Monday 9 June 2008

I love them, but...

...cats can be really freaky sometimes.

My sister was on her way home from work, and as she was walking down the drive to our house, she spotted a small silver tabby cat, complete with harness and leash, by our neighbour's car. She told me, and I went out to try and catch it before it ran out into the road. It wasn't easy. The little rascal was scared stiff of me, hissing a few times (although cats generally like me, and this one preferred me to my sister) but I finally managed to grab hold of its leash.

Then we were stuck with a kitten on a leash, not knowing what the hell to do with it. So my sister told me to stand in the drive (bare-footed, I might add) while she, in her boots (why she had them at work, I don't know) went to the end of the drive and walked up and down the drive, looking to see if anyone was searching for this cat.

So there was me, cat on a leash, standing bare-footed in the drive, with wet hair (I'd just had a shower). I looked at the cat. The cat hissed at me, and then tried to drag me down the drive, but I was quite a lot bigger than it, so it didn't have much success with that. And then, just to make things worse, my neighbour's cat Cleo decided to come and have a look. And that's when the cat on a leash did something really freaky. It made this odd noise, like a baby crying, but it actually said 'Meow'. Seriously! It was going 'Meowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeow' in this high-pitched baby voice. It almost gave me a heart attack.

Cleo, onm the other hand, puffed up like a cobra to twice her size, and let out this long, snake-like hiss from the back of her throat, then jumped on top of our fence and stayed there, looking sulky. The cat on a leash tried to follow her, but I wouldn't let it.

Then the guy who lives at the end of the drive came out, utterly relieved that I'd found his cat. His cat. And he told me the cat hadn't had his last injection yet, and wasn't really meant to be outside.

No kidding!

He picked the cat up -if I'd tried that, I'd've been scratched to pieces, I tell you- thanked me for finding him, and then went away. I stood outside, whistling at my sister to tell her to come home, and that was the end of the cat-on-a-leash fiasco.

Hell, I love cats, and want one, but if mine ever makes a noise like that one did, I'll seriously freak out. Spawn of Satan and all.

Thursday 5 June 2008

It's been a while, blog!

Hello blog! It's been a while. Stupid revision takes up all the time in the day that could be better spent reading MaryJanice Davidson's Undead series or catching up on Code Geass R2.

Anyway.

It's Big Brother time again. Whoopee. I spent the launch show watching House.

See, I hate Big Brother. Absolutely hate it. My mother would shoot me for saying that, but I don't care. Her watching it means I can't record Heroes (we have Sky+ but she was recording House for herself) so I shall say what I like about the worse thing ever to come out of Holland- Big Brother.

Why do people watch it? It's just so.... shallow. My mother tried to explain it in terms of psychological validity, thinking that me and my psychology student-ness would become interested and give her someone in the house to talk to about BB. She says that it's interesting from a psychological point of view as it gives us the opportunity to study human behaviour in that sort of environment.

Two problems with that. One, if it was a psychology experiment, it would be banned for ethical reasons. But because it's on TV it's apparantly okay to submit people, however irritating they might be, to demeaning tasks and constant observation of every little thing they do. Second, people don't act naturally in a situation like that. They are well aware there are cameras everywhere. So they act to that. In psychology it's called demand characteristics. In layman's terms, it's called playing to the camera. So how can you observe human behaviour when it's carefully calculated by the contesents to boost their own popularity. I mean, there was that guy last year who acted completely thickly throughout the whole series, but was apparantly pretty bright. He just acted that way because he knew it would make him popular. And it did. He won, I believe. Brian somebody (I get told this stuff by my mother, whether I want to hear it or not)

Anyway, before I get into a total anti-BB rant, I shall finish here. I am watching Mock the Week, after which I will go to bed, as I have an exam tomorrow. Yay...

Thursday 29 May 2008

(Not much of) an anime update

Atfer revising my little socks off for pretty much all of this week (you have no idea just how boring Liberalism is, let me tell you) I've decided to catch up on some Bleach filler.

I've been neglecting anime a little recently. Stupid revision gets in the way of what's really important- Bleach filler and Code Geass R2. So I'm going to watch at least a couple of episodes of the former (I'm 3 eps behind) and maybe some of Code Geass later this week.

I bought Fushigi Yuugi volume 4 today.

That's pretty much it. I'm too boring to be allowed a blog, seriously.

Wednesday 28 May 2008

Storm Fever

Barely got a wink of sleep last night. I was woken up at about half past four by this almighty crash of thunder, and from then on the storm raged (literally) for about 40 minutes. For the first twenty or so minutes it was pretty much right on top of us, and I remember looking outside and seeing this huge flash of lightning, though I'm not sure if it was forked or not as it pretty much blinded me.

Anyway, as I've mentioned inm a previous blog, I suffer from Keraunophobia, that is, a fear of thunder and lightning. So after a couple of minutes of blinding flashes and deafening crashes, I gave up the ghost and took my duvet into my parent's room, where they let me huddle in a corner wrapped in my duvet like a cocoon until the storm had passed.

Great people, my parents.

Anyway, it finally ended, and I went, trembling slightly, back to my own room. Whereupon the stupid birds started their stupid dawn chorus. So it took me ages to fall back to sleep thanks to the twittering of the birds and the distant rumbles of thunder I could still hear.

Anyway, I've been awake for all of five minutes now, and I need to get on with some revision. After last night, I'm kind of glad I'm not doing any stubject to do with the weather.

Saturday 24 May 2008

Euroblog part 6!

43 countries voting. Yay. This is going to be fun. I want Turkey to win.

UK- 12 points to Greece
FYR Macedonia- 12 to Albania (obviously)
Ukraine- 12 to Russia (I said that at the same time as her! It was that obvious!)
Germany- (why is their rep wearing wings?) 12 to Greece
Estonia- 12 to Russia (surprise surprise!)
Bosnia and Herz.- 12 to Serbia

Please, someone vote for us! We have no points yet, we don't want another Jemini! I'm putting my trust in Ireland and Malta.

Albania- 12 to Greece (they're doing pretty well!)
Belguim- 12 to Armenia (interesting...)
San Marino (where?)- Yay! Somewhere I never heard of gave us 6!!!! 12 to Greece.
Latvia- 12 to Russia (I already typed that before she said it)
Bulgaria- 12 to Germany (what?! That's a little odd. And Germany have overtaken us now. But at least we have points)
Serbia- 12 to Bosnia and Herz. (quite obviously, but eurgh. Are they all deaf?)
Israel- 12 to Russia
Cyprus- 12 to Greece (obviously)
Moldova (their rep looks drunk)- 12 to Romania
Iceland- 12 to Denmark (duh)

I think we should follow in Austria's footsteps and pull out of this. This political voting is ridiculous.

France- 12 to Armenia
Romania- 12 to Greece (that's a little surprising, but they're not that far from Greece)
Portugal- 12 to Ukraine (huh? They only gave Spain 10, that's odd)
Norway- 12 to Denmark

I'm sad Turkey has dropped down. The poppy ones are doing well. Russia might win.

Hungary- 12 to Azerbaijan (hmm!)
Andorra- 12 to Spain (I think that's kind of obvious)
Poland- 12 to Armenia (they gave 6 to Russia, that's odd.)
Slovenia (back to Balkan bloc voting)- 12 to Serbia (obviously)

Seriously, you just need a map and you can figure out the voting patterns. It's depressing.

Armenia- 12 to Russia
Czech Republic- 12 to Armenia
Spain- 12 to Romania (eh? They voted oddly this year)
The Netherlands- 12 to Armenia

I feel let down by the Dutch. They didn't give us anything. Jery's going to get an earful next time I talk to him.

Turkey (I wish they were doing better)- 12 to Azerbaijan
Malta- Arrrrrrrgh. 12 to Sweden! They're in the flipping Commonwealth!
Ireland- (oh thank god, they gave us 8. I won't have to kill cara after all) 12 to Latvia.
Switzerland- 12 to Serbia
Azerbaijan- 12 to Turkey (good people!)
Greece- 12 to Armenia
Finland- 12 to (something Scandinavian, I'm guessing) Norway (see!)
Croatia- (Serbia will get something- 10) 12 to Bosnia and Herz. (of course)
Sweden- 12 to Norway (duh)
Belarus- 12 to Russia (both me and Terry Wogan said that at the same time as her)
Lithuania- 12 to Russia (again, Eastern bloc voting)
Russia- 12 to Armenia
Montenegro- (it's Balkan) 12 to Serbia (there should be a rule against voting for neighbours, but then Ireland wouldn't give us anything)
Georgia- 12 to Armenia

Lastly, Denmark- 12 to Iceland

Russia wins with 272 points (in comparison, we lost with 14, tied with Germany and Poland. The unpopular countries politically, apparantly)

Russia's wasn't awful (I don't think I liked it much) but because of a rise in oil prices all the Baltic and Balkan states will try to keep in their favour as they are economically reliant on Russia.

So this is the end of this political farce, for another year. I really do think we should follow in Austria's footsteps, but then we wouldn't get the joy of laughing at all the ridiculous entries and the despair of seeing how well they do.

Euroblog part 5!

Oh, the joys of Sky+! We were curious as to how the Georgians had done their costume change, so we wound it back. They threw a big white sheet over them and poof! Eurowhite appeared! It was really clever!


If I voted, I'd go for Turkey. Cara wants Azerbaijan to win.

Their 'odd song to fill time while we count the votes' is truly rubbish. To think, Riverdance first came about as a filler piece once when Ireland were hosting Eurovision, and they've gone on to be world famous for their amazing dancing (I'm a Riverdance fan). I don't think this lot have any hope of that. Well, maybe in Serbia, but they won't be world famous.

Right, I think the filler stuff is over (filler is a phrase I borrowed from anime, for my non-anime liking readers, if any). I think they're nearly done with counting the votes, so I'm going to do my very best with this. I'm only going to write the twelve point votes at the moment, because it's difficult to type as quickly as the over-excited country representatives speak. But my sister, bless her, is going to try and write down every single vote (good luck to her) so I'll nab that off her tomorrow and add them to Euroblog part 6 (or 7, which it will probably be by that time)

I can't believe they bumped Doctor Who to next week for this. Gah.

I've written too much here. I'm going to make Euroblog part 6 specifically for the results.

Euroblog part 4!

The trophy this year is a little weird. Hmm. Anyway, onto the next one!

FRANCE- Sebastian Tellier 'divine' (sp) Hmmm... all the FEMALE backing singers have fake beards, and he arrived on stage in a golf cart-cum- beach buggy. And he's holding what seems like an inflatable, see-through globe. It's obviously not accurate, as you can't even see the magma and stuff, but I guess you can't have everything. Hmm.... I don't think France are taking this very seriously this year.

Yeah.... just, hmmm......... I can't think of any other way to describe it.

AZERBAIJAN- 'Day after day' by someone who'se name I missed. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I think this winged Eurowhite guy is either a eunuch or wearing very, very tight trousers. He has Eurowhite contact lenses and Eurosilver hair. There's also a guy dressed in black who is sitting on a big black throne. They're pretty good singers, actually, I wouldn't mind them winning (apart from the screeching at the beginning from the eunuch, which seems to have made a comeback) but I could do without the undulating 'devil' and 'angel' dancers. Is this some lame attempt at a heaven and hell theme? Wait, what happened to the throne? It seems to have vanished while I was typing. Wogan doesn't like it. I'm kind of ashamed that I do.

GREECE- Kalomira 'Secret Combination' wearing pink with guys in black suits with white shirts, who were holding her up on a silver pole. Yeah.... Ooh, the return of cowbow tassles (pink ones). This is really rather unimpressive. it's kind of just a factory-made R'n'B song, in all honesty. Hmm.... where did the giant purple heat some from. And where did the majority of her dress go? I miss things when I type, obviously. I should learn touch-typing. Another epileptic fitter, where are the St. John's Ambulance?! These people need to be checked over! Oh, good, it's finished.

SPAIN- Portugal will vote for them. Obviously. Rodolfo something. Er.... someone dressed as Elvis just planed 'old mcdonald' on a kid's toy guitar. What's with the Turkish (emphasis on the ISH) dancing? Like France, and obviously Ireland, Spain doesn't want to go to the expense of hosting this next year (and people say we don't take this seriously, and Spain submits rubbish like this?) I'm sure I just heard the world 'a-ya-ya'. CHICKEN DANCING!!!!!! I'll be surprised if Portgual votes for that, to be honest :S

SERBIA- The song is called 'oro'. Two of the dancers are dead (at least, they're lying on the ground and are very still). The singer is in Eurowhite (obviously). There's a woman holding a violin. That's hopefuly. Oh! The violin apparantly brings dead people to life. There's someone else with a lute and someone with a tinwhistle or something, and the dead people are slowly undulating (for want of a better word) slowly around the stage. Maybe they weren't dead, maybe they were drugged? Hmm, maybe her dress isn't Eurowhite. Actually, I think it's Eurowhite with a Eurosilver floaty thing over the top. A bit unimpressive, I'll say.

RUSSIA- (and two more songs to go) This is where bloc voting will really come into play. All of those former USSR countries are going to vote for Russia. (I missed the song title, sorry) EUROWHITE!!! Damnit! And another violin. I think someone paralyed his legs, he's sitting on the floor. As it the violin player. Or maybe Russian people are just very short? Oh, he stood up. And he had a tealight. Maybe it's his pet? He's not wearing shoes! How unhygenic is that?! MICHAEL FLATLEY ON ICESKATES! I didn't even notice the ice. It's not actually Flatley, but he's wearing iceskates around a guy with no shoes. It's kind of entertaining waiting for his toes to be cut off.

They sadly weren't.

NORWAY- Missed the song title. They're wearing dark blue. Good for them! No Eurowhite! It's kind of generic, to be honest. Not very memorable. Pretty Beyonce or something. I don't really have much to say about it, but I reckon it'll do quite well. This'll be scandanavian bloc voting in action again, I reckon.

Euroblog part 5 will be the results, so I'll sit back and watch the rubbish in between. The voting has just opened for 15 minutes so I'll watch the recap stuff in the meantime.