Bloody heel!

Typo in my title? Not at all!

The shoes I wore for my grad night have led to, as before, the unfortunately cut heel. It was fine last night; a slight stain on my white sock.

It was fine earlier, when I got home from one half of school for lunch. A little yellow stain. Disgusting, but fine.

Then I put my foot into my runner too quickly. Pain. Lots of it. I didn't dare look, until I got home that is. Blood. Red blood. Disgustingly dark. In fact, here's a picture!!

Disgusting? I thought so!

I have to carefully remove the sock just now... slight tearing sound as the fabric tore off some skin. Very little skin, I might add. Mainly just dried blood and a few flakes. It didn't hurt that badly. And there's still only a scratch on it.

I suppose that's what I get for looking fabulous.... and walking to and from school twice today!

Graduation - the mass!

Hey all!

So, I've offically graduated from St Aidan's CBS. Last night was the mass and afterparty. Today, I'll just be talking about the former, as I'm waiting on pictures from a teacher for the afterparty blog!

So, I arrived, dressed rather dashingly, a good forty minutes early because I had a reading. Most people were formally dressed (still wearing clothing, just not casual...) with the exception of one who wore Converse and a couple were refused to wear ties.

My reading was quite near the start, so after the Ceremony of Light and a song or two, myself, Andrew and Thomas went up to read. It was all going fine, until the last line of the second part of my reading (the responsorial psalm; psalm 27). I messed it up, as I did every time I practiced it. People in the front were laughing...then I laughed...then everyone else joined in. It lasted approxiamtely five seconds, before the priest encouraged the response.

The rest of the night went swimmingly from there. The music was fantastic; a huge applause for Karl and Carl for their piano duet! Then there came the certs...

My father forgot to take a picture; he forgot to let it last longer! So I have no photographic evidence of my graduation.... I'm not amused. Irregardless, the night went on until the Best in Class and Best in Year Awards were announced. Congratulations to Eoin Shiel, Daniel Redmond, Seán Moore, Keith Byrne-Garland and Jake Rossiter for their Best in Class Awards, and to Karl Elliott for the Student of the Year Award!

There was a brief reception afterwards; Ms Dunne finally got to meet my parents, after I navigated through a crowd of 200 to get her and get back....while guiding Kevin Murtagh through the masses with boxes. Which reminds me: the magazine is on sale! Hurrah! It only took them 10 days....to get it wrong (long story, maybe some other time). Still, it was on sale and selling!!

With conversations ending and the numbers falling (along with the rain) it was time to head off to the afterparty at the local pub, The Comet......

Next time on the Graduation Blog, I should have a bunch of pictures from Mr Tim O'Connor of St Aidan's CBS who went camera happy! You'll get to see my fancy hair and clothing for the night! Lucky you!

Dedicated to the memory of...

I've just written my third entry for the Londis Write up my Street competition. It's a simple piece, but devastingly painful to write. I got the idea yesterday, and I couldn't ignore it, not after it made such an impression of Community in my mind.

It's dedicated to the memory of Lauren Keech; it's her story, after her death. The sad union of the community to serve as shoulders to cry on for the family. It's all true, every bit of it, but they never said it had to be fiction, and they never said it couldn't be upsetting.

I don't know if I can find a stronger definition of Community than the one I felt after Lauren's death, and so I think I'm done.

RIP Lauren Keech

Battlefront

Battlefront; you've heard it so many times on this blog already. What's it about? I hear you say. Young people making a change to the world, that's what.

In the next line up of potential campaigns, if they ever go that far, there are 58 potential campaigns to choose from, that the public can vote on. In the tv series, there were 20 campaigns. The names of them, the campaigners and a link to each of the Battlefront campaigns is below. In Italics beside each one is a jist of it in very few words.

STOP: Gun and Knife Crime (Peace)
Alexander Rose
Find out more about STOP: Gun and Knife Crime.

Bring Your Own Coffee Cup (Healthy Environment)
Aimee Nathan
Find out more about Bring Your Own Coffee Cup.

Random Acts of Kindness (Happiness)
Tom Robbins
Find out more about Random Acts of Kindness.

Who Wants To Be A Size Zero Anyway (Healthy Body)
Rachel Phipps
Find out more about Who Wants To Be A Size Zero Anyway.

Tune into Traffic (Road Safety)
Manpreet Darroch
Find out more about Tune into Traffic.

You smoke - I choke (Smoking)
Zander Percival
Find out more about You smoke - I choke.

More money for my time please (Raising the minimum wage)
Rachey Betty
Find out more about More money for my time please.

Free Newspapers Cost The Earth (Environment)
James Mummery
Find out more about Free Newspapers Cost The Earth.

Homophobia = Zero Tolerance (Human Rights & Tolerance)
Rachael & David
Find out more about Homophobia = Zero Tolerance.

Make a Big Change - With your Small Change (Relief Aid)
Siobhan and Becky
Find out more about Make a Big Change - With your Small Change.

Teenage Suicide (Young Deaths)
Josh McAuley
Find out more about Teenage Suicide.

Anti-Cyberbullying (Bullying)
Al Henderson
Find out more about Anti-Cyberbullying.

Muslims - Normal Too (Human Rights & Tolerance; Religion)
Zainab Daniju
Find out more about Muslims - Normal Too.

Condoms For Africa (Safe Sex)
Troy Kennedy
Find out more about Condoms For Africa.

Down with Tuition Fees (Education)
James Greenhalgh
Find out more about Down with Tuition Fees.

Anti Binge Drinking (Young Drinking)
India Harvey
Find out more about Anti Binge Drinking.

Stress and Strain of School (Education)
Laura-Liz Partoon
Find out more about Stress and Strain of School.

Music for a change (Music)
Zuhal Sultan
Find out more about Music for a change.

Making space for young people (Young People)
Angelina Munabi
Find out more about Making space for young people .

The Gift of Life (Organ Donation)
Holly Shaw
Find out more

There were a few unique ones, a few generic ones, and a few successful ones from each bracket. Out of the 58, there are several copies of the already-on-air campaigns, especially around Education, Bullying, Peace, Human Rights and Tolerance and Young People.

There are also a number of copies of the winner of the competition, Wrong to be Different. So many people have hopped on the bandwagon and set up individual campaigns rather than trying to support hers. It's a damned shame.

Then there's my campaign, and I'm not just tooting my own trumpet here. It's unique. You can tell just by looking at the list that no one has anything similar to it. In the competition, it came second in both the public and judges' votes; we've got proof that we're good, not just a name that reminds the public of other people's campaigns!

Yes, slightly ranting here. But with so many people copying Wrong to be Different, you'd think they'd get the message - be different! It's ridiculous how many people are submitting campaigns that are already on the show too. Ridiculous and annoying!

Okay, I better go before I get overly angry....

I have a spending problem

So...my job is evil. Well, there's nothing really wrong with it; great staff, great boss, good hours, good pay, good location; I've no real complaints except that I've developed a spending problem as a result of it!

Today, after weeks of good saving practice, I only went and bought four books! They better be good, or I'll be so freaking pissed! Well, I've started into one already, Skellig by David Almond. It's as good as Andy Walker said it would be. 27 and 53, remember those if you find a weird guy in the garage of your new house.

Alongside Skellig are John the Revelator, First Verse and How Not to Write. I can't remember what made me want to read John the Revelator, but I have it now so I may as well give it a shot. First Verse looked really interesting, and I saw it weeks ago when it first came in; it wasn't just a spontaneous purchase. The last book was a bit random. I saw it and I was buying books, so I decided not to wait. Besides, Rachel and I were only discussing recently how the forum is a great way not to write, so I'm taking that as a sign!

We'll find out soon if my problem really is bad; I have books lined up to buy, and I wasn't going to buy anything but them...we'll see, anyway.

Back in the Game

Well, a lovely chicken burger proved to be the cure for writer's block! Who'd have thunk it?

I managed to get the words together to write another entry for the Londid "Write up my street" competion. I'm so glad they allow multiple entries. The second one is so much better, but I'll submit the first anyway, just in case. I have no idea what to expect from these things, and it might be that they're looking for something completely different to the expected.

I'm getting new ideas even as I type of how the community can come together, and how it helps.... if you'll excuse me, I have hearts to break and tears to summon.

Lost for words...

So, it appears that I'm lost for words. I honestly can't explain it, but it better go away! I'm trying to make a living out of writing, this can't happen to me! I'm not even trying to write, I just have nothing at all to say. I've run out of words!!

This is quite a new experience for me. I normally don't shut up, much to the annoyance of the people around me. Yesterday poor Peter had to deal with a twenty minute walk & talk with me as his only company and my mouth never closing only for the letters that prohibit the use of an open mouth. I never shut up, until I was eating in KFC, and even then I was thinking of saying something.

Earlier today, I found an advert after I signed out of Bebo. It's amazing - normally Bebo's the most useless thing for helpful adverts, yet there I was, signing out, and I see an ad for a writing competition! It knows me so well!

The story behind it, if you'll excuse the pun (it was pun-intentional!!) - write a 1,000 word short story with the topic "there's no community like my community." You can enter as many times as you like, which is good considering my first entry is the biggest pile of crap I've ever written, and I wrote a huge 130,000 word novel of crap writing! I may have to write another one.

Anyway, I'm wasting your precious time here... There are 30 winners to the competition. One from each county in ROI, except Dublin and Cork (4 and 2 winners respectively). There are four age categories, and the winners are spread out relatively equal across the four categories. The 30 best stories are published in a book for charity (Barnardos Children's Charity). Book is published in September 2009 and sold in all Londis stores.

And before you say anything, yes, I am using this blog entry to try encourage some words to come out of my mouth, and it appears to have worked. Now if I can write something useful that stands a chance at winning (a sony laptop in my category). One winner is also in with the chnace of becoming a published author (with his/her own novel), so.... yeah, definetely doing that rewrite!

Now, off to eat some food from the local chipper. Maybe my muse will have had a rest and be ready to high speed action when I come back....