Tuesday, 22 February 2011

Return of the Slaps

I’m hurt. My pride is bruised, my eyes are stinging and my face is red... but not from embarrassment (well, maybe a little bit). After my small breaking of the Slap Bet rules last week, Benji and Charlie promptly slapped me first think Monday morning, with no holding back... ok, fine, Charlie was kind enough to hold back and Benji messed his slap up, so really I got away with minimal slappage (yes, it’s a word), but despite this I’m determined to avoid them having the chance to get proper revenge ever again. So, here’s this week’s post coming to you ON TIME!

For those of you who have never participated in a Slap Bet, I have a video to convey what’s at stake here, as well as show what will probably happen in the future to one of us (Benji, Charlie and myself) if we don’t post on time. As usual, the whole video is hilarious, but if you’re in a hurry you can watch from 1:25... but watch the whole thing.



Of course, as with all things in life, there’s a perfect song to hum quietly (or, if you’re really brave, sing loudly in their face) just after the slap has been administered:



Anyway, moving away from amusing ways to harm your friends, half term is now officially over. And I already feel like I need a holiday! I mean, what’s the point of giving us a so-called ‘break’ if we then get so much homework we don’t get a break? One of my teachers actually thought 93 pages of past papers seemed reasonable! 93! I couldn’t care less about what angle a shot putter should put his leg at to improve his throw, and if I have to read one more velocity-time graph I’m going to burn the whole booklet, I swear to God.

Still, at least all the other subject teachers took all this into consideration... sadly, they then decided they wanted to work us to death didn’t care and gave us piles and piles of other work anyway... awesome.

So, that’s why I only just finished my holiday homework (apart from the 93 bloody pages of physics) today.

Well, I hope you had a more restful holiday than I did, and if you are one of those people who sat at their desk procrastinating all week and doing very little work, don't worry; we all did the exact same thing!
Have a great week!
                -Jamie

P.S. Even though it’s nowhere near November, happy Slapsgiving everyone!

Tuesday, 15 February 2011

One of those rare occasions...

To be honest with you, I never really understood the idea of blogs. I mean, why would people really care about my life? It’s not massively different from other teenagers’, or very interesting (being able to fly is fairly normal, right?). Occasionally something pretty cool happens, but not enough to write a whole blog on. Cos of that, you may have noticed my past posts (and future ones if you’re reading this in the future) don’t mention my life too much... I prefer to generally ramble about random and potentially funny things. 

However, on this rare occasion something quite cool did happen. I went to the first ever The Blanks concert. I’m pretty sure most of you are thinking “oh, cool... who?”, but unless you live in a box in the middle of a country where nothing ever happens, like Egypt (hehe, political joke), you’ve probably heard of them, but with the name Ted’s Band. That’s right, the a cappella group from Scrubs are a real band (who knew!)

[If you care enough to wanna know more, click HERE

So I went to the concert with my mate Lucas, who bought the tickets when he was surfing the web and randomly came across them. He’s the type of guy who sees tickets to an a cappella band from TV and thinks “Y’know what I really wanna spend my Saturday night doing? Listening to THOSE guys... whoever they are”.

Kudos to him. They were awesome.

The show was pretty great, especially for Scrubs fans (I say show cos there were lots of sketches and stuff throughout the concert), but that wasn’t the best bit! As we were leaving, we popped over to the stage door and ran into a security guard, who told us that the band were signing autographs upstairs. 

It took about 24 seconds to get upstairs, and then 30 minutes in a line that seemed to go on and on (and on) to the end of time, all to end up standing... at the back of another line. Don’t you just hate it when that happens? It feels kinda like you’ve been slapped in the face because you’re blog was overdue, and you’ve then had to wander the halls of school with the sting of the slap met only by the sting of having to explain to people why a red mark shaped oddly like a giant hand is on your face.... not that I know what that feels like...

Anyway, after about 40 minutes and 24 seconds (but who’s counting?), we met the band. We had a quick chat, got a photo and all their autographs and basically revelled in the glow of their awesomeness. Then, just before I left, I realised this made a kinda half decent story for my blog, so (in an act that can only be described by a made up word, like incredibrave or possimpible) I turned and asked Sam Lloyd (Ted) to do something from Scrubs. 

To truly understand the hilarity of what my iPhone camera recorded (yes, it has a camera. And I mean a real camera, unlike the crappy things Blackberry’s CLAIM are cameras), watch the first 16 seconds of this video: 



Now, watch my video (below), AND the rest of the one above (in any order) since both are, quite frankly, amazing.



To finish up, I thought I'd give some tips to anyone out there struggling with their UCAS forms, CV's or any other kind of written summary of themselves. Remember, you need to be interesting, and stand out. A great way to do this is to expand your vocabulary by, like I did earlier, inventing words. Employers and admissions officers are desperate to see a sign of initiative, and summing up your own amazing qualities in fewer words also makes their lives easier. It shows creativity and vision... visitivity, if you will.

An example would be Possimpible, formed by simply combine possible and impossible. In one word you've shown that you push boundaries, and make the impossible possible. Others include intellitegrity (intelligent + integrity) and resaweome/resourceome (resourceful + awesome; say it out loud).

So, in the trying times ahead, remember to go past the possible, to the impossible, and then further still, past the impossible, to the place where the possible and impossible meet, forming the possimpible*
  
[*As it turns out, this may not be possible... if so, just settle for the impossible. It's still pretty impressive.]

Have a good week!
     -Jamie

PS: Those of you with particularly keen eyes may notice that this post comes to you OVER one week after the last one, thereby breaking the honorary code of the Slap Bet with Benji and Charlie (and if they hadn’t noticed, they will now. Great). And yes, it did only take me 3 weeks to fail, but I won’t be receiving a slap for three excellent reasons; first, it’s half term (praise be to any and all religious figures who sanction holidays), so Benji can’t get to me. Second, I wrote most (some) of this post on time, just forgot to actually post it... that counts, right? Third, and most importantly, they WILL have to catch me first. So there.

Sunday, 6 February 2011

TITLE TIME

IT IS TIME. After much deliberation, my blog now has a title. Granted, not a very good one, but still. Welcome to Overexposure to Awesome. Be warned, this blog is not for the faint of heart. Above are a list of warnings my lawyer assures me I must include (and by lawyer, I of course mean the voice inside my head). On top of that, anyone with a pre-existing heart condition, or prone to fainting when crying with laughter, should STOP READING NOW

Right, moving on. The way I finally arrived at a title was that in morning registration my mate Kostas picked up my iPhone (yes, I have an iPhone. It’s amazing. I still maintain it’s the best thing I’ve ever owned... including my brother (who I own at everything). Any blackberry users out there, you made the WRONG choice!). Anyway, Kostas starts going through my admittedly awesome selection of films I keep on my phone in case I’m ever stuck somewhere boring, like school, and started watching a particular film that inspired a title in me. Watch THIS to 1:09 for an explanation of the title and blog description, but also watch the whole thing cos it’s hilarious!

So now I’ve got a title! The blog page has been ‘pimped out’ accordingly, but will be changed even more over the next few weeks so that it lives up to its name. To do this, I of course need a far more experienced blogger’s help, so I have enlisted one. Some say, he killed a man once using only his left ear... And that if you look him in the eyes, you see your own death (usually at his own hands seconds after you looked him in the eye, BECAUSE you looked him in the eye). All I know is... none of that’s actually true. He’s called Benji, and here’s a link to his brilliant blog, 11PM BOREDOM!

To finish up, I thought I’d leave you with an appropriate poster (feel free to print it off) to tie in with (a) the new title, and (b) How I Met Your Mother (since that too is, well, awesome!)... anyone who recognises where this comes from is legen-wait for it- dary! And will also get that... (if you don’t CLICK HERE! )



So remember, if any of you feel sad, depressed or down during the upcoming week, and even my blog hasn’t managed to cheer you up... just stop being sad and be awesome instead! *
Have a good week!
   -Jamie

 (* In the unlikely event that even THAT fails, make pancakes!  )

Monday, 31 January 2011

FIRST POST =D

Hey internet! My name’s Jamie, and this is my very first blog post! It almost feels like learning how to walk again... only easier and with much less falling down. Although, there may be a little falling down involved, cos my new blog may just KNOCK YOU OFF YOUR SEAT! =D
I kid, of course. My blog is likely to be fairly rubbish for the moment (mostly due to the lack of a title, but also cos I’m new to the whole ‘posting stuff online’ scene). 

Anyway, just so you know, I will be aiming to post at least once a week. This is because myself, Charlie and Benji (check out their blogs; they put mine to shame!) have something akin to a ‘Slap Bet’ going on (anyone who understands that How I met Your Mother reference is truly awesome. End of.)! So, basically I have to post at least once a week or else risk wandering the halls of school with a red mark on my face shaped suspiciously like a hand.
...
I expect the red mark to become a regular occurrence. Still, when I do manage to post I’ll try to make sure it’s as funny, eloquent and time-wasting as possible, for all you people out there who, like me, should DEFINITELY be doing homework right now (you know who you are, and I salute you!). 

To finish up, I thought I’d post a link to a youtube video, cos it seems lots of bloggers do that; you’ve probably already seen this, but if not you’re in for a treat (unless you, well, are MORE mature than a six year old). The aim of this is simply to watch it without laughing... which of course is impossible now that I told you not to laugh, cos I’m betting you wanna laugh even more now:

DON'T LAUGH!

Ah, the maturity. It’s things like that which make the internet amazing and mortifying.
So, have a great and hopefully thrusting-free week (or not, depending on what you're in to), see ya later!
-Jamie

PS: If you don’t watch How I Met Your Mother, and you find yourself with a surprising amount of free time due to something silly like ‘study leave’, watch it (after checking my blog, of course!). It’s awesome, hilarious and will probably have lots of references in future posts.