MOVED SITES

People of the world, I have changed sites! The new address is thekatybennett.wordpress.com and it looks much more professional, it will have new content as well as all my old posts, but it's live now so please check it out! There won't be any more posts coming on this blog server, unless for some reason I end up switching back. All the details are over there about the change, and I hope you enjoy it. I'm a bit worried that changing servers will lose any viewership I have, but hopefully not! I have a really good set of posts lined up over there to come over the next few weeks.

For (probably) the last time on this site... that's all for now!

thekatybennett.wordpress.com

Social Politics

So I don't go out of my way to hurt people's feelings, but I don't have any patience for people who get upset over nothing. It bugs me when you have to censor everything you say, or who you say things to, just to avoid someone feeling bad about something you've said.

This is something I see all the time when people find they've succeeded at something. It's happened to me, it's happened to other people I know. If you're really proud of yourself for doing something, you shouldn't have to feel bad about someone else being jealous. I think most people will see this in schools. People will have friends who have different abilities, and if you happen to get grades that are even just a bit higher than your friends', it's really hard to feel happy about it. Because if you do, they think you're boasting. If you don't, you're being stuck up, because they'd be so happy to get that grade.

Personally, I think if you've succeeded, no matter what it is, you should be able to feel that pride. And you shouldn't have to worry about people being offended because you've worked hard for something and are seeing the results. And if you do something before I may manage to, good for you. If you manage to get that A on that essay, and I only got a B, good for you. It's nothing to do with me.

Social politics seems to extend further than this, though. It leaks into who you may hang out with, what you're interested in, and general conversation. Applying to university always brings out awkward conversations, particularly if you and your friends are applying to universities at the complete opposite ends of the rankings.

Thing is, it's fine if you have a bit of back and forth. Give what you take. If you've been talking for ages about stuff you like, let the other person blabber about something that interests them. Don't shut them down. I spent years with a friend who never really let me say what was on my mind if it would affect her. I could say a throwaway comment, without any direction towards her, and we'd be in an argument. I know that sometimes you do have to watch what you say to people, because there are boundaries, but it shouldn't reach the point where all conversation is completely one-sided because you don't know what you're 'allowed' to say. It shouldn't reach the point when all of your successes are tainted by a feeling of guilt, or disappointment, or whatever it is.

Wouldn't it just be easier to be happy for each other?

I'm Procrastinating

I'm currently in shock from spending £75 on a single alarm clock, having finally been paid for some Christmas temp work. The dispatch date was supposed to be tomorrow, arriving next week, but somehow it was delivered today - I spent the whole day hoping it would be a late delivery so I'd be home to get it, and it arrived about twenty minutes before I did... So it's at a neighbour's. Darn it. (It's so cold outside...)

I spent the day doing English, which I'm supposed to be doing right now, considering I have to get a complete 2000 word essay in for next Thursday and I haven't even started it yet, as well as another 3 essays due in before then. Save me!

Mainly to lighten my mood, but hopefully it'll make someone else smile too, I thought I'd post some completely useless facts that I've found out over the years. And I mean completely useless. Seriously, I don't even know how people found out most of these. Or why.

1) Pigeons can read mammograms. What on earth possessed scientists to wonder if they could train pigeons to detect cancer? Is the NHS really that underfunded?!

2) Bats fly left out of the cave. No clue if that's true. I just like thinking it is. (Just Googled it... not true. Damn it!)

3) Some dinosaurs danced to impress partners. Somehow I just can't envision a dancing T-Rex... Its little arms would just sway from side to side floppily.

4) Facebook is apparently introducing 'Reactions' so you have alternatives to 'liking' things - this just sounds stupid, if you ask me! Don't make something more complex than it has to be!

5) Ending texts with full stops makes you sound insincere. I have a friend who does this, and it's so hard to tell what the tone is supposed to be. Save your friends, and skip the full stops!

6) Apparently babies prefer dads with beer bellies, because it reminds them on some level of their mum's womb. That's kinda cute, you have to admit.

7) Turns out the 'Kardashian way' of eating a KitKat is highly addictive. I thought it was so stupid I had to try it. Big mistake. Don't go there.

8) Dinosaurs had feathers. Like whhhhaaaaat? Imagine what Jurassic Park would have looked like if they'd animated feathers on all the dinosaurs... They'd be fabulous.

9) People at The University of Nottingham are apparently the most frisky. Oxford comes in pretty close. I love that fact. No clue why.

10) Edward the Confessor was probably gay. I mean, that's just what I surmised from studying him last year - come on, he apparently never consummated the marriage, he spent all his time in church, he was timid... It was a sin back then. He was probably just ashamed.

Soaring Away

I was trying to think of something to write about today, and I walked downstairs to find my mum reading something. I saw pink gel pen on lined paper, so of course, what else could it be but my holiday diary from when I was eight years old? She insisted on reading some out to me. Major cringe-fest. 

But it did kind of give me an idea for a post. I've been to quite a few places in my life, but I don't see why I should stop there. Hell, a lot of the places I've been I don't even remember too well (I wasn't the most attentive kid in the world. I barely even remember primary school.)

I have a lot of places I want to go to. One thing I've thought about for years is spending some time living in New York. As far as I can tell, it's pretty much the best kind of opposite to where I live - it's busy, it's lively, there's an insane amount of people doing all sorts at all hours, and it's definitely less boring. I actually want to go to various places in the States. Wouldn't mind another Disney trip either...

I want to go to France again. I've been lucky enough to go to France probably five times now, twice with school, but hey, it's a great country. I'd like to visit Australia, though I'm less certain on this one, being a ginormous arachnophobe. It'd be pretty cool to see Singapore... the Egyptian pyramids... and more of the less high-profile things, too. A lot of the times I've been on holiday with my parents, we've just been to somewhere in a country that has nice views or just aren't the major tourist destinations, just because you get to see more of a country that way. Then, there's a lot of historical places that'd be cool to see.

One thing I love about going to different places is seeing the people. It's amazing how much you can learn about people by visiting places, and finding out what they do, or listening to conversations. It makes a great basis for writing characters, that's for sure. Even airports are great for people-watching - people sad to be leaving each other, reunions at the terminal gates, families, excited kids, hassled businessmen. I look forward to travelling with friends, and driving on the wrong side of the road.

I'm not taking a gap year before I go to university, so my travel will probably have to wait a while, but it'll definitely start with my year abroad. That, at least, is definitely going to happen.

My Top 5 Netflix Series

Lately, I don't really watch any live TV. It just seems to be inconvenient the majority of the time - when I want to watch things, the right programmes usually aren't on, or the ad breaks take forever (gotta love those US commercials that appear every now and again that last about ten minutes... seriously, how do you guys cope over there?!) so I don't really see the point. I do, however, watch Netflix. It's just more convenient as a student who likes to watch things on their laptop, maybe have it open on a small window while getting work done or something...

I thought I'd give a quick run-down of my favourite programmes on Netflix, just because I love knowing what other people are watching and finding out new series.

1. 'Making a Murderer': the newest series I've started to watch. I'm only on ep. 2 so far, but it's a documentary about a guy who was wrongfully imprisoned for 18 years and what happened when he got out.
2. 'Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments': Again, another new one I've started watching. Only a couple of episodes are out so far, but I've read some of the books (The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare) and, I have to say, the series seems to be sticking fairly close to what I remember.
3. 'Pretty Little Liars': If you haven't heard of this one, I don't know where you've been the last few years. It's on its sixth series now, and the tension is immense. It's like a brilliant murder mystery.
4. 'The Vampire Diaries': I only watched the first few series on Netflix, because the rest weren't available - I got the sixth series on DVD and am watching the current one on playback. To be honest, it's what you'd expect. Vampire drama.
5. 'Once Upon A Time': I love this one so much! It's basically like an amalgamation of loads of different fairytales, and it's affiliated with Disney but not produced by them as far as I'm aware. All the characters intertwine and it has crossovers with reality. It almost has a sense of nostalgia for those childhood days when fairytales were pretty much the best thing ever.

These are probably what I'd say are my favourite programmes at the moment, and they're pretty standard I guess, but I don't think the Shadowhunters series had much publicity here in the UK (it sort of just turned up on the recommended screen as having just started) so if you haven't heard of that one yet, definitely give it a go. Just be prepared it's a little weird, but it's good weird. It's definitely not a comprehensive list of what I see on Netflix either - I like to watch series I've seen on TV just as reruns (*cough cough* How I Met Your Mother...)

Either way, it was another short post today, but hey, it's a stressful week. Hope you enjoyed, regardless!

Short Story Sunday | 3

It's dark. I struggle to catch my breath, but still I plough on through the soaking leaves of the forest. I hear the rumbling of thunder, the terrifying flashes of lightning as I try to get away as fast as I can. Suddenly, I emerge into a decrepit-looking graveyard. My clothes are drenched, and so am I, shivering and afraid – more than afraid: petrified. What I’d seen back there was indescribably horrid. I try to rid my mind of the images of what I’ve just seen. I pause. The sky flashes and there is an unsettling smell of smoke lingering in the air. I turn around, looking back through the dense woods, and realise that a nearby tree has just been struck by lightning and caught fire. I have a split second to run out of the way before it collapses right where I had been standing. There is no sign of the creature that has been following me through the forest. I don’t know what it is, or where it is for that matter, but I do know it can move very fast.

And now I’m here. The fire is spreading, and I make my way up the slight incline, dodging the headstones. I hope that the fire will be enough to stop the creature, maybe even kill it, but somehow I know that it won’t do more than delay it a little. The hill is getting steeper, and I find it’s getting harder and harder to put weight on my leg, but if I’m to get a safe distance from the fire and the creature, I must keep going. I am about half way to the church, and the smoke is starting to affect my lungs. It’s getting harder to breathe, and I lift up my green woollen top to cover my mouth and nose. At last, the church door is only a few yards away, and is getting slowly closer as I struggle to keep moving. I turn the handle frantically, begging the door to open. It stays fast shut. Turning around, now getting desperate, I see the fire has spread around the edge of the woods, and while scanning the graveyard for any sign of the terrifying creature, I slump against the locked door. The pain in my leg is excruciating, and the air around me is becoming impossible to breathe. My brain is seriously lacking oxygen, and just before I black out, I get a glimpse of something running towards me.

Just a quick note - I wrote this piece in class over five years ago, and developed it into a proper story afterwards over the next couple of years. I haven't shown it to anyone, and I haven't really finished it, but I think I'd like to at some point. This is actually something I was really proud of, as the first time I thought something I'd written could become something, but I'd like to know what people think!

Back Into the Swing of Things

Officially, school started back up last Tuesday. For me, that was mock week (as you'll know if you follow me on Twitter) so I had three mock exams on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning, and no lessons. This was weirdly not a bad way to start the term, because we got the Monday off, and I also had a long weekend after my Thursday exam. The weekend was like the best present, having spent a large proportion of my actual Christmas break studying for these exams.

This week is the hard-hitter: the results come back, lessons start up again, and our teachers are pushing us harder than ever.

I do three humanities subjects - English Lit, History, and Geography. This means my bedroom contains numerous full lever arch folders, a hellish amount of paperwork, roughly 20 textbooks, and the constant sound of me typing. It also means my brain feels like a very saturated sponge for a large amount of the day as it swims in facts and quotes that I spend most of my waking hours trying to learn.

Getting back into routine this week is exhausting, but it's good - Tuesday's the only day I have two 'lessons', which really only means it's the one day I spend both my morning and afternoon in a classroom with teachers. The rest of the days I only have one lesson per day and I spend the rest of my time doing independent study or running a reading scheme for the younger students twice a week. One of the main things for me this year is coursework; our courses are so long we don't have enough time to do the coursework in lesson, so it's up to us on our own. We're even more on our own because we choose our own content, question and arguments in English. I may moan about it, but it's actually one of the things I like more about this year - having control over our own studies.

Making sure I have my blog posts up on time consistently will no doubt get harder as the weeks go by; this term is going to be my busiest yet, I should think, what with uni applicant days and various trips, but I'll try my hardest. At least I shouldn't run out of content! To be honest, having done two blog posts per week since November now, I think I'm getting into a good routine. It's a good way of measuring out my time, having two specific points of a week where I post things. (It also makes sure I know what day it is...)

I hope you liked this little update-type post, I've not really done one of these yet, but I kind of felt like it. Sometimes it's nice to do more of a chatty post than one with any real formula - from personal experience they're often fun to read too, if you're nosy like me! I think I'll end it here, so enjoy the rest of the week and I'll be back on Sunday...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edit: I wrote this on Tuesday, but today it was reported that Alan Rickman died. This amazing man was a great part of my childhood, and I'm incredibly sad he's gone. RIP Alan Rickman. You truly touched many hearts.

Photo from wikipedia.org

Take Opportunity by the Hand

I'm a strong advocate of taking opportunities that come your way, because I think you never know what could happen, or who you could meet, or what you might find out you enjoy. Now, I may only have a viewpoint from a relatively small amount of time, but that doesn't make it any less true.

Over the last seven years, I've done various things I wouldn't have ever envisaged doing. I took part in maths challenges (I am by no means a mathematician... even I don't know how that came about), I've completed a course in creating apps, I've been published in a top science journal for winning a competition I was persuaded to do (again, I'm a literary person, and not a techy/mathsy/sciencey person in the slightest!), and I've been involved in drama productions. I've interviewed my local MP, written for a website, and spent a week gardening for a charity project in my summer holidays.

Looking back, there's quite a few things I've done that I wouldn't have thought I would enjoy. I submitted my article for the science journal expecting never to hear anything about it ever again, and even that I wrote while I was procrastinating a pile of homework. The writing for the website I did led to me interviewing the MP and the gardening project, which was one of the most enjoyable experiences. One thought that occurs to me is that I don't regret taking any of these opportunities, because each of them brought something new into my life, whether it was simply realising I could do something, or whether it was just really rewarding.

I don't think that thus far I've done anything particularly amazing or out of the ordinary, but everything I've done has taught me that it's always right to take opportunity by the hand. I don't think enough people out there let on that trying out loads of things is a really good thing; there's too much emphasis on finding one thing you want to do and sticking to that. If you know what you're interested in, then sure, work towards doing that, or making use of it, or whatever, but don't let that stop you from trying other things. I've known since I was a little girl that I wanted to become a writer and an author, and that I wanted to go to university, but writing and reading aren't the only things I spend my time doing. Even things I doubted I'd enjoy have surprised me, and I think that's the beauty of taking opportunities. Don't get me wrong, there have been plenty of times I look back and cringe at something I've done, or wonder how on earth I let people talk me into doing certain things, but at the end of the day, none of them are regrets. Anything you cringe about can be laughed about, after all.

Another thing I've learned is that listening to other people is quite often a good thing. There are numerous things I've been persuaded to do by others that have been great experiences, which is why I think it's okay to let other people persuade you to do things from time to time - nothing dangerous, mind, just trying new things. You never know, if a friend enjoys something, you may too.

Week No. 1

Currently I've just finished my mock week, so I get a long weekend (woo!), but it's not exactly work-free. I may not have had any lessons yet this term, but I've still got work from last term that I didn't do over Christmas due for next week... It's not that I was lazy, I just prioritised revision first. #LifeOfASixthFormer.

Anyway, I don't know really what to say this week. It's the first week of 2016 and the first seven days are officially done. There's been a lot of hoo-ha coming from America this week, as Obama's stepped up to implement gun control, which is always weird to see. It's strange from a British point of view to watch what goes on with guns in America, because the concept it just so weird to us, but I really don't get why people object to the control. We hear about shootings in America in places like kids' playgrounds and schools all the time, and it doesn't make sense why people would want to let that keep happening. I think I lost about three followers on Twitter after saying I thought he was doing a good thing. Oh well.

I've been thinking a lot about what I'll do for the next few summers. Obviously this summer I'll have finally finished my A Levels, and I'm thinking of applying for an internship or work experience somewhere. The next few summers after that I'll be at university. I know there are people who've managed to get work abroad, which is definitely something I'd be interested in. I want to enjoy my time and make the most out of what's available to me, and I love the idea of travel. I've been to so many places already, amazingly, and I'd love to visit more. That's partially why I'd love to do a year abroad (also one of my plans. Definitely going to try my best to do that one.)

I look forward to writing my blog this year; I'll definitely have a lot to say as the year goes on and everything gets going, but I think that's about all today. See you Sunday!

P.S. I promise I'm not making this 'week __' thing regular, I just didn't know what to call this one!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It's 2016! I hope you had a great new years eve, whether you stayed up to watch the countdown or not. I spent it with a couple of friends, nothing too exciting, but it was a nice way to welcome the new year. We ended up playing the girliest version of Monopoly in the entire world, the 'boutique' version - Google it, I dare you. It's a pink explosion.

I'm so happy about the new year, because it means a lot of things for me: I should start university this year, I hope to finish some projects this year, and I'll be making a lot of changes I've been waiting to make for far too long! Here's some things I'll be trying to do this year:

• Exercise more (since PE went out the window, so did all fitness...)
• Cook a wider variety of recipes (as a pescetarian, food needs imagination!)
• Work hard for all my goals (but that's standard haha)

Bringing in a new year should always be a positive time; you can move on from the bad, and welcome change. And hey, 2016 is already set to bring some cool things: I know I'm not the only eighteen year old super excited for Finding Dory. It's a leap year. The USA might get their first female president (please, universe, don't let it be Trump).

I want to make 2016 a great year, and I think we should all endeavour to do the same. Life will throw you hurdles, and it's your job to either jump them, hilariously crawl under them, or let yourself fall over them. I spent my second day of 2016 quite ill, rather out of the blue, but that's not how I'll let my year go. We should all try to make each year 'our' year in some way, make something happen, or change something you've wanted to change for years.

Half of the obstacles we face in life are down to our perspectives. Change should be something to embrace, not something to fear. I challenge you to do at least one thing this year to make change, whether on a wider scale, or simply for yourself - there's nothing wrong with doing something for yourself once in a while!

So, I hope 2016 is a good'un, whoever your are, and I'll see you on Thursday!