You give a little love...

... and it all comes back to you.



Such a cute sentiment. I kind of want this played at my funeral.

I was in this play when I was in Year 8 (Bugsy Malone) and it was a lot of fun. Or at least, it was when I comment on it retrospectively. At the time it was stressful and there were too many rehearsals and I was gutted that I hadn't got a bigger part. But then, everything is good retrospectively; that's way things should be.

Anyhow, I've let a musical do my philosophizing for me today; you give a little love and it all comes back to you!

Productivity...

... really isn't happening. There's more interesting stuff to be doing than reading a GCSE Physics revision guide (like googling the different flavours of hummus that exist).

On the bright side, I only have nine exams left, and four of these you can't revise for (French and English exams). I've not done particularly well on the exams I've done so far judging from speaking to friends and comparing answers but I don't really care. I want to be able to sit and read a book or have fun with friends without feeling guilty.

And after exams, no more GCSEs! What happens now is that I only study subjects I like and we go more in depth with them. I'm very glad.

Oucome of the protests.

There were no clashes at all, the police worked neutrally and effectively and I still saw women wearing hijabs in town today. I'm pretty happy with the outcome (or lack thereof).

I don't know whether to take this as "protests are pointless" because barely a ripple was caused or as something which should restore my faith in humanity because there weren't enough extremists on both sides to do harm. I'll go for the latter because it's nicer.

English Defence League.

Tomorrow the EDL will be marching through Newcastle and the UAF will be there, leading a counter-protest. It will be interesting, to say the least. The couple of protests I've been in which have had counter-demonstrations haven't been particularly constructive- they've essentially been a lot of shouting on both sides. Apparently this time, though, it could be different.

On the EDL website, it harps on about how the protest will be peaceful and how the police have obliged to their requests and it's implied that the police are totally behind them- but the reality is different.

Apparently the police have been warning people to stay indoors because violence could potentially erupt on both sides. I found this on the Unite Against Fascism website (which is, granted, probably biased but it's commentary so can't be that unaccurate):

"When the EDL came to Manchester in October, Muslim graves were desecrated. When the EDL came to Stoke-on-Trent in January, the words "Islam scum" and "EDL" were daubed on a mosque."

I wanted to go clothes shopping with my mum tomorrow but she refused because of the march (she's Muslim and wears a headscarf). It's just sad that they can cause so much fear considering they just seem like a bunch of thugs (and yes, I have looked through their website, though you can pretty much deduce everything you need to from their members). I told her that by not going out, she was submitting to what they wanted, but I really don't blame her; who would want to go out and face people who see you as sub-human and a worthless entity and who are vocal about it? She retalliated by saying that it's better to ignore them (which is incidentally a parenting method for naughty children) as the whole point of their march is for attention which is a fair point, but I still think that ignoring a problem does not make it go away.

I'm all for freedom of speech and criticising Islam (same stands for any religion or political stance) but pissing on graves is really not a great way to do so. Engage in debates, write books, leaflet, campaign and for God's sake, accept the responsibilities that come with rights.

HEY! DW!

Arthur. What a show.

"You got to listen to your heart, listen to the beat, listen to the rhythm, rhythm of the street.

Open up your eyes, open up your ears, get together and makes things better by working together.

It's a simple message and it comes from the heart.

Believe in yourself, or that's the place to start.

What a wonderful kind of day, if we can learn to work and play and get along with each other."

The kid could give Shakespeare a run for his money. It's profound.

Tests.

I was wondering today who came up with the idea of exams and so took the liberty of googling it. Apparently it was the Byazntines (Ancient Greeks, I think).

It's actually an ingenius idea, but exams are so commonplace that they serve as nothing more than worries or pests. The idea of being tested is one central to Islam- life being a test from God- and central to our education system. If we took away exams, what would we have? Learning for the sake of learning? Would people learn for the sake of learning? Would people still follow religions if the concepts of Hell and Heaven were taken away (although, to be fair, Christianity and Islam are the only religions with a focus on Heaven and Hell, and even Christians now deem Hell to be 'an absence of God')?

So, yes, I have exams as of Friday (unless you count the Arabic exams I've had- but they were a resit because I wanted a better grade than the one I got. After having sat the exams, I can predict that I won't get a better grade but that's fine by me). I started revision on Saturday and even that has been fraught with procrastination. I do maintain that exams are a good idea, but that doesn't stop me moaning my way through them. There's no doubt that, however long exams have been along, moaning has been around a lot longer. And even if exams are developed or abolished altogether, moaning will be around for as long as the human race is.

Perspective.

Perspective. Persipicire (to look at closely) +
iv.

It's a beautiful thing. I didn't realise how self-pitying people were until I joined Facebook. It's well nigh impossible to scroll through the f/b home page without seeing that 50 of my friends have joined a group called "OMDZ , I SMILE BUT U HAV NO IDEA WHAT I GO THRU!!1one". Really? To be honest, I don't doubt that some of them have legitimate woes and they by all means have every right to complain. It's just that for a lot of them, I suspect their biggest problem is that two of their friends have broken up, or they're not doing as well at Maths as they should or another such petty problem. It's all fair and well being upset for those reasons, but it's also a tad frustrating for me as an outside observer when they dismiss the suffering of third-worlders and reduce it to "they shouldn't have babies" or "they should do the best with what they have". How can you expect empathy but give none in return?


They're lucky; I'm lucky; chances are you're lucky, but people are immune to the goodness in their lives (and I'm guilty of this too) which is sad. When I was younger, I thought that everyone was happy. This progressed to "most people are happy" when I learned about depression and other mental illnesses. Now I'm coming to realise that barely anyone would classify themselves as "happy" and that's it's hardly a static sentiment anyway. Maybe people have a twisted perception of happiness? Happiness doesn't mean being constantly satisfied and in a constant state of enjoymentent. It just means... being happy.

Endings.

It's bizarre how quickly time passes. It's not even that I'm getting old; I'm sixteen, but it still feels as though time is elapsing beyond what I can comprehend. When I was younger, sixteen seemed like the age where I'd be self-actualised, I'd understand myself and the world, but that's far from the truth. I'm not ready to be able to legally have sex! I am not responsible enough to live on my own, and joining the army is an idea I can't fathom even if it was what I wanted to do. The law deems me mature enough to do so many things, but it completely overestimates me: I'm still a child.

Tomorrow is my last day of compulsory education. Apparently we're meant to be sentimental and emotional about this, but I genuinely do not care. There's no point in saying dramatic goodbyes only to come back three days later for exams. Also, the majority of people I know are coming back to school for sixth form anyway. Yet apparently it's still a time of major change, and it's a time where I should mourn what I've lived for the past few years. I think it's false sentiments, to be honest. Things are going to change, sure, but I completely embrace that because life is somewhat dull at the minute.

Politics-wise, I think Clegg made the right choice by forming a coalition with the Tories, though I doubt the former group will have much say or power in anything. The alternative was to form a coalition with Labour (fine) and some of the other small and patriotic parties (not so fine) or to ignore the opportunity which would have just been disastrous in terms of Lib Dem support.