I had a hilarious conversation with some friends this evening. We sat in what was left of one of the most beautiful days this summer so far, and we talked about animals. Birds, lions and midgies to be precise. We marveled at a birds ability to conjure up a conversation with a friend sitting over on the neighbours chimney. We giggled at the mental image of a lion clinging on to an aeroplane wing. And we poked fun at the midgies who can never move from one spot and one particular midgie who put their short 24hr lifes energies into making as much noise as possible when he zoomed past us. Or she? We don't know. How do you tell the difference in midgies? At this point, we got cold and the boys walked me home and we reminisced about our holiday in France back in 2007, walking to and from each others tent in the evenings.

It's funny how little conversations like this one are remembered. One of the many books I write in the future will focus completely on these lighthearted and pointless conversations. Of which I have had many. Life doesn't always have to be serious and conversations don't always have to make sense. At some point, you got to let the worrying and the frustrations and all the things that constantly annoy you go, and talk about the midgies.

I don't watch Britain's got talent. You have X Factor for the budding popstars, and you have strictly come dancing for the budding fred & gingers; you have big bro for the weirdos with nothing better to do for an entire summer, and you have next top model for the beautiful people. So Britain's got talent is just an excuse for all the leftovers, right? WRONG! It pulled 15million viewers over the weekend so I checked it out; nothing ever happens on a Mondays anyway. And I found these wee gems!

Harry Potter. Dumbledore. Voldemort. I took a notion this week, while I was looking through the masses of part-time courses available to me for next year, to watch all the HP movies in eager anticipation of the half-blood prince this summer. Notions that are a direct repercussions of Apple trailers; yes, I am weak. I spent an unjustifiable amount of time watching said trailers last night and it only left me with a heavy head and feelings of dissatisfaction? Unsatisfaction?

You can say whatever you like about our Harry, but you cannot deny the unbelievable sense of imagination it must take to write these stories. And not just one story, 7 stories that get more and more exciting. I would give alot to have an imagination like that. I could completely escape my mondane schedule and live in a world of fiction. It's healthy to exercise you're imagination from time to time, and let your rational mind take a break. With a kit-kat. And Elvis Presley.

As a christian who see's no harm in the harry potter series, on the basis that it is complete fiction, it's interesting to me all the religious debates over the subject. I think it is silly, especially considering the endorsements on other magical stories including Narnia and Middle Earth. Set aside the darkness and the evil and you'll see recurring themes like good over evil, loyalty, love and resilience. We are taught to love above all else and here, Harry Potter is protected solely by the love of his mother who sacraficed her life to save him. Mmmmmmm.

In the same way the fictional Rita Skeeter uses her media influence to paint inaccurate and sometimes false pictures of Harry Potter and other 'goodies' in the books, our own media paints similarly inaccurate situations in an attempt to alter our perceptions and our enjoyment. Why let it happen?

Its 'cool' to have a cause. I recently recieved an email from ASOS or was reading some glossy mag or possibly both, but one or the other was giving out fashion advice for supporting your particular cause. I was confused because in my head, fashion doesn't go hand in hand with humanitarian support but this article was very nonchalent about the issue, like it was so natural to link the two, like there was barely any need to write an article about it except for idiots like myself.

Basically, the trick is to look super stylish but like you didn't put any effort into your style. It mean lots of mis matching, crazy hair colours, hippy-like elements and plenty of tshirts with bold, blunt and controversial messages. On facebook we join causes. Protests are social events. Overseas humanitarian work looks good on our resume's. Makes us look more well rounded. Appearing selfless has become utterly selfish.
There is a reason a cause has become a cause. And the reasons are getting lost in the hype and the style requirements and the lifestyles. Even google couldn't decide which cause to support without ruffling some feathers so they bunged 4 into 1!!

I just read an article talking about career women. It weighed up the pro's and con's of the cut-throat bitch career women vs the charming and subtly intelligent ladies of the business world. I'm guessing that the huge impact Michelle Obama instigated the entire debate.

I, for one, am glad that the more understated woman is getting some props. Lucky for me, my passion is for youth and I look forward to a life of jeans and bodywarmers and snotty teenagers with attitude problems, so I don't see an alpha-negative fauz-male career snobs who swear like truckers getting in my way. But, if my destiny changes in a similar fashion to that of Capt Kirk and Commander Spock, I would like to think that women can continue to be lady like, gentle and understated without being taken advantage of and still having an equal opportunity to move up that ladder everyone always talks about without turning to alcohol, narcotic drugs or over-priced therapy.

The underlying cause for my overtly feminine rant (which is far from over) this evening....last weekend I spent stranded in the middle of nowhere where teenagers drive tractors and have regular barn dances. You think I'm joking but I'm not...we attended one. Anyway, point is that alot of remarks, jokes, jests, whatevers were made regarding a women's role in life and it was often associated with cooking, cleaning, being seen and not heard blah blah blah. Being sexist is discriminating. It's just another form of prejudice. God didn't set the golden rule for neighbours of the same sex only so...FLPC boys...treat us the same way you expect us to treat you.

Rant over. For now.

"...Cause you had a bad day...da da da da....you sing a sad song....da da da da da round,,,," Oh Powter where are you now?

People talk too much and I am definitely included in that number. Why though? So many times I say silly things or make passing comments and a few seconds later...oh shit. Then I keep my mouth shut, pretend it never happened and hope life carries on with one less slip-up. I guess sometimes we don't think. Other times we need to let off steam. And other times we need to know that other people agree with us.

And then there is the flip side...when we don't talk enough. When we would rather lose sleep over something than share the load with somebody. Why do we do that? So many nights I go to bed worried or irritated or upset but the next morning I pretend it's not there and carry on with my meaningless tasks. It's probably because by the time morning comes, it no longer seems like such a big deal. Or I assume people here won't understand. Or I am too proud.

So here is an official apology to anyone who has had to suffer alongside me in the negative repercussions of my big mouth. And for the positive repercussions, you're welcome. And also an apology to those who have ever had to experience the effects of my grumpy, un-caffinated, selfish side.

I have definitely blogged about Extreme Makeover:Home Edition before, but dam that show is designed for people exactly like me. I try being cinical about it but I still end up leaking in a corner over it. Everytime I leave the sofa with puffy eyes and the sniffles. I don't like to think of myself as a conformist but sometimes, that's just what I am. I like home makeovers, backstreet boys and those little white shoe's everyone wears. I own them in 3 colors now.

And on the note of conformity, below is my super awesome beer garden appropriate summer playlist. Make a CD of these songs, play them out your car window with your aviators on and you may as well be in a car commercial. Unless you drive a car whose squeaky brakes are louder than your stereo. Then you should look into fixing that instead of making silly mix CDs.

Sondre Lerche-Let my love open the door

NKOTB-Dirty Dancing

All American Rejects-Move Along

Savage Garden-I want you

Sugarcult-Memory

Gym Class Heroes-Cupids Chokehold

Bare Naked Ladies-One Week

Sheryl Crow-Soak up the Sun

Third Eye Blind-Semi Charmed Life

The Beatles-Here comes the Sun

Beach Boys-Get Around/Wouldn't it be Nice

The Elms-Hey Hey

DJ Sammy-Why

Wynonna Judd-Burning Love

Boy Least likely to-Be gentle with me

Fresh Prince-Summertime

Phantom Planet-Always on my mind

Noisettes-Stop the Rhythm

There are of course many others, Wyclef Jean, Usher 8701 and NKOTB are always at close hand but these are awesome. I'm off to watch the race for a bit before me and the boys hit up some movie goodness with the sexy Seth Rogen.

There is a tv show here called Secret Millionaire. It was brought to my attention at a sermon given by a lady who went to a missionary college in Scotland, without money or any material possessions for 6years. Left her family and everything she owned at the age of 47. Needless to say her sermon was centred around materialism.

In Secret Millionaire, millionaires volunteer to live in some of the most notorious cities of the UK. On Sunday, Mr Rob Lloyd volunteered to live in Belfast, living on the Shankhill Road on £95 a week. His volunteer act was catalyized by the the recent sectarian shootings that once again rocked area's like the Shankill. FYI Shankill is a protestant working-class road and the word, in irish, actually translates as 'Old Church'.

Jimmy Warnock was a famous boxer from the area, beating the world champion twice in his time and as a result, alot of the youth in the area use the local boxing hall regularly. I don't know if it is a great idea to have the young people of Belfast putting energy into a violent sport like boxing but Rob Lloyd took the time to find out, spending a majority of the hour long show getting to know the kids there. As a result of the show, Mr Secret Millionaire will for sure be rethinking his own life and helping out the youth programs in the Shankill but I think it is a great thing he did and I think it is something that we, as believers in God, should be doing regularly on a personal level. Sure some of these things have selfish motives, but that doesn't mean you won't find God there.

Instead of aspiring to be successful, comfortable, wealthy, ambitious, or whatver word you use to describe the results of that inner drive we have towards material things, we should be aspiring to relate to our brothers and sisters in area's like the Shankill, Glasgow, Birmingham, London, Manchester. And the most effective and loving way to do this, is to join them and get to know them as equals. Even just watching the show on TV made me rethink boxing as a sport and made me want to spend more time with the kids there. But maybe that is just me being gullable.

In a world plagued by a tumbling economy, where peeps who want to work can't find it and peeps who should be working don't bother, where values are corrupted and reality is distorted, it makes me happy that there are a few things I can still depend on....

Chocolate remains an affordable pleasure. We may not be able to travel so easily, but we sure can look at pics of the places we want to go with a big dirty bar of chocolate.

Humans will always re-adapt to new situations so whatevers going on, we can rest assured that we'll find a way to go along with it. According to anthrapologists.

Here's a cheesy one for all you romantics...my parents and my Jesus will always love me. Recession has nothing on the currency of love. (Can't believe I just said that).

Summer will always come around the same time every year and we can find joy in putting together our summer playlists to blast out the car with the windows down.

Next time, I'll let you know all about the playlists. Feel free to make suggestions. If you're suggestions makes the cut and is chosen for the final playlist, you win a prize!!

God invites me everyday to his table where He is serving a big Christmas Potluck dinner with all the trimmings. I accept his invitation every morning but all I'm offering these days are McDonalds happy meals. And I steal the toy before I get there.

I'm sorry. And I'm also sorry that I downloaded Eoghan Quiggs album...it's completely shameless.