Swing Life Away

While the fates permit, live happily; life speeds on with a hurried step, and with winged days the wheel of the headlong year is turned; we need to strive to be all that we can be.  Time is like a black hole slowly closing down and taking memories of the forgotten things we have done and left behind us.  The Past; this may be called by some; simply disregarded by most as distant and faint as a breezing wind slowly moving on, impacting our being and resulting in nothingness in the very same instant.  But i consider my Past to be what has made me, molded me almost guided me to be the person i am today.

Why is it then that we are all too often thought of by our recent actions.  We are a nation, society even civilisation of first impressions and all too few second chances.  While some of us may give (and) or take these second chances as a life line to build on possibly all too early burned bridges there is a portion of us that do not.  The human being, more so the brain or mind are indescribable things, sure we can describe how they are and have thoughts on how they work but we will never truly be able to understand them nor understand the great power they yield.  People say our sole is what makes us individual but I believe it to be more physical matter.

It is this part of us that decides what course of action we will take when deciding to acknowledge second chances.

Emotions.  These play a big part on all of our everyday decisions but more importantly also play a pivotal role in more important decision making; often referred to as ‘matters of the heart‘.

Sometimes we can opt to take shelter all too quickly as we do not want our heart to be hurt.  Those of you (us) fortunate enough to be confident enough to display our emotions are, what I consider, to be among a few.  It is a personal observation that far too many of us would rather ignore our true feelings in the hope that someone else will decipher the mixed and coded messages that we give off when not wanting to risk being shot down in what ever nature.

Risk.  Calculated or Dynamic.  You choose.

It is our ability to make and take risks that separates us, divides us; this choice that binds us.  As I mentioned before we have our own opinions, emotions and make our own decisions.  Because of this fact each one of us will take what may be the same risk, but no two outcomes will ever be the same; they are unique responses to a similar instance of opportunity.

I want you, the reader that has been curious enough to see this blog post through to its end; to take one risk today.  I’m not talking about crossing the road without looking both ways or eating that out of date sandwich that still looks ‘okay‘ (guilty!) but a risk of the heart.  If your single tell the person you think you have feelings for, that you think you have feelings for them regardless of what you ‘think you know’ about the way their feeling.

A risk that could go either way.

“Dream as if you’ll live forever and live as if you’ll die tomorrow” – James Dean

Holla
Ell Himself

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Apocalypto

Last night I watched a film called Apocalypto.  It wasn’t the best choice of bedtime film, you know the sort where you are wanting to unwind and relax and possibly even nod off whilst the tele is still on.  For those of you that haven’t seen the film let me give you a very brief synopsis.

Set in Yucatan, Mexico, during the declining period of the Maya civilization,  Apocalypto depicts the journey of a Mesoamerican tribesman who must escape human sacrifice and rescue his family after the capture and destruction of his village.
This tribesman is Jaguar Paw.  At the beginning of the film Paw comes across obnoxious and arrogant encouraging his fellow men to literally take the mick out of one of the friends due to the fact that he is unable to impregnate his wife; but as the film unfolds Jaguar is forced to grow into the warrior that his father knew him to be.

Cinematography is of a nature that is to be expected from the direction of actor turned director Mel Gibson if you have seen his ‘The Passion Of The Christ’.  The Mayan jungle provides lush greens that allow the eyes a break from the browns and greys of the village and the larger city that is seen during the film.  Although even these cities/villages are not that much of an eye sore as as the head dress and other ‘uniforms’ that the civilisation are wearing are colourful enough.

This film is all about the raw nature of a culture that has yet to be civilised and know’s no niceties but at the same time are ahead of their time with the skills and train of thought.  You only have to watch the first 15 minutes to understand what I mean here when a few tribesmen, including main protagonist Jaguar Paw are out hunting a Tapir.  In my opinion Gibson and his team have done a terrific job of capturing the basic/primal instinct of this Mayan culture, this is also helped by the film being shot completely in Mayan dialect and subtitled.

Unfortunately for me though, this was my first time watching this film and although I have been wanting to watch it for some time I was left with a feeling that I just wanted something, abit, well; more to be honest.  at 139 minutes, so over 2 hours run time I thought that yes as tense films go this is one of the best, but probably because your tension builds because you expect something although I felt Apocalypto didn’t deliver.  Action scenes are executed relatively well and show the brutality involved in a primitive race when fighting, though as I said it was as if the film was building up and building up and then, well nothing really.  The final fight between Jaguar Paw and his enemies show that Jaguar has been able to come to terms with what he must do and how he must be at one with the forest and show no fear.  This is shown as if Jaguar gets some sort of premonition and is suddenly okay with being fearless.

Not the best but certainly not the worst.

But! if you want to watch a film containing an indigenous species and tribal acts of sacrifice and tall people wearing barely a thong and a receding hairline then take my advice and watch Avatar as you will most certainly not regret it, that film is a one in a million (well until the sequel(s).  For my review on Avatar take a look here.

Holla
Ell Himself

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Heart Is Hard To Find

It’s that time of the year again when everyone is either trying to make that trip to the family member with the biggest house that has been naive enough to hold the festive events.  People are rushing into town at the last minute to grab that last minute bargain and tree’s are filling up that ‘extra’ space in your living room.

Or on the other hand you could be like me…I have my tree up, and yes i’m very proud of it.  It’s different to the usual theme we would have at my mothers house, albeit no theme or colour code.  I’ve always been one for wanting a big tree, whether it tall or have a big base.  This years one reaches from the floor to the ceiling 🙂

Bu, unfortunately, that’s as far as my Christmas cheer goes this year.  Don’t get me wrong I love christmas, and the snow we had last week certainly helped add to the feel, but my biggest draw back is I have not been able to think about what to gifts to get.  I’ve been stressing over what to get and what not to get so much that i’ve sapped the festive cheer out of myself.

I’ve got some gifts.  But haven’t got gifts for everyone I needed to and don’t feel like i’ve got much for anyone that I have got

Everyone always goes on about it being the thought that counts and not about recieving but about giving etc etc.  But I defy anyone to tell me that they honestly don’t care about presents.  In my opinion the whole process of present giving is for self gratification.  People want to see how happy they make the receiver when they open the present.  But what happens when you don’t know what to get? or the present you have got is not what the receiver actually wanted?  You run the risk of the whole thing backfiring.

It is a shame that regardless of who says it, or how many say it, it is never about the thought anymore, nor is it that this time of year be about love and family.

We’ve been led to become a society of techies and at the same time techno-phobes.  Every week new programs on the tele come out that make us believe we are not living our lives as well as we should be because they are not the same as the tele dipicts.

Man i’m sounding like a scrooge!!  And at the risk of my name completely changing to Ebenezer.  A mood change.

I am throwing a New Years Party this year, it should be fun, lots of fun.  A few good friends, music, lights and the odd shandy should make for a good way to welcome in 2011.  And end 2010.

Make sure you guys have a good Christmas and if I don’t post before a Happy New Year.

Holla
Ell Himself

 

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Take ‘Em As They Come

So i’m having a little trouble staying regular with my posts.  I wouldn’t say it’s writers block or anything im not sure why it is.  At first i thought it was because i didnt have anything to write about but then i was thinking about this issue and going back to when i first opened this blog up; the reasons for it were as a place for me to jot down my thoughts or personal experiances or infact anything i wanted.  Initially this was the case but gradually as time went i found i was writing more personal experiances than anything else.  Now im not saying thats a bad thing, i mean if it was i wouldnt write or have this blog open in the first place, no im just stating something.

But to the present, I am having trouble with maintaining this blog and updating it with fresh entries, but then i think am i?  I mean who’s decision is it that ‘you are not updating enough’.  I get a fair few amount of hits/visits to this site, but ultimately i never created this blog with the intension of constantly having a lot of site traffic, i created it as a place for me to express feelings, or convey thoughts and if someone somewhere came across them then thats a bonus.  I guess thats the main reason why i havent turned into a reviewing site or whatever.

My friend GunBuck Chuck has a blog.  His is a blog that is updated almost like clockwork adding new information on animes like Naruto and Bleach and gives the oppurtunity for people to watch them on a weekly basis.  He has regular reviews on new music and games and of course reviews ‘apps’ for his beloved iPhone, he also posts things that are in the pipeline for various gadgets and other technology related information.

I picked him because our blogs couldn’t be more different, he opened his blog up alot later than mine, and no doubt has more posts now! But alas this is what I am talking about.  Blogs are meant to be a personal representation of what interests you etc and it shouldn’t matter about others, hence GunBuck’s being a reviewing and anime resource and mine being about my thoughts etc.

This is good for society and the way that civilisation is being forced to take a more electronic approach to almost anything.  If everybody was the same or created the same blogs, websites etc then where would the interest come from? What would make other people navigate from your page to mine?  It is these differences that can keep things fresh and can allow people to make up there minds by taking ideas and information from a variety of different resources.

I like the way that others set out their blogs and the content that they have which is probably why i have a look over on their pages as well as a few others from the WordPress hub and sometimes it makes me think about writing a review such as i did when i wrote my review on the Xbox 360 game ‘Alan Wake’.

I have other friends that have also created blogs: Mac 10 and Daniel Bourne.  Mac 10’s blog is similar to mine in the way he uses it to portray some of his feelings, however he is using his blog as a platform to showcase some of his short stories and ideas for his novel.  Daniel, well his is a mixture of everything, updates on his website business (designing and creating websites) and talk about various bits of technology he is using.

Each of us have contrasting views on lots of todays topics such as politics, music, life, technology, computing and love but you won’t find all of us writing about it.

Holla
Ell Himself

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Here It Goes

So with Download Festival 2010 just around the corner (4 days to be precise) I am getting pretty excited.

My tickets arrived a couple of days ago I was adamant something was going to go wrong and I wouldn’t receive them in time or I wouldn’t recieve them at all but fortunately the dropped through my letter box.  I was suprised to see them lying on the floor in my entrance way as I was assured they would be sent recorded delivery and so a signature would be required.  Its not necessarily something I selected however the ticket website did say that all tickets are sent through this way; and you’d like to believe them too when you have just spent over £3oo+ on two tickets, you want to make sure they arrive and that there are no problems.  I’m not complaining, i’m merely pointing out that there should be some sort of better security on things like that.

Anyway so tickets like I said are in my possession, all thats left to do now is sort out the clothes I want to take with me are washed and packed and I have identified anything else that I want to take with me.  I put my tent up the other day to air it out and make sure that was in working order, the last thing you want is to get to a festival and the thing which is techniqly your home for the next 5 days is not weather proof or infact it cant even be put up at all.  Mine was the latter.  3 of the rods that were originally attached via a piece of elastic and then to the other rods of the same colour (as is usually the case with tents) had come away as the elastic had snapped.  Now I dont remember this happening so whether it happened in the bag and then me taking them out and caused it or it did actually happen last time I used the tent I dont know, fortunately however a couple of my good friends were over and helped me fix it (made easy work of it too I might add!).  I left my tent out over night to air and then took it down yesterday.

Another one of my friends has lent me his old army cadet burgen which I think is either 60 or 80 litres so its a pretty big bag.  If I had the money I would buy one myself but right now I dont have that sort of disposable income, which is a shame considering that i’ve seen one I really like and bags nowadays do look awesome!  But ah well I’ll get one at a later date.

If, like me and my friends, you have been to Download in particular you will be aware of the regulations they have put in place (effective as of last year) that stipulate that only solid fuels are permitted to be used as cooking equipment i.e. hexi blocks etc.  You are no londer allowed to take in gas stoves or gas cylinders, to my knowledge or atleast my opinion this is due to the riots that happended some years back where camp fires where made and then the gas cylinders where placed on these open fires and as you can imagine exploded, so me and my friends have decided this year to do away with even attempting to cook effectively on hexi blocks and such like and instead opt for a far more satisfying (although not cost effective) method in food consumption and that is….to buy everything we want to eat there.  Yes you could say were of the majority/minority that is giving the organized vendors reason to up their prices etc but fact is no matter what the price (within reason) and even if they did allow gas cookers people would still grad a burger or pizza or whatever from one of these vendors atleast twice during their time at Download, infact I challenge anyone to say that they have been to a festival and not purchased any perishiable goods whilst there.  Saying that thought the food, in my opinion is really good, my mate even goes so far as to say “they have the best veggie burgers i think i will ever eat and have eaten!”  Dont get me wrong were still taking snacks like crisps and sweets etc that would just be silly not too, given the amount I eat I couldnt afford not to!

The ‘map’ went live a few days ago meaning that people were able to see the layout of the festival this year.  I have to say it hasnt changed all that much at all.  Thats not necessarily a bad thing atleast i’ll know where everything is!

With everything thats gone on over the past year I just want it to be good.  No.  I need it to be good.  I really cannot be bothered with going and not having a good time, I just hope that doesn’t mean I can’t hang out with my friends that are going but we’ll see.  So much has happened and quite alot has changed if this festival sucks or any part of it sucks for any reason i’ll really have to re-evaluate my stance or views on alot of things, and in all honesty i cant be bothered with that too! lol.

We’ll see, when i’m back expect a full rundown of the festival and or my going on’s too!

Holla
Ell Himself

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Everything In It’s Right Place

I Haven’t posted in a while, mainly because I haven’t really got anything worth posting about.  In all honesty i’ve kinda hit a block.  Before thoughts would pop into my head and chances are I would write them down here, but this last week or so nothing has really inspired to me to write.  There are things going on dont get me wrong, I just dont really know how to put them on here.

My relationship with my girlfriend is going really well, my friendships seem to be all good (well most of them), actually in alot of cases i feel quite supported, but likewise in the same instances i dont so much; and i’m not entirely sure why.

I think potentially we can all get like this at times, things are going good but someone or something has to spoil it.  Well i say why let it?  Things go well for a reason. And your that reason.  Screw anybody that tells you otherwise.

Ell Himself

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New Way To Be Human

So I was looking over one of my profiles on a social networking website that I’ve had since forever and I was looking through some of the blogs I had posted on there and I quite liked it so figured I would re-post it on here, please bear in mind that it was written in 2005 where gramma wasn’t ‘cool’ and I certainly didn’t care to much for it, so apologies if any of you find it a poor read.  Any comments anyone??

Hey again.  Just thought i would write some more.  I love writing and stuff but sometimes i dont bother to write , especially on here because…what is the point of expressing ones self, if there is no one to express it too?

Well iv bin thinkin bout this question for a while now, its fair to say that there is a multiple of different answers for every question (bar, mathematical ones of course) but i seem to have come up with a few gooduns.
Firstly, expressing your self is a personal experiance, the only real reason people share it with other people is because they want people to experiance either being happy or as a result of readin, lookin, watchin, feel low about themselves. And thus making the sharer feel better about themselves.
Secondly, there is probably a whole host of different ways for people to express themselves but writing seems to be main source of expression, thus leading me to ponder the question. Why?. I thought about this also, and writing, text, font, literature is considered an interlectuals easel. Herego. making the writer (sharer) appear interlectual, visa vi making the writer (sharer) feel better about themselves.
And so i am almost forced, by the powers that be, to the conclusion, that expression is not really expression at all but infact merely, a much more subtle way of being derogatory to another being, living, demon, animal, human etc.
So the second part of my conclusion, includes the fact that we, as people, are not bothered about there being someone, thing, demon, dog etc to express to, but we are bothered that there is something, one, animal, human etc to ‘express of’.
I myself ‘express’ in many different ways jumping off cliffs, the way i dress, what i say, how i act, the way i look at things.
And yet even there my own experiances, prove that ‘expression’ is all about ‘ones self’.
Sad, i guess that after thousands maybe millions of years humanity as a whole has misunderstood one simple word.
And it wasnt a scholar, a literist, scientist even a researcher that broke the mold housing the answers…

It was Ell Goodwin AKA the Dogg.

I think I was alot more cockier back then, but i’m guessing my friends would debate that.

Holla
Ell Himself

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The Pros and Cons of Breathing

Mobile phones have become everything these days.  Its not just what one you have its whether the one you have can do everything that your mates phone can or if it is as fast at loading pages etc.

Society these days are so concerned with accessing everything and anything anywhere they are, which is why more and more network providers are creating more and more tariffs which include free internet or a download allowance, and with phones like the iPhone 3GS and various Android phones like the Blackberry’s etc its easy to see why.

My friend has just purchased an iPhone 3GS, a couple of my other friends have the iPhone 3G, and although it would take a ‘tech head’ to be able to tell the difference at first glance one thing these two phones have in common (aside from looking farely identical) is that they are constantly connected to the internet.  I don’t just mean that they are bouncing from one wi-fi connection to another, I mean like us ‘normal people’ that have a (dare I say it) generic phone, whilst it is connected to normal network coverage via o2, vodafone, orange etc; the iPhone on the other hand has an open connection to the web; meaning then that should you have an email sent to you or someone comments on your facebook, then providing you have set your iPhone up with account settings for these functions you will receive notifications just as you would a text message, want to check the comment on your facebook, just click it and up opens your ‘facebook app’ with live streaming from posts to newsfeeds etc.

It’s amazing how much technology has advanced over the years, I remember thinking my Dad was awesome because he had one of the first mobile phones, granted it was the size of his head and weighed about a tonne; there was no camera no mp3 (or polyphonic) ringtones and your message memory was about 3 text messages.  But none the less it was a phone that you could call people on from where ever you were when ever you wanted.

Awesome.  But is it?

Nowadays if you don’t answer your phone you are considered ignorant (or worse) if you don’t reply to a message then you must ‘be doing something’.
You know what I probably am doing something and that’s why I haven’t replied yet…
Far to often I have been told ‘sorry my phone was on silent’ (more so from my mother!), if you want to be contacted by others and ask people to contact you whenever then its your choice, but don’t but your phone volume on a setting that means you wouldn’t notice if it is ringing surely that’s hypocritical? Ironic even?

I’m waiting now for the next big breakthough in technology, yes I have played around on the iPhone and yes I think it is amazing, if I could get one I would.  But at the same time it just seems to me that they are releasing each phone with minimal improvements so that they can keep releasing ‘new iPhones’.  I mean think about it, in a world where we can now have cameras on phones that are up to 12 megapixel and some are even in High Defintion, then why release a breakthrough phone that has no flash, no video, and a 2mp camera…Oh wait that’s right so that the next one can have a 3mp camera and so on and so forth.

Never the less we will (myself included) consistently buy into gimmicks and upgrades and ‘breakthroughs in technology’ so we can have a glimmer of satisfaction that ‘mine is better than yours’ or on the flip side buy into it all so that people can’t say that to us.

They may as well just vito everyone’s surname and change it to Jones.

 

Ell Himself

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Electable (Give It Up)

Yes we in England have just ‘suffered’ another election night. I say suffered because everything appeared to of got ‘Election Fever’. All the television channels were broadcasting something to do with it, the BBC (British Broadcasting Company) had ‘red button multiview’, meaning if you pressed the red button on your sky remote you were taken to a screen with 5 different video streams running. One for the BBC studio where a chat was taking place about the election as the seats were won or lost; one for a camera crew that was at each of the main parties personal homes (Nick Clegg, David Cameron & Gordon Brown; pictured left) and one where the presenter of ‘University Challenge’ was talking to a member of the labour government about his thoughts on if Britain was to experience a ‘hung parliament’.

Talking of a hung parliament I’ll just clear this up for the people who like me at first don’t know what the term actually means…

A hung parliament happens when no single party wins a majority over all the others. A party can stay in power without an absolute majority by trying to forge an alliance with a smaller party to create a coalition government, or they could reach agreements with smaller parties that they will support the government if there is a vote in parliament aimed at bringing down the government and forcing an election. Another possibility is for the biggest party to form a minority government with no agreements with other parties and just try to form majorities in favour of each individual bill as it comes up. If no party is prepared to go down one of these paths then parliament will be dissolved again and there will be another election.
I’m not entirely sure if having a hung parliament would be such a bad idea. Surely it means that we would end of getting the best of all three parties as each party has a say in certain things. Although as far as I’m aware now though it is usually the case where one of the bigger parties attempts to broker a deal with a minority party, i.e. The Conservatives ask the Liberal Democrats if they want to forge an alliance and they promise to add certain Lib. Dem policies into the manifesto. I didn’t get to vote but if I would of done I certainly wouldn’t of voted labour, theres just something about Mr Brown that I don’t like, and I know im not alone when I say that either. He seems hell bent on raising everything he can; income tax and house prices to name a few which seem like a fantastic idea for would be first time buyers like myself. On the other hand though I do see some sort of deja-vu occurrence with Cameron. Reading a post on my friends blog I was reminded of 1997 when a fresh faced Tony Blair ‘promised the world’ eventually turning out that he actually wanted to rule it, well to a degree anyway I mean he does want to be the next president of Europe after all, and now there is another fresh face (Cameron) who talks well, appears to be able to relate to the majority and has high aspirations and fantastic ideas that will pull Britain out of the economic crisis and recession that Labour and Gordon Brown so easily took us into.

From what I can see the election is far from over, if no two parties join forces in order to make up the majority needed to have a ‘singular’ government then apparently it will go to another election poll, which I cant see would make much difference, why would people change their minds in such a short space of time. It could make a difference if they changed the electoral system, I mean thousands of voters and first time voters were turned away, and so in what was potentially the biggest turn out at poll stations for years not everyone had the chance to voice their opinion.

If their going to have another election count up because of this hung situation the I suggest that someone somewhere is coming up with ‘brilliant’ ways of voting and so if needs be everyone who is registered and wants to vote can vote. Now though we run the risk of people turning round and saying that they voting last time and look how good that was.

David Cameron was asking people to vote for change, does he not know that people don’t like change, people are scared of change, in my opinion that’s why so many still voted Labour, because ‘they did last time’.

In a world where the people matter and the people attempt to be the voice of the people, why don’t they just listen?

I don’t fully understand politics and everything it entails, I do know that I have an opinion on things and that at times I enjoy voicing that opinion and talking about politics, it is one of those subjects where you can start near enough every sentence with: “I think…” and really that’s what everyone is buying into these days, I’ve seen no evidence of anything Mr Brown has said he has done over the past years and doubt I will see evidence of Mr Cameron’s promises; I mean come on David you want to reduce income tax? Everybody wants it and that’s probably why you said it, but it would never happen and if it does tax on other things will rise and we’ll notice it more; we’re not that naive. I’ll leave now as I’ve probably blabbled on enough and a lot of you probably stoped reading a while ago asking yourself “Why am I reading this?” I can only thank you for taking the time to read this and for reading this far and hoped you enjoyed it but I cant really answer that question just as i couldn’t give my little brother an answer this morning when he asked me…

If those Conservative dudes have got the most votes, why haven’t they won?

Ell Himself

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Stamp of Origin: Pessimistic

Download 2010 is just around the corner (well a month away but who’s counting), i’ve been able to get my tickets and so am anxiously awaiting their arrival by recorded delivery, as far as im aware they always come by recorded delivery.

Im still not 100% sold by the lineup but there are definately some bands that i wanna see: Aerosmith anyone?, Coheed & Cambria, A Day to Remember and i could go on to name the other 5 or so bands i wanna see.  I’m going with my best friend his girlfriend and a few other regulars that i’ve been with the last couple of years.  I’m just not that sure im even bothered.

I wanna go abroad, but i mean like a holiday with my friends and stuff; the last time that was meant to happen was back when i was 18, all set and near enough every one pulled out, what a let down.  It is just unfortunate that my peers are not fussed about doing anything like that, i mean we go camping and dont get me wrong i love camping! but its not the same as some week away in the canaries…

Ahh that would be nice

But none the less i’ll hold onto the hope that eventually i’ll go on holiday with my friends, i just cant help getting jealous of my brothers.  Both of them younger and both of them go on regular holidays with their friends, my youngest brother is going on his 3rd one with his friends in July.  It wouldnt be so bad me wanting to do it and stuff except that they both go and have such awesome times!

I’m going camping in September again, to the Peaks i love that place it is awesome and i love camping heck its cheaper than going abroad

People say that good things come to those who wait, so i cant help but wonder…

How long do i have to wait, or are the good things i have been fortunate enough to have already taken supposed to make up for it.On the other hand…maybe this is someones way of telling me that a holiday with my friends isn’t a good thing???

Ell Himself

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