A lot of weird things happen during Eurovision. That's part of the draw for (weird) people like me.
I've been watching Eurovision religiously for about six years now and this is by far the weirdest thing I have seen to date (even weirder than the singing grannys with their moving ovens):
I don't know what was funnier, watching this or watching Jay's look of absolute shock as he watched this.
Is it weird that I totally want to go to Sweden now?
As you probably know, I've been taking a class called Children's Literature - not, as you may think, because it was "and easy one" but because children's literature genuinely fascinates me. I'm one of those cross over readers who enjoys a good children's book every bit as much as a smutty romance novel.
Recently for this class we studied the history of the Carnegie Medal. I wondered how many of the award winning books I've actually read so I visited The CILIP Carnegie Medal homepage to find out. 2012 Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls, Walker Books
2011 Patrick Ness, Monsters of Men, Walker Books 2010 Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book, Bloomsbury
2009 Siobhan Dowd, Bog Child, David Fickling
2008 Philip Reeve, Here Lies Arthur, Scholastic
2007 Meg Rosoff, Just in Case, Penguin
2005 Mal Peet, Tamar, Walker Books
2004 Frank Cottrell Boyce, Millions, Macmillan
2003 Jennifer Donnelly, A Gathering Light, Bloomsbury Children's Books
1954 Ronald Welch (Felton Ronald Oliver), Knight Crusader, OUP
1953 Edward Osmond, A Valley Grows Up 1952 Mary Norton, The Borrowers, Dent 1951 Cynthia Harnett, The Woolpack, Methuen
1950 Elfrida Vipont Foulds, The Lark on the Wing, OUP
1949 Agnes Allen, The Story of Your Home, Faber
1948 Richard Armstrong, Sea Change, Dent
1947 Walter De La Mare, Collected Stories for Children
1946 Elizabeth Goudge, The Little White Horse, University of London Press
1945 Prize withheld as no book considered suitable 1944 Eric Linklater, The Wind on the Moon, Macmillan 1943 Prize withheld as no book considered suitable
1942 'BB' (D J Watkins-Pitchford), The Little Grey Men, Eyre & Spottiswoode
1941 Mary Treadgold, We Couldn't Leave Dinah, Cape
1940 Kitty Barne, Visitors from London, Dent
1939 Eleanor Doorly, Radium Woman, Heinemann
1938 Noel Streatfeild, The Circus is Coming, Dent
1937 Eve Garnett, The Family from One End Street, Muller
1936 Arthur Ransome, Pigeon Post, Cape
Seriously? I've only read five of the Carnegie Medal winning books?
I don't deserve to call myself a bibliophile.
(Well... There's a new challenge in the making...)
Here's an actual conversation I had with a waiter recently...
Waiter: What would you like? Me: What have you got in the way of bourbon? Waiter: (pause) Uh... (pause) We have Jack Daniels? That's (pause) like bourbon, right? Me: (stare) Oh, honey... go away and send back someone who's old enough to drink.
I had so much fun making these Iron Man mitts that I just had to make another pair. But, this time, I wanted to make a Captain America pair...
The pattern that I used for the mitts was good but a few small changes made it even better. I altered the way it was joined, removed some unnecessary slipstitches, and added some decreases and they turned out a lot neater.
The stars were trial and error. Eventually I came up with a design that worked out the right size and... Ta da! Captain America mitts!
These are easy to make (maybe two hours, start to finish) and fit perfectly. The pattern works well for men and plus size girls but would be baggy on smaller people.
One of these days - like when I've not got two assignments due - I'll work up the pattern to share.
I'm not normally a fan of dancy electro pop. (If that's even a thing.) But this song I liked immediately:
I like this partly because the video made me go "What the fuck?" and partly because the beat made me want to move.
I know next to nothing about the band except that (I think) they're from Australia. If you happen to like any of their other songs, I'm open to suggestions.
I'm kind of torn about this movie, though I definitely plan to watch it.
This is either going to be very good or very, very bad.
I like the concept: Earth has become hostile towards humans. (Long overdue, if you ask me.) The imagery looks fantastic. So why am I worried?
Because it stars Will and Jaden Smith. A whole movie centered around a real life father and son pair? That just seems like it can become totally over-the-top and emotional.
I went to see Iron Man 3 this past weekend and these just had to be done in honour of the event:
How freaking adorable, right?
I used this pattern - with a few alterations. I forgot to pick up blue yarn so I just substituted felt for the power circles. Yarn would definitely have looked better.
I also joined the cuff together using a simple slip stitch, which I think worked just as well. The only part of the pattern that I didn't really like was the slip stitch at the top of the glove. I think reducing would have worked better.
This is a very good pattern, though, overall. I'll probably use it again in the winter.
As you know, I went to see Star Trek: Into Darkness on opening night and I absolutely loved it.
Actually... I loved it so much I just had to see it again. Right away. It was murder to have to wait until the weekend.
I won't say too much about the film itself - except that it made me bawl like a bitch - because it's not out yet in America. I will say that if you are a Trekkie or a Trekker or just love sci-fi, you have to watch this. In fact, I plan on going to see it again very soon!
I've been waiting awhile now to go see Iron Man 3. Believe it or not, I haven't seen Iron Man 2 yet. No reason... Just haven't gotten around to it yet. (Seriously. My To Watch list is worse than my To Read list.) But Jay didn't like it and it made me wonder how good the third movie could be. Reviews were good, though, so I decided it was worth a go.
I'm kind of torn on this one. Firstly, I hated the ending. Hated it. I get why it needed to end that way but it sucked. Also - as much as I love him - Robert Downing Jr can't act well enough to pull off an anxiety attack. It was too emotionless. BUT watching 40+ Iron Men kicking ass was pretty sweet. It was also good to see Penny kicking some ass.
I spent an hour or so this week clicking through random videos on You Tube. That may sound weird but I've found some great music that way. This week was no exception. My favourite of the songs I came across was "Curse Me Good" by a British band called The Heavy:
I'd never heard of the band before but now I'm totally a fan. They've got a great rocky soul sound that makes me want to move.
The music video is old school. It makes me think of the likes of Hootie & the Blowfish. Actually... I can see me having a playlist with both bands in it.
Jay has been promising for some time now that he would go and see a movie with me. (He's more of a watch-it-at-home kind of guy, whereas I'm a I'd-be-at-the-cinema-every-day-if-I-could kind of gal.) He doesn't particularly want to go see Star Trek: Into Darkness with me - because he's not "really" a Trekkie, even though he's seen every Star Trek series and movie and met much of the casts - but he did agree to see Evil Dead with me instead.
My brother-in-law saw the movie the week before and told us that he didn't like it; that it was just a gorefest. Sure, it was a gorefest but... um... hello? Anyone seen the original? Yeah... that was a gorefest too.
(I should point out here that my brother-in-law doesn't like anything so his opinion doesn't really count.)
Jay didn't hate the movie but he wasn't impressed either. The original was still better, he told me.
(But Jay thinks everything was better in the '80s...)
Me? It was pretty gruesome. I don't really like a lot of gore in movies, believe it or not. I'd rather watch a mind fuck than a bloodbath. But as a remake, I thought it was good. I mean... what else could they have done? If they didn't make it gory enough, people would have complained. If they stuck too close to the original, people would have complained. If they made the daemons too similar, people would have complaint.
Basically, people were going to complain, no matter what they did.
Another good week of memes. (Even with all the stupid animal and baby ones that I hate so much.)
It was difficult to choose, especially with this music related one and this band related one. Oh, and we can't forget this Ash meme, which was also epic. But the winner this week, for making my jaw nearly hit the floor, was this:
This meme is fromthemetapicture.com and is both funny and a little scary. Surprisingly, none of my relatives have blocked me since I shared it on Facebook. Guess I have to try harder...
I caught this song on an advert earlier in the week and haven't been able to get it out of my head since:
The music video isn't much, and the lyrics aren't especially deep or powerful, but the song is catchy as hell. I love the country/bluegrass feel and can't help but dance along when it's on.
The thing that I love about Mumford & Sons is their twangy, folky sound. It's like... country for people who are too cool to be caught listening to country. If I didn't know better, I would have sworn that they were from the American south.