Gingerbread Latte: The return of
Currently Listening To: Beautiful from the album "Vehicles & Animals" by Athlete
Armed with my trade secrets from yesterday I entered Starbucks this morning in a clandestine attempt to obtain a Gingerbread Latte ahead of time.
I walked up to the bar and asked the asian dude behind it if Starbucks did Gingerbread Latte. He smiled and asked "what's in it?". So I answered. "You guys only run it over the Christmas period, its the best drink ever created and tastes like Christmas"
With a conspiratorial wink he pulled one of the flavour bottles from under the counter and squirted it into a Latte Cup and then billed me. Unofficial, gingerbread latte!! Breaking Corporate Policy never tasted soooooo good :D
So I'm enjoying that right now. Sweet Elixir of Life! In the words of Keats: "O for a beaker full of the warm South!" (hey wow, I remembered a line from Keats)
Its like drinking liquid Christmas. Pwn.
Oh and I manually coded my archive links so they all work now (hurrah!) the first entry's are gathered from the moment that I started using Plastic Rabbit as the domain for this blog thanks to Kev. I suppose Blogger did something nasty to the others but I don't know what. Then again there wasn't much there. Anyhow at the very bottom (or begining) of the 1st month page there is a lot of Gingerbread Latte related posting so answering a question I posed myself earlier in the week; yes I have written about it before.....A lot.
Later
John
Goddamn Kids
The deadline for consultation on the Electoral Commission's paper regarding the legal voting age in the United Kingdom expires tomorrow. I duly wrote to the commission in time and also drafted and sent an e-mail to the times in recognition of the appalling state of the Post Office. I'll show you the letter to the times:
SirIt has come to my attention that the deadline for consultation on the Electoral Commission's "How Old is Old Enough?" paper concerning a proposed lowering of the legal voting age expires today.
At the age of 16 I attended a Business Studies GCSE class, in the course of the lesson the discussion turned to world affairs (a precious rarity). The teacher, wanting to get a feel for the class's grasp of politics asked the students what the name of the Foreign Secretary was. This took place at the peak of the Kosovo Crisis, when Robin Cook's image had been plastered about every newspaper in the country. You could imagine my abject horror when one girl answered "Slobodan Milosevic".
Whilst giving 16 year olds the vote might result in them taking a greater interest in politics it seems to me that it would not necessarily be true to say that this greater interest would manifest itself in a keener knowledge of the issues required for the responsibility of voting to be assumed.
Yours Faithfully
John Louis Swaine
LLB Law Student
London Metropolitan University
I had a kickass Dim Sum lunch with my mother and then we walked through the british museum. It was fantastic. You can see why the central court was nominated for the Stirling prize. Afterwards we popped into Starbucks and I caught wind of a rumor from one of the baristas (those coffee monkeys, not the gown wearing outstanding legal practitioners) that the Gingerbread Latté would be arriving... Tomorrow.
Hoooooooly crap!!! THE GBL ADDICTION RESUMES!!
Venti GBL for the people!! There's no finer cure for depression than GBL... I think.
For the record, its like Drinking Christmas. But then I'm certain I've said that before on this blog... Damn archives.
Later
John
Post
Currently Listening To: Runaway Train from the album "Grave Dancers Union" by Soul Asylum
According to The Times the reason neither my Panther install, my Sheryl Crow CD (and eventually my Phone) haven't arrived is because there have been 'wildcat' unofficial strikes of London Post Office workers, and according to the map - yep you guessed it - SW1 is in the pain zone where nothing has been delivered for days. Man that's annoying.
I had an EC law lecture directly followed by an EC law tutorial. That much EC law in one day just isn't healthy. Especially without an intermediate break. My lecturer and my tutor is the Jolliest Hockeystick of them all ;)
Something which had me laughing despite my current state of being was a link Conrad threw me. The people who's names he stole for the purposes of some of the mages in Alchevien Struggle the game we are designing, randomly googled up a PDF of the cards with their names. They were like "WTF!?". Anyhow its freaking Hillarious watching them realize what's going on. Here's the Link.
My mum's coming down tomorrow and we're going to go to the British Museum and Chinatown for a meal and stuff.
Suppose I best get some sleep. I've been upping the hours I get but things like 10am / 9am tutorials really don't help matters. I really would like to sleep in but I can't afford to miss the tutorial. Having some work to do helps me function.
Later
John
Phonomatique
Watching That 70's Show Episode The Watertower
Yeah... I have a new phone on the way.. £25 for a month with loads of texts and free minutes and arguably the best phone on the market.
Weaaaaaaakness
Flat
Currently Listening To: Runaway Train from the album "Grave Dancers Union" by Soul Asylum
A family just came to see the flat, in amongst a flurry of last minute bidding. It was the wife and child of the dude who had come a few days earlier who was a mac user . We chatted about panther and whatnot and I felt that I wanted the flat to be sold to a mac user :)
Anyhow instead of simply getting out of the way entirely I spoke to the family and spent some time on my own walking through the flat, glancing at the ceilings and corners that I normally wouldn't look twice at. Their child was a son, aged 2. Close to the same age I had been when I first lived in this flat and seeing him happily pad about reminded me of how much fun I had in this flat and how much it is a part of me. I talked to the couple about how close St. James's Park was for walks (I had been wheeled there in my push-chair often as a child) and other things related to the area.
The mother asked me why we were selling it and what part I disliked the most. I thought for a while and there isn't anything I dislike about the flat. The reason for its sale is easy but not why I would want it sold because I wouldn't.
When they left and I went around the flat turning off all the lights that I had to switch for each viewing I felt a deep sadness. Their child who was running happily from father to mother uttering the quietest of gurgling laughs was about as close an approximation of myself at that age as could be mustered. I felt the biting pain of sorrow as I remembered how happy I was and how lovely life had been at that age.
This flat, in the few minutes I spent strolling it's halls extinguishing lights, was representative of what I'd lost and breaking the NATP, it hurt.
I called my mother, still can't talk to her properly but she's coming down on thursday and we're going to have chinese and see the British Museum (thank god for Ken Livingstone, Free London museums :D).
Chiara's bf/whatever/scrub came round today and they caught a train back to colchester, he's short and scruffy and was too hung over to catch the trains he was allocated for the journey here so in the end they left rather later than expected in an effort to avoid the rush hour.
However on her visit she furnished me with a great many CD's which I duly ripped. Athlete's brilliant album Animans and Vehicles, The Coral's self-titled album and Bluetones' The Singles album. All are mighty and decent listening.
Got another email from Helen which was nice. I love talking to her, even if its just by text. She's swamped by her PPE course and the fact that she has to walk for 40 minutes to get to university to even have a chance of accessing the internet but she still finds time to email me.
Chiara's new phone is really snazzy. Its all thin and stuff and colourful and light. Mine in comparison is a sledgehammer but I like my C35 :) If there's a free phone on some nice contract I might be persuaded to switch but that's speculative and probably not the wisest thing to do (the last thing I need is further obligations).
Panther still hasn't arrived much to my (and Kev's) chagrin. I sincerely hope that it arrives soon or I'll have to get all pissed off and call apple to find out what the hell TNT is doing. Can't people just use the flipping Parcel Force (normal royal mail package delivery) its fast, efficient and never screws you around! Amazon.co.uk does.
Right. I'm going to listen to some more music and probably play some WWIIOL
Later
John
Lest we forget
Currently Listening To: I Remember When from the album "The Coral" by The Coral
Picked up my poppy today from the first seller I saw. A kindly old gentleman who offered me some prime advice, a method by which one can attach the poppy to one's lapel through the leaf, which stops it falling out of the pin's grip (a problem I rarely had but apparently is common). We owe a great deal to the servicemen who laid down their lives for us and I've always felt slightly sad that the same zeal isn't quite as evident in today's poppy wearing as it reportedly was when they were first introduced.
Anyhow, I had a good day. Counseling then Company Law lecture followed by loads of time in the library followed by a Company Law tutorial. It was really satisfying, I felt totally on top of my game in Law again. Counseling was nice as always.
Then Chiara (my closest sibling in age) arrived and she's spending the night here before meeting up with her friend Chris and a train back to Colchester. We ate a hearty student dinner of Tuna Fish Penne (a preserve of the £10 diet I employed during particularly tough monetary times), watched some simpsons and now she's watching TV and I'm sitting on the internet.
I also got a reply from an email I sent to Helen, my friend from Shatin College which was very nice. It put a smile on my face.
For the record the Athlete album is really nice.
Later
John
Processy!
Currently Listening To: Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad from the album "Play" by Moby
I just finished a 6(!) hour repair cycle on Genevieves boot disk using DiskWarrior. It had previously given a diagnosis of %39 disorder on the HD and it was starting to show with lagging write speeds and iTunes skippage (gasp!). The last graph diagnosis given gave a >1% disorder margin and a very very near perfect gradient. Hopefully putting an end to slow copies and iTunes skipping whenever Bittorrent is writing loads of bits to disk.
My alterior motive of course being that Panther is due to arrive tomorrow and I want to have a perfect install. Smooth like silk and whatnot :D
However in order to facilitate this fixing I had to use a variety of techniques. See the problem with DiskWarrior is that despite (or more likely because) being so immensely powerful it cant fix either a) A disk its installed on or b) The boot disk.
Given that Genevieve still only has one HD (another is on the buy list) I had to find a way of not only having DiskWarrior on a seperate disk but also having a Startup disk alternate to Genevieves main disk which meant I couldnt use my one CD drive for both tasks (Beyond fashioning a highly dubious MacOS install disk/DiskWarrior hybrid). Once again it was Kevin the iPod to the rescue. Easily fitting DiskWarrior onto his sizeable hard disk.
So I used an old OS9 install disk and Kevin and fixed the one hardrive on my main mac. Its Smooth :)
Ozzy Ozzy Ozzy
I was watching BBC News 24 (on one of the rare occaisions where I manage to avoid vomiting at their appaling standards) and saw Hu Jintao the Chinese head honcho addressing both houses of the Australian legislature. Previously President George W Bush had addressed the same chamber and recieved some heckling from Green Party Officials but Hu's entire speech wentby completely uninterrupted.
After the hecklers had spoken Mr. Bush said with a smile 'I love free speech'.
Hu in that situation in China would have signed an invoice to be sent round to the speaker's family for the bullet about to be discharged from the barrel of an AK47 pointed at the protesters neck. It's only a shame it wasnt a sports stadium, China's venue of choice for public executions.
For heaven's sake! You heckle Mr. Bush and give free airtime to the leader of an opressive human rights abusing facistic dictatorship? Now dont get me wrong Im not a Bush fan bar his policies re: Iraq but come on people! Hu was waffling on about the brilliance (and in some respects the dominance) of his country. Dude, when theres only one party you can't talk in the legislative hall of a democracy about having national support. It's called Despotism mate.
Worst of all his topic was the 'repatriation' of Taiwan. He made claims that it was not only in the best interests of the Taiwanese people to join Greater China but also had the sheer audacity to assert that it was also their desire, indeed insinuating he acted on their behalf! Don't know about you Hu but last time I watched the election results in Taiwan I saw something entirely different.
Ask the people of Hong Kong whether they, of whom 95% either descended from or are people who ran away from the evil opressive regime wanted to be 'reunified with the glorious motherland' and you have a rather unpleasant answer.
Consider instead that the people for whom you purport to speak are the descendants of the countrymen you fought and killed in your bloody revolution and you get some idea of how idiotic and presumptious such rhetoric is.
Just because China is a growing economic power it is not intellectually prudent to overlook what the regime in the country stands for. This isnt just what 'industrial revolution' experiencing nations do as has been sometimes claimed, look at Japan or South Korea. I don't see the massacre of thousands, religious persecution, torture or public executions for thought crimes amongst their growth into economically sound nations.
I was however pleased that there was complaint in the house that the PRC's human rights record was stricken from the agenda of conversation. Nonetheless millions of people mobilize to march against 'US Imperialism' but the last time I saw anyone demonstrate against China was in Hong Kong after Tiananmen Square.
I was also lucky enough to catch by complete serendipity, a HardTalk featuring none other than the right hon. Sir Christopher Patten, a man for whom I have no end of respect. Nice interview but sadly entirely on his role as European Commisioner for external affairs and nothing on the Tory party's leadership crisis. Id like to see him throw his hat into the ring (at last! A Conservative I respect!)
Also in the news was George Galloway who was expelled from the Labour Party. Damn right too. I can respect people who went against the war on Iraq (providing they did so employing some degree of intelligent rationalization which was rare amongst many anti war supporters) but when they unabashedly sycophantically praise Saddam Hussein and incite other Arab nations to attack British Troops on Arabic TV you have to draw the line. Mr. Galloways unique brand of firey ignorance and mastery of two dimensional war rhetoric will be missed.. Wait what am I saying?! As part of the Labour rank and file I was ashamed to have him amongst our elected MP's and rejoice at his timely booting! Good Riddance!
Later
John
Bleh
Currently Listening To: Stay Together for the Kids from the album "Take Off Your Pants and Jacket" by Blink 182
Decided against going into University tomorrow. I much prefer working from home in my current state tbh. The only snag being my EC Law lecturers insistence upon only giving out lecture notes to those who attend. Otherwise I work well on my own. Reading through mountains of caselaw. My hermit like existance is propped up by my mountainous supply of food which my careful economising has brought into being.
Just recieved a Shipping Notification from Apple concerning Kevs and My Panther preorder. Its Shipping now! w00t!!! We might be ahead of everyone or something similarly cool! It might even arrive tomorrow/today! Oh yeah!
You know things suck when the Osbournes have it better than you. NATCP prevents me from expanding on that point but things are really painful right now.
Later
John
Currently Listening To: Runaway Train from the album "Grave Dancers Union" by Soul Asylum
I had my first counseling session today. It was wonderful. To be in such a friendly environment and to be able to have an arena for my feelings was really, really beautiful. Not an orthodox adjective to employ but an accurate one nonetheless. The counsellor suggested I book up for another 5 sessions following it (my university provides 6 counseling sessions before, if necessary, they refer you) which I duly did. I may not have really achieved anything today but I feel better for having taken the step.
Still no keyboard although its not Apples fault. They used my other address and sent it to Rowhedge where no one has been in to collect it but all that has now been arranged so next week Ill have my keyboard back, which is a relief; typing command/v each time I want a space is immensely annoying and tedious. Not to mention what having no apostrophe or inverted commas does to my punctuation (f34r! f34r the d00d l3v3| pU/\/Ktu47i0n!)
I have some lunch to cook/eat now. My father ought to be heading over for a meeting with Saint & Campbell whos music is a big hit with ska loving Lee and his friends. I shall have to remember to tell them.
Later
John
(5 days since last violation of N.A.T.P.)
(No Angsty Teen Policy)
The Internet: Finding songs you heard when you were 9 that speak to you. I salute you HyperTextTransferProtocol!
Currently Listening To: Runaway Train from the album "Grave Dancers Union" by Soul Asylum
I saw Time Commanders last night on BBC2. Its a show where, through the use of a massive computer cluster and some brilliant AI coding massive battles can be fought. The Television Show picks random people up off the street and demonstrates that they have no strategic ability whatsoever. You get to watch them commanding the legions of rome or Hannibals lybian phalanxes like utter n00bs whilst the computer violates their battle plans. Admittedly this isn't always the case and I have witnessed a few defeats for the AI. However they have always been in spite of the players' command and not because of it.
Whether it was their ridiculously poor deployment of Caesar's forces against the Helveti where several units were needlessly sacrificed and the day was won purely as a result of their heavy infantry hopelessly outclassing the roving bands of gauls, or watching the computer AI fail miserably at working out what the hell it was supposed to do with a river crossing I just couldn't believe the level of sheer jamminess displayed by the Joe Bloggs general.
Last night I just decided I couldn't take any more of the frustration of being an armchair general and just tuned in afterwards to see their last units fleeing the battlefield so I could learn from the Head of War Studies at Sandhurst explain how the battle was actually won when the generals in question actually had skill. I swear they either set the AI to 'n00b' state or it's just a very poor system. I have a feeling its the former as otherwise it would be a total waste of time.
I booked an appointment with a counsellor for monday. It took quite a bit to pick up the phone but eventually after last night I just decided it wasn't worth putting off any longer.
Thankfully my Property Lecturer (Frank Webb) has a ridiculously comprehensive set of lecture notes and text materials in his handout so I could read the lecture this morning as opposed to going into uni in the state I was in. Frank Webb, despite being a perfect 50/50 mixture of Matthew's Dad and Ricky Tomlinson you are a god.
Oh boy! Home for a weekend of pain! Still I really want to be there for my siblings and things arent any better when I'm on my own in London so I'll be off to catch a train :)
Later
John
Teh Suck!
Currently Listening To: Sick cycle carosel by Lifehouse
My book arrived yesterday. Its called A Hole In My Heart: Adult Children of Divorce Speak Out and so far its been an excellent help, even if its just to know that other people have been going through the same things I have and experienced the exact same feelings. It also shows what pitfalls and traps lie ahead and later on aims to help stop me falling into them and ruining my future.
Uncle Jeremy has also been a great help. He knows his stuff.
Its clear things are only going to get nasty from now on. My mood isn't much better but at least Im not letting it affect my study.
Right, I have a tutorial to attend and hopefully TNT will be able to call me to arrange the dropoff of my replacement keyboard as the spacebar and apostrophe keys and several other keys of importance have stopped functioning on this one.
Later
John
ojno
Currently Listening To: Stay Together for the Kids from the album "Take Off Your Pants and Jacket" by Blink 182
Im really not in a good way at the moment. Suffice to say that Stay Together For The Kids is not only now the most listened to track in all of my music library according to iTunes, its also the most listened to by a long way. Like a collective 2 hours of non stop listening to kind of way.
I got an email from my Uncle Jeremy today which really helped me. Hes such a great guy.
I cried on the train to London. I havent cried in public since I was 3.
Fuckit... Im going to that counsellor tomorrow.
The more I learn about whats really gone on the worse I get.
Oh and my spacebar/apostraphe keys dont work atm.. Getting new keyboard delivered thanks to Apple.
Appolgies for the sparse updating but Im not going to sit here and depress people with the details.
John
Mate mate mate mate mate mate
I just watched Finding Nemo. not a big deal for people who live in the states because its been out since July there, but its not out in England for another few weeks. God bless the internet.
I can say a few things. It is beautiful, taking the artistry and polish which has made Pixar so great to a whole new level. The animation of everything is brilliant and incredibly detailed. The story is beautiful.
What can I say? This year is incredible for films, we've had The Matrix: Reloaded, Pirates of the Caribbean, Finding Nemo and soon to come another Matrix film and the last LOTR film. However one thing can't be doubted - Finding Nemo will just sweep the Oscar for animation. It is quite simply the best animated film ever.
As for the title of this post. Every animal in Finding Nemo speaks normal english (brilliantly accented and voice acted, from the surfer dude Turtle who steals the show to the pelicans) except for the seagulls who are too stupid. They simply say the normal Seagull "squak squak squak squak squak" with no change in tempo like the mindless "rats with wings" they are. However this being Australia they all just say "Mate mate mate mate mate" and its the most hilarious thing you will ever see or hear on film. Even watching a second time it cracks me up till I can't breathe.
Finding Nemo gets my HUUUUUUUGE thumbs up. Go and see it, even if you haven't got any kids to watch it with :)
Later
John
Funtastic
Currently Listening To: Dreaming of You from the album "The Coral" by The Coral
I got rather annoyed at a cyclist on Sunday night, I had leant out into the street to squint and see the number of an oncoming bus when out of nowhere this woman whizzed past, missing me by a few inches. She then halted her vehicle, turned to me and said "Idiot". To which I replied;
"So says the woman who is riding without any protective or reflective clothing and of chief importance is riding her bicycle in the buslane"
She looked a bit sheepish and rode off - 'Ave it :)
I wasn't in a very good mood at the time, although in fairness catching me in a good mood nowadays is a rather arduous task.
Got my iChat on with Sean :) Managed to broadcast him some quality video of my room with both of us audio chatted. It was good to hear from him, perhaps next time I'll get to see him too heh. Fingers crossed, I'll be able to get dad in on the act - no more phone bills and of course I'll get to see him face to face :)
I had my Law of Sale and Supply of Goods and Services lecture today. Mr. Laurance Poll, the lecturer bears a striking resemblance to the Doc in Back to the Future and has a good sense of humor which made it enjoyable as all my lectures have been so far. However the omens are not good for tomorrow which sees not only an EC Law lecture at 11am but directly following that a tutorial in the subject. 3 hours of non stop EC Law. I know that Admin/Constitutional law were my highest marks last year but that didn't make the course any more enjoyable :)
Bleh, I'm fighting for my "no angsty teen crap" policy to remain in force but suffice to say that its repealment would result in this post being 8 times as long and immensely depressing.
later
John
Well I'm in Colchester at the moment for my sister's birthday tomorrow (or should I say today given how late it is). I finally got my broadband back and the reason I haven't posted anything is due to my "no angsty teen crap" policy.
Later
John