People who read my blog have often mentioned to me that they think I'm unlucky. Several people have said that they think I have a knack for attracting strange people and situations. Oscar Taylor-Kent, in his blog entry for this site, even pointed out that it seems strange that so many strange things would happen to one person. But I have to say, I don't really agree.
    I don't think that I'm particularly unlucky at all, or that I attract any more unusual situations that the next person. I think, in actuality, the truth is that I unintentionally give people the impression that this is the case. Most probably, anybody could keep a blog based on strange anecdotes. When I write them down, it helps me to remember them and therefore the memory is preserved, whereas with somebody who doesn't record all of these things, they'll just forget about them. There's no reason that any more things should happen to me than anybody else, and I just think it's because I have a blog which is known to be full of unusual anecdotes that I have the reputation for attracting strange situations. You should try writing down all the funny and weird things that happen to you, not necessarily on a public blog, even a private journal would do, and before long you'll see that you have quite a trove of stories that my otherwise have faded from memory (also, memorising all these funny stories does mean you have lots of things to talk about at social events!).

(also, it's Friday so don't miss this week's Finger Puppet Show!)

Take a listen to this song. Wonderful isn't it? But for me, there's a really strong emotional attachment to it. I first heard this in December 2012: I was having a lovely 'Goodbye Day' with a very good friend of mine who would be heading home for Christmas soon after. It was lovely, she bought me a yoyo, we went to Nando's and all other nice things. The day before I had a similar day with her house mate (another very good friend of mine), David Tubb. It was a lovely time, really. But, very sadly, various things happened and David (and Naomi, another housemate) had to move away from my nameless friend, and now that circle of friends is broken. At the time, I was unaware that any of this would happen; I really loved the fact that they all lived together. Staying at their house was a delight. I so often think that I, as the one who stayed on good terms with all of them, could have done so much more to keep the stitches of their relationships held together, but I never really realised the seriousness of things, and so was utterly useless, meaning that several people were left very sad, myself included and it climaxed in things being completely severed between them. I know I SHOULDN'T blame myself for this, but I do believe that I could have 'fixed' things, if only I had realised the extent of things, and I just miss these times so terribly badly. But in the end, there was nothing to be done and things cannot go back (none of them should feel bad for my sad feelings towards it, either, nor should they interpret this entry as a message to any of them). Anyway, I'm writing this because when I listened to this song again (I think, for the first time) I remembered EXACTLY how I felt, how happy I was with everything and how good everything seemed. Ironically, I was probably the only person happy at the time. So, yes, I apologise for such an angsty post, the point of it was, that music can have an incredibly strong impact on us and remind us of exact emotional states in the past. I really wanted to write this down, and so, I figured my blog was the best place for it, and so there we go, a nice extra entry for you.

For me, it's very important to have my picture taken with the people I'm closest with. I suppose it's a little hard to explain why, but I'll try: when I look at these pictures, even if I haven't seen the people in them for a long time, seeing myself with them in the picture really helps me to 'feel' the relationship. This is especially nice if I'm ever feeling a bit sad, because I can look through these and it cheers me up. It's quite a shame though, because there are people who I'm no longer in touch with who have moved on to more exciting people and things, and I wish I had had my picture taken with them while we were still close friends, then I could look at the pictures and remember more clearly the feeling and happiness of those past friendships. There're also a large number of close friends who I am STILL in contact with, but, unfortunately, the chance to be photographed together just hasn’t come up yet. But here they are anyway, all taken from a folder on my desktop called Super Cool People:

All of these pictures have a unique name too, so, some people might like to know those names:

1. Brother Sam
2. Kool Kristen
3. Lovely Lad Egan
4. My Best (Internet) Friend
5. My Super Suedo Sister (an intentional typo there, bit of an in-joke)
6. The Holmes to My Watson
7. The Infinitely Kind and Helpful Rory

So, yes, bit of a personal entry today, I suppose. I kind of had three reasons for writing this: One, so that my friends who aren't included will think "I must be sure to get my picture with Adam..." (and there are quite a few, sadly) and, two, I was feeling quite lazy, and this entry didn't really require much thought or imagination (sorry!) and, three, so that these pictures are nicely backed up on my blog, in case of emergency (always nice to have an extra place to keep them!).

I decided I would take the time to write an extra entry today because today is my blog's two year anniversary, here's a link to the very first entry, if you'd like to see it. My only real regret about my blog, is that I didn't start keeping it earlier! It makes me very happy that I have continuous posts of writing going back to 2011. It gives me a look at how my writing style has changed and evolved over that time, but above all, it gives me a look at how I personally have changed over that time too and in a few more years it will be even more expansive and valuable to me. There are so many entries about small nice or funny things that happened which I may well have forgotten otherwise and it also provides me with a place to share memorable stories from my life.
    I don't know anybody else who keeps a blog as regularly as I do, and that's sad, really, because I'd certainly love to read something written by my friends. The problem is, I think, that it's not fun right away. When I first started writing this blog, there were several times when it felt boring, or when it felt like a chore, and I just wanted to stop; often it was hard to think of anything to write for the entries and there were times when I didn't want to keep writing it. But I kept going and now my blog is something that is invaluable to me. I limit myself to three entries a week (usually) so that I don’t run out of ideas but I often get so excited about my entry ideas that I can't wait for the next posting day to come along. So, really, I think more of you should start a blog, it may not seem so at first, but it is a very rewarding exercise.

Also, since it's been two years, I decided to go through every entry and count the number of appearances of all of my friends. I'll post the four who have appeared the most often here along with the number of entries they are in.

1. David Tubb, whose total number of appearances is 40. (This was my expected outcome.)
2. My friend who I can't name (but I can link to her blog), who at a very close second, is in 39 entries.
3. I wanted to just have a top three, but Dalfino Madrigal Keyte and Elliott Egan are joint in third place. Each of them have appeared 28 times.

This is blog entry 433.

(sorry, not sure if that's interesting to anybody, but I love statistics and such, so I thought I'd make some!)

Back in 2007, a lot of people used to jokingly suggest that I was gay. In 2010 I'd occasionally get people asking me quite seriously whether or not I was, for example I once went to a party and made a new friend and she said eventually "So, you're gay right?" Now, in 2013, it seems that the Corsham teenagers cannot contain themselves when they see me and so find themselves shouting out derogatory words that connote homosexuality. If somebody knew my very well, they may be able to take several instances out of context and make a small case for my alleged homosexuality, for example:
- A male once made out with me (I was quite unwilling).
- I've had a male masturbating quite openly, only a few meters away from me (again, I was no willing part of that).
- I have quite an obsession with actor Richard Thomas.
- I once had a boyfriend (though for only a few minutes! Sheesh, that was a close one.)
and other smaller similar points that I'm may be forgetting (the heterosexuality list is probably even shorter). Just for the record, I am not homosexual, but I'm very curious to know what it is about me that makes so many people instantly think I am. It's not that I want to know so that I can stop doing it (I'd quite happily walk through the streets holding hands with a male and wearing a dress if I ever had the urge(not that somebody doing that would necessarily be homosexual)) but sheer curiosity makes me wonder what it is that brings people to these incorrect conclusions. It’s nice, in a way, that people don’t assume heterosexuality, but then again it’s wrong to assume any sexuality of anybody, I personally tend to make no conclusions until somebody tells me. But, yes, I’ve gone off on a tangent; this is just something I’ve been wondering about lately.

I have been given five writing tasks by my good friend David Tubb and I shall be writing one of these each day this week. These will be somewhat different to my usual entries, and so I am just writing them as well as my regular entries, rather than instead of.

Today's task is to write about my future (assuming everything goes to plan).

Well, this is the trickiest one so far, and will probably be the shortest, but I'll do my best! Anyway, Of course, I'd still be updating my blog regularly but hopefully at some point or another I'd have found a way to earn some kind of money from doing so, that would be quite nice. To say I'd have some kind of book out (a collection of short stories perhaps) seems just a little too optimistic. I like to think that my main source of income would be through working at a secondary school as an English teacher (I'm sure trouble making teenagers could make a blog entry or two!). Although, frankly, I would be quite happy even if I were just a supply teacher at a school, or even a TA. Actually, even if I just worked in Waterstone's I would be perfectly content. Of course, all of my friends, or at least, all of the people I like the most, will be close enough for me to visit them all very regularly (no more than a bus ride away, I’d hope!). I guess I would have my own house too, or more likely, my own flat, and I'd like to live with a close friend too (meaning, any close friend, not that I plan to live with anybody in particular at this point). Also, depending on how far in the future this is (if it's REALLY far, I guess I would just write 'not dead' as my hopeful outlook) but I have sometimes thought about adopting a child at some distant point in the future, but I've never really thought too hard about it. But, yes, those are my thoughts on an optimistic future!

I decided I would write a blog entry about niceness as it seems to me that it is virtue which is rather undervalued. How often do you hear somebody say (about somebody else) "Yeah, they're nice, but..."? My question is: but what?
    I find that a lot of people view niceness as a bonus, but tend to like people if they're intelligent, funny or any other additional things that are generally valued more highly. But this seems silly to me, from my point of view, niceness is the most important of all virtues. I don't need the people I like to be funny, intelligent, outgoing, loud or any of the rest of that kind of thing, I just need people to be nice, and the more nice somebody is, the more I will like them. I mean, why do any of the other qualities I mentioned even matter to people? Niceness is important as it is a sign that a person can be depended upon, no other virtue really has that upside. Although, I will say that intelligent people do tend, in my experience, to be nicer, but, to counter that, many intelligent people can be arrogant and rude, and some unintelligent people can be very nice indeed.
    Sorry, this blog entry may be a bit short (and lacking a point) but I just thought I'd raise something which I don't understand about a lot of people. Why is niceness (the thing which is most important to me) not valued as highly by others?

I like to look at every meaningful relationship I've had with anybody as like a story. They're all made up of a beginning, middle and end. While it is quite sad to think about the fact that a time will come when your relationships will all reach their end, I think looking at things like this helps to show how different your interacting with different people are, and even give a more positive outlook. Every friend, every family member, just, anybody they you care deeply about, has their own unique story. You're not likely to meet two people in the same way, nor are you likely to depart from two people in the same. But most important, are the middles; once you finally get to know somebody and start having fun with them. All the fun and crazy adventures you have with people, the things you aren't likely to forget. We all have to savour these middles, because they will end, maybe years in the future, maybe in a few days’ time. But all the different little signs of affection and the fun, unusual things done, they all add up to make our relationships with everybody unique stories. 

Bonfire Night is an event I always look forward to, you really get a nice wintry feeling when you stand out in the dark, drink mulled wine and watch the fireworks launch. However, while I do like it very much, I do rather dislike its link to history. I'm sure you all know that the event is a celebration of the fact that Guy Fawkes (and the rest of the people involved in the Gunpowder Plot) was stopped before he could blow up the House of Lords and kill King James I. But does it not seem rather immoral to celebrate somebody's capture and execution every single year? I mean, of course, planning to blow up a building to kill people is a bad thing, and I do consider him a bad person, but it's not like he was being purely evil by doing this, he was only defending his religion. I think it's bad to celebrate the death of anybody; every death is a tragedy, even if a person is bad. Burning an effigy of Guy Fawkes to me feels downright barbaric. Why can't we just launch fireworks because it's a fun thing to do? Rather than to celebrate the death of somebody who died four hundred and six years ago? I realise this isn't consciously in the heads of most people, but I do think this aspect of the day should be done away with.
  
Anyway, here are some photos I took at the Neston Firework display. They didn't come out that well, but I wanted to share them anyway!

While sitting on the bus the other day, my mind began to wander (as it often does while it rides lovely buses), and I started thinking about what exactly would happen to this blog if I was killed in a tragic bus accident (I decided to specifically say bus accident there, because then, if I'm killed in a bus accident, people will be really amazed and think I was psychic of something crazy like that).
    Would the Trusty Water Blog just be left to gather metaphorical internet dust? I imagine it would, I mean, why would anybody want to visit a site which is never updated and doesn't have much rereadability? I suppose there's the tiniest chance it'd get more popular, every artist is suddenly better when they're dead after all. But that probably doesn't included authors of obscure blogs. So, eventually, I decided that I'd like most for somebody else to take over and continue writing it as often as possible. Then they can do the same and on, and on and there'll be a long line of Trusty Water Bloggers.