"I can't go back in there. It's all hating faces that I have to chop up with a machete!"

I find it strange that I type often yet unoften into this thing I call a blog. I don't see it as one, more a way to vent my spleen. Or something. :-/

Anyways, things that have happened recently:

* Saw piles of films: I Heart Huckabees, Oldboy, House Of Flying Daggers, Assault on Precinct 13, etc.

* Went to London (story coming in a mo)

* Planned coursework.

* and so on.

And, rating those films;

* I Heart Huckabees - If you like twisted humour (eg: Adaptation) then you'll love it! 4 stars!
* Old Boy - Dark, brooding, and totally enjoyable, but rather violent. 4 stars!
* Flying Daggers - Better than Crouching Tiger, good for what it is, but a little too airy fairy. 3 stars
* Assualt on Precinct 13 - Actiony mind dribble. Entertaining. 3 1/2 stars.

Meanwhile, going to London was a barrel of laughs IMHO. It was so entertaining it should have been a film. You can read about some of it here: http://wiki.termisoc.org/index.php/2005/01/26_-_The_Greater_London_Adventure

But right now I'm too tired to be wiki-ing, so I'll leave it at that.

'You think Frank wants you? Mutton dressed as laaaaaamb?'

OK, I'm going to try to write this thing in two stages. One just before I go to bed, and then I'll do the other half tomorrow. It's only because I think I won't write too much now, but I want to get some stuff written whilst it's still in my head.

So what have I been up to then? Good question, and one I'll get to once I know where I was last time I wrote.




Blimey! Has it really been that short ago, but yet feel like it was a million years have passed? Maybe because I've been doing so much over the past few weeks. So let's begin now.

On the 9th, I moved back south to good ol' Plym of Mouth to re-start Uni, feeling refreshed and with a clear mind.

Lectures re-started on the 10th, finding that all my lectures are compressed into 2 days (meaning, yeah I work from 10am till 5:30pm without a planned break on a Monday, but I get Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off! Good swap, eh? :)

Work is progressing with turning TermiSoc into a society the union can be proud of, instead of the bane of their existance. A recent count of number of current projects was in the range of 10-15. Now, that may sound like lots of projects to be doing, but because it's spread over several people, it isn't a lot of work.

Jesus, I sometimes forget how damn good 'Mr. Brightside' by The Killers is. Especially listening to it on headphones, cranked up. It's a perfect tale of going home and imagining what your girlfriend could be up to. A perfect combo track to this would be 'Monday Morning, 5:19' by Rialto, which is a song about getting concerned his girlfriend isn't picking up the phone, and believes she's currently making love to somebody in the back of a car. Nice. Hmph, nothing quite gets me into the same mood on the album. Flick over to good ol' 'Ziggy Stardust'. Bliss.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, yes. Plenty of projects to do then. I'm back onto the coke again... sorry, Pepsi Max (for a change). So, apart from Termisoc, thoughts about future media projects keep wandering through my mind. I have so many ideas right this second. I have to do an exhibition in April :O Well, not a whole presentation, but I have to do a piece for a presentation, so to keep my grades up, I'll produce two. Also, I have pieces on 'Information Warfare' and an essay to write, as well as a internet site on a real space. Sound familiar? It does to me, especially after doing the Concrete Carbuncle site. *sigh* Never mind, I'll just do something incredibly artsy for a change. GRRR! Peeing desk keeps falling apart on me. If anyone can remember, I was 'sans keyboard desk' for a while, which resulted in my broken '0' key. Now, both are fixed, apart from the desk occasionally splays and causes the keyboard shelf to drop off it's bracket and bang on my leg. I'll have to get around to glueing it at some point.

Oooh, meeting with Lorna Dallas tomorrow. Lorna is the lass who tries to aid Termisoc as best she can in liasoning with the money side of UPSU. We/I need to speak to her about both the LAN Party project (hopefully happening 9th of March) and our MAME Arcade machine project. The Arcade machine idea is a little dubious, because we need to assess it's a)legality, and b) possibility of running it for cash (be it for us or UPSU).

Anyway, probably going to go to bed now. Night for now

Update 21/01/05 - Oh well, just remembered I had to finish this off, but so tired. I think I'll write another entry another time, so goodnight everybody... *thunk*



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'I know, let's take a Winston Break!' 'Gee Fred, I dunno...'

Have you ever felt like a particular thing is unimportant until you find it's gone (or more specifically, doesn't work anymore)? I'm feeling that right now about the 0 key on my keyboard. You wouldn't believe how many times I've tried to press the darn thing in the 10 minutes I've been on the computer. Obviously, it must have gotten broken in a dropping incident (caused by me breaking the keyboard bit on my desk at Uni). *sigh* It's a shame really, I was just about to spraypaint my computer the colour of my keyboard (it's a shade of purple, if you must know).

I just went to see a play. The most wonderfully produced play I've seen in many many years. It's an adaptation of 'The Secret Garden', playing at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol. I went out of that performance feeling both a)12 again, b)like I was back at school, watching A-Level students act out plays (due to the feel of the theatre), and c) like I'd lived the show. Words cannot describe how INCREDIBLE this play was. I do WHOLELY recommend it if you're in the area. It runs until the 17th of January I believe. Details here. Also, the theatre itself is basically an open space, with only 250 seats placed around the 'stage'. Half of the floor was covered in REAL grass and cobbles! And the performance, the players, and it all was FANTASTIC. If anyone from the Tobacco Factory is reading this, I wish to congratulate all of you for the greatness of this, everyone who made it possible, and you are the best theatre in the whole of the area in my opinion. Thank you once more.

Also, in the same building, but just around the corner, there is a restaurant called Teohs (Review here), which serves Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian, Thai and their own specialities. This place is absolutely perfect for those who want fast, inexpensive, quality food before the performance. The food is quality stuff, although they failed to serve us the Prawn Crackers we ordered, but I would seriously recommend it to anyone who likes their Asian cuisine.

Speaking of Asia, after The Secret Garden, they had the cast getting donations for their Asian Disaster Fund Appeal (monies raised will be split between Oxfam and the British Red Cross). So far they've raised over £1,600 in the past week. My heart does go out to anyone who has lost someone to this tragedy (claimed to be nearly the biggest recorded natural disaster in history). I feel ashamed for the human race that we can't be so kind all the time to others around the world. My bro's still missing a friend who lives in Thailand, so hopefully he'll get in touch soon. If anyone out there knows if Jazz Pagent is still around, tell him to get in touch with Peat and Jo Jeffery. Thanks.

To be honest, things like this make everything else feel pale in comparison. Even that huge dent in my car feels like nothing in comparison. Every day I'm feeling that I'm glad I'm still alive, as is everyone I care for. However, this won't stop me from getting the damage assessed at a local garage. The one problem I face is my little poot-poot isn't worth very much, and so there's probably no point claiming on the insurance, because it'll be an instant write-off according to them. :( I like my car, I wish I cared for it more often, but then again, I'm not here that often. I still need to finish T-Cutting it. Basically, I got a quarter way there. Then I'll buy it a lovely car cover for it to sleep under whilst I am away. :)

I'm sorry, I have a condition where I believe inanimate objects have feelings. But I take great pride in discussing the happiness or sadness of our non-living ancestors.

I feel like I should do something creative once I have drunk some more caffinated beverage. As anyone who has read this blog further than most should know, caffinated beverage makes the world turn, and I think that people who drink Decaffinated products must have a very tired and dull life. Please correct me if I am wrong, though, as I don't think I could survive purely on Caffeine-free Diet Coke for the rest of my life. I think I might take up that Special K challenge when I get back to Uni, the one about dropping a jeans' size. That would be nice. I'd love to be a 31-32 again, rather than a 34-36.

SHUT UP YOU STUPID THING! Sorry, just cursing my phone and it's infinitesimally small battery life (a mere 1/2 a day, if you're lucky). My phone is getting old methinks. Strange how that can be, seeing as I've only owned it for about 13 months, I think. No wait, 25 months. Oh. That might explain it then. At some point, I'll get round to sticking that replacement battery in. Just it'll take 13 hours or so to get settled in. I'll do that before I head back down south for term.

Anyway, I think I should get on with something. Chat to you later!

'I don't care what the world has to say, you should know that I love you, I love you, I love you to death' - Squeeze, 'Heaven Knows'

Well, here I am at the end of my big update day. Typed up all my words from Thurs and Fri, and now I can say all the things I wanted to say now.

New Years was fun, ended up just chilling round at Mark's, playing all manner of games on a multitude of consoles, drinking Malibu, watching the Hootenanny on telly, letting off some 3 year old fireworks in the back garden (they've been kicking around and going from party to party :P ), and generally enjoying ourselves in a quiet sort of way.

We ended up playing:

• Prince Of Persia (SNES) - I had just bought it for Chrissey after swapping the GBA version of Legend Of Zelda
• Final Fantasy II (PSX) - 47 hours of play, and we're still too weak to kill the Emperor!
• Starwing (SNES) - Chrissey got to Mission 4 of Easy, me and Mark only got to Mission 1 :(
• Zelda - Ocarina of Time (N64) - Just started it again, so collected the sword and shield.
• Sonic 3 and Knuckles - After completing Sonic 1, 2 and 3 in the summer, this was the next one to try and complete. Did a couple of zones.

Fell asleep on Mark's sofa, woken up an hour later by Chrissey, who was sleeping on the floor, wanting to sleep on the sofa after being cold, and then finding myself on the floor instead! *grumph* :P Went to Chrissey's 12:30ish.

When we got to Chrissey's, played some Super Mario World (SNES), after losing all our save data whilst on the last world in the summer, watched Bruce Almighty (3 stars, but only because it's one of the better Jim Carrey films), fell asleep twice, had ANOTHER christmas dinner after her parents bought a 26-pound turkey for £6 because it was post-Christmas. Imagine how much 26 pounds of turkey looks like! To me, it looked like something from a Tudor banquet. Cuddled up to my girl at night, and dreamed of a day when we live together.

It all went a little downhill from there. Woke up late, decided to head home only to find someone had put a HUGE dent in the side of my car. Due to the distinct lack of paint on the dent, it's 95% likely it was reversed into. All fingers point at the guy who lives across the road in the big people carrier. After asking him whether he'd seen anything, he went distinctly pale and started jabbering how his wife was in hospital. But "apparently" he hadn't seen anything. Hmm... Anyway, there's not much I could do about it today, with most companies being still shut for New Years. So, I'll get it sorted tomorrow.

'What Would You Do?' by City High just passed through my random playlist. I sometimes forget how some pop tracks can be quite powerful, but are lost in the drown of commercial radio.

My Playstation is still borked. It's down to a duff part in the CD pickup. So, I'm planning on carefully soldering a new lens onto the system (apparently, it's a part that's the first to go wrong due to cheap parts used at Sony). I found the bag of bits in my drawer at 10, by which time I lost the will to do it tonight, so I'll do it tomorrow. Thinking about it, I really should have brought back my box of 10 consoles I bought off eBay, which I could be refurbishing to sell on this holiday, but instead left at Uni (which in retrospect was a stoopid idea). Oh well, just have to leave it 'til term-time.

I must discuss with my parents about getting my eye-op. For those who don't know me, I have a 'turn in my eye'; a condition which means I only look through one eye at a time, meaning that the other tends to wander off of it's own accord. This really only affects me properly when I'm tired, meaning quite literally I can't look people straight in the eyes! It doesn't affect my sight, just messes up conversation, grabbing a barman/maid's attention, and most importantly photographs :( It's purely cosmetic, but it does affect me, especially as the president of a society, wanting to be an entreprenaur later in life! One other issue is I'm still covered by my father's company health insurance until I'm 21, so if I want to get it done, February's my deadline to start the ball rolling.

'The Simpsons' has really gone downhill. I happened to catch a 'new' episode on Sky about Bart going blind and accidentally mooning the US flag. After being arrested for being traitors and being put on Alkatraz, they escape, go to France, only to return as immigrants. A hopeless episode, even it's political satire was tired, worn and overdone. I'm just glad they stopped Futurama in a way. Only Fox could cancel a fantastic series, only to run The Simpsons into the ground. They even did the same with Buffy, forcing Joss Whedon to do 1 more series than he wanted to, yet cancelled the great Firefly.

Anyway, I think most people have gotten bored listening to my ramblings, so I'm off to do something else. Guternacht :P

Oh, and hi to superflywebpimp, my first ever commentor! Don't worry, the techy stuff hurts my head too!