Dear Television

Dear Television,
                        Caitlin wrote you a letter, so I am too. Let's be honest here, I see probably far too much of you. You're my life. You're the reason I'm doing the degree I'm doing, and you're the thing I spend my money on most of all. I hope we never break up. So much of my personality and habits are based on things you've done, things you've shown me. I've seen ghost detectives played by comedians, Brits play Yanks (brilliantly) and Yanks play Brits (unfortunately), I've lolled and I've cried and I've sat with my mouth open unable to speak because of the awesome spewing from you. I'm not saying you're perfect, and I really think that you should get BBC Three looked at, as I think it might be malignant, but you're almost there.
Lots of Love,
Laura.

Icons from Livejournal and Fanpop and all over the place really, so... I dunno whose they were originally. They're very nice though....

Reasons why I shouldn't go to the BAFTAs

1. I'm incredibly easily starstruck. I'd be as bad as Jane, if not worse. I'd be all like, 'Oh look there's that guy that was in that thing that I REALLY enjoyed. What? Go and tell him that? NO NEVER EVER NEVER HE'S FAMOUS! What? I'm Famous too? I suppose I must be if I'm at the BAFTAs... OMFG IT'S HUGH FEARNLEY-WHITTINGSTALL'

2.I'm a telly snob. That bloody TWOIE won a BAFTA at ALL makes me cross, that it beat Doctor Who, Sherlock and Miranda makes it even worse in my eyes. I like my telly to be GOOD thank you very much, but generally disliking that kind of programme, does make me a snob to some people. Fuck it, I don't care, but I'd be looking down my nose at them, and then the camera would cut to me, like it did with Martin Freeman looking displeased yesterday.

3. I would cheer FAR TOO LONG when my favourite programmes won things.

4. If I guess who wins correctly, I get very smug about it. I spent all yesterday evening going 'I TOLD you that TOWIE would beat everyone else, because the public vote would split between the others because they all have the same audience, that or they wouldn't vote, and all the idiots would vote for that crap. What do you mean I'm a snob?'

5. Speeches. I'm not good at Speeches. If I won, I'd just... mumble, quote about a million different things all written by people IN THE ROOM and then come across as more of a massive tit than usual. That or I'd be all 'I didn't deserve this. I never ever did. Let's be honest, I just really like telly, and so I was like ''Let's make telly as a job, that'll be good'' and here I am with a big face... and a BAFTA... ha ha ha.... No? Is this thing on?' I'd be the person that you get a cup of tea while they're talking. That, or I'd be relegated to the 'Announced Earlier' section.

6. I like to cross off the TV I've seen when it's nominated. That'd probably get annoying if you're famous and sitting with me.

7. My hair.

'You're the Doctor Who nut'

I'm a Doctor Who fan. You know that, I don't really know why I stated it. It's the reason I'm doing the Uni course I picked, as I pointed out on my personal statement, several times. I'm not just a fan of the TV Programme tho. I like the spin offs, Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures. The radio dramas, the Big Finish dramas and the Audio Books. I bloody love the Books though. Classic and new adventures, and novelisations. I've got 24 in total, as well as RTD's 'The Writer's Tale', which I'm not reading as I don't count it as a proper Doctor Who book.
Basically, I'm going to re-read and review all of those books (in order of Doctor), here, on my blog, as well as (and mainly on) my Youtube Channel. First video in the next couple of days so... prepare yourselves.

Title of this blog from the head of the Course I'm doing at Manchester. It's like they know me already...

A Tear, Sarah Jane

I'm not the world expert on Sarah Jane Smith, nor am I it on Elisabeth Sladen. I'm just, as are many others, a fan. I've seen a few of her episodes of Doctor Who, and nearly all of the Sarah Jane Adventures. I've read about her, heard people claim her the best Doctor Who Companion EVAR, and as of yesterday, I've heard people say how much they'll Miss Her. I'll miss you, Elisabeth. I'll miss you, Sarah Jane.
I saw her, one time. Her last panel appearance, as it turned out to be. My memory of Elisabeth Sladen will always be of a wonderfully glam woman, quoting Bad Boys 2.

This Shit Just Got Real.

The Complete Polysyllabic Rip-off.

B - Bought
R - Read

Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Coupland - RB
The Vesuvius Club (Graphic Novel Edition) - Mark Gatiss and Ian Bass - RB
Thin he was, and Filthy Haired - Robert Llewellyn - RB
The Man in the Rubber Mask - Robert Llewellyn - RB
The Great Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Conan Doyle - B
Brief Lives - Neil Gaiman - R
The Kindly Ones - Neil Gaiman - R
The Wake - Neil Gaiman - R
From Aberystwyth with Love - Malcolm Pryce - R
Paper Towns - John Green - R
The Woman who Walked into Doors - Roddy Doyle - R
The Crow Road - Iain Banks - R
Notes from an Exhibition - Patrick Gale - R
Devil in Disguise - Julian Clary - R
The Timetraveller's Guide to Medieval England - Ian Mortimer - B
The Victorians - Jeremy Paxman - B
Operation Mincemeat - Ben MacIntyre - B
Book Club - Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum - R
A Young Man's Passage - Julian Clary - R
Goodbye to Berlin - Christopher Isherwood - R
The Memorial - Christopher Isherwood - B
All the Conspirators - Christopher Isherwood - B
Last Human - Doug Naylor - RB
Better than Life - Grant Naylor - RB
Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers - Grant Naylor - RB
Stand and Deliver - Adam Ant - B


Ok, so, if you don't know what on earth is going on, and why I've just listed some books, I highly suggest you read this blog, before you read this one.
This month I was away from home (for more than a couple of days) twice, and so had more time than usual away from a laptop/the internet. Obviously this lead to me reading a lot more than I would normally do in a month, much as I'm ashamed to admit it. I spent 5 days in Whitstable and the same again in Hull, and bought books in both places (adding to the weight of already stupidly heavy bags.) But yes, 14 bought and 19 read is astounding, even for me...
You might remember I was reading 'Infinite Jest' last time I blogged about books. What happened? I had to give it back to the Library at the beginning of the month and so never finished it. But one day, yes, one day, I will.
I'm also a quarter or so of the way through Operation Mincemeat.

By the way, if, like me, you have a lot of free time/books, or are just... well, nosey and want to see what books I already own, you can go HERE and look at mine, or HERE and make your own library.

1.Michael Palin - He seems a thoroughly nice man, and probably has lots of funny and interesting stories. He was also a friend of:

2.George Harrison - Much as I love John Lennon, I think George'd be better at a dinner party. He and Michael can have a catch up, and can reminisce about Python Movies. Also songs. Lots of SONGS

3.Nigel Slater - He always looks so happy about food, of COURSE I want him at my dinner party! He's also a Beatles fan, and putting him next to one of them would make his day

4.Peter Davison - Because he's the frikken' Doctor!

5.Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall - I heart him. Would have to make sure everything on the table was sustainable, and we could chat about vegetarianism/he'd talk meat. 

6.Chris Barrie - He knows lots about Cars, and is a Comedy Genius. Also an impressionist, and so good for after dinner entertainment

7.Robert Llewellyn - Friend of Chris Barrie, and we could talk Electric Cars and sustainability. I think he and Hugh would get along

I realise that I'll be the only girl, but I don't care because it will be AWESOME. I'll barely be able to talk with excitement

God I wish I could actually go to this party

Let me tell you a story. I went into Morrisons earlier. I grabbed my things, and headed to the Self Checkouts, because I like them, and on the whole, they're a lot quicker than queuing and having someone else do it for you. I had a Guardian, a packet of Kettle Chips and a Bluetooth adapter for my laptop because I'd accidentally smashed my old one into several pieces. But I digress. I scanned the Guardian, put it down, scanned the crisps, put them down, and was about to scan the adapter when I saw the crisps hadn't registered. So, naturally, I scanned them again. It then said I had two packets.
I called the guy over, and asked him (from now on referred to as 'Prat') to take one off, and also asked if I needed to do anything different with the adapter, as it had a sale sticker on it and I wasn't sure if it worked the same. He took the crisps off, pressed something. 'Age Verification needed' popped up on screen. He said 'I need to check your age' I asked what for as there was nothing there that needed it. Prat took the paper, said he needed to check something and disappeared off to talk to a man. After they both looked at me for a bit and I shrugged, Prat returned and informed me that he couldn't sell me the paper as it needed age verification. This is when I got cross. 'You can't sell me a PAPER? I've got ID! I'm 19!' He asked to see my ID, and then let me have the paper.
Now yes, I know I got the paper in the end, but I'm pissed off because; a) anyone who wasn't Prat would surely have noticed that there was NOTHING that had an age range on it in my shopping - unless Kettle Chips are considered dangerously tasty and therefore only available to the over 18s - and would have just deleted the notice, b) it wasted my time and c) Prat made me look like I was trying to do something I shouldn't have been doing in front of a queue of people.
I'm seriously considering complaining. I'm a GOOD Morrisons customer, I spend a reasonable amount of my money in there and if they're going to be like that, then I can take my money to... Spar. Although I'd rather not, they're quite a bit more expensive.

I'm not good at blogging. My problem is that nothing interesting happens to me. Apart from that time when the police had to be called to get rid of people from the Library. And when people try to set me up with their flatmates. And when I have a gossipy conversation with the woman meant to be interviewing me for University. I don't go to the cinema much. Apart from when I went to see The King's Speech. And when I went to see Paul. I don't watch that much of the television that's on at the moment. Apart from Marchlands. And Corrie. I don't go many places. Apart from London next week. And Manchester the week after. Oh, and Whitstable the week after that. And Hull the week after THAT. Perhaps my problem isn't that things don't happen to me, it's that I'm just quite lazy, and don't write about them. I'm going to change that.

March starts in 6 days. When March starts, I'm going to start Vlogging AND Blogging properly. I'm not going to snack. I'm going to do Exercise. I'm also going to try that little bit harder to actually stick to these claims. 

Over and Out.

If you didn't already know, which some of you might not, I also run a blog called 'Click Me'.
It can be found here.
Please go and look at it as it has considerably less followers than this one.

Books and Such

Reading is, as you probably all know, a very very huge part of my life. I love it. I rarely DON'T have a book on the go. So, inspired by Nick Hornby's 'The Polysyllabic Spree' I plan to keep you updated with the books I've bought, and read, and what I thought of them. This will start proper at the end of next month (as I've not kept a record of the books I read THIS month. I'm not that prepared) but I wanted to tell you about the book that I'm currently reading - 'Infinite Jest' by David Foster Wallace.
I was challenged to read it by Kathryn Blay and, to be honest, I'd never even heard of it. But I reserved it at the Library and went to fetch it last week. I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. Now, I'm the type of person that can read the biggest Harry Potter book in a day, but that's (essentially) a children's book, and is a reasonably easy read for me. But Infinite Jest is nearly 1000 pages. Of Small text. Written in at least 4 different types of Narrative. It's going to be a slog.
Or so I thought. Turns out, I'm actually quite enjoying it. I'm about 130 pages in so far, and although that's way behind my schedule (I wanted to be 300 in by now. Yes, I schedule big books) I think that having read that much in about a day and a half is pretty good. I'll let you know how I do.

25 Artists

Put your Music on shuffle. List the first 25 Artists. This will, apparently, show your different music tastes.

1. Robots In Disguise
2. Elvis
3. Lily Allen
4. The Bluetones
5. The Doors
6. The Rocky Horror Show [1991 Revival Cast]
7. The Beatles
8. The Beatles
9. Horrible Histories
10. Idina Menzel
11. Big Finish Productions
12. Soft Cell
13. Murray Gold
14. Mark Gatiss
15. Mamma Mia Cast
16. The Beatles
17. Richard & Linda Thompson
18. Smokey Robinson
19. Murray Gold
20. The Who
21. The Smiths
22. Elton John
23. Abba
24. The Little Shop of Horrors Cast
25. The Beatles


Turns out mine's not really that varied.

Snippets of Conversations

Sorry I haven't blogged in a While, I've been very very busy making this.
Sorry if you get sick of me posting it on things, but I'm VERY happy with it so.... tough.

Also this.

I make my own fun

Click Me

Click Me is Back! Hiatus was because of... I'm not really sure, it just happened. Sorry. But should be back now.

The King's Speech

The King's Speech was excellent. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. You might assume that, not having any fights, or chases, and not being a comedy it would drag, but you would very wrong in that assumption. It draws you in, it makes you laugh, and it proves that you don't need the threat of death in a film to have high tension. There were moments in The King's Speech that made me more nervous than I have been in a long time. I cared about George VI, and Colin Firth's acting had a lot to do with that. He was simply superb. Amazing. If he doesn't win a BAFTA than something is very wrong with the world. He deserves an Oscar, though I think there's less chance of that because the film is so very British. He played the Stammer perfectly. It wasn't for laughs, it didn't seem forced, it just seemed to come naturally.

Moving away from the film, and into life, I've always had a speech impediment. Similar to a lisp, I can't quite pronounce my 'S's correctly. They slur very slightly. Now that I've had my brace, and my teeth done et al, it's not as obvious, and I'm told that if you've known me for a while you barely notice it. I don't hear it myself when I'm talking, but when I watch myself back, which I do often because of video editing, I can hear it clearly. Something else I've noticed when watching myself back, is that I have a Stutter. Not a stammer, and most people wouldn't describe it as a stutter either, but I can't think of a better way to put it. I repeat words, usually just one, but occasionally two or three. I don't do it deliberately, but I've noticed that when I try hard not to do it, my speech is more stilted, and doesn't flow at all.

A Message about Stammering.

New Year, New Stuff

Hello there, I've been away. Haven't blogged in nearly a month. I would have blogged about Doctor Who but those blogs are normally just critising. I have nothing bad to say about 'A Christmas Carol'. I adored it. Then I was away straight after Christmas for a week. Since then, nothing's happened. Let's move on.

It's 2011. Which I will be referring to as 'Two Thousand and Eleven' and not 'Twenty Eleven', because the latter sounds shit. It's a New Year. I meant to Clean my room for this New Year. I haven't yet. I might tomorrow. I might not. Books will remain on the floor either way. I'm keeping a diary. That's going well currently, I've written more this month than when I tried to keep a diary last year. I meant to eat healthier. Guess how that's going...

So far this year, TV wise, nothing's grabbed me. Coronation Street's still going strong, even if it's very easy to guess who battered Tracy Barlow (Claire did it).

I'm reading several Books at the moment, but, like Caitlin, I feel like I need to read a bit more. I read a lot when I was away because I didn't have my laptop, but now that I'm home, I'm back on the internet for huge chunks of time. I'm re-reading Scott Pilgrim Volume 1, and Volumes 2 and 3 are heading my way, as well as 'Toast', but once I've read them and the book I'm currently reading (It's a history book about Georgian Britain's most Scandalous couple. It's interesting. Shut up.) I shall be looking for new things to read. Suggest me something in a comment.

So, readers. What can I do in my blog this year? What do you want to read? Do you want reviews, or to set me Challenges? Are there things you want me to do for my Youtube Channel  that I can then write about? Tell me!

I'm also part of a Collab Channel that's just started, known as Seven Awesome Brits. Please check us out, and subscribe if you like us.

Ta.