March In Review

SPADE LIST ITEMS COMPLETED -

#25. Overcome fear of other people.

(Completed 22/03/10)

#24. www.operationbeautiful.com.

(Completed 25/03/10)

#21. Drive a car.

(Completed 28/03/10)

PROJECT 365 PHOTOS TAKEN -

Day 90 - Let Your Light Shine...

I like walking, even in the dark. The city (not really... town) lights around me are strangely pretty, and the world is an orange hue from the lamps as I walk around. I find walking helps clear the mind of all the clutter, all the noise that's raving inside your head, and you feel relaxed and refreshed. At least it's like that for me, anyway.

Tonight, to celebrate being off for Easter, I went out to a BBQ at a local church where some Americans (not the angry / happy CCU mob... some different ones from Kentucky) were leading. It was a pretty good night! I enjoyed myself! =)

Day 89 - Hello Collin!

I told my American buddy Collin I would give him "a wee shout out" on my blog, so howdy Collin!! (He was part of the awesome mob of CCU students that were here a few weeks back).
This is a picture taken via Skype of Mich. Story is -

Me: so what should be my picture of the day?

Her: ME!!!!!
Me: problem - you're at your house
Her: so, me anyway

So I took a snapshot of her via Skype "doing something crazy". So maybe it's not one of the most artistic pictures in the world, or on my blog, but it makes me laugh! And you know what? Laughter>creativity.

Day 88 - Rainshine.

It's rainy season, and everyone's complaining. Why? Why do you complain? There's something I love about the rain... one of my best memories of summer is sitting, completely still on a rubber dingy in Lough Erne. It was lashing, and I was getting drenched, but I sat there on the edge of the dingy, watching the rain drops bounce off the lake. It was one of those moments when I was overwhelmed by the beauty of nature.

I'm thankful for the rain... it helps me appreciate the sun.

Day 87 - Vroooooom.

Firstly I'd like to apologize for all the backlogging. This has been due to being away over the weekend, and before that, broken internet.

Today I arrived home from the SU weekend... I thoroughly enjoyed myself! This is a group photo of our lovely selves... all these guys are awesome! Fantastic people to spend a weekend with! I hope everyone else had a good weekend too!

This has most definately been a good week for the Spade List, as today I completed another one! We're doing well here =D

#21. Drive a car.

I drove around my driveway today! It was rather exciting! I only stalled once, and I blame that on the fact that I only got three hours sleep last night (Note to self - 4a.m. is not an ideal time to head to bed). It was fun and scary at the same time, I'm pretty sure I had a mixed expression of delight, confusion and panic permanently splattered across my face. It didn't help that my dad, who was in the passenger seat, was laughing his cotton socks off at me the whole time! Well he won't be laughing when I'm soon zoooooming down the countryside in his car... mwah ha ha!

Day 86 - Snow Tubing Without The Snow.

This is the awesomeness that is snow-tubing! Imagine that rubber ring slide at your local swimming pool, but on white grassy / carpety stuff outside. It's a lot of fun! This is what we did today... I went down for a few slides, but then found myself a good place to stand and got some action shots of my friends! Some of the facial expressions were pretty hilarious! After a while, we started having group slides, making star shapes,
cross shapes, flying Vs and just plain massive multi-slides! It was a lot of fun! We spent the rest of the day getting kicked out of shopping centres, building forts and shouting "my chair!" Of course there were the serious asepects too... the speaker for the weekend is very good; I've been left feeling both challenged and inspired. =)God bless.

Day 85 - MY CHAAIIIRRRR!!!

Today I went straight from school to Moyallen for the school SU weekend woop woop! Tonight there was a talk, which was very good, and some epic games of Mafia and MY CHAAIIIRRRR!!

Day 84 - You Are BEAUTIFUL.

There are many beautiful people in this world. Never forget that you are one of them.#24. www.operationbeautiful.com

You may be confused as to why I put a website as an item on my Spade List. I guess you just need to press that link! To take part in Operation Beautiful you must stick a post it or something similar in a public place with an uplifting message on it, something like "You are Beautiful, inside and out!", "Hello gorgeous!" or "Never hide that beautiful smile!", in a public place.

Although I was planning for it to be anonymous, I figure I may as well put this up here! Today a friend and I "went to the toilet" *cough cough* during class and stuck Operation Beautiful post its on all the mirrors in the girls toilets. Many teenage girls have self esteem issues, and seeing a note like that can brighten up a day so much, check out the website for more stories.

When I returned to class, someone came in about 10 or 15 minutes later and asked all the girls in the class "Have you seen what's been put up in the toilets? You need to see the toilets!" I had to turn away to hide my smile. Soon quite a few of my friends were talking about it, and it gave me such joy to hear them discuss it excitedly. It gave me hope. Unfortunately, by the time break time had come around (during break the toilets are packed) the cleaners had taken them down and thrown them away. Girls who had seen them were annoyed, but I didn't mind. Even a tiny response is fantastic, and, who knows, that cleaner might have enjoyed reading them too!

Never forget how beautiful you really are.

Day 83 - Ah Wuv Yoo!

This is Sophie and she likes it when she gets a little shout out... hello Sophie!This photo was taken in art... when I should have been working on a very important piece of coursework! Meh! It can wait...

Day 82 - Those Glimpses Of Blue Sky...

I'm enjoying these glimpses while they last... it's been usually quite a grey week but occasionally the clouds will disperse and you'll get these glimmers of sunshine! It makes me smile =)

Day 81 - A Whisper To The World.

So I've been wanting to post this for a long time, like for the past few weeks, but have never really thought of when would be a good time to post it, as it's not really something I can pin a date to. In fact, this is something I'm still rather unsure about. Forgive me for being so indecisive... but here we go.

#25. Overcome fear of other people.

This is sometimes why I regret blogging about my Spade List... I have to be personal. Meh, I guess it's good to be open! Will I regret posting this? We'll see.... So yeah, this item on the list has been bothering me for quite some time now, as I was thinking how will I ever know when I have completed this, if I ever complete this? What does this even mean? How can I achieve this?

It's a difficult one. I don't feel I need to write in detail on this, as I needn't bore you to death or make you think I'm some sort of freak. But what I am going to say is that I have achieved this... as much as I possibly can. I'm uncomfortable being this open, and yet I want to shout it to the world on a mountain top. I need a compromise to sort out this conflict. So this will be my whisper to the world - I'm overcoming my fear of other people. And d'you know what? It feels wonderful.

*smiles*

Day 80 - *Sun*Day.

Today I went filming again for M.I.A. ... it was a lot of fun! I didn't expect the weather to be half as nice as it was. I was pleasantly surprised and extremely grateful! But now I am very happy because I can successfully say that I have finished all film work for my coursework, and so all is left is the post - production! Wahheeyyy! I do enjoy the filming though. Ever since I was just a wee'un, less than a metre high with my head in the clouds (those must be low clouds) I've wanted to make a film. And now I have that oppurtunity, it feels like I'm fulfilling a life long dream. *sighs happily, lost in reverie*

Well here are some pics from today, mostly of Mich and Corinne - Mich was acting for me (she was wonderful) and Corinne came for the bant / to help me with ideas (she too is wonderful). This is Corinne -

We were filming in Castlewellan Forest Park, home to one of the largest hedge mazes in the world... it used to be the largest, but unfortunately now I believe there is a larger one. Don't worry Castlewellan Hedge Maze... I still think you're awesome!

And finally this is a picture of Corinne and Mich just being the awesome people they are... =)
Well I had a very good day... the sun makes me happy and I'm excited for a whole summer of it soon!

Peace out.

Day 79 - Double Trouble!

I had a good day today! My eye is slightly better, although still pretty disgusting looking and sore! The funny thing was, in karate it got pretty bad and I got rather disorientated and was seeing double at some points. I was told I looked drunk... it was hilarious and worrying at the same time! Mich and I also convinced everyone at karate (including our coach) that she had punched me in the eye because I had insulted her religion. Now... either we're really good actresses or we have a reputation for being horrible and violent. Hmmm....

This is a photo of a water fountain in the town in which I live. It was a sunny enough day that I could use a really quick shutter speed and get good photos!

Day 78 - Life's A Blur... Literally.

This is a photo of my little sister's friend on the swing... high contrast, slightly desaturated in some areas.

Me duele el ojo. No estoy contento. Translation for all you non-wannabe Spaniards: My eye hurts. I'm not happy. Yeaahh, I have yet another eye infection although I cannot ever remember having one this bad before. It's rather... or very painful. So I have taken my lenses out (to avoid irritation) and have put sunglasses on instead (to avoid bright lights... or any light actually, I could happily live in the dark right now). These aren't prescription sunglasses so all I can see is a blur. Here, let me show you - below is what the above picture looks like without my glasses on. I don't think I've ever met someone with who has claimed to have worse eyesight than me... except for blind people. I pity them.

Anyway tonight I was back at the mighty Oasis. Walking into the building with my sunglasses on felt slightly odd, but everyone was very understanding. On second thoughts though... maybe not - "NOOO!! Don't take her sunglasses off or she'll DIE!!" Hmmmm. Interesting logic. Well my friends decided they would make me a makeshift bandage to put round my head and eye to make my life a little easier (I love my friends), but when they finished wrapping the, ahem, toilet paper around my head it looked like it was a bandage for a head wound. Of course my immediate reaction was "Draw blood on it and we'll freak out the next person who comes in!" I feel we were successful. =)

Day 77 - Wait... It's Thursday?!

This is Corinne =) isn't she pretty?Corinne, Sophie and I were sitting in common room today doing rather little (whilst we were meant to be filming for M.I.A. shhh!) so I took out my camera and took a quick few shots... really like this one!

Right now I feel the need to write something delightly witty and / or thought provoking... it's a pity my head is just full of fluff at the moment. I'm delighting in the fact that it's Friday tomorrow... having the half day yesterday split the week in two so I feel like I still have another few days to go! Oh the little perks of life...

Day 76 - Kiss Me - I'm Irish!

Today the whole world celebrates my nationality. Yep - today is St. Patrick's Day! A day for some crazy festivities and wearing green and drinking until you explode. Today I stayed in Downpatrick to watch the parade... I have never done this before, despite the fact that I go to school in Downpatrick! You know, we are the closest high school in the whole world to the ground where St. Patrick's thousand year old dead body lies... and we don't get the day off school for the day that celebrates St. Paddy himself. Ironic, huh?

Well the parade was... interesting. I tried to get some good photos but my view was blocked by the eager crowd of Downpatrickians also wanting to watch. I ended up taking a lot, but this one I like best!



We said our goodbyes to the CCU team today... but it was a good day! One guy ended up getting interviewed for UTV and Bill told Julian Simmons his name was Guillermo. I love these guys!

Day 75 - Etcetera.

"the most wasted of days is one without laughter."
e.e. cummings

i wanted to look up some awesome quotes on laughter etcetera, and i stumbled upon this little gem. i did not pick it because i liked it etcetera, but because it was quoted by this ever-so-slightly obscure poet, that i've studied in school, called e.e. cummings. mister cummings was obsessed with the word 'etcetera' etcetera and didn't believe in using capital letters... ever. hence why there are no capital etcetera letters in this post... i am not merely being lazy and not hitting the shift key, i am actually being poetic.

you may not like e.e. cummings, so i will post another awesome etcetera quote on laughter here, by someone i also discovered in school, another legend in their own right.

"the more you find out about the world, the more oppurtunities there are to laugh at it."

bill nye the science guy

oh bill... you got me through junior school science!

well i shall leave you now with a reminder etcetera to laugh as much as you possibly can - it can turn your day right around! =)

jo.

p.s. here's some advice from t.s. eliot etcetera - don't throw away that sausage, it'll come in handy.

Day 74 - I Am Just A Silhouette...

I know you won't admit this / I am just a silhouette to you...

Silhouettes - Swimming With Dolphins

More recently I have not been pleased with my photographs... and altogether my 'photography self-esteem' is drooping. My lack of good photos recently has been a mixture of being very busy / very lazy. Hopefully when the days start getting longer and the sun shines regularly, I'll be able to go outside and get some awesome snaps! These photos are alright, better than the previous few days... I was experimenting with silhouettes.

Peace out.

Day 73 - Happy *** Day!

So today is -

1. Mother's Day

2. Pi Day

3. Dasha's birthday

Happy Mother's / Pi / Dasha's birth Day everybody! =)

Yes. It's yet another crappy photo. I read on a Project 365 blog somewhere "If all else fails... shoot dinner". All else had failed so I did shoot dinner- this was desert.... lemon cheesecake with grapes. It was my Grandad's 70th party today so we had a nice dinner for him.

Yet again tonight I hung out with the CCU team! They're awesome... hopefully I'll get to see them on St. Paddy's but I'm not sure yet!

Day 72 - Dutch Blitz - A Vonderful Goot Game!

Okay so this isn't a good photo in any sense of the word but it makes me laugh! Dutch Blitz is such vonderful goot fun! Haha!
Today I was once again hanging out with the angry / happy mob at Murlough House! It was fun!There were some pretty hilarious moments and some great conversations! =) good night!

Day 71 - A Reunion With The Mob!

<----

This is my sister's bike.


So tonight instead of hanging at Murlough / Oasis, the gang headed up to Downpatrick to hang with the CCU team (i.e. the happiest angry mob I've ever met! see Day 65) and it was a lot of fun! They seem like a bunch of really nice guys and we're gonna see them again tomorrow night which is exciting! We managed to convince one to sing part of the 'Price Hill Girlz' song... it was awesome! Can't wait to see them again tomorrow night!

Day 70 - I Import My Chocolate From Ohio.

What a day. This morning was dragged in with results for AS - Level modules. The tension made me want to gouge out my eyeballs with a plastic spoon as we listened to the headmaster drone on about motivation for a good ten minutes. I can actually hear his voice in my head as I write this... *grabs spoon*. Well anyways, I ended up getting a decent 'B' grade for my RS. I was pretty darn pleased with this! My teacher, however, was not as pleased as I was... he wanted an 'A' from me, and enquired if I would like to repeat. I said "no".

After school I went home and was able to take a quick self portrait before heading out to school again...
Tonight was the mock interview night at school, which I was dreading. However, it wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be! The people interviewing me were very friendly =) and they offered good advice without being harsh!

I was able to comfort myself through out the evening by eating the Oreos and Hershey's chocolate that Kylie gave me all the way from sunny Cincinnatti, Ohio! The best bit was they came in a Walmart bag... Kylie knows us well!! =)

Day 69 - ACTION!!

Today I started filming for my Moving Image Arts film! It's awesome seeing the film you've been planning and thinking about for months finally come to life! Soon I'll be going out to get the rest of it filmed... when my movie is finally finished I will upload it to the blog, but this won't be for another month or so! I won't give away any plot spoilers ;)

Thanks to all the people who volunteered to be in the film, and apologies to those two randomers who got dragged into it... I don't know who you are but thank you! Big thanks to my friend Mich for volunteering to be my main character (love) and a big cheers to my drama teacher for performing magnificently!! It's so much fun yeeooing at, throwing paper at, and generally being cheeky to a teacher for the sake of creativity! Fun stuff!

Also... met my American friend Kylie for the first time since summer today =) I love her!!! Its funny how you see someone you haven't seen in months and it's like they never left!

Day 68 - "Chukoku!" "Keikoku!" "Hansoku-Chui!"

Tonight I was at karate in Newcastle. There was an internal club competition and I got a silver medal woooooooooo! What's that you say? How many people were in my category, i.e. Girls? *cough* two. Haha! I hurt... I got kicked / punched in the face quite a few times and can feel bruises appearing on my arms! Well, in fairness, I did punch my partner in the face various times also ;)

Day 67 - When Life Gives You Lemons...

"When life gives you lemons, make grape juice. Then sit back and watch the world try to figure out how you did it."

Day 66 - Photoshop Addiction Much?

So I realise that I've been doing quite a bit of editing recently, so I've decided today I was gonna give you a before and after pic. I was at my cousins house today and took a picture of myself in their mirror. Here's the before pic. Not that exciting really. So I opened it on Photoshop and was in a random mood so put the "Brightness" up as high as it could go. It pretty much turned out like the "after" picture below, except the painting and light were visible. So I took those out and am pretty pleased with the results actually! Hopefully I'll stop this drastic editing faze soon...



I have a distinct lack of Emzy-Doodle in my life right now. Emma "Emzy-Doodle" Thompson is my cousin / best friend / awesome person and I haven't seen her since New Year.... (she was working today). I love you Emzy!


Yours,

Joey-Pops

Day 65 - The Nicest Angry Mob I've Ever Met.

Today I was acting in Sophie's Moving Image Arts film again! It was fun... slightly more stressful than last time though! I guess that's cause it's the real thing this time! =/ Well my acting involved me looking sad, then looking lost, then looking terrified, then looking dead. Most of it was fine, but "looking dead" involved me lying on a forest floor with my face in the mud / leaves for a good five minutes while Sophie took her time getting different angles of me sprawled on the ground! Aye right, "different angles" my ass... she just enjoyed me having to have my face buried in the ground without moving for 5 minutes, right Sophie? She agrees.

The pictures are of Sophie prancing about in the forest, by the way... it still makes me laugh looking at them!

Tonight was also a good night =) Mich, Sophie and I were standing around in Newcastle and we saw this large group of people walking towards us. Of course the natural thing that came into our heads was "Oh my gosh! An angry mob!!" and so we cowered slightly in fear. Don't laugh. You would have been scared too. Later on that night, after Sophie had gone, Mich and I were walking along the prom and we saw them again. Bad times!! So we walked past them, and heard them talking / laughing in American accents. After about 10 seconds of walking past them we stopped, turned round and said "They're American!!" So we ran back to them and asked them if they were from Cincinnatti Christian University (CCU), as we were expecting a group of them soon. They were. =D so Mich and I joined the happy mob for a while and got chatting to them! =) Nicest angry mob I've ever met! Hopefully get to see them more soon!

Day 64 - Inspiration And A Walk Down My Road...

I have been very inspired by another photographer - Janae Hardy, from Missouri. I have never ever seen such wonderful photography - it's the style I love and I think you should take a look at her website - http://janaehardy.com/ it's wonderful!!

I guess this picture of my friend Simon is kinda inspired by her work... the colours are edited as it was a dull day when we went out for a walk, but I like it =)

Also... apparently the mighty number of my followers are getting angry at how I do not update regularly... I have been recieving angry comments from people at school -

"Update your blog!! You have no excuses!!"

"Why have you not updated your blog? You need to update your blog - it's the only thing that has brought any joy into my life since January!"

"Frigg sake Jo, UPDATE!"

Patience is a virtue, but it would seem that some of my friends don't have it ;) so I shall try to update a lot more regularly you guys! Love yous!

Day 63 - March 4th... LOL

March 4th - I like today's date because it sounds like I'm telling people what to do!

Nothing much has happened today, I got this photograph of the snow on the mountains. The foreground is a field just opposite my house... I thought the tracks where a tractor had been made it more interesting and I made it B&W simply because I feel we need more B&W in this blog!

=)

Day 62 - I Got My Music...

Today I was taking more photographs for the school magazine! This is the school senior choir in rehearsal... they are amazing! Well done guys! Being one of the two magazine photographers means a lot of taking pictures, but it also means I get out of class quite a bit! Score! =)

Day 61 - ASCII (Pronounced Ass-key)

01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01110011 01110000 01100101 01100001 01101011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100010 01100101 01100011 01100001 01110101 01110011 01100101 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01101100 01101001 01100110 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101110 01100101 01110010 01100100 01111001 00100000 01100100 01101111 01110100 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101

If you are staring at that in confusion, clearly you are not fluent in binary. You are not nerdy enough to be that cool.

Took some photos of friends in the school's dark room today =)








Hope you like them!! It was certainly a good experience getting the pics =)

Day 60 - March Madness!

Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring XYLOPHONE (bop bop ba doo doo dop)