So my dissertation is gone.
But still I can't sleep.
No idea why.
However, I using all this extra awake time to do something useful - well one burst of extra awake time, the rest is for reading Harry Potter.
I was lying awake staring at the ceiling, then the wall, then the other wall - not really one for lying still when i can't sleep - and i start coming up with limericks to amuse my still active brain.
I suggested a while ago that my dissertation's acknowledgements may take limerick form (in the end they didn't because i was too busy writing sensible words to be lyrical) but i managed to find some words that rhymed well, so some people got a limerick. (The actual acknowledgements thank people properly, this is just limeicky nonsense)
The first three are from late night, November 27th, the other three i just put together now - under the influence of a head injury that i sustained this afternoon.
The rhyme on the last ones a little tricky, so best of luck reading them.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements of my dissertation
- a source of continued frustration,
With these peoples persistence,
Proof reads and assistance,
It’s finally reached publication.
There was an old fellow called Jim,
Who needed to learn how to swim,
Coz his greatest of wishes,
Was studying fishes;
No water-logged corpse’s for him.
A message is hidden herein,
For our Canadian Cutey Shirin,
Her accents are hazy,
But we missed her like crazy,
In our post-presentation drinkin’
Joana, who de-serves a mention,
Proof reading with best of intention,
I take criticism poorly,
And reacted quite sorely,
(I weren’t really paying attention.)
To Alex who proof read most quickly,
His notes I responded to thickly,
Those words irritate me,
Tho’ they seek to placate me,
Once calmed, I was editing slickly.
Chris, whose proof read was quite thorough,
Whose grammar caused many brow furrow,
His battery ran out,
“You’ll do fine without”
Only the four then, from Market Har-bourgh.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
Last Legs
I'm feeling a little spookified at the moment.
Turns out I've been having an unintentional David Duchovny day.
Loads of Californication. Watching him be a heavy drinking, womanising, writer; it really gives me something to aspire to, you know?
I had a bunch of episodes stored up and as I had little else to do today, (more on that later probably), I decided to watch my way through them.
Then after tea, an episode of the X-Files comes on. This is what spooked me. It's this village full of people eating brains of people that don't fit in.
Now I'm left on my own in the house with a pair of dogs that shake like crazy (because they do) and they are keeping an eye on the door because obviously something between the living room and the edge of their hearing somewhere down the road is making some noises. It's this uncertainty that gives me the willies. When the dogs keep (and i mean keep because they were doing it a second ago) keep looking for something I can't see, I'm fairly sure that they are getting ready for the axe wielding, big mask wearing, brain eater to jump out.
Cleverly I have a plan. The coffee table has a glass top, or there's a bottle on the bookcase that's almost empty. Granted the bottle's still got a little of some pretty expensive stuff in and is quite light - I'm sure I'd get loads more power behind a 1m by 50cm sheet of glass, even if it would be harder to wield.
Still I'll see what instinct does to me, I could have the power of some kind of man-tiger in me just waiting to be called upon.
As anyone who has read more than one of these knows, my dissertation is due pretty soon. Good news is that I have indeed written more than the 7500 word minimum, but less than the 10,000 word maximum. So I've handed my crazy mutant baby over to my charming proof readers, who all of course have real lives and so are very kind to do this. The difficulty with the shape that I have at the moment is that it's not like every other project. I ain't researching anything. It's a making project. So, it would be alot easier to follow if I wrote it completely chronologically, but then again, maybe the issue is because I'm not quite smart enough to do anything the way I'm told. I'm not saying it's a bad 50-something pages, just that it reads a bit like one of those stories that they do from multiple perspectives. First off, Method-Doug tells you how to follow him. He's very much a backward looking guy, dwells on the past and the way things were. Results-Doug is a bit more useful, he can tell you what everyone else is saying, he knows his stuff (but as his stuff is creating this specific set of teaching materials, it's still not that useful). Finally you get Discussion-Doug. It's up to him to show off how smart he is, so he's quoting everyone, blaming other people, and in a brilliant move, pointing out how slight failure is actually better than a win as it really teaches you something useful.
But now it's getting proof read. As most people who have proof read to my face will know, I don't take this well. I got a list of notes from a friend who took his time to read it for me and the first few ones, I went though, "Nope, Wrong, You don't know as much as me about this topic, don't be daft." It was around this point I realised that if I'm getting people to proof read, deciding that I know best and ignoring anything they isn't going to help. Here I did manage to take some of what was being said in and make some improvements. Hooray! Tiny amount of personal growth!
And speaking of tiny, there really is a limit to the number of times you can hear "That's not long enough", or "Try making this a little longer", before you start questioning your masculinity.
So I was watching Strictly Come Dancing and John Barrowman is on singing Everything she does is magic, and it turns out he has an album out for Christmas! Yay!
I need to balance that one out with some overt heterosexuality. Smokey and the Bandit! Barbecued meat! Real Ale! Jessica Albas bottom!
Hooray! Balance is restored to the universe and I can stop writing.
Except to say that I just saw the word Horspitial, which I really hope is a real word for horse vets.
Turns out I've been having an unintentional David Duchovny day.
Loads of Californication. Watching him be a heavy drinking, womanising, writer; it really gives me something to aspire to, you know?
I had a bunch of episodes stored up and as I had little else to do today, (more on that later probably), I decided to watch my way through them.
Then after tea, an episode of the X-Files comes on. This is what spooked me. It's this village full of people eating brains of people that don't fit in.
Now I'm left on my own in the house with a pair of dogs that shake like crazy (because they do) and they are keeping an eye on the door because obviously something between the living room and the edge of their hearing somewhere down the road is making some noises. It's this uncertainty that gives me the willies. When the dogs keep (and i mean keep because they were doing it a second ago) keep looking for something I can't see, I'm fairly sure that they are getting ready for the axe wielding, big mask wearing, brain eater to jump out.
Cleverly I have a plan. The coffee table has a glass top, or there's a bottle on the bookcase that's almost empty. Granted the bottle's still got a little of some pretty expensive stuff in and is quite light - I'm sure I'd get loads more power behind a 1m by 50cm sheet of glass, even if it would be harder to wield.
Still I'll see what instinct does to me, I could have the power of some kind of man-tiger in me just waiting to be called upon.
As anyone who has read more than one of these knows, my dissertation is due pretty soon. Good news is that I have indeed written more than the 7500 word minimum, but less than the 10,000 word maximum. So I've handed my crazy mutant baby over to my charming proof readers, who all of course have real lives and so are very kind to do this. The difficulty with the shape that I have at the moment is that it's not like every other project. I ain't researching anything. It's a making project. So, it would be alot easier to follow if I wrote it completely chronologically, but then again, maybe the issue is because I'm not quite smart enough to do anything the way I'm told. I'm not saying it's a bad 50-something pages, just that it reads a bit like one of those stories that they do from multiple perspectives. First off, Method-Doug tells you how to follow him. He's very much a backward looking guy, dwells on the past and the way things were. Results-Doug is a bit more useful, he can tell you what everyone else is saying, he knows his stuff (but as his stuff is creating this specific set of teaching materials, it's still not that useful). Finally you get Discussion-Doug. It's up to him to show off how smart he is, so he's quoting everyone, blaming other people, and in a brilliant move, pointing out how slight failure is actually better than a win as it really teaches you something useful.
But now it's getting proof read. As most people who have proof read to my face will know, I don't take this well. I got a list of notes from a friend who took his time to read it for me and the first few ones, I went though, "Nope, Wrong, You don't know as much as me about this topic, don't be daft." It was around this point I realised that if I'm getting people to proof read, deciding that I know best and ignoring anything they isn't going to help. Here I did manage to take some of what was being said in and make some improvements. Hooray! Tiny amount of personal growth!
And speaking of tiny, there really is a limit to the number of times you can hear "That's not long enough", or "Try making this a little longer", before you start questioning your masculinity.
So I was watching Strictly Come Dancing and John Barrowman is on singing Everything she does is magic, and it turns out he has an album out for Christmas! Yay!
I need to balance that one out with some overt heterosexuality. Smokey and the Bandit! Barbecued meat! Real Ale! Jessica Albas bottom!
Hooray! Balance is restored to the universe and I can stop writing.
Except to say that I just saw the word Horspitial, which I really hope is a real word for horse vets.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Studio 60
I've just been watching the two episodes of studio 60 that i recorded last night (theres a fancy box under the tv that does it for me automatically - aint that exciting?)
anyway i loves me some studio 60 and it makes me feel pretty smart and it made me realise i havent written anything non science/sci comm related for ages and im just itching to be odd for a bit.
but first, or second i guess coz there's that first bit... before i continue i want to send a blug to hayley for commenting on my actual blog not the facebook or FaW feeds - you gotta be the first person to bother looking at that site and so i blug you. (blugs for the uneducated, not that any of you are of course, but blugs are a cross between a blog and a hug and it's what you get for posting at the origin of my posts rather than the end pont. origin website-wise, not my head, which has no comment box)
but! (not butt! as i've been locked inside and unable to scope the honeyz)
but!
i have been to the movies to see stardust!
which i was excited about previously and you may of read, or not i guess but if you remembered you definitly deserve a blug, or a manly handshake if your too sweaty and/or sticky.
Gotta say i loved it, (stardust), just because it's pretty weird.
i was looking forward to manly sky piracy, but robert de niro was so very funny in a "that was totally not what i expected" kinda way. also i'm probably either getting longer hair or a bowler hat because of the hero, but it could go either way at the moment.
but it's so going in my weird and cool fairytale movie pile, with The Princess Bride (which must be watched by everyone as soon as they can find it)
as you'd expect theres not been much in terms of out doors adventuring, what with me plowing through 500 words of dissertation a day (many of them of the intellegent variety).
but i have been travelling the country in a car as i am want to do of an occasion. theres this bathroom in a motorway service station, (this just has classic story written all over it), but im walking into this bathroom, tweaking my look in the mirrors over the sink when i realise the refection staring back at me is a shortish plumpish baldish buisness man. this is not what i'm expecting to see, being of the tallish, skinnyish, hairyish persuasion. i do my cartoon double take and realise that these rows of sinks are in fact mirrorless and that the man opposite me seems to be under the impression he's only two sinks away from a total loonatic.
anyhow, i am going crazy. but i may actually finish my dissertation on time - still a long way to go, i'm around the half way mark prose-wise, but what i've done is going to need tinkering to stop it being blatent lies, self-contradictory nonsence and quotes from movies with surprisingly little to do with science communicating teaching materials.
also the take that song from stardust is on repeat to add to or sooth my madness, i just don't know which.
p.s. the fancy recording box under my tv is not a video recorder, i happen to be fairly with it technology wise and it's clearly a magic v-box, containing witch craft and a fat, grumpy pixie with a copy of the radiotimes.
p.p.s. blugs are also blue slugs, but i'm using the verb rather than the noun, duh
anyway i loves me some studio 60 and it makes me feel pretty smart and it made me realise i havent written anything non science/sci comm related for ages and im just itching to be odd for a bit.
but first, or second i guess coz there's that first bit... before i continue i want to send a blug to hayley for commenting on my actual blog not the facebook or FaW feeds - you gotta be the first person to bother looking at that site and so i blug you. (blugs for the uneducated, not that any of you are of course, but blugs are a cross between a blog and a hug and it's what you get for posting at the origin of my posts rather than the end pont. origin website-wise, not my head, which has no comment box)
but! (not butt! as i've been locked inside and unable to scope the honeyz)
but!
i have been to the movies to see stardust!
which i was excited about previously and you may of read, or not i guess but if you remembered you definitly deserve a blug, or a manly handshake if your too sweaty and/or sticky.
Gotta say i loved it, (stardust), just because it's pretty weird.
i was looking forward to manly sky piracy, but robert de niro was so very funny in a "that was totally not what i expected" kinda way. also i'm probably either getting longer hair or a bowler hat because of the hero, but it could go either way at the moment.
but it's so going in my weird and cool fairytale movie pile, with The Princess Bride (which must be watched by everyone as soon as they can find it)
as you'd expect theres not been much in terms of out doors adventuring, what with me plowing through 500 words of dissertation a day (many of them of the intellegent variety).
but i have been travelling the country in a car as i am want to do of an occasion. theres this bathroom in a motorway service station, (this just has classic story written all over it), but im walking into this bathroom, tweaking my look in the mirrors over the sink when i realise the refection staring back at me is a shortish plumpish baldish buisness man. this is not what i'm expecting to see, being of the tallish, skinnyish, hairyish persuasion. i do my cartoon double take and realise that these rows of sinks are in fact mirrorless and that the man opposite me seems to be under the impression he's only two sinks away from a total loonatic.
anyhow, i am going crazy. but i may actually finish my dissertation on time - still a long way to go, i'm around the half way mark prose-wise, but what i've done is going to need tinkering to stop it being blatent lies, self-contradictory nonsence and quotes from movies with surprisingly little to do with science communicating teaching materials.
also the take that song from stardust is on repeat to add to or sooth my madness, i just don't know which.
p.s. the fancy recording box under my tv is not a video recorder, i happen to be fairly with it technology wise and it's clearly a magic v-box, containing witch craft and a fat, grumpy pixie with a copy of the radiotimes.
p.p.s. blugs are also blue slugs, but i'm using the verb rather than the noun, duh
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Wowzers
I'm feeling manly, if slightly foolish right now. My "COME ON!!" roar that usually accompanies an exceptional drive in rugby (viewing not playing, obviously) does sound good, but as it's quite a bit louder than most of my hiding behind a cushion type usualness, it does make me feel a bit silly, especially when done in polite company. Clearly this is the key advantage to being down the pub - any lack of civility is to be expected.
But, really a bit of manlyness is nice, because it makes up for the fairly pathetic lack of manlyness that was my bristol trip.
So my dissertation has passed the presentation stage. i had to go to bristol on tuesday(?, i think) to present what ive done so far. it was a four hour trip down in a complete white out of rain, very exciting, very slow, but a perfect time to have pirates of the caribbean in the cd player. surely there must of been other cars out there singing sea shanties at the top of their voice as the car aqua-plains at rather high speeds. (i did get to a corner where a sign warns us to stay at fifty and i remember thinking "hmm... best get back down to seventy," then, "down?! eh?")
presentation was ok and i got to see loads of bristol types which was nice, but after all of the ale drinking and sleeping on the floor of the house of sci comm with a noisy german and i left with one of the most pathetic wounds possible.
lots of people i hadn't seen in months and wouldn't be seeing for a while. all the emotional hellos and goodbyes actually pulled a muscle in my shoulder.
thats right, a hugging injury.
god damn it. what the hell?!
but i took it like a man - the drive back with such a serious shoulder pain was tough, but i soldiered through.
i dragged myself back home and slept for thirty six hours.
now there's just my dissertation's actual writing to do. through the magic that is copy and paste i'm currently at 3094. and as long as my hug wounds don't slow me down to much i might do ok.
that's might though.
coz it's me.
and you can never be sure how i'm going to hurt myself next...
But, really a bit of manlyness is nice, because it makes up for the fairly pathetic lack of manlyness that was my bristol trip.
So my dissertation has passed the presentation stage. i had to go to bristol on tuesday(?, i think) to present what ive done so far. it was a four hour trip down in a complete white out of rain, very exciting, very slow, but a perfect time to have pirates of the caribbean in the cd player. surely there must of been other cars out there singing sea shanties at the top of their voice as the car aqua-plains at rather high speeds. (i did get to a corner where a sign warns us to stay at fifty and i remember thinking "hmm... best get back down to seventy," then, "down?! eh?")
presentation was ok and i got to see loads of bristol types which was nice, but after all of the ale drinking and sleeping on the floor of the house of sci comm with a noisy german and i left with one of the most pathetic wounds possible.
lots of people i hadn't seen in months and wouldn't be seeing for a while. all the emotional hellos and goodbyes actually pulled a muscle in my shoulder.
thats right, a hugging injury.
god damn it. what the hell?!
but i took it like a man - the drive back with such a serious shoulder pain was tough, but i soldiered through.
i dragged myself back home and slept for thirty six hours.
now there's just my dissertation's actual writing to do. through the magic that is copy and paste i'm currently at 3094. and as long as my hug wounds don't slow me down to much i might do ok.
that's might though.
coz it's me.
and you can never be sure how i'm going to hurt myself next...
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Tightness
Yep, it's getting to the pointy end of my dissertation.
I'm not surprisingly underprepared, but that's only because i was obviously not preparing.
What's managed to bother me recently is the attempts by my brain to calm itself. When other people start worrying that they havn't written much, i normally say "Ha, don't worry, i've written much less." Problem is this does not make me feel better when i say it to myself.
But in typical doug fashion i'm dragging myself over the finish line regardless.
Just finished watching the rugby for today - fantastic and makes me feel good about the image of myself forcing my dissertation over the 10,000 words line, dragging behind me the enormous blokes that are time constraints and a total lack of focus.
As usual i have much to distract me, my TV is on the fritz in a fairly terminal way, which is massively sad - you need to understand, this TV has been with me for years, so many tv, video, dvd and computer gaming memories. :'(
and while not watching TV would speed up most peoples work, my work is actually slowing down as i feel so sad about it.
the good news is that my job hunt may be nearing an end - im off to Culham in a week and a bit to see if they want me to help present a thing in schools about the sun, which as they havnt got anyone else seems pretty likely.
AND im looking into getting a car for the eventual/possibly quite soon relocation. and when a corsa (or corsair as my mum kept saying) is going for only a hundred quid, you know its gotta be good, only needs the seats fixing and wiper... something. but seat repair has the potential to be hours of fun, big seats, comfy seats, bench seats, leathery seats, racing seats, or the far more likely patchwork quilt seats.
i'd assume there was something wrong with the world if the car i owned wasn't on it's last legs, a neat and tidy car just doesnt fit me i'm afraid. until i have the cash to get a shiny new one, like an aston or a jag or something.
anyway
DISSERTATION HO!
I'm not surprisingly underprepared, but that's only because i was obviously not preparing.
What's managed to bother me recently is the attempts by my brain to calm itself. When other people start worrying that they havn't written much, i normally say "Ha, don't worry, i've written much less." Problem is this does not make me feel better when i say it to myself.
But in typical doug fashion i'm dragging myself over the finish line regardless.
Just finished watching the rugby for today - fantastic and makes me feel good about the image of myself forcing my dissertation over the 10,000 words line, dragging behind me the enormous blokes that are time constraints and a total lack of focus.
As usual i have much to distract me, my TV is on the fritz in a fairly terminal way, which is massively sad - you need to understand, this TV has been with me for years, so many tv, video, dvd and computer gaming memories. :'(
and while not watching TV would speed up most peoples work, my work is actually slowing down as i feel so sad about it.
the good news is that my job hunt may be nearing an end - im off to Culham in a week and a bit to see if they want me to help present a thing in schools about the sun, which as they havnt got anyone else seems pretty likely.
AND im looking into getting a car for the eventual/possibly quite soon relocation. and when a corsa (or corsair as my mum kept saying) is going for only a hundred quid, you know its gotta be good, only needs the seats fixing and wiper... something. but seat repair has the potential to be hours of fun, big seats, comfy seats, bench seats, leathery seats, racing seats, or the far more likely patchwork quilt seats.
i'd assume there was something wrong with the world if the car i owned wasn't on it's last legs, a neat and tidy car just doesnt fit me i'm afraid. until i have the cash to get a shiny new one, like an aston or a jag or something.
anyway
DISSERTATION HO!
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Pirates of the Sky
One thing that is quite sad (boo hoo sad, not doug you're really pretty sad arn't you? sad) about spending as much time as i do reading movie news and being excited about movies is that i'm always excited around the time it's announced and then have to wait like a year for it to be made and come out.
well a nice thing is that i have just seen the trailer for a film called Stardust and it's got me crazy excited, and it come out in like a month. woo hoo for no waiting. and the film's all sky piratey and magic and crazy fun and swordfighting which you know i love.
although, you want waiting - i'm literally counting down the days till halo 3 comes out. or more accuratly til the weekend after so that me and my halo playing buddies can go play.
so. freaking. excited.
thats not to say that i've been doing nothing but wait. oh no, plenty of new-house chores, (i had giant green hands today to pick up huge amounts of holly cuttings - i pretended to be a dinosaur, but then couldn't think of any that had big hands, so settled on a huge monster that roars and waves his arms. oh, you can scorn now but soon all of japan will be in a tizzy.)
also, in the shock/at last catagory, i have organised my dissertation's classroom intervention.
with 2 months to go it's time to start doing things.
oh yes, a science communicator is me.
depending on your definitions i have also been partying, tho in a silver wedding aniversary sence. still, it was a great excuse to wear a suit, drink heavyly and then spend the last hour in a ball pit.
on the subject of ball pits, im thinking of installing one when i eventually get a house/flat/hut, they are immencely comfortable, you can hide in them and spring out at unsuspecting passers by and make them spill their drinks, throw an endless supply of balls at people or just swim in your shirt and tie. versatile and hilarious. could be amazing - but expencive unfortunatly.
but i think i have found a nearly perfect job for me, there's science, communication, nuclear fission and big equipment.
all that it lacks is puppets, for now...
well a nice thing is that i have just seen the trailer for a film called Stardust and it's got me crazy excited, and it come out in like a month. woo hoo for no waiting. and the film's all sky piratey and magic and crazy fun and swordfighting which you know i love.
although, you want waiting - i'm literally counting down the days till halo 3 comes out. or more accuratly til the weekend after so that me and my halo playing buddies can go play.
so. freaking. excited.
thats not to say that i've been doing nothing but wait. oh no, plenty of new-house chores, (i had giant green hands today to pick up huge amounts of holly cuttings - i pretended to be a dinosaur, but then couldn't think of any that had big hands, so settled on a huge monster that roars and waves his arms. oh, you can scorn now but soon all of japan will be in a tizzy.)
also, in the shock/at last catagory, i have organised my dissertation's classroom intervention.
with 2 months to go it's time to start doing things.
oh yes, a science communicator is me.
depending on your definitions i have also been partying, tho in a silver wedding aniversary sence. still, it was a great excuse to wear a suit, drink heavyly and then spend the last hour in a ball pit.
on the subject of ball pits, im thinking of installing one when i eventually get a house/flat/hut, they are immencely comfortable, you can hide in them and spring out at unsuspecting passers by and make them spill their drinks, throw an endless supply of balls at people or just swim in your shirt and tie. versatile and hilarious. could be amazing - but expencive unfortunatly.
but i think i have found a nearly perfect job for me, there's science, communication, nuclear fission and big equipment.
all that it lacks is puppets, for now...
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Saucy Puppeteers
Clearly my dissertation work needs to be done.
You can tell i must be planning on doing some actual work because this is the second time in a week that i've written anything. oo, it smacks of avoidance.
hmm. havent used smacks in that context for a while - feeling smart now. also pleased i used yonks as a unit of time this evening.
you will be glad to know no doubt, that despite getting a small bag of percy pigs when i went to m&s on friday, i managed to refrain from posting gibberish. but of course (as is the way with the pigs) i have no memory of what i actually did do, last time i dressed up in braces and a shirt and spent most of the evening running round the kitchen in UWE, but it was a much larger bag that time.
of course what i have done, on saturday to be exact, was steward the arts fresco in market harbourgh.
which ment a day spent with puppetteers, stilt walkers, fake frenchmen, german frenchmen, real french people, genuine crazy people, living statues and then puppeteers again. awesome to the max.
the arts fresco is sort of a festival were tons of street performers fill market harbourgh and do all sorts of exciting arty performancy things.
my job was to keep an eye on them in a role clearly created by health and safety so the organisers dont poo themselves about performers and the public getting run over or into fights. and i did my job quite well thank you very much.
it was mildly intense tho, when the performers start wondering near to the living statues. anyone who knows me or doctor who will know about the weeping angel statues in the most recent series and the fact that they scared the crackers out of me. so when the performers start puppetting their way over to them i take it as my job to not blink and watch the angel statue non stop til we get free.
this was fine with my musketeer type men, who handed out roses to ladies they liked the look of, nearly got us all run over as they poodled around in the road and were prefectly happy to leg it for portions of the town, but, my little puppet people had tiny tiny legs and were very slow moving.
the puppets were kinda like hobbits with huge backpacks, with the performers in the backpacks, hands operating the head and a hand and rediculously tiny legs at the bottom.
now in one of these puppets was an attractive female puppetteer, and as bad as i am at dealing with attractive females generally, it's even more difficult when you're faced with extra complications, for instance if the puppets head is roughly at the girls stomach height and i cannot possibly see where her eyes are looking inside the bag, is it best to address the puppets face/her stomach?
i just don't know, but it was fun anyway.
and spending the day with puppets was fantastic so no complaining.
also there's something wonderfully doug-like about all the stewards having sandwiches together in a dingy theatre during their lunch break, while i eat the performers food and sit with a french band and opera-type-singers and a guy who was wearing a nightdress (till he took it of) and talking on a banana.
i really do love the interesting life sometimes.
You can tell i must be planning on doing some actual work because this is the second time in a week that i've written anything. oo, it smacks of avoidance.
hmm. havent used smacks in that context for a while - feeling smart now. also pleased i used yonks as a unit of time this evening.
you will be glad to know no doubt, that despite getting a small bag of percy pigs when i went to m&s on friday, i managed to refrain from posting gibberish. but of course (as is the way with the pigs) i have no memory of what i actually did do, last time i dressed up in braces and a shirt and spent most of the evening running round the kitchen in UWE, but it was a much larger bag that time.
of course what i have done, on saturday to be exact, was steward the arts fresco in market harbourgh.
which ment a day spent with puppetteers, stilt walkers, fake frenchmen, german frenchmen, real french people, genuine crazy people, living statues and then puppeteers again. awesome to the max.
the arts fresco is sort of a festival were tons of street performers fill market harbourgh and do all sorts of exciting arty performancy things.
my job was to keep an eye on them in a role clearly created by health and safety so the organisers dont poo themselves about performers and the public getting run over or into fights. and i did my job quite well thank you very much.
it was mildly intense tho, when the performers start wondering near to the living statues. anyone who knows me or doctor who will know about the weeping angel statues in the most recent series and the fact that they scared the crackers out of me. so when the performers start puppetting their way over to them i take it as my job to not blink and watch the angel statue non stop til we get free.
this was fine with my musketeer type men, who handed out roses to ladies they liked the look of, nearly got us all run over as they poodled around in the road and were prefectly happy to leg it for portions of the town, but, my little puppet people had tiny tiny legs and were very slow moving.
the puppets were kinda like hobbits with huge backpacks, with the performers in the backpacks, hands operating the head and a hand and rediculously tiny legs at the bottom.
now in one of these puppets was an attractive female puppetteer, and as bad as i am at dealing with attractive females generally, it's even more difficult when you're faced with extra complications, for instance if the puppets head is roughly at the girls stomach height and i cannot possibly see where her eyes are looking inside the bag, is it best to address the puppets face/her stomach?
i just don't know, but it was fun anyway.
and spending the day with puppets was fantastic so no complaining.
also there's something wonderfully doug-like about all the stewards having sandwiches together in a dingy theatre during their lunch break, while i eat the performers food and sit with a french band and opera-type-singers and a guy who was wearing a nightdress (till he took it of) and talking on a banana.
i really do love the interesting life sometimes.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Giant Crabs From Beyond Space
I'm having a funny old time at the moment debating the capitalization of the title. Ok so not funny ha ha, but curiously doug-like. clearly giant crabs looks cooler with capitals to begin them. Space also seems more dramatic with a bigger S, then 'from beyond' are dwarfed. any way i figured i'd throw grammatical accuracy to the wind and just capitalise all of them. woo hoo, life on the edge.
anyway, it's been a whole month since i last felt the need to write.
i have my dissertation due soonish, because it's not quite like everyone elses and if i don't have the bulk of the doing done before october i doubt i'll find time for the writing. still it's currently sunny which really helps keep me focused, or as close to focused as i get.
it seems with me, any job you can't do topless in the sun with a drink while reading harry potter is just never going to get done.
also there's so much else to get done here.
i need a quick bust of happyness for completeing zelda on pete's wii. hearty huzzars for kicking multiple monster arse.
see where as most people fight distraction and try (in my case unsuccessfully) to focus on their work, i'm developing a different approach. if i watch all my movies and complete all the computer games i can then i will be clear of all distraction and capable of working at an increadable speed. the logic is mind boggling. imagine how fast i could work if my brain was clear. terrorfying.
decorating was finished today, which is nice because all the funiture is back in the right room and i dont have to pop next door to change channel, but it's also sad because i lose so much of the things that were making me the hyper masculine piece of prime studdlyness that i currently am.
carrying heavy things, gone.
hitting things with a hammer, (my favourate manly activity,) gone.
getting paint and grime and dust and scratches all over my bridgestone romper suit, gone.
splinters and hammer wounds, gone.
it's sad. it could be weeks or month before i have DIY type projects to do, i'll get all stringy and useless again. losing my diet coke guy physiques in favour of one of the regular good loking guy's the ad. ok one of the regular looking guys. ok regular looking girls.
mostly it's just sad there were no ladies around to be impressed by my carrying, painting and hammering (sometimes simultaniously). thems the breaks i guess.
unfortunatly after one of my (now pretty much daily) blows to the head, i mentioned to my mum that i sometimes put in these posts if i had wounded myself in ways i considered spectaularly stupid or just plain spectacular, so now whenever i'm wounded in the line of duty all i get is, "is that going in you're blog?"
Bet Charles Dickens never had to put up with this shit.
anyway, it's been a whole month since i last felt the need to write.
i have my dissertation due soonish, because it's not quite like everyone elses and if i don't have the bulk of the doing done before october i doubt i'll find time for the writing. still it's currently sunny which really helps keep me focused, or as close to focused as i get.
it seems with me, any job you can't do topless in the sun with a drink while reading harry potter is just never going to get done.
also there's so much else to get done here.
i need a quick bust of happyness for completeing zelda on pete's wii. hearty huzzars for kicking multiple monster arse.
see where as most people fight distraction and try (in my case unsuccessfully) to focus on their work, i'm developing a different approach. if i watch all my movies and complete all the computer games i can then i will be clear of all distraction and capable of working at an increadable speed. the logic is mind boggling. imagine how fast i could work if my brain was clear. terrorfying.
decorating was finished today, which is nice because all the funiture is back in the right room and i dont have to pop next door to change channel, but it's also sad because i lose so much of the things that were making me the hyper masculine piece of prime studdlyness that i currently am.
carrying heavy things, gone.
hitting things with a hammer, (my favourate manly activity,) gone.
getting paint and grime and dust and scratches all over my bridgestone romper suit, gone.
splinters and hammer wounds, gone.
it's sad. it could be weeks or month before i have DIY type projects to do, i'll get all stringy and useless again. losing my diet coke guy physiques in favour of one of the regular good loking guy's the ad. ok one of the regular looking guys. ok regular looking girls.
mostly it's just sad there were no ladies around to be impressed by my carrying, painting and hammering (sometimes simultaniously). thems the breaks i guess.
unfortunatly after one of my (now pretty much daily) blows to the head, i mentioned to my mum that i sometimes put in these posts if i had wounded myself in ways i considered spectaularly stupid or just plain spectacular, so now whenever i'm wounded in the line of duty all i get is, "is that going in you're blog?"
Bet Charles Dickens never had to put up with this shit.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Hugs for all
I'm feeling pretty happy at the moment.
Yes, im reading a fairly depressing book with vampires in it, the weather is nothing to smile about and there's a great deal of effort involved in making my parentals new house properly liveable, but i'm a sad boy and so apparently all this can be over ridden by some nice things happening in the sims.
Captain Doug's children have grown up to be very attractive and everything is working out nicely. This is a good time to be a computer generated version of me.
Really whats happening is the time i should have my dissertation ready is rapidly approaching. the real deadline is ages away, but there are thing that need doing before then and for some reason there always seem to be something far more urgent to do.
First on the list is decorating of the new house. after fitting everything in to the rooms and almost getting to a point where i dont cut my arms open on things i wasnt expecting to hit, we move everything out of the sitting room to decorate. wonderful.
but now we just got cable! 900 channels to enjoy and a fancy box that can record and pause and all that loverlyness. woo
but... the box is in the real sitting room, which the tv is not in. so to enjoy this wonderful toy, or to change the channel or view the tv guide, i have to run between rooms. surfing used to be a relaxing past time. sitting down with a dog next to you. 900 channels 7 at a time means more than 100 trips of the roughly 5 metre route - thats a half a kilometre just to try and find something to watch. that can take AGES! and where as in the sitting positions the dogs are still, with the moving version the dogs are always following me, and as the route involves constant 180 turns and tiny gaps it means tripping over a jack russell every 10 seconds. infuriating and painful when the falls involves contact betweenmy head and corners of temporaryly located bookcases or tables
in the 5 weeks i've lived here i've probably done enough to premanantly damage my brain. the first couple of weeks were a constant assalt of injuries from kitchen cupboards and many doors in general that i wasnt expecting, the shower door in perticular is poorly designed and extremely sharp as cuts over my shoulders on the way in and hips on the way out can prove. But the worst so far was in the bath. the back of the house has a roof that is angled down through the rooms over there so the bathroom and Petes room have low celings in some areas. in the bathroom this is where the bath is tucked. so after a large amount of bumps i soak my weary limbs for a while and try to leave the bath in the nice dreamy kind of nice mind set that you can get after a hot, quiet bath. and BAM. my head gets absolutely smashed into the celing that i didnt realise was sloped. i'm standing there nude, wet and stunned trying to figure out what the hell just happened, doing my best not to collapse over the side of the bath or into many of the boxes that filled the room at that time.
lesson learned. mind your head.
anyway i will have to start my dissertation at some point. hopefully all the sitting will keep me out of real danger. (at least until i get bored enough to go looking for real trouble)
ttfn
Yes, im reading a fairly depressing book with vampires in it, the weather is nothing to smile about and there's a great deal of effort involved in making my parentals new house properly liveable, but i'm a sad boy and so apparently all this can be over ridden by some nice things happening in the sims.
Captain Doug's children have grown up to be very attractive and everything is working out nicely. This is a good time to be a computer generated version of me.
Really whats happening is the time i should have my dissertation ready is rapidly approaching. the real deadline is ages away, but there are thing that need doing before then and for some reason there always seem to be something far more urgent to do.
First on the list is decorating of the new house. after fitting everything in to the rooms and almost getting to a point where i dont cut my arms open on things i wasnt expecting to hit, we move everything out of the sitting room to decorate. wonderful.
but now we just got cable! 900 channels to enjoy and a fancy box that can record and pause and all that loverlyness. woo
but... the box is in the real sitting room, which the tv is not in. so to enjoy this wonderful toy, or to change the channel or view the tv guide, i have to run between rooms. surfing used to be a relaxing past time. sitting down with a dog next to you. 900 channels 7 at a time means more than 100 trips of the roughly 5 metre route - thats a half a kilometre just to try and find something to watch. that can take AGES! and where as in the sitting positions the dogs are still, with the moving version the dogs are always following me, and as the route involves constant 180 turns and tiny gaps it means tripping over a jack russell every 10 seconds. infuriating and painful when the falls involves contact betweenmy head and corners of temporaryly located bookcases or tables
in the 5 weeks i've lived here i've probably done enough to premanantly damage my brain. the first couple of weeks were a constant assalt of injuries from kitchen cupboards and many doors in general that i wasnt expecting, the shower door in perticular is poorly designed and extremely sharp as cuts over my shoulders on the way in and hips on the way out can prove. But the worst so far was in the bath. the back of the house has a roof that is angled down through the rooms over there so the bathroom and Petes room have low celings in some areas. in the bathroom this is where the bath is tucked. so after a large amount of bumps i soak my weary limbs for a while and try to leave the bath in the nice dreamy kind of nice mind set that you can get after a hot, quiet bath. and BAM. my head gets absolutely smashed into the celing that i didnt realise was sloped. i'm standing there nude, wet and stunned trying to figure out what the hell just happened, doing my best not to collapse over the side of the bath or into many of the boxes that filled the room at that time.
lesson learned. mind your head.
anyway i will have to start my dissertation at some point. hopefully all the sitting will keep me out of real danger. (at least until i get bored enough to go looking for real trouble)
ttfn
Monday, August 06, 2007
Cautionary tales
Bloody Harry Potter.
Don't get me wrong, i loved the seventh book. i don't know if it was the long periods of staying awake to read it - i managed to stretch it over the weekend, but it sitting there not finished kept me awake for most of the saturday and then the need to keep going kept me up late on the sunday - but by the end i was totally drained, because it was so sad, also my room's quite dusty so most people would be a bit sniffy if they spent to long in there.
i have just finished a reread and there are a bunch of bits that are even sadder the second time round. but it was the events in the real world during my reading that were not good.
The thing is recently the sun has returned and so naturally i feel the need to get some colour. So i take the seventh book out into the garden to sit and read, it's very sunny and obviously i know that i need to be careful, so i decide only to read one chapter. But three or so chapters later i realise my lack of getting out of the sun has left me pretty crispy. So from that evening until several days later instead of my normal glow in the dark paleness i was glow in the dark pink across my chest and shoulders. Serious discomfort followed.
The pain has gone and my shoulders are now shedding skin - but it occurs to me that this could be extremely useful, through much gentle peeling i now have breast pockets like on a dress shirt, fantastic for carrying extra sun cream or gentle written reminders to be less of a tit in the future.
For those of you that dont know, i have now been moved. that is to say that my parents have moved and as i have yet to find an excuse to flee, i have been taken along like a wardrobe full of coats - though hopefully more useful during the unpacking.
We are now in a tiny TINY village just outside of lincolnshire, a pub, a bus stop and a post office that doesnt sell milk. it transpires that we really are rather closer to Newark (only place name in England which is and anagram of wanker). the claims of any posh lincolnyness really is on a par with the university of warwick and it's complete failure to realise it's actually in coventry.
that is pretty much all thats happening here, unpacking and dog sitting till my parents get back. i really should be doing more work - i have a dissertation that needs continuing - and there are jobs that i need to apply for/find.
anyway, enjoy the sun and for gods sake wear sun cream.
Don't get me wrong, i loved the seventh book. i don't know if it was the long periods of staying awake to read it - i managed to stretch it over the weekend, but it sitting there not finished kept me awake for most of the saturday and then the need to keep going kept me up late on the sunday - but by the end i was totally drained, because it was so sad, also my room's quite dusty so most people would be a bit sniffy if they spent to long in there.
i have just finished a reread and there are a bunch of bits that are even sadder the second time round. but it was the events in the real world during my reading that were not good.
The thing is recently the sun has returned and so naturally i feel the need to get some colour. So i take the seventh book out into the garden to sit and read, it's very sunny and obviously i know that i need to be careful, so i decide only to read one chapter. But three or so chapters later i realise my lack of getting out of the sun has left me pretty crispy. So from that evening until several days later instead of my normal glow in the dark paleness i was glow in the dark pink across my chest and shoulders. Serious discomfort followed.
The pain has gone and my shoulders are now shedding skin - but it occurs to me that this could be extremely useful, through much gentle peeling i now have breast pockets like on a dress shirt, fantastic for carrying extra sun cream or gentle written reminders to be less of a tit in the future.
For those of you that dont know, i have now been moved. that is to say that my parents have moved and as i have yet to find an excuse to flee, i have been taken along like a wardrobe full of coats - though hopefully more useful during the unpacking.
We are now in a tiny TINY village just outside of lincolnshire, a pub, a bus stop and a post office that doesnt sell milk. it transpires that we really are rather closer to Newark (only place name in England which is and anagram of wanker). the claims of any posh lincolnyness really is on a par with the university of warwick and it's complete failure to realise it's actually in coventry.
that is pretty much all thats happening here, unpacking and dog sitting till my parents get back. i really should be doing more work - i have a dissertation that needs continuing - and there are jobs that i need to apply for/find.
anyway, enjoy the sun and for gods sake wear sun cream.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Probably the last Southam post
Well, this will be brief. The computer is being hauled away as i type but naturally i screwed up my face and stamped my feet till i was allowed to quickly check facebook, and email, and EmpireOnline and write a note.
So i Leave Southam soon, currently surrounded by boxes - i finally manage to get my room clear of junk all over the floor to get more than a square metre of standing room and the whole of the rest of the house fills with boxes and bags. very nomadic but a pain in the knee caps if you wanna move around quickly.
Speaking of random pains my whole body is covering in small scraches from taking apart sheds and overly sharp boxes - not that they're noticable but they really itch from all the dust and splinters in them.
anyway i'll probably do a proper good-bye once ive good-gone
so so long southam, no more posts from here.
see you some time, maybe one christmas when i visit the people down here. who knows?
So i Leave Southam soon, currently surrounded by boxes - i finally manage to get my room clear of junk all over the floor to get more than a square metre of standing room and the whole of the rest of the house fills with boxes and bags. very nomadic but a pain in the knee caps if you wanna move around quickly.
Speaking of random pains my whole body is covering in small scraches from taking apart sheds and overly sharp boxes - not that they're noticable but they really itch from all the dust and splinters in them.
anyway i'll probably do a proper good-bye once ive good-gone
so so long southam, no more posts from here.
see you some time, maybe one christmas when i visit the people down here. who knows?
Thursday, June 28, 2007
The Rise of the Photocopier
So I have returned to Southam.
and after one evening of rest i got to work finding money (having spent the last £50 in my account on a computer game).
thus the next day i was down the employment centre and by Monday i had a job sorted in a reprographics place near leam. not science communication, but i need beer money.
Four days of standing around has naturally addled my brain some, fortunately i have found ways of surviving and have inadvertently become THE PHOTOCOPIER. (for full effect you have to read that sentence out loud getting gradually louder as you go)
ok its only slightly superheroic (ok not very at all) but it can keep me amused.
Monday: The origins of the Photocopier. Wherein a mild(ish) mannered journalist acquires the power of the duplication of paper! wooOOoooOOOooo. and our plucky hero also learns to comb bind, almost blinding himself with poorly designed equipment.
Tuesday: Wherein our hero, now possessed of duplication, faces herculean tasks as the companies legal department request huge tests of his skills by massive folders. Our hero gains the power of scanning and emailing and adds a stapler to his utility harness. Also a trial by flesh is taken as our hero welds enormous scissors in a most unsafe manner, and badly punctures his left hand, causing great bleeding and discomfort.
Wednesday: Having recovered from his non fatal qounds of the day before our hero continues his efforts. Learning the respective skills of sure and wire binding, he binds increasingly large documents. He also faces A0 dupilcation and survives, folding like a greek god.
Thursday: This is the day that our young hero learns the greatest lesson of all. The skill of watching the desk, after which large portions of the day become devoted to sitting and serving the more attractive damsels in distress.
now thats superheroic.
What challenges await him tomorrow and possibly next week if they still need someone when stuart goes to work in the mailroom because they are short staffed to? ONLY TIME WILL TELL.
Also, in actual news i got a haircut. Shazam!
Bearing in mind that saying i look like David Tennent or John Barrowman will illicit cries of anger and disgust from their respective lady followers, who will claim me far less attractive and damage my streads of self-esteem, i instead have decided i look like Ricky Martin.
my hair's sorta short and spikey.
it's good, don't worry.
and after one evening of rest i got to work finding money (having spent the last £50 in my account on a computer game).
thus the next day i was down the employment centre and by Monday i had a job sorted in a reprographics place near leam. not science communication, but i need beer money.
Four days of standing around has naturally addled my brain some, fortunately i have found ways of surviving and have inadvertently become THE PHOTOCOPIER. (for full effect you have to read that sentence out loud getting gradually louder as you go)
ok its only slightly superheroic (ok not very at all) but it can keep me amused.
Monday: The origins of the Photocopier. Wherein a mild(ish) mannered journalist acquires the power of the duplication of paper! wooOOoooOOOooo. and our plucky hero also learns to comb bind, almost blinding himself with poorly designed equipment.
Tuesday: Wherein our hero, now possessed of duplication, faces herculean tasks as the companies legal department request huge tests of his skills by massive folders. Our hero gains the power of scanning and emailing and adds a stapler to his utility harness. Also a trial by flesh is taken as our hero welds enormous scissors in a most unsafe manner, and badly punctures his left hand, causing great bleeding and discomfort.
Wednesday: Having recovered from his non fatal qounds of the day before our hero continues his efforts. Learning the respective skills of sure and wire binding, he binds increasingly large documents. He also faces A0 dupilcation and survives, folding like a greek god.
Thursday: This is the day that our young hero learns the greatest lesson of all. The skill of watching the desk, after which large portions of the day become devoted to sitting and serving the more attractive damsels in distress.
now thats superheroic.
What challenges await him tomorrow and possibly next week if they still need someone when stuart goes to work in the mailroom because they are short staffed to? ONLY TIME WILL TELL.
Also, in actual news i got a haircut. Shazam!
Bearing in mind that saying i look like David Tennent or John Barrowman will illicit cries of anger and disgust from their respective lady followers, who will claim me far less attractive and damage my streads of self-esteem, i instead have decided i look like Ricky Martin.
my hair's sorta short and spikey.
it's good, don't worry.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Possibly the last Bristol post
Well i leave for good tomorrow, carrying a bag i can comfortably fit inside, on a train route that i've never taken, through unknown stations.
Assuming i make it to Leamington without getting lost or collapsing with fatigue, i will return to Southam and that'll be the end of living in Bristol.
It's kinda sad, but i moved most of my stuff (TV and the majority of my DVDS) back last weekend, then returned to Bristol to hang around with people, so leaving wont be too bad - I need a TV.
I log on to facebook and it tells me (sometimes and always randomly) when people write on each others walls. Someone from home was wishing someone else a Happy Birthday and i genuinely thought "You crazy boy, it's not her birthday till the 18th" then looking at the clock i realise it is the 18th an i begin to realise just how much i need TV, just to keep my internal clock functioning.
I don't have a problem. I managed to not watch TV for many days (i dont know the exact number because i wasnt watching TV) the thing that may count as a problem is my DVDs. I didnt bring a TV back, but i brought some DVDs just incase someone else had a TV and wanted to watch some of the films. Im a sick man. :(
It took a few days to realise just how daft it was to have all those DVDS with no player, but then it's not the dumbest thing i managed. I had absolutely no (obvious) way of playing CDs either, but seeing that Bon Jovi have a new album i absolutely had to get it. Fortunatly I have mad resoursefulness skilz so i have found many ways to play it, other than the sencible CD => CD player route. Curiously for a summery CD, every time i play the album it starts raining.
As long as it stays dry tomorrow though i'll be back in Southam safe and sound. If it rains i'll be home with a soggy bag, damp belonging's and an over powering smell of wet dog. Still home will be nice.
Top 5 things I'm looking forward to (but out of order to not upset anyone):
My TV
My Dogs
My Southam Friends
My Warwick Uni Friends
Easy access to a computer.
There is ton's I'll miss, but i'm sure I will write more about that in later weeks. This is only *possibly* the last Bristol post, if there's one thing i know, it's that i'll never be sure when the last time I'll see somewhere is. I will return (still got some uni to do) and i can't be sure exactly where my life is going next.
So for now;
Bye Bye Bristol,
Bye Bye Bristol Friends.
Assuming i make it to Leamington without getting lost or collapsing with fatigue, i will return to Southam and that'll be the end of living in Bristol.
It's kinda sad, but i moved most of my stuff (TV and the majority of my DVDS) back last weekend, then returned to Bristol to hang around with people, so leaving wont be too bad - I need a TV.
I log on to facebook and it tells me (sometimes and always randomly) when people write on each others walls. Someone from home was wishing someone else a Happy Birthday and i genuinely thought "You crazy boy, it's not her birthday till the 18th" then looking at the clock i realise it is the 18th an i begin to realise just how much i need TV, just to keep my internal clock functioning.
I don't have a problem. I managed to not watch TV for many days (i dont know the exact number because i wasnt watching TV) the thing that may count as a problem is my DVDs. I didnt bring a TV back, but i brought some DVDs just incase someone else had a TV and wanted to watch some of the films. Im a sick man. :(
It took a few days to realise just how daft it was to have all those DVDS with no player, but then it's not the dumbest thing i managed. I had absolutely no (obvious) way of playing CDs either, but seeing that Bon Jovi have a new album i absolutely had to get it. Fortunatly I have mad resoursefulness skilz so i have found many ways to play it, other than the sencible CD => CD player route. Curiously for a summery CD, every time i play the album it starts raining.
As long as it stays dry tomorrow though i'll be back in Southam safe and sound. If it rains i'll be home with a soggy bag, damp belonging's and an over powering smell of wet dog. Still home will be nice.
Top 5 things I'm looking forward to (but out of order to not upset anyone):
My TV
My Dogs
My Southam Friends
My Warwick Uni Friends
Easy access to a computer.
There is ton's I'll miss, but i'm sure I will write more about that in later weeks. This is only *possibly* the last Bristol post, if there's one thing i know, it's that i'll never be sure when the last time I'll see somewhere is. I will return (still got some uni to do) and i can't be sure exactly where my life is going next.
So for now;
Bye Bye Bristol,
Bye Bye Bristol Friends.
Monday, June 11, 2007
On the road again
You know what i'd hate?
A boring life.
Right now i'm absolutly knackered, uncomfortably dehydrated and unsurprisingly in all kinds of unusual pain (is there ever going to be a post of mine that doesnt describe the new and painful things that my body is doing? i sincerly doubt it) but at least i'm entertained.
The last few days have been hectic.
Thursday was the deadline for our projects proposals and deadlines being as fun as always this was cause for a FOURTEEN HOUR LONG WORK SESH. at least i had joana to keep me company. and she spent that long with me without kicking me in the crotch, how delightfully pleasent.
Crawling out of my room on Friday i see it's cloudy and grey (coat on, in to town) but the time i reach town it's gotten so humid, im sweating like a tiny nun in a penguin shooting gallery. major endurance test by dehydration there, but +1 bow and arrow.
Then we had a picnic for Sanna and Hayley's Birthdays! hurrah! no one really dressed up for the fairytale theme, but, i had my bow and arrow and very homemade robin hood hat so at least i looked cool, despite the continuing humidity. naturally we go out in brisol after and end up in la rocca again (yay, coz it's my favourate place - bon jovi? yes please, thank you very much) but getting back late the next morning after games and walking and drinking and picnicing and dancing really tested endurance.
Of course what better time to move my stuff home than the next morning? so after four hours sleep im up for a 9:30 pick up. :( "it hurts." "what hurts?" "legs, arms, neck, back, front, feet." then the usual lack of sympathy from my parentals. "hurumpf."
Then by the afternoon having kipped on the sofa all afternoon to regain some strength, some of the crew decide to go see Pirates of the Caribbean. hmm, i'm in pain, am very sleepy and have seen it twice already... but i do love pirate movies. After watching that i came home to watch the Doctor Who i recorded. and it scared the jeepers outta me. statues that are monsters and that can only get you if you're not looking at them. i stopped blinking or moving my head. being barely strong enough to pull my covers right up to my nose i still managed to peek out my eyes to stop the weeping angels from gettin in. i watched the OC after and was scared when they opened doors suddenly or walked past windows coz the angels could get them.
but i passed out eventually.
then warwick uni to see friends today, back to bristol tomorrow and the zoo the day after.
im not to old for this, im to wimpy. and nothing's going to fix wimpyness quite like hard work and pain. just dont expect me not to complain.
A boring life.
Right now i'm absolutly knackered, uncomfortably dehydrated and unsurprisingly in all kinds of unusual pain (is there ever going to be a post of mine that doesnt describe the new and painful things that my body is doing? i sincerly doubt it) but at least i'm entertained.
The last few days have been hectic.
Thursday was the deadline for our projects proposals and deadlines being as fun as always this was cause for a FOURTEEN HOUR LONG WORK SESH. at least i had joana to keep me company. and she spent that long with me without kicking me in the crotch, how delightfully pleasent.
Crawling out of my room on Friday i see it's cloudy and grey (coat on, in to town) but the time i reach town it's gotten so humid, im sweating like a tiny nun in a penguin shooting gallery. major endurance test by dehydration there, but +1 bow and arrow.
Then we had a picnic for Sanna and Hayley's Birthdays! hurrah! no one really dressed up for the fairytale theme, but, i had my bow and arrow and very homemade robin hood hat so at least i looked cool, despite the continuing humidity. naturally we go out in brisol after and end up in la rocca again (yay, coz it's my favourate place - bon jovi? yes please, thank you very much) but getting back late the next morning after games and walking and drinking and picnicing and dancing really tested endurance.
Of course what better time to move my stuff home than the next morning? so after four hours sleep im up for a 9:30 pick up. :( "it hurts." "what hurts?" "legs, arms, neck, back, front, feet." then the usual lack of sympathy from my parentals. "hurumpf."
Then by the afternoon having kipped on the sofa all afternoon to regain some strength, some of the crew decide to go see Pirates of the Caribbean. hmm, i'm in pain, am very sleepy and have seen it twice already... but i do love pirate movies. After watching that i came home to watch the Doctor Who i recorded. and it scared the jeepers outta me. statues that are monsters and that can only get you if you're not looking at them. i stopped blinking or moving my head. being barely strong enough to pull my covers right up to my nose i still managed to peek out my eyes to stop the weeping angels from gettin in. i watched the OC after and was scared when they opened doors suddenly or walked past windows coz the angels could get them.
but i passed out eventually.
then warwick uni to see friends today, back to bristol tomorrow and the zoo the day after.
im not to old for this, im to wimpy. and nothing's going to fix wimpyness quite like hard work and pain. just dont expect me not to complain.
Monday, May 21, 2007
I am completely in love with...
I am completely in love with this week.
Were it physically possible me and this week would settle down some place in the country and raise a family of little weeks, just so i could enjoy this week for ever and ever.
Why the rush to commit my life so completely to a period of time you ask?
this may just be the most exciting week the world has ever offered me and frankly im not intirely sure if my heart has the strength to keep beating at the pace it does whenever i think about THIS WEEK.
ok when i explain it some of you may not understand, but if that's the case it's because you so don't get me and that's a shame, because im really enjoying this.
i've known for a while that pirates of the caribbean comes out this week, so technically ive been looking forward to this week for almost a year.
then recently i have managed to sync myself with the american tv schedules, meaning that over then next few days smallville, heroes and lost all end their series' symultaniously which is an experience of mass cliffhangering that i have never had the chance to enjoy before. (SAVE THE CHEERLEADER, SAVE THE WORLD)
all this i knew coming into the week and that alone was enough for me to get disproportionally excited but then...
there have been exciting new movie stuff going on too! eep! [man squeek]
theres a bunch of new batman stuff thats turned up, first ibelieveinharveydent.com gives us a new picture and thats nice, then the joker takes over ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com and we get a picture of him that veeeeeeery slowly appears and looks uber scary (so at this point im slightly scared but excited) then the site changes to page not found but with like a million HA HA HA s in the black with see you in december hidden amoung them (something about a very big page full of various sized ha ha's gets me actually pretty scared in a creeped out kinda way)
and THEN i found a teaser trailer for the golden compass! (apart from the name making my head explode, im very excited by this) it looks awesome, theres effects (daemons changing looks great) and armoured polar bears and daniel craig with a beard and ARMOURED POLAR BEARS and seriously cool witch fighting and ARMOURED. POLAR. BEARS. FIGHTING!!!! (i need something larger than capital letters to convey just how... awesome i think it is)
ok so i used the word awesome alot there, or it felt like i did but - excitement, heart. beating, brain. melting, no way to express the complex -im going with- "emotions" that i am "feeling".
naturally i need a bit of karma to balance this out, so for the superhero party on saturday i was a fairly evil looking super villain with face paint round my eyes so theres no skin showing in the masks eye holes (a la batman or the phantom - look close in the movies, coz im right) well, brilliantly the paint has decided not to come off my eyes despire vigourous scrubbing with various cleaning products, so i look like im wearing mascara. with the slight beard i look like an extremely scary transvestite, and have managed to scare myself several times by looking in the mirror when i wasnt expecting it. great.
but at least im not going to have to worry about girls coming between me and this week. whew - that was a real worry for a minute there.
well im going to collapse for a bit now and try to get my heart below hummingbird speed.
toodles
Were it physically possible me and this week would settle down some place in the country and raise a family of little weeks, just so i could enjoy this week for ever and ever.
Why the rush to commit my life so completely to a period of time you ask?
this may just be the most exciting week the world has ever offered me and frankly im not intirely sure if my heart has the strength to keep beating at the pace it does whenever i think about THIS WEEK.
ok when i explain it some of you may not understand, but if that's the case it's because you so don't get me and that's a shame, because im really enjoying this.
i've known for a while that pirates of the caribbean comes out this week, so technically ive been looking forward to this week for almost a year.
then recently i have managed to sync myself with the american tv schedules, meaning that over then next few days smallville, heroes and lost all end their series' symultaniously which is an experience of mass cliffhangering that i have never had the chance to enjoy before. (SAVE THE CHEERLEADER, SAVE THE WORLD)
all this i knew coming into the week and that alone was enough for me to get disproportionally excited but then...
there have been exciting new movie stuff going on too! eep! [man squeek]
theres a bunch of new batman stuff thats turned up, first ibelieveinharveydent.com gives us a new picture and thats nice, then the joker takes over ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com and we get a picture of him that veeeeeeery slowly appears and looks uber scary (so at this point im slightly scared but excited) then the site changes to page not found but with like a million HA HA HA s in the black with see you in december hidden amoung them (something about a very big page full of various sized ha ha's gets me actually pretty scared in a creeped out kinda way)
and THEN i found a teaser trailer for the golden compass! (apart from the name making my head explode, im very excited by this) it looks awesome, theres effects (daemons changing looks great) and armoured polar bears and daniel craig with a beard and ARMOURED POLAR BEARS and seriously cool witch fighting and ARMOURED. POLAR. BEARS. FIGHTING!!!! (i need something larger than capital letters to convey just how... awesome i think it is)
ok so i used the word awesome alot there, or it felt like i did but - excitement, heart. beating, brain. melting, no way to express the complex -im going with- "emotions" that i am "feeling".
naturally i need a bit of karma to balance this out, so for the superhero party on saturday i was a fairly evil looking super villain with face paint round my eyes so theres no skin showing in the masks eye holes (a la batman or the phantom - look close in the movies, coz im right) well, brilliantly the paint has decided not to come off my eyes despire vigourous scrubbing with various cleaning products, so i look like im wearing mascara. with the slight beard i look like an extremely scary transvestite, and have managed to scare myself several times by looking in the mirror when i wasnt expecting it. great.
but at least im not going to have to worry about girls coming between me and this week. whew - that was a real worry for a minute there.
well im going to collapse for a bit now and try to get my heart below hummingbird speed.
toodles
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Imbalanced
I swears imbalanced is the right word for it because i'm currently suffering an imbalance of the humors.
I have finally dragged myself to the end of my proposal for my course, which is (a direct quote): "It is a love story set in 1847, following two people (puppets) brought together at the Royal Society through mutual interest in science then ultimately separated by the changes in the Society, mirroring the separation that was happening at the same time to science and society."
Science! Romance! Puppets! Genius. The biscuits and discussion. sweet.
Just think of it as a very English Gone with the Wind. or at least a very Doug Gone with the Wind.
but having set it in the 19th century ive been coming across hilarious old science, my imbalance of the humors being a man flu - clearly a excess of water, to be remeided with fire or something. (i've actually been sorting it by periodically taking one of every kind of medicine i have and a lot of tea).
Following in the footsteps of a play called 'The Man Who Discovered That Women Lay Eggs' (looking forward to not writing that any more) i have found some real old worldy advice on sex and general genials that had me laughing so much i have to share it: "Orgasms, it was believed, were necessary for female health, hence the need to provide them. If a woman was married, some physicians advocated being ‘strongly encountered by their husbands’. If a woman was single, widowed or confined to a nunnery, the recommendation could be horse-riding, or pelvic rocking in swings, chairs or hammocks."
I'm going to have to start offering to 'strongly encounter' girls round here - i love the phrasing of it so very much.
All this research has expanded my pile of useless knowledge to, did you know that the vibrator was the fifth household appliance to be electrified? hmm informative.
On a different subject, you know what really grinds my gears? Past Doug. What a Bastard. He leaves me with no time and tons of work to do while he goes off and watches tv or checks facebook. Do some work you lazy sod.
But you know who rocks? Future Doug - his hair and beard is longer or styled so he's better looking the me or Past Doug, and I'm fairly sure he has incredable writing/researching skills, thats why i'll leave the work to him and go watch some TV now.
ok i think i just refered to myself in the 4th person. impressive, no?
WARNING! All these drugs and tea have driven me a little wacky and the precieding post may be concidered to be distasteful or odd by some people.
I have finally dragged myself to the end of my proposal for my course, which is (a direct quote): "It is a love story set in 1847, following two people (puppets) brought together at the Royal Society through mutual interest in science then ultimately separated by the changes in the Society, mirroring the separation that was happening at the same time to science and society."
Science! Romance! Puppets! Genius. The biscuits and discussion. sweet.
Just think of it as a very English Gone with the Wind. or at least a very Doug Gone with the Wind.
but having set it in the 19th century ive been coming across hilarious old science, my imbalance of the humors being a man flu - clearly a excess of water, to be remeided with fire or something. (i've actually been sorting it by periodically taking one of every kind of medicine i have and a lot of tea).
Following in the footsteps of a play called 'The Man Who Discovered That Women Lay Eggs' (looking forward to not writing that any more) i have found some real old worldy advice on sex and general genials that had me laughing so much i have to share it: "Orgasms, it was believed, were necessary for female health, hence the need to provide them. If a woman was married, some physicians advocated being ‘strongly encountered by their husbands’. If a woman was single, widowed or confined to a nunnery, the recommendation could be horse-riding, or pelvic rocking in swings, chairs or hammocks."
I'm going to have to start offering to 'strongly encounter' girls round here - i love the phrasing of it so very much.
All this research has expanded my pile of useless knowledge to, did you know that the vibrator was the fifth household appliance to be electrified? hmm informative.
On a different subject, you know what really grinds my gears? Past Doug. What a Bastard. He leaves me with no time and tons of work to do while he goes off and watches tv or checks facebook. Do some work you lazy sod.
But you know who rocks? Future Doug - his hair and beard is longer or styled so he's better looking the me or Past Doug, and I'm fairly sure he has incredable writing/researching skills, thats why i'll leave the work to him and go watch some TV now.
ok i think i just refered to myself in the 4th person. impressive, no?
WARNING! All these drugs and tea have driven me a little wacky and the precieding post may be concidered to be distasteful or odd by some people.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Mildly Irritating and Slightly Upsetting
i had a beast of a title for this post, naturally i've forgotten it.
it's been like a week and a bit since i last wrote a decent sized post, thats crazy. Time was i'd be writing something hilarious every couple of days, but this last few weeks all our deadlines have appeared simultainously and i just cant bear the thought of sitting and writing - until it's too late and i have something more important to do (drinking, watching a movie, that sorta thing)
also since i've been trying to do work there's not much in the way of stories to tell. Unless you like work related stories?
we had our exam a couple of weeks ago - best exam ever (for me, at least), questions in advance, so the exam was just the write up. We have one question asking about evaluation of this web site, i look everywhere (ok so i type evaluation into google) theres no sign of anything useful, so i write that into the exam - no worries. Then this week i'm researching theatre in science communication for a proposal and half way down a bunch of articles i find the ultimate evaluation for the damn web site - much screaming and cursing insues (it had been a tough day already and this straw broke me). love scareing everyone in the peaceful post grad computer room by suddenly roaring like a wookie - rrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaararrrraaaaaa
im in something of a pickle, facebook picture-wise, when i joined i had just been sent a picture of a dog dressed in a batman costume, and as i had no pictures of me on that computer i chose batdog. now being lazy i kept him there for ages. Having had no sane-human-attractive-male-looking pictures taken of me (im a vain little creature sometimes and i want the facebook fillies to have a good opinion of me) i chose another dog and so on in that fashion. Back home at Easter, people keep asking what the deal is with the dogs, i realise that i'm being silly not having a picture of me, especially when everyone else does (ooo caving to peer pressure). so i find an ok looking one of me - i swear there are good picutres of me i just cannot find them :( - but now ive got friends at uni asking what the deal with my face is. :( its a very distressing catch 22. Im going to work hard to get a picture that dog fans and doug fans can live with.
as you can see, while dull and work filled, my universe seems intent on presenting me with all the mildly irritating and slightly upsetting situations it can. pffffffffft good thing i have cartoons to get me through this almost difficult time.
it's been like a week and a bit since i last wrote a decent sized post, thats crazy. Time was i'd be writing something hilarious every couple of days, but this last few weeks all our deadlines have appeared simultainously and i just cant bear the thought of sitting and writing - until it's too late and i have something more important to do (drinking, watching a movie, that sorta thing)
also since i've been trying to do work there's not much in the way of stories to tell. Unless you like work related stories?
we had our exam a couple of weeks ago - best exam ever (for me, at least), questions in advance, so the exam was just the write up. We have one question asking about evaluation of this web site, i look everywhere (ok so i type evaluation into google) theres no sign of anything useful, so i write that into the exam - no worries. Then this week i'm researching theatre in science communication for a proposal and half way down a bunch of articles i find the ultimate evaluation for the damn web site - much screaming and cursing insues (it had been a tough day already and this straw broke me). love scareing everyone in the peaceful post grad computer room by suddenly roaring like a wookie - rrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaararrrraaaaaa
im in something of a pickle, facebook picture-wise, when i joined i had just been sent a picture of a dog dressed in a batman costume, and as i had no pictures of me on that computer i chose batdog. now being lazy i kept him there for ages. Having had no sane-human-attractive-male-looking pictures taken of me (im a vain little creature sometimes and i want the facebook fillies to have a good opinion of me) i chose another dog and so on in that fashion. Back home at Easter, people keep asking what the deal is with the dogs, i realise that i'm being silly not having a picture of me, especially when everyone else does (ooo caving to peer pressure). so i find an ok looking one of me - i swear there are good picutres of me i just cannot find them :( - but now ive got friends at uni asking what the deal with my face is. :( its a very distressing catch 22. Im going to work hard to get a picture that dog fans and doug fans can live with.
as you can see, while dull and work filled, my universe seems intent on presenting me with all the mildly irritating and slightly upsetting situations it can. pffffffffft good thing i have cartoons to get me through this almost difficult time.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Curse you Golden Flower!!
you'll be glad to know the trip back to southam wasnt a total waste of time (ignoring the lure of shiny coins that got me back to the library in the first place)
while there wasnt huge chucks of fun, as alex was skiing AGAIN, chris and i made it to the cinema. woo - curse of the golden flower
its one of those crouching tiger hidden dragon type films - very pretty but also very complex and seriously crazy
for instance: the emperor is terribly keen on large groups of people dressed identically, sure it's pretty, but i would probably find a better way of using my emperorly powers.
there was uber ninja action tho. which was pretty neat. loads of them swinging off grappling hooks and throwing swords on strings so they could pull them back and swing em round. crazy, crazy ninjas. LOTS of crazy crazy ninjas.
there was a bit at the end that bothered me slightly tho which i will explain but which will involve a bit of a spoiler if you plan on watching the film, and you should note that clearly i'm far to much of a hollywood boy and all this culture is a little lost on me.
so the bad guy says (more or less):
"you have two options, traitorous hansome good guy. either a) painful gruesome death or b) kill the woman you love. bwah ha ha."
then, the traitorous hansome good guy says:
Hollywood ending:
"i choose hidden option c)" where upon he grabs the lady and throws a grappling hook in the air and they swing out of the castle and onto a horse, chucking swords at evil ninjas while the bad guy curses the obviousness of their escape.
but,
what the traitorous hansome good guy actually says was:
"i choose hidden option c)" where upon he grabs the ladies sword and stabs himself in the chest. dang.
like i said culture is generally lost on me and it was a very pretty film - i just think i would of done that bit differently.
but im back in bristol now, putting things right that once went wrong and hoping to finish some work before friday when i get the train home, again.
while there wasnt huge chucks of fun, as alex was skiing AGAIN, chris and i made it to the cinema. woo - curse of the golden flower
its one of those crouching tiger hidden dragon type films - very pretty but also very complex and seriously crazy
for instance: the emperor is terribly keen on large groups of people dressed identically, sure it's pretty, but i would probably find a better way of using my emperorly powers.
there was uber ninja action tho. which was pretty neat. loads of them swinging off grappling hooks and throwing swords on strings so they could pull them back and swing em round. crazy, crazy ninjas. LOTS of crazy crazy ninjas.
there was a bit at the end that bothered me slightly tho which i will explain but which will involve a bit of a spoiler if you plan on watching the film, and you should note that clearly i'm far to much of a hollywood boy and all this culture is a little lost on me.
so the bad guy says (more or less):
"you have two options, traitorous hansome good guy. either a) painful gruesome death or b) kill the woman you love. bwah ha ha."
then, the traitorous hansome good guy says:
Hollywood ending:
"i choose hidden option c)" where upon he grabs the lady and throws a grappling hook in the air and they swing out of the castle and onto a horse, chucking swords at evil ninjas while the bad guy curses the obviousness of their escape.
but,
what the traitorous hansome good guy actually says was:
"i choose hidden option c)" where upon he grabs the ladies sword and stabs himself in the chest. dang.
like i said culture is generally lost on me and it was a very pretty film - i just think i would of done that bit differently.
but im back in bristol now, putting things right that once went wrong and hoping to finish some work before friday when i get the train home, again.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
A long overdue post
Well, it's been a while. i have had many small things to do but nothing urgently post-worthy and from the combination of factors that are; various slow computers and work, my note making has taken a hiatus.
lots of things happened that i thought, in the run up, would be massively postable but everythings just been pottering along as things tend to do.
work is work: who wouldn't want to carry boxes and fill in forms for 8 hours everyday? probably no one, but i'm living that dream
there was an easterathon with my warwick uni mates. we played computer games, drank beer, played computer games, drank mead, played computer games and watched dvds. all this carefully squeezed round my 8 hours of work a day. (exhausing stuff)
we watched some movies to, 300 (thats a film not the number of movies we watched) spartans killing persians, it was good to see persians finally getting stomped by men in capes. not nearly enough capeage at the moment. but it was seriously cool for large amount of time. if you watch the trailer you've pretty much seen everything, but big screen, big sound, kicked arse.
also we saw sunshine, bloody brilliant. first 40 minutes politely sitting watching the crew go crazy then the rest of the film sitting there hiding behind my hands (in an extremely manly way) after the shit hits the fan. though in my defence i didnt scream like a girl at any point and if you go see it you'll realise how much of an achievement that was.
one thing worth mentioning was my first UWE exam. Now those who know about my course know how unreasonabley harsh it is and during our 14th day of lectures in 2007 (friday the 13th of april) we had an exam. Just to highlight the injustice here - thats during the easter holidays! no shops or bars on campus were reliably open. serious pain in the butt. but it turns out to be the greatest exam anyone has ever had ever (for me any way). couple of months ago we get a dry run for the exam. sort of a past paper/case study to do so we can see how it works. 6 questions about a science website, couple of pages of work. frank then marks it and gives us it back with comments and suggestions for improvements. then two weeks or so before the exam we get given the website we will be analysing for the exam. In our exam the only requirement is that what we hand in is typed up during the exam, other than that we can take ANYTHING we want to as long as it's written on paper so it's not copy and paste-able. so the night before the exam i stay up to the wee small hours looking at the website and answering the questions we had for the dry run to get what is essentially the answers to the exam questions (with the improvements frank suggested added in). I go in and spend 2 hours copying out the case study. easy peasy. to clarify, this is a legitamate strategy, that was suggested as an option by the lecturers at the beginning of the course. doing the case study was the test, but the uni needed something to be timed. serious sympathy to hayley who's document vanished pretty much exactly half way through the exam, thats how you get a room full of people to save their documents simaltainiously. but i had a really easy time of it after a night of hard work. turning up full of sugar, tea and smallville may of given me an unhealthy swagger tho which managed to make me a bit of an arse to anyone worried about the exam.
oh and it's sunny in bristol, we had a picnic outside to celebrate the end of the part timers lectures. i am going to miss that bunch, but i will be seeing them again - coz their fun and coz we must party more to celebrate handing in assignments. yay
it is not a terrible time to be me, which is nice
lots of things happened that i thought, in the run up, would be massively postable but everythings just been pottering along as things tend to do.
work is work: who wouldn't want to carry boxes and fill in forms for 8 hours everyday? probably no one, but i'm living that dream
there was an easterathon with my warwick uni mates. we played computer games, drank beer, played computer games, drank mead, played computer games and watched dvds. all this carefully squeezed round my 8 hours of work a day. (exhausing stuff)
we watched some movies to, 300 (thats a film not the number of movies we watched) spartans killing persians, it was good to see persians finally getting stomped by men in capes. not nearly enough capeage at the moment. but it was seriously cool for large amount of time. if you watch the trailer you've pretty much seen everything, but big screen, big sound, kicked arse.
also we saw sunshine, bloody brilliant. first 40 minutes politely sitting watching the crew go crazy then the rest of the film sitting there hiding behind my hands (in an extremely manly way) after the shit hits the fan. though in my defence i didnt scream like a girl at any point and if you go see it you'll realise how much of an achievement that was.
one thing worth mentioning was my first UWE exam. Now those who know about my course know how unreasonabley harsh it is and during our 14th day of lectures in 2007 (friday the 13th of april) we had an exam. Just to highlight the injustice here - thats during the easter holidays! no shops or bars on campus were reliably open. serious pain in the butt. but it turns out to be the greatest exam anyone has ever had ever (for me any way). couple of months ago we get a dry run for the exam. sort of a past paper/case study to do so we can see how it works. 6 questions about a science website, couple of pages of work. frank then marks it and gives us it back with comments and suggestions for improvements. then two weeks or so before the exam we get given the website we will be analysing for the exam. In our exam the only requirement is that what we hand in is typed up during the exam, other than that we can take ANYTHING we want to as long as it's written on paper so it's not copy and paste-able. so the night before the exam i stay up to the wee small hours looking at the website and answering the questions we had for the dry run to get what is essentially the answers to the exam questions (with the improvements frank suggested added in). I go in and spend 2 hours copying out the case study. easy peasy. to clarify, this is a legitamate strategy, that was suggested as an option by the lecturers at the beginning of the course. doing the case study was the test, but the uni needed something to be timed. serious sympathy to hayley who's document vanished pretty much exactly half way through the exam, thats how you get a room full of people to save their documents simaltainiously. but i had a really easy time of it after a night of hard work. turning up full of sugar, tea and smallville may of given me an unhealthy swagger tho which managed to make me a bit of an arse to anyone worried about the exam.
oh and it's sunny in bristol, we had a picnic outside to celebrate the end of the part timers lectures. i am going to miss that bunch, but i will be seeing them again - coz their fun and coz we must party more to celebrate handing in assignments. yay
it is not a terrible time to be me, which is nice
Friday, March 16, 2007
Unlimited Doug Justice, League
ok i'll admit it, my life is ruled by TV, well sort of, TV and movies. but really its more like if theres a perticular TV program i enjoy, thats the one ruling me.
Justice League Unlimited turned up on DVD a couple of days ago. for the majority of you who will have no idea what justice league is i'll briefly explain.
the justice league is the cartoon with superman and batman and wonder woman and pretty much every other (DC) comic book character you can think of in and more. it is extra strength awesome. there is not an episode where i do go WOOOOO! at some point. although it amuses me that the same people who insist on calling comics 'graphic novels' insist on calling one of my favourate cartoons an 'animated series' - some fat guy got quite irate on amazon about it
naturally i've spent the past few days being a superhero (of course!)
ive been running round in the windy windy courtyard pretending to fly, which is hilarious fun
i managed to worry some girls near the library when i'd come inside and was quite warm so i unzipped my jumper the superman way
for some reason that got me strange looks. pfft girls! wadda they know?
also got to help out with the international society at UWE (ok no idea what its really called)
if any ones read stupid white men by micheal moore it'll help you understand. he has a chapter about men dying out because now women can reproduce with artificial insemination and reach things that are high up with a 3 step ladder. fortunatly there was no ladder so i got to be useful in a manly way. Y-chromosome Ho!
i mention the group because it made me giggle to help them out when i remembered an episode of harvey birdman, where a group of "ethnic" superheroes form their own super group called the multi-culture pals. as it was a very mixed group an i was a superhero (with the power of bring tall and carrying things) i kept wanting to pretend (or shout eeee-nupchuck when i had to be tall, like a superhero who grows large) but i knew id get punched.
my secret identity as a mild mannered sci comm student is getting tough. with our dissertation proposals due on monday i thought i was sorted til my supervisor suggested a complete restructure and re-research. DAMN YOOOOOOU! i have been in the same post grad room every week day for the last two weeks. it's crazy i even have one computer i use most of the time, i fear i'm becoming furniture.
at least by monday it'll all be over one way or the other.
then on to our science and the public presentations! uuuurrrgh superheroic trials!
oh an make sure more of you clear time between 1 and 3 pm on tuesdays because Sanna and I are doing our weekly radio show and we want more people listening (online at hubradio.co.uk) yeah yeah do it do it
and call in damn it! otherwise we'll have to continue faking dedications
Justice League Unlimited turned up on DVD a couple of days ago. for the majority of you who will have no idea what justice league is i'll briefly explain.
the justice league is the cartoon with superman and batman and wonder woman and pretty much every other (DC) comic book character you can think of in and more. it is extra strength awesome. there is not an episode where i do go WOOOOO! at some point. although it amuses me that the same people who insist on calling comics 'graphic novels' insist on calling one of my favourate cartoons an 'animated series' - some fat guy got quite irate on amazon about it
naturally i've spent the past few days being a superhero (of course!)
ive been running round in the windy windy courtyard pretending to fly, which is hilarious fun
i managed to worry some girls near the library when i'd come inside and was quite warm so i unzipped my jumper the superman way
for some reason that got me strange looks. pfft girls! wadda they know?
also got to help out with the international society at UWE (ok no idea what its really called)
if any ones read stupid white men by micheal moore it'll help you understand. he has a chapter about men dying out because now women can reproduce with artificial insemination and reach things that are high up with a 3 step ladder. fortunatly there was no ladder so i got to be useful in a manly way. Y-chromosome Ho!
i mention the group because it made me giggle to help them out when i remembered an episode of harvey birdman, where a group of "ethnic" superheroes form their own super group called the multi-culture pals. as it was a very mixed group an i was a superhero (with the power of bring tall and carrying things) i kept wanting to pretend (or shout eeee-nupchuck when i had to be tall, like a superhero who grows large) but i knew id get punched.
my secret identity as a mild mannered sci comm student is getting tough. with our dissertation proposals due on monday i thought i was sorted til my supervisor suggested a complete restructure and re-research. DAMN YOOOOOOU! i have been in the same post grad room every week day for the last two weeks. it's crazy i even have one computer i use most of the time, i fear i'm becoming furniture.
at least by monday it'll all be over one way or the other.
then on to our science and the public presentations! uuuurrrgh superheroic trials!
oh an make sure more of you clear time between 1 and 3 pm on tuesdays because Sanna and I are doing our weekly radio show and we want more people listening (online at hubradio.co.uk) yeah yeah do it do it
and call in damn it! otherwise we'll have to continue faking dedications
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Brain pilots drunk at the wheel - and radioage!
yes
yes it is
i have spent the last 3 days in the post grad room (just a computer room and no where near as fun as the actual grad which is/was a pub atop warwick SU)
3 days of health and safety and im going mildly crazy - i giggle randomly, spout lengthy monologues against the system and forget the day, week, date, time, im very much free of the application of meaning to a specific instance
oo an im drinking
now
i was in the PG room from 1030 til 830 today
sure i wasnt working the whole time, i helped joana and did a little rags in the am then had a random lunch sandwitch and did little for a couple of hours - in my defence my crazies kicked in and anyone who's seen me working knows my crazies are impossible for me and anyone around me to work through. i fell off a stool with great charisma and poked everyone in the room.
but i worked through every single bloody rags (rags is UWEs health and safety and ethics review board and the forms take days to fill in) form and found huge gaps in what ive done so today i wrote info forms (my project will promote world peace and stop global warming) and also consent forms (i am not a bloody kiddy fiddler let me into a school)
where was i?
drink!
yes!
having suffered through a 10 hour day of rags and course mates (mostly rags) i deserve a drink
i got out of that room at 830 but they had locked all the doors! i spent 15 minutes walkin the length of uwe trying to escape before finding the way out. like a rat in a maze with a bottle of wine instead of cheese
did i tell you about student radio?
maybe
last tuesday 1-3 i am being sannas radio sidekick helping pick music and talk. of course we were magnificent and if you missed us this week it ok coz we are doing next week! it was a barrel of giggles and you can tune in online at hubradio.co,uk so do it or ill know you hate me.
strangely its in the same sorta place the radio was in warwick (top of the union) the seem to keep a tower free in all my unions for radio loonacy (at least at warwick it was closer to the grad. damn uwe and its 5 flights of stairs to draught beer - cans it is!)
i forget exactly where i was going with this but im tired, long day, some wine, HEALTH AND SODDING SAFETY!, so im going to sleep face down on my mac if that ok with you.
night
x
yes it is
i have spent the last 3 days in the post grad room (just a computer room and no where near as fun as the actual grad which is/was a pub atop warwick SU)
3 days of health and safety and im going mildly crazy - i giggle randomly, spout lengthy monologues against the system and forget the day, week, date, time, im very much free of the application of meaning to a specific instance
oo an im drinking
now
i was in the PG room from 1030 til 830 today
sure i wasnt working the whole time, i helped joana and did a little rags in the am then had a random lunch sandwitch and did little for a couple of hours - in my defence my crazies kicked in and anyone who's seen me working knows my crazies are impossible for me and anyone around me to work through. i fell off a stool with great charisma and poked everyone in the room.
but i worked through every single bloody rags (rags is UWEs health and safety and ethics review board and the forms take days to fill in) form and found huge gaps in what ive done so today i wrote info forms (my project will promote world peace and stop global warming) and also consent forms (i am not a bloody kiddy fiddler let me into a school)
where was i?
drink!
yes!
having suffered through a 10 hour day of rags and course mates (mostly rags) i deserve a drink
i got out of that room at 830 but they had locked all the doors! i spent 15 minutes walkin the length of uwe trying to escape before finding the way out. like a rat in a maze with a bottle of wine instead of cheese
did i tell you about student radio?
maybe
last tuesday 1-3 i am being sannas radio sidekick helping pick music and talk. of course we were magnificent and if you missed us this week it ok coz we are doing next week! it was a barrel of giggles and you can tune in online at hubradio.co,uk so do it or ill know you hate me.
strangely its in the same sorta place the radio was in warwick (top of the union) the seem to keep a tower free in all my unions for radio loonacy (at least at warwick it was closer to the grad. damn uwe and its 5 flights of stairs to draught beer - cans it is!)
i forget exactly where i was going with this but im tired, long day, some wine, HEALTH AND SODDING SAFETY!, so im going to sleep face down on my mac if that ok with you.
night
x
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Be a man
Breaker breaker, this is the captain, come back, over
i got more dvds, smokey and the bandit, so awesome and it got me thinking
i figure manlyness is like a circle (stay with me it'll make sence eventually)
you have unmanly at one side (pink things, bridget jones' diary and sarah brooks over here) then you get more and more (hetrosexually) manly as you go round, finally you reach smokey and the bandit, magnum pi, and meat cooked over open flames with a beer in hand. but then, if you try and get any more manly you reach top gun, tom cruise and questionable sexuality and your atempts at manly ness just make you seem less so. to clarify im not saying this is bad, just not what i am after
you see using this method you have scientific evidence than burt reynolds and tom selleck are about as manly as hetrosexually possible, and you know what they have in common?
Thats right, moustaches!
just thought you'd all need to know that i'm upgrading my moustache from peach fuzz to fallen eyebrow status.
huzzar! it's a good day to have a y chromosome! check that, a great day
i got more dvds, smokey and the bandit, so awesome and it got me thinking
i figure manlyness is like a circle (stay with me it'll make sence eventually)
you have unmanly at one side (pink things, bridget jones' diary and sarah brooks over here) then you get more and more (hetrosexually) manly as you go round, finally you reach smokey and the bandit, magnum pi, and meat cooked over open flames with a beer in hand. but then, if you try and get any more manly you reach top gun, tom cruise and questionable sexuality and your atempts at manly ness just make you seem less so. to clarify im not saying this is bad, just not what i am after
you see using this method you have scientific evidence than burt reynolds and tom selleck are about as manly as hetrosexually possible, and you know what they have in common?
Thats right, moustaches!
just thought you'd all need to know that i'm upgrading my moustache from peach fuzz to fallen eyebrow status.
huzzar! it's a good day to have a y chromosome! check that, a great day
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Everyone's getting Married!
its weird, ok?
it is definatly fantastic for them, exciting and grown up and all part of moving on and up with their lives and this is in no way saying any thing bad about them. seriously its a problem with me.
realistically i am a bit of a coward, definatly not grown up and as for moving on and up thats just not something i have learnt to do yet
i just aint extremely comfortable right now with people my age getting married.
it scares me, ok?
it's a comparitive thing,
them - settling down with partner, find house, make babies, live happy life
me - sitting by myself watching star wars, singing along (loudly and badly) to songs on my ipod, finding more to drink, no plans past next weekend
its the differences that surpise me more than anything.
it's almost like if i had just followed their paths i could be where they are, but really, really, really thats not me. everytime i hear/read/sence the words "getting married" i'm climbing the tallest thing in the room and talking a high pitched voice, fun but odd
and ok everyones not EVERYONE, but more than one person in my age grouping, not on the permiscuous side of things.
i'm a cowardly man
it's a level of understanding that i definatly havent reached, and no matter how much my omi asks why im not married with children at my age (seriously it did happen) its not in my near future, i guess im just odd
it is definatly fantastic for them, exciting and grown up and all part of moving on and up with their lives and this is in no way saying any thing bad about them. seriously its a problem with me.
realistically i am a bit of a coward, definatly not grown up and as for moving on and up thats just not something i have learnt to do yet
i just aint extremely comfortable right now with people my age getting married.
it scares me, ok?
it's a comparitive thing,
them - settling down with partner, find house, make babies, live happy life
me - sitting by myself watching star wars, singing along (loudly and badly) to songs on my ipod, finding more to drink, no plans past next weekend
its the differences that surpise me more than anything.
it's almost like if i had just followed their paths i could be where they are, but really, really, really thats not me. everytime i hear/read/sence the words "getting married" i'm climbing the tallest thing in the room and talking a high pitched voice, fun but odd
and ok everyones not EVERYONE, but more than one person in my age grouping, not on the permiscuous side of things.
i'm a cowardly man
it's a level of understanding that i definatly havent reached, and no matter how much my omi asks why im not married with children at my age (seriously it did happen) its not in my near future, i guess im just odd
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
A (girl free) Valentines Day Story - but not gay
Just so you know there were alternative titles for this one, for a couple of minutes looking at everyone else's valentines day potential: boyfriends, girlfriends and hopefuls, I got pretty sad and you nearly got:
A depressing, grumpy and resentful valentines day,
or Happy valentines day muthaf***as
but in true it's a wonderful life style i got turned round on it, and so this story may actually be worth reading rather than just dismissing as me being a grumpy bugger.
I'm in southam (thats back home for those that dont know) I'm dog-sitting while my parents are off on holiday and my brother is visiting his girlfriend.
naturally the trip back was epic, tuesday being the first night since thursday where i was sleeping in the bed id slept in the night before (traveling from place to place you see) meaning im still pretty tired
i got online (the computer was being difficult so i was feeling pretty exhausted by then) and i see everyone being happy, now wether they are or not isnt important here im too busy feeling sorry for myself to care. so i go to blog and have a good bitch about being single coz i was planning on a blog anyway and i deside on calling this a depressing, grumpy and resentful valentines day, but i really want to check the spelling on resentful, so i got downstairs for the dictionary.
and i get down there i have two little jack russells sitting on the back of the sofa in the dark, and they're glad to see me. well, it fixed me i have the lights on, im still listening to girly music but im feeling a bit happier. yeah friends an all that but it's nice to have something that runs over to you when you walk into a room to say hello.
having a girlfriend would be nice on valentines day, someone to actually go out with and do something fun, they're pretty good to talk to as well, but friends can just about fill in for that and obviously there's this:
kinda need a girl around for that
but now i have 365 days to sort something out for next year
and im choosing to believe it, damn it
A depressing, grumpy and resentful valentines day,
or Happy valentines day muthaf***as
but in true it's a wonderful life style i got turned round on it, and so this story may actually be worth reading rather than just dismissing as me being a grumpy bugger.
I'm in southam (thats back home for those that dont know) I'm dog-sitting while my parents are off on holiday and my brother is visiting his girlfriend.
naturally the trip back was epic, tuesday being the first night since thursday where i was sleeping in the bed id slept in the night before (traveling from place to place you see) meaning im still pretty tired
i got online (the computer was being difficult so i was feeling pretty exhausted by then) and i see everyone being happy, now wether they are or not isnt important here im too busy feeling sorry for myself to care. so i go to blog and have a good bitch about being single coz i was planning on a blog anyway and i deside on calling this a depressing, grumpy and resentful valentines day, but i really want to check the spelling on resentful, so i got downstairs for the dictionary.
and i get down there i have two little jack russells sitting on the back of the sofa in the dark, and they're glad to see me. well, it fixed me i have the lights on, im still listening to girly music but im feeling a bit happier. yeah friends an all that but it's nice to have something that runs over to you when you walk into a room to say hello.
having a girlfriend would be nice on valentines day, someone to actually go out with and do something fun, they're pretty good to talk to as well, but friends can just about fill in for that and obviously there's this:
kinda need a girl around for that
but now i have 365 days to sort something out for next year
and im choosing to believe it, damn it
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
John-athon
so, my project has began, this is the big, many percents of my final mark project i hav til november, which sounded like ages but then we got told we need to put in 600 hours work, so if im not doing 2 hours a day im fallin behind.
for reference im doing teacher resourses for a chemistry comic book - sounds fun but theyre gonna make me work with kids again damn it
an it's 7500-10,000 words! TEN THOUSAND
ok so my notes waffle but thats a lot of words
i had a glimmer of hope when i saw last years had acknowledgements in them, i had a plan involving 2000 words worth of thanking every one who's name i could think of, but then the project leaders informed me (using the stern voice that always accompanies the use of my full name and which every woman seems to have built in) that my acknowledgements dont count toward the word totals.
damn. 6750 (coz 10% either way sounds fair) to go
of course to kick off my project in style john came to visit. for those who dont know john went to uni with me and was the first of our group to drop out due to booze/not going to lectures/booze.
as my visit home has been dubbed the dougathon by chris it seemed fitting (an accidentally amusing) that this be dubbed the johnathon.
in which we drank lots
an watched DOA or alive, district 13, crank, superman returns, 2001, predator, children of men, an easy rider
thats two distopian futures, one distopian past, two plotless action films, girls in bikinis, a man in tights, and a drug trip where nothing much happens but at least its pretty.
i also found a list of amusingly titled country songs (many of which ive already heard), i love that theyre trying to say something quite sweet and they end up sounding crazy, i can relate - just ask anyone i went to high school with
read these and think of me
At The Gas Station Of Love, I Got The Self Service Pump - is this veiled ennuendo or just a miserable cowboy?
Drop Kick Me, Jesus, Through The Goalposts Of Life - gotta love the religious touch
I Don't Know Whether To Kill Myself Or Go Bowling - aww so sad
I Fell In A Pile Of You And Got Love All Over Me - gross, but theres emotion there, i could of said this in earnist
I Hate Every Bone In Your Body Except Mine. - subtle but so clever, my favourate
My John Deere Was Breaking Your Field, While Your Dear John Was Breaking My Heart - tractor puns, i doesnt get better than this unless its the previous one
Velcro Arms, Teflon Heart - reminds me i really should be working on my project
well im off to pretend im a cowboy with six shooters an a horse, ev'nin' ma'am
for reference im doing teacher resourses for a chemistry comic book - sounds fun but theyre gonna make me work with kids again damn it
an it's 7500-10,000 words! TEN THOUSAND
ok so my notes waffle but thats a lot of words
i had a glimmer of hope when i saw last years had acknowledgements in them, i had a plan involving 2000 words worth of thanking every one who's name i could think of, but then the project leaders informed me (using the stern voice that always accompanies the use of my full name and which every woman seems to have built in) that my acknowledgements dont count toward the word totals.
damn. 6750 (coz 10% either way sounds fair) to go
of course to kick off my project in style john came to visit. for those who dont know john went to uni with me and was the first of our group to drop out due to booze/not going to lectures/booze.
as my visit home has been dubbed the dougathon by chris it seemed fitting (an accidentally amusing) that this be dubbed the johnathon.
in which we drank lots
an watched DOA or alive, district 13, crank, superman returns, 2001, predator, children of men, an easy rider
thats two distopian futures, one distopian past, two plotless action films, girls in bikinis, a man in tights, and a drug trip where nothing much happens but at least its pretty.
i also found a list of amusingly titled country songs (many of which ive already heard), i love that theyre trying to say something quite sweet and they end up sounding crazy, i can relate - just ask anyone i went to high school with
read these and think of me
At The Gas Station Of Love, I Got The Self Service Pump - is this veiled ennuendo or just a miserable cowboy?
Drop Kick Me, Jesus, Through The Goalposts Of Life - gotta love the religious touch
I Don't Know Whether To Kill Myself Or Go Bowling - aww so sad
I Fell In A Pile Of You And Got Love All Over Me - gross, but theres emotion there, i could of said this in earnist
I Hate Every Bone In Your Body Except Mine. - subtle but so clever, my favourate
My John Deere Was Breaking Your Field, While Your Dear John Was Breaking My Heart - tractor puns, i doesnt get better than this unless its the previous one
Velcro Arms, Teflon Heart - reminds me i really should be working on my project
well im off to pretend im a cowboy with six shooters an a horse, ev'nin' ma'am
Thursday, February 01, 2007
I'm gonna be needing new trousers
Scared the crap outta me. Absolutly scared the crap outta me.
You know those ads down the side of facebook, theres one for downloadable smileys they have new 'valentines day ones'.
i need to take you back in time 45 mins. I watched a creepy episode of justice league (its a cartoon with batman and superman in) there was the joker and he had this girl with him and she, (say this in your creepyist scary man voice) "makes you go crazy just by looking at her" anyway i procieded to watch through my hands just incase i went crazy (didnt - yay)
so i go online see whats up on facebook and accdientally roll over this ad for valentines day smileys and this makes it say (in your creepy voice again) "im counting down the minutes til i can be with you again"
SCARED THE CRAP OUTTA ME i didnt realise what it was, an it was absolutely bloody terrifying
how is that a happy valentines day?
how?
i love you so much heres the creepyist thing on the internet?
IT SCARED THE CRAP OUTTA ME - thats not good valentines day practice
its a gooey 'holiday' fulla mushy stuff. not me going into ninja mode ready to be sliced up by the killer behind my computer
not the thing to do
ill be staying away from facebook an only logging on when i have a heavy stick with me (for smacking anything scary) if you need to contact me email at doug@underthecovers.coward
so watch out valentines day psycho smileys are after us all
You know those ads down the side of facebook, theres one for downloadable smileys they have new 'valentines day ones'.
i need to take you back in time 45 mins. I watched a creepy episode of justice league (its a cartoon with batman and superman in) there was the joker and he had this girl with him and she, (say this in your creepyist scary man voice) "makes you go crazy just by looking at her" anyway i procieded to watch through my hands just incase i went crazy (didnt - yay)
so i go online see whats up on facebook and accdientally roll over this ad for valentines day smileys and this makes it say (in your creepy voice again) "im counting down the minutes til i can be with you again"
SCARED THE CRAP OUTTA ME i didnt realise what it was, an it was absolutely bloody terrifying
how is that a happy valentines day?
how?
i love you so much heres the creepyist thing on the internet?
IT SCARED THE CRAP OUTTA ME - thats not good valentines day practice
its a gooey 'holiday' fulla mushy stuff. not me going into ninja mode ready to be sliced up by the killer behind my computer
not the thing to do
ill be staying away from facebook an only logging on when i have a heavy stick with me (for smacking anything scary) if you need to contact me email at doug@underthecovers.coward
so watch out valentines day psycho smileys are after us all
Thursday, January 25, 2007
I got Pig Poisoning
So the reason i aint posted in ages (sorta ages), is that i have been busy working hard.
lectures, assignments, leggy blondes, feature articles and background reading (ok ones a lie but aint saying which)
now back in coventry, alex was the crowned king of procrastination, he would spend all day on an article and we'd go check on him in the evening and he'd of just about got dressed. annoying if we wanted to play games
now during those years i never really procrastinated, thats actually coz i didnt do any work and so had nothing to put off.
this year is my first serious procrastination oppertunity, and i think i managed pretty good.
we are havin an 80s themed costume party/night out on saturday its going to be like totally awesome and i swear there will be some rediculously embarrising pictures online on sunday/monday (before the girls ask me to destroy them)
i got my 80s guy costume sorted on tuesday but the story is one of epic procrastination and 3 for 2 pigs
tuesday i had much reading to do, i also had a costume to sort out, so after a morning of reading i took a break for lunch and walked to matalan for costume bits, they had 2 out of 3 and as i was walking back the possiblity of an excursion to cribbs (the HUGE mall on the outskirts of town) occured to me. naturally havin work i resisted, no cant go all the way there, no take to long, reading to do, cannot go on some damn fool quest for this last thing.
the problem was the use of the word quest. second i thought that i had no choise and the quest began!
having searched every shop in cribbs (almost) i found them and my costume was complete, but i was pretty hungry - it was 6pm by then
so after a quick cheeseburger, then search M&S for some percy pigs coz im there and ill need reading fuel if i ever get home.
so im prowling the store muttering "pigs" over and over under my breath like the numbers guy in lost.
"pigs... pigs... pigs...pigs!".
and i see they had big 400g bags! great!
i got 2! - last longer
it was a 3 for 2 offer!
i got 3!
this is now a bag full of 1.2kg of pigs
i then decided to eat half a bag on the bus home
so i was bouncing round the flat in my 80s gear most of the night, before an extreme come down which left me with a serious stomach ache and 2 bags of pigs to tempt me.
i now have my picture of sarah telling me off bluetacked over the bags, making me feel guilty as well as ill with every piggy bite.
i curse tempation in all its pink swishy goodness.
i still have some reading to do.
ttfn
lectures, assignments, leggy blondes, feature articles and background reading (ok ones a lie but aint saying which)
now back in coventry, alex was the crowned king of procrastination, he would spend all day on an article and we'd go check on him in the evening and he'd of just about got dressed. annoying if we wanted to play games
now during those years i never really procrastinated, thats actually coz i didnt do any work and so had nothing to put off.
this year is my first serious procrastination oppertunity, and i think i managed pretty good.
we are havin an 80s themed costume party/night out on saturday its going to be like totally awesome and i swear there will be some rediculously embarrising pictures online on sunday/monday (before the girls ask me to destroy them)
i got my 80s guy costume sorted on tuesday but the story is one of epic procrastination and 3 for 2 pigs
tuesday i had much reading to do, i also had a costume to sort out, so after a morning of reading i took a break for lunch and walked to matalan for costume bits, they had 2 out of 3 and as i was walking back the possiblity of an excursion to cribbs (the HUGE mall on the outskirts of town) occured to me. naturally havin work i resisted, no cant go all the way there, no take to long, reading to do, cannot go on some damn fool quest for this last thing.
the problem was the use of the word quest. second i thought that i had no choise and the quest began!
having searched every shop in cribbs (almost) i found them and my costume was complete, but i was pretty hungry - it was 6pm by then
so after a quick cheeseburger, then search M&S for some percy pigs coz im there and ill need reading fuel if i ever get home.
so im prowling the store muttering "pigs" over and over under my breath like the numbers guy in lost.
"pigs... pigs... pigs...pigs!".
and i see they had big 400g bags! great!
i got 2! - last longer
it was a 3 for 2 offer!
i got 3!
this is now a bag full of 1.2kg of pigs
i then decided to eat half a bag on the bus home
so i was bouncing round the flat in my 80s gear most of the night, before an extreme come down which left me with a serious stomach ache and 2 bags of pigs to tempt me.
i now have my picture of sarah telling me off bluetacked over the bags, making me feel guilty as well as ill with every piggy bite.
i curse tempation in all its pink swishy goodness.
i still have some reading to do.
ttfn
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Douglas is the internet
why am i back to work? bugger. i really was hoping for week free to work on some stuff for my writing science module but nooooooo, im working 9-5.
Still im saving up cash for the nintendo wii - oooOOoo zelda! ooOOoo nunchuks! its so me!
thing is that dispite the journalistic trials one might expect from in a job writing in a magizine, this job also includes certain tasks that really make me nothing but a very expencive, very very slow internet connection.
examples? fine
douglas is email
wednesday im spell checking and grammer checking a document then i get sent to run a cd with 4mb of files over to a studio nearby (mine is not to reason why, mine is but to do and die). but this took me half an hour - quick calculations during my boring patches today (thats 1030am to 5pm) gives me a speed of 2.2 kbit/s - i think without broadband a modem runs around 56kbit/s - i am very slow
douglas is Google
today i was told to find the names and adresses and phone numbers and all kinds of other stuff for companies all over europe (think a website completely in german, thank god my language skill aint too bad - coz i was searching for high definition pre or post production facilities) still i didn't do bad to semi quote Google :
Results 1-10 of about 35 "Europian HD facilities". (3.5 hours)
then again i may be getting the hang of being a new hound:
"mr blank isnt at his desk right now, would you like to leave a message?"
"tell him doug kitson called and that i need ad copy in my inbox before the end of the day - my editors really breaking my balls on this one"
good god, some times im fabulous :)
Still im saving up cash for the nintendo wii - oooOOoo zelda! ooOOoo nunchuks! its so me!
thing is that dispite the journalistic trials one might expect from in a job writing in a magizine, this job also includes certain tasks that really make me nothing but a very expencive, very very slow internet connection.
examples? fine
douglas is email
wednesday im spell checking and grammer checking a document then i get sent to run a cd with 4mb of files over to a studio nearby (mine is not to reason why, mine is but to do and die). but this took me half an hour - quick calculations during my boring patches today (thats 1030am to 5pm) gives me a speed of 2.2 kbit/s - i think without broadband a modem runs around 56kbit/s - i am very slow
douglas is Google
today i was told to find the names and adresses and phone numbers and all kinds of other stuff for companies all over europe (think a website completely in german, thank god my language skill aint too bad - coz i was searching for high definition pre or post production facilities) still i didn't do bad to semi quote Google :
Results 1-10 of about 35 "Europian HD facilities". (3.5 hours)
then again i may be getting the hang of being a new hound:
"mr blank isnt at his desk right now, would you like to leave a message?"
"tell him doug kitson called and that i need ad copy in my inbox before the end of the day - my editors really breaking my balls on this one"
good god, some times im fabulous :)
Sunday, January 14, 2007
you want posts i'm just fighting to stay concious
i apologise for poor spelling (more that usual)
u see i've just finished a 3 day chunk of lectures and as usual after that comes the 1 night of heavy heavy drinkin to forget all of it.
this weeks 3 days were good tho, we had a circus and puppets and a trip to the science centre, tho i did feel my slight age disadvantage showing as i giggled at the pervy puppets when others scoffed, ooed and aaahed at the circus and ran round the science centre using my (fairly significant) size advantage to clear a path for myself thro the chitlins to the exhibits - there was a room that got smaller in the alice thro the looking glass bit that i loved even if i i did nearly face plant infront of a bunch o' families when i tripped on the way in and an infinite well that jim an i could see the bottom of. crantastic
then of course was the night out, or more acuratly, as we finished at 4, the afternoon/night out, that why i maybe fulfiling my promice to hayley by postin but frankly im straddling - like kieren and his singapore 'massuse' - the edge of concious, im on my way out so you must forgive that my photos will have to wait till the morning, ok, a more workable hour of the morning.
good night out tho even if some people were a little the worse for wear by the end of the afternoon - putting me in charge of your wellbeing may not be the best of plans (just for future reference)
i remember fun chunks, hugging kieren after he took us back to (bugger i dont remember the name) that place we went to last time with the holes in the walls, hugging him coz they played sweet child of mine - fookin love the 80's after that they played build me up buttercup (i did the official southam school dance routine and looked a pillock throught) and livin on a prayer, hell yeah.
also to facilitate memory i txted myself: 'a txt 4 me much drink and almost dancin best a luck rambo! c ya danni ice cube back aaa' im pretty sure this ment rambo was on tv and i missed it and i vividly remember an ice cube down the back from danni.
AND my camera makes my (frankly piss poor 'moustache') look more impressive yay!
to summerise a hilarious 3 days aimed at me the less mature science communicator, followed by some really fun chats with course mates that we may not remember tomorrow, followed by some extremely plutonic grinding of kieren and shirin.
photos to follow +1 moustache
u see i've just finished a 3 day chunk of lectures and as usual after that comes the 1 night of heavy heavy drinkin to forget all of it.
this weeks 3 days were good tho, we had a circus and puppets and a trip to the science centre, tho i did feel my slight age disadvantage showing as i giggled at the pervy puppets when others scoffed, ooed and aaahed at the circus and ran round the science centre using my (fairly significant) size advantage to clear a path for myself thro the chitlins to the exhibits - there was a room that got smaller in the alice thro the looking glass bit that i loved even if i i did nearly face plant infront of a bunch o' families when i tripped on the way in and an infinite well that jim an i could see the bottom of. crantastic
then of course was the night out, or more acuratly, as we finished at 4, the afternoon/night out, that why i maybe fulfiling my promice to hayley by postin but frankly im straddling - like kieren and his singapore 'massuse' - the edge of concious, im on my way out so you must forgive that my photos will have to wait till the morning, ok, a more workable hour of the morning.
good night out tho even if some people were a little the worse for wear by the end of the afternoon - putting me in charge of your wellbeing may not be the best of plans (just for future reference)
i remember fun chunks, hugging kieren after he took us back to (bugger i dont remember the name) that place we went to last time with the holes in the walls, hugging him coz they played sweet child of mine - fookin love the 80's after that they played build me up buttercup (i did the official southam school dance routine and looked a pillock throught) and livin on a prayer, hell yeah.
also to facilitate memory i txted myself: 'a txt 4 me much drink and almost dancin best a luck rambo! c ya danni ice cube back aaa' im pretty sure this ment rambo was on tv and i missed it and i vividly remember an ice cube down the back from danni.
AND my camera makes my (frankly piss poor 'moustache') look more impressive yay!
to summerise a hilarious 3 days aimed at me the less mature science communicator, followed by some really fun chats with course mates that we may not remember tomorrow, followed by some extremely plutonic grinding of kieren and shirin.
photos to follow +1 moustache
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
I have finished my reading!
hurrah!
it may of ment staying up into the wee small hours last night but i finally finished the reading that i have been doing most of the christmas hols. yep Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix huzzar
also i managed to get through most of the mammoth set readings for tomorrows return to lectures whew - slog and a bit that was
seemed like everytime i was settlin down to a speck of honest reading something far more entertaining or important popped up, so in addition to reading i have : imported all the music off my ipod so my computer and ipod are in sync
beaten alex at the towers game he found on the internet (level 75 w00t u r teh suck!!!1)
eaten my weight in chocolate digestives
already mentioned harry potter
also my window over looks a bunch of other blocks and more specifically their kitchens - how am i, an adimttedly week willed male, supposed to concentrate when the girls across from my window insist on excercising in their kitchen, or cleaning the windows? its just the universe being far more difficult than it needs to and im glad they stopped.
also in exciting new years doug related news ive been growing my magnum pi mustache, i was also watching the mask of zorro so i currently have a tiny bit o' fluff on my chin to. very dashing keep an eye on facebook as there will eventually be a moustache progress photo album hooray! (is it that obvious im single?) :)
oo speaking of movies the inaugural simucast of the funk and wagnells channel took place on monday (chris and i watched dead or alive and msn messengered throughout with semi hilarious conciquences, for any more details find the funk and wagnells facebook group).
long story short DOA is the movie for the 12 year old boy in all of us - holly valance, jamie pressly and more heart stoppingly good looking girls kung fu fighting. plot? do u really need one? it has everything: ninjas, girls in bikinis, bright colours, vollyball, girls in their underwear, fake lesbians and a complete lack of respect for every branch of science (bloodless sword fights, no bruising, movement recording nanobots, undownloading and the most incredable disregard for the conservation of momentum you will ever see) it really was 73 minutes of hilarious, gorgeous gorgousness and i enjoyed every single one of them. :)
well todays wednesday so normally id be off to the kitchen for our flats wine night watching oz and james' wine adventure then torchwood, but they've both finished so we'll have to play board games and drink instead
ill keep you informed
it may of ment staying up into the wee small hours last night but i finally finished the reading that i have been doing most of the christmas hols. yep Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix huzzar
also i managed to get through most of the mammoth set readings for tomorrows return to lectures whew - slog and a bit that was
seemed like everytime i was settlin down to a speck of honest reading something far more entertaining or important popped up, so in addition to reading i have : imported all the music off my ipod so my computer and ipod are in sync
beaten alex at the towers game he found on the internet (level 75 w00t u r teh suck!!!1)
eaten my weight in chocolate digestives
already mentioned harry potter
also my window over looks a bunch of other blocks and more specifically their kitchens - how am i, an adimttedly week willed male, supposed to concentrate when the girls across from my window insist on excercising in their kitchen, or cleaning the windows? its just the universe being far more difficult than it needs to and im glad they stopped.
also in exciting new years doug related news ive been growing my magnum pi mustache, i was also watching the mask of zorro so i currently have a tiny bit o' fluff on my chin to. very dashing keep an eye on facebook as there will eventually be a moustache progress photo album hooray! (is it that obvious im single?) :)
oo speaking of movies the inaugural simucast of the funk and wagnells channel took place on monday (chris and i watched dead or alive and msn messengered throughout with semi hilarious conciquences, for any more details find the funk and wagnells facebook group).
long story short DOA is the movie for the 12 year old boy in all of us - holly valance, jamie pressly and more heart stoppingly good looking girls kung fu fighting. plot? do u really need one? it has everything: ninjas, girls in bikinis, bright colours, vollyball, girls in their underwear, fake lesbians and a complete lack of respect for every branch of science (bloodless sword fights, no bruising, movement recording nanobots, undownloading and the most incredable disregard for the conservation of momentum you will ever see) it really was 73 minutes of hilarious, gorgeous gorgousness and i enjoyed every single one of them. :)
well todays wednesday so normally id be off to the kitchen for our flats wine night watching oz and james' wine adventure then torchwood, but they've both finished
ill keep you informed
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Why I havent been posting...
ok so if im at uni ur forced to put up with semi-weekly 'doug updates' of varied levels of hilarity, those of you paying attention may of noticed a 3/4 week break in this, those of you with nothing better to do may actually of wandered why.
well home only has dial up so the connection is so slow it actually hurts (this is true, theres a very amusing story envolving a suction cup bruising a ring onto my forehead coz i had to wait for a download).
but im back an i have my mac back so all is good
and i have 'entertaining' christmas related stories, (read on if you dare...)
well there were hilarious chrsitmas presents, chris got me an insanity prawn boy tshirt that says anus! (thatll probly make more sence if you go to weebl stuff and watch on the moon ep 9). ive worn it in public a couple of times but missed out a perfect oppertunity to ruin polite conversation with it. alex an i were trying to help chris' little sis beth to straw-pedo a cup of squash and their mum asked how she'd breath with a straw up her nose, chris said eyes, alex said ears, i pulled open my jumper only to realise i was wearing my zelda t instead. damn
there was hilarious christmas dinner where one of my uncles conviced pete (my brother) to fill a party popper with cranberry sauce, we gave it to my cousin an told him to set it off at the grown ups table. pete, me and my uncle then spent half an hour on chairs cleaning cranberry sauce off the celing - if only he'd aimed at my grandad like i told him...
LRE work continued until last week (thank god they opened on jan 2 so i could get 3 whole days work in before i left) its tough but at least i can pester my co-workers to keep myself entertained, at theres plenty to read (being a library an all)
so im back at bristol,
its been raining,
an its bloody freezing,
my heater seems small and ineffective (any one draws similarities to my man parts will be in trouble)
but.. the second series on Quantum Leap was waiting here for me on DVD!
Theorizing one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap Accelerator... and vanished. He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own, and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so, Dr Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping that each time his next leap would be the leap home.
god i love that programme
well home only has dial up so the connection is so slow it actually hurts (this is true, theres a very amusing story envolving a suction cup bruising a ring onto my forehead coz i had to wait for a download).
but im back an i have my mac back so all is good
and i have 'entertaining' christmas related stories, (read on if you dare...)
well there were hilarious chrsitmas presents, chris got me an insanity prawn boy tshirt that says anus! (thatll probly make more sence if you go to weebl stuff and watch on the moon ep 9). ive worn it in public a couple of times but missed out a perfect oppertunity to ruin polite conversation with it. alex an i were trying to help chris' little sis beth to straw-pedo a cup of squash and their mum asked how she'd breath with a straw up her nose, chris said eyes, alex said ears, i pulled open my jumper only to realise i was wearing my zelda t instead. damn
there was hilarious christmas dinner where one of my uncles conviced pete (my brother) to fill a party popper with cranberry sauce, we gave it to my cousin an told him to set it off at the grown ups table. pete, me and my uncle then spent half an hour on chairs cleaning cranberry sauce off the celing - if only he'd aimed at my grandad like i told him...
LRE work continued until last week (thank god they opened on jan 2 so i could get 3 whole days work in before i left) its tough but at least i can pester my co-workers to keep myself entertained, at theres plenty to read (being a library an all)
so im back at bristol,
its been raining,
an its bloody freezing,
my heater seems small and ineffective (any one draws similarities to my man parts will be in trouble)
but.. the second series on Quantum Leap was waiting here for me on DVD!
Theorizing one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap Accelerator... and vanished. He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own, and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so, Dr Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping that each time his next leap would be the leap home.
god i love that programme
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