communist caturday

i'm probably gonna get into trouble for this post ;)

calm your cookies, i'm not a communist... not in the slightest. i really haven't been a big fan of communism since deciding that being an idealistic realist was probably a more productive way to spend my time, which was sometime during high school History lessons. in other words, i reckon communism will never work... but i digress.

there happen to be several very funny communist cats out there that need to be shared with the world - so here goes :D

then, of course, there's Lenin Cat...

as well as other commie cats...

and my FAVOURITE of all time...

IT'S MY FAVOURITE.

and now, just as commie cat must gather more wheat for the motherland, i must gather some sleep for... erm, myself ;) so goodnight, all!

How to write a Taylor Swift song

tomorrow's CATURDAY (!) and i have something Really Awesome in the pipelines, but i couldn't help but share this with y'all - i found it in the HelloGiggles archives and couldn't stop giggling during - and after - reading it. this probably has a fair amount to do with the fact that i've been listening to Ms Swift a good deal in the past few weeks (much to the horror of my favourite neighbour Ayanda, who has scolded me for being "weak"). in any case, i agree with everything that Adele says here and couldn't have said it any better, so i thought i'd share her gem of a post here for everyone else to appreciate :) if you'd like to read more of Adele's musings, head on over to her blog. and now... on with the show!

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Let me begin this post by admitting it. I love Taylor Swift. Her music makes me feel like it’s okay to still feel young and out of place and a little cheesy sometimes. I also wish that my generation had grown up with a pop star more like her and less like the sex-bots of the ’90s. However, I can’t deny that there are recurring patterns in most of her songs. So let me break down for you the key steps to creating the perfect T-Swizzle Tune.

The beginning and ending of the song should be the same line. 

The beginning is full of hope usually, whereas the ending of the song is either filled with heartbreak or a sense of moving on. Prime examples:
“We were both young when I first saw you” - Love Story
“You take a deep breath and you walk through the doors” - Fifteen 
“Loving him is like driving a new Maserati down a dead-end street” - Red
“I bet this time of night you’re still up
I bet you’re tired from a long hard week
I bet you’re sitting in your chair by the window
Looking out at the city
And I bet sometimes you wonder about me” - I Almost Do

There must be some mention of “pouring rain” or even just “rain”.

Some songs where Taylor talks about rain (usually pouring): Fearless, Hey Stephen, Forever and Always, Sparks Fly, Last Kiss.
Does it rain a lot when she’s getting her heart broken? That seems awfully/oddly appropriate.

Talk about driving in a car, someone’s hair in the car and passenger seats.

Aw, yes. The classic nostalgic car times.
Like in Fearless as he walked her to her car and they drove and she was in the passenger’s seat and he ran his hands through his hair.
Or in Back to December as she watched her love laugh from the passenger’s side.
Or in Red when his love was like “driving a new Maserati down a dead end street”.
Plus, we can’t forget All Too Well when he almost ran a red light because he was staring at her… and her hair was blowing in the wind.
And did I forget to mention Begin Again, when prospective guy #??? walked her to her car. How we’ve come full circle. I get it Tay Tay! Cars are romantic or something. Ugh.

Be sure to say what day of the week “the moment” happened.

You know what I mean. Like today I found Vegan Cookie Dough at the health store and I thought “I better remember that this was a Saturday for when I write a song about this love affair”. Or, in Taylor’s case, it’s when she has significant moments with a boy!! EEE (what I remember that feeling like, it’s been a while)!!!
In You Belong With Me it was just a typical Tuesday night when she was listening to the kind of music her crush’s girlfriend wouldn’t like cause she didn’t know his story like Taylor did…obviously.
It was a Tuesday night when she caught Joe Jonas’ eye in Forever and Always…hmm Tuesday nights seem to be popular so far.
In latest news: on a Wednesday in a cafe she watched love Begin Again.

Make mention of stairwells.

Seriously. Shiz does not get real until stairwells/stairs come into the story. Know why? because stairs lead to beds, which lead to sexy time. I’m onto you T-Gurl.

In Love Story she was crying on those stairs begging him not to go.
In White Horse she cried because she wouldn’t be the one he swept off her feet and led up the stairwell.
She requested to be led up the stairwell and whispered to soft and slow in Sparks Fly.
Taylor remembers All Too Well how they were down the stairs dancing in the refrigerator light…a little hard on the utility bill I imagine, but hey whatever floats your boat.

Doesn’t hurt to name the song after a popular movie.

Love Story.
Dear John.
The Story Of Us.
Enchanted.
Red.
The Lucky One.

I rest my case.

Well gentle readers, I hope this has been informative. I know this is more research than I’ve done on an article ever. Now I feel sad. Stay posted for the first time I follow my own steps and share a Taylor Swift song of my own. Or don’t. You could be waiting a long time.

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oh, and to prove that i love Tay Tay, i'm gonna share this video with you - the infamous Sophia Grace and Rosie (of The Ellen Show fame) having tea and gossiping with none other than Ms Swifty.

precious, no? :D

if you can't see anything beautiful about yourself...

this is honestly one of the most moving and beautiful videos i've ever watched. trust me, it's worth 7 and a half minutes of your time. it's worth a lot more than that, actually.



my favourite part of this is... the whole thing. but i particularly love these lines:

and if you can't see anything beautiful about yourself 
get a better mirror
look a little closer
stare a little longer
because there's something inside you 
that made you keep trying 
despite everyone who told you to quit
you built a cast around your broken heart 
and signed it yourself,
you signed it, "THEY WERE WRONG."

if you've ever been a victim of bullying; if you've ever felt cast out, picked on, left alone; if you've ever felt like you've reached the end of the rope and there's nowhere else to turn...
don't give up. you're not as alone as you think you are.
...and you're loved.

caturday: the Roomli edition

weird title? yep. let's face it, it's late, i have a headache and i really just wanna be asleep. but onward - "why ROOMLI?!" you ask, with confusion written all over your face.

well. Roo + Gimli = Roomli. terrible, right? i really couldn't do any better :/

with me being many miles away from my cats, my mom's been sending me some mighty awesome photos of their antics... and i think it's about time i share these rather fantastic photos with you, too ;)

okay, okay... so most of them are of Roo. because she's a kitten, she seems to grow more and more every week - when i left she was still in the chubby baby kitty phase, but now seems to have moved on to the lanky intermediate kitty phase. observe:

...and she seems to have acquired a new love of sleeping, too...

a cat after my own heart, i tell you ;)

she's lost none of her spunk, though - and seems to constantly need to assert her (imagined) authority as "boss-lady". HA!

the best thing ever is Gimli, though. look at this! they are interacting! they don't appear to hate each other any longer! Gimli seems to approve of Roo (even if it is just as his newest cushion)!

...and people say miracles don't happen ;)

now, though, i'm headed bed-ward - so GOODNIGHT!

i found my dance move...

it's called the JimBaugh.



i'm honestly still upset that the 49ers lost the Super Bowl, but can take a little time every few minutes to crack up at this anyway - because if you're gonna freak out, THIS is the way to do it!

case settled: this is the "new dance" i'm learning as one of my birthday goals ;)

year three | day two

...because it's too mainstream to blog about my FIRST day of school, right? :P

in all seriousness, i thought i'd start a new thing on Pink Chucks where i occasionally do a little walk through my day with y'all, in an attempt to make this place slightly more personal... and what better day to start with than today - my second day of my third year at Rhodes?

6:00 AM

the day began with Med-Lemon, because i am sickly at the moment - but as the guy in Monty Python and the Holy Grail would say, "i'm getting bettah!"
last night i had the foresight to fill my kettle with water and place a mug and a sachet of Med-Lemon on my desk (which, thanks to the rather small size of my room, is - conveniently, in this case - very close to my bed) so that i didn't need to get out of bed to make the Miracle Drink. I dutifully glugged it down and felt many times better... and so began my day :)

7:00 AM

i decided to wear an American Rag dress my beautiful aunt Kymmie bought for me one of the last times we were in the States - and couldn't help but get a photo in it, because it is one of THE most gorgeous dresses i own, truth be told. and the mirror had to get involved too, of course :P

8:00 AM

after a rather disappointing breakfast in the dining hall (no more corn flakes for me for a couple weeks!), i walked down to my first lecture of the day, surrounded on much of my walk by green foliage. it was beautiful, and i couldn't resist photographing it :) my lecture, which began at 8:40 and was technically meant to end at 9:25, ended at 8:50... yep. brilliance :D

9:00 AM

the early ending of said lecture meant i could head straight to the post office, where i collected a parcel (!) for me (!!) from my mom (!!!) full of amazingness! i cannot fully express my excitement about this... because you can't know exactly how great it is unless you've personally experienced a package from my mom. SRSLY.

i also went on a search-and-rescue mission for some Valentine's Day goodies... ahem!

10:00 AM

oooerr... i walked into my room and nearly had a panic attack, so it was time to clean up. although in the photos, the room looks much the same before and after... ah well, at least i can breathe again ;)

11:00 AM

as an English student, you purchase a LOT of books at the beginning of the year, and are then faced with the conundrum of what to do with them once the year ends. but not me! i am saved the worry because my marvellous Cathy-friend is an English II student this year (as i was last year) and can thus inherit all of my books! :D it's the greatest thing ever. i packed them up in a very expensive and sturdy bag (hahahahah) and put them near my door (which is the funny green stuff on the left hand side of the photo, if you're wondering ;) ) so i wouldn't forget to get them to her!

11:30 AM

oh yes - it was time to open THE PACKAGE! and, yes, i forced myself to wait two and a half hours before opening it. but boy, was it worth it!

do you see all of the goodies it was crammed with?! and a SHARKS mug!! with surprise JELLY BELLY JELLY BEANS inside of it!! and a DETANGLING COMB from my lovely sister!! and all that other sweet stuff! and a card chock-full of news! yoooooh. it's a good thing i've brushed my teeth already, or i'd be ready to set into all that candy... ;)

12:00 PM

it was luuuunch time! ...and again with the unappetising meal, which was my fault this time, for somehow booking the spicy mushroom pizza option. um, remind me not to do that again. in fact, i'm going to go CHANGE that meal right now. cool, i'm back! in any case, most of my lunch consisted of peaches... which were rather yummy ;)

1:00 PM

just lookin' out the window at one of my favourite views of Grahamstown from Chris's res window.

2:00 PM

well, just boring stuff here for the next couple hours... because i just went to the English department, switched to a different tut (and am now in the tut group of one of my favourite English I tutors - YES :D ) and then sat through a double Journ lecture. so yep, you get a screenshot of my lecture notes. EXCITEMENT!

4:00 PM

i was just walking around campus and started grinning suddenly. ever had one of those moments? where something comes over you and you can't help but smile so wide your face might burst? the sunny-with-clouds sky is the best i can do to represent however-long-it-was that i couldn't quit grinning :)

5:00 PM

back in my room, i took it upon myself to add a quote to my newly-acquired heart-chalkboard (a belated birthday present from Cath). eventually i settled on something by e.e. - because he is fantastic and i wanted something cutesy and romantic :)

6:00 PM

more average food, an average corridor meet-and-greet, and i headed over to Chris's to watch some series and chat about the day. by then, my hair had reverted to the silly-bun style, as pictured above!

8:30 PM
the day ended much as it had begun for me - Chris and i partook in the drinking of Med-Lemon because we sincerely wish to be hale and hearty again! then i returned to my res and listened to John Mayer and uploaded photos and brushed my teeth and wrote this here post :)

and now - now it is time for me to sleep! so goodnight, all ♡

return of the caturday

'sup, everyone!

now that i'm back in business (also known as my room in my residence, with internet to boot), i'm back on the blogging bandwagon - and what better way to jump in but with a caturday post?

also, it's Saturday... so i'm sort-of obligated to do one. because that's how the rules go. but anyway.

the theme for today is... METAL CATS!

....okay, that's not at ALL what i meant, actually. but there happens to be a whole website dedicated to that particular brand of metal cats, and it's weird and freaks me out so i'm not even gonna link to it.

nope, what i mean by metal cats is cats made out of metal. so, erm, not real life cats, but, erm, their effigies. hang in there, i'll get to my point eventually!

i chose this (admittedly rather bizarre) theme because firstly, i've been OFF the bandwagon for a couple weeks and i'm rusty (oh dear, i promise that pun wasn't intentional), but mostly because today i received a belated birthday present from my friend Darsha in the form of a...

...CAT NECKLACE!!! is it not one of the most beautiful things you have ever laid your eyes upon? :) the only things beating its beauty in my books are my real-life cats at home and the genuine Sharks jersey that Chris got me for my birthday. (um, i got spoilt on my birthday... i dunno if you can tell or anything.) 

anyway, i felt so inspired by this gem of a present that i decided to base today's post around it. hence... metal cats. so, here we go!

we'll kick things off with a cat wine bottle caddy, for anyone who has a penchant for both fermented grape juice and felines. any takers out there? :)

if that's not your thing though, maybe i can interest you in a cat fan... isn't it CUTE? i think i need one of these in my res room at the moment, to be perfectly honest :P

now, to get really intense, you could go right ahead and purchase a cat face metal design stamp with which to embellish any random scrap piece of metal you have lying around with the face of a feline friend... not weird at all. 

or, you could be more normal and dust-collector-y and get a sweet vintage cat figurine made out of pewter... awww.

another thing that might tickle your feline fancy if you're a fan of earrings as well (like i am) is these rather adorable cat earrings...

or perhaps you'd be more interested in an amazing cat bracelet such as this?

finally, i think we should all look at some majorly awesome cat rings, because CAT RINGS, okay?!

look at this cutie:

and my very favourite by Catbird...

...which is only $320! eeeeek. hee hee ;)

and that's a wrap for this week's caturday, folks - tune in soon to hear more about the rest of my life! :D

missing caturday: it's a thing

hey y'all!

i'm finally (sort-of) back in the land of blogging! :D i apologise for my absence - i've been working non-stop back in the Land of University - and with limited internet access, too! i know, how terrible (o.O) this all makes me tired... like this kitty.

daaaaw! ...actually, maybe i'm feeling more like THIS kitty...

...cause i'm trying not to be grumpy about all the stuff that's not going my way ;)

anyway, i realise i missed a caturday precisely two days ago - something that's pretty unacceptable, really, but somehow i've found the strength to carry on. in the meanwhile, we discovered three itty-bitty kitties crying outside my friend's window this morning... but don't worry, we didn't adopt them - there's a no-pet policy in her apartment :P i am, however, planning to scout the area when i get back there in an hour or two, to see if i can find 'em again and get a cute photo!

in walking all around town for the past week, i've also discovered The Street In Which I Must Live next year - mainly because (at least) three friendly and downright awesome cats already live there. my favourite is a talkative calico - but they're all pretty darn fantastic!

and now to share something with you that you can actually look at: here's a (rather hilarious) animated video that my brother shared with the rest of our family a day or two ago which exemplifies Gimli and Roo's relationship back at home. however, i tried to embed it, and it was being a little stupid-head, so here's the link that you should follow for some serious funniness.

any other cool cat things goin' on of which Yours Truly should be informed? :D