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?

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!

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.

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....

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.

Back from a hiatus

I love that word. Hiatus. Sounds good doesn't it.

It's been a pretty long hiatus, but the blog is back up and running. There's so much going on at the moment I shouldn't really have time to post anything but here we go nonetheless.

In that time I've been up to a lot of junk, with varying levels of success. I've been down into the deepest depths of despair and raised to stellar levels of joy.

The most recent achievement I've clocked up is my completing the Liverpool Half Marathon 2008. I finished the 13.1 mile course in 2hrs 22mins 20 seconds (according to the gun time), according to the official results on the websites I came in place 3042 of 3435 I know that sounds pretty bad but to be honest I'm just happy I finished. The bane of my running life are my knees which despite a support on the right knee (the main trouble maker) starting hurting at the 3 mile mark. I pushed through and was confident that I could make it round without stopping until a muscle twang around 9.5 miles made me stop for a minute whilst I stretched out my hamstring.

Maybe I should have taken this as a warning: I started running again until I passed the 11 mile marker when I had the worst cramp I have ever experienced. My right calf just clenched mid stride and I had a shooting pain near the bottom and side of my knee (where I imagine the calf ligaments are...?). It literally floored me and it was heart warming to see how many people stopped to check I was ok and offered to send one of the many medical teams back for me. I declined the help through gritted teeth and after a couple of minutes managed to get up and carry on.

Needless to say the pain was pretty bad and it was at a slow hobble that I made the final two miles. Before the race we'd joked that the final .1 mile (of the 13.1) would be a killer that would destroy us and I really shouldn't have made such a comment as I entered the final stretch, limping along and people were cheering us on at both sides of the track, I could even hear people shouting out my number (454) seeing the obvious pain on my face. Well, the pain got worse. Just as I began the final hundred metre hobble my left leg cramped up. Not as bad as the right calf but enough to send my stumbling. I was determined not to go down though and with every last piece of willpower I could summon (and yes, I'll admit - through a haze of tears) I forced myself across the line before falling to my knees clutching my leg.

If I EVER say I'm going to do something so physically trying as that run again remind me of all of this but more than anything else, remind me how stupid I was to not do any training since a run to the park (of maybe 8km) in NOVEMBER! Fool!

Anyway, today my knees are fine (weirdly) and my legs are okay, just a considerably amount of muscle stiffness and rawness where my shorts had started to chafe. At least I got a medal and a T-shirt though :-D I gave myself my own reward by letting myself do most of my work for the day in bed. Getting up at 5pm for something to eat and then hobbling to the library where you find me now at 00.30am putting the final touches to some dissertation research. Oh and reviving this blog.

See how long it lasts this time!

You.... Wouldn't like me when I'm angry

Oh it makes me MAAAAD!

I'm still waiting for a parcel to emerge from the quagmire that is Liverpool's Royal Mail sorting office. Now, I'm a relatively patient person but this time I actually NEED the contents of the parcel.

Rather than being some Amazon order or something like that which is just for pleasure this package contains several personal documents and items of post forwarded onto me from home but crucially it also contains my young persons rail card which I need to get a discount on the many train journeys I have planned in the coming weeks.

Most urgent of these journeys is the away match at Manchester that I'll be taking part in. The AU (Athletic's Union) in Liverpool only reimburse travel to matches where you pay with a YP Railcard so unless I get it by Wednesday I could be funding the expedition out of my own pocket which is not something I will do without a great deal of moaning, whinging and general grumbling.

Rage..... Building..... Glyn..... Smash!