Sadly I didn't actually say it on this blog so my smugness must instead be internalized. Anyhow I offered some punditry concerning Bush throwing his weight behind the possible ammendment. I said it was a huge mistake for 2 reason. 1) it alienated moderate conservatives and any floating voters, and 2) He'd lose the vote in the senate.
Turns out that Oxblog have been conducting a poll by getting readers to contact their senator and ask them how they'd vote. At the moment they have only polled half with the rest still being asked and the results show that only 4 more 'against' votes are required to kill any amendment in the senate.
So in other words even if it makes it through the House of Reps it isn't going to make it through the senate.
So in other words George Bush has just allied with the wrong side. If he'd just kept his mouth shut he'd still be looking at a 2nd term. I'm thinking, unless everything blows over and people just forget about this whole thing (which probably won't happen) he's going to be screwed at the ballot box by someone like Kerry.
Later
John
Well I'm glad I'm not American right now. I'd be in the unfortunate position of not having a single candidate to vote for and not in that "I can't trust politicians, they're all scumbags" moronic idealist way but in a "not one candidate maintains a policy portfolio which doesn't have at least one policy so mind gratingly contradictory to my own beliefs that he voids any trust I might have in him" kind of way.
It should be obvious by now that I respect Mr Bush for one thing, his conduct concerning the War on Terrorism. It is for that reason that I couldn't support any of the Democratic candidates, with the exception of Edwards because I have no idea what on earth he stands for and question whether he himself knows.
However George W Bush just weighed in on the constitutional amendment which would not only ban gay marriage, but also deprive homosexuals of basic civil rights and he's supporting it.
That is singularly unforgiveable.
Later
John
Gratitude is seldom expressed so beautifully.
Later
John
I sent the article I referred to in my post a few days ago, by Melanie Phillips to Andrew Sullivan, and I got a reply! Hurrah! Ok so it was like 2 lines long and just said "thanks" and "interesting" but it was an email from one of the big hitters of the blogosphere and the provider of the effective start to my day.
I hope he finds time to weigh in on the topic, there's something uniquely satisfying with sending him an article, as if you're handing over a hefty wadge of ammunition to some fellow in control of a gatling gun. He always manages to make a persuasive case and has opened my eyes to a lot of issues I honestly wouldn't have been otherwise aware of.
I'll add him to my 'list of cool people I've received emails from'. I'm still being thrashed by Kev on the Mac community figureheads front. He starts talking to some random fellow online and it turns out to be some guy called Dobbie, who just happens to be the infamous underage programmer who fixed the TCP/IP bug in OS 10.1 and then had his ADC membership revoked for being a minor. Then just yesterday, Kev told me he'd been speaking to the guy who writes Kung Log and ecto - the man for blogging apps on the mac.
I didn't actually get any sleep last night, I stayed awake through till morning. I was informed that I must remain awake until 7pm when I can safely crash out so as to reset my body clock. That was at 6am, it's now noon and I'm definitely wilting. Thank heavens I have such a low caffeine resistance level at the moment, one cup ought to spike me right up.
Later
John
'Haunting' seems to be a favoured adjective with music promoters these days. Finding fashionable status after "Mad World" reached the Christmas #1 here in England, it was later applied to a few other tracks before its pathos was utterly sapped by one TV advertisement in which I, the humble consumer, was informed of "Alex Park's Haunting single 'Cry'..."
Ok, sure Alex Parks has a great voice, for anyone not in the UK she did rather well in 'Fame Academy', a show where those who don't have the talent to win pop-idol duke it out whilst living at some sort of phony talent academy. However 'cry' is the driest and most cynical track I've ever heard. It's just an excuse for her to wail the line "I would cry". The 'cry' carries for 4 bars and then turns into an "ooo!" just when you think it's going to fade away decently. It's followed by the line "I would die if I lost you". Barf Barf Barf!
The rest of the lyrics are dead and cliched to a point at which they have become so thin that even the feeblest biscuit cutter in my mother's possession (a bunny rabbit shape which couldn't support the weight of a drinking straw) could slice clean through them.
The video uses imagery already used in better previous videos. The whole ensemble is such pap that I almost wanted to cry out when they called it haunting.
Why am I talking about this? Because there's a track on the Elbow album (which, by the way I am seriously enjoying) called "Switching Off" which is so utterly haunting, beautiful and poignant that it gives me goosebumps. That is a track deserving of the adjective I adhered to it in the last sentence.
There are a great deal of fantastic tracks on the album - not least "Not a Job" which is released this month as a single. Try and have a listen to it and then buy the album because it's worth it. Especially for "Switching Off"
Later
John
Well at long last someone from the left has spoken out against the rising Anti-Semitism which hides amongst our ranks under the ostensibly laudable banner of anti-Sharonism.
I'm not going to quote the article because Melanie Phillips has produced such a fantastic piece of work that it really must be read in its entirety.
Actually whilst I was with my Aunty Jilly, whom I love dearly she said something which struck me rather hard. She complained that the dates (the dried fruit variety) she was enjoying were Israeli, and that she sadly couldn't find any good ones from other countries.
It's shocking to see such an ardent dislike of Israel from one side of the family and contrast it with my Nonno's (Italian grandfather) opinion. He was a big man on the Middle East diplomatic scene at the most important time of the last century. Ambassador to Damascus for Italy, he also represented US interests in the region and proudly displays a certificate of thanks from the US Government in his study. He remains a highly respected voice on Middle Eastern policy and is fiercely pro-Israel, just as I am (although I reserve some dislike of Sharon's policies whereas he's very right wing).
"What those people did... They built a country on their own in just a few years."He would say.
He was there for the 6 Day war, and he is one of the few people I've met who actually understands what Sharon is: A democratic country's answer to Terrorism. I have a great deal of respect for the man, it seems utterly ironic that one of the big hitters in Middle Eastern politics now lives on a pitiful Italian civil service pension.
I paid the Holding Deposit on a flat on Tuesday so that ought to be mine as soon as I've found a nominal guarantor (what with being a student and all the Landlord understandably fears me being unable to stump up the rent).
I've been listening to Elbow: Cast of Thousands lately. It's a bloody good CD which I've received courtesy of my sister. Damn her impeccable Indie taste!
'Ecto', the blogging application I use (previously 'Kung Log') is payware now so I'll have to wait till I have some money in the bank to afford it. I can't deny that it's worth the money (£10).
Later
John
I saw Edwin Shorts today after counseling, that man never fails to make me smile. What a guy, fantastic tutor and someone who is genuinely fun to talk with. He managed to coax me into signing up for Mooting this term. That's going to be fun.
In other news I'm still closing in on the flat, I'm hoping to put down a holding deposit tomorrow and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat as I got the go-ahead, however I need to get £150 from my father via Western Union so I'll have to call tonight and at a ridiculous time in the morning if that doesn't work. If I got that flat I'd be so happy I'd just burst or something.
Channel 4 is currently showing the last ever series of Friends and the adverts that it has posted up all over London are specially tailored for fans of the series. They include a variety of lines and images which are instantly recognisable to a fanatic and yet puzzling to anyone who doesn't watch the show religiously.
Most of them are just a plain bank of colour (for instance a pink) with an image on it. For instance an orange background with a chicken and a duck with the words "It's sooo the last series".
There is one which has been bugging me, it can be found on the walk into Moorgate Underground Station's Eastbound Circle/Hammersmith/Metropolitan line platform. It's a purple surface with the golden picture frame and the peep-hole found in Monica's apartment (interesting factoid: The picture frame over the peep-hole actually came about whilst they were decorating the set, they just left the frame there temporarily and eventually realised it looked pretty spiffy). However the peep hole in the picture is as viewed from the outside. I know it's only a small detail but it's really bugging me, as if the frame was on the wrong side of the door :)
I've included in the Snapshot archives a pic of one I saw today, two 'lazyboy' chairs - the essence of Joey and Chandler's bachelorhood.
Yeah I'm a bit of an obsessive friends fan, or rather was until I got pissed off with the writers ("Stop screwing with the plot destiny Assholes!") The whole "Rachel's baby" or more accurately the Joey+Rachel plotline really annoyed me. Apparently there's some sort of cliffhanger at the end of this last series so I guess I owe it to myself to watch it.
The thing is that Friends was all about a bunch of 20 Something Year olds dealing with 20 Something Year old issues. It was pioneering in its reliance upon characters relating their experiences 2nd hand, telling them to the group instead of you the viewer always being privy to every waking moment of their lives. However it soon lost that aspect. All I can say is vintage Friends is superb. I used to watch endless episodes with my sister when it first came out that we'd videod. After that we watched even more episodes, on VHS and eventually when they were made available in HK on DVD. It seems kind of ironic that Friends is coming to an end just as I'm entering the period in my life which that group of 6 were dealing with. Makes me wonder how mine's going to turn out.
Seems like I'll have to find a decent coffee house to hang out in.
Later
John
Interesting
Baghdad -- Coalition Provisional Authority and Iraqi Governing Council officials today released the text of an intercepted letter written by Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist with al-Quaeda affiliations, to al-Quaeda officials. In the document, Zarqawi acknowledges that "time is running out" for the insurgents and terrorists as the transition to Iraqi soverignty draws nearer. The only solution, according to Zarqawi, is to force a civil war between Sunni and Shi'a. "So the solution, and God only knows, is that we need to bring the Shi'a into the battle because it is the only way to prolong the duration of the fight between the infidel and us." Reward for Info Leading to Zarqawi's Arrest Doubled to $10MBaghdad -- Coalition Provisional Authority and Iraqi Governing Council officials today released the text of an intercepted letter written by Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist with al-Quaeda affiliations, to al-Quaeda officials. In the document, Zarqawi acknowledges that "time is running out" for the insurgents and terrorists as the transition to Iraqi soverignty draws nearer. The only solution, according to Zarqawi, is to force a civil war between Sunni and Shi'a. "So the solution, and God only knows, is that we need to bring the Shi'a into the battle because it is the only way to prolong the duration of the fight between the infidel and us." Reward for Info Leading to Zarqawi's Arrest Doubled to $10M
Well having read the full text there's quite a lot to digest if this letter is indeed legitimate.
First of all, to quote the last line from Starship Troopers "It's afraid!"; insurgents in Iraq and the Al Qaeda vanguard are rapidly losing the battle for Iraq and are slowly being suffocated of space as the domestic law-enforcement force grows in Iraq. There is an overall tone of anxiety to the letter.
However the letter does document what many have suspected to be the current terrorist tactic du-jour - what little of Al Qaeda that resides in Iraq now has one prime objective: to drag the Sunnis and the Shia into a secular civil war. They achieve this by car-bombing, suicide bombing and assassination targeting Shia leaders and common civilians. Inciting a civil war to that would kill thousands of muslims? Dude!! Awesome t4ct1cs!! but as Zarqawi puts it "the religion of god is worth more than lives". Ah, fundamentalist Islam is such a beautiful thing.
So what's the bottom line digest of this transcript? What's Al Qaeda's man-on-the-ground's opinion?
a) America's never going to leave.
b) If an Iraqi government is elected less than 4 months after the terrorist campaign begins in earnest Al Qaeda's screwed.
c) In a stable Iraq insurgents will lose the war of attrition they are waging faster than they already are managing to.
He even concedes that it'd be a worthwhile option to just pack up and leave and find a different battleground.
The US on it's own isn't what's laying the smackdown on Al Qaeda in Iraq - brilliantly it's the Iraqi people themselves: the fear which Zarqawi constantly alludes to is the control and security blanket implemented by Iraq's domestic security forces. As long as the Iraqi people choose to strive to continue rebuilding their nation Al Qaeda is 'pwned'.
I love the internet
Oh yeah and why does the Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority have such a crappy-looking website?
Later
John
Just a quick update:
My sister was accepted into Manchester University - She's very happy :)
Much More Later
John
Why is it that whenever I seem to be getting back to my feet something comes and kicks me in the stomach again?
4 Days till counseling on Monday, although I could really use someone to talk to now. There are only 2 people who I'm comfortable being frank with, one being my counselor.
At least I'm back in London tomorrow. More than anything I need space for me, I'm looking at a place on Friday which sounds ideal. Unfortunately it's 1 bedroom which means I'll be leaving my friend Rob Soti in the lurch but at the end of the day I really need time for myself.
I just hope I don't end up hurting him by taking a place on my own, it seems selfish but I really genuinely feel that I need to be given space to myself. People say that if you're living with someone it's easy to just do your own thing and be separate but it's just not that easy for me.
Anyhow its only a viewing on Friday so nothing definite.
Later
John
Wow, that was a lot of fun.
Let's start with Friday.
I went to university and then on to pick up Helen from Kings Cross Station. Due to a great deal of timetable tomfoolery she arrived before I did and ended up meeting me at the entrance from the underground.
Not knowing what to do for the afternoon, I suggested we visit the Tate Modern as I hadn't been and had wanted to go with someone (visiting art galleries on your own is kind of sad and also not nearly as much fun). We had a great time and she thanked me for coming up with such a great idea - (Why yes, I do r0xx0r your b0xx0rs, in fact on occasion I have been known to pwn).
Fantastically, I got to see Metamorphosis of Narcissus again which I'd only seen one other time; back when the Tate was still in Pimlico. It's my favourite painting by my favourite artist and it still beats the pants off seeing it in print.
Speaking of which that'd make a rather interesting Desktop picture.
Anyhow Saturday was where it was at so to speak, as I met up with loads of the old gang from Shatin College; Shaun Siniah, Charles & Ianz, Tiffany, Richard, Jackie Liu and of course Helen.
Naturally the first thing we had to do was eat Dim Sum. Poor Helen can't get any Chinese food in York so a massive 9 person Dim Sum fest was virtually a statutory requirement. Haar Kau, Siu Mai, Char Siu Bao and Cheun Fan all piled up on the list. We had put together a tidy little order selection when a guy who's name was pronounced 'Hey' (no I'm sorry mate, I don't know how to spell your name) arrived. He took one look at the order Tiffany had written down and passed to him and said, gesturing towards Tiff, "What? This isn't even enough for you!"
He was right of course, so we added an extra couple of orders of everything.
We ate our fill, traded jokes and generally had a great time. I really missed those guys from Shatin - at least now I have their contact details and they mine, so they'll contact me next time they go out. Hurrah!
You can tell how good a Dim Sum meal was by how totally devastated the tablecloth is after it. What with 'Hey's' long distance tea pouring antics and my mid-grab chopstick failure akin to realizing that the laws of gravity should apply whilst flying Hitchhiker's Guide Style, we clearly had a pretty damn good lunch.
After Lunch it was time to go and play some pool. Helen and I played twice and each time lost to the other by potting the black before we should have (or in my case exactly when I should have but with a spectacular miss-cue resulting in a forfeiture of the game - Doh!) Damn good fun peppered with Power Ballads, chosen from the jukebox.
The day was moving on, so the next port-of-call was decided swiftly; the British Museum. Loads of joking comments were made about Britain thieving culture and whatnot from around the world but then we're so very good at it and it's not as if they're taking good care of their heritage ;) (I speak specifically of China here hehehe)
I reckon the British Museum ought to sell T-Shirts that say "All your Cultural Artefacts Are Belong To Us!"
I'd buy it.
I do love the British Museum, especially with Sir Norman Foster's glass atrium now covering the great hall.
Anyhow, after a lot of walking we decided to head back to Tiff's and then go for a drink.
So it came to pass that a great big group of us walked into the local Wetherspoon's and sat down to a meal and a lot of beer.
We played 'The Penny Game'. For the uninitiated The Penny Game's rules are sufficiently simple and fair to facilitate its play during even the most advanced stages of inebriation.
There is a penny which can be dropped into someone's drink. If it is dropped into your pint you have to down that pint in one. Then you typically get control of the penny.
The first victim of the evening was Hey, as he sat down with a big'ol pint of Guinness - Extra Cold.
*clink*
So he chugged it and fished the penny out from the suddy depths of his late-pint's foam. He tagged someone else and eventually he left to get another pint of Guinness.
*clink*
He had only just sat down! Hey diligently downed his pint and accepted that he would have to be rather wiley if he wanted to actually enjoy any fermented vegetable beverage.
All trembled in fear of the penny at this point. Shaun kept zealous guard over his pint using his hand and Mark actually held his glass so it was pressed against the underside of the table. At this point I was far down the table and thus out of penny'ing range (Har har!).
Hey got up, presumably to get fetch himself a pint, which he would at least be able to drink slowly what with having custody of the coin. Realizing he was safe Shaun relaxed and allowed his hand to slide from its post above his Fosters.
*clink*
"What the hell!?" Shaun cried in disbelief. He realized Tiffany had 'pennied' his pint but quickly noted the rule I had come up against when I tried to penny him with a 20p piece:
"It has to be the same coin Tiff."
"It is." She replied, laughing herself stupid along with the rest of us.
Hey came bounding in with his hands open to show he hadn't got it and had in fact slipped it to Tiffany.
"Oh s***!" Shaun exclaimed.
In the subsequent 30 minutes Shaun was pennied 4 times and was about as drunk as I had ever seen him. On the spur of the moment he decided to call up Suzie - another Shatin College student from our class who was in Canada. He persisted and managed to get through to her before insisting in a sprightly tone that she passed him onto a 'hot roommate'. At least everyone got to say 'hi' to Suzie and most had a chat with her.
Finally after everyone had sobered up we played a game of RISK the classic game of world-d-domination (I can't say it any other way after my friends relentlessly repeated the adverts for it). All was going well for my Red Army, who's every move was accompanied by a string of Communist Propaganda (eg: "The brave proletariat of the Ukraine move to strike into the heart of Europe and spill the blood of the bourgeoisie land-owners!") and I managed to control Europe before the game had to be broken up.
Billy Bryson, in "Notes From a Small Island" wonders: "Why it is the the beds in the houses of Grandparents and in-laws are always so deliciously comfortable" and the same thing puzzles me. Although in my case the phrase pertains to the comfyness of the guest beds prepared for me by my Aunty Jilly - after having trudged through biting winds at 5am from Barnes because I missed my stop, the bed which awaited me was glorious.
Today's Snapshot has been carefully selected out of the many I took whilst in London. It is, to those in the know, Char Siu Bao - a Dim Sum item which few can turn down.
I leave you with the Text Message sent to me by my mother in reply to my message; "I'm eating Dim Sum... Hope you're enjoying your 6hr Drive":
"Bastard, U can walk home from London!"Mwahahaha!
Later
John
Not content with writing utter bollocks about Hong Kong Not The South China Morning Post has decided to write some bollocks on the Israeli Palestinian conflict:
Not content with writing utter bollocks about Hong Kong Not The South China Morning Post has decided to write some bollocks on the Israeli Palestinian conflict:"There is a terrible rumour going round that Ariel Sharon is actually considering removing the Israeli squatters presently colonizing the pathetic concentration camp known as the Gaza strip. All the better to bomb the Palestinian ghetto afterwards? Or is it a clever move to legitimize the systematic genocide and land grabbing perpetrated by Israel further east? Sorry to be vehement and cynical, Ari, but you not only started off the present war, you actually seem to think you can win it. " - NTSCMP.com
Camp david? What's that?
Oh right, that never happened, Ariel Sharon and not the PLO or other terror groups started the war after those proposals, despite him not having been elected at the time when the bombing began afresh.
*sigh* I can just about cope with utter tripe concerning Hong Kong news but really poor image modification and pathetic one liners just aren't stomachable against an international backdrop.
Well. Crap.. I just lost an entry because ecto doesn't save files locally and refused to save it online so I'll have to write this all out again.
I was online when MyDoom -b started its DOS attack and I wasn't online much longer, my ISP was jammed up for a full 5 minutes. My computer wasn't taking part in the attach as MyDoom couldn't hope to execute outside of a Win32 API environment, let along propagate and redistribute itself in the manner it does on Windows boxes.
For the same reason the attacks simply couldn't have come from, or indeed been coded on a Linux box.
So what better to do after a damning report into their editorial inefficiencies for the Beeb to decide to publish insinuation, fabrications and general idiocy in the form of an article linking Linux users with the MyDoom virus.
I don't even have the time of day to debunk this, however Slashdotters do
*sigh* I fear I may never be able to listen to World Service again at this rate.
I went to my orthodontist appointment today. My regular orthodontist was off sick so her husband was filling in (he was a trained Orthodontist too of course, not just a case of "well the missus is under the weather so I thought I'd have a go" ;) ).
He glanced at the Xray of my teeth as they were before treatment started and then asked me.
"So how long have you worn these for?"
"4 years," I replied. It had been 4 uncomfortable years since they were first put in.
"Well.. I think you're finished, it ends today."
And in just 15 minutes my teeth were free! It still feels exceptionally odd.
Not having a collection of metal to lacerate my cheeks and tongue each time I move is an unorthodox state for my mouth to be in and it was several hours before I had stopped swishing my tongue around them like some Toothpaste model.
The best thing about not having braces is that now I can brush my teeth to a standard above 'average'. I never could get a hang on brushing with braces so not having them in the way is an exquisite luxury - I'm going to go for that dazzling whiteness effect that Americans seem so keen on achieving.
When I went home I spent a full 6 hours with my family and no one noticed that I didn't have braces anymore, until after dinner I gave my biggest smile and asked if I had anything in my teeth. Even then it took my mother 4 minutes of looking before she suddenly realized.
And they complain when I don't comment on their new haircuts!
Later
John
I just watched a recording of Elaine Stritch's one woman show on BBC4 - one of the digital channels. Brilliant viewing and given BBC4's predilection for repeating its broadcasts you might be able to catch it at some point if you haven't already seen it.
I've been listening to some old friends. They have a pirate radio station webcasting and its a decent laugh. They play some good stuff and unlike proper radio stations don't have to play pap or the same songs again and again, each broadcast also includes a healthy dose of Weird Al Yankovic, which I heartily endorse. Only problem is I get skipping and lag so I guess I'll have to hope to find a place soonish for Broadband access.
On the subject of finding a place I've done some searching, sadly a very good potential candidate turned out to be a flat owned by some weird dude who wanted flatmates. I don't really do flatmates with anyone I don't know, especially someone who sounds so creepy on the phone ;)
Still, lots of searching still to be done.
Organizing a place to stay is getting slightly insane. Lee and Richard won't be in London all weekend so I'll have to ask my aunty Jill and it's a lot to ask on such short notice.
More idiocy surrounding the Hutton report. Particularly people saying he reached the wrong decision.
Now, see here's about the point where your argument falls apart matey - He's a distinguished High Court judge with decades of career experience who had months to reach a measured and intelligent conclusion and you probably spent 10 minutes reading an article in The Mail who's wardrobe probably doesn't contain a wig and red gown. I'm going to stick with Lord Hutton's judgment on the matter.
Later
John
See, even though this sickens me it doesn't surprise me. It is the manifestation of communism's greatest irony. The whole pile of crap is founded upon an assumption that people should rule themselves and more importantly that they are infinitely more capable of such a task than the people 'upstairs' so to speak. Yet after a few decades of power, slowly sapping the human spirit, the ruling elite do a complete 180Ëš and declare that the people are incapable of governing themselves.
The next week or so is going to be ridiculous.
I have a Friday lecture so I'll try and head to Richard and Lee's for that day, then after that I'm meeting Helen (hurrah!) and the weekend is also booked up with time spend meeting old Shatin College students, hopefully with a generous amount of time to spend with Helen. For all of that I have to hope and pray that Richard and Lee are at their flat so I have somewhere to crash.
Then on Monday to Tuesday I have university work and again need to have a place to stay. Hopefully Lee and Richard's again. I really hope that I manage to get a flat soon because this is stupid.
A place on or near the 42 bus route would be preferable as it stops right outside my university, also goes to Liverpool Street and like all buses to everywhere in London now costs just £1. Those are the only 3 places I really need to get transport to on a daily basis. It's twice as fast as going by tube too.
I've spent a lot of time listening to 'All That You Can't Leave Behind'. My father bought that album when it was first released in Late 2000 and was berated by my mother for listening to it too much. I then ripped it and listened to it for what must have been 4 months, non stop on the bus ride too and from college.
God I love that album, I remember it dropped out of the charts and it would have been consigned to the 'just another U2 Album' pigeon-hole in people's minds were it not for September 11th. After the terrorist attack hit, the album it had a massive resurgence as people found it the perfect audio-remedy. I'm happy it has significance to me without it being bound to that tragic event and am thankful I picked it up from its place atop my father's stereo system. It is forever synonymous with lying across the middle walkway on the minibus so as to stretch out, flat along 4 seats (being tall has its advantages) glimpsing passing foliage from the window above my head as the minibus wound its way around the West New Territories.
Listening to it now provides an interesting means to compare myself then and now by noting how I respond to the music. I was happy back then, and why shouldn't I have been? I had the very thing I'd yearned for most my childhood - a complete family environment, for two glorious years. That smiling outlook is always nice to relive but it also serves to provide a marked contrast in my life, I'm at the tail end of several months of severe depression and whilst I am certainly better now than I was before, the circumstances which led to it haven't changed. I can't escape the fact that there really isn't anything to fall back on in that sense.
My counselor was extremely impressed that I'd managed to salvage my semester academic-wise so that at least made me feel better. Of course I'd like to totally get set on this next semester but I can't really if I'm commuting, especially being in this house.
Plenty of food for thought I suspect.
Later
John
First of all, the Superbowl was fantastic. A real joy to watch. I didn't pay much attention to the half time entertainment so I missed the 'Janet Jackson's b00bie' scandal.
Anyhow those who did watch it know how good it was, those who didn't probably didn't want to watch it so I won't go on about it.
I went into University this morning for counseling and to fetch my new timetable. Mercifully I have been granted no starts earlier than 12 noon - Huzzah! Lots of Sleep for me :)
The more time I spend in the new law building the more I love it. It has a 'modern building' feel to it throughout, with all those shiny metal finishings and white airy spaces. Today I found this incredible room, its very long and extremely open, roofed entirely in glass so there's masses of daylight pouring in with modern angular wooden chairs and tables. A place to eat, drink and share information, the ambiance is fantastic. Apart from the plastic blue floor it's perfect.
I purchased a croissant and a Latté. After I had finished both I resolved to buy a croissant from the little coffee stall as often as is possible and to never buy one of their coffees again. The froth looked and tasted like washing up liquid bubbles. Next time I shall order tea, as it is virtually impossible to balls up a cup of tea. Although to be safe I'll use the machine which pours out cups of PG tips in a coin-operated manner.
A view of this wonderful space is today's snapshot. Like last time I have a variety of other photos I have taken which didn't end up as the snapshot but they are all viewable in the archive.
Once again the Times crossword has defeated me. However now that I've started doing it I can make a copy of the Times stretch a whole 1 hour train journey without resorting to the football articles. Ah the fun-packed life I lead :)
I realized today that I still haven't bought the Sugar Ray album I meant to buy and also neglected to get a copy of the latest Steely Dan album. Admittedly the appeal of Steely Dan is that no matter how long it may have been since they started recording they sound exactly the same nowadays. A dozen songs about prostitutes, drunkards, outcasts and lechers - that's what a Steely Dan album is all about :)
Later
John