Smug

A pre-blog warning: Don't even attempt to read this if you suffer from any of the following; bad luck, jealousy, seething hate for humankind (general or otherwise), extreme tiredness, mild susceptibility and your own opinions.

Here goes. If you've been reading, you'll know that a couple of days previously, I tried to buy some tickets to see one of my favourite artists in Brighton. The person in question is Jason Mraz and he is amazing. Personally, I'd say he has a bit of a spontaneous rocky style, playing with lyrics while jamming on his guitar, a good melody present in the background. This results in some fantastic songs, and my admiration for his creativity is only surpassed by my desire since over a year ago to see him play live. If you had to check out only one song by him, and this is a very tough decision, I would say 'Plane' or 'On Love, In Sadness' with the former being a slower meaningful song and the latter being an upbeat joyful song. But you'd have to check out his whole library to really understand how great he is. This continuous praise will cease now so I can get back to the real story. I missed out on tickets, and the only options I had left were to pay for an expensive festival ticket or buy from the touts on ebay, neither of which was an option.

However, due to a completely luck based series of events, I am now the proud owner of two tickets to see him in the Concorde on the 25 June. It started when I logged into myspace for no reason other than I was bored, and saw he had posted another bulletin. 'Second date added' it said, and to my complete surprise he had added another date to the calendar! This was already after I'd heard a bit more about how the venue was actually quite small and intimate, so I was following the link he provided and getting my credit card out. However, from the site, there was no working link at all to the ticket buying page. All it did was send me to another ticket based site that had no listings for Mr Mraz. I figured this was karma screwing with me, proverbially giving me a sniff of a delicious pie and snatching it right out from my nose when I went to take a bite.

I hovered around a bit, dejected, and told my friend Cat who was also a big fan and fellow gig buddy that I'd give them a ring tomorrow and see if they had any tickets left. After the call ended, I stumbled into my housemate Chris' room and told him the story. 'What ticket site did you use?' he asked, to which I replied with the site. 'Right, let me have a look for you.' he continued, and spent a good few minutes toying with Google and its associated search engines. Not long afterwards, he found some web page and to my utter delight, he had gotten me a pair of tickets! I won't go quite into detail about how excited I was, and neither will I bore/brag to you about how much luck there was involved, but I thought it was a nice end to that little story.

In other news [Yes I bolded that bit for emphasis, to draw your attention away from the boring bits], I read there was going to be a news story a few days back about how one of our students who got mugged by geese. While I won't doubt that there is some truth to the series of events that have been portrayed in the news, and yes it has hit the news, I must say that I was entertained by how exaggerated it has become. From what I know at the source of it all, a certain group made by the 'victim', the attack was much less a case of being mugged and more like him dropping his phone and a goose picking it up and running away. I guess you could say that was the technical version of mugging, but they've added so much more to the story in order to increase the light relief people will feel when reading it. They added in a piece of how the geese 'ganged up' on him, and also touched upon a bit of the aftermath wherein he can still ring his phone but as its on silent he cannot locate it in the nest! I find it all incredibly amusing, but some people don't. These people have instead used the incident to ridicule the person involved, and even used it as a piece of political down-talking! The wonders never cease...

My running is still going strong. My route as it stands begins at my house in Mascot Square, goes to the Quays path bus stop, then goes up the North Towers hill, and down through the car park, down the bicycle path into the Quays path and all the way along it over the bridge and into the quays. From there, we walk through the quays and come back around from behind it to Lightship Way, and continue along that, beside B&Q and all the way back to my house. We estimate that whole journey equals approx 2 miles, which is quite an achievement to somebody who isn't very active usually. I know, this constitutes bragging, but I've had a chance to contemplate why it is people who increase their own health and physical fitness seem anxious to share their successes and I've come to a conclusion; that is, people who do this only have themselves to share their joy with. If they can't feel a little proud of themselves for keeping in shape, which is difficult to do in today's society of office jobs and increased convenience, then what's there to help them to keep doing it? People can be driven by their own willpower, but when those days arrive when they just don't feel up to anything, they need that little boost of confidence. So this is why I will continue to update you on my achievements, though the next one won't nearly be as long as this!

And onto something that isn't a state of the world today or some jiffy about me for a change. And that is this, absolutely bog all. Oh yeah, Charlie Brooker, what a legend. He has this show on BBC4 and a column and is a regular reviewer in The Guardian, and honestly, I think this man is one of the most bitter and critical people in britain, and his show Screenwipe can only be described as a TV Burp but with added bleeped out swearing and a lot more social commentary and informative features included. If you can check it out, please do, the series he does are extremely short but come out a few times a year so please do keep an eye out for it. And by that, I don't mean removing your eyeball from your skull until you see it, that would result in me being sued. Except I've already warned you, so nye! Oh yes, and in the words of the man himself, here's a f____ng picture for you, you t__ts!

Attune

I have just realised that though nobody comments on my blog, that at least a few people actually read it. I mean, actually read it! This means I may have to stop writing down some of my neuroticisms in here, as people must genuinely think I'm crazy. I know neuroticisms isn't a word, don't worry, it's just that I'm a neologist.

I'm quite disappointed in the past two days of my music world. I bought a great album, Beverley Knight's 'Music City Soul' on Saturday evening, so at least something went right, but just before that, I had learned about where my favourite artist was playing a gig in the UK over the summer. This all spans back to a couple of weekends ago, when I went to visit my sister in her University. The time there was excellent, and during the evening in their SU bar which is about twice the size of ours, I met a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in years. She and I started talking about music, and I told her how I liked this artist Jason Mraz. She remembered her flatmate had got tickets to see him in the UK in June, so she was going to tell me where once she had gone home and found out.

So, cut to Saturday, and I'd read a message from her telling me that he was playing in Brighton. 'Great!' I yelled, quite excited I'd finally get to see him as I'd just missed his tour from 2005 as I'd only recently started listening to him. Tickets were £13, and a quick google search found me a site I could buy them from. This was about 5pm in the afternoon. I get through the search results, and when it gets to the actual ticket purchase page, it says 'Sorry we're currently undergoing problems. Please try again later.' 'Fine' I said, instead I texted my friend to see if she wanted to join me, as we're official gig buddies, thinking I could buy them the next day. Next morning, I get a text saying she would like to come, reminding me to go to the ticket page. Tickets all sold out. I pull my hair out, not literally, and get inwardly annoyed at myself. Later on, I check my myspace and lo and behold, Mr Mraz has posted a bulletin at 9pm advertising a slew of European shows, the one of two UK ones being the Brighton gig.

This may be a case of the tickets being sold out way before I got there, but its never knowing if I'd missed out on tickets that gets to me. And before you [don't] ask, the other gig is a £50 day ticket festival in Hyde Park, with only a relatively small interest in the artists appearing aside from Jason. And there's a couple of times he'll be in Amsterdam, but I hadn't really planned on going there.

I have renewed my interest in going to Europe this summer though, because of hearing so many people organising holidays of their own. Strangely, it never even occurs to me to think about booking a holiday during the holidays, mainly because up until now I've only ever gone away with my own plans once, to that big old country called the USA. Before that, everything was parentally booked for me, or organised by a school. I do love being independent, as witnessed by my going away solo to America, but I forget how much stuff you can do for yourself. Now that I've had a chance to contemplate it though [I have a job and more money than I had last year], the summer holidays looks less like a place to look for, and inevitably not get, a job and bum around, and more like a chance to do something quite exciting. Inter-railing my way around Europe for a few weeks seems like the best choice so far. The real question is, who'd be brave enough to want to come with me? At under £300 for unlimited train ticket round Europe for a month, its going to be within a reasonable budget assuming you haven't blown all your money on a dress for the summer ball or an Xbox. Trust me and everyone else when they say you'll get your moneys worth with these experiences!

Also, while this blog has been reasonably full of music already, I'll finish it off by expressing my joy at Maroon 5's return to form. There's something about the guys voice that gets me hooked on their songs. In a completely un-gay way of course.

Show

Live from Colchester on a muggy Saturday night, comes a new blog post from the desk of your wonderful host, Russell Chapman! *applause* Thank you, you're all so kind! Well, let's take a look and see what we've got coming up for you in tonight's show...

First up we have the most up to date news concerning my hectic life, the ups, the downs, and the lengthy middles where not much happens [But don't worry kids, we'll skip right on over those *winks to camera*]. Then, I'll have a sparkling review of the latest movie I was fortunate enough to see, the big, the bad, the British 28 Weeks Later! And finally, we'll end with a few random thoughts I like to call my own. Will they make you laugh? Might they make you cry? I haven't a clue, but you'll get them if you really want them. So, without further ado, let's get this show on the road!

And.... CUT! Enough of the clichés, I have enough trouble capturing myself an audience, and this isn't doing anything to help it. But what i wrote was true, I will be doing all those things in that order, so skip ahead, read it in order, do whatever the hell you want.

We'll start off with my life. It's been a little hectic if I'm honest. It all began this week with a spontaneous and yet beneficial idea I've been wanting to do for a long time; a run. I've always been one to really ignore my fitness levels. I used to never do any exercise, and stayed within a reasonable weight and never even took a second look at what I was plowing into my gut. I think having a sweet tooth too was probably a disadvantage I wish I didn't have, though looking across the room and seeing a packet of tescos jam doughnuts or Finest Triple Choc shortbread [A recent addition to the roster] has always made me thirst for the sweetness inside. But, coming to Uni has really changed my perception. I got to meet a very enthusiastic gym going buddy during my first year, and spent the next three months approximately with him going to the gym and doing all these weights and workouts that I'd never even considered doing before. It worked, as slowly I built myself into a more defined shape, and was pleased with it. Sadly, after I broke away from Uni and stayed at home for the Xmas holidays, the gym was simply too expensive and too far away for me to continue to commit to, and even joining a local gym didn't really get me enthused, so I slowly but surely lost my interest in it. So, for the past year and a bit, I have been quite content ignoring any healthy options.

This has led me to now, where I can finally admit that I'm not in the shape I want to be in, but how do you solve that when the gym is not for you anymore [I had a few cracks at it in between now and then, most recently about five weeks ago for three weeks, but I still don't feel for it]? Simple, do something else. And that's why I've started running. Yes, it's only been a very recent thing [6 days and counting] but I must say that the thing that strikes me most about it is how quickly you can see a difference. Not in weight loss terms [Thats not the reason I want to do this anyway] but in how quickly you can find yourself improving. Starting last Monday, I could run from my house near Tesco up to the Quays path, down it, across the bridge and through B&Q to the road leading to the Tesco roundabout and then to my house in 13 1/2 minutes. At the end, I felt like dying, and spent a good fifteen minutes recovering. How unhealthy! That sounds pretty lame I'll admit, but yesterday, my last run [I've been doing it 6 days on the trot excepting tonight, for I'd lost my house keys and found them only when it was a bit late for running] I added extra metres onto my run, by taking the long way around the B&Q car park, walking down the disabled/bike path instead of the stairs by the bus stop and walking the longer way into Mascot Square, and I still manage to beat my first time by about 20 seconds. And the best bit? While I still felt quite exhausted [and my legs still aching, which is good!] I felt nowhere near as bad as I did the first time. I think I might stick to this plan, this time.

Elsewhere, I've had issues with trying to conquer my fears over not being able to revise properly, and on top of that a piece of coursework to finish for friday. I won't go into details, but suffice to say the issue that arose on Friday itself has been put to rest for now, and hopefully I will get the marks I deserve. And today, I have been revising and feeling extremely confident with one of my topics. This is a complete U turn to the past week, where everything seemed quite tall and overwhelming and unattainable. Seems things can seem much worse than they really are, and I was always the one who never had that problem. Now I feel empathy to all those people who stress out during exam time. All I can say, that worked for me, is to take it a step at a time. Things have a funny way of working out themselves sometime.

Review: 28 Weeks Later.

This film, a creation born by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo from the corpse of its quite gritty prequel 28 Days Later, is an intense journey from beginning to end. It has all that you really wanted from the first film, the classy but not overpowering gore, the simple but elegant storyline and the premise that borders on the sides of being believable and ridiculous. This has all been carried over plus the extra stuff that comes from a bigger budget; greater special effects, a more scenic area covering more parts of London than the first resulting in some spectacular shots and more actors and extras. All wrapped up, this becomes a film that may well stand above its older counterpart.

The plot sees Robert Carlyle as a father of two, beginning the film in a smallholding somewhere in the countryside of Britain. Seeking refuge with his wife and some strangers, it isn't long before the Rage virus makes its first appearance, leaving just enough screen time for us to care about what happens to one of the characters in particular. Six months later, Britain is declared safe and he is reunited with his kids, played often convincingly by Mackintosh Muggleton and Imogen Poots. What follows isn't very close to that of a regular Zombie film, but in the best of ways possible. What we get instead is some of the grittiness that makes this series stand out, and plot twists that will shock you. The quiet moments that hogged the prequel are less frequent in this installment, and will mostly leave you nervous, awaiting the next sequence.

As I said before, the effects are amazing, from the zombies [Though they're never referred to as such] to the explosions, it's all a big step up from the original, and while some may worry that the film becomes too americanised, you need not fear. It retains the same feel even with the extra cash flying around on screen. There is emotion, and tension, and fear, and you'll find this movie flies by and at 100 minutes, it's quite an achievement. Overall, definitely something you should see, but maybe not best for you if you're not a zombie fanatic.

I wholeheartedly retain the right to alter this review as I see fit, as I'm quite tired now and my writing suffers because of it, but tomorrow daytime is revision time so no blogging then!

Also, while I'm leaving you a bit short on the end comments I promised you, here's a brilliant picture I think you will like. It's hot of the press, a ticket for a comedy film about a heavily pregnant lady. One of those things that made me smile when I saw it :)



And thats it folks, show's over, no refunds, no autographs, just get on out of here. I'll see you next time, on Who Wants- wrong show. Goodnight!

Blarghshhzzzzlen!

Gah! That is the word to describe everything right now. Okay, first of all, I'm having major issues with my writing style just now. Not only with the novel I am working on, but with the way I come across in these blogs, so excuse me for the moment while I go absolutely nuts and just write things as they come into my head, literally.

Ok, you know what isn't fun? Trying to create this damn blog post and the page taking nearly a whole minute to load. It's quite sad because the days of yore I used to be happy when a page loaded in under a minute, and now apparently the average time an internet user is expected to wait patiently for a page to load before getting really furstrated is 4 seconds! Have we become an impatient people? Hell no, it's just when you are provided with a service or item that you are subject to for a good while and you get used to it, when its suddenly taken away from you or temporarily unable, you will go crazy because I think humans like regularity.

In fact, when I was in work today, I spoke about how people like routines to my coworker Emily, and she seemed to agree. I like it when I find out something vaguely interesting, and then store it away in my brain for months before finally getting to use it in a conversation and come across like I know all about the subject. But that wouldn't work all the time, not without the followup, which is what I like to call the divert. You are talking about something, and then you can finally join into the conversation with this cool little tidbit, and as soon as you've exhausted your knowledge with that impressive line, you are then in charge of the conversation and you MUST steer it away towards something you DO know about else you will look quite the fool.

Man, I'm typing really fast today, I really don't know why I'm letting myself write and/or publish this [Well, publishing is yet to be seen but if I type fast enough I'm sure not to think about it too much and do it anyway] but I will because I fancy a bit of a change from the normal.

Those of you into music, and yes there are people out there who like it, should do well and follow my advice and follow this absolutely incredible link which will lead you to this artist on Myspace [Or Myretardedsitethatsnowbeenovershadowedbyfacebook] which IS crap but still holds it own for getting new artists heard. Anyway, as I was saying, this guy is awesome; he released a song or two a couple of years ago which I thought were quite good if a little poppy, but he disappeared, only to resurface quite recently and unnoticeably with a song in the film 'Step Up' called 'Made' but now he's back, with a brand new accompanying band called 'The Town' with a pretty damn amazing song called 'Weeping Willow' which is only a demo but is incredibly moving and peaceful without being boring or monotonous. Please, it's only 4 minutes of your life but you'll either love me for it or never have to trust another link of mine again, both which will benefit you in the long run. And of course, the guys name, is Jamie Scott, here is his link Music dat good stuff

And also, talking of Step Up [You'll get the reference after you watched it], here's a stupidly criminal piece of youtube viewing that even though its terrible, made me laugh for the girls humour contained inside it. It's a spoofed doll enacted version of Final Destination 4. Give it a bit of a try, listen through the first quarter, as only then does it get more funny. It's also a bit slapstick too, but in a good way.



I did some good stuff today. I did nearly 2 hours of solid revision. Then I donated to my friends Race for Life fund. And then thats it, but I also really want to donate some blood too after reading a friends blog post. He said how it made him feel ever so slightly special, which it does, but I have already given blood from my college days, and I know it wasn't the least bit horrible. The only thing that bugged me was not being able to bend my freaking arm until they got the blood out of me, which was about 10 minutes and the only thing I wanted to do that whole time was bend it so badly, and I couldn't cos the needle would have snapped inside me or spilt out or ripped my vein... ACK even thinking about it gives me the creeps, but still I would do it again. So I'm not in that blood type which is so special but my blood still matters! I hope I saved a life with mine, and just knowing in the back of your mind that somebody actually relied on your donation to survive gives me and everyone who does it a satisfying feeling. Anybody up for doing a donation, even after I made it sound so cool?