I was a little surprised to hear that an official looking letter from JMU had arrived at home, given that it was a day early. At first I was worried that I had gotten the date wrong and missed an opportunity to see friends, check how everyone had gotten on etc. But it seemed that an imminent postal strike had delivered me my results one day early. I can't say that I was nervous as I opened the envelope, probably more aprehensive...but then again I love that word and i'd take any excuse to use it!! As I tore off the gummy stuff I had the odd flare of emotion, the wild hope that maybe I'd gotten a first, the fear that I'd slipped up and gotten a 2:2 (which is of course a very respectable grade, but I had averaged a high 2:1 so far so it would have meant a significant drop in standard to fall down a whole grade) and then I pulled out the paper and found just what I'd expected - a good ol' 2:1 which I'm very pleased with as are all my family.
So results day came, and as per usual there were no other students in my Uni building!! I had a check of the results sheets and found that most of my friends had gotten 2:1s as well, so I was glad for them, though a little jealous of those who got 1sts!! I tried a more likely location - The Pilgrim, a second home to many writing students where I found two friends who I hadn't seen for a while. We chatted about the usual, the future and what on earth is going to happen in it!! Though I didn't see many of them it was good to have a decent chat with some rather than a load of meaningless niceties with several. Then I wandered around a bit, took advantage of a 3 for 2 offer in the science fiction section of Waterstones - and I'm now very afraid of what WHSmith's 3 for 2 on ALL books will do to my bank balance!!!
Well that's it, I've a feeling there was something else, but that'll do
Farewell
I just noticed - this post brings me the big Five-O thanks to all those who actually read this thing!
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Stuff I've read recently 1
OK, so it's actually been a very long time since I wrote a book review post so there's bound to be lots of nooks that I've read since that last one that I've completely forgotten about, but I'm gonna try and bring your as much as possible of what I can recall. I want to try and get these done more regularly, hence the number in the title, but we'll see where that goes. I'm going to restrict myself to giving you the book information, opening and/or significant lines and a brief review - we'll see how that goes huh?
The Book of Proverbs - God et Solomon
"The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: ... The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline."
A very helpful book, pleading with the reader to seek wisdom, to control their actions and above all to seek God. The book is a series of short sharp statements on life which are often simple and basic, but at the same time very profound. The broken up nature makes it easy to read and memorise
Ecclesiates - God et "The Teacher"
" The words of the Teacher, son of David, king of Jerusalem: 'Meaningless! Meaningless!' says the Teacher. 'Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
Not quite what you'd expect in the Bible huh?! But a very good comment that's very relevant to our society that's obsessed with the latest thing and places and extreme priority on what we "do" which is all meaningless in the end, so you have to either find meaning in God or "make your own meaning" as seems to be very popular.
Song of Songs - God et Solomon
"Solomon's song of songs. Beloved: 'Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth - for your love is more delightful than wine."
This book is also a little unusual in that it's about love between a man and a woman, and while the poetry is weird to modern readers it expresses a passionate and sexual love between man and woman. I don't really understand much more of it, but it is interesting to see that it has it's place in the Bible and that love between man and woman in the context of marriage is important.
The book of Isaiah - God et Isaiah
The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah."
A very political book by a very political man, revealing God's plan for the world and the nation of Judah/Israel. it's most famous for chapter 53, which is a very clear prophecy of the coming of Jesus.
Well that's a chunk of the Bible done, I don't claim to have any decent knowledge so my reviews shouldn't me taken as anything more that cursory and insignificant, there's plenty of people who know what they're talking about if you want a better idea of what they teach. Okay, on with the other stuff.
Stormbreaker - Anthony Horowitz
"When the doorbell rings at three in the morning it's never good news."
The first book of the smash hit Alex Rider series, i recently managed to get an audio book of it for free and I loved it. I'd read another book previously and seen the film so i was very enthusiastic and it didn't dissapoint. This series takes the typical "boy becomes spy" theme and adds one critical difference - it's good!!
Third Girl - Agatha Christie
"She wanted to consult you about a murder she might have commited."
Okay that's not quite the opening line but it gives the best impression of what the story's about, the story takes several twists and turns and leaves Poirot without the pattern he needs to solve the murder...if there even is a murder! A good read (or listen in my case) and a testament to Christie's versatility.
The Affirmation - Christopher Priest
"This much I know for sure. I am Peter Sinclair, I am English and I am, or I was, twenty nine years old. Already there is an uncertainty and my suredness recedes. Age is a variable; I am no longer twenty nine."
A very good read, but be prepared to be confused. A man's journey of self discovery leads him to distant and unreal places - excellently written and very engaging. The author is best known for The Prestige, which recently came out in the cinema and if you've seen it you'll know the kind of mind bending story to expect.
Moby Dick - Herman Mellville
" Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world."
A good long read if ever there was one!! Melville's book is as much about whale's and whaling as it is about Ahab's hunt for his nemesis so don't expect to catch sight of thw white whale till you near the final pages. While it isn't boring it is a hard read and takes time to get through, but you'll know a lot more about whales at the end, and you get occasional glimpses of the story as you progress!! It is good with diverse and engaging characters and a fantastic setting.
Well there ya go, that's me. there's a few Star Wars and Doctor Who books I've been exposed to, but I think I'll discuss them on my science fiction blog if at all.
See you next time
The Book of Proverbs - God et Solomon
"The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: ... The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline."
A very helpful book, pleading with the reader to seek wisdom, to control their actions and above all to seek God. The book is a series of short sharp statements on life which are often simple and basic, but at the same time very profound. The broken up nature makes it easy to read and memorise
Ecclesiates - God et "The Teacher"
" The words of the Teacher, son of David, king of Jerusalem: 'Meaningless! Meaningless!' says the Teacher. 'Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
Not quite what you'd expect in the Bible huh?! But a very good comment that's very relevant to our society that's obsessed with the latest thing and places and extreme priority on what we "do" which is all meaningless in the end, so you have to either find meaning in God or "make your own meaning" as seems to be very popular.
Song of Songs - God et Solomon
"Solomon's song of songs. Beloved: 'Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth - for your love is more delightful than wine."
This book is also a little unusual in that it's about love between a man and a woman, and while the poetry is weird to modern readers it expresses a passionate and sexual love between man and woman. I don't really understand much more of it, but it is interesting to see that it has it's place in the Bible and that love between man and woman in the context of marriage is important.
The book of Isaiah - God et Isaiah
The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah."
A very political book by a very political man, revealing God's plan for the world and the nation of Judah/Israel. it's most famous for chapter 53, which is a very clear prophecy of the coming of Jesus.
Well that's a chunk of the Bible done, I don't claim to have any decent knowledge so my reviews shouldn't me taken as anything more that cursory and insignificant, there's plenty of people who know what they're talking about if you want a better idea of what they teach. Okay, on with the other stuff.
Stormbreaker - Anthony Horowitz
"When the doorbell rings at three in the morning it's never good news."
The first book of the smash hit Alex Rider series, i recently managed to get an audio book of it for free and I loved it. I'd read another book previously and seen the film so i was very enthusiastic and it didn't dissapoint. This series takes the typical "boy becomes spy" theme and adds one critical difference - it's good!!
Third Girl - Agatha Christie
"She wanted to consult you about a murder she might have commited."
Okay that's not quite the opening line but it gives the best impression of what the story's about, the story takes several twists and turns and leaves Poirot without the pattern he needs to solve the murder...if there even is a murder! A good read (or listen in my case) and a testament to Christie's versatility.
The Affirmation - Christopher Priest
"This much I know for sure. I am Peter Sinclair, I am English and I am, or I was, twenty nine years old. Already there is an uncertainty and my suredness recedes. Age is a variable; I am no longer twenty nine."
A very good read, but be prepared to be confused. A man's journey of self discovery leads him to distant and unreal places - excellently written and very engaging. The author is best known for The Prestige, which recently came out in the cinema and if you've seen it you'll know the kind of mind bending story to expect.
Moby Dick - Herman Mellville
" Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world."
A good long read if ever there was one!! Melville's book is as much about whale's and whaling as it is about Ahab's hunt for his nemesis so don't expect to catch sight of thw white whale till you near the final pages. While it isn't boring it is a hard read and takes time to get through, but you'll know a lot more about whales at the end, and you get occasional glimpses of the story as you progress!! It is good with diverse and engaging characters and a fantastic setting.
Well there ya go, that's me. there's a few Star Wars and Doctor Who books I've been exposed to, but I think I'll discuss them on my science fiction blog if at all.
See you next time
Monday, June 18, 2007
Some choice words
I recently realised that there's actually a very large amount of literature that I've been exposed to recently, and after placing a large order for geeky star wars books on amazon recently I'm going to attempt to catch up with the white whale soon before I end up giving you a monstrous list!! I've also been exposed to good writing in other forms, 24 being a very inovative and addictive series!! But there's also been some shoddy writing out there too - one that's stuck in my head is the attrocious single by "Liz Kay" produced by the creators of Cascada - "When love becomes a lie, it's time to say goodbye" then ad infinitum... freakin' genius!!
OK, time to get on with a few more words that have taken my fancy.
Superfluous –adjective
Heinous - adjective
hateful; odious; abominable; totally reprehensible: a heinous offense.
Parochial –adjective
Chronology –noun, plural -gies.
Bemoan – verb (used with object)
OK, well there's one more o' these then I can get back to picking words that take my fancy as they come, hope you've enjoyed reading these so far - if you have a favourite do drop a comment or why not blog about it yourself?
Farewell
OK, time to get on with a few more words that have taken my fancy.
Superfluous –adjective
| 1. | being more than is sufficient or required; excessive. |
Heinous - adjective
hateful; odious; abominable; totally reprehensible: a heinous offense.
Parochial –adjective
| 1. | of or pertaining to a parish or parishes. |
Chronology –noun, plural -gies.
| 1. | the sequential order in which past events occur. |
Bemoan – verb (used with object)
| 1. | to express distress or grief over; lament: to bemoan one's fate. |
OK, well there's one more o' these then I can get back to picking words that take my fancy as they come, hope you've enjoyed reading these so far - if you have a favourite do drop a comment or why not blog about it yourself?
Farewell
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
The Real World
Hello dear reader
So I have now finished the grand old adventure that is University. It is a weird feeling, at the same time relieving, terrifying and confusing. The most disturbing things is that I'm shockingly emotionless about the whole affair, I've been desperately trying to churn up some actual feelings so that when I eventually wrote this post it would be full of enthusiasm and truth about how I feel...whereas I'm writing simply because i realised I should probably get round to it.
An unfortunate fact of my course, combined with my staying at home, is that you can on occasion, be quite isolated from everyone else. I find this hard to understand since at the start of the course they placed such a great emphasis on groups and getting to know each other and then as time went on split us into smaller and smaller groups with less time spent with other students! So by the end when we had four weeks study leave we had no one to meet up with and get alongside. On the last day I met about two people when I went to hand in my coursework, and later when down for the "social" but was only there for the beginning end (i.e. the bit where everyone's sober!!) before the extremely temporary nature of the Merseyrail network forced me to leave early without seeing many of my friends. So without the "whole gang's here" feeling it was quite an anti-climatic end to what has been a pretty good experience on the whole.
I guess another factor in my apathy is the fact that I'm working full time until the end of term so I've had very little time to get used to the "it's all over" feeling because I'm too busy doing something else!! The work is good and pays well, but it does leave me feeling more tired than I'd anticipated so I'm not looking forward to seeing what the ol' 9-5 is like, what a way to make a living?!! Also a key factor in my apathy is that I'm quite apathetic!!
But I also got a taste of the terrifying the other day when I attended a graduate recruitment fair in Liverpool and got a first hand experience of how hard it is going to be to get a job, expecially a job that I'd enjoy and that is relative to my experiences and what I'm qualified in. It seems that everyone is interested in accountants and managers these days, that and oil riggers and the odd technician. I was dissapointed to see that nothing even remotely connected to my world, say a local newspaper, advertising firm or more ideally games industry or something like that, but none of them were present. So it looks like an uphill struggle which I'm not looking forward to too much.
Well, as I said I've not much to say. It feels good to have all that coursework out of the way, but at the same time I'm going to miss that communal crazyness of school and uni, and I'm gonna miss learning stuff too - we'll see what the future holds eh?
I just finished one of the books I'm reading, so if I manage to finally spear the great monster that is Moby Dick I might post up one o' me book review thingies. It'll probably take longer than I expect so I'll probly post up a word thingy soon too.
Ciao
So I have now finished the grand old adventure that is University. It is a weird feeling, at the same time relieving, terrifying and confusing. The most disturbing things is that I'm shockingly emotionless about the whole affair, I've been desperately trying to churn up some actual feelings so that when I eventually wrote this post it would be full of enthusiasm and truth about how I feel...whereas I'm writing simply because i realised I should probably get round to it.
An unfortunate fact of my course, combined with my staying at home, is that you can on occasion, be quite isolated from everyone else. I find this hard to understand since at the start of the course they placed such a great emphasis on groups and getting to know each other and then as time went on split us into smaller and smaller groups with less time spent with other students! So by the end when we had four weeks study leave we had no one to meet up with and get alongside. On the last day I met about two people when I went to hand in my coursework, and later when down for the "social" but was only there for the beginning end (i.e. the bit where everyone's sober!!) before the extremely temporary nature of the Merseyrail network forced me to leave early without seeing many of my friends. So without the "whole gang's here" feeling it was quite an anti-climatic end to what has been a pretty good experience on the whole.
I guess another factor in my apathy is the fact that I'm working full time until the end of term so I've had very little time to get used to the "it's all over" feeling because I'm too busy doing something else!! The work is good and pays well, but it does leave me feeling more tired than I'd anticipated so I'm not looking forward to seeing what the ol' 9-5 is like, what a way to make a living?!! Also a key factor in my apathy is that I'm quite apathetic!!
But I also got a taste of the terrifying the other day when I attended a graduate recruitment fair in Liverpool and got a first hand experience of how hard it is going to be to get a job, expecially a job that I'd enjoy and that is relative to my experiences and what I'm qualified in. It seems that everyone is interested in accountants and managers these days, that and oil riggers and the odd technician. I was dissapointed to see that nothing even remotely connected to my world, say a local newspaper, advertising firm or more ideally games industry or something like that, but none of them were present. So it looks like an uphill struggle which I'm not looking forward to too much.
Well, as I said I've not much to say. It feels good to have all that coursework out of the way, but at the same time I'm going to miss that communal crazyness of school and uni, and I'm gonna miss learning stuff too - we'll see what the future holds eh?
I just finished one of the books I'm reading, so if I manage to finally spear the great monster that is Moby Dick I might post up one o' me book review thingies. It'll probably take longer than I expect so I'll probly post up a word thingy soon too.
Ciao
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