Video Blog: blog-a-day – 23rd Dec, 2009.
And I thought I’d share this photo I took last year, with you, because it fits in well with today’s video.
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I’m back – and in print!
No video from me, today, but I have been awake for 31 hours, so forgive me for nodding off and not wanting to edit myself rambling on about my last ever trip to Borders! But after that depressing event, I went to the hospital, as usual, and was delighted to find the Ward’s magazine all printed out and being passed around. So, here and here are two very crappy mobile phone pictures of my contribution to “Ward 94″.
As always, I couldn’t help myself when reviewing Lady GaGa’s The Fame Monster, and went way over and the amount of words I was allowed. So, for your pleasure, here’s my full, unedited review!
This is a review of Lady GaGa’s entirely new creation, The Fame Monster. Firstly, the technical details: It’s presented in a double-disc edition, featuring 8 fresh songs on disc one, and her debut album, The Fame, on the second disc. Prices vary, but you should be able to pick up the standard version for no more than £10. The alternate “Digipack” version will set you back a bit more, but includes additional artwork, and a bonus track on disc two. Now, for my review…
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You see, we’re currently in the Zodiac sign of Cancer, and also my latest video project for JimmyTeens.tv about the Treatment of Cancer Patients has been uploaded, so the title is a play on words! Check it out, I filmed this two weeks ago at St. James Hospital (which is where I’m a patient at for two days of the month).
I’m really proud of the way it turned out and want to thank Cat, the Youth Support Co-Ordinator, for letting me shoot and edit it. Hopefully I can do more films for Jimmy Teens in the future! The other update is my Sims 2 series, The Caliente Affairs, that has been on-going since 2005, but I’m only just now in the process of uploading it to my website. You can check out a preview of how it will look when all 19 current episodes go live, via Twitpic.
Below, you’re about to hear the first ever snippet of You and I (if you’re kind enough to press play). I don’t know if I should be posting this so soon… for one, it’s still in the early demo stages (albeit not as early as the original preview). But we are supposed to be performing live in two weeks, so to hell with it!
First of all, site updates! Two new Mash Ups over at My Music – one for Christmas, and one sampling the 80s (my second trip back to my decade for a mash up). As for what’s to come, a few more mash ups hopefully, and something spectacular as a little dedication to my old website Amanda Bynes UK, which went offline a few months ago due to Orange being a super-beeyotch and deleting their free members only FTP service (whatever, their loss, we’re getting Virgin broadband now). Intrigued? Come back December 31st to find out what it is! Oh, and do you like my new favicon? WordPress updated their features! The only good thing about Orange closing down it’s service was that I found this place!
Now serious stuff: I had a nosebleed! It’s been so long since my last one it took my three attempts to spell it right! Back then I decided to take a stand. I was having a lot of them, so something must have been causing it. I cut out caffeine and more importantly – Cola! Following on from that, I specifically targeted artificial sweeteners as the source of my bleeds. Aspartame and Phenylalanine were my enemies! I found them in nearly every “sugar free” chewing gum, and unfortunately Sweet Chili flavoured Sensations Crisps. Since that cold and dreary day some 18 months ago, I’ve reintroduced the odd caffeine boost in the form of my beloved instant cappuccinos and Lucozade and things seemed fine. During my research on artificial sweeteners I discovered Pepsi were marketing a new “natural” alternative to Pepsi called Raw. Despite being available in Leeds, I had never seen it… until last night! I was so excited, for the first time in what felt like forever I was going to be able to have cola! It was nice… really nice… but about an hour after polishing off my second bottle, the disaster struck!
Okay so it was only a bit blood – but still! It’s more the fact I thought I’d been smart and health conscious, but the science of sugars is confusing! Oh, and I cannot just put it down to a freaky coincidence… despite the fact that if anyone in the world were to have a freaky coincidence like this – it’d me! It has to be that whatever used to cause my nosebleeds that was in regular, crap-filled Pepsi is still in their “natural” Pepsi… The only suspect ingredient I noticed was Xanthan Gum, so I guess I’ll be keeping an eye out for that now! Unless of course this is all just psychosomatic and I’m going crazy (pfft, going).
For a while now I’ve been mentioning the fact I joined a band. This isn’t just your usual friends-get-bored-and-decide-to-play-instruments-and-write-songs-together band, this was brought together by Cat and Dave at Jimmy’s for patients and ex-patients. We had 5 people, but now we’re down to 3… technically I didn’t want to be in the band, but I made the mistake of opening my mouth to sing, and unless we find someone else who’s better (or if I have my say, ANYONE else regardless), it looks like I’m going to be in the band. We don’t have a name yet, but we started working on our first song – written by me! It is called “You and I”, but I’ve been toying with the idea of changing the title to “U+I”. As always with today’s technology, I recorded the playback on my mobile phone so forgive the quality, but here it is…
It’s a work in progress. If I can instigate it, I want the song to have more of a… what did someone call it… Avril Lavigne meets Green Day type sound to it!
Just a quick update written from the hospital. I watched Teaching Mrs. Tingle last night. It’s so good but hideously dated, not exactly a timeless classic but I could make a space for it in my collection. It’s Helen Mirren pre-Oscar and Katie Holmes pre-Cruise, two great actresses in very unlikely roles, considering where they are now!
The repaired Hickman Line is working and I’ve decided to keep it in whilst my mum and step-dad are away. After that it may be a while or just a few weeks before I decide to have the replacement fitted. My thoughts at the moment are I want it soon but I could change my mind over time, getting more used to the repair and feeling confident it is secure. I know this might sound confusing so luckily I have picture aides after the jump…
Button, button, who’s got the button? Click it, and you get to read this hideously long and boring rant about my hospital treatment.
I’m currently listening to Russian radio, in preparation to hear the premiere of t.A.T.u.’s first major English song in three years, You & I (the song that should signal their comeback to the mainstream charts and wake up the public to the fact they still exist, but given they have no international label it may take some time). It’s going to be one of the few English-only language songs included on the album Veselye Ulybki (Happy Smiles), also their first completely new album in three years. I’ve literally been tracking it’s creation every step of the way, loving all the little snippets and singles I’ve heard so far. I have to say I’m far more excited about the Russian language songs than their English counterparts, mainly because their better lyric-writing group (the ones responsible for their major hits) are only involved with a few of them (You & I). The translated songs written by the other writers (only one of which I know at the moment, White Robe) don’t seem to hold as much meaning. If I’ve got you interested click here to listen to the song. It’s set to be played at 5pm GMT (a direct link to the song has now been added).
So why the cryptic blog title? Well, I haven’t confirmed my truths lately. Here’s what’s been happening: I discovered on Wednesday after my transfusion my Hickman Line (see my History) has got a puncture in it and unless it can be repaired I’m going to have to have a new put in. We’re waiting for news on whether it can be repaired until Monday and if not then I’ll be in hospital Thursday and Friday. It got me a bit upset but I’m okay with it now, it spurred me on to do some work and I got my first new episode of The Caliente Affairs in almost two years online the same day I found out! I’ll keep you updated from now on (if I can get my iPhone to work at the hospital, it hasn’t lately).
UPDATE: GOOD NEWS! I have just got the phonecall to say a repair kit has been found so hopefully everything is set for Monday and I won’t have to have an operation!
