Musics 1: Birdy (The miraculous twelfth post)

This is a music review as promised. I would like to draw everyone's attention to a musician called Birdy, who has her first album out at the moment, which is also called Birdy. She has come out of no where on to the "music scene" as they say. Considering how young she is (less than 16 when she brought her album out) she is incredibly talented. Her album consists of covers of other's songs. I'm not usually a huge fan of covers, however she has managed to make the songs her own and to put an original spin on them; this is always a good rule for a successful cover. I know putting an original spin on something is often an over used cliché, often used about artists like Mariah Carey who wouldn't know original if it.... (couldn't think of anything to finish this with that wasn't a cliché in itself). However, the fact remains her music is original. She covers the songs well and sincerely. Her musicianship is impressive, also. She manages to build atmosphere and depth merely with piano and vocals. Sometimes other instruments feature on the album versions of her songs. However, they are not particularly prominent. Something that very much impressed me was she is sincere, not only within her music, but also in the way she presents herself. She doesn't drown herself in make-up, and she dresses modestly. She presents herself as a much more mature person, and a much higher quality musician than the vast majority of pop musicians twice her age. Here is a link to my favourite one of her songs:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNzCDt2eidg&ob=av2e . If you get the chance, also listen to the original version by Bon Iver, which is brilliant.

Parties, Cocktails, and Bendy Bob (The miraculous eleventh post)

This Christmas season has drawn to a close and it has been a lovely one. There have been plenty of parties, good food, and ample opportunity to spend time with friends and family. For example two days after Christmas both my Uncle Steven and my Uncle David and their families shared Christmas dinner with us. As you can imagine it did feel a little crowded. However, everyone was in good humour and it was good to spend time with family. It was also good to spend time with my Uncle Steven's Play Station 3.
Another party of note was my friend Beth's Christmas party. After managing to secure a lift to Appleby, thanks to some great friends at church I arrived at her house and was immediately mugged by her dog. This was lovely, as I had missed being mugged by my own dogs after moving over to England. The party itself was quite a bit of fun, and mainly consisted of me being told to dance, and then people regretting telling me to dance. It was great spending time with friends, and building closer ties to friends I had not had the opportunity to spend as much time with.
On to party number two: the Green's Christmas party. While a different style of party all together from Beth's party this was also rather enjoyable. After walking in the door I was handed a cocktail and told to eat lot's of food. I did eat lots of food, and then played some dice games (I didn't do very well) and talked video-games. About half way through the party a game of trivial pursuit was began. Only half way through the game did I realize that I was playing with quite a few students from either Oxford or Cambridge University.

Bendy Bob

Finally, party three the church New Year party. I very much enjoyed this party also. One highlight was winning "The Best of British Quiz". Very rarely do I win quizzes, so being on the winning team for this quiz was rather enjoyable. Another highlight was Bendy Bob ) a very important aspect of "The Big Taboo". I clung on to Bendy Bob for most of the game, and was very loathed to hand him over to other people. My fears were well founded when someone took Bendy Bob, beat him and threw him to the ground. You know who you are! However, no permanent harm was done, and a good night was had by all.

The Musings of Joel After Midnight (The miraculous tenth post)

I have realized just now that writing posts after midnight will lead to very sloppy posts. However, I will press on despite this. Two things have come to mind recently. The first one is that this blog is a little boring, and could do with a focus. So, I may begin to add in a few blog posts, once in a while, that are reviews of music and musicians (because if there is one thing I'm good at it's talking about music).

The second thing that has come to mind is the sheer lack of comments that I have been receiving. I'm sure if you read my blog you have an opinion. I would love to hear what you think of my blog, or some of the things mentioned in the blog. Nothing beats a nice bit of user generated content.

Finally I'd just like to mention that for this blog, and blogger for that matter, Christmas is over and so the decorations are coming down. I'm mildly disappointed that no one suggested an image for the Christmas background. However, if you still wish to suggest an image just drop a comment, or email the image to me if you have my address.

Deep and Crisp and Even (The miraculous ninth post)

...And here it is merry Christmas everybody's having fun. Well it is the day after Christmas and I am thoroughly content. My Grandmother and I went to the midnight Christmas eve service and afterwards we got to call my parents on Skype. It was priceless to see my parents who are seven hours ahead of us, open they're presents on Christmas day. My presents were also a huge success. Two presents which I will highlight are the present I got from my friend Beth, and my present from my parents. My present from Beth was what I would describe as the perfect gift. I had no clue what it could possibly be, but when I opened it, it couldn't possibly have been anything else. It was the special edition copy of "The Princess Bride". My parents sent me a box of what can only be described as the best instant noodles in the world. Mie Goreng Indo Mie. I opened it and clutched the box to my chest yelling YES for about five minutes. Incidentally while writing this post I was actually consuming two packets of noodley heaven. All is well in the world.

Fun Times At Quiz Night (The miraculous eighth post)

Well..... It would appear that my college's Biology department are about as organized as the rest of the college. In all honesty I do not expect to do a mock and then have it lost by the teacher. I mean we can't have all done that badly. I could understand if it was so bad that they didn't want to show them to us, but losing them is a poor excuse.

It turns out that, after losing the papers some time earlier last week, they managed to finally produce the papers by Friday (FINALLY).

Anyway, back on to the main topic of this post. Our sixth form held a quiz night and my group of friends felt inclined to put our best and brightest forward. Unfortunately they weren't all available so I ended up in the team. The Christmas quiz night had apparently been won by the joint chemistry and physics faculty team every year to date, so the challenge was to beat them. The night itself included a ten round quiz with soda and crisps on sale at the side, and a raffle. The night's entertainment also included according to my friend Dominic drawing moustaches on the photos from the picture round. In then end we had to confiscate the pen when maturity levels dropped to an all time low and unspeakable things were drawn all over David Bowie's head.
It's funny that things like quiz nights tend to show you which of your friends are really competitive, and oh did we learn who was competitive that night.
The vast majority of our team was satisfied when our team came a humble tenth place out of 26. A small minority were livid that they had not come in the top 3. All in all though, the quiz was a huge success as a student team managed to place first leaving the joint chemistry physics faculty team with the shame of having to accept second place.
I still have not had any drawings for the background of this blog submitted. So again, if you have drawn or wish to draw something for the background of my blog please submit it to me by email (leave a comment if you need an address to send it to). Please submit something or I'll get bored.

Friday to Sunday, Jon Mark, and Skype (The miraculous seventh post)

This weekend began returning home from School with my cousin (well sort of) and I received a call from the friend I grew up with in Indonesia, Jon Mark (no not Jon or Mark but Jon Mark), who is now living in England. He had decided he wanted to visit me that night. So we picked him up from the train station at about 9:15pm. We spent the rest of the evening drinking tea, eating cookies, and catching up. The next day we were dropped in Loughborough with my Grandma, and after dragging Jon Mark into a Games Workshop we got on the bus to the town I where I go to college and looked around. I managed to show him most of my college and most of Ashby. I even managed to show him the Ashby grill. Then we met up with Dominic in Costa and headed back home to play Star Munchkin (fantastic game). That night we Skype called our friend Bethany, with whom we both grew up. The next day was church, and then more Skype calling. Our families got together and Skyped the two of us. We Skyped Jon Mark's sister, another amazing friend of mine, we Skyped my cousin (well sort of) Sarah, and we Skyped our classmate and close friend Venessa. Then Jon Mark had to go. In all, an amazing weekend was had! I cannot wait to see Jon Mark again!

December (The miraculous sixth post)

Well it's the first of December and as you can see I have decided to decorate for Christmas. If you want to contribute a drawing to become a background just comment and I'll give you an email address. Alternatively if it's already an existing photo link it to me in the comment.

Enjoy your advent.
Pray that I get a job at some point.