Influential People

There are a lot of different types of influential people in the world, ranging from musicans and actors/actresses, to directors and musical producers, to political leaders and news company owners. For instance, I read recently in GQ that the number 1 most influential man in the world this year, and possibly for next year, judging by what they say, is non other than George Osborne, the "new iron chancellor" as they called him. He is apparently more influential than the PM himself, who came in at a poor number 2. These are the men who are leading our "great" country forwards, out of the current economic crisis, and on to a better place for Great Britian. *cough*. Sorry, my personal trust in politics and the banks of England has dropped by a considerable amount. But anyway, these are the two most influential men in the world, but too me, I don't find there to be much difference in my life, other than the prices of things changing, but that is it really. To me personally, the people who influence my life properly are musicans, actors/actresses, teachers (yes, they do actually make a difference), my family and my friends. I think that musicians influence me because they write songs that i enjoy listening to, and so henceforth, buy the songs, either through downloading, or by buy the actual CD copy. Actors and actresses entertain me, with good acting, singing, dancing or whatever. I then go to the cinema to see the films that they are in. Sometimes more than once. Teachers, who actually teach me things, not the stupid supply teachers, who, lets face it, have no control over the students, and so teach us nothing. The teachers who can teach have made me realise that I have to work for what I want, and so have to pay attention in lessons, though not RE, because it is the most pointlessly usless subject possible. And IT. I know how to work a dam computer. Anyway, I rambled abit there. So, the useful subjects, I pay attention in, because, as I found out a while ago, when applying to a university, they look back at your GCSE results, not only your A-levels. I found this rather worrying. Anyway, there is another thing that influences me. University, and what I want to do there, and afterwards. My family, purely because they are my family, and I do love them, no matter how much they get on my nerves. They encourage me to try new things, and try, I stress try, to help me in life. They take me to places that I want to go to. Not always, but most of the time. Or they give me money to help me get to that place. Etc. And, of course, last but not least, my friends, whom I would be very lost without. In fact, one of them, Charley Wilkinson, made me write this blog, about herself. There you go Charley, you got a mention. As you can tell, Charley is a good friend of mine, and my friends do influence me a lot. They recomend music to me, they suggest things to watch, they give me advice on what to do in certain situations. I try to listen to their advice and act upon it. It doesn't always happen, but that's just life. I also try to do things with my friends that we don't do often, such as meet up, and just go into town. Or go to concerts. Or just meet up outside of where we usually meet, and talk complete rubbish, as teenagers do. For instance, I had already seen Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but my girlfriend had not, so we went together, and saw it. Most of the time I wouldn't go and see a film again, unless I needed too to understand it properly, rather like Inception. That film is confusing. But I ramble again. Like I said, I wouldn't see a film twice in a cinema, but because of my girlfriend, I did. And that is a way I was influenced. But in a good way. Not a bad way, like falling in with the wrong crowd can make you want to take drugs, or smoke or do stupid things like that. A good way because we had a nice time, and nothing went wrong. And again I ramble. But anyway, everybody is influenced in different ways by different people. Sometimes in bad ways, sometimes in good ways, sometimes you influence people.

Christmas

Every year, christmas comes around, and every year, I get as excited as the next person. The joys of putting up the lights on the house, the fun of untangling the lights for the house (he says getting annoyed at how messed up the lights are), the last minute rush to buy presents for the people you forgot were coming to see you so you thought you could get away without getting them anything, the buying of the christmas tree, and having to look at every single christmas tree in the area, then buying the first one anyway (I blame my mother for this, every year, I say, "let's just get this one, it'll save us going everywhere else to just come back to get the same tree", not that it makes a difference to what happens. Oh well), the finding that one light doesn't work on the tree lights, and having to try and find which light you need to change (this often happens in my household, and it takes hours), decorating the inside of the house with tinsle, star things that hang from the ceiling, etc. The wrapping of presents (as a man, this is something I struggle with, whereas my girlfriend actually enjoys wrapping presents, and doesn't see how men cannot wrap presents. I don't understand this either, so don't ask), and of course the horror of the turkey, having to order it, which is what my family does, thank goodness, otherwise we would have no food on christmas day. And then having to get up far, far too early to cook it, which I often get roped into doing, not that it makes a difference to what time I get up, with me being 15, I wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning anyway. And of course, the relatives. Having to figure out where everybody will sleep. Fortunatly, we have a spare room, so we just stick them in there. But when more people come over, we start having problems, and more often than not, it is my room that gets used as a second spare room, not only for people to sleep in, but also for all the stuff that was in the first spare room that now has to be moved, and we couldn't just put it in the loft, oh goodness no, we might need that chess set that's never been opened. Anyway, enough of me ranting about how things go wrong before christmas. The real fun begins on christmas day. The getting up very early, annoying the parents by running into their room at 7 o'clock in the morning, yelling "OMG! SANTA'S BEEN!" Yes, that is what I do. I'm a teenager, ok? Anyway, after the stockings, and the random little things in there that will be lost by the new year, have been seen, we all charge down the stairs, often ending in someone getting hurt, often me. Then we crash into the living room and stand there gawping at the presents under the tree. Then we remember that we should probably let the dogs out of the kitchen, and we do. The dogs, being clever as they are, boundi into the living room, crashing into everything, and everyone, making a special effort to destroy the tree. After the pandemonium of that, we settle down, so to speak. Who can settle down on christmas morning? Anyway, we then procede to sort all of the presents under the tree into piles for everybody. It's a tradition. Then we open our presents, one at a time, going around the room in a circle, and at this point you realise that you've either forgotten a very important present for someone, or that you've simply been an idiot and left it upstairs in the hiding place, where you put it so no one could find it, and you have, of course, forgotten where it was, and start to panic. You run off, and run around the house muttering to yourself, trying to figure out where you put the presents, and when you're really worried, you see them, sat right there in front of you. Every year this happens to me. Anyway, then the present unwrapping continues. All those presents you spent so long trying to wrap neatly and well, and in a few seconds the wrapping paper has been destroyed. I don't know why I bother. Anyway, as you're going around the room, unwrapping the presents, you see the joy of getting something cross the persons face, and you realise it was all worth it. After that, it is time for lunch. The turkey has been cooked, the sprouts are on the table in their little bowl, that will stay untouched for the course of the day, and of course all the other trimings that you know and love. After lunch, it's time to sit back, and enjoy the presents that you unwrapped, as well as everyone else's presents. And the cracker jokes get told, everyone laughs, even though the jokes are just terrible, the paper hats are on heads, the funny toys from the crackers are left on the dinner table, because most of the time, they are completely useless, although, every year, I always find a good use for them. You sit there rather full, and feeling tired. At about 6 o'clock the television gets turned on for all the christmas specials of the shows you like to watch. Doctor Who, the point that my dad goes behind the sofa, a long lasting joke from his childhood. And of course anything else that looks any good will be watched, not with any great interest. Then, it is time for dinner. This is where the christmas ham comes out, and everybody congratulates the cook, even if the only stuck it in the oven for a few hours. And then, for pudding, my famous trifile, which I make every year, and is always very nice, if I don't say so myself. And then, you start to feel very tired. Your eyelides grow heavy, and you fall asleep on the sofa. And then, one at a time, everyone starts making their way to bed, often earlier than they would usually go to bed, even though they haven't done anything during the day. Doing nothing can be very tiring. But what I want this year is for evrybody to just stop for a minute on christmas day, and just think about those people who are less fortunate then you, those people who have no one to share christmas with, the sick people who are in hospital over the holiday period, and the people who have no homes to stay warm in during the long, cold winters nights. For this christmas I want people who are sick with no cure to be able to be cured. I want children with no families, to be adopted, I want people to never have to worry about food and shelter and heat. I know it is hard for people to think about the people who have less then them, but if you are well off, please, try to do something about this. Even if it is only giving a few pounds to charity, or giving a homeless person you pass on the street some loose change. It might not seem like a lot to you, but for them it could mean a meal, or a place to stay the night. It would make their christmas. These people deserve to have a chirstmas to remember, not another one to forget. Thank you.

Friendships

There are a lot of different frienships. The one where you've know each other for your whole lives, the one where you've know each other for what feels like your whole lives, the one you don't know how started, the one you don't know how you can even be friends, with so much difference between each other, the one where you know each other, get on, but never properly talk, the one where you don't get to see each other often enough, the one where you are never apart, the random ones that form in one night, and last forever, the ones that form one night, and you never see each other again, even though you said you would. These are but a few examples of friendships. What I'm trying to say is that friendship is just one of those things that we don't really have control over, because, as much as we like to think otherwise, if we get on with someone, and they get one if us, we are friends. They might be the most unliked person in the world, but you can't help that, because you get on, so you are friends. You can try to be friends with some people, and it never works out, because you are just too different, or you have opinions that don't suit the other persons views about things. But whatever the real reason behind your friendship with one person, and your lack of friendship between another person, as long as you are happy being friends with that person, then the friendship will last, if not, then it won't. If you feel you need to change how you are to be friends with someone, then the friendship just won't work quite simply. You should feel happy to be with your friends, even if you haven't seen them in years, which is a problem I have with a few of my friends unfortunatly. There are of course the friends to whom you can tell anything, and be safe in the knowledge that they will not talk to anyone else about it, unless you bring up the subject first. Quite often these people are your best friends, and you might not even realise it. It's not until you stop and think about it, that you realise who your real, true and best friends are. If you have to think to hard about it, you haven't got a proper person who falls into the categories. In which case, get off your computer, and go and see the people you know, and geton with, and, hopefully, soon you will find the person that falls into the categories.

health and safety going just too far

I was writing christmas cards today, and I saw on the back of the cards that it said "WARNING! Not suitable for children under 36 months due to small parts which may present a choking hazard" I mean, come on. It's a christmas card, it doesn't have any bits that can come off it. It doesn't have any cool bits that come out of the page at you when you open it. It's a plain, flat christmas card. This is just plain stupid. We live in a country that is scared of danger, we live in a very sheltered society. It has gotten to the point that christmas cards are dangerous. This is just too far now. When will it stop? When we are all walking around in bubblewrap? Which could be fun, but also hard to do things in. And now I'm rambling. All because of health and safety going too far.