"Change One Life" Week

Firstly, an apology, for me being a dumb shit basically. On my last blog I claimed that my family left for holiday last Saturday. Which isn't true at all, it was actually the Monday of the week I'm about to chronicle. I don't know why I thought that, and I'm probably a terrible person for not knowing this properly. I could have gone back and edited it, but we all have to face up to our mistakes, right? Right. Now you know that I'm an awful person, on with the week ahead.

Anyways, this week in my diary was "Change One Life" Week, as the observant of you may have figured from my blog title... This task required members to sign up to be a lucky Benrik reader who will have their life changed by other members. Awesome!


Monday:
All I did in relation to the task today was write up my application, which required a brief outline of my life and what needs to be changed. I probably went in to way more detail than required, but oh well. Here is said application, warts and all:

My name is James Small. I was born on 24th October 1988 in Suffolk, to a middle-class family. Unfortunately my parents divorced when I was young, though I don’t think it has affected me too much, though I don’t often see my father. I attended primary school as a child, where I was a bit rebellious, I was the class clown, but I was always friendly. After that I went to high school, where I was still a bit rebellious, but not so much so. I passed my GCSEs with decent grades. I then went on to Sixth Form where I studied Film, Media, and English. I passed Film and Media, but not English. However, my grades were good enough to take me to University, where I now study Film and Media Studies. I have just finished the second year. I have also recently discovered Benrik, which has made life quite different since…
I am a geeky, friendly, shy but fun-loving guy. I love music (most genres), films (most genres), playing drums (though I can’t find a band), writing scripts, and playing video games. I don’t have millions of friends like everyone else in the world, but the ones I do have I love to bits, and I think it's more important to have a few great friends than loads of distant friends. I am pretty much the only single person I know, and probably the only virgin too. Because of this, I do tend to get lonely, paranoid and sad sometimes, but for the most part I am a pretty happy guy. I am also a paperboy, at 20 years old, which is very lame and embarrassing, because I can’t find a job. I could blame the recession, but I’m also just pretty lazy.
What needs changing in my life: Help finding a girlfriend - I know being single isn’t that major an issue, but I feel very lonely and get jealous because all my friends have someone. I also need a decent job, and being in a band, or at least having the money to form a solo project, would help. Not that I’m asking for money, but that’s what the job is for…
Lots of love, James

Man, that's pretty brutal. Now you know about all my embarassing personal stuff. Oh well. Y'know, I'm a human being, we're all flawed. Don't judge me. Honesty is a good thing though, so we are led to believe...

My family actually DID leave for Malta today, by the way.

In the evening I went to the cinema with Chloe and we watched Tormented, which was awesome, we had such a fun time watching it. We loved the eyeball bit! I like how Chloe and I talk about everything and nothing at the same time. I can't remember exactly what we talked about today, because this was a week ago, but we always have really deep conversations next to really stupid conversations. She's my fwwwwwieeeeend ^_^


Tuesday:
I realised that I'd probably screwed myself over in this task by not signing up to the Benrik sight. As such, they wanted a photo and log-in from me. Lame. Anyways, some lady with an awesome fringe won instead. Not that I have a problem with this. She has an awesome fringe, thus deserved it. She wanted to escape her boring life, basically. Meanwhile, I had to think of a task for her...

Spent the day in my house with Meg, Chloe, Meech, Chris, Joseph and Emily. We didn't really do much except sit in the kitchen and stuff, but it was fun. We took an excursion into town to get ingredients for chocolate crunch. We wrote up a funny recipe for chocolate crunch too ('You'll need, like, a spatula', 'Add chopped adult', etc.). The chocolate crunch was super rich, but was tasty. We also got out our guinea pig, Gus, who pooed and weed on me. Fortunately guinea pigs have cute poo and wee, so I didn't mind... A very good day, I was sad when it was all over, like I always am when days out with friends end, but I guess it's for happy reasons that I feel sad.


Wednesday:
No task today. I forgot.

Went to the cinema with Meg to see Drag Me To Hell, which was awesome! I really loved it, it was an awesome throwback to Raimi's Evil Dead days for me, just over-the-top scares, laughs and gross-out. Just pure fun. Afterwards Meg and I went to Zizzi for dinner, a posh restaurant. She was worried people would think we were a couple, so I kept calling her my 'missus'. I was tempted to order stuff saying that, but I decided I was being mean enough already.


Thursday:
No task.

Spent the day with Ping and her boyfriend Tom. Unfortunately I was feeling a bit ill today, so I was a bit distant all day, but i still had a good time. I called Ping Jackie Chan at one point, which was funny. Because racism is funny. She found it funny too, so it's all okay. I love people who don't take racism offensively, because it's the only way you can really fight racism, by not being upset by the things they've said to upset you.

Was meant to be going to Betty's with some friends that night, but I still wasn't feeling well so I bailed out. As it turned out, everyone else bailed too, except Meech, who bailed out, but then changed her mind. I don't know why I'm writing all this pointless detail, I didn't wanna lie I guess. Anyways, I was sad I missed the karaoke night, but oh wells.


Friday:
No task. I'm good, me.

In the day I went to the cinema with Chloe and Dayna and we had a lush double bill - Star Trek and Drag Me To Hell. YASSSSSS! Chloe and I laughed at stupid bits of Star Trek, like when old Spock's voice slowed down, and Kirk's face when he was exiled onto that snow planet. Good times. We also got McDonalds, thanks to Dayna generously giving us some rather nice Maccy D vouchers.

That night I hung out with Kirstie, whom I hadn't seen in ages. It was nice to catch up with her, we just went for a walk and kept spazzing over summer and birthdays. We're thinking about starting up a band, we discussed this while singing along to Reuben songs. If that happens it'll be awesome! We also took photos, there were some epic ones of me being a spastic. As if I could be anything else.


Saturday:
I actually did some task! Woo! I sent a challenge for awesomely-befringed lady. In her description she said she wanted a way out which didn't require lobotomy... So I suggested trepanning instead. I said that she should go to the doctor's, convince them she needs trepanning, and see how far she can get them to go along with it. I was quite proud of this idea.

I watched The Orphanage, which Chloe kindly lent to me. It was a really good film, it took me a bit to get into, because I'm not one for slow-paced ghost stories usually, but it was well worth it, there were some incredible scenes, not least the ending. I'd be lying if I said I didn't let out a few tears at the end, it was beautiful, ambiguous, sad, and redemptive. All at the same time. Loved it.


Sunday:
I don't think my task got picked. Sad times. I tried to apply for the Benrik website, but it wouldn't let me log-in. Jesus Christ. I can never be a true Benrikian. Oh well, it's probably some weird trick they're playing to fuck with me.

That night I watched The Children, which was a bit shit. It was slow, dull, not as gory as it should have been, and nor was it funny. It was a hard enough idea to take seriously (kids get some disease that makes them murderous), so a little bit of humour wouldn't have gone amiss. But no, there was none of that. Just plain dull really.

That's it for that week. I'm gonna try and update more frequently from now on, I don't like having to write my whole week in one big block. Just thought I'd let you know =)

Love,
xoxox