Outwith School – JMAC- The Blog Experience

This Months Top Five Tunes (In Lockdown)

Having been in Lockdown for the past two months I have had plenty of time to discover new artists and songs. Music is a great escape during these tough times locked inside ( I listen to music out a walk, tidying, reading or when I inevitably get bored and spend hours perfecting a full face of makeup for no reason.)

Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus- The Strokes. This is my favourite song on their new album ‘The New Abnormal’ its very upbeat and – dare I say- dance worthy for a strokes song but to be fair there is only about one song on this album that has the OG strokes vibes to it.
NEW MAGIC WAND- Tyler, The Creator. I’ve always been aware of Tyler, The Creator and I know he has a very prolific fan base but I’ve never taken the time to properly listen to any of his albums – despite the massive success they have had. This is my personal fave on his newest album ‘IGOR’ although it was a difficult decision between this song and A BOY IS A GUN – quite different songs considering it’s a bit ‘softer’ than NEW MAGIC WAND.
ARIES- Gorillaz feat. Peter Hook and Georgia. My second favourite song from Gorillaz new series ‘Song Machine’ featuring the bassist from New Order which gives it a very distinctive New Order ‘sound’.
Night Running- Cage The Elephant, Beck. I’ve always loved Beck but not so much Cage The Elephant, so Beck’s feature on this song is what really sold it for me. I feel like this is definitely going to be one of my ‘summer songs’ this year.
Strawberry Fields Forever- The Beatles. Who doesn’t love the Beatles? This is probably one of my favourite Beatles songs and it has a similar sound to my all time favourite band Sunflower Bean. My interest in the Beatles was re-ignited after watching the movie ‘Yesterday’ a few weeks ago. The plot of the movie is very interesting and I thought it was very well executed. If I tried to give you a rundown of the plot I would probably end up not doing it any justice so I will leave it to you to look it up if you wish. 🙂

Did Disney Ruin the Star Wars Franchise??

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Star Wars was known as a collection of six constructed movies which delved into the nooks and crannies of the sci-fi universe.

The way our current generation see franchises like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, X-Men and Harry Potter is the same way that the generations before us seen the Star Wars franchise.

The return of the franchise marked the beginning of a new era in the Star Wars universe. The seventh movie which started this off was the Force Awakens (2015). This received many mixed signals from the general public. Some fans were ecstatic for the Star Wars legacy to continue, meanwhile others felt uncertain that it could surpass the high expectations of the previous movies.

Despite the doubts, The Force Awakens generated a total of 2.066 billion US Dollars at the box office. This success made doubtful viewers see a different light on the new era.

Until………….The Last Jedi was released.

Surprisingly, there was a divide in opinions regarding the movie, between the critics who seemed to love the film – most likely because the critics are more watchful of different aspects of the movie compared to an ordinary person, they see movies as a work of art-. Whereas the general public had a conflicting response. They value entertainment over art therefore the fans were left disappointed by the messy story lines and plot holes which consequently left the audience at a cliffhanger with many questions unanswered.

The Rise of Skywalker brought back a familiar face. Emperor Palpatine, undoubtedly the manipulator and mastermind behind Order 66 and the Jedi genocide made the appearance in this movie. A major plot twist reveals that Rey is the granddaughter of Palpatine.

As the new Star Wars trilogy comes to a close, we are able to see the positive and negative aspects of the release of these movies. Fans were excited with anticipation to watch new Star Wars content, especially after the ten year anniversary since Revenge of the Sith in 2005.

However, many weren’t impressed with the poor character developments. Rey, one of the main protagonists, was seen by the public as too perfect. The fact that she didn’t have any flaws to her character irritated the audience. The unfortunate development of Finn was seen as a disappointment too. His story line in The Force Awakens was the peak of this character as he faded away in the last two movies. Kylo Ren’s character already had high expectations to follow up after the iconic Darth Vader made the legacy the high status is even to this day. His character was seen as a bad excuse of a villain and was a disappointment compared to Darth Vader.

Disney bought Lucasfilm in October 2012 for 4.05 billion dollars. This decision received mixed reviews in the future from fans. Although this chapter of the Star Wars trilogy is over for now, Disney have no plans in stopping the story of the Star Wars universe. Movies such as Rogue One, Solo: A Star Wars Story and The Mandalorian – which has had a flood of fans in awe over Baby Yoda – have been created to expand the horizons of fans and broaden the complex world that is Star Wars.

Operating Theatre Live

Recently, fourth year pupils Mark Grant and Rose Miller from St. Aidan’s High school participated in Operating Theatre Live at Falkirk high school. the programme- aimed at pupils looking to study any fields of medicine- involves dissecting real organs and learning from medical professionals themselves.

Rose commented on why the event would benefit her “The event would give me a boost into hopefully securing a place to study Veterinary medicine at uni in the near future and I really love helping animals and find it really rewarding when I am able to make them better”.

Rose and Mark went into detail of what the day involved ” we measured out and administered anaesthetic to a figurine and also were given the opportunity to dissect a pig, examine the brain and also examine the respiratory system”.

Mark’s favourite moment was examining the heart whereas Rose enjoyed dissecting the pigs head. Mark- who hopes to study medicine- commented on why he wants to become a doctor ” I find it really interesting and I just love helping people”

Crazy Colour Hair Dye

If you ever even think about dying your hair an unnatural colour you’ve probably came across crazy colour. When they’ve got over 40 shades it’s easy to be over whelmed. However not all the colours are good? Here are three of the best and worst that I have used.

Pinkissimo

So let’s start of good. While crazy colour doesn’t have a lot of pinks it does have pinkissimo. While it is a bright, and I do mean bright, pink it can be diluted with condition. Personally I’ve used it undiluted and bright pink but also used 1:2 dye to conditioner ratio to a pastel pink. Its best isn’t the best but it does fade pink with slight purple undertones.

Marshmallow

Please, and I mean please, do not buy pastel crazy colour dye. They fade, they don’t stick, and there patchy. I’m yet to find one that works like it is supposed to. Please just buy a brighter colour and dilute it. It’s not worth it.

Hot purple

Pretty much everyone who died there hair without bleaching it went ‘purple’ which was basically red. Hot purple is an actual purple. It’s basically the same colour as the braiding. It’s a more violet purple however it does fade blue. And I do mean fade. It goes blue, though a nice blue, within 3 or 4 washes.

Bubble-gum blue

Another pastel, see a trend? While bubble-gum blue is better than marshmallow it still isn’t great. It’s not the poppy blue on the bottle. It looks faded out of the tube. Please just buy sky blue and dilute it. Please.

Orange

Is orange a weird colour to dye your hair? Yes. Will people judge you? Yes. Will you be asked if you are having a mental breakdown? Probably. Is it worth it? Yes, for me at least. Call me crazy (colour! Get it?) But orange was one of my favourite colours. The orange however stuck. Anything with red in it will stick. While it started to fade eventually it wasn’t till I went into the sea that the colour got striped. And yes, it went yellowy but it was worth it.

Peacock blue

PEACOCK BLUE IS A LIE. It is green. The biggest critic of crazy colour is a lot of the colours aren’t exact matches to the bottle. I get it though. They probably did it on bright white hair and I’m dying over a pastel-y faded colour. However when I stripped my hair to the point it was almost white and used peacock blue it was green. It wouldn’t of been that big a deal if wasn’t for the fact the name has BLUE in the title.

If this article has taught you nothing listen to this: do a test strand.

Review : Everyman Cinema

I’m not a fan of drastic change. I would much rather go with the safe, well known option, like the Vue cinemas. I would take the Vue cinema over the Showcase or Cineworld any day but recently I came across a hip, modern, luxury take on your average cinema trip, the Everyman Cinema. Prices are relatively high for the income of your average 17 year old but if you’re feeling fancy you do get a great service for your money (especially if you are a pensioner). The cinema consists of three small screens with around 60 sofas replacing the standard cinema seats. your snacks or food – as its attached to a small cafe- are brought to your seat by a member of staff – on slate trays and the likes, totally instagrammable if that’s your cup of tea. Once everyone is fed and watered a member of staff comes in and gives a brief overview of the movie and you are left to enjoy only the highest rated movies in comfort and style.

Overall, due to the price of food and the ticket itself I wouldn’t go out of my way to make it my go- to cinema destination but as a treat or for a special occasion it definitely works.

Greggs : The Vegan Adventure

As an employee and consumer of one of Britain’s biggest fast food/ bakery chain. I feel it is only right to discuss Gregg’s latest move to include more vegan options within their menu. Last year they made headlines with their introduction of the vegan sausage roll. It claims to be composed of 96 layers of puff pastry – just like the traditional sausage rolls – and Gregg’s own bespoke Quorn recipe.

Gregg’s has shown commitment to a high standard of baking and selling procedure of all products, especially vegan products. It has been said that the vegan sausage roll tastes better cold but in my ‘professional’ opinion it tastes decent either way. If you are questioning the accuracy of the sausage roll taste let me also inform you that it tastes not dissimilar to stuffing.

The success of this vegan delicacy has been put down by many – including the BBC- to the uptake of ‘veganuary’ – the roll was released on the 3rd of January 2019. The vegan sausage roll resulted in a 13.5% increase in sales and a £7 million bonus to be distributed amongst 25,000 staff.

Hoping to continue this streak of success Gregg’s has again expanded their vegan range by adding a vegan glazed doughnut, vegan soup and the vegan steak bake.

However, The bake labelled as a ‘steak bake’ has caused some controversy. Many think it should be labelled something more general like the ‘vegan bake’ as the word steak is essentially too ‘ meaty’ and doesn’t convey the true vegan properties of the bake – but sausage roll is OK? The bake has been so successful Gregg’s designed an exclusive ‘PR’ style box and even had to take the bake off of smaller shops to meet the demands within busy city centres.

The Vegan steak bake – taste wise – is the same as a ‘healthier?’ crispy pancake. If that’s you cup of tea a vegan steak bake will be a clear choice for your next Gregg’s order.

Reading Club ‘Pages’

Mr McCrory and Miss McDowall began a reading club to encourage S1-S2 pupils to read for fun. Books are brought in for the children based on what they want to read. Pierce said “I’ve got a book by the historian James Holland. He’s made a bunch of children’s books about the battle of Britain but using a first person view”
Miss McDowall said “I think it’s just the idea were trying to get of the stigma that reading is something associated with school. It’s that idea it can be fun.”
One of the girls involved, Millie said “Everybody’s really nice. There’s nobody who will pick on you for liking a type of book or not liking a type of book. It’s basically just really cosy and relaxing” Sara said “I like coming and meeting new people and reading,” The club currently has 10-15 pupils at a time but many more are welcome

A Melancholy Monday

The first day back this term for St. Aidan’s caritas class was a rather sad one. Their beloved Caritas teacher – and head of department- Mrs Barton was leaving. Mrs Barton has been in St. Aidan’s high school religious education department for 23/25? years but has taken up a new position as … in Edinburgh . The pupils said farewell on Monday by putting together a party with the of assistant school chaplain, father Kieran. There was many a hug going round, but the school and pupils wish Mrs Barton all the best in her future endeavours.

Mrs Heinz commented on Mrs Barton work within the school ” Mrs Barton has enriched the life of every pupil in the school, through curriculum and pastoral events and by organising special mission and retreat times. Over the last twenty years. We will all really miss her generous, caring ways.”

In other news, St. Ignatius long term parish priest of 9 years – Father Gerry Maguiness- is taking up a new position as General Secretary of the bishops conference. Father Gerry has been a very involved member of the schools religious education department for many years.

2019 Auschwitz Visit

On the 3rd of October, two S6 students went on a reflective visit to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in the South of Poland. Joined by approximately 200 other visitors from Scotland, S6 R.E Vice Captains Carla Foley and Kate Hughes, had an emotional experience as they visited one of the most important sites of European history.

“I feel like dissociated would be the best way to describe how i felt, I just couldn’t comprehend this was where I was” explained Kate. She said she didn’t realise herself that this was where everything happened until she saw a ‘work makes you free’ sign while walking around. Kate also mentioned the tragic side of how the holocaust had a big impact on religion for Polish Jews as many synagogues were destroyed but never rebuilt. Oświęcim, the town near where Auschwitz is located, had a 50% Jewish population.

Kate and the community near Auschwitz urges people to talk about the severity of the genocide that occurred and to find some stories from individual survivors as it is “easier to connect to one person than 6 million.”

World Mental Health Awareness Day

The 10th of October is world mental health awareness day. Although mental health is a daily issue world mental health awareness day was designed to empower people to talk about it. This year’s theme set by the World Federation for Mental Health is suicide prevention.

In 2018 there were 6,859 across the UK and the Republic of Ireland and the deaths by suicide rose 11.8% in 2018. It’s not a ‘female’ issue. Men are 3 times as likely to die by suicide in the UK and 4 times as likely in the republic of Ireland. In Scotland, the suicide rate of young people between 15-24 has increased by 52.7%, the highest since 2007.

Don’t become another statistic.

It’s not a foreign issue; it isn’t just some old guy in a newspaper, it isn’t just a friend’s cousin’s girlfriend or just a celebrity with the world at their fingertips. It’s us. It might be you, your neighbour, friend, teacher, family. But why do we still treat it like it is? Why don’t we talk about it?

It’s a question I can’t answer for you. We need to change the question, not the answer, to why don’t we talk about it? When a disease sweeps across the nation, killing thousands, we look for a cure. There isn’t a pill you can take or some exercise you can do but what you can do is support people.

We can’t cure people by telling them to just smile or fake it till you make it but we can listen. Talking about it is step one. Another step maybe some form of therapy or maybe even medication and that’s good too. But talking is the most important.

Telling people how you feel, listening when they tell you, is essential. Whether it’s a friend, family member, teacher, or a professional someone out there wants to help you. Even if you think “I’m not that bad” or “there’s worse” talk! There’s no shame in what you may feel.

1 in 10 aged 5 to 16 are affected by a mental health problem but 70% of young people with mental health problems don’t receive the appropriate support. Unfortunately, this means if you or a friend need help you may need to fight for it.

I won’t lie and say it’s a walk through a flower field for recovery. There are weeds and litter and you might get stuck in the mud along the way but you keep walking. Talk to a parent or a teacher (or if you’re old enough go to your GP on your own) and you can ask for help. They’ll be able to refer you to someone who can help.

Or call one of the numbers listed below:

Anxiety UK Phone: 08444 775 774 (Mon-Fri, 9.30am-5.30pm) Website: www.anxietyuk.org.uk

No Panic Phone: 0844 967 4848 (daily, 10am-10pm) Website: www.nopanic.org.uk

OCD UK Phone: 0845 120 3778 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm) Website: www.ocduk.org

Samaritans Phone: 116 123 (free 24-hour helpline) Website: www.samaritans.org.uk

Young Minds Phone: Parents’ helpline 0808 802 5544 (Mon-Fri, 9.30am-4pm) Website: www.youngminds.org.uk

You may see teachers wearing yellow for world mental health awareness day on the 10th. This is to help reduce the stigma.

Never give in. you never know what will happen tomorrow. It might take a while to get better but that doesn’t mean it won’t.