Battle of the Social Networks

Bonjour mes amis! I am sorry for neglecting my blog but I have had so much work to deal with. (Still do but I'm choosing to momentarily ignore my responsibilities).

Considering I am a technophile and embrace technology with open arms, I'd like to take this opportunity to weigh-up the pros and cons of the most famous social networks out there. I'm probably preaching to the choir as you all must be at least semi-aware of technological happenings seeing as though you have found and use blogger. 

Let's get the ball rolling ....

FACEBOOK
Pros

• Enable you to see whether someone is ignoring you
• Chavy arguments provide comical entertainment
• Get in contact with people that you don't see on a day-to-day basis
• Post photos to show people you actually (sometimes) have a life. 

Cons

• Sluts.
• Attention seeking groups - 'Like this if you love your gran, keep scrolling to be eaten alive by a demon tonight'. No.
• Pointless statuses - nobody cares if you just had a shower.
• Sluts. 

TWITTER

Pros

• Its awesome.
• Writing pointless things about your life that you feel the need to share
• Stalking celebrities
• Posting infinite photos of your pets without being judged. 

Cons

• People always writing the same tweets
• Sluts
• 'Twitter Famous People'
• Celebrities not following us back :( (Apart from Barack Obama - he follows me :D)

GOOGLE+

Pros

• So many services - blogger, YouTube, statuses
• More 'sophisticated' than other Social Networks
• Ability to join groups and communicate with people from around the world
• Getting personal advice from accurate opinions in group

Cons

• Hard to figure out
• Lots of notifications that you need to check
• Not many people I know have it
• Lots of random people can see your profile and share your information

I hope this has been maybe helpful, maybe helped some people contemplate things regarding social networks. Comment me your thoughts on social networks if you have anything to add, or something you disagree with :)

The girl with her head in the virtual clouds!

xoxo

Round is a shape

This post is about keeping fit / losing weight / eating healthily, as I am 'embarking on a journey' of my own to combat my weight.

I wouldn't (like to) say that I'm fat. I don't eat very well and usually a lot. Like a lot of people I am worried about my weight. Since I've stopped dancing, which kept me in shape despite my bad eating habits, I've put on weight - about a stone. So I am not feeling too great about my body and my shape, although I appreciate it and I am comfortable as myself.

So, I decided to get off my arse, do some exercise and start sorting out my eating habits! I've not lost weight so far (3 weeks) from exercising 3-4 times a week intensely, but I have lost 3 inches off my waist which I am over the moon about. I've ditched the cans of coke for water, the cakes for pears and bananas and trying not to snack. 

My point is, if I can do it, you can! 

It will be hard. Sometimes you'll want to quit. No one else can do it apart from yourself. Its okay to go to classes/gym and work hard, but you must push yourself past the boundaries of your body and your mind. Find the special place, the place where nothing is more important than getting through these last 10 sit ups. For me, I think about being in my bikini on the beach and not having to breathe in all the time :) 

and remember this: The more you suck it up now, the less you have to suck it in later :)

There are lots of support things online and I am always here for tips or advice :) 

From the soon to be skinny girl ... (but not too skinny) :)

A Good Read

I like to read. Something which made me a bit 'weird' on secondary school, but something, I'd like to think, that helped my writing/creative skills. Also, of course my grammar. Nothing is more displeasing than seeing bad grammar in a published book. 

I rarely read any more (I think this is because  my brain can't handle unnecessary information that has nothing to do with my A-levels) but I do enjoy books. I always sit at a table when I am eating at home so that I can read whilst I eat; a habit that has been passed down from my Mam to me and my sister. I haven't read the 'Classics' like Jane Austin books, or anything by the Bronte sisters - I prefer rom-coms. My favourite author is Sophie Kinsella/Madeline Wickham. Her books are witty,fun and always have an unexpected ending. How will Becky pull of two weddings? Will Lexi get her memory back? You can never guess what's going to happen next, but it is guaranteed to be clever and funny! The shopaholic series are great books and if rom-com books are for you, I highly recommend these books! 

Another series I enjoyed was the Georgia Nicholson books by Louise Rennison, (Angus, thongs and full-frontal snogging...). As a young teenager these books were a fabulous read and I still quite enjoy them now. Me and my friend used to use the 'Snogging Scale' and all the terminology to go with it. It was a fun phase. Another phase was the Twilight Series. As a lot of other teenage girls did, I became slightly obsessed ... yes, I know. I still think they are interesting books and the films are good but I've stopped dressing all in black and having bright red hair haha!

The point of this post is that, I like reading, and I know I have some readers out there! So I would like to know of some good books -any genre, I'm open to suggestion, as I am running out of unread books on my shelf and I'm looking for something to fulfil my literary hunger. 

Comment with you ideas pleaseeeeeeeeee 
(Any good French books are appreciated, also.)
From the girl with her head in the books :)

Breaks, lunches and free periods

The third instalment to the 'Sixth Form' post.

Breaks, lunches and free periods - the perks of sixth forms (apart from trips). But are they what they seem? 

At first, they are great. Lunches are now an hour long (plenty of time to go into town for some food), breaks are a nice break up to the day and give you enough time to grab a cup of tea for 3rd period, and frees are just for lazing about. Fress are especially great if they fall before or after school, because this means you get a lie in or an early finish! RESULT.

Then, after a few weeks, things aren't so cushty as they once were. 
Breaks - the refectory is loud and there are lots of people and it's extremely hard to get a table. And for some reason the bell always goes 5 minutes early so break is only really 15 minutes, once you actually get out of class and meet your friends. 
Lunch - The novelty of going into town for your lunch has worn off as the lack of shops in a 5 minute walk just doesn't seem as appealing as it once did. So you suffer and deal with the school canteen - not bad food but oh so over priced!!
Frees - You realise that frees are great, and it nice to not have a lesson but ... frees when you are by yourself? What do you do? Where do you go? You've got no homework to do, the school library is just too quiet and you cant be in the refectory by yourself (saddo). It's a very uncomfortable situation. 

Then, a few weeks after the few weeks after what now feels like a dream land, you well and truly hit cold hard reality. The truth of these 'perks':

Breaks - Spent doing homework for the next lesson that you really should of done last night, but you had that essay and then you absolutely NEEDED sleep!
Lunch - Spent doing work due in for a lesson after lunch. You were going to get up early to do it, but you had a late night doing that piece of coursework and you're bed is just too comfy. 
Frees - Doing any outstanding homework that needs doing. These are golden opportunities for catching up. An hour to do the cover work set by the teacher or just plain homework. Its a beautiful little hour. Usually very much needed. Also, you realise that having a lie in messes up bus systems - late start, still need to get the same bus because it only comes once and hour so you have to wait around or be late and early finishes, your bus comes earlier than usual and you have an unexpected free but your'e alone (and you remember this predicament from earlier in the post.)

So we must enjoy the free time we get, because it stops being free time and become homework time D:

From the stressed out sixth former :)
(Even weekends and nights are homework-doing time)

The 10 Best and Worst Things about Sixth Form

Ah, the fourth and final chapter to the 'Sixth Form' post. 

The 10 best and worst things about Sixth Form according to me! :D

We shall start with the worst (so things seem to get better.

The 10 worst things (Not in any particular order)

1. Not wearing earphones is lessons any more
2. Catching up work from missed lessons
3. Spending frees alone
4. Registration and tutorial
5. Having to find different outfits everyday
6. The work load
7. Transport isn't free any more
8. Finding a table at break/lunch
9. Being in a lesson you don't want to be in but having to go anyway 
10. Exams

The 10 best things about Sixth Form

1. Non Uniform
2. Meeting new people
3. Free periods
4. Having notepads instead of exercise books
5. Going into town for lunch
6. Doing lessons you actually want to do
7. Having a cup of tea in lessons
8. Trips - geography is the best for this
9. No more petty drama
10. You feel awfully grown-up with your files and you've got SO much work to do

So there you have it. The basic good and bad things about Sixth Form. Please note that some of these don't apply to every Sixth Form and these lists are based solely on my own views :)

A hopefully helpful blog post :)

Fashion, turn to the left!

My second sub-topic to my 'Sixth Form'  post.

I still haven't decided if fashion is important when going to sixth form. (This is assuming that you're sixth form doesn't have a uniform.) I mean, don't get me wrong, I think it's important to dress as you feel comfortable and wear what you want, but at Sixth form (well, at mine) there is a lot more people that you don't know. And when meeting new people you want to make a good impression, usually through words and appearance. Since most of these people aren't in your classes  and you may never have a conversation with them, the only way to make an impression is to look good and have personal style.

Most girls wear jeans I think. Including myself. I think jeans are safe. You can wear any shoes, any top and any coat with jeans. They are practical for cold weather which is essential in the North East of England. The thing that sets them apart from leggings is that they are never see through. Never. Leggings can sometimes betray you  in this department (curse you wet look leggings. And you Primark leggings). So we tend to stick to jeans.

Occasionally, some of us will wear skirts. Skirts are nice to wear because they are quite cute. You can wear ballerina pumps with them and look smart or wear vans/converse with them and give it some edge. The same can be done with dresses.

There are those who are especially brave and very rarely wear jeans or leggings. Even in extreme weather. Shorts are a big part of Sixth form. And as girls you can not judge other girls for doing it, because you secretly want to be able to get away with it. Shorts in the snow. Very impractical! But looks kinda great with wellies and knee high socks :/. NVM.

You go through some days where you don't care about what you wear and other days you will obsess over it. It can depend on weather, mood or even the classes you have that day (or more importantly, who is in your classes that day ;)). Teehee.

So I think you should decide for yourself what to wear and what you feel comfortable wearing each day. I mean, if you feel good you look good. And you can tell. 

Im not a fashion guru, or a life coach

Im a teenager 

So trust me :)

Subjects, classes and workload

My first sub-post to 'Sixth Form'

There are so many subjects to choose from at A-level. No joke. You can do anything for theatre studies to criminology to media to law. There is literally a subject for everyone, however, I understand that A-levels are not for everyone.

Myself, I do Maths, French, Geography and dance. I know the selection is pretty broad and very odd but I'd like to think I'm a bit random myself  therefore the perfect selection for me! That and I don't have a scooby of what I am to do once I leave. And I don't want to pigeon-hole myself at 16. However, if you do know what you want to do and know what qualifications you need, then go for it! Choose a strong, formidable set of subjects. Like, history, law,  English language and English literature. They tend to go well together, I've heard. Another combo is Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. You know, if you're into that sort of thing. 

I know a bit about a few different subjects other than my own so I'm going to give a brief (and honest) little sentence or two on them. Please correct me if I am wrong because obviously I don't take all of these. 

MATHS

Big step up from GCSE, less of a step if you do/did additional., requires a lot of revision and a lot of homework. My favourite subject

GEOGRAPHY

Some bit you'll know from GCSE, others you wont. A lot of detail, a lot of things to remember. Exams are brutal.

DANCE

Don't enjoy as much as the others, not to be compared to CATs, ATPs and dance schools outside of sixth form. Theory is a lot to remember which both artistic and scientific topics

FRENCH

Very hard. Lots of outside work like reading, listening etc to be done in own time. Exams are okay, but the writing is part of the exam. A lot of enthusiasm and initiative needed, I feel.

BIOLOGY

Once again, quite hard. Long lLatin names to be learnt, very detailed in complex processes

CLASSIC CIVILISATION (CLASSICS)

Lots and lots of work, lots of reading and up to 30 mark questions in the exam .. not my choice!

FINE ART

Very time consuming, it will become your life. Deadlines to meet, tasks to complete, stress and extreme amounts of homework. My friends and a lot of other tend to work through their breaks and into a lot of hours at home.

That's as much as I can give sufficient information on :). I might add that all subjects will require you to do lots of homework, lots of revision, lots of unset homework which you are expected to do outside of class. And if you miss a class, you must catch up the work you missed and homework before the next lesson. 

As for the classes, all the ones I take, the crack/banter is pretty good. Lots of friendly new people I've met. 

HINT: In your first class if you are alone, see where there are spare seats, and where other people are sitting alone. Then the next lesson you can sit next to them and make friends. It worked for me. If you are extremely brave (or late) sit next to someone where there is a seat in the first class.