Wooo

Orchestral Strings - Haven't updated in quite awhile. Im feeling smug right now. I worked out what I need to get my grades and...its not a lot :D

on Blogging at College

Now, blogging at college is a tricky issue. Sometimes things come up that I'd like to write about right away, but people keep on sneaking up on me wanting to use the computer I'm on, despite the fact that it takes a whole minute to run one up for themselves. People also pester me about what I'm doing, which wouldn't be an issue if I wasn't planning to whine about these people in the near future. It is vital for my peace and quiet that they aren't reading over my shoulder!
On another note - this means I'm whining about people behind their backs to the entire Internet. Does this make me, by definition, the world's biggest cow?

Express Till Guy

Express Till Guy is a guy at work who is on the express tills, usually when I'm buying some sugary snack for breaks. He's very sweet and chatty, and is probably the closest thing I have to a crush right now.
I think it might be an issue for our relationship together that I don't so much fancy him as want to look after him, because he's cute. I have already promised to buy him cake. Where is this going?

on Being Harsh #1

I went into town today and was approached by a market researcher, who promptly asked me if I would like to fill in a quick research questionnaire. 'No, I'm sorry, I'm too busy', I replied. And I was. I'd just bought a muffin and I was planning to eat it. So I went and sat on the nearest bench and ate my muffin at a leisurely pace, feeling an odd mix of harshness and smugness.

N.B. This is #1, on account of the fact that this probably won't be the last harsh thing I do, no matter how good my intentions.

on Coach Cow

Since I'm leaving college for good in less than two weeks, I got to thinking about all the good times I'd had with Coach Cow. Let me explain...
I travel to college on a school coach which neatly picks me up from my estate and deposits me back there again in the evening. So far so good. Were it not for Coach Cow, a journey to college would be relaxing, peaceful and dare I say, almost pleasant.
Coach Cow is a small (relatively speaking - she is taller than me) blonde , approximately 13 year old brat. She has the most strident voice I've ever heard, which is used liberally to complain about anything and everything, and every other sentence begins 'GOD!!!'. She wears a very small piece of sewage or something under her nose. I've never actually seen it, but she complains about something smelling every morning so I can only assume it's there.
Coach Cow has some issues with stiff joints. This is another conclusion that I've jumped to from the fact that she can't ever sit down for long and kneels on top of the seat, thus projecting that voice of hers. Maybe she had acting lessons.
I feel damn sorry for our driver. Every so often he stalls the coach, or has to brake suddenly for cars/cats/people, or takes a second or so longer than necessary to leave the coach stop. This is whinged about in load detail by Cow. I don't think our coach drivers are allowed to throw things at us, but I'm sure he wants to. Or maybe that's me projecting my desires onto another...
This morning I overheard (You could probably overhear Cow from the next vehicle) her talking about the recent fire on our estate, in which someone died. She claimed to have been in the flats at the time. This was all terribly funny.
Needless to say, Coach Cow is oblivious to the fact that no-one likes her. I might well enlighten her on our very last journey home together. Or maybe not. I'm lazy like that.

on my Belgian King

I promised a note somewhere on my Belgian guy, so here it is. I'm trying not to give names and locations here (Belgium is suitably vague, I feel), so Belgian Guy he shall remain. He's my King because I played Utopia (A web-based game) for awhile and he was King there. Old habits die hard.
Now my Belgian Guy is very cool, and I like him a lot. That said, we do have opposite opinions on many things from politics to work and video games. However,that is changing; I feel his influence in that I'm more sympathetic to the poor these days, and he's now studying and working and stuff (though I doubt that's anything to do with my study regime.) Some things never change; I'm never going to like Command and Conquer. Being different is great. Gives us something to talk about.
I must add at this point that there is no romantic interest involved here. I will write about romance as I see it some other time.
Belgian Guy has a GF in Brazil. I will admit that at first this struck me as a doomed romance, however I've known him for ages and a day and they're still together. It flies in the face of conventional wisdom on long-distance relationships, and it's damn nice to see people happy in love for once. Now my friends in real life never seem happy for long...but thats another Blog entry and shall be written another time.
He's also the only person I really like playing online games with. I play Age of Mythology online too, but it's not fun, as such. Playing Age of Mythology online is a search for a fun game, because when you get a good game it's really really fun, but mostly you end up against experts who thrash you, newbies who are too easy to be any fun or a bad civilisation matchup which means you never had a chance in the first place because they're Isis, or else you face some 13 yr old guy who insists on calling you a wh0re, win or lose. You keep chasing the fun though. If you've ever played AoM online, you'll know what I mean. If not, think of it as online Heroin, only without the dying. But back to Belgian Guy. He's a good sport, and challenging too!
I offload problems on him too. After all, who's he going to tell?
I believe everyone should have an online Belgian Guy. It's nice to have someone to discuss different ideas with and play games with and insult. Just keep your paws off mine!

on Being Off-White

I was submitting this to a blog site earlier today and it asked me to specify what topics regularly appear in my blog. Among the selections were such things as 'gay/lesbian', 'anti-Semitism (really, haven't we grown out of thinking Nazis were cool by now?)', abortion, drugs, teenagers and gangsters. Well I've been writing this for a whole day so I dont technically have anything that 'regularly' appears in my blog, but it did get me thinking about my own ethnicity.

Now I've always thought of myself as British, and I'm rather fond of the country and most of its people. However, a lot of people don't see me that way. When I started work an Asian colleague asked me if I'm 'Muslim or Hindu', without giving me an 'other' option. My explanation that I followed no religion didn't seem to go down well. I went to Germany on an exchange, and when posted at the front to answer questions (In English; it was an English lesson), I was asked both 'Where are you from?' and 'Where are you originally from?', as if they couldn't quite believe that I'm really British. It called to mind the time when I was little, and I was asked if I was Greek, or possibly Chinese. So over the years I've been looking at myself in the mirror and asking myself 'Am I really that foreign-looking?'. And the answer was 'Yes, Raven, you're pretty damn foreign-looking.' Not that there's anything wrong with not being white of course, it just feels a bit odd when you think you're British and everyone else thinks you're something-they-can't-quite-put-their-finger-on-but-definately-not-British.
Mum is mixed race - White and Black. Dad is White. That makes me slightly Brown, with a sort-of Caribbean look and cool hair. What I mean by the hair is, it's currently long and naturally goes into cool spirals, thus attracting more attention than a female of my dubious attractiveness really warrants. Sadly, I didnt inherit my mum's attractiveness. However, for various reasons the only influences on me have been British; British culture, British accent, and when im feeling patriotic, British patriotism. I've never felt any inclination to go 'trace my roots', like people do. And being an entirely British off-White person seems to strike some people as a bit odd.
I don't mind, of course. Preconceptions are natural after all. It's not a big issue. As I've gotten older, people ask about it less and less (Mayhaps the lack of a headscarf gives away the whole 'not a Muslim' thing). I just thought it was an interesting thing to note.

on BlueRaven

Why am I calling myself BlueRaven? Well, of course I don't want to put my real name on here. I dont want anyone I know knowing this is me (Of course, if anyone I know is online reading blogs I'll eat my proverbial hat - more on people I know and the Net later). I also just like the combination BlueRaven. I hope it doesn't mean anything; I dont mean it to. Perhaps I ought to have googled it first.
Also, BlueRaven as a username was taken. I hope no-one well-known on here is using it. Loads of names get taken on these sites and go inactive, nonetheless I'm taking a risk here. If there's any original BlueRavens, I'm sorry. Comment or something.
And that's all I have to say about that.

Edit: That wasn't quite all I had to say after all. My good Belgian found a site: BlueRaven shower caps. I suspect that neither myself or this blog is famous or influential enough to cause me to get sued.