Storm clouds may gather and stars may collide...

Help, please!

2008-04-13T12:00:55Z

Guys, I need some help.

One of my essay questions is about whiteness as the 'unmarked norm' in contemporary Western societies - basically, that whiteness is assumed and people of other races are still slightly perceived as 'other'. (Disclaimer: this essay is for a subject called Cultural Criticism, which is the biggest pile of made-up rubbish I have ever heard in my life. I don't think I've yet head anything that I agree with in the lectures, heh)

Anyway, I need to find a relevant cultural text (book/film/advert/documentary..pretty much anything, really) showing this that I can analyse in my essay, and am struggling to find anything. I thought I could maybe find a documentary talking about Barack Obama potentially being the 'first black president', but haven't been able to find anything on YouTube.

Have any of you Americans seen any documentaries on him along those sort of lines? Any idea what they may have been titled or where I could find them online? I need to find something soooon so I can actually start writing my essay, so any help at all would be appreciated...

I'll update later with slightly more details about the situation with Pete... right now I'm off to start packing, as I'm going back to Cardiff tomorrow morning, woop :D

_autumncolours @ 2008-02-28T11:58:00

2008-02-28T12:12:13Z

Last weekend was my church's student weekend away. Twenty of us stayed at a lovely little farm, and enjoyed spending time getting to know each other. I got to know some of the most loving, genuine and inspiring girls I've ever met - women who are really running for God with everything they have. It was a great time of fellowship,and I came away feeling inspired and very loved.

This week, God's been doing amazing things. I don't know if you Americans heard about it, but on Tuesday night, the UK had the biggest earthquake it's seen for 25 years. This is an extrace from a friend's blog:

I confess, I usually (but not always) lean towards skepticism when Christians see 'significance' in natural phenomena. However, on this occasion, I'm intrigued. On Monday, the 24-7 prayer UK Tour reached Bristol. [...] I wanted to tell you one short story...

Late on Monday afternoon a few of us got together to pray for Bristol, ahead of the evening Tour event. And Naomi prayed something like this... "Lord, let your kingdom come. Shake the church. Shake the land. Give us signs...like an earthquake."

I really believe that God is moving in this nation. I've heard several stories about various people who've been called by God to come to Wales to church plant. A program the Cardiff CU runs, Revive, is seeing people give their lives to Christ almost every week now. I believe God has big, big plans for these next few years, that He is bringing revival to this land. CU's grown amazingly this year - God is raising up men and women who are willing to live their lives entirely to glorify Him.

I've been reading a book called 'For What it's Worth: A Call to No Holds Barred Discipleship', and the chapter I was reading last night said something that struck me: [paraphrased] 'What happened to the Christianity of the first and second centuries, where emperors feared Christianity because of the power it contained?' We're called not to settle for 'safe' Christianity, but to live out lives that are resting solely in trust in God. We have a God that is so, so big, and He wants us to pray big, expectant prayers - to pray that He will shake the land, that He will bring revival here.

I'm excited to see what God has in store for the next few years, even the next few weeks.

Help Needed!

2007-11-20T19:20:04Z

Guys, I need your help.

I'm trying to place a fantasy novel that's randomly entered my head. I can only remember fragments of it, but from what I remember, there's a girl at a magic school or something (possibly high up - ooh it's on a glacier!). And there's something about planes...made out of paper? The girl hides behind some ice or something and watches a meeting take place there...?

And possibly something to do with a dog...and a journey down some secret tunnels inside the school-place.

Is it Garth Nix? That was my first guess but I then decided it couldn't be - my books are all at home so I have no way of finding out, and it's going to bug me until I do know. Help, pleeease :D

_autumncolours @ 2007-06-27T10:35:00

2007-06-27T09:36:20Z

What's happened to Juli? Her LJ's been deleted and it said she'd written on my Facebook then disappeared before I could read it, so I'm guessing she's deleted that too...

:(

_autumncolours @ 2007-05-12T22:46:00

2007-05-12T21:48:18Z

Note to self: After spending Friday evening out in Stratford and not coming home until 2am, it is a far better idea to get to bed on Saturday at half eight rather than staying up writing until eleven (and then probably spending another half hour getting ready for bed), no matter how well said writing may be going.

I'm going to regret this tomorrow when I fall asleep in the middle of Church.

_autumncolours @ 2007-05-09T22:18:00

2007-05-09T21:24:22Z

The end of year 13 has crept up so suddenly. It feels like only yesterday that we moved into the common room and said our goodbyes to the year above, and now tomorrow's our last ever CU. I've been part of that for six out of the seven years that I've been at AGS - saying goodbye to the people is going to be so hard. Having lunch on a Thursday simply will not feel complete without the friends and the laughter and the food (!) and the teaching. :(

One of the ladies from church came to talk at JUMP, our youth group, tonight. She used to smuggle Bibles beyond the Iron Curtain...it was incredibly inspiring. Similar to Brother Andrew, for those of you who've read God's Smuggler (and if you haven't, I'd recommend it to any of you - it's a truly amazing story).

Also, it suddenly occured to me that as Longview aren't huge over here (although most of my friends have heard of them), those of you in America probably haven't heard of them at all. This is shocking - I'm hopefully buying their album tomorrow (PLEASEpleaseplease have it in this time, oh wonderful HMV), so I'll upload a couple of songs for your listening pleasure :)

(*grins* How adorable is this smiley?)

Eeeeeek!

2007-05-02T17:30:55Z

Just a quick entry to say:

You know my complete and utter fear of spiders? As in, cannot be in the same room as one for thirty seconds, no matter how big it is?

I was taking down some posters that I had up in my room, on the wall RIGHT NEXT TO my bed (the end where my head is) and found a spider nest.

I think I may have to move out. :(

_autumncolours @ 2007-04-20T19:07:00

2007-04-20T18:11:17Z

One of the teachers at school, Mr Dobell, is currently seriously ill. He's been in hospital over Easter having an operation to remove a tumour, and I've just been told that they may be about to switch off his life-support machine.

Please, please pray.

He's one of the most loved and respected teachers at our school, and another of the favourite teachers is currently undergoing serious treatment for cancer - they're both Christians, and any prayers would be appreciated more than I can say. Thank you.

_autumncolours @ 2007-04-13T15:38:00

2007-04-13T14:42:41Z

I just spent half an hour hiding from my window cleaner in various rooms around the house.

I'd decided to have a shower, and had literally just finished getting dressed when all of a sudden, this ladder is propped up against my window and some guy appears. I ran out of my room incredibly quickly, and thank goodness it hadn't been a couple of minutes earlier!

I never, ever bothere drawing the blinds in my room when I'm getting dressed, on the theory that no one in any neighboroughing houses can see into my room. Someone in the back garden, however, probably could. How utterly mortifying.

Window cleaners really should learn to knock.

Happy Easter :)

2007-04-08T07:20:38Z

In one of my holier moments, I agreed to go to the sunrise service on the hilltop with Tim this morning.

Needless to say, this didn't seem like quite such a good idea when it meant leaving my lovely, cosy, WARM bed at twenty past six this morning.

And after all the gorgeous sunshine of the last few days, it was FREEZING up there (Chris: "It's so cold..must be because there's no sun...") and I had to scrape ice off my car windscreen before leaving. Bah. It was, however, a very nice service :) I do really quite like getting up early once I'm actually out of bed - which I blame Namibia for entirely; getting up at six or before every morning for a month does strange things to you, I never used to be such a morning person!

My day seems so looooong now. :)

The perfect words never crossed my mind; it was always filled with you.

2007-04-06T13:12:48Z

I seem to have inadvetantly been letting quite a lot of people down lately - both on here and in real life. This really, really bugs me. Must stop doing so. :/

In other news, revision over the last few days has at least managed to increase my levels of productivity on every thing that isn't related to revision - reading, getting some writing done, sending emails that I've been meaning to send for ages, even tidying my room haha :)

I've been doing quite a lot of thinking about my writing over the last couple of days. For all the craziness of year thirteen, and for all the little time I have in between revision and work and attempting to have a social life - that's not a good enough reason. Yes, any sort of 'free time' is incredibly limited for the next few weeks, but there's nothing at all to stop me using revision breaks to get some outlining done, to spend ten minutes worldbuilding before I go to bed, to glance at the first (and utterly terrible) draft of the first few chapters once I've got some work done.

Realistically, I cannot commit to getting very much writing done until these exams have finished - not if I want to get into Cardiff anyway (which I do, very much! :D ) - but there's nothing to stop me outlining and planning when I can now, and then being ready to put in more hours writing once the summer comes.

Part of the problem is that I'm completely terrified of messing this up; of finding that actually, everything I write is rubbish, or that I simply do not have the dedication and motivation to write a whole novel, or that my ideas suck, or that this is simply just not right for me.

Still, I'll never know until I try, right? I'm sick of letting myself down by not trying, or by not trying hard enough. Sometimes I feel like there is so much more of me that I could put into everything. I don't want to live my whole life knowing that I never truly tried.

_autumncolours @ 2007-04-05T14:17:00

2007-04-05T13:21:19Z

The sun is shining, the birds are singing and I want to be outside SO BADLY.

Sadly, I am instead sitting at my desk, attempting to revise free will and determinism - half of which I swear we never covered in class. :/

I have a feeling this is how the next three months are going to be spent. Le siiiiiigh.

On the upside, I've promised myself a lovely long walk, complete with my notebook or North and South and a comfortable tree trunk or two later this afternoon to make up. :)

I know more of the stars and seas.

2007-04-02T19:26:50Z

I woke up this morning and the sun (I typed that "shun". I swear I haven't drank anything more alcoholic than water! :/ ) was shining and the sky was blue and it felt like summer.

:D

And I realised that, for all I dislike Redditch, I do love the surrounding places. Birmingham is a wonderful city, Stratford-upon-Avon is one of my favourite places in the world (especially in the sunshine), and Worcester was stunning today. (Not to mention that I brought a CD and four tops for under 25 pounds! Score :D And I actually brought some shoes for once, which is shocking - and they had a heel and everything! I'm so proud.)

I got so excited when I woke up and realised it was the holidays, and that I could spend as much time chatting to you guys and getting involved at UR as I wished to, and then remembered these darn exams that I should probably revise for sometime. Shucks :(

And (just to add to the random-ness of this post) people are being incredibly strange lately. By 'people' I mean the vast majority of my best friends. They all seem to be acting incredibly weirdly and I don't like it. Bah >:[

Byeeeeeeee.

Anonymity

2006-04-07T20:32:34Z

From ages ago:

Post anything that you want (in comments), and post it anonymously. It can be anything: a story, a secret, a confession, a fear, a love–whatever you want. Be sure to post anonymously and honestly. Post twice (or more than that) if you'd like.

Then, put this in your LJ to see what your friends (and perhaps others who you don't even realize read your LJ) have to say.

Book Rec

2006-03-24T18:49:31Z

Eh, I know. Long time (ish), no update...one of these days I'll learn to update regularly for more than just the occasional weekend, I swear. Maybe. :)

Aaanyway, I'm hoping ('hoping' being the key word there!) to do a proper update later tonight, or some point this weekend, at any rate. This post is simply to share the wonders of an amazing book I read.

'If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things' by Jon McGregor. I've never heard of it before, but I was searching for something completely different in Redditch library the other day and the title caught my eye. Just because it's so wonderful, the opening

If you listen, you can hear it.
The city, it sings.
If you stand quietly, at the foot of a garden, in the middle of a street, on the roof of a house.
It's clearest at night, when the sound cuts more sharply across the surface of things, when the song reaches out to a place inside you.
It's a wordless song, for the most, but it's a song all the same, and nobody hearing it could doubt what it sings.
And the song sings the loudest when you pick out each note.

The low soothing hum of air-conditioners, fanning out the heat and the smells of shops and cafes and offices across the city, winding up and winding down, long breaths layered upon each other, a lullaby hum for tired streets.
The rush of traffic still cutting across flyovers, even in the dark hours a constant crush of sound, tyres rolling across tarmac and engines rumbling, loose drains and manhole covers clack-clacking like cast-iron castanets.
Road-menders mending, choosing the hours of least interruption, rupturing the cold night air with drills and jack-hammers and pneumatic pumps, hard-sweating beneath the fizzing hiss of floodlights, shouting to each other like drummers in rock bands calling out rhythms, pasting new skin on the veins of the city.
Restless macxhines in workshops and factories with endless shifts, turin, presning and pumping and steaming and sparking, pressing and rollling and weaving and printing, the hard crash and ring and clatter lifting out of echo-high buildings and sifting into thenight, an unaudited product beside the paper and cloth and steel and bread, the packed and the bound and the made.
Lorries reversing, right round the arc of industrail parks, it seems every lorry in town is reversing, bascking through gateways, easing up ramps, shrill-calling their presence while forklift trucks gas and prang around them, heaping and stacking and loading.
And all the alarms, calling for help, each district and quarter, each street and estate, each every way you turn has alarms going off, coming on, going off, coming on, a hammered ring like a light ning drum-roll, like a mesmeric bell-toll, the false and the real as loud as each other, cruing their needs to the night like an understaffed orphanage, babies waawaa-ing in darkened wards.
Sung sirens, sliding through the streets, straking blue light from distress to distress, the slow wail weaving urgency through the darkest of the dark hours, a lament lifted high, held above the rooftops and fading away, lifted high, flashing past, fading away.

And all these things sing constant, the machines and the sirens, the cars blurting hery and rumbling all headlong, the hoots and the shoots and the hums and the crackles, all come together and rouse like a choir, sinking and rising with the turn of the wind, the counter and solo, the harmony humming expecting more voices.

So listen.
Listen, and there is more to hear.
The rattle of a dustbin lid knocked to the floor.
The scrawl and scratch of two hackle-raised cats.
The sudden thundercrash of bottles emptied into crates.
The slam-slam of car doors, the changing of gears, the hobbled clip-clop of a slow walk home.
The rippled roll of shutters pulled down on late-night cafes, a crackled voice crying street names for taxis, a loud scream that lingers and cracks into laughter, a band that might jsut be an old car backfiring, a callbox calling out for an answer, a treeful of birds tricked into morning, a whistle and a shout and a broken glass, a blare of soft music and a blam of hard beats, a barking and yelling and singing and cryingg and it all swelles up all the rumbles and crashes and banging and slams, all the noise and the rush and the non-stop wonder of the song of the ciry you can hear if you listen the song

and it stops

in some rare and sacred dead time, sandwiched between the late sleepers and the early risers, there is a miracle of silence.

Everything has stopped.

And the silence drops down from out of the night, into this city, the briefest of silences, like a falter between heartbeats, like a darkness between blinks. Secretly, there is always this moment, an unexpected pause, a hesitation as one day is left behind and a new one begins.
A catch of brfeath as gasometer lungs begin slow exhalations.
A ring of tinnitus as thermostats interrupt air-conditioning fans.
These moments are there, always, but they are rarely noticed and they rarely last longer than a flicker of a thought.
We are in that moment now, there is silence and the whole city is still.

Give it a try, won't you? It's a simply gorgeous book :) You'd all probably enjoy it, but in particular Dede, Juli, Lauren if she was still around :(, Anna...*shrug* It's definitely worth a look - it'll take your breath away.

_autumncolours @ 2010-03-16T17:51:00

2006-03-16T17:55:08Z

Friends Only

Comment to be Friended. I'm absolutely terrible at checking manually, so if you don't comment, chances are I'll never realise you Friended me.

Hello, world. :)

Results, unfortunately...

2006-03-08T18:49:00Z

AS module exam results come out tomorrow. Urrrgh. I'd be so much happier never knowing. :/

It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for tomorrow being my 'honourary birthday at school', as Elle and Jen are calling it! Trust the silly Namibia training weekend to clash with my 17th! :(

Ah weeeell. Speaking of the Buxton weekend, I was just trying on a couple of pairs of walking trousers so I could lend Elle a pair - I'd forgotten quite how unattractive those things are! Good job there's no one on my Namibia team that I actually care what they think about me. *laughs* Seriously though, I'm really looking forward to it. It'll be like DofE all over again, only with people that I get on better with!

How's everyone's Wednesday been?

_autumncolours @ 2006-03-06T17:42:00

2006-03-06T17:44:01Z

Just thought you'd like to know! *grins*

Return

2006-02-28T22:26:34Z

Well, I'm back - part time, at any rate! Huge thanks to those of you who left me notes of encouragement etc; I didn't see any of them until now, but they're all very much appreciated. I've missed you guys! <3

It's amazing how much spare time I've had without any internet (excluding email!) - so much more time to read, do homework, spend time with God...whilst I'm not officially giving up internet for Lent, I think I'm going to start only going on after nine, or something similar. I can't believe how much time I must have wasted on here over the last few months, just updating my Friends page or reading comments...craziness!

In other news, I am giving up chocolate for Lent. I blame Elle entirely, and will remind her of this when I die sometime after the first week. Just for the record. :)

Casting Crowns - my new favourite Christian band, due to some great songs with amazing lyrics. *is in love*

Huge update coming your way tomorrow or Thursday, hopefully. I just thought I'd drop in and say hiiiii! How are you all? Reading all of your entries of the last week and a half would somewhat defeat the point of not coming on here, so I'm afraid I won't be able to catch up on everyone! But what's everyone been up to? Do fill me in :D

Gah!

2006-02-05T00:56:19Z

So, apparently my entries haven't been showing up on people's f'lists. Humph. >: [ Why nooooot?!

In other news, insomnia sucks - especially when I was actually planning on getting a really good night's sleep tonight.

Stars

2006-01-25T21:52:59Z

Harry and I lie sprawled on a pile of beanbags at Jump and listen to the Rock and Roll Worship Circus on his mp3 player, dreaming, somewhat lost.

The battery dies and we complain, then go back to gazing aimlessly into thin air.

"What are you staring at?" he asks.

"The ceiling. It's uneven."

There's silence for a moment, and then Harry points to a spot inbetween two lights - "Can you see that star?"

I smile. "The bright one?"

"Yes, and see the two diagonally up from it? That's Orion's Belt."

I laugh, and the contrast of the evening suddenly hits me. "See the Plough?"

And so it goes on, pointing out non-existant constellations to each other. Harry sees a satellite, and I catch a shooting star out of the corner of my eye, and complain that I always forget to make wishes on them, and I wonder if he realises how much I needed someone to say something like that.

And somehow, with him and Elle, I couldn't be going to Namibia with better people.

The end. :)

_autumncolours @ 2005-12-25T00:45:00

2005-12-25T00:47:09Z

I've just got back from Midnight Communion, which was rather wonderful :) And I'm currently wide awake, which is annoying!

Anyway....HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!

Hope that you all have a wonderful day tomorrow and, if you get the chance, spare a moment to think of the real meaning of Christmas, hey?

Enjoy, loves. ♥

Just a quick update, because I'm exhausted

2005-12-10T22:48:03Z

Narnia.

Oh my goodness. Wow. I -- oh, wow.

Tracey - I'm not sure what the time difference is, so I don't know if you'll see this first, but you'll love it.

It was perfect. Go see it. Now.

I'd forgotten how utterly magical films can be.

Londooooon! :D

2005-11-22T22:11:36Z

I'm off to London for the day tomorrow :) Simply because my grandpa's come over for a few days from Jersey, and as him and mum and Tony were planning to go down to London and I only have one lesson on Wednesdays...mum thought I should go with them. Can't say I put up too much of an argument! I love London.

What the hell is with this weather lately?! It was still 10 degrees only about a week ago..and now it's down to below freezing, there's been patches of frost on the ground which have been there for three or four days (although they had all melted this morning :( ), this incredibly thick fog seems to have settled permanently over Stratford/Alcester/Redditch, and it's supposed to snow later this week. I wake up every morning to look out of my window and see that field covered in frost - just like that picture I posted. It's gorgeous :) I love winter...although I'm not sure we ever actually had Autumn this year. A week of it, maybe!

I've pretty much quit NaNo...I posted on the B'ham forum and explained and everyone was very understanding, which was lovely. I'm starting to fall behind at school, and I can't afford to fall behind. I have AS mocks next week which I have to do well in, and I simply don't have the time to catch up with my word count. It's pretty gutting - especially as I managed to write 11k last weekend, but at least I tried, right? And, y'know, it's 20,000 words that I wouldn't have written without NaNo!

And no, I haven't see GoF yet. It's kinda a sore subject, heh...although there is a possibility I could go see it on Friday. Hopefully *crosses fingers*

Love.

_autumncolours @ 2005-11-12T19:57:00

2005-11-12T20:07:53Z

Y'never know, you may get another update later, if you're unlucky.

NaNo update: Friday morning I had 4,286 words and had practically given up. I now have 10,476 and plan to reach 11,000 before I go to bed tonight. No, I don't know how I've written that much in two days either. Yay! :D Any of you who are taking part around the same word count? I could do with a NaNo buddy to keep me focused/motivated...

I had the day off school on Friday due to a killer headache. I slept for over 13 hours on Friday, slept solidly through last night, and I'm still tired. How is that possible?!

Don't you love it when you've accomplished far more than you thought you would in one day? I can now go to bed feeling all nice and proud of myself, and what's more, I haven't got too much homework to do tomorrow. *is happy*

One of these days I'd like to get around to writing something for UR.org (or even just writing a profle, really! My account is somewhat empty at the moment)...but I guess that'll have to wait till November's over. The site is omggorgeous, isn't it? Which, actually, reminds me that I need to download JavaScript, apparently...anyone know how I do that? *is thoroughly hopeless with computers*

And everything inside of me screams for second life...there's more than what you've heard, there's so much more than empty conversations filled with empty words. </randomness>

Tell me stories, guys. Any stories.

ETAL 11,224 words. That's like...7,000 words in 2 days. OH YES. I win at life. :D

And a quote: "You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you." - Ray Bradbury