21st JULY 2007

There are two things I would like to write about today. Both are issues very close to my heart, the first being something that I was looking forward to for almost five years of my life.

On this day in 2007, in England (and a couple of days later across the world) the seventh and final Harry Potter book titled "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" went on sale for the first time.

Ten years since the first of the series was published by amazing and awe-inspiring author J.K Rowling, the seventh Potter book broke records for being the fastest-selling book ever, with more than 15 million copies sold in the first 24 hours. In both America and Great Britain alone, more than 11 million copies of the book were sold. The book went to break records in the other 93 countries were it was sold. The novel is also translated into 120 different languages including some of the more obscure ones such as Ukranian.

I've already talked in a previous post about how much I love Harry Potter. I can remember being so excited to buy and read the last book. I was in grade eight at the time and had already read all of the previous books almost religiously. Just ask yourself, seriously for a moment, what child born in the nineties did not fantasise and dream about getting their letter to go to Hogwarts? It was just a book series that reached into the hearts and minds of so many children and young adults. I loved it. I mean, I still go back and re-read the books and I don't think I will ever stop doing that. It's almost tradition. And what with the movies and the audio books all begin released you will continually be able to live and look at that magical world, hoping to become a part of it.

So, now that that's out of the way, my little love confession for Harry Potter, I would like to make a more serious note.

What is up with terrible drivers? Not just public transport drivers, but people, ordinary men and women such as yourselves, driving so recklessly that I almost die not once, but twice within two blocks? I do not like driving in the city and can you blame me when I'm on a bus (a large moving object that you can all, hopefully, see from quite the distance away, and yet there is still the possibility that some idiot driver will turn the wrong way down a one way street and almost crash into the bus directly in the window next to my seat? Come on people! P platers get a bad rep for being terrible drivers but what about the people that taught us to drive? Somewhere along the line you, the mass population, have to recognise that it's not all the p platers that are terrible drivers. There are terrible drivers in every age demographic except for toddlers and children.

And if they're the ones that are driving, so help us all!!

Image 1 available: http://bookedupbloggers.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/interview-with-book-blogger-cliona.html 
Image 2 available: http://www.abc.net.au/cgi-bin/common/printfriendly.pl?http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200511/s1506297.htm

20th JULY 2008

Alright, let's just put on our nerd/geek hats for a moment shall we folks and discuss the brilliance that is Batman.

On this day, in 2008 in America, the second Batman movie, "The Dark Knight", starring Christian Bale as Batman and Heath Ledger as the ultimate bad guy, The Joker (just for those people who haven't seen it and have been living in a box for most of their lives), opened for the first time.

Over the course of two days, the movie broke the record for the biggest opening weekend ever, taking in $155.4 million. Not only did this beat the previous record set by Spiderman 3 (released in 2007) but it inspired a whole lot more movie goers to become the incredible Batman fans that exist today. How do I know that these Batman fans exist?

Well, on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, I went, with one of my most beloved friends, to see the midnight screening of the latest Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises", and I can safely say that there are hundreds of Batman fans out there because I saw almost a hundred fans turn up to see the movie!

I loved the third movie. I'm not exactly a raging fan like those others but I do enjoy the movies and I was a little hesitant towards the idea of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. LOVED IT!

Although it was a little obvious as to who the bad guy was going to be, I just loved the whole movie. BUT my favourite part was Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Blake, the Policeman. Brilliant actors, brilliant movie, brilliant everything!

Go and watch the movie! I command thee!


...Please.

Image available: http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/8031/article/watch-the-dark-knight-rises-trailer-re-done-in-arkham-city-and-batman-the-animated-series/

19th JULY 1935

For some reason, it's been a rant week. Or at least a rant couple of days. So continuing with this 'rant' theme, I would like to talk/yell-at/bitch-about the horror that is parking fees.

I blame Carlton Magee, the creator of the Park-O-Meter, which was, on this day in 1935, first installed in a car park in Oklahoma City in the U.S of A.

What my main grievance is directed towards, is the inconstancy with which parking meters and parking fees are placed across car parks in the city, at shopping centre car parks, in the street, in country towns, anywhere. What annoys me is that there is no standard payment. One shopping centre is over priced, another has no fee at all and for that reason everyone parks there and there are never any car parks free! Everything about parking is annoying. You have to turn the steering wheel at just the right time to park correctly and if you miss! The consequences to pay are extravagant!

It all annoys me. Whilst I do have my license and can legally drive a car by myself (woot, responsibility!), I don't have a car and therefore do not drive often in the city. I catch public transport, mainly buses, and for that reason was not exposed to this horror of parking for a short period of time. But then I had my best friend stay with me for a week and I drove her car around and had to park places. And pay $16 for two hours. FOR TWO HOURS!! I could have used that money and bought food! And I love food!

All in all, what I'm wanting to get across is that parking sucks and anybody who says otherwise is clearly a nut job.

Or a parking meter attendant. But who'd want that job. Really.

Image available: http://www.wired.com/autopia/2007/10/cell-phones-int/ 

18th JULY 1984

I'm not a big fan of fast food.

I just think that it's a really bad food option for a person to take. And there are so many fast food outlets. I mean, KFC, Hungry Jacks, Pizza Hut, Dominoes. I don't even eat from these places and I know of them. Maybe it's because of the subliminal messaging that places like these send out in their adverts. And there are a million adverts. Why!?! If the places are so popular what's the point of continual advertising? I have a friend studying advertising at university and I couldn't think of a job that I would be less suited for. Especially, if the places that I had to advertise for were fast food places. Because I wouldn't be able to think of anything to say positively for them. I think that the negatives of fast food places greatly outweigh the positives. Obesity, bad complexion, tiredness, feeling sluggish, upset, laziness and generally just being unhealthy. Why would you do that to yourself? And more importantly, why would you do that to your body? I guess what I'm angry about more than anything, is that despite being put on the spot in films such as Supersize Me, the fast food industry has largely gone consequent free in regards to child obesity and general unhealthiness. And even though, those companies are beginning to change their menus and trying to make themselves , I still think that they have a long way to go before I will ever consider even buying water from there.

But I have digressed from the point that I was going make in the beginning.

What started my rant against fast food was that on this day in 1984, James Oliver Huberty entered a McDonald's in San Ysidro, California and with the three guns he had taken from his home, shot and injured 19 people, killing a further 21.

He told his wife that he was going out "hunting humans". Apparently, the day before he and his family had gone to the McDonald's for a family meal, after spending the morning at the San Diego Zoo. On this day, he returned to the McDonald's and shot his mainly Mexican and Mexican-American victims, ranging from 8 months to 74 years.

The nightmare for the McDonald's patrons only ended when he was fatally shot by a SWAT team sniper.

The patrons had to endure 77 minutes of terror before the nightmare massacre ended.

And I'm not sure why, but what annoys me the most about all of this, is that it happened in a fast food restaurant, where good people (lazy people, but still good) were just trying to live there lives as they pleased. I couldn't imagine dying in a takeaway place. I would feel so ripped off, cheated in my final moments of life.

Sucks really.


Image 1 available: http://ozziesaffa.blogspot.com.au/2011_04_01_archive.html 
Image 2 available: http://www.facebook.com/pages/James-Oliver-Huberty-McMurder/200420946434

17th JULY 1968

On this day in 1968, in Great Britain, the animated musical fantasy film Yellow Submarine, which is based on the music of The Beatles, premiered in London.

Whilst The Beatles themselves were only involved in a small portion of the film, composing and performing the songs as well as appearing in the closing scene, the film received a widely positive reception from critics and the audience. It is also credited with making animation appear as a more acceptable and serious art from, generating more interest in animation as a serious field of development and production.

Directed by George Dunning, the film follows John, Paul, George and Ringo as they try to defend the unearthly paradise of Pepperland, a place where happiness and music reign supreme, from the menace that is the Blue Meanies and their Flying Glove. Armed with little more than their humour, songs and of course, their yellow submarine, The Beatles attempt to bring down the evil forces of bluedom.


The Beatles were a great band, perhaps the greatest band of definitely the sixties, and indeed all of remembered music history. I wouldn't say that they are one of my favourite bands, but I can definitely understand why so many people liked them and created that massive fan base around them. So, if you haven't seen the film, then here's the trailer. See if it messes with your head or not!

Video available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh7WloRdkls 

16th JULY 2004

I'm not particularly inventive when it comes to interior design or table decorations or cooking. Usually I just make what I have to make and it's semi-attractive and that's that. But when it comes to extreme attractiveness of household items, no one does it better than Martha Stewart. Except for maybe when she had to do it via correspondence.

What?! You don't know what I'm talking about. Well, then. I'll just have to explain it, won't I? (Aren't I just the little schemer? No? Rude.)

On this day in 2004, Ms. Stewart was sentenced to prison for conspiracy, obstruction of an agency proceeding and making falls statements to federal investigators. Basically insider trading and embezzlement. Not very fashionable Ms. Martha!

Found guilty in March, 2004 of selling 3928 shares of her ImClone Systems stock on December 27, 2001 preceding a market fall of 16%, Ms. Stewart avoided a loss of $45, 673 after receiving material, non-public information from her broker at Merrill Lynch.

Given a term of five months behind bars and with a two year period of supervised release, including five months of house arrest by a New York federal judge, Ms. Stewart didn't officially enter prison until October 8, 2004 and was release on March 4, 2005.

Supposedly, Stewart's nickname in prison was M. Diddy. M. Diddy up the house!!

What I think I love about Ms. Martha is that after being in prison for that period of time, and basically just the fact that she went to prison, everybody believed that her days of telling us to sauté and stir-fry were over, but no! Launching a comeback career almost as soon as she was released from prison, by September 2005, The Martha Stewart Show and The Apprentice: Martha Stewart both premiered, with somewhat acceptable ratings. Ms. Martha has appeared in Law & Order: SVU and still has a magazine running. She didn't care that people thought she wouldn't make it. She just went for it.

M. Diddy lived on!

But despite all that, there were a number of people who said that Ms. Martha was a finished entity. That her media empire preceding her entry into prison would never again be hers. And I suppose that is true in some regards. But I've watched The Martha Stewart Show on TV when I've been sick from school. You know, trashy daytime television. I learnt how to make a Thanksgiving Day turkey tabs decoration from an apple, a printed image and toothpicks. So you know valuable stuff that I will be able to apply in my day to day life. And I don't really think that those television stations would play those re-runs as fillers for no reason. There are always other fillers. Although, come to think of it, I haven't actually seen  M. Diddy on TV for a while.

Maybe the TV stations are beginning to drift away from pot plant covers made from ribbon and leftover fabric from those curtains that you made and the sweater that you knitted. Who knows what happened really. I'm sure M. Diddy's out there somewhere, doing something.

Probably.


Image available: http://www.thatsweird.net/news29.shtml 

15th JULY 2012

Okay, let's take a step back at look at ourselves for a minute. Who are we? Possibly we are quite intelligent people, funny, charismatic with a lovely sense of self worth and the ability to accept that whilst our life may not be perfect it is still pretty darn good. We aren't starving or dying or poor or in a third world country where the nearest water supply is 1300 kilometres away. So why is it then, that we constantly feel the the need to look for all our insecurities, all the bad things about ourselves? Why must we nitpick on the little bits and pieces that we think make us worthless?

Where is this rant coming from? Well, I recently went to a friends 18th birthday party. I had a really great time because, as stereotypical as it sounds, I could catch up with a bunch of people who I hadn't seen in ages and who I genuinely missed. But what brought it down (and brought on the rant) was that there were a couple of my fabulous friends, who are indeed 100% fantastic, beautiful people, who were so upset because they started looking at their insecurities in a drunken state. Never a good thing to do. And they ended up not being able to have a very good time because all they did all night was focus on the bad things instead of foucusing on the positive things in their life, like the fact that they were at a party and didn't have any obligations to anybody and anything and could go wild and have a great time. Why do girls do things like this to themselves? Boys might do this too, but in my line of work and in my circle of life, it's mainly girls. Why must we look at ourselves and think, I suck. I am a crappy person. My hips are too big, my breasts are too small, I'm ugly, no wonder no boy wants to date me.

No! Just no!

Everybody is fabulous. Everybody is amazing in their own unique and special way. Yes, that is total mum-esque advice, but it's also total true. Do you think that the world and, for that matter, the human race would be as awesome as it is if everybody was the same? People, especially girls, need to start looking at themselves and start to appreciate the greatness that they are. I'm not perfect and I accept that.  I can also accept that I do things like this (look at my body and see something I don't like and fixate on it), I can. I'm actually pretty notorious at saying that my body is terrible, and sure you might think that's so hypocritical of me, but I'll get over that. What I'm trying to do now is look at my body or the things that make me upset about myself and figure out a way in which I can learn to accept it or fix it or work around it. For example, I think that I could be a bit fitter. I don't like my fitness level. So, I can easily rectify that, can't I? I've started eating healthier and making sure that I'm doing some sort of physical exercise each day, like running or walking.

And for my friends, and those people who aren't my friends but who also constantly have shit nights, I say this: No boy or girl or body figure is worth making yourself miserable over, especially when you're trying to have a good time. If, like some of my friends, a boy leads you on and you really like him and then you find out that he's sleeping/in love with someone else, forget him. Clearly, he's a dick head. If you think that he's the love of you life and you still want to be with him despite all the shit that he's doing now, talk to him instead of wallowing in self pity about how it has to be your body figure that turned him away. Have some self respect before you go respecting others.

You are all wonderful people. Inside and out.

Remember that. And if you can't find beauty in yourself and think you need to be like other people, here's a hipster quote to cheer you up:

Image available: http://weheartit.com/entry/32648535