_4/20/2013 3:47:49 PM_

http://www.rhumguadeloupe.com/tix/39s/hze9hw5nc7/xsx/rwkp/gdyaprghp5/sfapfi4617/k1tpopzyb

O_O

http://www.peche-stergoz.com/js/csxrjgedg/4wa/xgkch167/r4u/fetvxd/16m755

Jack Wilshere: All that's great about England

Been following Jack Wilshere on twitter since I first got an account, recently looking through his photo's and see a lot of photos with a young lad called Jack Marshall, and after some research I found this lad was suffering from A major tumor on his brain, and Wilshere had been there for support since he heard the story. Here's what I posted on Facebook about it:

Jack Wilshere, a 19 year old footballer for Arsenal, heard about a young lad who is suffering from a major brain tumor, and discovered this lad's brother was getting bullied at the park where he plays football. Since he heard of their story, he didn't just do the expected thing of him and send a signed shirt or ball, but he has been to play football at the park with the poor lad's brother, took the family out for a meal, took them to wimbledon, took them to his for a barbeque, took them to watch various Arsenal + England games, and he manages to find the time to regularly speak to the young lads on the phone.
Young people and footballers get a lot of bad press, but Jack Wilshere is a great representation of all that's good in the youth of England.

 Even if I step out of my football fan shoes for a minute, It's hard not to be impressed by this story.

Friday Musings #2

My week...
Firstly, I'd like to apologise for the fact my Friday musing has been posted on a Sunday. After 3 years of service my computer is suffering from wear and tear it would appear, and only now have I got it working correctly to some degree.
Moving on, it has been a fairly boring week for myself. As far as highlights go, I helped out with a friend at the parent's evening on Thursday, which involved 2 hours of a chat between me and Chris, and some fairly amusing chats with teachers, some of which probably wouldn't have been appropriate for lessons. This was followed by a trip to the music service for young people in Daventry. I had a pretty good two hours jamming with the bands of my friends, and met some pretty awesome people! 
I apologise for the lack of interesting-ness in my week, but I hope the rest of the blog makes up for it! Enjoy :D

What's on my mind this week...

Russell Howard's Good News is a great programme, but my favourite segment is at the end where an inspirational news story of the week is shown to highlight the fact "It's not all doom and gloom" as Russell himself would say. It got me thinking about who the idols in my life are. Whilst I could tell you about how Newton Faulkner is a huge inspiration when it comes to my desire to become a good guitarist, or how I would love to become an actor in the vain of Bradley Cooper, I thought a little deeper into the whole idols thang and realised that some people who I would class as inspirational are all people who others would consider to just be normal people within my school. There are a few people within my school (Not mentioning any names) who are massively inspirational in my school because they all have huge aspirations and interests and are working bloody hard towards achieving them. Some of these people have faced flak or abuse for doing what they do, but this has never stopped them and in the face of adversity these people have carried on and are on their way to or have become successful in not only achieving their goals, but in some case surpassing them. They may not get the recognition they deserve right now, but I hope for them they will one day go on to be successful in whatever it is they do!

My Top 5: Things wanted for Christmas

5. some new DVDs (suggestions in comment box are more than welcome) 

4. Paco Rabanne Black XS aftershave

3. New pair of trainers (preferably some form of Dunks/Hi-Tops)

2. Electro-Acoustic Guitar/Loop Station

1. Miranda Kerr. A lad can dream...

Anything Else?
My Sky TV is back up and running! I basically lose it every summer as the neighbour's trees block off the satellite, and we only have signal in the 6 months there are no leaves on the trees. ANYWAYS, I have been doing a lot of catching up on different TV shows, and watching a lot of comedy central as any self respecting lad should do. Two and a Half Men is just as greater show now in my opinion as it was with Charlie Sheen. This is nothing to do with Aston Kutcher, but Jon Cryer as Alan has been so much funnier than before in the new series! The character has become so much funnier now he is arguably the central character of the show, and I still enjoy the show as much as before. 
I'm off now to watch brand new South Park, followed by more Two and a Half Men, followed by American Dad, GOD I'VE MISSED TV!
Till the next time...

My Haemophilia

Ever since I was born I have suffered from a bleeding disorder called Haemophilia (Severe Haemophilia A in my case). My mum was called 6 days after I was born and was literally told I suffered from it and that was the phone call. I kind of feel the need to write this as whenever it crops it's way into a conversation it can be hard to fully sum it up, and hopefully by posting this I can clear up a few misconceptions anyone reading has, and hopefully entertain/inform them what effect it's had on my life.

15 years on from that phone call my mum received, I still suffer from the disease and it's still a very prevalent part of my life. Haemophilia is a blood disorder in which I am missing a clotting factor called Factor 8. This means I can bleed into my joints and muscles, which then cause them to swell and make movement very painful indeed.  I have to take medication in the form of an injection every other day, which is basically a clotting agent which acts as a substitute for the Factor 8 which is missing in my blood.   

Whilst at the moment this isn't affecting me as much as it can do (I probably have 1 or 2 major bleeds a year, as I am currently having now) there have been times in my life where it has been rather severe. When I was coming towards the end of primary school, I developed something called Inhibitus. Inhibitus is basically where  the medication I take became barely effective, meaning I was having to take medication on a daily basis. What was odd in my case is Inhibitus is a problem which usually develops when people's immune system's are not used to the medication (usually in Haemophilia it is toddlers who have had one or two injections) yet I had taken the medication well over 1000 times by the time my Inhibitus developed. I spent a lot of time after this diagnosis in hospital in Oxford having blood tests trying to determine what exactly was going on, and in the end we decided that a treatment which would knock out my immune system in the hope when it came back the Inhibitus would not return with it. Unfortunately this did not work, but as oddly as the Inhibitus arrived, it randomly disappeared a few months later, something which as I'm sure you can imagine I was jubilated with, and something which to this day I do not take for granted. Although the fact it developed in such random circumstances, I have been clear of Inhibitus for a while now and *touchwood* I'm hoping it won't be coming back anytime soon.

Even though I have Haemophilia, I must say I feel extremely fortunate with how it currently does not make too much of an impact on my life. When not suffering from a bleed, I am able to lead pretty much a full life. I play football for a team, I don't tend to miss to much school due to it, I am always out and about and although it is never really talked about, I have a great bunch of friends who are all really understanding about the condition and are always there if I need a helping hand (the lads know how to throw about the banter but I would much rather they felt comfortable bringing it up then feel it to be a touchy subject).

Whilst I worry about how it could effect my future, it doesn't really seem to alter my plans for what I want to do. Whilst I could wallow in self pity over how I will never be a footballer (which never would have happened anyways due to my mediocre talent and downright shocking lack of pace) I prefer to look at what I still have to look forward to. I can still try to follow my dream of being involved in Drama, and I can still go on to have a family, and I can still go out and enjoy life etc. 

My sole intention of writing this was that anyone who sees this who has ever wanted to ask me about it would either find out what they want to know or would feel a bit more comfortable asking me questions. I was a bit nervous about posting this because I don't want it to come across as a precocious account of how I 'constantly struggle with a life-changing illness' because I know myself that whilst it can effect my life it really doesn't make to much of a difference to the way I live. I hope it's made things a bit clearer to you, and if you didn't plan/know anything about it, hope this blog has entertained you!

Cheers for read guys, feel free to follow me on Twitter @connorslasberg

Till the next time...

Friday Musings

If you're reading this in the morning, hope you had a lovely nights sleep! If you're reading this at the time of posting, GO TO BED!
This is basically what I aim of doing each week, so here goes! :)


My week...
It's been a slightly odd week for me I have to say. I have spent a lot of time off school with what on a recent trip to a hospital in Oxford turned out to be a Major Hematoma in my Patella (In Layman's terms an internal bleed in the muscle surrounding my knee). In this time, I have had to take 2 maths exams without any previous lessons on the subject this term. I think panic is a bit extreme, but it's certainly not a settling feeling to know your going into an exam half as prepared as most others. 
In the end I think I at least passed 1, and the other was fairly easy, so here's to hoping I do well in that!
One of the biggest issues that became clear on my trip to Oxford was that this injury is going to be here for a while. I've been told I can't do any sport for at minimum another 6 weeks, which really is not what I was hoping for. I've been missing my football and as much as I enjoy watching the team play, anyone who has had an injury whilst part of a sporting team will agree there's always a desire to get back in action! 
Overall it's not been too bad a week. When I look past the injury and the exams, my first week back at school has been fairly enjoyable. I also discovered the beautiful Big Tasty from McDonalds on my way back from Oxford. Think I have found my ultimate food heaven.


What's on my mind this week...
There's been a lot of fuss over this photo scandal on Facebook recently, especially aimed towards Sharon O Brien (for those of you who don't know, somehow photo's of her got onto Facebook and soon enough she was trending worldwide on Twitter, nobody knows the true reason as to how the photos arrived on the site but there have been rumors ranging from her being an actress working for an anti-bullying company, to her Dad uploading them). One of the most shocking things about it all was the abuse that was directed towards this young woman. I can only imagine the photos were never intended to be released for everyone to see, yet everyone seems to think they have some God-given right to call this girl an attention seeker and a slut, etc. One of the things that strikes me is that a lot of these girls sending this abuse either have NSFW photos as their profile pictures, and I imagine they may have sent crude photos to a partner before, they were just fortunate for the photos to remain private. I personally find it astounding the way people have been acting towards this girl, yet I can't imagine people reacting too kindly if they were in Sharon's shoes. There was blatantly no attempt for the photos to achieve this level of fame, so why people treat her as if she wanted this is beyond me. It's hard to defend our generation when we have moments like this on Facebook which are there for the world to see. 
To anyone who is unsure the girl has not committed suicide, and she is not an actor working for a cyber bullying company, and I would sure bloody hope it wasn't her dad!


My Top 5: Albums I Can't Take Off at the Moment
5. Professor Green - At Your Inconvenience
4. Jamie T - Panic Prevention/Kings and Queens
3. The King Blues - Punk and Poetry
2. Elbow - Seldom Seen Kid
1. Mayday Parade - A Lesson in Romantics


Anything Else?
Carrying on from the Top 5, if your a fan of Folk/Stripped back Acoustic music, I'd definitely suggest taking a look at Someone Told Me by Jake Bugg. He has a very unique and resonating voice, and his guitar skills for a 17 year old are pretty amazing in my opinion. Definitely a grower, so listen to it a couple of times with an open mind, and certainly don't dismiss the track on your first listen!


Hope you found that mildly entertaining! If you have any suggestion on features I could add feel free to let me know :)


Till the next time...

An introduction.

I've always wanted to write a blog but never really got around to it. One of my main reasons for actually starting one is mostly due to the fact I'm considering a career in journalism, and a blog seems a really good way to develop some of the skills that would be needed for such a career. I enjoy writing and I think I'll enjoy having a way to rant about popular subjects from now on instead of resorting to Twitter and Facebook and pissing people off with stuff they aren't bothered about haha. I really hope you enjoy reading the stuff I have to say on here, please refer me to anyone you know who may enjoy what I have to say, and please follow as in time I hope to make it a regular thing.
Thankyou all,
Slas
x
P.S. I think the plan (For now) is to do a fun little post once a week, most likely a Friday, featuring a list (i.e. top 5 ________, open to suggestion!) probably a little paragraph on something about the week, maybe what I've been up to or something. Any other features you can think of please feel free to suggest! :)