Jonny's Grotto

heh, the 'intelligent' race who devour their own world.

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:57:12 GMT

Animal-rights groups say meat-eating worse for climate than driving

With which instrument do you cause more greenhouse-gas emissions: your car key or your fork?

It's a question asked in an advertising campaign by the Humane Society, which, along with other big animal-rights groups, is striving to open consumers' eyes to an oft-overlooked connection: the climatic impact of eating meat.

Bolstered by a recent United Nations report stating that the livestock business spews more greenhouse gases than all forms of transportation combined, animal-rights groups say greens aren't stressing the point enough. "Environmentalists are still pointing their fingers at Hummers and SUVs when they should be pointing at the dinner plate," says a campaigner for PETA. "You just cannot be a meat-eating environmentalist."

f*#king life

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 20:43:02 GMT

Okay, i was going to send an e-mail round but couldn't be arsed, so if you sign on to msn/windows live messenger and get greeted by a message such as:-

hey!!! i saw your photo on www.ratethisfeckingpic.net/photo3391.com, you gullible asshole

Do not click on the link, it's a bloody virus. I got it from Sam Barrett, i'd advise not talking to him on msn until he gets it fixed. Luckily for me it only infeced my dads laptop, not my PC.

So yeah, I lay in bed until about 5 today cause I didn't see the point in getting up, and of course when i did that happened. Moral of the story is, go to sleep and don't wake up until you have to work or something

now for some politics >

I just want you to feel the gun in your hand

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 17:49:13 GMT

I was young too, I felt just like you.
Hated authority, hated all my bosses, thought they were full of shit.
Well it's like they say, if you're not a rebel at the age of twenty, you got no heart.
But if you haven't turned establishment by thirty, You got no brains.
Because there are no storybook romances, no fairy tale endings.
Before you run out to change the world Ask yourself..

What do you really want?

no one cares about what you want, the older you get the more you'll realise that you conform or get labelled as a pretarded mess

From a Lagwagon tune

hmm, X-box 360..

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:08:32 GMT

Hello

I bought an x-box 360 yesterday, after ages of holding out for the PS3. Not because I like xbox better, because everyone else has one (kick me next time i say i don't give in to peer pressure).

Yeah so here's some depressing facts, xbox 360 has one game in the gamespot top ten at the moment, even less than the ps2! The PS3 is the UK's and possibly the worlds most successful launch console except for the PSP, selling many thousands more than 360's in the first two days. Plus, I want one, and xbox live has been down all day.

On the plus side I have a flipping 360! Plus Greg got me an amazing deal on it (thanks a bunch man) and it's awesome! Especially xbox live, it's excellent, spent like all last night and into this morning on it. I found this on gamespot, it's hilarious how angry PS3 fans get when 'exclusive' games go multi-platform:

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6168044.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=multimodule&tag=multimodule;picks;title;4

greg and stan will find it amusing anyways

so yes, I'm very happy with my xbox, just need more games, and i found out there now that most of the games on gamespot top 10 are also out/coming out on the 360. Whey!

Jeez, I just read all that stuff I wrote and it sounds almost as bad as Stan's computer language blogs.

oh well, I have a 2000 word palaeoecology essay to start!!

this is going to be the last time you hear me complain.

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 17:08:26 GMT

not.

so, ever considered how pointless life is?

Like you can decide to do something, or not do it, e.g draw a picture, complete a video game, read a book, and really the only thing that matters in doing stuff like that is whether or not you put value in what you are doing or have done. What if you stopped feeling any worth towards the things you do, everything would be pointless yeah? Cause at the end of the day all that matters is what you get out of things/ how much you enjoy what you do, and if in your mind those things do not matter anymore, nothing matters and everything becomes pointless.

Does this confuse you, or is it just a load of phuking nonsense?

Celebrities.

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 22:58:12 GMT

I haven't bitched on this thing in ages

Look at this http://lifestyle.uk.msn.com/beauty/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3772045 from windows live today

What the hell?

I can't believe people are so sad and get so lost in their celeb worship that they try to bring out some kind of sexual science into the psychology of changing your hair colour!? Jeez, I couldn't even read all that article, and there's hundreds of links there to other just as, or more insane articles. It's ridiculous, they make no sense at all, it's actually a load of made up monkey crap

And people make good money out of these things?

The end is neigh people

blah blah

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 23:43:17 GMT

Since noone bothers their arses to read or comment on any of the rubbish people write in these things I won't bore yous with some empty, pointless crap that has a moral at the end. Blogs actually suck-ass, who really cares about anyone enough to take interest in what they write unless it involves them or something contraversial?

The moral to this story is, screw words, go to

http://jonnyshields.deviantart.com/

and check out some squiggles on a page.

Christmas - Behind the Scenes

Sun, 24 Dec 2006 02:11:34 GMT

So maties,

Good old Christmas Day is just around the bend and I think my head is too.

But it's all cool, I'm currently making a couple of presents, have just wrapped a few and am taking a break from designing all of your Christmas cards. Am aiming to get them finished by 3 in the morning so I can give them to yous on Christmas Eve.

Aw man, Christmas is exciting!

Most of you I've spoken to recently haven't been so psyched about the whole thing, but come on!

Waking up insanely early,

Opening presents,

Watching peoples reactions to the crap you get them,

Playing video games (Marvel Ultimate Alliance please, oh yeah!!)

Reading new graphic novels!

Driving your family mad

Giving your dog a present

Ska CDs

New Socks!

And flippin' (veggie) Christmas Dinner!!!

Not to mention the Queen's friken speech, tune in man, it's goin' to be incredible, explosive even

It's all goin' to happen people, get excited

Right,

Now that you're all jumping on your chairs and screaming with pleasurable Yuletide (I prefer Ueltide) thoughts residing in every recess of your minds,

let me say something that I recon needs to be said

Perhaps I haven't been the best Christian example over the past while, and this could be the first time you've read the words of the Bible in a long, long time, but I have a message from the Big Guy:

John

The Word Became Flesh

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning.

³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴In him was life, and that life was the light of men. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

¹⁰He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹²Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

¹⁴The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

*verses 6-9 intentionally left out (they're about John)

Ok, that may not seem to have much to do with the story of Christmas, no mention of a big star, manger, pregnant virgin, magi, sheep, stables etc. It doesn't even mention baby Jesus as such, so it's obviously not nativity scene material.

But I want to use these verses from John to perhaps help change your view of Christmas. I'm quite aware that the statement "Jesus is the reason for the season" and suchlike has been drilled into everyone's head by Church-goers year after year. However I believe that the world (including Church-goers in general) has altogether missed the point. Does the traditional image of old men in funny robes giving presents to a baby in a feeding trough surrounded by animals provoke you to question the purpose and significance of our lives?

Of course not

But it should!

Right, I'm going to explain this the best that I can using some references to verses in John Chapter 1, please read it slowly and think about it

God is 3 beings in one, who have always existed and will exist forever. The beginning as described in Genesis and John ⁽¹⁾is the creation of time and space, both of which God lives outside of. As we were created with finite minds by an infinite God we can't fully understand this, which explains why this may confuse you slightly.

God created the earth through Jesus, the 'Word' ^(1-3). So Jesus made it possible for each one of us to be here. He made everything perfect in the beginning, including humans. Because we screwed up and have increasingly messed up by not giving a damn about our creator, each other or the world around us we now live in an immoral crap hole and the only time most of us mention God/Jesus is to swear using His name or shout at Him because of our self created problems in a world we destroyed in the first place.

God can't stand sin on any level because he is perfect, so imagine how pissed off he must be with us after we wrecked absolutely everything he's made. He would have every right to just destroy us all.

Bare all of this in mind as I relate it to Christmas.

God sent his son, Jesus, to earth ⁽¹⁴⁾. Jesus is a part of God, he is connected to God the Father by an almighty love which is incomparable to any relationship possible between humans. God effectively severed this connection and came to earth in the form of a foetus which developed in the womb of a virgin peasant. The creator of the universe floated in a liquid sack inside a human for 9 months and was born into a dirty animal shelter in the Middle East. An Eternal Being had to learn to walk, talk, read, write and cope with everything we've had to deal with in our lives and a lot more. All because he loves us and wanted to help us out. Most people didn't care, most people still don't care, and the majority of people will never care until they die ^(10-11).

That's the true significance of Christmas,

The Omnipotent God subjected himself to the humiliation of a degraded life for us and because of us.

It just hit me quite hard that I'd never seen this through any Christmas in all the years I've been a Christian

I hope it makes you think and wonder, because it totally is a big deal. Let me know if any of this sounds wrong or connects with you, I did the best I could

I've Been Having Strange Dreams..

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 21:03:36 GMT

I thought I'd top up all of you, my fans, on knowledge of my recent life

..em

University Sucks!The Revolution was Amazing

I don't feel well and can't sleep for some reasonI have an oral presentation infront of a panel of judges next week and I've done damn all for it

I'm really tired

I've been having bizarre and often violent dreams

I'm boycotting Borat

On the plus side I want to complain about something!

Lots of things that I've always been a fan of seem to become real big and completely spoiled, particularly thanks to Hollywood and other movie places. I hate it when bands I've known about for ages become superstars and suddenly you've lost your secret little group to overnight 'die hard fans' and they become crap e.g. the Killers, the Foo Fighters, the Libertines.

But much worse is the movies. Like Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, I had them read to me by Dad since I was about 4 until I could read them through myself and I loved them so much. And now argh, flipping overnight Lord of the Rings fanatics. And there's Spiderman and the X-Men especially, but I enjoy telling people that they don't know the actual stories cause they're completely screwed up for the films (that's how sad I am). Fantastic Four, eh, I never really cared for them, is the movie any good?

Ah, to my point. Marvel are bringing out Iron Man and Ghost Rider Movies now, and as awesome as it'll be to see flippin Iron Man on the silver screen (hopefully with Cap America making an appearance) I'm going to be so peeved if we get overnight 'true believers' who think that the Avengers (group started by Iron Man) are the best thing since malteaser tray bakes and pretend to know everything about what I've spent ages being a fan of. The rich ones are the worst, they buy all the box sets, signed art, books and t-shirts and then claim to be better than you.

Now all I need is for ska, hedgecore and comics to become pop culture and I'll go insane

That was real sad, but I do love to winge when I'm having a bad day (which is totally hypocritical cause I hate it when people make blogs to just moan on about random crap)

Okay, rant over

Yeah, hopefully I'll put up some art or something here soon to try and prove that I'm less useless than I sound

Toodleoo

Just Like Anyone, He's Just Like ₣®ªик!

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 23:44:42 GMT

Oi,

Hello friends, I thought I would take this opportunity to inform you about the recent events of my wildly exciting life. It's like a never ending party.

Ok, so uni is boring, I go whole days without talking to anyone, too much work, bored, lonely, blah blah..

As tempting as it is to rant on about my various problems and dilemmas I shall desist! There are more pressing issues, such as my renewed passion for graphic novels!!

Yes that is a fancy way of saying comic books, but I've began learning how to create them myself, which (while you don't care) is exciting because i can start to map some contents of my messy mind onto a nice tidy page and make it look good (hopefully). Marvel comics are pretty much just the best, the Marvel Universe is really quite amazing, it's illustrated with fantastic artwork and is full of very intelligent plots. If you don't believe me read a few issues of the Avengers before you call me a gay comic nerd who can't be bothered reading proper sentences in real books. I figured creating art and stories is a decent constructive thing to get into, much better than rotting in front of TV all day (which I hate incase you didn't know).

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

The REVOLUTION is happening in Ballynahinch Baptist Church on Friday the 24th of November 8.00pm - 10.30pm(ish)

Basically it's a big Christian gathering, we're trying to get people together who are sick of the typical Northern Irish youth events where we all get together to have our little Christian moment and go home to feel better about ourselves but ultimately forget about everything that happened. It's almost going to be like half a chance to praise God for being the amazing creator that he is, and half a recruitment of a group devoted to an actual Spiritual Revoultion within Northern Ireland. Lets face it we (Christians I mean) all need a good kick up the arse to get us up on our feet, going into the streets and actively change things. I wont say anymore, however:

go here http://www.ignite.cd/index.cfm?section=life&midsection=26&page=event&id=834

or here www.freewebs.com/revolution2006

pour more (better) information

Now, eh, what else is happening..

Oh, well Less Than Jake has happened as of Saturday, if you missed that and are into ska/punk you totally missed out man. Personally it completely destroyed me, my neck is killing me from moshing and I'm still exhausted. But I met Roger (bass guy) and shook his hand! Told him I played bass and knew all his tunes by heart. The way he responded was very 'whatever kid, I don't think you can really play any of my stuff' without actually saying that. But screw him cos I figured out 3 full LTJ albums without looking at a single sheet of music, his riffs aren't that hard. So, they rocked pretty hard. I waited about six years to see them and I guess I wasn't dissapointed (new songs all suck-ass though).

Yeah Christmas is coming up, if you're a friend don't be horrified if you end up with a measley comic or something stupid as a present cos I've still not managed to obtain a job and am currently broke/ in the process of, em breaking.

Wow, wasn't that alot more positive a blog?

no?

.stop watching tv

Life Is Stupid.

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 23:50:46 GMT

everything sucks

.almost

I put up the best of the 701 photos we took in Europe here on my space.

There's a select few (well 82) and they're friken amazing(ish) and took me ages to pick out and caption.

So go look at them

DOES ANYONE READ THESE ANYMORE??

. push back the square

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 18:11:59 GMT

Some people suck so bad, and I don't think it's even a minority of them

I hate celebrity and pop culture, it's sickening, made the mistake of turning on the bloody tv today

http://www.deftones.com/6/index.html

go to albums,

listen to digital bath, change, be quiet and drive, change

my own summer and lhabia if you're having a bad day

let me know how crap/good you recon they are cos I actually can't get enough

I know noone will, was just saying

That's all

My Gosh!

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 23:21:00 GMT

Hi,

Hmm, a lot’s been happening since I was last blogging..

Europe for instance

At the end of August we headed off to the continent for an adventure. We included me, Greg, Stan, Al and Sammy. First stop was Berlin, then Munich, then Rome via Austria, with a day trip to Naples and Mt. Vesuvius. I recon I went through all the emotions you could wave a stick at, plus the ones hiding behind those, in only 11 days. It was a pretty intense trip.

To be honest I can’t remember a lot because I have a crap memory and I’ve forced myself to forget chunks of it. But we have some interesting stories. Pour exemple, one night on a high-speed train from Berlin to Munich we were all falling asleep in our compartment when a fat French woman walked in, grabbed a massive suitcase that I was half lying on, and then pulled a dog out from under Sam’s chair! I was like, what the hell! I knew it wasn’t a dream cos my head hurt like crap and I’d dribbled all over myself. It got real funny when she returned after losing her dog and blamed Stanley for stealing it or something. Me and Greg just laughed helplessly while Sam did his superhero thing and went to help find it. Apparently the dog was called Glook, which seemed like the funniest thing in the world when it’s 2.30am on a night train.

Yeah, and then there was all the male nudity and general gayness that was pretty much a constant throughout the whole holiday. Couldn’t take a shower or dump without some tit waving a camera through the door or under the cubicle. There were midnight wrestles, boys sharing beds, Sam’s relentless state of undress like he was trying to woo us with his muscles and Stanley, hahaha, yeh Stanley. I’m not even going near that story.

Personally I found the most exciting moment of the whole trip was ~~watching Stan in the buff trying to crawl inside a shower head~~ em I don't know actually, maybe the dog on the train thing or peeing into the crater on Vesuvius (Was so good Alex).

Ok, that was a useless description of the holiday but it’s long enough as it is. Ah yes..

A-Level Results

I wasn’t feelin the best about the old result day, but I scraped through with ACC. Pretty bummed at getting an A in art and C in geography, shoulda been the other way, but sure, I got a C in physics after a hard rockin’ year of pissing around with Greg and Sam and it’s the hardest A-level hands down. Eh, so I guess that landed me in big bad..

University

Would love to say my current experience as a student has been a two week party, but like.. meh

So, I’m at Queens studying geography with extra modules in palaeoecology (which isn’t a real word according to Microsoft Word’s spell checker). Uni life is dull enough, the people there are all trendies or general arse-ends and I half wish we had a uniform. When a whole culture revolves around looking cool, drinking and sex or whatever, you know, I don’t fit into it in anyway. Why does no-one in uni have spiked hair, what happened to baggy jeans and punk rock music? So I actually feel pretty darn different, and no it doesn’t make me feel cool. Everyone seems to have something, either they like clubs and dancing, or they’ll go to the pubs and enjoy getting smashed or sit talking about rugby and football for seven hours straight and stuff. I went to the CU (Christian Union) though, it seems good so I guess I’ll get more involved in that.

Anyways – B O R I N G I know let’s change subject..

Anna

A particular favourite subject of mine. Her Birthday was the other day so she’s 17 and already a prefect in Lower 6^th, smart fart. No-one likes reading about other people’s gf’s, but we’ve been going out for.. a year and one month exactly tonight, and I thought I should point out that I love her very much and she’s flipping class for putting up with me. Deserves a proper mention since she’s such an important part of my life.

Band

Oh, most exciting here. We’ve changed our name back to Brain Freeze for anyone who cares, and have.. wait for it… started recording! But better than that I wrote a song which may work! Wahey, just thought I’d say cos I know all our fans are waiting in anticipation of our original material after a few excellent live performances, like at Stan’s house at the start of the Summer. Hah (“Does anyone know how to skank?”)

yeah that sucked

At some point I’m going to post the cut versions of our Europe photos here for your viewing pleasure. They’ve been cut mainly because there were about 800 of them, a few cause mental scarring without appropriate censoring

Aw man it’s late and my bus is early

Goodnight

Summer Lovin..

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 07:45:21 GMT

Here I am writing yet another MSN (or Windows Live to be more correct) Spaces blog entry while the rest of the country is still seemingly obsessed with bebo. Just thought someone may want something to read, or maybe you're even interested in what I have to say about my Summer (na). But anyways I got up at half 5 because I can't sleep, even after goin to bed at 2, I got nothing better to do and as everyone tends to say at the start of these things, I haven't done this in ages, so..

I think I'll use headings, that's always good

CAMP

The first week of July I spent doing a Scripture Union camp at Greenhill YMCA in Newcastle. It's my second year there as a leader, seventh including camper years, yet after all those years this one proved to be surprisingly quite different. All the SU leaders get camp names for the week to tie in with their roles at camp, for example Ref or Whistle or Banksy etc. As I help out with the praise band I was Rock again, but usually there's a Roll to go with Rock (that's Rock 'n' Roll incase you hadn't made the connection). So yeh, no Roll this year (missed you Phil), so I guess in that respect along with the fact that Pete and Andy AKA Munchie were missing, camp was alot more of a personal challenge for me to organise and lead Worship music myself infront of a large group.

There were a few days when I had a group of eight kids to try and look after on my own during activities, which is flippin' difficult when they're only a few years younger than you! Spent the first morning cleaning up a campers puke all over our tent at like 5 in the morning, which was also a new experience for me (was more solid and chunky than drunken people's boak). So camp landed me with plenty of responsibilities and definately gave me a decent challenge. I relied on God aheckofa lot more than I did on other people, which was great (not that the other leaders weren't class like), and the music worked out surprisingly well. Gotta thank the Big Guy for that.

DRIVING

Passed the driving test on the last full day of camp without having drove (or driven or whatever) in a week! That was a Godsend itself. Haven't been off the roads since I got back from holidays, tis class to have abit of freedom and all that.

DONEGAL

Straight after camp me and Dee headed to Donegal with the Lee's, Willis' and Hazley's. Was an immense week! We stayed in our usual cottage by the sea, with me, Greg, Dee, Andrew, Andrew and Craig living in the upstairs. Spent most days down at various beaches getting the feet cut off us, running from sea enemas and creating spectacular sand fortresses. Wish I had some pics to post, just imagine me and the guys wrestling semi-nude in the sun (in an entirely heterosexual way) and you get the idea.

Apart from beaches we sat around lots, ate our way through like 14 blocks of cheese in two days, made a seaweed flan (sickest thing ever), sang bohemian rhapsody constantly, played lots of psp and turned the toilet light off when people were mid piss, which was funny as anything. Ah, good times

Aw man, this is goin to be so long and boring when I read back over it

KESWICK

So yeh, back from Donegal and straight on to England where I stayed in the Good old 'van in the the Lake District for two weeks with Anna and the family. Hadn't spent any time with Anna for a fortnight at this stage and I missed her so bad, her simply being there made it such an amazing holiday! We did so much cool stuff though, was there during that two week heatwave over the British Isles. Somedays we couldn't move it was so hot, but when we could we went swimming in the lake, walking and canoeing out to the islands and down the rivers. We had this great game called boatwars, which had pretty painful consequences, and me and the bros did a good bit of skateboarding and mountain biking and the usual stuff.

There was clay fights, Ben falling on his head, Anna getting obsessed with Loco Roco, a crapload of fartin and you know, all the other guff. Totally had the time of my life there like, don't want to bore you to death with too much details, I've posted photos to do that.

A THOUGHT...

So there you have it, my Summer, way too long even though most of the details are cut out

Now, I'm quite possibly delirious from lack of sleep, but I've got a thought for the day, you can be the judge of whether or not I'm talkin rubbish.

As you may well know I'm a video game nerd, so consider this. Any game that I really like I'll take the time, even if it's over 150 hours (Final Fantasy), to complete it properly. I'll look in every corner of every map, open every chest, get all the ultimate weapons, unlock the secret characters, buy one of every item (even the useless ones), find the extra areas, beat the enemies you don't have to and so on. It takes alot of time and effort to do that crap, but because (oddly enough) I find some sort of worth in the little things, it makes the game so much better after having completed it. So I end up feeling like completing an old game such as Final Fantasy VII or Suikoden is much more worthwhile than beating a big flashy new game like Timesplitters 3 or Soul Calibur 2 or whatever.

Point is, recently with exam results coming up and all I've felt like we're all being abit screwed by the system. Like, at one level, after 14 years of trying hard in full-time education, if I flunk these A-levels it really hasn't done me any good. So I've been trying to focus in on the small things, like all the class times we had just screwin' around during prefect duties and at common room this year, and doing SU on Tuesdays etc. It's alot better than thinking about the results. But that's only within a school context, I think we'd all be much happier and secure if we took time to enjoy or at least notice the little random things in our relationships and our lives rather than thinking on a Holiday>Results>Birthdays>Halloween>Exams> Christmas>ValentinesDay>Easter>Exams>Holiday level.

I don't know, maybe I'm making no sense, but I find myself always waiting for the next big flashy event or worrying about one thing after the other when really I'd find alot more worth in my life if I took more time doing and enjoying everyday things. Thinking about big events is just depressing, especially if it's all we ever work towards.

There you go, that took a good few hours to type believe it or not, so remember to look at the pics and leave a comment or I'm goin to have to stop writing these things

1+1=3

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 00:05:25 GMT

Hey,

I'm pretty fed up with bebo so thought I'd go back to the good old days of blogging even though noone seems to look at these anymore.

Recently for me life has been going kinda downhill, I've been feeling pretty useless because of a number of things. However I won't be boring you with my problems. Now as soppy/girly/gay as this blog entry is going to sound I want to acknowledge that at times I don't see how I could keep going without my friends.

You guys are an incredibly important part of my life. I've been thinking about friendship alot recently, mainly because some might say that I depend too much on my friends. I guess it's not too, you know, manly and independent adult-like, but sure.

I jotted down some of my thoughts, just to maybe give you something to consider on the worth of friendships and how we can show each other that we actually care;

Thankyou...

If you have a good friend, chances are they'll be constantly going out of their way to talk to you, do things for you and will just be spending their time on you. Don't take anything for granted, especially with someone who you're always around. It's easy to think 'that was nice of them' when something is done for you without saying thanks, or even letting a person know you enjoyed talking/spending time with them. Saying thankyou can be all it takes to help someone feel appreciated.

Sorry...

When a friend really cares for and respects you, you are automatically put in a position with the possibility of hurting and offending them more than anyone else could. This means saying sorry can become very important, even though it's difficult and it feels like things could fix themselves if you leave it. In our circle of friends talking behind each others backs isn't generally a problem, but it does happen. Just think hard before you say something stupid that may find its way back to someone. Also, just as a random point, don't treat anyone differently around other people, that sucks.

Be Interested...

I recon one key factor in relationships, and something I always try my best at, is listening. Being interested in other people shows that you're not self centred and value them. It's alot easier to talk about random crap in our own lives than it is to listen to important issues in someone elses. Be concerned for your friends. If someone has had a bad day, or if something really rubbish happens to them, don't avoid the issue, say you feel bad for them and ask if they're alright. Also try not to forget about it the next day, ask if things are better cos that'll make someone feel important, as you genuinely care. It always helps to talk, and if someone shares a personal problem it's often because they need some help so don't ignore it.

So yeh, there's some random thoughts from my mixed up mind.

Just one last thought,

When you have a person who you can trust with everything and who will trust you the same way then you always have someone to fall back on, someone to help build you up. Likewise they are going to have you if things screw up for them.

By my logic this is when 1+1=3, because you get an extra something from a really special friendship

I think independence is overrated

Heck Yes!

Fri, 05 May 2006 16:28:43 GMT

Yo Homies,

What's the craic? Hope everyone's working hard for this exam malarkey. I've been fairly well disciplined recently and am workin well for a change but I thought I'd take a small break, since it's the weekend and all, and give you another exciting incite into my life.

So, over Easter I went to Keswick in the Lake District, as per usual, and had the most amazing holiday. Anna came with us this time, which was very, very cool. Had a few mad rides through forests on the bikes with the bros and me and Benny got to a skatepark in stranraer (I managed to bust myself) and we pissed off some elderly fokes in Keswick on our boards at night when the town emptied. Was all good fun.

Anna had to get the boat up on her own cos there was no room in our car, which sucked! But we went cycling round the side of a few mountains, caving in old abandoned mines and swimming in a freezing cold lake (hardcore) and even took a few photos to prove it. Although between me, Anna, Dee and Ben we managed to put away an insane amount of tea and chocolate/fudge, rendering all of our excercise during the week quite useless.

Yeh, so had a seriously sweet break over Easter. Apart from that I've recently been getting quite excited about the amount of time we're all goin to have post exams to chill together and more importantly go mental in band practice! We've started playing together again recently and, although I constantly lose my voice, it is so much fun! Can't wait for a night when we haven't a worry in the world and have four mikes on the go and as many instruments as possible blasting out so we can just let lose, jump around and scream till we drop.

Tis an exciting thought. Right, better start working here, later guys

P.S. Check out the Keswick photos and this pic I found of my hard rockin little bro

Lol

Hi There

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 23:59:45 GMT

Ok, since I hardly ever blog and my last one was not mine (bleh, Greg) I'm goin to start again and do them abit more regularly maybe... If I remember.

So, I am dedicating this blog to my current obsessions -

>SKA!! Try as I might, I cannot stop listening to ska. Ska comes in all shapes and sizes, and it's just flipping unbelievable. I partially blame my parents for this addiction, they keep buying me Madness and Specials records (totally sick of hardcore you see) and various ska compilation albums and they all kick too much ass. Favourite ska moments include most of the Gold collection from the Specials, especially Rat Race, Too Much Too Young and Enjoy Yourself. Actually no it's just all great. Some Madness stuff, Selecter (Too Much Pressure!), and abit of Bad Manners etcetera.

That's mostly from the two tone era of ska, but I'm still into some good old LTJ, RBF and older millencollin stuff has some pretty skankin tunes too. On that point third wave ska-core rules but if you think Reel Big Fish are the be and end all of ska then you are sadly mistaken, listen to some Specials stuff and go for Less Than Jake's pezcore albums from about ten years ago, nowadays it's just pop-punk plus a few horns occassionally.

Why is ska so cool? The tunes are super upbeat and mostly feel good no matter what the songs are saying. Generally it ain't about sex and drugs etc just random crap. It's all fun and there's horns! Oh yeah, the bass lines are the absolute best too. Also it's one genre where you can be sure that the fans won't be aloada racist prunes, unlike metal, punk and hardcore with nazi-skins and general bigots. Incase you didn't know the black and white checkers (originating from the Specials cover art) is a representation of black and white mixing and rude boy suits that the 2nd wavers wore (have you seen Gregs?), which is pretty darn cool I thunk.

Just found these alternative meanings to S.K.A. Costing about €1 billion, the SKA (Square Kilometer Array) is the largest telescope ever, currently being developed in South Africa. SKA (Shotokan Karate of America) is a nonprofit organization that has been teaching traditional karate-do in the United States since 1955. And SKA also stands for the Southern Kingfish Association for some fat rednecks who sit about and beat the crap outa fish after pulling em out of rivers.

Is there no end to the amazingness of ska?

Ok, I have no more time for blogging so toddles

I am Jonny I smell

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 11:49:20 GMT

Hello i jst wanted tooo write a short entry about how mch i enjoy poo and fart eating. Im a smelly lil turd of a boy and i luv to eat poos

I LOVE TO EAT FARTS AND POO

Ok rite the ofer day i wuz listning 2 my fav band GREENDAY!!! it was lyke well gd. I luv all der lyrics cos they r so deep n i agree wif the whole meaning behind them its like dey r speakn to my innner self, it makes me cry. anywy wen i wuz like listening 2 da cool moosic i suddenly relised that Greg is the coolest person in the whole wurld. It makes me smile that i am so lucky 2 live in the same wrld as sum1 soooo cool. Callum also rocks my socks off. True story.

a short poem i wrote

love is so deep

deep as the bloody wounds in my soul

the ones in my heart

they make me cry

i cry blood

why does everyone hate me

i must not follow

be another sheep in the crowd

goodbye cruel world

I feel like tacos

just a big shout to all my dude friends Tim Elliot, Mr Woods, John Corbet, Daniel Mcabe, Paris Hilton and Laura-Ann. I culdnt live wifout you guys, big kisses.

Man im getting real annoyed wif my stoopid bass, its lyke too hard nd the only reason i started playing it was coz its jst the easy version of guitar.

So cut my wrists and black my eyes

Hmm...

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 23:33:24 GMT

Wow, another blog entry so soon. Aren't you all so lucky? Well, not really because I'm just gonna rant on for a few paragraphs about one subject out of a good few that is worrying me at the mo. Right...

...Green Day. Now, if you've been around me any length of time you'll already know that I think Greenday suck alot and have serious issues about changing their music and looks for 'mass appeal', or in other words selling out to earn a heck of alot more money. Suddenly, after changing their style and putting on make-up to look like proper pretty boy celebrities, they're currently fourth in the list of most wealthy musicians, with earnings at over $99million!! (see forbes.com). So I'm annoyed that these hypocritical jackasses are singing about the world being against them while they live such secure lives.

But, what I'm properly irritated about is their new song and video, Jesus of Suburbia. The vast majority of Green Day fans nowadays are teenage or preteen girls (and some guys), alot of who want to experiment with life and will be or are experiencing some level of rebelious stage and will be keen to try something that looks cool. Clever thing about being a Green Day fan is that you can sing about being in the minority while you are actually part of a majority as far as popular music is concerned.

In the Jesus of Suburbia video a whole load of stuff including drug use and alcohol abuse, smoking and young sex is made to look real 'alternative' and cool. So now inevitably we got countless more kids dressing in black and abusing themselves, not because they're finding life genuinely tough, but because they're Green Day fans or are influenced by them and these stupid emo bands in some way. One bit that really irritates me in the vid is when the guy finds a razor in a sink and then starts cutting his hand and puts blood prints on the wall, and these guys are shown as rolemodels on the cover of little girls magazines. In the song it talks about taking "a steady diet of soda pop and ritalin" i.e. drugs with your fizzy drink and "doing someone else's cocaine". "The light of masochist" is another line, masochism being the obtaining of gratification or pleasure from having pain inflicted on yourself. Yeah, so I didn't actually mean to go on that long, but there you have it, Green Day are the real American Idiots and their pop 'anthems' are more sinister than you might think.

I know I don't sound myself here, but I'm annoyed. So yeah, I know that we got negative influences coming from every direction (and much worse one's than flippin Green Day), but I'm challenging you guys to look at the bands that you support and what they stand for. No point in buying someones record if they are using the money to promote a life that's completely against what you believe

Baptism

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 00:33:00 GMT

Yo!

I've just had an amazing few days. To start with I got off school for half term on Thursday, which was obviously good, and went to a Gimik gig on Friday night. Gimik kicked ass, even though they're pop-punk. It was fast enough and the vocals were spot on. Mosh pit ranged from extremely disapointing to non-existent though which sucked a bit.

Sunday was really, really class. I got Baptised in the river running through Tollymore forest park, and loads of my friends, family and people from Church came to see. It was such a big encouragement to have everyone there, especially because I was the only person being baptised there. The water was absolutely freezing, but I enjoyed the service so much and it was class to have a meeting outside by a river and surrounded by trees. Weather was perfect too, gotta thank the Big Guy in the sky for that and for everything. God is the coolest. Thanks a million to everyone who turned up it was a nice reminder of how many of you guys that are there for me all the time. I got alot of great friends to be thankful for.

Just for anyone who's wondering what baptism's about, basically I got dunked in water in front of a crowd to publicly express the fact that I love Jesus and that I submit myself to follow God rather than doing everything this screwed up world is telling us to. It hasn't changed me or made me Holier/gave me magic powers or anything, it was an act of obedience.

So that was the afternoon, afterwards I went to see Jamesy get baptised with nine other 'normal' people, which was cool. I say normal because they were being baptised in a tank in Church while as Anna said I was being "nature boy". Then the usual suspects regrouped at Stan's house for some fun. Wasn't anywhere near as mad as previous nights at the Jewhurst's place, yet I still managed to end up being injured with an egg sized swollen bruise on one side of my butt from lying on the floor all night. I had a heck of alot of fun though, being around the guys is always great craic and I managed to stay awake way longer than most (till about 7.30 or 8.30, I dunno, but it was pretty good goin').

Monday Anna came back to mine and stayed all day and Greg came over for food, lol tea was fun. We were all so wrecked. Flip, I haven't wrote one of these in ages. I've got alot more that I could stay about stuff, but this is already boring the life out of you and it's very late. By the way, I should have pics of my Baptism and me and Dad cooking on Valentines Day (which worked suprisingly well) up as soon as msn stops messing up.

Any feedback/questions on baptism or life in general would be appreciated.

Photo Album: Best of the Europe Tour 2006!!!

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 21:30:06 GMT

Best of the Europe Tour 2006!!!

Us, at an airport you can't see

'Eff You'

Friken Jellyfishes!

I slept on the bloody floor

I Love Me

Hiding in the Corner

Wahey, sexy

Ohh..

I'm not gay, honest

Magic Orb

More Photos...