I was given a small piece of homework for my Planning and Writing a Novel class, and that was to write up a childhood memory. As such, I thought that this would be the best place to write and post it. Though I must say before I start, that I’m not entirely sure that this ever happened. To clarify, this is a memory of something that I do believe happened, but since what happened is impossible, it must have happened differently in reality.
    When I was about four or five years old, there was somebody I knew, a male about fifteen years older than me, and I didn’t like him at all. I don’t even remember what he’d done wrong, but I certainly didn’t like him. Well, having said that, I don’t even remember disliking him, but I can quite clearly remember a conversation I had where I said that I disliked him and so I’m going by that.
    “Do you want to know who my enemy is?” I asked my Nan.
    “I don’t want to know about enemies!” she replied.
    And that’s all I remember of that conversation. I do have one memory of interacting with him though.
    I was playing with a ball by myself behind the flat that my family used to live in. It was a pretty quiet place and it was mainly used by vans and lorries which would come and make deliveries to the shops beneath the flats. I was by myself at first, but he came after a short while.
    “I bet I can throw that ball higher in the air than you,” he said, and being only a child, I couldn’t resist the challenge.
    I threw the ball up, and it went moderately high and then was pulled back down to the ground by gravity.
    He grabbed the ball and then said “Watch this.”
    He threw it upward and, unlike me, he didn’t seem to be limited to the laws of physics. The ball went up and up while I watched in awe. Before long it had gone so high that it could no longer be seen.
    “Will I ever get it back?” I asked.
    “No,” he said.
    And it turns out he was right. I never did see that ball again.
    Now, I imagine you’ll say ‘Well, of course it must have just been a dream that you mistook for a memory as years went by!’ which is a perfectly valid theory. But on the other hand, I can remember lots of times where I was at school around the same time, where I was trying to throw the ball into the air and get it to never come back. I can see myself mistaking a dream for reality after fifteen years (or however long it’s been) but after such a short period it seems unlikely. Unless, of course, me trying to throw it into the air was all a dream too?
    Also, it’s only now that I’ve come to write this up that I wonder to myself: why did I have a twenty year old enemy when I was five? Where would I even meet a twenty year old at that age? I suppose these are all things that’ll remain mysteries to me, still nice to think about, nonetheless!

(Also, today is Friday so don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show)

Relationship of Command is an album by a band called At the Drive-In. Their music isn’t the kind of thing I would normally come across, but Dalfino Madrigal Keyte asked me to review this album on here and so that is what today’s entry is. I haven’t reviewed an album before, but what I shall do is give my thoughts on each song individually.

1. Arcarsenal
This is a short, but very loud and intense piece of music which is sung in a shouty voice. It’s not bad, but, I don’t think it quite has the emotional engagement to make it particularly noteworthy. Rating: 6/10

2. Pattern Against User
This track is a little calmer than the last, and I think the instrumental side of it was very good. Sadly though, I didn’t think that the shouty voiced matched with this piece quite as well, and brought the quality of the track down a little. Still, just a touch above the first track. Rating: 7/10

3. One Armed Scissor
I think this song has something that the other two don’t; it’s quite catchy and you begin to remember the tune as it’s going along. I liked that. It has a very weird ending though, and while I did very much like this when I listened to it just now for the first time, I can imagine that being annoying if you’re just listening to several songs on your iPod or something like that. Rating: 7.5/10

4. Sleepwalk Capsules
While the other songs did all have a loud shouty voice, it was always at least slightly comprehensible. This time I could barely understand it, and this track was, for me, just an angry voice with loud music so I didn’t particularly enjoy it. Rating: 3/10

5. Invalid Litter Dept.
Instrumentally, this one is quite fine, it was an easy listen. But the lyrics for this song are very strange and morbid (‘dancing on the corpse’s ashes’) and while this isn’t always an issue with songs I felt that it was in this case as I kept wondering what on Earth the singer was talking about. Still, it’s probably best to ignore the lyrics while listening to this song and you’ll still probably enjoy it. Rating: 7.5/10

6. Mannequin Republic
I found this song to be rather generic. I really can’t think of anything else to say. Rating: 5/10

7. Enfilade
The opening to this song is very unusual and seems to be a bit of a homage to the Saw series of films. On the whole it was a rather atypical sounding piece of music, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I did, in fact, find it to be quite a curious listen. Rating: 7/10

8. Rolodex Propaganda
Nothing particularly special or enjoyable about this one. Rating: 4/10

9. Quarantined
This song features the lovely sound of a rainy storm, which is very nice, but sadly it ends quite close to the start. I must admit, the lead singer’s voice isn’t that appealing to me; there’s a fair bit of music before the lyrics start and I was a little disappointed when I realised there was no chance of it being an instrumental piece. A bit of an odd ending too. Rating: 7/10

10. Cosmonaut
This was another song which was just pretty generic and pretty forgettable. Rating: 5/10

11. Non-Zero Possibility
Finally, some variation! Even the weirder songs before this one sounded kind of samey, but this song is quite distinguishable from the rest. This album’s main problem is a lack of variety; it’s pretty much the same until this one, which is very different and very nice. Definitely the best on the album. Rating: 8.5/10

12. Extracurricular
A step down after the last song, but it’s not bad, especially when compared to some of the other tracks on this CD. There’s a certain despairing quality to this song which puts it just above most of the rest. Rating 7.6/10

13. Catacombs
Sadly the ending of this is nothing spectacular. It ends with a blip, rather than a bang, and the very ending has some very weird sounds. Rating: 6/10

In conclusion, it was alright. The kind of music that could be playing quietly in the background of a shop and I wouldn’t mind, but not really anything I’d choose to listen to and certainly not anything I’d pay for. The biggest flaws, for me, were the musician’s singing voice and the lack of variety. Average rating: 6.2/10

(The whole album is available for free here.)

Several weeks ago I headed to a cash machine to top up my phone. I did that, then headed home. It was a few days later that I realised my debit card was missing! I checked my online statement, and that top up had been the last time I’d used it. I was very confused, I had never lost a debit card before, and I had no idea where it could have gotten to. So I headed to the bank, explained the situation and a new card was sent to me a few days later.
    About a week or so later, I was relaxing at home when the phone rang. I answered and found that it was my Nan. She told me that a friend of her’s, who works at the local Co-Operative, had found my debit card and wanted me to come and pick it up. I thought it was quite funny, since I already had a replacement and I wondered how it had gotten there. So I asked her to tell the person who had found the card to destroy it, since I didn’t need it anymore.
    A couple of days later I was out in Bath and planning on buying some lunch. Before I did so, though, I wanted to check how much money was in my account because Student Finance was due to give me some money around that time. Sadly, I’d not be getting any lunch out that day; I opened my wallet and found that my debit card was missing. It seems I’d lost the second one too, and then ordered it destroyed just days afterward…
    Today the third one arrived and it looks much cooler than either of the other two! I hope it lasts a long time…