Got back from Wales on Thursday. Well back to lovely, sunny (may not be true) Hastings, I didnt actualy end up getting home until late Friday night. Wales was as hilly as I remembered from the past, and Aberystwyth turned out to be quite a nice place, the university looked good too. The added bonus is its miles away from anywhere, as someone once said "isolation is paramount". Damn straight.

Friday involved trekking down into the town, and to be pleasently surprised that shops actualy had copies of GTA: San Andreas in stock. The way people had been going on, I thought they would wither have sold out by lunch time, or they had all been pre-ordered or something. Apparently not. Suffice to say this game "rocks" (not literally, no matter how I have tried, standing the game case up on one side does not enable it to move in a rocking motion). At the moment I'm trying to get to grips with some difficult early missions (I suck), and the fact that the map is far bigger than anything Ive ever seen. And thats not counting the other 2/3rds that are still locked. This morning was spent rifing through the countryside on my bike, stopping at farms and gas stations brifly to set fire to things. Yep, definately a bloody excellent game. However, this unexpected purchase has left me with a little dilema, and that is shall I do my coursework like Im supposed to, or just play San An? I think we all know the answer to this question....

Tomorrow its off to London, for no real purpose. Unfortunately this does mean even more train journey's, but watching people's terrified faces as we get on the underground should prove to be priceless.

One last note, if I'm not on the internet anymore, Im busy playing GTA: SA, I'll be back once Rockstar has relinquished my soul....

Now Playing: Queen - Bicycle Race [01:05/03:03]

Where are we going again?

So tomorrow its of to Wales to visit the university in Aberystwyth. 6 hour train journey, and a 2 night stay, so if anything it should prove interesting. Most likely i'll come back absoloutley shattered, and still with a ton of coursework left to do. Oh well, I choose to get myself into all of this I suppose, although I do wonder sometimes quite why.

Anyhoo, I shall update this when I next have access to the internet. No net for at least 3 days, I think I'll probably end up going crazy. Oh wait that's already happened......

Since no one reads this (:D) I shall see none of you in a couple of days time.....

Now Playing: David Bowie - The Jean Genie [00:28/04:07]

Proving that I do occasionally manage to pry myself away from the internet, I actually went outside earlier. You know, to do stuff. Scary I know.

Now the idea of a bike ride may sound pleasant enough, and it probably would have been a nice leisurely outing. That is, of course, if it wasn't for the fact that was raining, cold and very windy. Therefore I was taught a lesson into why cycling into oncoming wind is bad, and why baggy clothing should be avoided in these circumstances, as they do have a nasty tendency of acting as an impromptu sail and blowing you of the road, and into a rather large and muddy puddle, which thankfully was narrowly avoided at the last minute.

And on the subject of road shenanigans, I get to have my first driving lesson next Wednesday. People living in the Hastings area should be afraid. Very afraid }:-)

Now Playing: Dire Straits - Heavy Fuel [01:11/05:01]

MSN Messenger Down

Since precisely somewhere around tea-time yesterday, MSN seems to have gone off for a pint or 20, and didn't bother to tell anyone when it would be back. Watching people make thread after thread on countless forums across the internet has proved to be rather amusing. MSN is down, so get over it and stop whining. Christ, you'd think people didn't have anything else to do with their time. In other IM/Interweb/geek related stuff, I have managed to lurk on IRC for at least a week now, which I'm pleased about as I've always prided myself on my lurking capabilities.

Back in the real world, the stress factor appears to have been turned up to 11.5. Pretty high, I'm sure you'll agree, especially as the scale only goes up to 10. I'm currently trying to find a driving instructor so I can, surprisingly enough, learn how drive. I always thought that my PS2 and a copy of Gran Turismo was tuition enough, but apparently not. Meh. I'm also desperately trying to find universities to go to in a couple of years time. The only place I know I want to go to for definite is Aberystwyth in Wales, which I hope to be visiting sometime at the end of October. Its getting to the point where I will just have to use a pin to chose places at random. Which come to think of it sounds like quite a sensible method of selection...

Now Playing: Various Artists - Jailbreak - Thin Lizzy [02:33/04:00]

File-Sharing

I have'nt updated in ages, but I wanted to rant a bit about this article which I found doing my usual tour of news websites.

The article refers to the recent development of British music companies seeking compensation for music files that have been illegally shared on the internet. Now this may sound fair enough, after all the general consensus with most people is that stealing is wrong. However, calling the sharing of music "theft" seems a little too harsh to me.

Music is, and should be something that is made to please those who listen to it, and for the most part this is the case. We hear songs played, say on the radio, like it, then perhaps go and buy the album. And although we have always had to pay, the prices of albums have never been as extortionist as they are today. £18 for a piece of plastic. Add together the costs of producing a CD, add on little extra as pay for the artist, and I still fail to see how a price of £18 is justified.

It is an age old expression that music should be about the music, and not about making money. And as cliche as it may have become, I still very much agree with this statement. Of course I'm not denying that artists should be rewarded for their work, far from it, but when it comes to what we have now, where people are being sued, I think its a pretty dire situation. The amount of money being lost by file sharing is minimal, compared to the money they are still making through record sales. Also take into account that file sharing does not mean that when someone has downloaded a song they are not going to buy it. Ask anyone and they will tell you that if they really like a song they have downloaded, they will go out and buy it. After all, nothing beats physically holding a new album in your hands. If anything, file sharing is a new, and since it matters so much these days, free advertising medium. And moving back to my original point, surely it should be enough satisfaction to artists that people are listening to their music, and enjoying it. After all, isn't that why they do it? According to the article, it seems not.

Pete Waterman, the hitmaker behind Kylie Minogue and Steps who was on hand for the announcement, said: “This is industry, not the National Health Service. This is music. You buy it.”

To me, that is typical of modern music. An industry. To be produced, and bought. Call me old fashioned, but isn't music an art form? A form of expression, something that can be enjoyed by everyone? It always used to be, until certain people realised that they could capitalise of the popular love of music. Thus was born the record company, and turning music from art into industry.

“There is only a relative handful of people in the music industry who ever make much money — 95 per cent of musicians out there can’t afford to buy their guitars and this kind of theft hurts them as much as anyone else.”

Okay, fair point, but this isn't new. There have been a lot of bands in the past who struggled to replace the strings on their guitars when they were starting out, but they carried on due to their sheer love of playing music. And I am fairly confident that lack of funds were not due to a slump in CD sales, considering CD's hadn't been invented in the 1970's.

Which brings us to the slump in sales. Perhaps this slump is just a result of high prices. A lot of the people buying CD's are teenagers or younger, and are not going to have a lot of money to spend on new albums. The fact that file sharing is to blame is typical of the record companies attitude - prosecute any who will cost them a few pennies, compared to the revenue they are still receiving.

I am not condoning theft, and I am not saying that all music should be free. I realise that would be lunacy, but all I am saying is that shouldn't the authorities being trying to tackle real problems, rather than prosecuting 12 year old kids?

Socialist Men Under Red Father

Two pieces of smurf related news today. Firstly I bring you shocking news that Papa Smurf has been exposed as a communist. If you don't believe me then I suggest you clicky here.

Secondly, I took the quiz, and it turns out that I am this particular smurf.




Find your inner Smurf!

Party party party!

Well now, I've not long been back from a rather slendifulous 18th birthday party. And I'm pretty sure that the fact Im online now shows that I really am criticaly internet addicted. Spelling in this post may be under par (well more than usual), but blame it on an interesting combination of drinks that were consumed by your tuly ealier this evening. My memory is laready a little hazy (although that's pretty normal for me), but I do remember a bout of energetic dancing/jumping/stumblig/falling over to a Madness song, you know the baggy trousers one. Apart from a few Queen songs, the music was the usual modern crap, but then such things are to be expected.

So yes, twas a fun evening, and I am happy that I ate my fair share of peanuts. Free food is something to never be passed up. And the cheese was also nice, but I fear I am beginning to babble so I shall stop right about......................now. More legible update possoibly coming in the morning, depending on how much like the poop I feel.

Oh, and may I also add: "Ged savo tho Quoon".

I am Gandhi

Well I'm not actually him, but this website seems to beilieve so.

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

I live!

Yes, indeedy I do! I didnt go anywhere near a boat on Monday, primarily due to my fear of being keel hauled. However, I couldnt excape getting wet, and was dragged out into the water, at which point I found that jeans were not made for swimming in, and causing my legs to sink as if tied to blocks of concrete. However, much fun was had despite the sad loss of Rocky, my (newly acquired) pet rock after an unfortunate diving "incident" (read: being thrown into deep water).

School is starting tomorrow, and this has casued much moping and despair. However it will also mean that I have soemthing to do with my time, which judging by the way the summer has crawled by can only be a good thing. However, it is not a good sign that I have failed to do any work whatsoever, mainly due to me being lazy, but then thats life.

Things have returned to their usual boring self now after 5 days of activity, but I have made two discoveries. Discovery number 1 - Port tastes rather nice. Discovery number 2 - After a quick look on BT's website, it turns out that I am 2 months and 10 days away from warm glowy Broadband-ness. Let the countdown commence......

I'm nervous

Almost forgot about this thing. Oh well. My interweb is being a picky arse recently in deciding which webpages it will and wont load. Interestingly enough all the good web pages are the ones refusing to load. Figures.

So in this time of boredom, I have discovered another website to prat about on, the site in question being www.faceparty.com. Whilst I'm not usually one to arse about with all that rubbish, I ended creating myself a profile, although quite why I don't think will ever become apparent. In other interweb news, I now have the ability to send out Gmail invites. Ones already gone and Ive got another 5 left, which are going to be reserved firstly for friends, then the weebl and bob forums if I can ever get back on there.

I have 3 days left now until the next term starts, and I still have not done much work. Then again all it is is reading for history, can easily be done in a weekend. The funny thing is, most of summer was slow and boring, and now its fast disapearing I dont seem to have any spare time. Not that its a bad thing, Im rather pleased to actually be doing stuff in real life, although I am a little aprehensive about tomorrow. It invloves boats, and with that come water. However I will be able to spend the day speaking like a (ninja) pirate. Yarr!

Sleep Deprivation

Its half 12 at night. Now for the past two weeks I have been going to sleep at about 2am in the morning, so half 12 isnt really that lat to me anymore. yet this night I am begining to feel the effects of sleep deprivation. Now I am bored out of my mind and I wnated to ramble on a bit about sleep. After careful consideration I decided that the weebl and bob forums would rather not hear my incoherent ramblings, then i remembered I have a blog now. So here we are, I will rant to whoever reads this. Probably no one, which is fine by me, in any case I can read this back to myself in the morning and laugh.

The last time I felt sleep deprivation I felt as if everything idnt exist and I was in some surreal dream world. This time its different. Im seeing things move out the corner of my eye, and I feel a sensation that is quite like being drunk actualy. I feel dizy and I want to lay down, yet I feel compelled not too. Ive always been curious what the effects of lack of sleep are on the human body. Currently I have headache, and extreme boredom. Surprisingly there are 4 contacts on my MSN list, however one of these is in america so is excusable. IRC is proving fruitless as its too dificult to follow whats going on in the channel anymore. The forums were down for me since 6pm, but they're working again, but as usual at this time they're dead, so in all I ahve nothing much to do but bable on here.

Now I think will be a good point to stop as I dont knwo what the hell Im writing anymore. I apologise for the lack of spelling in this post, and hopefully the next one will be written when I am in a fitter state to write.

GMail!

Right Im putting in a little edit here, as I want to show off for a bit. Ive just now got myself a G-Mail account, and have been playing around with it for the past half hour or so, and Im impressed by what Ive seen. Firstly the 1Gb of storage space is amazing, and the speed at wich the account loads and displays things is terrific, even on my slow 56k connection. Its got the usual google style, meaning there are no ugly colours, just nice plain white and blue meaning you dont have any horrible flashing adverts, just plain text links, which thanks to AdSense are actually related to what you're reading. At the fear of begninning to sound like a salesperson for Google I shall stop my rantings now.

The only other thing of note is that I just realised that Ive got under a week before the new term starts. Im getting pretty bored, so Im not worried about any of that. Im more worried about the fact that I want to get my UCAS application finished by mid-october to stand the best chance of getting in to the University that I want. The only problem is that Ive only just decided what course I want to do (History), and I still need to find 4 other universities to put on the form, and then there's the hassale of the personla statement thing you have to do, and Im getting a bit worried at the fact I havent done any of it. But Ive always left things to the last minute in the past, and they've turned out okay, so this should turn okay in the end too.

Before I start going into angst mode (not a thing I want to do) I will shut up about my personal problems, and leave you with what genere of rock I would be. Classic rock? Too right! Queen, Rainbow, David Bowie, Dire Straits, Led Zeppelin, the list is endless. Rock on!


Classic rock! Without you the other genres
wouldn't exist! You are the raw and original
sound of rock! Other genres may try to imitate
your rawness, but they can never be like you!


What genre of rock are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

First Post

Okay I've just spent the last half an hour trying to get my blog working, and after going through several URL's that were wither taken or caused the blog to cock up for some unknown reason, I think I've finally got everything sorted.

So now here we are, first post in my shiny brand new blog, and the first time I've ever bothered to record anything of my life. Why a blog? Well truth be told it is just over halfway through summer, and although sleeping until 1pm and doing pretty much nothing all day may sound pretty fun, its gets boring after a while, so I need something to do. And when I get bored and having nothing else to do, then I do pointless things like make websites that nobody wants to read, and now make blogs that nobody wants to read. Go me.

As I'm new to this game I have absolutely no idea what to put in this thing, so until I come up with something that you will be interested in reading, then this will have to do.