Christmas

What other title could I possibly have used for such a day? The cynics reading this may wonder why I am writing this as it slowly shifts over to the official day of Christmas, but I would argue that what better time to consider my feelings about such Christmas issues, like the ones I'm going to be covering in this post?

Christmas number ones have lost all meaning in recent years. It may be true that the last number one to have actually meant anything, was actually a close call between the years of 1994 and 1995, East 17's Stay Another Day and Michael Jackson's Earth Song respectively. The former, though technically just another song, still retains the aura of being a festive single even after all these years have passed, regularly getting played around the month Decemeber year after year, while Michael Jackson had a go at criticising everybody for the cost of what we're doing to our planet. Both songs I will happily admit to enjoying, both because they bring up special memories of when I was younger and more innocent. However, recent years have seen such reality crap take over the charts, starting with Girls Aloud and currently standing with Leona from X Factor, using a completely un-Xmas related tune to secure the top spot. I hope she regrets that, and hope that if the formulaically created popsters that churn out from the many series continue to take the pole position in the charts on the big day, let's hope they at least make an effort to include some bells and references to Santa and/or mince pies.

Does anyone go to Church on Christmas Eve? I haven't ever been with my family, as we wouldn't really consider ourselves religious, but I know there are still some out there who religiously [The pun was completely unintentional, but I left it in even after I noticed ;) ] attend midnight mass. I ask this because I am intrigued about what it means to them. I find it much more difficult now than when I was a youngster because I know stuff about the birth of Jesus being on a different day, possibly even a different month than the day we celebrate it on, and know how it has, despite my enjoyment of this very fact, become commercialised in the worst sense. They even have a Christmas 2 sometime later in the year, but thank god people haven't really accepted that. Maybe that's on Christ's real birthday, who knows? If you do have an opinion on this subject, feel free to leave a message or comment.

I have been roped in to work on Boxing Day, and all I know is that I really should be doing it as my current financial situation is a bit of a struggle. I do have a job, and I will be getting a job when I get back to University, but for now I must play the waiting game as the payment for my good labour has yet to come to fruition. It's tough. Those who have jobs don't really appreciate them until they lose them and are searching for another, and when you're moving back and forth between different countries, corporations aren't very helpful [I was looking for a better word to use here, but I am at a blank at the moment!] in being accomodating to this fact, even when it's in the same Kingdom! As evidence of the fact that me and jobs just never were meant to get along, I turned up yesterday, or Christmas Eve Eve as it is also known, to work at 6pm. I even turned up a little early, but the big surprise was that my boss had told me the wrong time to work, so I was sent away, no lift arranged and no money on me, hoping to get a lift home when my Mum had only just gone far out of her way to drop me off there. What a bastard. And I'm not even getting paid that much now because of it.

Illness is a big part of Winter, but why god why does it have to fall around the same schedule of my Christmas? Not that I, as of this very moment [meaning I am not subject to the Law of Sods, by stating something only for the opposite to come true], could be considered 'ill', but the rest of my family is. One has a headache, throat infection and neck stiffness combination, one is coughing and sniffling and sneezing their way through a bad cold [Had to be the youngest too, who hasn't quite got the sense to cover her mouth and wash/wipe her hands after getting phlegm all over them X-( ] and frightening the life out of me everytime she handles communal food such as the box of maltesers/chocolate snaps :p, one has a ear infection thing, another has migraines and a milder but still phlegmy cold and the other is generally tired and downtrodden. I've had minor headaches and a very mild blocked nose syndrome, but as long as I get to tomorrow and taste my wonderful Christmas Dinner [Which my Mum makes the best of!] and watch the cheesy trash that is on in the evening and spend the whole day not throwing up, I will be happy as a man can be, and that is the truth. be bloody grateful if you have a completely healthy family this Christmas!

And this is all I'm going to write, as I've spent more time on this than I planned to, and my lovely warm bed is calling out to me, ready for the sleep that will take me straight to Giftsville. Have a good day, or as they say in my country, Nadolig Llawen!

Party

Time for the Sort-Of-Paradox-Thing-But-Not-Really-One-Of-The-Day: Have you ever tried using the search engine Google to search for Google? I did, and I found it incredibly weird. It also gathers approx 979,000,000 results too, one of the most amounts I've ever recalled.

Party. As in the title. I'm referring to Catherine's big Xmas bash last night, which was a resounding... drunken evening for me at least. It began about 1:30, when I was on campus in the SU General meeting room, somewhere in the depths of the campus architecture. I was holding another of my film meetings for The Rabbit, except I didn't come prepared at all, but we came up with the idea of a Best Films of 2006 feature, an awards feature if you like, called 'The Carrots' so look forward to that in the future.

After that, and sitting in on another meeting to kill a little time, it was off to the bar to meet Roxie, except luckily I bumped into two other girls sitting on the corner sofas as Roxie didn't turn up for another 45 minutes. We made Christmas shapes using some tinsel type things, it felt like an arts and crafts lesson. Then we spent some time listening to music, with me trying to surprise Cat with some good music, which worked as she particularly enjoyed this one band, and liked some others. When Roxie finally turned up, with some others in tow, I had to head off as I realised my next engagement had been pulled forward by 2 hours, so I was in a particular rush.

Needless to say, it was a good party. Drink was drunk, pictures were taken, somebody kept hassling me all night but all things considered, I think cat herself should be proud. Even managed to meet a couple of new people though I'm not too fond of the impression I gave them of myself. Maybe they'll understand it was the alcohol. I'll chuck a few of the photos up now, so you can see for yourself how interesting it was.

Nature

This has nothing to do with me becoming a hermit, or even self sufficient, it's just a nice little link in with a couple of things that have happened over the last few days.

I was walking back between lecture the other day, deciding it would be better for me productively to go home to attempt the summary sheet, rather than try and do it in Labs on campus and get extremely bored. As I got outside, the possibility of rain loomed above, waiting to rupture the dry spell and pour down, but I had a perfectly decent hoody on me, so I chucked it on and let the light shower carry on. However, only two minutes away from my house, the skies really did open up and water cascaded down onto me, and absolutely drenched me. At first, I felt myself get a little edgy, possibly even a bit annoyed, but then I realised that this was what I had always hoped would happen someday; I was finally completely soaked through and had nowhere to go. It was time to feel completely free and childlike again! I jumped in puddles, I went out of my way to wade through deeper water and I was laughing and smiling the whole time. It was, for a couple of minutes, pure bliss.

Today saw the first experience I've had of a blackout up here in Essex. Excuse me, I should mention that it's not the case that I've never been in one before, just never up in Colchester. It brought up very interesting memories and happenings. If you live in Greenstead, I sincerely hope you have your internet/electric back by now.

Lectures are done for me, as far as I'm concerned now, and so the rest of the week is all about enjoying myself. This is possibly the last Christmas with my good friends, as most will be leaving at the end of next year, while I'll hopefully be in California studying maths and also living the life. It's difficult to even contemplate not seeing them again for a good long while, as it turns out they've become a staple feature in my life. Even today, which had to be the most tame outing with the Chloe, Phil, Sam and Phil household was still great fun. Thanks for an excellent night guys, and an awesome year too, without you it would've just been another boring term. Same goes for a lot of people actually, but here and now isn't the time or place for long winded thank you's.

Time to wrap this up. Over the holidays, here are my plans:

1) Take some time to make further progress on my piece of literary fiction
2) Working on improving the show Future Sounds by creating jingles, samples and general cool stuff
3) Get a Xmas job, make a little cash

Diary

Well its about high time for another dose of Epiq adventure I think, and yes, the pun was intentional. Congratulations already to those who've made it this far! You deserve much praise, but I digress, I will begin this post proper. I have had a good couple of weeks.

Since I last wrote, I have been enjoying my time here in Essex, but also spending a lot of time mulling over life and occupying my time in a very relaxed way. Such things include reading, playing the old computer games, the internet (which I will come back to in a bit) and playing poker for no money.

The biggest event, which has been documented via the magic of Facebook (again, I will come back to this later) was the trip to London on wednesday, more importantly the Paolo Nutini gig. It was such an awesome day. It started quite worryingly, as after being only 5 minutes late to the bus stop, we narrowly missed the bus to North Station, and instead of the usual service of one coming along every 20 mins, we had to wait another half hour to get the next bus. This put us already so far behind, but we were determined to enjoy whatever time we had! An amusing train journey followed, which included a great piece of artwork by myself and Cat of Gordon brown (You must ask to see it, it's very funny!) With just over 5 hours in london, we managed to fill it up with a bucketload of stuff including Hyde Park, Harrods and Krispy Kreme's, Tower Bridge, Christmas lights and Oxford/Regent Street. We also saw, not met but saw, Richard Ayaode of The IT Crowd fame on the tube a.k.a Moss. We got to the gig about half hour before doors opened, and despite feeling we were quite behind, we were in the front third of the queue by the time 7PM rolled along, and in we got while I held us a good spot at the front while Cat WC'd it. Holding onto my spot despite Cats protests, we stuck it out for approx 3 1/2 hours when we finally gave it up 3/4 way through Paolo's set. Got some great pics, if you want to see them ask myself or leave a comment.

Facebook. What a wonderful site, and a multiple of time better than myspace could ever be. I spend a lot of time on there, and it is such an easy way of spreading news of a party or event, and also a fun way of keeping in touch with old friends and current ones. Only today, I have found a number of people from my old primary school in Kingsbridge where I used to live. The only bad thing I can think of to say about it, and this is a universally known fact, is that it is way too easy to get lost on there for a long time, browsing other peoples photos, nosing on their walls, reading their notes and generally searching and enjoying all the stuff on there. I spent a good hour on there in total today and I feel a bit dirty because of it.

Future Sounds. Now, a little trivial piece of information before I go ahead with writing this. I spent about five minutes writing this whole post, possibly even more time than that, before I pasted the wrong piece of writing into it. Clicking ctrl and Z brought me back to the beginning of this paragraph, everything after it deleted, so I tried to recover old post, and whoops, another chunk of my writing gone, so I had to start all again. Don't you just hate it when that happens? Anyway, that little bit saved me from once again bigging up mine and PJ's radio show, as I always tend to do when the topic of Future Sounds comes along. instead, I will sell it to you short and sweet; Future Sounds is a radio show, on every thursday 8-10PM on RED AM, in which me and my co-presenter PJ play some good futuristic sounding music and generally banter and humour the audience. Now, there is a reason for writing all of that, and this is as follows; we have our very first clip up on the internet. In fact, by the time you read this we'll have a couple up, so go ahead and check them out at the following link:

Future Sounds

If you want a taster, please watch out for a future video which we will shoot to promote the show (Assuming PJ is up for it!)! For now, here's a direct clip to one of our clips, enjoy ;)

Future Sounds Episode Clip 6
Uploaded by FutureSounds

And finally, just in case you weren't aware, next week is the FINAL week in Uni of this term, and so will be full of special goings on. Parties, good nights out and general antics are going to be around, so keep an eye out for plenty of photos over the next few days :)

Contemplation

I've not blogged for a good ten days, maybe that's a good thing though, as I have amounted a large pool of news, stories, information and theories in that time. That's a lie, my brain seems to work differently to others, in that if something is completely irrelevant and ultimately pointless, I seem to let it fall out of the memory banks in favour of stuff that really matters. I sure hope it's not just me who seems to forget the little things all the time.

I did come across an interesting argument in the paper the other day, and that was 'Abortion'. I don't know where I stand on this issue. I don't think a child, if it was going to be born, should have to suffer a terrible life with a parent who cannot afford to keep them if there's an alternate option. Then again, it is the life of a living thing, but it's just easier to think about it being a lump rather than something more as this brings up all sorts of arguments that are effectively grounded in facts. Murder is possibly one of the worst acts to commit, simply because you shouldn't have control of whether someone's life is to end, and a justful punishment for this is usually getting your life taken away be this literally or figuratively. Can we apply the same arguments to abortion? No, we cannot, because it isn't as simple to compare one thing to the other. All I have to say is that I'm glad I'm not in such a position where it's my decision.

Moving onto lighter topics, has anybody heard about the current use for the Government's biggest embarassment of 2000? The Millenium Dome is being turned into a multi functioning arena by those grand people at O2. It is named The o2 and will be open as of July 2007. I won't turn into a blogging advertisement space, so suffice to say, if you wish to learn more, click on the link I have provided.

Not much left to say, except that today has been a tough day, but last night was excellent. Just goes to prove that alcohol doesn't have to be a momentous force in a great night out. If I only had some more money to spend though, it's less than 4 weeks until Christmas...

Drizzle

Diaries. That's an interesting thought right there. Books written by people, where the story is their life, all their secrets, feelings and current events hidden between two covers. Kids have them, adults as well. Famous ones include Samuel Pepys and Anne Frank, and nowadays every celebrity has one in autobiography form, where all the scandals and lies come from. I have had one myself, but I could only keep it for a couple of weeks before I gave up. And even then, it tended to be the most simple information inside, such as where I was and what I did that day, none of this 'soandso is suchandsuch' stuff. Which brings me to another point; how could anybody possibly put their truest feelings onto paper, when such things are more than likely to cause a problem if discovered? I've never understood that. In fact, in my one and only diary had one slightly regretful comment in it, and even now I feel a bit annoyed because I put it down. Surely nobody has a completely undiscoverable diary, but then again most of us when we younger used to think we were capable of keeping secrets, so why not think hiding a diary from prying eyes was easy?

Also, how come TV and Films always seem to be a whole era behind the public when it comes to mobile phones?

It's raining outside...

Thinking

I've had a very lazy-ish couple of days. When things are mounting up in one area, at least for me they're cooling off and getting cleared in the others. Currently, my biggest pile up of stuff goes under the academic stuff, like homework and revision. The other stuff, namely radio station timetabling, Film section creating, script writing for R:TV and fitting in a social life in between have been going well :) A bit of a rush for this issue's deadline of The Rabbit, but nothing that didn't get sorted through getting down and doing it. Yes, things seem to have a balancing act.

I rung my mum up on the Friday, moments before meeting up with my housemates for the crucial Friday drinking session. I just felt so happy after talking to her, thing is I am indeed a very closed off person when I think about personal stuff. There's nobody out there who knows a lot about me, but I can't help it, it's just part of my personality. I tell some people some stuff, but nothing that isn't already known by others. There is one person I can tell everything to, but I speak to them once every couple of months, apart from when i'm home for the summer, but still it's not as much as i'd like. I think this is part of the reason why I get the odd day, say once every two months or so, when things just pile up and it brings me down. One of those was last Thursday, which was when a lot of things seemed to climax on the one day, which I couldn't really cope with so I just chilled out that evening and everything was fine the next day. I told this to my mum, and she was good at listening. Anyway, friday night turned out to be brilliant, I bumped into a lot of people I knew and had a great laugh with my housemates. Drunk quite a bit considering and got quite drunk, but still didn't wake up with a hangover!

Apart from that, nothing much to tell. I went to London on wednesday for the media conference mentioned in the last post, and it was incredibly helpful. It went and cleared up a lot of the misconceptions about journalism, and enthused us for the future, which was its aim I guess. however, there were also a few tips I picked up that will help me when writing for The Rabbit. Also, I went up there with PJ, Nathan and Michael, and Michael is already a friend of Cat's, as she is in charge of timetabling his show on the weekend. I happened to catch a glimpse of it today and it was enjoyable, they seemed quite professional. Also I went on cat's show today after a much needed gym session, and thought it went pretty well, though it did make me feel glad that we're finally getting our own show started this week or next.

I have another blog which I am keeping secret for now, as I'm gauging whether its worth is actually of value to you. It's something I learned from the conference that blogging is the future, and as a headstart into a journalism career I am starting up my own, sort of a Torchwood to this blog's Doctor Who. No wait, a Frasier to this blog's Cheers. Yes, that works much better :) If you're REALLY interested, gimme a message and I'll send it to you, but be warned, its 'experimental' Interpret that into whatever you wish!

Mobile

Here's a good enough reason for an up to date blog post; I have a new blog. In fact, maybe that isn't such a good reason to update. What might happen to the world if I keep this up? At first it's just a blog within a blog, but pretty soon it's a blog within a blog within a blog, then a blog within blog hell only to end when hell hath frozen over. Maybe not that, but certainly, if you have trouble reading one blog then you're not going to have time to read two! Well, you'll be thanking me as I tell you this new one is simple and easy to follow as its mainly pictures. I got a brand new mobile phone, and I was messing around with the features of it when I discovered a 'Blog This' setting, so I clicked it and I apparently can blog photos from my phone. This is simply great news. Check it out now! Bookmark my blog, thank you!

Secondly, I have just finished the LAN, a computer thing in case you didn't know, and I am shattered. Last night I stayed up til 8 o clock inb the morning, and that wasn't even me being at home as I had to walk back shortly afterwards, playing a tense Poker tournament with real cash involved. I had to borrow a quid to get in, as it was a £3 buy in [my very first real gamble] and luckily I came out of it breaking even, placing third out of seven people. Stupidly I went all in on a hand trying to bluff my way through a tactic that had worked previously, only for him to have the single card that beat me :) But overall it's been a good weekend, but I'm looking forward to just getting back to the house and relaxing. I may even skip my lectures tomorrow as a result in fact, in order to catch myself up completely. I have been putting off doing the lab homework due in tomorrow, so I'm going to have to finish that tonight.

I've also had a dispute with somebody that I reckon I handled in a respectable manner, still dishing out the sly remark but remaining professional. If only the other person could say the same thing. I won't say who it is, even though most of you won't know them anyway, but suffice to say they have a mustache which probably narrows down the person a lot more than you'd think ;) I feel bad this weekend for neglecting my good friends, they have made plans that I have been unable to attend, so I will be sure to make up for that soon!

Wednesday I have this really wicked CV boosting event, it's The Guardian [the newspaper, not the recent film] Media Conference for students, and it's where a load of professional and respected journalists come down and talk to us about how to improve our writing skills for journalism. Something similar, using Essex Uni grads who have gone into careers in radio, happened a couple of weeks back and it was excellent, apart from the fact I hadn't slept the night before so I was unable to pay 100% attention. It was free and I got the gig along with a few others so we're all meeting up at 7:30AM to meet and go to this place together. It's gonna be really good, and my maths friend happens to be going to the train station that time too so she is coming with us! Hoping she'll have fun in twickenham :p

Exclamation

Ever feel so excited you could burst, just because everythings going your way for a change? I've had plenty of my share of those this last month and a bit. Not right this moment mind you, even though I am still technically extremely happy, just I love that feeling when you find out something extremely exciting, and you get that hyper thing for a few hours afterwards. My last one was when I found out I was going to be SEEING the film at the premiere. Then another shortly after when i found out I was getting INTO the after party. And another when I realised the stars were there! Yes, I do keep going on about that, but y'know what? It was a good occasion and I would be happy for anybody else who got that experience.

Moving on, I felt it time to write a brand spanking new blog, because I am aware of all of you out there, all zilch of you, who love to browse my lovely life events in text form. First and foremost, how f***ing great is Jason Mraz? He's possibly the best artist out there. No other artist, except maybe Less Than Jake with their new album, has me going back for more and more and more for what seems like an eternity. I just just missed out on his last tour, as I was still in the early stages of being a fan then and didn't really have any of his music. Now though, the second he decides to wow us with his style again (and this guy is amazing live from what I can tell on his live albums and other fans) I am there, possibly twice. Yes, he's simply superb. What a great musician!

Another band I really like, who are really understated, are Head Automatica, who impress and delight with their whimsical lyrics yet heavier sounds. Melodic to the max, each one of their many songs, while still sticking with their original style, stands out and will be stuck in your head for ages. Yes, I just did a mini review for you, that's my Film reviewing mind going haywire.

Oh yes, this weeks issue of The Rabbit, out Friday, really did a number with my organisational skills. I was really struggling on the deadline to compile something which looked half finished. I had next to no new reviews, and people who said they'd send stuff, just didn't >.< Though I never really individually chased them up so maybe it was partly my doing. Anyway, luckily a friend of mine, though really late, did manage to save it by sending me a large chunk of text and I quickly got to work on the pictures and whizzed it through the email to Sue, our designer. She whipped up a preview and its looking good, thank god for that! There's a film comissioning meeting on wednesday, and I'm going to be extremely organised for that.

other involvements of mine are this soap/drama series I'm working on for the University. I have a small at the moment but getting bigger writing team, and our first official script writing meeting is on friday. It should be good! Bloody SU VP's though, none of them were around for about an hour today as I serached in vain for a signature to finish my room booking form, hehe. I also held auditions last week, and the turnout and general level of ability there showed some real promise for this project. There were definite characters and some lame ducks (though not completely bad, just not suitable for this thing) but overall there were at least four brilliant people. We had fun writing down notes for each person, and look forward to holding round 2, hoping for much more of the same quality. Keep you posted on that.

The biggest news of today has to be this; Tesco have FINALLY started stocking the Finest Triple Choc Shortbread though, after four weeks of complete and utter disappearance from the store. Here's my advice to you kids, don't ever get addicted to something that's not a sure thing! You'll only end up getting mad, and I found myself getting really bugged at other things because of the lack of shortbread, not even the christmas box of shortbread I ate and devoured in a number of days was a good enough replacement. I wasn't really angry or frustrated about it, but it was funny to put that down :)

And this is where I sign off. I can't think of anything else to say, though I do have a picture to show you. Oh yeah, before that, i wanted to say if there is anyone out there who was considering getting BF2142 but was put off by the whinging moaners out there, don't listen to them. Froms omsebody who had experience, but not much of it, of BF2, I say this new game is on par with it at least. It's so fun i stayed up til past my self set bedtime of 1am for a 9am lecture to carry on playing it. I'm getting good at it! I had this one really great part in that game, where I was on roof in central enemy territory, andf I managed to kill about ten of them and spend about ten minutes there before anyone cottoned on. I even knifed somebody I was so good :D Okay, now the picture, then the end. Goodnight!

Best. Day. Ever.

Everytime I have something I feel is interesting to say in a blog, I always give up about halfway into it and tend to summarise the last parts. It's not a bad thing, but it does bug me sometimes when the whole crux of each story is the final bit, or the conclusion, and when you mess that up it brings the whole story down. You may be wondering why I am telling you this, but if you think about it, you'll probably guess why. It isn't hard. You got it yet? That's right, I have a great story to tell, and even though I feel it was my best day ever this year at least, if I don't explain it to you properly, you might not understand why that is. I'm going to give it a shot.

Have you ever had one of those days, where things don't seem to go that well to begin with, but somehow change for the better?I had one of those days. It wasn't as bad as last Wednesdays being late for 'The Guardian' film screening, but it did start off pretty slow. Just a regular day really. I woke up, slouched around for a bit, before eventually deciding to hop in the shower and got out, dried and dressed with little time to spare before leaving for my lecture. Bog standard stuff really. We get to our lecture, and even though Jana really tries her best and is very organised and knowledgeable, it was probably the slowest lecture of the year. Time dragged on, and we [Me and Jo] thought the clock must be wrong or something. Eventually we got out, and went our separate ways for the day. Stuart my flatmate, went home, while I stayed on campus to pick up a dictaphone from Zak and sort out other stuff.

I headed to the lab, checked my emails, found a number I needed, and once I stepped outside got on the phone to a lady called kate Hudson, one of the PR people at this red carpet premiere events tonight. She seemed a bit reluctant in giving me the information I required, basically what was going on that night, but after telling her my name, press number and newspaper name, she talked me through the basic setup; we as print press, would be put inside the foyer of the cinema, and we would get to interview the stars as they walked in to the screening. I was expecting that sort of, but it was still going to be awesome. Turns out it would be more awesome than I thought.

I bumped in to a few friends on campus after I collected a very kind lending of a dictaphone from Zak [Thanks ZAK!], including Phil, flatmate Phil, Ben, Nabeel, Khalid and Nikki and Rachel to name a few. As Khalid was physically dragging me to his lecture, I wrestled free telling him I needed to be going to London, and eventually they headed off without me. I saw the brand spanking new edition of The Rabbit out already, so I picked up a copy and spent the next five minutes reading it outside the SU bar. After that I plopped it in my bag and headed home.

When I got there, I became a bit lazy, as instead of getting ready to head off straight away, I just dossed around for a bit by rechecking my emails and facebook etc for about an hour. After that I thought, enough! I started to get ready to go into town. I emptied my rucksack, all the while wondering what I would do if I turned up to the premiere with this backpack and they wouldn't let me in with it, and only put in the stuff I absolutely needed [which included my DS for train entertainment purposes :D] and set off. I had no change so I was gonna walk it. I made it in good time, though walking slow to avoid getting sticky and sweaty didn't work, d'oh! I bought a pen and pad from Smiths, then a computer game Id wanted for a while from HMV, and then it was time for the train station!

I walked there, beating several buses in the process, because traffic was getting heavy! As I got there, I couldn't buy my special ticket'n'tube fare from the auto machines so they made me walk all the way around to the other side for one! I as a bit miffed but I thought 'Hey, IU'm making good time, I can deal with this no probs.' As I got into the station, it wasnt long before thr train pulled up and away I went! Chloe text me just before to let me know if I was going out tonight but I guess she forgot I was heading to london despite me thinking I told everybody! :p After a read of my paper and a quick few notes and possible questions to ask the celebrities, I made it to London not long after 5PM.

I immediately headed towards Leicester Square on the tube, and immediately after getting my bearings, walked towards the Leicester Square Odeon. I rounded the corner, and to my surprise, it looked like nothing had been set up. I knew I was an hour early but surely they'd be setting up by now? Then I saw two women entering, seemingly normal, and the blond girl working there let them in and past. I thought 'Something fishy is going on here.' That was, until I began to walk around, and it was then I spotted a second Odeon in the same small square. This was the one. I trotted over to it, and pulled out the press pass badge I was hiding around my neck beneath my jumper. I didn't want any unwanted attention drawn to me beforehand, but now I was amongst other journalists I was happy to show it off a bit. So I waited for a few minutes until I realised that we weren't supposed to be here until another hour, and it didnt seem like much of a crowd. I decided to hunt out the internet cafe that me and Lucy, on our amazing day in London last year, found, which coincidentally led us to Italian food central when we happened to be in the mood for pasta!

After a few minutes of wrong turns and wandering, I located the cafe! It was here that i was going to do most of my research for the questions i was going to ask the celebrities. I could have done it before I left, but seeing as I knew I was going to be wasting time in London I figured better to do it then, which I did. I imdb'd them all [THAT's why it exists :p] and noted everything down. I then had to leave, to get back to the Odeon, but when I did I realised I didn't know the way to Leicester Square! I was stuck in Chinatown, and no way out! But that was only temporary, I quickly figured it out and got back to the cinema. Now, when I arrived, there were gates up and everything. I wandered straight to the front of the cinema, flashing my press pass around again, and it was here, after asking some woman what I was supposed to do or where to go, that I met my first fellow journalist. Her name was Fiona and she was from Belfast, another freelance journalist like the woman I met in the press conference. We quickly started up a chat about writing and who we were and what we did, and seemed to get along, which was awesome. Then, after a while, another journalist by the name of Suchandrika joined us and we ended up wiling away the time, looking out at the barrier with crowds of fans behind it, thinking how lucky and how cool we were :P

We still had no idea what we were doing, but the same women kept coming up to us and asking us our names or checking our press badges. We sort of worried if we were allowed to be here, and because I rung up earlier and was told I'd be inside the foyer, eventually we went inside and hung around there. Pretty soon they closed the doors to the cinema, and we were joined by only a few others, exclusive here we come! As time passed, they began to put the red carpet out, and the crowd by the barrier outside began to multiply by crazy numbers, it began to dawn on us that we were really very lucky! Suchan then told me about how she had a ticket to the screening, something I wasn't lucky enough to get a ticket for, and then I got a bit jealous, until she mentioned how she had been given two tickets, but only took 1 because she wasn't ever told about it so she didn't bring anyone. I asked her if she could enquire about the spare ticket, and after a quick chat, I was holding that ticket in my hand! Something I didn't really think about but noticed was the number of the ticket, A27. I wondered what this meant, but it was then that they placed up the little rope barriers and we were told that this would be where the press would be standing. It was so freaking cool!

I nabbed a place at the very front, and even after a mini shuffling around, I was eventually still at the front but towards the middle as the PR people wanted to bunch similar media together i.e print/internet, radio, and TV. Still, I had my sweet spot, and my dictaphone and notepad at the ready :D It was not much longer when we heard the first cheers, and we could see that Emma Thompson had arrived. I haven't ever seen her before in a film, so I didn't really recognise her, but it was still cool. Somebody who did come in who wasnt recogniseable was the producer Lyndsay Doran, and I asked her a simple question about how she felt working with the rest of the producing staff, and she was really sweet and funny! Then, not much after she arrived, we could see Will Ferrell walking along the fans gates, so they were both out signing. We waited inside, me thinking how freaking lucky I was to even be doing this, and the first celeb to enter was indeed Will Ferrell. It was a couple of minutes after he had done the TV interview that he moved over to us. And then I got my chance to ask him my question! I was standing right in front of him, as in centimetres away from his face :p My question was this: You've chosen comedy roles throughout your acting career, is that something you'd want to stick with for the rest of your career? And in his own funny way, he said 'Yes' and moved on straight away! While I felt cheated, it was my fault for asking him such a closed question. Anyway, as he began to answer all the other print journy's questions, I realised just how much of a funny guy he was. When Emma Thompson came in just before he got to us, he and her did this really funny banter where they were discussing who was in the movie, joking around and generally being hilarious :D

So, after asking both Ferrell and Thompson my questions, and being quite freaked with how down to earth and regular they are when you meet them, Mr Hoffman came in. He took AGES to get to us, choosing the TV crews for most of his time [BOO!] but I took it back when he got to us. He asked if we were going to see the film, as in all of our little group, and when some of them said no, he told his bouncer bodyguard dude that he wouldnt go in unless we got in! He was a top guy, even when answering questions, unfortunately I didnt get to ask him mine because we were all competing for the 2 questions they let us ask him, but even then he managed to get a couple more in :D

Anyways, after we had done the whole celebrity thing, I talked to Suchan and asked if we should go into the cinema now. We did, and only when we got down to the cinema screen did we realise how big it was! The screen was tiny from where you walked in at the back. Then, when we priduced our tickets for them to tell us where the seats were, we realised we were in the freaking front row! We were both gobsmacked, and when we got there we found a bottle of water and chocolate bar placed handily in the cup holder for each of us. It was posh choc too!

Another unexpected surprise was the cast turning up to introduce the film, Ferrell holding this big Private Function sign for a joke, and when he asked for any questions, Suchan put her hand up and asked him where he got that sign from, which he replied with something funny which I have forgotten [But its on dictaphone somewhere if youre really desperate to know!]. Anyway, we got to see the film, and it was good, nothing spectacular but surreal after seeing the stars just beforehand. As the credits rolled, the whole cast sans Ferrell came back, including writer and producer, and they did a Q and A session. Me and Suchan asked questions, and it wasnt very long but very funny :)

Afterwards, Suchan told me that there would be this after party, and that there would be free drink. It was the first I'd heard of such a thing! We got upstairs, and started to follow everyone else thinking we'd get there, but Suchan was getting directions from her friend Ollie who turned out to be taking us god knows where, so we walked back, grabbed a map off the girls handing them out, and joined forces with another group, and this was when I had to ring somebody [My mum :)] to tell them about where I was and what just happened.

After 5 minutes of walking, we arrived at what has to be the fanciest hotel I've ever been in, ever. We thought we'd get turned away because we didn't have an invite, but turns out these press passes are like gold, they even got us into the main party area even though neither of us were on the list! Free canapes, and alcohol, and pretty soon I was a bit tipsy and had my first ever taste of crab [which tastes really good btw]. The cast and producer and writer were there, but I didnt see them the whole time. After a while, I knew I would have to go back to the train station, so I left earlier than the rest, and on my way out recieved a copy of Saturdays Times paper even though it was about 1 in the morning! and when I picked my stuff up from the cloakroom, which was free, I got a goody bag, and you'll never guess what was in it, a WATCH! Nothing gold, but if you see it you'd say it looked nice, leather strap and silver watchpiece! really swish, and for doing nothing at all! :D

I asked the bouncer which way to the nearest tube station, and this is where it began to sort of go wrong for me. He told me Charing Cross was nearest, and even gave me directions. So after getting there, I realised it was closed. No way in. D'oh! I had to go all the way back, and then get to the second nearest which was Leicester Square. Eventually I made it, and I rushed down to the Northern line, and while I waited seven minutes for it to arrive, which is long when you're all warm and sticky, and after getting on and getting off the next step, i'd realised I'd gone the wrong bloody direction! So another ten minute wait, to get back to where I was and one further stop, but as I got to Central Line, there was a half hour delay on the last eastern line of the night. Really warm, really sweaty, I stood next to this drinks machine that was out of order with a tramp/hobo right next to me sleeping/unconscious on the floor. After a few minutes, the girl next to me started up a conversation and we became mini London friends. It was the same on the commute this morning, I'd met this person and talked for a bit, but never got their contact details, which is one of the many cool things about London; you can talk to nearly anybody about anything and then suddenly they're gone again, just like figments of your imagination.

We chatted, and eventually the train came, and we felt like sardines on the train, I've never seen it so squashed! This drunk girl next to me kept talking to some other guy, and when we finally made it to Liverpool Street, I said goodbye to the Law student and I rushed upstairs. When I got there, turns out that the last freaking train had gone! I was mortified, because it was only 2:30 and the next train wouldnt come for hours! Oh dear. However, if you read the beginning parapgraph again, you will know that bad things can turn into good things. This is what happened.

I hung around for a few minutes, wondering what to do, and I thought I'd check the bus station to see if there was a bus going my way. However, I stepped outside to do that, and realised I couldnt get back inside again because the station was closing. By chance, the drunk girl from the tube, came up to me and said something which I cannot remember. Anyway, turns out she lives in Chingford where Lucy lives, and she has £20 but it costs about £40 to get her there, and she has work in the morning! She moans to me for a bit, and we chat briefly, not wanting to get too involved because she was really drunk, but stciking nearby enough cos I thought she was slightly hot :p She kept asking minicab drivers who were all wandering around like vultures for their next fare, and she kept getting expensive prices. Then, she told me she was going to storm back into the train station sneakily, and I was up for it! She got it as the two guards were distracted by other stuff. I hesitated for a bit, then sneaked in. I didnt know what i was doing there, but I saw a policeman and woman. I walked over and asked them what I should do. They recommended me two things: a) a hotel or b) wait for the train in the 24 hour cafe round the other side. I went for the latter, completely losing drunk girl in the progress [I wonder if she ever got back, and where the hell did she just disappear to?] . As I saw it though, it was really busy, so instead I camped on the steps of Liverpool Street for a good 30 minutes to an hour, before going in there and buying a single mug of tea, and I read my Times newspaper! After wasting another 30 minutes, I decided to go back outside again. I waited another ten minutes, it was probably about 3:30 or something, I really wasnt keeping track of time. I went back around to the original side of the station, and sat down near this mid to late thirties looking bloke having a cigarette. A minicab driver wandered over, and asked if the smoker wanted a minicab, and he made a funny joke about paying £20 for a train or £180 for a cab to where he lived which was Ipswich. I laughed, and pretty soon this other dude came over for a light. Then, both of them clearly were drunk, started chatting, then another minicab driver came over and again the mentioning of living so far away was brought up, and then they started talking about prisons because the driver said if he was going to visit his mate in the nick near Ipswich he wouldve given him a free ride. Unfortunately, it wasnt so, so instead he took the second guy home for a £10 seeing as he lived much closer. That left me and the smoker.

he instigated a chat, and originally I let him do most of the talking, but after I mentioned that he could go to the 24 hour cafe when he said he was hungry, he asked if I wanted to go so i said yeah cos I needed the walk. We got there, and he offered to buy me tea! [I know where some of you might think this is going jokingly, but nope lol] He said he was in trouble with his girlfriend cos hed been out and was supposed to be back at 10, but instead he decided to go these salubrious bars, [he used the word salubrious a helluva lot!] basically gentlemans clubs, and then hed missed the train, just like me :D So we sat down and he made sure we sat down next to these three girls. he began to chat to them, and he was an extremely funny guy, really was. He kept making these jokes, and pretty soon we had introduced ourselves to quite a few of the tables around us. People even asked us how we knew each other but we didnt know each other! So after a while, of extremely awesome random friend making and joking and laughing in this 24 hour cafe while it was the middle of the morning outside, this girl was sat next to this Old irish guy who was a bit eccentric, and after speaking to her for abit at first, I eventually managed to swap contact details with her. We had great chemistry I reckon, and no doubt [I lost her details! I WAS SO ANNOYED ABOUT THIS] she will contact me again, seeing as she only lives in ipswich. Yes, you heard it correctly, I met a girl in the middle of the night in a random cafe, her name is Gemma, and as we parted ways I gave her 20p so she could use the toilets in the station and she said it was extremely nice of me and she hugged me =)

Me and the smoker dude caught the same train back, and do you know what the weirdest thing is? Even though me and him got along really well, had a great laugh depsite being completely different people, I didnt even know his name. That is the power of London :)

S**T!

Ok here's how it goes; HOLY CRAP! I've been having the most amazing time, but not because I've won the lottery or some other huge deal that you should really think about, but because I am finally living the kind of University life I have always dreamed of, really. I'll start off by explaining a couple of things, please don't get too bored.

I didn't have the most amazing year last year, leading from pretty much last summer to the end of this summer. Sure, there were excellent days and there were good days, but they were few and far between, and not through lack of trying. It's just a combination really of not having had a job, despite looking everywhere bar the holes such as Maccy D's or such lowly jobs [I'm extremely sorry if you are currently working there, but really guys, aim a bit higher. If you apply yourself, and lie on your CV a bit, you can get a better job, I don't care if you think you can't!]. Oh god I'm losing track a bit. Last summer was superb actually, I got a great job, working with great people, who turned into great friends, and I'd saved up enough so I just flew to the USA and had a personal holiday sorta backpacking. It was amazing, really, if I haven't shown you the pictures or told you any stories, keep away! I could talk for days. Of course, then there was University to look forward to, and that was intense waiting for it. I cannot tell you how many times I had thought 'Wow, I'm going to University, this is going to rock so much!' and so when it came, of course I was ecstatic. I really had a low key but still excellent week.

Then, one of my flatmates moved away, and this led to a chain of events which slowly changed everything. It was just little things. Sure, I didn't really make the most of being there, but I didn't care; lectures were easy-ish, friends were close by and what I had I thought I loved. It really wasn't true though. I had run ins with a couple of people, who turned out to be two faced, such as the girls in my maths class I had previously devoted a lot of time to being friends with. They would snidely talk about me when I wasn't nearby, and when they were near, they just ridiculed me but I was enjoying myself too much to notice. I have lots more little things like that, but I'll save you the bother of having to read them. Just assume that even though I thought I was having fun, things were turning sour.

Cut to last term of the year, and house hunting was afoot. The one big story that most of you already know was that my late addition to our house group, basically replaced me with another person and didn't inform anyone until they'd already asked someone. At the time I panicked because I thought I'd be living alone, and I still wanted to live with this person in the same group because I was afraid. However, I couldn't change things, and despite the unhappy situation it was just left with me on my own. Shortly afterwards I spoke to one of the others in the group and they'd left too, I was happy that someone saw my side, and so we hunted for houses. there were no suitable places, and eventually she and I split up and looked for our own places. I joined a group of four people, one being my classmate. So at least I had a house sorted for next year, excellent.

Around that time, I was considering my next years moves. I wanted to get involved in the Media; TV, radio and Newspaper all available on campus. I had a radio show, I'd gotten to know the Film Editor and did a couple of reviews, and I was keen to try the TV studio out as it was going to be a new part of the Media Guild. Luckily, I got onto all three committees, again I was setting myself up for a better next year. Add to this, I had gotten to know a brilliant group of people, though my status in their crowd was more of an extra rather than part of the main cast, but it was nice to have the alternative.

Finally, it came to years end, and things had finally started to get truly good, rather than just having the illusion of it. I was spending more time with that group I mentioned, and even though I'd sort of abandoned my flatmates and they were abandoning me, I felt they weren't missing me and they were having a good time all by themselves, so I didn't feel too bad about it. Come summer, I'd had plenty of plans, and it was going to be good!

But it wasn't. By all means, I still had excellent nights as I mentioned before, but the boring or the bad outweighed the good by a ton. In fact, I was about ready to slob out and just give up when I finally got the job [only part time, in the Swansea stadium, but I met a few nice people through there, I just wish I'd gotten more of their numbers!] and snapped out, at least partly, from my mini zombie trance. Still wasn't making enough money, and it was too late to do any of the things I had planned. Though one of my old primary school and then college friends, Rhianon, she and I became good friends and that was definitely a highlight. if you're reading this and you thought you and I had fun even during one moment in the holidays, I wasn't faking it, I really did have good times, I'm just bad at the whole remembering bit!

Summer ended, and I was really desperately looking forward to going back. So much, that I came back a week early! A little fuss with my landlords refusing to let me in the house unless I paid the rent, which even though I owed, was only going to be available after my loan came through a week later, and I rung them up before and they seemed cool about it, but for some reason changed their minds. Thank god my parents were able to lend me the money, though I do feel bad about it. I'm paying them back straight away. I came back, and this is where I stand now.

I've just had my first day of lectures, and they went well! i really think I'll be able to handle my lectures this year. Also, me and two of my classmates are having a competition; a £5 in the pot, whoever misses the least lectures overall this year gets the prize fund, so we intend on attending all of them, even the 2 9am ones in the week :) I went to freshers fair on saturday, the big event for societies and clubs for all the people in the uni to join up to their fave and preferred clubs/societies, and i was helping to get members for the media guild table. It went phenomenally well, especially since the membership price was doubled to £10! It was a great laugh, I dressed up as a cowboy to promote the TV section of the guild, and that's the first time I ever dressed up. As anything. Ever. A big first for me. Also, a friend of mine called me a 'legend' because of the way I was just approaching women at the fair and just chatting away, even though I'd never met them before. That was quite a big thing for me :) Wednesday is the day I get my first foray into the media spotlight; I'm attending a Disney press conference, for the new film 'The Guardian' starring Ashton Kutcher and kevin Costner. I will be watching a press screening of the movie, followed by a press conference with Mr kutcher and the director, with free lunch and refreshments provided in between, and transport fully compensated for! Wicked B-) Also, my first issue of The Rabbit [Uni newspaper name] as Film Editor came out last Sunday and it's a really weird feeling having your own work out there on over 9000 copies of the paper, for everybody to read! Will be good this next issue though, as I'll be creating my own design, which I have already done using photoshop which I learned to use by myself! It's a marvelous feeling! Remember earlier when I said about living with these four guys, three of which I hadn't met very much at all before moving in with? They've turned out to be really awesome, better than i could have hoped for, and we've been hanging out at the SU bar way too much, one of them polished off a 28 unit bottle of gin and got temporarily banned from the SU bar, sometime last week. There's been quite a few good laughs thus far, and I hope there are more! Also, that bunch of people I met towards the end of last year? They've turned out to be even better than I could have hoped for. I am so utterly astounded at my life at the moment, I don't deserve it, and I await my ultimate punishment for having such luck so far.

Creativity

Ah yes, while I haven't really been spending much of my time trying to keep this updated, I'll be honest in saying there have been many reasons. Mostly, because you don't want to hear how I bit my nail and chewed on it for an hour or two, but also because of: INTERNET PROBLEMS. Yes, but I won't go into those right now. I'm leaving for Uni tomorrow, which actually means I'll only have access to the INTERNET via my University, and while it's pretty close, it's still a walk there which will ultimately mean, overall, absolutely nothing. So don't you go worrying your pretty little head about it.

I have a few things worth mentioning actually, and I'm cheating because this stuff has accumulated over a few days and is there condensed into one fantastic, mega filled blog post. First of all, a friend of mine called Ceri had her birthday a few days ago, and I missed it. God I feel like such an idiot because I knew it was the seventeenth, but of october and not the true month of September. After shooting me for it, and a trip to the ER later, I went and hung out with her for the most part of an afternoon, and we checked out Nando's. By the way, to that jerk who went there and mentioned that it sucked, I'm GLAD I didn't take your advice because it was great! Like the one in Colchester, so there you have it, Nando's doesn't suck. We had a beer, and some spicy chicken and peri peri chips, and then we went and watched Neighbours on her TV, and I am now worryingly interested in it again. I don't know who Paul Robinson is but she told me he is indestructible. We'll soon find out! Go Monday!

Other news, which bears the brunt of the focus of today's blog title, is that I started writing my Essex Uni soap script today, and I am enjoying it. I spent some time over the summer trying to figure out where to go with it, because it's a brand new idea and only if its successful will it be carried on, and then i can herald it my legacy to the Uni. I gave up a few drafts, but one bit of advice, the sort you see on television where the young kid wishes to be a good writer, and the grown up tells them to 'base it on what you know', well it worked. I just put down descriptions of the most interesting people I know, changed the names and tweaked them to live in Essex, and voila! I now have a functional and very memorable cast of characters. I can't wait to show you what I've written. We will probably hold auditions for all the main parts, something else which will be entertaining because I can be a Simon Cowell type. Maybe I'll chuck some water on the bad ones and be a Louis Walsh type instead [coincidentally, the auditions phase of X Factor is now over, meaning the same applies to my interest in the show :D]. I have also figured out an excellent and original way to kick off the show.

Related to University is my Radio show, which i am pleased to say has a big event planned for Wednesday the 4th October! I am having a singer songwriter come onto my radio show and do a set followed by an interview. You wont have heard of him, but he is up and coming in the land of Essex, and I am pleased as he seems really eager and happy to do this :) I'll keep you posted on that. Also, I have sent of my application for the press accreditation passes for the London Film Festival, so I am keeping my fingers crossed [figuratively speaking] that I get a good news response from the lovely people at Premier PR.

When i get back tomorrow night, there is word that there will be a party, of probably small proportions, involving all my excellent mate/friend types of Essex Uni, and if that is true I am all the more looking forward to going back. Also I would like to thank all two of you who read my last blog post for the positive comments. Somebody agrees with me about the oil thing, which i am so annoyed about even now! :D But at least they've stopped showing it on TV now.

Good night for now, I'll leave you with a short convo me and my friend Rach had, just as she was getting a bit tired, and me trying to help her stay awake ;)


Rachel - Let's conspire to ignite all the souls that would die just to feel alive says:
anyway
Rachel - Let's conspire to ignite all the souls that would die just to feel alive says:
i think im gonna go to bed now
Epiq says:
ok, have a nice bed! goodbed!
Epiq says:
oh yeah, just before you bed to bed, dont forget to bed bedder for my bed, bed and bed. if you bed thatd be bed. really bed. bed again, bed!
Rachel - Let's conspire to ignite all the souls that would die just to feel alive says:
...............im too tired for this
Rachel - Let's conspire to ignite all the souls that would die just to feel alive says:
:p
Rachel - Let's conspire to ignite all the souls that would die just to feel alive says:
hehe night night
Epiq says:
bed bed :)

Boiling

EDIT at bottom:

I just had to have a say on this most frustrating of matters. I don't know if anybody has checked this in a while, but I have to put my feelings into words!

Today, as you may very well know, they have had a 'major' [and the emphasis on the major, has been used for ironic effect] news story, which has captured the attention of all the news outlets. A major attack on our British troops in Iraq? No. A terror strike in the heart of another major city? Not yet. No, nothing compare to the actual story, which is a load of crap. COOKING OIL! Oh yes, you heard me, a cooking oil freaking story.

Apparently, a child who eats one packet of crisps a day is likely to have consumed more than 5 litres of cooking oil in a year. OH GOD, WE MUST PROTECT THE CHILDREN! How can this even be such a huge news story? Normally, if such news is mentioned occasionally, I put it down to being a slow news day and they need this to fill up a gap. But today is different, for no less than twenty times I have watched/heard/seen that same poster of a child drinking from a plastic oil carton with the same news. I don't freakin care about it honestly, so why is it getting such big airplay on the news channels? A small story would probably have gotten the mesage across just as clearly, yet the media have plunged onto the news bulletins and even mentioned it up to three times in half an hour.

So what's the big deal here? Am I as well as everybody else supposed to be shocked that when a large number of food items in consumed, that there is also a large number/volume of ingredients consumed that are contained inside the food item that is eaten? It's common sense. Next we'll be hearing and reading that if you eat three scoops of ice cream a day, you are likely to have eaten FIVE TONNES OF ICE in a whole year! :o OH NO!

One news report I overheard just now showed a woman inside a school talking to a bunch of children. She seems polite as she asks the children how many of them have had a packet of crisps today already. A good number put their hands up. Then the lady, again politely, asks if any of them are planning to have a packet of crisps later or after school. A few more hands go up. She then goes on, saying "Well how would you like to have this instead?" And she slams down onto the table [No exaggeration] a litre bottle of cooking oil. A clear cut in the videotape and then it shows the children all 'Eurgh-ing' in unison. Yes, because they have been told to to do it. I don't think the children, who lookd about four or five years old, even knew what itwas, and some probably greedily looked at it like it was some kind of new fizzy drink. Does she earn her money by scaring these kids into eating less snack food? Does she know that taking out a lot of this oil will mean the crisps taste less good, and that PC means another thing that the next generation will miss out on purely because the kids aren't getting enough exercise which means they're all turning fat and hence the banning/cutting down on nice treats like chocolate and crisps? It's fine to scare the children but not to give advice to the parents first? Well done for furining a good thing! I had crisps when I was younger and I ain't fat or unhealthy because I knew the consequences thanks to good teaching from my parents and teachers to some extent.

Finally, I think I have finished my rant. thanks for reading. If you agree or disagree, comment. I would love to hear other sides to this story.

EDIT: Here is the offending poster, and I also found out this is all the doing of the British Heart Foundation. Maybe they thought people were forgetting who they were and so did this to stop us forgetting them. Hehe, I know, that's a lie :D

Refresh

Nice to be back. I'm struggling to stay awake as I write this, but it's just been one of those days which hasn't exactly gone to plan. It all started Tuesday evening when I was working [forgot to update it in between now and before I got the job, so yes I did get one, working with the FMC in Swansea's Liberty Stadium doing bar work] and Shaun, the guy in charge of recruitment comes up to me when I'm pulling a pint in the mad half time rush and asks me if I want to work Thursday. Not wanting to be a jerk and say 'No' I said I could do it. However, when i thought about it, I wasn't sure I wanted to do it after all. So at the end of the day I told the woman behind the desk to check out that I was unable to do it after all. Hooray! A whole day to myself!

Unfortunately, what started off as a big plan for me has now turned into the world's dullest day. On the upside, a lot of work I have been meaning to do recently all got done today, and this includes a load of e-mails being sent to various people. I am involved with the committees in all of University's media outlets, so it's all beginning to pile up now. Never mind, at least there's a whole month to sort it out before it begins!

Not going to be doing my daily whatstheirname's today because I have already stayed up way past my bedtime [Wonder what that even is these days, sometimes I'm awake til 5am, others a more modest 12-1am Ah nobody gives a damn really.] so I bid a good nights rest to you all!

Prospects

Isn't it funny how a day can change quite a lot? Yesterday, or more accurately Tuesday morning, I had just got up and was expecting another day of dullness and disappointment, as you do, and as I got up [I seem to getting into good sleeping patterns at last] at 10 am, I figured anything that happened today would be good. Now, as you should know if you're keeping up with my blogging, I've been constantly on the lookout for a good job. I found something on the internet which looked intriguing to say the least, so I picked up the phone and rung up.

The lady on the other end seemed very pleasant when I told her what I was after and she asked me a few questions and said she was happy to invite me down for the initial interviews. Inside I was thinking 'Yes!' and when she told me the times for interviews, which were today or Thursday, I figured I'd be keen and tell her the today one would be fine. As soon as I got the information and put the phone down I thought about things, and something stuck out to me as worrying; I have no smart clothes! I had a shower, picked out a shirt and some trousers from my wardrobe but knew they wouldn't do. I had just over 2 hours til the interview, so I got in the car with loads of stuff and headed to the local retail park. Went to about three shops before I had my stuff picked out and I had some smart clothes for £24 because of discounts. Also, might as well mention this, but for some reason I got a 20% discount instead of the regular 10%. I think it was a cashier error, but I didn't say anything and neither did he. That was a nice piece of luck.

I drove down to my dads and changed there, did my hair some and then made my way to the office. Boiling hot and me wearing black wasn't a great combination, but I did the best with it. Because the offices were under renovation, didn't find the office straight away but eventually did. Greeted by the woman there, and basically had to fill out a load of application forms. Eventually we talked about work expoerience and the actual job and then she delights me by telling me I am being put forth for the job! Interview is on tuesday and job starts the week after, if I get it. I'm resting so much on this job though, so if I don't get it I'm gonna be screwed :s And to put an extra boost into my day, my friend texted me and told me that the BBQ he'd been planning for the last few days, WAS going to be tonight after all, so I went and had a great time! Just don't tell anyone we dropped one of the sausages... :D

So moving on to the real reason you came here, the video of the day. I'm going straight into it; here is the dude with the brush, Bob Ross. Even if you have to just put it on in the background, do it because his voice is so soothing it's mad. Shame he passed away though :(



Comedy bonus video!


Done, now because I love you all so much, I'm going to give you another special photo of myself. You may only view it as long as you promise not to stalk me.


Me and my good friend Catherine a.k.a Cat from the hit radio show duo Sam and Cat.

Something only remotely amusing from the BBQ yesterday. I pull up in my loud car to the house, and just as I am getting out, my phone rings.
"Hey dude, we're having a BBQ today."
"Oh really? I'd love to come, just gimme a second to get there."
"A second? I thought you lived..."
And then I walk into the garden. Muahaha! Nearly as bad as me sitting in my room and getting a phone call from my mum's mobile.
"Hey Russ, are you over your dads?"
"No, why, where are you?"
"I'm in the house... why?"
And then I step into the lounge where she is standing and bursts out laughing. Muahaha!

And finally a music choice for the day. I've been trying to find this band, and the closest I've come is amazon, but can't be bothered to pay their prices because they're so ridiculously high. I've decided to buy the album off iTunes but I don't feel right without getting a CD. Anyway, said band is called The Trews and they're a funky blend of rockpop and alternative.

And finally a link of the day, which is becoming more and more of stretch to keep calling it that due to my manic update schedule. Maybe I'll call it simply 'Link of the ___' and put today's day in the blank. Or maybe, just maybe, i've though too much about this and nobody cares.

Which Celebrity do you look like?

Anniversary

10th post already? My, time does fly when you're writing for a blog. This is true for real life too, as I've actually forgotten what I've been doing for the past few days. Must have either been so brilliant that I haven't been able to take it all in... or such a bore. Yeah, that sounds about right. Tomorrow for me is going to be the day for objectives, and I'm setting myself tasks that must be done else find myself wallowing in a pool of unfinished business.

I'll cut to the chase then as usual. I have two videos to share with you, but I'm deciding which one to show. On one hand, we have a guy who has a cool if slightly mainstream talent doing his thing, but on the other hand we have some music videos which will make you laugh your damn socks off. They're completely cheesy, made for a kids tv show, but my bet is you'll be humming the theme tune on your work break, and busting to tell somebody but not doing it because it's slightly embarassing. I think I've made up my mind now, so without further ado, here are the Lazytown songs.

Lazytown - Cooking By The Book


Lazytown - You Are A Pirate


I'm sorry.

Anyway, I did get an e-mail from one of my internet people that I know with regards to a certain snack swap. Ok, a bunch of internet goons all decided that we'd share our local sugary goodness, so we set up this e-mail address where one guy pairs up people from different countries and we get to send each other stuff for each other to eat. I've already heard all the jokes about Anthrax and the terrorists sending me stuff, and I am prepared to risk it. I'll just make sure to dust it off the chocolate before I eat it.

Picture time. This was taken in Washington DC [yes indeed I have been to the US] and the biggest thing about this trip was that I went alone. I actually made an interesting blog for my journey, updating it daily or as close as I could get. I didn't name it interesting myself, other people have told me it is. There's some cool information in there, some random stranger who was intending to travel there himself had found my blog and congratulated me on my normally not found elsewhere information. Hooray for me! Back to the picture story though, this was taken along the Mall in DC, or just off it but I do not remember where exactly. I know I've linked you to the page where you can see all the photos but I'm just going to highlight this anyway. I call it 'Paradise'



I haven't had a chance to listen to much music today because I've felt a little claustrophobic in my room and decided to give it a break for today. [I say that, yet I'm back in here now and have been for an hour or so] I would suggest you, like me, go back and listen to some of your favourite tunes for now. I'll be back with some new music tomorrow for you. And having thought about it briefly, I already know what that will be. No, I'm not going to use that one for this blog because that would mean not having one for tomorrow.

Job hunting sucks ass, I'd better e-mail my CV to the lady who requested it today. Maybe this is good news, or maybe this is bad news. Who knows. I'll be off on the hunt for more tomorrow, though my search is looking grimmer every passing day.

And finally a link for today. It's a bit lame actually, because it's probably one of the big three websites you go to when searching for music or games or DVD's. There's Amazon, Play and...

Cd-Wow

Just....

Today, or rather yesterday, has been another uneventful day. Except that in some ways that would interest very few of you out there, it has been. Of the most noteworthy is that i got accused of being insensitive. I won't go into the details because it's actually quite a private issue and those involved would certainly object to me broadcasting it to strangers on the internet, but suffice to say I assured them it was a misunderstanding on their behalf because of a mistake on my part. Anyway, it's all been sorted now, as has the [i]disagreement[/i] me and my sister had yesterday [she and my brother have gone to somewhere in England because a mutual friend of theirs, who is younger than me and is pregnant, is having a birthday bash and so intend to celebrate big style, but hopefully not too big style because of the whole being pregnant thing, phew!] although she did understand the situation and then I did agree I had some part in the wrongdoing, but it's been sorted now. I can't believe I basically started off a whole post with a list of stuff I've argued about, that's quite sad.

Onto less depressing stuff, I have recieved some information from a great friend who reads this blog, and she has given me a number to a recruitment agency who should be able to hook me up with a paying gig! That's a job to those who don't get my weird way with words. Ooh, alliteration! Talking of grammatic coincidences, yesterday I was explaining how all I had to do with my student loan application form [yep, that's right. I have only just sent mine off, 2 months late. Better late than never though!] was to sign it, seal it, stamp it and send it, and it came out as exactly that with all the s's. It felt like a sitcom, or not at all like one.

Oh yes, [b]terrible[/b] news for me yesterday! Some guy rings the house up and asks for Mr _______. I answer I was a Mr _______ and who was calling, and he tells me he's from the Carmarthen camera centre. I think "Ok, this is either good news or bad news" because not so long ago I took my camera to the beach [and got that awesome pic of Three Cliffs Bay a few posts ago] and my sisters friends who I got along with came too. Actually, what's more accurate is I came along with them. Anyways, I lent my camera to one of them, and when they gave it back to me, it had sand everywhere in it, so thought "A simple dig around will get all this out" but nope, when I tried to get it out, I heard it rattling around inside the thing too. Making it worse, the lens wouldn't come out when I put it on shoot mode, and this horrible grinding noise was heard. He offered to pay for the costs to repair but I said "nah, it'll be all right, won't cost much to get sand out." Took it to the camera centre, paid £25 as a sort of holding fee, which would wither go towards the cost of fixing it if it needed fixing, or would be refunded if it didn't cost that much etc, so figured £25 about right. The phone call though, this is where it gets bad. "I just got off the phone with the camera centre, and they've given me a price. It's £60 for parts..." Oh. F&*£ing. God. "And £40 for labour/laser..." he said something else after this but i was too shocked to hear it. "...so that comes to £117.50. Now what do you want me to tell them, shall I tell them to go ahead and do it?" "Um, err, I'll have to check on this because I'm not in a great monetary position right now [a.k.a I'm skint] so would you mind if I called you back in a day or two?" "No problem, here's the number etc. Bye." My best bet now would be trying to get in touch with my sis' friend and asking him for a bit of help, because as well as him already offering, I can honestly say I would never have let it get in that state and it was because he had gone exploring. Though I will feel extremely bad asking him for the money, but most of all, that camera has sentimental value because I got it when travelling in America. Overall [b]terrible[/b] news.

Ok, going on though I've got an extremely, I would say, special video of the day! Ok don't panic, it's not three videos of the day, it's one video split into three. Get this though, it's an actual pilot episode for a TV show in America. Best do a bit of explaining for this one. It started off as a pilot for the 2005-06 season, and it was created by the WB [no longer exists, well as of September anyway when it joins forces with some other channel, UPN?, and becomes the CW]. It didn't make it past the pilot, so all was forgotten. Except some dudes on youtube dug it up and uploaded it. Now, after becoming a sort of minor success on the site, it has now been picked up for 6 episodes by none other than NBC, a rival network to CW. The program is called Nobody's Watching [The joke you're thinking of is already done in the piulot :D] and now you may watch it, entirley legal i think, on the following videos. Enjoy!





Musically, I really love this song and bought it on iTunes today. The bands good too. The Calling - Dreaming In Red. Also good is Idle Sons - Little Bit Less. I hope you're listening to these songs, there's nothing worse than not even trying out new music!

My pic of the day is this random picture taken of a famous London landmark. A bonus point if anybody can comment with the right landmark!



And todays' link of the day is pretty much about justice. It's a good feeling to know that people are out there trying to bring justice to sick perverts like those featured on this site. It's also highly disturbing to read things that they say, so maybe only click on this link if you don't have a weak stomach.

Perverted Justice

Tired

I know the best cereal ever! It's called Jordan's Country Crisp Honey Clusters, and I have a big box of it next to me right now, it's so good you might just become an addict. It's oaty goodness! Now you know what you'll be having for breakfast tomorrow morning, I'm going to move onto the main body of this post.

First a lovely picture for you. On July 2nd, I went to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers in concert. This wasn't only a big deal to me because come on, the Chili Peppers in concert, but it was my first concert ever! I've been to this local concert type thing called Party in the Park before, where all these cheesy pop bands play a couple of songs each, but it was nowhere near the same. I've never seen anything like it before, and it just makes me want to go to a lot more concerts in future. Any suggestions anyone? Anyway, this picture was basically the aftermath for one of the more intimate audiences [being so small a stadium compared to Millenium Stadium say]


Onto news type stuff. The weather sucks a lot compared to a couple of days ago, but honestly, I'm actually quite happy that I'm able to sit in my room without sweating a pint a minute because of the heat. Not being a typical Brit and moaning about the weather, I am happy whatever the weather is because each type has a bonus, but it is a relief that it's ended... for now. And something quite relevant to this weather news, is my plan for tomorrow. A few of us will be going to have a BBQ in a park or a beach. That depends on how windy it gets, because my sister had a beach BBQ and ate more sand than food in the end. Yes, invited a few a friends to do it and all of a sudden it's out of my hands and I'm simply an invitee. Similar thing happened with the househunting I did for the next year of Uni. One day I was leading the group, next day I wasn't. Sometimes it's better that way, but as the house situation proved, sometimes it isn't.

Apparently my mum scored the best deal yet with regards to her slow takeover of Cwmgwili and Capel Hendre [joke]. She has been making lots of friends over the years, and as a result of this is getting more and more land loaned or freely lent to her, and the best one she now owns is the field surrounding the sides and rear of our house. She has moved all of the horses into there now and yesterday my sis went riding around it. The foal is extremely friendly now, but sometimes she just cannot handle it if nobody is paying attention to her and has to be next to you all the time! Anyway, this now means that all four sides of our house are ours to use as we please. Which is great news for my mum especially.

Also, I don't know what the f!£@ is wrong with me but I listened to a Hanson song yesterday and can't get it out of my head, though I wouldn't recommend you listen to it, even if it is a lot less annoying than their older stuff. And before anyone assumes anything, I am only referring to their older stuff in terms of the songs that ever had airplay. And before anyone assumes anything else, I do not have their album and never have. I do highly suggest you listen to some music by Head Automatica who have been getting more and more of my music playing time dedicated to them. They're very good, in an Alternative/Cheese kind of way.

I saw this video on youtube a while back through a friend's praise for the kid in it. If this is the future for guitar music, then holy crap I am going to be blown away. Put it on in the background if you must, but listen to it for gods sake!



And in other sad news, I must announce that the fly that has been buzzing around my room for the past four days passed away. His death, though sudden, will forever remain in my heart as a tragedy. His demise, quoted by eyewitnesses as being from 'a pretty big shoe', is a reminder that all living things are not immortal and we should treasure every moment.

Photo taken from www.aphotojourney.com
R.I.P little fly

And finally my link of the day. I give to you this nifty site with which you can create a visual represntation of where you have been in the world. Simply check the boxes of the countries you have been and it will give you an image showing you them coloured in on a world map. Here's mine:



To try this yourself, simply visit the following link.

Visited Countries

Sleep

Oh man! I can't believe what I achieved yesterday for pure 'what' value. I managed to stay up until 2:30 in the am. You'll know if you read my other post that I will have been up from 9:30pm wednesday to 2:30am friday. That's 29 hours straight. I also managed to complete a lot of little things that have been weighing on my mind and so yesterday was a success. I'm not actually feeling up to writing a blog at the moment, so excuse me if this is forced. I'm going to attempt a more competent entry tonight.

I had a meal in Frankie and Benny's last night, and it was delicious. Loaded potato skins for starters and lamb shank for main course. Perfect! Could have had dessert too but nobody else wanted it and I didn't want to delay them all.

Ah damn, I'm so tired but since I missed on my update last night I had to at least write something

All Night Long

This isn't an official update as such, it won't have any of my usual stuff in it. I just wanted to say that it's now 7:30 in the morning [approx] and I haven't gone to sleep yet. I'm probably not going to either until tonight, so I will probably be a zombie. I do fancy going for a BBQ today, but don't know anybody who would want to go for one or anyone who is able to. Sucks.

This fly in my room has been tormenting me for the past two days. I accidentally letft my door open for a short period of time the day before yesterday [My mum leaves windows and doors fully open throughout the house due to scorching heat], and a fly flew in. When I was trying to settle down for the evening it kept flying around me. I couldn't kill a fly. I ignored him thinking starvation will settle in soon. Next day I'm out of my room so don't notice him. Tonight though, I'm sitting here minding my own business and he buzzes round me driving me insane. After a couple of unsusccessful attempts to knock him out, my thrid I get him right on the nose. On the floor, not sure if it's still alive, I put a big litre bottle on top of it so I can deal with it later. Cut to three hours later a fly is buzzing round me again, and you'll never guess what fly it is. I think I might resort to psychotic measures. Actually I may just adopt him instead.

Upkeep

All I can think of about today is that I have still not heard anything about any jobs going! Argh this is so bad, I don't hate being jobless because of the freedom I have and I have free room and board thanks to my lovely parents, and I'm not even spending that much money, but knowing I could be going on a trip to Europe sometime in September if I have the money, and my friend David inviting me to his holiday place in less than a week, I am extremely frustrated because at the moment it looks like I won't be doing either. Tomorrow, it is time to take this job search to the next level; active approaching each and every company I'd ever consider working for, and of course sorting out a job for next year in Colchester RIGHT NOW so I don't end up poor when I return. And I still haven't sent off my student loan form, so I guess I'd better do that tomorrow too.

I'm not full of anger though, just a bit of frustration. I got so bored today that I watched a bit of Big Brother, and it seems there's this idiot called Spiral who argues for no reason other than to argue. I guess it could be dowen to boredom too, but when nyou're arguing and you realise what you've said doesn't quite have the effect it was originally meant to, either stop and apologise, or just walk away, don't keep arguing a stupid point. That Jennie though, she's pretty hot.

Listen to this song: Trapt - Repeat Offender

I've been having a look through my pictures and I found this picture of me and it reminds me that no more than a year ago I was still adamant that people should not take my picture or face certain rage [Not really, I'm peace in human form], and suddenly University transformed me into this other guy who couldn't care less whether he got in a picture or two. I think it was having a camera, and knowing that anybody out there who refused to let me take a picture made me wonder why, then I realised I do the same thing and felt strange. Ever since I've always put on a big smile and posed for anyone who asked. Here's the before and after pictures of my transformation!




Video wise, I haven't really searched for anything in particular, but I've seen this thing before and it is great stuff. Family Guy, so watch it quickly before they take it down! Peter's dancing is great :D



And finally my link of the day, is another webcomic. It's one I've seen before, but only discovered how truly awesome it is today. Enjoy it, and have a great [really hot] day

Cyanide & Happiness

Desolation

Unfortunately I haven't had the internet in my control today [Which only rests more hope on the fact that we will be recieving wireless broadband soon!] so this is a late and very scarce blog. First up, as you know, is news. Last night I went out to celebreate the end of my friends teenagehood, which means the big 20. She did mention something I thought was completely true though; a lot of the aura going around now is that 40 is still a young age to be, and by the time we reach 40 we will be even younger than the 40 year olds of today. In some ways this is good, which includes the obvious, but it could be a bad thing. Imagine people all lived to 100. We're struggling as we are to find space to fit everybody, and this problem is even worse in third world countries. I personally hope the age thing finds a perfect balance, and soon.

Off of that depressing note, I managed to discover Pear Cider again! It's been nearly 5 months since my first and last taste, and I must say it's as good as ever. Anybody out there wanting to try it, check your local Wetherspoons or Lloyds, it's called Kopperburg and it's a great price £2.25 for a big bottle!

If you remember my first post, I chucked up some photos from my travelling on some site, and now if you follow that link you can see some photos from Montreal. I'm getting good comments even though I was literally an amateur, having purchased my first camera in New York when I was out there.

Music time now. Having not had access to the internet and the brilliant Pandora I have been cut off from new music, and have had to rely on the good stuff I have in my collection. I rediscovered some good stuff on Snow Patrol's album Eyes Open, including Set Fire To The Third Bar featuring Martha Wainwright. No idea who she is, but she adds some individual style to the music.

Video. I am bringing you not one, but two videos of the same sort. Both hilariously funny, both from the great show Whose Line Is It Anyway [Bear with me with all the colours, you'll understand what I'm doing in the future sometime] Without any further delays, here they both are:




And would you believe that just by looking at those clips, it led me to find a whole load of other clips from the show. Seriously, if you want to crack up with laughter, go watch that stuff!

No picture today as I'm not on my own PC, so expect an extra helping tomorrow. I'm sure though with my bounty of videos you won't be that bothered :D

Before I sign off with my link of the day, just a couple of things to share with you for those who care. First off, the next season of Lost [Don't worry, I'm not spoiling any plot so you may read on] will be split into two sections. First 6 episodes back to back for the frist 6 weeks, then a 13 week break before going the long stretch with 16-18 episodes playing week after week with no repeats of breaks in the schedule . I think this is fantastic news as us fans will never have to wonder when the next new episode is going to be which was hell last year, but a lot of complainers out there are crying over the vacation in the middle. And along with that, JJ Abrams will be fully on board for the next season.

Link of the day: Check out this site. Full of news and stuff. DigitalSpy