Hope in 160 Characters

"It's the last 24 hours of the year. I'm here where I was with you, and I'll spend the next day thinking about how I will spend next year with you."

The Year in Review

I haven't done this before, but it's a pretty appropriate time to start. I'm going to go over the best and worst moments of 2007. It's been a strange year, and one I probably won't forget. The number '2007' still seems fresh and ready, but it'll be stale within a few days. The list of events is mostly from the latter half of the year, either because it was more eventful or because I have a terrible memory. And I thought that my memory was great.

The Worst of 2007
in no particular order

Moving Out

Moving out of Toland Square was one of the worst days I've ever had. Not only was it emotionally draining, sleepless and physically exhausting, but tensions grew and almost every conceivable thing went wrong. I loved that house, and I didn't want to leave it so soon, but times move on and people need to as well, so I know it was ultimately for the best.

My Car Overheats

Later that day, dropping Emma at the station, in traffic, I let my car overheat by not watching the temperature gauge. I felt stupid, and it cost a fortune to fix, and for weeks, my car was out of commission. As if the day could have been any worse.

The Apple iPhone

No need to expand.

Emma Leaving, Again

Emma had to go a couple of times in the year, but never for as long as when she went to Tokyo, which was indefinitely. That was very sad.

Not Getting that Job

The job which would have been perfect. Graduate C# Programmer. Come on!

Nova

Nova, my ticket to Japan, the company that was ready to employ me in a job I wanted to do... collapsed. The whole company: gone. Thanks. Literally minutes before Emma goes there, they self destruct, and my future there was shattered.

My Computer Suddenly Stops Working

I still don't know why. It was on, I turned it off, it didn't turn on again. And I don't have the energy or motivation to fix it, or the cash.

The Best of 2007
in no particular order

Making a Complete Album

Although I'd written many songs before, Seven Pages was the first one where I'd made it from start to finish with one album in mind, instead of collecting songs together. I rushed it into a month (for the RPM Challenge), but I was really happy with most of it, and I still enjoy listening to it. I have a way to go though.

Portal

Portal portal portal portal, portal portal. Portal portal. Portal! Portal portal portal, "Portal portal, portal!". Portal portal; portal portal. Portal portal portal, portal portal portal portal portal. Portal portal portal. Portal? Portal portal portal portal.

Seeing Rent with Kiana

Kiana was my introduction to Rent, and getting to finally see it with her was a big thing. I didn't see many musicals this year. In fact, I think that was the only one. Plus we had cake.

Maintaining Friendship with Julia

Despite the numerous problems she causes, being friends with Julia is always special because you can tell that she really cares, and she's very genuine. I saw her earlier this week and we had a great time, and it's been good staying friends with her this year.

The MG

My mother bought a convertible. I learned how different a mid-engine car can be. My father and I took it to Spain through France, driving is fun again.

Binärpilot

Discovering this strange electronic musician by accident was a major highlight, as he soon became one of my favourite artists. And he gives away music for free. As well as this, he has been very inspiring.

A Completely Dry Year

A year completely without alcohol. 2006 had some lapses in the Summer, which I regret, but was consciously aware of the reasons for which I lapsed, and both times had silly reasons.

The Host

While it may not have been the best film of the year, it was a very important one for me. It took me by surprise, and made me interested in foreign cinema again. Plus, it has one of the most bittersweet endings imaginable.

Starting the JCS Again

Being the last person here with any ability to perpetuate it, I made the JCS continue by opting to become the President. And meeting new people through it meant that I made new friends and had good fun with people while pushing the culture. It will continue into next year.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Getting back into Anime was never more fun.

Finishing University

After a 3 day marathon coding session which concluded with a presentation and a dangerously sleepy drive home, University was over. Finishing that was a major relief. I slept for days.

Canada

Going to Canada suddenly and almost unexpectedly was a huge treat, getting to see my family and surprising my sister and mother was enormous fun. I got to drive around and have a great time with everybody. I loved it, and I just want to go back.

Getting Over Kiana

It took nearly two years and writing a very sad song, but I finally did it and have felt liberated since.

Filming The Oxford Murders

I loved being an extra in 2003, and I got to do it again. I just saw the trailer for the film, and you can see part of me sitting near Elijah in it. I can't wait for the actual film.

Inspiration

Suddenly having reason and the ability to write music again came as a shock, but it wasn't a nasty surprise. In a few weeks, I wrote about six songs. Not all new, but within a few months I should have recorded my third album.

Getting Back into Gaming

Right at the start of the year, with nothing to do, I started playing XBox games a lot. Since then, I have played more and more games, and went as far as buying a PSP, which I love. I played through MGS just for the fun of it, because I loved it so much when I was young. Games are now a big part of my life. Again.

Yinuo

Not just her as a person, but everything she has done for me in terms of jump-starting my social life, and being a very good person to be near. She's one of the most open and honest people I know, and has 'let me in' to a world that I have wanted to be a part of for many years, but could never get close to. Being friends with her has definitely been a highlight of this year.

Having a Reason to Want to Improve

Self improvement is much harder without having a reason to improve, and having one means that making myself a better person goes beyond its own reward. Because of that, I am a happier person.

And for that, I thank 2007.

Badger Badger Badger Badger

I'm not several years late on a meme, I just saw a badger. Not just now, a couple of nights ago. But I'd never seen a living one in the wild. I think I've seen few sleeping and inside out on the side of the road, but a whole real life badger, sniffing around my garden at 1AM, it was frightening and awesome. Mainly because they're the size of a Great Dane with stubby legs and 140% as amazing.

I am in central London, and I just popped into the Apple Store. And as I do every time I venture into an Apple Store, I blog. Mainly because Apples make me so angry. But Linux makes me angry too at the moment. It couldn't full screen video without skipping every so often. And when I'm watching streaming Flash video, it misses out a second of audio, and then plays the missing sound over the next second of audio. Which is very distracting when you're trying to watch something. I'm going to have to try Ubuntu with the new KDE, because the computer I'm using isn't lacking in power, I think it just needs a more capable OS.

This is all in the interim before my Windows PC works again, and I can't wait for that.

It's Christmas Eve, and I have started my shopping about an hour ago. I know I leave it late, but that's how I do things. So I shouldn't write for long. I hope Julia's kidneys feel better soon, I'll be giving them a special Christmastime visit soon.

I'm going to take this opportunity to wish everyone who reads this a very Merry Christmas and I hope that you are treated well and eat even better.

The Correct Answer is Always Daft Punk

It must have been the year 2000, or so. It doesn't matter exactly, but it was in Napster's heyday. I was imagining what it would be like to have a car, and what music I'd like to have coming out of the windows during the Summer. And because of the popularity of Aerodynamic on the radio, I was tempted to see what else Daft Punk had done. One quick download of One More Time, and I was in Virgin buying Discovery. I didn't buy much music when I was young, but when I did, I really listened to it. For that reason, Discovery (along with Hello Nasty) became one of my growing up albums. And Daft Punk has held a place in my heart since then.

Of course I listened to the earlier works, and I bought Human After All as soon as I knew it was out. Only recently did I discover that they had released a live album (Alive), and since I got it I haven't listened to anything else.

But that's just a small part of my life. There have been plenty of events since my last entry, and the build up to Christmas has hardly featured. I had another dinner party, which was more hectic than before, but it was good to say goodbye to people before most of them went away. The day after was Laura's birthday party, and it was wonderful to see loads of old friends again and meeting some new ones. I hadn't been bowling in years, and the alley they knew was fantastically cheap without being trashy.

Some people I met though, didn't have Facebook. I was suddenly at a loss on how to keep in communication with them. I thought about asking for a phone number, but I found myself not knowing them well enough to ask, and I should have. There's always next time though.

The next night was the C-Star final. I almost had a breakdown with the stresses that went on that night, but I pulled through. I must congratulate Amy, who despite coming second, gave the best performances (and was recognised by the judges for it). She made the evening worthwhile. The night didn't end there though, as I had to pick up Yunhae and her sister to take her to Stansted airport, and I dropped Stephanie home on the way as well. For those of you who know, Stansted is a long way away, but it gave me and Yunhae a chance to catch up. Which was good fun. At this point, I'd been awake for something like twenty hours, seeing as I had taken Kiana to Heathrow that morning. And I'd only had four hours sleep the night before.

But instead of going home, I went to Cocoa's place and watched her pack, before collapsing on her (small) bed, which already had some people on it. It led to an amusing situation where three people were trying to sleep on a bed just big enough for one, and I had either feet in my face of on my neck. But I was tired enough not to notice. But we awoke after an hour and a half of unrestful slumber to take Cocoa to the airport, and then to drop her friends home. In all, including the Heathrow bowling alley, I'd been to an airport four times in 36 hours, and had barely left my car in that time. My car is filthy.

It isn't over, as I picked Yunhae and her sister up a few days later, and I'm taking her to Luton later tonight. It's a holiday marathon for her.

The last few nights have had a wonderful fog descending on Wimbledon. It's made visibility close to zero. Today it didn't leave during the day, so I suspect it'll only be stronger when night falls completely. I also found a wonderful article in the Times about how an old phone just won't die. The article is about my phone's successor, the 6310i (the 'i' means that it is fuel injected). I never got this phone, it just wasn't different enough from my then current phone, the 6210e. But the article covers all the reasons why I love my current phone, which is again the 6210e. Simple, long battery life (it alleges three days, but I know for a fact that mine lasts five), good sound quality, tactile buttons, comfortable in the hand and light.

I might have to get a Flickr Pro account soon. The 200 photo limit has me losing old photos that I find I suddenly need. In the same vein, I had rediscovered my love of drawing, and have starting sketching in charcoal again. One particular sketch was used as a Christmas present.

I went for an interview yesterday. It was an epic undertaking, as in everyone there going for the position was waiting there for up to six hours, doing tests and writing reports. After the effort I put in, I'd better get the damn job. I have been delayed in getting paid for a while, and while I have money for the mean time, I need more. But prognosis positive.

I Need an External Antenna, and Dual Band

The computing world is almost limitless. There are so many topics and they're all so deep. There is always something new to learn. If we ignore the 80% of topics that are to do with databases, there is less to learn, so the task becomes easier to manage. Recently, I have been more interested in security, and have been investigating new aspects of computers, through Linux.

I also managed to get my USB MIDI keyboard working on my laptop. This means the creative things that have been building up in me with my absence of Reason now have a place to go. Plus, I plugged it in to my father's sound system, and things went well from there.

I am worried about Julia; her health concerns aren't positive, and she's off work, so probably as bored as I am during the day. But I send her more well wishing and hope to see her at some point.

Instead of listing the days that I have seen Yinuo recently, it's easier to list the days that I haven't seen her:

Saturday.

It's Friday today. I've seen her pretty much every day this last week, and will continue to see her until Sunday. And then she leaves on Monday. But it's been good seeing her more and she's become a good friend of mine. Probably the best I have in this country.

I saw her drama performance this morning. It was different to Kiana's a couple of years ago. Very different. It involved walking around Hammersmith bridge and listening to messages about communication. There wasn't a storyline, but there was a lot to be said. I left with a message and an ear. Some of the props I helped make last night, and it was fun to see them in use. I was trusted to film everything, but in true technology style, the battery failed after six minutes, and most of my footage was the lead up to the beginning. I feel bad, but I did get some shots of Yinuo doing her playful thing.

Christmas is almost here and I haven't bought anyone any presents yet. Mainly because I can't afford to, because my pay from University won't get to me until next year. But I will try and make some presents for people.

I'm going to go shopping in a minute. I'm having a small dinner party tonight for a couple of people. It'll be the last one before most of them go home. I think stir fry is on the cards, so I need to get prawns.

Well Here's a Hello

First thing's first, I'm writing this on Cocoa's Mac. But I'm at the Wired Cafe in Roehampton. With her. And Stella. But I'm not going to write about why I'm here, what essay I'm helping her with, or what film Stella is watching. Actually, I will talk about the film, just not yet.

I mentioned a while ago that I would beat Portal in under an hour. I did. I managed it in 56 minutes the next time and 54 the time after that. Seeing people do it in 15 was demoralising, but I haven't played for a while, so I can't improve. And that's my excuse. My computer is still broken, and I can't be bothered or rich enough to fix it.

What I do want to talk about is movies that I think are great. One of these is Star Trek: Generations. Goodbye Kirk, hello Picard. This movie, apparently, fell into the odd-bad-even-good pattern, and being number seven, people said it was bad. I couldn't disagree more. Admittedly, it wasn't as stunning as First Contact, and Data was quite silly throughout, but I watched it again recently, and I love it. It was exciting all the way through, it had wonderful arrogant Shatner back as a captain, and it had the analogous Nexus, which was treated in accordance to my ideologies. I loved seeing it again, and rank it probably as my second favourite Star Trek film.

The film Stella is currently watching I have seen twice in the last month or so. Little Miss Sunshine. I missed it when it came out, but always wanted to see it. This movie is good on a different level to Star Trek films. The reason is that every character is completely real, and that makes it that every moment is relatable and relevant to any family, or anyone who grew up in a family. I loved this film, and could watch it repeatedly if I had the time. The best part of it for me though, is that every character, save Olive, the little girl, is unlikable and nasty at some point, but they all manage to redeem themselves throughout the film, without being cheesy or unrealistic. The shot of Olive playing the sliding tile game (of a smiley face) in the car while her family sits grumpily around her is very revealing, showing that she's the only one willing to put the effort in to being happy, while the others have to wait for the opportunity to become happy people. This is a very real attitude, and Olive's attitude is one that should be more widely adopted.

I've seen most of Stranger Than Fiction, a film that slipped by me. I'm not a massive Will Farrel fan, but he raises some giggles here and there, while Anchorman was brilliant. This wasn't his usual kind of film (it seemed like his Truman Show), but what I saw it seemed pretty good. Critics described this as a Charlie Kaufman film for stupid people. It is quite an accurate description, as the themes aren't nearly as complex as a Kaufmn film, but manage to break some traditional rules without focusing on breaking them.

But this brings me to Adaptation, my favourite Kaufman film (and I like all of his films- a lot) and probably the best film I have ever seen. It's not one you can watch over and over again, but more like every so often. By his own admission, nothing happens. Like real life. I have seen it three or four times, but it still manages to confuse me and stretch reality every time. If you haven't seen this film, it should be right up on your list if you feel you're intellectually capable. Many professional film reviewers were not. Do not expect a standard Hollywood tale though.

Kaufman is writing and directing his own film, due out in March of next year. I can't wait.

Stella just finished watching Little Miss Sunshine. It can't help but make you feel happy. Even though I didn't have sound this time, I loved watching it.

I went to Balans Cafe last night, because Cafe Nero closed at 2AM. Stella, Cocoa and I stayed there until 6AM, which is the latest I have stayed out in London in my life. It was fun. They keep buying me food that goes against my diet plan, but I manage. Cocoa took me and her friends to Wagamama the other day, and tricked me into eating pork dumplings. Well, they didn't trick me, I just ate it without asking what was in them. But it still broke my heart.

The essay I wrote about Cocoa's face ended up about 1700 words. Not far off target.

Uncertainty

No more Macbook. I traded it in for... well, I gave it back. But I gave it back with Office 2004 and Exposé working great. And if I'm telling the honesty, I come away from the experience with a little more sympathy of OSX than I had before.

Still, being back on Vista, Win key + Tab is hours of fun.

I told somebody the other day that they don't know me very well. Not out of anger, just because I surprised them with a fact about me. They asked me to tell them more about me, and it got me listing out a series of facts about myself that I personally find interesting. Now, this is my blog, on my server space, and you're reading this on my webpage, but despite all that, putting a list of reasons why I think I'm great is too self indulgent. Even for me. So you're going to have to discover them the hard way, like everyone else.

But one thing I surprised them with was that I am quite good with Photoshop. Now anyone who has visited my Flickr account recently will have seen my entries to the Crestock Photoshop competition. I thought they were great, but not many others have. But that isn't a big worry to me. What has had my attention is that the Graphics hand in date was today. This marks the third year in a row I have been counted on for helping people out. The first year, it was me. The second, I helped out Qian, and this year, I gave a hand to Cocoa. As well as many other people who asked questions.

But it led me to remember and recount the story of two years ago, how I left my work to the last minute to such a degree that I ended up sleeping in QB046, just for a couple of hours before the cleaner came in. You can do a lot worse than three swivel chairs in a row. I've slept in less comfy hotels. But despite fighting tiredness and changing circumstance, I had everything printed and even laminated in time, and I was given a good mark.

I don't think I mentioned any of that two years ago. I was distracted.

I'm pretty distracted this year as well. At least last year I knew where I was, whereas now I feel like I'm really depressed, except I'm happy. I guess you could call it confusion. I am.

IGN placed The Sting 24 in the top 30 Futurama Episodes. That's not the reason I feel weird, but it's pretty damn strange. I've always put it higher; like, number one. Just in front of Jurassic Bark and Luck of the Fryish. Showing that Futurama was only getting better and better with age.

The past few weeks have thrown me quite a few weird routes, but I don't regret any of them. Well, I regret not getting that job, but other than that, I'm very happy with most of everything. My work at Uni is probably coming to an end. There is an exam next week, so no workshop, and the class goes onto something different outside of the workshop next semester, so I think that's all I'll do for a while.

Some of my opinions are very outspoken and don't win me friends, but I stand by them. Recently, a video on LiveLeak.com showed somebody going an indicated 219mph on a public highway in America. However this makes you feel, it makes me feel like there are still heroes out there.

Julia came up here a couple of weeks ago, and we had a fun time together. She bought me my first Starbucks in a while, and I'd never been to the Raynes Park one before. She was looking healthy, but events have proven that otherwise, and I hope she feels better soon.

There is no chin under Chuck Norris' Beard. There is only an affront to the US Constitution.

I wasn't planning on being in the country in the new year, or at least not long into it, but it looks like I have more of a position here than I wanted. I won't see the end of 2008 here though. I'm tired and I think I need to go for one of my thinking walks. I do it smiling though.

Improve, J.

I Don't Think You Quite Get This Whole Vegetarian Thing

Well, after sufficient downtime due to expiring credit cards, my site is back. And with two extra bonus entries just for your reading pleasure. I speak about some of my loves: cars, language, hating things... etc. But now I'm going to talk about what I usually talk about on my blog, and that's me.

What have I been up to for a few months? Well, the main focus of my life has been job hunting. I always enjoy sending out hundreds of unsolicited CVs, but this time it's been extra fun. Especially with the reasonless rejections that I seem to encounter at every opportunity. Usually because someone has slightly more experience than me (any). But I can't let something as meaningless and trivial as experience put me off. I hope I don't sound bitter.

I have also been working hard on the JCS. It's difficult to keep finding things to do that will interest people, and the main killer is that when you find something particularly fun, people will find stupid excuses not to do it, like not having money or having coursework. Seriously people, JCS is more important than debt or deadlines. I guess I should be more tolerant. But it is a real drain to keep people entertained sometimes. Luckily there is a core of people who still enjoy whatever we do, even if it's just each others' company. And if any of the faithful are reading, I thank you for your participation.

I have found a new joy in socialising. It started where just a few friends would come over for dinner and we'd finish with some kind of Korean ice-cream. This developed into not really needing Korean ice-cream, or in fact any ice-cream at all. I have found that my regular dinner parties are always anticipated and always enjoyed, and I am trying to throw them more and more regularly. Often to have people try new foods that I or my sister have discovered, but mostly just because socialising is hard when so many of your friends are far away. But perhaps it is just a sign of impending maturity that dinner parties are more the done thing than before. I managed to introduce a swathe of people to peanut-butter burgers, a delicacy that Canada gave me and I want to show the world. And more recently I showed everyone that vegetarian food doesn't have to be dull, and that falafel pitta with cous-cous and salad is one of the tastiest/low-fat/filling meals one can conceive of.

I've used the V-word twice now. Once in the last paragraph and once in the title. I'm vegetarian again. Well, to be precise, pescetarian. I will eat fish occasionally. But most of my food is now meat free. Why this time? Well, last time (January to June 2006) someone gave me the idea and it helped me eat lots of chocolate and not put on weight. This time, I figure that if I skip the chocolate, I will lose weight, and that's a good thing, since my diet since returning home hasn't been very healthy. But for the last few weeks, it has been very healthy. I have even taken up long walks, running to the top of my hill and walking down a different route each night at around 2:00AM. It's very peaceful, and you see plenty of foxes. You also look quite conspicuous, usually because I'm dressed in a long overcoat and black gloves with chequered Vans on. It isn't quite usual.

Emma went to Japan. I have known that this was going to happen for years, since I met her pretty much, but it was still a massive shock to my system when she left. She'd been in Wales for months since I'd last spent proper time with her, but the fact that she now isn't even on the same island, on the same continent, or in the same hemisphere still upset me. The day she left I shed a tear, but I know I'll see her soon. I managed to call her on Friday, although the delay to the mobile and the interference and the fact that she'd only just got the phone and didn't know how to change the volume meant that it was a short and sparse conversation. But frequent emails do help.

Despite this, a few old friendships have been renewed. Through these I have been invited to numerous parties and strange events. I went to support a friend through the C-Star Singing Competition, where various Chinese performers compete for a contract. Through luck and skill and well placed back up dancers, my friend went through to the final. However, the day of the final I am otherwise engaged, and I fear I will miss it. These new connections have also led me to the strange scenario I am currently enjoying. I am writing this on a brand new MacBook Pro. It isn't mine, so I'm not allowed to smash it, but to be honest, compared to the other Macs I have used in the last year, it has impressed me. When writing things, the letters appear on the screen pretty much as soon as you press the keys. And the whole operating system doesn't grind to a halt if your mouse strays too near the icon bar at the bottom. Perhaps this is the Leopard I have been reading so much about. It is definitely an improvement. I mean, there are some things that could be better. The power chord could be longer than 19cm (but I guess they keep it short to show off the magnetic trip protector). It also wouldn't turn on after it was shut for a few minutes, forcing a hard reset and the loss of data ('It just works!'), and the friend who lent it to me couldn't get some program she wanted working, nor get any of her videos playing. It was only thanks to my open source favourite VLC that I could save the day.

Oh, and on top of that she tells me it would have cost £2000 had she bought it here. My sister's new Vaio cost her £500. And I guarantee it'll last longer than this. You can write it down.

But I shouldn't complain, I have full use of it for a few days seeing as I'm the only person she knows with an unfiltered internet connection, and I have to learn how to use it so I can teach her. I had enough problems trying to get it to show things in English (it's a Hong Kong bought machine). I might use it, however, to write the first essay I have been assigned in many months. 2000 words all about somebody's face. I think I can do it, but it's certainly a challenge. I now have the MacBook hooked up to my father's impressive sound system, so it is now a bit more fun.

Despite the recent let down of a few employment opportunities, I have been very happy with many things in my life. I don't notice foods I'm not getting, and at least once a week I feel amazing contentment. I have it right now. I don't know what to do about it, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts. I'm going to try and have one more dinner party before this episode of my life ends. And it is going to end, much sooner than I want it to.

Akira is Overrated

I don't know how many of you have been following the news recently, but there have been some very exciting developments. Many of you will know my love for 60s and early 70s American cars. I feel their design and down to earth engineering puts most European and Asian cars to shame. Of course, you sacrifice handling and driving pleasure, but if you own an American car, you most likely live in America and straight lines are your thing. I'd never limit myself to just straight line driving and drag racing, but I must admit it does have a strong appeal. Anyway, after the 70s closed off, American cars became enormously hideous. They became eyesores in their styling, design, and practicality, and this was before the massive influx of idiots in their SUVs. American cars became a joke around the world because apart from being hideous, they were also dead to drive. People will put up with something looking ridiculous in exchange for a decent drive (for example, the Elise), but 80s and 90s mass produced American cars are enough to make me ill, and that's before you even start to look at fuel consumption.

Things started getting better in the last few years. They've been improving gradually. They pale in comparison to my favourite car of the Golden Age, the 69 Dodge Charger, and they are still not enough to tempt me away from an early 90s Skyline/Subaru or any German car, but design has improved. The Dodge Charger has been reborn a couple of times, with mediocre results each time. It's less impressive brother (Challenger) however, has had a rebirth so incredible that it has restored my faith in the American motor industry.

The 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 has done something I have been hoping for for many years: in designing it, they have gone back to the 60s without making it look stupid. It's a modern looking car, but the shape hasn't changed from its heyday. It doesn't look like they're copied it directly, but they haven't deviated and failed. On top of this, they have given it a massive engine, and a very reasonable price tag. For less that $40000 you can own a 450bhp machine that not only looks fantastic, but will drive like a modern car. They have defied convention (and aerodynamic principles) and kept the front pretty flat, which is not only refreshing, but admitting that low fronted American designs have been consistently lackluster (best example: Corvette). If this is the kick in the teeth the American motor industry has been waiting for, then I will be very happy indeed. Whatever it is, it is a step in the right direction, and perhaps the beginning of a return to the golden age: simple, affordable muscle cars. And as far as I'm concerned, excluding the Dodge Viper, this is the best looking American car for 20 years.

The best part is that it isn't just Dodge who are going backwards to go forwards. The Hyundai Coupé has been an excellent example of a pretty good car for not much money. Even Top Gear gave it a favourable review, preferring it to the equivalent Lexus. And I've liked it, it's reasonable engine and its low cost, and I almost considered getting one: except it's Front Wheel Drive. And FWD is my number one enemy in cars.

Now I'm not a huge car zealot, and I agree that FWD has its place in the automotive world. That place is in cars I won't drive unless I have to. And when I say I have to, we have to think of a pretty far fetched scenario for me to drive one. Like I'm being chased by a ninja desperate for my death and all that is available is a V-Reg Punto and I'm only wearing a towel. And still I'd try and have a go at the ninja before I had to turn the key.

But Hyundai have noticed this, and have made a car for me. The Hyundai Genesis is a 5-Series competitor that not only manages to be stiffer, but a fraction of the price. And it is Rear Wheel Drive. And I love RWD. It's almost as good as Four Wheel Drive and often more fun. And to top this, Hyundai have taken away two doors, put a 380bhp V8 engine in and made it about $35000. This is an affordable, fun, easy to use and extremely fast car. And for Hyundai to step out of line and make a good RWD car is as surprising as a beautiful modern American car. And two positive surprises in a month show that the future of motoring isn't completely ruled by the need to be efficient, and that there is still fun to be had.

Alternative Spelling

I saw a Japanese name earlier today. Naoko. It's not a particularly unique name, but it got me thinking. Phonetically, Nao is similar to now. It's not identical, especially in the Japanese pronunciation, but one could substitute it in English text, and the context and phonetics of it would convey the meaning.

For instance: Do it nao.

It would be quite easy for any native English speaker to read that and understand it without too much trouble. It would take a fraction of a second longer to process it, but that's irrelevant, because the meaning is perfectly conveyed in almost the same time. In fact, spelling it phonetically does have some benefits. The main benefit is that of emphasis. The word 'now' in the above phrase is emphasised by its unusual spelling and appearance. The fraction of a second of extra processing in the brain calls it to attention. Since it is completely phonetic (and if it is unfamiliar to the reader) the brain processes it more as a sound, hence we get the effect of emphasis by the stimulation of the aural part of the brain, even if the stimulation is only slight.

Clearly, it is obvious why people, youths in particular, are so keen on altering the spelling of words, with concentration on shortening words. Single letter words that are now commonplace ('c', 'u', 'y?') are not only easier to write/type, but call attention to themselves through self emphasis. At least, that's what they used to do.

There are other ways of calling attention to a particular word or phrase. The exclamation mark is a particularly useful one. With merely a shift and a one, it is possible to add exclamation to a phrase or word. The symbol itself is so associated with alarm and emphasis that it is adopted as a symbol for surprise in many contexts. The Metal Gear Solid series is my favourite example.

The usefulness of the exclamation mark, however, lies in its rarity.

I once read some amateur storytelling, and in a four line paragraph, there were close to one hundred exclamation marks. Needless to say, I did not continue reading. Anyone familiar with an internet will understand where I am coming from. Piling them onto the end of a sentence adds exclamation, but if you ever want to add more exclamation, you need to use more than previously. To emphasise, they need to be rare. There isn't a problem with adding a couple to a particularly important piece of information, but the amateur author in question was so insistent that all of the information was more important than the last, reading became a chore and it didn't matter what he had to say next.

It is for this reason that it is important to use emphatic methods only when necessary. It is important to punctuate, not saturate. Hugely abbreviated words no longer carry the emphasis they once had, which is a shame. If one was well placed and innovative, it carried a lot more meaning. Their commonplace has made them relatively worthless.

The same can be said for so many methods of communication the internet has proliferated. Emoticons were once minor chat additions. The need to be bigger and better and more emphatic now has most websites screaming "OH MY GOD NO WAY" if you mistakenly drag your pointer across an advertisement.

Not only has the emoticon been devalued that way, but its been reduced to a selling point for spyware.

I remember chatting to a friend of mine of AIM many years ago. We were talking normally, but out of the blue he said, all in capital letters, "I HATE MY JOB". A had a relative sitting near me, who said, "I would have made the text red and put it in a bigger size and made it italics and underlined it.". It was at that moment that I realised that capitalisation isn't enough for emphasis for many people. For myself and job-hating Glenn Magas, it was plenty. I understand he was frustrated and needed a change and that this was more noteworthy than "I hate my job.". For my relative, who most likely greeted her online friends with capital letters, nine exclamation marks and six tongue smileys, a perfectly acceptable form of emphasis became mundane and needed to be bettered by more vulgar and visually affronting text.

Anyone who has read more than a few of my entries will know of my conservative attitude towards the English language. They will know that when I use an exclamation mark it is a relatively major event, and really needs attention paid to it. The internet and mobile phones were a major threat to traditional communication, but thankfully, it is being saved by those inclined to communicate without the constant need to throw words at people (probably an offshoot of the advertising and commercial environments, as well as the 'louder is better' environments many people are exposed to from an early age). Those helping to preserve it are growing in numbers, and while it is unlikely people will ever run out of new ways to emphasise their language (unlike record labels maximising the volume of CD music), it will still appear tacky and unnecessary to the majority of English speakers.

For the People who are Still Alive

Steam has a rating that rates you on how much you've played Steam games over the past two weeks. I'm around 3.9 or something, "Master of Nothing". This isn't very high, despite playing Portal for 9.5 hours since its release at 8:00AM on Wednesday morning. I have played it to completion three times, I have completed the Bonus Maps, and have made a start on the timed/limited runs. I managed to play it from clicking "New" to the final drop in one hour and six minutes. That record will be broken next time I play.

For those of you unfamiliar with what I'm talking about, it's a new game, called Portal.

A while ago, I can't remember exactly, probably about ten months ago, a trailer for the game appeared on YouTube, and I eagerly told everyone I knew about it. The game, set in the Half Life Universe, involved solving problems, not by jumping, but by shooting portals in the walls. This new game mechanic interested me, as they set about it in a realistic way. Well, as realistic as a physics defying idea can be. And like most stuff Valve does, I expected it to be great.

In the waiting time I downloaded Narbacular Drop, the original game which introduced user placed Portals. I enjoyed that and played it through many times (it was only really a proof of concept, so very short). But as Portal came out, un nouveau raison d'etre was came to light. Despite its short length, I can't stress how much I love this game.

"Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your official testing record, followed by death."

I've barely even played Half Life 2: Episode Two. Well, I have, a bit, and I'm seeing fantastic cinematic effects. Just a couple of minutes in and I'm catching a glimpse of something through a window, not long enough to see what it is, just enough to know I'm being watched. It was far more effective and scary with the absence of suspenseful music, something a lot of Hollywood could take a cue from.

I'm not going to say much more on the subject of videogames though.

The JCS started again last Tuesday, for the first time with myself at the helm. I never though I'd make it as President, but I have become the first white President the society has ever had, if I recall correctly. And despite not having a stall at the Fresher Fair, and relying on old mailing lists and posters, we had a massive amount of new members. HUGE SUCCESS. I know that most of them we won't see again, but it's enough to keep the society alive.

I had a strange phone call last night. I was playing Portal (sorry) and my phone rang. I checked the time, it was 1:15AM. The call went something like this (I start):

"Hello?"
"Hi, I'm calling from BT Answerphone, I was wondering if you could design us a new logo."
"Design a new logo?"
"Yes. Is this a bad time to call?"
"No, it's a brilliant time to call."
"Well we just need someone..."
"Where did you get my information?"
"From Facebook. Should we just send you an email?"
"Yes, send me a Facebook message."
"Ok, can I just take your name?"
"You can get that from Facebook as well."
"Ok, thank you."
"Goodbye."

A few flags went off. BT never calls outside business hours unless. In fact, nobody does unless it's an emergency or they're from Australia. My mobile number isn't on Facebook to anyone but friends. There's no info about my graphic design career online accompanied by my mobile number, and if there was they'd know my name. On top of that, he sounded like a thirteen year old lowering his voice and his friends were snickering in the background. Either it's some ill-planned prank, or the worst scam I've ever come across.

I had a horrible thought. Last night, I'm in my room, flying through Portals, and while I'm looking, I see something. A tiny, red, square dot. I can't figure what it's meant to be. A little below that and to the left, the same thing, but green. These dots are standing out against a dark background. And I realise, one of my worst fears: dead pixels. The fear plagues every LCD monitor owner, something that can ruin something so beautiful. Trouble was, I'd shut down my computer, and was lying in bed. I'm getting dead pixels in my dreams. This is probably worse. They've gone now, but still, scary.

I did dream about Portals last night as well, it's strange. I used them just to help with the shopping.

Anyway, I'm off to work in a few minutes. The PHP websites don't code themselves.

If At First You Don't Succeed, You Fail

Portal. Portal portal portal. Portal. Portal portal. Portal portal portal portal, portal portal portal. Portal portal portal. Portal portal portal portal portal portal portal. Portal. Portal portal portal portal portal.

Portal portal.

Portal portal portal portal portal. Portal portal. Portal portal.

Portal portal portal portal portal portal portal portal portal. Portal. Portal portal portal. Portal portal portal portal, portal portal portal. Portal portal portal. Portal portal portal portal, portal portal portal. Portal portal portal.

Living with Living with Living with Not Dying from Disease

All the work I have been doing for this company, and instantly, most of my paycheque is spent in a day. And I don't have much to show for it. But I don't mind because I had a very fun day.

My last night in New York last Summer was spent at the Nederlander theatre, watching Rent. Since then, I have been quite a fan of it, and have heard/seen it in most of its forms. Every so often, my mother emails me about theatre tickets I can get for free for new shows that haven't had their critical reception yet. One such show is Rent (Remixed), showing in the Duke of York's Theatre. And I once again was given two free tickets to go and see it.

Through Natasha's probably interminable kindness, Kiana came with me, and we went to see a new take on an old favourite.

Let me say off the bat that while it was enjoyable, I didn't think that much of the film. There wasn't much wrong with it, it just didn't transfer to the big screen from the small stage. It did, nonetheless, bring Rent to a world that hasn't been to New York, and missed it while it was in their town (I know it closed after a short run in London, and I was too young to even want to go). This adaptation, however, took a lot of what I took for granted a moved it around.

Several of the characters are from minorities, and through the years onstage their ethnicity was preserved, and all (bar Sarah Silverman) were transferred to the productions I was aware of. Characters that we were so cemented with black, Oriental or Hispanic actors now became pale cockney redheads or cocky American blondes. Mimi Marquez shouldn't conjure images of someone who looks like Alysson Hannigan. British accents were dotted around, despite still being set in New York. But despite the nationality of some of the cast, there were some very good American accents, faithful to what I've known for the past year.

The set was always rough, black brick, steel pipes and rusty furnaces. In this version, the set is extremely Tate Modern. Almost minimalist, and filled with far more implication. It might have been the highlight; dotted with strange things being lowered from above, and well placed projections making powerful suggestions. The characters in costume looked so out of place with the sterile, monochrome environment, it was very effective.

The songs were different. Not just in order (which threw both of the seasoned Rent fans), but reworked. Oddly, for music that we're so used to hearing, the changed and remixed music wasn't a desecration. They were actually very good. Today 4 U had its backing track totally redone, completely to its credit, one of the surprising improvements. Out Tonight takes you by surprise with a total genre change, and one of the sexiest performances I've seen in a long time (although whether the change suits Mimi's character is up to debate). Happy New Year, one of my favourites, was changed very nicely, and gives the second half a very fresh feel. Take Me or Leave Me, as Kiana noted afterwards, was much more of a pop song, which worked well, but perhaps not as well as the original. It was extremely catchy though. My favourite, I'll Cover You was, luckily largely untouched. And its reprise was perhaps more effective in its sparsity. Watching Contact was probably the most surreal experience I've had in a while. It's subtext wasn't anywhere near as blatant as in the New York production, but it worked well.

However, some additions didn't work anywhere near as well. Maureen's MCing was effective, but somewhat cheesy (despite my appreciation for what Denise van Outen did with the character). As was Angel's ascension. Mark's character seemed too over the top for the usually deadpan delivery I have known. It was somewhat overacted. The end also seems anticlimactic, and while better than the overly Hollywood approach in the film, lacked the powerful emotion of the New York production. Finally, due to some staging issues and my occasional inability to hear the actors, I wondered if people who hadn't seen another production before would be able to follow it.

Despite these criticisms, the acting was of a high calibre and I found myself mouthing along to every word. I recommend it to fans and newbies alike. It's certainly a different vision to what Jonathan Larson saw, but it was enjoyed by two major fans, and I hope it has a decent run this time.

Little Round Mirrors

Well it's been a busy few weeks. Not only have I been working as a Technical Support assistant lecturer (helping them open computers, remove CPUs, plus in PSUs), but I was assigned to be a guest lecturer for 3D Animation.

This meant that last Tuesday morning I had to show my Animation to the new third years, and had to give a speech on how I did it, what inspired me, and what they should do. I had great difficulty sleeping the night before. But I was really happy with how it went, and was even treated to two rounds of applause (thanks Tables).

Now I'll speak to some senior staffers and with any luck I'll get the full guest lecturer fee. That wouldn't be too bad, but it's not necessary because the work I'm doing for this publishing company is pretty lucrative. It's not a fortune, but I enjoy what I do, and PHP pretty much writes itself.

Best of all, none of the work I do really eats up much of my day, so I'm getting alright money for not much of my time, and I like that. It's cash in the pocket and that helps.

My sister is coming down next weekend, for my mother's birthday, and while my mother is having plenty of her work friends around, we'll make ourselves scarce and go somewhere for a party or a movie or some kind of fun excursion.

Speaking of movies, I've been sitting down for Sky Movies the last couple of nights, to see some things I've been meaning to see. The host is a Korean monster/comedy film. Less comedy than most, but it's very funny in some parts. But I saw it and it left me thinking about it for days. I thoroughly recommend it, I was riveted the whole way through. I am, however, unable to watch it again. But see it if you can, it's definitely the best Korean film I have seen. But I haven't seen Oldboy yet, so who knows. Last night I watched a History of Violence, that quiet film with Viggo Mortensen. I liked that too. Not as much, it was much slower, but still a barrel of fun. Viggo is one of those really cool guys. He'll always be Aragorn to me, but this film was a very new and interesting character. He's kind of up there with Clive Owen cool.

Anyway, I have work in a few hours, I'd better go and prepare. For nothing.

Speech Bubbles

Since I decided to start using more Bookmarks in Firefox, I realised how great the 'Open All in Tabs' feature is. What would it be best for, though? That's right, webcomics. I have usually been reading things like xkcd and stuff, but recently I decided I should add more to my list, just because there is real talent in many of them.

And while I have expanded my list, I don't like reading webcomics unless I have read them from the beginning (with Penny Arcade, it meant reading solidly for many, many hours to get from the beginning). So I'm going to ask you, fine readers, if there are more I should add. It's a webcomic drive, and I'm looking mainly for technie, funny or subversive ones.

Here is what my webcomic Bookmark section is currently like:

Penny Arcade
xkcd
Misfile
The Perry Bible Fellowship
What Fresh Hell is This?
Cyanide & Happiness
LUCID TV
Anomaly

What should I add to my daily reading?

Moves Are Slow

So it's come around again. The beginning of the academic year, and the end of Summer. I used to dread it much, but since leaving school, it hasn't been so frightening. However, I did have something to fear this year. I've been dreading it, but it came about yesterday.

I drove Becky to University, and now she's restarting full time education. Chester isn't close. It took about three and a half hours to get there, and nearly six to get back. But I settled her down and moved her stuff in, and it was very sad. I was mostly too tired to feel sad then, but I do now.

But it was a good drive to get my new front tyres fitting well, and we listened to some good music and I met her new flatmates, who are pretty cool.

And now I'm back in University. I'm here waiting to see Mr Dube about a job. It's good to know that they haven't deleted my account from the systems, and I can still log on. I'm sitting in on one of David Bailey's database classes, and they're discussing Oracle and Development Projects. I'm not listening, so nothing's changed.

I decided to go completely retro. I was sick of the bad signal I was getting from my phone, I guess the aerial just isn't that good. I am now, for the moment at least, using a Nokia 6210, probably the best phone ever made. It's monochrome, the buttons are a bit sticky and it's extra functions are limited to Snake II, and the camera is only 0.5 megapixels (actually it doesn't have a camera). But it's light, comfortable and most importantly, reliable. It didn't let me down (apart from when I started using it yesterday and it kept turning off, but I bent the battery pins and it's fine now).

Now You've Gone and Done It

Well, she insisted upon a laptop, and she bought one. Luckily, she avoided the laptop trap: a cheap one from Acer or Dell or one you haven't heard of. She went for a Sony Vaio, and I am pretty jealous. It was only £500, and that's a very good price for one. I'm impressed. It only has 1GB of RAM, but other than that it isn't too badly specced out.

I had the Second Funtime Korean Ice-Cream Party. It involved a group of friends and some family, just eating curry and then Korean ice-cream, usually courtesy of Yunhae. It was very fun, but Imogen got called back earlier than we'd hoped. It was fantastic to see Kiana again, and I also hadn't seen Natasha or Yunhae for a long time, and that was loads of fun. Most importantly, I got to see Emma again, as I'd really been missing her. Se came up to my house for three days, for her friend Han's wedding and the party and a shopping day in Kingston with me and my sister.

A few people may know about the width limiter at Hammersmith bridge. It's there to make sure wide (heavy) lorries and trucks don't go onto the bridge. Buses have a special lane, but for the private vehicles, they have to be a certain width or less. My car fits, but there are only a few inches to spare on each side. It's quite wide for a small car. Anyway, I know it fits. Whenever Natasha makes a comment on my driving (such as saying it's 'atrocious' when she means it's efficient [I know where all my tyres are, where they are headed and how fast, how much traction they have, how likely they are to lose their traction, and most importantly, how to deal with a loss of traction]), I do something to frighten her, because she's really easily frightened. Such as, this time, headed for the width limiter quite quickly. I know my car will make it, so it doesn't actually matter how fast you go through it, it's a straight line, and straight lines are pretty easy. And that was fun. She'll realise that it is very possible to be safe without driving like you're asleep. As I learnt today, aggressive driving is, in fact, safer.

Speaking of which, apparently Dan "is ready for an apology". If you're reading this, Dan, apology accepted.

I recommend to not only my friends but to everyone ever, ShakeAway. It's a takeaway milkshake place. It's not somewhere where you can go everyday, or even once a week, unless you're a billionaire, but it makes the best milkshakes. I had a Daim with a Smarties topping. It cost £3.90, but once every so often, I really recommend it. Tastier than a Frappucino.

So for the past few days, I have been seeing old friends, hearing from many on Facebook, chatting away. I went to University to pick up Natasha and Kiana, and while I was there I spoke to the System Administrator, and asked for a job, and he agreed. I'll be working at University again, like I did before, but with more hours and more money. He's a good guy, Mr Dube. I've also spoken to Erin somewhat, and discussed with her my new idea. I'm going to have to think about it more.

I watched an episode of Pimp my Ride. The presenter, 'Westwood', irritated the hell out of me. I couldn't stand him and the way he spoke. The concept of the show irritated me as well: making an average car look pretty in making it much heavier. But most of all, the name irritated me. It made me sick, actually. I'm sure I've gone on about it before, but I still dislike it immensely.

I also discovered that Jacque lu Cont has done a remix of Chromeo's Needy Girl. I'm going to have to give that a listen. I hope you're all well.

Laptops

Since I've been getting technical, I'm going to be technical again.

Since my last entry, I installed my new DVD drive, and it's great. It makes a fantastic sound when I put a CD in or when I boot up. It's very robotic. I also reread all of Yukina's Blog (link at bottom), and laughed out loud, espacially at the bit about the coaches.

I don't think I've mentioned it properly, but I have discovered possibly the greatest unsigned artist. Binärpilot is a Norweigian techno artist. He gives out all of his music for free online, and you should torrent it. The best place for music like that is, of course, the car. Sometimes it sounds better in the car than the dancefloor, but that's the nature of extreme techno. He's just put out a new album, but listen to 'Promo', it's all of his best stuff. Also, 'Defrag', which is very obscure, but stunning. Seeing as I'm not driving, I'm actually listening to The Cure right now.

Tomorrow Emma comes up, and we have a Funtime Korean IceCream Party, like we did before, but with Emma this time. And Natasha. I haven't seen Emma since we moved out and I blew up my car dropping her off.

Anyway, technicals: My sister is about to go to University. Apart from a Lost Season Three marathon, she also needs to get a computer. For writing essays and other essential University tasks. She wants a laptop, while my father and I believe that she should get a desktop. This has led me to analyse the differences in laptops and desktops, advantages and disadvantages.

Of course, laptops are more expensive. They should be. The technology has to be crammed into a much smaller, portable space, and be able to withstand movement, and use in a variety of environments. Desktops have space to spare (unless you're concerned about aesthetics and cannot be troubled by things like base stations or wires; in that case, get a Mac and never come back to this website). They have space for expansion, and airflow. They're upgradable, and most importantly, user servicable. The last time anyone tried to service their laptop, well, it was Emma's, and it cost a bundle for them to fix after that.

With the budget at which we're looking (under £500), you can get a low specification laptop, or an above average desktop. You could also get a second hand iMac, but... you know. And my sister doesn't need a high powered computer for MP3s and The Sims 2, but my worry is that any laptop for under £500 won't be made from quality components. It'll be using the cheapest RAM, the cheapest HDD, the cheapest motherboard, and will be cooled by an average fan. With someone who doesn't turn their computer off often, the use will get to it, and the latent heat will build up and damage the components. You can't fix laptops, you have to send them to be repaired. And motherboards aren't as tough as they used to be, and they cost a lot to replace, as everything plugs into them. A cheap laptop will probably break. I've been lucky, but most people I know haven't been lucky unless they spend a large amount, and don't throw them around during arguments.

A desktop is harder to move, but that's the limit of its disadvantages. Better value, more power, greater reliability. I don't know, I just think that desktops aren't given the credit they deserve these days. But I'm a traditionalist. I feel like latops are like monocoque chassis, they have advantages, but are less integral than a framework chassis, and don't last in the same way. My ideal car would have a framework chassis, and my ideal computer would be a desktop. Laptops should always be secondary.

That's how I feel on the subject.

Now I'm going to play GTA: Vice City Stories.

Unusual

Here's something strange. When I bought my PSP, I got it from America. It's a lot cheaper to do that. I also bought some RAM while I was at it. Another 2GB to put on my 1GB that was already there. PC3200, it's not that new, but it does the trick. Anyway, I plugged it in (while cutting my hand on my Zalman fan cooling blades), and as soon as I did, my USB flash drive stopped working. It would search for ages, and come up blank. Nothing USB worked.

Odd.

I took the RAM out, and everything was fine again. Now I've just paid close to $100 on this, so it wasn't going to waste. I went into the BIOS and turned off USB 2.0, and the problem went away. How very odd.

I did a little looking, and it's not just me. When you combine these various, innocuous factors into a computer:

More than 2GB of RAM,
Windows Vista and a
nVidia Chipset

USB 2.0 fails. Impatient to try out my games with improved RAM and getting to leave Firefox running, I left it on USB 1.1 and continued on with life. It didn't bother me until I needed to transfer a 700MB file from my external hard drive. Instead of waiting for it over USB 1.1, I turned my computer off, unplugged two of my four RAM sticks (and incurred further cuts), turned USB 2.0 on, transferred the file, then put everything back. That was faster than waiting. Says a lot about the speed improvements, doesn't it?

Anyway, I got bored of this, 1.1 was having an effect on my response time of my MIDI keyboard, and I worried for my new 1kHz polling mouse. I decided to fix it. More research led me to a Microsoft fix specifically for USB problems on nVidia chipsets. Problem: I can't pass a WGA check, and can't download from Microsoft.com. I searched for workarounds for ages, only realising there was a completely working and legal copy of Vista downstairs on my mother's computer. Before it came to that, searching for the fix file name on Google heralded a direct link, and saved me from getting out of my chair.

Worse than not having USB 2.0, Photoshop suddenly failed a few weeks ago. I Photoshop frequently, for fun. Most people I know learnt it for the Graphics module and subsequently forgot it after they got a passing grade. Like 3DS Max. Shame, they are great programs, and I have continued to use both (3DS Max to a lesser degree, it's not as much fun as Photoshop). But Photoshop decided that whenever you make a new file or open an old one, it hangs, thinking and not responding. That won't do. I managed to get it working once after a series of reinstalls and a Windows Restore. But only once. And once I'd closed it, it stopped again. Scouring the Adobe knowledgebase, I found a reason: it's looking for a networked printer that isn't plugged in. It'll search for hours before it lets you start. I just uninstalled the printer from my computer, and it was solved.

My computer is working very smoothly. Half Life 2 won't acknowledge my updated driver, but it's not a big problem. I am still yet to put in my new DVD burner.

EDIT: You guys aren't commenting. Come back.

Remember C64?

That's unlike me, isn't it? I go travelling, and hardly two blog posts come your way. And I was disappointed myself in their length and quality.

If you want me to tell you the truth, it's because Macs make me nervous. I don't trust them with long stints of typing, it's not natural. Plus, the keyboard was stiff in places, and instead of dust and dirt jammed underneath the perspex, there was a curiously large spider.

Anyway, I'm back in England, and filled with mixed feelings. Why? Because part of me wants to stay here, part of me wants to go back. I love England, it's a wonderful country, and it's my home. Most people I know are here, my stuff is here, I have my own room full of rubbish, it's the way I've known it. Canada is also a wonderful country, with shockingly friendly people everywhere you go. It doesn't have my stuff, but it does have some family and friends. A return flight costs nothing, and I'm seriously about going back for a couple of months before I leave.

But! There are some problems with Canada. I'm sure I already mentioned the limiting speed limit. It doesn't end there. While it doesn't have nearly the same SUV infestation that America does (I didn't see a single Hummer), it is full of pick-up trucks. Roan drives one even. But I can see the use of them. Roan carts stuff around all the time. But still, there are more than I'd like in my country. Plenty of Estate cars as well, which I just plain don't like. However, redeeming much of this, thousands of Subarus! I even drove one for the first time. It wasn't an Impreza, but it did have all wheel drive and was pretty responsive. This one belonged to Anna, Leitha's friend. They are mostly Estate or SUV crossovers, but still, Subarus, they're quality vehicles. I am dreaming of owning one still.

But what's the point of a fast car if you have speed limits that never get close to 120kmh? It would be a very restrictive time for me to live there. My patience would die out and all my savings would go straight onto speeding fines.

Anyway, it'd be fun to go there and fix up the Reliant K car, hang out with cousins more, and just get more of a feel for the place. I mean, come on, their province is bigger than my country. Plus, Roan and I are planning to fix up the cars and sell them on for profit, increasing our fixing until we can afford that Fury. While driving back from the Milford Lodge, Roan spotted a nice looking car, and instructed me to turn around and go and take a look. When we got there, we saw it was a 1968 Plymouth Fury, in alright condition. The owner saw us pull into his drive, and came to see who we were. We struck up a long conversation about the car and about music (he and Roan had played with some of the same people). The car had been sitting for a while so wouldn't start, but otherwise was in good condition. It needed some paint work and maybe even a reupholstering, but it was drivable and shockingly beautiful. He wanted $1700 for it, which I'm sure we could have argued down to $1200. Well, it became our goal. That's something to return for.

A few months ago, I bought a PSP. I haven't spoken about it much, but it's been a great thing to have. On holiday it saved me from all the times I was stuck alone. While touring Spain and France I watched most of a new anime and in Canada it brought me the rest with some Family Guy as well. I also put some albums on it, and as soon as I found out Val had wireless, I was set. While I was there, I bought GTA Vice City Stories, and boy, did that throw me back to my youth. I really am getting back into gaming in a big way, and the PSP has helped. I'm still looking for MGS3 second hand, I never got to play it back in the day, and I have to do something about that before MGS4 comes out.

I could have typed out blog posts on my PSP, it's true. It would have saved me from the Mac, but it didn't seem worth it with all the clicking and entering more than fifteen characters of text taking a while. So I used it for browsing more than writing. And while I bought a few second hand games, I also bought some new hardware. Computer hardware I tend to go for new stuff, knowing that it can wear out and fail, and leave you with nothing. The same can happen with new stuff, but it's under warranty. So I have a new DVDRW and a brand new mouse. The last mouse I had, was a expensive Microsoft Intelimouse, which cost me around £50. It was very good, but it wore out. It started double and triple clicking on left click and middle click, which is murder on tabbed browsing. I feel it should have lasted more than the four years it did, but maybe that's optimism gone too far.

I went and purchased the top end Razer mouse in Canada. It cost about $60, which is less than the £41 it is here. It has 2000dpi, which is murder in the Windows environment, but stunningly fun in the FPS environment. I had a frantic bout of Half Life 2: Episode One last night. I'm eager for Portal more than anything else to be honest. I tried out Narbacular Drop, which one could assume is the prequel, and I have had to stop myself from playing in case I ruin Portal for myself.

I am yet to install my DVDRW drive, which will replace my existing one which no longer writes or reads CDs. Which is bad because all the music I listen to in the car is CD based. Anyway, now I can take the old one and make a laser pointer out of the laser.

Before I go, I should mention, the anime I watched on my PSP was The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi. It's writing and storytelling method I regard as on par with Lost. Not quite as enjoyable, but close. I'm overjoyed at the news of a second season, and I recommend anyone who is into good storytelling and anachronous plots.

But that's enough for now.

Left Right

The first thing I should point out here is that I haven't been submerged for about three and a half years or so. This is because I don't really like swimming. Since my parents had a really good shower installed, I haven't had a bath. The same has been true through all my University accommodation. It's always been showers. So I haven't been underwater for a very, very long time.

So I'm in Canada. I heard about this lodge trip on which my sister and mother were going, and I thought it would be cool, and I have been out in the Milford Lodge (one recalls the Milford Academy) for two days.

It's a set of wooden lodges on the front of a reasonably large lake. Supplied are many canoes and paddles. I haven't been canoeing since I was about 10 and that was in the Thames. But here I was, with a genuine Canadian Canoe, all to myself, with my cousin and sister paddling around me. It was good fun. After we set out on a small row around our most local lake, we stopped by a floating platform near our lodge. My sister, in looking for her mooring rope, capsized and went in. I was quite impressed; it's usually difficult to capsize those things unless you mean to.

We had a very long row the next day to a remote beach (probably only accessible by canoe). Messy sandwiches and sunburn later, we rowed back as fast as we could, through semi-rapids (Pike's Run), and over massive lakes. It took us about an hour and a half to get back, but that's after four hours (or so) to get there.

As we approached our home lodge, I felt hot and bothered enough to want to tip the boat over. I didn't, as Becky was with me, but after we landed I suggested it to Roan (cousin), and he was more than eager. So for the first time in nearly four years, I went underwater. We tipped the boat and went in. It wasn't really cold, in places it was warm, but we even managed to get all the water out of it afterwards (in shallower water). I got in again, and as Roan did, it tipped, and the canoe sank slowly. And that was the most fun. It could even be considered accidental.

We tipped it a few more times, and the trip slowly came to a close. We made it back to Mahone Bay, where we were staying with the rest of the family. Since then, we've done a lot of fun things, the main one being searching for a "woods beater", or a very cheap car to thrash through the woods and then scrap. We found a little Mazda 323 in red which would only cost $50 (Canadian), which is nothing, but the car needed to be released by police, which even to this day it hasn't been. Eventually (yesterday), we bought a 1989 Plymouth Reliant K, which cost us $200, but we didn't have the plan to destroy it. We plan to keep it and sell it t Roan's girlfriend as her first car by the end. It's just an old car, and it has a few things wrong (old radiator, burst brake lines), but I'm going to give some time today to repairing it, so I can take it through the woods and dirt roads briefly before I leave tonight.

When I get back to England tomorrow morning, I can relay more of my adventures, such as my new gaming mouse and DVD writer. But until then I'm going to repair some car.

Here and Now

I'm on a Mac again. And it's in great condition, hardly any software, not much running, and still, it takes hours for the letters to appear on the screen. It only has one task, why can't it do it right? Seriously, it's like having Hugh Grant as a keyboard.

Why am I on a Mac? It's a long story. I'm not at Sarah's anymore. Most of you know my sister went on her Around the World Gap Year trip. So I said goodbye to her in March, and she's only back in England September 5th. That's a hell of a long time to not see your sister for (I was away seven weeks before and that was long, but this has been horrible). For her last two weeks, she's in Canada, for my cousin's 21st birthday (Roan, I went to Ireland with him last Christmas with Yunhae, you remember!). I've been wanting to go, but tickets were around five hundred pounds. Far too much. I found one for 400, but still, it was too much. Eventually, I found one for 275, and my father agreed that I should be there, especially since my mother was flying out to be there as well, a big family get together. Then I found the exact same flight for 210 pounds. Bargain. And I'm here, in Nova Scotia. And I love it. Canada's like the holy grail of countries for me. It's got awesome family, it's beautiful and everything is cheap. It's a very easy going lifestyle.

Anyway, I can't go into details, it's late, and I should be sleeping soon, but I thought you should know. Driving here, by the way, is horrible. The cars are alright (hardly any German cars apart from Volkswagens), but the speed limits are draconian, and brutally enforced by hundreds of police cars. Major highways, and you can't go more then 60mph.

I'll let you know more soon, like tomorrow, we go to a remote lodge for a few days. I'll be on soon!

Back in Drive

As I write this, my hosting is suspended. This basically means that no one will be able to read this until it's paid again. This has happened because my Debit Card has now expired. Luckily, the bank decided to forget to send me a new one, so I don't have one for now. This means I'm stuck living off cash. It also made paying for my car hard. But I have my car back, it's repaired (new head gasket, cam belt and full service), and it drives beautifully. To test it out, I drove it to Cambridge, to stay with Sarah for a couple of days. I'm bored as hell at home, and while I am here (in Cambridge), I'm getting away from the city smog and hopefully some dirt roads will avail themselves.

Sadly, Sarah's family only has a Mac. An iMac. An old one. Not that old, around 2001-2. So it's about six years old. It's never had its OS upgraded, and has only had simple family use.

The keyboard and mouse are set in beautiful perspex, which looks very nice. Until all the crumbs, finger dirt and hairs slide down underneath the perspex, never to be dislodged and to stay there, glaringly disgusting, for all eternity.

On top of that, the failed version of a task bar, you know, all the icons that grow when you go near them, they're on the side. When you go to click the back button in Firefox, Finder jumps into your aim and you click that instead. Every single time. But not before the enlarging icons make the whole OS stutter as it works out how to make itself look pretty for you.

Most of the CRT has turned a nice shade of blue. It isn't possible to replace the monitor. This also means that the resolution is stuck at a very low setting. Luckily all the icons grow when you go near them so at this resolution they take up a third of the screen.

Right clicking involves using two hands. But you don't care when your mouse is so aesthetically simple. Until it comes to using the computer for actual computer things, then you start to care again. Even as I type the letters take a few seconds to appear on the screen, at a very basic rate (so the last phrase, 'very basic rate' hadn't even begun to appear on the screen by the time I had finished writing that sentence).

You're all screaming now that it's an old computer, it's had its day and now it's just a relic. It looked good in its time and worked in its time, now it should be upgraded. And also that CRTs fail after time. All of this wouldn't bother me so much apart from the fact that the Gateway we bought as a family in 2000, the one that all of us lived off, that I used the hell out of and didn't turn off for five years... it still works, it works well. You can right click, you can type and it appears as you type, nothing stutters (even though we upgraded the OS and not the processor), we gave it an extra drive for more space, and even though it has a severe adware infection, it is still a much better machine than this ever was. Yes, the CRT monitor broke but it was great because we replaced it without replacing the whole machine. It just worked, and it continued to just work for the last seven years. It can still run new 3D games that come out, something this Mac could never do no matter how new it was.

And although this is old, I have used new Macs and they're no different. They're awful, and if you want a better one you need to buy a new one. That is never true of PCs. PCs aren't nearly as cool as Macs, just as a Bristol Blenheim will never be as cool as a Ford StreetKa. I know which I'd drive.

Anyway, that's been building up in me for years, I'm glad I got it out. You'll all get to read this once I've paid for my hosting again.

I Promised

Ok, if I don't update for this long again, it means I'm dead. Or bored of blogging.

A lot has happened since my last entry, which was made as I scrabbled together my final pieces of work for University. You'll be happy to know that for that final piece of PHP programming I got a good seventy something percent. Since then, I moved out.

Moving out was without a doubt, one of the worst days of my life. We fought hard to get everything done, and I realised, at the pain of my flatmates, that I had a lot of stuff. It was cool that we rented a Ford Transit (which is fantastic, it's so nice to drive a machine that is pure utility, I want to buy one), and it was cool to see everything I had ever brought home, but it was horrible throwing so much stuff away (including my beautiful big blue chair which Kiana was so fond of).

It was stressful. Kiana had already moved out a week or so before, and Mizuki had just returned from Japan the day before, and we were scrubbing everything from behind the washing machine to the bathroom ceiling. But we cleaned the house out, and it was done. When the stress was over, and after I had showered, I dropped Emma off in London, or, at least, I tried. I didn't watch the temperature while I was stopped in traffic, and my car overheated. The £160 repair bill was only made worse by a subsequent (and as of this afternoon still unfinished) repair job to the head gasket that will cost in the £600 range. I haven't driven my BMW in over a month, and it pains me.

But we have lots of cars, and I have been borrowing my parents' cars. Why, just last week my father and I took my mother's car (the MG) all the way from London to Fonchanina, Northern Spain. We found a twisty road on Google Maps, and decided we would make it there, tackling the winding and snaking roads of the Pyrenees, with a trip through Andorra. While I love to blog while travelling, I didn't have a computer there, nor the energy to type out my doings on a mobile phone. So I will write what I remember now.

With myself on the insurance for another week, we woke early Wednesday morning (3AM, August 1st) and drove to Dover. I was destroyed by the fact that I couldn't sleep due to my unfortunate waking hours, and the whole day that we were driving through France, I kept napping. In an open car, that's quite hard, when your father is pushing motorway speeds. But I managed, and we arrived in (near) Pui that evening, to a nice hotel with a tasty dinner. My French had entirely disappeared, and I kept speaking Japanese. Perhaps I only have room for one foreign language at a time. I confused plenty of French proprietors with 'arigatou'.

The next day we finally hit some proper roads. We only managed a couple of hundred miles, but that was because we were going on twisty roads. And roads with hairpins and chicanes are fun. It didn't take long adjusting to driving on the right, but most of the roads were empty, so it didn't matter where you were. That little car has wide tyres, and it's light. Combined with the mid-mounted engine, the turning response is immediate, and you have to be going quite fast and quite tightly just to get some understeer, and even then that disappears when you take the power off. I also drove over the Millau bridge, which was epic. The Top Gear presenters made a trip to the South of France just for that bridge, and I don't blame them. It's huge, and you feel incredible driving over it. We found a nice little hotel in Thuir, just a little north of the France/Spain border, and a wonderful buffet meal followed by a steak made the evening very comfortable. A lack of air-conditioning made it less so, but it wasn't too bad. I almost lost my wallet, but it was in the car the whole time. Lucky me.

The next day was amazing. We woke up in France, drove to Spain, then to France, then to Andorra, then to Spain again, ending in Sort with a modern and very cool hotel, overlooking a river full of canoes. The roads that day were very good fun. My father's driving scared me and my driving scared him, but it didn't matter, because the large amount of grip made it very hard to slide that car. We managed it a few times though. I even got some oversteer, which was great. However, the sun hit me quite badly that day, and my ear is still peeling a little.

Leaving Sort we drove along a variety of tiny Spanish roads, eventually locating Fonchanina, which was the closest town to our twisty road goal. The road was actually dirt, and far too rough for anything but a tractor, but we'd made it there, and could start heading back. The next hotel we found was only one star, but was reasonably comfortable. We baked that night though, and with no drinking water, it wasn't pleasant. One the plus side, a dubbed Spanish version of Independence Day was on during breakfast the next day.

We crossed back into France the next day, and with the most scenic pass over the mountain and one final twisty road, we drove all the way to Perignon, and stopped in a very swish and very expensive hotel, which made us comfortable for our last night on holiday. We drove solidly and quickly the next day, stopping only for one quick lap around Le Mans, and a visit to the Le Mans museum, which showed the history of the race, and some beautiful old cars. Mostly French. But the Mazda 787b was there, which is the ultimate race car for me right now. Then we drove all the way back to the ferry.

That makes it sound like all we did was get in the car and drive to the next hotel, and that's pretty much what it was. It was a driving holiday, seeking out the best mountain roads for pushing the car to its handling limits. And that's what we did, and we loved every second of it.

We got back in last night around 3:30AM, and now I have to go to bed because I have a job interview tomorrow at 9AM, and it's an hour's drive.

It's good to post again. I miss you people, I'll be back in a couple of days to fill you in on the rest of what I've been up to.

Very Long

I get scarce around this time of year. It happens. I can't help it. The blog just dies for a while, and I can't get the motivation to add to it.

Some seriously cool things have happened since I last updated. I temporarily abandoned Dvorak (I had Dissertation to do, and it was holding it up). I turned 22, and with that I felt age creeping up on me. My mother bought a sports car, and occasionally puts me on the insurance, which means late night trips to London are much more exciting. London without a roof is very different.

I'm just finishing off my University time. I'm in the process of finishing one of my last courseworks, which is the most technically demanding one so far, involving Apache and PHP and MySQL and loads of SQL coding. It's actually more fun than I thought, though I've been doing this for about 15 hours straight now and I'm still not finished yet. But not much more to go. And then a report. Damnit. When is there time for Lost? 24? Heroes? All of which are damn well concluding!

My mother's MG is brilliant. In reality, it's only slightly quicker than my BMW, and I have a greater top speed. But it's a mid-engine vehicle, which means it handles much better, and in the hands of a competent driver (ie my father), it's a fierce machine.

Meeting one of James's friends (another Californian) has thrown me into worry about my future. I want to live in Japan, but every American I meet makes me want to return to America. A job at Google and a part time Berkeley course, could it be better? Or more demanding?

No for both questions.

But I'm still intending to go to Tokyo. After I move back home. Since we began living in our house on the 5th of July 2005, our contract expires on the 4th of July 2007, and that's when I'm moving back in with my parents. I'm calling it Dependence Day.

Emma's now working in Hell Pizza, a New Zealand pizza chain, which is outstandingly tasty. Their pizzas really are well made and unique, and nothing really comes close now that I've sampled them. Mama's just doesn't do it for me anymore.

After taking James's friend to Stanstead, I got back and left my headlights on. I haven't done that before, it was embarrassing, and I completely drained my battery. I was in luck though, and my father brought some jumper cables and I had a trip to the M25 and back to put some power back in.

I should get back to work, I thought I'd just let you in on what I'm up to and where I'm going with my life. I'll update when I finish University. That'll be a landmark.

Slow News Day

Ok, it's been a while and this will be short.

I have switched to Dvorak, I am stuck at 12 words per minute.

Hello to my Sarah, I haven't forgotten you.

But It's Pretty

So I caved and I got Vista.

You know what? I don't care. Opes Source, it's great, it's wonderful, it's free and beautiful and it's XGL, it's powerful, it's secure, and it doesn't like my Radeon so the OS that recognises it wins me.

And all MS Operating Systems I've tried in here have been smooth. And now this one utilises all 256MB of memory much better. So yeah, sorry Mr Shuttleworth, I'm using pure evil and until you make something that doesn't crash X.org every time I even try a Live disk, I'm using Vista.

And you know what, I like it. It works, and it's fast. Especially Sleep mode, which didn't work under XP. You want to see fast booting? It's running before my monitor has degaussed.

This isn't a major update. I reinstalled everything, I formatted, and I'm totally into this girl and can't get the courage to tell her I like her. But aren't I always? I spent a fun evening with Qian, and Dan came along. Other Qian threw her laptop in anger and destroyed it, and we got to look at it. But she cooked us food. Dan and I flew kites all afternoon, and we saw that dude who introduced us to kiting about a year ago. I'm sure the photos are on Flickr. I'll check. Oh, here it is.



Anyway, the lacklustre wind made me think there was something wrong with the kite, and this guy helped us and told me it was fine. He knew how to fly, he had talent.

Natasha's gone home, it was good to see her again. She saw the two beautiful monitors in cahoots, and sadly since then one has died. I'm tempted to go in and try to fix it, but Dan recommends against it.

Anyway, busy day tomorrow. I hope you are all well.

March On

For those of you following the RPM Challenge at all, and my participation, I completed my album late on February 28th, and had it sent off (after hours of fighting with Nero) at 7PM on the 1st of this month. This involved a furious dash to Battersea to catch the late post, but it was worthwhile. I hope it is enjoyed by the challenge people. In the end, it was nine tracks, just over thirty five minutes, and it's great. I wrote two songs at the last minute, but they still sounded good. And Beth liked the album, so I have my first fan.

I'm going to work on my next album soon, and change the style. I really liked my post-rock soundscape methods, but I need some more experience in traditional music before I attempt it again, with better results.

Natasha is here, and she's staying on my sofa downstairs. It's good to see her again, she is fun. We went to Sarah B's birthday tonight, and it was great. The food was very filling, but quite expensive. But we had a good time. On the way back, I had my first proper drag race (the one with Dan hardly counts, it was a Punto vs. a 106, it's like a toy car race). It was me and an N-reg Escort Estate on the lights on Roehampton Lane, and it wasn't initiated by stares or revving, it was just a case of us both wanting quite badly to be quicker.

Only one of us was. Don't mess with German cars, Henry.

I should do some proper blogging. Here goes:

I'm a Joost beta-tester now, and that comes with a few benefits. For one, I get to test the new Joost software before other people. Actually, it's just the one benefit. But it's a pretty nice one.

Joost is software from the makers of Skype that is P2P video streaming. Video streaming has been around a while, but it's always bandwidth heavy, and not many companies want to stream television to a wide audience. HomeChoice is one, and they have a good service, but it isn't popular. And while P2PTV isn't completely new, Joost brings a nice surprise with what they have offered me. I was happy with it the same way I was happy with Skype when I first saw it. I'm still in love with Skype.

It's not perfect. It didn't like going on to my secondary monitor very much. It caused a lot of skipping, and the program caused my whole computer to slow. But it didn't crash the thing, I just restarted and it was fine. Joost operates on channels, where it shows very short (3-4 minute) programs all centring around a theme. For instance, I was interested in watching the Fifth Gear channel, which reviewd cars in short segments (with Tiff Needle; he's such a good driver).

It skipped every so often. I doubt it's my computer, it's still pretty up to date. Maybe someone was downloading something, or maybe the connection just isn't as good to England yet. What I know of it is that it needs a lot of uploading bandwidth as well as downloading. That could be a limiting factor for many people. For those on a 1GB cap, you use your month's allowance within 10 hours of watching.

But what I saw was good, and I will watch it again soon.

It won't take the place of YouTube yet. That methodology is very client controlled, while Joost is still very much server controlled. Once it matures, I can see a massive market for it.

I had my hair cut today, it looks fantastic. I'm also out of money, so I'm living on a shoe-string budget for a while now. I need a job. Speaking of, I had an interview with Aeon on Sunday and the following Tuesday. I think they liked me, I'm not sure. I find out in 1-5 days.

I'm sleepy, and I need a quick drink. Goodnight blogland.

A Strange Month

I looked at my blog today, and it was the most beatiful colour. And I'm sad that I won't see that colour again.

February has been a strange month. The main aspect of it, of course, is that University has started once more, and I am ending my time with one final semester. The second most important factor is the RPM Challenge. I have already mentioned this before, but I have put a lot of effort in. Sadly, I have kinda ended this effort of late. I wrote four songs solidly, and then stopped. I don't know why, I ran out of inspiration. But I have a new song in my head, and I'm going to make it soon, maybe tonight.

It's also been strange for other reasons. I've been doing the lighting in a Pantomime for Mandi (Mimi). It's been fun learning to control follow-spots and getting cues right. I have done it for the last two nights, but I couldn't tonight, I was just shattered and couldn't move from the sofa.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I restarted my work as an extra. I was an extra in Wimbledon as most of you know, and now I am an extra in The Oxford Murders, a new film with John Hurt and Elijah Wood. It pays a third as much (£20 a day) but the food is much better, and the Assistant Director was the same one as Wimbledon. It was good fun. I wanted to shake John Hurt's hand as he was a very nice guy, but I didn't get to. I did chat quite a bit with Elijah (first name terms now). Dan and Emma came along and we all had a great time. We were told to wear geeky clothing, but I forgot and wore my normal clothes. It was reassuring to know that I was selected as one of the geekiest looking people there.

I received a Valentine's Day card from a mysterious source. It's my first one, I've never had one before, not since I was a child and didn't know what adult feelings were, and it made me feel rather special.

I also had a lovely dinner with Sarah M on Monday, the first one in months, and it was far too long. It's always a joy to see her, and she's as vibrant and healthy and beautiful as ever. Distance is always a curse. But I have relief in the knowledge that it will be less than a month until I see her again. It also pleases me to know that she enjoys seeing me too, because I can honestly say she is one of the most special people I know.

Qian gave me a new phone, which is a relief because I was expecting to get a new phone when my contract expired but I realised that if I left the country I would be stuck with a contract that I couldn't use. So I now have a Motorola A1200. I'm not going to stop using my Jasjar, I love it, but the signal around here with it is terrible. Plus, it's a nice new phone, I'm going to appreciate it for a bit. It has a better camera too.

Our toilet, for no reason, started bubbling today. I was just walking upstairs when we heard bubbling so perfect it sounded like it was from a movie sound effect clip. We watched the downstairs toilet bubble for ages, and I even filmed it. Maybe YouTube will appreciate it. It saved on us buying a fountain.

Erin's surprisingly weird but endlessly entertaining conversations always keep me going when I need it most. Thanks.



Very, very few of you will understand that picture. Maybe if you watch enough Daily Show and know a little Irish history you'll realise how wonderful it is.

Watching Cromartie High School with Carlos and Stacey was very fun, I hope to do something with them again in the future. I'm just so damn busy. Plus I have to finish my album.

Emma's great.

I have both of my 21" monitors working beautifully now. Consider my resolution: 3840 x 1440. Quasi out.

I Have Time

I promised you one before the close of January, and this is it. It won't be epic, but I'll fill you in on the important stuff:

It snowed. Remember a few posts ago when I said bring on snow? They did. And on seeing the white carpet covering London, I rushed to Southlands campus to join in the snowball fights and sledding. But everyone stayed in bed and no-one was there. So I drove to Richmond Park, where I found the most beautiful, large car park, with trees and untouched, virgin snow covering the dirt below. It just invited drifting and sliding, and I had such a fun time that I got very used to the control and hope to do it again soon. However, the police didn't enjoy it as much and told me that if they caught me doing it again they'd crush my car.

But that just added to the thrill. It was one of the best snow days ever. There was also a period of three days where I saw a different brand new Ferrari every single day. Maybe a dealer opened nearby. I might get one if I have a chance to later.

I also got a GPS Bluetooth thing for my phone. The dongle was £35, and it came with software for navigating, but the software wasn't very good. It needed to go online to download maps, it took ages, etc. Dan helped me get Tomtom software for it, and now it's absolutely perfect. I even made a little holder for the car. I also started shaving with traditional double-edged razors. Occasionally, it causes me great pain.

My monitor suddenly stopped working. My beautifully big 19" CRT monitor just went black and started clicking. In searching for replacements on eBay, I went one better with a 21" monitor, and bettered that by getting two of them. Sadly, after a long drive through London (navigated electronically), I picked them up and the guy didn't have any cables for them. These cables cost £25 from PC World and £15 from Maplins, and the monitors were only £37 for both, and I didn't see the point in spending nearly that just on cables. I decided to cut the cable from my old monitor, and solder on a new plug which I got for a pound at Maplins. I hadn't soldered in close to nine years, but I still managed it cleanly, and despite not getting any green on the first try, I fixed it perfectly, and made myself a new cable from almost nothing. And it was fun. I need to do it again for the other monitor, but one 21" for now is plenty. Come on, the resolution is 1920 x 1440.

I'm starting the RPM Challenge in 29 minutes. It's where you have to write and record an album in a month (February). I'm just going to go for it and make something beautiful in a short time. I recommend anyone with any musical interest to at least try. My solo band is called Gentle Glow. For now.

If all goes to plan, I will be seeing Sarah on the 12th, and I can't wait. If you're reading, Sarah, 12th is good. But I'll text you anyway.

That's my other January post. I told you. See you all next month.