Sorry not sorry this goat was adorable but has nothing to do with this post.
2013 is almost over, just December left and it's gone forever!
Some crappy things have happened this year, and I stressed out so much at one point that I started biting chunks out of my thumbs, but over all? 2013 has actually probably been one of the best years I've had since I was a child and didn't really have much to worry about.
Things happened this year that I never thought would, I've opened my mind and (mostly) stopped building invisible walls around myself all the time and I feel so much better for it!
I've rode a camel across the desert, been proposed to as the sun was setting, found myself (down the back of the sofa the whole time, along with a dusty 50p and a dice!), made friends and lost fiends, really 2013 has been a blast.
So what's next? How do I make sure I never come back down from this high?
Well I realised that I suck at long lists of resolutions , I never keep them all, but a few years back when I did charity work with the WWF (as in the World Wildlife Fund rather than the guys that hit each other with chairs) I gave myself three goals, a short term, a mid term and a long term goal, when I completed a goal I made a new one and those were much easier to stick too, so I decided that I'd give that a try again for 2014.
Short term goal:
Enjoy the holidays with my friends and family
Mid term goal:
Decide what we need/want for our wedding and start pricing things up so that we know how much we need to save for it.
Long term goal:
Move to a better house without quite such noisy neighbours!
I don't know if that's maybe the ultimate in admitting to a fear of the unknown or what, but I'd rather travel through time, there's so much that has happened in history that I wish I had been around to see. So many questions I'd like to ask that nobody will ever know the answers to.
So there's this myth that "creepy" is really a word women use to mean "ugly" in relation to men, and I guess maybe somewhere out there someone outside of a terrible teen movie about sorority sisters maybe someone does use creepy to mean ugly (message to that girl, stop it you're letting the side down!) , but most people do not.
Some of my creepiest experiences have been pretty good looking guys, and it's not just men either before some fedorable "gentleman" wanders into my comments section and starts banging on about feminism demonising men the last truly creepy experience I had involved an elderly lady ripping a hole in my skirt and prodding my backside on public transport (what the hell old lady, that is not cool at all, I don't care how old you are), but yeah anyway back on topic a couple of genuinely creepy experiences that have involved pretty good looking men:
Recently a discount shop opened in my town, it's really handy because it means I can do all my shopping in my town centre, I don't have to travel to far and I'm not pouring all my money into Tesco. I can get my veggies at our green grocer (for which I thank my lucky stars we have as the rest of my family don't have grocers within walking distance) and then I can go a few doors along and fill my bag with discounted kidney beans (we make a lot of chilli in my house because NOM) . Anyway point is this place is kind of awesome and I started shopping there AFTER I got engaged, and well I don't want to boast about the size of my engagement ring, but it's fairly hard to miss (especially if you're staring at my hands!). Almost every time I'm in there though I get the same till/ bag packer and yeah he's a fairly decent looking guy, but I'm in there to buy ten bags of crisps for a pound not admire the scenery so I just want him to scan my purchases and put them in a bag, and yet instead despite me "dude what the fuck?" Ing at him for a month solid he kept making comments about my "pretty hands", what the hell?
(I'd also like to add that I don't have pretty hands and I bite chunks out of my thumbs when I'm stressed and I've been fairly stressed recently so my thumbs are a complete mess). Fortunately he seems to have stopped now, but why the hell would anybody find that appropriate?
The other experience I want to talk about happened when I was fourteen.
When I was fourteen I used to go to a youth group as I was home educated so I didn't have school friends and I needed to interact with people because I was incredibly lonely, I would get the bus there and get the bus back.
Anyway one night a guy sat next to me on the bus, and he was pretty good looking, I was fourteen and a good looking guy sat next to me on a bus and spoke to me. I'd had the "stranger danger" talk (which I now know to be mostly bollocks but that's another rant), but I had also been taught that above anything else I had to be nice and polite to people so I spoke back to him.
When I got off the bus he also got off the bus, and asked me for directions somewhere, so I gave him directions and went on my way, only he ignored the directions and started to follow me and by now this had stopped being "a cute guy is talking to me on the bus" and had instead become "this is actually kind of creepy", he kept trying to talk to me and I kept flat out saying "I'm sorry I have to go home, my mam is waiting for me" but he kept on following. When I was almost home he dived and attempted to grab me, I struggled but he still managed to grab my hand and kiss it before I broke free and ran the rest of the way home. For weeks I was utterly terrified that I'd run into him again, thankfully I didn't, and I didn't tell a soul what had happened as I was worried people would say it was my own fault and that I would be stopped from going out alone.
Looking tired and pixelated doesn't really boost my confidence, but to each their own.
There's been a lot of fuss kicked up about the humble "selfie" ( a photo taken of oneself usually with a self timer or by holding a camera or cameraphone at arm's length and praying to the gods that your elbow doesn't end up in frame).
First of all it got added to the dictionary, I know I also wept tears of sadness for the direction the English language is taking, but oh well languages change over time, at least I know how all of the non-Harry Potter fans felt when "muggle" made it into the dictionary.
Now don't get me wrong, up until a point I actually agree with it, you shouldn't need to seek validation from other people to feel empowered and being beautiful shouldn't be the be all and end all of everything, but (and here's where I start to veer off), I don't see why if most of your focus is on being awesome rather than looking it why prettiness can't be a secondary thing?
The thing I think all of us need to realise is that EVERYBODY is different, it's such a simple thing and yet so many people seem to not get this. What harm is there is someone wanting to feel pretty so long as they aren't desperately seeking validation from someone else?
As long time readers will know, I used to post a lot of self shots on here as part of my "Hair of the day" segment (which eventually I would really like to bring back, I've just been having trouble finding the time lately), and I keep having the urge to write huge, wordy posts (such as these) inter-spaced with pictures of things I get horribly over excited about (like Brother's Toffee Apple Cider), and thus crazy hair has been temporarily pushed to the back burner.
The point is, the reason I was posting those was that I wanted to show off my ability to do all of these complicated looking things with my hair (if you watched the videos or looked at the links posted in those posts you'd see hat most of them were actually fairly simple), I wasn't looking to hear "you're pretty" and honestly when I did get comments like that I didn't really believe them because I was going though a pretty crappy time in my head at the time and didn't really think I was, in fact I was fairly convinced I was pretty damn ugly, not really a good thing when you're one of those people that wants everything.
Thing is being faced with my own face every day helped me accept it more, it's my face, I'm stuck with it (because seriously if I had enough money for surgery, I'd probably spend it on designer shoes or something), and actually it helped me like it more, there's still things I don't like (seriously what the fuck pores, why you so huge!), but mostly, I'm pretty happy with it, if I hadn't been taking goodness knows how many pictures of my face it might have taken a lot longer to come to that conclusion.
I'd just like to say something. I have been a Vegetarian since birth, and I am really sick of seeing this unresearched propaganda all over the place. Really people if you're that committed to "showing people the light" at least fact check...
3. Is pretty vauge and really poorly worded. Meat in itself, is not worse for global warming than cars. Lions and tigers and bears don't rip massive chunks in the ozone layer every time they get hungry and bring down a prey animal. Intensive farming however does contribute to global warming quite a bit in that the more animals you have on the planet (including humans I might add) the more methane they create which is one of the gasses that contribute to global warming. If we still went with the natural order of things (like animals do, other than maybe ants because ants farm) then it wouldn't be a huge problem, however farming means more animals are bred and kept in smaller spaces which means more methane.
5 and 6. There are MANY contributors to heart disease and cancers. Too much red meat MAY be one of those factors, however there are also things like genetics and overall fitness to consider. Becoming a Vegetarian won't cancel the other factors out and make you immortal.
Let's not forget that Linda McCartney died from breast cancer.
7 and 8. Well that's body shaming bullshit.
Do I look skinny to you?
I'll say it again. I was raised Vegetarian... I have NEVER eaten meat. Being Vegetarian isn't a magical cure for fat rolls.
You know what is vegetarian?
Crisps
Chips
Everything in this book:
and they're fucking delicious.
So again, factors, Vegetarianism isn't going to make you magically skinny, you'd also need to watch what you eat and get some exercise.
One of my favourite shows of all time turns 50 this weekend. I grew up watching re-runs of Dr Who after Noel's House Party on a Saturday tea time, I was thrilled and ecstatic when the BBC finally brought it back and five years ago when I walked into the house of the guy I'd just started going out with and discovered that he had two bookcases filled with Classic Dr Who VHS's I knew we were on the same wavelength (and we're engaged now! Geronimo!). So I thought I'd share a few of my favourite things.
Favourite Dr
David Tennant. Not just because he's adorable (but seriously he is!), but because he was MY DR. As I said I grew up on re-runs, but Dr Who was cancelled before I was even born, the film wasn't really my cup of tea and when it came back Ecclestone only did a series so I didn't really have time to get attached to his Dr.
Tennant's Dr, was the perfect combination of serious and hilarious and in a lot of ways reminded me of my favourite classic Dr, played by Tom Baker.
Favourite Assistant
Ace!
She hit a Dalek with a baseball bat!
A baseball bat!
Need I say more?
Probably not, but I'm going to anyway.
I liked Ace when I was a kid, she was cool, she wasn't the "girly" people kept telling me I had to be, she did "boy" things like carry a backpack full of explosives and go on adventures AND she had hair long enough to braid.
In short I wanted want to be Ace!
Favourite Aliens
The Silurians. Dr Who and the Silurians is one of my favourite classic episodes, probably a bizarre sentiment but it's probably one of the most realistic going by UNIT's reactions to them. I always get the feeling that if something similar was ever to really happen then that's exactly how it would end.
Rebooted, I quite liked that their introduction episodes (The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood) paid homage to The Silurians (though that is essentially the third version of the same story given how similar The Sea Devils is), and I admit it, I have a HUGE crush on Madame Vastra because she's just made of amazing.
Favourite Costumes that did not age well
Pretty much all of the aliens in The Web Planet. I actually really liked The Web Planet, and despite what a lot of other people seem to think I don't find it boring at all, however the elephant in the room is the costumes. Giant ants with remarkably human looking legs, sort of adorable looking moth men and what look weirdly like those roomba, robot hoover things travelled back in time to star in sixties sci-fi manage to make the whole thing unintentionally humorous...And yet still full of cosplay potential!
Favourite Costumes
The Girl in the Fireplace, which to be honest is my favourite episode period.
Big dresses?
Check!
Pre- Revolutionary France?
Check!
Kick ass historical figure?
Cheeeeeeeeck!
HORSE!
Mother fucking check!
Moment of "I like this but apparently nobody else does"
The Sensorites. This is another one that occasionally produces bouts of "WTAF"ery at the costumes (and the bit where out of nowhere suddenly a Sensorite appears on the wind shield like some kind of inter-dimensional bug), but I LIKE IT OK?
Genuinely scared the crap out of me first time I saw it
Revelation of The Daleks. Until I re-watched this earlier in the year I couldn't remember ANYTHING about this story other than Davros was in it, he was just a head without a body and it TERRIFIED ME. Like for years despite the fact that I couldn't remember anything else about the story I had a crippling fear of Davros because of it, to the point that I found myself AS AN ADULT RUNNING past an animatronic Davros in a museum.
So as you can imagine facing my fears involved whiskey, snacks and a significant other to hide behind.
Re-watch experience?
The terrible acting was scarier than Davros's disembodied head!
Does anybody else think the hare is kind of a selfish dick? I mean yeah I get it he doesn't want to be alone on Christmas day but bears hibernate, waking him up like that was a massive dick move!
