Bikeable goodness.

As requested, here is a pic of my bike. You can'r really see, but the mudguards are painted in camo-type patterns. Just not exactly camoflaged colours. It isn't that odd, mainly because I ran out of time. I have almost mostly finished packing! There is no way I will be able to fir it all into my room at college.
Saw Children of Men today. It's got a lot of mixed reviews, but I thought it was pretty good. Except for the music in the end credits. It should have been quiet, understated and bittersweet. Instead they put in some damn cheerful easy listening crap and spoiled the atmosphere completely. A friend who saw it before me reckoned that they made the political analogies too obvious, and I half agree. Since it's a film about a dystopia, the heavy-handed drawing of analogies to the present is really appropriate. But it is a little too much. More to the point, they've gone for including absolutely every parallel they could, right down to cows being burnt from (one assumes) foot-and-mouth. personally, I think it would have been better if they'd not done that; it didn't really have anything to do with the plot, but rather was a sign that the filmmakers were just using absolutely every single topical (when it was being made) issue tey could, rather than concentrating upon the scenario they'd created. If this makes no sense it's because my higher brain functions are succumbing to fatigue and I can't explain properly what I'm getting at, but there you are. It's a film to watch, anyway.
It's at times like these that I wish I didn't hate the taste of coffee quite so vehemently.
C.E.M.

Bikeable goodness.

As requested, here is a pic of my bike. You can'r really see, but the mudguards are painted in camo-type patterns. Just not exactly camoflaged colours. It isn't that odd, mainly because I ran out of time. I have almost mostly finished packing! There is no way I will be able to fir it all into my room at college.
Saw Children of Men today. It's got a lot of mixed reviews, but I thought it was pretty good. Except for the music in the end credits. It should have been quiet, understated and bittersweet. Instead they put in some damn cheerful easy listening crap and spoiled the atmosphere completely. A friend who saw it before me reckoned that they made the political analogies too obvious, and I half agree. Since it's a film about a dystopia, the heavy-handed drawing of analogies to the present is really appropriate. But it is a little too much. More to the point, they've gone for including absolutely every parallel they could, right down to cows being burnt from (one assumes) foot-and-mouth. personally, I think it would have been better if they'd not done that; it didn't really have anything to do with the plot, but rather was a sign that the filmmakers were just using absolutely every single topical (when it was being made) issue tey could, rather than concentrating upon the scenario they'd created. If this makes no sense it's because my higher brain functions are succumbing to fatigue and I can't explain properly what I'm getting at, but there you are. It's a film to watch, anyway.
It's at times like these that I wish I didn't hate the taste of coffee quite so vehemently.
C.E.M.

T-minus two days and counting...

So. the chemistry is finished. The maths is still present, which would explain to no small degree the fact that I am writing this; it's that or have another go at integration questions that had me stumped the last time. And probably still will. The packing is mainly finished, thank heavens, and the bike is ready to roll, in all its technicolour glory (or something). I've returned all books to the library - including, now I come to think about it, a textbook I was using for reference with the maths. That may not have been too bright.
Music zone had a sale on and, being a sucker for cheap albums, I aquired the Offspring's greatest hits album, and Showbiz, by Muse, which I am listening to now, and is absolutely fantastic. people have told me before now that they reckoned it's Muse's best album and I have to say I agree, even though other albums have individual songs which are superlative (Plug in Baby and Feeling Good on Origin of Symmetry, for instance). At the rate this is going this whole thing will turn into a music blog, which was never the idea, so I'd better find summat else to write about. Though I can't actually remember what the idea was, to be honest.
So, term starts in two days, which is good. What is - not bad, because if it were I wouldn't be going - but perhaps less immediately attractive, is the fact that lectures (and hence work) start one week from now. In fact, this time next week I will have had my first three lectures. I look forward to the course and learning and so on, but I'm still working up the motivation to do large amounts of work. But I've got a week to do that in I suppose.
Now I've started listening to the Offspring's album. Naturally, it's very good. Rock on etc.
Oh, and Gerald de Jongg, creatir of Fluidiom, which i've mentioned before, has released a video the better part of an hour long talking about and demonstrating it. I find it interesting, though I guess most won't, but anyway it can be found here or here.
And that's it for now.
C.E.M.

Spent most of today hanging out with a mate, which was good. Played pool and got utterly annhilated, but I will have my revenge! Packing again, and the piles of luggage have managed to grow even more vast. but I've got most of it pinned down in boxes now so it is now at my mercy...
I've of late been reading an internet comic called Questionable Content, and it's great. The later ones have a completely different (and much better, I think) visual style to the earlier ones. I've found it quite addictive and having read through the entirety of the 700-odd episodes (a new one is posted every weekday), I'm now hopelessly reliant on my regular fix. Well worth checking out.

Music and packing

Lo, the time draweth nearer... or something. Now three-quarters of the way through the chem. Very dull. I made a myspace the other day, but I have no idea why; I've done near enough nowt to it and I suspect it's destiny is to slowly decay in a dusty corner of cyberspace, alone and unloved... Spent a couple hours this morning working away at the chem whilst listening to music until my ears hurt. Headphones are great; they alllow you to happily ruin your own hearing without bringing the wrath of everyone else in the area down upon your head. I've been listening to a compilation CD I made, though I'm no sure why, since I could more easily have just made a playlist and listened to it on my laptop. Still, if any of my mates ever want to indulge in my possibly dubious musical taste they could borrow it. I suspect the main reason was simply because I had some CD-R's lying around and felt like experimenting.
The pile of luggage grows ever larger; it's been suggested that it reproduces by budding off and hey, it makes sense to me. Like yeast, only bigger and you can't ferment things with it. Which is a pity. Still, I seem to be taking less than some, at least; some of my fellow students seem to think nothing af packing up the entire house and taking it with them. I just feel sorry for the poor sods who have to travel by plane, what with luggage restrictions being the way they are.
Listening to Pandora at the moment; Nightwish to be more exact. It's all good.
I think I'll put the track listing off've my CD up; here it is:
1-The Siren (Nightwish)
2- Brain Damage (Pink Floyd)
3- Angel's Punishment (Lacuna Coil)
4- Low (Foo Fighters)
5- Run like blazes (The Crest)
6- Sadie (Alkaline Trio)
7- Feeling Good (Muse)
8- Streamline (System of a Down)
9- Jillian (Within Temptation)
10- Wake Up (Rage Against The Machine)
11- Senses Capture (Leaves Eyes)
12- Planet Hell (Nightwish)
13- Bloody Well Right (Supertramp)
14- Deer Dance (System of a Down)
15- Lucky (Radiohead)
16- The Small Print (Muse)
17- Omerta (Katatonia)
18-Brain Stew (Greenday)

And another artist has just come on Pandora that I really like; Plumb. Anyway that's quite enough for the moment so bye.
C.E.M.

Long time no see...

I've really got to get the hang of writing a blog for maore than about a week at a time. I mean, seriously, it's been a couple of months (maybe more) since my last. Anyhooo... I'm going to university unbelievably soon, and i still haven't got half my stuff sorted. Have been given a load of maths and chem questions to do and give feedback on. nearly finished the maths, but there's some tricky integration questions right at the end that are making themselves a pain, as maths so often does. And the chem I've barely started, which isn't too great really. Bloody chemistry.
It's amazing how packing expands not only to fill both the space and time available, but given half a chance grows even beyond that. I thought I'd be able to get all my stuff into a suitcase and large rucksack (excepting the bike). Yeah, that worked. Thanks be, I have a lift to uni otherwise things could be complicated.
I've been working on my bike recently. This is largely because of a combination of boredom and the presence of paint, but also part of a Cunning Plan. Cambridge is widely known for the number of bikes which infest its streets. Unfortunately, it is also, as a result, known for high levels of bike theft (3000 incidents reported to the police per year). So, I reason, a bike with a really bad paint job is probably safer. I mean, who would want a bike that has been painted, by me, using paint never intended for the purpose. Plus, of course, the fact that it stands out a bit; a frame striped brown and white, with the wheels and mudguards being painted in the "oh look, I wonder what happens if you do this" school of artwork tends to be less than inconspicuous. Of course, someone could respray it, but then thickness (and lumpiness) of the paint covering it would make that a job and a half (at least if you wanted to be able to sell it afterwards). So the paintjob is really an antitheft device, forged in the glowing forge of pure insanity. Of course, I have to live with riding it...
To be honest, I'm mainly reading this to avoid having to do chemistry/pack/do something else unspecified and useful. So I'd better find something else to write about. Oh yeah... college operates a "college parent" system, which is basically a buddy system, linking up two second years with two freshers. And for some biologically implausible reason, I have two mothers (not including my actual one). Still, I guess it's useful to have someone around with some idea of what the hell is going on. Equally odd is the fact that weeks at cam start, in defiance of conventional logic, on a Thursday. So instead of a freshers week we actually get a freshers four days (which is still called freshers week, to fool the unwary). And I'm still not sure what rustication is, though apparently it is a punishment that can be employed in serious cases. I will check it in a dictionary... apparently it means temporary suspension. WHY THE HELL COULDN'T THEY JST SAY SO? And repeatedly using the phrase "in statu pupillari" in the college rules is intensely irritating for some reason. Maybe I just have issues or something . That said, the whole air of ancient wierdness is one of the uni's attractive points, so I guess the use of obscure archaichisms is part and parcel of that.
Recently I've been spending more time than is strictly wise late at night (and early at morning) watching the machinima series Red vs Blue at Machinima.com dammit why is this thing underlining this? I can't turn this off. Oh well. Anyway, it's very funny, (particularly when sleep-deprived) and should be watched by many many people. This damn underlining is getting on my nerves, so that's it for now.
C.E.M.