Blogger's Challenge - "Next Blog"

OK, I've tried this before and it may fall flat on it's face again, but I'll try and rope in the help of my fellow bloggers and we'll see how it goes. My aim is for bloggers to interact and basically to get people to actually read/comment on my blog!! And so I set out this challenge, to click the "Next Blog" button above whatever blog you're reading (presumably mine or yours) and keep clicking through the randomly generated blogs that appear when you do so to find ones that match the categories I set out. The categories are:

1. A blog written by a woman
2. A blog with a custom background
3. A blog from a foreign country (U.S. and U.K. don't count even if you don't live there!)

These shouldn't be too hard to find, I think I'll give it till the end of September for people to catch on. Once you've found your three leave a comment ;) on my blog and post up your results on your own. The winner will be the one who finds all three in the least amount of clicks. Before you get to it here are some groundrules that I'm making up!

1. You cannot filter through blogs you know - you have to use the "Next Blog" button
2. No backtracking - you can stop and start as often as you like, but each click counts
3. It has to be three seperate blogs, if one blog has one or more categories it can only count as one (however you don't have to categorise it immediately, you can wait to see what turns up)
4. If you like it then I'd really appreciate you passing it on and pointing people to my blog where it came from.

Happy hunting bloggers

Word of the post: Circumspect - adjective

1.	watchful and discreet; cautious; prudent: circumspect behavior.

Writer's Bloc 1 - Interesting Theory

Jus' keeping up the blogging. Well now that Uni's over I'm finding myself in the position of wanting to write stuff, but without the direct motivation of having to hand something in it's hard to get going. So I'm going to use this blog as a sort of journal and to keep a public record of my progress that will hopefully spur me on to complete the project. As of this moment I haven't written much beyond an opening line, and a closing line that came to me in a stroke of genius while I was asleep. I won't say much about it for now as there is still a risk of it being another aborted project. But I've been doing a lot of planning and research and part of the focus of this will be to post the stuff I discover whilst digging background info. All I'll say of the piece for now is that it's Sci-Fi, set in America and involves conspiracy theories which leads to what I'm about to pass on - in good ol' C 'n P style I present possibly the whackiest conspiracy theory I've met so far, though I expect to see many more.

Microsoft sends messages on Wingdings Font

The Wingdings Font included with Windows has a history of controversy. In 1992, only days after the release of Windows 3.1, it was discovered that the character sequence "NYC" in Wingdings was rendered as Skull and crossbones symbol, Star of David, and thumbs up gesture. This could be interpreted as a message of approval of killing Jews, especially those from New York City.

Microsoft strongly denied this was intentional, and insisted that the final arrangement of the glyphs in the font was largely random. Various other combinations of Wingings characters are alleged to have special significance by conspiracy theorists, but these results are likely purely coincidental.

This theory and others came courtesy of This Site - one of the saddest I found was that Sept. 11th was orchestrated by the US Government (or the power behind it). I hope I'm not ignorant in hoping that the government wouldn't even concieve of such a plan. Well that's all for now i think.

Word of the post - Belligerent - adj.

1. Inclined or eager to fight; hostile or aggressive.

Graduation

Well the event itself has been and gone by a fair bit now so it's about time I got on and blogged about it eh? It was a good day and it felt good to have a formal celebration of all that hard work I'd done. The gown itself was fun to wear and made you feel silly and respectable at the same time! Thankfully there were dressers there to assit with putting on and the gown did not reach the floor so the risk of tripping up was significantly decreased. The hat however was much larger than I'd anticipated and wobbled somewhat- but hairclips were at hand to alleviate that problem. So everything was set and we were all ready. My parents and good friend Edd were along for the ride and after some mooching we got settled in. It was good to see my friends again and to see how they'd all gotten on since we left, reactions to the event varied from giddy excitement to wanting to get out of these silly clothes!!

Then came the two second wonder where I got up and shook hands with the Vice Chancellor, complicated by having to wait on a steep ramp that made you put all your concentration into not falling backwards. Then you were up, your name was called you shook hands, people clapped and it was over - gone in a blink, but nonetheless a great experience. Then we sat down for the rest of the grads from the ICDC (International Centre for Digital Content) and maybe somehwere else, it was interesting to note that for at least one course the entire year was made up of asian students. Then we had the honorary fellow, which in our ceremony was David Morrisey, star of Blackpool, Basic Instinct 2 and the recent series Cape Wrath. It was nice to have a famous face, though I was jealous of the previous day's graduands who had Brian May!!

Then there was a lot of standing up and sitting down again and clapping, we were handed the little JMU badges that are the official token of your graduation (I still haven't recieved my certificate!!) and then we were pronounced graduates of the university, class of 2007. Interestingly you remain a graduand (a term I didn't know existed until it was pointed out to me) right through the ceremony and it wasn't the clothes or thehand shaking that made you a graduate, but you only became one when the Vice Chancellor proclaimed you to be one.

Then I mooched around town for a while and hurt my foot from wearing formal shoes for too long!! Well that's enough for now - other than to resume my word of the post thingamy

Auxiliary –adjective

1.	additional; supplementary; reserve: an auxiliary police force.

Last Words

I had me ol' graduation recently so I will be eagerly blogging about that before too long, but before I do I'd like to do my final post covering the words that have taken my fancywhilst blogging over the past fifty posts or so. From now on I will resume adding a favourite word to each blog post and including a definition should space allow for it, since I now have a log of all the words I have used I won't need to worry about using the same word twice - the fear that spurred me to do these posts in the first place. Well if you've read that I hope you've enjoyed them, but for the forseeable future this will be the last - savour the moment folks, savour the moment...

Perfunctory –adjective

1.	performed merely as a routine duty; hasty and superficial: perfunctory courtesy.

Sacrilegious- adj.

1. Grossly irreverent toward what is or is held to be sacred.

Retroactive –adjective

1.	operative with respect to past occurrences, as a statute; retrospective: a retroactive law.

Meh - lacks an official dictionary definition, though no doubt one is pending. A word indicating indifference commonly used by youth culture.

Melancholy - noun

1.	a gloomy state of mind, esp. when habitual or prolonged; depression.

Well there they go, but worry you not I have plenty more words waiting to explored, as well as a few more ideas to revive my attempts at interactive blogging - we'll see how it goes eh?

Results Day

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!

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

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

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

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

If I can get a word in edgeways...

Well now - I am a graduate (depending on my results in June!) and i suppose a lengthy post on how I feel and what my plans are, but frankly I don't know much about either. I will endeavour to come up with something more substantial, but for now here are a few more of the words that have taken my fancy as I blog away.

Fictitious –adjective

1.	created, taken, or assumed for the sake of concealment; not genuine; false: fictitious names.

Posterity –noun

1.	succeeding or future generations collectively: Judgment of this age must be left to posterity.

Hmm, that wasn't quite what I thought it was, though it still makes sense, to me it sounds like a mildly debilitating/embarassing illness for some reason!!

Virulent - adjective

1.	actively poisonous; intensely noxious: a virulent insect bite.

Fastidious - adjective

1.	excessively particular, critical, or demanding; hard to please: a fastidious eater.

Rambunctious –adjective

1.	difficult to control or handle; wildly boisterous: a rambunctious child.

Well that's your lot, enjoy, I do have a lot of free time so I'll make sure to blog again soon

Farewell

Some classic C 'n P

I started this blog at some point in the past to copy 'n paste my rambling from my MSN 'space' to a more globabl setting where people might actually read it (fat chance!) Thankfully the blog has flourished and taken it's first few steps on it's own feet until now it has reached a stage when it's well...hobbling at least! Anywa, as I'm still bereft of real content and I cannot spend too much time here I will post one of the few remaining articles from the old blog here for you now. By a twist of fate it happens to be the article I wrote after finishing Uni last year, which is fitting as my final university days creep forward.

Enjoy!

Done and dusted

Well ladies and gents I am done for the year, oh yes you heard me, as you carry on plodding through your examinations and coursework I am officially on holiday- ahh the joys of being an arts student!! But it wasn't just me there as I signed off my last assignment, no my fellow Liverpudlians of all persuasions had also finished which left me free to spend my last day with some old friends.

I caught up with Edd first in WHSmith because, genius that I am, I had forgotten to buy a folder for my work- we quickly selected the cheapest and moved on. As we past up Bold Street my highly trained senses told me something was wrong and only my lightning reflexes got me clear of an eager looking person with a badge and a clipboard before I vanished untraceably into the crowd. I called out to Edd, but he wasn't so lucky and in a situation like this it's each man for himself. I had to clear an army of them before i was able to duck into a shop, using all my techniques, the wall, the imaginary phonecall, the spontaneous jog to get clear. Admittedly it would probably be better to just give money to charity but I've got this down to a fine art

At any rate, we reconvened and made it up through the outskirts of Chinatown to my building to drop off that last piece of coursework. Then we headed back down via an alternative route to Wetherspoons where we took advantage of their Burger and Beer lunch promotion and met up with Alaw, who I'd only spoken to once briefly since school. It was a good time to catch up and talk about old times...and present times too as we each eventually came to fully realising that a year of Uni had gone by. After enjoying a pleasant lunch we and Alaw parted ways with a hug and a promise os "see you soon"... we'll see what happens.

After that Edd and I went for the ultimate student day out...to the Natural History Museum. After mounting about a hundred steps we found out via a tiny sign that the entrance had moved. We arrived at the new entrance, which now boasted a modern decor and some of the museum's pride and joys magnificently displayed including a monstrously big spider crab which is a highlight of any visit, and enormous totem pole and a Pterodactyl skeleton suspended from the ceiling.

Inside we found much of the delights from childhood visits- the planetarium, the mummies, the dinosaurs, as well as a host of new discoveries including an aquarium which was great because you don't often see that many living specimens in museums and a really cool bugs section which also boasted living creatures and a section that showed you what creepy crawleys look like up close. After a good few hours we left in high spirits and I left to catch my bus because the train service is... oh never mind!

Well that's it- another academic year gone by, I'm sure the nostalgia will hit in soon, but for now I'm just glad that I don't have to anything.

See you soon people.

My word of the post- retroactive, never use it- love it to bits!!

If I can say a word or two

Since I'm in the middle of a large workload I don't have much to report on my comings and goings. My only venture out was to go and see Spiderman 3 with friends - the only day I decided to go out and enjoy myself happened to be the day that torrential rain came down, but otherwise it was a good time! Well I've got coursework to do and the distractions of Facebook and Splinter Cell to compete with so I can't add any original content so I'll instead review a few more of my blog words.

Panorama - noun

1.	an unobstructed and wide view of an extensive area in all directions.

Iconoclastic –noun

2.	a person who attacks cherished beliefs, traditional institutions, etc., as being based on error or superstition.

The –definite article

1.	(used, esp. before a noun, with a specifying or particularizing effect, as opposed to the indefinite or generalizing force of the indefinite article a or an): the book you gave me; Come into the house.

Anarchism –noun

1.	a doctrine urging the abolition of government or governmental restraint as the indispensable condition for full social and political liberty.

Quintessential –noun

2.	the most perfect embodiment of something.

Well that'll do for now methinks, see you next time my brain turns to mush and I need a diversion!

2007 - year of the trilogy

This year has and will be playing host to the third parts of some epic movie trilogies. Film makers seem keen to try and stretch a trilogy out of their franchises once their first flick has made a decent profit. Trilogies are effective in that they allow a larger story to be developed without elongating it too much. These third parts are good for rounding off a storyline, though doubtless many film directors will attempt a fourth. Ah well there's things to do so I'll cut to the chase and leave you with a list of the trilogy round offs to come this year.

Spiderman 3 - currently in the cinema, featuring Sandman, Venom and the New Goblin

Shrek the Third - The big green thing returns and has to face the responsibilities of being King - out May 18th

Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End - The third part featuring a mission to rescue Jack Sparrow from beyond the grave and the pirates of the world are thrown into a fight for survival - out May 25th

Ocean's Thirteen - George Clooney's team are back and the stakes are higher than ever as they take on Al Paccino - out June 8th

The Bourne Ultimatum - Matt Damon returns as the amnesiac agent who returns to threaten the CIA with a haunting message - "I remember everything" - out August 3rd

Rush Hour 3 - Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker take a trip to Paris in another crime fighting adventure - out August 10th

Well there ya go, and with second parters like Fantastic Four and 28 weeks later also out soon it looks to be an interesting year at the cinema

Note- trailers courtesy of Apple.

X - My contribution to politics

Today was voting day --whoopdeydo!

It was a tad confusing to say the least. In Wales we have about three times more things to vote for because we have the Welsh Assembly and various other political forces at work which can make putting a cross in a box (or in our case two crosses on two seperate sheets) that little bit more difficult- so if you find voting a bit confusing bear a thought for us...unless you are welsh (and there's a decent chance you are) then you know what I mean.

I always try and take elections as seriously as possible, though it's never easy - I tend to eliminate the one's I know I won't vote for like BNP, Communists (though they do have good policies) and the Monster Raving Lo...I mean UKIP! Once there's a group of candidates with policies I can see are beneficial it all becomes a war for each one to discredit the other, so I find it's easiest to ignore the manifesto promises and look at who would be the best choice for my local constituency since that is going to make the most impact on me

The trouble is that there's a whole load of different elections with a whole load of different issues at stake, and I'm still getting used to the whole idea. I do however think that voting is important and not doing it, as many do, is how the evil controlling fascist societies of pretty much every science fiction film will get into power 'cause one day maybe no one will care. I guess what's also important is to take an interest and to follow it up and make sure the elect keep their promises.

The human footprint a show documenting the impact of one human being on the planet made an interesting point in that if you just vote and take no interest then your collective contribution to democracy over your lifetime will consist of a piece of graffite about an inch long! And whining about policies, sending angry letters to your councillor and even going on the odd march are key factors in sustaining true democracy - as one man out it "bellyaching is the cornerstone of democracy"

Anyway so these are my experiences and (ignorant, uninformed and overly opinionated no doubt) thoughts on voting in Britain today. Have fun with it folks

XXX

BMW Advert - Seeing Music in colour

If you haven't seen it I just thought I'd share this advert with you courtesy of YouTube. It's basically just an advert showing off BMW's cars and how great they think they are, but the add really appeals to me in an artistic sense. First of all I love the piece of music (can anyone fill me in on it's name - Dan I'm looking in your direction) but i also love the colours and textures that go with it. I think that is how music should be, full of colour and life.

Media player visualisations go some of the way towards creating this effect, I remember once spending about an hour with friends when we projected visualisations onto the ceiling and lay on the floor listening to music and watching the ceiling being filled with colour and patterns, when we finally got up it took quite a while to adjust back to normal light!! But even these don't quite cut it as they follow a preset pattern and the colours are just random - this advert goes further, giving bursts of colour when the sound explodes and weaving patterns in the buildups.

Since I have a condition called Synaesthesia, which links various sensory areas of the brain, I do, to a very small degree, experience music in colour. There are some people with the condition that would probably see a piece of music in this fashion every time, it depends on which areas of the brain are affected. I see colours for different pitches, and that's only occasionally, and textures for sounds but I can definitely see a logic to having individual patterns and colours for pieces of music.

Anyway that's enough from me - basically I really like this piece!! I might blog about synaesthesia when I'm less busy.

If you're viewing this on facebook, you'll have to go to my actual blog to see the Youtube content

The Grind

Hello folk(s)

Since I'm done with lectures I am now in a strange place that I enter every term where I'm not in university, but instead am stuck at home ceaselessly working away at assignments etc. I think I've blogged about this previously so I won't go into it now, plus I do have work to do!! Anyway this will either mean that there won't be any communication from me as I beaver away or there'll be daily blogging as I seek to divert my mind from the crushing despair of deadlines and pressure!

So, see you soon...maybe!

I'd like to say a few more words

OK, I'm in a world of busyness at the moment (note the alternate spelling conveying a state of being busy rather than working for a corporation) so I won't have much to blog about. All I've got on at the moment is coursweork, trying to find work for next year and i'm gradually managing to improve my squash and table tennis skills - I'm now quite fluent at doing "proper serves" amongst other things.

Right apparently the power needs to be turned off so I'll finish this later

Bye

OK, after two power failures I'm back - here's a few more words, to keep things short I'll include only one definition and link to dicitonary.com for the rest if you desire to look at them

Concordance - noun

an alphabetical index of the principal words of a book, as of the Bible, with a reference to the passage in which each occurs.

Parenthesis - either or both of a pair of signs ( ) used in writing to mark off an interjected explanatory or qualifying remark, to indicate separate groupings of symbols in mathematics and symbolic logic, etc.

Peculiar - 5.belonging exclusively to some person, group, or thing: the peculiar properties of a drug.

Noun - noun

1.

any member of a class of words that are formally distinguished in many languages, as in English, typically by the plural and possessive endings and that can function as the main or only elements of subjects or objects, as cat, belief, writing, Ohio, darkness. Nouns are often thought of as referring to persons, places, things, states, or qualities.

Endlessness - adjective

1.	having or seeming to have no end, limit, or conclusion; boundless; infinite; interminable; incessant: an endless series of complaints; Time is endless.

That'll probably be enough for your meagre minds for now - more to come and possibly a bit of actual news ya never know

Last Day/ Trains again!!!

This week has been the most productive week I've had so far this term - which is pretty good considering it's my last week of University!!! In terms of decent advice and feedback this has been the only real "good week" I've had all term, which in terms of organisation has been quite dissapointing. However I've managed to get on ok with my work etc. so it can't be all bad, so here I am now,with a few weeks to scrabble over coursework and then I'm done, which is a scary thought indeed. What's kinda odd is that it doesn't feel like the last day, we finished the lecture and all walked out as if it was just another day, i wasn't too bothered at the time (I was hungry) but looking backit seems a bit weird that I can end three years of my life with "see ya"

Anyway - time for a good moan!! The trains this week were a double whammy of dissapointment - I had two horrendously complicated journeys home, though both of which managed to sort themselves out alright in the end.

First of all I get to Bidston (seriously the middle of nowhere) and get told that there's no train coming and I have to get a bus. After cautiously waiting, whilst keeping an eye on the train lines (I've learnt not to trust anything I hear on the train journey) the bus arrived a little after 10 minutes wait. This is good, it normally takes about an hour!!! The bus took us home, but I realised it was skipping stops so I had to get of at Shotton and get a lift from there.

The next day I arrive at Liverpool Central station to the sounds of alarms going off and shutters closing. The entrance to the platforms was completely sealed off and everyone was standing around wondering what had happened, except for one woman who was informing someone on the phone that the station had been bombed. With this as my only souce of information I decided to ask the only official presence nearby - two police community support officers who seemed a bit too nonchalant for a terrorist situation. As it happened it was a fire alarm that had been triggered that was causing the ruckuss so I managed to peg it up to Lime Street and catch the next train and get home ok, the only difference being that we didn't stop at Central.

So there we are, and end of an era and my first real experience of post 911 culture I s'pose.

I won't do any more word of the posts till I've compiled my old ones

Ciao

Word(s) of the Post

Hello Alan and the odd other person

I've decide to collect all my Word of the Post's into one post for you to review and well...mostly it's for me so I can remember which words I've already used. I like doing this word of the post thing as I love playing around with words, part of why I want to be a writer I guess. I've always loved words and sounds, even as a small child (according to my parents) are there are some words I just love. What I use the word of the post thing for is when I use a word in conversation or a piece of writing and think back and say "wow! that's a great word!!" then i want to record that word and show my enthusiasm for it. What I also like to do is to break words down into their components (I'm not clever enough to do latin roots or any of that lot, but I like to take apart the different sounds and see where words are derived from etc.) I have a fascination with particular types of words too - words that just sound impressive, words that sound like they should mean something else, long words with short meanings, words that have a much easier way of being said, words with unusual structures etc.

So here are a few of my faves and ones i came up with by looking around my room or flicking through the dictionary when i couldn't think of anything at the end of a blog post!! Definitions are courtesy of dictionary.com

Ambivalent – noun

1.	uncertainty or fluctuation, esp. when caused by inability to make a choice or by a simultaneous desire to say or do two opposite or conflicting things.

2.	Psychology. the coexistence within an individual of positive and negative feelings toward the same person, object, or action, simultaneously drawing him or her in opposite directions.

Prective - has no meaning, but should have one - sounds great don't it?!!!

Ruddy - adjective

.

of or having a fresh, healthy red color: a ruddy complexion.

2.	red or reddish.

3.	British Slang. damned: a ruddy fool.

–adverb

4.	British Slang. damned: He'd ruddy well better be there.

Favourite -

adjective
1.	appealing to the general public; "a favorite tourist attraction" [syn: favorite]
2.	preferred above all others and treated with partiality; "the favored child" [syn: favored]
noun
1.	a competitor thought likely to win [syn: front-runner]
2.	a special loved one [syn: darling]
3.	something regarded with special favor or liking; "that book is one of my favorites"

Evidentialism - Evidentialism is a theory of justification according to which whether a belief is justified depends solely on what a person's evidence is. Technically, though belief is typically the primary object of concern, evidentialism can be applied to doxastic attitudes generally. Formulating evidentialism in terms of the doxastic attitude of belief its most-defended form comes from Conee and Feldman: Belief B toward proposition p is epistemically justified for S at t if and only if B fits the evidence S has at t.

Recapitulate -verb (used with object)

1.	to review by a brief summary, as at the end of a speech or discussion; summarize.

2.	Biology. (of an organism) to repeat (ancestral evolutionary stages) in its development.

3.	Music. to restate (the exposition) in a sonata-form movement.

–verb (used without object)

4.	to sum up statements or matters.

Axiom –noun

1.	a self-evident truth that requires no proof.

2.	a universally accepted principle or rule.

3.	Logic, Mathematics. a proposition that is assumed without proof for the sake of studying the consequences that follow from it.

Epistemology –noun a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge.

Precocious –adjective

1.	unusually advanced or mature in development, esp. mental development: a precocious child.

2.	prematurely developed, as the mind, faculties, etc.

3.	of or pertaining to premature development.

4.	Botany. a. flowering, fruiting, or ripening early, as plants or fruit. b. bearing blossoms before leaves, as plants. c. appearing before leaves, as flowers.

Deluxe –adjective

1.	of special elegance, sumptuousness, or fineness; high or highest in quality, luxury, etc.: a deluxe hotel; a deluxe edition of Shakespeare bound in leather.

–adverb

2.	in a luxurious or sumptuous manner: We always travel deluxe.

Well this has already gone on much longer than I thought so this will have to go on over a few weeks I'd imagine. For now I'll leave you with a word I was horrified to find I'd left out as it's pretty much my all time favourite word.

Generic – adjective

1.	of, applicable to, or referring to all the members of a genus, class, group, or kind; general.

2.	of, pertaining to, or noting a genus, esp. in biology.

3.	(of a word) applicable or referring to both men and women: a generic pronoun.

4.	not protected by trademark registration: “Cola” and “shuttle” are generic terms.

–noun

5.	a generic term.

6.	any product, as a type of food, drug, or cosmetic commonly marketed under a brand name, that is sold in a package without a brand.

7.	a wine made from two or more varieties of grapes, with no one grape constituting more than half the product (distinguished from varietal).

21 innit!

Hello you

Ahh yes, it had to happen sometime, and now it has come. I, my friends have reached that permanant age. From now one, whenever you ask me my age I shall snigger and say (for the moment truthfully) "I'm 21".

So let's get the cliches out of the way - no, I don't feel older, more responsible or particularly compelled to enter the dodgy London nightclubs my age permits me to. Yes, looking back I have had a good life with few regrets and all the rest of it and i probably wouldn't change anything. an finally yes, I do still plan on acting like a child for many years to come!!

The festivities were threepart, firstly the youth group which I'm gradually becoming a leader of held an end of term/birthday celebration with games, pizza and an awesome toffe fudge cake. We had a great time, though most of it was spend trying to hook up a PS2 to a digital projector!

Saturday was an indulgance in nerdiness as we went to a Star Wars weekend at a science museum near Liverpool. I briefly met the guy who played Darth Vader, as well as Boba Fett and the legend that is Warwick Davis (star of Willow and numerous other films and also played an Ewok in Episode 6) there was a previously unseen "behind the scenes" documentary/spoof as well as props from the set and loads of guys in costume. I also met Karen Traviss and got her to sign her latest book and chated to her about her work and the Legacy of the Force series as a whole. Then we got back just in time to catch the new Doctor Who series!!

Sunday was a day with the family as cousins from far and wide came over for the afternoon which we enjoyed, chatting away and eating a buffet that included the most delicious cake that I have ever eaten - it was at least 50% icing!!!

So yeah, I'm a grownup - sort of and I had a good birthday, catch ya later sista!

Word - ambivalent

Driving Force

Hello someone

I had a repeat experience of something I'd long forgotten today - a driving lesson! Today i practised steering correctly (as opposed to steering in a quicker, more efficient, but slightly unsafe method which I've adopted since falling out of practice) which was quite fun. Then there was turning in the road (or 3 point turn to some) which was a tad more difficult as I hadn't done many and I ended up colliding with the curb more often than not. As is often the case with learning to drive, the worst thing about failing in some way (stalling for example) is not the failure itself but the embarasment of being stuck in the middle of the road blocking a load of other drivers, which in turn makes it harder to think which then makes it harder to get yourself out of whatever jam you're in. Then I did a bit of bombing down dual carriegways, which is always enjoyable!

Well that's all I have to say

Ciao

Word of the post - prective, I came up with this whilst trying to type 'practice' and if it isn't a word then it should be!! Failing that I'll have "ruddy" as the word for this post.

P.S. I didn't make that many mistakes to be fair, and some of the above is taken from my collective driving experience, not from one lesson!!!

Writer's block aka Apathy

Hello everyone

It's been a while since I posted so I thought I'd at least stick something up so you know I'm still aware of your needs. I'm sorry for deserting my (dare I dream of it?) readership, but I've been finding it difficult to write about things...which is what I'm going to write about!

Laziness is something of a big factor here I'll admit, and part of why I can't come up with anything decent for my coursework piece is because I quite often can't be bothered, and when combined with other factors it can be a very big deterrant to creativity.

The second factor is distractions. I have a houseguest to entertain, tasks to complete as well as there being a wealth of entertaining TV out there (since our aquisition of E4, Smallville has become a regular element to my week day. Another distraction is blogging, which requires some creativity and effort, but does give the slight satisfaction of having written and published something.

The third factor is, for lack of a better word, depression. It's easy to get a bit disheartened with a piece when it's not progressing as you'd hoped and when you're very aware that deadlines are accelerating towards you. The (often quite poor) organisation of my course, coupled with external factors (mostly transport related) has meant that i have had much less tutor time than I need to properly develop my work which leaves me in dead space, not knoing where and how to progress. Also since both my main pieces are continuations of what I did last year it's hard to create the piece since i largely know what happens already, I just have to write it out and hope it comes out as I imagined it...which it won't!

The fourth factor is just plain old fashioned writer's block - i.e. I find it quite hard to actually come up with an idea and to develop it, due to the above factors and the internal force that tells me that I'm burned out and that there are no ideas left.

So there we are, that's me done for now- I'm going to go and attempt some writing of consequence, goodnight.

Word of the post - favourite

Keeping it out of the way

Hello

As I'm quite keen on various aspects of Science-Fiction, in particular large franchises such as Star Wars and the Matrix, it is easy for me to rant on about them incessantly. But I don't feel that this is the place for it, this is a place for me to pass on snippets of information you didn't really need to know, but are interesting enough to keep you reading...whoever you are. so babbling on about spaceships and yuuzhan vong and residual self image might alienate people from what is essentially a common day blog about me. Therefore I've set up a new blog for me and for those inclined to like Science Fiction and the like to rant on about it freely without alienating people who might be interested in us personally.

So if you're that way inclined you can find it here at www.bloggathehutt.blogspot.com

Enjoy

Word of the post - evidentialism

The words of Jim Friel

I just thought I'd pass on some words given by my lecturer today as I can't see any other context than an IW lecture, besides a crazy drug trip, that these words might be said. Jim has an excellent knack for showing you the weaker parts of your thoughts and writing whilst making you cry with laughter at the same time. This quote was one of his finer moments - I'll explain the context afterwards.

"Yeah, but she's having five babies..and one of them's a puppy!"

OK, the context was that we were debating about whether a character was in enough danger for us to care whether she lived or died. Someone said that they didn't really have any emotional tie to the character even if she was pregnant and in danger, the above was Jim's response to this.

Word - recapitulate

Mission accomplished

Well I set out a challenge for people to find what kind of weird and whacky blog there are out there and I've finally managed to come up with the four categories I chose. The rules are as follows, keep clicking "Next Blog" until you find all four types of blog earlier mentioned and see how many clicks it takes you. It took me 9 attempts to get all the blogs, see if you can beat me

1. A 'normal' blog - Unleash the freedom - a blog showing the daily dooings of someone who is apparently very chuffed that she isn't in love.

2. A topical blog - Acne Treatments Reviewed - a blog reviewing and testing the best treatments for acne sufferers

3. A foreign language blog - K-996-150 - no idea what this one's about but I think it's Russian

4. A green blog - Joanisms - Whilst not entirely green, it's definitely the primary colour there - the blog is a load of IM conversations with someone's aunt Joan.

Happy hunting folks, but be careful- there's some weird stuff out there!!

Word of the post - axiom

Disadvantages to long hair

1. You occasionally find Spiders in it!!

Most of those who know me will be aware that I have longer hair than most, which can just about be described as shoulder length. Now let's be clear first of all i do take (reasonably) good care of my hair, so I'm not some kind warlock sitting in a big chair with snakes crawling out of my mouth as i summon my evil horde. And this wasn't a tarantula or even a daddy longlegs scale creature I found. What i did find, whilst playing snooker, was that a tiny, millimeter long, blows about in the breeze, Charlotte's Web type baby spider hanging from a web atatched to one of the longer strands of my hair. I detatched the web, hanging it on the door handle and the spider seemed perfectly happy and I went back to me game and managed to fight off the urge to feel very itchy!!

Word of the post - epistemology - totally messed up the spelling on my first attempt, i got this from going to a debate between William Lane Craig and Mike Bogan on "Is God a delusion?" it was a very good debate, though a lot of the words flew past me!

Men of the world take note!

I recently came across a story that both chilled me and brought hope to me for days to come. This scenario could happen to anyone so learn from Mr Svboboda's experiences and prepare yourselves for something that could easily happen to you.

Read his account here: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/30310

I know...I'm scared too!

Word of the post - precocious

Book paragraph game thingy

Hello all! This challenge thing has been floating it's way around the bloggosphere for a while so I thought I'd jump in too. I found it on Dan's blog and then linked back to a few others. The rules are as follows:

1. Grab the book closest to you.

2. Open to page 123; go down to the fourth sentence.

3. Post the text of the following three sentences.

4. Name the author and book title.

5. Tag three people to do the same.


"Men may seem detestable as joint stock-companies and nations; knaves, fools, and murderers there may be; men may have mean and meagre faces; but man, in the ideal, is so noble and sparkling, such a grand and glowing creature, that over any ignominious blemish in him all his fellow should run to cast their costliest robes. That immaculate manliness we feel within ourselves, so far within us, that it remains intact though all the outer character seem gone; bleeds with the keenest anguish at the undraped spectacle of a valour-ruined man. Nor can piety itself, at such a shameful sight, completely stifle her upbraidings against the permitting stars. But this august dignity I treat of, is not the dignity of kings and robes, but that abounding dignity which has no robed investiture."

Herman Mellville - Moby Dick

And since three people pretty much encompasses all my readership I thus tag you all - go forth and blindly grab at literature.

Should anyone take interest in my "next blog" game i think I shall formalise the rules so it resembles the more finely crafted game shown above. So my challenge to you all is, in the least amount of clicks possible to find

1. A "normal" blog - someone talking about what they do etc.

2. A themed blog - A particular musician, types of trees, etc.

3. A foreign language blog - It has to have at least 50% non-English content

4. A green blog - just the background, content can be anything

Post the links up on your blog and say how many clicks it took you, and drop me a comment so I can check it out. I'm on my sixth attempt and I still haven't found the first one!!!

Edits: I think I got the amount of sentences wrong but what the hey - also 50 bonus points if you happen to find a blog you already know of!!

"Next Blog"

Don't worry i'm not moving to another blog, though I do have some ideas about expanding my blog collection. Just now I decided to try clicking on the "next blog" icon at the top of the page, thinking it would send me to a blog that followed mine and that each blog is sequentially listed and that it would take me to the next blog in line - not true, this link simply takes you to a random blog!!

I found a Blog containing several pictures of Beyonce, a review of the best acme treatments, a Russian blog entitled k-995 or something to that effect, and the diaries of a lifelong knitter. And just now I thought I'd try again and see if i could find a more average blog, but no - I find a blog containing pictures of someone's online conversations with their Aunt Joan!!

You try it - see what you can come up with!!

Word of the post - deluxe

A good week

Hello

I've had a pretty good few days that I can be very grateful for, and I thought I'd share some of the goings on with you if I may.

Monday - I had a somewhat fruitless day at Uni, but I wasn't to bothered 'cause I needed to get home and do work. The upside was that when I got in i managed to recieve my transcript (marks) and found I'd averaged 69 for the first semester, which for those unfamiliar with university marking schemes is a good mark!! I even managed to wrangle a first for my novel chapter and I wasn't far off with my screenplay, which is my weakness. All this has brought my overall mark up quite high so I'm guessing that I'll finish 1 mark of a First at the end!!!

Tuesday - Tuesday was probably the best day for me as I passed my theory test. Unlike others my age I find the prospect of being able to drive a car quite boring and not something I need to do. I can drive from A to B perfectly well, but this is one step closer to getting the piece of paper that says I'm allowed to do so on my own - which will be handy I'm sure.

Wednesday and Thursday - I was working these days, which is a good thing for me as I haven't had any work for quite a while and could use some spare change. I work from time to time as a classroom assistant (the official title for 'muggins') in a special needs school, which is always a fun and interesting experience and i know most of the staff an pupils from working there over the years so i always feel welcome there.

Friday - Friday i spent the day at my friend's house playing on his Wii - the new interactive games console from Nintendo. The thing that makes this one special is that the game is controlled partly by your own arm and hand movements, as well as the button pressing traditional to games consoles. It gives you a bit of a workout while your eyes deteriorate and makes for a more fun experience - I haven't had such laugh out loud fun since Lego Star Wars!

Saturday and Sunday were average, but good average. Well that's it from me, see you soon

Word of the post - concordance

Opening lines

They say that the opening line of a book is one of the most important parts. so i thought i'd share some of the openings I've come across recently and see what grabs your attention if anything!

"Call me Ishmael." Moby Dick, Herman Melville!

"There is a wood, the canal, the river, and above the river the railway and the road." Untold Stories, Alan Bennet

"This much I know for sure:" The Affirmation, Christopher Priest. This one cam recommended to me and I've just started reading it. The opening is quite engaging as it sets up what's know as an unreliable narrator - because theres probably a lot he isn't sure of too.

"The words of the teacher, son of David King of Jerusalem: 'Meaningless! Meaningless! says the Teacher. Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.' " Ecclesiastes, God. Despite this book's surprisingly Emo beginnings it does go on to offer insight into this world, and also hope and purpose unlike the many bands of today who'se lyrics don't go past the first line of this book.

"John Clark had more time in airplanes than most licensed pilots, and he knew the statistics as well as any of them, but he still didn't like the idea of crosing the ocean on a twin-engine airliner." Rainbow Six, Tom Clancy. I haven't actually read this one yet - but it sets up the character quite well I think.

That'll do pig

Word of the post - parenthesis (had to get a dictionary for this one, almost spelt it with 2 a's!)

Thought I'd share this!!

As I continue in my quest to find a way to upload photos I give you another experiment. My Dad sent me this picture, i don't know where he got it from, some time ago and it's been gathering virtual dust in my folder, but I dug it up as I experimented with phtot programs and I thought I'd pass it on. Enjoy!!



Word of the post - peculiar, reading old books I've come across an older meaning for the word, something closer to 'particular' than to 'unusual' which we usually use it for today

Speaking of snow...

It's chucking it down with the stuff!!! There's a good few centimetres of the white stuff laying about on the ground and there's plenty of those little flakes still floating their way down. I am in fact pretty busy at the moment, but if the snow's still thick on the ground tomorrow i'll find it hard to resist the allure of my sledge!!

One thing I noticed amidst winter's beauty was that weird white sky you get when it snows. Admittedly it's more of a murky gray stuff than a whitewash finish, but it's still quite bizzare and I'm susprised I'd never really noticed it before...probably to busy throwing snowballs I expect! But looking out of my window I can see it, a white haze where clouds and blue stuff used to be - like something out of a sci-fi film.

Enjoy it while you can folks!!

Word of the post - 'noun' it's one of a few words that actually are the thing they describe, other examples are 'word' and 'short' can you think of any?

P.S. You're going to have to content yourselves with a picture of my shoe for the time being. I think I will be trying out the Picasa program since it comes reccomended, but the newspaper I read has already been recycled, plus my shoe seems quite content there.

Ah, the wonders of YouTube!!

Well since my previous post is currently worthless I thought I'd set myself up for another disaster, and that is to try and embed a YouTube video into my blog post. This will likely require fiddling around with HTML, which I know very little of. But I managed to incorporate some music into it via the same route so I should be ok.

Well, keep it short they say so here is my first attempt at YouTube embedation. This is the Mighty Boosh explaining the effects of being alone in the Arctic Tundra...in song form!!



"I'm little Johnny Frostbite moving around. Freezing you up, freezing you down like an icicle" Gotta love it!

Well that seems to work, so that's enough from me

Check ya later homies

Word of the post - endless..ness!

Finish my Su Doku!!

Aha! Now that no one's reading the blog I finally manage to post a flurry of small, readable snippets!! Ah well, when people eventually return to the fold there'll be plenty for them to catch up on eh?!! Before I become too aware that I'm talking to myself I will launch the new interactive side of my blog- which consists of you lot finishing the Su Doku I started on the train. Not that I couldn't finish it, just that I was tired and didn't want to expend too much effort. For those who might be interested it's from the Metro (for people on the move) January the 30th. As for how you'll give me the answer...what am I your teacher?!! You might wanna try www.metro.co.uk though!

Here it is



Ok, so it isn't here - blogger won't upload it I'll try again later! This makes for something of a non-post, but I'll try and figure it out soon!! Right- it's still not working so i might try getting that Picasa thing or summat - any reccomendations? I tried again with a different picture and it seems to be the specific picture of the Sudoku it doesn't like- perhaps 'cause it's a scan or a large file...well here's a picture of my shoe to keep you happy

Bye for now

Word for today is Panorama

P.S. does anyone know how to embed YouTube and such into a blog post, and possibly a better way to upload pictures too? Yes Tim I'm looking in your direction!

The other thing...

I knew there was something else! I was going to draw attention to the new title for my blog (which has now been put in place). I realised the title for my blog was a bit ambigious if not outright weird, so I thought I'd change it to the much cooler title of my now obselete MSN Space, since this 'ere blog has taken it's place.

Thank you

Word - iconoclastic (I've only hear this word spoken so I'm not sure of the spelling)

Is it over?

Well, it looks like I've got to upgrade to a google blog after all (sorry Tim!) as soon as I log in I'm given a bunch of commands to do leaving me with a new account but no idea how to access it or what to do with it, thanks a lot Google!! Anyway, I've finally managed to get it sorted out and I'm here now to talk about, well you know, stuff.

The horror that is Celebrity Big Brother is finally over, and E4 can be reclaimed for normal televisual programmity. We recently moved further into the modern world and helped ourselves to a Freeview set top box ("We" being my family. Also don't you think that 'set top box' is a clunky description, I don't know who thought it would be marketable) with a world of extra channels that only come on after 6pm!! Having E4 was one of the highlights, with extra doses of Friends, Smallville and other such programs to get us through the day - but as soon as we got the box CBB had to go and start didn't it, replacing everything with "Celebrity Big Brother Live" all day!!

There have been some highlights, such as being able to keep up with current music, though the music channels mostly play the Killers and My chemical Romance over and over interspersed with trashy dance videos and reruns of Cheers. And E4 does let me watch Ugly Betty ( a show which I'm cautiously becoming a fan of) a few days early, which is good 'cause I'm out on Friday nights.

There was something else but I forget

Word of the post - 'the'

Tedious link

With the wonder of Wikipedia it's easy to look up interesting things on the internet and suddenly find yourself transported through clicking on the first interesting thing you see and you end up looking at something different. I find I often do this, but I've never really thought about it before- how about you, have you ever looked something up on Wikipedia and ended up looking at something completely different. If so give me a comment or maybe stick it up on your blog.

Anyway, here's the links i went through about five minutes ago. I was doing research on types of boats for a piece I'm writing for Uni and i noticed a type of small boat called a cuddy, which I wikied. This lead me to the character Lisa Cuddy, and then to the medical drama House which she is a part of. This then lead me to the director Brian Singer who exec produces the show, this lead me to The Ususal Suspects and then to Kevin Spacey and then on to K-PAX which i watched on Film4+1 (which consists of whatever was on Film 4 and hour ago!) recently, and then to an article about the book K-PAX, which I'm looking at now - a far cry from the research on boats I'm supposed to be doing!!!

Anyway I'd better stop now 'cause I need to do work. I'll continue with the Impolito story (since you're all clamouring for it!) when I'm not so busy.

Another wiki link just lead me to my word of the post -anarchism

More from my travels

In the never ending quest for comments I will continue with the short snippets from my journey to Impolioto. I plan to make this a weekly thing, as long as it will stretch, with snippets about my current affairs in between. But there's not much that I want to talk about at the moment so on with the journey

Customs and exercise

After perfecting the technique of falling asleep whilst on an extremely uncomfortable surface that like to jolt around, changing speeds constantly and occasionally stopping to eat some grass, I finally arrived at Impolito. Or so I thought, but before going into the city itself you must first stop off at the outpost village of Rood, where rigorous customs checks are performed. They take this very seriously as apparently a lot of people want to bring explosives into Impolito, and after a short stay in Rood I counted myself among them.

The people of Rood have decided that the best way of opposing any would be felons is to accuse everyone of everything as they pass through, and then delay them while they search through their intimate belongings in front of everyone else. Then just to be sure they make everyone wait several hours in the open until everyone's really frustrated, which usually makes any villains confess just so that they can leave. But for the rest of us it's something of a bad start to the holiday.

I hopped off my camel and went up to the customs queue, which was beginning to peter out as the plane had arrived some time before me. I went up to the nearest customs officer, hoping to get my baggage through quickly so I could find a place to sleep that didn't have a mind of it's own. I hoped in vain.

"Anything to declare?"
"Um, well, there's some sugar, coffee..."
"No, any crimes to declare. Drug smuggling, armed robbery - come on let's get it out"
"But I haven't..."
"Of course you haven't, you just stole some sweets when you were little and things got out of control, we understand."
"But I'm telling you I've never..."
"Look mate, we already know about the bomb in your bag so you may as well give it up now."
"What the"
"Oh! A rude one eh? Well I just think we'll have to go through all your belonging just to make sure now won't we."

Before I knew it they'd taken my bag from me, emptied the contents onto the floor and then ripped the bag to check for hidden compartments. Finding nothing, they tossed everything into a cheap bin bag, which stretched so much it turned white and told me I had to wait for security clearance. When I asked what there was to do they pointed my to the gym, which consisted of a square room with mats on the floor, and a CD player with C&C Music Factory's "Gonna make you sweat" (more commonly known as "Everobody dance now") on repeat. Well they certainly weren't gonna make me sweat and as the drone of the rapper, clearly a relative of the tour guide, came on I slowly drifted off to sleep.

Word of the post - quintessential

My travels

Hey y'all

Sorry for not posting and all that, I'm gonna try and make it up to ya by posting a log of some of my travels recently, I wanna avoid doing long posts so it's gonna have to come piece by piece so that you're little minds can cope with reading it. So without further ado...

Travels

It was with a weary heart that I made my way to Impolito, one of the least desirable tourist locations anywhere (as described by Go There travel magazine) and booked myself in for a weekend stay. I went there for two reasons, firstly I had gotten myself lost and secondly I was grabbed with the innate curiosity about this place which seems to be the only reason people ever travel there, as I gathered from asking other tourists. The reason for this is that the only information available is word of mouth, and there seem to be no official sources available to describe this place (CheapSeat magazine’s brochure for Impolito just reads NO REFUNDS!) Well, I will attempt to correct this.

Impolito is a small country in the far reaches of the world; the reaches are so far in fact that you can never quite tell where it is until you’re there, and when you get there you’re too tired to remember where you came from. And when you leave you’re in such a hurry to get away from it you soon forget the way back, and in fact you’re quite glad of this in the end. The people of Impolito run the tourist agencies themselves and they like to tell you, with an uncanny combination of enthusiasm and a nasal drone, all about their country, which manages to sound dull and depressing even though they’re clearly quite chuffed with it. This soon sends you off to sleep, and is the reason why most people can’t remember how to get there. I heard a tale of a man who brought a barrel of Red Bull for the ride to try and help him remember, but he caused so many toilet stops that they kicked him off. But thankfully he had enough energy left to run the whole way back.
After a few hours on the bus it stopped having completely left civilization and I got off and then rode a camel the rest of the way. There was actually a plane to take you there, but the only thing to do on that ride would be another guided tour, and the seats looked so tatty I might not be able to fall asleep even. And when I found out that the in-flight movie was Home Alone 4 that sealed the deal. The camel guy told me that going by camel was a great adventure and was just as good as flying, and to be fair I did spend much more time in the air than I did on the ground. And after a bone jarring ride through hills and hillocks and the odd mountain I was finally there.

Word of the post: ficticious

Jus' a quick one (YourSpins)

I'm reliably informed that it is better to post short snappy entries then the lengthy tomes that I have been bestowing upon you, and that a briefer piece is more likely to induce comments from the masses, and so I resolve to do so.
If you scroll down you will find a media player device which, when clicked, will play "Lift me up" by MOBY remixed by none other than myself. Through visiting the Faithless website I discovered this fun interactive music website. Those among my readers who have money to waste..er spend on things such as Logic Pro 7 will probably scoff at the technology it provides- but for the rest of us who don't know an awful lot about music- being able to change the bass from "dub" to "moogy" makes the music a lot more fun.
The site also has a community base, where people can listen to, comment on and rate each other's music. The layout is a bit like MySpace only...good, and people leave comments, make friends bladibladibla. This whol community thing usually bores me, but having the music mizes to focus on makes it a lot more interesting to talk to weirdoes I've never met and never will. Their third party terms aren't as rigid as I'd like them to be but otherwise the site seems pretty ok, and after spending an hour mixing on the Faithless site I wasn't going to complain!!

So if you fancy it come and join me making some music

see you later

The Figleaf

YourSpins homepage www.yourspins.com

My Page

Faithless website - you can remix their new track from here, but you won't be able to save it without joining YourSpins

Still alive...just

Hi y'all

Sorry to have neglected you my friends- i have no excuse to bring before you only my apologies and hope that you will return to me in grace...or something. The comments drought of the past few months put me off- plus the fact that I seemed to have killed off the Carey teens blog with my last post!! But i'm sat by my computer, in desperate need of something remotely creative to do to ease my conscience from the burden brought on by not having done enough work. I don't blame this entirely on myself- the University are to blame I say!!! They have introduced a special series of "student lead workshops" for the duration of the third year- whereby we as students, because of our independence and skill are supposed to be able to run our own lectures once a fortnight without any guidance or support whatsoever- the result: no one turns up and no one does any work!!
As one of the few faithful who turns up to every lecture I should feel proud and snobbish, but the lack of enthusiasm among my peers, as well as the wasted journey time has a serious drain on my ability and desire to produce work- and when the room we're s'posed to be in is locked it doesn't help much either!! All in all it drains me so I don't feel like doing much at all, and am left without a sense of purpose as I struggle to do the best I can for this third year.

Sorry to unload on you all like that- I should really be encouraging you to read my stuff rather than dump a load of my grievances on you, not particularly funny ones either! Other than this, life is decidedly average, so for something positive i'll give you my current reading material and adig up a positive post from my MSN blog to c 'n p for you!

My train book is Moby Dick by Herman Mellvile, a great Leviathan of a book, but very readable- I remember struggling with it when i started reading it at school (it was shortly after i attempted War and Peace, so i was put off big meaty books for a while!) but now I can't put it down, except when I need to get off the train!! Even when he pauses in the middle of the narrative to give an in depth description of the distinguishing features of the different species of whal known to man it's still gripping!!

I'm also reading Untold Stories by Alan Bennet (well I've read the introduction!!) my lecturer reckons it's good so i should really get stuck in!!

I'm now doing some damage to Psalms, book five by King David/God, i recently read Psalm 119, three pages long, 176 verses and all thoroughly worth reading.

OK- the rest of the content of this post is from eons ago and is purely to fill space until I find something decent to write about- enjoy.

The word of the post is posterity

Elan, wonderful Elan

I was sitting here thinking- what does this blog need? What would make it truly complete so I could look back one day and say "yes, wasn't that all worthwhile!". And then it struck me (or more acurately she struck me!) the answer to all my trouble- I hadn't talked about Elan!!! It was so simple and yet so fundamental, what kind of blogger am I if I don't talk about Elan?

And so, slightly ashamed, I compose this entry about my friend Elan, mostly because I like her partly because she can pinch you hard enough to make you bleed! Elan is a truly wonderful person, funny, kind, pretty good at pool too, or maybe I'm just rubbish!! Since leaving school, Elan more than anyone else has been the force of unity amongst leavers of our high school, she works harder than anyone else to bring us all to a pub where we can meet over a few drinks and have exactly the same conversation as last time!! She'll always make you laugh- mostly because she is just laughing incessantly herself and can make pretty much any conversation seem hilarious.

See you soon- word of the thing, virrulent

The Figleaf

Ok, she's gone now- what I really think about Elan is...