Jacob-

Still upset about 14.3 Billion Years. And about Skylarking's deduction (which I don't fully acknowledge in my own stats as you can see x). Alive is a "sort of" instrumental, cause it has vocoder/ background vocals but they're quite sparse.

:cry: I lost track of days, missed the reminder PM cause tabs. I'll get something to you before 3pm though. x

50th ANNIVERSARY ENTRY I can hardly believe I've been in BJSC for this long but... we're here. I will be taking advantage of my 50th but it won't be bending the rules too much cause I don't like the idea of that, it's something that I think would be perhaps borderline normally. It will be a "recycled" artist however, one I think is significant to both myself personally and "Aelandor" as a BJSC nation. I will also try to keep using this thread now I've revived it. :lol:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I hadn't updated this since BJSC 123, almost exactly a year ago too. I've sorted out all of those stats, TRAWLING through the past 10 BJSCs to make sure I got all my final and semi results. It's good to remind myself of all my entries, stats are interesting too! :o Anyways...

So happy with the amount of high points, including 18s from Niceland, Suedonia and Summercia and 15s from Beaverdonia and Lotunia, 12s from Skall and Seyetana. 12 from St. Burbia in semis and still 10 in the final, I feel like it's rare for me to get points from Burbia! :o Happy to make top 30 too, absolutely DEFIED odds getting to the final on 2/8 Q predictions and being mostly near the very bottom of final predictions. Thanks so much for all the votes. :wub: Great winner, I gave 5 points- very solid track. Huge congrats to Chris on the win! And thanks again to John for hosting, very nicely done. :heart: I thought the same. :cry:

The Beatles - Hey Jude Donna Summer - I Feel Love Florence + the Machine - Cosmic Love Gabrielle - Dreams Gwen Stefani - What You Waiting For? Katy B - Crying For No Reason Everything Everything - Distant Past Miley Cyrus - Midnight Sky Kesha - TiK ToK Jessie Ware - Wildest Moments Ava Max - Sweet But Psycho Ciara - Like a Boy Demi Lovato - Cool for the Summer Nina Nesbitt - Loyal to Me

u wot m7 I don't even follow Mori - had to double check she was a vtuber just now (cause I don't watch any x) but this track was fire sorry not sorry. xx Has nothing to do with the vtuber/ anime scene for me, was just a banging track. I'm happy to throw Séyetana under the bus if there's an entry I don't like but they've been doing fairly well recently, genuinely thought this one would have more appeal. :angry: #nepotism #nepotismwithmerit

So happy to be through though! I read through each page in order and it was actually heart in mouth when I was in the last reveal. :lol:

+12 Séyetana - Mori Calliope - Off With Their Heads +10 Q +08 Q +07 Q +06 Q +05 Q +04 Q +03 Q +02 Niceland - Amongst Wolves - Rabbit Hole +01 Utopia - Wild Beasts - Two Dancers (ii) (Jon Hopkins Remix) IT WAS NOT NOVELTY The snare absolutely SLAPPED. :cry:

Voted!

:wub: Was starting to get worried with all the predictions so far, didn't realise it was such a big contest this time tbf- semis nearly as big as finals! Really love my entry this time so a Q would be amazing. I wanted to make the listen through yesterday but had to work yesterday evening last min- had so much on recently. :cry: I like to gauge the reaction on listen throughs not just to my entry but everyone else's, even though you need to take it with a pinch of salt. I'm listening now though and will again tomorrow.

Yes but most of those vaccinated aren't being put at risk, they're just isolating at home still. Don't get me wrong, the reduction in cases is positive and makes me feel a bit better but the fact is we've just become so desensitised that 6000 new cases a day seems good apparently. If we'd waited until after Easter for schools so many more people would be vaccinated and we'd be far closer to 0, it's such a shame this opportunity is being squandered.

And what happened after the end of September? Cases aren't even as low as early September, they are going down yes which is good to see but they're still at a significant level- like others have said just because we're not at January highs doesn't mean things are good.

The government was heavily criticised for setting such dates, especially announcing the reopening of nightclubs and other mass gatherings. It's ridiculous, it is in fact giving people false hope, or at best, a hope that absolutely cannot be guaranteed. If we're very lucky it could happen but the timing of schools reopening throws the entire rest of the plan into doubt. They should have stuck with the review after 3 weeks system (or however long, after each stage) before extensively planning that far ahead, because as we've seen so far they've been unable to plan anything more than a couple of weeks away. Forgive me if I don't have much confidence in "when establishing a road-map the Government considering the impending reopening of schools" when so far, their track record particularly regarding schools has been so utterly abysmal. I don't blame them for reopening schools in September but I do blame them for not closing them in November for the 2nd lockdown (frankly the issue was becoming obvious as early as October) and I do blame them for the decision they're currently making. Cases are much worse than September in pure numbers and after they opened in September cases did indeed skyrocket. With schools kept open in November the government utterly failed to significantly reduce the figures. It's obvious that schools have a significant effect on the numbers and the majority of people vaccinated are not in a school setting so cases WILL be spread in schools because almost no one there is vaccinated. In this particular setting the reduction in spread will be negligible- the ONE place where people are meeting en masse. I don't understand how so many people can't see how disastrous this is. It's not even a staggered return. Even if the effect doesn't end up being as bad as I'm expecting it is absolutely not worth the risk for 3 weeks. The very fact Chris Whitty was against it should say it all, he's the expert. If he says the cases will rise with the reopening of schools why is the government shooting itself in the foot when the end is (potentially) in sight? You could see he didn't believe the words he was saying on the 22nd Feb announcement, it was very forced. Schools are direly underequipped to be testing every person twice a week. There needs to be a lot of manpower to supervise tests, kids will have to be guided through it (and I can barely imagine how bad the younger ones will be with it). Kids will still be in, mixing, while they're getting tested so the moment one tests positive the rest of the class/ year/ whatever will have to be isolated because they've already been mixing. It's a logistical nightmare. Many of the other "95% of" restrictions staying in place would ironically have a negligible effect if they were relaxed. Groups of 6 people are probably already meeting outside without consequence. Going for 1 to 1 appointments wouldn't have a big effect and even small shops wouldn't be too bad. The "one factor" you reference is the mixing of 10 million people in confined spaces. Majority unvaccinated. It won't be Armageddon- none of us were saying it would be, that's melodramatic but it is undoubtedly bad. It's just more of the same old shit that we've been seeing for the past year and has the potential to extend this hellish situation for yet again longer than it needs to last. This is exactly the problem though, the government is going "wait and see- let's open schools, see how the numbers change, see how bad it gets." Their logic seems to be if schools can survive being open without too much of an uptick in cases, everything can! Which is of course absolutely the wrong way to do things, they should have started with small shops and businesses etc, then escalated in order of social contact, all the while letting people have the opportunity to have the vaccine. They're about 2 months ahead of themselves which will have an impact on the recovery. As it is, not only will the kids be mixing for 3 weeks with each other, they'll then go and mingle with the general population as things start to reopen over Easter. I know you're trying to be positive but this is such a major failing in the "roadmap" that minimising how bad it really is would only be counter productive.

I almost said more about other key workers in my original post (but thought it might be too off topic) but why not? NHS workers have already had it I believe (understandably), it's not much of a stretch to include a few more groups based on profession- I did imply it when I said frontline workers. Hell yes we should be prioritising supermarket workers etc. It will majorly cut the spread of the virus with everything else locked down because these are the people who have to be out there all the time. Older age groups should be prioritised because the virus is more likely to hit them harder sure, but when you start getting to 40-49, 30-39 come on. People should either be working from/ staying at home and mitigating their own risk that way or if they're unable to work from home, the vaccine should be prioritised for those groups, not only for the individuals but to cut the risk of them spreading it to others and keeping down the r rate. That way if they're in the 40-49 age group or whatever, they still get it if they're working somewhere where they're going to be at risk. And yes absolutely it was a rash decision to reopen at this point in the term- ineffective from an educational perspective and very damaging with timing in regard to the r number, seeing as we've only JUST got it below 1 a couple of weeks ago and we're in a much worse position than September as far as cases go. These coming 3 weeks will undoubtedly lead to more deaths in the long run and has the potential to majorly set us back from getting back to any kind of normality for a couple of months if not more. Exactly, I've pretty much accepted that when people say "teachers" from an external viewpoint I somewhat group myself into that. Not that I think of myself as a teacher at all, just for the sake of convenience when talking about particularly COVID related issues.

Well that's all fine, I completely support vaccinations by age group as long as we continue to minimise the risks for everyone unvaccinated. However if opening schools is the government's priority and schools are legally mandated to open next week then school staff and hell, maybe even the kids should be prioritised for the vaccine. As support staff I just do not feel safe and I've been psychologically preparing myself for the very real possibility that I will get covid at some point in the next 3-4 weeks. We should either be supplied with vaccines for staff, or schools should stay shut until after Easter when, like you say, we may well be vaccinating people in their 30s - by which point it really wouldn't be much of a stretch to prioritise... you know, all frontline workers. As it stands I'm expecting a huge spike in cases with the figures showing at approximately 22nd March when we see the results of opening all the superspreader factories on the 8th. For the sake of 2-3 weeks. Not even staggered in England where cases are worst. It just makes me so angry that groups of 6 can't meet in parks until the 29th, people can't go for 1 on 1 haircuts or similar until 12th April... but we can open up poorly ventilated classrooms with 30 kids, many of whom have no concept of hygiene let alone social distancing. Everything else being relaxed is done in order of social contact and risk (roughly) other than schools- if it were in order schools would be the last thing to reopen, possibly being only just before nightclubs and mass gatherings etc. This is exactly it, we're NOT proceeding with caution in regard to schools. At all.

It says mine as "Alan-Dore". Which makes sense I guess because I partly based the name on my middle name Alan but I put the Ae in there for a REASON. :lol: I tend to think of it as "Ayy-e-land-or". Or "Ayy-land-or" (both pronunciations are pretty close to each other x). It's a bit closer if you put it in to the TTS as Aélandor I suppose.

I missed this until I just noticed the countries back in the contest :lol: but really good to see, I actually joined a few contests after Aquafina last took part so until 132 I hadn't been in the same contest. I think 6 years is easily long enough for Aquafina and I 100% think this was the right decision for both countries. :heart:

Big thanks to Dan, Jade, James, Chez, Dobbo, Rollo, Iz, RabbitFurCoat, uhsting, Pavel, Seven and RobS for the big points! And to Bré (for the smol points x) and anyone else I might have missed. Happy with 19th, don't think I've had that position before. Glad so many people liked the song. x Amazing to see Terra Avium 3rd!!! Really didn't think a song with that kind of sound would do that well, pretty close to winning too tbh! Bøtanikkä only just missed out on my votes too. Congrats to Altyr Muunilinst on the win though! I didn't really see it coming, for me it was a nice track but it kind of passed me by a bit but listening in retrospect I can understand why it did so well and it is a bit of a bop tbf. x Dan, really liked how you put the video for everyone's entry with their votes (even the DNQs!), such a nice touch, along with the flags.

Voted!

Love me some spreadsheet stats. Great hosting, thanks Bré! :wub:

Congrats blacksquare! Nearly pointed your entry, was really tough to order this one. Lots of my points near the top and honestly with the quality in this contest it'd be hard for the results to go wrong. :lol: A bit :/ on my result but I suppose I'm really familiar with my entry having heard it thousands of times in a game I've played a lot so maybe it just sounds extra banging to me because it's one of those ones I found the artist name for after about a year. And the aforementioned game is a bit of a meme with friends. :lol: It's also on Adobe Premiere adverts so next time you see one of those on YouTube pay attention. x

True but - Blair had to go neolib centre to do that- don't get me wrong, better but not ideal - Scotland is guaranteed to go mostly not Tory so they're always a safe bet in a potential coalition if nothing else. If it came to it I bet the SNP would form a coalition with Labour (or even Lib Dems, Green etc in addition if significant enough and they needed the extra seats). With Tories even winning Labour heartlands last election, with Scotland gone I just can't see it ever changing until the boomers are gone to put it bluntly. Not to mention if Scotland goes, Northern Ireland could follow. - I'm not so hopeful, I was too hopeful for the 2019 election and people were still up for more austerity, slow privatisation of the NHS and a vague (read: failed) plan for Brexit, setting our economy up for ruin. Even with the horrific handling of COVID, the rushing through parliament of the Brexit bill and the dire consequences (which will be covered up by COVID) I have no confidence whatsoever that we're going to see any change for the next 10-15 years, and Scotland leaving will only exacerbate the issue for the rest of the union and likely extend that period. I hope I'm wrong but I doubt it. Labour is weak and won't even attack the government for the stupid shit they do. At least the SNP condemn the government when appropriate. I just hope you're right about it shaking up politics across the rest of the union if it does happen but I expect Tory voters either won't care or will just be glad to see Nicola Sturgeon on their screens a little less. Like I can see why Scotland wants to be separate because they're so different politically these days- no prescription costs for NHS, no Tuition fees within Scotland etc. Mind you Scotland is only good for the rest of the union politically as far as forming a government goes. Even if Scottish Labour recovered now (which they won't) when they did have power they still gifted the rest of the union (not including Scotland of course) with things like this back in the day, in full knowledge that it wouldn't affect Scotland. The SNP are nationalists (obviously) so the devolved government and people who voted for them have an obvious separate identity and only care for their own interests, and I don't blame them given the state of Westminster.

Yes (I understand why Scotland would want it) but if Scotland gets a 2nd indyref on grounds of the EU ref there should also be a 2nd EU ref. We get general elections every 5 years. :lol: If Scotland does leave I'd start seriously considering emigrating because it would mean being stuck in permanent Tory hell.

Sorry to have missed this listen through but I'm listening to a few Britney songs now in Tyler's honour. :heart: