My new favourite tee…

Ok, I know this was blogged about yonks ago by my good friend Whathehelle on Ruby’s ChatChat blog, but I have only just purchased my very own Terratag tee.

Believe me, I have wanted to buy one for ages but because I usually have to justify my purchases to someone, I thought I’d wait until I had a decent exuse to spend money again.

My excuse came in the form of a neon-themed party that was being held by another good friend of mine. Since the only colours I wear seem to be navy blue, black, brown, white and grey, I thought it was time I invested in a brightly coloured tee. The Terratag brand immediately sprang to mind.

Still relatively unknown by most (but slowly emerging out of the shadows), Terratag offers hoodies and t-shirts that are different from the mainstream using bright colours, funky designs, robots, lightening bolts and stars (if anything has stars on it, I will buy it). This enables the wearer to attract attention to themselves (a plus if you’re an attention seeker) for all the right reasons.

Don’t be too surprised when you get asked a million times: “Where did you get that from?”

The tee in action:


I was a bit sweaty as you can see (the shiny forehead gives it away). I was dancing for ages with no break. The thing around my neck is one of them things that flash when you switch it on.

But, anyway, go and set a trend in your area. Go buy Terratag.

Top image taken from here. Dur.

I’m eighteen today…

1991

2009

And I’m not excited. Not one bit.

If you had asked me last week if I was a bit excited, I perhaps may have given a slight nod. But now…I just don’t care. Growing up just leads to more problems, more things that have to be sorted out, and more decisions to make. I don’t want to have or do any of those things.

Sure, I can drink and rave until the cows come home, but that just means less money and less sleep. Less sleep is not a good thing for me; I become extremely ratty when I haven’t had a decent night’s rest.

It’s weird… I don’t feel eighteen, but then again how are you supposed to feel? As a young child, I remember lying awake at night, trying to imagine what it would be like to be fifteen or sixteen. I struggled to think about how I would act be etc. because I found it simply to hard to fathom, I think a part of me thought I just would never reach that age.

But here I am, eighteen years of age. Complicated (though character building) times ahead. Woo.

A MUSIC MOMENT...

I used to have this long, rambling rant about this song and Janelle Monae. But I realised that it doesn't need it. Click play on the video and also check out a live performance of Sincerely, Jane.

Welcome to the resurrection of music.

Genius.

P.S: Something a bit calming…

“Babies with babies…”

NO. NO WAY.

I didn’t believe it. ‘Impossible!’ I said. I was on my way home from Oxford Street after sixth form (I bought a pair of braces from H&M, but I forgot to stop off in Mash, silly me). And I’m on the train now, minding my own business, when the London Lite confronts me with the head line ‘DAD AT 13’. Huh?

It wasn’t until I got home until I got the lowdown on the story. The news was exclusive to The Sun newspaper (surprise, surprise), so read the whole article and check out the video here.

The mind really does boggle. He conceived the child at twelve. How, how on earth can you be doing that sort of stuff at such a young age? And as for the girl, she’s fifteen. What self respecting fifteen year old goes out with a twelve year old? She must be in year ten, and he must be in year eight. That breaks the rules! You can’t go out with someone two school years younger than yourself! This wouldn’t have been allowed in my secondary school. In fact, a boy in my last school went out with a girl that was two school years younger than him and he was ridiculed for the duration of the ‘relationship.’ It didn’t last long, mainly because he realised that she was YOUNG.

At the time of writing (Saturday), I was having doubts about whether the child was actually his. He’s thirteen, four foot (that’s tiny, even I was bigger than that), voice hasn’t even broken… I don’t think he’s even begun puberty.

And lo and behold, just now I’ve discovered this article, which is basically saying that the twelve year old may not be the father. Surprise, surprise (again). You look at that girl and you tell me she’s only done it once (did anyone else notice she looks really old, like thirty old?). Other boys, a bit older (thank goodness), have come forward saying they done the deed with her around the same time.

This whole story proves that teens should not be indulging in such behaviour. They should be visiting youth centres, museums and the cinema. Not family planning clinics and Mothercare.

Oh, and I have another suggestion. They should all go and get tested. At least one of them must be crawling with something.

Deplorable.

A Music Moment...

Leona Lewis, with her epic vocals, releases ‘I Will Be’ from her quadrillion selling (a slight hyperbole) debut album ‘Spirit’. This isn’t the best Leona tune ever (if any of Leona’s representatives are reading, I’m You, Here I Am…big tunes, release them), but it’s still decent and miles ahead of other R&B songs. It features GossipGirl’s Chace Crawford (for about three seconds), and the first time I saw this video I laughed at her accent, it sounds so…British against Chace’s American articulation. And her acting is hilarious too: “I can’t come with you... I’ll meet you, I promise…” HA HA!

It was written and recorded by Avril Lavigne first, if you want to damage your ears and listen to her version, click here.

Oh and by the way, Mr. Missing, I Youtubed Jaydiohead. Clever, I like it, though I know practically no Radiohead songs (and not that many Jay-Z songs neither). Check out Minty Fresh’s YouTube channel here to see what Missing In Action is on about.

P.S.: More epic vocals here.

Please, think before you speak

If you haven’t heard about the whole Carol Thatcher incident, read about it here.

Many people think that this is ‘political correctness gone mad.’ Here are some comments I lifted off The Guardian’s website:

Here we have yet more instances of ridiculously oversensitive individuals overreacting to things... Carol Thatcher's remark is apparently heard by a dozen people off-air in the supposed privacy of the green room and she is dropped like a hot potato. Jonathan Ross's much more inappropriate remarks are made on air, heard by rather more than 12 people, and he retains his job. It would seem that Carol Thatcher does not bring the same financial advantages that Jonathan Ross does.
James Wilkie
Torpoint, Cornwall

As chief executive of Tameside in the 70s and 80s, I had dealings with a major employer, Robertsons Jam of Droylsden. Their famous golliwog had been removed from jam jars, except for exports to Africa. Africans, they told me, liked it.
David Spiers
Glossop, Derbyshire

The last comment makes me angry. Just because a couple of Africans told him they like it, it makes Carol’s comments ok? These comments are idiotic as well as mindless. The first comment claims that Jonathan Ross’s comments on Andrew Sach’s granddaughter were ‘much more inappropriate.’ Erm…no, no they weren’t. Even though more people heard Jonathan Ross’s comments, really at the end of the day they don’t have the capacity to re-ignite racial tensions and divide a nation.

At the end of the day, Carol Thatcher shouldn’t have said what she said. And the fact she may have said even more offensive comments, as well as the fact she won’t apologise (even describing the whole situation as “total bol****s”) shows she lacks understanding. The fact of the matter is, when you’re in the public eye, you have a responsibility. Whether it was in private or public, she should have not said this word, as there is always a chance that it would be leaked out. If I was famous, you’d never catch me saying the ‘n word' in public or private, and I’m black.

Both Carol and the above comments show that they do not fully understand the full ramifications of this word. If I was in that green room with her, and she said that, she would have had to pick her face up off the floor.

All you famous people should think before you speak.

Read Some Like It Essex’s and Mike Phillips’s views. Also read about how different newspapers have different perspectives, and the toy, which can still be bought today.

Thanks to The Guardian’s website.

Flashmob!

I’ve just literally just come back from the flashmob that was being held in Liverpool Street Station. If you were living under a rock and have no idea what I’m talking about, read on. Basically, a flashmob happens when a group of people meet up in an area at the same time. And I’m not talking about ten or twenty people; I’m talking a couple hundred. Or thousand (like in this case). The one today took place at Liverpool Street Station, and most people found out through the genius that is Facebook. It was supposed to be a fifteen minute silent dance, where everyone turned up and danced to whatever was on their own ipod.

I’m telling you it was one of the most mental experiences of my life.

I got there about nine minutes late, but it was already in full swing. I was instantly overwhelmed with the amount of people present. And as for the ‘silent dance’ bit, scrap that, it was more like a loud rave. People screaming and jumping around (my friend said he saw a man strip – I didn’t, thank goodness) and dancing to, well, nothing.

The police were there also, and I think they were amazed to see how many people turned up. Commuters who didn’t know about this momentous event also were shocked to find Liverpool Street Station literally overflowing with people. It was so bad that they shut the Central Line part of the station, which rendered me stranded.

I exited at around thirty five past seven, leaving the police the impossible task of breaking up the mob (they yelled at everyone to leave over the public system – to no avail) and quickly called my sister to find out an alternative route home (she knows about these things). En route to Moorgate station, I took some more pics:


After arriving at Moorgate, I topped up my Oyster (it cost me ONE POUND THIRTY FIVE to get to Liverpool Street, criminal!) and got on a train and changed at Bank to get back onto the Central Line. On the final part of my journey, the train didn’t even stop at Liverpool Street as it was still closed. There were some Chinese people on the train who were eating something I can only describe as Rice Krispies that were glued together in a shape of a cylinder (I thought this was intriguing, I would have taken a pic but it would have been rude). A couple of stops before mine, two girls got on the train wearing school shirts and very, very short skirts (they pretended they weren’t cold, they were lying to themselves). They flirted with the men around them (which clearly made the guys night – funny!) and got off at my stop. Then, I nearly slipped and dropped on sand that was put on the road (I don’t care what anyone says, the ‘Waffle grip’ on Vans is not actual grip), and I thought: ‘Is it going to snow again?’ I looked up, and lo and behold, it was.

Madness. Only in London, eh?

A Music Moment...

Now that we know his name, Daniel Merriweather has decided to make an album. Mark Ronson’s protégé (Daniel’s vocals were heard on Mark Ronson’s rendition of ‘Stop Me’, released in 2007) has decided to release this as his debut single. While ‘Change’ isn’t the best song ever, it is pleasant on the ear due to Merriweather’s soulful vocals, and Wale provides a decent set of rhyming. ‘Change’ is out now in the UK, and his debut album, ‘Love and War’ will be out soon.

P.S: I picked this song, back when her hair was pink and before she went rock chick on our R&B asses.

"Walking in a Winter Wonderland..."

‘Snow Day’ (as it has been dubbed by everyone under twenty-two), aka Monday 2nd February, saw London covered in the heaviest snowfall in eighteen years. This was particularly great for teachers and the youth, as school was cancelled for thousands of school children (including myself). I used yesterday to take some pictures around my area. While walking around, even though it was freezing, I noticed there was more of a relaxed, careless atmosphere in the air (even though there were no buses, and the Tube was virtually non-existent). I guess it’s because it’s an unusual situation. But a nice change, nonetheless.

Well done to everyone who made a snowman.

P.S: Now we have had a really cold winter, can we have a really hot summer, please?