OH, THE COALITION

One of my least favourite things about UK Politics is the FPTP system. With it's flawed design, it allows people into power who do not have 50% of the country's voters on their side. Yes, I know this is a coalition so it's a bit different but the system still pushes for a majority government where a Proportional Representation system definitely would not.

Because of the system we have, once a leader is in charge of a majority (and sometimes a coalition, depending on how dogmatic the 2+ executive parties are) their Prime Minister role allows them to take over and allow pretty much any law through as long as it's supported by their party.

Due to this, for nearly four years the UK has had to deal with right-wing legislation coming from the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government. This has included the privatisation of the Royal Mail, the raising of university tuition fee cap to £9000 and the abolishment of EMA for peasant students like me. Also, the TONS of cuts to welfare such as the 'bedroom tax' (and the ones that Osborne is planning should the Tories win in 2015) and the various attempts at the back-door privatisation of the NHS.

We have a very classy and caring government, don't we?

Owen Jones came into my college on Tuesday to give a talk and it was literally the most inspiring thing ever. I don't normally continue my YAAAAAAS enthusiasm about anything for more than a day but I am still buzzing. He just had facts and figures off the top of his head and spoke with such vigour and passion about the way this country could benefit everyone, not just the wealthy 1%.

I don't know that I am a socialist (I don't really agree with the whole 'withering away state' thing. I just don't think it would happen) but damn, it was amazing.

I'll leave you with this miserable fact:

"The super-rich – the top 1% of earners – now pocket 10p in every pound of income paid in Britain, while the poorest half of the population take home only 18p of every pound between them, according to a report published this week by the Resolution Foundation thinktank, which reveals the widening gap between those at the very top and the rest of society." 

Oh me, oh my.

I HAVE MAGGOTS IN MY SCROTUM

This is a post from my old blog that I am just shipping over.


Yep, The Book of Mormon musical is amazing.

I know it's been out for about a year in London but I figured it's not ending any time soon.

It was rude, funny, pisstakey, awesome, hilarious and musical. Well, obviously it was musical - it's a musical.

'Baptize me', the song of sexual innuendo, was one of my favourite numbers. The comparison between baptism and 'the first time' was tres amussant.

I learned a lot in the 2hr 20min performance. For example:

• Don't quit what you're doing because it might mean missing out on a big opportunity. Elder Price left just before 30 people were going to be baptized.
• Don't do things for your own praise. It's not your strength, it's Gods strength. You're not the awesome and brilliant one, He is.
• Mormonism is a very strange faith. If you are one then that's cool but I can't get my head round it.
• Oh, and don't listen to a soundtrack before seeing the musical - it ruins the jokes!

With my sister, we tried to get lottery tickets. If you don't know, they are 21 tickets that the theatre charge £20 for on the day. We put our names in the tombola and 21 seats were given out and... we didn't get one. Bollocks.

HOWEVER, the lottery people added about 12 more random tickets and - you can see where I'm going with this - we got in! Hurrah!

Healthy eating went out of the door as we went to Ed's Diner across the road. A nice place with the friendliest staff and fresh food but I wouldn't recommend the cheesy fries. The cheese is all liquidy and weird and I don't know if that's an American thing but my taste buds said no. The Oreo milkshake isn't quite on point either but the burger and chocolate milkshake are just prestige.

I don't have a lot more to say now, really. New years resolutions are going well, quite proud. And church tomorrow so that should be good...

Yeah I'm gonna awkward away from this situation now.

ENCOUNTER 2014

This is a post from my old blog that I am just shipping over.

Oh my giddy gosh! Friday was freaking AMAZING.

On Thursday night, I decided I needed to fix my sleeping pattern. I had woken up at 4:30 on Thursday afternoon and at 2am on Friday morning, I realised that I was up at 7am and I would now have to stay up to avoid oversleeping. So that's what I did.

I got to London Bridge station for 10:30 and this conversation happened:

Marna: Heys Sons, do you wanna do your "I have decided" moment today?
Me: Ummm, what?
Marna: Do you want to do your "I have decided"?
Me: Uhhh, okay. Sure.

Well, it was something like that. This was definitely sprung on me and I wasn't prepared at all. I don't especially do well at public speaking and the other day I literally wrote that improving my confidence was one of my new years resolutions. So I was pretty stressed out about it but I prayed with my babes Ms. Land and, after walking onto the stage a bit late, I managed to not have really shaky hands and to speak somewhat coherently.

The second I came off the stage, I literally had an overwhelming "OH MY GOSH I DID THIS AND I CANNOT EVEN BELIEVE IT" feeling. My friends were so freaking supportive and awesome. I know now that I could definitely develop this confidence and I could see myself happily, freely speaking on a stage one day. It's so weird, I feel like I've nearly completed this resolution three days into the year.

Aside from this, a ton of other fabulous things happened!

Tribal Wars was tres amussant; the Deltas (what in the world name) may have beaten us but, as the Super Villains, we have permission to dress up as Loki for church so I am pretty sure we are the winners here. Oh, if you don't know what I am on about then here you go:

1. Hillsong Youth are split in half to make two tribes. This year they are called Delta and Super Villains.
2. The two tribes compete in challenges to gain points and the tribe with the most points at the end of (enter event here) wins.
3. People dress up sometimes and that's pretty fabulous.
4. It gets SUPER COMPETITIVE AND PERSONAL.

Yeah, it's awesome.

Phil Kyei (our youth pastor) and Robert Madu (awesome preacher) spoke two amazing messages.

Phil brought out a whiteboard and gave us a maths lesson on God. Imagine this equation: 5 + x = 10. That's the most basic algebra right there. So if you are the number 5 and your goal is to reach 10, how are you going to do it? You have to make the x  into enough to reach that goal. And I'm pretty sure you can guess what this analogy was leading to. That's right: God is x. God is the guy who can fill that gap from you in the present to your aspirations. He is the middle man who you have to put your whole faith in. It's not about what you and I can do, it's about what He can do in us. I think that was pretty deep (especially when I realised how fast he spoke).

Honestly, by the time Robert came out, I had been up for over 27 hours and I was ready for a sleep. I didn't nap though because that guy freaking blew me away! He was talking about John 4 when Jesus goes to the well to see the Samaritan woman. Jesus is all like "Sooooo can I have some water?" and she's like "Uhhhhhh nuh". For context: the Jews and the Samaritans didn't like each other and Jesus was sitting on a well in freaking Samaritan-Land aka Samaria.

Jesus obviously didn't need the water. Like, it's Jesus. But He told her that the water that He would provide for the people would leave them without thirst. Robert spoke from the Samaritan woman's point of view. He told us that her present perspective was being polluted by her past experiences. The times where she had bad times with Jews was stopping her from seeing that Jesus was Messiah.

In John 4:25 she says, "I don’t know about that. I do know that the Messiah is coming. When he arrives, we’ll get the whole story". She literally had God in front of her and she didn't realise.

I was listening to Robert and thinking about all those people who hear about places like Westboro Baptist Church and assume that all Christians are like that. Those people who walk into a church service and can't get the idea of a hateful church out of their head. Those people who don't find Jesus because they can't escape the thought of their bad past experiences with Christians. I think that's pretty heartbreaking really.

Gosh, I probably should've written this on my other blog but there you go!

Over the rest of the day we had live music from LZ7 who just got everyone buzzing! I might have been running on I-don't-even-know-what energy but I danced for a full hour and it felt pretty good! Although, I can't dance at all so I don't even want to know what I must've looked like.

Oh, and I didn't eat all day. Cripes.

Anyways, I finally got home at around 11pm after being awake for just over 30 hours and slept like a princess. Lol jk, I stayed up to watch Sherlock (again), catch up on Eastenders and then woke up at 3pm on Saturday. So really I didn't fix my sleeping pattern at all!

Overall, I had a pretty blessed Friday and I'm so glad I gathered the energy to go. I have already made changes from it and I know that 2014 is going to be a new, powerful chapter in my walk with God.

Peace out x 

P.S. THE SIGN OF THREE IS ON TODAY, CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE IT! TWO EPISODES IN ONE WEEK, AREN'T WE LUCKY? Well, either that or Moffat literally wants us all to die from the feels.

SHERLOCK: THE EMPTY HEARSE

This is a post from my old blog that I am just shipping over.

Disclaimer: This contains spoilers so don't read it if you haven't watched the episode!

What a bloody brilliant show! I can't even deal with how many emotions I felt: laughter, tears, screams, heavy breathing, death.

First off, I am not disappointed that they didn't tell us how he survived. Not only were the three "answers" they gave us spectacular, I feel like if they told the truth then I would have been somewhat disappointed no matter what. Like, even if it was the answer I wanted. On a slight side note, I have a feeling that there is a little bit of truth in each of the answers but I guess we'll never really know. I'm just going to say a few things about each one:
1. The Derren Brown thing was hilarious! I genuinely thought they were just going to give us an amusing, anti-climactic answer (I mean, season two started with the freaking Bee Gees for crying out loud). The whole thing with the mask being put on Moriarty's face echoed what some theorists and the Sherlock/Molly kiss was right out of a movie. Very action film-esque. Louise Brealey's tweet did make my day.

2.Moriarty and Sherlock acting like schoolboys on the phone to John and throwing a half-arsedly disguised body off the rooftop was fine but then they were looking at each other and all I could think was "KISS. KISS. KISS!!!" and then they bloody did!

I literally kneeled on my sofa and squealed into my cushion for a good twenty seconds. I have no shame.

3. This one seemed most legit because of the narration and the pretty solid answering but I don't think it is the answer because it just doesn't make sense to me in my head. I can't put my finger on it but it's just not right. I think it's the whole air-bed business. Also, why would he let Anderson film it? It's just what Sherlock wants the people in canon to think. Although the nice touch of inclusing the children and the pulse thing was good, really rounded those bits off well.

Moving on, Sherlock turning up to the restaurant with the drawn on moustache and accent was TV gold. The headbutt, the John-has-a-stupid-moustache jokes, everything was beautiful. I'm very happy that the moustache is gone - what a blunder. Mary coming down the stairs and John proposing-ish was perfect and Amanda Abbington was amazing. Look at all these positive words!

I didn't know if I would like Mary's character because they cast Martin Freeman's wife and I was worried they might just have her as a half-arsed female character but I was actually buzzing! I love how she is totally in favour of John and Sherlock being bros and I totally ship Sherlock and Mary's friendship. My new brotp. Her whole thing about getting John to rejoin Sherlock and motorbike scene with Sherlock when they went to rescue John was really excellent.

I do think Mary is going to be either the main antagonist or a key member of the main antagonist. All the 'liar' in Sherlock's deduction of her is worrying. I'm still going to enjoy this friendship before it gets ruined.

NB: the whole fire thing made me cry a lot.

I'm glad Molly has had some character development from being at Sherlock's beck and call. Her new fiancé Tom who looks like a Sherlock cosplayer was truly inspiring - if you can't date the guy you like, find his doppelganger. The scene where Molly and Sherlock are talking and he kisses her cheek was a bit heartbreaking. Even though she knew Sherlock was still alive, she knew she had to move on. I think that's put a resolving end to any hope of Sherlock and Molly being a couple-type-thing. Although if Tom turns out to be a bad guy (I have a feeling) then the doors open for their relationship to continue being commented on.

I really don't know how to feel about Anderson! I mean, the guy lost his job, spent two years trying and failing to convince people that he was guilt-free and then it turned out he was right! The whole fandom thing was quite over the top but it's clear what Gatiss was going for. I'm not sure where they are going with the whole Anderson-wearing-a-John-jumper thing; I'm hoping they aren't going to make him into another sidekick type because that doesn't make sense. Anderson was awful to Sherlock and I don't agree that they could start working together and be totally amicable. We'll see, I guess.

Another very important thing about Anderson: his eyes. Dang! I am totally in favour of the eyes. Well done on the eyes. 10/10. A gold star for you. Well done.

The only real downside I find to season three is Sally Donovan's absense. As the only PoC and half of the recurring female characters in the first two seasons, Donovan's absence was especially clear to me. She was as wrong as Anderson last season and I hope they don't just ditch her character now that Anderson is being all 'good guy'. She doesn't necessarily have to be in it more than she already was but I think it was weird that we didn't see her reaction to Sherlock's return. However, I still hold out hope that she'll be in Sunday's episode so we'll have to see.

Anyways, I'm going to go and rewatch the episode. Also, I just realised I didn't talk about loads of good bits like the bit in the tube where Sherlock took the absolute piss and basically the whole terrorist plot bit but I just can't do any more typing right now. I thought it was excellent though, all the bits with that stuff. A+.

Peace out.

NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

This is a post from my old blog that I am just shipping over.

NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

So it's nearly 2014 and you know what that means!

NEW SHERLOCK, BLOODY HELL!

As well as this (as if life needed anything more) it will be the start of everyone's new years resolutions, followed swiftly by everyone giving up on their new years resolutions.

I have thought a lot about mine this year and have come up with a couple of things:

1. Keep up with my blogs, especially my main one. Having a Jesus-focused thing in the week is so useful to keeping up leading a spiritual life and when I do it, my life is generally more calm, productive and focused. If I can write on this one too, that'd be grand. I tend to lose paper things like this (a reason why Resolution Three may not last very long just out of fear of losing the notebook...) so having a way to assess my year would be pretty sweet.
2. Keep up with church stuff. Sometimes my priorities can go a tad skewy and I make silly choices so I will try and make sure that doesn't happen again this year. Last year was definitely not as much fun as it could have been.
3. Have a personal journal that is written just for me and is where the personal types of things go. I think it will be pretty dang therapeutic to write out stuff rather than keep everything in all the time.
4. Make it through A Levels without totally giving up and move away from home. Even though I live with my sister and I love her, it will be quite nice to realise how little I know about the world and then spend three years getting to know the world (or at least trying to).
5. Work on public speaking. I have this thing where I can type out what's in my head and have only a slight problem with real people reading it, However, the second someone wants me to use actual words with my actual mouth, I go shaky and jittery and awkward and quite awful. The same with formal things like interviews - I become this strange ball of bad puns and laughter (especially bad when the interviewer is a grumpy git). This is a big reason why I want to start vlogging - I think if I can confidently talk to a camera, knowing that anyone could see it, I can talk to a person. Actually, maybe this resolution should be to work on my confidence in general.
6. Be nicer. I am generally an alright person (I think) but sometimes I can be casually rude without realising until it's too late and I've offended someone. This links somewhat to Resolution Five but it's necessary for life really so should definitely have it's own point.

So that's that! These are my resolutions for this year! I expect I will have given up on five of them by January 7th but it's good to plan. You know, the thought that counts or whatever.

Peace out.