The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Probably quite predictably, I preordered Beedle (three months in advance *cough*) and collected it the day it came out. I have to say, despite it not being an ACTUAL Harry Potter book, I do think it is one of JK Rowling's best. I absolutely adore it. To be honest I can't actually place my finger on what it is so much that I love but I have read it about five times already. And I had an idea related to it :D

One of the stories (and probably my favourite one) is called The Fountain of Fair Fortune. In the book, after every tale, there is a commentary by Dumbledore. In the commentary to this story, he says how when Professor Dippet was Headmaster of Hogwarts, the then-Herbology teacher, Professor Beery decided they would perform The Fountain of Fair Fortune as the Christmas pantomime. Needless to say, it went horribly wrong (read for yourself to find out why, it's JOKES :D) and theatrical performances were henceforth banned from the school. HOWEVER, traditions must change. I reckon that we should put on a performance of The Fountain of Fair Fortune. As in, us Harry Potter fans. I don't know how we'd do it, but I think we should. I'm going to go and make a vlog about it now.

But remember, you heard it here first :P

People who live with access to London

Premiere of the Twilight movie is on Tuesday 3rd December in Leicester Square. I'm going, so should you :D
I'm going straight after school with a few friends and I'm sooo excited; I've never been to a film premiere before. Obviously we won't get to actually SEE the film but we're hoping to barge our way to the front of the red carpet and see Robert and Taylor up close (:
Anyways. Today was really funny. In drama we had to adapt a scene from a play (Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker) into a musical but choosing any song and changing the lyrics to fit the context of our scene. It was hilarious and everyone got full marks so our teacher thought we should film them for a DVD. So we also made an introduction in the style of Nicest Kids In Town from Hairspray but changing it to fit our names and stuff. We also made an outro which was the lyrics of Good Morning Baltimore changed. It's really amazing :D Was so much fun, I can't wait to have a copy of it. If the rest of my class says it's ok then I might put it up on YouTube.
Speaking of YouTube, there's a gathering tomorrow, 12.30 at Covent Garden. I'm not sure whether or not I'm going because Simple Plan are doing a free acoustic gig and signing in Zavvi Oxford Street which I also want to go to. We shall see. If you're going to either, let me know.
For the past few days I've been going round reminding everyone that it's Boxing Day soon. People KNOW it's Christmas soon, but it's neighbouring holiday is always forgotten, bless it. Oh and in the common room at school we now have a HANNUKAH BUSH! Yes, it is technically a Christmas tree. But we're a multicultural society, so it's most certainly also a Hannukah bush (:

Well, it's been a while

For two years I avoided High School Musical. Because I knew that what with my obsessive personality and immaturity levels, as soon as I saw it I would be hooked. But there's only so long you can escape the inevitable. I watched it the other week. And I have officially been sucked into another franchise. Let's be frank, the storylines are embarrassing, the acting is cringeworthy and the music is nothing we haven't heard before. But there is something so endearing about it all. And I don't just mean Zac Efron. To be honest, I think it's the cheesiness. All the way through it, you know that there is going to be a happy ending and that everything will turn out absolutely fine. It's nice to watch. Not going to lie, made me fugging jealous (not just of Vanessa Hudgens) because I was just like WHY CAN'T THAT HAPPEN TO MEEEE?!?!?!?! but the feel-good factor it has is absolutely undeniable. If you are someone like me who hates the concept of High School Musical, give it a chance. Because it's the sort of thing of which you can push to one side all the shitty things about it, and just appreciate that it fits the purpose of entertainment.

This blog comes in many parts.

Think this is my first blog since starting in sixth form O:
It's well good. And I'm not being all sarky or anything, I genuinely absolutely lovelovelove it. It's so awesome only studing 5 subjects, all of which I really like. I even decided I like General Studies. And the common room is AMAZING. Ok so actually the room itself is the scummiest thing you've ever seen, but we have so much fun in there! We all sit round a couple of big tables playing cards (I can now play Bullshit and Rummy, hellz yeah) and chatting and stuff and it's brilliant. I hated it at first because the upper sixth people intimidated me. But now it's my second home.

But ever silver cloud lacks a lining. I do not know what the fug I just said. But I know what I mean.

The workload is INSANE. Like, at first I was all "Yeahhhh" coz I was keeping up with everything really well and stuff. But this week I have had two school trips to the theatre and they have resulted in me not getting home till gone midnight. So obviously the homework from that day did not get done as soon as I got it coz I was out. Therefore it is Friday night and I am having to ditch an evening out with Nicole, one of my best out of school friends who I have not seen in ages, because I have craploads of work to do.

MOVING ON.

Well actually, I'm going back to the day before yesterday. So it's not moving on.

Basically, on Sunday I think it was, I applied to be a YouTube partner. And I would like to say quickly THANK YOU JAMES! (www.youtube.com/j0ames) He helped me via the internets to do the whole thing coz I'm a technological retard and had no idea what the fug to do. Thanks James XD. So yeah, that was Sunday. On Wednesday, I still had not heard from them so I was giving up home BUT THEN I GOT AN EMAIL. And I was approved :D So now I'm a YouTube partner! The money is a bit rubbish, to be honest, I doubt I'll get any. But the main reason I wanted to be one is so that I can have a banner at the top of my channel page and now I have one! YAY! www.youtube.com/acciojellybean. Look if you don't believe me. I can't actually believe I was approved...like WHATTHEFUG?!?!?! But I'm not complaining :D

Mais NON, that is not the extent of the Wednesday awesomeness. A few hours after the YouTube partner approval shebang, I was in Hank and John's blogtv chat. And they were doing Q&A's. I wanted to know the answer to a question but it just kept getting lost among hundreds of other questions. And my friend Gary (www.youtube.com/garyskirk) was like "Keep asking!!" So I did. And John Green acknowledged my existance!!! It went like this:

Jocy: Have you ever read any Enid Blyton books?
John and Hank: No.

How cool XD

OH YEAH! I got tickets today to see the Kooks :D Brixton Academy, 10th December. YAY! I love the Kooks, they are well good live.

I'm gonna go now and stare at my banner.

Toodle pip!

YouTube Gathering, 27th July 08

On Sunday 27th July was Kayley's YouTube gathering. www.youtube.com/owlssayhooot.
She came over from America and we all met up for a day and it was seriously brilliant. I got to see people that I met at Nerifest in April and I also made lots of new friends. Not much else to say other than I had another incredible YouTube related day, but I think we all know that one paragraph is impossible for me to constrict myself to. So here's my train of thought round about now.

www.youtube.com/missxrojas.
The first vlog I ever watched on YouTube was Rosi's vlog about how she hated the fact that Emma Watson had been digitally enhanced in some promo posters. This video, along with her others that I went on to watch affected me a lot. They totally inspired me to start making vlogs, Harry Potter related ones to be precise. Without my Deathly Hallows vlog, I would never have got featured and most likely not have carried on making videos and gaining subscribers. So I have always known that Rosi is the person I owe for how much YouTube has changed my life. I've wanted to meet her ever since I first saw her videos over a year ago, and on Sunday, I got to. All I can say is that she is so lovely and I remember thinking when I first found her channel "I bet me and her would get on really well". I think I was right. I wish I had told her how much she changed my life but it didn't occur to me at the time to, just because we were all chatting about normal, teenagerish stuff, not about YouTube. In a sense, the whole gathering was AROUND YouTube but not about it. Yeah, lots of people had their cameras out, but we were there as friends, not internet buddies.
Despite the fact that this was my fourth YouTube-related meet up, I still find it really hard to process in my head that I am meeting up with people from the internet. This is because a year ago, my confidence would never have allowed me to do this. But now, I can't imagine life any other way. I'm sure you're all fed up of hearing me go on about how much YouTube has changed me as a person, but it just becomes more and more prominent as the weeks go on.
For me, the word COMMUNITY is defined by YouTube. People, who sometimes have no more than one thing in common, making friends for life. We're brought together by the fact that we love people and videos. Obviously there's subcommunities, like Harry Potter, but primarily, it is video blogging.

And I do love it so very, very much.

Meeting up with friends you've made on the Internet should be more positively portrayed by the media.

It's been a long time since I've done just a general blog about my day, but since today was an awesome one, I think it is blog-worthy.

Kate and I met up with James (www.youtube.com/j0ames) and it was a well good day. We just mooched around London insulting eachothers' families and trying to get eachother run over mainly. We went to the Trocodero and I SOOOOOOOO nearly beat James at some Mario thingy. And then he gambled with my money so now he owes me a blue Slush Puppy. And then we went to China Town for a bit of culture. And we also went to the Apple Store to make another video there which was rather amusing. And in Hamley's there was this HILARIOUS song playing, it was like "My name's Katrina, it's a very nice name!" Blates was jokes. But what was not funny was when Kate was throwing Nerds across Cafe Nero, that was so embarrassing! I thought we were going to get kicked out or something!! Can't take you anywhere Kate!! :P

So that's the general gist of things, but going a bit more in depth, I would just like to say that it is days like today that make me really adore YouTube even more. And no, it's not just because I've gained seven new subscribers :P It's because if it wasn't for YT I would never have met James. He's really awesome and it just goes to show that there are so many people out there that you can be really good friends with, you just have to find them.

And then obviously there is Kate who has been one of my best friends for a few years now. We've never really spent much time by ourselves together but after this morning when we went on our little shopping trip, I definitely want to do it again. We always have such a laugh, and Kate, I'm so glad you share my love for YouTube.

I love you James and Kate, thanks for an amazing day <3

The Right Book

Once you find The Right Book, you'll find yourself totally absorbed. You forget who you actually are, where you actually are, what you actually are. It's as if nothing else matters. It's as if no one else exists. It's as if the only thing happening in the world is the story. You start reading and before you know it, four hours have gone by. You forget everything about your life, all the problems, all the people. It's all about the words on the paper. It's the best feeling in the world.