Of course, this is going to be one of those where I tell you how sorry I am that I have acted so neglectfully toward the site and give you several hundred excuses to this sort of behaviour. But the truth is, it genuinely is the fault of exams. It’s a push just to write this blog.

If I’m being brutally honest, my neglectfulness does not stop here, because not only do I have 2 exams this week, January sets the marker to a whole load of exams, including modules and mocks. I can do nothing about any of it. So, I’m going to be ‘lying low’ for the majority of this year, as predicted beforehand. Good news is that after all the exams, I have 11 weeks of pure holidayness. I, again, apologise for the disjointedness of the whole entry today, but you could say I’m out of practice.

On lighter matters, I bought a t-shirt from qwerty.com , which is basically a website which features a different t-shirt design every 24 hours. Mine is as this picture shows it to be. I love it so.

And as for the matter of spam, I’m trying to get it sorted, but not a single plugin does it for me. Nevertheless, if I have to come on every once in a while and manually filter out each one of you buggering spamalots, then I will.

The future of this site is a work in progress, but I plan to revamp at some point between now and the end of 2012. I know that this is quite a big period, but my intention is to put this in action as soon as I can. I’ve already been designing in my free time, but I need to develop some content for the site’s new release as well. Plus, I have to remember what code is. Haha.

But yes, this is it for now. I’m sorry, it’s not very eventful. Although I do thank everyone person who has stuck by the website and I hope to properly reward you soon.

Nevertheless, I shall talk about mind boggling things in this blog (or should I say mind-bloggling – no, okay). Last weekend I ordered 3 new wii games, which I barely ever do on account of the amount of time I have. But I timed it right, so they arrived the 1st and 2nd day of half term. I bought De Blob 2, MySims Kingdom and Skate it. I was thinking I might put a few reviews (or maybe even walkthroughs) up in the future. But I’ve been rolling through the games like there was no tomorrow!

Unfortunately, having planned to do some more music recording this half term, my yeti (microphone) fell sick and has had to fly to the USA to see the doctor – or in other words, get repaired or replaced. That means I’m pretty much microphone-less for a period of time. I also found that my SD card for my camera couldn’t keep up with large HD footage, so had to pop down to Tesco to replace it. (If you want the technical stuff, it was class [4] and it needed class [6]). But now that’s all sorted, I can film all I want.

On other notes, my best friend got a boyfriend who’s pretty much her perfect match. I’m epic-ly jealous right now. I suddenly have this protective feeling over my friend, more than I did before, that if he does something to harm her, I’d have set the HUGE MANATEES on him (nerdy joke). I mean, I heard people say they feel this kind of thing, but I didn’t know it was completely serious.

Anyway this was a completely random blog. I hadn’t really many chronological things to say. Never mind, eh? If you’re bored and need something to watch, I’d say ‘Hidden’, ‘Spooks’ or ‘Would I lie to you?’. And god friends, go and see The Adventures of Tintin at the cinema after the 26th October, will you? Love to you all.

Okay, news flash, the religion of Izzyism does not actually exist, as a full and alive entity. And yes, I just blasphemed beyong the reaches of blaspheming. But the point is leading somewhere. That somewhere, of course, is school.

I returned to school in early september and have almost immediately been ladened with work for awaiting assessments and exams. My friend and I created a religion last year that basically symbolised the idea of being ‘keen’, a term relating to hard work during lessons. Now, I must add, that everyone would classify as a member of this religion (of course, if a conversion took place), because we’ve all got our heads down after understanding how important this year is for our future now. Anyway, I won’t ramble on about school, because I’m pretty sure my twitter followers have had more than their fair share of it.

I just wanted to write this blog post to make my presence on the website known. It’s difficult to get jobs done and applications returned on here when I have such a busy offline life. I’m sure you understand that though.

On the bright side, it’s my mothers birthday today and I bought her 2 new music albums. ‘Suck It And See’ by Artic Monkeys and the new album by The Kooks. I always liked those bands, but since the release of Artic Monkeys’ Don’t Sit Down Cos I’ve Moved Your Chair, I feel they may have got a little bit heavier in the guitar department. However, I’ve still heard good things. And I’m taking a chance on The Kooks. Seing as I’m writing this at school (when I should be doing preparation, I may add), I’m looking forward to listening to them alongside my mum when we get home.

And that’s my interesting life in the depths of school. Hmmm. I find it difficult to talk about exciting things if I haven’t been doing anything exciting. Understandably? Anywho, if you fancy converting to Izzyism anytime soon, then please, join us.

I’m going to write about things coming to abrupt endings for the sheer circumstances that I have found myself in recently. If I’m honest, this year hasn’t been a good one for getting things that are planned, done. Each time we’ve tried to, some issue or problem has stood in the way. For example, we had planned a trip to Bilbao for Easter, but found that a family member was seriously ill and had to rush off to Bangladesh instead. It continued in the fact that the very moment we got through the departure gates to come back from there to England, the relative crashed (medically) and passed away there and then. Now, do you understand my term of phrase, ‘The Temperamental Departure Gates’?

But furthermore, we moved the Bilbao trip forward to summer and went then. This is where I get to the here and now. We are due, in 1 week, to go to Canada to visit my cousin. Don’t get me wrong, this is good news, but just another example of unexpected departure gates. We didn’t know we could afford to do this until a short time ago. To proceed, my friend and I were meant to be visiting Cardiff for an overnight stay but found all the other holidays cost too much, so we settled for going to York for the day instead. We are still happy with that, though. And I understand I am incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to go to all of these places anyway; I am merely shocked with the suddenness of everything happening.

There are a few not-so-temperamental departures coming up. In 2 weeks and a bit, I’ll be returning to school for the first term. At that moment, everything hobby-wise will decline drastically and my levels of exhaustion will rise inexplicably. Not only that, but the summer will end briefly afterward, plunging everyone into darkness. Anyone feel some negative vibes from me today? I’m preparing for Winter, trying to see the benefits of getting up at 6am when there’s no light. I admit, I’m still struggling. My first exams start in January, just conveniently allowing the Christmas holidays for revision. After that, it’s unspeakably exam-filled. So, if you have anything you need me to do for you, or anything to say, the last 2-3 weeks are all I have to be reliable. What is it they say: speak now or forever hold your peace?

Quickly changing the subject, I’m looking to have a pseudonym (a fake name) for use in my writing publications from now on. Obviously, I can’t disclose what it is once decided, but for now, I’d love to do some ‘market research’. What first and last names do you like at the moment? It can be boys or unisex names, don’t worry. I’ll blog when I blog! Every student, enjoy your holiday! Everyone else, go crazy while you can!

I say ‘Lazy Bones’ because the marathon meant sitting down for over 19 hours. Of course, though pleasant at the time, there is always backslash to doing something enjoyable. Over the few days after the event, I’ve been consumed with a lethargy that has prevented the want to do anything constructive. It seems the said lethargy has continued until now, when I finally do something worth my while (i.e. a blog).

With my lethargic – shall we say? – episode, I have been filling myself up with US sit-coms and old series’ of Lewis (with the 2 detectives and lots of murders). It was surpising to find out that an actress I knew to go to my school for 2 years now was in Lewis. She’s just left last year after upper sixth form (year 13). I didn’t know her well, but I used to see her come into school every morning. I shouldn’t have been suprised but it’s always weird seeing someone you knew in real life, appearing as a completely different character on television. Anyway, that was a complete deviation.

The problem with doing nothing is that you don’t really have anything to talk about. Today is my last ‘lazy day’ (a concept that was not created by Bruno Mars’, Lazy Song, despite popular belief) before I grab hold of my life by the collar; for want of a less cheesy phrase. I’ll hopefully be adding a few articles in the future if I can bring myself to write. And a quick moan (or a few) : Why do I keep getting so much spam? And why does everything my-layout-wise look so idiotic on PCs? I should have gone for .png like my first instinct told me to. I’m sorry for the pointless blog.

EDIT // I’m doing a Harry Potter Fundraiser with a friend by watching ALL the movies back-to-back. You want to support us and Action For Children? Then please, view the page and donate now.

It’s half way through the summer holiday of 2011, with 4 weeks remaining until I return to school, for the time-consuming, life-eating matinee of different pieces of work to do. When I go back, I’ll be faced with a term of learning relatively new things, which always entertains me more than other points, before I am thrown deeply into a slowly deepeningly stressful hole of continuing exams. Since the day school finished, the date you go back is intuned in your head and your mind won’t stop counting the time down. I have an endless list of things that I still need to do. They simply won’t get done.

Before I leave the topic of school, I recently found out from facebook that one of the teachers at my school had passed away from some form of cardiac arrest. It was so unusual and really gave me a shock. He was so young and his death left his wife and several young kids to live on without him. I was touched to find that the very next day, not only was there an email to everyone from the headteacher about him, but there was over 100 different facebook messages on a page dedicated to him. He was a valued member of our school, being boarding house staff and was known to always lighten the mood. I barely know what to add apart from that it is clear how much people respected and loved him from how many people were affected by his death. And I hope that the memorial service at school next term will do him justice.

It just goes to show how unexpected some things are. You should never assume that everything for you is going to be alright. You should prepare for the worst; expect the unexpected. I’m sure you understand this for yourself, but times like this really open your eyes to anything you’ve forgotten. Death has been close by me this year, taking my aunt, my teacher, my friend’s mother, my friend’s grandmother and just brushing by my friend with a brain tumor. Truly, my thoughts are with all their close family who have lost someone.

It also makes me wonder about the things you hear on the news. Admittedly, the news is going to be down-heartening, but when I hear about bombings (both explosives and petrol; in norway and london, etc) and shootings and other killings during whatever (riots, wars, etc), I remember all that I’ve seen of death. I remember watching family and friends in tears of whatever form at what has happened. So, I have many questions for the people who have that bomb in their hand, comtemplating throwing it. Have you not seen death? Do you not feel a compelling nature to stop it all now? How can you bear to hurt all these people? There are others, but you get the common theme of my questions. I just can’t understand, and don’t think I ever will, the urge to hurt others.

I’m going to leave it there. Value what you’ve got. And please don’t hurt other people, for whatever reason. Just remember that you always have the choice.

Of course, this is the most perfect opportunity to drop in the negative note that I despise my current theme, but it is my second coded this month, so I’m not going out of my way to design another. I have updated my theme to version 10.2 as of 30th July. I will side-track to say that I can make one for you if you want (go here) but, seeing as we are being negative, I’ll add a sarcy comment at the end of the sentence – because that’s likely to happen. Anyhow, moving on ho!

I’ve spent all my money on my 2 major obsessions. I have none left. Nada, zilch, zero, nil, nothing. A Jeeves & Wooster singular novel and a 4-story omnibus by P.G. Woodhouse is part of the cause. Encase you haven’t heard of it, Jeeves and Wooster is a series of books (adapted into a television series with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie) about quintessential English culture and class, demonstrating exaggerated lives of both an unemployed upper class citizen with several frivolous marriage engagements and a butler who devises ingenious plans to abolish them, among other things. To cut a long story short, it’s a comedy, well-worth the read and, undoubtedly, the watch.

Sherlock Holmes. I have to point out that, although he is stunningly good-looking, Robert Downey Jr was not the only trigger to my obsession of this. I realised how wonderful the idea – the concept – of a person who can tell, to the tiniest detail, a large number of things about another being is. The skill of observation. The genius. For purpose of understanding, the appropriately named ‘Science of Deduction’ refers to deductive reasoning: a method of thinking which involves a series of statements identified as hypothesises forming conclusions which are sound/unsound or valid/invalid but never true or false. For example, whether it be correct or incorrect: All mammals have fur. A cat is a mammal. Therefore, a cat has fur.

What may confuse you is how this is applied to any form of realistic circumstance. In simple terms, I shall explain. If your friend walks up to you and says “I have a new cat”, and for some particular reason you wish to know whether this cat has fur or not, you can use the deductive reasoning example. A cat is a mammal, you think to yourself. All mammals have fur. So, this cat has fur. Regardless of whether the statements are correct or not, the conclusion is valid. However, to be sound, the first statements must be correct. We know this is unsound because you can have mammals without fur, so this cat may not have fur. I apologise if I’m unclear about explaining this. But in Sherlock Holmes’ case, deductive reasoning is applied to a much higher level, to much greater detail.

A fantastic programme to watch in conclusion to this obsessive, unnecessary lesson in deduction definition, is BBC’s ‘Sherlock’. I just bought the 3-episode series and am delighted to hear that a new series will run in Autumn of this year. It involves Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays the swarve and eccentric Mr Holmes with clear enthusiasm, and Martin Freeman, who pulls off the dark, deep and caring soul in Dr Watson brilliantly. Without any chance of ruin, it is set in Modern Times, which compliments it in a unexplainable way. Please don’t let initial judgements get in the way of enjoying it. But if you really prefer the classics, you could use up all your money, like I did, on a copy of ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ and hardback volume of the 4 long Holmes novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, despite the fact you could get it free on the Internet (without the worthwhile classic quality though).

Now, hopefully I’ve inspired at least one person to take up the obsession with this long essay of Sherlockness. And I also hope that the word ‘Sherlockness’ will be put into the dictionary before the year’s out. Look out for any website updates… comment on the blog a little… share the post on twitter… I hope that all this obsessive stuff will inspire myself to be more observant and less judgemental or vacant. But, then again: humans are judgemental. I am a human. So, inescapably, I am judgemental. How about it.

Complete credit and copyright to BBC for top image.

So things concerning summer holidays have been great. We got back from Spain last Monday (very early, I might add). I had such a great time there. It helped me a lot with the language, because unlike your usual tourist region, the people in Bilbao weren’t fluent English-speakers. I, therefore, had the opportunity to practise my speaking and understanding. I’m glad to say it came in use once or twice.

We visited the Guggenheim museum and I have to say, despite the death threats I may get from the artists, my favourite part was the music section. They had a corridor with headphones plugged into the walls where they played the music from the era, e.g. Love Me Tender. Not to say the artwork was good also, if a little eccentric in some cases, but the music worked so well.

By absolute coincidence we arrived the day before the touring Arcade Fire’s concert there. They had put up the stage when we got there and we wondered what it was for. We found out. I was also peeved to find out that we had missed Coldplay by 2 days. I would literally have sat outside the barriers for the whole night if it were them. So that was a complete bummer. Anyway, I should be putting photography up from the whole general visit on my flickr, so I’d love it if you checked that out.

I’m going to leave you with my cinematography video which I made during the holiday. It’s not particularly good, but I spent some time on it. Oh, and one last thing, What’s your plans for the rest of summer?

So, you thought I was inactive then? Out for lunch? Away? Dormant? Well, you were – you are – so wrong! My activity may have been hidden to the untrained eye, but I have been working for weeks. Undetected. In secret. And I have produced this. A layout. A design. A load of old cods-wallop.

Let’s drop the James Bond act and make sense, shall we? Over the past weeks I have seemingly been away for, I have actually been designing this new layout which is up as you read this. It is made up of scribbles I have done on my tablet; a kind of way to integrate it into my webdesign. I had so many problems getting a lot of the elements involved working for Internet Explorer, because, encase you don’t know, IE is virtually retarded. But I have got them working now, although there are still some absolutely horrendous errors. For example, cream looks grey. What’s that about? And for 1280×800, the image is vertically challenged (you can only see the very top of it). Eventually, I gave up sorting those and am just going to strengthen the text Best Viewed In Safari on Macs on Screens above 1280×800, ie Desktops not 5-year-old Dell Laptops that can potentially view red as grey. Sarcasm detected here.

Excuse me. I am without necessity of excuses for absence, as I have put my all into this layout; however scrawny it may seem to you. My changes to the format of the website along with it, will include being a lot more word-contented (i.e. written works will multiply). And I will be blogging much more than before. I will give one reason for this that I am sure most fellow web designers will sympathise with: summer holidays. Yes, by the end of this week (3rd July through) my school holidays will have commenced and with it, my unhidden website activities. I have but one catch: Spain. I go to Spain for 1 week, where I film, shoot photos, eat, relax to an excess, before I return for a long 7 week lounge.

Before we reach a close, I have a few last things. The first is that I apologise for the odd sentence structure of the blog today; it comes from much too many English Controlled Assessments. I imagine I may seem quite arrogant and sarcastic by this tomfoolery. The second is I wish for anybody with an unhateful opinion (constructive criticism included in this category) to tell me what they think of the new layout and whether, if you’re an IE fiend for whatever reason (I am guilty of computer snobbery), what kind of jokes its glitches are pulling on me (i.e. are there any glitches?). Thank you very much. Hopefully, you’ll hear from me soon.

P.S I am still sorting out little errors, like links. I’ll try to work as fast as possible.

I’m going to assume that this blog entry is the last one for at least 3 weeks now. I mentioned everything in last blog, but I’ll quickly recap when and why updates will be scarce. If you’re not interested, just skip a couple of paragraphs.

From Monday 25th April, I will head off to go to Bangladesh. Briefly, we had to cancel our holiday to Spain due to the health of a family member, who we have arranged to visit now. There is apparently internet access there and I expect quite a lot of waiting around, so I may be able to get on, but just in case, I am not getting back until the Tuesday 2nd May. Otherwise, find me on twitter where I’ll update my progress.

Then after that, my 2 final Maths exams are on the 9th and 15th May and each night will be spent revising for them. I may be on twitter, but I will not be able to update the website. Apologies. After these 2 weeks, however, I will be free for 1 week before I continue revising over half term. School still goes on in that week, so I may not get chance to update regularly, but I’ll definitely pop my head in. I then have module exams, but as soon as they are over I will have a few free weeks and then the entire summer to edit. So bear with me, I will be back!

Right, notices over, I’m going to talk about Birthday presents. It is my 15th Birthday on Wednesday 27th April, but of course I will be away at that time, so my parents said I should open my present yesterday. To my delight, it was a graphics tablet. Now, please, I don’t want a response like I got on twitter. What is it? Google it if you don’t know, but it’s a great tool for graphic designers. I’m so happy with it and I plan to use it for drawing sketches and animations and will happily write tutorials on it too. It’s called the Bamboo.

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I watched Doctor Who last night and was quite disappointed. A 2 parter on the 1st night was not a wise move, plus I found that it was quite predictable. And River Song has lost all mystery and excitement as I think she has been over-used in the story line. Admittedly, it was quite scary. Plus the use of guns has quadrupled even though the past 3 series has been about how the doctor’s got over his more violent attitude to bad aliens. I’m sorry, I know that Stephen Moffat was an incredible writer when he was doing specials, but now he’s full-time his story lines are less often exceptional. I feel bad about saying it, as I know he’s really capable, but these storylines are not quite there anymore.

Bear in mind all I’ve said about the dates I’m away as I will be unable to reply to applications. But submissions are still very much welcome, but I will respond a little later. Thank you for reading this very rant-filled, informative, boring, random blog. I wish it had been more interesting, but this is mainly to make sure everyone knows where I am. I’ll probably be gone by the time most people are reading this, so one last thing – Happy Easter!