Va-Va-Voom

Another post for girls... kind of.

Sometimes you just need to give yourself a boost of Va-Va-Voom... am I right?

Today I woke up and thought You know what? I'm going to make an effort!
I'm not doing anything other than going shopping and then going out for a coffee, but I spent probably an hour doing my hair and makeup just for such a non-important day. I'm not going out at night, I'm just watching a movie with my family and boyfriend, but I just thought... Why shouldn't I try to be glamorous, just for myself.

I am so lazy when it comes to fashion, looking good and generally making an effort. In my head I am a glamourpuss. I love fashion, I even have a fashion related blog on Tumblr, and I love makeup... hello... makeup artist! But, I never use these feel-good things in my day to day life. I go to work in my regular clothes as we don't have office wear. I just throw on jeans and a top and trainers and sometimes I put on a bit more makeup than usual but my hair is always thrown into a boring pony tail. I hate that I look so casual all the time. I want to make more of an effort just for me, because I do feel more attractive and confident when I've thought of how I want to look in the day and I've achieved said look. It's a state of mind, isn't it? Putting your face on, well in my case anyway, is a direct show to the world of what mood I'm in.
If I wake up in a grumpy down mood and feel like a destroyer of things (I often feel like a destroyer of things, like I could just walk into work and rip all the computers off the desks... pent up rage?) I wear a lot of black eyeliner and probably some sort of dark top. When I'm feeling girly and cute I will do a flick of eyeliner and try to wear something a little bit lighter and whatnot. I don't think anyone notices these outward expressions of my emotions but I do, so I think trying to make an effort to feel good might actually work in a backwards way.

If instead of letting my mood influence what I wear and look like, I let what I wear and look like influence my mood, surely I'm onto a good thing?

Right? Does anyone else do this or just me? Do guys do this?!

Announcements and what not!

Well, not announcements per say, but kind of... I'm tired so I don't really know what words are spilling from my fingertips right now.

Oh yeah, that was it... sorry, just got really distracted by how much the veins in my hands/fingers are sticking out. They don't usually, so I'm taking it as a sign of needing to sleep :P

I passed my 2nd year of uni! Woohoo! actually passed my exam - got about 61% I think, which for me is a freaking miracle because I just don't do well in exams. So I'll take it! In my final creative writing thing I got a 69, which sucks being 1 point off a 70, but oh well. I'll take what I can get at this point.

Feeling quite proud of myself really so thought I'd share. I've not been up to THAT much recently and blogging hasn't seemed nessesary. Which isn't the point of a blog, I know, but sometimes I feel like if I have nothing to report it's pointless and no one will want to read it! I have redecorated my room and it's finally ALL done, apart from my needing to now clean it all up and actually put things away rather than live with boxes of stuff all around me. Which I don't mind, but apparently it's driving other people crazy. Bah. So I'll tidy up soon and post pictures. I'm quite proud, as I did about 90% of the work myself; wallpapering and putting furniture together. I find it quite enjoyable so it's nice.

In other unrelated news I have had a move around at work and I'm now... drum roll.... full time. Again. Urgh. I want the money but I can't tell you how tired I am just from working 3 days in a row. You forget how hard it is using your brain for that long a time without a break, and 2 day weekends are a killer, but it's a nessessary evil I know. It will all pay off as I'll be able to save up enough money to keep me going whilst I try to carve out some sort of writing career. I've finished the rewrites in my novel so I've just got to implement them on my computer, then re-read the whole thing again and then I think I'm heading for a bit of restructuring and more re-writes, but on a whole I think I'm on the right track. I enjoy it, so that's the main thing I suppose!

I would blog about the Olympics but I'm not really that into them. I like the gymnastics but other than that I don't watch The Sports. Sorry! :P Hope everyone is enjoying them though!

I'll be back with random blogs I'm sure. I need to get back into the swing of putting pictures and what not in here to make it more visually exciting...

Laters!

Sam

Spinebreaking Pottermore!

What a week! Not that I've been up to much, but I feel like this week has been manic. I think mentally I have been in turmoil, from worrying about my internet not working, to getting my 1st year grades (PASSED! WOO!), to finding out my boss (and really good friend) is leaving work next Friday (Is it wrong that I will miss my boss?!), to frantically trying to get early registration on the new Harry Potter website, Pottermore, to trying desperately to get involved in the website Spinebreakers (more on that below).

It's been one of those week where I feel like I have progressed... maybe not mentally, but in some way or another a progression has been made....

Yep - my internet stopped working this week, which was annoying for 3 reasons. The first reason was mostly due to the fact that I got the email from OU to say that my grade was available on the website for my first year... and I couldn't get onto the site to get it. I finally managed to get on the site after a few hours and saw the only word I needed to see - PASS - which made me quite happy, but made me realise I need to pay for my next year... which I don't want to do because I don't want to see that much money exit my account in one go! But... I know I have to... so I'll suck it up at some point and do it. I'm just putting off the inevitable!

Other things I have been internally stressing about for no reason what so ever is this new Harry Potter website Pottermore. I don't even know what it's all going to be about, but they were allowing 1 million people to submit themselves for early registration, so they can help with the development, point out bugs etc. and I just HAD to try to get in. It's not like I wouldn't have been able to join at the usual time in October, but... well, I didn't want to be left out. However the stupid website was putting up clues to be answered to win a space at the most stupid hours of the day. I.E when most people are at work, or asleep, so the only time I could actually try to get on the site was today, on the LAST day. And I managed it. I knew it was going to be between 12am and 3am that the clue would appear, and on Friday nights I don't go to sleep until about 3ish anyway, so I stayed on the site and got in there straight away! It's sad, how much I want this site to be good, and how excited I was when I signed up. But Harry Potter has been a huge part of my life - keeping me reading, and keeping me watching films and it's the thing that made me actually start my internet life - when I first signed up to Mugglenet and got on the forums, which led to working on forums making graphics for HP sites, and then being admin on a HP forum, and then watching certain people on Youtube who loved HP and made fan videos, and even setting up Blogger, because by that time there was no point not doing it because I was already living a seperate life via the internet anyway! So you see, I couldn't abandon HP now!

I've also been trying to join Spinebreakers, which is a website for Penguin books. It's a place where people review books and get the breaking news on new books coming out and it just seems like a great community. So I'm in the middle of trying to get into being a contributor and trying to get on the forums (which I can't get on at the moment for reasons unknown) - but as reading and writing are where I see my life heading more and more these days it's a place I really want to be involved in. Who knows - I'll try not to dwell on it until I hear from the admin folk, but it seems like such an exciting site I can't wait to get involved!

Well - I'm off to watch crap TV now, and for the rest of the day (Hello, The Audrina Show), and tomorrow I'm off into Manchester to watch Super8 at the IMAX (woohoo).

Have a good weekend folks!

Sam

INSERT HERE

Yo! It's been a little while since I last blogged, and I thought now was the right time to do it. Right when I have an assignment due - and should be editing. Meh. What can ya do?! I'm currently sat here... downloading something. Basically, I had Microsoft Word, but then lost it as it turns out I only had a stupid trial one on my laptop (part of the reason I bought this is because I needed Word). So I have been trying to find a torrent file for Word to download. I know. I know. Naughty Sam, but still... I refuse to pay for something that should just be free with computers! And have you seen the price? Jeez! Talking of money I just recently realised next years Uni course is going to cost me about £1400... yep. I am still a little baffled. But it's basically because I will be doing 2 courses at the same time, so I can do the 3rd year course I really want to do. Which I have changed... Oh its all going down over here! I was going to do some sort of History degree because I have this hugely huge passion to learn about ancient history and myths, but that meant doing a year studying Medieval history and the middle ages and all that jazz. I'm not really into that. At all. So I figured, screw this. I'll do history of film. which was something else I was interested in, as I ultimately want to do something in film at some point in my life. No... that course has disappeared. joy. So then I think. well, I'll do what I wanted to do a few years back, and now I'm buzzed about it. I can't wait to start, even though I am taking on double the work load. BUT, I will be doing English Lit. Studying Reading and Studying Literature and Creative writing... It might turn into too much, but oh well. It's what I wanted to do for a long time but didn't because I'm one of those people who doesn't want to do something they don't think they will succeed in because there is too much competition in the industry already... because in the 3rd year I want to do advanced creative writing. Basically what I'm saying is for the most part of my life I have wanted to write for a living. Not that I ever write anything. its a bit of a pipe dream. Because I don't believe I would ever be good enough to actually write anything for a living I have never tried. Much like why I gave up photography and pretty much everything I really wanted to do. I don't want to fail... but I am going to give this a go. Once and for all. In other news... hmm... let me think. I can't really remember what I have been up to. I work in a Pensions company so work has actually been manic, with my work load almost tripling in size as its the end of the tax year tomorrow and we have new legislation coming in next week which means people are scurrying to get money and forms in to us asap. Which means everyone thinks their cases are more urgent than everyone Else's. So I've been stressed out of my mind for the past month, but work is work. Horrible! :P And in OTHER news, it's me and my boyfriends 2 year anniversary next Tuesday so we are treating ourselves to a movie at the IMAX in Manchester. We got premier seats to see Sucker Punch. really excited! Been watching loads of films recently as we are going to be writing a screen play soon - horror genre, of course - so researching horror films. But I have to say, this weekend I HAVE to watch a movie with a happy ending. I love horror films, but for God's sake, I can't watch a film where everyone dies for a while. It's starting to depress me! haha. Right, best get cracking with the assignment. Curses. Sam ps. I couldn't edit this post due to stupid blogger systems. So you must read it as is. Apologies! :)

Quite cold really!

Brrr.

Even though it was a brilliantly sunny day today it was still quite cold. I'm waiting for the warmth, Mother Nature... where is it?

So - hello followers of sorts! I know, I know, it's been a while since I last did this. But every time I went to click 'New Blog' (or whatever the button says), I had the fear. The fear is a terrible thing, but also a good thing because I suppose it should mean I did other 'life' stuff instead of sitting here blogging.

I didn't.

To put it bluntly, I have been cheating on you, Oh blog of sorts. I have been 'blogging' on Tumblr for the past month or so. Which shouldn't be as addictive as it is. Basically it's a cheats guide to blogging, but also a great lazy way to stay in a blogging community. As all people pretty much do is blog pictures and stuff, and if you find the right people to follow you can get some pretty nice photos and quotes and such that make you feel all warm inside.

My blog is something like www.tumblr.com/scumbagsam - I think... I have just been posting pictures and such. It's a great link up to the site www.weheartit.com which is where most of the pictures come from and go to - like a vicious circle - but it's pretty cool if you like finding pictures of certain things etc. So that's basically where I've been hiding.

As of late in the REAL world - not much going on. Work has been mega hectic and stress inducing - it's tipping me over the edge and I will soon be insane from the pressure of it all. But hey ho! Uni work has been pretty good - although I have been having problems with Word on my laptop which meant I had to blitz an assignment in 2 1/2 days, which took some speedy typing and *wishful* thinking. I hope I pulled it off. Eeks!

I have been dieting still - slimming world - and I missed last weeks weigh in as I went to see Ray Lamontagne play a gig at the Bridgewater in Manchester (he was insanely good as per) but I am pretty sure I have lost a stone so far. So that is good news! :)

I have been watching many a movie - I saw the alien comedy Paul today which I liked despite thinking I wouldn't. Seth Rogan's voice is pretty much the sexiest voice in the world to me right now... aaaaand - that's basically it I think...

Not much goes on in the world of Sam. I have a few pictures of Manchester I might post soon, along with a description of a cool Milkshake bar I have found. I might also post a recipe or two for some good meals that are healthy if anyone is interested... if not I might start a new food blog. But I always say this and never do - so we shall see what happens and how much time I have to do these things!

Adios!

Sam

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Well..

Its not, but today I had that Christmas-y feel. I can't be the only one who gets that... its like, a feeling... that's specific to a certain time of year. I guess I felt goodwill to all man or something. Except I didn't, because I was at work at the time, getting trained on something... voluntarily. Yes, I said it! I volunteered to be trained on this subject. Wowzer. Maybe that's what brought this feeling on.. maybe I am more bookish in the winter months..? It could be true. Just yesterday I looked outside and saw it was raining, and so I thought to myself "Sam (Yes, I speak to myself like I am not myself), Sam (I said), Maybe its time you started that new Stephen King book you bought the other day, you know, the one you bought even though you said you weren't going to buy anymore books until you have read every last one of the ones you bought previous to this internal discussion...?"

Of course, I chose to ignore myself, because at the end of it all, I didn't feel like reading at all (trust my internal dialogue person to butt into my music listening, email writing time!!). But that must be it! When the weather isn't so savory, I want to bury my head in knowledge. Perhaps knowledge is the kindle to the souls fire, and if the soul is warm, so is the body? Yeah. A load of old crap. But hey! They pay me to make this stuff up on the spot.

Ok ok. So I don't get paid... damn it. I should get paid, right?!

Listening to music is once again my main focus in life. But I am in the age old spot of what to listen to. I was shown this music programme the other day and I haven't looked back. But as it turns out, the blessing is also a curse. Too much choice isn't always good for you. Especially when you don't actually KNOW what you want to listen to. Bring back Internet radios, that fine tune your listening and suggest artists you might like... what? They are still out there? Phew! Ok! I will still keep good old Jango in my favorite toolbar!

I was given a postcard of an artist yesterday by a friend, Just Lianne, and honestly, this guy is a great artist. Just check out his site. I love finding cool little arty things through other people - so thanks, Li-Li, for ripping the post card out of the book for me, and wrecking the perfectly kept cards - I will treasure it forever! Sadly, I can't find the one I have in postcard form on the website, but hit the link for James Jean and be away with yea!

Sorry for all the links. I am just in a linking mood right now! HA!

Life has been super mad-hectic recently. I don't even know why, but I have been busy pretty much every night of the week for the past couple of weeks. Which A. isn't like me, and 2. Isn't like, me. (you have to imagine me saying the last point with an American twang, like, totally...)

I am such a lazy bugger, I love staying in 60% of the time, and then thinking about going out 40% of the time. But I haven't had a choice. I have been trying to squeeze seeing friends into the week, as well as squeezing in seeing the B'f. I ain't complaining, because I do actually like the fact that I have stuff to do, but please... just a few days off? I really need a holiday. I dream of fiji... *sigh*, although I don't want to go back to Fiji.. its Aaaages away. I need a break from work etc. I really need to go back to America for a while, and I really want to hit the Cannucks side of things at some point too! Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah. Busy, busy, busy. But its all good.

I have been putting make up skills into practise - already have 1 wedding under my belt, and I have another one on Saturday, only thing is, its not just a show up, throw some make up at some faces, and go and get in the bath... no... alas, this is a friends wedding! So, I have to be up and out for 9 and then that's me out for the rest of the night. no rest for the wicked it seems. I have to take all my own stuff and get ready on the road (not literally outside, on the road.. can you say Brrrr?). I like home comforts when I am getting ready. But I guess i can make do. It wouldn't be so bad if my car was available, but my brother basically killed it. I would be madder, but I am just glad my brother is OK, so I can't be 'mad' mad about it, but it does put a slight damper on the whole freedom thing. I have to get lifts everywhere.. this wedding being one of them, and yes. I have already been through the ordeal of having to get a new outfit for the wedding. Today, Actually.

I hate shopping with a firey passion. Not because i hate clothes, but because nothing looks good on me. Ever. I just hate putting clothes on and feeling crap, and that's what shopping is for me. But in the end of a painful 2 hours shop, I got a canary yellow dress (which will be re-used for any other wedding I may attend, if I make it through this one alive), with some cute little black shoes, with purple on them (yellow and purple.. its ALL the rage!). I guess its not so bad. I can afford to spend however much I spent - luxury of living at home, although I have decided just recently that I COULD live without such luxuries - and plan to go through all my expenses and see how much goes out each month, and on what... I might have to cancel some subscriptions (the charity can go, but I am keeping my cinema pass) - and now I have a new car on the way, I have to see what that will set me back, but the final decision of the past week has been that I need to move out. And find a job I actually like.

The joys of being at the decision stage of my life. Luckily I have a good support system with my friends, and my new (ish.. is he still new? I don't know anymore), fella. Still, I will miss my Just Lianne - Just keep in touch, and let me know when you have a new place. I am SO coming to see you!

And that's all she wrote!

Sam

On a P.S note - I saw Harry Potter the other day... it was OK - except the lack of actual story and the sexual innuendos..... trust me, that wasn't a spoiler.