Jimmy Jump Shot

Bit of a random post. But just go with it.

Once, I wanted to be a basket ball coach and it was all Jimmy Jump Shot's fault.

Jimmy Jump Shot was a real person, I know I didn't dream him up because my PE teacher in year 11 mocked his American accent. But six year old me saw him and thought 'I want to be exactly like that.' I was clearly weirder than I am now. I can still remember the one lesson he taught, way back in 2003 or when ever.

I'll set the scene: The sky is grey and 30 children stand shivering on a cold, wet playground in PE clothes. Waiting for Jimmy Jump Shot to arrive. It was tense. Who was this man? This man we didn't have to call sir, in fact we could call him by his first name. It was a big deal.

Then he arrives, in PE gear, bouncing a ball like a professional. Let me tell you it was cool. Now of course he was probably 6 foot but to my short height he was about 10 foot. So here he is, the infamous Jimmy Jump Shot, the tallest person I've ever seen and he shoots at the basket ball net and it goes in. Now after have 3 years of female teachers who couldn't shoot whether their life depended on it, having someone actually be able to do this phenomenon was amazing. After waiting for us all to quiet down after this stranger had done the impossible, he shouts in a strong American accent "Hello kids, I'm Jimmy Jump Shot!!! Now my little six year old brain just went wow. I'm not sure if it was his basketball techniques or his accent that amazed me but still he inspired me enough to go home to my mother and proudly exclaim "I don't want to be a hair dresser anymore - I want to be a basketball coach!" I'm not quite sure how long this dream went on for but I'm not sure it lasted as I clearly remember wanting to be an archaeologist throughout most of my primary school life. But it still doesn't stop family members mentioning it every year.

Of course, I never played basket ball again until secondary school - year 9 PE to be precise. Looking back I spent most of my time getting hit in the face by the ball instead of actually catching it. Co-ordination isn't my strength apparently.

I never saw Jimmy Jump Shot again. Who are you Jimmy? Are you even American? Is your name even Jimmy?

So, whilst most girls my age wanted to be princesses or doctors, I, the girl who only succeeded in skipping with skipping rope races (1st every year at sports day since between the year 2005-2008), wanted to be a basket ball coach.

I'm not sure what you're supposed to take from this but I enjoyed writing it. I hope you enjoyed reading it.

Adiós a todos

I take Spanish I can do that

Catching Fire

Let's be honest I watched the film a week ago and I'm still not over how bloody brilliant it is. I typically like adaptations of books, and there are some people in our society who hate every adaptation out there because they missed out a certain character or a phrase. Yes they did miss out some parts of the book, but the film is just such a good adaptation it doesn't matter. 

Yeah, I did just say that. 

After I watched the Hunger Games way back in 2012 for my fifteenth birthday I was 99.9% sure Catching Fire would be terrible in comparison, because let's be honest it wasn't my favourite book in the series and how can they make it better than the first film? Oh I was so so so wrong. 

I personally think Jennifer Lawrence's acting made this film, without it I don't think it would have been as good. Bet all you out there who complained about her being cast are hiding under your rocks huh? Talking about complaining, why did y'all complain about Sam Claflin, I mean he is such an obvious Finnick, and I'm not just talking about his good looks either. 

Favourite scene? Most probably the elevator scene, I mean Katniss's face had me shaking with laughter. Mainly because I was trying to keep my laughter quiet as no one else in the cinema was laughing (question: Why?). The scene in district 11 also had me crying into my popcorn let me tell you. In fact any scene where they involved the signal of district 12 and the revolution had me in tears. Don't judge me okay I am an emotional person. 

Now this has been short and sweet, but I felt I should post something seeing as it December! You can just feel the Christmas. The only negative of this is that it's almost time for Matt Smith to regenerate (no still not ready). I probably should have made a huge blog post about doctor who last week seeing as it was the 50th anniversary, but I think I was so excited I couldn't find the words. I mean the show has been a huge part of my life since I was about 7 or 8 which is pretty much almost ten years. Yes, I am a whovian in case you hadn't realised. 

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Come speak to me on twitter or tumblr!

Stealing Books

Not that I've stolen any books, of course.

At least I don't think I have.

But Liesel Meminger sure has. 

And this is now the beginning of me having a discussion about The Book Thief written by Markus Zusak. You can stay if you like. I would like that very much. Or you can go out and steal purchase The Book Thief with actual money and read it for yourself. It's up to you.

Now, don't get me wrong, but I love Nazi Germany. In a non 'oh I wish life was like that now' no I just find it extremely interesting and fascinating that a group of human individuals can do such cruel and inhumane things. The fact I got an A* on the Nazi Germany history exam also has something to do with it. I obviously don't take inspiration from these people because that would be bad. I just find it extremely interesting and disturbing to learn.

Back to the subject: Markus Zusak and his Book Thief.

The book stood out to me because my history teacher kept mentioning it: So Miss Hulme I have read it - I'm just a year late.

The whole idea that a child is stealing a book in Nazi Germany of all places is quite eye opening and is obviously going to get you a little curious. It's also narrated by Death.

Yeah you read that right.

Death is now a narrator, and pretty good one at that. He spoils the ending, which is bad, but somehow makes the ending 10x more depressing and sad. I may have cried actual tears. Also, how many books have you read that have been narrated from deaths perspective? Not a lot I'm gathering.

The characters are also diverse and you find yourself hating, then loving the character in the next chapter (Rosa Hubermann I'm looking directly at you). Can I also mention Rudy Steiner and maybe the whole Steiner family in general? I have never felt more pity and sadness for a character and their family. Max Vandenburg - the kind kind Jew who fell victim to the Nazi's discrimination and evil ways.  I was extremely happy with this characters ending

Now, some of you may be sat there thinking 'y'know what I might just go watch the film and not read it' Now that's fine, of course it is. I don't choose your life decisions, but really are films ever as good as the novels? No. Do you get to turn the fresh crisp pages with a film? No. Do you get the feeling of achievement when you've finished reading a 600 page film? No. Mainly it's because films don't have pages but that's not the point okay.

Just please go read the book. Or at least attempt to. At least then you can say you tried.

Well, it's Friday night and I'm waiting for food. My fingers are also pretty cold from typing and my thumb hurts (long story, banged it on a table yesterday oops)

Adios.

I take Spanish. I am allowed to say that.

The Naturals.

Now I was going to take my own picture
instead of stealing Google's
 but I didn't because of reasons.
 (mainly darkness but whatever)

I bet you didn't expect this topic to crop up so soon. Especially since I only mentioned receiving it like yesterday.

But it has and now you must prepare to listen to me discuss how absolutely awesome The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes is.

I am not joking.

First things first: What is the story about?
Natural at reading people or 'profiling' Cassie in contacted by the FBI. She's been chosen for a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to solve cold cases. Cassie is the last to join the programme and it's obvious no one in the Naturals programme is who they seem. When a new killer strikes, danger is closer to Cassie than ever before.

Now that is literally all you are getting out of me about the plot because spoilers.

This book is definitely a page turner. I know this because I literally could not put it down. I started it at about 3pm 27th October 2013 and I finished at around 10.30pm the very same day. Of course I didn't spend the whole seven and half hours reading. But I did spend at least four of them turning the pages. Now let me tell you, the second half of this book is tense, I couldn't sit still. I was moving around so much in my chair it caused my mother to ask "are you okay? Do you need an extra cushion or something?" No, but I may need to destroy this book. In a good 'i love this book so much it's making me feel things' way of course. I felt especially like this in the last few pages.

Now, the story features several snippets of something called You and this adds at least 10 points of creepiness to the book. It's probably the reason why the climax of the novel is so tense and gut wrenching. If I wasn't in my living room which included my family I may have yelled.
"No x can't be you! Not you!"
"Oh it's not x but is it y it can't be why because I thought it was a?"
"Oh wait it is x. No x cannot be you no no no"
"Wait okay K is here what if their You. But what about A"
"No Y is You who is You?"
This will make sense when you read the book.

One of the main features of the novel includes the aspect of "profiling'. Now what is profiling? Basically the ability to know a lot about someone from say their clothes, just think Sherlock. After reading the story, I almost wished I had the gift of looking at someone for a split second and knowing if they ate spaghetti for lunch. This isn't exactly how it works but you get the picture. I may or may not have tried to analyse a few people today, all I got was that one woman enjoyed the colour pink (she was dressed head to toe in pink, not the most difficult thing to guess really).

There is also some romance/love triangle in the story. I still have no idea who to ship. But do not let a dose of love triangle to put you off the book (are love triangles that bad? I don't think so), it isn't part of the main plot, well it is but it's not full frontal (wrong phrase but you know what I mean). It actually creates quite a funny scene within the story.

The novel actually exceeded all my expectations. Y'know when you read a blurb and you're all "Oh okay this sounds cool I suppose" You aren't that excited to read it but you know you'll give it a try. But it sits on your book shelf for a couple of months gathering dust because you've forgotten about it? Yeah I thought it would be one of those books.

It most certainly wasn't.

Now, I would like to thank Quercus for sending me this book because there is a 95% chance I probably never would have read it other wise. Oh, but I am so glad I read it. It may actually become one of my favourite books. It already has a spot on my 'favourite books bookshelf' Yes that is a thing I have.

I've also just realised that this book isn't out yet and I feel like I'm breaking some sort of law. So on the 5th  November y'all better go running to the bookshop to buy this, kay?

Now I only have one question: Can it be November 2014 already, because yes, this is going to be a series and I cannot wait for the next book.

Goodbye people of the internet. 

Productive

Wow two blog posts in two days.

Not going to lie, pretty proud of myself for this.

Now, it's Saturday 26th October 2013 and I'm not going to make up some story about how I've been extremely productive and saved the world or whatever. Because I haven't, I think I did the exact opposite.

How, I hear you ask. Well.

For a start I didn't get out of bed until 10am. Then, instead of proceeding to jump out of bed with a grin on my face and get ready for the day, I crawled downstairs and made myself a bowl of Weetabix. I then watched Miranda until about 12.30pm. All of this was done in my pajamas and dressing gown. Then when I did get dressed, I think ate about seven magic stars for lunch - nutritious huh? (And by seven I mean seven of the stars not seven packets okay?). Then I read Game Of Thrones. Now I plan to go tumblr for the rest of evening. Or at least until Strictly Come Dancing is on TV.  Do not judge me

The life of  this teenage girl is so busy and chaotic I can hardly keep up with myself.

Oh and thank you to Quercus for sending me Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.

 Prepare yourselves for a blog post about that in the near future.

Don't get too excited now.

Actually instead of tumblr I might watch more Miranda. Ooo the decisions I have to make.

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Question of doom

Y'know when you go for a job interview and they ask you the question. You know the question I mean:

So why did you chose this company?

Does anyone else just panic panic pAnIc PaNiC pANIC ?

I am a student and with University looming in about 18 months I really need money. This is obviously not an acceptable answer. To be quite honest I have no idea what would be the acceptable answer. I usually just spout out "I love the companies products and the policies your company has is just great. I also believe the experience I will gain from this opportunity will be very valuable" Of course this is all done with a look of sheer terror. I probably also say this at about 500 mph.

Wow I wonder why I'm still unemployed.

That is all I want contribute today.

Goodbye

Cat Clarke

Check me out using pictures.

There becomes a time, in everyone's life, where they have to discuss Cat Clarke.

Or at least in my life there is.

And that time is now.

I've come to the conclusion that there are two kinds of people in the world:

•  Those who know of Cat Clarke's existence and completely adore her YA books
• Those who have no idea who she is.

I've converted at least two people. It's not enough. I need to convert more people into becoming the first type instead of the second. 

Probably shouldn't have used the word convert but more people should read her books.

I feel like as an author she is very unappreciated. She's not even verified on twitter. Not that being verified on twitter is a necessary thing to happen of course. In my mind she is as good, if not better, than those who are verified, yes I'm looking at you Sarah Dessen and John Green (Not that I'm criticizing them of course - I adore their books too). Also after freaking out after Undone I figured she is just a generally nice (oh there goes my year nine English teacher complaining because I used the word nice) and pleasant person. 

How nice is that? I actually wasn't expecting a reply, nor a reply to my friend and I freaking out. (The other author who tweeted me, Ally Carter - but I can discuss that some other time)



Now to the reason I'm writing this instead of my history homework (yes I know I'll do after this shh)

Cat Clarke's books. 

Entangled 

Torn

Undone 

I have no recollection of why I chose to buy Entangled from the bookstore, but I did. Maybe I thought the cover looked pretty. I basically read Entangled within about two days and then proceeded to bug my best friend to read it. Which she did. 

Now why you should read it: It's a very very good book. But why? Because it makes you feel emotions. If a book doesn't make you feel emotions it isn't doing it's job right. But which emotions? All of them. Entangled also made me think. Who is this Ethan person? Why is he so creepy and weird? Why is she is a white room? Of course I'm not going to tell you here. Go get the book. When those answers are revealed, it's like an epiphany, and I'm not joking. They also made my stomach drop about fifty feet because of course that's why he's called Ethan. The fact the first line is 'I met Ethan the night I was planning to kill myself. Pretty inconvenient, when you think about it' is just brilliant. In fact I think that's why I bought the book - because of the opening line. How much personality is written in that line? A whole lot. It's also pretty humourous considering the subject. All her YA novels are written like that, full of personality and humour that when something terrible happens you just want to rip out your organs. That may be an exaggeration but read Undone - you'll get it. 

Speaking of Undone, that is far by the best novel I have ever read - and I'm not even kidding. I rarely stay up all night to read a book (mainly because I love sleep to much and I enjoy writing the endings in my mid) but I think I stayed up till about 3am reading Undone. Don't get me wrong-I did try to sleep but I spent too much time gritting my teeth into my pillow because that book is tense. I couldn't bare waiting the hours I would spend sleeping, I just had to read it. So there I was 3am, under the covers finishing the book. I have never felt so emotional after a book. By emotions I felt literally nothing. I was so shocked, my emotions had just stopped. It took me a while to get to sleep that night. Good job I had no school the next day. 

Now if you're one of these people who refuses to read a book because it's sad firstly, get a grip and secondly, being sad over a book is the best bit. If you get so emotional over a book your tears are real, the book is more likely to stay with you, mainly because you continue to think about it for the next few days so much you can't read another book. Which is exactly what happened after reading all three Cat Clarke novels.  

Now, if you've read this I command advise you to buy at least one of her books. I doubt you'll regret it. Especially if you're now wondering about the white room and Ethan you should buy it. Not go googling because spoilers are bad.

Bye!!

P.S I love spoilers but with TV shows, not books.

P.S.S I hope this blog post has led you on the path to becoming the first type of person the better type

Dreams

Hello.

I'm going to say this first, if you're expecting a blog post about ambitions and dreams which we all want to fulfill in our lives - then you've come to the wrong place.

In fact you should probably stop reading this right now, or you should carry on because curiosity has gotten you interested. Your call.

The dreams I am about to discuss are those which occur when you are currently awake and asleep at the same time. I'm going to say this: They are messed up. They are also the ones I tend to remember more.

There was one time, a few months ago, I had two dreams in the awake/asleep state and both of them left me confused. In the first one, my mum chopped my dog's leg off.

I think I need to give you some context.

At the time my dog had hurt his right leg, so was wearing a bandage around the leg. In the dream, my mother had chopped off his left leg, the one which was okay. In the dream she claimed she did this so he would "match" but he just had three legs. When we were discussing this in the dream she was just brushing his leg on the kitchen work top. I should also mention that there was no blood. It's like the leg had just come off. In the same dream we had driven to a car park. Where my IT teacher happened to be. The conversation went a little like this:
"Megan! You want to talk coursework, yes!"
"No, not really." (I'll just mention at this moment in time I had completed all my ICT work and it was now my free lesson, why, in my dream, she wanted to discuss coursework which had been graded I have no idea)
"Great, I'll be back in five minutes!" She hurries off.

And this is all I can remember of the said dream. I can tell you now, I woke up pretty confused.

The second dream involved my best friend and her finger falling off.

Yes, you read that right.

In the dream we were currently teaching her how to play stuck in the mud, a game which I have never understood, so I have no clue how I was teaching her in the dream. The only reason I never understood that game was because in my primary school we played a messed up version where several people held someones fingers and then ran away. I told you I didn't understand the game. It turns out the normal 'tag' game of stuck in the mud is what we called 'tiggy scarecrow.' I have no idea what our version of stuck in the mud is really called, there was certainly no tig involved.

Anyway, we were teaching my friend this game and as a girl holds my friends middle finger it falls off. Strange enough, right? It got stranger when my friend said, as the girl held her finger in absolute horror, "don't worry, it does that all the time, just put it back on."

What.

In addition to this, the said best friend, once dreamed that we went to Pluto and took selfies in front of it.

Dreams. Weird stuff.

Bye!

Idea's

Hello.

It occurred to me, that idea's are strange. Or the stuff of getting a really good idea in the first place is really strange.

By 'stuff' I mean the 3 hours procrastinating and the 6 hours actually trying to think of an idea.

Then after the nine hours the only decent thing you've managed to think of is totally cliched and obvious.

This happens to me often.

This is my second ever blog post and trying to find an idea to write about wasn't that difficult. Not all. In fact, I thought of a lot of subjects and topics to write about for this. However, can I remember any of them? Not at all. This may have something to do with the fact all the ideas were formed at 2.00am this morning whilst I couldn't sleep. I've noticed this is a regular occurrence in my life. In the day, the moment I need a really good idea, my brain is blank. It's like I don't have a brain capable of thinking, but put me in bedroom with the lights off and tell me to sleep? Then all the juices start flowing.

This sounds like a really good thing right? I mean, all I have to do is wait until night fall and then all my creative ideas, that are actually useful, are available. The only problem with this is that I forget. Or my ideas are usually in paragraphs, full in detail, and I have no effort to write them down. I think I have probably written a novel during the night whilst trying to sleep, or at least probably finished the story/book I am currently writing. In this case I usually remember the overall story line or a phrase. Typically though, I remember nothing. The only think reminding me that last night I had an idea, is the nagging voice in the back of my head saying "Megan, do you remember that thing you thought of last night? Do you? DO YOU? You don't. Well what a shame because it was really good stuff." Then I stare at myself in the mirror halfway through brushing my hair with the look of utter annoyance on my face because sleep stole another important and amazing idea. Again.

Why, I can hear you asking, why don't you just write these idea's down? Well, in short, I'm probably too lazy and tired at the time to get up, and write down these ideas. Next question: Why don't you put a pad and pen by your bed? Well, usually, when I paper beside my bed I don't have pen. This is the same if I have pen. I don't even know why I never have them both in the same place. It would make my life so much easier. The amount of time I have spent looking for a pen, or a piece of paper (and usually I end up writing on the back of an envelope or a really important letter).

I'm going off topic. I do that a lot.

Another thing about ideas, is that you'll think of a decent one and then after declaring that the idea is good and you will use it, another, usually exceptional and much more original and creative than the first idea, is thought of. The bad thing about this is that it is usually too late to change it. Hence, you spend the entire time regretting everything and hating the way your mind works. This also happens frequently to me.

Forming ideas is hard and difficult, which can be really annoying and self-aggravating. Then, miraculously, a really exceptional idea forms in your mind and the world is correct again.

That's if you remember it, of course.

Bye for now!

(Wow is that too cheesy? I told you in my first post I was awkward at this okay. Maybe I should leave the exclamation marks alone.)

Introductions.

Well.

Hello.

In my experience, introducing yourself is really difficult and is typically followed by an awkward silence while you think about what to say next. Let's be honest, meeting new people is great and brilliant, but so awkward. I always find it mind boggling (boggling, nice word. I like it) how people can introduce themselves so easily with no hint of awkwardness. I have no memory of meeting the people who are in my life right now. I must have introduced myself at some point, or did I just place myself in their company without a "Hello, my name is Megan. I saw you standing here you look friendly, hi." I honestly cannot remember.

The last time I had to introduce myself was about 6 weeks ago, at my Post 16 induction day. I keep trying to convince myself that the incident wasn't all my fault, I mean, if he hadn't of mumbled I wouldn't of mistook his name for "Hello," would I? I basically asked him for his name twice and then he sat quiet for the next two hours. He was clearly wishing he hadn't of come to our school for an education because his first encounter was with a girl who couldn't tell the difference between "Hello" and "Luke". Hopefully, I'll forget that little introduction, just like I have with the rest. Hopefully he will too.

I have a strong belief that introducing yourself in writing, is a lot easier, than say, in person. The main reason being that if I said this out loud to a person I had never met before, they would have turned around and walked straight out of the door by now, because really this is a very long way of introducing yourself. Also, I dictate the conversation topics so no awkward silences, not here. If you haven't figured out by now, I really dislike awkward silences, they make me twitch and do the *laugh but I'm not actually laughing because it sounds like air flowing through my mouth, why are you staring at me like that* thing.

Well, I personally feel like we have reached the point in conversation where I'm beginning to get so nervous that I begin to talk really, really fast. Not that I'm nervous about this of course, no, it's only the first post of hopefully many that will give you an impression of who I am and what I stand for. I don't think I've done any of that so far. Or maybe I have. I think I'll leave you to decide that.

Well.

Goodbye.

(Another thing I find very awkward is saying Goodbye, but I'll think I'll leave that topic for another time)