In Response To Paris

Hi -di-hi y'all. Bet you didn't expect to hear from me again so quickly.

Like everyone else with access to the free media, I heard about the terrible attacks in Paris, among other places, last week. The media have covered it pretty much non-stop since it happened (at least in Paris, I've not seen a lot about anywhere else). I've been pondering my personal response to these actions for the last few days. I know I'm only one person, but with this blog I know I can reach at least, like, three whole other people. So maybe I can make a small difference.
When I heard about Paris, I was shocked. I wanted to cry, and scream. I wanted to get over to France and do anything and everything I could to help. Sadly, France was in total shutdown, and it wouldn't have been practical to go even if it hadn't been. So I decided to do everything I could from my family home in Hertfordshire.

I checked that my friends in Paris were safe, and then I did nothing.
That's it.

I didn't cancel my plans to travel (using public transport) into central London with my family on Saturday. I didn't stop myself from enjoying a night out in one of the most "at-risk" cities in Europe. (Xanadu at the Southwark Playhouse, if anyone's interested. Amazing. I'd recommend going, but they've sold out until the end of the season!) And I did nothing to lessen my experience of getting on the tube (I hate the tube) any further. I also didn't cancel my flight from London to Berlin (arguably another "high risk" city) on Sunday. I didn't change my travel plans to get to the airport either. And I didn't complain when they wanted to check my bag at security (my bacon showed up as a liquid on the scanner.) When in Berlin, I didn't do anything to alter my arranged journey back to Braunschweig. I didn't worry about anything apart from making sure I got on the right train.

Because that's the best way to fight these morons.

Terrorists are like naughty children. If you react to every little thing they do, they will never learn that that's not the right way to behave. If a child throws a hissy-fit in the middle of the supermarket because you refuse to buy them sweets, you shouldn't give in and buy them sweets. Then the child learns that making a fuss leads to getting what you want. If a terrorist organisation kills innocent people in one of the biggest cities in Europe, you don't creep around in fear for the next few months. And you certainly don't get into a screaming match in the middle of the metaphorical supermarket. You just get on with your day as you would have before. You don't let them learn that they win by making a fuss.

If we live in fear of everything, we provoke the response "Look how weak the West is! They cower at our feet!" If we retaliate and bomb them into oblivion, we provoke the response "Look how dangerous the West is! We must fight back to protect ourselves!" If we band together, recover from the atrocities they've committed and leave them alone, they'll realise that their plan isn't working. They might try again (I really hope not, surely nobody is that heartless), but they'll learn that it isn't going to help.

They'll grow up a bit if we just leave them alone.

America and Europe have sent fighters and bombers and soldiers into more countries than there are scenes starring Daniel Radcliffe in a Harry Potter film. IT DOESN'T WORK. We've never had the result we want, and we never will. What on earth makes people think "This time. This time we're going to come out on top." It just kills more innocent people, a result nobody wants.

Actually, that's a lie. You know who wants that result? Terrorists.

My point is: stop. Stop trying to fight back. Stop giving them reasons to come and do this again. People died. Over one hundred and thirty people died. One hundred and thirty. That's about the same as the number of people in a reasonably large Scout group (Beavers through to Leaders). That's not OK. In no universe is that OK. So don't send troops and planes and bombs. Don't cancel your holiday plans. Mourn the dead, of course, but don't make things worse for the living.

Carry on as before.
Offer support the the refugees trying to escape from these people.
Look after your friends, family, and neighbours. (Especially those who peacefully practice Islam, they need the support right now too.)
Help out if you can.
But apart from that, do nothing.


All my love goes out to those affected by the attacks France, Lebanon, Chad, Cameroon, and Nigeria, to name some of the most recent ones. I hope life can resume for normal for you all as soon as possible.

Soooooo...

No need to look surprised, Roy -
I've been talking about it for years!

... I haven't written for a while. I've been meaning to and wanting to, but I've just not had the time. Anyway today I am pondering dying my hair, once again. Anyone who's known me for any length of time will know that it is currently one of my five life dreams to dye my hair bright pink. At the moment, I am looking at which is the best place to buy the colour from.

This particular ponderance has been brought on by seeing my old friend Sally for the first time in ages at the weekend (Happy Birthday, Sal!) Sally now has blue streaks at the front of her hair and they are super-awesome, they really suit her. When I asked her about it, she told me it was part of her new "Art College persona", which is fair enough. My plan since my parents said "not in our sink, sunshine!" is to change my hair once I get to Uni.

But Sally isn't the only reason for this particular strive to change my hair. My last A Level exam is on Wednesday, so naturally I am looking to the future. Hopefully from September onward I'll be talking to y'all from a small room in Nottingham, rather than an even smaller room in Hertfordshire! That's got me thinking really, what sort of person do I want to be at Uni? I want to be the same as I am at the moment, except for the enormous pile of onlookers who only remember how awkward I was for the first three years of my secondary school career. But I also want to be interesting to talk to; intellectual. Not that I want every conversation to turn into some massive political or ethical debate, I'd just like to be able to discuss things a little more interesting than the weather and who's going to leave the Apprentice this week.

Maybe that's why I like Radio 4 all of a sudden...

Anyway, I've spoken to a lot of you about this I know, but I'd like to hear other people's opinions too. At the moment, I'm agreeing with Leila on the shade of pink (there are thousands). I don't want pastel or baby pink, as I think my face will look round and the overall effect would be babyish. Plus, it's not the look I was going for. At the same time, I'm not planning to go for something too bright; I was at one point, but I think it's become too overused by trashy girls and people who just make it look tacky (this is in no way meant to offend anyone with pink hair - I love you - but there are people who have "dirtied the name" of pink-hairedness.) So my plan at the moment is to aim for a sort-of-magenta shade and pray that it turns out OK. Of course, my icon in this whole shenanigan is Roy Wood, King of the Pink Hair Brigade* (having famously gone prematurely pink) and his hair is that sort of colour, primarily because I guess he doesn't bleach it beforehand.

Thoughts?


*The Pink Hair Brigade is in no way affiliated with or similar to the Tolmers Pink Triangle, or any other Pink Triangle for that matter.

Things I Just Don't Understand

Today I am pondering the un-understandable. This won't be a particularly long post because I don't want to steal the limelight from Herries, a guy I know (who I would call a friend, but might not extend me the same privilege) who writes a blog specifically on his topic. (You can find it at http://thingsthatijustdontunderstand.blogspot.com )

I am pondering his for the simple reason that it is the thing I spend the longest time thinking about when I should be doing other things, such as working or driving. For me, the main thing I don't understand is Chemistry, but that's boring, so we'll look at the second biggest thing I don't understand,which is how one person can be in love with another if they do not love them back.

This may seem a strange thing for an eighteen year old to ponder; people will be thinking "she doesn't know what she's on about, she's only young", but I don't mean me. I don't understand how someone can be in a position in a relationship where they are totally devoted (Grease reference not intended) to another person, only to find out that the other person doesn't love them at all, and may even be in another relationship behind their back.

I should point out that I do not have a specific example in mind here, I am thinking more generally about the way society is going and (to be honest) several chick flick story lines. The fact that you may have assumed I was talking about a particular example says more about the way you think of me than anything else.

The other thing I don't understand in that situation is how someone can think they're in love when they aren't; the idea of love consists of two people who are meant to be together, traditionally they're considered two parts of the same soul, but that idea is a bit outdated. How can it be, then, that one person can feel something that they think is love, but is not reciprocated by the person they have these feelings towards? Especially if the person has never experienced actual love. How on Earth is the human brain capable of making this sort of thing up with no previous experience.
This really is what I don't understand.

And it's what makes me think that souls exist.

Anyway, that's it really :) There are so many other things I don't understand, but I'll leave that to Herries because I've broken my keyboard.

If you wanted something interesting to read while I don't write for you (wow, fabulous English there, brain!) please check out 28 Dates Later - it's written by a guy called Willard who is trying to do twenty eight dates from dating sites without getting himself killed or further wounded in the process. He sounds like he could get on well with Mackers, to be perfectly honest...
Other blogs you could check out are Herries', as mentioned above, Mr Robinson's (one of my German teachers last year, he does an amazing linguistics blog) and Alice's literary blog, which I've mentioned on many-an-occasion :)

A Conundrum

Hello Beautiful People Of The Internet (and Becky)! I am here once again to tell you about the things I think about (or stuff I ponder). See what I did there?
Clever, huh?
Well, today I have a dilemma and I am not sure what to do. But I feel I have bugged my friends too much recently. So I have decided to bug the Internet for a change. Sorry :)

I had a letter from a certain University last Friday, telling me that I have been pooled by the college I applied for; that means they're still considering my application, but that my first choice college probably can't fit me in (Not very good at making that anonymous...) This is both good and bad news. It's good, because it means they want me, it's bad because they don't want me enough to offer me a place straight away. Anyway, that's not the problem. The thing is, I haven't heard back from them yet, and every day that I don't hear is another day less likely it will be a positive response. But that's not the problem either.

You see, as much as I'd really love to go to this University (it's definitely my first choice) there are several other universities which I have applied for and would be perfectly happy at, one of which (Nottingham) has offered me a conditional place. But that's where the problem lies: As much as I love Nottingham - the university is beautiful and their course (Law with German and German Law) sounds fantastic, I just fell in love with the whole package - there's one thing that's stopping me from wanting to accept the offer. If I go to Nottingham there's a very strong possibility I'll bump into a certain idiot who can't tell the difference between the words "yes" and "no".

At this point I understand that some people will be confused. Last year I was subject to the stupidity of one individual who could not tell the difference between an affirmative and negative response to what (I thought) was a very simple question. This led to quite a lot of upset on my part (obviously, because I am a girl). Recently, I asked for clarification of this misunderstanding and I was completely ignored. To be honest, this didn't bother me. The quickest way to forget everything good about someone is to be refused help when you ask politely for it. But you see how it could be awkward for me to go to Nottingham now; I think if I were to meet this person again, I might either be (accidentally) incredibly rude, or physically ill. Or punch them.

So, Internet, what do you think I should do? Is this something I should actually be worrying about?