Uni Survival Part One: Packing

1) A good place to start is by checking what you can't take. The likelihood of you arriving without half the things you actually need is more likely than being over prepared. However, if you have a great urge to take a deep fat fryer, tons of candles or anything else highly flammable and ultimately useless, think twice.

2) Imagine you're going on holiday. Then imagine that holiday is going to happen for a really long time, and any type of weather could occur. One way of starting off is by thinking of each part of your body and what you usually use for it. For example: head = hairbrush, shampoo, conditioner, hairspray, hair grips etc. Then write a list and actually use it.

3) This tip comes from a real life student! Being prepared is good, but don't be too prepared! Buying random things you think you might use isn't a good idea. The student in question bought loads of Post-its thinking he was being super-organised and they're still in his draw five years later. It's likely your room won't be all that big, so don't cram it full of stuff you don't need. You can always buy what you need when you get there.

4) Pack stuff you need at the top. The word 'need' is relative. What you need could mean the books in your reading list or vodka depending on who you are.

5) Buy stuff in the sales, but also bag as much as you can from your parents. Your mum wants to give you some forks? Take them! Then take some more. Some stuff doesn't go out of date, or at least not for a while: dried and tinned food, cutlery, pens and paper, take as much as you can carry!

Shopping in London

 My friend and I went shopping in London last week. Camden was fantastic, even though all we bought was a burgundy umbrella. The stables have changed since I was there last, including an amazing vintage shop which has everything you could ever want!

We also went to Oxford street which was a bit overwhelming! The Topshop is unbelievable! I popped my head into the WAH nails salon they have there. It was a bit like being at Mecca for me. The rest of the store is just way too big in my opinion and it's almost impossible to shop there! You'd have to spend the whole day there trying stuff on to make the most of it.

Anyway, I just wanted to share the cool photo my friend took of Camden market. Nice one Kez :)

R.I.P Corinne Day

The photographer Corinne Day died this weekend due to complications with a brain tumour she had battled against since 2009.

These fantastic photos of Kate Moss were taken by her before she started looking a bit dishevelled, back when she was just 16 years old. They appeared in The Face magazine back in 1993.

MGMT - Congratulations

This is MGMT's new video for Congratulations which premiered yesterday!

They've gone down the Yeasayer route of having a weird creature in their video.

Also, dwindling sales of their new album (which is already on sale for a fiver in Ape) has prompted Andrew VanWyngarden to get his boobs out. Hey, I'm not complaining!

I love this song and remember hearing them play it at Heaven. It really stuck out for me.

Enjoy!

Nails of the week

Bad edges!!!
Grey Sky & Summer Fresh from H&M. Only 99p! Not the best nail polish, but hey, it did the trick.
Merica nails pens in black and white from Sally's Hair and Beauty.
I need to buy a yellow nail pen before the weather becomes too autumnal for me to have strawberry nails...

Do you like the lamp in the background?

Count and Sinden - After Dark

I'm not sure which my favourite dance is. I think I'll go for Street Ballet!

Real Doll

I saw this video on the WAH blog. This video is interesting, but also pretty disturbing.


Honey Pie from California is a place. on Vimeo.


The guy who makes the dolls justifies it by saying how he saves men from depression. 'He was depressed and lonely and now he's happy as can be.' Really? Does buying an extremely life-like doll and utterly superficial doll and removing all interaction other than the purely physical aspects of sex really make someone happy? Or does it plunge them further into a disturbed place where women are seen merely as sex objects. This attitude is neither beneficial for women in society, nor men who need to learn to confront their fears, not hide them in their closet.

Yeasayer - Madder Red

Have you ever thought to yourself, I really wish that music video directors would just stop making videos about human interaction, and replaced humans with, um, I dunno, a disgusting creature resembling a potato. Well someone must have read your mind! I present to you Kristen Bell and a disgusting potato-like creature in Madder Red by Yeasayer. Enjoy!

The Temper Trap - Love Lost

I love this video, for two main reasons.

Reason one: It reminds me of P.E lessons. It's not so much that I love this video because of fond memories of P.E, more total relief that I never have to do them ever again. If you're not English, this is what English kids have to do in P.E lessons: run around aimlessly. I had to run aimlessly around the street with my teacher shouting at me; so did my brother, and our dad before us. If it wasn't the street, it was the astro-turf in the freezing cold. For some reason in the summer months we were made to run around the school field, which was the furthest point from any water or seats in the school...and I mainly associate heat with drinking and sitting.

It's just one of many injustices that you encounter being school child. Pissing with rain or in scorching heat, you have to do P.E. Even if it means doing it your vest and underpants when you forget your kit. This happened to me in primary school... Don't forget your kit, kids.

Reason two: This reason is only relevant to people who know who Tom Biggs is. If you know who this is, all I will say is watch at around 1.00.

Kele

I found this on Kele Okereke blog. It's amazing how you can spend a very long time looking at not much and still be interested. 8 pages worth of not much to be exact. Page 8 is where I found this song.

I'm posting this song for two reasons. One because it really reminds me of my childhood. For some reason I used to play this a lot when I was really little.

Two because it has an amazing summer vibe to it, and I'm desperately trying to suck up the last dregs of summer whilst working full time. (Yes, I know it's about a man in the winter, but it's all about the vibe, maan)

Back to Kele. He recently came out in Butt magazine article, nice one! He is awfully cute though isn't he, which makes me feel sad for womankind. Treat him kindly please guys!

While we're here, this is his new single. I prefer it to Tenderoni which seemed to try a bit too hard to jump on the electro bandwagon.



And Banquet, because it's amazing. It's easy to give up on guitar bands when the likes of Scouting for Girls get to number one, but when you listen to an intelligent band like Bloc Part suddenly all hope is restored.


Kele's blog