La Neige!

Quote of the moment:
"Forecast for tomorrow: A few sprinkles of genius with a chance
of doom!"*

*Lots of snow (which, by the way, there's been plenty of here for the last two days). Travelling to Edinburgh on the train may be somewhat lengthy.

But you don't want to know about that. You want to watch the UNICEF advert in which the Smurf village gets bombed. It's part of a campaign to help child soldiers, apparently. Any excuse will do.

Shopping!

Quote of the moment:
"Pwetty shoes!" - http://www.weebl.jolt.co.uk/shoes.htm

Went swimming in Chelmsford to work off some turkey. After that it was sales time. I got books, spanky new shoes and black tracky B's. My Felsted ones are getting holey and apparently have a german flag on. Red and yellow bands on DARK BLUE. Fools.


Spot the difference

Meanwhile my mum got me a toastie maker in Comet. Victory is mine!

The Quiet American

Quote of the moment:
"Sooner or later, Mr. Fowler, one has to take sides, if one is to remain human."



Top stuff.

Clan Gathering

Quote of the moment:
"Were you in Cardiff in Fresher's week?"
"Oh, did you see me in the union?!"

- Indeed, I did see my cousin Hilary in the union pub. Remember that, Little James? It didn't get a mention here because the Senghetto wasn't connected at the time.



Saw some cousins, ate some cold meat + salad lunch (aka Una Alconbury's turkey curry buffet, but not curried) swapped some prezzies with cousins (got Crash on DVD - ossum) played some Articulate, had some tea, went some home.

Requiescat In Pace

And So This Is Christmas

Quote of the moment:
"Where are my keys?"
(cue search)
"We'd better go back and get them..."
(50m back down the road)
"Ah, here they are."

- My grandpa. I was taking my grandparents home since they'd been drinking and I was designated their driver. The other option was tidying my room and letting them sleep in it. Not drinking was supposed to be healthy, but since Sarah cooked a fry-up for breakfast in addition to lunch, supper and chocolate yule log for tea I doubt it made much difference.

Apparently it was my last year of getting a stocking. I volunteered to opt out at 18 but my sisters didn't want to do the same. This year, however, Father Christmas was unimpressed by having to wait until 6.30am for me to go to sleep. Even then it was left propping the door open, because apparently I moved upon attempted entry. Mwahaha.

Highlights of my under-the-tree spoils:

• A carefully wrapped empty shoebox containing an IOU for a pair of hiking boots from my parents.
  


• A suprisingly cool shirt from my other granny (the one near Chepstow). I suspect she had assistance.
  


• A "pasta set": wide bowl/plate, bag of pasta + pesto, e.v.o. oil and olives.
  


• A large metal "No trespassing. Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again" sign from Vicky, the elder of my two younger sisters.
  


• An awesome woolly hat knitted by my "little" sister Sarah. Black with red stripes, of course.

MCAAHNY!

Quote of the moment:
"I went to see Narnia last week..." - the vicar. Tis spreading insidiously :p

"Midnight Mass" (at the non-RC Felsted Church) was great fun. I saw Mr Roberts, Mrs Marshall, the West family, Mr Sugden, the Vernons, the Seals and more. Floppy (Mr Roberts, my old headmaster) was sitting in the row in front of us. Joyous.

The Night Before Christmas Hogswatch

Quote of the moment:
"'You can't give her that!' she screamed. 'It's not safe!'
IT'S A SWORD said the Hogfather. THEY'RE NOT MEANT TO BE SAFE.
'She's a child!' shouted Crumley.
IT'S EDUCATIONAL.
'What if she cuts herself?'
THAT WILL BE AN IMPORTANT LESSON."

Merry Hogswatch!



HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN, TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
“Tooth Fairies? Hogfathers? Little—”
YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
“So we can believe the big ones?”
YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.
“They’re not the same at all!”
YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE, AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY, AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME… SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
“Yes, but people have got to believe that, or else what’s the point—”
MY POINT EXACTLY.

The Night Before the Night Before Christmas

Quote of the moment:
It is said that whosoever the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad. In fact, whosoever the gods wish to destroy, they first hand the equivalent of a stick with a fizzing fuse and Acme Dynamite Company written on the side. It's more interesting, and doesn't take so long.

- Terry Pratchett, Soul Music.

Christmas lunch could be interesting. My dad went out to buy a board to put on the (rather small) dining room table so it would seat 8 people. Hed decided it would be a waste to get the nearest available one cut down to size, so it extends far enough off the end to interest the turkish avionics industry.

Twas the Night Before the Night Before the Night Before Christmas

Quote of the moment:

Where are you and I'm so sorry
I cannot sleep I cannot dream tonight
I need somebody and always
This sick strange darkness
Comes creeping on so haunting every time
And as I stared I counted
Webs from all the spiders
Catching things and eating their insides
Like indecision to call you
and hear your voice of treason
Will you come home and stop this pain tonight
Stop this pain tonight

Don't waste your time on me you're already
The voice inside my head (I miss you)

- Blink 182, I Miss You. Ripe for the full orchestral backing treatment.

Just dropped Will T back home. Had some uber-loud Classic FM on with the windows down, in nostalgic tribute to the absent Jim. Earlier we played some ISS 98 with Sarah as my disadvantage. Lol. All was going well until she staged a walkout in protest at my over-zealous captaincy. I wasn't really shouting at her that much...

Managed to run 4k this morning. Still having issues with continuity: I can run with walking pauses further and faster than I can jog. Damn circuit training.

Jolly Hockeysticks

Quote of the moment:
Runs are good. If you don’t have access to a gym run up a hill. If you don’t have acess to a hill buy one.

- Fitness plan for Christmas by Sex Pest.

Finally got some Christmas shopping done. Everyone's done apart from my dad, unless I just give my mum's present to both jointly. It's pretty awesome: a St Trinians box-set.



"You see, in other schools, girls are sent out quite unprepared into a merciless world ... but ... when our girls leave here, it is the merciless world which has to be prepared."

The Bosom of my Family Guy

Quote of the moment:
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

- Corinthians Book 1, Chapter 13, Verse 1 (King James Version). Mentioned by the Podge, but the old version's always better:

Stewie (reading the Bible): "My my, what a thumping good read, lions eating Christians, people nailing each other to two by fours. I'll say, you won't find that in Winnie the Pooh."

Yes indeed, I love Family Guy. So much, in fact, that I'm adding this to the sidebar:

Random Family Guy Quotes

Now I shall return to the bosom of my family. The cards and decorations are up, I made a particularly expert fire, the Two Towers EE DVD is on and Sarah's knitting. I persuaded her to stray from scarves (all she's done for the last umpteen months since she took it up as calmingly therapeutic/something to fidget with) to making me a hat. Black with red stripes, of course.

Sex Pest

Quote of the moment:
Next year I plan for the Novice men to buy a NEW BOAT as the one we currently have is too expensive to fix (thanks phil!). A decent new boat will cost about £2500. I have been given £1000 by the club which means I (we) need to find the other £1500. There are around 30 novice men so in order to raise the money we all need to raise 50 quid each.

- From the Novice Men's Christmas Message (J. Sexton) Chapter 2, Verse 4.

He's added himself to all of our messenger lists as well, so I could retrieve this fetching photo:


Damn you, damn the ravioli and damn the Wright Brothers!

Be warned: he's not just called Sex Pest because of the surname.

Jump

Quote of the moment:
"...which made me feel bad for wanting to jump him." - La Podge at the peak of her powers of literary expression.

I am now at home, having spent last night at the residence of my paternal grandmother. Ahem. Since I haven't adjusted to normal timekeeping yet I started reading The Remains of the Day after everyone else went to bed. To be honest I'd only heard of the film and it was Anthony Hopkins on the cover which initially drew me in. It's left me speaking in 'tween-the-wars formal tones. How uncommmon!


Would sir care for a class of chianti?

Vicky spent the last week (Birmingham started and finished a week before Cardiff) being an assistant matron at Wellesley House, helping the very posh little boys find their games socks and other fun things. The highlight of the week, however, was Zulu (who is now 18 months old and still smaller than Ben, hence earning the name Runt) having diarrohea on the newly laid pale carpet in the Housemaster's study. Score.

Since my sisters left it out (prior to heading west to collect me) I am now going to watch Love Actually. It's not that I like it, I merely wish to gain dance tips from Hugh Grant.

Homeward Bound

Quote of the moment:
Homeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home, where my thought’s escaping
Home, where my music’s playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me

- Simon and Garfunkel, Homeward Bound.

Thursday was awesome. Had Pizza Hut buffet for lunch with K3 (minus Matt) and Richard from K9. Circuits wasn't really happening, so played (quite firm, even solid) touch rugby with the 14-odd novices who turned up and our captain and v.c.

Went out to Bounce afterwards with the Pizza Hut posse. Using my line-out skills again I caught 3 "presents" being thrown out (fluffy headbands with pom-poms). Drunk Steve decided the one I was giving to Little James should be his though, and when I'd mauled it off him he wrapped his arms around my neck and pulled me over... on top of him. Foolish boy. I just lay there in the hope that neither of us would get chucked out if I didn't respond.

A while later Charlie, K9's honourary 6th member, reappeared with another Charlie... I had a very drunk Dougie leaning on me for a bit while we reminisced about Felsted. Apparently he'd had a bottle of whiskey and several pints of Snakebite. Apart from cricket he's doing law. My mental image of Dougie in black barrister's robes is very similar to Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy:



I managed to keep hold of my particularly attractive pink fluffy pom-pom headband all night and it's now joined my collection of mementoes, along with the Halloween horns, the cheerleader pom-poms, the rubber duck and the hula-hoop.

We all stayed up playing on the xbox and watching DVDs (Napolean Dynamite and Trainspotting) until about 8am, at which point I joined Rich and Matt for fried breakfast. Mmmmm.

Slept from 11 to 3.30 and spent the rest of the day slobbing in K3. Have been tidying up and packing since about 1am, but that was interrupted twice by the fire alarm going off. Apparently two flats in K block had the glass in their red fire alarm things smashed within an hour of each other. Honestly. It's almost as if people were partying to celebrate the end of term.

Ritalin Time

Quote of the moment:
If 5 or more items from the above checklist apply to your child, he/she should be evaluated by a professional for possible Attention Deficit Disorder.

There were 33 items on the checklist. According to self-evaluation of me aged 5-18, I ticked 18. Not all applied at once, but still...

Ritalin time! (to the tune of Hammer time)

Technically Ritalin's not prescribed for ADD, only ADHD, but it is described for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Post Viral Fatigue Syndrome. So I could have been a Ritalin junkie anyway.

Row Your Boat

Quote of the moment:
"Someone asked me what I do at university and I said "rowing"

- 'Rowing James'. Politics student - what can one say?

Signed away £135 for rowing stuff. Ouch. For that I get the following: a spanky jacket, a training top thing (like a long sleeved t-shirt but lycra) and the crowning glory, a lycra leotard. Jacket's red and black (top and bottom) and the others are black with a red stripe inside a white stripe down the sides. Yeah baby. Oh I fell in the river. Oh I fell in the river again.

On the plus side, it's a good incentive to keep fit over Christmas.

Does Joules Iron His Wrapping Paper?

Quote of the moment:
"It took quite some effort to track down your e-mail address but I thought I ought to say thank you for the lovely Xmas Card; it looks lovely next to the others in the bin."

- Joules strikes back.

Another classic from PostSecret this week:



My dad took away my un-ripped wrapping paper when the 'rents came to visit, bringing my birthday presents. Cue eye-rolling.

Met up with Paddy, Rob and Rob's young lady Hannah in town today (plus two of Hannah's mates who are at uni here). We ended up going to an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet for supper, which they hadn't planned to stay for. Oops. I was bursting at the seams when we left... the fools only put out the crispy duck & pancakes when we'd been there for nearly an hour, damn them, plus pudding after that. No going out afterwards though, so I was safe. Once they'd got back on the train, I came home and sprawled on Little James' bed holding my stomach in instead.

Unoriginal Pirate Material: The Chav Nativity

Quote of the moment:
The Story of Baby Jesus (updated to help Chavs understand it)

There's this bird called Mary, yeah? She's a virgin (wossat then?). She's not married or nuffink, but she's got this boyfriend, Joe, innit? He does joinery an' that. Mary lives with him in a crib dahn Nazaref. One day Mary meets this bloke Gabriel. She's like 'Oo ya lookin at?'

Gabriel just goes 'You got one up the duff, you have.' Mary's totally gobsmacked. She gives it to him large 'Stop dissin' me yeah? I ain't no Kappa-slapper. I never bin wiv no one!' So Mary goes and sees her cousin Liz, who's six months gone herself. Liz is largin' it. She's filled with spirits, Bacardi Breezers an' that. She's like 'Orright, Mary, I can feel me bay-bee in me tummy and I reckon I'm well blessed. Think of all the extra benefits an' that we are gonna get.' Mary goes 'Yeah, s'pose you're right'

Mary an' Joe ain't got no money so they have to ponse a donkey, an' go dahn Bethlehem on that. They get to this pub an' Mary wants to stop, yeah? To have her bay-bee an' that. But there ain't no room at the inn, innit? So Mary an' Joe break an' enter into this garridge, only it's filled wiv animals. Cahs an' sheep an' that. Then these three geezers turn up, looking proper bling, wiv crowns on their heads. They're like 'Respect, bay-bee Jesus', an' say they're wise men from the East End.

Joe goes: 'If you're so wise, wotchoo doin' wiv this Frankenstein an' myrrh? Why dincha just bring gold, Adidas and Burberry?' It's all about to kick off when Gabriel turns up again an' sez he's got another message from this Lord geezer.

He's like 'The police is comin an' they're killin all the bay-bees. You better nash off to Egypt.' Joe goes 'You must be monged if you think I'm goin' dahn Egypt on a
minging donkey.' Gabriel sez 'Suit yerself, pal. But it's your look out if you stay.' So they go dahn Egypt till they've stopped killin the first-born an' it's safe an' that. Then Joe and Mary and Jesus go back to Nazaref, an' Jesus turns water into Stella.

- Robbed from a cash-and-carry Newstudent.org post, which was probably stolen from somewhere else. Boredom resulted in checking if anything had happened since I last went on there (just post-USA) and I struck 9ct Argos catalogue gold.

In other news, my whole tongue has a greenish hue. How healthy!

One Week Left

Quote of the moment:
"You're banned!" - Little James. Apparently it's my punishment for assisting Steve in waking him up last night. My bad. Steve is to be repayed in kind, but the idea of just coming around and banging on my window obviously hadn't occured to him.

Only a week left. It's not a week til I go home, because I'm going to the grandmaternal abode to begin with, but a week til I leave here. Hurrah for going home.

Rowing Initiation

Quote of the moment:
Everyone get two drinks and head to the dancefloor! - Rowing social secretary.

Wasn't as bad as it could have been. Was still standing at the end. Novice Captain James was being held upright at least half an hour before then. Lol. Also a certain Miss Rowena Harvey was practically carried out, and probably carried home. Haha. Some people just can't handle their drink. I, on the other hand, came home with a Tigger drawing on the front of my white, sign-me T-shirt (and a minge on the back). Steve, as far as I know, just had the Tigger (which he did get first to give him his due), but I left him looking for a trolley and went back to my flat (with the hoola-hoop I'd "rescued" when everyone was leaving. It was one of the items in the scavenger hunt, but my team stuck with Hula-Hoops (the crisp versions). So much easier to transport, plus I ate them (BBQ Beef flavour) after the judging was done. Oh yeah - I took over my team's list of stuff. Haha. My bad. Je suis un bossy cow.

Got chips on the way back (with the hula-hoop hidden beneath the counter) then came home, decided (for some unknown reason) that I was still hungry and set about cooking. Pasta, sausages and ketchup. Beautiful combo. Shame I burnt my finger draining the pasta, but c'est la vie. Bah. I have a hoop. It's purple with glittery bits. Beat that for spoils of a drunken outing.

I should also mention that Ruth (on whom I drew "Desperate (for) Dan") seemingly pulled said Dan, her object of lust and adulation, and I didn't see them after about 12. Shocking. However, the senior women's captain and one of her team-mates emerged from a cubicle in the men's toilets while I was in there (fortunately I'd reached the hand-washing stage, unlike one poor unfortunate) to great whooping and applause. I didn't stand on the next-door bog to look over the wall though, so I don't know what was going on.

Anyway. Drunken cooking succesfully completed, I'm off to read Terry Pratchett (Going Postal) on the bog and then pass out on (or hopefully in) my bed. Woohoo. We still didn't get our damn social shirts though. Honestly. It was almost as if Natalie (the social sec.) was more interested in who she was going home with. Haha. True fact, that. Nighty night.

You Need to Get Out More When...

As soon as you notice it's past midnight, you open your advent calendar for the next day.

Well, it is a chocolate one...

Everyone Runs Faster With the Knife!

Quote of the moment:
"There's no respawn points in RL" - Steve's favourite and oft-repeated Doug quote.


You scored as Assault Rifle. You are soldier. Or you want to be a soldier. Or you just love military-type firearms. You need assault rifle. M16 or AK-47 will do good.

Assault Rifle		100%
Sniper Rifle		75%
Shotgun		44%
Revolver		44%
Machinegun		38%
SMG		38%
Pistol		38%

What Firearm Fits You Best?
created with QuizFarm.com

Apologies for unleashing the loathed quiz-farm offerings again, but the grammar just made it too good to miss. I'll take the under-slung grenade launcher with that, kthanx.

Continuing the theme, I must direct you (courtesy of Mr Matthew Wright of K3) to what is, apparently, video footage of my alter-ego, Doug.

Jim strafing down the path at school to go faster, anyone?

Cameron 4 t3h w1n!

Quote of the moment:
David Cameron has been elected as the new Conservative leader by a margin of more than two to one over David Davis. - BBC News.

I finally got the mass email saying I'm invited back to camp next year. My email address, along with a large number of others, was misspelt. According to the graduate careers talk I went to last week, any kind of work that involves "transferable" skills is handy, it doesn't have to be directly engineering related. I think I'll take the sunshine option.

Random fact: My flatmates, feeling both festive and drunk, took a can of snow spray stuff and adorned each of the communal windows with a Christmas penis. How scenic.

Show Me the Muffins

Quote of the moment:
You had me at "Environmental Fluid Mechanics"

Or not. Test at 9am. Woke up about 4pm, having failed to get up for any of my 5 alarms starting at 8am. Woohoo. Nm, the exam result will apparently apply as a psuedo test score as well. Since I missed the latter half of last week as well, I have no idea if Claire went home this weekend, but if she did then I missed the home-baking lecture. Now there's a real tragedy.

(Update on the illness: issues with swallowing due to swollen glands. Woohoo.)

Red as a Cherry Tomato

Quote of the moment:
Mmmmm cherry tomatoes. Reminds me of your profile picture: red and shiny :p


Midget tomato, or tomato-coloured midget?

Glands are up, sporadic bouts of sweating and shivering, nicely developed hacking cough. Hooray for being ill.

Environmental Fluid Mechanics test at 9am. Bleurgh.

Monopoly Mayhem

Quote of the moment:
"Don't knock on death's door. Ring the bell and run."

Another banging party in K9 tonight. They got up and finished their party booze supplies for breakfast! Legendary! They came touting for people to play Monopoly around 11 (I think) but the game didn't begin until 11.45 and lasted an epic 3 and a half hours. Six men started the battle of luck and endurance. I came 3rd despite being on top for most of the game, due to Richard ("The Fat Controller") skipping my hotels and landing on his stations almost all the time. The only thing he did pay for was the Electric Company, damn him. He won, but Martin was man-of-the-match for grimly hanging on despite only getting 1 property to begin with, getting up to a set of 3 with haggling but never managing to build anything at all. A commendable 4th. Oh, and the whole game was played in dressing gowns. Over clothes mostly, apart from Herr Kontroller.

Strongbow & Ribena:Druids' Brew

Quote of the moment:
Get it down... you Zulu warrior! Get it down... you Zulu chief chief chief chief chief chief!...

Just come back from an awesome drunk party in K9. The plan was to head out to town somewhere, but we were having so much fun piling onto people's beds n stuff that that was abandoned. Some people did go out for the traditional post-night-out takeaway though. Mmmm chips. I stayed in and stuck to toast'n'jam. Not convinced it's healthier but it's certainly more economical. Unlike buying an Xmas tree in November and having it mauled on December 1st. Shame on you Little James. Tis all your fault.


Didn't finish my bridge project. Sod it. Serves me right. Hopefully will learn my lesson, but given the weight of historical evidence I doubt it. As Jules said at the LVI parents meeting, "He has a cavalier attitude to deadlines". Yeah baby. I'm a cavalier. At least that makes me an interesting failure, not a dull one. Anyway, I've secured 25 (of an available 30) of the necessary 40% to pass Drawing already, so sod it. I'll scrape through. 70% in my presentation baby, yeah! I can talk like the days will never go down behind the hills in the west, into darkness. How did it come to this, eh?! EH?!

A P-P-P-Presentation?

Quote of the moment:
"That was very good, apart from being 15 minutes long"

Oops. It was supposed to be 7-10 minutes. I still got 70% though :D

Straight onto the bridge design for this afternoon. Woohoo!

Winegums Are Awesome

Quote of the moment:
I'm going to go change... - Rowing James. He just changed his skirt for some jeans, but that was my cue...

Abandoned the cheerleader costume between the pub (Gassy Jack's) and the club (Rubber Duck in Solus @ the union) in favour of combats, "Action Man" tshirt and aviators. My cheerleader outfit was the bomb though. Pics later, maybe, if I can get them off the neighbours who took them. Arrived in the union in time to follow everyone (only about 15) in but after a while I lost them at the bar when talking to a girl from my tutor group. She + mate then disappeared when I turned back to buying a drink, so I was left to wander the club on my jones.

Quite pissed already so cba to do that for long and headed for home. Saw another rowing guy doing the same (and helping a random girl who got her stilleto stuck in a draincover) on the way out, so never mind. Lots of work to do tomorrow! Lectures 10-5 then I need to work on my bridge project and practise my presentation - both due on Friday. Woohoo!

Did my 5k this afternoon... got 18mins 52, which was 4th out of the 7 guys who'd done it by then... hopefully it stayed that high! Doubt it though. Bah. Was good considering I haven't done any rowing in aaaages. Got a bruise across my knuckles where I think I hit a wall on the way home. Oops.

Yes indeed, I'm le pissed. Wahey! P.S. did some shopping on the way home from rowing and got some winegums. Mmmmm winegums. :D

Once More Unto The Breach

Quote of the moment:
You'll all be up at the boatclub tomorrow because I've got a lovely suprise for you... a 5k test! - Rowing James. Woohoo! Pity I haven't done any rowing, even on a machine, since... about 10 days ago. I claim illness. Lesser mortals (thats YOU, Steve) wouldn't have even gone to circuits with flu/cold/sore throat etc.

Could have gone this weekend, but the gym shuts early and I wasn't really up in time. Oops. Still, I prefer doing a half hour to a 2k, so hopefully it wont be too bad. Must remember to leave myself plenty of time to get there, so I don't do the test knackered like my last 2k.

Claire lent me a skirt for the next 2k. I've worked out I can get away with rugby shorts underneath it, so I can have something with pockets. Still to need to bodge some pom poms. I think the excitement may be getting to me.

Daddy Darcy or Chips Muffins?

Quote of the moment:
"...from our correspondent Mark Darcy" - heard on Radio 4.

LOL. Cue mental image of Colin Firth in long black coat and big woolie scarf standing outside the houses of parliament with a microphone and a texan actress in her underwear sheltering from the snow inside his coat.


Come the f*** on, Bridget!

I then checked the BBC News site and arrived at an article written by Mohammed Allie!

I had a 3 hour session this morning on how to give a presentation. How exciting. I'm due for 3 hours of watching other peoples' presentations on Friday morning. Yay. On the plus side, Claire brought in homemade chocolate muffins today. Mmmm. I also went to an hour-long careers talk after lectures because it had a free buffet. Obviously the food was only available afterwards, to make sure the students stayed put. Mmmm, free food.

Stonedeadwithboredomhenge

Quote of the moment:
"Don't let him in! He insulted my mother!" - Drunk Steve last night. He admitted today that he had absolutely no idea what made him think that. Congrats. Round of applause.

Today was completely unenergetic. Didn't go to the gym. Didn't do my washing. Did do a token bit of weights stuff, made an attempt at my thank you letters (only 5 weeks after my birthday) and watched 7 episodes of Family Guy. Some of that was concurrent.

Made no progress with my bridge design, other than some more unworkable ideas. We haven't done enough maths etc yet to do anything interesting. It's simply supported beam (eg a Stonehenge arch) or a truss (the same, with the rocks replaced with a framework of straws).


Dull, dull, boring and dull

Eurgh. I found myself wishing for lectures today just as a reason to force myself out of the flat.

The Grim Rapper

Quote of the moment:
Amerike's coat of arms can be seen in the Lord Mayor's Chapel on College Green in Bristol as part of the Poyntz crest, a relative having married into that wealthy, land-owning family.

- BBC History Article on a new theory claiming America was named after a Bristol merchant, whose Welsh surname Ap Meurig had become mangled into Richark Amerike (much as Poines became Poyntz).

How rare! That appeared when I googled Poyntz and "coat of arms"... triggered by looking for the Van Mildert College one. I only noticed last night that the shield that Vince has had as his messenger picture for ages doesn't actually have swords on, but scythe blades...


SNK. SNK. SNK.

Met most of the rowing team in the union club tonight. The novice boat came 5th and the fresher boat (obvs meaning only novices in their 1st year) came 12th.

I returned to my flat about an hour and a half ago to discover that my room door was open and the lock was hanging off... apparently I left it unlocked when I nipped back in to dump my jacket before going out and one of Dai and Johnny's Welsh friends, merrily celebrating beating Australia, charitably slammed it shut. Unfortunately the actual moving lock part was out and when it hit the door frame the lock popped half off. D'oh!

Some crafty screwdriver work and application of the Mark 1 stamping device to straighten the backplate had it working again though, as well as sobering me up completely. I was so sober I did my stack of washing up. There's responsible, mature behaviour for you.

Little Miss Hobo

Quote of the moment:
"Will! Come into town with me! I'll buy you lunch..." - Paddy. I correctly sumrised he had his BOGOF BK Whopper Meal vouchers on him and was happy to oblige. Mmmm... free food :D

Claire met the K3 (and K9) boys while out last night and her flatmates went home without her. Since she lives (2+) miles away in Uni Hall and didn't fancy walking home alone she spent the night on Steve's floor. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, to be sure! Since they apparently went to bed around 6.30am she missed our tutor group meeting today (which lasted 2 hours and covered all the maths for our bridge design project (on our tutor's module) - unlucky) and when she got up around 2.30pm she dressed in Little James' t-shirt and jeans. Bearing in mind he's 6'2 and she's 5'7, they fit quite well! She then wore Steve's shoes home:


At least the jacket is hers!

Following last week's (poor attempt) at Winnie the Pooh, next week's Wednesday rowing social requires everyone, male and female, to dress as cheerleaders... Any suggestions on where to get pom-poms, other than burgling Alie Lee?

It IS Snowing

Quote of the moment:
"DO NOT TOUCH THE FEDERAL AGENT - L.A airport official to a woman who tried to pat a sniffer dog" - A wholesale theft from the BBC News Magazine page.

It's now dropped to sporadic little flakes, but about 5 minutes ago there were big cornflake sized ones. None of it's settling though, so I don't have high hopes for waking up to whiteness.

It's Snowing?

Quote of the moment:
~ ViolentPanic~ :: "Yey its snowing" - Paddy is perpetuating the goverment conspiracy.

I opened my blinds to check and there was only some dripping from the leaky gutter. However, a minute later they had someone on Red Dragon FM, the local Essex FM equivalent, saying the same. It's all lies, I tell you.

Will No-One Rid Me of This Turbulent Cat?

Quote of the moment:
Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed like rain on the mountain, like wind in the meadow. The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow. How did it come to this?

- Theoden, King of Rohan, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Or perhaps Mr Floppy Roberts, upon news breaking of the latest mishap at Felsted (via Quill media inc.). A crackdown on housemasters holding parties will no doubt be the consequence, but Mr Gwyther can be smug in his retirement from housemastership. They did happen in Elwyns, although strangely enough not for winning House Shout...

Went to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire tonight with Steve. It was quite impressive, really...

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

Apart from the music video-style Beauxbatons entry (and to a lesser degree the march of the Durmstrang contingent: Brrrr!) it was pretty slick. The Durmstrang galleon was classy, emerging and departing like a soviet submarine, especially coming in with the crows nest out of the water like a conning tower. The story was pretty much pared down to the tournament, with occasional snatches of library or classroom.

Snape had a classic comedy scene, whacking heads while supervising prep. David Tennant was sadly underused as Crouch Jr, but Brendan Gleeson was awesome as Moody. Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) was suprisingly well done (the make-up/costuming, not the acting, that's expected of Amon Goethe) and reminiscient of The Mummy.

Did/will anyone else notice the slight slip in Harry's accent near the end, when he lets a bit of scots in? I've annoyingly forgotten what he was saying at the time...

Other than that, Hermione is increasingly similar to my younger little sister Sarah, right down to sticking her chin out when annoyed. Not sure of her stance on wearing fur though.

Drowned Rats

Quote of the moment:
"Students?" barked the Archchancellor. "Yes, Master. You know? They're the thinner ones with the pale faces? Because we're a university? They come with the whole thing, like rats"

- Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures.

Aside from the rowing social shirts, which were ordered about 5 weeks ago and still haven't arrived, 2 weeks back on Thursday (or 12 days ago) our Novice Men's captain (James) took money for some novice squad shirts... he must have been plotting about it for a while, because they were given out in training today:


Red and Black (with white bits) are the uni colours for most stuff, so everything, including the lyrca competition leotards, are those colours...


Spanky crest


They're all the same on the back (hence the fast production, no doubt) apart from James (Captain) and his assistant Olly (Drill Sergeant)

How to Shop Like a Man

Quote of the moment:
"The requested URL was not found on this server..." - Podgy is missing (neither here nor here), presumed snatched by the Thought Police. I went to the extreme lengths of a comic strip to illustrate my theory.

In other news, Claire brought homemade flapjacks to our final lecture today. I had 4. This granted me "loved" status for appreciating her cooking. Lol. Might also have been to do with me losing abysmally in a Gair Rhydd Su Doku race with her. She's promised chocolate muffins next week. Woohoo!

I went hardcore shopping today, cycling to Tesco Extra armed with my CCF backpack:


How to shop like a real man: no quiche here...


There was a bag of apples that I omitted in my decorative unpacking effect and were lurking behind the Rice Krispies.

Just for starters, the cider (on offer, w00t!), excluding cans, weighed 10.5 kilograms... another 3.5 for the tins, 3 for the squash, 6 for the apple juice... all in in all it was about 35kg, plus a few bits (bread, eggs, salad(!) etc) for Steve. In exchange I was using Steve's bike (my back wheel needs spanners, it's so out of line it's lodged against the frame) which was set just a touch low for me... At least I worked out where the icy patch in the carpark was on the way in, by doing an awesome (unintentional) motocross-style slide round the corner it was on!

Pave Afghanistan and Put Up a Golf Course

Quote of the moment:


What really struck me about it was the obvious ability of the person who drew it. The picture doesn't seem particularly martial, but perhaps it's by a soldier nonetheless, just showing the real main features of life there.

Blogger picture uploading. After investigation it seems to create a linked thumbnail of one of 3 set sizes on your blog with a link to the full sized picture. Handy for putting up large pictures, especially since the lagest size of thumbnail fits the width of my post column exactly. However, for some reason the ratio (normally 3:4 or 4:3) isn't kept and the thumbnails become 308x408 or vice versa. How rare!

While using my test blog to work this out, I noticed my test blogroll was showing Harry had recently updated. It was in fact the updating of his blog post by 10 new golf-related comments that triggered it. It puts the private road construction person/bot to shame! A sample:

At 9:41 AM, golf putters said...
Hey, you have a great blog here! I'm definitely going to bookmark you!

I have a taylor made golf club driver site. It pretty much covers taylor made golf club driver related stuff.

Come and check it out if you get time :-)

TAILOR MADE. As in made by a TAILOR, not someone called TAYLOR.

A final and random addition to this piecemeal post: MIT proves that tinfoil helmets do the opposite of protecting you from government mind rays, as found on badallbad.blogspot.com. For once a random comment that seems to come from a human!

Welcome To My Underground Lair

Quote of the moment:
"How do they recycle toilet paper? Wouldn't it be all wet and dirty?" - Little James. No, recycled toilet paper is NOT made from used toilet paper.

CBA to go out again. Little James granted me the use of his room, so I camped in K3 playing on his Xbox, with provisions for toast'n'jam. Singleplayer Halo 2, then joined by Big James for Dead or Alive 3 and WRC racing. The fun increased with the arrival of Matt around 1, who provided pissed racing commentary.

Eventually bummed off home around 2.30 and randomly decided to take photos. CBA to tidy up first, although did make the bed. The floor's not really visible, but is reasonable apart from the heap of sports stuff and the unassembled shelves.


My desk, complete with cunningly placed towel rail


My pinboard (is lurking behind there somewhere)


My bed, with pr0 duvet cover and random hatch for fire escape from room 5


Faking it: could I be a bouncer? (haircut necessary, bouncer or not)


The rubber duck from Rubber Duck, because Prill thought it sounded cute

Yes. It seems I have issues with going to bed. I'm physically incapable of it. On the plus side, no test on Monday, so I don't have to get up til 12 even then!

Return of the Pictures

Quote of the moment:
"No food or drink allowed" - signs posted inside and outside the "drawing office", the room with all the turn-over tables with drawing boards on the bottom, like the DT classroom at Felsted but the tables are double the size...

Paddy ignored it in our session this afternoon and spilled Pepsi all over his table. Fortunately for him he didn't have anything important out at the time.

I did actually make it to everything today... I was even nearly on time for my first thing, my weekly tutor-group meeting. That actually counts as good, since only four out of eight turned up at all!

Stayed in since still not feeling 100%. After losing a protracted game of Age of Mythology (which I haven't played since coming here) I started an attempt to clear a bit of memory on my laptop by sticking my blog pictures that I salvaged from my Felsted account onto Blogger. Work in progress.

Dr Whom?

Quote of the moment:
BLEURGH.

Not feeling great. Spent another day curled up in bed. Couldn't get to sleep for ages last night, and kept being randomly semi-awake, aware of stuff but at the same time still asleep. Was very weird. Tongue's lovely and furry. Face was weirdly blotchy when I eventually got up. Did the glass test, just for the hell of it, but it was inconclusive.

Went to see the Christmas lights being turned on with K3, since the "civic centre" is in the same "park" as the main uni building, 5 minutes away, and "Dr Who and Rose" were doing the honours. That was as far as I got from my flat today, since I wasn't really up for circuits.



Has David Tennant ever been a "Featured Fittie" on Prill's blog?

These Romans Are Crazy!

Quote of the moment:
Will says: some midgets tried to start a fight with me
Will says: and a weird female bouncer told me off
Will says: and I was like wtf?!
Will says: 4 starting on one... just because they're all 5'6!!
Will says: sigh.
Will says: heh
Will says: spent rest of night kind of wishing I could have had a big asterix style brawl
Will says: with me as t3h obelix0r
Will says: smacking some puny roman heads together

If only. Would have been class. Rather pants night after that, was rapidly sobered up and adrenaline buzzed. All I did was fend them off when they were jumping manically around hugging each other... wasn't my fault they fell over, although it was very funny...

Dance like no one's watching...

Quote of the moment:
Dance like no one's watching, grin like you're hammered, fall over like you meant to...

I've made myself a little mantra. Woohoo! Ah yes, you have to love Shipwrecked... £1 all bottles... had 4 when I arrived to attempt to catch up with the others who'd been drinking while I was having fun at circuit training. Played stuck-in-the-mud after the hour of pain though, since there was no-one knowledgeable there to take charge of core strength. I think it should become a club tradition. When we go to meets/regattas, when other unis are having serious warm-ups, we could run around playing stuck-in-the-mud. It'd be awesome.

There's a small meet next weekend, but the 8-boat's worth competing in it managed to ram the novice girls 8-boat training at the weekend... LOL. Apparently the novice men's boat has some slight damage around the bow, but only enough to impede the hydrodynamics a bit, not like the hole in the other one!

Oh yeah: custard wrestling for cash in Liquid tonight (Shipwrecked is the name of the Tuesday student night)... competitive undressing too, one girl in the final had her top off so the other one followed suit... then halfway through them splashing around on-stage in a paddling pool of custard, a bra flew into the audience... LOL. She did win £100, so maybe that'll help make up for the awesome "I did WHAT last night" moment she's in for!

No lectures tomorrow today. Hurrah! Might go to gym in the afternoon if I CBA. Other than that, I need to work on my Winnie the Pooh costume...

Aggressive Redecoration

Quote of the moment:
w: may I ask why you become a goths?
b: yes!
...
b: go on then.
w: oh, sorry. why have you become a goths?
b: because I depressed about not having pie!

- new Weebl & Bob: Gothic. Go watch, it's the canine's testicles.

I attempted to tidy my room this evening. I'm quite impressed with the results. Building on last night's careful rearrangement of my cupboard and drawers to accomodate the washing I finally did, I cleared the shelf above my bed so that I can actually put my alarm clock and reading light on it, sorted my (broken, frontless) underbed drawer so it now contains my (large ccf) backpack, assorted bike accesories and other stuff that was filling the floor under my desk, filed the paperwork on my desk and am now attempting to pack away the various bits of gadetry that go with my laptop and are currently unneccesary. I also hoovered for the first time since arriving. I give it til Thursday morning to return to normal.

As a minor diversion, Johnny, Dai and I had a waterfight with the girls in K2, using waterbottles with "sports tops". Twas mostly firing through the holes in our doors where the peephole glass is missing. We then "stormed the front" and took up positions around their door before enticing them out for a soaking. Mwahaha. We also knocked their stack of tins for recycling off their kitchen window and sprayed them when they came to investigate the noise. They started it, we just beat, nay, p0wned them at their own game...

Known Unto God

Quote of the moment:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Laurence Binyon, For the Fallen.


From BBC News "In Pictures"

SAS beret. Too young for the Falklands or the first Gulf War. Perhaps the helicopter crash at the start of the second.

Their Name Liveth For Evermore

Quote of the moment:

In Memoriam
Private D Sutherland - Killed in Action in the German
trench May 16th, and the others who died.

So you were David's father,
and he was your only son,
And the new-cut peats are rotting
And the work is left undone
Because of an old man weeping,
Just an old man in pain,
For David, his son David,
That will not come again.

Oh, the letters that he wrote you,
And I can see them still,
Not a word of the fighting
But just the sheep on the hill
And how you should get the crops in
Ere the year gets stormier,
And the Boches have got his body,
And I was his officer.

You were only Davids father,
But I had 50 sons
When we went up in the evening
Under the arch of the guns,
And we came back at twilight -
O God! I heard them call,
To me for help and pity
That could not help at all.

Oh, never will I forget you,
My men that trusted me,
More my sons than your father's,
For they could only see
The helpless little babies
And the young men in their pride.
They could not see you dying,
And hold you while you died.

Happy and young and gallant,
They saw their first-born go,
But not the strong limbs broken
And the beautiful men brought low,
The piteous writhing bodies,
They screamed 'Don't leave me, sir,'
For they were only your fathers
But I was your officer.

If I manage to wake up in the morning, which is by no means guaranteed, I'll be going to the first and foremost of my three religious services of the year.

Went to the gym today to try and make up for this week. Ate almost all of the junk food that my rents bought me when they visited, didn't go to the gym because of pulled muscle in my leg. My bad. The suggested gym program has changed from 3 sets of 10 minutes with 10 minute breaks to a solid half hour. Apparently it'll "build our mental toughness". Not convinced. Apparently I should have broken a pain barrier somewhere in the middle 10 minutes, but it never really kicked in. 7678 metres at the end, which meant I passed 5k in 19:53, in the midst of the times listed on the gym "leaderboard" for just the 5k. Mwahaha. I suspect I may be more of a 5k than a 2k race person.

Escort LAN

Quote of the moment:
"We can connect to anyone else with an Xbox in Senghennydd Court." - Little James.

8 players is the most achieved so far, with 5 on two machines in K3 and 3 more upstairs in K9. We also discovered two other people online earlier when we first tested it out. Awesome stuff.

P.S. Escort = Senghennydd Court, aka the Senghetto... boom boom... the equivalent cheap shared non en-suite accomodation at Talybont North is known as the Talybronx.

You have been warned. I'll be a gun-toting rapper soon.

Go Stevey Matt...

Quote of the moment:
"Will... I'm really hammered... I'm going home..."

That was the birthday boy, just before midnight. We'd been out since half ten. Admittedly he'd had 8 shots of flaming sambuca in the previous half hour, but still, a poor showing! He just yelled that in my ear and ran for the door... oh dear! Never mind, stayed out anyway, along with the 15 or so other people who he'd summoned out for the night (flatmates, course-mates, school-mates etc)... It was pretty impressive really! Despite a couple of other losses there were still 12 of us left to come home at 2...

His door was duly banged on and found to be open, so one of his school-mates jumped into bed next to him and I took pictures on his (Matt's) camera. LOL. Awesome. There's one where he's actually cradling his head on this guy's shoulder, it's ace.

Almost as ace as circuits tonight... while the others were drinking, myself and Ruth managed the slightly damp ride and were rewarded with a special program... Stuck-in-the-mud, a netball tournament, dodgeball (in which I caught the novice men's captain a beauty on the ear which he was rubbing for the next half an hour) and more stuck-in-the-mud. Brilliant, but still knackering!

The Empty Feeling in the Pit of my Stomach

Quote of the moment:
Come on in
I’ve gotta tell you what a state I’m in
I’ve gotta tell you in my loudest tones
That I started looking for a warning sign

When the truth is, I miss you
Yeah the truth is, that I miss you so
And I’m tired I should not have let you go

- Coldplay, Warning Sign.

Vaguely appropriate, although who did the letting go is debatable.

Decidedly tipsy, had a reasonable time in Rubber Duck, could have pulled but declined (she was so hammered she nearly pulled me over, so it wouldn't have been fair anyway). Went into "the duck" and necked a fair amount to try and eliminate the kind of empty missing-you feeling. Tis weird. Was only 2 weeks, but I did actually miss the pulling of funny faces, the "who me?" shrugs and other daft stuff she does. Sigh. Doubt it would be a great idea to email/text/whatever and say so though. Ah dear.

Saw her earlier at the normal pub/bar rowing social meeting, talked to her a little bit even, but just in a "I'm perfectly fine, are you?" kind of way... then she went home cos her mate backed out due to work placement in the morning (apparently) when the decidedly small band (seniors racing at the weekend so no theme so loads of novices cba) headed to Rubber Duck. Hmmm. Over use of decidedly.

Miss the "I'm doing something random" text messages too, and the goodnight ones, and the other ones. In fact, just all of them. I think it was Saturday that did it really... wandering around, chatting random bollocks, going to the cinema, exchanging stupid looks throughout the film, etc etc...

Sigh. I'm drunk. In case you hadn't noticed, I miss her. Night.

Foot In Mouth Disease

Quote of the moment:
Mates then?

Serves me right for getting all over-excited about it... kind of expected it to happen, but was hoping it would all turn out fine. Silly me.

I wasn't planning on throwing myself into a "relationship" straight away either, but perhaps I'm just more suggestible. Tis a shame really, that we weren't just mates to begin with, since it'd be cool but slightly odd. Door not entirely shut, just opened as far as it will for the conceivable future, which shouldn't be one of straw-clutching. Wants to get settled, work out her real close friends here (and not be restricted in doing so) before getting into anything serious. Fair play, and unfaultable honesty.

No More Emo-Messenger

Quote of the moment:
"GABORA!" - the first thing I said (to Prill m8) after getting onto Messenger on my laptop for the first time in a year.

I think it was probably installing the newest one that made the difference. It didn't work still, but I was on it while playing Halo 2 in K3 and I thought I'd give it another go when I came back. The error message had changed from saying I was behind a firewall to telling me I couldn't connect from behind a firewall via proxy server. I didn't want to! So I went into tools, connections etc and disabled connecting via proxy server (by removing a tick in a box). Hey presto, it worked!

Circuits tonight wasn't quite so awesome. A new format means a break in the middle (good) but running from side to side in the hall, like doing a bleep test (bad). Especially when I still had a pulled something-near-my-bad-knee from not stretching properly on Sunday. Silly me. Anyway, I preferred running laps around the outside. The new version has twice as many exercises as running slots, up from one to one. I'm undecided about that. Less cardiovascular but more strength stuff... meh.

Anyway, I ended up sitting in my own little space at the end just doing situps, pressups, bunny hops etc for a minute and a half each instead of a minute, to balance out the running that I'd abandoned.

Good news: My BMI (as per my clothed and shod weight on Saturday) is 25.7... So I'm lingering on the border of being officially not fat. Hurrah!

Go Stevey, It's Your Birthday

Quote of the moment:
"Oh no! He's got away again! Wait, I seem him! Quick, he's nearly at the bar!"

The poor boy (Steve) was so hammered that he didn't wake up when Rhodri blew a whistle in his ear. He just put his head up, then dropped it back onto his pillow like a sack of cement. It was so awesome we did it again and videoed it.

By that point he'd already lost an eyebrow and gained a large amount of facial artwork, but that was all before I arrived. Since her flatmates departed in a taxi shortly before she emerged from Creation, where they and we had been, I walked Rowena back to Allensbank House... which is the furthest from the city centre/Senghennydd Court/me. It's literally 5 minutes from Creation to our gates, about 30 to their door. Slightly faster on the way back since it was only me (and I don't wear heels).

Got email address and hence surname (finally!). Vice versa too, but I just said I'd email her so she wouldn't have to try and spell it. Lol.

Am off to bed now. First lecture at 10am, finish at 4pm. She doesn't have anything all day and she's not even an arts student. S'not fair :(

Name The Films...

Quotes of the moment:
I feel the need - the need for speed!

Say "hello" to my little friend!

You had me at "hello."

You can't handle the truth!

I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse.

Preferably without reference to the AFI Top 100 Film Quotes. Personally I'd have included:

"Oh Captain My Captain"

"I'm Spartacus"

"My Name is Maximus Decimus Meridius..." etc

"I shouldn't have told you that"

"If he pulls a knife you a gun, if he puts one of yours in the hospital you put one of his in the morgue"

"You may take our lives..." etc

and

"You have bled with Wallace, now bleed with me"

You can name those films too, if you want. Please note the last is not Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

While I'm here, Film Scores should be won by Last of the Mohicans.

Achtung Weir!

Quote of the moment:
"Bow pair, from backstops, row... No, ROW. BLOODY ROW!"

Went out in the boat today for the first time in at least 2 weeks. Was on the bow side again, which was fine, unlike the last time. Boat was "bow rigged" meaning the normal sides were swapped, which didn't help Olly, the vice captain, in his first attempt at coxing... we came a little close to going over the weir (see above) at the start, stuck the bow in the bank turning around and went close to the bank too early at the landing stage and ended up stuck with the oars in some reeds. Weather was good though!

Stayed behind to do some ergos and James and Olly came up to see one of the senior ladies who was in there too. They were suprised to find me doing a second 2k in 24 hours... until I told them I'd already done one with a ten minute break after. I did a third as well. Reasonable times too: 7.27, 7.25 (yup - I got faster!) and 7.38, compared to a measly stand-alone 7.15 in the test.

Met "someone" (aka Rowena - as in Ivanhoe). Toured around the shopping area, found out she has an xbox. How awesome. A chick with a console. Not unheard of, obviously, but I haven't met one til now. Went to see Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Cracking stuff :D

Went out to watch the fireworks by the castle from across the river (ie without paying) with Little James, the only one of K3 still here. Came back, played Halo 2, came back to my flat/room to read Going Postal. Big up the Pratchett massive. I agreed to go to the gym with him at 11 tomorrow. Am only 10 minutes over the recommended hour of ergos for this week, after all. I can do so much better than that!

P.S. Wales 3-41 New Zealand. Saw the crowds before and after. LOL.

Karma

Quote of the moment:
On...A...Roll. - me.

The yin and the yang? Boasting's bad for you? Anything I say comes back and bites me in the arse?

For whichever reason I got paid back somewhat for that extended self glorification. Got so knackered at circuits last night that didn't go do drawing afterwards, as I meant to. Circuits plus ergos on Wednesday combined to give me a stiff arse, plus the resistance stuff on my weak leg made that twinge all day. Failed to get out of bed early either, so had severe issues with my drawing. Attempted to do a Rolf Harris speedy "Can-You-See-What-It-Is-Yet?" version, but failed due to a miscalculation in scaling the dimensions (it was unhandily slightly too big to fit as 1:100, so I went with 8:1000). I then had to start again since I'd made such a mess, and as a result will have to slip it under the lecturers door by Monday. Tsk tsk, old habits die hard, etc. Also missed lunch/supper as a result, eating one apple all day.

Got back to my flat at 17.30 to find I'd locked myself out of my room due to my STILL unfixed lock. Had to wait in reception for a student warden to open it for so long that I only managed to leave for the rowing club at about 17.53... 3 miles and about 12 minutes later, I fell through the door of the club covered in mud from the waist down. Shortest way = path beside river. Path beside river = very muddy. D'oh!

Obviously in peak physical condition at this point. Got on ergo, did my 2k test, tried to keep at my target split of 1m45s per 500m, which with start and finish sprints would be under 7 minutes. Kept it up til about half way, then started dropping gradually off the pace... by the end I was managing about 1.55, which only improved to 1.45 for the final sprint. Bah. Got 7m15s in the end. 8 seconds better than my previous test time, but I've done better in the gym. Apparently the amount of time I've spent in the gym is actually well above average, so they were especially disappointed with me. Sigh.

On the plus side (fingers crossed no bad effects) I did collect my mail when forced to go to reception which included a belated monetary gift, I have plenty of scope for an impressive score next time which, since I should have taken the test a week ago, will be this weekend or next, and I'm meeting someone tomorrow afternoonish to go to the cinema or suchlike.

To balance that out a bit, I've got rowing at 11.30am tomorrow, which will probably be ergos since the river's still high. Bums. Or maybe my chance to shine? But probably bums.

Circuit Critique

Quote of the moment:
"If you didn't go to the gym on Tuesday beacuse circuits was cancelled, you should be ashamed." - Rowing James.

Went Monday and Wednesday, but apparently I should be doing that anyway! Easily on course to reach 60 minutes of ergo time this week, but "that's the minimum".

Wank0rs :p

Happy Birthday Podge M8

Quote of the moment:
a) you forgot HAPPY BIRTHDAY KOEL

B) I AHTE BEING DRUNK

c) get on msn bitchface

TWAS AN AWESDOME BURTHDAY

Doesn't it sound like she had fun?

Rabbit's Lucky Day

Quote of the moment:
Went to see the regional "Army Recruitment Adviser (Officers)" who was at his termly visit to the university careers centre. Wore the suit, tie, silver cufflinks, scholar's tie, the works. I was pretty much just transferring from the East Anglia one to here, but I still got a few questions just for good measure. Apparently I was the first person in a week to know Charles Clarke was home secretary and the only applicant he's ever met who knew that the Iraqi Kurds are actually Sunni, thus the balance of power in Iraq is held by the Shi'ite Arabs and Sunni Kurds, replacing the Sunni Arabs (eg Saddam Hussein). W00tage for me.

More importantly, as of this summer ACL injuries (such as mine) are no longer grounds for automatic medical unfitness for service, so if I reapply this year (or any time until the maximum age of 28) I will be eligible for normal entry, without the need for an appeal, provided I can pass the fitness assesments and have a letter declaring complete recovery from my surgeon.

GABORA!

W00t! Yes, I was very excited. VERY VERY VERY. GABORA AGAIN! That means I go from probable rejection to probable acceptance, unless I muck up my knee further or somehow mess up my commisions board tests. If only I'd known that at the start of term, I might be a TASO (Territorial Army Sponsored Officer) in the OTC by now.

D'oh!

Nevermind, I'm going to see if I can join late anyway. Mwahahah!

In other news: I was so happy afterwards that I went to the gym with Steve (the rowing runt) for a fair while. I was recognised again by Inger Nag, who yelled "POYNTZ!" at me across the gym, I felt power mad when telling Steve (who has been to TWO inductions because they didn't record his first in the computer) how to use stuff and I did a 2k ergo (poo due to stomach cramp) and 2 ten minute sets at the end. We were going to leave after the first but I was riding the adrenaline wave and would have done a third if possible. As it was I beat my distance for the first one, 2532 to 2481. Ownage.

I love the spanky new machines in the gym where you can get a "ghost" (aka a "paceboat") going along next to "your boat" which is based on a previous time you can select from the most recent 50, which are stored in the memory. It's like playing timetrial on Mario Kart, except sweatier. Thanks to that I kept my split time (how long to do 500m) below 2 minutes for the whole of the second one and downed my stroke rate to only 27 strokes per minute (up to 29 for the last 2 mins, because of sprinting at the end). That's down from about 34 and I did better, because I was getting the hang of the slow powerful stroke thing, as I need to, being a lack-of-finesse "engine room" (central four) candidate (based on size, mainly. Smaller people need awesome technique because that's more important at the bow and stern than power).

I was indeed on a roll. That roll continued into the evening, because since there was no rowing pub meeting due to the big night last night my young acquaintance + mates came to the Taf (the union pub) instead, which happened to be where I was. Cha-ching. Cue use of conversational skills - but I was on a roll. NP's mate, NP's. Went into Rubber Duck a while later, doo-doo-doo-di-doo, even managed to catch another free wristband (like the one I got in on tonight) but I obviously was a gentleman and gave it away. Well, at least I know where to go next wednesday :D

To top off the night's entertainment, upon returning home I got yelled at out of an upstairs window by Sian, one of the neighbours I know. Went up, found Matt from K3 and another Sian in there. Very confusing. When Matt and I returned downstairs I went to check if Steve had returned from Rubber Duck ok without me (I walked milady the first part of the way home when she left, then bummed straight back here without him) and we opened the door to their flat to see "Little James" (the tall skinny one, resembles a cross between Jimmy and Jim) curled up and passed out in the corridor outside his room. Apparently he'd lost his room key, but had said not to call security to let him in in case he barfed on them. LOL.

Pictures of that (that I took with Matt's camera) soon, hopefully.

Slightly drunk and extremely verbose Will, out.

[Edit 3:14am - I just checked my mark for my first drawing on Blackboard. Average was 13.9 out of 20. I got 18. On...A...Roll.]

"Greenpeace fined for reef damage"

Quote of the moment:
Their flagship Rainbow Warrior II ran aground at Tubbataha Reef Marine Park, in the Sula Sea, 650km (400 miles) south-east of Manila.

Greenpeace agreed to pay the fine, but blamed the accident on outdated maps provided by the Philippines government.

"The chart indicated we were a mile and a half" from the coral reef when the ship ran around, regional Greenpeace official Red Constantino told AFP news agency.

LOL. Oh, the irony. Imagine if a bottom-trawler had run into the reef. Would Greenpeace have been sympathetic to the fishing company protesting about dodgy charts? Methinks not.

I Ain't Fraid Of No Ghosts

Quote of the moment:
It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight you see a sight that almost stops your heart
You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes,
You’re paralyzed

- Michael Jackson, Thriller.

Last song of the night at Metro's, "the stronghold of the alternative scene here in Cardiff". It was pretty cool, I must admit. The K3 boys bottled out of going with me, partly because it was raining and partly because they didn't wear costumes (even the two out of four who had them). Pussies. Had they gone on my little wander around the city center trying to find it, in the rain, in a cape and horns, with a trident, they would have been rewarded with a 20 minute wait just to make them appreciate the rain some more.

Once entry was gained however, there was ample compensation in the form of DOUBLE VODKA AND COKE FOR 99P. Yup. Uhuh. Absolutely awesome. I didn't actually have that many, since I didn't want to get too lairy/leery, but still. 99p, in a blue plastic cup that glows under the UV lights. Awesome.

The music was pretty cool, ranging from Greenday, Blink 182 and QUOTSA, through the Killers and the Kaiser Chiefs, through a couple of darker more gothesque songs to the cheese classics like the Ghostbusters theme and Thriller. It was Halloween, after all.

The company was acceptable too... A certain young lady, her flatmates and another handful from her block. Cat costume. Miaow.

Thank'ee

Quote of the moment:
"Happy Birthday"

Thank'ee Prill matey (and Jimmy matey) for: "The Curious Incident of the WMD in Iraq"

Twas very good. I got so distracted by reading it (can be ready in 45 minutes) that I forgot to say thank'ee. So thank'ee.

Tears Stream... Down Your Face...

Quote of the moment:
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

- Coldplay, Fix You. Best Coldplay song ever. The rest of the album's ok, but this is... it's like listening to "Wake Me Up When September Ends" before it was released as a single and overhyped and overplayed. Even that hasn't stopped me loving Fix You yet.

Took Sarah to school to get her bus to the airport for the Malta netball tour, at 3am (4am BST). Maybe staying up til then playing ISS 98 wasn't such a good plan.

Rents dropped me and Vicky off at the station today in tome for the 2 o'clock to Liverpool Street. Vicky was crying and kept saying she didn't want to go back! We went together as far as London, then split to go our seperate ways on the Tube. Amazing how she didn't cry at leaving me! I scared someone into hurrying to the other end of the tube carriage when I took my backpack off and started opening the top. Lol. How else am I supposed to take my washing back with me!?

Been doing my best for rowing club communication this weekend via text message. Tonight, however, I'm staying in with my lovely "Environmental Fluid Mechanics" notes. Argh. 9am tests. We hatesss them we doesss.

Stop All The Clocks

Quote of the moment:
"Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good."

- W H Smith Auden.

The clocks have gone back. I'm waiting until 2.30am (which used to be 3.30am) to take Sarah into school to get the bus to the airport for her Malta netball tour. My dad had his maps spread out on the table to tell her about it. Lol. I'm sure he'd love to go back, but despite his British birth certificate (my grandpa was a Royal Marine) he's still liable for national service there. I wonder if that's expired yet?! Perhaps they'll call up Sarah instead...

Erm...?

Quote of the moment:
N/A

Amazingly dull day. Waiting for Sarah to land at Stansted in about half an hour's time. Will probs go in the car to pick her up, just because there's nothing to do here (and she'll probably object to having to tell the same stories twice).

The Fake Sound Of Progress

Quote of the moment:
"A new government has been announced in southern Sudan." - BBC News.

Hurrah for progress.

Am now at home. My fluid mechanics lecture finished on time for the first time this term, allowing me to scurry out at 4pm as asked for by the parents, but various accidents still made for a 4 1/2 hour trip home (instead of about 3). I slept through most of it, so no worries! Vicky was collected from the station about 10.30pm, so there's only Sarah's return from Dublin tomorrow to complete the family reunion.

Oh... er... yay.

:p

Reasons Today Was Awesome

Quote of the moment:
"Would you like my number?" - someone who understands my lack of speaking ability.

1. I turned up to rowing expecting a 5k, only to do a 1k plus evil circuits. Mmmm, medicine balls, my favourite.

2. Met my parents afterwards at Tesco Extra (which is near and on the way to/from the rowing club) and got my shopping done. Even after a £10 phone top-up I hadn't neared Vicky's demands given on Tuesday when they visited her, so I added a litre of Smirnoff. Well, it was £2.50 off.

3. Rents took me on tour of Cardiff Bay in search of Argos, so I wouldn't have to lug my shelves for my overflowing room back from the one in town. Failed, so went to the one in town and I lugged them back anyway.

4. Using the new inner tyre, with working valve (part of the Tesco shopping list) my Dad fixed my bike. I was just standing by and holding stuff occasionally.

5. I went to "Rubber Duck", the regular Wednesday club night, dominated by sports clubs. The rowing people were there, merry as ever. There are 3 reasons this was particularly awesome:

• i) I caught a Rubber Duck (yes, as in a mini bath one) with a VIP free entrance etc pass for next week's "Duck" attatched. Lineout skills demonstrated.
  


• ii) I also caught a Rubber Duck T-shirt. Got a hand to it, as did 3 other guys. Ripped and rolled like a pro, but it was a size "9-11"... kids/womens, I have no idea. I donated it to Steve's girlfriend (visiting from Liverpool) because it fitted her.
  


• iii) I spent the last 2 hours of the night in the company of a certain novice women's squad member, gradually being robbed of my collection of green glow bracelet things (it was a Traffic Light night). Number, name, halls, course, next training & social she's at, plus... filled the rest of the time.

No Rain, No Pain

Quote of the moment:
Well it's been a while hasn't it?

How are you doing? Have you done something different with your hair?



IT LOOKS CRAP!!!

"New post" emails from Weebl (which are merely the website notice reproduced) are almost as good as The Mighty Ten, which is apparently a new feature. The proof is displayed below:

"I like my women like I like my coffee – black, imported from the 3rd world, and at an exploitedly(sic) low price."

I'm willing to forgive the failed attempt at "exploitatively" for that.

In other news, my rents are coming to see me tomorrow, meeting me in Tesco Extra carpark (yeah baby!) after my rowing appointment. I'm unlikely to go rowing due to the overly high river (funny thing, it rains lots in Cardiff. Wales + Atlantic Ocean. Good combo) but I'll be doing a 5k "ergo". Ergo is slang for session on the rowing machine, aka an "ergometer". Tis only one version of an ergometer, which is a machine desinged to test muscular performance, but that's why it's called slang.

But I digress. A 5k ergo indeed, which should be great fun. I estimate around 20 minutes, but it'll probably be more once the "I feel dead, can I have a break?" factor kicks in. On the plus side, it'll make my next 2k seem fun.

Unrelated but also positive: my rents concurred that it was daft for me to go home a day after seeing them, especially because they're staying the night at my granny's nearby and going home the same day as me. So I've scored a free ride home. Hurrah!

P.S. I saw Dougie coming out of the union when in the ticket queue at lunchtime. He looked slightly less emaciated, which was shocking. That makes 3 so far: Paddy (obviously), Dougie and Inger Nag, from Vicky's year, who I spoke to half way around a pub crawl when slightly merry. Plus Anthony, of course.

An Equation For Comedy?

Quote of the moment:
"You seem like a nice, polite crowd, so I think I'll talk about rape." - Lloyd Lambeth.

Went to the BBC New Comedy Awards semifinals tonight. It was supposedly a Civil Engineering Society social, but basically involved the secretary getting an allocation of the free but guest-listed tickets and us meeting outside to get in.

Some went down better than others, there was a mix of storytellers, punchliners and audience interaction. My personal favourite was Lloyd Lambeth, who, according to the CV Google just gave me is the "regular compere for Warwick University's Comedy society". Yes Rob m8, you probably told us so a year ago.

The first semi was, however, won by Sarah Millican, who did a routine based on getting divorced. It had more of a continuous mutter of laughter than loud outbursts, but was funny in a painful "The Office"-like manner.

Test this morning wasn't great. Estimate around half marks. Couldn't get the intergration by parts to reach an end point, couldn't get started on another question. Both worth 10 marks out of 50. Sigh. Also one earlier question was far too easy. 4 marks for one step. I checked it against my copy of "A Calculus Refresher" though, so maybe it was a deliberate gift. Without that booklet and my resit notes I'd be bummed on pure maths, because the "lectures" are a crook of... poop.

We get notes with all the formulae and working removed, plus both rotating lecturers talk faster than Sheribum. One of them has a thick accent too, but it doesn't make much difference because as a non-multitasking male (like 90% of the audience) I spend my whole time frantically copying and don't have time to listen to the explanation. Without the explanation the notes are pretty useless anyway, since they explain things the same crap way as the incomprehensible A level text books.

On the plus side, my Dynamics lecturer is Anthony Huang's father, or at least relative of some sort. He has the posture, the walk, the talk, the glasses, the hair, the timidity and the suit which hangs off him in bags. In my last lecture with him I gleaned absolutely nothing from what he was saying, but his notes are good so I don't really care. I just have to concentrate on not remembering Vince's birthday, following Anthony as he drunkenly searched for Soho and "some girls".

Mmmm... Rice Krispies...

Quote of the moment:
"Mmmm... Rice Krispies..."

I'm now officially labelled a Rice Krispie fanatic. I sat in the "discussion room" by the library dreaming of them and making Homer-esque "Mmmmm" noises. My own fault for not getting up fast enough to have breakfast before going to revise with Richard and a couple of other people. Didn't get to eat until 6pm. I only got up at 2.30pm, but that's still obscene, especially when I was doing pure maths for most of that time.

I couldn't remember half the stuff but I still managed to explain intergration by parts to 3 people who did it half as long ago as I did. Hurrah!

In summary, a totally dull day. Going to attempt to do some weights now, for the first time since I got here, since the bruise on my spine from falling into a radiator the second night I was here is completely gone and the niggling pain has nearly gone. I wasn't too concerned, since the same's happened at least twice with my neck and it's cleared up after a while, but it's still annoying.

This post: 2/10. Mildy informative and devoid of entertainment.

The Old Man And The Sea

Quote of the moment:
"3 minutes and 23 seconds."

That was the time for my slightly altered version of "The Project" - no VK or Smirnoff Red, so Smirnoff Black, plus out of Strongbow -> both pints being Carling instead. Still, I did it in under 3 and a half minutes quite easily, with asides to the guys who were videoing me on their mobiles. That makes me think the slightly addled rowing guy meant 4 minutes average and Lewis managed 1 and a half. Hmmm. If not, I'm A) disappointed and B) well under the record. Oh, and C) reasonably well hammered. I didn't chunder afterwards either, although I did have to burp repeatedly to alleviate the intense pressure on my stomach.

I went a slightly different way home to K3, resulting in me waiting for them oustide their door. Rhodri got in, but Steve and "Little James" (as supposed to "Big James", who's on a Scouts and Guides camping weekend trying desperately to pull) were stuck outside while I waited by their door. After about half an hour of them circling the building and me dodging the view of the security patrols by hiding in the stairwell, they tried to get in and I jumped in behind them. This was after me tackling Steve and pinning him to the ground oustide (while my flatmate +friends walked past, returning from the same bar/club we'd been in. Lol. He then ran into the kitchen and grabbed a fork, which he proceeded to try and stab me in the arm with. Cue large graze. Ouch.

He then grabbed a rather sharp cooking knife, which, despite my swaying posture, I removed with a swipe of the K3 flat broom, followed by a twist of the wrist. Honestly. They though I was drunk! Anyway, I ended up going home with his knife, his fork and the K3 broom, which are all in my room at the moment. I would have given them back but Steve refused to say goodnight from within his locked door, unlike the other two (Rhodri and Little James). The other two occupants weren't present, due to scouting, as explained, and going back to Caerphilly for the weekend.

I'm old, and Cardiff's on the coast. You can hear the seagulls when you wake up in the morning. Hence the title. Sigh.

October 22nd

Quote of the moment:
"He enlisted when he was 15 and landed in Normandy on D-Day, which I think is quite cool." - Emma, my neighbour from K2 who bought me a birthday drink, when I asked when her dad was in the army. Her DAD. Who is EIGHTY ONE. Her mum's 47. That's 34 years younger than her husband and only 29 older than her daughter. Emma's dad's SIXTY THREE years older than her.

Stops me feeling old, that does :D

The underpass by the gate into Senghennydd Court has flooded! W00t! Fortunately the pavement on one side is raised up high enough to still be easily clear of the surface, but there was a black BMW stuck there which had stopped at the lights. LOL.

Steve came up with my social shirt name:

"The White Rabbit"

That's as in "I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date...". He's not even in my department, he just waits at least 5 minutes every time he rings to collect me before going to training/rowing/night out/anything at all. Lol again.