Into The Time Loop

My thoughts for today can pretty much be summed up by virtually the same blog entry from last year - why do people not give you better and clearer guidelines as to what they want for presents? I, for example, produce well written lists with multiple options on them. Other people say "Oh, a book which doesn't actually exist in any section of any bookshop" and the like.

This is mildly irritating. Anyway, most of the Christmas shopping done. The person that should theoretically be the hardest to buy for, Chrissi, was the easiest. In other news, approximately 20 hours until she arrives. Not that I'm counting down, but I am. Nice.

Blogiversary!

Today marks a year from when this blog was conceived and began its sarcastic travels across the internet. Exciting, no?

This marks the 79th post so I am averaging a post every 4 days, 14 hours, 57 minutes and 43 seconds. Exciting. Again.

I'm now at home. Not at Aberystwyth. This is exciting. It is cold in Surrey. Very cold. Surprisingly so. Our heating is now on more so than it was before. The cold has retreated in the face of this awesome power. This is the most disjointed and uninteresting post ever. Three days to C-Day. Exciting again.

I'm giving up in the face of relentless assault from lack of inspiration.

Festive Game

I present to you the awesomer and even more awesome than the previous link Linerider. Build a toboggan course for your stickman on a sled to go down. It's awesome.

Chaotic Calendar Confusion

So, this has not been updated in a while. It appears in addition to the days we've lost in Slumberland, we have now also lost an entire month, the month of November. This is getting worrying.

There are many things to update you on, of which none I can remember, so instead I will witter on about irrelevant things. Such as tornadoes. Tornadoes, I hear you cry? Well, strictly speaking mini-tornadoes. Or rather, mini-tornado. A mini-tornado went through Bow Street on Tuesday, which is a small village about two miles from where I sit in my residence now. This you may have seen in the national newspapers on Wednesday. It was in the Guardian, at least, and according to the newsagent it was also mentioned on Radio 2. How's that for celebrity?

I can't think of anything else to write about. It's December now. If you hadn't noticed. England are being rather inept at cricket. And Sliema Ponderers got promoted in Hattrick, while the Thid Floor Ponderers are regularly thrashing the Pigeons XI in Battrick in friendlies, as well as preparing to get promoted in turn as well come the end of the season.

Besides that ... um ... I can't think of a thing that's happened. This is pathetic. 20 days until Chrissi arrives here. Not that I'm counting down or anything. Hope everyone reading this is well. If anyone ever still reads this, unlikely considering the frequency of my updates.

I'll sign off for now and think of something more interesting to add tomorrow!

The One Where Andrew Actually Blogs

Wow, look at this. A new blog post.

Lots of stuff has happened since the last post so instead of filling people in on what I haven't talked about, I will naturally witter about a load of nonsense instead. This is typical for what I do. This blog post may be unnecessary anyway, as we may have an apocalypse tonight if the Cards win the World Series, just from the thought of Jeff Weaver pitching any side to World Series victory in the clincher. However, if there is an apocalypse, at least it'll happen while I'm asleep so it won't bother me much.

Aside from potential apocalypses, which most people will agree is fairly major news, the other significant news from me is that Chrissi has finalised travel plans to England for Christmas, so will be here from the 22nd of December to the 3rd of January, which I am looking forward to very much. That's my major news of the past few weeks. Apart from that, it's just history.

Oh, yesterday they decided to test the fire alarms in the building. This is not good when they do it for AN HOUR AND A HALF. Every twenty seconds, the alarm would ring for half a minute, and each time I'd think it was a real one because it wasn't stopping by the end, and just as I'd start to get up, it'd stop. Also, my ears were ringing painfully.

Other stuff to pay tribute to - St. Helens are Super League XI Champions. Awesome stuff for the super saints, meaning all three titles of the season on the shelf at Knowsley Road.

That's it for now. I'll come back at another point when I get reminded and write another update. Hope this finds everyone well and the like.

Original New Title

Interestingly, my interesting new title is neither new nor interesting. Fact. I was going to put something in Welsh but the only Welsh I have so far learnt is 'araf' which means 'slow'. Although to me it sounds like something from LOTR.

I am here in Aberystwyth, on Cardigan bay, and it is today wet and miserable. It has been nice up until now though. Besides the weather, there is a steep hill to climb to go anywhere. It's just like being back in Durham. Except with more Welsh.

I've officially registered and have completed all those shenangians today. The history department seems fairly cool, always a plus, and the postgrads get their own office in the department. Fantastic.

I am residing in a self-catered flat in the fantastic Clarendon Hall, with two English people, two Chinese people, one Frenchman, one Indian, one Romanian and one Irishman. And a mysterious Greek guy, but he left. All are male apart from one of the Chinese people, the female one naturally. The flat is interesting and quite enjoyable so far. All are postgrads, as it is postgrad accomodation, scary I know.

Right. I think I'm going to call it a day while I'm only marginally behind. I'll stop here and then I'll have more to update you with the next time I find a shared computer. More to come then from Aberystwyth.

The One At High Speed

Dammit.

Today has been done at high speed for most of the day. I've been racing around like crazy trying to pack - I have to pack twice, firstly to work out what I can take with me and put that in my suitcase. Not helped by the fact the majority of my case is filled with my duvet. Makes it awkward.

Rest of my packing is to be brought later. As per my last blog, my Dad is still in Canada. I have to get to Aberystwyth tomorrow with enough to keep me going for two weeks crammed into one suitcase and one rucksack and whatever I can fit in my pockets.

I am in a minor panic about it because I'm sure I've forgotten something or not sent off some paperwork I should have done or some chaos. I hate running around chaotically.

The One At Home

Well, as some people know I'm at home again, as I flew back on Wednesday (leaving at 8:30 at night PST, 4:30 am GMT), and arrived back in London at 3:26pm on Thursday. The flight was what you expect from a ten-hour long flight; delayed for an hour at the airport because the incoming flight was delayed, movies not worth watching on all channels, sitting next to the person with the bad back who has to move every five minutes to stretch, and turbulence just as you start to doze off every time.

Most shocking news to report is that my bag got to the carousel before I did. I arrived and it was already there, just about to come in front of me. That never happens. From the airport I got the RailAir coachlink from Heathrow to Woking (this is amazingly convenient and cheap, too, at only £9 for a single or £10 a return), then got the bus to outside my house.

'Welcome home' has been muted. Dad is on holiday himself in Canada at the moment. My sister, Rachel, her reaction was "What are you doing back?" as she thought I was not due home until today. I was also warned not to touch anything in the fridge as she'd been on a £50 shopping trip. "In the fridge" seems to be lettuce and sliced meat. And one packet of mushrooms. I've no idea how anyone can spend £50 on this. It's weird typing on a keyboard with a £ sign again.

Having got an early night last night, due to jetlag and extreme exhaustion, I got up this morning when I then experimented with what was in the fridge. Fruit juice that had been there a while - when grapefruit juice looks like PINK grapefruit juice when it isn't, it's a bad sign. Apple juice had gone off too.

Today I have paperwork ahead of me. University stuff to sort out, to check where it all ends up and what the letters I have recieved while away mean, probably forms to fill out and the like - at the least, I need to work out where I'm going and when, and what's in the letters. I also have typical spam-letters to deal with too, as my name is alphabetically first I often get the junk mail for the house. Overall, should be a fun day. This is an exaggeration.

I know I'm just talking about mundanities to an excessive level. This is because I really do not feel like talking about how I'm feeling right now. That's pretty much it.

The One With The Leather

For those of you of weak heart, I would say look away now, but there's actually no reason to. This is a perfectly harmless, children-friendly blog. Although any children reading this surely have better things to do. Such as stick their fingers in a socket or choke on their latest toy that has no parts on it possible to do such a thing with. Not that I advocate these things, or even approve of them, but they're probably higher ranked on a child's to-do list than reading this. Anyway, I digress.

If you are still curious about what the heck this title is about, well, there's a reason for that. While looking for a good blog title for today I was googling two-three minutes ago and found out that the traditional item for a third year anniversary is leather (compared to a modern item being crystal or glass). All I can say is that traditionalists are obviously a lot kinkier than we thought!

The relevance of that is that today is the three-year anniversary of myself and Chrissi being together as a couple, which is to state the obvious a fairly long time. Despite not knowing the theme until two minutes ago (and she won't know it until she gets up and reads this tomorrow morning) we managed to stay well within it. Some people are just that good.

This afternoon we went to a baseball game of Los Angeles Angels vs Toronto Blue Jays. How does this stick within the theme? Well, baseballs are made out of leather (or at least the outer layer is). I don't care how tenuous it is, it's within the theme dammit. As entertaining as the thought of me being ignorant at a baseball game is, I have been watching it the past fortnight and doing my research, so I was fully aware of what was going on.

Angels won 4-3 in the end, helped by three runs in the third innings, and by Angels hitter Garret Anderson hitting the Bluejays pitcher out of the game - literally. He hit the ball straight back at him in the first innings, injuring him, and so their best pictcher was out of the game. Compare this with Angels' Jered Weaver who pitched until the sixth innings, giving up only three runs, with Bluejays using five pitchers in the same timeperiod. It was, all in all, a very enjoyable time and a very interesting game too that I thoroughly recommend to anyone else.

In the evening we went to dinner at a very nice restaurant nearby called the Claim Jumper. I've no idea where the name comes from either, but they did some excellent barbeque food, and we shared a combo plate (with chicken, pork and beef on it, all superb). For desert there was the potential of a motherlode chocolate cake - six layers high. For those who thought that death by chocolate was too humane. I was too full to even risk trying a slice, thankfully.

All in all it was a very enjoyable day, and a great improvement to actually spend your anniversary of being together with the other person! I recommend that to you all. More tomorrow.

The One Where Andrew Does Meet Scooby

Greetings from very late on this Saturday from us here in California, which means myself and a mostly sleeping Chrissi. It's 11:31 PM and I'm going to try and squeeze this blog post in before the clock hits midnight, turning me into the proverbial pumpkin. "I sure do like pumpkins, Cotton."

Anyway, leaving behind us in our wake the inevitable detour to the Dodgeball quote, a brief synposis on our day will follow. This afternoon/evening we went to the LA Fair (If you can't work out what LA stands for, you need help) and spent three-four hours there. It was, in essence, a giant fair/show place. Surprising, I know.

We wandered around the various food stalls and past umpteen demonstrations of kitchen tools or cleaning products at some of the many stalls. One stall was worthy of citation - a Fish'n'flush, displaying a toilet where a small (but separate) fishtank was in the walls of the cistern, and in the toilet lid. Very bizarre, at any rate.

We later went into the fairground part of the fair, and had a go at some of the games. Chrissi won herself a stuffed purple dragon at one of the games, where you have to shoot the water at the target to beat others doing the same thing, and at another, where you had to throw darts to pop balloons to win a picture as your prize, I got 4 balloons with three darts to win myself a picture of, well, you can guess really! If you can't, I have provided a picture beneath of myself, my prize and the stall where we won it also.



After such a high note the rest of the fair could not match it, and we left the fair and after several discoveries that it would be a long wait to be seated, we ended up at a nice Mexican restaurant with some excellent food, and rather toooo friendly staff of waitresses. Some of my readers will no doubt be delighted to hear that her cover for staring at me was to try and see what was on my Thid Floor t-shirt. But honestly, show some manners; do not hit on a guy when he's having dinner with his girlfriend. It's just rude.

The One Where Andrew Goes Back In Time

Right, I promised some mundane updates as well as the interesting ones of what I'm doing. This doesn't strictly qualify as mundane, but it's not quite as interesting as swashbuckling pirates, at least not in a "wow" dimension. In an actual interest, it's quite helpful.

So I'm going back to the Thursday when I actually flew to America to provide some updates (hence the title). This is because on the morning of that Thursday, while I was calmly packing and my Dad was panicking around because he had nothing to occupy him, I recieved two letters through the post.

The first was from the University of Durham, enclosing my degree certificate, permitting me to not only say that I hold a Durham degree, but to also show them that I hold one, as I now have the evidence.

The second was from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, confirming an offer for a place on a postgraduate course starting in September for a MA in History & Welsh History. So my busy morning before flying off was added to with paperwork, which I sent off my acceptance of the offer, as well as a few other bits and pieces of details. Since then I've been filling in forms via proxy to do my best to communicate room preferences, medical histories, etc.

Net result is that I start my MA on the 23rd September, a week and a half after getting back. Which is nice to know what I'm doing and where I'm going and everything else. Anyone fancy a holiday to Wales next year?

The One Where Andrew Didn't Meet Captain Jack Sparrow Either

Admittedly I could keep this string of post titles going for a long time because I haven't actually met any famous people, but this again does have some relevance. This is part of my recapping on what happened between Las Vegas and San Diego - and for those of you who haven't seen yesterday's blog and the consequent comments, Chrissi uploaded our photos from the trip, so do look at them here. Not to force you, but you have to.

Anyway, onto my partially cryptic blog title, about which all will be explained in due course. Last Friday (obviously not this coming Friday, but I can't be too careful with some people with such loose phrases) Chrissi, I and her mother went to eat at a Pirates Dinner Adventure 'restaurant'. It's hard to explain what it was precisely, so perhaps if I link to the homepage it'd be easier to demonstrate, which can be found here.

Our pirate was the red pirate Jack (but sadly not a Captain Jack, or a Jack Sparrow - but getting the pirate called Jack was still fairly cool), who we did cheer on throughout the show, which was very entertaining. It's hard precisely to describe, but there were huge swordfights and acrobatics and other random things. I didn't participate in the action, thankfully, but our team's inept pirates weren't very good at the tasks we undertook.

The meal itself was excellent as well, although being interrupted every ten seconds to have to cheer your pirate got a little wearing at times. But it was all great fun and really enjoyable - although our waiter got rather too excited when he heard I was from England and had an English accent. Chrissi got a little worried - I did too, although I'm just hoping he was trying to earn a good tip.

Anyway, 'twas an excellent night and much plundering, mayhem and pillaging was done by all. Speaking of which, in San Diego I got a fantastic T-shirt which states on the back "Pirates for Hire: Specialising in Mayhem and Madness" either side of a giant skull and crossbones. Fantastic stuff.

That's about it from me for today, although I'll drop by later and add another update I'm sure. So long, you scurvy dogs!

The One Where Andrew Doesn't Meet Ron Burgundy

Well, it's now 10:23PM PST, which means it's 6:23AM back home in Blighty, but I have just returned from San Diego so thought that my first thought should be towards my loyal readerbase of two people.

So, my weekend in San Diego. Discovered by the Germans, they named it San Diego, which in German means a whale's vagina. And so continue with the quoting until we get to the worrying singing part, please don't sing, and then back onto the quotes until we reach the end credits.

In the real San Diego I saw neither Ron Burgundy nor any anchormen, anchorwomen or not even anything newsworthy whatsoever. I did, however, have a good time. We went to Seaport Village, which has a lot of really nice shops and interesting little places. That was on Sunday, when we also went to Balboa Park, which has the world-famous San Diego Zoo. Which we saw the car park for but didn't feel like going in. Balboa Park was cool though, weird architecture and buildings and one giant tree. I sound like a Christmas Carol.

On Monday (Labor Day here in the US! Isn't it scary how I'm automatically dropping the 'u' from Labour, much like Tony Blair, har har har, political jokes, they never get old) - yes, Monday we went to the Maritime Museum of San Diego, which was very cool and featured five ships, including the Royal Navy frigate H.M.S. Rose - more famous for being the "H.M.S." Surprise in the film Master and Commander: The Far Side Of The World [In case you're wondering why the inverted commas - it's because the renaming isn't official so it's not been christened as Her Majesty's Ship Surprise so it isn't officially HMS Surprise. Not mere pedantry.] and aboard there were people dressed up as pirates firing water balloons at each other. Now there's a job they sadly never told me about at the career advice things at school.

There was also a Soviet Cold War-era submarine which was rather nifty to look around, as well as an old tea-clipper and some big steamboat thing which was rather inelegant and not as interesting as the other three. I have photos of me standing at the wheel of a ship, and clambering through a hatch in the submarine. These will again be uploaded and links provided once you've read and forgotten about this blog entry.

Today being Tuesday we went to the Gaslamps Quarter, which is supposedly fantastic at night with it all being lit up. Unfortunately the person who recommended it failed to mention that at midday, it looks just like a street. We went to Old Town San Diego following that, which was one of the original settlements built by the Spanish in the Bay. There there was lots of interesting crafty-type shops, and I nearly fainted of sunstroke - it was exceedingly hot today (106F in OC, not sure about in SD though). In the evening we met up with one of Chrissi's friends from High School who lives in San Diego, and that was enjoyable also.

Anyway, this update has become quite long enough and I'll cut it short now before nobody complains, but just because long blogs are just rude and will lead to comments about how they're not rude but only in certain circumstances, oh the pedantry.

Anyway, more processing of my back-catalogue of updates tomorrow.

The One Where Andrew Provides An Overdue Update

Continuing with the titling theme. I know it's crap but at least it provides continuity. So, having not updated for a whole week I should do so now. Here goes.

Last weekend, from Sunday through to Tuesday, I was in Las Vegas, a city built on sand, broken dreams and $5 lobster; a city where you can get a happy ending but only if you pay a little extra. A city home to a sporting event more lethal than the world series, the world cup and world war two combined, the ADAA Dodgeball Invitational brought to you live on ESPN 8, "The Ocho".

Well, Dodgeball quotes aside, I was actually in Las Vegas [Despite someone not believing me and thinking I was just saying I was to work a Dodgeball quote into the conversation]. Although I didn't see any Dodgeball. Or any pirates, cheerleading contests or anything else referred to in Dodgeball. For those of you who haven't been, it's a weird place to put it mildly. I termed it as a city where everything is cheap except for subtlety, which you have to pay extra. (How else would you term a billboard carried on the back of a truck advertising in full colour HOT GIRLS THAT WANT TO MEET YOU NOW - and you had to call of all numbers 6969696. I mean, subtle!)

Anyway, such comments on subtlety aside, it was an amazing weekend. Our hotel was the Luxor, which was shaped like a giant pyramid. The room was amazing; it had hieroglyphics on the furniture, and the bedspread was like one of those Egpytian paintings you typically see on tomb walls. Chrissi took some photos but I've no idea where she has put them so I can't link you, but I'll come back and edit it in when I do know where they are and when everyone has already read this so they won't read it again.

I did a bit of gambling and was up for a short period, before I lost the small amounts of money I bet. But no surprise there. Apparantly I'm a good luck charm for Chrissi though, whenever I just watched over her shoulder she seemed to win. She ended up about $40 up, which isn't too bad at all! We also saw a funny comedy show as well on the Monday evening.

I should provide a bit of updating for this week, as I now have a backlog of updates. Anyway, this weekend we are going away to San Diego. And I forced her to watch Anchorman this week so I can make crap jokes and references that she will find unamusing the entire weekend. I'll provide info on that when I get back on Tuesday. I also need to provide updates on real life and Pirates (the two are separate - I've not suddenly become a pirate, sadly). So I'll do that when I get back.

Anyway, I'll sign off now before Emma gets irritated at how long this is. Evidently what I provide is longer than she's used to. Har har har.

The One Where Andrew Is Finally In The Right Time Zone

Okay, I promised an update on Friday. Well, that's not strictly true, I said there would be one. And there wasn't, so as this is Saturday morning it'll have to suffice - especially as there is no way to go and change it now.

Such rambling aside, as you may have surmised from this post, I am here in the US. It's extremely hot here, as you would expect for California in August. So not a huge surprise there, but still, very warm.

I'm going to be here for three weeks, approximately, as I didn't go into detail about my itinary beforehand. I'm staying at Chrissi's, which is nice, although she is working some days because naturally she can't take a full three weeks off from work.

Anyway, my flight was fine - got in a bit late but no real problems there, wasn't too bad. Security checks at Heathrow were a nightmare and took an age to get through, but I did see some of the Pakistani cricket team flying out so pros and cons. Anyway, I got in about 7pm PST, which is 3am GMT. As a random aside, why do all timezones sound like menstrual issues?

Anyway, yes, was met by Chrissi at the airport and all went well. And she had brought home-made caramel slices! You should now be all a suitably emerald shade of green with envy at that news. They were excellent too, although I haven't eaten them all as to do so would give me thousands of mouth ulcers as they are wonderfully sweet and sticky.

I'll end here before I get the usual complainants (yes, that means you Emma) whining that it's too long. And I'll update at a point in the near future.

The One Where Andrew Explains All

I'm continuing with my Friends-style post titling. I'm not sure why. I can't think of anything better to title this. I also decided to opt for 'explain all' over 'reveal all' as it sounds slightly better.

Anyway, I'm going to try and say a few things without waffling. Going well so far.

I said yesterday that I've been busy my last few days, and there's a reason for this. I've been sorting myself out because tomorrow afternoon I'm flying out to America to stay there for three weeks. Why, you may ask?

To see Chrissi.

Why is she there, is the next question? Because she lives there.

Yes, this may be a bit of a surprise to some people. To others it may be the final piece in the jigsaw puzzle that actually explains a lot of things that never made much sense. Some people know this already. Some don't. Some may have suspicions. Those of you who didn't know, well, now you do.

We met three and a half years ago online, not through any way you might think, but just at random. And were talking for a lot of time, and just got close. And that's about it. I flew out to the US last summer for a week. And she's flown out here twice. So it's not just an online relationship. It's a real one, although hardly a typical one. We just happened to meet online.

Is there any reason I'm saying this now more than any time? Well, not really. More that this has potential to be a serious long-term relationship (well, three years is already fairly long-term), and I see no reason to hide from my friends what exactly it is any more than I already have.

If anyone is especially offended by my vague answers as a consequence of this, I apologise. I suppose it was never something I felt easy discussing as simply as this before. It was something I wasn't sure of enough to bring it up. Not that it's easy to just casually drop into the conversation! But this is a good point to bring it up and I'm quite happy with doing so.

Anyway, next blog should be from the US on Friday. I'll see all my devoted readers then.

The One Where Andrew Adopts Friends-Style Blog Titles

The title has nothing to do with the post whatsoever.

So, um, update. Very busy. Not time for an update of any length, but tomorrow there will definately be an update. It may even be interesting. It'll definately be revealing.

Strachan Interviews

Seeing as I'm spending more time at the moment in my blogs posting random clips than actually saying anything myself ... I'll continue the trend; here's an excellent video from YouTube of some great interview clips with Gordon Strachan. Sound is a bit low, might want your volume up for this one.

Where's Mel Gibson Now?

I'd like to thank Chrissi for sharing with me this absolutely FANTASTIC video (see link) so I could share it with you.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/40420/

[If you've somehow missed the news by the way, for way of background Mel Gibson went on an anti-semitic rant while drunk]

Impossible to Skim-Read

Apparantly people skim-read what I write or say. After a recent conversation, here are some useful reference words to give you an indicator that the sentence to follow them will be worth tuning out for:

1. Interestingly enough ...
2. Actually ...
3. It's a common misconception, but ...
4. Contrary to popular belief ...

In other news, this week I've been doing ironing. I have now successfully found the top of my bookcase after a long hard struggle to clear the ironing pile.

Three Weeks Worth Of Waffle

Well, after the resurrection of my blog with my long political commentary last week, I thought it might be appropriate to provide an update of what's been going on in my life for the last three weeks. Three weeks is a fairly long time for an update, and considering that said update was only a collage of Mordor pictures, it's more strictly speaking a month since I gave a proper update.

I'll start at the beginning. I've officially applied to three Masters programs, for various History MA courses, at Aberystwyth, Exeter and Kings College [UoL]. So far I have had no response, but I wouldn't be expecting one until the middle to end of August anyway. Although I have had a confirmation of reciept from Aberystwyth which seems positive, and their communication has been excellent.

Other notable event of the last few weeks is that I turned 21 on my birthday (I decided to stick with tradition and not age on a different day). A fair few people asked me what I was doing and the like, but to be honest to me it wasn't much of a big deal; it seemed a relatively normal day. Went out for a meal in the evening with my sister and Dad, which was an unmitigated disaster. The food was excellent, but it seemed to be a case of noone getting on that well. It was quite frustrating, but I was as guilty as anyone else so I can't really complain too much.

Generally, I feel that the home environment isn't quite right. I suppose having been away for three years it's impossible to slot back in, and when at home while at University I've just been here "temporarily". Now I am back for the near future, with no immediate plan as to what is happening. There is general tension and things are a bit awkward overall, and I'm not sure quite what to do with it all.

Things came to a head of sorts last week when I got so fed up I just put on my shoes and walked out of the house and went for a walk; and honestly had more than half a mind not to turn back. Which in hindsight worries me a lot that I was so frustrated that I was prepared to just go off without knowing where I'd be heading or anything, but things have been really quite awkward.

Anyway, since that things have been better, and we've had a bit of a talk and things were worked out a bit more and things have eased since then. But still. I'd like to know what's going on with postgraduate programs so I know where I stand so I can move forward, because I'm slightly in limbo at the moment, and this is undoubtedly fuelling some of the problems.

Apologies for the length there, but there's three weeks worth of waffle to update you with. A bit more of a poignant and thoughtful blog again; I promise sometime soon I'll come up with my usual sarcastic and surreal commentaries instead of the current trend.

A Long, Serious Post

Okay, my first update for a long time, as I've not been seriously blogging for a while it would appear. And this is going to be long, so Emma, you have been warned.

I wanted to write a bit about the whole Middle East situation, which seems to be gradually spiralling out of control and into general chaos and absurdity. I don't quite know why this has happened, or why it is continuing, but it's apparant to me at least that the longer it goes on, the worse it becomes.

In the context of a wider Middle East, the situation is absurd. Israel, pushing to strengthen itself and weaken Hezbollah, is pursuing the one course of action that is reliably strengthening Hezbollah beyond all belief. The Shia group is now recieving supports from Sunni Arabs and even Christians in Lebanon, for being percieved as much more 'in the right' than Israel, and resisting the oppressors.

There's almost certainly a saying to the extent that the one thing that will unite different groups more than anything else is a common foe. And if there isn't, then I'm claiming it as mine.

But this is the exact opposite of what Israel want to achieve. In an attempt to destroy and utterly eradicate Hezbollah, they are legitimising it from a terrorist group into a legitimate resistance force.

Against this, of course, is the eternal background picture of the Palestine issue that has never been solved. And it will not continue to be solved if this is the case. Israel is pursuing a self-fulfilling prophecy; believe that everyone is against you, act as if they are against you and not worry what they think, and soon they will all be against you. This conflict is turning moderate Arabs in the region against Israel; those who tolerated it now oppose it or resent it. Those who opposed it now urge its eradication.

It is noticeable how the US and Israel are both so insistent to demand implementation of UN Resolution 1559, the removal of Hezbollah from the border area, but there has been no comment on the many resolutions ignored by Israel, such as those requiring it to withdraw from the Golan Heights, to stop building settlements, to withdraw from the West Bank, to cease the building of the anacronymic "security barrier".

This continues to produce the perception of the international community as being either impotent or biased. The quoted 40 uses of the US Security Council veto (more than all the uses of all the other members) on resolutions aimed against Israel over the last twenty years is the most obvious example.

There is a natural chain of events, that I would hesitate to call an inevitability, but increasingly seems that way. The lack of international pressure on Israel and lopsided requirement from concesssions with Israeli-PLO negotiations has rendered the latter group impotent; the PA a shell of an organisation in its own country. Faced with the lack of international pressure for a fair and even-handed settlement, and the PLO and PA helpless to do this on their own, the people of Palestine and the wider Middle East will naturally look for those who promise to achieve something.

And that is why Hamas won the Palestinian elections. Which is why Hezbollah has such support. In a recent discussion on this, I termed it as the ultimate protest vote; they have no other option to turn to if they want their own sovereign nation. It is our actions that have led to Hamas and Hezbollah having such power in the region, because it is the last hope of the populace. There is noone else to turn to. Of course, the concept is futile; the Israelis will deal no more with Hamas than it will with the PLO. If it doesn't want to deal with secularised Arab nationalists, why will it treat with militant Islamic fundamentalists?

Everything is linked to everything else, and in this conflict there is a cyclical tendancy. One of the most interesting things I read over the last few weeks is that of the origins of Hezbollah. In the original resistance to the 1978 & 1982 Israeli invasions of Lebanon, there were two groups; Hezbollah was founded in the aftermath and soon surpassed the existing Dawa group. Dawa are a small and relatively inconsequential group, that would be called either resistance or terrorist depending on your perspective; but the relevance of this is more interesting. One of the leaders of Dawa was none other than Nouri al-Maliki; the new Iraqi Prime Minister. Truly today's terrorist is tomorrow's statesman as perspectives and needs change.

My opinion on the entire matter is very clear. There are two sides that don't want a solution. The Israelis do not want a solution; any negotiated solution would not be benificial to them; forcing them to concede the land they currently occupy in the Golan Heights, Sheeba Farms area and the West Bank, as well as being forced to dismantle settlements in the latter and recognise Palestinian sovereignty over borders, land and airspace.

I cannot see any Israeli government being so willing to commit political suicide to achieve this. Any political party which did this would be finished. It would require a pyhrric victory to do this. Likewise, while the groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, and the many others, claim they want a settlement; they are quite happy with recruiting and gaining in stature and support by the prolonged and continual conflict. It is normalising the extremes and hardening viewpoints. Internationally, the only nation able to place sufficient pressure on Israel are the USA; and with the influential Israeli lobbyists in Congress, and the religious electorate consequences, no government is going to force the Israelis to the table and to concede ground; hoping instead that some settlement can be reached by the use of military force. Although why it should work after over six decades of near-continual military struggle is an enigma.

So everyone involved is quite happy to see the conflict perpetuate. And the civilians on both sides are the ones who pay for it. The citizens of Palestine, of Lebanon, of Israel; they pay for the political consequences that determine the actions. While the world idly watches these pawns on chessboards not of their choosings.



A handful of articles I found interesting, in case anyone is interested in some more wider reading:
The Cracks Are Opening - Gideon Levy (Republished in the Guardian, originally taken from Ha'aretz)
Morality Is Not On Our Side - Ze'ev Maoz (Ha'aretz)
Lessons from wartime, to be applied on a better day - Editorial (Lebanese Daily Star)
Snub signals Lebanese fury at US - Nadim Ladki (Dawn, Pakistan)
Nasrallah: a hero forged in the fires Israel built - Patrick Cockburn (Gulf Times, Qatar)

Update From Mordor

Apparantly I've been reading LOTR too carefully recently. I blame Tim for that. So I provide you with some random images to entertain you while you wait for the next update.

General Update

Well, I've not updated for a few days, so I suppose I should provide some general update. I've been mostly working on researching into the availabilities of Postgraduate courses for the coming year, and there are a few I'm looking into more closely with a potential for actually taking one of them.

Aside from that, I've been mostly watching the football. Having not updated since the end of last week, I can share general opinions on the games since then. Saturday saw two contrasting quarter-finals. England-Portugal has been analysed to death, but here is a superb summary of my general opinion on it:



Compare that to the evening's game where you had an absolute masterclass from Zidane which was amazing to watch, and it's obvious to see which was the greater entertainment; watch the video I've found on YouTube below for a compilation of some of those moments.



Then tonight we had the absolutely superb semi-final between Italy and Germany; one of the best games I've watched for ages, and a credit to the tournament; two teams playing superb football, and Italy looked a class apart and ran out deserved winners with two absolutely splendid goals. To make them anything but favourites now would be ridiculous, and I personally hope France win the second semi-final so that we can have a good showcase final.

On The Technicalities Of Suffixes

Well, here I am once more. Here being home, to alleviate any slight confusion there. Apparantly there was a mystery that I might be somewhere else. Not sure why, but so it goes.

Anyway, as the title cryptically hints at, I have now gone from being an -and to an -ate. Crazy as I sound, this is technically true. This of course refers to Congregation, Graduation and the general fact that I am no longer a graduand and am now officially a graduate.

Congregation was on Tuesday, and a fine Tuesday it was too - sunny day, probably birds singing in the trees if you like that sort of thing - and as poetic as I'm being I'm meandering like a river through a silty plain.

It was generally good; all very official and ceremonial, as you would expect from a ceremony. Spent time chatting to people before and after, and then we all got officially called forward to shake the hand of the Chancellor and be conferred with our degrees, which was duly done without even tripping over the two steps up to the mini-stage where he was stood.

We then had an address from the Chancellor - Chancellor being, if you do not know, Bill Bryson, this was entertaining and amusing and also short and to the point; two valid qualities that this post could take a lesson from. Not that qualities give lessons, but if they could, these would be two that should.

If anyone is exceptionally bored, they can look at a picture of me at Congregation, which is below. The robe doesn't show up too well. Tragic, really. Also, the sun is rather too bright. Besides all that, it's a great photo. If you are not scarred at first glance, then feel free to click it for a larger version.

Nasssty yellow face!! It burns us, precious!

Well, I am shortly (ten minutes or so) leaving for Durham once more to attend Congregation. Having spent a panicky hour or so trying to get in contact with the robemakers to confirm that my hire order had gone through, I'm now all prepared.

You see, on the form, it says that you need the receipt to collect your robes. However, I didn't have a receipt. After eventually getting through, I was informed that they don't send out receipts if the form only arrived within the last week. In which case - why panic me unnecessarily and put it on the form in the first place that you need a robe? It makes no sense.

Thinking on Lord of the Rings quotes, as we've been using the last few days, I just suddenly thought Gandalf would be a great exam script marker. Can you imagine that? "You shall not pass!"

It'd be awesome.

There And Back Again

Tomorrow I leave to go back to Durham again, probably for the final time - to recieve my degree. Well, just the existence of a degree. The actual parchment I won't get for some months.

Things to do still: haircut, packing, organising.

Oh, and yesterday I had a barbeque with friends, and it was superb. Although to be more grammatically correct, my friend had a barbeque and I went to it along with others - otherwise it sounds as if I was the instigator of the barbequeing madness. Which I wasn't. However, I was second-in-command of the barbeque, a position of great responsibility and trust. It was a good time had by all, however, I must stop this barbequeing madness before it gets out of hand. I always feel guilty about food not being eaten so keep eating it. I swear it's not good for me, or my waistline. Ho hum.

In other news, Ponderers are still better than Pigeons; a nine wicket thumping was on the Carte de Jour this afternoon, effortlessly overtaking the Pigeons feeble total of 202 all out with 203-1 in only 40.4 overs.

Five, Four, Three, II.1, Thunderbirds Are Go

Well, I'm back home. Fact. Finished with university life. Another fact. I finished with a II.1 for anyone who doesn't know by now by the way. Third fact.

Um, yeah. Feel somewhat strange to be finished really. That's it.

Immense Link

Please read the following short site, describing a player of various football simulation computer games, who sends in a job application to manage Premiership Middlesbrough based on his virtual manager credentials. And then recieves an absolutely brilliant reply.

A gamer applies for the Middlesbrough job.

Awesome.

Kurwa Polska

For those of you whose Polish isn't up to scratch, that's me cursing at Poland. There is a reason for this, as you will now be told the tale.

At the college bar on Sunday (& Monday) there was a mightily inspired World Cup tournament of PES. Which is immense - it's hard to explain how mighty playing PES on a 42" plasma screen is, but it's damn amazing. It's also entertaining to watch an entire bar cheering, ooohing and ahhing over a computer game. It was great fun.

The groups were formed as in the real world cup, with appropriate substitutions when there was a team that wasn't on the game, and everyone was drawn a team at random. And knowing my luck, I got Poland. I thought this was a fairly average pick - a medium-level side - in a reasonable group. However, they're a lot worse than I thought.

With five minute games, and my typical inability to score, I struggled to a 0-0 game against a rampant Costa Rica. Having gone back to my room and checked out the Polish squad, I came back with a new lineup and new formation for the game against Germany, and completely dominated another 0-0 draw and was unlucky not to win.

In my last game, I needed to beat Ecuador to progress. My typical inability to score kicked in again, and changing my formation after 60 minutes to go for a more aggressive playstyle led to my downfall as my two man defense conceded a goal in the 90th minute to put me out with no goals from three games.

The eventual tournament was won by Brazil, beating Sweden 1-0 in the final. The shock of the tournament was Tunisia, who qualified ahead of Spain and then beat Argentina on penalties. Poland finished bottom of their group and went home with their tails between their legs. However, after looking at their squad later in the day, I discovered that Poland were actually the second worst team in the competition, according to PES, better than only Saudi Arabia. Even Iran were better than them. So, bugger.

But it was still great fun.

Half-Century

Amazingly enough, this is my fiftieth ever post in my blog. I'm amazed I've had that much to say, I really don't think I have. It really proves how little effort is required to actually make a blog post; witness this, for example, which has already grown to a virtual paragraph without containing any content.

In other news, it's a week and a half left at Uni. I've got a few things planned - I need to sort out Congregation finally next week - but I also have a poker night on Thursday which sounds good, and there's a Pro Evo tournament on Sunday in Mildert bar, which is definately going to be something I will be participating in. Although it requires me to get up at eleven, but it's worth it. I'll need to get my skills in practice for that though, I haven't played properly for a good while.

Apart from that, nothing to report. I've seen 12/16 World Cup games all the way through so far, and seen most of the other four. Only another 46 to go. I'll see if I can get a look at all of them.

Update!

Well, I've finished. No more essays, exams, work, anything of that sort of nature. I've also apparantly finished with the concept of posts on my blog. I think I'll add one now.

Most interesting thing I've done recently is the ultimate frisbee tournament that I took part in; featuring some amazing dives to take the frisbee in the end-zone twice, and also getting very sunburnt due to the shock of being outside in the fresh air. I'm also trying to talk people into doing the five-a-side tag rugby tournament but noone seems that interested, an apathetic approach if you ask me.

Welcome to the Exam Season

You can tell it's examtime and people are stressed because pretty much everyone you talk to has the grace, manners and general pleasantness of a broody gorilla who you just pushed in front of in the checkout queue at a supermarket with a basket containing 100 items, none of which have the bar codes on them and must be searched around the store for the prices.

A long metaphor, but you get the point.

Thoughts

I've tried three times to put down what I think onto the metaphorical paper that is here, and no time has been satisfactory. So I will be brief and attempt in doing so to avoid this.

Life is complicated. We always think everyone else's lives seem to be working fine, without knowing any of their inner workings. We pass someone in the street, chatting happily, and think that everything must be perfect for them. We look at ourselves and see only faults, look at others and see only their good characteristics. Everyone has a mask, to some extent, behind which their true feelings are hidden. To some that mask is obvious. To others it isn't even perceptible.

So many small things can contribute to make a big thing. Big things can feed off each other, making everything seem worse than it is. How to stop this cycle? If I was to know that, then I'd be a lot more help to others and to myself. How to control it? To keep everything in perspective. To remember how each of the big things is in fact a small thing that has been enlarged by your worries. That the huge things are big things in a similar form. We fear of doing things that appear incorrect, of making mistakes, of appearing stupid or selfconcious.

Is there even such a thing as self-control? What is it that it means; someone who can control themselves? Or learn to understand themselves, where they appear in control because that which bothers everyone else doesn't bother them. To know what is big and what is small. And act appropriately. This is easier said than done. But it must be possible.

Lights, Ponder ... Action!

And we're under way with revision. Of sorts. At least, we're theoretically under way. And that's almost as good.

Four exams to do. Lots of preparation to do. This year I am being much more diligent, i.e. I am preparing much more in advance of the day of judgement itself. Time to start getting an idea of everything that's going on. It tends to help.

In other news: Royal Mail suck, Sven Goran Erikson is an idiot, ironing is boring and Scooby Doo is pure genius in dog form.

Momentous Step?

Today marks the last submission of my last ever essay as an undergraduate. I feel strangely unemotional. Having been awake for the last 40 hours while composing the final version could have had something to do with it I guess.

Sleep ...

Mouth Ulcers Are Bad

No times today. I've not updated all week, and I think now I have enough of a dedicated reader base [all 3-4 people] that I don't need to encourage new readers with gimmicks like what time I got up and went to bed. Beyond that, it wasn't interesting, enlightening, and I don't even know if the times are accurate.

Anyway, that's about it really apart from to provide some semblance of an update. Today has been a very irritating week, and while that is completely contradictory it makes sense to me. Going on this past week, it would do.

Only another three/four weeks until everything is finished. Then I just need to adapt to the wider world, pick a masters program, or get a job, think about qualifications, where to live, what to do, blah blah blah.

Ready to Rumba, Ready to Go

Time Asleep Last Night: 04:32
Time Awake This Morning: 09:06
Today's DAR so far: 50PP

This post has nothing to do with Cotton Eyed Joe. Sorry for any false illusions presented.

Right, I'm all packed. Amazingly managed to fit everything in, after some inspired packing courtesy of yours truly. Just making sandwiches and then I'm off. Bought caramel slices this morning, never fear, they are coming with me, just hope I'm not too peckish on the journey ...

Being Busy! Oh Noes!

Time Asleep Last Night: 04:53
Time Awake This Morning: 09:33
Time Arisen This Morning: 13:56
Today's DAR: 18PP

Moderatively productive day today [Oh noes! I hear you cry!] as a consequence of being forced upon me by time. I have done some ironing, some packing, some general tidying and some cleaning today. Be amazed by the product of my business!

Just got the computer and clothes to pack in the morning. Everything else is packed .... BUT ... there is a spanner in the works, a cat among the pigeons. My Dad's car is having issues. Not sure what issues specifically, but general issues. As of such, instead of having copious amounts of room in the car, instead we will have to take my sister's car for the journey up to Durham. Which is a Ford Ka. A great car, but not one for great carrying capacity. Which means I'll most likely be leaving stuff at home, such as the TV [Oh noes! I hear you cry again!] and I may also be packing everything in tiny bags so it can be fitted under seats, around me, and so on. It should be quite an entertaining morning packing the car, for sure.

That's about it, hectic day tomorrow somewhat awaits. May try and update this in the morning after I get the caramel slices. Up early tomorrow, rise and shine, see you all Sunday.

Theory And Reality

Time Asleep Last Night: 05:03
Time Theoretically Awake This Morning: 09:34
Time Actually Awake This Morning: 14:03
Today's DAR: 9PP

Today has two versions. The theoretical one went like this: I got up at a decent time, then did the cleaning in the house, sorted out a few bits and pieces, did some paperwork, copied a couple of CDs and generally was productive with my day. I also went into the loft, got down the boxes and started to do my packing.

The actual day, however, went rather differently. I woke up late, did minimal work, then in the afternoon went to help a friend with his history dissertation at another university, just reading over it. I ended up playing poker and PES on the PS2 for three hours, getting back home at 7pm. After a family meal this evening, I discover that there's a problem with the car so there may be a minor issue with going up to Durham - the issue being that I'll be unable to fit much of my stuff in the car. Unless the mechanic can fix it tomorrow.

That's really it, tomorrow I will be up earlier and doing active work, I expect my DAR to hit 20 if things go to plan. I hope this is short enough to keep Emma happy.

Me & Technology - Bad Combination

Time Asleep Last Night: 05:36
Time Awake This Morning: 11:34
Today's DAR: 5PP

Today's DAR is deceptive. Because I had planned on it being higher, but it wasn't. Rather obvious point, but here goes with my stupid tale of today. My plan had been to possibly get some way towards demolishing my ironing pile. However, I met with a small snag while upon my quest.

The ironing board, with the iron on it, was up against a wall in our front room. Sensibly, I decided to move it towards the middle of the room so I'd actually have space to iron in. So I pulled on one end of the ironing board. And it collapses. Now, normally our ironing board takes a combination of the strength of a superhero and the problem-solving ability of Stephen Hawkins to actually fold up when you're trying to. So by pulling on one end, this met with a surprising result. So the ironing board collapses. The iron falls off the end, logically, and then the cover falls off. So I'm left with just the water holder in the middle, thinking this may not be very safe to iron with.

So on the plus side, I didn't have to iron today. On the negative side, I wasn't able to iron today, means a fun-filled Friday of course. Not long now until we're back at uni guys, and please remind me to go to the bakery on Saturday morning to get the supply of caramel slices. Otherwise I'll have to go home in the middle of the term just to fulfill my promise.

Shorter ... I think

Time Asleep Last Night: 03:30
Time Awake This Morning: 12:37
Today's DAR: 6PP

Today's is supposed to be a shorter because apparantly Emma gets offended if I actually attempt to fill you in in any detail on what has gone on in my day. Personally, I'm quite impressed with how I manage to write so much despite doing so little.

I didn't have much to write about my day, but there was something I read in the newspaper today that irritated me somewhat. It was an article on the situation regarding abortion in America, and how anti-abortion campaigners are having increasing impact and success. It has gotten to the state, according to this article, where while you can have one legally, it is still a constitutional right, you simply can't have one practically.

To me, this is absolute nonsense. I'm a guy here, so I have very little in terms of say in this - and I don't see why other guys should become all preaching with women should do this and shouldn't do that. Which is effectively what it is. The vocal majority of the anti-abortion community is male, which is illogical. It's about a woman's right to an abortion, not a man's right to force a woman to bear his child whatever he thinks. And that's pretty much what it is.

The other thing to me is that if someone is so convinced that it is wrong and an abomination, then the simple option would be not to have an abortion if you believe that. So why do people who think that abortion should be controlled simply not have abortions - and allow the others to have theirs if they think it is allowed? People who think there should be more gun control don't go around attempting to close gun shops and say that yes, while the constitution says you can bear arms, you can't actually purchase them at all.

One person's beliefs shouldn't override another - it is what makes a democracy, that while you disagree on things, noone should bend another to their viewpoint and force them to act against their wills. Okay, some things, such as murder, rape, arson, theft, there is a common sense of rules or we would have anarchy. But abortion is completely illogical to include on a similar level. Meh, just my whine at the silliness of that, don't take offense anyone with contrary beliefs to me on this.

Red Hot Poker

Time Asleep Last Night: 03:53
Time Awake This Morning: 13:56
Today's DAR: 10PP

Today was another day where very little happened during the day, very little in fact happened at all. My ironing pile made a further step towards being featured on relief maps of the area. On the plus side, if I don't get around to doing my ironing at any point, I can always sell it off as an abseiling platform and climbing wall for an activities centre or something.

My ironing-challenged week ahead aside, what I did do today was mainly watch TV. Not much, admittedly, but I watched the second half of Tottenham vs Manchester United, which wasn't exactly an entertaining spectacle but I really didn't care. I also saw part of the Castleford-Warrington rugby game, which was hardly a spectacle either - some good rugby by Warrington, but it was too one-sided to really be entertaining. Sad that Sky in their wisdom chose that match, and not the Catalan-Saints game instead. While obviously as a Saints fan I would've prefered to see my team (although watching rugby league as a neutral really is very enjoyable), their game was close and hard-fought, and a cracking game from what I could hear of it on BBC Merseyside.

In the evening I went to a mate's house, which is one of the last times I'll be doing that before I go back to university, mainly because everyone else is doing the same thing [going back to uni that is, to clarify]. We played on the PS2 for a while [PES, of course. Is there any other game?] but eventually settled down for a marathon poker game. By the end I was considerably up, although not chip leader.

Today I was feeling inspired, and managed some excellent hands, at one point doing a bluff on a flush draw with absolutely nothing, winning about 400 worth of chips [Starting amount of 1400 chips each]. Later on, I managed to have the situation reversed; someone attempted to bluff me in the same situation. However, at that point I did have a flush, and called him out, again to win about 200 chips. During the meantime I was squandering my hard-won chips, and irritatingly two hands in a row folding on what would become a full house after seeing my starting cards, although betting more sensibly. I managed at one point to get a A K Q high flush, one of my best ever hands, without even noticing it - I had pocket kings and so was betting on that, without realising I had a flush at the same time.

Most entertaining hand was the last one before we left. I was holding a Q 2 in my hand, unsuited. First person to bet put in 200 on the starting cards, before the flop. I was the only one to call rather riskily, but he is a known random better, so I thought I might as well go for it. The flop was 8 8 2, leaving me with a two pair but an awkward one - especially as he could well have high pocket pair, hence his high starting bet. However, as it was the last hand, I matched his 200 bet. The turn was a 6, rather irrelevant to my hand. However, again I matched his raise, which put him all in for about 675 chips each. At this time, as we were all in, we both revealed our hands - and his hand was also a Q 2, the exact same as mine! Ironically, the irrelevant river was a 2 again, leaving us both with a full house, but with identical cards we were bound to split the pot of 1385, each recouping for all our betting only a share of the blinds, worth 17 chips gain for each of us.

An entertaining hand, and somewhat amusing too. Anyway, more on that story later. Or another time. Right now, I'm off to bed, having updated you all on that. So more from Slumberland tomorrow.

Easter Egg Day!

Time Asleep Last Night: 03:45
Time Awake This Morning: 12:52
Today's DAR: 5PP

Today I managed to do even less than yesterday, which was amazingly impressive due to my fairly feeble achievements yesterday. But, on the plus side, today was easter egg day. Some apparant religion or other has more important reasons for today, but I leave that for them to talk about, not me.

However, the annoyance is that when you tell people you're not going to do the Easter Egg thing and instead they ignore this and buy you an Easter Egg. And you are informed on the Sunday morning. Thus starts the Easter Egg Marathon! Where you walk around to all the shops within a half hour radius only to find out that they are either (a) shut, (b) sold out or (c) shut and sold out. End result - mass frustration but on the other side, a lot of exercise. Every cloud has a silver lining.

Only a week left until back at uni, I suppose now would really be a good time to start doing some reading and some detailed work on my Gobbets prepration. However, my general thought on this is 'meh'. Gah, this post is so lacking in content and wit and actually anything that it's untrue.

In more irritating news, however, I have had the Alvin and the Chipmonks song stuck in my head for 24 hours. It's quite annoying. I find myself singing it at random. And more annoyingly, that site I linked to either yesterday or the day before had the words for it too; so I can actually sing along as I know the words. Extremely frustrating.

Du, Du ... Du-du-du-Duh!

Time Asleep Last Night: 04:53
Time Awake This Morning: 11:34
Today's DAR: 4PP

If you can work out what the hell I'm on about from today's blog title, then you need some help. I was shown this absolutely supreme website, today, basically a reference page for '80s cartoons, including theme tunes, pictures, and so on. If you haven't worked it out today, here is the full background behind today's title. Absolutely inspired.

The other thing I was shown was a worrying link to a merchandising site for Scooby-Doo. If you think I'm bad, you should really wonder who exactly would buy a Scooby-Doo brand vacuum cleaner. Why?! Or, alternatively, boxer shorts with Scooby Doo on them ... okay, if that's what does it for you girls. You could also get full-size Scooby Doo costumes, for Scooby and the entire gang. Not just in kids sizes too - in adults sizes too. Either there are lots of theatre groups, or there are some seriously wrong couples playing dressing-up games. "You be Daphne, I'll be Fred." Urgh, just the thought of that makes me shudder.

There were some good products too, such as mousemats, mugs, and other things on the same line though, but as I'm saving money I didn't peruse them for too long.

More tomorrow.

Kung-Fu Hustle & Good Friday Rugby

Time Asleep Last Night: 04:38
Time Awake This Morning: 09:36
Time Up This Morning: 13:24
Today's DAR: 5PP

Well, today was Good Friday. Not being of a religious persuasion, this doesn't really mean much to me apart from the fact that it is a bank holiday, and that on top of that we get the traditional rugby league fixture between St. Helens and Wigan. With Wigan in freefall this season and Saints looking fairly solid, it was always rather inevitable, and so it proved with a 48-10 victory to Saints; all good news from my perspective.

This evening I met up with those pesky home friends again. Well, they're not really pesky, but it's a good adjective and one that I've not used for a while. Anyway, we played some of the mighty Halo 2 for a while. And then watched Kung Fu Hustle, which none of us had seen before. To say the least, it is odd. To say more than the least, it's bizarrely strange. However, very entertaining. Yet still without any sense to it whatsoever.

Anyone else seen it able to give some views on it? There's no recognisable plot, just a tenuous series of events to link from one improbable kung-fu action scene to the next. However, that's not to detract from what is a very entertaining film.

Discussing my phone issues, as I did mention yesterday, Chrissi is wonderful and getting me a new phone so all you silly people can talk to me. Or so I have to say, at least. It's an extremely early birthday present, and it is very gratefully recieved. Not quite sure which of the silly people she's referring to; I think she's the only one who rings me. Not that that's a hint for you to all start ringing me 24/7, just an observation.

Anyway, with luck this might mean a new phone with new nifty features - like actually being able to hear the person at the other end, turning on and off when you want it to and not at random, signal that doesn't disappear when you're about to make a phonecall, and so on. Apparantly these 'features' come as standard on most phones now. News to me, they don't on mine.

Despite my somewhat tongue-in-cheek commentary, I am very thankful for that. So good news. Today has been a positive day again. We're now down to a large hill or a small mountain. Scarfell Pike type height, perhaps.

A Note Of Thanks And Explanation

Time Asleep Last Night: 00:52
Time Awake This Morning: 09:33
Time Dozed Until: 14:26
Today's DAR: 9PP

I'd just like to say thanks to all of you who left a note after yesterday's irritated and frustrated comment. Yesterday was a generally frustrating day, and having talked things over and gone over things, they seem a lot clearer today and the problems that were worrying me seem slightly less problematic.

Issues were with finances; money going in and coming out didn't quite tally up with my mental balance sheet and the end result was quite a bit less in the bank than I thought I had, and a few more bills than I thought I had too, and generally lots of irritations to sort out. Then it became one of those days where everything else refuses to go right. The fact that I went to bed so early in frustration is the surest sign that I was not having a good day.

But after a good night's sleep and some rational thought and some sensible advice, my molehill seems a lot less mountainous overnight. It'll probably end up being something hillock-sized, enough to feature on a contour map but not to tempt mountaineers to climb it's edifices. It definately won't have any glaciers, apologies to you glaciologists out there eager to discover this among the mountain I was making of my molehill.

Anyway, I think I've exhausted that metaphor now.

In other news, my phone is almost entirely dead now, it has been dying a slow and painful death over the last few weeks. Any attempts to contact me by it will most likely be futile. I'm looking into getting a new one, but that requires money which I'm busy trying not to spend. Hurrah for cyclical problems.

Thanks again for the comments, even if I only just read them when updating this now; it still makes me feel a lot better, so thank you for that.

Gah

Time Asleep Last Night: 05:03
Time Awake This Morning: 12:42
Today's DAR: 5

Today for me is best summed up as follows: !!!"%&"£*(&"£(*&!"@!")(!!"~@"!((*()#@

Day of Dis-Eventfulness

Time Asleep Last Night: 03:33
Time Awake This 'Morning': 12:34
Today's DAR: 8PP

Dis-eventfulness isn't a real word, you'll be surprised to know. But if it was a real word, that'd pretty much describe the level of eventfulness with which my day has been filled. I've probably not even done that much; that's a bit of an overstatement.

Yes, I have done that little. Although I was quite pleased to discover that Vicky and Tim were bored enough to spend quite a long time playing that silly wastepaper basket game. Which admittedly is quite entertaining.

So in the same spirit, from a day that has had nothing happen, I will give you a brand new link. So welcome to Curveball - or 3D Pong, whatever you want to call it. Regardless, it's pure brilliance. Very fun, very time-consuming.

This One Is [Mostly] For All Of You Non-Uni Friends

Time Asleep Last Night: 05:16
'Midnight' Phonecall Recieved: 06:03
Time Awake This 'Morning': 14:41
Today's DAR: 10PP

Well, today somewhat sucked. Although yesterday was slightly more sucky due to Chrissi being back home once more and more to the point not here. And today I've been moping around the house rather aimlessly once I'd gotten up. Interesting thing to note today is that the time of day I got up at is palindromic. Isn't that fascinating? No, I thought not either.

In the evening though I went out for a drink and a convivial chat with some friends who are non-uniesque, i.e. they are from home. Apparantly this blog is too focused towards the uni-friend readers (i.e. Emma, Tim, Vicky, as you three are the only three who actually read it). Apparantly others read it too but find it too boring to bother continuing to do so. I can't think why. Anyone else reading this would be amazed at the exciting ways with which I fill my days. And be even more amazed at how I manage to fill entire days with the sparse actions I do.

So I'll be interesting and talk about Woking. And Knaphill. And my friends here. So hello Mark, no you are not gay, you are just in touch with your femininity or metrosexuality or whatever else you want to call it. Chris, you are not at all strange and good on you for still being the only one of us who can drive. Mike, um, you'll not be a temp forever? Paul, Mark says he wants to live with you and apparantly he also says you're marrying my sister soon and can he be a bridesmaid? Interesting stuff indeed.

See, a blog tailored just for you.

[For those of you reading from uni all confused, well, you will be. The individuals discussed above are my friends, although whether they describe me in the same way I'm unsure. Paul is not actually dating my sister, but simply someone with the exact same name. They went to the same college in the same classes and confused the teachers. Strange but true. Mark is not gay either. Perhaps. Mike looks like a fish and Chris once played Aslan in a school play and looked like an ewok.]

If none of the above entertains you, play this absolutely pointless game and try to beat my best score of 25. If you do, then you're very bored and need to do more with your life.

Disappearing Persons?! Contact Scooby-Doo!

Firstly, I'm not posting a detailed breakdown of my a-waking and a-sleeping times for the last week. I've figured noone cares that much to be in need of an accurate breakdown like that. That and I honestly can't remember.

For those of you wondering just where I have been this past week, which amounts to about three people, I have been spending the week with my girlfriend, who avid readers and people who actually know me will know is called Chrissi. Or to be more accurate, she's been spending this week with me. Which has been enjoyable, very nice and similar. And as of such I have been much too busy (insert your own innuendo here. Come to think of it, that in itself was an innuendo) to be updating my blog regularly, or indeed at all. It's not that you're not interesting, it's just that I pretend I am. Although I'm not. That or I'm afraid my girlfriend may be slightly disturbed to watch me type this random babble. It's bad enough to have to hear it. Honestly.

So yes, an interesting week was had by all. And I'd like to point out that despite Tim's triumphant talk, his Pigeons XI capitulated horribly against the mighty Thid Floor Ponderers, who won by a dominating 127 runs, making 354-2 in their 50 overs, and bowling out the feeble Pigeons batting line up for a meagre 227 all out in only 43.4 overs. Tim should be disgraced.

In other interesting news, I've been told I obssess too much about Scooby Doo. I seem to quote from it more than I should. Or say something random, wonder where it's from, then realise. Or hum the music from the chases. Overall, it's all fairly worrying. I was quite excited, however, to discover one of the comic strips of Questionable Content does actually discuss Scooby Doo in passing. I think I linked to it before, but I'll do so again for good measure, so go here to see it. If you don't read QC, it is a good read. Passes two minutes of your day. AND on top of that, there are the archives to read through if you've not read it recently.

I've also recently been reading Nothing Nice To Say, another webcomic which is focused more on the punk-rock scene than it is on the indie scene that QC looks at. Talking about that makes me want to discuss the Less Than Jake gig I was at with Chrissi on Friday, at the Astoria, which was excellent. They played a good set, featuring some real older tracks from Losing Streak - Johnny Quest Thinks We're Sellouts, Dopeman, Automatic, Sugar In Your Gas Tank, as well as the absolutely superb live How's My Driving Doug Hastings? Along with this, they played some of their best material from the more recent albums, including their supreme track All My Best Friends Are Metalheads. If you've not heard it, go listen to it. Now. That's an order.

Disappearing Days, Dastardly Deeds, Debut Disappointments and Driest Deserts

Time Asleep Wednesday Night: 23:34
Time Awoken Wednesday Night: 04:14
Time Went Properly to Sleep Wednesday Night: 04:16
Time Awoken Thursday Morning: 08:54
Thursday's DAR: 9PP
Time Asleep Last Night: 04:44
Time Awake This Morning: 09:20
Today's DAR: 11PP

Hrm. We lost another day. This is getting quite serious. This time it was Thursday, which is not such a tragic loss due to my hectic work schedule during termtimes on a Thursday; however, it was still a worrying loss and I'm eager to ensure that it's not repeated. By my calculation we're now down to a four day week here in Slumberland, and while two of those are weekends which means it's tolerable, we'll take much more care with our days of the week in the future. If any more disappear, we'll contact Scooby and the gang.

Speaking of which ... it's only March 31st and my package dispatched on March 29th (see Wednesday's entry) has already got here! Two new Scooby Doo DVDs featuring dastardly deeds, evil villains, hilarious chases and lots more characters who would've gotten away with it too if it hadn't been for those meddling kids. So good news all round, there's a solid three hours watching there. These two look pretty good, actually, so I'm glad I picked them up.

I'd like to add my commiserations to Tim's Pigeons XI for their defeat in their first Battrick game, despite a solid performance they eventually lost by nine wickets. A poor showing compared to the mighty Thid Floor Ponderers, who crushed some crappy side by ten wickets to stay in first place in their series. A friendly challenge means these two Battrick Behemoths will meet on Sunday, stay tuned for more details.

The final item in my 'double D' parade (which makes me sound like a pornographic magazine featuring large chested women) is a question to our resident geographers. During a brief discussion last night, for some reason Vicky and I discussed deserts. And I presented the fact that the Atacama Desert is the driest desert in the world. I know it's not glaciers, but if you can confirm that fact for me it'd be great. I'm fairly certain it is, but then again it may not be. However, Vicky was still rather impressed with the speed with which I plucked that random fact out of midair.

In other news the kitchen is now finished but I couldn't think of an alliterative comment for that so I can't talk about it ...

This Is Still Wednesday, Honest

Time Asleep Last Night: 03:45
Time Awake This Morning: 08:43
Daily Activity Rating: 9PP

This is still Wednesday. Whatever anyone tells you, it is Wednesday. Mainly because I forgot to update this last night, despite the best of intentions to. Mainly because my monitor was being stupid; I shut the computer down and went off to do some ironing instead for a while, giving it some time to settle itself down and stop messing about. Put on a DVD while my ironing was done, got bored of ironing (or maybe I finished it. I forget), so just lay down on my bed to finish watching the DVD. And predictably fell asleep.

So, thus explains the missing entry. However, I think that we've already crossed Wednesdays off from our days of the week, so it's not a major problem. Anyway, good news to you direct from my Amazon account:

Items dispatched on 29 Mar 2006:
Delivery estimate: 4 April 2006 - 6 April 2006
1 package via Royal Mail
* 1 of: Scooby Doo - What's New Scooby Doo - Space Ape At The Cape [2003]
* 1 of: Scooby Doo - What's New Scooby Doo - Mummy Scares Best

You can't beat that. I refuse to believe it.

Oh, Now I Remember

Having just made my update for the day, I remembered something I had been planning to mention - and then obviously, by it's evident omission, forgot to actually mention. So here we go.

Has anyone else noticed how much easier it is to talk about things online; whether via instant message, or leaving a message for people to read? I'm sure there's something psychological about it; it feels less like you are exposing yourself to others, more like you are writing down something for your own reference. The act of writing down something in itself helps you connect better with it; however, when it's purpose is for sharing, it seems also strange. It is a useful medium to get something off your chest, even to yourself, with others listening.

I notice this because after my post on Sunday, and the notes in both Vicky's and Tim's blog recently which were more getting rid of frustrations than actually something for others to read (although both did include disclaimers not to read it). And mine was definately a note to myself that I just wanted to write down somewhere.

The same is true on MSN (and similar). I suppose it's easier because you don't have the same face-to-face awkwardness; you can take your time and write what you want in the way you want to say it. You don't have to look at the person or hear them, you can just communicate, without any problems.

Another random point for discussion. This in fact probably fits my definition of a post just to myself, and if anyone else happens to read it, hey, bonus points.

Mondays Now Don't Exist Either

Time Asleep Sunday Night: 02:25
Time Awake Monday Morning: 08:34
Monday's DAR: 6PP
Time Asleep Last Night: 23:46
Time Awake This Morning: 08:48
Today's DAR: 9PP

Good news folks! We're now down to only 5 days of the week, as Monday has also been removed from the week courtesy of yesterday's omission. This was entirely my fault, and was due to my early bedtime; I had planned to do it before I went to bed, then went to bed earlier than planned. Hence the lack of an update on my activities.

Also good news! I have got to the bottom of Pile of Ironing A [The dirty clothes I brought back that have now been washed] and am working my way now through Pile of Ironing B [Clean clothes that I brought back needing ironing]. This is perhaps even being somewhat helpful to me, as I can, when at the bottom of the pile, put away my suitcases and clear a bit more space in my room. Further hurrahing will then ensue.

More good news! I have had a haircut. This must surely come as a great relief to all. I'd say I looked like a shaggy dog before, but this would be commented on as an unhealthy Scooby Doo obsession. Probably correctly.

However, on the flip side, bad news. The Scooby Doo DVDs I ordered on the last day of term, I selected the wrong debit card (I got a new one issued in January or December) so it has not been delivered. Which means a week delay in seeing those villains unmasked and those monsters revealed and those mysteries solved. Which saddens me.

Mothering Sunday

Well, this is a rarety, two posts for me in one day, but I wanted to talk about this briefly. As those of you who know me, and those of you who don't, will know, this isn't generally a nice day for me, and hasn't been the past five years this day has fallen since my mother died. All the adverts and point-of-sale slogans such as "Remember Mother's Day" and similar, "Don't forget your Mother this Mother's Day!" they hardly fill me full of joy. I suppose for me it's more of a quietly saddening reminder that things aren't like I'd like them to be. Equally, it makes me wonder on another note, am I doing that? Am I remembering her, not on this day alone, but on most days? I honestly don't have an answer to that.

Anyway, a very poignant post for me and quite a reflective one. I realise by talking out loud I'm not really doing anything but talking to myself with others listening, but it's nice at least to do that sometimes.

The Kitchen: A Life In Pictures

Time Asleep Last Night: 04:35
Time Awake This Morning: 12:41
Today's DAR: 6PP

So I was bored, and took my camera, and so constructed some pictures of the kitchen and house for you to demonstrate the true sense of madness they have bestowed upon our fair domain.











Hopefully these visions of the madness in which I live my everyday life now will help you appreciate my pain and inner frustrations. And yes, that really is a bowl of grapes on the ironing board in the last picture.

Saturday Malaise?

Time Asleep Last Night: 02:56
Time Awake This Morning: 12:29
Yesterday's DAR: 8PP
Today's DAR: 6PP

I'm going to strike out in a new direction from the general theme of our collective blogging today, and say that I don't actually feel Saturdays are much different from the rest of them. Then again, it should be pointed out that with my average activity, Saturdays aren't that different from the rest of the week for me anyway, so that could explain it.

I also promised an update on the kitchen progress. Well, Kevin the Kitchen Fitter arrived yesterday, and is actually a guy probably in his mid-40s as opposed to a lazy sulking teenager. The surprises are endless. So Kevin removed all of the old units, which are now awaiting me to smash them up (sounds fun) in the back garden, and started to put new units in instead. Annoying thing is lack of work surfaces which means now the living room table and the floor becomes a work surface, trays abound aplenty and there is general chaos in residence. Apart from that, things progress smoothly.

Oh, entertaining event to relate to you about now. For no apparant reason, today my Dad decided that he wanted to upload his pictures from his trip to Cuba (in November) to the computer. And spent several minutes in puzzled bemusement as to why precisely there was a picture of a caramel slice at the end of his holiday pictures.

Only real news from the last day or so is that I have obtained tickets (that someone else purchased and then couldn't use) for myself and Chrissi to see Less Than Jake at the London Astoria in a fortnight's time. Pretty snazzy, as I never get around to organising myself enough to book tickets for gigs, and I've not been to one since I saw LTJ at Camden back in the June before University; so coming up on three years ago. Should be good stuff, I'd be hoping, they're a great live band so should be good fun to go see - and at £28 for the two combined it's bargainacious as well.

Apparantly the clocks go forward tonight, which is always fun. At least something is moving forward. This reminds me of the old adage 'spring forward, fall back' which is how you are supposed to remember which way the clocks go.

In other news, I don't think I have yet linked to Acts of Gord, an absolutely superb and amusing site where you can waste a good hour or so at least. It's an account of an independently owned game store in Canada, all the idiots this owner [Gord] has to deal with, and how he ignores all the standard principles of customer care while doing so. Such as in this snippet which I found to demonstrate.

"I'll take my business elsewhere."
Would you mind? I would appreciate that

Definately worth a read and a bookmark.

Caramel Slice

Time Asleep Last Night: 00:03
Time Awake This Morning: 09:31
Yesterday's DAR: 8PP

Well, I promised. And I did. I went to the bakery and bought myself a caramel slice this morning. And it was good. Just so you didn't all feel left out of the goodness, I took a picture of it for you.

Time Zones, Non-Existant Days and Surreal Breakfasts

Time Asleep Tuesday: 23:30
Time Reawokened Tuesday: 03:23
Time Reasleepened Tuesday: 05:33
Time Awoken Wednesday Morning: 08:46 [Yes, really]
Wednesday's DAR: 11PP
Time Asleep Last Night: 23:52
Time Awoken This Morning: 06:13 [Yes, really]
Time Arose This Morning: 07:43 [Yes, really]
Today's DAR: 4PP

Shocking news to report here folks, as not only was Wednesday struck from the record books by dint of an administrative error and a surprisingly early night, but normal sleep patterns have descended upon my world. I've woken up at normal times two days running.

Some points of note to record over the last few days. Firstly, fresh bread is awesome. There's nothing quite like the taste and smell of a freshly baked loaf, and I am grateful that there is a bakery nearby, about three minutes walk away in fact.
A freshly baked loaf is lovely. In addition to that, you can purchase yourself some baked confectionary of your choice, such as the undisputed king of baked goods, the caramel slice. It was a generously sized one too, with proper shortbread as a base, and with just the right freshly baked taste. It was sublime, and I will have to go back and sample another tomorrow perhaps.

A note on my time zone. It has come to my attention that my time zone setting for the blog is not actually UK time, but instead somewhere in the USA. Possibly the Pacific coast. This is handy, for when I post at 4am it shows it as the day before, which is accurate. Because that's what it is. Also, while neither my body nor my clock are in fact in America, my body clock probably is. So the time zone inaccuracies stick.

Oh, latest update on the kitchen mayhem. Turns out that Kevin the Kitchen Fitter had a van breakdown so couldn't make it today. Or yesterday. Maybe he'll get here tomorrow. We still have two kitchens, one in boxes piled in the living room, one scattered around the house in various useful places. I'm beginning to wonder why all this hassle was necessary for an operation which is basically installing new units of a different colour, and moving the sink millimetrically to the right.

I also discussed surreal breakfasts. Today I had to make myself a breakfast, a demanding feat undoubtedly. It was quite strange, however, having to actually grill toast properly (no, we don't have a toaster) and decide myself when it was done and when it was sufficiently toasted; not having my toast provided by me courtesy of a toast fairy was somewhat strange. Additionally, being able to refill my glass of fruit juice was quite surreal, although just to keep my insanity in check there was still only two choices, apple and orange.

In other news, happy birthday to Vicky. I promise an update again tomorrow. Fact.

Kitchen Fitters: A Rant

Time Asleep Last Night: 03:46
Time Awake This Afternoon: 12:06
Yesterday's DAR: 8PP
Today's DAR: 6PP

So, for those of you who are interested, my house is still upside down. I still have large kitchen units sitting around the house unfitted. And there are still onions on the stairs, and a breadbin on the bookcase, like you would expect in any normal home.

Problem is that Andre the Kitchen Fitter (whose name makes you think he should be a gay hairdresser, not a Kitchen Fitter), was uncontactable on Monday. When he was supposed to come and fit. So he didn't. Instead, after much arguing with the head office, we now have a delegation from Kevin the Kitchen Fitter and his Team, who will arrive on Wednesday. Oh wait, no, they can't do Wednesday. They'll arrive on Thursday.

In the meantime, I'm still going to complain about nothing being where I want. Yes, I'm talking a lot about kitchens. That's because I've not done enough to make it worthwhile to comment on my day itself. I need to buy some bread and book a haircut tomorrow. Oh the excitement, I'll have to sedate myself so that I don't get into a hyperactive fit!

I may also get up early and watch the cricket. That sounds like a sort of useful thing to do. Well, not useful, but it's something and I'll be doing it. This post is meandering quite badly. So ... until tomorrow, when we'll hear more from the exciting world of kitchen fittings.

Home Sweet Home

Time Asleep Last Night: 03:45
Time Awake This Morning: 08:56
Yesterday's DAR: 16PP

Well, home again. Home on the range. Where the deer and the antelope play. At least in surreal ways they do, if by deer and antelope you mean me and my family, and by play you mean live.

Except this week my home has been turned into a kitchen showroom! Or so it would appear. We are getting a new kitchen fitted, exciting stuff I know. It was delivered in Wednesday, apparantly. And today it was to be fitted. As a consequence, we have everything from the kitchen scattered around the house; tins of pasta and onions on the stairs. All the glasses are stored on the bookshelves. Similar practical arrangements. And of course, we have the new kitchen units in a large pile around the house wherever space permits.

And then the fitter doesn't come. So I am living in this kitchen-themed maze for at least another two days. Summary: Gah.

Oh, I should be polite and point out that Vicky has started a blog and tell you all to go read it. Apparantly it's even quite good. Emma has also started writing one too, but who knows what the address for hers is, so I can't link to it. Actually, she does, it transpires, and she left it as a comment. It can be found here. Only other news for today is that Tim can't write URL code correctly. Cower in fear from my mocking finger, mere mortal!

Sloths

Time Asleep Last Night: 06:20
Time Awake This Morning: 08:44 [Major thanks to Taj here]
Daily Activity Rating: 16PP

Katie demanded I update this with this fact:

Young sloths are so stupid that they have been known to mistake their own limbs for branches and fall out of trees.

Thus concludes my update. Read it and weep.

Activity Regime!

Time Asleep Last Night: N/A
Time Awake This Morning: N/A
Daily Activity Rating: 15PP

High DAR rating today due to being up almost the entire day. So it'll make a big difference. Done lots of little bits and pieces and made progress forwards, which pleases me. Erm ... that's about it for today's useful update. Interesting stuff, isn't it?

I suppose at some point I should write these entries before I'm just about to go to bed, so I make them moderately interesting.

Here's an amusing link though: What Argos should sell.

Sunday Follows Saturday

Time Asleep Last Night: 05:54
Time Awake: 15:39
Daily Activity Rating: 11PP

Today was an active day; when I was up I did activity-like things. Not exciting, but then again when has washing ever been exciting? For that matter, when has cleaning and tidying been exciting? Nope, I agree with you. However, I'm in the mood now to be useful and make things work. To do things normally, to get my ass in gear to sound overly American.

Anyway, I'll see how long it lasts. I give myself until perhaps Tuesday at best.

Today

Time Asleep Last Night: 04:41
Time Awake This morning: 17:43
Daily Activity Rating: 1PP

Nothing happened. Fact. Lowest ever DAR on record.

Routine Approaches Normality! World Shocked!

Time Asleep Last Night: 01:35
Time Awake This Morning: 7:56
Daily Activity Rating: 18PP

I feel rather impressed with myself today, having been almost on a normal schedule in terms of awakening and asleeping times. This is abnormal, for me. And hooray for weekends that start at midday on a Thursday; always nice, even if it gets you evil looks and even more evil thoughts from those who are unfortunate enough to have to work on the Fridays. Well, ha to them.

Today's silly random insert is this:

Sod's Law: In Action!

Time Asleep Last Night: N/A
Time Awake This Morning: N/A
Daily Activity Rating: 10PP

So today was rather similar to all the other days. In that I have bugger all to write about. Oh, interesting point of interest, I'm so glad I decided to spend a good hour and a half this morning reading and making notes from the book I was supposed to read for today's seminar.

Because the seminar was absolutely irrelevant. I'm not quite sure what we were meant to be discussing [I think it had to do with cruelty and barbarism in Africa], but whatever it was it definately wasn't the concept of a universal morality, which was what it was. I feel somewhat robbed of an hour and a half. But half an hour of that was spent eating a mightily good breakfast, so there are swings and roundabouts.

Today's random link is definately worth reading [will take 10-20 minutes, but it's brilliant]. In my mind, it's absolutely hilarious proof of everything both wrong and right with the entire interweb. So, read on for the P-P-P-Powerbook story, which is linked at the top of that site.

Slave to the Daily Publishing Routine

Time Asleep Last Night: 4:53
Time Awake This Morning: 11:59
Daily Activity Rating: 15PP

Little of interest happened today. Notice this recurring theme? Well, me too.

Real reason for today's entry is to show you the following humourous image, entitled 'Little Chelsea'. Some excellent photoshopping work here.

Current Earth Geocide Count: 0

Time Asleep Last Night: 05:31
Time Awake 'This Morning': 14:36
Daily Activity Rating: 8PP

Don't have a major update for today; but I wanted to link you to the following brilliant site that I was shown today. Click the absolutely superbly informative and useful image for the link.



This should ease your anxiety.

Token Daily Update

Time Asleep "Last Night": 06:51
Time Awoken This Morning: 11:58
Daily Activity Rating: 24PP

Insomnia sucks. And I can't play tennis. These two are both facts, proved by the last 24 hours. Bleh.

Random comment to make this slightly longer: I really recommend you read Questionable Content, an excellent webcomic that I've been keeping up to date with for at least a year, and has over 400 comics in its archives. Well worth reading if you've got a free afternoon; updated every weekday too. Yeah, plug over.