Lifescouts: Music

It was Music Month on Lifescouts and there were lots of badges to collect. I don't think I'll get many because they are mostly instrument badges, but let's see!

Clarinet Badge

I can play the clarinet! I started when I was... about 9 but stopped when I was 16. I got to Grade 3 with it. I did enjoy playing, in the orchestra and the school wind band (nerd alert!), but I wasn't too good at doing any practice.

Piano Badge

I tried to learn to play the piano when I was about 14 but, again, I didn't practice enough. Oh yeah, the teacher that was teaching me just stopped turning up! Which was nice... so yeah I can play like one song on the piano.

Concert Badge

I've been to a few concerts in my time, and there is just something magical about the shared experience at a concert. So, I've seen:

• Spice Girls
• Steps
• Busted (with McFly supporting)
• Girls Aloud
• Westlife (twice)
• Kanye West
• Stereophonics
• Miley Cyrus
• Darren Criss
• Take That
• Robbie Williams
• S Club 7

Karaoke Badge

So I haven't done 'proper' karaoke, like in a karaoke bar, but I can do a mean rendition of Beyoncé's Crazy in Love on SingStar. Wuh-oh wuh-oh wuh-oh oh no no!

So that's Music. Not many but quality over quantity... *shifty look at my concert history*

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Lifescouts: Nerds

Another month has flown by! I hope everyone has had a lovely Easter break, despite the unseasonable cold weather here in the UK. Also, I know I haven't reviewed much this month, but, you know... real life and stuff equals not much reading time. Sad face.

But anyway.

This month on Lifescouts it was Nerd month. While I am a self-confessed nerd, I don't think I will be collecting many badges this month. But let's see:

Chess Badge

While I know how to play chess, I'm not very good at the whole strategy side of this game. Normally, I lose when I play, or if I play against a computer with the easiest settings, I occasionally win but mostly get to stalemate.

Video Games Badge

I love playing video games. I have a PS3, Wii and DS. My favourite game on the PS3 has to be the Lego Harry Potter games, and for the Wii/DS, the Super Mario games. Not a fan of first-person shooter games though. I am shocking at aiming my gun while moving and find them more tense than enjoyable lol.

Bowling Badge

When I was around 15, I went to New Orleans with school, and we went bowling one afternoon. While bowling around the world is essentially the same game, the difference in this particular bowling alley is that there was no automated scoring! None of us knew how to do the scoring. Our coach driver tried to explain it but we still couldn't get it. I think in the end we just added an extra 10 points for strikes and half-strikes.

Programming Badge

Over the past year or so, I've been trying (very trying) to teach myself some rudimentary programming. Mainly HTML and CSS, because let's be real, it's useful to at least be able to look at a webpage source and know what's what. Thankfully, the internet is a wonderful resource for self-learning this sort of stuff with places like codecademy and Khan Academy providing free courses to learn with. I think I'm at the point where I can made a website that looks like it was made in the early 90s, maybe late 90s with a lot of looking up stuff involved. It is so satisfying though when your code works though!

So there we go. Four badges from this month's theme. Wish I could qualify for the Observatory badge and the Rubik's cube badge.

Go here to see the other badges I have collected, and let me know in the comments which badges you have collected!

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Lifescouts: Animals

February on Lifescouts has been Animal month. So here are my memories/experiences that go with the badges.

Swimming with Dolphins

When I was about 10, my mum and dad in an amazing feat of sneakery took me and my sister to Florida for 2 weeks. As in, we had no idea until the night before that we were even going. Yeah... neither of us got a whole lot of sleep that night. Anyway, when we went to Seaworld Orlando, I got to swim with the dolphins! At the time, they were my favourite animal so I was ecstatic. We got to hold on to their dorsal fin and be dragged along and feed them and all sorts. I think we also got to make them do some tricks. It was amazing. And to top it off, I swam with the dolphin was named Dixie, which is the name of my school!

Snake Holding Badge

I have held a snake a grand total of once, and it was when I attended the Summer Ball at my university in 2009. Summer Balls at university literally took over the whole campus. There was a mini fairground in one of the car parks and some sort of 'big' name in the Sports Hall... I can't even remember who performed. Was it Chesney Hawkes (of "I'm am the one and only!" fame) that year? Possibly. Anyway, in the middle of campus there were some people carrying snakes. You could go up to them and hold the snakes. Considering the clamour of drunk students, these snakes were very tame, and seemed quite unfazed by the whole ordeal.

Pet-Owning Badge

My family and I have owned a few pets through the years. We've had a few goldfish, the last two were called Coddy and Chips.

We had a guinea pig, called Jumbo. He was black with a strip of orange on one shoulder. He was lovely, we even managed to potty-train him in a fashion. Basically, Jumbo wouldn't wee on you. He would start to squirm and we'd put him on the floor and then he would wee. Well... it was better than being weed on. I should stop saying wee.

The last one on the list is Dobby. No, not a house elf (S.P.E.W supporter ;) ), but a West Highland White Terrier. He can be a grumpy old git, but the adorableness factor makes up for it. I mean look at that face...

Badges from this month that I'd like to gain/fulfill in the future:

• Horse-Riding Badge 
• Safari Badge 
• Rainforest Badge
• Falconry Badge

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Lifescouts: An Introduction.

I am joining Lifescouts.

What is Lifescouts you ask? Well:

Lifescouts is a badge-collecting community of people who share their real-world experiences online (x)

Similar to if/when you were in the Boy Scouts or Brownies or whatever you called it, and you got a badge for learning a new skill, Lifescouts is a way to collect badges for life experiences. You can do it through Tumblr, Twitter or, like me, on a blog, or you can even collect actual real-life badges! I'm rather tempted by some of the badges.

It was created by Alex Day off of YouTube and he talks about it here.

I think this would be a great way to inspire my blogposts, give me something to talk about, and let you get to know me that much better. I'm going to post the first month's ones here (the ones that apply to me obv) and then after that I will probably post when I have 'collected' around 4 or 5 badges.

French Language Badge

I have read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in French. I'm currently working my way through the whole Harry Potter series en français.

Empire State Building Badge

New York City is one of my favourite places in the world. I first visited and went up the ESB when I was 16. It is a bit of a blur, my whole first visit to NYC. The second time was on my third visit to New York last year with my sister. The weather was bitterly cold but the views were spectacular. Despite it being a tourist trap, it is an absolute must see for the views of Manhattan and beyond. I definitely recommend going early in the morning to miss the queues.

Driving Badge

I passed my test first time, with only 4 minors. I have now been driving 6 years. I have a red Fiat 500, which started out life as Polly, but is now called Mario. He would like you to respect his life choices ;).

Scuba-Diving Badge

I am a qualified BS-AC Sports Diver. I have been diving properly since I was 14, but had tried diving possibly as early as 8 in the pool with my dad's kit. I have dived mainly in British waters, but also in Tenerife. Since university, I rarely dive, though I still sometimes go to my dad's club to say hi. One day I want to dive on the Great Barrier Reef, and in other more tropical climes than British waters.

Mona Lisa Badge

I have seen the Mona Lisa in person in the Lourve Museum, Paris, when I was 17ish on a school trip. I was slightly underwhelmed by it, to be honest. It is a really small painting. I thought it would be much bigger. We also weren't allowed to get very close to it because of the security around it. The museum itself though is a great one. I really want to go back and take my time wandering around it.

Niagara Falls Badge

I visited the Niagara Falls during a school trip to Canada in 2004. We had visited Quebec, Montréal and Toronto. We went to the Niagara Falls on our last day. We took a trip on the Maid of the Mist into the Falls, all looking fetching in our ponchos! But as the ponchos didn't quite cover us down to our feet, we ended up catching the flight home with damp trousers from the knees down! It was awe-inspiring to see though. Also, Canada is very proud of the fact that their side of the Falls is bigger than America's!

Eiffel Tower Badge

I have been up the Eiffel Tower a few times. I can't remember when the first time was though. But we definitely got the lift! I have also been up it once with school (same trip as the Mona Lisa visit). Like with the ESB above, the views of Paris are amazing.

Big Ben Badge

I'm going to take this as visiting London. I have been to London many times. I even applied to 2 universities there back in the day. I got to see some of the London Olympics last year, which was amazing, and this year I'll be going to LeakyCon there!!!

So, there we go. Let me know if you start collecting your own Lifescout badges. I'd love to know what you have 'collected' and how!

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