Catching Up

Hi all

It's been a while.

I've been a bad blogger . Moreover, I've largely been a bad friend. Many of you haven't heard from me in a long while and whilst I could cite the excuses of massive amounts of work (both in Waterstone's and of the University variety) it's largely just excuses as I've still found the time to re-start Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, find all 100 gang tags and complete the Pimp and Taxi side-mission (currently working on the Vigilante and Fireman).

This blog, which I'm well aware no one really reads, is probably not the best method of reconnecting with all my loved and distant friends, but it is a step in the right direction. Promise.

So, what have I been up to?

Well, depending how far back you need me to go - I finished my MA in Science Fiction Studies, no final grade as of yet but I handed my Dissertation in on time and was relatively happy with it so I'm confident I've at least passed the thing.

I applied for, and was accepted onto, a PhD in English Literature at the University of Liverpool. I've since converted this PhD into a part-time course which saves me money (which is very tight at the moment) but means I'll be working on it for around 6 years. My University Library Card now expires in 2015!

In non-Uni related stuff, I'm happy at work in Waterstone's in the Liverpool One shopping complex, and have finally been given the responsibility of running the Science Fiction / Fantasy / Horror / Graphic Novels / Manga section, which is at times a frustrating job, but massively appeals to by inner-Geek (which let's face it is also an outer-Geek). As part of this I have also inherited a Science Fiction and Fantasy Bookclub which meet once a month and I have created a Blog for (already more successful than this one).

Things are going well with me and Anna, who I now live with, though our current home suffers from single-glazed windows and so can come to resemble a freezer at some times in the night. The fact is compounded by our stubbornness to live there as cheaply as possible and so not switch the heating on.

We have a hamster, her name is Puck. I chose the name (before even seeing the hamster) because I did my Undergraduate Dissertation on Fairies and Shakespeare.

Ummm.... what else.... My radio show starts again online on Friday 13th November, but if you're on Facebook you probably know that already. Listen to in on ICON radio. I've also got some other radio things in the pipeline but I'm not disclosing them just yet.

I'm going back to fencing in January, after an 18 month hiatus.

Went to see Muse live the other night. That was awesome. Slightly less awesome (and thus disapointing really) was Eddie Izzard who I saw on Halloween, it was good - don't get me wrong - but it wasn't as good as some of the other stuff I've seen him do.

I also saw Jonathan Pryce star in the Caretaker at the Everyman, that was good.

Oh, and I've had the flu. But I suspect it was normal flu rather than the swine variety. Either that or all the people who've complained about swine flu's effects (and not died) are hypochondriacs.

So that's kind of my life for the last few months.


How are you?

Public Enemies - A Review

Dir: Michael Mann
Star: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard


Comparisons with 1995's Heat are inevitable with this film. One of Michael Mann's most acclaimed films, a crime saga with two big A-list actors playing big characters on opposite sides of the law who only actually meet in one scene. All of that still applies, including hopefully the acclaim, however Public Enemies is also a lot more.

Set in 1933, Public Enemies is set in the midst of the great crime sprees that precipitated the formation of the FBI. It's a true story adapted from a book by Bryan Burroughs and amongst all the cops, agents, gangsters and bank robbers, it follows John Dillinger (Depp) as the man who stood out the most. Dillinger was suave, cool and played on it all.

He was a media icon and a bank robber. He watched his headlines and played up to the press. Remember this was in the Depression, everybody was angry with the fat cat bankers and then, as now, the capitalist temple of the bank was seen as ripe for defilement.

Dillinger was a poster boy of crime, seen as an almost Robin Hood kind of figure and Depp is the perfect man to play him. I can't think of any other actor who combines the same sense of "live-for-the-moment" fun, with suave self-assured cool in quite the way Depp, and indeed Dillinger, does.

Melvin Purvis is the F.B.I agent who heads the task force to bring in Dillinger who, by this time, is Public Enemy #1. Played by Bale, the character doesn't have as much to do as Dillinger and although Bale handles it well, bringing across an air of confidence, sometime frustration and calm (also it’s nice to see him acting without the Bat-voice for change - it really was too much in Terminator), he never gets the emotional sweep that Depp is able to provide.

Depp is a brilliant actor, even without mascara and a funny hat, and films like this one prove it. If he's not up for some awards for this film then there better be some damned good movies still to come before the next award season.

The 1930's setting is well carried off and Mann's techniques, though jarring slightly with the aesthetic of the film and creating a sense of anachronism (the shaky-cam in shoot outs and cool electric guitar music over the bank robbery entrances spring to mind) they only add to the film, emphasising the sense of showman ship and cool. The shootouts in particular look reminiscent of footage taken on real shootouts in urban Iraq, very raw footage and sound, with a low slightly wavering camera, like a journalist who's cowering from the bullets.

It's a long film but I don't think it feels like it, nothing seems superfluous, the plot is very tight and though I wouldn't rely on it for a history test (the chronology of certain events - notably the deaths - is a little off) it creates a genuine seeming experience and pushes all the right buttons at all the right times. Well directed and well acted, superbly in Depp's case. In a summer of sequels, remakes and reboots this is an original film that far from being a Heat 2 is a brilliant piece of cinema and highly recommended.

9/10

Transformers: Revence of the Fallen - Review

Dir: Michael Bay
Star: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Peter Cullen, Hugo Weaving.

I just want to point out that I'm a fan of the first movie. Normally I hate Michael Bay and have never subscribed to "awesomeness = tits and blowing shit up" that seems to be his cinematic philosophy but the first film had just the right balance of crazy action sequences (this was a movie about giant transforming robots beating the crap out of each other remember so I EXPECT action), light hearted comedic relief and intrigue. This film had none of that.

No, that's not right, it had all of it (well except the intrigue) but just not in the right proportions. There's more action, more "comic" relief, more robots, more explosions, a grander scope with more locations. So why was it so dull?! The pacing was terrible. The action sequences were instantly forgettable (a possible exception being an Optimus Prime with two swords versus the entire Deceptacon force in a wood - that was quite good), the finale was a mixture of dragged out pointless moments and rushed important bits.

The coolest characters are sidelined for the annoyingly unfunny comic relief ones (the Twins, oh GOD the Twins - racial stereotype ghetto robots!). There's no sense that anyone is ever in danger (too many people come back from the dead in this film!). The Geography is questionable, the history is laughable (I can accept alien influence inspiring the Pyramids of whatever but what this film suggests in inside them - and that nobody noticed...?), the dodgy British accents, the many MANY pointless characters who could have been cut altogether without impacting the film AT ALL! (that includes the titular Fallen). Megan Fox looks terrible throughout and the rest of the cast fail to make be believe even a moment of it. Too many Baywatch-style slow mo moment (slow-mo is useful in the robot on robot fights as it lets you admire the admirable work ILM have done - I'll be fair the robots DO look amazing and you do almost forget that the best actors and characters in this film aren't even real and were never on set).

No this film is too long, incomprehensibly shot, woodenly acted and just plain stupid but its greatest sin is that it's BORING! The first film was anything but.

I normally advise people go see mediocre sequels just on the off chance they like it more than I do, or just to get closure or whatever, but this film does nothing, is nothing and offers nothing. It's a waste of time and money, ours and the people who made it.

SCORE: 2/10

Doesn't Do Her Justice

Ever since my summer re-engagement with watercolours (which lasted all of one painting) I've been determined to reclaim art as a subject. It's something I always loved and would practice just for fun frequently (the only other thing that has that distinction is writing), yet after GCSE it fell by the wayside and never really recovered. I did some good GCSE stuff, none of it survives, or at least very little (my sketch books went missing and were never returned to me - I loved those books too :-( ). I've already posted doodles and sketches on here, along with the summer watercolour so here to add to it is the first portrait I've done in a ve-ery long time, not including the rough sketch of me from a few weeks ago.

It's based on a photo - the real model being unavailable to me at this time - and maybe you can tell who its supposed to be (you need not be a genius to guess), needless to say it doesnt do her justice at all but I thought it was quite good for a first attempt. It was drawn with a 0.5mm mechanical pencil and took me about an hour.

I hate drawing faces, I think part of the problem here is that I spent so much time focusing on the face that I neglected the rest of the picture. In the end the face doesnt look anything like her but I think its quite a good generic face nonetheless. It's also disproportionate with the head being far too large for the body.

Anyhoo there you go.

NB: The stripey lines and discolouration are a product of my "on its last legs" camera, I don't own a scanner and so have taken photos of my pctures to get them on here.

Spring is here

Spring is definitely here, for those who would doubt it - simply open your eyes! All over the University campus the colours of the season are springing up, the grass is greener and the yellow, blue, purple, white, red flowers are in full bloom.

The first clusters caught my eye on Thursday and I was gutted that I didn't have my camera with me, but when I returned today I was happy to find the flowers still there (not having fallen under student feet) and that they had multiplied in their tens, even hundreds.

I cut a peculiar picture lying down on the grass to take some (I think) pretty photographs of the plants, and certainly got some funny looks from passing students. Part of me attributes this to the fact the majority of these pictures were taken around the Physics and Chemistry buildings and the funny looks are because scientists have no true appreciation of art. In truth though I probably received the majority of those looks because a man, looking more than slightly like a tramp, was lying on the grass in the University campus...

Anyway, here's a sample photo from the ones I took, the others can be found in the Facebook Album here. Enjoy.

Happy Saint David's Day

Happy Saint David's Day to everyone, even you non-Welshies: I spread the love.

Just nipping in before midnight, in the last minutes of my National Day (original Blog post time not Facebook import time) to post a picture I just drew of the two fictional creatures that represent the places that have defined me and shaped me most thus far in my life: Liverpool and Wales, the Dragon and the Liverbird.

Dydd Gwyl Dewi hapus!

Portrait of the Artist as a Tired Man

I'm so tired!!!

In no small part that's due to that fact that last night I went back to fencing for the first time in approximately ten months.

I'd forgotten how tiring it was, it's not that I'm unfit now, it's just that fencing uses muscle sets that don't normally get worked in the library or Waterstone's. I got good number of hours sleep but I still woke up tired, it didn't get any better from there.

I've done a doodle of my current state as I imagine I look.

Go to bed then! I hear you cry, but you see - I can't. As I reported yesterday, I lost a story I was working on when my PC died and I've had a small spark of inspiration about how to rewrite what I'd lost so I can't rest until I've drained all the energy from that spark, otherwise it might not still be there when I wake up.

Anyway, this is a minor divergence, I'm going to go make some squash and then carry on with this story. Somewhere along the line I have to get cracking with the books for next week too: Katherine Burdekin's Swastika Night and Ursula LeGuin's Birthday of the World.

The Ghost in the Machine is now simply a Ghost

Yesterday my computer died.

Those more attentive to my increasingly rare status changes on my Facebook page may have noticed that a number of days previous I had reportedly "broken" Microsoft Word. Inexplicably this key programme had failed to operate, it failed to ever open.

It seems this was the first symptom of a wider more general problem. Yesterday morning before leaving for work I tried to switch on my computer only to be confronted with a blue screen of death. Something I haven't seen since the old days when I used to mess around on my Mum's computers in school which were running Windows 98. Anyway, this message said that I was experiencing "Unmountable Boot Volume". Restarting numerous times didn't help and today Rob confirmed my fear that the problem may be the physical mechanical failure of my hard drive rather than any sort of system error or software corruption. This means its unlikely I'll be able to recover any of my files, though I hold out hope an expert may manage it.

Most of what was on my PC was backed up onto either my USB stick or my External Hard Drive. Only some photos from the last couple of weeks, some of my newer music and some random jottings would be lost. One thing that I'm grateful isn't is my PhD proposal which has been saved purely by virtue of the fact I recently e-mailed it to some members of staff and can extract it from the sent e-mail still in my hotmail account.

One of the things that HAS been lost (though maybe it can yet be saved) is a story I was working on. This is particularly annoying as I'd written some 5,000 words of it and it was the first creative project I've embarked on in some time that I honestly believed had legs. (Most of my creative projects fizzle out after the initial boom, I either get bored, realise it's rubbish or forget about it).

I'm going to start again because I think it was genuinely a good concept for a short novella and would like to take a stab at writing it in full - something I've not attempted in earnest since I shelved my dystopian science fiction epic XY which I began writing in Year 11 and reached some 50,000 words before realising most of it was tripe and I'd come back to the good bits when I knew a little bit more about literature.

Who knows whether this one will go anywhere, it's not gotten off to the most auspicious of starts but who knows, maybe this will be the one. Not the big one that makes me famous, but the one I actually finish.

Eye eye

So I've been procrastinating again. Last week I watched a brilliant documentary presented by the legend that is Sir David Attenborough, it was about Darwin and the "Tree of Life". Now obviously Darwin crystallised the idea that we now think of as the theory of evolution, but one of the prime arguments against that theory is the eye.

The eye is an incredibly complex organ and if just one thing is slightly wrong then it just won't work. Anti-evolutionists argue that this is evidence that the eye was designed and put onto Earth in its current form rather than evolving. Attenborough however showed several intermediary stages that could actually have led to the evolution of the eye and some creatures that are alive today that still exhibit these "primordial eyes". At the end of the segment there was a quick montage of eyes in the animal kingdom. Only about four different eyes, I can't remember which ones (the red eyed tree frog was definitely in there) and it was a beautifully done piece.

Basically it reminded me of the beauty of eyes, it's something I've always been amazed by since I was very small. The changes in colour, shape, pattern. In the human eye alone these are remarkable, but take in the whole animal kingdom and its terrific.

So below I've created a collage of photos of eyes, there are sharks, eagles, lions, cats, frogs, geckos, humans and so many more. Hope you like it. I'm going to get it printed and put it on my wall. Lovely.

Behold! I procrastinate anew

Hi all, today I unveiled my latest method of procrastination which is in fact an old form given rebirth. I have once again taken to lifting my paint brush. My first real focus for this new way of avoiding doing anything official was to pain Kate's 21st Birthday present - a picture of the stunning view from her old room in our old house - it took longer than I thought it would as it's been five years since I last did a watercolour, however today I mounted and framed the painting and presented it as a late birthday gift.

For those of you who don't have the honour of owning the original, a photograph is shown here:-



I plan to begin a campaign of regular paintings mostly for procrastination, self enjoyment and decoration.

Whilst I hold no pretensions to greatness (I recognise my skill is mediocre at best and certainly below many of my artistically talented friends) I'm looking forward to honing a new skill, or rather to brushing up on an old one. (pardon the pun).

I'd appreciate you're opinions on my first official piece...

My Bad Morning

What a morning. I couldn't believe it!

I had no cereal in and we'd run out of toilet paper so I decided to pop around the corner to our local Lidl, it's only 5 minutes away and really convenient so I grabbed my keys and strolled down there in just jeans and a t-shirt. I buy what I want, sacrificing my normal choco-pillows for some cheaper choco-rocks to save the pennies. I get home and get my keys out. Crap. I'd accidentally picked up the wrong set of keys and was now locked out without a phone and no one in the house to let me in.

After a short period of cursing I realised my only option was to walk from out Kensington house to our landlord's offices on Smithdown Road. I had no watch so I have no idea how long it took but I walked there carrying my toilet roll and cereal in my hands as I'd not taken a bag. At one point it started to rain but I glared at the slate grey sky and it stopped, breaking in the glorious sunshine (no, really). I got there at 11am so I'm pretty sure it took more than half an hour which was a problem as I still had to get back to the house and get ready for work, I had to leave the house at 11.30 or I'd run the risk of being late. I got to MGM's offices and they didn't have a key they could give me. Marvelous I thought. They did however ring someone to go and meet me back at the house in twenty minutes.

Okay thought I, grabbing a tenner from the cash point at ASDA and jumping into a taxi back to the house (£4.80 - so much for saving the pennies). The bloke from MGM got there at 11.20 and let me in, I had ten minutes to spare. I ate my cereal and got dressed for work but then couldn't find my real keys! Hunting high and low in my pit... sorry, my room... I found them but had by now passed my 11.30 deadline and had to race down the hill on my bike to get to Primark on time. Typically I got stuck behind a bus which was in turn stuck behind a tractor (A TRACTOR! In Liverpool city centre!) and all the lights turned red just before I got to them.

My legs burning and sweat pouring down my back I made it to work with two minutes to spare which was a miracle but considering I'd gotten up early to have plenty of time to relax before work it was a pretty bad start to a day. But at least it gave me something to blog about!

A further nuisance is that I went into a few shops after work to acquire something to complete my (late) birthday present for Kate. I naively thought I could just walk in and get one but it seems I have to wait 48 hours (starting tomorrow) so sorry Kate, I haven't forgotten, nor have I been idle since your birthday but your present wont be given to you until later this week. Sorry x

Back from the summer hiatus (I really do love that word!)

Yes I've used the same intellectual sounding word twice in two blog titles but I don't care! I love that word, it ranks right up there amongst my favourite words (talking of which there's a newcomer in that category: papoose).

Anyway, back to the point - I've not blogged since before my dissertation deadline so here's a brief summary of what’s happened since then:

> Dissertation was handed in successfully. Got a 2:1. Content with that though was hoping for a 1st.

> As such my whole degree came out as a 2:1 with a strong average, for what thats worth. This means I got onto my MA course. Still wish I'd done that bit extra for the 1st. Have vowed to get a distinction in my Masters instead.

>Was chuffed to bits to have a letter appear in Empire though miffed to hell at that being the month they changed from giving a prize to every letter to reinstating the letter of the month format.

>Got job in Primark, slave away there for £5.69 an hour. My contract hours are Saturdays: 10.30-20.00 and Sunday 09.30-18.00.

>Went to see the new Indiana Jones film and was unimpressed, let down even.

>Discovered "Zero Punctuation"

>Attempted to move into new house, found it to be a sh*t hole and relocated to new, nicer abode.

>Graduated.

>Saw "Dark Knight" at a preview screening two days before the general release. Thought it was amazing, absolutely loved it. Also loved the limited edition moving posted I got free for going.

>Went to Barcelona with family

>Decided walking to Primark was too much effort (45mins!) so brought bike to Liverpool and now put life into the hands of the drivers on Edge Lane at least twice a week

>Dressed as a Celt for Kate's Liverpool 21st Birthday Party, the theme was nations. (See pic below)

>Saw R.E.M. at Old Trafford Cricket Ground, supported by The Guillemots and The Editors.

>Saw the Trestles as part of the Matthew Street Festival which I finally made it to for the first time.

>Made a trip to Cardiff to visit the now distant Bec and Steve as well as some family in Swansea. Saw former-Stereophonic drummer Stuart Cable in Cardiff.

Well anyway, that brings you up to speed. I'll be posting at least a few more times in the coming days, hopefully at least once a week. Until then this is me signing off. Adios Amigos

Anything I've forgotten may be added at a later stage....

So much for that

So much for that bright idea. Yes, you may have noticed my Blog status updates kind of petered out. Those on Facebook will have noted my slowly, yet steadily, rising word count in my status though.

It's Sunday night (or really, really early on Monday morning depending on your point of view) and I have the following still to do:-

Re-write my dissertation introduction
Sort out my dissertation references and bibliography
Bind said dissertation
Write 1 x 500 words review
Write 1 x 1000 word peer-review
Write 1 x 2000 word self assessment.

As well as this any re-reading and editing of the dissertation and the rest of my creative writing portfolio will be counted as a bonus.

This leaves me a hefty work load to get through and tomorrow (Monday) the last day on which I can do most of it - the creative writing has to be handed in on Tuesday whilst the dissertation has until Wednesday, though to limit hair loss by alopecia I want it bound by Tuesday afternoon at the latest.

So, once more I push on, my final words and the finishing touches on my entire Undergraduate life.

24,000

Today I calculated that the sum total word count of all of my work is 24,000 words. 3,000 of that is due in twelve days. The rest is due in a grand total of 18! Now there's a thought to get you working!

Here's the work so far:

TUESDAY
> Drafted Contemp essay. Did basic research.
> Wrote a couple of lines of dissertation
- Watched hour long documentary on BBC iPlayer about the Guttenburg Press, presented by Stephen Fry

WEDNESDAY
> Had Creative Writing piece slated and was told to completely change the focus (and plot) of the piece, involving not only a complete re-write but also (the harder bit) a complete re-think and indeed re-imagining.
> Wrote 1000 words of Contemp essay and did more research
> Worked out the grand total words (ie. just before writing this blog - see above)
- Sulked about the creative writing seminar
- watched my first ever episode of the apprentice

A semi-depressing attempt at achieving self-accountability

Right, I've got a stack of work to do in the next three weeks and in an attempt to motivate myself to not only work, but work at an increased rate - I'm going to try and post daily, or at least semi-regular posts on here detailing my progress.

I'm doing this for multiple reasons (well, so far only two. But I'll add more when they come to me):

1) So that anyone who reads this (Stephen...) can see what I'm up to and not nag me for not getting out or alternatively can kick me up the arse every now and again to get me to increase my productivity.

2) So I can see my achievement in progress, hopefully releaving some of the depression that falls on me every time I look at how much work there still is to do.



Anything interesting that (feel oblidged to / want to procrastinate for a moment about / have time to) Blog about will find my little counter at the end.

The most depressing thing of all is that unless I get some sort of income soon, I won't even be able to afford a proper celebration when all of this is over!

Things relevant to my course are marked > and things I had to do that arn't course specific are -

So here goes (backdated to Sunday):
SUNDAY
> wrote approx 3,500 words of a short story for Creative Writing (Prose) module
- Watched Doctor Who on iPlayer (I missed it on Saturday night)

MONDAY
> Re-drafted yesterday's story
> Re-drafted existing 3,500 words of dissertation
> Wrote 500 words of dissertation
> Began reading of Alice Oswald's Dart for tomorrow's Contemporary Fiction seminar
- Handed in documents to next year's landlord
- Created this blog post
- Attempted to reschedule a fencing tournament due to "booking error."

The Highs and Lows of Living in Liverpool

I've got to give credit where credit is due. Those who know me know that I'm far from a sport aficionado. I mean I like watching sport, I enjoy a good display of talent, but its not high on my list of things I'd like to be doing, especially not football. Football, especially at a Premiership level annoys me more than it excites me, too many big egos swaggering around, if I had to spend time watching a sport a good rugby game beats a good football game almost every time.

But this is Liverpool, a football city, and this is the Champions League. So, Kate and I (Kate being the true fan) went down to the Flute to watch the third of Liverpool's recent confrontations with Arsenal. I've got to be honest, if I was sitting at home listening to the radio and the scores were announced on the ten o'clock news I'd like Liverpool to win, just because it's my adoptive city and I have a lot of love for this place, but at the end of the day I don't really care, if they'd lost I wouldn't spare it more than a brief thought.

But going to watch it in the pub, it changes things.

The Flute is a perfect sport watching location with screens everywhere you can always see the action no matter how packed the place is and though it didn't quite compare to the capacity I experiences last year for the Champion's League final the place was still pretty well jammed. We had to stand, both with our coke's: me out of a reluctance to needlessly consume alcohol (and a very low budget at the moment) and Kate out of respect for her drunken state last night and the match began.

I won't give a commentary of the match, those that care will have already seen it or will find much better match summaries elsewhere. What I really want to express in this Blog entry is the power of a crowd and the atmosphere of a pub in Liverpool that gets behind its team.

The match was very up and down and despite my nonchalance regarding the final result I found myself upset when Arsenal pulled ahead on aggregate and jumping for joy when Gerard slotted in the penalty to put Liverpool ahead (pictured) let alone the fourth goal! Singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" at the top of my lungs with who knows how many people joining me, it lifts you, it sends a thrill through you and you experience something really special.

I still don't care about football and if Liverpool don't win this cup it won't make me lose any sleep but for 90 minutes I was part of something amazing and I think that whether you like football or not that experience is something special and well worth revisiting.

Not perfect by any means, but coming along.

Always happy to share any randomness I find online here's a link to an article on the good old BBC News about Google's awesome new Zurich offices. I want to work for a company like that!

Onto the main bulk of this blog posting and I'm happy to report I'm feeling slightly more optimistic about the future. Sure, I'm still sitting in the library at 8pm "working" on my dissertation because my computer is so fricking slow and unreliable. And sure I've got even less money to my name than I had when last I posted. And sure I'm reaching the point where I'm so poor I feel guilty buying food.

But that same dissertation is coming along a little, and the applications for housemates are starting to come in and I've got some great plans in place for what free time I'm affording myself this "holiday" so it's hard not to feel just a little lighter on my feet as I lug my bag of books backwards and forwards.

And now, because I'm actually here to work ('ha!' I hear you cry) I'm signing off on that short little note. I'll just leave you with this picture (because I always like to try and include an image in my blog), no real reason other than I like it because I have a soft spot for sunsets. Oh and I took it, almost two years ago in Berlin.

Is this going to be one of those weeks?

No, really. Is it? Let's take stock.

Having closely assessed my finances I've discovered that it's not likely I'll run into a deficit before I graduate it's a damn certainty and with a request being put in with the bank of mum and dad for help with the £300 deposit I have to put down on my house for next year this week I can't justify asking them for more money.

With such financial drains I've had to pull out of the Glasgow Open, the great fencing trip to Glasgow that is always a highlight of my calender and has been an Easter-ish time tradition the last two years. This is particularly frustrating as I wanted us to win Best Club there this year which obviously would have been particularly important to me as the Club Captain.I'm staying in Liverpool overtime to work on my dissertation. Yesterday my laptop shut itself off whilst I was working and I've lost not only 300 words of the draft but around twelve pages of research that was painfully squeezed out of the internet connection which is also fluctuating between dead and snail's pace at the moment.

Everyone's gone home now except Jon and it's at times like these when I realise how much I've changed. In years gone by (quite a time ago) I had no problems with my own company and would quite happily watch a DVD, play a game, read a book, write just spend time with myself and be happy. These days I find myself craving just a chat over a cup of tea or a ten minute bantering session with someone. I suppose its a change for the best - it shows how I've developed as a social creature and improved my communication skills to the Nth degree, does make you feel quite lonely at times though.

Given the laptop unreliability and the crappy internet I'm considering relocating to the library. At least there I can people watch for a while. The only hassle is carting off the quite considerably pile of books that I've accumulated around this dissertation - many of which are actually my own property now not library books.

On the plus sides I had a good day of rugby yesterday and whilst after 40 minutes of Wales doing what Wales do best (keeping Welsh fans scared) I was petrified it was going to be a very bad day for the Celts (Scotland and Ireland both losing their matches). The boyos pulled through and the Grand Slam cheer went up. For the record I dared to believe in them from the start! I've also recovered from my flu, my immune system beating it down to just a very annoying cold now. That in itself is a miracle given my current sleep deprived, malnourished state.

Where was I, oh yeah - so I'm poor, my laptop is playing up, the internet is playing up, my dissertation isn't going greatly and what work I'm doing is being sabotaged by Gremlins. The majority of people have gone away and left me. I'm going to have to job hunt straight after Easter is over - when hopefully my dissertation is at least fully drafted.
I'm considering packing it all in, job, uni, house, life and putting on my warmest layers, grabbing a few good pens and some pads and bumming my way around the UK as a writer-tramp (George Orwell did it!!!). Well okay, maybe I'm not THAT down but sometimes with a whole week of monotony ahead of you its hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel and not imagine an oncoming train or a psycho with a flamethrower.

CUTE!!!!

Awwww bless her little cotton socks!!! Click here to see a three year old (American) girl's take on that cultural watershed that is Star Wars. I particularly like the way she thinks Luke's training droid is a poké ball and the way C3PO is the "shiny-guy". Bechod!

The pictures for this post arn't from the film but are equally sweet!

In other news, on slightly more personal notes. I've been really ill with a bad dose of flu this week (which was fun) but I've also been house hunting and today have rung the landlord of the favoured property to talk about sealing the deal. This moves me one step closer to actually having future plans! It's a nice terrace house on the edge of Kensington, not a bad part of town really (we all know how bad it is deeper in) only another 5 mins ontop of my travel time at the moment (ie. 5 mins + 5 mins). We'll see how it goes.

Heart Warming Tale

Sick of hearing about Alistair Darling's uber-exciting budget (sic)? If you are take a look at the story of the day as far as I'm concerned: Click here to read the story on BBC News of Moko the whale saving dolphin.