Spicy!
Ho hum, another day, more revision, little to report. Frankly, I got up to nothing of interest today. I'm not even sure if anything vaguely interesting or amusing happened to me in any way shape or form, which is unusual, but I guess I can just give you my opinion on stuff....
Um. I never have enough snack food. To save on budgeting and my health (cause I care about that so much, with my swimming three times a week and press ups I don't do), I don't actually buy much snack food at all so I usually munch on bread and fruit. Yeah, I'm wild like that. Unfortunately this means I am drastically low on the sufficient sugar intake to keep me active and crazy at ridiculously early hours in the morning. Some might suggest that I go to bed earlier. To them I say- "Bah!" Those people are fools an should be beaten with sticks. Going to bed before 2 when you have nothing in particular to get up for the next day is a hideous, hideous crime, unless its going to bed to make love to 15 women. Yes, 15. Any less, and they can damn well wait!
But anyways, I lack sugar, so I make up for it by having orange juice. In fact, I drink orange juice rapidly it might be better to get chocolate instead. No Kieran.... this way leads to madness. And chocolate. I could stock up on a collosal amount of popcorn, because I do love the stuff, but that does cost a bit.
Oh well, I guess I will pull through. I hear on the news that the Iraqi elections are having decent turn outs. Thats good news- they need a proper mandate for the government to have any real authority, although with the Sunni muslims boycotting the elections that means a significant proportion of the population are not spoken for. While in toher countries its ok to say that they had their chance, and they blew it, here this is important- for any government to get the full co-operation of the people of Iraq into turning it into a proper nation again, it needs a full mandate.
Oh well, there really is little I can do now, but watch and hope things turn out for the best.
America, Fuck Yeah!
Gary: "Okay, a limousine that can fly - now I HAVE seen everything."
Spottswoode: "Really? Have you seen a man eat his own head?"
Gary: "No..."
Spottswoode: "So then you haven't seen everything...and neither have we."
Team America: World Police is great. I know several on the left wing blogsphere have complained of its slightly right wing stance, but that doesn't stop it being the funniest movie I've seen in a long time. The songs are genius, the mockery of the puppet status of the characters is genius, the sly jabs at action genre films is genius, Kim Jong telling us how lonely he is is genius.....
A song saying that he misses a woman as much as he hates Pearl Harbour.....
Its very rude, delightfully offensive, and very funny. Along with the crude and obvious humour, Matt Stone and Trey Parker always throw in slyer, cleverer jokes that, if you understand the genre, are just hilarious. It has a vague political message that I don't fully agree with, to be fair, but thats more of a joke than a deep look at politics today.
If you've watched it and want to hear bits from it check out
http://goyk.com/flash.asp?path=1084
I went shopping today. I hate shopping for food because I have to carry so much stuff. Orange juice is the bag breaker, normally- today I ended up carrying the orange juice in one arm and the rest of the shopping in the other all the way back. Then later on I had to go help Paul carry his shopping because HIS bags broke. Damn loser co-op bags.
My room is an utter tip right now- when revising I throw used sheets on the floor, and I get through a lot of paper, and it builds up. Sad thing is that its pretty full with paper now, but I've got a week of revision to do. Speaking of that, I have more to do. Revision, that is.
Damn
My exam today went awfully. Its annoying cause there were two questions which I could have easly done if I'd got myself sorted out, but I just couldn't work them out.... oh well, I think I passed.
As a reward to doing badly I had a beer and did no revision today, instead getting to the last boss of Halo2, gettting bored at how irritating the design of the last level is, gave up.
So yeah, not a good day really- I compensated with beer and relaxation but the poor performance in an exam I felt really confident about brought me down. Oh well, straight back into revision tomorrow eh?
Hmm, only 3 more exams to go i guess. I'm almost half way through! hooray.
Some kind of really awesome attack!
Ho hum, another day, another trying to avoid revising for the exam thats on the next day. As you can tell from the sheer excitement in my most recent posts, a LOT has been happening in my life recently. I have been watching a lot of the Futurama box set, and I would reccomend it. I don't think it is as good as the Simpsons or Family Guy, but its pretty damn good. A hope of course with these adult animations is that they make animation more acceptable as an adult form of entertainment. As an anime fan I know for a fact that animation can be used maturely and intelligently (or just really funnily), and doesn't have to be "just for kids" as it is so often relegated to.
In fact it was slightly annoying that many people said they didn't think the Incredibles was that good because it would not appeal to kids. First of all, they SEVERELY underestimate childrens intelligence when they say that. Children DO like darker stories- look at Roald Dahl's books for example. Indeed, the most popular childrens books do have darker elements, and then when the film version is made there is often an attempt to remove those- look at the saccharine in the first two Harry Potter films. However, as Lemony Snicket has shown, and, thinking back, the Neverending Story, or even the Princess Bride (although I demean it by calling it a childrens movie, as stigma gets attatched unfortunately). While kids will not enjoy realistic violence, or too horrific concepts, they can understand evil, and usually death too, and indeed many are willing to face it. Or at least, the interesting children are anyway.
I guess they might be talking about 5 year olds and lower, but frankly at a really young age they'll enjoy any old cack....
Stunning display of stupidity
(thats a quote from Dragon Half. If you're wondering. Which I'm sure you're not)
So I had an exam today, which went ok.... one of my proofs was.. well wrong, but other than it was fine. Or at least, so I thought, until, going over the exam paper it suddenly occured to me. I had missed out a question! Somehow I had just not seen it! I checked the damn thing through as well, and missed it then!
Actually I always do this- I should read through the question paper again after finishing. I will resolve to do so. Ah well, it wasn't worth that many marks anyhow.
People who leave really early in an exam piss me off. I mean, often I wil finish a bit early and leave, but there will be certain people who will swagger out an hour into the exam. Bastards. Every time that happens I always wonder if maybe I'm going to slowly, and maybe the answer to the questio I'm stuck on is really easy and that I suck and I' going to fail.... May they fail all their exams for their cruel attitude towards my mental health!
Hopefully this upcoming Algebra exam will go well. After its done I get a 4 day break, so hopefully I can go see Team America that evening, as it is meant to be pretty pretty good, for all its slight right wing leanings.
I'm also looking forward to seeing A Very Long Engagement. "Amilie goes to war", as, I believe, the director put it. Sounds good.
OK, I have to revise now, unfortunately.
Exammmmmm
Tomorrow. My first. Its oh so exciting. I think I'm ready. I think.... I hope so anyway. Wish me luck.
Anyways, I've been thinking recently that I should have more 'net 'cred. See, I have one vague claim to fame, in that my uncle created MUD. Yeah, thats right, one of the first thingummies on the net, that was my uncle. The first time I ever played Doom was on his computer- same with civ 2. Unfortunately this only impresses a very specific clique of people normally, as most people have not heard of MUD (multi-user dungeon and dragons all right?). Those who have tend to be male, and not attractive and female, so this is not a fact I can use to worm my way into ladies beds (I just like getting into their beds. So comfy!) But still, I reckon those with internet savvy will have heard of him, so I deserve more cred! Damnit. I think I'll have to go to chat rooms and name drop him. Only chat rooms only have paedophiles pretending to be 11 and seducing each other.
OK, WHY is there not a film of that? Or something- two paedophiles seducing each other over the net, each thinking the other the age of12. Oh what a beautiful tale of star crossed love....
Its gonna be a pain getting to sleep tonight. Its always annoying when I go to bed, and I'm too tired to read or anything, but for some reason, my mind keeps working so I don't fall asleep. Deeply frustrating. Its always worse when I know I have to be up the next morning, although luckily the exam is at 1 tomorrow. Then after its over I get to revise for my exam on thursday, then for the tuesday after that... then wednesday...then friday.
Fun fun fun!
Halo 2
So, I've been playing co-op on it with Paul recently, finally getting round to it after months of playing. Its quite enjoyable actually, if repetitive (in this room, you will need to kill some people, t progress to the next room where you will kill some different people, and then you can kill some really powerful people....), but I have one major quibble.
Why the bottomless pits? They had them in Halo too, and it boggles the mind as to why. Do they truly think that having them are enjoyable? They hardly add to the scenery (WHY is halo full of botomless pits??), and are deeply, deeply annoying. You fight through every single enemy,just scraping through with barely any ammo, and have almost reached a new checkpoint when a new enemy appears, and surprises you. You back off, shooting.... and die. ARGH! In no way is this fun! For christ sake, this was a mistake game designers were making in the 80s! The only place I want pits to die in is in platformers, because platformers are designed so you can be fully aware of where the damn things are.
Its not that hard to make a flawless game you know. Half Life 2! OK, there is a flaw to it- its too short, but while it lasts pretty much every minute is exhilarating, and never frustrating, just challenging. I haven't tried out Half Life 2 multiplayer yet. Perhaps I shall tonight... Right, back to revision.
Ah, nostalgia
First things first, theres a new Eels album out in April!
www.Eelstheband.com for the little news that has been released. I have to admit, i'm rather excited, being quite a large Eels fan. With a bit of luck they''ll do another tour with this album too. That'd be awesome. I was a tiny bit disappointed wth Shootenanny, which, while containing a few classic tunes, does not really hold together as an album like the others, and also the others all contained more really, really, good songs (Souljacker, sometimes scorned by other Eels fans, has some awesome tracks). According to a studio engineer (who obviously is a completely unbaised source of information), its gonna have an Electro Shock Blues feel, my favourite Eels album. But we shall see. 33 tracks, apparently.....
Second things second, I was trying to find this game
Hunter for the Atari ST today. It was brilliant, and actually very innovative for its time (take out that moose with your tank, go swimming and drown from exhaustion, wonder into churches and shoot people, or do the damn mission. YOU decide!) but was unfortunately unpopular so exists in no form for me to play on (my atari having been worn out long ago). I attempted to find it at
www.the-underdogs.org which has a handful of forgotten games (all legal) to play on, but unfortunately it was not to be. It did remind me of the excellent Rik Dangerous. You can download it if you want, but I will warn you that it is VERY hard and deeply unfair- as those old games that we like to pretend were awesome were. Still, worth a whallop.
Right, back to revision for now.
Bloggy blog blog
The titles just keep getting better and better, don't they?
I detest my vector calculus lecturer. He basically told us that we could get tested on anything he had lectured. The problem with this is, while you expect that of purer courses, his is primarily a method course, and generally we do not need to know proofs. But hes told us we have. A week before our exam. This presents me with a dilemma, as I do not have time to learn all these proofs so far in....
Bastard.
I'm stuck on campus right now, waiting for Toby, the man with a car to finish doing his coursework and give me a lift back. I could, of course, get the bus back, but that would cost money. I am trying to be tight with my money (with limited success), as I spent an utter fortune before christmas. I will undoubtedly have to get a job this summer. Ick. I hate work, or at least work that involves getting me up before God's hours (11-2 in the morning...) I could mooch off my parents, but I think that gravy train only lasts while I'm on campus and doing work. Hmm, I wonder if they'd support me for a PHD....
Heh heh, I went on a march against top up fees a while back... I'm everything Daily Mail readers hate. And proud.
Internet
Is being slow. Clearly the US gets online about this sort of time. Which makes sense I guess, considering they are about 7 hours behind. Its great being on GMT. The 0 hour, if you will. If theres nothing to consider the UK special for, its that. No wait, that sentence doesn't make any sense.
Interestingly, meridian time used to be in Paris. Which would make it PMT. heh heh.
Anyways, if bored go to
http://mappoint.msn.com/(tpj4nyyfw22swbneftb10b55)/DirectionsFind.aspx
Start: Haugesund, Norway
End: Trondheim, Norway
An intruiging route, I'm sure you'll agree.
I'm stuck in all day revising right now, although today I cooked! Chilli con quorni, no less. It was a tiny bit too garlicky for my liking, that being the fault of the recipe book calling for two cloves. And maybe a tiny bit me for getting bored while crushing them and deciding that they were definitely done....
Hmm, giant clove pieces.... heh heh. I'm furiously watching through my futurama boxset, if one can apply the adjective furiously to watching. So yeah, exciting stuff!
Hmm
Totally ignoring some helpful advice from beckoning chasm (look at the comments), I seem to have lost yet another post. I think I just closed the window before blogger published it. Because... I'm stupid.
Oh wait, tell a lie, its there.... Below this post, hopefully now. I'll shut up.
Paul is a loser
Sigh, I am sometimes a remarkably foolish. This morning I was woken at 8:30 by my alarm, for a lecture I didn't have to go to, but one I could get a lift for. I immediately fell alseep. An hour later, my alarm went off again, for 9:30. 5 minutes later Toby arrived to take Paul to the lecture. Now, I could have got up, thrown on some clothing, brushed my teeth (always, always brush your teeth. If you don't your mouth will taste foul for pretty much the rest of the day. Which is not good), and got a lift down. But I decided that I wanted to have a bath and everything first. So I hit the snooze button. And again, and again, until 10 minutes before I had to leave. So I threw on my clothes and brushed my teeth and left to catch the bus.
Which, surprisingly, was on time, a bit of good fortune I really didn't deserve given my slovenly attitude this morning. I've started a new paragraph rather arbitarly, I've just realised....
So why not start another one? Anyways, I arrived on campus with 10 minutes until the lecture. It occured to me that I did not know where the lecture is, so I headed off to where the last lecture was and waited outside there for 5 minutes. No-one came out. It remained totally quiet. The logical conclusion was that they had finished early. OK, fine, I decided, I reckon I know where the lecture is. So I headed off to the room, and stood outside a completely empty lecture hall, playing backgammon on my phone for five more minutes, until I suddenly realised that, possibly, it wasn't in there.
I actually made the lecture on time. I really didn't deserve to.
Perhaps my punishment for this was later on when Toby and Alex(female Alex, or Falex for short), convince themselves to go to a problem class. I was lured by the temptation of some advance wars, so I came along despite my misgivings. And indeed, it was incredibly dull. Apart from some decent advance wars playing. Wooh!
Sorry for not posting yesterday, it slipped my mind. I'm not sure who I am apologising to, as my readership consists of, at most, 5 people. Wooh!
Deep philosophy
Sigh. It turns out that vector calculus is incredibly hard. I choose to blame my failre in learning on my lecturer, and not upon playing advance wars in all my lectures.
God, imagine if I hadn't played advance wars in all those lectures.... my mind might be jammed up with mathematical knowledge rather than knowledge on how to defeat your opponent in a tight game of old Advance Wars. Not that I can beat Toby every time, the sly dog also learning things too. Honestly, whats the fun in playing an opponent who learns? Thats why I love AI, it tends not to. And thats why society will break down when people have all these learning AI's in games... sometimes I want the AI to be stupid. Especially in platformers. Imagine if that frog that you just jump on top of to kill, instead spun round with jaws open and swallowed you whole instead! What if the frog learnt how to use a weapon? Oh the horrific possibilities.
Some people get afraid of technology causing the end of the world. I get afraid of technology causing games to be too hard..... Go figure.
Its sometimes a little disturbing, how much maths I know. I'm actually rather good at maths, as long as I stick to lower levels. I could impress your average layperson no end with my mathematical knowledge. Assuming that I could find a layperson who gets impressed by my knowledge of maths. As far as I know, thats not a particular turn on for the ladies "Oh my god, you can prove that the sum of the natural numbers up to an arbitary number n is 1/2(n)(n+1) TWO different ways! Come with me, we must make love for hours upon end while you shout out sexy proofs!" Actually, I'm pretty sure theres pretty no obscure bit of knowledge that turns on your average woman. Apart from a fetishist, I guess. But I don't know any fetishits. At least, not any maths fetishist. I do have a record of one my friends saying (and I quote from my msn history), "oh dear, my boyfriend is a geek, a big, lovely, sexy geek!" but I suspect she is a freakish exception rather than the norm.
Thinking about it, i've never considered the implication of that "big" before. Euw, now I feel all unclean. MSN history is a great thing, because it allows you to bring up little things from years ago. Or a year if your laptop is about a year old. But anyway, its especially useful if you like to prove your point in an argument. I tried to use it against Paul earlier on but unfortunately I did not say what I undoubtedly said (damnit paul!) over msn. I did have an msn name implying it though.....
You can always tell when I'm not getting up to much of interest when I start rambling.....
Sweet Zombie Jesus!
Ah, Futurama, you can blaspheme and be funny. Thinking about it, all good comedy shows should have blasphemy. Apart from gay guys. Hmm, that came out wrong. The problem with gay people in sitcoms is the tendency of the joke to be "ha ha, look, they are gay! This is not normal! Hilarity!". Which is why I have watched only ten minutes of Will and Grace. Spin City had a gay character, I think, and treated him like a normal human being, and was funny. Chasing Amy has a rather large amount of gay characters. So it can be done, but..... maybe I'm just railing against sitcom writers who don't know what funny is.
Went out last night, and had 4 whole pints of beer. Thats right, I'm living on the edge of insanity: lets hope I don't fall off. Good ol' Fred, who can't take his alchohol but drinks faster than us anyway had 7 pints, and was captain annoying. On the way back my friends decided they wanted food. Personally, while, when I am really drunk, I might eat something, normally I just want to get home, where there is also food. Especially considering Fred and Paul chose the hotdog stall. Hardly haute cuisine (unlike my normal haunt, the kebab shop round the corner!). But I got to steal chips, so I can't complain. Oh wait, I already did! BWA HA HA HA!
Watched Kiki's Delivery Service this evening. 'Tis a nice little film, which I would reccomend for some lite entertainment. Its sort of an animated version of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. But better. Not saying that Sabrina was bad. I've always had a soft spot for Sabrina- I even watched the TV movie "Sabrina goes to Paris" with its stereotypical english character (after Sabrina saying she can't eat sweets because her teeth will rot, her english friend remarks "Its alright for me: I'm English!"). Face it, its better than most kids tv. To be fair, I was about 16 when I was watching it, but thats hardly the point....
Mispellings
My name is not the easiest in the world to spell, I admit. It has several variations to it, and usually people will pick the wrong one. But when I send a letter to someone, I expect them to be able to spell it! For christ sake!
Don Foster, my local mp finally replied to one of the several letters I have sent him over various issues. And he mispelt my name! The ONLY thing he had to go by was how I spelt it! How could someone possibly do that? Sob. I have half a mind to call him Dem Fester next time I right to him. Heh, Dem Fester.
My life is full of crazy crazy revision and webcomics at the moment, which is as thrilling as it sounds. Very. I have discovered that one of the chapters of a topic I am studying is STUPIDLY hard, but luckily we only pick 3 questions out of 4. It'll just limit me to 3 questions, thats all. I could just learn the crazy nonsense proof off by heart for the exam but I am loathe to waste valuable brain space on that kind of thing when I could be filling it up with knowledge such as just how many webcomics there are on the internet. I wonder how many there are actually.....
the animal has left its shell
Blogger....lost my last post. I hate it when that happens....
So you're not getting a post for today now. I can't be bothered now. Suck it up!
Coursework
Super fun stats coursework comprised of my day today, in another day packed full of adventure and fun. I was going to cook myself chilli con quorni (its not mince, its quorn! You should try it, its really quite nice!) but managed to fail to pick up about half the ingredients on my shopping spree. What can I say? I rule.
So instead I had pasta with sauce. Not a high effort meal, but hey, I've been putting high effort into my last few meals, so I clearly deserve a break! Clearly. Damnit.
stupid sticky keys> argh<
i@ve lost my punctuation! no<> for those who do not know of it<> And you have to use caps lock to capatilise> for christ sake! who on earth would actually want this? what possible use would there be for someone to be able to not be able to have a full stop anymore? and how the fuck do i turn it off after accidentally activating it?
Idling
Heh, I've had three stir fries three nights in a row now. Kieran Martin, chef extrordanaire! I was gonna have a curry tonight, but the sauce I bought is exclusively for meat. Which is some genius purchasing on my part, I must admit. In my defense it was next to a bunch of standard run of the mill sauces which work on anything. Bizzarely on the instructions for this sauce it instructs a way to microwave it. Only you do it with the meat. This would be.... sort of fine.... if one of the suggested meats wasn't
chicken. Thats a law suit waiting to happen, that is.
Fraid I didn' get up to anything much new today. I skipped a lecture, but to be fair it was pointless, as we have finished the content of the couse for that module. Stupid friends still went though, so I had to get the bus. I also skipped getting my coursework marks because I didn't want to have to go the tutorial in question to get the damn thing. An hour of boredom for a minute of marks? No thank you. Its not like its going to change how much I am going to revise for the upcoming test anyways.
I've got a cunningly carefully planned out exam timetable, planned out today while revising. It turns out I've got just about enough time to devote 5 days to the two modules i havent revised yet, and 3 to the ones i havent. I mean each there. I'm sure your life is better for that information.....
So yeah, nothing crazy interesting to report. Ooh, check out
www.dominic-deegan.com if you eager for more webomic action. It rocks.
cooking, wooh!
I have now cooked myself two whole stir fries. Thats right, I can cook! OK, so I had a pre-made stir fry sauce. And ready to wok noodles. But, damnit, I cooked the rest! And it tasted pretty pretty good, if I do say so myself, and I might as well as I was the only one eating it. God I rule.
So yeah, back to university today, where I learnt several of my lecturers have thoughtfully forgotten that we have exams in two weeks time, and STILL haven't finished their course. Which is great, as I have to revise, while still attending lectures, courses which are not complete yet. Fanbloodytastic. Its rather frustrating-I have given myself more than adequate time to revise as long as I am undistracted, but I find it very difficult to revise on campus: I usually prefer to have some music playing loudly and no friends to distract me all too easily. Of course, I still will end up avoiding revision some way or another, but at least at home I concentrate a little better...
Ah, it was great getting back into the university mould again, with Toby and Colm insulting me. I wouldn't feel normal otherwise. I'm pretty sure men are never meant to compliment each other. We insult each other, thats how we show love and affection. The closest any guy can come to complimenting someone is by insulting someone else at the same time "Hey, you're pretty smart: well, smarter than Toby anyway". And in a way, its very comforting. Its a little disturbing when a guy compliments you of his own free will. It probably means hes drunk. Well if you're me. Of course, we can compliment girls. THATS fine.
(thanks to Toby for that little observaion above, by the way.)
Heh, last night, I knew I had to get up early this morning. And so my natural response was of course to read webcomics (Dominic Deegan:Oracle for Hire) until 3. Thats right, 3! Yeah, I'm hardcore. Or stupid. Whatever makes me sound better.
Jak 3
I just completed Jak 3 and am now watching futurama. Two days, I did it in. Yeah, not the game with the largest content ever. Its very good fun and all, but honestly- two days.
If you've played number 2 of the series, its much of the same, but less frustrating (apart from one notable part, but we'll get to that), and with a handful of new minigames. And lots of cool cars! Oooh, cars!
Its a lot of fun really, although with all the crazy minigames theres actually less platforming than I would like. Still, if you count the hoverboarding as platforming (this is actually the best skateboading game ever. Seamlessly incorporated into the gameplay so it is challenging and fun, it was clever in Jak 2, and it is well used here), then theres a fair bit. The main frustration comes from a small subsection which is reminicissent of a really old game I had for the atari. Basically, you are a ship in a giant circle, which you can rotate round 360 degrees. Objects fly at you. You avoid them. The problem comes from the fact that you CAN'T avoid them half the time, unless you have an uncanny knowledge of the level, from, say, doing it about 50 times, as it goes simply too fast, and the graphics too crowded, for you to spot all the obstacles. But whatever.
Of course there are other frustrating moments, and the game goes out of its way to annoy you in those parts by having, every now and then, Daxter lean over you and make a "joke". When wil game designers learn- when a player is dying is NEVER a time for humour. It is a time for frustration and hurling out of a window.
Still, it was fun, although you could probably just rent the game, it being quite short. In its defence I did NOTHING but play it, so its hardly bad. Much, much better than revision. Which I did a teeny meeny little bit of. Well, an hour of I guess. I had very good excuses for not working, those being unpacking, reading something positive AND watching Jak 3.
Incidentally, Paul's new game for the X-box, fable, is quite disturbing. See, you can choose to be evil in it, and if you do so, because the game is so horribly real and the characters all have voices its..... well, for example, while you are a kid you wonder up to a small child who sobs about being bullied by this guy who wants his teddy bear. You punch him in the face, he cries and asks why everyone is picking on him, and gives you the teddy bear. You give it to the bully and get a gold piece.
Urgh, sorry. I enjoyed San Andreas, but that just feels like taking it too far. Not sure why, it just does. OK, its late and I have to get up tomorrow. For lectures. Stupid lectures....
heh heh
I'm annoying Paul by sitting watching him play Fable while surfing the net and laughing at webomics... or being touched by something positive. Heh, this also will annoy Paul as I keep going on at him to read Something Positive. Lets be fair, it IS awesome.
But anyways. Fred does this a lot, but hes not the only one. People who, upon watching comedy problems, feel the need to explain the jokes to everyone. For christ sake. Well, I guess they are explaining it, when they say "why don't they just go straight home?" and they don't actually lack any brain cells. Fred seems like a fairly sharp chap I guess......
So yes, I am in Bath right now, and in celeration we watched a large amount of futurama episodes. Huzzah indeed. Very unexciting day I admit, but hey, your mother.
Back in Bath
I'm back to Bath tomorrow, for those internet stalkers out there who are interested in following my every move. As a celebration I went out and had TWO WHOLE PINTS, and did very, very badly at darts.
I really shouldn't play pool or darts because I am absolutely appaling at both games. To be fair, I am vaguely better at pool, but that really isn't saying much as hitting the board is an achievement for me in darts- hitting the number I am aiming for is a miracle. The experience was not aided by some random drunken guy who was obviously rather good at darts watching the whole experience. I find random drunken guys like to latch on to me. i'm not exactly sure of why this is. I guess I look too weak willed to just tell them to go away. Maybe I am very attractive when drunk. But only to men. Which is a pity, because its not really a useful skill for someone of a heterosexual nature as myself. I bet I could get some great ass if I was gay. I really wish I hadnt said that......
My futurama box set arrived today! all 4 series on dvd! Yet more reasons to avoid revision.
ER
Theres a new series of ER! Wooh. I'm watching the finale of it right now, which is surprisingly hard to do while writing this. Its rather distracting.
I always get mocked for my pronounciation of finale. I tend to say "fine-al-ee" which apparently is hilarious. I'm not great at pronounciation. I mispronounce pronounciation. I have a suspicion I am also mispelling pronounciation. But who cares? Well, ok, everyone I know apparently, but they clearly all suck.
I went shopping today with my mother to buy vegetarian type things. I'm gonna be king of cooking, or so lies the plan. Odds are two weeks into term I'll still be living off tinned food, just it'll be tinned vegetarian food. Well, at least I'll be healthier. I was distraught to learn that caeser salad, of all things, is not suitable for vegetarians. Apparently the sauce has anchovies in it. I find this a tiny bit depressing. In fact, this is the biggest thing so far to make me regret being a vegetarian. But I'll stick with it. Not only is it right, it should hopefully have the side benefits of a healthier diet AND making me learn how to cook, both rather valuable life skills. And hey, if I actually do get into the habit of swimming every week, I might even be fitter.
But I probably won't get into the habit of swimming..... lets face it, I'm a lazy sonofabitch. Heh, its fun to combine all those words!
Hmm, back to uni on saturday. no fridge still, because Fed sucks- the new one is coming o tuesday, apparently.
ja, das hokey cokey
You gotta love Bill bailey really. Or be a freak.
On an unrelated note, whenever you go to a gig, keep a look out for the "roadie who wishes he was playing". Theres always one, whos testing into the mike is just a little more showie than the other roadies, and maybe he even plays a little tune to "make sure" the guitar is working. Those guys rule. As my good friend Adam has often said, they should form their own band (the best of them), called the roadies. They'd find it really cheap to tour because they wouldn't need roadies: they ARE roadies! As gimmicks go, its unbeatable...
Heh, the BBC definitely doesn't have a left wing bias....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/4113117.stm
Yeah, you go people! To be fair there is a mix, but a lot of them agree that the nation should be more socialist (as is only right), and more money should be devoted to helping others (as is only right). I was confused by one positive message that said religon should be at the centre of politics. No, it really, really shouldn't. There is no arguing with someone with a bible in their hand. Despite the fact that most of the extreme stuff that the fundementalists use come from narrow interpretation of Leviticus (the book that hates women, gays and shellfish. Yes, shellfish), most say there is no room for argument. When someone claims they are on a mission from God, its time to take shelter.
cash a cheque
Just a random anecdote for you, which I was reminded of today. A while back I went into a nationwide to cash a cheque I had received for christmas. I strode boldly up to the counter, and proclaimed
"I would like to cash this cheque please."
"I... beg your pardon?" Asked the banker
"uh... I would like to cash this cheque."
"What?"
"I..... would like to deposit this cheque into my account and then immediately withdraw the money."
"Oh, ok."
A few months after, I went into the same nationwide, and, remembering my experience, I strode up and said:
"I would like to deposit this cheque and then withdraw the amount on it please."
"You mean cash it?"
"Uh... yeah."
This is something that happens to me more frequently than I'd like to admit. Some random weirdo will not understand what I'm talking about, so I will use more simple language, and so I look like the weirdo. Its undoubtedly a conspiracy of some form.
Grah, even going into the computer room is now dangerous in my house, as my sister has naked photos of herself all over the place for her art project. Its really not someting a brother should have to see.
Despite feeling a tiny bit poor, I will, thanks to various requests, be going to the pub on wednesday, thursday and friday. Insane, isn't it? But never mind: I also went to Cambridge today, and while I resisted the many many tempting purchases, I did buy one cd. But it was only 5 pounds, so in a way it does not count. I'm getting paid 5 pounds tomorrow to get up early tomorrow, which is probably the easiest money I will ever have earnt (other than just having my grandparents visit, I guess. But I don't really earn that; its a gift), so it all cancels out. If you ignore the transport and lunch ( a delicious vegetable burger. Vegetarians can have fun too! Wooh.)
something positive
I'd just like to advertise one of the best web comics on the internet,
www.somethingpositive.net . Honestly, one of the best comics out there. Really its better than a comic. Its actually quite moving too. Start from the very beginning, and carry on. Its awesome. Really. And if you're into something a little more light (although occasionally remarkably moving) check out
www.countyoursheep.keenspot.com
Went to see House of Flying Daggers, which was enjoyable. As my mum pointed out, i has far more character development than Hero. Basically, it is concerned about love, which Hero... sort of has, but doesn't really. Its an enjoyable enough movie- the fight scenes are great, the plot relatively moving, and the entire film looks beautiful, but its nothing that incredible. There is also one moment in the film which might well make you laugh, and not intently. Its always a shame when suspension of disbelief is broken. But hey, its a fun film, and if you feel like watching it, then go see. This is also the sort of film it is better to see at the cinema.
New year
Yeaaah. Its the new year now, so merry new year. Of course, this happy time is also tinged with sadness. The legendary Guided By Voices played their very last gig in Chicago, to bring in the new year. Yes, after about 20 years of making songs, it finally comes to an end. If you've never heard them, check 'em out at
www.gbv.com (yeah, a 3 letter address. Thats hip stuff). They rock, and will always rock!
Went to Amanda's new years party last night, which rocked most mightily, and I drunk most heavily. I can remember most of the night though, which is an achievement for me, the king of memory loss. Actually, its entirely possible that I've forgotten an hour so and don't know because, well, I can't remember.
So yeah, its a new year, and other than eating this lamb thats being cooked for me (my grandparents are here.....) I'm a vegetarian. Properly. Scary shit, scary shit.
Well, I wonder how this year will go for me. To be honest, 2004 wasn't a great year for me, as I had the pain of the relationship with Amanda kind of falling to pieces. But there were good moments, especially last semester where I made lots of new friends, and became politically active. Its nice to have a purpose. But yeah, I'm optimistic about 2005. With my characteristic charm, the ladies will worship the very space that I walk. And hopefully me too. I wish you all the best of luck for the new year.
Of course, as some have pointed out, it is rather silly to split our lives into these artificial barriers. And while certainly the coming of a new year is hardly the most significant event,I do feel its a little significant. About 4, I'd say. After all, its one of the few times of the year where you can drunkenly sing auld lang syne and not get odd looks. The other time of the year being... uh.. ok its the only time of the year when you can do it. And if thats not worth something, I don't know what is.
