Practically Alice

I think we underestimate every little bit about our bodies and how they work. I've had a rather sad day today; our four year old guinea pig, Dusty, passed away suddenly this morning at the place she was staying whilst we were away. It was a shock and horrible news to have wake you up. Two years ago we lost Bubbles, another of our guinea pigs. The difference in my reaction was huge - I'm sad and heartbroken... but in a different way. It's like my body has blocked that hurt and sadness from the functional part of my brain and I'm wanting to do things and keep busy, rather than sitting numbly for hours on end. Well, I want to do that... but I'm not letting myself - I'm able to not let myself. I believe this is because since that ordeal in 2010, I have undergone a number of things. I've been prodded and poked, I've faced a relationship that I was terrified of going into, I've suffered a break up that broke my heart, I've worked that relationship ...

I write this blogpost in France. Im publishing it now because I've got no Internet access here. This holiday and time away has taught me some things; the books I've read, the time I've spent away from the internet and technology and the things I've thought and talked about have had an effect on me. Firstly, the books: 'Beauty Queens' has taught me that it's okay to be feminine and be a feminist - its okay to like a guy but it's also okay to always be yourself and stand for what you want to stand for. Libba Bray has also taught me that some of the practises we have are just plain stupid. 'Girl Parts' has also shown me how silly some of our practises are, tout also that you need to be patient about things and let things grow and progress. Oh, and robots are people too. 'Life of Pi' has shown me that you shape yourself, it's okay to be curious and animals are wonderful things (I've not finished it yet). 'The Disenchantments...

These are not my words. They are the word s of  Rosemarie Urquico. I remember reading these words and thinking   this woman knows me.   But then I realised that this wasn't the case. Ms Urquico doesn't know me, she knows readers. I'd like to share these words with you, just as my dear friend   Nicky  did with me, in hope that they will make you smile... "Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve. Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can ne...

It never fails to fascinate me how powerful words are. How a little letter, such as an "x" can change the whole meaning of the words and punctuation prior to it. Even now, you're reading these words and they're doing stuff to your mind; sometimes we read things that change us, that stick with us. Something a person (be they fictional or real, no matter) said long ago or recently can stick with us for life. I read a lot and, though my mind is getting better at it, quotes don't stay with me for that long but one particular day I was rather sad and I was reading Dear Mr Potter  (compiled & edited by the wonderful Lily Zalon) and someone quoted Dumbledore. The quote was "it does not do to dwell on dreams, and forget to live." Perhaps it was the alliteration in this quote that made it stick with me, or maybe it was the significance it has to the situation I was in then... but it's stuck. It pops into my head when I find myself wallowing and wanting ...

Earlier today Maureen Johnson pointed out that the view of "teens don't read" in the UK is deeply entrenched (which is a word that I now love  and had never heard before). As a teenager in the UK, the stigma around reading seems to be - to me - it's "uncool", it's "geeky", there "aren't any good books out there". I think the fact that a lot of teenagers in British schools are exposed to older literature or, perhaps, not that popular literature in lessons and forced into over-analysing and spending countless hours on 'what the author meant'. A point that was raised in this twitter discussion was that people didn't want to be seen reading, or didn't want to be seen reading certain books. It's made me realise that I never   ever ever  see people reading in the older years in my school ( ever ). Perhaps the odd year 7 (12 year old) or year 8 (13 year old) will read, but - from experience - they will probably be ...

A little while ago Carrie  make a video about daring to suck . This is something that I have been trying to do more - I've been trying to do things and put myself out there that scare me. Firstly, I applied for Head Girl at school. Talking in front of people is something that really scares me, so I decided to apply for the role where I would be put in that exact situation many times. Equally, singing songs in front of people is something that is terrifying too so what did I do? I sang a song, recorded it with my webcam last night and posted it on youtube. I know I'm not the most eloquent singer, writer, speaker. But those are things that I want to do, want to get better at. For that reason I'm trying to write things, speak more, post things on youtube more (and sometimes face scrutiny). I don't want people to think I'm attention seeking because people should push to do things that scare them, conquer their fears and all that, shouldn't they? I'm goin...

On my seventeenth birthday I made a decision: I decided that I would write 50,000 words in a year. You may have heard of NaNoWriMo? Well I'm doing that but over a year... so NaNoWriYe (not go the same ring to it really...). I've decided that I don't want to write anything amazing or profound, I just want to have written words - 50,000 of them. I think if I can show myself that I can do that then  I can focus on content and all this. This month so far I have written 2,365 words. That's  4.73% of my 50,000 target and  51.41% of my month's target (of 4,600 words). I don't know about you, but having always tried to write a large body of words creatively and not being able to succeed, this is an achievement for me. I'm not saying what I have written so far is good. I'm saying it's something . It's a start. For that reason, I am happy. (And going to read for a bit now.)