Is it just happening to me or...

is anyone else having the "Post Published" page come up in German?!!

Caption Competition anyone?

I was just ruminating as to how to encourage more interactive blogging when I came across this on the "Blogger Buzz" section of the homepage, announcing new additions to blogger. This latest one announces Blogger Play, a program that shows the latest pictures to be uploaded to Blogger in an unending slideshow. It can be quite fun to see what is uploaded the worldwide web each day, though of course it is done at your own risk. Blogger run all the pictures through a filter, but there is always a risk one might get through so use with caution. But the wealth of random images could surely lead to a wealth of caption competition type games.

I'll try and think of some game rules, but for now if you're reading this why don't you have a go at this beauty I found...

Anything strike you...do comment with appropriate captions or some such if this takes your fancy. Anyhow - here's the official post from Blogger detailing the site

"Today we’re pleased to launch Blogger Play, a neat little toy we’ve cooked up to show you photos and blog posts as you’ve never seen them before.

Image credit: kiwisweden

Shortly after Blogger launched photo uploading two years ago, one of our engineers whipped up a web page that would show us the pictures that were being uploaded in real time. The result was fun, often beautiful, but above all, compelling. We couldn’t stop watching.

Over the years we’ve kept this photo scroller as part of the Blogger offices, on a monitor or projector, as an interesting (distracting?) slideshow, and a reminder of the diversity and vivaciousness of Blogger blogs. The fame of the scroller spread within Google, until one day we were asked, “so, when are you launching this?”

“Um...,” we replied. But we knew a good idea when we heard one. We got our UI people to come up with buttons and fadey effects and we got our engineers to make the whole thing fast and robust. A bit of work later, and now we can share it with all of you:

http://play.blogger.com/

Blogger Play will show you a never-ending stream of images that were just uploaded to public Blogger blogs. You can click the image to be taken directly to the blog post it was uploaded to, or click “show info” to see an overlay with the post title, a snippet of the body, and some profile information about the blogger who uploaded it. We also wrote a Blogger Play FAQ with more information.

A caveat: we use many techniques, including Google’s SafeSearch technology, to keep the images clean. Nevertheless, on rare occasions an image that you may find vulgar or obscene will slip through our algorithmic filters. Google does not pre-screen the images that appear in Blogger Play, nor is it responsible for their content. To report a terms of service violation, you may fill out this contact form.

— Pete [14/09/07 12:30]"

Feels good to do a bit of C'n P again

Word of the post: Feasible –adjective

1.	capable of being done, effected, or accomplished

Notices

OK, I'm just popping up and noting a few things that have been going on and what I have noticed whilst they were going on.

The first notice I must make is that SAM of The Great Gig in the Sky is the triumphant winner of my Blogger's Challenge with a magnificent score of 7 - well done to you sir!!

And back to me...I made my first attempt to escape the void yesterday, as expected it wasn't as easy as I'd have liked and nowhere near as productive. My methos involved walking into shops, standing around for 5-10 minutes and seeing if I could stand being in there all day - if so then I'd hand them a CV. Constant loud music and busy queues put me off a few and lack of vacancies denioed me other - in the end GAME was the only one that I liked and that had an opening so I duly handed in a CV, whether anything comes of it we shal see.

Whilst not very forthcoming in the primary goal it did succeed in both secondary and tertiary goals. The secondary goal was to get me out of the house and let me do something productive in my afternoon, the tertiary goal was for me to get the latest Star Wars Legacy issue from town (see my SF Blog for more details) which it achieved well and gave added justification for travelling out to get it. I made one other purchase, a rare impulse buy - even rarer a book which I know nothing about, a book whose title and cover drew my eye instantly.

The book is Ringworld by Larry Niven and it struck me because it's name, premise and cover are very reminiscent of the computer game HALO. Doubtless I'm not the first to notice this and I'm sure Microsoft managed to wrangle out of any legal problems as soon as they arose, but it is interesting that a computer game I remarked at being so original should have such a close paralell in this book.

The last thing I noticed whilst reading Alan Bennet's diaries is the term bric-a-brac. For some reason (possibly the "a" in the middle) the term seems inherently Welsh and hearing it used in English conversation seems almost odd, though the term is English...or possibly French. I might look it up some time, but for now I bid adieu.

Word of the post: Mezzanine - n.

1. A partial story between two main stories of a building.

The Void

So I done me coursework, got all graduated and now I'm left in what I have decided to term the void, more commonly known as unemployment. This new state is only just starting to become a reality in my mind. This is partly due to having a fairly full and varied summer, had my time been dull and samey then by now I would be crying out for an occupation, but as it is I still sort of feel on holiday with a vague sense I should be doing something.

Another reason I'm not suprised at being idle is because I've been idle for quite some time. Uni was never demanding in terms of time consumption so I'm already used to having lots of days in the week to spend on myself. Had I been on a more demanding timetable no doubt this new state of affairs would be more of a shock to the system.

A third reson for my lack of unease is distractions. Empty days can while away much easier when you've got Facebook, a new series of Battlestar Galactica (series 1 so no spoilers you who've seen further!) and four series of Red Dwarf freshly purchased. These activities each demand at least 30 mins of your time and put together can fill a sizeable chunk of the day. This combined with some slightly more noble pursuits such as reading (currently Alan Bennet's diaries which makes my blogging feel very inferior) can help make those clock hands swing faster.

The last reason is that I'm not completely idle. I have been given a lot of responsibility by my church, some of it already existing, some if it completely new and not a little bit daunting such as running the youth work with a few friends that are the same age as I am. It's going well but we still have a lot to learn and there's a lot of preparation involved which helps give a sense of purpose.

But still I have reached a point where I see the need for work and a structured day (especially after buying said TV series!!) and so I will put my efforts into finding work of at least a temporary nature from hereon in.

Word of the post: Albeit - conjunction

although; even if: a peaceful, albeit brief retirement.

Squirrels!!

Well I was gonna start with a more common picture of a squirrel but when an image search turned up this beauty I just couldn't resist posting it! I haven't done a rant type post or talked about life in general for a while and this post struck me as an opportunity to do both without being too dull or aggressive - we'll see how things go.

Squirrels are a common feature of my life, given that one or two will visit my garden on a more or less daily basis. They gain access via a tall tree which connects to a tall hedge which connects to some small apple trees which connect to our lawn - all easily traversed with a squirel's natural agility. So common is this intrusion that it's hard to think of life without it and odd to speak to more urban folks who don't have bushy tailed visitors like we do.

While the squirels are very cute, especially in photographs, nature documentaries and Grosvenor Park(?) in Chester where they gladly come and eat nuts out of your hand, they do represent a problem and can be something of a pest. In my younger years I was an avid reader of nature books and attended various clobs which taught how the common greay squirrel has drive the much more attractive red squirrel into near extinction in our isles - something which needs to be addressed. The problem they represent in our garden is that they view the bird feeders as a ready source of food. Why these feeders should remain exclusive to avian visitors is not quite clear, but nonetheless squirrels go for them and are often particularly aggresive when they do so, mauling the containers open and scattering the precious grain to the floor. It is notoriously difficult to make things squirrel proof as they are seemingly born to be able to break into things - there seems to be nothing they can't climg up, swing down, hang upside down off or stuff their little faces into!! I also noticed recently that they produce a noise which seems to represent Daffy Duck being strangled to death and not the cute squaks you'd expect. All this makes them a dominating and annoying figure in the garden and they need to be warded away.

Which is where the fun starts! A cry of "Squirrels!" will drive our dog into a frenzy of speed unlike anything else. Commands like "Walkies", "Outside", "Biscuit" or "Hooshagabooshywa" will certainly increase his pace and have him barking and jumping around. But "Squirrels" puts him on an alert level and sends him scurrying into the garden at speeds no other command can produce. This is always amusing to see, especially when he heads for the base of the large tree (the common source of squirrels) and misses the nearby squirrel completely!! He has never caught a squirrel yet and we doubt he'd know what to do if he did, but it's good to watch.

So Squirrels: a cute pest that can be very amusing!!

Word of the post: Murine - adjective

pertaining to or resembling a mouse or rat

Edit: The word of the post is a random choice, picked from a list I add to as an when words take my fancy, given my negativity towards squirrels in this article this posts's word is a bit of a coincidence!!

Writer's Bloc 3 - American Studies

OK so still not a word more written, but plenty of thinking done and plenty more thinking to do. I'm starting to feel that I can probably wrangle together a complete first chapter (or prologue as it may turn out to be) without going to in depth and then correct all my grievous errors later.

Regardless some research needs to be done, particularly on America and it's government as they are the focus of my piece. Though of course the piece is set in the future it needs it's roots in reality. And as it's set on Earth and not a distant planet and in a future where not too much has changed besides some key technologies the governmental structure and tradition needs to correlate very closely to the real thing.

Herein lies the problem. Most of my knowledge of the American government comes from 24 and Splinter Cell, both featuring imaginary branches of the government both dedicated to stopping large scale terror, albeit with different methods and aims. Both are excellently written and I'm equally captivated by watching Jack Bauer beat the clock to stop a virus as I am to control Sam Fisher as he seeks to hunt down a guerilla leader across several countries. The two have slowly started to merge until I'm half expecting Bauer to don the tripple green goggles and hide in the shadows and wait for Fisher to disagree with protocol and demand his daughter's safety...oh wait he does!!

Anyway, these sources are my best information on the American government, 24 moreso as it focuses on the President and his campaign - I wouldn't even know that there was a California Presidential Primary if I hadn't heard Jack's voice say it over and over in series 1! But since neither CTU nor Third Echelon exist it looks like I have my work cut out to get things accurate.

I'd best get back to it, if nothing else writing this piece has given me stuff to blog about!

Word of the post: Harangue –noun

1.	a scolding or a long or intense verbal attack

Writer's Bloc 2 - First Page

I've held off this article mostly to let the Blogger challenge get noticed, I've had two takers so far, one dropped out on reasonable grounds and another who'se blog is apparently to high brow to stoop to my level! The challenge achieved it's main goal, which is to get people to actually read and comment on this thing, and it got at least one participant who was completely new to my blog. The standing record is Seven - if anyone is interested read the previous post and see if you can beat it.

The other reason I've held off is because I've not really written much and it's kind of embarrasing - but honesty is what these articles are about so I've decided to press on regardless. In one sense a first page is a meaningless thing, it's just a tiny fraction of what will be a large piece and by the time the whole thing has been written, rewritten and edited no two words will remain the same.

But on the other hand it's a big step and a good sign of things to come. Writing the first page means taking the idea from your head and actually putting it on paper (or screen to be accurate) and making what could be into what is. This can be an ugly and disillusioning process and can serve to show which of your wild imaginings that seemed genius at the time simply don't work. Writing it down means testing your writing skills as well as your imagination, putting the project onto a different playing field. Working through the first page, which took me well over an hour, made me face the reality of writing a book and reminded me of the seriousness of the task.

I've got a long way to go, but the first step is there to spur me on and while starting to write shows the greatness of the task it also shows the goal ahead and the pleasure of creating new work. I've currently taken it as far as it can go without more research so expect to get more snippets of information in the near future.

Farewell for now

Word of the post: Exemplar - noun

1.	a model or pattern to be copied or imitated

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