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Life in the Universe? [Oct. 10th, 2007|08:32 pm]
Howdy.
I'm in Edinburgh.
It's nice.
Staying at Kirsten's.
Sleeping on the kitchen floor.
It's "comfy".
I made dinner tonight.
We had:
Mince (with onions), ham (with melon in it), carrot and cheese (grated together), fried (sweet and normal) potatoes and spring onions, apple, rasberry, horseraddish and ribena.
I don't usually cook much.
So it wasn't brilliant.
But hey, it's the thought that counts.
Anyway, Kirsten has an Astronomy essay to write.
One of the choices was to talk about life in the universe, in particular the likelyhood of discovering aliens etc etc.
I got bored and wrote this response.
I await Ali's scathing comments...
And look forward to disproving his counterarguements.
t



Life in the Universe?

A Christian Perspective on Extraterrestrial Life.

Tom Gallacher.


In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.…
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created themGenesis1.. Human and Martian he created them.

Eh... Not quite. That last bit isn’t there. By ‘there’ I mean what I consider to be the only definitive account of the origins of life. I mean the Bible. In this essay I intend to show why, as a Christian, I know that there isn’t anyone else out there. I don’t plan to prove Christianity (I believe through faith alone), and this is not the proper forum for discussing the authenticity of my beliefs. However if we first accept God’s Word as true, we can see that we are alone in this wonderful creation.

At present our scientific understanding of life is very limited. We can, to an extent describe it. But all we really know, for certain, is that it exists. We are the living proof. There is no evidence, concrete or circumstantial, to suggest there is life anywhere else than on this planet. So where did it come from? Now, I’m no biologist, but I do remember a fundamental rule, stated in every textbook I’ve seen: Life only comes from life. It cannot be created from non-living materials. Except, of course, that one time where bits of stars and some kind of soup mixed together and made bacteria that grew up to be an insect that turned into a frog, into a fish, into a bird, into a rabbit, into a monkey, into a horse, then a zebra, back to a monkey, and finally ended up as one of us. I think not. Life only comes from life. Even at the start. There is no evidence of evolution. This was actually acknowledged by the famed atheist, Richard Dawkins (“It [evolution] hasn’t been observed while it’s happening.”). So if we accept, as the evidence demonstrates, that life does not grow out of nothing, it must have been put there by something. Or Someone. God.

So if He created it, His account of it should be trusted:

God blessed them [man] and said to them [man], “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over every living creature.”Genesis1.

So we now see that humans are in control over animals and plants. And God, as the creator, is in control over man, and therefore all life.

So?

Well, if God created all of life, and only mentioned life on this planet in his account of creation, does that mean there isn’t any other life? No. Cars aren’t mentioned; they exist. That argument is as flawed as the evolutionists’.

The biblical objection to ET is not merely an argument from silence. Rather, understanding the complete gospel message allows us to conclude comprehensively that the reason the bible doesn’t mention extraterrestrials, is that there aren’t any.

The Bible says that the whole creation groans and travails under the weight of sin (Romans 8:18-22). The effect of the curse following Adam’s fall was universal. Otherwise what would be the point of God destroying this whole creation to make way for a new heavens and Earth (2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:1)?

Therefore, any ET living elsewhere would have been unjustly affected by the Adamic Curse through no fault of their own as they would not have inherited Adam’s sinful nature.

When Christ the Lord our God appeared in the flesh, He came to Earth not only to redeem mankind, but the whole creation back to Himself (Romans 8:21, Colossians 1:20). However, Christ’s atoning death at Calvary cannot save these hypothetical ETs because one needs to be a physical descendant of Adam for Christ to be our kinsman-redeemer (Isaiah 59:20). Jesus was called the last Adam because there was a real first man, Adam (1 Corinthians 15:22, 45) – not a first Vulcan or first Klingon. This is so a sinless human substitute takes on the punishment all humans deserve for sin, with no need to atone for any sin of His own (Hebrews 7:27).

Does all this mean there is no life on other planets? Let’s not jump to conclusions. It does not mean that there is no life in other places than our own, small planet. Just that all life originated here. The Soviets could have snuck a couple of Cosmonauts to Mars. They could be there right now, happily colonising away, forgotten to us. Unlikely, but possible. (Maybe they even adapted. Turned green because of some chemical in the Martian soil. It is important to note this is not evolution, where one kind turns into another, but adaption, where one kind changes slightly, survival of the fittest, etc.) Bacteria could have been carried to other planets by modern day space probes, or scattered by the impact of a meteor strike. It’s possible. But we know life came from here. We know it came from God.

If we take the Bible as our starting point, as fact, we see that all life came from God, and is here on Earth. The question now is whether the Bible is true. I would not attempt to prove this in an essay. I do not need to. I believe. I pray that whoever reads this will come to see what I have seen, and will in turn be compelled to believe, to be forgiven, washed of their sins, and to have everlasting life with the Lord Jesus Christ, our God. Amen.


Sources: The Holy Bible (NIV), www.creationontheweb.com
LinkHmmm...Aye?

final version. [Oct. 3rd, 2007|10:11 pm]
Since mankind began, we've marvelled at the stars. I'm no different.



My interest in space led to my enjoyment of physics and maths, and so to my success in Careers Scotland's 'Space School' competition. In January, after several months of assignments and interviews testing my knowledge, problem solving skills, imagination and enthusiasm, I was one of twenty-six students from across Scotland who visited NASA's Johnson Space Centre for a week. While there we worked alongside astronauts, scientists and engineers on a wide ranged projects; from planning and executing a mock, manned mission to Mars, to designing a lunar station, taking into account the effect of microgravity on the human body. As team leader, my role included giving presentations on our projects, something which came naturally to me, as I am a confident speaker. I, along with another pupil, won the North of Scotland Schools senior debating competition in 2006, and am again participating in debating and public speaking competitions this year.



Whilst at NASA I was privileged enough to speak to Gene Kranz, the famous mission director, the man in the white waistcoat. I read his biography, "Failure is Not an Option". The title mirrors his attitude, one echoed in the efforts of the space programme. I endeavour to emulate such a 'can-do' mentality in my everyday studies and indeed my approach to life in general.



Other books which inspired me are those about the life and works of Richard Feynman. "Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman?" and "What do You Care What Other People Think?" opened my eyes to the life of a physicist who wasn't afraid to have a different view. What stood out for me, was Fenyman's ability to solve problems. Not simply because he could solve them, but because he considered which way to solve them, given his 'toolkit of skills', and applied a certain technique where his colleagues' approach would fail. He recognised that people 'don't know what they know' when faced with an unfamiliar challenge; as a result I now try to step back and consider the best way to solve a problem, having decided what type of problem it is, before trying to solve it.



I used this skill in both the UK Maths Trust and Scottish Maths Council maths challenges, winning awards in each; and I now look forward to the Olympiad chemistry challenge. I enjoy being faced with a new problem.



But I enjoy solving problems even more, and this helped me lead a team to winning first place in the Youth Challenge - a competition in which teams invent an ICT-based product or service which will solve an everyday problem and develop both the technological and commercial aspects of the product; before finally pitching the idea to a 'Dragon's Den' style panel of judges at the end of a week of intensive preparation.



This summer I was part of a World Challenge team which travelled to India to trek in the Himalayas and help renovate a school. The experience really matured me as an individual, and planning such an expedition taught me a great deal about taking responsibility for myself and others.



I use this responsibility everyday in my duties as head boy, a post to which I was recently elected by teachers and peers. I have also been heavily involved in the school council, where I was nominated to represent my classmates. Success with this led to becoming involved in a Community Complex Committee, where I now am able to represent the school in the wider community. I built upon this responsibility as a Young Leader at a local scout group, where I was awarded the Chief Scout's Gold award.



Recently I informally attended lectures at a Scottish university, to confirm that the style of teaching suited my learning. The greater depth of university study, compared to a school education, is something which I found hugely stimulating. I also look forward to the challenge presented by more independent learning, something I've taken the first steps towards with Advanced Highers. But it is not a challenge which daunts me; I have, after all, learnt Tom Lehrer's 'Elements Song'.



Mankind has always wondered what lies beyond the stars. Just as it is mankind's next major challenge to find out, it is mine to continue learning, expand my horizons and deepen my knowledge - through study at university - and I'd like to think that this will allow me to contribute to solving our next great problem.
LinkHmmm...Aye?

Personal Statement. [Oct. 2nd, 2007|07:40 pm]
So, I'm applying for uni.

Scary buscuits.
Scary indeed.
But exciting.

I was down in Edinburgh at the weekend.
Open day and visiting Kirsten.
Mostly to visit Kirsten, really.

Well, anyway, uni looks fun.

I'm applying for Natural Sciences at Cambridge, Astrophysics at Edinburgh, Astrophysics at StAndrews and Astronomy and Physics at Glasgow. The last two are just to fill up spaces on the UCAS form.

I'm still undecided about Cam v Ed.
Part of me wants to go to Cambridge because its the best.
Part of me wants to go to Edinburgh for other reasons. It's in Scotland, I like the city, it's closer to my friends. The course won't be as hard. But therefore not as valued.

Blah.

My results this year will decide for me probably.
I need AAA in adv.highers for cam. I'm already into the other courses.

Well, anyway, here's my personal statement.

Enjoy.


.


Since mankind began, we've marvelled at the stars. I'm no different.

My interest in space led to my enjoyment of physics and maths, and so to my success in Careers Scotland's 'Space School' competition. In January, after several months of assignments and interviews testing my knowledge, imagination and enthusiasm, i was one of twenty-six students from across Scotland who visited NASA's Johnson Space Centre for a week. While there we worked alongside astronauts, scientists and engineers on widely ranged projects; from planning and executing a mock manned mission to Mars, to designing a lunar station, taking into account the effect of microgravity on the human body. As team leader, my role included giving presentations on our projects, something which came naturally to me, as I am a confident speaker. I have won the North of Scotland Schools senior debating competition in 2006, and am again participating in debating and public speaking competitions.

Whilst at NASA I was privileged enough to speak to Gene Kranz, the famous mission controller, the man in the white waistcoat. I read his biography, "Failure is Not an Option". The title mirrors his attitude, one echoed in the efforts of the space programme. I endeavour to emulate such a 'can-do' mentality in my everyday studies.

Other books which inspired me are the biographies of Richard Feynman. "Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman?" and "What do You Care What Other People Think?" opened my eyes to the life of a physicist. What stood out for me, was Fenyman's ability to solve problems. Not simply because he could solve them, but because he considered which way to solve them, given his 'toolkit of skills', and applied a certain technique where others would fail. He recognised that people 'don't know what they know' when faced with an unfamiliar challenge; as a result I now try to step back and consider the best way to solve a problem, before trying to solve it.

I used this skill in the UK Maths Trust and Scottish Maths Council maths challenges, both in which I won an award; and I now look forward to the Olympiad chemistry challenge. I enjoy being faced with a new problem.

But I enjoy solving problems even more, and this led to winning first place in the Youth Challenge - a competition in which teams invent an ICT-based innovation which will solve an everyday problem, develop both the technological and commercial sides of the product, before finally pitching the idea to a 'Dragon's Den' style panel of judges.

This summer I was part of a World Challenge team which travelled to India to trek in the Himalayas and help renovate a school. The experience really matured me as an individual, and planning such an expedition taught me a great deal of responsibility.

I use this responsibility everyday in my duties as head boy, a post to which I was recently elected by teachers and peers. I have also been heavily involved in the school council, where I was nominated to represent my classmates. Success with this led to becoming involved in a community complex committee, where I now am able to represent the school in the wider community. I built upon this responsibility as a 'young leader' at a local scout group, where I was awarded the Chief Scout's Gold award.

Recently I informally attended lectures at a Scottish university. The greater depth of university study, compared to a school education, is something which I found hugely stimulating. I also look forward to the challenge presented by more independent learning, something I've taken the first steps towards with advanced highers. But it is not a challenge which daunts me; I have, after all, learnt Tom Leher's 'Element Song'.

Mankind has always wondered what lies beyond the stars. Just as it is mankind's next major challenge to find out, it is mine to continue learning, expand my horizons and deepen my knowledge - through university - so as to be able to contribute to solving our next problem.



.

t
LinkHmmm...3 dances...Aye?

So... I was on stage with Franz. [Sep. 11th, 2007|10:16 am]
Where to start?



FRANZ FERDINAND.

After school me and Kyle went into town.

We went to the bank and to the post office.

Then we went to safeways and got some food.

Then we met Ben.

Then we walked up to Raigmore.

We could hear them doing sound checks.

We went round the back and went through this open door and had a wee peek, but then got thrown out.

We watched them practice through a window.

Alex gave me and Buddha a thumbs up.

We went and queued.

We were second in the queue.

Kyle went to the Shell station for a pee.

Bob came out and I ran over and got his autograph.

But then I did what any friend would and got him to sign it saying "Kyle, good luck with the bass, Bob."

Then we were chatting about the set list for tonight and the next album.

Then Paul came out so I got his signiture for Kyle too.

Then Alex came out.

Got his autograph and he said they were just going for an interview then they'd come back.

Then Buddha came back.

He was gutted but chuffed with the autographs.

They came back out and I got my own set of autographs this time when Nick came out.

Recommended to Alex that they watch out for a band called Les Peches.

Sammy and Kirsten came.

We waited for a wee while and eventually got in.

Got a teeshirt, but they only had XL or S so I got a wee one.

The support band were called Isoceles.

They were OK.

They used lots of synth.

Sometimes it was too much.

Sometimes it mixed really well with the guitar.

They played cowbells too.

It was novel at first, but soon all of the songs became too similar.

I blame too much synth.

But I did quite like it, will keep an eye out.

Then there was about half an hour wait for Franz while they fiddled with the sound and stuff.

Then they came on.

The set list contained some of the classics, Take Me Out, Darts, Matinee, Walk Away, This Fire, Outsiders, Cheating on You, Michael.

There were a few new ones too. Buddha knew most of them and I'd heard some of them: Turn It On, Ulyesess, Can't Stop Feeling, New Thrill, Anyone in Love. I can't remember all the new ones.

But when they started playing it was mental.

We were right down at the front against the barrier and we got properly crushed.

I have bruised hips and kness.

It was brilliant.

They dedicated a bit to Kyle.

Alex said: "And let's have some bass for Kyle" or something.

Their shoes we cool too.

Alex had black Chelsea boots that "took four hours to polish". Bob had brown scuffed cowboys.

We were totally singing along to a few of the more unknown ones and you could see they were impressed.

Bob gave us some water.

Nick was great on the synth, it sounded magic.

They went off and came on for an enchore (which they always do live).

Me and Buddha went up on the stage to play the drums to Outsiders.

I was a bit rubbish to start with but Paul showed me the right rhythm and we were sorted.

At the bit when it's just the drums it was immense.

Buddha got up on an amp.

It was classic.

We kept a drumstick each and I think Buddha got Bob's pick too.

At the end Paul threw another one out and Ali got it.

I recorded it all on my phone so if anyone wants a copy just ask.

It was a brilliant night.

Franz Ferdinand are great!

So I stayed off school today because my throat is hoarse and I'm debating tonight so I'm spending the day with a lemsip.


RUNRIG.

I got a day off work a wee while go and went to the Runrig concert, haven't updated since so this might be hazy...

Runrig were playing an open air concert in Drum.

I got a ticket a couple of days before and it was a sort of last minute decision to go.

But I'm glad I did.

I can't remember the exact line up but Aberfeldy played before and they were funny. They certainly aren't live performers. But they had a guitarist, bassist, drummer, keyboarder, fiddler/whistler... and a xylophonist.

It was hilarious.

We (Me, Andrew, Sean, Kirsten (Mac), Katie, Amy, Christina, Ellen) were right down at the front and me and Sean were shouting for a xylophone solo. And she hit a note and we cheered and she laughed. And we asked her for her beaters but she kept them. IT was funny.

Great Big Sea were this Canadian band and they were good. They used their voices well, like the Futureheads almost. But the music itself wasn't great.

Saw Kirsten (W) on the stage and tried to signal her to get autographs but she didnt understand.

Wolfstone were quite good.

Red Hot Chilli Pipers were cheesy, they played We Will Rock You, Smoke on the Water, Eye of the Tiger and other stuff... but on the pipes as well as guitar. It was origional; but tacky.

Runrig were brilliant.

They worked the crowd into a frenzy.

I should point out, I'm not - or rather - I wasn't a fan of Runrig.

But I really enjoyed it and was able to sing along to lots of them.

Loch Lommond was obviously brilliant, but I really enjoyed Clash of the Ash, Everything you See, Every River, Beat the Drum, most of them actually.

It was swell.

But it was soaking!

It was the wetest day of the year.

Absolutely covered in mud.

Was a good day.


YOUNG ENTERPRISE.

I'm on the school's young enterprise team.

We're importing scarves from India.

Then we're going to sell them and make lots of money.

We're also giving money to the group that organised the project we did in India, for them to help build schools and put orphans in them and lots of other good work.

The team has a lot of potential, I feel.

But some people need to stop being grumpy and just get stuck in.

I won't have a rant. But I could.


DEBATING.

The first debate of the season is tonight.

Guess who's unprepared and with a sore throat?

The motion is:

This house believes that we ovrprotect our young people.

Me and Morna again this year.

Hoping all goes well.


CEILIDH.

The young enterprise team is holding a western themed ceilidh to raise funds.

The idea is we have a mix of ceilidh and country western music and everyone dresses up as a cowboy or Indian.

It's a week Friday.


BANK.

Finally got a bank account sorted out.

With RBS.


CALEY.

Charlie Christie (manager) left.

Craig Brewster (ex-manager) got the job in his place.

I was at the Caley Arbroath game.

It was the first cup game of the season.

And our first win of the season. 3-1.

Stewart Paterson got arrested and charged with peach of the breece.

Lots of people walked out in protest at the way the stewards were treating us.

We were allowed to stand up for the whole first half but then all of a sudden it wasn't OK anymore. And if you question the stewards' reasoning you get thrown out.

Some folk started singing rude stuff at the stewards, so it was kinda their own fault they got chucked out/arrested/charged accordingly.

But it would never have happened at all if the stewards hadn't been provoking people.

They came and stood right in front of us and started shouting at us.

No matter how people are behaving, there's a right and wrong way to approach it.

We're bottom of the league. Great.

And with Celtic away this weekend looks like we're staying there for now.

We're lucky Gretna are in our league.

Hopefully we'll start improving soon.


UNI.

Applying for Cambridge and Edinburgh.

Natural sciences at Cam, or maths + physics at Ed.

Will get an unconditional for Ed and a conditional for Cam.

Likely that I'll need AAB advanced highers this year.

It's doable.

Going down to Edinburgh in a couple of weeks for the open day.

Hopefully I'll be able to go down quite regularly this year.


Later,
t
x
LinkHmmm...4 dances...Aye?

Aye. [Aug. 7th, 2007|11:10 pm]
This is going to be a fairly long post.
Won't talk about India, saving that all up for another entry.

Since I got back.....


B+Q.
Am in the kitchen department.
Is good fun.
I like getting complaints.
Made just shy of £900 since got back from India.
Easy money.
Very easy.

Exam Results.
Got them by text yesterday.
Accounting A
Chemistry A
English B
Maths A
Physics A
Rather chuffed.
Especially with English and Chemistry.
Is enough to get into Edinburgh for maths/physics combo. And haven't closed the Cambridge door yet.

Land Rover.
Took off the roof rack.
Took off the roof.
Took off the doors.
Took off the windscreen.
Took off the floor.
Took off the back body.
Took off the radiator grill.
Took off the fuel tank.
Next job is to take off the front wings and bonnet, then the bulkhead.
Lots of rust.

"Party"
Folks were away.
Les Peches and Andrew and Kirsten and Katie came round.
Crisps everywhere and tiredness at work the next day.
Enjoyable.

24
It's filling the Lost void.

Bank
Went into Bank of Scotland to open an account.
They were being awkward so I followed suit.
Got told "I don't like your attitude young man" and "Your tone of voice isn't very polite, I'm a human being".
They are scum.
And they rejected me because I failed a credit scoring test. Which is odd considering I don't have a credit history. Went to the Royal, much more helpful. Getting a card and cheque book, very fancy.

Jimmy Chung's
Was in Jimmy Chung's the other day.
Were just a bout to leave.
Filled a glass with water, right to the rim.
Placed a menu over glass.
Turned glass over, placed on table.
Carefully slid menu out from underneath.
Glass full of water upsidedown on the table.
Ran away and watched as the waitress made a mess.
If she was sensible she would have got a bowl and slid the glass to the edge of the table and let the water run into the bowl.
But she wasn't.
She was just very wet.

Iceland
Sent me two tee-shirts!
Bless.

Shinty
Thinking about starting.
Don't really know how.
Will ask in PE.

Franz.
Kyle got me a ticket to see FF at Raigmore.
Cannot wait.
Playing new material. Yum.

Facial Hair.
Grew a beard.
Shaved it off.

Girls.
(Insert comment suggesting great confusion.)

Football
Caley signed Deeno. And Niculae.
Deeno is Caley's first black player.
It's the sign of a pro club.
Nuculae is Romanian.
But he can't play because he's an illegal immigrant or something.
Went to the Rangers game.
We were gash.
Lost 3-0.
Got threatened with ejection... again.
I'm not a hooligan but yet I'm branded as one.
Sigh.

5 of Spades.
Was the only card missing from a deck in a cafe in India.
I kid you not.
It's a sign.



I was going to write more, but it's like, midnight man.
Smell you later.
LinkHmmm...Aye?

india [Jul. 8th, 2007|12:16 pm]
im in india
in a cheap interent cafe
apologising for lack of postycards.
been too busy eating curry up ben everest.
back early sunday.
see y'all soon
t
LinkHmmm...1 dance...Aye?

Aye. [Jun. 13th, 2007|07:28 pm]
Right.
A couple of things.

6th Year.
So far so good.
Doing:
Advanced Maths. Great crack. Nice and easy concepts too. Love maths. Mmmmmmmm(aths).
Advanced Physics. Yum. Interesting. Not difficult.
Advanced Chemistry. Blah. Hardest (and therefore least favourite) subject. Good banter though. I understand all the work. Just that there is an awful lot of it.
Higher Business. Skive. And that's why I like it. Only need AAB (min) in above subjects so this was just to fill up the timetable. Class is a bit of a riot. Know everything so far from last year's accounting anyway.
Pirate Study. Missed the vee there. Oh well. Too many over-zealous power-hungry invigilators, but we can use the science room if we like which is nice.
Louise and I spoke at the 4th (now 5th) years prize giving.
Went well. Just said work hard, get involved, blah de blah.
Enjoying school at the moment.

India
This Friday!!!1
Well excited.

Job
Had an interview with B&Q this afternoon.
Was pretty nervous.
Aced it though.
Not only was I offered a job at times convineint to me, they asked if I would like to join the kitchen department and get paid extra. Naturally I said yes.
£6.19 an hour basic rate. Plus the guy was saying it would improve for me soon.
I talked about NASA and head boy and India and Christianity and debating and Youth Challenge and loads of other stuff and they were totally impressed with me. The chat section of the interview (supposed to be 20 min) went on for an hour and the formal section (supposed to be 30 min) went on for about 5 min.
Dead chuffed with that. And I don't have to work Sundays; which was nice of them.

Website
The site will be up and running soon.
The blog page is reading off this.
So I'll put posts that are memes or stuff that won't make sense on my website into friends only posts so they only show up here.
Check out http://www.tomgallacher.co.uk/new
Will migrate out of /new when it's done.

Rock Ness
Went up the hill to listen to Rock Ness on Saturday with Ali, Ben, Sammy, Mary, Katie, Sean and Amy. Couldn't hear much but was a laugh.

MusikcWorks
Was presenting the school show with MornaH at the IronWorks the other day.
The music was dead good.
We hadn't really planned what we were saying so we made a couple of mistakes but nothing too major.
Think it went well.

Automatic Updates
They want to restart my computer. Scum.

Data Book
Got a 1991 one now to add to the collection.
Score.
Me and Ali are going to ruin some children's chances of a semi-decent Chemistry SG mark.
Mrs Garrow offered us the chance to teach some of her classes.
Think we'll just play with MolyMods. Great crack.

Phone
Keeps switching itself off whenever I touch it. Balls.
Went into the shop and was like: this sucks.
They said it was a software issue. Bollocks.
They wanted me to download a patch from Sony website.
So I did and it's still doing it so they're going to get an earfull if they don't replace it.

Buzzwords
Andrew enjoys stealing any popular sayings so they quickly go out of fashion.
The "in" phrases at the moment are:
Waaay!
Aw man!
...aye. (Credit: Ben)

That's all for now folks!
Catch you on the flipside,
t
LinkHmmm...2 dances...Aye?

Techno post. [May. 27th, 2007|06:24 pm]
[Where am I? |IV3 8LD]
[Feeling a little bit... | cynical]
[The beat moving my feet |Gogol Bordello]

Made a few changes to this layout.
Nicer now.

And pissed about with my site today.
Check it out.
http://www.TomGallacher.co.uk/new

Took ages making the images and getting them to switch on hover.
Andrew did most of the CSS.
Pretty complicated but pretty cool.
The links don't actually work yet though....
Until I get proper content, I'll keep it in /new.

Was thinking about using LJ as the blog and either linking here or using iframes.
That way it's nice and easy to update.
Will probably put it in an iframe, so you don't actually leave my site but see the content from here.

Blah, all computered out now.

Done bugger all chemistry revision.
So that's tomorrow's plan.

And then the party on Wednesday.

Later man!
LinkHmmm...2 dances...Aye?

LOST [May. 26th, 2007|12:04 pm]
So.

Just watched the last of Lost.
It gets really crazy.
Read the wiki articles about the episodes if you haven't seen them yet.
Lost on the wiki.
SO GOOD.

So that's it until February.
That's like ages away.

I'm lost without it.
LinkHmmm...1 dance...Aye?

My correspondence with an Icelandic power supplier. [May. 23rd, 2007|11:16 pm]
[Feeling a little bit... | crazy]

Good Afternoon!
I am Tom Gallacher!
I live in Scotland and have visited your beautiful country twice now, and
hope to return in the future.
On my second trip, I visited a power station. If my memory serves me
correctly, it was near Krafla.
I am only 16, and interested in science and technology, so the tour I had
was fascinating.
There was a delightful girl who took us round and I must say she had the
most wonderful smile. She must have been about my age. I wish I could
remember her better. Perhaps you could put me in touch with her? I'd like
to say hello again.
At the end of our tour, we were even given lovely tee-shirts.
They were navy blue and had a picture of a stick-man walking into a lamp
post in the dark, but cautiously avoiding it when he could "see the light"
because of your cool power stations.
I really loved that tee-shirt. Almost as much as the pretty girl's smile.
Anyway, yesterday, I cried.
My beloved tee-shirt, gratefully received from your kind selves, ripped.
The sleeve caught on a tree.
I was running at the time and didn't have time to stop.
It was too late.
The ultimate piece of clothing, rendered useless.
I'm sorry I had to break the news to you like this.
It pains me, it really does.
But I just wanted you to know, that while that tee-shirt was mine, it had a
good life.
It saw the world from my chest.
For allowing me to give it that chance, I thank you.
But I might ask one last favour of you (apart from perhaps finding the
pretty girl's email? Please?).
Could you please send another tee shirt?
I am a male medium.
I wouldn't normally ask, but you see, I promised to show it to a friend.
And how can I display the cadaver that once was?
No, he must see it in its former glory.
Wouldn't you agree?
Of course you would!
Which is why, I owe you my thanks again.
The address to send the tee-shirt to is at the foot of this correspondence.
Friends, I salute you.
Yours eternally,
Tom Gallacher.



Dear Tom Gallacher,

thank you for a most jovial letter!

You are not the only one who likes our t-shirts, not to mention our
hostesses.
Unfortunately we are all out of the t-shirts. But there is hope, since
we have put in an order for about 15000 shirts in various sizes and
shapes.

I will make a point of sending you a shirt once they will be ready in
late June or early July.

We do have certain ideas about who the girl with the wonderful smile might
be. I'll see what I can do for you in that respect.

One question: Would you mind if we put your letter on our web site in
order to show the appreciation our efforts receive among our guests?

Best regards,
Thorsteinn Hilmarsson
Head of Corporate Communication





Firstly, may I thank you for the incredibly hasty response.

15000? Wow. That's a lot of shirts.
You'll need them; they rock.

If she would rather her email was kept confidential, I totally understand, but if that is the case, tell her she has a lovely smile!
I can imagine she wouldn't be too hard to find, there can't be many girls with such awing beauty.

For this favour, I am forever indebted to you.
I would be honoured to have my correspondence on your website, it is the least I could do for you.
If any of your colleagues ever visit Scotland, tell them they are more than welcome in my house.

Also, I did a school geography project on Iceland, and focused a lot on geothermal energy and so on, and used several photographs of your incredible establishment in it. I hope you don't mind?

Thanks again, friend.
Tom.
LinkHmmm...Aye?

Haircut. [May. 22nd, 2007|06:31 pm]
[Where am I? |Cock News HQ.]
[The beat moving my feet |Tick. Tick. Tick. (That's a clock.)]

Last Summer.
Line shaved through already short hair.
Gap coloured in blue.

Last October.
Regrowth complete, longer than normal, often combed to one side.

Last Christmas.
Becoming big, curls nicely.

February.
At its biggest. Major league afro.
(See prefect photo.)
Then:
Tamed. Thinned out considerably, but kept length, thus encouraging curls.

Now
Back to big.
Seriously big.
No longer curls without excessive use of conditioner.
Needs something done to it.

The question is, what?

Option 1:
Nothing. Let it take over the world.

Option 2:
Get it thinned.
Will only last a few weeks before we're back at this stage again anyway.

Option 3:
Short.
Like, short.

Option 3 seems to be appealing to me at the moment.
What with summer around the corner and all.
And then I could wear hats again.

I almost did it myself today. My brother cuts his own hair regulary, so we have a shaver thing.
But I got scared, I needed a second opinion.
And that's where you guys come in.
What should I do?
LinkHmmm...3 dances...Aye?

mini holiday [May. 20th, 2007|05:17 pm]
Waaay!

Aced the accounting exam.
Was sound.

Just chemistry left. On the 29th.
A wee while yet then.

And what to do in the mean time?

Any suggestions?
LinkHmmm...4 dances...Aye?

Swizzles! [May. 17th, 2007|03:09 pm]
Just got a reply!

First, I should explain.
Love Hearts.
One said:
"ITS LOVE"

I wrote to explain the complaint.
The letter was slightly ridiculous.
Wish I'd photocopied it.

The reply went something like this:

Dear MrGallacher,

We note with concern your disappointment with one of our products, and very much appreciate you bringing this to our attention.

Everything possible is done to ensure the highest standards for all our products, and we are extremely sorry you have had cause to complain, and fully appreciate your concerns.

Kindly note this has been brought to the attention of our Quality Control Department.

Please accept, with our compliments, the enclosed samples of our sweets, and we sincerely hope this will in no way affect your future enjoyment of our products.

Assuring you of our best attention at all times.

Yours sincerely,
SWZZELS MATLOW LTD.

Customer Support.


Ha!

I'm going to reply and thank them and tell them how much I love Parma Violets and that they should make a drink and could I please put a link to your website on mine please?

After I've worked my way through these free sweets....

Everyone should write and complain, you get free stuff!



In other news,

WHO WANTS TO GO CAMPING?
Next week/this weekend.
Location undecided.
Party.


Get in touch with Ali or me quick, quick, quick.


Later Skaters.
t
LinkHmmm...4 dances...Aye?

(no subject) [May. 16th, 2007|05:13 pm]
Hey man.

Right.

Update.

Aye.

So...

Aye.

English Exam

Aye. Close reading was lemon squeezy compared to some past papers. It was okay.
Essays. Bastards. Scum. I meant every bit of that.
They fitted, but they were still minky.
Did one about Maximus doing Commodus and all that jazz. Conflict. Yeah. Sitting duck really. Done like a bazzilion of them already. Soundo.
Then man, yuk.
Wrote about Nicky boy being an outsider in Gatsby. And how it made themes accesable. Did a similar one a while ago.
I shouldn't actually be complaining, they were lovely questions.
But if I didn't complain I would be, like, fratenising with the enemy.
Anyway.
Not disappointed. Guess that's the main thing. Apart from that letter yoou get at the end of it all.
Went into town afterwards and Subwayed it up.

Lost
Yum.
Really came together int hat one, the last few had all seemed kind of unrelated to the bigger picture, so I was really satisfied. And the next one promises to be lovely.

Caley
Aye.
Went to the Caley Dunfirmline game on Saturday.
They scored.
Man.
We scored. Twice.
Yay, and all that.
That means they get relegated. Gutted.
Was in the singing section.
This is a new innitive to encourage a greater vocal atmosphere at the stadium.
Seemed to work well. Then the stewards got involved.
They asked us to sit down. Fair enough, you might say, considering it is an all seater stadium (which, in itself is a stupid rule, but that's another matter.).
But they were asking ONLY the singing section to sit down. The folk at the away end and in other parts of the ground were free to do what they liked. And when we pointed that out we started getting chucked out.
They were heavy handed and physically abusive. Technically they aren't even allowed to touch fans. But they were bang out of order. Swearing and threatening. Even if we were the hooligans we were treated like that is unacceptable. One of them said to Stewart Paterson "If you don't shut up I'll kick your f***ing head in" and "it would be very easy for me to push you down thpse stairs". All because we were standing to sing, to generate atmosphere.
Incidently, it worked and we scored around the time that we were loudest.
The courier today totally plays down the fact the stewards were cunts and puts the fans in a bad light.
*Annoyed.
But you can see my hair in the photo on the front page... knew there was a reason for growing it.

Sunday
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
:D:D:D

Monday
Home alone.
Beach boys on full blast.
Dancing.
Singing.
On the table.
Naked.
Aye.
Gotta love it.
(The naked bit isn't true...much...)

Like, yesterday man!
Tuesday.
Aye.
Really wanted a long lie.
Hard cheese, today was maths day.
Paper one. Aye.
Made a mistake or two, and probably a couple I didn't notice in the post mortem.
Got diameter and radius mucked up.
Paper two.
Can't really remember.
Was bursting for a pee about half way through. Not Cool.
Didn't leave early though.
Would rather wet myself than have to be cut short in an exam.
Not disappointed.
Fair paper, apart from had to draw four whole graphs man!

Then like went into town.
Had lunch with Andrew.
Was in the men's toilets in Eastgate2.
Was just sitting down, as you do, when I heard this woman's voice from above.
I shat myself.
Lucky I was in the right place.
It was the tannoy.
It was quite funny afterwards.
I wet myself.
Lucky I was in the right place.

Then got on the bus. Up to SNH. Andrew went home.
Met Ali and Ben.

Phoned Neil; the friendly local transport office worker.
Played on a bridge.

Broke the law.

Ali, being all tight fisted, didn't want to pay for his bus fare.
Me, being a generous Bus Monitor, with two bus passes, gave him one.
We both got on the bus without paying.
Ben got questioned and got a half after pretty much admitting he wasn't.
Ha!

Then we flashed the bus passes at the mirror just to make the driver feel stupid.
Then made "loser/winner" signs at people coming out of school.

Ended up at the cinema.

Went in and asked the chap what he'd recommend.
He said 28 weeks later.
And let us buy tickets, even though it's and 18 and he knew we weren't.

Went to Tesco (Tescos?).
Went into the café.
Got some chips and corpses.

Got some shades.
And eventually some jeans.
Saw Miss Snodgrass.
Broke the glasses.
Returned them.

Went to the cinema.
The film was pretty piss.
Scary, but piss.
Gory.
Not my ha me a geray.
Had Mr Anglam in it. And some cool music. And some hot girl.
Pretty much... everyone dies.
And there's the guarantee of a sequel.
28 sequels later, as Ali said.

Just went home after that.

Had some bad dreams.
Woke up in a cold sweat.
Was dreaming that there was Zombies in the Physics exam. And Mr Anglam was there.
Combination of exam nerves and horro films. Great.
I didn't actually have any bad dreams.
I never get dreams these days, or at least, never remember them.

Fizzix
Aye.
Got a lift in in the morning.
Scrounged a lot of cash.
Did some revision, some battle ships, and some sudoku in the morning.
Laughed at 1st years doing high jump.
Laughed at Bradley.
Just to spread some goss:
Bradley and Jenna (who're going out) went out driving last night.
And Bradley, who drives, let Jenna (who doesn't) have a shot.
Just as she was getting going, the police came round the corner, she panicked and crashed.
Subsequently both got a caution.
From what I gathered, can't nail Bradley, he wasn't driving, can't nail Jenna, she doesn't have a licence to put points on.
But they'll have to pay to get it fixed, the insurance won't. No sympathy.
I'll have none of that when I'm driving. In my beautiful car.

Aye.
So then came the physics paper.
It was lovly.
Had done pretty much all of those questions 7 or 8 times already in class.
Spending a decade on past papers definately helped.
There was a noice one about balloons.
I took it a bit far though.
It was only 2 marks.
So I presume it was a straight forward question.
But I ansered it like it was a four marker.
I worked out how much you could never get out of the cylinder (due to atmospheric pressure), and then worked out how many you could fill. It came to 23. The answer without calculating the first bit was 24.
Overall I was really pleased. None that were 'orrible.

Accounting coming up next. Friday afternoon.
Not really worried. Don't especially care. For the course I want, accounting won't make a bit of diffence.
Then Chemistry, but a free week to bum about/revise in before hand.

Then India in like a month or so.

Jeepers.

Aye.

Pretty content with life at the moment.
Everything seems nice.
Sure it won't be long before everything starts going horribly wrong and is back to normal.

Aye. Anyway.
I'm off to do something.
Not sure what yet.

Catch you on the flipside.
LinkHmmm...2 dances...Aye?

Double Chored Meh-Uhms. [May. 8th, 2007|07:37 pm]
[Where am I? |Cock News. Aka Loch Ness.]
[Feeling a little bit... | accomplished]
[The beat moving my feet |Bettlebum. Over and over again.]

Comment to this entry and I'll--
1 - Tell you why I friended you.
2 - Associate you with something. A fandom, a song, a colour, a piece of fruit. SOMETHING.
3 - Tell you something I like about you.
4 - Tell you a memory I have of you.
5 - Associate you with a character/pairing.
6 - Ask something I've always wanted to know about you. (Or else I'll just ask a random question. I reserve that right.)
7 - Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
8 - In return, you must spread this disease in your LJ.


1. What side of the heart do you draw first?
From the point then head East.

2. Can you dive without plugging your nose?
Yup.

3. What colour is your toothbrush?
White. And Blue. (And a little bit of pink.)

4. What is your blood-type?
It's the category my blood is in. Which is it? That's another question.

5. Who would you want to be tied to for 24 hours?
Someone really small. Or REALLY big. It's only practical.

6. How do you feel about carrots?
Aye. Orange.

7. How many chairs at the dining room table do you have?
4

8. Which is the best Spice Girl?
Best... hmm ambiguous. I think it's the combination that does it. Check this out (when your parents aren't in the room.)

9. Do you know what time it is?
19:43

10. Do you know all the words to the Fresh Prince Theme Song?
Nah.

11. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator lift?
Listen to that lovely calming music.

12. What's your favourite kind of gum?
Scrabble. Or a team one. Hah! I misread that. I think I'll leave this here anyway. I don't chew.

13. T or F: All's fair in love and war?
Em, not entirely sure what that means so I'm going to go with an Aye.

14. You have a crush on someone?
I prefer the philosiphical questions.

15. Do you know how to use some words correctly, but not know the meaning?
Miss Lauder would say yes. But that's only because she's wrong.

16. Do you like to sleep?
I like the feeling just after you are awake. That's the best bit about sleep. Waking up.

17. Do you know which US states don't use Daylight Savings?
At a guess I'd say Alaska or Ha-why-ee. But that doesn't seem logical. It would most likely be somewhere near to the equator, where there is little differnce between summer and winter. So, pehaps Texas, Alabama, Louisiana? Just a guess. Iceland doesn't have DST. Or BST.

18. Do you know the song Total Eclipse of the Heart?
No.

19. Do you want a bright yellow '06 mustang?
Not especially. Already got a lurvly car.

20. What's something you've always wanted?
I could lie and say world peace or an end to starvation, but in reality, Tracey Island is much more appealling.

21. Do you have hairy legs?
Yes. In primary school I was laughed at for having hair before most folk. Then by second year the roles had reversed. Bizzare.

22. What does "Semper Fidelis" stand for?
Super Extra Mega Proper Extra Really Fresh Igloos from Extra Large Igloo Shops. Or so the wiki says.

23. Would you rather swim in the ocean or a lake?
Depends.

24. Do you wear a lot of black?
To school. But have never owned a black shirt and never will.

25. Describe your hair?
Blonde, straight, and a bit boring.
Ha! Had you fooled! No, not a bit boring. Not in the least.
It's ginger. And rather big. And uncontrolable. Although this new conditioner seems to have calmed it's quest for world dominance.

26. Do you have Entomophobia?
Bugs. Ever seen Bug's Life? They have feelings too you know.

27. Are you an adult?
No. I would say I was an adult until I could vote.

28. Where is/are your best friend(s)?
Hmmm....
Ali is probably reading this (and technically, when he sees this I'll be right!).
Ben is probably still ill. Or skiving. Never can tell.
Indie is probably in a tree house.
Andrew is probably playing with codes (it sounds fun until you actually see it).
Paul is probably out hurting people. Or playing badminton. Maybe even combined.

29. Do you have a tan?
HA! No. Not once. Except when the freckles join up.

30. Are you a television addict?
Lost yes. Telly no.

31. Do you enjoy spending time with your mother?
Depends.

32. Are you a sugar freak?
Only with tea.

33. Do you like orange juice?
Especially Orange Capri Sun! (Y)

34. What sign are you?
What sign? Road sign? No stopping?

35. Where do you wish you were right now?
Forward in time about four weeks.

36. Where did you copy this from?
Ctrl see. Ctrl vee.

37. How do you know them?
They're just there. Next to the ex and the bee and the eff and the gee. And Space. But they don't really like him.

38. Do you think you're badass?
Em, aye? Don't even know what badass means. Gangster? Hard? From the badlands?

39. What are your plans for the weekend?
Dance dance revolution. Amongst other things.

40. What is your boyfriend or girlfriend's name?
Officially (and bebo says so so it must be true): loose-seal
Unofficial: (cries in corner)

41. What color underwear are you wearing now?
Invisible. HA! Remember in Kemistry? Invisible to brown!
No. Just plain white.

42. What are you listening to right now?
Beetlebum by Blur. Getting ideas. It's going to be so damn good.
Perhaps only Ali will understand this. Oh well. But aye. Gordon Brown.

43. What are the last 4 digits in your phone number?
1207

44. What was the last thing you ate?
Giant Parma Violets. And some toothpaste, but that was accidental.

45. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?
White. Noone uses me.

46. How is the weather right now?
Monsoon like. The old man is snorring.

47. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
The robot lady. Or Andrew. Easy mistake to make.

48. The first thing you notice about the opposite/preferred sex?
If you are reading this and I fancy you: Your smile. It's beautiful. Really it is. Your teeth are like pearls/diamonds/stars. And your eyes are like emeralds/saphires/gems/rubies. And I love what you did to your hair, it really suits you.
If you don't fit in the above category: It all depends on which way you're facing.

49. Favourite type of food?
Parma Violets man!

50. Do you drink?
Never alcohol.

51. Do you smoke?
Only when I'm going too fast.

52. Ever get so drunk you don't remember what you did?
No.

53. Hair color?
Fire.

54. What is your eye color?
Blue. Kinda.

55. Do you wear contacts?
Just shades.

56. Favourite holiday?
Holidays are too stressful. Excursions are easier.

57. Favourite month?
December. Or June/July. Or whichever month is coming up next.

58. Have you ever cried for no reason?
For no reason? No.
For no apparent reason? Yes.

59. Are you too shy to ask someone out?
No. Doesn't usually work in my favour.

60. If you could say something to someone right now, what would it be?
If you happen to be upset about 48, I was only joking....

61. Hugs or kisses?
Depends who.

62. Chocolate or Vanilla?
Ice Cream? Cholocate.
Women's perfume? Vanilla.

63. What books are you reading?
Just finished a LeeChild and a DesmondBagley. In the mood for some Biggles again though. Never grow out of Biggles.

64. Piercings?
In my body? No.

65. Favourite Movie?
Hmm..... Probably Apollo 13. But just because of the memories I have of it.

66. Favourite football team?
Caley.

67. What were you doing before this?
Searching for who "was well aquainted" with the most Spice Girls.

68. Any pets?
Rabits. But I try to kill them. So they aren't really pets.

69. Screen name?
Tom/s(*) - We are all lying in the gutter, but some of us are staring up at the stars.
Or theflamehaired1.

70. Dogs or cats?
Cats. Even though thet were portrayed as bad guys in the film "Cats and Dogs".

71. Favourite flower?
Daisy (chains).

72. Have you ever been caught doing something you weren't supposed to?
Hahaha yeah.

73. Are you taken or single?
Uno.

74. Have you ever loved someone?
Aye.

75. Who would you like to see right now?
Kyle. Just so I could make this sign (¬o) with my hand. And go "WAAY!".

76. Are you still friends with your exes?
Aye.

77. Have you ever fired a gun?
Yeah.

78. Do you like to travel by plane?
I like take off and landing. And turbulence. The rest is the same as a train.

79. Right-handed or left-handed?
Ambiguous.

80. How many pillows do you sleep with?
If anyone makes a refence to the SkiTrip, it's just not funny. 2.

81. Do you have a tattoo?
Yeah getting a Trifore on my forehead like.




PHEW!
That killed some revision time.
Aye. So do the first one.

Later alligator,
t
LinkHmmm...11 dances...Aye?

HB [Apr. 30th, 2007|08:29 pm]
HB
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


HB is an abbreviation of:

* Half-Bread, an underground clothes brand
* Halfback, a position in a number of football games
* Hampton and Branchville Railroad (AAR reporting marks HB)
* Hanna Barbera, cartoon makers, precursors of Cartoon Network Studios
* hard black, a medium grade of pencil lead
* Harbor Airlines IATA airline designator
* Brinell hardness
* Hardness-Blackness (HB), standard writing pencil
* Havnar Bóltfelag, football team in the Faroe Islands
* Helbreath, a popular PvP MMORPG.
* Helvetischer Bund, used as ICAO aircraft registration prefix (since 1935, before: CH) for Switzerland
* Hemoglobin, usually Hb
* Hofbräu, a German brewery
* H-B Woodlawn secondary education program (from the combination of the Hoffman-Boston and Woodlawn programs), in Arlington, Virginia
* HB ice cream in Ireland, originally an abbreviation for Hughes Brothers' Dairy, Rathfarnham, now produced by Unilever and part of the Heartbrand.
* Huntington Beach, a growing coastal town in Southern California
* Hurry Back - Internet Slang
* HB (car)
* HB, a German brand of cigarettes.

HB is also a code for

* the pre-TOPS designation of locomotives in British Rail Class 74

HB as initials were used as the primary name of the following people:

* H. B. Acton (1908-1974), political philosopher
* H. B. Bailey (1936-2003), NASCAR driver
* H. B. Higgins (1851-1929), Australian politician
* H. B. Reese (1879-1956), candy maker
* H. B. Warner (1875-1958), motion picture executive




Missed something out there I think.
HEAD BOY!:D:D:D:D:D

Aye.
So I'm head boy.
Right enough.
LinkHmmm...3 dances...Aye?

A wee update. [Apr. 28th, 2007|12:53 pm]
Righto!

Thought it was time for an update so here we go.



Head boy
On Friday were the speeches given by applicants to head boy/girl.
There were a fair few girls, some not so great but most very good.
Then it was my turn to speak, as first of 2 boys who applied.
I had planned my talk on Thursday night but didn't use my notes in the end.
I think it went well. At any rate, I enjoyed giving it. Which I guess means it went well.
But Hercher's was good too so I think it'll be close.

School
Been busy doing nothing.
Revision mostly.
Everyone seems to be winding down... which at this point in the year isn't a great idea.

Exams
Not really nervous.
And amn't going into them regretting anything, which is good.
Hoping for a B in English and the rest As. I think that is a realistic goal.
Just want them to be over.

Young Enterprise
Went over to the 6th year's Young Enterprise presentation.
They were crapo. We will win every prize next year.

Met Chunky-Dunk the 2nd. He is my new friend.
He is weird.
I was a bit hyper. And slightly pretended to be gay.
Turns out Chunky-Dunk the 2nd (or the Erksinator to his friends) is a bit of a homophobe.
And he believed I lived in Lochinver for 14 years.
Anyway, I might have slightly taken it too far and he ended up being a tad scary.
But he keeps leaving me bebo comments and so on.
Read: Stalker.

This morning
I've been waking up earlier than usual lately.
This morning I woke around 5 'o' clock, about average at the moment.
I like that because it allows you to slowly get up and not rush in the mornings.
So I woke up. Stayed in that lovely stage of conscious-dreamy-relaxing tranquility for about an hour.
Got up. Checked my email.
Watched the news.
Went out to the forest (Abriachan Forest Trust). Put up some big army tents for Maggie's Monster Challenge next week.
Came home. Checked my email.
Had a shower for about an hour.
Had brunch (last night's tea (I was at Andrew's)).
Watched a little snooker.
Checked my email.
Read over some Chemistry stuff.
Wrote this post.

(The following are predictions)
Listened to Caley beating Dundee United on the radio.
Did a Close Reading. Got full marks.
Had tea. Checked emails.
Watched Dr Who, Dr Who Confidential and Top Gear.
Watched a film.
Read a bit.
Played pool. Checked my email.
Looked at the stars.
Went to bed.
Slept.

Internet
My connection has been a bit funny recently.
Sometimes it doesn't connect properly.
My computer connects to the router.
But the router doesn't connect to the internet.
So I have to reboot the router.
Which takes ages.

But I found this cool-cool-coolio website.
http://www.mediaconverter.org
You can download YouTube videos in plenty formats, avi, mp3, mpeg, blah blah blah.
Or convert local files.
But when you download a Youtube file as an mp3, only the sound remains.
And the file is small. Like tiny. Less than a meg.
And the quality is the same as the original video.
Now Ali* says this isn't possible without magic.
So check it out and prove him wrong.

Money
I started collecting commemorative coins recently.
The wikipedia started it.
My collection is now significant to merit a place in this post.

So far I have...

£2
Manchester Commonwealth games 2002: spirit of friendship.
VE day 1945-2005: In victory magnanimity, in peace goodwill.
DNA Double Helix 1953-2003: Deoxyaibonucleic acid.
Brunel 2006 (bridge): So many irons in the fire.
Brunel 2006 (face): Isambard Kingdom Brunel, engineer, 1806-1859.

£1
Forth Rail Bridge 2004.
Some other bridge 2005.
Isle of Man: Cricket, 1999.
Royal Bank of Scotland Note (Edinburgh Castle).

50p
3 minute-mile, 2004.
Johnson's dictionary 1755,2005.
Victoria Cross, 2006.
Public Libraries, 1850, 2000.

What's annoying is that comes to £16 that I could but can't spend.

Religion
Me, the great doubter, found God.
It's good.
Try it.
I know there are loads of contradictions and scientific evidence against Christianity.
But none of that matters because I know it's true.

Toothpaste
My Mum bought me Aqua-Fresh.
Who does she think I am? A zebra?
Alas, I am a Colgate man through and through.
I shall buy my own toothpaste next time.

English
We split into groups and our group (Ali*, Ben, Paul and I) ended up doing To His Coy Mistress.
It a poem about this bloke trying to get it on with this girl.
He flatters her then explains how he would admire her forever if they had time.
He goes on to say they don't have time, and subsequently she should give him her virginity or she will grow old and only worms will penetrate her in the grave.
Then he pretty much asks if she fancies a shag.
So we had to give a presentation about it.

So I dressed up as Miss Lauder and we had a mask and Diet Coke.
Then we proceeded to act out a normal lesson.
It was great, got lots of laughs and we got the content and analysis across well.

India
It is only 7 weeks til i'm away to India for a month.
Can't wait.

The shades/pen incident
Maths.
Gotta love it.
I had my shades on the desk.
I could see Ali next to me in the reflection.
I drew a moustache on his face. Well, actually on my sunglasses. But it looked like it was on his face. I used pencil.
Ali drew on my reflection. With pen.
I get really annoyed when they get smudges on them.
But I needed the pen off.
But I couldn't wipe it without making a smudge.
So I licked it.
The pen came off my shades.
Onto my tongue.
I couldn't leave it there.
It looked silly.
So I tried for ages to get it off by rubbing my tongue on my finger.
Then I used a paper tissue. But that fell apart in my mouth.
Not cool.
Well, it eventually came off.

Pasta King
All hail the Pasta King!
It is a new facility in the school canteen.
I'm not sure what it does.
But they serve pasta there.
And it has a cool name and logo.
But not cool enough.
I made posters to try and enhance the image of the Pasta King.
I plan to stick them up in the hall next week.
There are:

Pa$ta Bling.
Pasta Spring.
Pasta Ring.
Pasta Wing.
Pasta King Kong.
Pasta Ping Pong.
Pasta Regal Institute of Cooking Kings (P.R.I.C.K)

And so on.
I made a drawing mimicking the logo for each of them.
Wait and see when they are up in the hall.



So that pretty much concludes this update.
But I leave you with a piece of advice.
Never, ever, give yourself a 99 in Chemistry. You won't get sympathy. Also, don't go and ask Diane for a long weight.
Later skaters,
T
LinkHmmm...2 dances...Aye?

This is gonna be 10 times better than everyone else's... [Apr. 18th, 2007|10:14 pm]
I'll Give 10 answers.
100% Honest.
That's all you get.
You get to ask me 10 questions.
Comment
ONLY 10 questions

Conditions: I won't tell ANYONE what you asked me and I'll answer it honestly. You cant tell ANYONE what you asked me and what my answer was.

Comments screened
LinkHmmm...Aye?

Dr Who. [Apr. 14th, 2007|09:27 pm]
Right guys,

Just watched Dr Who and Dr Who Confidential.

Won't give anything away, and don't expect a review or anything, the twins and Mary are much bigger fans than me anyway.

I have a prediction.

I have foreseen that the Dr is somehow connected to the Daleks. Somehow they share DNA or something funky like that.

The thing that gave it away was what the Face of Boa said.

You heard it here first!
T
LinkHmmm...3 dances...Aye?

meme like [Apr. 9th, 2007|11:04 am]
1. Can you cook?
2. What was your dream growing up?
3. What talent do you wish you had?
4. Favorite place?
5. Favorite vegetable?
6. What was the last book you read?
7. What zodiac sign are you?
8. Any Tattoos and/or Piercings?
9. Worst Habit?
10. Do we know each other outside of Livejournal?
11. What is your favorite sport?
12. Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?
13. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
14. Worst thing to ever happen to you?
15. Tell me one weird fact about you:
16. Do you have any pets?
17. Do you know how to do the Macarena?
18. What time is it where you are now?
19. Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
20. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
21. Would you be my partner in crime or my conscience?
22. What color eyes do you have?
23. Ever been arrested?
24. Bottle or Draft?
25. If you won $10,000 dollars today, what would you do with it?
26. What kind of bubble gum do you prefer to chew?
27. What's your favorite bar to hang at?
28. Do you believe in ghosts?
29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
30. Do you swear a lot?
31. Biggest pet peeve?
32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?
33. In one word, how would you describe me?
34. Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?
LinkHmmm...3 dances...Aye?

Alright. [Apr. 6th, 2007|04:41 pm]
[Where am I? |Loch Ness]
[Feeling a little bit... | busy]
[The beat moving my feet |The Smiths- Asleep]

Holidays and all.
Aye.
Did some revision.
Been to the cinema twice.
Cycled to Kiltarlity and back.
Got on the wrong bus.
Ate a whole chocolate cake.
Walked up a big hill.
Had an awkward silence.
Played table tennis.
Played pool.
Spent all my money and had to break into my commemorative coins.
Bought an MP3 player from Tesco for £4.97.
Saw 'ot 'uzz.
Saw Mr Bean's Holiday.
Bloody funny.
Been to pizza hut twice.
Had a waiter called Kyle who was homosexual. (Remind you of anyone?:P)
Sold a £1 football for £4.
Sung. Sang. One of them.
Lost my shades.
Found my shades.
Found a really old pair of shades.
Got 100% in a maths past paper.
Learned my poems a bit more.
Tidied my room a bit.
Shot at a rabbit.
Missed a rabbit.
Been running.
Laughed.
Had a huge lie in until tea time the next day.
Wrote a tendership proposal.
Smiled.
Did some more stuff as well.

Meme.
You start at 100%. Lose a point for each one you have done.

1.Smoked.
2.Drank alcohol.
3.Cried when someone died.
4.Been drunk.
5.Had sex.
6.Been to a concert.
7.Given a handjob/gotten a handjob.
8.Given a blowjob/gotten a blowjob.
9.Been verbally sexually harassed.
10.Verbally sexually harassed somebody.

PERCENTAGE SO FAR: 97%

11.Felt someone up and/or been felt up.
12.Laughed so hard something came out of your nose.
13.Cheated on a boyfriend/girlfriend before.
14.Been cheated on by a boyfriend/girlfriend.
15.Been to prom.
16.Cried at school.
17.Gotten lost in a WalMart or a department store.
18.Went streaking.
19.Given or receieved a lap dance.
20.Had someone of the opposite sex in your room.

PERCENTAGE SO FAR: 91%

21.Had someone of the opposite sex sleep over.
22.Slept over at someone of the opposite sex's house.
23.Kissed a stranger.
24.Hugged a stranger.
25.Went scuba diving.
26.Driven a car.
27.Gotten an x-ray.
28.Hit by a car.
29.Had a party.
30.Done drugs.

PERCENTAGE SO FAR: 85%

31.Played strip poker.
32.Got paid to strip for someone.
33.Ran away from home.
34.Broken a bone.
35.Eaten sushi.
36.Bought porn.
37.Watched porn.
38.Made porn.
39.Had a crush on someone of the same sex.
40.Been in love.

PERCENTAGE SO FAR: 83%

41.French kissed.
42.Laughed so hard you cried.
43.Cried yourself to sleep.
44.Laughed yourself to sleep.
45.Stabbed yourself.
46.Shot a gun.
47.Trash talked someone and then acted like their best friend the next day.
48.Watched TV for 9 consecutive hours.
49.Been online for 9 consecutive hours.
50.Watched an animal die.

PERCENTAGE SO FAR: 74%

51.Watched a person die.
52.Kissed and/or messed around somewhere with at least 1 person present.
53.Pranked somebody.
54.Put somebody in the hospital.
55.Snuck into someone's room and/or your own room after being out.
56.Kissed somebody of the same sex.
57.Dressed punk.
58.Dressed goth.
59.Dressed preppy.
60.Been to a motocross race.

PERCENTAGE SO FAR: 68%

61.Avoided somebody.
62.Been stalked.
63.Stalked someone.
64.Met a celebrity.
65.Played an instrument.
66.Ridden a horse.
67.Cut yourself.
68.Bungee jumped.
69.Ding dong ditched somebody.
70.Been to a wild party.

PERCENTAGE SO FAR: 62%

71.Got caught stealing something.
72.Kicked a guy in the balls.
73.Stolen a boyfriend/girlfriend from a friend.
74.Went out with your friend's crush.
75.Got arrested.
76.Been pregnant.
77.Babysat.
78.Been to another country.
79.Started your house on fire.
80.Had an encounter with a ghost.

PERCENTAGE SO FAR: 58%

81.Donated your hair to cancer patients.
82.Been asked out by someone that you never thought you'd be asked out by.
83.Cried over a member of the opposite sex.
84.Had a boyfriend/girlfriend for over 3 months.
85.Sat on your ass all day.
86.Ate a whole carton of ice cream all by yourself.
87.Had a job.
88.Gotten cut from a sports team.
89.Been called a whore.
90.Danced like a whore.

PERCENTAGE SO FAR: 52%

91.Been mistaken for a celebrity.
92.Been in a car accident.
93.Been told you have beautiful eyes.
94.Been told you have beautiful hair.
95.Raped somebody.
96.Danced in the rain.
97.Been rejected.
98.Walked out of a restaurant without paying.
99.Punched someone/slapped someone in the face.
100.Been raped

PERCENTAGE : 48%
Aye.

Anyway.
Seriously guys you need to check out LP.
It's going really well.
4 songs and 4 members.
PLEASE MAKE THE COMMUNITY YOUR FRIEND!
Or at least check us out.
Many thanks.

Catch you on the flipside.
T
LinkHmmm...2 dances...Aye?

Woo [Mar. 20th, 2007|05:21 pm]
[Feeling a little bit... | blank]

Use the first letter of your username to answer each of the following.They must be real places, names, things, nothing made up! If you can't think of anything, skip it. Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same first initial. You can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.


Your Name: theflamehaired1

Famous Music artist/group: The Fall.

3 letter word: Top (of the morning to you). It was St.Patrick's day on Saturday.

Color: Tangerine.

Gifts/present: Tokens. For the unimaginative.

Vehicle: Tractor.

TV Show: Ten 'O' Clock News.

Country: The Netherlands

Boy Name: Tim. The small boy.

Girl Name: Toto. Like the dog from The Wizard of Oz.

Alcoholic drink: Tabasco. Or possibly Tequilla. I get them mixed up.

Occupation: The Boss.

Flower: Tree?

Celebrity: See Q1. Or perhaps The Queen.

Food: Toblerone.

Something found in a kitchen: Tea Bags.

Reason for Being Late: The traffic - terrible!

Something You Shout: Thanks. If you are speaking to someone deaf.

--
I only just found out that meme is pronounced ME ME. As in I I. But not quite. Fancy that!

Snow day yesterday! Was good. Got some serious sledging done.

Was off at a Cambridge/Oxford Uni open day in Glasgow last week.
Found it quite interesting. If I carry on with Maths, Cambridge is one of the best places in the world to do it at. Likewise Physics and Oxford. But you need to be uber brainy. 3 As in Advanced Highers. So I'll probably do Maths Physics and Chemistry next year. But I downloaded a sample entrance test and I could do about 80% of the questions, and a couple were on logs, which we are just starting now, so that was a nice thought. Then again, Edinburgh is much closer to home... and Ali* says I'll become a twat if I go to Oxbridge. And Miss Telford wants to know NOW where I'm going. Meh, it's only my future, why the rush?

Anyway, I'm offski to do the ever increasing pile of homework.

See you, wouldn't want to be you!

T.

By the way I made a bebo page for myself which you mught like to check out.
http://theflamehaired1.bebo.com

Laters.
LinkHmmm...1 dance...Aye?

(no subject) [Mar. 14th, 2007|05:33 pm]
[Feeling a little bit... | mischievous]

If I ever need to give an inspirational speech, it is likely I will plagerise this.

Read more... )

Part of me agrees with a lot of that stuff.
That's how I've been making any major life decisions so far: Is it fun?

Blah!
Really tired all the time at the moment, not sleeping so well.

Off to Glasgow tommorrow for a Cambridge/Oxford Uni open day.
Kind of scary to think about.
Hope I'm not totally out of my league. That would be depressing.

Anyway,
Laters,
T
LinkHmmm...1 dance...Aye?

Bread is Dangerous! [Mar. 14th, 2007|05:02 pm]
[Feeling a little bit... | worried]

Research on bread indicates that:

1. More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread users.
2. Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.
3. In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever, and influenza ravaged whole nations.
4. More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread.
5. Bread is made from a substance called "dough." It has been proven that as little as one pound of dough can be used to suffocate a mouse. The average American eats more bread than that in one month!
6. Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low incidence of cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, and osteoporosis.
7. Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water to eat begged for bread after as little as two days.
8. Bread is often a "gateway" food item, leading the user to "harder" items such as butter, jam, peanut butter, and even cold cuts.
9. Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.
10. Newborn babies can choke on bread.
11. Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 400 degrees Fahrenheit! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one minute.
12. Most bread eaters are utterly unable to distinguish between significant scientific fact and meaningless statistical babbling.


In light of these frightening statistics, it has been proposed that the following bread restrictions be made:

1. No sale of bread to minors.
2. A nationwide "Just Say No To Toast" campaign, complete celebrity TV spots and bumper stickers.
3. A 300 percent federal tax on all bread to pay for all the societal ills we might associate with bread.
4. No animal or human images, nor any primary colours (which may appeal to children) may be used to promote bread usage.
5. The establishment of "Bread-free" zones around schools.


It's true I tell you!
LinkHmmm...3 dances...Aye?

The Amata [Mar. 6th, 2007|10:28 pm]
[Where am I? |Loch Ness]
[Feeling a little bit... | artistic]
[The beat moving my feet |Silence.]

I wrote another song.
It's called The Amata.
It goes like this:

The Amata

Was it worth five deaths in just 400 days?
30 plus suicides put the world in a daze.
Hit by a plane and open for business on Monday,
What more is there to say?


Shreve, Lamb and Harmon I salute you,
Tell me a story or a hundred-and-two.
The chimp can eat his peach,
But up to heaven you still reach.

So it was hard times at first,
But you were out to quench your thirst.
Today you graze in pastures green,
Incomparilbe to where you've been.


Shreve, Lamb and Harmon I salute you,
Tell me a story or a hundred-and-two.
The chimp can eat his peach,
But up to heaven you still reach.

With your seven sisters all in love,
You became the symbolic dove.
Torré Latinoamericana's role model,
Live forever: immortal.


Shreve, Lamb and Harmon I salute you,
Tell me a story or a hundred-and-two.
The chimp can eat his peach,
But up to heaven you still reach.


There will be prizes for anyone who:
1. Works out the subject.
2. Understands the song. and
3. Produces the best analysis.

Cheers guys!
Tom/Les Pêches.
LinkHmmm...2 dances...Aye?

My thing I finally got round to doing for the newsletter. Comments please!! [Mar. 5th, 2007|08:47 pm]
It’s Not Rocket Science… Oh wait, yes it is! Tom Gallacher.

I’ve always been interested in space, so this January was a dream come true for me. I’d been selected to visit NASA through my participation of the Careers Scotland Space School. I met with 25 other enthusiastic, but very nervous 5th year pupils from all over Scotland at Glasgow airport as we prepared to fly out to Houston, Texas.

A twelve hour flight later, with everybody now well acquainted, we arrived in Houston and were shown to our luxurious hotel rooms.

Day two offered some team-building activities and some rest to compensate for the sleepless night before. The NASA young engineers were defeated 3 goals to 1 at a game of ‘soccer’ before we were whisked off to a pool-party at the house of two top scientists. In attendance were some famous astronauts like Nick Patrick and Mike Foale, and everyone was more than willing to take a dip in the outside pool.

Sunday was line dancing class, in preparation for our Scottish/Texan graduation dance the following week. After a lot of crushed toes, cries of yeehaa and cowboy hats, everybody was starting to get the hang of it. We then had a chance to speak to experts on space physiology (the study of the affects of space on the human body), a subject that I now find quite interesting. Afterwards it was away to a Challenger Center - a realistic mock-up of mission control where we facilitated a manned expedition to the Moon.

The following day was an early rise and a bus ride to Space Center Houston, where our space school was held. We were introduced to our leaders, split into our teams and told what we would be doing over the next week: running a mission to Mars. I was elected as our team leader and work on designing our rocket, rover, lander and lofter got underway. Monday evening was ‘geek night’ and involved meeting some of the world’s top researchers in various fields. We were able to pick the brains of geologists, physiologists, astronomers, engineers, flight surgeons, mathematicians, astrophysicists, chemists, rocket scientists and a huge number of other experts in an informal and relaxed atmosphere.

On Tuesday we were privileged enough to have VIP tours around the Johnson Space Center. We had shots on the shuttle simulator (yes, I landed safely - eventually), tried on some space suits and saw some really advanced technologies, for example a small device which flies around the exterior of the shuttle orbiter, monitoring for damage, and a huge robotic arm which manoeuvres around the International Space Station to install new components. In the evening we donned kilts or dresses and headed to the British Consul General’s residence for a formal reception.

Wednesday provided another chance to work on our project and the testing of our rovers started. Each team also gave a presentation related to their project and ours was very successful. In the afternoon we saw the Neutral Buoyancy Lab - the world’s largest swimming pool - where astronauts train under simulated micro-gravity conditions with a full-sized replica space station. Then we were driven to a large field. Immediately our attention was grabbed by a huge section of a rocket pointed skywards. But the immense scale of this section was nothing to what we were to see next. We were escorted to a gigantic hanger which housed a Saturn V rocket. This is the type of rocket which the Apollo missions to the moon used and I was in awe of not just the sheer size but the intricacy of this feat of engineering. At night we visited a real Texan cowboy saloon, complete with barn doors, spurs and lassoes, pool tables and redneck bar fights. Well, perhaps not real cowboy brawls, but certainly real cowboys.

Thursday was the highlight of my week. In the morning we put our finishing touches to our Mars lander in preparation for the following day. Later, astronaut Bob Cabana - famous for piloting and subsequently commanding five shuttle missions; and for successfully joining the first American to the first Russian space station module – spoke to the group and took time out of his busy schedule to have lunch with us. The man was truly an inspirational figure. But it gets better. That evening we were given a speech by Nick Patrick, a British-born astronaut, about his mission, which had landed just three weeks earlier. He then gave us a tour around mission control and we saw the International Space Station control room in action as a change in shift happened somewhere above our heads. Then, we were taken into the actual Apollo mission control room, and were able to sit in the same seats and look at the same screens so many great men of the past had done. And that wasn’t all. In walks Gene Kranz: the man in the white waistcoat, flight director for 9 Apollo missions, including 11 (which put the first men on the moon) and 13 (the “successful failure”), a man whose charisma held the room in an electric atmosphere while he told us several of his stories and talked of his time at NASA. He signed his book for us all and offered some words of wisdom before we watched the Apollo 13 film on the mission control screens. To see Tom Hanks and co looking out at us from a replica of the very room we were sitting in enhanced the experience and made our imaginations wander and we pondered over the fantastic things achieved from where we were now seated. Meeting Gene Kranz is a memory I treasure and don’t intend to forget; for want of a better expression - it was really cool.

Friday was the big day as far as our mission was concerned. First off was our rocket. Ours shot off into the clouds and was never seen again, perhaps it’s still orbiting Earth. We were in the lead after round one. Next we had to land our rover on the surface of Mars. Our balloons, bin bag parachutes and bubble wrap weren’t enough to protect our ‘rover’ and it was smashed. It would be hard to come back from such a costly failure but team morale was high moving into the third test. Our rover, nicknamed Nessie, was all set for an obstacle course where we would have to identify and collect rock samples. Unfortunately, our wheels fell off and the remote controlled buggy was rendered useless. All that was left for us to do was hope that our lofting project went well. We were to take our rock samples back to our orbiting rocket from the surface of Mars. Using lots of string and balloons we eventually lifted our pieces. We considered our presentations and projects and wondered if we had done enough to snatch victory from the other teams. The suspense would have to wait for another day while we had an evening chatting to spacemen, scientists and engineers.

Saturday saw us immerse ourselves in American culture and take a trip to the mall. But the evening was what everyone was looking forward to. Only one question plagued our mind as we dressed up in a bizarre kilt/cowboy-hat combination: who had won? And we were soon to find out. Nick Patrick, an astronaut we now knew fairly well presented the individual awards and finally the winning team was announced. I thought I would have been disappointed at the news that our team didn’t win; but I wasn’t in the slightest. Everybody congratulated everyone else and realised this would be our last night together as a group. The sadness of leaving our friends was quickly overshadowed by country western and Scottish dancing into the small hours of Sunday, only a few short hours away from our return flight home.

It is only now I once again have my feet on the ground and am away from the stars (excuse the pun) that I fully appreciate the intensive trip. It has given me inspiration in my career planning, enthused me to learn more about science, maths and space and allowed me to meet some truly great people. I feel privileged to have been given this opportunity and would like to thank Mr Miller and Careers Scotland and can leave you with the immortal words: Mission Accomplished!
LinkHmmm...2 dances...Aye?

Eclipse! [Mar. 4th, 2007|01:25 pm]
[Where am I? |Loch Ness]
[Feeling a little bit... | sleepy]
[The beat moving my feet |Franz Ferdinand- Outsiders (Live @Rio)]

There was an eclipse last night.

I was in town at Sean's 18th birthday party and we all went outside to watch it.
It started about 9:25.

It was a Lunar Eclipse by the way, much less exciting than a solar eclipse but cool all the same.

The Solar Eclipse is when the moon gets in the way of the sun.
I went down to Plymouth when I was younger to see the last one.
It was uber-impressive.

But last night was a Lunar Eclipse.
That means we get in between the sun and the moon and our shadow covers up the moon.

From where & when I was watching it didn't disappear completely but I might just not have stayed up long enough.

To start with the moon was normal.
Then the bottom left went dark.
And slowly but steadily the shadow covered up the moon.
When about 3/4 of the moon was covered it started to go red.

Kirsten MacDonald and I gave a physics lesson out on the street. I was the Earth and ran around Sean's little sister while spinning. Kirsten jumped around me as I went round. We stopped when we were all aligned (Sun, Earth, Moon/ Rhiann, Me, Kirsten.) to show why the moon was going dark.

We think it went red because red light has a higher wavelength and so diffracts more, bending around the Earth and shinning on the mooon(blue light can't do that due to small wavelength and less diffraction; hence moon goes red.). But we weren't sure about that.

There are lots of photos on the internet.
Here is the best collection I have seen:
03/03/07Lunar Eclipse

Tom
LinkHmmm...5 dances...Aye?

Blah [Feb. 25th, 2007|07:04 pm]
[Where am I? |Loch Ness]
[Feeling a little bit... | blah]
[The beat moving my feet |The Doors - Love Me Two Times]

Guess who finallllllllllllllly finished thier Personal Study?
Me! Yay!
Urgh took forever.

Was at the football this morning. :(
Not cool.
Caley deserved to win. 2 goals from them in the last 3 minutes.

I see there is a memé going about; will fill it out at some point.

Smell ya'l later.
T
LinkHmmm...22 dances...Aye?

(no subject) [Feb. 22nd, 2007|05:59 pm]
[Where am I? |Abriachan]
[The beat moving my feet |Les Peches]

CHECK THIS OUT
I'm off to try it out looks groovy.
LinkHmmm...Aye?

Today... [Feb. 22nd, 2007|04:54 pm]
[Where am I? |Loch Ness]
[Feeling a little bit... | contemplative]
[The beat moving my feet |You Made Me Like It- 1990s]

Today was Thursday.

Today I nearly missed the bus.

Today I found out I got 19/20 in the multiple choice section of the physics test.
Today I found out I got an A in the Maths test.
Today I was disappointed.
Today I realised I could have done better.
Today I realised I should try harder.
Today I decided to put in the extra effort from now on.

Today I was confused.
Today I understood.
Today I felt conflicted.

Today I banged my elbow.
Today I hurt.
Today I felt better.

Today I wrote.
Today I broke my pencil.
Today I used a pen.

Today I thought about it all.
Today I considered everything.
Today I decided.

Today was Thursday.


Tomorrow is Friday.
And I can't wait.
LinkHmmm...8 dances...Aye?

Les Pêches and Space Camp. [Feb. 21st, 2007|04:46 pm]
[Where am I? |Abriachan]
[Feeling a little bit... | nerdy]
[The beat moving my feet |Ruby- Kaiser Chiefs]

Right Guys.
Imagine this:
Kyle and Me.
In a band.
Playing music.
Having a laugh.
Imagine...
Les Pêches.
We made a LiveJournal, you can find it here:
Les Pêches
The User Info is under construction, but you can find out more about the project there.
Hopefully we will continue to post songs as and when they are invented.
Kyle wrote one yesterday called Miss Summer so I'm sure it'll be up shortly.
Feel free to friend us and post advice, criticism and praise.
Many Thanks.

Moving on...
Physics exam today.
Aced it. Hopefully.
Had no problems in answering any of the questions at least. Then again, I said a similar thing with Chemistry. But I revised for Physics and not Chemistry. Which I now regret and am inspired to do more hardcore revision.

Caley vs. Celtic in the cup on Sunday.
Can't wait.
Hopefully lots of programmes to sell and lots of money to be made.
Undoubtedly the biggest game of the season for us.
The league has pretty much been decided already, we're destined for a lower 6 finish.
So the cup should be good.
Hopefully I'll get my normal seat with folk from school this time and not away in a rubbish part of the stand surrounded by Invernesian Celtic supporters. Grr.

Anyway...
Last examo on Friday: Accounting.
Shouldn't be to hard, MrMcNee practically told us what's in the paper, which is nice.

Have to write a bit about my trip to NASA for the Charleston News tonight.
I won this competition run by Careers Scotland.
3000 folk entered and 26 of them (25 + me) go to NASA in Houston, Texas.
So I went in January with 25 people I'd never met before for 12 days.
Time of my life
It was really pretty damn cool.
We met spacemen and scientists and engineers.
We got VIP tours round NASA's top secret labs.
We got to speak to some of the world's top experts in their field.
Inspiring.
Some of the highlights for me were:
Watching the Apollo 13 film... wait for it... In the actual Mission control room... wait for it... with Gene Kranz. He is the man in the white waistcoat. He talked to us and we asked questions and he signed his autobiography for me. And then we watched the film and saw Tom Hanks et al. looking out at us from a replica of the very room we were sitting in. Absolutely mind blowing.
One day we saw some rockets. There was this huge hanger and outside there was these phenomenally sized machines. To think that they were designed to be in space just took my breath away.
And then we went inside the hanger.
WOW
It was a Saturn V rocket (what they used for the Apollo missions) and words can't describe the awe I was in. This thing was massive.
I was one of 3 team leaders. My team was the blue team. We were the best.
Our team had the most fun (we through our own parties) and the most creative and inventive.
But we were also the unluckiest (eg our Mars Rover's wheels fell off). But the leader guy said to us that we were the best team he ever met. And he promised he didn't say that to everyone.
Our rocket was mental though. It went into the clouds and landed a million miles away.
We had lunch with one of the most famous astronauts of all time: Bob Cabana. I sat opposite him and he said something very inspirational to me. I'll remember it forever.
We got a talk from Nick Patrick, a British born astronaut who landed 3 weeks earlier having been on a mission to the ISS.
I want to be a Space man now. But I can't be.:(
You see, the UK doesn't support the Human Exploration section of the ESA. Which smells.
Because now if you are British you can't be a spaceman. You have to get citizenship from a country (like USA) to fly in space.
But hopefully that will change soon.
If you would like to check out what I was doing you can watch a video log on the Careers Scotland website, have a link:
Space Camp Video Log
Please have a look, you can smell me singing! Perhaps that isn't an incentive though...?

Bye for now,
Tom
LinkHmmm...4 dances...Aye?

meme [Feb. 19th, 2007|08:30 pm]
[Where am I? |Loch Ness]
[Feeling a little bit... | contemplative]
[The beat moving my feet |The Flaming Lips- Waitin' for a Superman]

Righto. Doing this means I don't have to spend time revising.
So here we go....


1. Who are you? Tom Gallacher.

2. What are the 3 most important things everyone should know about you? 1. Tom Gallacher. 2. Tom Gallacher. 3.... Tom Gallacher.

3. When you aren't filling out 5,000 question surveys like this one what are you doing? As much as possible. I'm quite active. Involved a lot with school stuff. And sport and stuff. Worship, obviously. And having fun.

4. List your classes in school from the ones you like the most to the ones you like the least (or if you are out of school, think of the classes you did like and didn't like at the time).
Maths, Physics, Accounting, Chemistry, English.

5. What is your biggest goal for this year? Have a blast.

6. Where do you want to be in 5 years? That's... 2012. So, out of uni and already a millionaire.

7. What stage of life are you in right now? Teenage.

8. Are you more child-like or childish? Eh, aren't they the same? Well I'm not exactly the most mature...

9. What is the last thing you said out loud? "La la la la, la la la la, la la la la, la lala la." Singing 40feet. Or laughter, does that count?

10. What song comes closest to how you feel about your life right now? "You could have it so much better" if you revised.

11. Have you ever taken martial arts classes? Yup, Judo.

12. Does your life tend to get better or worse or does it just stay the same? Better every day.

13. Does time really heal all wounds? No. We have to want them to heal.

14. How do you handle a rainy day? Go outside and dance in it. Or at least get muddy having a cycle or something.

15. Which is worse...losing your luggage or having to sort out tangled holiday lights? Luggage.

16. How is your relationship with your parents? Alright.

Will you miss them when they are gone? Well, they're out shopping at the moment...

17. Do you tend to be aware of what is going on around you? Sometimes I get totally drawn into something; a good read, maths problem, music but otherwise yup.

18. What is the truest thing that you know? Up is that way.^

19. What did you want to be when you grew up? Footballer, doctor, magician, spaceman, merchant banker, politician, now spaceman again.

20. Have you ever been given a second chance? Yes. And I appreciate it.

21. Are you more of a giver or a taker? Bit of both.

22. Do you make your decisions with an open heart/mind? Think so.

23. What is the most physically painful thing that has ever happened to you? It happened at a ceilidh, and it involved a trip to Raigmore... but I don't talk about that.

24. What is the most emotionally painful thing that has ever happened to you? CraigyH told me to shut up today. :(

25. Who have you hugged today? Nobody.

26. Who has done something today to show they care about you? Lots of folk.

27. Do you have a lot to learn? Yup and I can't wait to learn it all.

28. If you could learn how to do three things just by wishing and not by working what would they be?

A Get a photographic memory.

B Get fitter.

C Pass everything. Or learn an instrument. Or a language.

29. Which do you remember the longest: what other people say, what other people do or how other people make you feel? Em, don't really care all that much what other people do as long as everything is good.

30. What are the key ingredients to having a good relationship? Fun.

31. What 3 things do you want to do before you die?

A Have a good time.

B ""
C ""


32. What three things would you want to die to avoid doing?

A Don't think there's anything. But I really HATE vinegar.

B

C


33. Is there a cause you believe in more than any other cause? Not really.

34. What does each decade make you think of:


The 19..

20's: The Great Gatsby

30's: Birth of CraigyH

40's: The War

50's: Half Way.

60's: The Moon

70's: This is a bit of a blank for me.

80's: "

90's: Being born.

2000 (so far): Life.

2010's: ?


35. Which decade do you feel the most special connection to and why? 2000s. Can't remember all of any of the others.

36. What is your favorite oldie/classic rock song? The Passenger- Iggy Pop

37. What country do you live in and who is the leader of that country? Scotland - Technically the Queen. I think.

If you could say any sentence to the current leader of your country what would it be? No burning desire for a chat with El Queeno but I'd say "Arite Danny?" to Mr Alexander, my MP.

38. What's your favorite TV channel to watch in the middle of the night? ITV3 usually helps me get to sleep.

39. What Disney villain are you the most like and why? Nah I'm a hero.

40. Have you ever been a girl scout/boy scout? Yup

41. If you were traveling to another continent would you rather fly or take a boat? I love flying.

42. Why is the sky blue during the day and black at night? At night there is not much light coming in from the other stars so it is dark. During the day the dust and molecules in our air scatter the light from the sun. The size of the dust and molecules is just the right size to scatter the blue light and lets the red pass through. This is why the sky at at sun set is redder and the daytime sky is blue. Yes, that is what google told me.

43. What does your name mean? Twin

44. Would you rather explore the deeps of the ocean or outer space? Do you have to ask? SPACE!!!

45. Word association

What is the first word that comes to mind when you see the word:

Air: Invisible

Meat: Animals

Different: Differentiate

Pink: Sheila's Wheels

Deserve: Prizes

White: Power

Elvis: Jonny Cash

Magic: GOB

Heart: less than three.

Clash: Gogol Bordello

Pulp: Fiction


46. If you could meet any person in the world who is dead who would you want it to be? Richard Feynman.

47. What if you could meet anyone who is alive? Myself, as someone else sees me.

48. Is there a movie that you love so much you could watch it everyday? Space Jam, Apollo 13, loads more.

49. You are going to be stuck alone in an elevator for a week. What do you bring to do? Apart from stuff to survive, a pillow. And loads of maths problems to solve.

50. Have you ever saved someone's life or had your life saved? Yeah was really quite scary. Funny looking back on, but scary at the time. Hermano fell through a glass door and lacerated himself. Mega blood. So I did all the first aid stuff and pushed on all his cuts and stuff. He probably would have lived actually, the ambulance came pretty quick. But I like to think I helped. Had nightmares for weeks after that happened. Yuk. My most vivid memory is his lower lip flapping about only being held on at one side and as he screamed it vibrated and sprayed blood everywhere. And I could see his bone through a hole in his knee with a shard of glass sticking out of it. Never been saved myself thankfully.

51. Why did you add this question?
Because I didn't want to finish on a morbid subject.

52. Why did you add this question?
Because I didn't want to finish with a stupid question.

53. Interesting fact.
The 20Pee coin is the only British coin on which the writing sticks into and not out of.

Finished!

Do I have to go and revise now? A few more minutes online won't hurt anyone...

Just found this problem:

A cow is tied to a fencepost which is the circumference of a circular field.
How long will the rope need to be (as a percentage of the radius) for the cow to be able to eat half of the grass within the field? What a stinker. Will update with answer upon conclusion... Please don't hold breath!

Anyway I better be offski.
Smell you later,
Tom
LinkHmmm...4 dances...Aye?

Userpics! [Feb. 15th, 2007|07:43 pm]
[Feeling a little bit... | artistic]

Woo!
In the true spirit of getting a plus account (I don't think the adverts spoil it much), I've gone and uploaded loads of user pictures.
I will comment this post and let you smell them all.
Some are stolen from folk.
Feel free to steal any of them.
That way I don't feel so bad.
Tom
LinkHmmm...15 dances...Aye?

(no subject) [Feb. 15th, 2007|05:56 pm]
[Feeling a little bit... | surprised]

What's this?
A second post in two consecutive day?
Yes I really am trying to avoid revision keep you up to date.

Chemistry today.
Not bad.

Thought NH4Cl was an alkali.
Woops.
Forgot Alkaline stuff has pH>7. So wrote the opposite of what I meant.
Phew.
Lucky escape there.

Apart from that it was OK.
So quite pleased.

But nobody is giving us work to do in class, assuming we want to revise for other prelims.
WELL I DON'T! So when not sitting in the hall I was generally doing not a lot today. But a nice wee maths problem. Mrs Milno said I was a better mathematician than her. It's probably because I use http://www.mystickers.co.uk
If you don't know what that is, wake up, get with it, My-Stickers-Dot-Coe-Dot-You-Kay is the latest trend.

Basically, if you do REALLY well in maths then you get stickers.
And once you get lots of stickers you get a postcard sent home.
On the postcard is a code!
You go to http://www.mystickers.co.uk and make an account.
Once you have your account, you make a miniature of yourself. It's cool.
This is where it gets exciting.
Then you enter in your codes.
Codes give you points.
Points unlock games for you to play.
And of course.... POINTS MEAN PRIZES!
You can win iPods, DSs, PSPs (And they're amazing, Craigy H has one) and "much, much more", or so the poster tells me.
What an initiative, really motivating me to revise.

That just reminded me.
Of Him.
The Big Man.
You know who I mean.
It starts with a "C" and ends in an "yH".
He sat next to me in private study the other day.
Ben and Ali* were there too.
We were blessed with his presence.
He was telling us all about... (It helps if you imagine him saying it in his beautiful voice)

Ma nana'sh neuw hamshtar caje, like.
It'sh gotta wheel an' al', like.
I was down tha copey tha o'er day, like, an' i got these neuw contact lenshes, like.
Ya dont even ha' ta take 'em out a' nightsh.
An' I'm shtill down a' my work
(The Inverness Botanic Gardens and Floral Hall Tea Room)
In fac', onlee yeshderday I wish there for a wee whiley, like.
An' I 'hink I'll pro'lly be back taMORO.


This went on for fifty-bloody-five minutes.
Well not really because the hard man left early without even saying bye to the invigilators. That's hard.

At one point he was telling Ali* how he thought he resembled BBC's Top Gear's James May. He said, it must be true.
Well someone said that Craig looked like "the big one".
" Wot? Germany Clarkshon? Like?"
To which, both Ali* and I, in perfect time replied:
"No, God."
It was a need to be there moment.
I could hardly contain my laughter.

Especially when we were making subtle hints at his "low academic intelligence".
He said something about a book he was reading, can't remember what, Noddy goes to Toytown or something.
I asked if he could read now but only Ben heard and burst out laughing and got a dirty look from Mrs McNee.

Bless his little Albino heart.

Righto that'll do for today.
Smell you later.
Tom
LinkHmmm...2 dances...Aye?

Update [Feb. 14th, 2007|05:25 pm]
[Feeling a little bit... | quixotic]

Right guys,

I just realised I've not posted anything here for well ages.
And a lot has happened since September.
So instead of keeping you up to speed on it all, we're going to start with a clean slate, a new leaf.

Today was prelim time.
English today.
Was - as they say- bricking it this morning.
But, inevitably, it never goes that bad.
In fact, the Close Reading was fairly easy. And my essays were not bad a t all and I remembered well loads of quotes.
So wooo.
Go Tom.
One slight problem though.
In one of my essays.
About an Iain Chrichton smith Poem "Old Woman".


Consider the line:

"Her husband held her upright"

I certainly considered it.
So much so I quoted it.
And proceeded to forget its significance.
So, not wanting to waste time in the heat of the exam I wrote some gibberish.
It came out like this:

The 'H' sounds remind the reader of a baby laughing (he he he).
This suggests the poet is likening the old woman to a baby.
Hence Chrichton Smith is emphasising the dependency of the lady on her husband.


In reflection, it was a rather silly thing to write, but at the time I thought I was genius. It is pretty deep.

So anyway, Valentine's Day today. Party.
I got inundated with cards. All 7 of them. Including 1 from God (although Ali* might have written it) and 1 from my Granny. Yay. And I gave out a couple too.

So anyway, Chemistry tomorrow and maths on Friday. Maths should be lemon squeezee. Chemistry, I think might be a little harder but that's my own fault for not revising. Unless MrsGarrow is reading this in which case that sentence reads:
Chemistry, I think might be a little harder but that's my own fault for over-revising.

Anyway, that'll do for now.
And I'll try keep y'all updated better in teh future.

Tom
LinkHmmm...4 dances...Aye?

(no subject) [Sep. 6th, 2006|08:36 pm]
I stole this from ali*

Put your music player on “random,” and write down your favorite line from the first 25 -wait, 10, it'll be quicker- songs to come up. Then let everyone on your friends list try to name them. Google is cheating.

1. He stopped eating cakes but only because he ran out of cakes.
2. Hey you with the pretty face, welcome to the human race.
3. Let's go eskimo (the artist has to be guesssed too!)
4. We're living together, but time still goes on.
5. Nanananasnanananananananana. (that's an easy one)
6. Look at the pigeon, now it's in two!
7. There's.....
8. WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
9. You-all-ready-for-this?
10. What's that coming **** *** ****, is it * *******? (Some words have been blanked out to make it harder!)


Happy guessing
Tom
LinkHmmm...6 dances...Aye?

(no subject) [Aug. 3rd, 2006|11:29 pm]
ANYBODY UNDER THE AGE OF 13 SHOULD NOT RE-POST THIS.

JUST CAUSE YOU WERE BORN IN '93' OR '94' DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE A 90s KID. IT'S NOT LIKE YOU COULD REMEMBER SOME OF THE ORIGINAL SIMPSONS.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE A 90s KID IF...

YOU CAN SING THE RAP TO "THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL AIR"

YOU'VE WORN LEGGINGS AND FELT COOL.

YOU REMEMBER WHEN IT WAS ACTUALLY WORTH GETTING UP ON A SATURDAY MORNING TO WATCH LIVE & KICKING OR SM:TV.

YOU HAD A HUGE FRINGE AT SOME POINT IN YOUR CHILDHOOD.

YOU REMEMBER READING AND WATCHING "GOOSEBUMPS"

YOU TOOK PLASTIC CARTOON LUNCH BOXES TO SCHOOL.

YOU REMEMBER THE CRAZE OF YO-YOS AND TAMAGOTCHIS

YOU STILL GET THE URGE TO SAY "NOT" AFTER EVERY SENTENCE. NOT.

YOU KNEW THAT KIMBERLY, THE PINK RANGER, AND TOMMY, THE GREEN RANGER WERE MEANT TO BE. <3

YOU COLLECTED POKEMON CARDS.

YOU PLAYED AND/OR COLLECTED POGS.

YOU HAD A WEIRD ALIEN THAT LIVED IN GOOEY STUFF IN A PLASTIC 'POD' AND THOUGHT IF YOU STUCK 2 BACK TO BACK THEY WOULD HAVE A BABY!

YOU WATCHED THE ORIGINAL POSTMAN PAT, FIREMAN SAM AND NINJA TURTLES.

YOU REMEMBER WHEN THE NEW BEANIE BABIES WERE ALWAYS SOLD OUT

YOU GOT YOUR MUM TO BUY 'BN' BISCUITS

YOU USED TO WEAR THOSE STICK ON EARRINGS, NOT ONLY ON YOUR EARS BUT AT THE CORNERS OF YOUR EYES.

YOU KNOW THE MACERENA BY HEART.

"TALK TO THE HAND" ENOUGH SAID.

YOU REMEMBER THE TIME BEFORE LITERACY AND NUMERACY HOUR EXISTED.

YOU THOUGHT BRAIN FROM "PINKEY AND THE BRAIN" WOULD FINALLY TAKE OVER THE WORLD.

YOU REMEMBER BUM BAGS.

YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO BE ON FUN HOUSE

YOU COLLECTED TAZOS.

2 WORDS, SPICE GIRLS.

RE-POST THIS IF YOU ARE A BRITISH 90s KID AND CAN RELATE TO ANY OF THESE
LinkHmmm...Aye?

(no subject) [Aug. 3rd, 2006|10:05 pm]
1. Age:
2. Single or Taken:
3. Favorite Movie:
4. Favorite Song:
5. Favorite Band/Rapper/Artist:
6. Dirty or Clean:
7. Tattoos and/or Piercings:

HERE COMES THE FUN ... ... ...

1. Do we know each other outside of Livejournal?
2. What's your philosophy on life?
3. Would you have my back in a fight?
4. Would you keep a secret from me if you thought it was in my best interest?
5. What is your favorite memory of us?
6. Would you give me a kidney?
7. Tell me one odd/interesting fact about you:
8. Would you take care of me when I'm sick?
9. Can we get together and make a cake?
10. Have you heard any rumors of me lately?
11. Do you/have you talk(ed) crap about me?
12. Do you think I'm a good person?
13. Would you drive across country with me?
14. Do you think I'm attractive?
15. If you could change anything about me, would you?
16. What do you wear to sleep?
17. Would you come over for no reason just to hang out?
18. Would you go on a date with me if I asked you?
19. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together?
20. Will you post this so I can fill it out for you?
LinkHmmm...6 dances...Aye?

Peach of the Breece [Apr. 4th, 2006|09:48 am]
[Feeling a little bit... | aggravated]

Hello All


We (Buddha, Ali*, Stuart, P.F. and I) were in town. Buddha dropped a penny. Someone picked it up. We laughed.


And then our plan was hatched...


I got change of 50p in copper coins - try specsavers; they are the only shop on the street with subway on it that would give me change, bless them. We lay them out in a line across the street. We recorded the results:


52.5% (approx.) just walked past and didn't notice/ignored the coins.
About 40% kicked the coins about or laughed at us, GRR.
But around 10% bent down and picked up the coppers.


With one particular group of people who were picking them up, as they straightened up we would roll another coin in front of them. This was quite funny as they bent over having just stood up again.


Well, we were midway through the observation phase when someone placed their hand firmly on my shoulder. I turned round. It was a small bald man. He took out his wallet. I presumed he wanted to give us some more coppers. But actually he WAS a copper. He showed me his police badge. All of a sudden he wasn't so small or bald. He was quite scary.

He said "as far as i am concerned, this is breech of the peace. get out of here now!!!"


I was shocked, nay, palpipherised by this bold statment. "Peach of the breece??!?!" i asked, stunned.


"GET OUT OF HERE NOW BEFORE I TAKE YOU ALL DOWN THE STATION!!!"


"ok..." i said, already walking away.


It's only now i realise what an actual Bad Man he was.


*Sigh*


Well, anyway...


Notice my good use of HTML courtesy of Highland Web Services

HOLIDAYS!!!
aka Study Leave...

Plenty of revision going on at the moment... hahahahahahahaha


So, Adios for now Amigos.
LinkHmmm...4 dances...Aye?

URGENT!!!!!!!!!!!! [Nov. 28th, 2005|04:29 pm]
[Feeling a little bit... |I HAD A HORSE ONCE!]

EVERYONE GO TO:


http://www.livejournal.com/community/ihadahorseonce


ALL WILL BE REVEALED SOON


TOM
LinkHmmm...4 dances...Aye?

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