Icy Frost Photo Outside House

For those of you who don't regularly view my Myspace page, here's the picture I currently have as my background, which I took on the common last week when we had all that frost and fog.
I didn't photoshop it at all -it's as is straight off the Digicam. There is a higher resolution pic on my old website supplying the myspace background, so let me know if you want access to the full image. Not a bad picture, even if I do say so myself. ;P

"Frost on the Common" by Linden Parker - 21st December 2006.

Another Year...

Once again I am stuck with my parents for New Year's Eve, after no one at Notre seems to have a house big enough to throw a party, and my friend dropped out from coming round mine at the last minute to go to a girly sleepover thing instead. Oh well... maybe next year I might manage to have fun.

As for this year, its just mum, dad and I round the neighbours for a good old country celebration (lots of linking arms, Auld Lang Sein (or variant on that spelling) and mulled wine) with me being the youngest there as Aiken has blagged an invite round his friends - I could go too, but I can't really stand several hours with a load of 14 year old boys who all play guitar better than me. So yea.

2006?
Bit of a blur for me really!
I was with Aislinn up until July, at Easter we went to the Peaks, then exams came and went, then I was off to Spain, then Camping down in Suffolk, then the rest of the holidays...
Received my exam results and was extremely pleased, even though they could have been better if I'd managed to open my revision guides at all. Started Notre Dame in a flash, and here I am a term later writing my Birthday Blog as it will henceforth be called.

Well I'm feeling quite good about myself, despite school giving me a thorough headache, and I'm looking forward to the year ahead. UCAS Forms lurk just around the corner though, as my cousin Laura has just reminded me, and it is gonna be a tough couple of years before that. Maybe if I manage to string a little money together (which I believe requires getting a job... or so I'm told) then I won't be in a pile of debt quite as large as the one I would be in if I was shipped off to Uni now. But then again, if I take maths at the UEA then I can live at home too. How fun :'(

Final thought. In '07 I should have my blog RSS fed onto the Website I'm hoping to have. But until then its just here I'm afraid. Oh well.

Here's a song from 17 months (and 2 days) ago that I wrote. Something about nightmares, but its reminding me of all the slow Damien Rice music I've been listening to today.

Have a Happy 2007.

Nightmare Spirits
Linden Parker
(27/07/05)

A world full of silent screams,
Haunting everybody’s dreams,
Seeming like fictitious thought,
But they are real spirits caught.

Unbalanced in the path of time,
Seeking for some kind of sign,
But until then they haunt us all,
Playing us their endless call.

(Chorus:)
If only they could be released,
Freed from where they lay,
Allowed to get away from this,
Allowed to leave or stay.

Bad thoughts emanate without light,
Ghosts of darkness ghosts of night,
Seeking peace dealing pain,
Turning sunlight into rain.

(CHORUS)
Shadows dulling in the dark of day,
Know that they will never fail,
Bad prevails over good,
Although no one thought it would.

(CHORUS)

It’s not what we wanted it cannot remain,
Even if we try to refrain,
From choosing sides in the fight of the dreams,
We will have to decide to fight it seems.

(CHORUS)

"Like Birthday and Christmas come at once"

Wait... thats exactly what it is.

So for Christmas I got clothes for skiing, the Fratellis CD, Ice Age 2 DVD, chocolate, £10 Chapelfield vouchers, a CD rack, for my million CDs, some deodorant (at least this year it was a miniature one), a pen desk thing, a speaking mic for computer, some chewing gum, a total of £160 from various and as my main present, and finally i got a large pair of boxers from my neighbour with winnie the pooh on them and the words "show me the honey". Oh dea! But the other pressies were all handy.

I need to wait to see what I get for birthday first to decide what to spend my money on, but at the moment I know I need Sibelius Student edition for my AS Music compositions, as I don't have enough time at school to perfect my work.

If I've got enough after Saturday, I may see if my cousins girlfriend can get me a Wii as I managed to get a play on my cousin's on Christmas Eve - my arm still aches.

Anyway, gotta go do some more revision - have been letting the maths slip a bit.

"Mry Chrsms evry1."

US Midterms Update

And so it feels like weeks since the US Midterms - its been a whole 3 weeks actually <|:-O) - and the result? Bush and Roger (personified duck pictured in previous post) become closer than ever before! (See wikipedia article)

The Republicans have lost the House of Representatives to the Democratic Party by a spectacular 32 seats (with 3 seats still to be decided).

The Senate was a closer race, with the final results as 49 seats a-piece to Rep. and Dem. and two independents, who have agreed to "caucus" with the Democratic Party, so they technically hold a majority over the fascist Republicans! argh

Elsewhere, in a local election in South Dakota, Marie Steichen was elected to Jerauld County commissioner, despite the fact that she died two months before the election. Her name was never replaced on the ballot, and voters who chose her were aware of her death (See story on MSNBC).
Richmond, California, now has a Green Party Mayor.

And this was America, so you can't forget all of the idiotic sidetrack problems that occurred: A Kentucky poll worker was charged with choking a voter; in a small town in Oklahoma, a power outage in a polling station was caused by a squirrel gnawing on a power cable; and lots of "please don't vote or we will burn your house to the ground" threats in Virginia; there were also huge problems with the electronic voting system, mainly because 75% of Americans were unable to locate the "Enter" key on the voting pad.

Oh well, thats enough about America for the time being, or I shall become very angry and begin to plot a plan to displace Bush, again... and it will only end in pure tragedy.

Cheerio.

US Midterm Elections

Will Bush have to survive his last two years in office without the support of the House of Representative or the Senate?
Will he become a sitting duck, like Roger?
(News & Views coming up...)

Drugs and Youth Culture

As everyone knows, "Drug use among young people has become a normal part of dance and youth culture... and research [in 1999] revealed that young people attending dance venues considered drug usage as commonplace, with 78% of the 222 respondents stating they had used drugs at some stage..." blah blah blah.
But how true is this really?

I can only speak from my own experiences, as statistics can be warped in any direction to make them say what you want them to.

At my high school, I was aware of heavy alcohol abuse as well as pupils as young as 12 smoking tobacco, and several pupils as young as 14 smoking cannabis and taking other drugs (you try not to enquire too much when it seems that serious), but in year 11, there were only probably 5 or 6 out of 120 who were regularly taking or smoking illegal drugs. I understand that it is likely that a higher proportion of pupils in inner city schools will take drugs then in my little rural school, but as much as 78% of "youths"?

In my current sixth form there appears to be no drug abuse - legal tobacco smoking and drinking, but nothing worse. Knowing a fraction of the year group I couldn't think of more than 2 or three out of 250 who I could imagine EVER taking drugs, let alone those actually taking them.
However, after the party I attended on Friday night I might be able to fully contradict myself. The fancy dress party, which was held at a scout hut for charity, resulted in the evening being cut short, the police being called, and an ambulance taking one girl to stay in hospital overnight. Rumors suggest she tried mixing alcohol and drugs, though I can't say for certain.
It makes me think, if this is what can happen at a charity disco full of 16/17 year olds all attending one of the best sixth forms in the county, then surely nightclubs and other parties of 18/19/20 year olds could potentially be far worse...

However, I myself am not worried. (I know that I don't drink and the only drugs I've ever taken have been Calpol, Paracetamol and other prescribed medication!) But is this cause for concern for the police and the government? Should certain drugs be legalised to cut down their use, and make sure that those using them use them properly and safely?

Who knows? There seems to be little debate going on among the political parties and the media at the present time.

North Korea - 1 nuclear weapon?

It's believed that North Korea tested its Nuclear Weapons last week - which could turn them into a powerful country in the worldwide community. Looks like we'd better all jump inside our Fall Out shelters and say goodbye to the world we know doesn't it? Well first you have to look at the facts and guesses about other countries worldwide.

Recognised nuclear powers (who have signed Non-Proliferation Treaty):
Russia 8'232
USA have 7'068
China 402
France 348
UK 185
Iran (unsure)

Countries outside NPT suspected of weapons:
Israel +-200?
Pakistan +-40?
India +-35?
North Korea +-1?

And a bucket-full of other countries are capable of creating nuclear weapons using existing nuclear reactors (Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Algeria, Egypt, Dem. Rep. of Congo, South Africa, Bangladesh, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Australia).

So we might not need to question the fact that North Korea has tested Nuclear weapons this month (according to US intelligence - i didn't know there was any) but when you look at the stats, is it hard to see that other countries world wide seem to pose a bigger threat?

If the US are behaving as they usually do, then they probably have all of their "battleships" sitting in some bay in South Korea, so if North Korea fire their Nuclear Weapon (singular) on the very important Alaska, then they won't exist for more than two seconds, before the other coutries in the world with nuclear weapons (USA, Russia, UK, France, Israel, China and India) respond. Iran is the only dangerous country, but only appears dangerous due to forceful American opinion.

So, in the wake of WW3, I shouldn't worry too much... the only real threat is George Bush.

Cameron's Speech

Hmmm, how peculiar. I have to say that I enjoyed the Tory leader's speech today, but for a change it isn't because I was severely disagreeing with it.

For once David Cameron's speech seemed to make sense; he spoke about the NHS, stopping crime at its source and same sex ceremonies, while at the same time standing in front of his "Tree".

I haven't seen what anyone else thought about this yet (except Channel 4) however I think he's shown that he can be the Blair of the Tory party. Depending on who becomes Prime Minister over the next year, the Tory's are in with a tradgicly fantastic chance of winning the '09 election - especially if Labour field Gordon Brown or John Reid as their leader.

I would however have to advise him that if he doesn't change his hair style to something less waxed then the swing voters will all go for the bald guy. Did you hear that Sir Campbell? I Said did you hear that Sir Campbell?!? I do apologuise - I believe our friend has fallen asleep. Oh well... at least he isn't drunk.

A Whole New Blog

Wow, my very own blog - always wanted one of those...
But sarcasm aside, blogs can be cool; it just depends on what you talk about.

Not much has happened to me recently except the most obvious big change of moving to a big new school: Notre Dame Sixth Form.

It has to be one of the best changes that's happened in my life, as I've got a good group of friends - some of whom I've carried over from High School, but most of whom I have only met in the last few weeks. This includes my new girlfriend Kate.

Lessons are good too - it makes a big difference when you are learning subjects that you want to do rather than ones that you have to do (except that the evil Cathaholics force us to do RE for an hour a week).

Maths (Mrs Hayes & Mr Eaton) - very tough, but I'm just about keeping up with the rest of the class...

Music (Mr Milne, Mr McKee & Dr Stoppard) - despite getting an A at GCSE with no help from my high school teacher whatsoever, I am finding this quite tough.

German (Miss Clerehugh & Mrs Beckford) - This is going well. I've struggled with my memory and some of the vocab tests we've had, but I'm doing well with my grammer and can make sense more rightly in German than what I do when I am speaking my English best.

Chemistry (Mr Morley and Mrs Alcocer) - Not a lesson I expected to be doing at A-Level, and I'm still considering the drop as 5 subjects is too much. Mr Morley couldn't make his lessons more enjoyable - with setting fire to anything that moves (or doesn't move, in the case of the deoderant can and gas tap!!)

Government & Politics (Mr Little) - Taught by the most important Tory in Norwich South, Politics in fun yet very fast moving. As I have the lessons after school I find it more enjoyable than the other subjects, and it currently looks as though it will only run as a year course. Mr Little is alright for a Conservative, and you can find his blog at http://www.antonylittle.blogspot.com/ - he likes three-legged lesbian dwarves and blueberry muffins, however his dislikes include Save The Badgers Appeal, Margaret Thatchers denial that she is really a man and bearded sandal-wearing LibDems *at this point I will say that at the last general election Mr Little (23%) failed to get as many votes as the LibDem candidate (Andrew Aalders-Dunthorpe (29%) - who only done better due to his hilarious name) so clearly Mr Little isn't up to scratch with his Propaganda.

Oh dear - I seem to have spent most of the blog going off the point and talking about Mr Little... never mind! At least my Oak tree isn't "more of a tree than an Oak tree" (David Cameron).

Thanks, Linden Parker.

Any comments welcome.