Gems from Jemma

I have a friend called Jemma who can be funny in ways she doesn't even realise and, bless, she came out with some great gems today:

Jemma: "Right, Andy. If something isn't real, what is it? Real?"

[After somebody took empty chairs] Jemma: "I'm off to get them chairs back"
 Me: "Why? We don't need them"
Jemma: "Pfft. They are ours"


Just an insight into my fucked up world.

3 Weird things that interest me

I'm no average person. Nobody is and nobody can be. We're all weird in our own way. For example, I'm known for being much more weirder than my friends having a great interest in the technology and how it works; Something my friends know little about. I've been thinking, I'm quite interested in a couple of things which is not really common and granted and I'm sure I'm not the only one interested in this things:

Interior Design


I love interior design and how people design the way rooms lock and feel; places where people work in particular and I'm a massive fan of people who take how their desk looks seriously. It's one of the weirdest thing I've found myself to be an enthusiast mainly because of how a messy person I am. Rarely do I find myself cleaning or clearing things away and I'm oh-so lazy yet I love a clean, organised desk. wtf?

Sweden


I have some kind of unhealthy liking to Sweden and Swedish culture. At the moment, I'm trying my best to learn Svenska and I'm also finding myself watching SVT (Sweden's BBC) and I'm also finding myself listening to Sveriges Radio which I'm listening to now.

LAND AV SVENSKARNA

I don't know what they're saying.. Something about the election?!

The London Underground

Have I mentioned that my favourite mode of transport is little under 100 miles away from me? No, well that's why I always see it as a novelty. I love the company culture that TFL puts into the London Underground and I guess that's another reason why I love it so. Also it's a very convient way of travel.

A photographer's note

I've been meaning (to write this damn blog) to get into the habit of taking photographic notes of subjects that I find quite interesting among my daily routine when I'm without my camera. Not only this, but uploading these said notes. I took a couple today which I will have to get around to quite soon and I will be sure to post them when I have taken these photos.

Anyway, I'll be trying to make a habit of taking this pictures with my phone as a visual reminder of things I find lovely and forgetful.

Cardiff

Me and my family had went down to Cardiff for my mother's birthday weekend and it was lovely.. Kinda. See, we had quite large expectations of Cardiff being all much like London from watching too much of BBC's quality shows and the fact it was a capital city. It seemed very anti-pedestrian as you couldn't really walk anywhere but we did get to the millenium centre eventually and we also went to the Doctor Who exhibition which was AWESOME. A couple of photos to leave on, I guess.

Life in black and white

I was trying very hard to not let my next blog post be a photo one but I couldn't help myself; I promise I shall write some more. I do try!

Anywho, after being to London, I have started to learn an effect to my works. See, my camera can take black and white photos much like any other camera you can buy and I've also seen quite a few black and white photos whilst looking around websites like Flickr. They seem to send some kind of good emotion and make pictures stand out really well. I would like some critiques in the comments, if you don't mind.

This last one is a personal favourite of mine, I must admit. The image is of my parents and my mother is planning to get it professionally printed. I feel so happy about that. I also have the free prints that came with my camera to use and I must pick the best ones really soon.

A lot of luck required!

I've started to enter more contests both online for publicity and in my local newspaper for prizes. I suppose it gives me the motivation to keep up with doing photography and perhaps maybe I'll meet new people along the way. It'll also teach me some new tricks about my camera.. Hopefully.

Yucky sushi plush

© Andy Harmon

This is supposed to be red pepper nigiri plush toy with a piece of felt-seaweed over it. It's a bit rubbish but it's a start of something new I guess.

Topicless

I love my blog.

I really like to write to it as much as possible but quite recently, I've had nothing much to say too it and my audience as it seems to be. I suppose it may be that I have no complete, general topic to this web page, so to speak. And I don't really express my opinions about things at all, thinking about it during mid-writing and perhaps I should.

For now.. I'm a bit topicless.

Oh, workspace.. I love you!

© Andy Harmon

I really don't get why I clean my desk when it's just bound to be messed up to the state before-hand in the matter of a couple of seconds. Yet I still I clean it.

I'm a sucker.

Honey, I'm home!

So, toats back from Lanzarote and took a load of excellent pictures I shall be showcasing in the next week or so. I'll be sure to keep you posted on new happenings with me and I'm also making some changes to the blog. For one, I'll be cancelling the photo every day series I do as I have seem to lost what I had intended to   do when I first started it. I now would prefer to showcase a couple of photos and then comment on them as a whole.

I also never mentioned when my breaks in blogging would appear. I will make a calendar ASAP.

Nerdy dictionary corner!

A quick post before I jet off to Lanazarote:

Here's a fun game to play, flick to any page in the dictionary and select any word; the more random, the better! Now, with that word in mind, you must use said word in the correct context in a regular discussion with friends. Trust me, it's a very hard, yet nerdishly fun at the same time.

Now go forth and confuse people!

Time for a coffee break...

Okay.. That may not be totally true but I'm going to be away for a long amount of time with no updates to this blog. Shame really; I'd like to keep this blog alive when I'm not here. But anyway, I shall return from Lanzaroté with thousands of things to say.

¡Hasta pronto, vatos!

You learn something new everyday...

If you don't know me, you'll not know about my massive love for Swedish things and the culture of Sweden. Jag talar Svenska inte but I just love the language and accent and I've impressed a couple of people with my nerdish knowledge of Sweden and while I don't live there or ever seen the place, it's one of my favourite countries (apart from Japan but that's a given).

Du gamla, Du fria, Du fjällhöga nord!

Whilst reading and researching about the culture, I learned that Swedes have a massive love for coffee which made me want to pack my bags and leave but it got EVEN BETTER; they have special times for coffee breaks (which they call fika; translating as "to drink coffee") during the day which even the government precipitate. I had never knew that before and it just wants me to edge closer and closer to living in Sweden for a couple of years or so. Or at least puts it at one of the places I really would love to visit.

I could do that!

We were having a discussion about foods you really could give up and never eat again; stuff you could live without. We interestingly came onto meat that you could live without. My aunt Doreen had mentioned the time she and her son, Luke, had done a whole month of having a vegetarian diet and it got me thinking of doing it myself; How hard could it be?!

Now, I'm totally bullshitting here, but I think I could survive without meat of any kind and I guess I'd also learn new cooking skills I guess and I suppose it could be a good way to try something new. There isn't any point in saying that I couldn't do it without trying so I guess it'll be the only way I'll find out and if I like it I can continue it and to be honest, I'd really like to go vegetarian. So, me and my mother will be doing this, come September. Hopefully it should be a lot of fun.

AH

Photo Every Day #38: HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Today marks my 14th birthday!

Start the summer..

So, I'm gonna be on a St John Ambulance camp for the next week and off to Lanzarote for the following week. We also have way too many things to be doing in the week and it's also my 14th birthday on Thursday. Expect it to be a break from my blog although it pains for me to say it. I could do some automated posts for next week so expect a couple or so if you follow me on the Google Connect gadget thing; we'll see

Also, I'm sooo looking forward to my new camera I'm getting for my birthday.. Anyway, what plans do you have for the holidays?

Looks can be deceiving..

This morning, like every other morning, I watched the BBC News before leaving for school. Right as I was about to leave, there was a report about the government cutting this Build Schools for the Future thing and how the schools which already got their investments to improve their schools. Interestingly, it had claimed that the schools with these new buildings were actually improving the grades of student which sounds a bit weird. Okay, new environments can change the mind-set of some people but I didn't that it could improve concentration or people's attitudes to doing school work. Furthermore, these studies are completely inaccurate (as they are measured just in the one year of the new buildings) but the idea of that sounds dumb anyway. I guess the only thing these buildings are doing is attracting more people to jump onto their schools which seems attractive with these new buildings; that's all.

I love, however, how my school's head teacher had done this 15 minute presentation about the quality of the school being based on the students' relations with staff, good behaviour and attendance and overall good success. Which is how you should measure 'a good school'

Photo Every Day #31: Breathing Fire

© Andy Harmon

This is a picture of my aunt, Doreen which was taken at the 'Bang Goes the Theory' road show in Nottingham market square. It was a fun day but this experiment was quite amazing.

I wish I knew how to read sheet music...

I really wish I could read this shit...

Final days

We're reaching the end of our school year. Like seriously, it's completely noticeable since we're not actually doing anything worth-while. I had a whole hour lesson just dicking around with a couple of cameras. Not that I'm saying it wasn't completely excellent fun, just saying it's a bit pointless being in school.

© Charlotte Collier

I suppose I should make the most of my time with my friends before jetting off to Spain, North Africa.