Apologies, University and Merry Christmas.

I'll open as the title suggests with an apology or sorts, I haven't written a blog in many months and that is my fault really; although in my defence reader I have started in a new world of University (at Bangor, Wales). I say started...it would be correct to say that I've just finished semester 1 of studying Linguistics.

One of my own.

In one word, fantastic! In two words, worth it! Three words, totally worth it! You get the picture. University is one of those life changing things (so to speak) that until you've been there, got the t-shirt (or polo shirt in my case) you haven't a clue what to expect. I mean I had plenty of people (mainly teachers) telling me, "It (University life) would be some of the best years of my life", not that I considered them liars, but I just couldn't comprehend how; I didn't know of all the little extras, bonuses and such that came with going to University. Sure my education path had been a pretty fun ride up to this stage, learned a lot of things, made a lot of friends, wasn't Uni just the same? Indeed it wasn't, it was far better than I imagined.

Great shot.

[My friend, obviously this blog is based on personal opinion, but I would very much recommend the idea of going to University.It's great]

The social scene is far better than that of the previous world of the Sixth Form, currently my Tuesday's involve Badminton with a few friends, then a pub quiz later thatt evening. My Sunday nights are rather fun also, involving me going to play a few hours of pool with the pool society (I even have my own cue!)..not that I'm the world's best player mind...all in good time reader. If you don't know me too well, I'm not the sort to go clubbing every night, but the nights I have entered the (student) clubs I've had fun each time.

Lorna, Myself, Fay, Ruth - at Bangor Linguistics Society Xmas Meal

Me as Santa, for festive Birthday bash.

In case you're reading this getting the suggestion I'm not actually working, well reader you'd be wrong! The Linguistics course has been interesting, fun, and a level of challenge I'm comfortable with, by no means is it easy, but you do have to bring your game up a few levels, it's pretty hard to try and bluff your way through Uni. (IPA Chart, I must know this for my January exams)


Anyway folks it's all good stuff, I'll attempt to keep this going from now on, I'm home (and have been for a week or so now) for Christmas and New Year, and return to Uni on the 9th of Jan....then exams...

Cheers for reading.

Callum.

Callum's Germanic Sounding Language...

This was made by me about 2 and a bit years ago, when I was young and naive. Still it's a good bash at trying to create a language...do note it wasn't fully finished off.
Do note some of the theory regarding the verbs is flawed somewhat, but do enjoy the reading :)

_____________________________________________________________

''Callum'' - Eng Trans.

Determiners/Prepositions
Unst - A
Unsten - The
Unstens - They/Those
Est - Is
Dak - It
Dak'est/Dakest - It's/It is.
Drau(w) - That
Drauw'est/Drauwest - That's/ That is.

______________________________________________________________
Personal Pronouns

Je - I
Da - You
Rau/Rauè/Dak - He/She/It
Mausen - We
Vrausen - You (pl)
Rausen/Rauséne/Unstens - They(masc/fem/'both')
_______________________________________________________
Posessive Pronouns

Jent - My/Mine
Dent - Yours
Rauwent/Rauéwent/Dakent - His/Her/It's
Mauwent - Ours
Vrauwent - Yours (pl)
Rausenent/Rausént/Unstensent - Their

________________________________________________________

Verbs

Rule/s: In 'Callum', endings for the 'to' form of verbs are either, 'ar', 'or', 'ur'...

As a general rule, 'ar' - what one can do, by oneself...without assistance (mental tasks), so, to think, to count, to say etc.(However expect exceptions.)

Examples;
Mindar - To think
Abousar - To count
Babblar - To say
Zaoustar - To wash
Faitar - To do
Hoplar - To jump
Moivar - To move
Sinktar - To sing
Dansar - To dance

General rule 2 'or' verbs, this is where something is needed to enforce the action that takes place. to write, to draw, to drive.

Examples;
Eschor - To write
Dessor - To draw
Divror - To drive
Tyschor - To type
Baustor - To burst
Plowor - To play



3 for 'ur', these are ways of being, and it's anything not covered by the first two types... to love, to be, to have.

Examples;
Lustur - To love
Aimur - To like
Draqur - To be
Holokur - To have
Needur - To need

For present tense, the 'to form' verb ending is dropped and is replaced with 'ig'. So this can be to say, 'counting'..or 'I count', so Je Abousig would be either, I count/or I am counting, applied context would give the meaning.

example verbs.
Abousig - Counting
Dessig - Drawing
Lustig - Loving etc.

The past tense

As a general rule, any verb put into the past tense, simple drops the 'to form' ending which is replaced with a 'ek'.

Examples
Abousek - Counted
Dessek - Drawn
Lustek - Loved

*in the case of two vowels touching a 'w' is added before the letter 'e' of 'ek'
eg. 'ar' verb, 'hikear'
to get past particible...
hikewek

Future tense

For the future tense forms, the infinitive is taken, but a prefix is added, the prefix equals the 'will', so eg, 'I will'.
for the future tense, depending on the infintive ending, a different prefix is added.

So AR verbs - Ra'
OR - Ro'
UR - Ru'

So examples are,
AR - Zaoustar = Ra'zaoust
OR - Tyschor = Ro'tysch
UR - Holokur = Ru'holok
to complete the future form, 'et' is added to the end,
so, AR - Ra'zaoustet



Nouns.

Here are a few nouns...random ones.

Voirts - glasses
Pond'ko - money
Barbee - tree
Howse - house
Klup - club
Schoul - school
Vingt - bird
Gotten - goat
Potsch - cup
Wrel (W = harsh 'V' sound)- car
Handi-Mob - mobile phone
Bus - bus
Clok-clok - clock
Boople - bubble
Amelko - anything
Mates/Coplins - friends
Pepo - People
Pep - Person
Men - Men
Femen - Women
Meno - Male
Femeno - Female
Plateau/s - place/s
Wateau - water
Roktet - right.
Loftet - left.
Muptet - middle
Al - all
Pal - None/nothing

Idioms & Coversational terms/Time periods/time phrases.

Danker - Hello/Yes
Jupden - Goodbye
Snel (pr Shnel) - Yes
Pa - No
Snelpa/Rektaus - Maybe
Vrae - Good
Damt -Bad
Greks - Thanks (Thank you)
Pa greks - No thanks

Beck - A lot
Pabeck - Few/Not a lot.
Trist - Very
Aut - Quite
Dixtu - But
Frackel - Sometimes
Et - And
Ashfen - Always
Pawl - Never
Sool - Soon
Daine - Then
Juss - After
Knetl - Before
Dat - Day
Datru - Today
Nekda - Tomorrow
Mont - Month
Yeart - Year
Nect - Next
Thime -Time

Adjectives

Grant - Big
Peti - Small
Midi - Average
Loudi - Loud
Kiles - Quiet
Kileso - Shy
Vraiol - Nice/friendly
Badun - Bad/Nasty
Sly - Sly
Noki - Chatty

Questional terms

Keln? - What?
Kaount? - When?
Kink? - Who?
Klutz? - Why?
Kenk? - How?

Prepositions

Eck - In
Onk - Out
Hut - Under
Trunt - On

My entry for the David Crystal Scholarship.

Do you think our language influences our understanding of the world? Does our knowledge of the world influence how we understand what people say?”
(Use examples from your own experience)

Language, the tool of communication. No matter if you’re reading a book, sending an email, having a phone conversation or in fact reading this essay, language is being used to communicate thoughts and opinions, ideas and concepts all over the world. And English has its own way of doing this, and in this essay I aim to show relationships between (the English) language and the perceptions, understanding, and knowledge of the world we live in.

I've changed address since the last time I did one of these...

I'm at Bangor University and it's fantastic!

At the University during freshers week, the staff and Peer Guides were so helpful in making everyone settle in, furthermore, because all the freshers all effectively in the same boats, well everyone you meet is friendly with you, and lots of new friends are made.

So, everyone is more or less passed any stage of worrying.

As for myself, I've been able to head out to a variety of events, quiet drink in a pub, a silent disco, and a few games of badminton. These were very fun to be part of, and hopefully I'll do more things, and meet more nice people along the way.

There's not really anything to complain about, it's been a nice week and a half, although I've picked up a cold which isn't great as you can imagine. Also, the walk from my accomodation to where my lectures are, is about 20 minutes, which can be a bit annoying. Just wauit till winter...

I'll try and keep you updated, I know this wasn't long but hey I haven't got much else to say at this point.

Bye for now.
Callum

A few late night thoughts...

Hello reader, hope you're well.

Just one or two things before I shut up shop tonight.

I start Uni on the 21st of September, I'm both really nervous, but looking forward to it just as much, thankfully I ''know'' someone who will be joining me there, so at least I'll have someone who I can enjoy the highs and who can help me through the lows.

I haven't been out for a week, partly due to my fixing my laptop, I've had to put loads back on plus I've been content in the house and just walking the dog etc.

I want to see my girlfriend Vivien before I head off to Uni, she's been away for the last week. When I go to Uni, and she goes to Uni we will be at opposite ends of Wales, so I can't see her and hopefully we can meet up here and there. I'll help her get through Uni if she ever needs help, and I'm sure she'll return the favour.

Callum.

I'm in (part 2)

You may recall in my last blog I told you that I had passed my A levels to such a degree that I cemented my place at Bangor University, I also told you that I headed off to Bangor the day after knowing I had a place ... this is where we shall pick things up.

The brief and basic plan of the day was thus;

6am - Left house
10.15 - Arrived at University
12.30 - Left the University; went for lunch
1.30 - Left City
6.30pm - Returned home.

As you can tell it was a long day, but well worth it might I add! What's got to be said is that Bangor is a really lovely place that I'm sure as sure as sure AS SURE can be that I'll enjoy my time studying down in Bangor; it just has a really nice atmosphere around both city and University, the two members or staff at the Uni seemed like really nice people who wanted to promote ''fun and learning'', so it'll be a good environment to work in; there wasn't a sniff of patronisation, or snobbery about the place...Ok I spent a day down there, but first impressions do matter and they were very positive ones.

So, this isn't a long blog by any means but I just wanted to give some details and info on things really.

Callum

I'm in.

I'm in, I did it, I'm on board, I've got my shot at the big time, and any other clichés and idioms you wish to add at this stage...
Don't dwell on that for too long, as the rest of this entry is one I hope you enjoy.
At this point it may be a good idea if I uncover the mystery to what I'm actually ''in'' on, that my friends is Bangor University; as I obtained enough UCAS points to be given the chance to study there. Hurrahs and hurrays are in order!

I will note here that I needed 260 UCAS points, and got 260 UCAS points. The reason for me saying that is so that you know I'm not going to be all high and mighty; the fact is I could have got higher in terms of both grades and therefore points. For example I know I was really close to a 'C' for English Language, but one or two bad exams gave me a 'D' overall; before anyone goes, ''oh well, he isn't very good then (at English Language)'', the fact is I like English Language and I am good at it, that is to say I understand the course content, and can speak about it well in the realms of the classroom this being said when it comes to actually writing in the exam itself (for whatever reason) I must do things slightly differently, because they usually come out lower than my practice runs. Although I did a resit in English which went from an E to a B, so I was chuffed as hell with that.

Just so you are aware for my other A levels; I got an E for French, I did really well (for me) in my coursework and oral exam, had my 'reading, listening, writing' paper been A LOT stronger who knows, I may have ended up with a D...
I got a D for General Studies, a C for Psychology, and this combined with a E for my AS Graphics 'ta da' 260 UCAS points, place confirmed; not exactly ''passing with flying colours'' by any means, but a place confirmed nonetheless.



Enough about that though, important thing is I'm going to Bangor University (in Wales) to study English Language and Linguistics (hence the bit about my English Language A level) and nobody can take that away from me; it's in my hands to decide where I want to take it.

Another pretty good thing is that my girlfriend (Vivien) got into Swansea Uni to study Egyptology and Classics, so I'm really happy for her :u).

I did visit Bangor the day after my A level results were revealed and my place confirmed at Bangor; I'll talk about the visit in my next blog.

I think this is a fairly short one, hope you enjoyed regardless.

Callum

Football, and why it annoys me so...

They call it the 'beautiful game', then again a lot of people can use adjectives...

This blog is about some of the things that stem from football (soccer) which make me think ''oh dear'', ''why?'', and ''please don't do that''.

Don't get me wrong here, and see me as someone who has never played/watched football, I LIKE football, more the participating element; I just see it as more fun. From a fairly young age I liked to play football, up until year 11, I haven't played a game since.

Whereas the watching element suggests some sort of interest in the going-ons in football, and I will say that I support Newcastle United (yes, feel free to laugh), and would follow transfers and so forth a lot; sorry if I'm going on, I'm trying to set the scene. Simply, for the most part I'm a fan of football.

Right to the niggles, one such annoyance lies with the fact that if a player ''appears'' to commit a 'handball' (as an example) there is a giant up-roar for something to be given, be it a penatly, a free-kick, a card of some sort. My problem with this is it just seems a very childish thing to do, if I was a manager I'd instruct my players just to play on for God's sake! The phrase 'don't cry over spilt milk' comes to mind, ok in the grand scheme of things ''3 points'' will be worth more than the milk ever was, but I hope you can see my point, just get on with the game, I'd be far happier to say I got an honest 0 - 0, rather than being able to say ''ohh our team won 1 - 0, based upon our powers of moaning in order to get a penatly''.

The second thing is one many people will raise their hands in agreement with ''money'', be it transfer fees or players wages. Personally money in football, leaves me with a bad after taste in my mouth, I think everything that can be said has been said, but still here's my take. I'd like to see some sort of system whereby clubs are ''capped'' that is they can only spend so much money on wages, futhermore in a transfer window each team can spend up to ''£XXX'' amount; you can buy as many or as few players as you like, as long as you don't go past ''£XXX'', the point being that I believe that you would see teams developing their young players more than for example the Real Madrids and Man Citys of this world paying giant sums of money for players, who are only going there so they have loads of money at hand (not like I'm saying anything groundbraking here).

See I admire teams in England like Everton, and Aston Villa, because a few years ago they were mid-table teams, but a few good buys, and new exciting youth players have launched them within touching distance of the ''Big-four'', simple hard graft has been used here folks, not the ''Big-Money-Teams ways of doing it; trying to ''buy success''.

The last choice, wont be shared by a lot of football fans, but do hear me out. The thing is, with 11-a-side there is a tendancy for alot of ''bore draws'', games which move very slowly at times etc. My crazy idea, would be to make it 8-a-side, this way there would be goals galore and if you are a season ticket holder you'd get your money's worth (hopefully). Games would be able to be played faster, as there would be larger amounts of space due to the lack of 3 players for each side. I'd allow five subsitutes a game, in order to compensate for players running more, and I'd even be tempted to make games 80mins apposed to 90mins...some people may turn their noses at this and think I'm just changing things too much, but look at it, there are still two teams trying to get a ball into a net to score a goal, subsequent points, or going through to the next round of a ''cup'' and there still would exsist that bag of footballing clichés, puns, and word play that make football what it is, what some call, 'The Beautiful Game''.

Do hope you enjoyed.
Let me know what you think.

Callum.

The Day Approacheth...

The day will soon cometh...

I write this while listening to my ipod, it's 22:36, I've had a fairly relaxed day. The night prior though, I struggled to sleep for a little while, don't worry though I did get a good amount of sleep in the end, but I will let you know that the reason for my not sleeping was based upon this day I mentioned earlier in my Old English tones, I would have used runic letters...anyway that's going on off one and I can't afford to. The day in question, is that of exam results day and up until yesterday night I was pretty 'not worried' about it.

However, for whatever reason, more than likely a niggling feeling of doubt had made it's way slowly forward into my mind, just before I'm going to sleep helpful. The simple way of putting things is ALL the A levels I'm doing (and was doing) go towards my UCAS points (I need 260 of them to get into Bangor University). That's dandy for me. And makes the 'dream' of going to Bangor that much 'easier' (lack of a better word); despite that advantage I was unable to sleep the other night, you can probably see where this is going, due to me worrying about exam results.

I feel my actual exams went ok, nothing really really so awful that I wanted to cry - type thing. But as it's me, to be honest I'm sure this goes for a good spread of 18 year olds who are in the same position as me, I have come to worry. It's not made any better by the fact that there is such a wait until I know what is in my brown envelope of fate(that being August 20th). Literally ANYTHING could be within that mysterious brown envelope...well I say that, obviously within the grounds of how I performed on the exams, however I won't know that until I can see my actual results!

I don't know what felt worse, getting through the exams, or waiting?...I'll throw a curve ball here and say waiting. The fact is my exam-timetable wasn't too bad at any course, that isn't to say any exam was a piece of cake, just that I didn't have any jam packed days. So in theory I've done ok enough, but I just don't know!!


It's like a circle of torture...The good thing is that I know it will come to an end, but will that be a good thing after all? Still I best enjoy my Summer holidays while they last, the exam result thing wont play on my mind too much, what should I do tomorrow...?


I'll leave it here I suppose, I'm tired, and I think this could become more rambly if I don't stop now...

Hope you enjoyed what was here.

Callum

Twitter: The most friendly social networking site around!

Of course my opinion...nobody has confirmed this as of yet.



I will say though, once you get into it, it's a very nice thing to be part of, there's no real pressure to update, you could sit a whole day and just watch the comments go by. With other sites, Facebook, Myspace and so forth, there is a certain thing of people adding you for no real reason, and usually make no effort to contact you; some will just leave bit comments and some may not leave you alone, despite you never meeting them in real life. Whereas with Twitter, as your comments are out in the open, and everyone has access to them via some way (pre and post follow), and you know if someone adds you they must be reading your comments to some extent because the main premise of Twitter is 'micro-blogging', so you'll only want to add people you think are interesting/funny/nice and so forth.



Moreover everyone on Twitter is just themselves (from personal experience), there is no real 'pretentious' nature, for example people who just, on facebook/myspace. upload pictures of themselves done professionally and are only wanting comments on how good looking they are, or say ''new pics up, comments plz(please)'', to be honest I'd only notify people if pictures are up of a group event, like a prom, or a general day out. On Twitter, everyone is happy enough to use the rule of thumb 'What you see is what you get', obviously you're not getting to know anyone ''too personally'' on the whole, but you do get to know people to some degree, and usually that's seeing people 'RTing' and commenting on what you've said, it's a nice feeling when people, who you barely know, share your point of view, or think something you said is funny. Not that anyone is trying too hard to be funny, far from it.

Simply put Twitter has that nice vibe about it, as I aforementioned the thing of getting into it, I'll admit there were stages when I wasn't interested, mainly due to I wasn't following many and lost interest therefore. More recently, I've met some really cool people who are lovely to talk to. I should note, a lot of ''my school yard chums'' don't use Twitter, if they did I probably follow them, but that's a big ''if'' mind you...they are mainly over in facebook corner.

In closing, no snobbishness, no nastiness, just Twitter-ness; a bliss Utopia for conversing with people over the internet, ok maybe ''bliss Utopia'' is over stating it a bit, still I hope you get my point.

Callum

''Loosing that acting buzz''

Rather that should be ''lost''.

Any who this tale is about my few years doing drama/acting, then the reason for stopping.

As a youngling, I was part of my local 'amateur drama group', and I remained in it until I was 17 or so. No problem there, I did such shows as ''Calamity Jane''(twice), ''Annie'', ''Cinderella'', ''Fiddler on the Roof'', and ''The Music Man''. The first three were with the youth section, and the other two were with the adult section.

So, I did a fair few shows with the society, which is all fine and well. As for parts, I was never a confident actor, that's to say I wasn't ever pushing to get any top parts, I was happy enough with getting what I got; after all I was it wasn't my idea to be part of the group, but I will admit I had a fair few years of fun. However, considering that I had been enthusiastic about doing shows for many years, there came a point when someone switched the ''enthusiastic'' off.

During the production of 'The Music Man', I didn't really feel as if I had been enjoying rehearsals, but using knowledge and experience assumed that the first night I would get that ''buzz'' from performing in front of an audience.... But, for whatever reason, I didn't get any sensation. I think I enjoyed the show, but not as much as any previous show. Sorry if this sounds all silly and things, but - it's hard to explain - I think for Music Man I was just set on auto-pilot, do what you need to do and go home. Part of that may be because a lot of people had said that the show wasn't a good one, in saying that I really enjoyed Fiddler on the Roof (I took part in L'Chaim...), and people say that's a depressing musical..each to their own I suppose.

Simply put, I don't think I was destined to do 'drama' for longer than I had done, some people may smerk at that, but hey it's just the way things go. As I said earlier, it wasn't my idea to join, so I think it makes sense that there would come a point that that might actually show itself. Unless you are the sort of person with songs, music, acting in your blood, you probably wont last too long, if you get me? All I'm trying to say is, for me at least, I had a good time, but it was my time to get off the drama-train.

In fairness, it probably made me more confident, although in the long run it's good I moved away. The main reason being the fact I had a feeling it would take some doing to do ''Exams'' and shows at the same time. After the Music Man (during the start of my A levels), I left, and had mentioned that it was a good move, I mean what would have the point been of continuing doing something (that the drama-based-friends wanted me to do) that I didn't truly enjoy at that time?... I'm probably just blogging the obvious here, but still that's not wrong.

It was better of me to drop out, than try and take it up as a profession, and be something that I had no real chance of being. Looking at it, I think it goes without saying that there are lots of people who think they've got ''it'', but in reality ''it'' isn't that good. I'm not saying don't go for your dreams, but really, with something like drama, you need to be sure as hell you are good enough, because it's very competitive. Of course do it as a hobby, past-time if you enjoy doing it, but if you think you're good enough to be on The West End, Broadway and so forth, well I'm no expert, but you need to have been told, and believe you are good enough to do it to go for the big time...it would be cruel to have your dreams broken and have nothing to fall back on.

Anyway that wraps that up as best as I can. I will admit this hasn't flowed very well, but I have done this on the spot, so I hope you've enjoyed some of what I've written.



Callum

A fun day out at Newcastle...like.

Today (15th/July/2009) I went with my girlfriend (Vivien) and her mother to Newcastle. Some of the day was spent at the Hancock History Museum, you may know of it, you may not, regardless fun was had; looking at the many artifacts from the Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks, all very interesting and whatnot.

However with everything there's always a niggle in there somewhere..this such niggle came about when Vivien's mother decided to sit down, which she has every right to do, Vivien and I joined her; as we were getting up one of the staff came over looking horrified and said,
''Please don't sit on the displays'', which is fair enough she is doing her job, although I'd like to say that we weren't really sat on any display, or at least in such a way that we would be causing damage. The set up was of Hadrian's Wall, and was fairly long and placed in the the middle of this particular room, basically we were sitting on a surface that wasn't in any way going to cause harm; that's all that needs to be made clear. So Vivien's mother makes the point that there are no chairs in this room; hence why we chose to sit where we did, not because we were trying to be cool. The staff member then proceeds to go on in one of the strangest manners I've ever seen, I'll try and quote to my best here,
''Ohh well, right, right em, well when you go out, right? When you go out you can get a purple form and write that down and then if enough people say they want chairs in this room, we can do that, we can put some folding chairs in this room..ok then? Good''. The fact she told us they could do that, install the chairs, led me to think, well surely wouldn't it be appreciated if you just put them in, without the fuss of people needing to put it down in written form. Not that the museum doesn't have 'any' seating, but you might as well just put the seats there to make everyone happy. Maybe she was just trying to make her job a bit more exciting, I'm sure she's a good worker really.

Fun was had for the most part. The thing is, do you ever feel that you must buy something to remember your day out?...Or maybe you have graced ''X'' city's grounds therefore you must invest in its future by spending something. Ok, point is, I left today having not spent any money, and it felt somewhat empty, good thing was what I didn't spend I kept, so that's all good. The thing is it would have been nice to maybe not go away empty-handed, be it a book, DVD, whatever, it would have been a nice little treat for myself. Not that I'm a shop-o-holic, or an impulse buyer, but hey-ho I did have my chances, there is always next time as they say...

As for yesterday, I spent part of the day watching two Marx brothers films (Duck Soup and Animal Crackers) they are fantastic without doubt...but that goes without saying. So I'm able to keep my french up, I put French subtitles on (yes it was a DVD), the thing I find amusing is that when you translate jokes (the words which make them up) they clearly don't work in other languages, an obvious point perhaps but still funny, adds to the whole entertainment of it. An example of one is, there's a joke where ''Taxes'' is repeated as ''Texas'', I'll not delve into the joke...anyway...the French for taxes is ''(les) impots'', so the word-play doesn't work in French. The ''vice-versa'' also is true, a I was told once there was a joke lost in (English subtitle) translation, you may (or may not) know that 'pierre' is both the word for 'stone' and a name (links into the English 'Peter') in French, and that on a film someone plays on that fact, but the joke doesn't work in English, yes you guessed it, we don't go calling stones 'Peter'.


That about wraps it up for now, if I get sorted, I'll be doing Blogs possibly called, 'Bob Dylan - why is he following me? No not on twitter.'' and ''Loosing that acting buzz''. Those are for later though, I hope you enjoyed this slice into what I get up to.

Thanks for reading.

Callum

Late at night, lost for words...

I sit here in a similar fashion to how I've been doing other blogs, at night. For whatever reason, I get the inspiration to write a blog during the time when I should maybe have chosen sleep. No worry readers as I seem to have a habit of getting up at a reasonable time.

Anyway, how are you doing ? *your answer* Ah well that's *appropriate response*....hmm, it's odd I've got a mental block for a task I'm not required to complete, whether this gets published or not is truly my choice, and too be honest there is no real demand for me to get this published; as I have but two followers. I'm doing this simply for fun, as I may have stated in previous blogs.

(Ok, ok, Callum pick a point, topic, theme, subject, anything, just focus. You must have lost many readers by this stage...) Sleep, let's go with that as a focus-point.

Right ok, sleep, an odd subject for me to stumble upon, although appropriate considering it's nearly midnight. From the ages after seeing ''nap/sleep time'' as a nice treat, we have a disagreement with sleep; we are instructed of bed times, different for many of us, yet when push comes to shove we like to stay up late. In the end though heavy eyelids usually will catch us off guard and finally drop down without warning. Obviously, nowadays, anyone 15 + will want to stay up to be texting/MSN'ing/or even Twittering friends, they don't want to fall asleep and miss out on something big, but usually nothing really does happen, ''that'' person doesn't come online, ''that'' person doesn't text you back (probably because they are asleep) and so forth, you probably know your own experiences better.

Then there's the thing of not so much waking up, but actually getting up. If we say lying-in is being in bed on any given morning, you can be sleeping, or fully awake; yet as humans we seem not to like getting out of bed. With some people that may be down to not doing homework/revision (we've all been there). With others it's almost if, more correct to say is, that sense of, ''I went to bed, and I realised it's quite snugly, now do you mind leaving me for a few more minutes to appreciate this new found snugly sensation''. That's what you're thinking, but as you are tired it'll come out as a annoyed grunt, throw of a pillow, or (if you have one) beating your alarm clock to death; even though it was only doing it's job.

That's why I've asked people, ''Which do you prefer, staying up late, ?or lying in?''. ''Helpfully'', a lot of responses were 'boths', this was of a demographic of teenagers, so again helpful data. The point though is, it seems, we value avoiding sleep where we should be getting it, and then trying to catch up on it when we shouldn't be. In a sense it's like trying to change our sleeping patterns, but doesn't actually work.

Final point of note, to denote sleep in cartoons (as an example) you'll usually find this one letter combination, ''Zzzzzzzzz...'', there are many variations, but these are only to do with the number of letters used. My question is, why is ''Zzzzzzzz...'' used? Is it because of the sound of snoring, although if that is the case when you see a 'bumblebee cartoon' and next to that the written ''Buzzzzzzzzz'', in saying that, it's probably more linked with that breathing sound people make, still that comes across to me as a ''Ssss...ssss'' type thing. As a suggestion, could it be anything to do with, Z being the final letter of the alphabet, and therefore denotes sleep the final thing of the day?...it's possible.

Goodnight..or good day, depending...


Callum.

Enjoying the peace and quiet, but not the pain.

Hello readers, hope you are enjoying the season we know as Summer, and of course hope you enjoy this entry.

Well as the title suggests, yes you guessed it, my Summer is a splendid one so far, and I can't see it getting too bad. I kept myself entertained so far by writing blogs, dog walking, reading here and there, playing on the XBOX 360, and of course Twittering and so forth. At this stage I've met up with a few people and had a few delightful days with them; although I will say it's been more a time to try and relax by being quiet. I've chosen to take a more relaxed approach, to the vast number of weeks at my disposal, simply because after my A levels I wanted just to take it slow for a few weeks, getting up late on a morning makes a real change from a constant getting up at 6 o'clock every morning for two years.

The simple fact that with regards to Sixth Form, as fun as it most certainly was, it does take a mental strain on you. It would be nearer the truth to say that A level (exams) are 50% knowledge of the subject and 50% handling of personal conditions, this includes stress of actually doing an exam, the build up towards that, and so forth. By no-means am I saying, ''ooh but it was too hard, A levels should be easier'', of course they are hard, but it's more how you cope with the challenge, hence as to why some people do better than others, because you can know everything in the world, but if you have a tendency to panic during exams, well my friend ''life sucks'' as they say.

Back to the main theme, the mental strain caused by doing three A levels, can cause you to go nuts if you don't take a step back after the exams and relax while you can, of course the odd night out is ok, and every Friday works for some people apparently. I'm happy though sitting in my house writing blogs, or doing laps of the (F1 style) Nurburgring on the old XBOX, as well as being happy just to have a nice day out with who ever may be on the cards that day, ''today'' it's my girlfriend's turn - Hurrah!

The problem with where I live, and have lived for the majority of my life, is that my nearest and dearest friends (including the girlfriend) live quiet far from where I live, so I haven't been able to go out on a night for years because of this. I did, at one point, have friends where I live, however the age where you choose sitting and getting drunk vs getting an education came up, the majority went one way, and I (thanking my lucky stars) went the 'right' way.

So yes, being by myself in one respect can be a lonely thing, but I grown up not to mind it, plus I have the option of seeing my friends it's not like I've been barred from entering the walls of society. I'm happy.

But Callum, what is this pain that you speak?...I hear you ask (just for the sake of asking)...well that tooth that came out seems to have had the last laugh, as it were, the area where the tooth was, has been rather ...wait for it... painful for the past few days, and I've been taking pain-killers for it, however these only last as a short term aid, the sooner this pain goes the better, that goes without saying.

Hope you've liked this edition of my blogs, I'm glad I've kept it going, therefore there should be more to come in the next few weeks and months.

Callum.

Just for socialising...

Internet socialising. Interesting thing that, getting to know people you already know better, and meeting people you've never met before. Oh the joy. I'm one of the many people who have done the aforementioned. But, in my view, it can be all a bit passive and empty. Maybe that's over stating it, but I feel there is far more to the Internet than simply commenting pictures and ''liking'' comments.

Thus as to why I do things such as blog every so often, and make videos (for YouTube), and to some extent Photo shop ( But don't really see that as Internet based, personally, I know for others it is...Devin Art). I think it's a good way of getting over your opinions and such, a good variety of media for people to argue, discuss your point of view..rather than the ever mundane ''you look nice'', ''WUU2?'', ''LMAO''. Social-networking does have its place, before anyone thinks this is me just having a big swipe at ''Facebook'' etc, it is a good way to quickly catch up, confirm you're not dead (if you haven't updated in the last hour), and show yourself having fun; pictures etc. Simply put it only takes a few minutes to do something of this nature and you don't need to talk on the major news stories, something as simple as just saying what you did last week for example... that can go for videos as well.

Personally, I prefer doing this at the moment to videos, because 1) I can think about what I want to write better than thinking what I want to say...2) my laptop is low on memory, and videos can take up a fair chunk of what's left on my laptop. 3) It's just so fun and easy.

In turn,I think it's nice to read up on what you're friend(s) has been doing, which nicely brings me to my next point. That being the fact that a lot of my ''school yard chums'' ( quoting Mr Burns there I believe) don't make videos, write blogs and so, therefore I'm going alone with it for the most part. The sweet thing is that I've got two followers, who in fact are people I've met over the Internet, in saying that I yearn for the day when my friends are following my blog, and writing their own...it might be the case when I go to University.

Anyway I'll wrap it up here, it's currently '00.04' in the morning, so if I've made any errors then I can fix them at a later stage...over and out then.

Callum

Who's afraid of the big bad Dentist?...

Not me.

However I do sympathise with those that are. I think it's possibly the thing of when you are young you don't really understand/consider the risks of oh let's say getting injections, you have not yet made the connection between ''needles and pain'', until you get your first injection - if the first experience is an 'ok' one, then you'll probably be ok after that, unless you at some point have a really awful experience, or even know someone who has, it can be off putting.

I have noticed, personally, that the older I get, the more scary the whole thing becomes. Now I say personally, and before anyone shouts ''hypocrite'' as I said I wasn't afraid, well if we look at a hypothetical scale where; 1 is not at all scary, and 10 is AHHH HELP ME NOW! I've probs gone from 1.5 to 2.5 (ish). When I was younger I had to get operations for my various scolds/burns to be worked on, I recall one of these times I had got a needle in my arm to send me to sleep and I said ''I wont fall asleep'', however 10 seconds past and didn't stick to my word- I was out like a light. I know I've somewhat strayed off topic of Dentists, but still I thnk it's this whole thing of needles more than anything...

i seemed to have failed to mention how I had my tooth out today (Saturday), after waiting an hour to be ''served'' eventually I was ready to go, three injections to numb the area which were ok, bar one right in the palette (roof) of my mouth. Following this nothing really to speak of, a tooth was worked on so it could be removed...and so it was. I still have a fairly numb area as I type this...Hopefully I'll regain the feeling at some point...haha.

Anyway hope you enjoyed this...over and out

Callum.

Think for ourselves.

Today we live in a world/society where complaints are made about the amount of people who leave school with no real education, I'm sure you get me there...Anyway why is it that ''today'' we have so many problems regarding the aforementioned...well keep on reading an I shall show you my take on it...

Imagine the following; the all the World's discoveries/knowledge and so forth in the form of a hypothetical 'paint-by-numbers', each era/part of time has filled in a section (or more), from using rudimentary tools, to abstract concepts/ideas, to technological advances. However the more you fill, the less there is to do, so when you had Greeks wanting to know everything about anything, Outer-Space, Science, Language, Philosophy, generally ''how things work''; there was a, seemingly, innate desire ''to want to know and find out'', and a lot of them showed this.

I think that today, well my friends you can judge me on this but, we take everything as ''the norm''. ''We'', unlike those who went before us see the point of life as ... living, being famous, having money. ''We'' don't seek to know, we seem awfully content in the environment we live in* (* Yes, I can appreciate the fact this is generalising a tad, but roll with it). I'm not suggesting that 'today' we ALL sit around doing nothing getting bored, there are very clever people, Stephen Fry, David Mitchell to name a few, as well as the many scientists, linguists, and people dealing with technology. There are things being improved on, made, found out today. My point being that today discoveries aren't viewed as a big thing, it seems ''bigger'' to watch a celebrity and so forth.

Moreover, obviously society has changed since the times of the Greeks, but still I don't think that's an excuse, people should take upon themselves to think outside the box. For example I think for a lot of the time, we are force-fed information, and a lot of the time people take it as read, everyone should have the ability to be able to challenge something that is said, and not just feel pressured, or agree just for the sake of it. Myself, personally, I like to think about things, sorry if that makes me mad, within the realms of Sixth Form, I know that if need be I could freely challenge something using the knowledge I have acquired over the years...there are some who will just accept it.

Television is especially something I blame, reality based TV shows offer the audience with no real reason to think, the best attempt at pushing the envelope will be debating if someone is nice or not...to be honest I could watch any reality TV show and make a fair judgement about someone in five minutes, and so could anyone; hence why I say, ''best attempt at pushing the envelope''. Comedy shows (mostly in the UK) show no...well hillarity. A lot of them are just pumped out so certain people are happy to be in work, but hey thank God for DVDs of classic sitcoms and stand-up performances.

I'm by no means using this to say ''I'm perfect'', I'm probably guilty of a few things I written about here, just within the majority of society shouldn't there be a personal interest in simply knowing and learning? What will it be like in years to come...?

I'll leave it there folks, I hope you have enjoyed this, I could have gone longer but fear what I have already put is fairly all over so to speak.

Callum

*Insert topics of rant* AND MORE

Before I start...*annoyed manly grunts*...
that's marginally better...let's begin.

First problem came just today infact, regarding my iPod...ok let's just confirm we are all on the same page, iPods are ''music listening devices'' (in their simplest form), and are used as (usually) a private source of entertainment. Some people still haven't clicked onto this - and some of them have iPods....

Yes the today thing...I was looking a some posters in the Geography department, and happened to have my iPod on at the time...some Geography teacher, frankly I don't care for her name, said *WHILE I HAD MY IPOD ON*...''Oh if you took Geography you would have gone on excellent trips like that'', after taking my headphones out she said it again, to which I shrugged my shoulders, what else was I to do? I didn't really know, or care, for this teacher, so to be honest she should have just left me alone.

Maybe it's more that I have a bone to pick with her, see once I kissed my girlfriend before she went to her lesson, no harm in that is there? She had a go, saying ''You two need to stay 6 feet apart''. I've not seen anyone really careless otherwise...even if I do kiss my girlfriend I've received humourous comments from passers by, which is ok...I didn't like her tone then, and then thought she was ignorant today....Shudder to think if she has a husband...

In more news, I've finished my French A levels...which is actually quite sad as there will be no teachers telling me that my adjectives don't agree or I've used 'le' instead of 'la', oh how things go so quickly, still I'm looking to further my French by learning more colloquial versions etc. The teachers in question have really helped me along the way, so thanks to them :D.

Other than that, erm, I think I just have an English Language exam this Friday - then 4 more in the following week then I'm done, and all my A-levels will be done...

Callum.

Ps. If you want to follow me on Twitter... http://twitter.com/CallumRobson
www.myspace.com/callumcaptainc - the myspace account

http://www.youtube.com/CalC... - my youtube account.

F1 Ideas - Closing the gap, and making it really fun :D

''Formula 1, the fastest car chase in the world'' - or something to that effect is said by the man who voice overs the opening of the F1 title sequence (UK - BBC)
This may be so, but despite the new rules and regs to ''transform'' the sport into wheel-to-wheel racing, as it was in times gone by...Jenson Button has won all but one of the first few races of the 2009 season. Not to take anything away from both Button and Brawn GP, they've done their job...but because other teams haven't made 'as good' cars, Button's victories are almost empty...fair enough he got the car from point A to B, but if it were somewhat closer between rival drivers the watching of it would be considerably better.

Here I list a few suggestions as to what could be done to improve things...

I've heard a few people say - ''it would be better if the slower cars were at the front, there would be more passing etc'', this may be, however I regard such an idea as impractical, moreover I can't see how you could enforce the rule, and that's not even taking into account how happy the Alonsos, Massas , of this world would be if they had to start nearer the back. As a compromise there should be one race (near mid season) hosted by Las Vegas (you'll see why) where by EITHER i) a lottery system is used to draw grid positions in order to throw to unpredictable grid together, however I prefer this - ii) Take the Drivers' Championship standings reverse them in order to create a ''one off'' grid, so e.g. as it stands the Brawns would be on the back of the grid. The Las Vegas thing is to do with ''gambles'' ''risks'' and etc. And just generally would be a good one off race idea.

Balast - Possibly, and I've seen it used in BTCC, the use of balast. The idea being if a driver wins, he would get ''X amount of weight'' added to his car for the next race( be it the whole weekend, or just race session, not too sure...) 2nd place would get ''Y amount'' and so forth for the top 8 scorers. It would reset itself after each race, so a driver who won 4 races in a row wouldn't be weighed down by (e.g) 40kg. It would be...

• 'Normal' - Race win + 10kg for next race.
• 'Normal + 10kg' - Race win + 10kg for next race
• 'Normal + 10kg' - Race win + 10kg for next race etc.

Unless anyone thinks it would be better if it just kept being added on regardless.

The possiblity of playing a ''joker''. For those who have ever watched ''It's a knock-out'' will be familar with the term. Still I'll explain. Every team awarded a 'joker' at the start of the season, which can be used at any track, however must be submitted before first practise session. The idea being this joker allows a team to double their points for any race points bagged, there is also the posibility that both your cars wont finish so no bonus. Try to imagine the following...

'X' circuit. Finishes before any joker consideration.

1st. Vettel - 10pts/ 2nd. Alonso - 8pts/ 3rd. Button - 6pts/ 4th. Webber - 5pts/ 5th. Hamilton - 4pts/ 6th. Sutil - 3pts/ 7th Raikonnen - 2pts /8th. Rosberg - 1pt.

Note: in this scenario Renault, and Ferrari elected to play their jokers....so points would be allocated as thus...

1st. Vettel - 10pts/ 2nd. Alonso - 16pts (joker)/ 3rd. Button - 6pts/ 4th. Webber - 5pts/ 5th. Hamilton - 4pts/ 6th. Sutil - 3pts/ 7th Raikonnen - 4pts (joker) /8th. Rosberg - 1pt.

As you can see, even though Alonso finished behind Vettel, Alonso bags more points due to played joker. And same goes for Raik. Piquet and Massa don't score joker points as they didn't finish in top 8.

Anyway that's all for now. thanks for taking time to read :u)

Callum.

Delightfully skeptical...I didn't drink honest!

Hello there again various readers...

This blog comes two days after my friend Andrew's 18th...overall, it was fantastic. :u).
Didn't top my 18th but still :P

Anyway enough of the smileys...this will become a small rant, but first a small story of how confused I was the day after. We (the party-goers) slept over Andrew's and, as you can expect sleep wasn't easy to get, and the sleep that was had...there wasn't much to go around for everyone -so to speak. I fell asleep a little after my return home, the next day. When I awoke, I was tired, so tired that I started questioning where I was, even though I was quiet clearly in my own house...and had been for a few hours. My sister thought it was humorous when I asked her where I was, but shortly after I was fine and dandy, and all was back to normality.

You may be thinking, 'he had too much (drink)', well you'd be wrong. I don't drink alcohol. Why? I just prefer not to, moreover I can attend a party - have fun/laughs/merriment without the need to become 'hammered'. I think, and know to be honest, that with a lot of people they feel shy and restricted from having ''MAXIMUM MERRIMENT'' if they don't drink. With me, I can just be my mad, crazy (I've been told enough...) self without having to worry about my 1) state of mind. 2) health - from drinking. The only real thing I need to worry about is falling over, from attempting some crazy dance move. I'm not boasting there, just stating how I play that game.

Anyway I will draw this to a close...I feel quite chuffed as I have just manoeuvred a fly out of my room...I detest the buzzing noise...however I know there will be more coming...oh well.

Hope you enjoyed reading this.

Callum

A bit more open and general...

The following blog will simply detail a few things I've done, and will be doing in the past/next few weeks....

Firstington firstford, I feel a tad silly, as I have a youtube account, however didn't ever get round to reporting the fact I had seen and actually met ROSS NOBLE!!! I regard this a pretty big thing personally, the show itself was fanatasic, and I hope I never forget what a great night it was.

More recently was my last day at Sixth Form (that is to say we are ''off timetable'', due to study leave -I'm sure you understand)...anyway the day itself felt...well empty as far as leavers' days go. Why? Well it's probably to do with the fact that many of my friends had exams during the day - I hadn't had any all that week....Furthermore, at my comprehensive school (as I'm sure goes for many secondary schools) there was the notion of shirt signing, aswell as a GRAND number of pictures taken....at the Sixth Form, there wasn't really any shirts being signed, ontop of that I could only see a handful of cameras at a time. Not too sure as to why....but hey.

After my last 8 exams are over, in June we are having a leavers' ball, so this hopefully will act as a better form of a send off/goodbye. I've heard a lot of people say it's pointless, but personally there are a great number of friends I know going to it, so it'll be a damn good night! Plus this time I have a girlfriend ;). Not to take anything away from those who I went to my 'first' prom with, but I really only knew these people, they wern't best friends, bar my best mate who did go, but other than him, non of my males-chaps went. Still THAT was a good night :)

What lies ahead today?...Well once I get showered and such, tonight I'm heading to my mate - Andrew's , for his 18th. Just a few people over his house, my sort of thing.

Anyway hope you've enjoyed this. As always, would love feedback, even if that's over Twitter :P


Callum

The business of going to University.

Within the next few months...

I should be going to Bangor University to study English and Linguistics. Great, no problem there.

My problem lies with those sort of people who seemingly have taken only easy subject, and can walk their way into University. The thing is, I believe some people try damn hard with hard(er) subject, Sciences, Languages etc, and may only come out with a C (for example) however there may be someone who takes comparably easier subjects however gets three A grades at A level. So, the former of the examples may miss out on Uni, whereas the later may get in, and it may even be onto a course that requires no previous experience, with three As, only because they took easier subjects. No trying to take anything away from the 'easier' subjects, they do their job, but at the end of the day some subjects will be harder than others. It's just the way it is.

Sorry if anyone is shocked/offended by my last statement, but if you take Media Studies and place it next to Chemistry, Chemistry would win in terms of hardness.

My point simply, if you haven't truely understood my rambling, is that well...I'll explain with the following...

I have spoken with a few people who agree with an idea I had. That being that some subjects (somehow) should be valued higher than others, thereby assisting some people with getting into Uni. Now I can hear cries of, ''but if they don't get As for (e.g.) Chemistry that's their problem, you can't blame those who do Media (e.g.)'' - However it must be taken in to consideration that some people may really want to do a science/language at a University, and nothing should stop them (same for all others subjects) but may not be fully 'there' at A-level, but do have the potential, but may not be the best at exams, so they fall down.

After some thought, I proposed the following;
(this is based on the current UCAS points system, and thereby ONLY points based offers are touched here, I'm not too sure as to what would be done for a grade based offer...)

• For extremely hard subjects +20 UCAS points.
• For those not as hard +10 UCAS points.
• For those subjects valued as easy, OR which have a high intake of students NO points.

The idea (which I know would need reviewing) is something I think would encourage people to think more when they pick their A-Levels, With many of my friends, we've discussed ''If we could turn back time, what would we pick...'', had someone said ' X subject banks you 20 crucial UCAS points, I may have considered X subject'. I believe it would just be a good system to enforce so you would have more people doing a foreign language...something I feel stongly about but I feel that it's something for another blog.

Anyway let me know your thoughts.Hope you enjoyed.

Callum

Hopefully the start of something beautiful....

Hello all.

Assuming this works, you're reading my (Callum Robson's) first blog, a la this site.

This is just going to be a short welcome, and then I'll publish 'real' blog thereafter.

So welcome, I'll hopefully get round to covering a few topics, ranging from the things that make me happy, those things that make me sad, and everything inbetween.



Thanks for reading.



Callum