Alex de Mare - Ruining Disney for you since 2012

QCumber gave me a Qt jumper

QCumber is a clothing store that describes it's clothes to be 'inedible', which seems obvious, really. It's not common to hear Sarah, Sarah, get over here! Have you seen that dress in Topshop? That one, there, with the buttons and the ruffles on the shoulder. Can't wait to sink my teeth into that beauty! on a Saturday afternoon in Oxford Street. I guess they do have to specify though 'cause all their jumpers are covered in pictures of various scrumptious, brightly coloured fruit and veg.

Yesterday morning, on Terrific Tuesday (as they called it), they held a little competition on their Facebook page - The first person to name 5 SONGS WITH FRUIT IN THE TITLE will win their very own fruity Qcumber jumper. Reader... Steady... Go!!!!!!!! I was off! I gave them 7 defferent songs, with 5 different fruits in it. (Strawberry Fields Forever, - The Beatles; Cherry Pie - Warrant; Cherry Baby - Starz; Blueberry Hill - Fats Domino; Strawberry Swing - Coldplay; Banana Wind - Jimmy Buffett; and The Lemon Song - Led Zeppelin, if you were wondering.)


I went a tad overboard (although I was assured that, at Qcumber.co.uk, 'There's no such thing!' But it paid off because I won myself a totally awesome jumper! I had a choice of any jumper from their collection, but I though, instead of going for a more plain one (meaning a white background, rather than bright yellow -  ('plain' doesn't really exist at Qcumber) I'd go all out! And I'm pleased I did!

I never win anything as well! Apart from a competition on Two for Joy where I finished the sentence "Love is...", and a bottle of Prosecco on my year abroad for choosing the best songs for the final Erasmus night out last summer! 


Just waiting for it to arrive - hope I don't get it confused with my Graze box! 

The Three Little Pigs, Guardian Advert

I love this advert, made in support of The Guardian's Open Journalism concept. The title, along with the theme, suggests the generic fairytale idea, which is no longer too original, but the Guardian's 'Three Little Pigs' ad suggests no form of genericness at all, but more a totally imaginative political take on children's fantasy.

The advert is a depiction of how modern society would cover the story of the classic fairytale, the Three Little Pigs, accounting the scenario in print and online, through social media, newspapers and television. We follow the story as it goes from the paper's front page headline, through a heated debate on various social media sites and finally to an unexpected conclusion.

The message being portrayed is very relevant to our modern society, showing the speed in which news spreads these days, like wild fire, with the help of the internet. It looks like The Guardian is trying to tell us that they're just as tuned in to how Facebook and Twitter are being used these days to not only be a place to talk about news, but a place that creates and even solves stories as news unfolds.

Surprise!

Happy birthday to my amazing mother!

(In fear of being brutally murdered, I won't disclose her real age, so let's just say she's 36, OK?)

Last night I arrived in London to surprise my mum on the night before her birthday. Only my dad was in on the surprise, because, like with anything, the more people that know a secret, the less of a secret (or surprise) it becomes. And boy was she surprised!

I was totally gutted though - I decided to film her surprise, just to be able to see the look on her face over and over again, but as she flung her arms around me, I deleted the film by accident. The scene went a little like this, if you can picture it: I let myself in with my house keys, and slowly shut the door, to make myself sound like a B&B guest. Then I walked into the living room and just stood there, iPhone in hand, recording her reaction. She turned around, about to wish me good night - as she does with all our guests - but paused halfway through her sentence, and just starred right at me, as if she couldn't work out who I was for about 3 seconds. Then, with a recognizing, but massively shocked smile, she cried "What the HELL are you doing here?!," and flung herself round me in surprise. Just how I wanted it to pan out :)


UPDATE: For some reason my iPhone has resurrected the video so I actually do have it!

HERE IT IS!

Her party was amazing - she made three gorgeous looking lasagna's and had many a bottle of alcoholic substance flowing. It's been such a lovely day and evening, not having to worry about writing essays on Italian Crime Fiction in the 1960's or Obama's presidential campaign...

Mum with her box of champagne and champagne truffles

Le cake de maman

Noms

Over the shoulder posing

The parentals

Sister, Mother and I

International Women's Day

Happy International Women's Day

Now an official holiday in Afghanistan, Armenia, Cambodia, China (for women only), Cuba, Georgia, Kazakhstan (yes it is a real country for those still thinking it is the fantasy land that created Borat - and I know you do exist), Laos, Madagascar (for women only), Mongolia, Nepal (for women only), ussia, Uganda, Ukraine, Vietnam and a whole load of other countries I have never heard of, International Women's Day has been observed since the 1900's. It was a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.

Every year, on the 8th of March, traditionally, men are to honour their mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues etc, by offering them flowers and small gifts. I sure hope i get something good today from my Driving Instructor...

Even Google cares

Thousands of events are held throughout the world today to inspire women and celebrate their achievements thus far in history, connecting women from all around the world with diverse local activities such as political rallies, business conferences, government activities and networking events through to local women's craft markets, theatric performances, fashion parades and more. (I can hear you thinking "hmm, not just shopping then"). The united States even designates the whole month of March as 'Women's History Month.' How nice.

"The new millennium has witnessed a significant change and attitudinal shift in both women's and society's thoughts about women's equality and emancipation. Many from a younger generation feel that 'all the battles have been won for women' while many feminists from the 1970's know only too well the longevity and ingrained complexity of patriarchy. With more women in the boardroom, greater equality in legislative rights, and an increased critical mass of women's visibility as impressive role models in every aspect of life, one could think that women have gained true equality. The unfortunate fact is that women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women's education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men.

However, great improvements have been made. We do have female astronauts and prime ministers, school girls are welcomed into university, women can work and have a family, women have real choices. And so the tone and nature of IWD has, for the past few years, moved from being a reminder about the negatives to a celebration of the positives."

Log onto the website to find out what's going on near you! 

KONY 2012 Film

Wow. That was my first, and lasting impression when I watched this 30 minute campaign on youtube today. I wasn't going to click on the little play button in the centre of the box, but after seeing that over 20 of my friends on Facebook had shared it only a few hours beforehand, I thought it might be worth watching. I'm so glad I bothered.

Here is the film for anyone who has not seen it yet. It is half an hour long, but I promise you won't regret it, and you will be using your time wisely.

Added on the 5th of March, only 48 hours ago, this video has already received nearly two million views and has been shared over four million times on Facebook.

Kony 2012 is a campaign which aims to make Joseph Kony famous, "not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice." But who is Joseph Kony? Well, briefly, he is the leader of a Ugandan guerilla group called LRA (Lord's Resistance Army), and for 26 years he has abducted over 30,000 children from their families in Uganda, to create himself an army. The girls are forced to become sex slaves, and the boys are handed over guns, and forced to kill their own parents. 

The campaign aims at making this diabolical villain an infamous celebrity, so that his name is spread, along with his actions, around the world, and so to get everyone (no matter where you are from, or what political party you support) to eliminate him from the world's future.

The film is encouraging everyone and anyone who feels any sort of negative emotion towards the actions of Joseph Kony to unite, armed with posters and stickers, in what will be one of the most diverse political campaigns in history. Jason Russell, the director of the film, tells us that April 20th will be "the day when we will meet at sundown and blanket every street in every city until the sun comes up. The rest of the world will go to bed Friday night and wake up to hundreds of thousands of posters demanding justice."

The film expires on December 31st 2012, the last day of this year. Jason Russell is giving us a time in which we either choose to do nothing about changing the future for the good of next generations, or we choose to fight.

I decided to 'like' the Facebook page for Invisible Children, the charity for which this campaign video was made. Refreshing the page out of intrigue, I saw that, every second, the number of fans was raise by at least 25 people. 'Like' them too, and do the same as me if you don't think I'm telling the truth. I looked at the comments posted on the charity's latest wall post and everyone had written 'Spreading the word for...' and their country. So this is what I'm doing by posting about the video on my blog - I'm also Spreading the Word, for Leeds, London, England generally, and for anyone who reads my blog - and I urge you all to Spread the Word for wherever you are from too.

(I've just seen a lot of people posting links to a blog post called Visible Children. I think they might be slightly misunderstanding the point - Invisible Children isn't demanding you support their charity by giving them money. Yes they ask if you would consider it, but the message they're trying to put across is more that if we work as a team, everyone, from every background, of any age, with any possible future then we might be able to find Kony and arrest him. No charity is without corruption when it comes to giving money, as it's obvious (we have all heard stories) that not all the money is going straight to those in need. But just by putting up a poster, sharing a video on Facebook, even just saying the word 'Kony' you're helping them. The video is free, speech is also free - just do it. You'll be helping.)

Spot the Irony

Caricature artists charging 10€ per drawing outside of the Uffizi, Florence. 

In the words of Alanis Morissette, "Isn't it ironic? Don't you think?"

Yes, yes I do.

(Although I fail to see how any of the cases she mentions exemplify 'irony')

I Love a good Fail

Found this on my friend's wall, just as I was gonna wish him a wonderful birthday. Spelling, for some people, just doesn't come too naturally. 

Click to enlarge

NB: Written by your future GP...