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| 11:50pm 22/03/2009 |
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mood:  cheerful
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Arr, another post from me. This thing is kinda therapeutic, good for collecting thoughts, I had forgotten.
Tis has been a pretty nice weekend, Saturday afternoon was spent with a friend enjoying the sun in Regent's Park, it got a bit chilly after a couple of hours but it was good to just spend time under sunshine, I didn't have nearly enough of that last year. After that I headed to join Nancy and co for her goonmeet thing. Not entirely my cup of tea, but there's enough good people there to make it enjoyable. Plus, beer yay. When Nancy and Lucas left I stayed on for a bit as people decided they'd do some karaoke... which was pretty much a disaster. A Scottish fella hijacked the mic far too much (Which we had paid for), and after it all got into some fisticuffs with Kai after insulting his girlfriend in a really nasty way. He used his wife to distract us and then charged in at Kai, fortunately he was too drunk to do any real damage and the real concern was ensuring that another fella didn't go mental and destroy him (and his wife).
After that was a failed attempt to go to the Gala Casino which might have been fun, but they needed ID for us to get in but not everyone had it, so that was that. More failed attempts to find drinking in London in the early hours, seems to happen a lot...
Still, an enjoyable evening, wouldn't do it every month. Now... another week of hard work on the way. D'oh! |
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(1 Malfunction | What's your major malfunction?) |
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| 02:29am 21/03/2009 |
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mood: chipper music: far too much
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Well, seems like I have to give a shout-out to the nancinator, who has been telling me to get on this program spotify for the last few weeks. Now let me tell you: don't start looking at this program at 1.30a.m. in the morning (Yes, a.m. in the morning!!). It's not a good idea. Pretty much every long-lost song I thought I'd have to make do without hearing again is on here, save for a few songs by those eternally wacky japs. This is surely what the internet was made for... that and the last episode of BSG, and if Virgin sends me another letter for daring to use a torrent program, then, well, flock them to hell and back.
Anyways, tis has been a decent week or three, tonight was Tom's birthday, was good to hang out with the boys (Get a YMCA feeling) for the first time in ages, has been too long. It's funny to see the progress in each of our lives. A couple of years back, he would tell these amusing stories about his brother, who MUST have been gay... but tonight, his brother was there with his parnter of 9 months. Progress, I tell you. In my pseudo-singleness I am finding people in happy relationships quite touching, without cynicism, but perhaps some pragmatism. Tomorrow (Today?) should be a good day, I have a feeling it shall involve a rare level of drunken-ness, but not in a bad way.
This entry has been written whilst "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" has been on the TV in front of me. A bunch of men in monkey suits and orange prison jump suits causing trouble and riotting has made it somewhat surreal. |
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(1 Malfunction | What's your major malfunction?) |
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| Update tastic..! |
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| 01:09am 28/02/2009 |
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mood:  sad music: Imogen Heap - Goodnight and Go
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So, things are ok. I've seen Nancy and some other friends the last few days, and spent this evening watching the Dark Knight with my housemate and another friend- has been nice to just enjoy being with chums.
I was trolling facebook earlier, and noticed something incredibly sad though. A couple of weeks back I went out to Fabric, a big club in Laaandan. It was to mark my mate Lee's birthday, and a couple of others actually made it out to the nightclub, including his brother Andrew. He was a really friendly guy, and I remember talking with him about his relationship that had gone tits-up recently and he seemed really hopeful that he might work things through with her. Well, on facebook, there's a group mourning his recent passing. Only met him for a few hours, but it's the saddest thing I've known in years. So much life and hope, no more :(
I can take a little heart I suppose though, that the two brothers hadn't seen each other in a long while, so at least they got to have a good night out with each other. |
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(What's your major malfunction?) |
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| Dear Livegerbil |
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| 02:09pm 28/09/2008 |
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mood:  sick
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Long time no post, so if anyone still reads, hello and how goes it?
Should be back off to Switzerland with uni/work sometime soon, that will be exciting/ dull. Looking forward to it happening as it's taken a long time to go through.
So, might as well talk about recent goings on since I'm here. Started the day at Marie's family's place for her niece's birthday, they had a bouncy castle, was fun. As happens to most people, it was also friend's 27th birthday so I went out to join them down a nice bar down in Wombledon. Expensive but good vibe, tables reserved, got to see a few gusy I hadn't seen in ages so it was a great evening. A friend had just broken up with his girlfriend the day before so was looking to go to a club- and amazingly we couldn't actually find one in London that would let us in and that time of night! Very silly. In the end we went all the way up to Camden and met a friend, though there were still no clubs to go to. They decided to taxi all the way back to south London, but I decided to get the bus home. I dozed a little and after a bit the driver was shouting "last stop, all change please". I was a bit narked at the bus stopping so early but we'd actually gone right past my stop, all the way over London in just half an hour. Funny when I remember my first experience getting night buses all over London trying to get home at 4a.m. when I was 18 it was never that easy... foolishly I waited 10 minutes for a bus, decided to get a burger and then saw two buses go past as I came out. Darn them, why must they come in convoys?! I got home easily enough in the end, onto the airbed and glorious sleep.
Then awful hangover this morning/ afternoon. Made a squillion times worse by my housemate repeatedly setting off the smoke alarm and then being unable to switch it off. Blergh! |
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(1 Malfunction | What's your major malfunction?) |
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| 12:34pm 30/01/2008 |
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mood: cheerful
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Time for one of those rare posts from me, usually I don't post because life is either boring and I have nothing to say, or I have stuff going on so can't find the time or energy to write. But this time it's different: as I'm writing about stuff to happen.
After nearly 18 months of being on my industrially sponsored doctorate, I'm about to go visit my company for the first time. It's in Visp, in Switzerland, which is obviouslly very exciting. Quite weird how it's panned out, I'd been told February, heard nothing about it (despite asking) until Monday, when I wrangled a possible date out of my supervisor, then the next day, an email from my boss in Switzerland confirming. Nice! Funnily enough I got another e-mail this morning saying "I need your answer urgently!" after I'd already replied, followed by a swift "whoops, didn't see your e-mail". The guy is very nice though, suggesting I go to Geneva as the trainride will offer spectacular views. And offering alpine activities with him and his wife on the Saturday. Aww. Still it won't be all fun and games, it'll be hard work an presentations as well. I'm looking forward to it! |
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(3 Malfunctions | What's your major malfunction?) |
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| Awesome Video Games |
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| 12:27am 12/09/2007 |
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mood:  tired
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Nancy made me a new avatar, so I feel obliged to make an entry for the first time in two months.
Has been an interesting couple of months, had my six month anniversary with Marie just recently... and it was actually the day she'd gone home to Leeds. There's timing for ya. We did meet up in Macnhester the next weekend though, as I had gone up there to meet Lee, and it was a splendid time, Marie and I getting each other gifts, eating in Wetherspoons like it's normal, going on a big wheel, etc.
Nancy was good enough to cook a great roast dinner tonight (A Tuesday indeed!), she's getting good at this stuff. Now, must sleep, got a big week ahead of me... |
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(2 Malfunctions | What's your major malfunction?) |
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| Silly me |
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| 02:06pm 05/07/2007 |
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mood: calm
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Yesterday I managed to lose my coat, at a swimming pool. Very silly me. It had in it my phone, wallet, £50 and passport. The passport was in there because at the BBQ we were headed to in the evening you had to have ID to buy alcohol, plus I often carry it with me since I look young. On the plus side, my Oyster/ Young Person's Railcard wasn't in there. Ten points to me I think!
So now I've had to go through the usual rigaromorole. Is that a word? Doesn't matter. It's been reported to the police, so I have a funky crime reference number- for the second time in just a few weeks. Lucky me! My phone was blocked straight away, it had been turned off and 3 inform me that no calls were made on it, so that's a relief. They are sending me a new SIM and a half-decent phone for £50, for which I am very grateful (It was £15 + VAT for the SIM alone last time I "lost" my phone)! They say they should arrive tomorrow, but I can't see it happening. I'll still have to miss a day of uni in case it arrives though.
Debit and credit cards are cancelled. I managed to convince the lady at the counter to give me £60 though it wasn't easy. Don't know if I'll get a new credit card, as I hadn't changed the address last time I moved and you need the card to change the address. I might as well just cancel the thing, I'm smart enough to not use it and have long since forgotten the PIN number anyway.
Nancy was kind enough to get new keys cut, though they cost a ridiculous amount. I also lost my uni locker key with them, but I'll be able to get a copy of that for £1.50 tomorrow. That leaves store cards (Useless!), the esteemed Yellow Card (Boo hoo) and my passport. That'll require a bit more work unfortunately, new photos, getting a "professional person" to sign it (The lecturer who interviewed me just over two years should count), and then the £70 for it. Erk.
Quiet night in tonight, then food and club tomorrow. However either or both could easily fall through as a) I no longer have anyone's phone number and b) No ID could mean no club. Which would be tres annoyant. But that's life. |
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(2 Malfunctions | What's your major malfunction?) |
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| glasto |
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| 06:33pm 25/06/2007 |
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mood: tired
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Been a while since I updated, guess I might as well bump off smelly ol' Marie from the top of my page. It's not that I've had a more thrilling life these days or been particularly busy at uni or anything like that, I'm just lazy :P
However Glastonbury I think does deserve a post. We (Me, Marie, Nancy and Mark) went down to Somerset for the festival on Wednesday; originally I was quite unhappy that we were going to early but when I heard about the weather and things like that I was pleased as it'd mean we'd end up with a decent enough spot. I think we had somewhere fairly good in the end- well away from the smelly toilets, slightly raised. Only problem was the guy in the next tent along snored like a train, though I was probably the only one bothered by it.
The festival began properly on Friday and I saw a good few bands over the time- the Killers, Chemical Brothers, Manic Street Preachers, Arcade Fire, The Editors, Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, Sandi Thom and Martha Wainright being the main ones.
I was most looking forward to the Killers, been wanting to see them for at least a couple of years now. Unfortunately their set was a travesty, due to the extremely poor planning by the organisers. Other than Iggy Pop who is not exactly the most popular present-day performer there was no other big band headlining Saturday night which meant that the vast majority, easily well over 100,000 people were watching the Killers. Watching, not listening. The music system was absolutely awful, it was so quiet where myself and Marie were that she could hear me whisper. Appalling. The sound increased for the encore but not enough to matter. Similarly, when we saw Arcade Fire the previous evening at the other stage it sounded really flat, though Nancy liked, being them near the front of the stage.
The Chemical Brothers' set was really good, though it really could have used an encore at the end, too many people felt cheated by it from what I could tell. A quick "Block Rocking Beats" would have sent us all home happy, and if it's so obvious to me, why isn't it obvious to them? Probably too busy coming up with scary clowns for the visual show.
Lily Allen's set was really anjoyable, she was definitely better than Amy Winehouse. Apparently myself and Marie were very clearly on TV in a crown shot during that set, so if any of you saw my mug on ITV on Saturday night, I apologise.
In general I wasn't blown over by Glastonbury. This will probably be one of the most negative reviews you'll read, but not everyone is touting the company line of "yes it was awesome it really was I had the best time, and didn't mind the mud and constant rain at all!". One of the guys in a nearby tent left early on Sunday saying that if you have to stay drunk to enjoy yourself, then it's just not fun. Too true.
I liken Glastonbury to Final Fantasy XII- it can go on for well over a hundred hours if you do the extra stuff, but you're not actually sure if much of that is really any fun. The music's not really improved over the years (Though the visuals are spectacular), and there's far too much aimless wandering. Don't really like the implementation of the weather system to be honest either :P
Back to uni tomorrow, boo hoo. |
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(1 Malfunction | What's your major malfunction?) |
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| 11:25pm 22/04/2007 |
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mood: cheerful
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Cypher, one of those movies that's been on loads of times, finally getting round to watching it... and ooh, Nigel Bennett's in it. Seems to be playing an evil Prince-type character, this could actually turn out to be a good movie! |
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(What's your major malfunction?) |
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| Victolly |
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| 03:54pm 19/04/2007 |
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Phones 4u finally came through for me, and got me a phone. Bless! Instead of the w850i or whatever, I have a Sony Ericsson K800i, which according to brief checkings on the internet, is a very good phone, or at least it was in August of last year. So that's good. It's main selling point is its cameraness, which is also good because I have no digital camera and always intended to get one. The store even gave me the £45 cashback, and the guy who sorted me out really did his utmost best for me, I was very impressed with his efforts. |
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(What's your major malfunction?) |
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| 11:55pm 16/04/2007 |
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mood: late music: B*witched - Castles in the Air
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Still at uni, oh what a chore. Well it's not like I'm missing anything, as Marie and Nancy are both up north for work experience (Not at the same place, I wouldn't be nutty enough to let a current girlfriend go work with an ex :P ). We seem to have been adopted by a cat who may keep me company in the mean time; since she has probably given us names like "Why aren't you feeding me?" and "How do I get off this bloody roof?", we decided to name her, and think we stuck on SPAAAAAAAAARTA!!!! Good name for a cat, I think. |
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(5 Malfunctions | What's your major malfunction?) |
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| 07:01pm 12/04/2007 |
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mood: cheerful
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In other, more encouraging news I have a lovely Pizza from Tesco (Finest) and the movie "Dead or Alive" to watch tonight. Mmmm Holly Valance. |
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(3 Malfunctions | What's your major malfunction?) |
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| Curse of the Gibbons |
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| 06:08pm 12/04/2007 |
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mood:  pissed off music: Sandi Thom - What if I'm Right
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Yes, first post in ages, and it's a ranty one.
The Curse of the Gibbons relates to telecommunication companies, and no matter how simple a request a member of my family might make, they always, always manage to botch it.
Today's escapade revolved around me finally getting around to upgrade my phone. I didn't want to do it by calling up my phone company, as that would involve having an Indian trying to describe to me how very good a particular phone is as opposed to my getting to see and try out what's on offer.
So I went along to Phones 4U at the centerpoint of Tottenham Court Road. I blame the adverts, on account of their being fun. They quickly sat me down and tried to get their claws into me, suggesting I move to Vodafone or Orange, and seemed somewhat perplexed by my desire to retain my number, my provider (3G), just upgrade my phone, modify the contract and get on with life.
But the girl headed to the basement and found a 3-compatible phone... decent camera, mp3 player, 1 gig memory card, sure whatever I'm not paying extra for a phone so just give it to me. Then we talked over the tarriffs and apparently the only one available was slightly more expensive, and with 6 months half price (no lame cashback redemption either) and the ability to downgrade the tarriff after nine months, I wasn't sure, so she wandered off to see her manager who agreed they'd give me £45 cash there in the store to take the deal. Such bargaining skillz! I agreed, and we started the process of checking my credit rating and sorting it out.
It went okay, my SIM was transferred to the new tarriff and everything was smooth, that is until the final hurdle: scanning the phone in and giving it to me. Then it all went wrong. They couldn't scan the phone in, and in fact there was not a single 3G compatible phone in the shop they could give to me. But my new contract had already been authorised, 3 had put me onto the new potentially more expensive contract, my "upgrade" had gone through and so I'd not be able to get a new phone anywhere else!
The staff at Phones 4U called back the people at 3 to ask that they cancel the authorisation, i.e. return me to the starting point. But 3 refused, the fuckers, saying there was nothing they could do! WTF! Cue lots of calling back and forth, other staff coming out and trying to sort it out, but always the same answer. At one point the guys passed me to the phone and one of the Indians at 3 told me he couldn't revoke it as "it's a business decision", and the only one who could do it was the people at Phones 4U, which was total bullshit, as of course they would have already if it was in their power.
Not even the mighty Raj could help, init. By that point, I was expecting them to bring out a horse to solve my problem (See Little Britain).
Eventually I had to leave, 45 minutes and nothing to show for it. Utter wank. And when I check my service on my current, shitty needs-charging-every-day mobile I'm on the new contract. I'm fucked at the moment, basically.
It's the same every time I deal with a company like this; the people behind the desk know what I want, and then they have the choice of two buttons to press: the "Help the customer get what he wants, take his money and everyone wins" button, or the "FUCK UP BEYOND ALL BELIEF, WASTE EVERYONE'S TIME AND ENSURE HE NEVER EVER DOES BUSINESS WITH US AGAIN, WHY DO WE WANT HIS CASH ANYWAY???!?!??!??!?!?!" button. They choose the latter, every time.
So I'll have to head back to the shop tomorrow, see if they've sorted it out. They won't have. I know that as soon as I stepped out the store, they'll have sighed, decided they'd spent so long trying to do me right and forgotten about it. When they tell me they've not sorted it, what then? I think I'm going to have to waste my own time sorting this out, speaking to Miss Patel in India, who will barely speak the language, to get me back to square one... how ironic that I only have to do this because I didn't want to call India in the first place. At one point for security I had to give my date of birth. "Fifth of May nineteen-eighty-two" I said. The girl on the other end had no idea. "Fifth"? ""May"? Oh all right you win I'll speak the language you've been trained in, zero five zero five one nine eight two. Now we know. |
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(2 Malfunctions | What's your major malfunction?) |
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| 01:53pm 03/01/2007 |
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mood: tired
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Quick entry to say happy new year everyone, among other things!
Bee na good Christmas with Mikki and her family, then New Years, which was good except I got a bit too plastered. Not my fault that a fellow was offering some very nice whiskey around is it?
On the first, since it's our anniversary, when I'd recovered Mikki took me out for a lovely dinner at, like, a proper restaurant and everything, and then we went to the theatre to see "Wicked", which was very good.
But no time to talk about every little thing, as I'm off to Sweden in a little bit, where I'll be meeting Mikki's grandmother. Not the first time I've been to Sweden, and hopefully it'll be nice and relaxing for us, since it's been to work/ university of Monday.
Toodle-oo |
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(2 Malfunctions | What's your major malfunction?) |
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| omg an update |
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| 07:44pm 10/12/2006 |
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mood: sore
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Yes, long time.
Usual things going on in the last few weeks, studies going okay, had this week-long course at a country house in Kent (Photos probably no Facebook, somewhere), party for Nancy's birthday and so on.
Went to Adam's new place in Fratton last weekend, for a video games competition type thing. It was as lame and as cool as it sounds, with a big laminated galaxy map that we moved around, got challenges on and played various games competitions, ending at about 2a.m., with quizzes and stuff. It wasn't all video games, but mostly. There were also in-between "just a minute" rounds where we had to talk without "Hesitation, Repetition or Deviation" on various subjects. Kind of a fix, as the person who co-organised it got Manhunt as his first subject, whilst I was given... Dragon Quest games. Never mind, I stole one or two across the rounds. In the end I came second and was awarded a £10 Game Voucher. Not bad, considering I'd spent the evening playing games and thought it was just for fun! The winner got a Golden Joystick Gamesmaster-stylee, but I think we know who's winning. I also got my first taste of playing the Wii (Pronounced "Wee"), which was rollicking good fun. But even after just an hour or two playing my shoulders and arms are rather sore.
Two more weeks at uni, then Christmas. No rest for the wicked, i.e. me. |
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(1 Malfunction | What's your major malfunction?) |
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| 02:31pm 29/10/2006 |
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mood: content music: Talulah Gosh - Break Your Face
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Long time without a post, what a shocker.
Things are going well, I've actually had an official meeting with my supervisor, and she told me lots of gold stuff that lets me get on with and prepare for the next four years of my doctorate, amazingly. Still mostly doing silly courses and skills seminars- on Friday was a presentation workshop, where I presented while being videotaped, and had it played back and dissected for how crap I was. Recovering from a chest infection, empty stomach, being hungover and my throat being horrible with no time to prepare beforehand it still wasn't as awful as it could have been, I have an awful voice but I won't feel bad about that. Main comments were no pictures on the slides (No big deal), and that I lacked enthusiasm, to put it mildly. I should've crammed my chocolate orange down my throat before doing mine. Not that I really care about the whole PPMS thing- if the organisers don't care enough to turn their phones off during the lectures and workshops (An average of two calls per session), why should I?
Tis has been a long few nights the last few days... Thursday was LRMN, but after the first actually very good lecture on stem cell basics I needed to go home, and instead faced Nancy pleading me to come out with her. So we met her friends at a Scream pub in Stepney Green and kinda had fun. I just don't appreciate her friends too much, and I can tell many of them probably do treat Nancy as badly as she fears about from their behaviour after we got there. One girl brought over a bunch of tequila shots, didn't even say why there were none for me or Nancy or why we weren't even asked, then said for Nancy to take a picture of them. Yeah whatever, I'm glad I pissed her off royally later in the evening by commenting on Hackney being the worst place in the UK to live. Getting home wasn't easy, and emphasised how I need to work on my "Leadership" skills at the upcoming residential course, so I can do things like say, "Nancy for Christ's sake we're going home now, you will stop pissing about and we'll get the tube home before it stops running." rather than, "Oh look, because you decided we should spend 45 minutes saying goodbye to everyone and wouldn't just do as I say, we have indeed missed the last tube. Good work!"
Friday was fun with Red Storm Rising's first gig in ages. Lee and Lauren joined us, and everyone seemed good, the set was great and Mikki drove us back to Hersham. That was so that Lauren could drive me and Lee to Gravesend for paintballing the next morning. We were a bit late, and missed the first game, which ended up 90-0 to the team we weren't going to be on. Most the other games were similar massacres (We had to storm a fort, we all got killed... when it was their turn, we were truly under siege and totally terrorized), apart from two in a field of haystacks. Those were awesome games, though I'm probably biased because towards the end of the first one, with two minutes to go, I charged to the corner to grab one of the flags, baseball slid behind the cover then charged back to the center to score. Breathing was hard after that crazy exertion of energy for quite a while! More massacres followed, but it was all in good fun, didn't get shot in too many nasty places many times.
After that it was back to Kay's place to celebrate Alex's birthday. And that was a fantastically fun party, for sure. |
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(What's your major malfunction?) |
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| 01:31pm 15/10/2006 |
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mood: annoyed music: Nelly Furtado - I'm a Big Slut
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I am utterly amazed at peoples' inabilities to find the new place I moved into recently. Apart from myself and Mikki, every single person who has had to come here has managed to get lost. The instructions aren't difficult, you drive to Finsbury Park area, and go up the huge long road leading to Harringay/ Hornsey etc. And if not driving, you go to the station, come out, walk for 20 seconds and my house is there. Yet people either walk past it or go in the wrong direction. I gave my sister the simplest instructions: go to the top of the stairs at the station and wait for me- so she decided to start walking in completely the wrong direction. Now I'm waiting for my other sister to drive here, and she's gone to my old place. I'm getting aggravated phone calls, but there's nothing more I can say than to tell them exactly how to get here, is there?
At least Mikki managed it: the first time she even managed to get to the local supermarket and find us in there. Maybe I should only invite people round if they have a grammar school education. |
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(2 Malfunctions | What's your major malfunction?) |
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| 11:46pm 05/10/2006 |
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So I've been taking erythromycin for a few days now... the stomach pain is really awful though, I think I'm going t ohave to abandon the course, especially after researching it on the internets. Ironically, I was prescribed this particular drug over Roaccutane (Recommended by others) because the doctor was concerned about that drug's side-effects! Ugh. |
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gibsie's journal