome.

The one issue with this school is that they have an unusual way of teaching which I won’t explain here but it means teachers plan every single day. The system is actually pretty good and makes a real difference to the children’s learning but it also means we end up staying quite late at school. It’s not that I’m not willing to put the time in, it just means that this along with a forty minute train journey either way makes for very long days. I leave the house at 7AM and get back at 7PM. I know people have worse but teaching is a particularly tiring thing to do and I’m used to having four hours max of lectures a day and more free time than I know what to do with. Suddenly this has changed dramatically and it’s taking it’s toll on my body. Still, at least I have the weekend to recover.

Getting the train everyday isn’t all bad though. Myself and the girl I’m on placement with, H for the purposes of this, have quite a laugh. I’m getting on really well with H which is just as well as I have to spend most of my day with her (she’s in the same class as me). We’d never met before our pre-placement meeting but I know feel I know her reasonably well as we’ve had plenty of time for idle conversation. And I think I’ve managed not to come across as too much of a weirdo. Well until I my socks causing me to name the different ranks of daleks and then led on to me listing all eleven doctors without even having to think about it. Fortunately that was only the tip of my Who knowledge iceberg. Within a couple of says we could list all the stations our trains stops at and often recognise the same people getting on and off the train. Our newest cause for entertainment is trying to sit in a carriage which stops right outside the ticket barrier, which is surprisingly difficult. So all in all it turns out what seemed a horrific prospect is actually fairly enjoyable.

So there you have it, that’s my temporary life as a trainee teacher and a commuter. Being in school makes me feel so alive. I’m actually doing what I'm meant to do rather than sitting in dull and often irrelevant lectures and sitting at home twiddling my thumbs. This is my future. I’m exhausted but I’m loving it so much. I’m having this content and fulfilled in a long, long time. It’s well overdue really.

I have written recently about starting to bid on things on ebay. Since then it has become quite the addiction. This pile of DVDs shows the majority of things I’ve purchased on the site:

You know you’re buying too much when you arrive home to a pile of parcels outside your door. At least I haven’t actually spent that much money because I’ve been getting a load of bargains. I shan’t be bidding on anything for a whole now seeing as though I have literally a whole pile of Doctor Who episodes to watch. I seem to be making a good impression on the ebay community seeing as though I’ve got this set of feedback:

AAA+ GOOD E BAYER

excellent buyer hope to deal with again

Top class buyer fast prompt payment a credit to Ebay, recommended 5*****

Excellent Ebayer. Super fast payment - Many thanks

SUPER buyer ! MEGA FAST PAYMENT !! A++++++++++++ THANK YOU !!

Excellent A++++

This has only happened because I became very addicted and was watching most auctions running out of time until I won. Go me!

And talking of good feedback, Jay has awarded me the Leibster Blog award. I shall pass this on in a future post but it amused me what Jay said about me:

Dan is awesome and relatable and British.  He likes geeky things like Doctor Who and The Muppets.  And did I mention that he's awesome?

I’m not sure which bit I’m most proud of. That’s almost good enough to fill the description of me on various websites!

Before I end, how about two quick amusing stories from my week?

• I was asked how old I was by one child and so I asked him how old he thought I was. His answer? 41 and he was deadly serious. I know I’m not looking my best due to lack of sleeo but I’m not even twenty yet (though I will be on Thursday, which is scary).

 

• As myself and H went to leave today we signed out and then went to press the button to open the doors. Nothing happened. And then we realised that we couldn’t get through the doors into the school either as a receptionist has to let you in but everyone had left. So for a few minutes we were stuck a porchway area until we could get a passer-by’s attention to let us out!

Thanks for stopping by come back for all sorts of fun things soon! I’ve got a brand new fun series of posts starting soon which will really be worth reading. Though I would say that wouldn’t I?

How To Blog Part One

Over a series of posts over the next few weeks I shall be creating a guide for which Bloggers can use to improve their blog. In this part I shall be focusing on the look and format of blogs.


Header
The first thing visitors to your blog will see is the header. It’s the first impression people get of your blog and so its important it looks good. Now if you have the skills you can make something fancy on Photoshop but it doesn’t necessarily have to be that complicated. I made mine using PowerPoint would you believe? I arranged the images on a slide and took a print screen of it and saved it as a picture. I then just had to adjust the size of it a little and hey presto, one header. Even if that’s too much effort for you, a clear title and a decent little tagline is worth doing.

Some websites, particularly Google, change their logo for special events and there’s nothing to stop you doing that. You could just change an image or a tagline of completely redesign your header. Here’s a few special headers I’ve made for comparison with the normal header above.



Pages
It’s up to you if you want to have pages on your blog but I thoroughly recommend making an “About Me” or “About This Blog” page, like mine. My stats shows that new visitors will often look at it and I’ve received various comments saying the About page has encouraged people to be a regular follower. This page should say a little about you and the sorts of things you blog about. If there’s anything you get regularly asked or think people might no understand, explain it on the about me page to clear things up.
There are other pages that might be worth having too. Having a Bucket List is great fun and tells people a bit more about you. Make sure you post if you achieve anything on the list and refer back to it. If you want guest posts, make a page about it with all the information on.  My one top tip in this area is not to have too many pages. One line is probably more than enough, people aren’t likely to be visiting them all and it makes your blog look cluttered.


Design
Getting the right design for your blog is vital. You can use pre-made Blogger templates but most look generic and rubbish. If you do use them change the backgrounds and fiddle around with it, making it your own. The simple Blogger backgrounds can actually be really affective though. If you search blogger templates on Google there are millions of results and some of these are great. They might be a little complicated to install though so make sure you’ve checked out the specific instructions. Be aware though, most of the templates you can install are very hard to edit and you will probably be stuck with exactly that look.

There are a few vital things you need to right. The width of the posts compared to the sidebar is important, I think your post width should be as wide as possible. The font should be an easy one to read and should be in a colour which is easy to read. In most circumstances it’s best to go with black, though obviously this won’t work on a black background. You might have to experiment with which colours work. White text on a black background doesn’t work very well despite your expectations and and primary colours do not mix!


Sidebar
Some templates use two sidebars but I think this takes too much space up so suggest you only use one. Cluttered sidebars are common so don’t put too many things on them. Mine is probably a bit too full but certainly don’t use any more than I’ve got! The Google Friend Connect gadget is vital (although Google are withdrawing the service soon) and having a link to all the archived posts is very useful. I will talk about most of the things on my sidebar in the next few parts but here are a few good ones

• Revolver Map: That’s the globe thing! It makes your stats look cool by showing where in the world recent people have visited from and puts a dot in each location where a visitor has come from. After a while it looks pretty spectacular. You can choose how to want your globe to look quite freely too.
• If you have an e-book an etsy shop or something else you want to promote, a short link and description can go in your sidebar.
• Blog List: A standard Blogger gadget which lists your favourite blogs. It takes up quite a lot of space so don’t use it if you’ve already got lots of gadgets.

And here’s a few things to avoid putting on your sidebar:

• The Blogger Logo: No-one cares who hosts your Blog and if they do it’s probably immediately obvious by the style anyway.
• Fish: There’s a gadget with fish swimming around which lots of bloggers use. It’s pointless, distracts from your content and makes your blog load slower.
• Adverts: You might think it’s a good idea to use Adsense or something similar but unless you get a huge number of hits you won’t get much money. Besides, having advert clogs things up and generally makes your blog less appealing.

Content
This is very much up to you. It’s your blog and some people will probably like it. Just make sure you spell right and use grammar correctly. Google Chrome will do this for you as will programs such as Windows Live Writer. Capital letters and full stops are so easy to get right and it just makes you look silly if you get it wrong.

Also write as entertainingly as you can. Some people say writing about mundane things is dull but that’s only true if you make it sound dull. The most interesting subjects can be dull if written badly and vice versa. Visit other blogs you aspire to be like to see how they do it.


Under the Posts
You might notice that under each post I have a few things. Under the layout section click edit on Blog Posts and you can find a number of things to add. I recommend:

• The Share Buttons: You want your blog to get to as many people as possible so make it as easy to share as you can. This handy button takes up so little space it’s worth having.
• Ratings: People might prefer to just select a star rating rather than write a comment so provide them with this.
• Comments: If you want people to comment make it as easy as you can for them. See the comments options under settings. It’s best that your comments are embedded so that pop-up blockers don’t block it and that anyone can comment. Make the message that appear above the comment box inviting and not generic. It’s up to if you want to moderate or not but if nothing else it lets you know that you’ve got a new comment.

You might also notice that a little box which says “You Might Also Like” appears at the end of each post. This comes from Linkwithin and you just add one bit of HTML and these boxes appear on all the posts. It’s really worth doing.


Other Things

• Custom Domain: It’s surprisingly cheap to get rid of the blogspot bit of your web address and it makes it easier for people to find your blog and you to link them to it.
• Blog E-mail: I fully recommend creating a blog e-mail address on Hotmail or the like, especially if you want guest posts. Don’t make it the address you use to sign into Blogger though as it makes it more susceptible to hacking. Create a special address that you only use for your blog and stick it everywhere.
• Write Your Own Copyright Message (that appears at the bottom of the page)
• Remove the Blogger Navbar: Get rid of the bar at the top of your blog to make it look more professional. There’s handy instructions on how to do that here.
• Make a Favicon: A favicon is the little picture which appears next to your blog name on your browser. Make one using a picture here and then upload it to your blog on the layout settings.

Wow, this has turned into quit a post! In part two I will talk lots about social networks and to use them to promote to your blog. I hope this has been useful to you.