Ms. Muldoon

     Ms. Muldoon has been my English teacher for two years. For those two years I hated her.
     She had a seating plan for as long as we had her, meaning I never sat with Ruska. It wasn't that bad though because I was sitting beside a cool girl called Niamh, who I always talked with in English.
     Now, Ms. Muldoon is a really bad English teacher. English is meant to be creative however, she doesn't let us be creative with our answers. She gives us sample answers we have to learn and when correcting our work she changes what we want to say.
     Also, she has a tendency of repeating herself and cutting into people's sentences. For example, she would ask someone to read something and then would cut in and start talking while they're reading.
     Another thing, she is almost always late for class. Now, I'm not complaining but she shouldn't give out to us for being late when she is usually like ten minutes late. Once, she was half an hour late and class lasts forty minutes.
     Furthermore, she takes very long with correcting our work. We get work to do over night and she gives it back after like two weeks. Near the end of third year she was giving us back work from second year. She is very unorganized and quite forgetful.
     I could go on but I don't feel like ranting (I'll leave that for Ruska).
     Goodbye my munchkins,
     Your master, Weronika


     I like Ms Muldoon, I know she can't teach but I like her. She can be annoying, never letting me and Weronika sit beside each other and yes, she does limit our creativeness in class but as long as you go into the exam thinking 'she's never going to see this, I can write what I want' you'll be grand. She really likes W.B. Yeats, I find his stuff a bit dull. I don't even know why I like her, I could list all the bad things about her but I wouldn't be able to say what's good about her. Now the homework thing, that bugs me. We get given a two page essay to do in one or two nights, we expected back a few days later, we won't get it back for at least a month. I gave her a long poetry answer in mid April, I still don't have it back. I like the fact that she's never on time, its like a little catch up session for me and Weronika. The cutting through other people talk would annoy me if I hadn't learnt to ignore it because there are members of my family, who will remain unnamed, that do that quite a bit. That's basically my comments on what Weronika wrote, she didn't affect my school life all that much after all.
     Goodbye my munchkins,
     Ruska

Pump Up the Volume

     I think that 'Pump Up the Volume' is my favourite Christian Slater film. In it he plays an angsty teen, Mark Hunter, who is a bit of a loner and starts his own pirate radio show under the name 'Happy Harry Hard-On' where he basically confronts his ridiculously corrupt school and starts a bit of a rebellion against it. Of course there's a nice little love story fit in there. It's a really good movie and if you don't mind getting 'Everybody Knows' stuck in your head for a few days you should definitely watch it. Actually I don't care if you don't want it stuck in your head. GO WATCH IT. IT IS AMAZING.
     Goodbye my munchkins,
     Ruska

Star Trek Into Darkness

       I went to the cinema to see the new Star Trek movie with my dad, he was really excited cos he's a bit of a Trekkie but I was a bit dubious as to how good a sequel could be. I mean name one decent sequel other than Back to the Future II & III. We went one Thursday straight from school so I was still in my uniform and really bloody hungry. The film itself was amazing, I haven't been so into a movie since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 2) came out.  Benedict Cumberbatch makes a really wonderful villain, best villain I've seen for a long time (I'll never be able to see him as Sherlock again). The other characters were really good too but I don't think there was enough of Bones, Scotty or Chekov but that's probably just because they're my favourite characters. I think the Admirals daughter, Carol, should have had a more central role in the film. Overall this film was amazing, funny, sad and a really good sci-fi movie all packed into one. One of the best films I've seen and I definitely recommend it, watch the first one too, it's really even better than this.
     Goodbye my munchkins,
     Ruska

My 'Bad Time'

     17th of December 2010, exactly a week before Christmas, my parents sat me down and explained to me that my dad wouldn't be coming on our Christmas holiday to Finland because they were splitting up. This came as a huge shock because there really had been no indication of them growing apart obvious to me. It was Saturday morning, about 11am, when they told me, I immediately fell into a state of shock, my brain trying to comprehend what I was just told. My whole life turned upside down in a matter of minutes. By the time I went into school on Monday I had, kind of, accepted the fact and had switched into this 'I don't care' mode. I always do this when something bad happens to me, I go into a state of shock, where I feel numb and really out of it, until my brain has figured out what's going on and then, once this has happened, I block everything out and try to convince myself that it hasn't effected me at all. I can only keep this up for so long and then I'm forced to deal with it, usually I manage to do this by myself, at home, but this time I couldn't and I ended up having a breakdown in French class about a month later. I was sent to my guidance counselor, who I've learnt to hate since then. I actually remember very little of my first year in secondary school, that one day is my most vivid memory of the year. I was a bit of a loner back then, with one friend, who I'm actually still great friends with. It was through her that I made all my current friends. I became best friend s with Weronika after we both had a stupid fight with her at the same time. We were friends before then but never as close as that. Near the end of first year and start of second year I began to fall into depression and I stopped sleeping very much. It got to a point where I would sleep maybe 6 hours a week if not less so I was constantly numb to the world. I spent most of my second year like this and became really suicidal for a few months, once my parents figured out (after I was caught mitching school for three weeks) I was sent to a psychiatrist for a little over a year. I was officially discharged about two months ago. I've made amazing friends and lost some not so good ones over that last few years and I'm finally happy with where my life is at. Next year is going to be hard without Weronika constantly by my side but I know I'll be able to cope with it now.

     Goodbye my munchkins,

     Ruska

 

Ms Forde

      Ms Forde taught me, what is easily my least favourite subject, Irish. Now the language itself is actually quite nice and I've been to the gaeltacht (Irish speaking camp) twice now, but the way it’s taught in schools is atrocious, having an awful teacher doesn't help much. I honestly hate Ms Forde, she’s no good at teaching, she’s condescending and she’s just horrible in general. I could rant on and on about her but I won’t. I will rant a bit though. Since Irish is compulsory to everyone who’s been here since a certain age, if anyone moved to Ireland after that age (about 9 or 10) they don’t have to do the subject but they do have to sit in the class, they just do homework or something. In my class there are two non-Irish speakers, Ms Forde will, quite often ask them to do her a favour, like to get something from the photocopy room or something, but she hasn't bothered to learn their names, no, she would say ‘Foreign girl can you…’ or sometimes just point and say ‘You, get me…’ I’m generally quite quiet and wouldn't answer much in class, about halfway through second year I answered a question and she said ‘Aww, shy little Ruska answered’ that was the last time I willingly gave up information in her class. I hate her more then I knew I could hate someone I barely know and I haven’t learnt a thing from her class. Next year I’m dropping down to ordinary level so I’ll never have her again, that makes me very happy.

     Goodbye my munchkins,
     Ruska

My Sincere Apologies

     Hello munchkins, I'm sorry for neglecting you for a while but I just really didn't feel like writing because of my mysterious bad mood. I'm probably just missing school a lot now. Anyway, I'm going back to writing now, so please to read and give some feedback because it really will make us extremely happy. Here's our e-mail; themunchkinblog@hotmail.com .
     Goodbye my munchkins,
     Your master, Weronika

Ms Kelly (Treacy)

     Ms Kelly, now Ms Treacy, has been my geography teacher and year head for the last three years. She was a really good geography teacher, even if she did lull me to sleep on occasion (my own lack of sleep may have contributed to that though). She was fairly strict and had no problem with making you feel ridiculously guilty for not doing but she wasn't overly strict. As my year head she was pretty amazing and she's always been there when I was going through a bad stage in my life. If I needed to talk I had the option of going to her and she understood me better than any other adults I've had to tell about it. I really hope that I have as year head next year as I'm honestly going to miss her. I regret not saying thank you to her when I left the school on the final day of my third year (and last Junior year) there. I still call her Ms Kelly because I think it suits her better than the name she took when she got married.
     Goodbye my munchkins,
     Ruska

     Ms. Kelly is one of the most awesomest teachers. I didn't have her in first year and during that  time I hated geography and wasn't too good at it, the only thing to keep me going was my friend Bobo who I made loads of ridiculous theories with (like the creation of mermaids). In second year, Ms. Kelly became my geography teacher and I fell in love with the subject. I started doing really well in class and put a lot of effort in. This is thanks to my marvelous teacher, who manages to get facts stuck in your head. I really will miss her. She took care of all of us and had this thing where when she gave out to you, you didn't mentally curse but felt guilty. The only minus was her talking about 3L but I guess it was a form of motivation for us to try harder. On a different note, I got to know her as Ms. Kelly and forever Ms. Kelly she will be (no matter who she marries).
     Goodbye my munchkins,
     Your master, Weronika

Ms McDonough/Ms O'Connell

     My music teacher is pretty awesome, her name is Ms McDonough. She's a really good teacher,she makes us work fairly hard, she's nice and she can take (and make) a joke. I really liked her but unfortunately for my last term in third year we had a different teacher as our deputy principle, Ms McDonagh (note the 'a' in place of the 'ou') left on maternity leave, cos she had a baby (obviously) and our music teacher had to fill in for her. In her place was Ms O'Connell who was great, she came in two weeks before our practicals and devoted all our time til then to them. Afterwards, as we had covered the course already, she just did revision and was really good at it. I wouldn't be able to tell you which I preferred because they're both great. I really wish I could continue music next year but my school is annoying and it's not available for me to do but that's a whole different rant for another day.
     Goodbye my munchkins,
     Ruska

Ms Capper

     My German teacher, Ms Capper, is probably my least  favourite teacher in the school, for a few reasons, the main one is that she has favourites. Weronika and myself most definitely were among her favourites, we would get away with almost anything in her class, Weronika always did her homework in that class and we would regularly be late and completely ignored, we didn't actually do much work in her class but she liked us anyway. Another reason I don't like her is that she really doesn't seem to care about the students but more of her record, which at the moment is very good, there was a student in my class who wasn't great at the language and really didn't have much interest in it who she basically picked on, this girl wasn't very respectful to her but I don't think that Ms Capper, in this case deserved the respect that she expected.She was an alright teacher other then that but she wasn't as amazing as she seemed to think she was.
     Goodbye my munchkins,
     Ruska

     I have the same German teacher (Ms. Capper) as Ruska, which if you're smart you would've figured out. Ruska and I sit together at the back of the class and talk without ever, well almost, being given out to. She never says anything. I basically sit there every class and do homework for other classes and she doesn't say anything, even though I'm pretty sure she notices. I always have my work done though so I guess that helps. Then there is also that whenever someone is late to class or forget books they get given out to. When it happens to me and/or Ruska she doesn't really do anything. Now Ruska complains about he whole favouritism thing, I other hand love it. I really enjoy it and to be honest I'm a total teacher's pet in class. I don't mind Ms. Capper, she is nice to me and all. Although sometimes I disagree with her and she isn't the best teacher, like she is no where near as good as my French teacher. I still think she is nice and like German though, and I'm quite disappointed that I can't do it in 4th year.
     Goodbye my munchkins,
     Your master, Weronika

Ms McLoughlin

     My Home Economics teacher, Ms McLoughlin, who was really strict and absolutely terrifying if you got on the wrong side of her, which I may have done on occasion, told us, in our last class with her, that our grade doesn't matter and that as long as we're happy with what we got then she would be too.This made me so happy, because none of my teachers has ever actually come out and said that the grades don't really matter, as awesome as some of my teachers are, I think she's the one who I respect the most. She has been a bit of a horrible b***h in the past but she only did it to make us work as hard as we could, I didn't really realize this until our last few classes with her and I honestly wish that I hadn't hated her so much over the last few years. She teaches what is probably my least favourite subject in school but I think that she's a great teacher anyway.
     Goodbye my munchkins,
     Ruska

Teachers

     We're going to start a kind of series thing, we're going to write about some of our teachers and what we think of them. I'm not sure why we're doing this but we are so if you're interested do read them, if you're not don't.

End of School (Ruska)

     So as Weronika said, we had our last day of third year the other day. I'm delighted about the fact, less than a month to go and I'll never have to think about the Junior Cert ever again. Of course there will undoubtedly be more exams which I'll be expected to study for, but like these ones, I probably won't bother. I am sad that I'll never be in the same class as Weronika, ever again. And I know it'll be hard because I'll have to learn to socialize with new people, which will be hard. On the other hand, I HAVE TWO YEARS LEFT IN THIS STUPID SCHOOL SYSTEM!!! I honestly can't stand school, I just think it's a waste of time for anyone who isn't interested in having what's considered a 'successful career'. In our school it's expected that we pursue a career that will earn us a lot of money or success but to be honest I don't care about money, I just want to be happy. I'm not very happy in school so I just want to get out of there. Yes, I have made some amazing friends in school and I don't think I would have been able to cope with school without them but other than a few cool people in school I just hate almost everything about it, the rules, the classes and most of the teachers.
     Goodbye my munchkins,
     Ruska

End of School

Yesterday was my last day of third year and I must admit that I'm sad. I know I'm coming back to the school for a new year at the end of August and that I'll even be there in a week and a half for my Junior Cert. However, the knowledge that half of my secondary education is over and that my year as I know it is getting split up because of the choice whether to do 4th year or just skip to 5th. As a result of this, some of my best friends and some people I wanted to get to know a little better will no longer be in the same year as me, this includes Ruska. Not only must I part with dear friends which I will miss when they're just in different years but still in the same school let alone completely gone from the school when I'm in my sixth year.
      I also miss my teachers. I know what you're thinking, 'why would you miss teachers?'. However, there are some amazing teachers that taught me, such as my french teacher and maths teacher, I honestly don't know what I'll do without them. This may seem stupid but I'm honestly afraid that I'll fail maths without Mr. Doyle who has taught me throughout the three years of my secondary school education. Then there is french which I love but fear that I'll dislike it without ms. O'Sullivan as my teacher. Finally, there is the eye-candy I'm missing. Even though he doesn't teach me, I love passing one of the male teachers (Mr. O'Meara) in the corridors.
     Other than the people, I'll miss classes and school in general. Unlike most people I really enjoy school. I like the idea of learning and getting to show of your knowledge in class and exams (meaning that I like exams). I'll miss my school even though most people in my school complain about it.
     On a positive note, we have an award ceremony at the end of each school year. Forgive me for showing off, actually I don't care I'll do it anyway. We get awarded in different categories, Academic Achievement, Effort and Co-operation, Attendance and Punctuality, Student of the Class and Sports. I'm proud to say that I got nominated for Effort and Co-operation and Academic Achievement and received an award for Academic Achievement and Attendance and Punctuality. My goal for next year is Student of the Class and an award for basketball. Wish me luck.
     Goodbye my munchkins,
     Your master, Weronika

Study Help (Because we're nice like that)

     To all of you munchkins doing science exams, you should check this out; http://www.youtube.com/user/ParrMr . This dude 'Mr. Parr' is a teacher who made songs to help his science students. It's a great way to learn, especially if you like pop songs. My teacher played some for my class in science today and everyone was singing. It's really fun, so try it! Get a friend and sing along to it as part of your studying! I'll definitely be doing that.
     Now to all of you doing language exams: English, French, German, Spanish, there is this great thing on YouTube called 'Extra'. It is done in different languages (those mentioned above) and is made to help students learn languages. Basically it's a series which follows the story of two girls, their male neighbour and a new man that has come from a different country. The stories in the episode are the same in every language, however the characters' names are different and that actors are different. The exception for this being the actor playing the character Sam which is the same in the French, German and Spanish version. These are the links to the following; English http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=extra+english+&oq=extra+english+&gs_l=youtube.3..0l10.12503.16767.0.17153.9.6.0.0.0.0.1718.5526.4-1j0j1j2j1.5.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.12iINAdW-nY, French http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=extra+french+&oq=extra+french+&gs_l=youtube.3..0l10.51008.53109.0.53382.7.5.0.1.1.1.732.1758.2-1j1j1j0j1.4.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.Mj5c72xkNqs, German http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=extra+german+&oq=extra+german+&gs_l=youtube.3..0l10.25902.28149.0.28429.7.4.0.3.3.0.593.1289.2-1j0j1j1.3.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.2te7bqoAGbE and Spanish http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=extra+spanish&oq=extra+spanish&gs_l=youtube.3..0l10.26245.32772.0.33208.9.7.0.2.2.0.500.2987.3-3j3j1.7.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.xZIpvE2S0fE. I personally prefer the French one, I think it's the best one out of the four with the best characters.
     Goodbye my munchkins,
     Your master, Weronika

     To all you munchkins who need help with history here's a song to help you with the knight:

     Goodbye my munchkins,
     Ruska

Music Taste Again

     This is another post on music taste but this time by a different author. I can't really describe my music taste as I don't know what to classify as what genre. Although I think I can say I'm mostly into rock, I'll just name a few bands and songs and stuff.
     My music taste derived from my dad, like Ruska's. It all starts with him listening to something, I start liking it and want it. That's how I started listening to most the bands I like. Of course, there were others which I got to know from my friends.
     Bands I like include; Guns 'n Roses, Skid Row, System of a Down, Papa Roach, My Chemical Romance and 100 Monkeys. Those would be the main ones, however there is a lot more.
     Some times I might just like a song or two by a certain artist. This happened recently with a song by Pain. I have never heard any of their songs before but this one; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPww8cRQv1o which is called 'Shut Your Mouth' grabbed my attention. I really liked the video to it too.
     I also have a liking for songs in other languages. While I mostly listen to songs in English, I listen to some Polish ones and particularly enjoy German ones, such as that from Rammstein. I also Recently found a song in Spanish which I really enjoyed. It's played by a Finnish band called Apocalyptica. Usually they don't have vocals, however sometimes get guest performers to sing. The song 'Solo Tu'; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4kc87gqVnc, is sang by Erik Canales and it's one of the best songs I've heard by them.
     Finally, I don't really hate any type of music. Obviously there is music I wouldn't listen to such as Nicki Minaj and Justin Bieber. However, I don't actually have a problem with it. Sure it might get on my nerves when I hear it but if people like it then what's the problem? I don't expect everyone to like the same music as me and I respect their choices because in my opinion all music is good as long as it means something to you or gives you something. To be honest, sometimes I don't mind hearing some pop songs because they're catchy and upbeat, of course I would never turn them on myself.
     That's it from me, feel free to tell us about your music taste and what bands/songs you like in comments or on out email; themunchkinblog@hotmail.com.
     Goodbye my munchkins,
     Your master, Weronika

Work!

     So, I was working today. Only for three hours, but I'm only 15, you don't really expect me to have a 9-5 job, do you? It's not like a proper job, as in it's not a regular, once a week, kind of thing or anything. I have a relative, my dad's cousin, who sells burgers at festivals and stuff like that. So when he needed an extra pair of hands, he offered me some work. I really enjoyed it and it was a good experience to have, it really made me see how much work goes into all this food, and how little space they really have. It makes me appreciate all that food that I live off of at festivals. I also really realized how horrible some people are, and how kind others are. It was a long day but it was definitely something I'd do again, and I got money!! I' m pretty wrecked now, though.

Goodbye my munchkins,
Ruska

     P.S. If you ever happen to be at festival or anything in Ireland and you see a burger place in the shape of a cow, with the words 'Eat Me' on it, get their burgers, they're yummy.

Music Taste

     My music taste is kind of weird I like anything from Punk to 60’s and 80’s Pop. Much of my music taste originally derived from my fathers, ‘cept the punk stuff, but I guess in a way it did come from his music. It was thanks to him that I began to listen to Green Day, who aren't really punk anymore, and because of that I decided to listen to other punk stuff. Over the last few months I've really broadened my music taste. When I was younger I would decide that I liked one band, or sometimes maybe two, and listen to one or two CD’s on repeat until I grew so sick of them I couldn't stand listening to them at all, which is a shame because I did like some decent music occasionally. Nowadays, I listen to a huge variety of music so I no longer get sick of it. I think this started when I started to get sick of Green Day and Nirvana, both amazing bands, so I decided to mix it up a little bit so I could still listen to them without wanting to shoot somebody.

     What I listen to now is anything really, actually no, that’s a lie. I have this big list of genres that I don’t like very much. Some of them I hate, like modern pop and jazz, whereas, some of them I just don’t much enjoy, like reggae or metal. I could give a long list of genres of music I don’t like, but I’m not going to. I could also give you an equally long, possibly longer, list of genres in music that I do like, but I’m also not going to do that. I like various genres of rock and random other stuff. I made this wallpaper with a few of my favourite bands on it; I’ll post that up somewhere in this post, I guess.

     I’d just like to back up Weronika’s last post about ‘Bagels’ (the band). Read that and check them out please!!!  

     Goodbye my munchkins,
     Ruska

Here you go:

Bagels!!!

      A while ago Ruska wrote about this band called 'The Strypes'. Well now I'm going to write about this great band called 'Bagels', yes 'Bagels' without 'The' in front of it. They're an upcoming band and busk on the streets of Dublin but they're still amazing.
     The band consists of four guys: Adam, Ciaran, Jack and Jamie. They have some of their own songs which is great, you can check them out here; https://soundcloud.com/#bagelsband-1. Also, you can find them on facebook; https://www.facebook.com/#!/BagelsBand?fref=ts. Check them out and give them your support.
     They were recently taking part in the 'School of Rock' competition organised by Phantom 105.2. Tons of bands took part and 'Bagels' got to the finals. Here's the link to their final performance for the competition in the Sugar Club; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuG3RAAtTbY. Unfortunately, they didn't win, however still got into the best six in Dublin. I think that makes them worth listening to.
     Now for all of you that still aren't convinced, I must say they're four sexy boys. If you don't believe me you might want to watch them play on youtube; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwMOCC6kwl0 (link to one of the songs they played while busking)
     Finally, for any of you munchkins living in Dublin or going there, you can see them play every Saturday in Temple Bar for The Never Alone Collective. It's a great cause and aims to help teenagers and prevent suicide. Also, you can find them busking (also on Saturdays) somewhere along Grafton Street. They're really good and have fun playing so once again, check them out, it really is worth it.
     Goodbye my munchkins
     Your master, Weronika

Advice That Probably Sucks #1

     Hello dear person who decided to be anonymous and needs help!
     Well, you asked for boy advice, so here it is. If you want him to notice you then say 'hi' to him when you see him. Try and talk with him and become friends with him first. Talking to his friends might also help. Try and find things you have in common and connect over them, but remember to be yourself and not lie about your interests because it WILL come back and bite you in the ass.
     Good luck my munchkin and goodbye to the rest of you,
     Your master, Weronika

Something But I'm Not Sure Exactly What

     Hello my lovelies. Ruska has posted a few times now and I feel like I'm neglecting you. I don't exactly know what to write, I could write about music, books, movies, my opinions on stuff, etc. However, I'm not sure if I should because how much do you actually want to read about two people you have never seen and how many opinions about random stuff do you want to read? Especially with Ruska already writing a lot about that.
     So here's the thing, you tell me what you want to read about. You want to read about what I eat for breakfast or what I think about the opinions of the church, so be it. Write to me saying what you want me to write about and I will write about it. You want advice, ask me for it, no matter what it is (preferably relationships), I'll try and help.
     Also, feel free to send in pictures, videos and give us any interesting information, we'll write about it or put it up. You can either leave comments for us or send stuff to our email: themunchkinblog@hotmail.com.
     Goodbye my munchkins
     Your master, Weronika

Contact Us!!! (Please)

     We have an e-mail now and you can send me something on twitter if you want.
Email: themunchkinblog@hotmail.com
Twitter: @ShesARebelGD

Goodbye my munchkins,
Ruska

School

     I don’t like the education system here in Ireland, but then I wouldn’t would I? I’m being forced to go through it; I don’t have a choice on the matter. I’m just at the end of my 3^rd year in secondary school, which means big exams; we spent the last three years preparing for them, apparently. They start in about two weeks from now, June 5^th, I think, but I have yet to open a book to study for them.
     I hate the way exams are treated here, they’re marked on a bell graph and treated as a competition, I mean sure only so many people can get an A, but we still shouldn’t treat exams as a competition, no matter what. Personally, I think we shouldn’t even have exams, and I know what you’re thinking, it’s not just because I have to sit them, I have valid reasons. I think that school should be compulsory but I don’t think that there should be exams. Every person has a different mind, different knowledge and a different way of learning. It’s unfair that people who aren’t good at learning off facts should be forced to ‘compete’ against those people to whom it’s like a second nature. Weronika, like me, doesn’t really study but she gets really good grades from just sitting in class and listening. Whereas if I wanted to get good grades I would have to study for hours every night and I really can’t be bothered to do that so I settle for mediocre grades. Every single person is expected to take one of two levels, I find Ordinary Level much too simplistic to even bother, but Higher Level is so much more difficult that I don’t really think it’s worth the work I need to put into it.
     I’m not doing Transition Year (4^th Year) so I had to pick my Leaving Certificate subjects a few months back. There are three compulsory subjects and four choices, I had picked the subjects I wanted to do and had a fifth one just in case I didn’t get one of them and I had written these in on the preliminary choice form and handed it in to the school. Everyone’s preliminary choices were entered into ‘The System’ and a selection of subjects was made from this, but it was separated into four bands and you had to choose a subject from each band. But two of my choices weren’t available because not enough people wanted to do them, which would be grand if it was possible for me to do my fifth choice, but it wasn’t. This left me with two subjects which I don’t mind and two which I can’t stand.
     I could go on about various teachers and stupid rules in my school, I probably will at some stage, but for now that’s me.

Goodbye my munchkins,
Ruska

Eurovision 2013

     The Eurovision this year was held in Mälmö in Sweden. There are six countries which automatically get through every year, they are: UK; Germany; Italy; Spain; France and the winner of the previous year's Eurovision. Other than that there are 33 countries which take part in the semi-finals on the Tuesday and Thursday before the final (Saturday). Some of them were fairly uninteresting but a few really stood out, the Greeks, for example, had a song called 'Alcohol is Free' which was probably one of the best songs to get into the finals. Whereas Finland had this fairly atrocious song called 'Marry Me' but it got votes because of the twist at the end, which was actually kind of nice. But the song itself was fairly awful.
     One of the most interesting songs to get into the final, though, was Romania, with their song 'It's My Life', it had almost naked men, and one woman, a male opera singer who sung higher than any girl I know can and he was in a dress, he only got 65 points overall though and was stuck down in 13th place.
     I feel the need to talk about both first and last place because they must have been a special sort of something to have gotten that result. In first place was Denmark, who had won before all the votes had been counted, so you'd think they were fairly amazing, right? They really weren't, they were the typical Eurovision type of song without quite being Euro-Trash and that's why they won. They entered with a song called 'Only Teardrops' and got 281 points, only two of the 39 countries voting didn't give them anything. Here in Ireland we gave them 12 points. Ireland on the other hand were the definition of Euro-Trash, we had shirtless men beating drums and dancing around, all with identical Celtic tattoos, our singer, Ryan Dolan, was dressed almost head to toe in leather and we had a female background singers, who really weren't concentrated on. Our song was called 'Only Love Survives', cheesy as hell, only got us a total of five points. The fact that England, our only neighbours, gave us one point proves how bad we were. We were kind enough to give them seven points anyway.
     My favourite song in the entire competition, though, was the Montenegrin song 'Igranka'. It was a hip-hop song, which is to be honest one of my least favourite genres of music, but in Eurovision it's all about the show and they had a pretty amazing one. The band 'Who See' consisted of three people, one woman and two men. The woman was dressed fairly normally, for Eurovision that is, while the men were in space suits. The entire show was pretty amazing but, unfortunately, Montenegro only got 41 points, and came twelfth out of the sixteen in the first semi-final. Here's the official video, not quite the same, but you get the idea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BmHI_57vJk
Goodbye my munchkins,
Ruska

The Strypes

     So there's this band from Cavan, in the midlands of Ireland called the Strypes. They are about 15 or 16 years old and have already got a record deal with Mercury Records and have released an EP 'Young, Gifted and Blue' a few months ago. I saw them October in this tiny little cafe called the Little Green Cafe. They were doing an acoustic set of about 5 songs and there were only about seven people in there. A few weeks later they began to get well known around both England and Ireland. I saw them live again in December or January in a bigger venue, it was an amazing gig and I really love their music and think that you should listen to it. So that's me I think, I've included one of their more recent singles 'Blue Collar Jane' so give it a listen.

Goodbye my munchkins,
Ruska

Hello!!!

     Hello all you sad, little people wasting your life on the internet... like us! If you decide to continue reading after this point you might be entertained by two bored teenage girls, if not you'll just get really annoyed. We plan on doing this blog along with a vlog for the next while, we'll try to be funny or at least interesting. If you are little creepsters here's some stuff about us.
     I'm Ruska, also known as Picachu (I know that's not how you spell it). I'm 15, half Finnish, half Irish. I love music and spend way too much time the internet. I eat ALL the time. I can be kinda weird,very annoying, sarcastic and pessimistic. Can't stand school (especially my uber-Catholic one) and I tend to rant about stuff so prepare yourself.
     I'm Weronika (yes I spelled that right), also known as Saucy (you had better said that in a weird voice). I'm 14, almost 15 though!!! Full on Polish and proud! Live in Dublin though, with my previously mentioned Pica, up there^. Absolutely adore school (unlike my friends), I love music, food and just stuff in general. I'm annoying, quite creepy, really weird, a total hypocrite, stubborn, extremely self-centred and other stuff. On the other hand, I'm quite cheerful and hyper and I love to hug!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Overall, I'm just me! :D
     So we plan on putting up posts, pictures, videos and links. Hope you enjoy our blog/vlog.
Goodbye our munchkins,
Weronika and Ruska