Charlie Chaplin - The Greatest Speech Ever Made

Charlie Chaplin, the man famous for comical silent movies, made the most inspiring speech I will ever hear in my life. Watch the Youtube video, the person who posted it cleverly put relevant videos and pictures in the background.

Toxic Friendships and Reasons Why We Drink Gallons of Chemical X

You will at one point or another experience a toxic friendship. I'm not referring to that friend that might make use of association and so-called peer pressure to lead you to drugs or something because you should know better. You might not even consider the person I am talking about because this person could be your best friend and for better or worse you're obsessed and depressed with each other, as Maroon 5 put it. This is another one of those unpleasant articles that took me forever to write because I found it uncomfortable to think about. It will be a difficult read if you're going through something similar. If you feel like you don't want to hear the whys, hows and hardships then rather check the article with pictures of the Reese's Peanut Butter Cupcakes I made (click here) it's much nicer than this. [Insert big cyber hug] to the friend that motivated me to finish this so that I could tell you things will be okay eventually and I'm here for you.

If you can see under the heart you might catch a glimpse of the horror that was supposed to make up the original article.
Oh? You can't? Too bad! You're getting the edit.

I'm going to call your friend "Person X", like "Chemical X" but not quite. You were fast friends in the beginning of your friendship. There wasn't a "I just think that we are going to be friends" moment when you met; you never realised that person was going to be in your life for a long time, you just started to live accordingly. Person X subsequently becomes your best friend.

If you happen to glance back at your friendship you'll find that it was composed of really good times and some painfully horrible moments. Whenever you cried because of Chemical X, sorry Person X, you felt your friendship mutate. You always tried to sort things out and would put up with a lot of "radiation". According to Adele, whenever you thought about leaving you'd feel your heart burst and bleed and you'd repeat like a broken tune to forever excuse their intentions. You'd live for the good times and hope that one day Person X = Person Considerate or even just Person Realise When You're Hurting Me.

You can stop here if you want because I'm going to generalise.
You will either:
a) Go onto dating Person X and then marry Person X, if you can.
b) Make a choice to leave and stick with it.
c) Let time and/or distance take its course and fade out of the friendship.

I will not bother with people who do a) because they chose the easy way out. They chose a future filled with cycles of continual hurt and an unhealthy obsession. They block off friends because they radiate bad energy with the same constant sadness and anger. They change for the worse, perhaps into Mojo Jojo, and Person X stays the same. They never thought to work for the change they long for.

Chris Brown and Rihanna are back together in 2012. I took that information like a punch to the eye. 

I like c) but my focus is on b). You decide to leave after much thought - do not make an angry decision - and have gotten past the stage of the connecting your head knowledge to your heart. You will be unprepared for the sadness that precedes your leaving announcement. You tell Person X and a crushing wave of sadness, anger and wanting to go back will hit you all at once. The sadness was already present and amplifies. The anger presents itself because you will be angry at yourself for taking so long to leave.
This probably takes a week to subside if you:
- Allow yourself to feel the range emotions (don't pretend you're not hurt when you clearly are)
- Write down lists of why you wouldn't go back and keep re-reading them
- Go cold turkey on Person X and annihilate contact with them (yes, annihilate, social networks and     cellphone numbers are included)
- Sad pop music, yes, it's that sad (here's a playlist)

The bottom line is change is hard. Things will get better and you can hold onto that while things are not okay. As time passes you'll still think of them occasionally, most of the sadness will be gone and you'll have come to peace with yourself. You will start to experience relief at not repeating the motions over and over again.

I say go forth and meet new people. There are 3 billion other people in the world (3 billion = 7 billion - kids and old people), Person X isn't the only person you will click with. It will be hard to meet people in the beginning but keep trying.
You will both change. Perhaps you leaving is the wake-up call Person X needed to change but don't leave with the intention of getting them to do things differently so that you can come running back. I hope you've left because you're taking a stand for your happiness and a stand against bad treatment. Do you realise that you can never be mistreated after this? This will probably be the one of the hardest things you will have to do in your life because this "break-up" ranks pretty high on the scale of "1 to Adele". One day you'll look at Person X as just somebody that you used to know and everything will finally be alright.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Cupcakes

I was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest and I was feeling a bit adventurous today so I went on a hunt for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and made cupcakes out of them.

What did I use:

- Cake mix

- Eggs

- Butter

- Milk

- Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

- Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

- Icing sugar

- Cocoa powder

- Peanut butter

Quick breakdown of what I did:

- I used cake mix instead of making the cupcake mixture from scratch. This Reese's Peanut Butter cupcake adventure was a procrastination cooking session and it meant I didn't have enough time to make a cupcake mixture from scratch as I usually do; I was supposed to be studying. Even so, I used milk and butter in place of the water and oil that the cake mix instructions requested.

- With the mix ready I spooned a tablespoon into each cupcake holder and then added the quarters of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups as well as the Reese's Peanut Butter Chips.

- I covered the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Reese's Peanut Butter Chips with another spoonful of cake mix.

- They went into the oven and I made two icings, a chocolate one and a peanut butter one and layered them in the piping bag.

- After they were done cooling I did simple icing. 

- I think I might try this with Lindt Lindor truffles next.

Shit Girls Say to Gay Guys

I'm on a bit of a craze with these "Shit Girls Say to" videos and I found this one a while back so I thought I might as well post it. Again a lot of it's true and I laugh so hard because I have to keep a lot of these comments inside instead of saying them to my gay guy friends. I totally think them though, that's why it's so funny.

Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls (Part 1 and 2)

These videos make me laugh every single time I watch them because they are true. I think I've heard about 90% of the comments. It's not racist, it's just true. It happens because we live in a multi-racial society. 

Soundtracks to Your Life - Getting Over Someone

One of my friends is doing an article about songs you should bang to. Regularly check http://d-is-for-danger.blogspot.com/ for the list, I'll let you know when he does eventually finish that nasty mess. I do hope that Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites by Skrillex makes it onto that list.

I call this list of songs that tackle different stages of a break-up the product of uncanny timing, what with the bang chart inspiration and going through my own sort of break-up. I also went to try and find out what the break-up stages were and then I added in my own bits. Hey! You might need this list soon cause break-up season appears in June/July then again in September. I did focus on a lot of mainstream music so you should know most of the songs.

Realisation

This only applies if you're the one who's leaving. In this stage you've had enough and have thought about it for a while, it's not a spontaneous decision. The decision process probably looks like this, click here.While you were thinking you were probably listening to certain types of songs. I have found that British artists rock at realisation. Adele*, of course, belts out a few because she had a difficult relationship with her boyfriend who in the end broke her heart and made her gloriously rich. My favourite song is Melt My Heart To Stone by Adele even though Turning Tables and Tired come in a close second and third. Melt My Heart to Stone doesn't make sense in terms of present day furnace calculations but the the song makes sense. Kate Nash puts out Foundations about crap times she's obviously had and Coldplay takes a piece of the cake with X&Y. Erykah Badu is the only artist that doesn't fit in the Brit category, listen to Call Tyrone for a good laugh at an angry black woman. 

"Each and every time I turn around to leave I feel my heart begin to burst and bleed"

Sadness

Person: When I'm sad I try to sing along to songs. Then I shut up and realise that there are worse things than my sucky life.
Adele: I don't get it.

So you've broken up with your significant other and you're crushed. It doesn't matter whether you were the dumper or the dumped one. You can still be a sad, lonely loser. You'll go through turbulent emotions, being normal is your high of the day and your lows are depressed lows. Never fear, things might not be okay now, but things will get better. In the meanwhile I suggest you listen to Maroon 5. They have a range of beautiful songs dedicated to heartbreak. Most of them are found in their It Won't Be Soon Before Long album; I didn't really like Hands All Over because it sounded a little too country to me. However, my favourite track is Just a Feeling from Hands All Over. Weird how these things happen. Better That We Break, also by Maroon 5, is second and it's from It Won't Be Soon Before Long. It's Over by the Cheetah Girls, don't laugh at the artist, is also good. No one can doubt the power of ballads so All by Myself by Shirley Bassy and Tears Dry on their Own by Amy Winehouse are perfect fits.

"This is more than goodbye, when I look into your eyes you're not even there"

Angry
You eventually get tired of feeling sad and start to realise that you're better off without that person. People get angry because they forget to forgive. I don't recommend listening to anyone of these songs when you are angry. They are just angry songs. Internet Friends by Knife Party is a really cool song with an epic beat about some angry British Girl who wants to kill you because you blocked her on Facebook. Breaking Dishes by Rihanna is about roasting marshmellows on your car's burning tyres and bleaching your clothes. Both are really angry dance songs. For the purpose of quietly meditating and plotting a psychopathic attack then I suggest you listen to Dickhead by Kate Nash and I Learned From the Best by Whitney Houston. If your planned attack on the person fails then you can listen to Why Won't You Die by System of a Down.

"You blocked me on Facebook and now you're going to die"

Acceptance
You eventually get over minor plots of revenge, being angry at the person and at yourself. You realise it is just wasting your time and it's better to forgive and move on. You might even apologise to the person for your behaviour during the relationship because you'll be able to think in an unbiased manner. If you feel like saying, "You're a sorry excuse for a ..." then you're probably still angry and you've got a while to go. Songs that remind you that you've broken up with someone but don't make you sad or angry anymore are Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye Feat. Kimbra and Sober by Kelly Clarkson. Instead of being angry, you can remember the good and the bad times for what they were and move on.

"Now you're just somebody that I used to know"

Then you'll meet somebody else, sometimes even if you were married, and repeat the cycle. 

Good luck!

*The people who hate on Adele and complain about her music have not only managed to deafen themselves to one our generation's most astounding singers but have also failed to comprehend the depth of her song-writing ability. When you're alone and lost, listen to Adele because she'll help you realise that you're not alone. She manages to reach down into your soul and pluck your heart strings.