myMindisbroken

Lazy

2006-12-29T18:00:00.000+01:00

Well aren't I the lazy one. Following the current exponential time between my posts, I'll next post at the end of 2007, but I'm intending to avert that horrible fate by bothering to update more regularly. Many things have happened since my last update, all of which I intend to write about, few of which I actually will. One of the funniest is that I wrote my last post while at work, and got fired from that job later on that day. Apparently I'd been using the internet while answering calls *Shock*. Funniest part is that I'd been browsing online for jobs all day, every day for the 2 horrible horrible months I was working there, as well as emailing people whenever I fancied.

Following my overdue departure from that shite job, I started working at Newcastle City Council on their temp register, doing admin type work for the HR team which was ok. Work wasn't thrilling, but the people were nice and it let me get my foot in the door with the people in the Transport department. So, as of the second of January I will be working full time as a kind of graduate transport Planner at the Council, which is good. I'm not sure its what I want to do, and I'm still leaning more towards normal Planning work, but its relevant experience which is what I need. Preferably by the bucket-load.

Other than the trials and tribulations of trying to find a job, life is continuing on much the same as ever. Clare and I are living together in a nice if slightly small flat. She is also on the hunt for a decent job with some kind of career prospect. Many of my friends are still in Newcastle, which is nice, and I get to see them fairly often these days which is even nicer. My friendship with an old housemate has been put on hold for the time being while other aspects of his life can come to terms with things, which for me has been very sad. I'm hoping that the friendship may renew itself in the not-too-distant future, but its been quite a while since I last heard from him.

In more exciting news, I'm going skiing in 3 weeks! I'm off to Serre Chevalier, and staying in le Hotel Sporting. Not only will this holiday be in fully catered accommodation, but it contains a free bar! Hurrah for free beer. This trip has taken a fair bit of organising, but I got there in the end, and will be skiing with 7 of my mates which is a pretty decent showing I think. The more astute of you who may read other blogs linked from this site will know of one of my other companions on this trip. Lets hope his limbs hold up this time.

So then, that concludes this latest update I think. I shall endeavour to increase the frequency of my updates, and may even add some more links and mess around with the style a bit. I'll let you know if I get a job, but in the meantime, keep your fingers crossed for me.

Dear Interweb

2006-07-25T13:54:00.000+01:00

Somehow three months have slipped by since my last update, and a very busy three months they've been too. At the time of my last post, I had just finished my dissertation. It was a very busy time leading up to that deadline, and the relief once it was handed in was considerable. Following that, I went back down south for a few days to see my family, since I had not been home to visit them since Christmas, and only briefly then.

I then borrowed my mother's fiesta and drove back up to Newcastle, where I picked up Clare and the next day drove to the Isle of Skye for a week's very well earned holiday. One of our friends from Uni has a holiday cottage at the northern end of the Island which we were able to use for the week at a considerable discount, and it was very nice indeed. It was a new cottage, facing out onto the Loch, and from the outside it looks a little small. However, it had something of a tardis effect once inside because it was very spacious indeed. In addition to the lovely cottage, we also had the best weather possible for a holiday, with a week of sunshine. I've never been to the Western Isles before, but I certainly wouldn't have thought I'd get a week without rain! I've got a few nice pictures which I'll add in too at some point.

After that lovely week spent without watches or mobiles, I drove back home again and had another few days back down south. I drove over 2000 miles in the space of 10 days then, which is certainly the most intensive driving I've done, but it was brilliant. I passed my test about 16 months ago now I think, but driving has lost none of its enjoyment for me yet.

Between leaving Skye and heading back to Berkshire I had a job interview at South Shields for a planning policy officer post, which unfortunately I didn't get. This is to be a bit of a theme for the next two months….

After another relaxing few days at home, I came back up to Newcastle (on the train this time, unfortunately) and set about getting a job. Since I needed to start earning quickly, I needed to get a job ASAP, and so I went back to work for the place I'd worked for last summer briefly, a call centre for the NHS. I went back because I knew they'd be looking for staff, and I could therefore start working the next day, which I did. That was about 9 weeks ago, and I'm still here. I hate it.

I've had several interviews for various other jobs in the last two months, all for 'proper' planning jobs, but I've so far been unsuccessful. My current future plans are to work for this year up until the end of Feb 2007, then go travelling for about 6 months with Clare, then come back to Newcastle and do a Masters degree in Transport Planning and Policy. Since I'll only be working for a relatively short period of time, namely 7 months, it's a bit hard trying to find something worth doing in that time. This is further hindered by the fact that my course was not accredited by the Royal Town Planning Institute, meaning I'm not currently eligible for professional chartered planner status. Turns out that people place a lot of importance on that, especially councils. Anyway, once I've done the Masters, I'll be able to become a chartered transport engineer, which will hopefully open a large number of new doors for me, and allow me to start clearing some of the massive debt I've accumulated.

So back to the job hunt. Having been turned down for two more jobs last week, I've now realised that rather than temping where I am and looking for a planning job, I now need to just get anything where I'll earn more than £5.60 an hour. My current job lets me have a day off a week which I use for job-hunting/interviews etc, but it means that I only ever take home about £150 a week. If I'm to ever save enough to be able to go travelling for several months, then I need to be earning a fair bit more than this, especially since my rent is about to go up a lot. Which brings me on to the next happy topic.

I've been with my Girlfriend for a bit over 2 and a half years now, and we thought it would be nice if we could get somewhere to live together for the months leading up to us going travelling. Added to this was the fact that most of our friends who we would otherwise live with are in houses with 12 month contracts, whereas we would need one with either a shorter fixed contract, or one that ran for 6 months and then just rolled on a monthly basis after that.

A good friend of mine had a girlfriend whose housemate was suddenly moving out, and therefore had a double-room going spare in her house which she needed to fill. Since there would be 3 of us sharing a 2 bedroom house, it was going to work out a fair bit cheaper for all of us. Whilst not an ideal situation, the financial benefits were enough for us to want to do it for the sake of minimising expenses before travelling, so we signed up and moved in a couple of months ago. We had to move into the new place a month before our current contracts were due to expire, which was fine for me because my old housemates were all staying in the same place and the guy replacing me was able to move in early. It was less ideal for Clare however, since they were all vacating her place, so she had to pay a month's double rent. The longer-term benefits of having 3 of us living together would have outweighed this, and worked out cheaper in the long run.

However, once we had moved in, it very quickly became evident that it wasn't going to work. The person we moved in with had been in the house for about 18 months, and was very clearly set in her ways about how things should be in the house. For example, she was much more fastidious about tidying and washing up than either Clare or I were used to. In order to make some kind of compromise, we tried our best to be tidier, but no matter what we did it wasn't going to be enough. There didn't appear to be any kind of reciprocity in this compromise either, which was a source of great irritation for me, and for Clare. The were other things too, such as the fact that we were meant to check with her before having anyone over, for the sake of "consideration". This is despite the fact that not once were we asked about her having anyone over. On one occasion a couple of weeks ago, I was having a couple of friends over for a meal and a film, which was arranged at short notice. When I got home from work, I informed my housemate of this, at which point she became annoyed that no notice had been given, and that she had brought home some work to do and needed the table. Although I explained that we would only be needing the table for a short while to eat, it continued to be an issue. Housemate disappeared into her room for the middle of the evening, as she was wont to do, and only came out once we had finished eating. We all went into our bedroom to watch a film in there rather than in the living room, out of "consideration" since housemate had work to do, but shortly after that she was in the living room with a couple of friends drinking wine and watching TV. Now, of course I'd normally have no problem with this, however, when she's just had a go at me for not telling her sooner about having friends over, to then not say anything at all to me about it is not only rude, but highly hypocritical as well.

The above event is just one example of the daily frustrations that have plagued my life since moving into my current address, and they are the reason that Clare and I will now be moving out in the next two weeks. It's a sad and sorry situation to be in, but I've never in all my life lived with someone so difficult. She clearly has issues with sharing the house, and needs to get used to the idea that she is a tenant in the house, equal with other tenants, and not a landlord living with lodgers which is the way we were treated.

So, on to greener pastures. I'm very much looking forward to moving into the new place, and not just because we'll be moving away from the current situation either. It will be really nice to live with Clare, just the two of us, and have a whole place to set up as we'd like. Also, the new place is much nearer our friends, so we'll be less out of the loop than we often are. We do seem to be a little side-lined when things happen, generally the impromptu nights out or parties etc, but hopefully living 5 mins from people again will remind them we're here! Its also nice to be able to pop in to see people for a cuppa on the way back from work rather than having to make a special trip.

So now that the housing situation is nearly resolved, I can return to the joys of finding a job which will pay me enough to be able to afford to go travelling.

So that's my life now. I apologise to my adoring fans for the brief hiatus, but normal service will hopefully be resumed soon. Fingers crossed that the move will be smooth, and that Telewest will move the connection over soon after we move house.

Right then, I should get back to answering my phone calls since I'm at work.

"Hello, Tom speaking……"

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO

2006-04-27T11:27:00.000+01:00

My dissertation is now finished, and I am about to go and get it printed, bound and handed in. A longer update is forthcoming, but I thought I'd share my joy.

These are exciting times.

A week

2006-04-21T15:32:00.000+01:00

Well, it appears to have been a week since I last updated my blog, and my what a week its been! Well, what a mundane week its been. The dissertation is coming along in dribs and drabs. I've written roughly 4000 words now so I'm approximately halfway through, and theres exactly one week left to go, which is not long. I spent yesterday doing the reading for the case study section, which I hope to have written up by Sunday evening. My dissertation supervisor still hasn't replied to me in well over a week, which is fucking brilliant. No-one in the department knows where he is either, so my mother is no the one doing all my proof-reading! Thanks Mum!

I'll be very glad when all this is over. I've got a holiday planned with Clare which is going to consist of a week camping in Scotland which I'm really looking forward to. It'll be nice to get properly away from everything and chill out for a bit. After that I'm spending a week at home, then hoping to start a fantastically well paid job around the beginning of June. I haven't yet been given such a job, but I have applied for one. Theres two places going at South Tyneside council for Planning Policy and Projects Officer which would be fantastic, but I'm not holding my breath. Application has been sent off though, so we shall see.

But enough procrastinating for now. I need to get this bloody dissertation written as a priority above anything else. Should be fun with a drummer practicing in the room beneath me.

Have a video of some amazing skateboarding by Rodney Mullen to keep yourself entertained until my next update.

Viking Rock!

2006-04-14T11:26:00.000+01:00

That is all, you may carry on.

Hurrah!

2006-04-13T19:19:00.000+01:00

At last - tangible progress!

My dissertation is now 1,000 words and one literature review closer to completion. I am feeling a lot happier today. Spouting gibberish to Clare about it for an hour last night and bouncing ideas off her helped me actually plan out what it is I'm trying to do - so doing it today became a lot easier.

Yay me.

Have a silly video for geeks. Made me smile the same way a loud fart does. Its childish, but you can't help it.

More Gah

2006-04-10T12:59:00.000+01:00

Dissertation is not good.

Sorry to keep going on about it, but its the major part of my daily life now and for the next 19 days.

I just can't get motivated at all. I keep getting told I need to start writing and then it'll start coming together more, but I just don't feel in a position to start yet. I feel like I've got less info for this than for any of the 2,500 word essays I've done. Its not good. I really wish I'd chosen a different topic other than wind turbines, but I've got to stick with it now. I should be a lot more worried about this since its the biggest individual piece of work that contributes towards my final degree mark, but all I'm getting is annoyed that its not progressing.

I'm going to go to the library tomorrow in the hope that I can find some inspiration there.

In an effort to do something constructive but none-dissertation related yesterday I baked a cake. Its a Lemon Curd and Poppy-seed cake and is very nice. This is the second time I've made this recipe, and the first was more successful, but this one still passes as a cake. There may be a little too much butter in the mix, and I may have put the cream on while the sponge was still warm, but meh - it tastes nice.

Back to the main topic again, but normally when writing essays I do all the reading beforehand, then churn out the essay in one or two days of straight writing. This isn't much of a viable option for a 10,000 word piece, so maybe writing in chunks is the answer. I think I shall attempt the introduction today and see if that helps. Theres one other section I should be able to write now too, so maybe having some tangible progress will help lift my spirits a bit.

We shall see.

Also, my dissertation handbook has this gem to offer about editing:

This is a vital stage. Marks can be lost or gained here through the impression your work make son the reader. Failure to spot most of the typing errors leads to a view (mistaken or otherwise) that the work has been rushed or you have not worked hard enough.

Two double spaces and a typo in the short paragraph emphasising the importance of proof-reading. This is followed by a section dividing points up using 1, 2, 3, and 4, but then referring back to them as A, B, C, and D. Hardly encouraging.

Gazza's Tears

2006-04-08T12:33:00.000+01:00

Being the first person from the group to arrive at the beer festival, with the exception of the organiser Joe, I won the free first drink he'd promised. He got me Gazza's Tears, a Somerset Cider. Looking through the programme for the festival all of the ciders were rated Sweet, Medium or Dry; except for this one. Gazza's Tears was the only Cider I've ever seen rated Spicy. It was 12% and tasted like some weird apple-based spirit. It did not go down at all smoothly, and being the first drink of the day and going into an empty stomach meant it quickly went to my head and legs in equal proportions. However, once the initial ordeal was passed I had a very good afternoon/evening drinking nice beers in the company of some good friends a lot of beardy old men. There was a disappointing lack of pipes, but you can't have it all!

Back to reality now, and that means dissertation. Last night was the last time I'm going out until April 28th, when I plan to start a weekend of drunkeness, but until then: Dissertation Stations.

Dissertation Loses

2006-04-07T15:31:00.000+01:00

Beer wins.

I'm going to the beer festival.

I want this job

2006-04-06T16:32:00.000+01:00

Someone was paid to make these Rube Goldberg machines for an advertising campaign in Japan. They're incredible. Its possibly best watched with the sound off, unless you like terrible jingles.

Gah

2006-04-05T13:38:00.000+01:00

My dissertation is due in 3 weeks on Friday; all 10,000 words of it. I've written roughly none of them so far. My research is going badly, and my supervisor takes a week to reply to emails. Things are not going well. I'm getting increasingly annoyed about it all but am still failing to make any meaningful progress on it.

I'm not sure why but I'm failing to find much motivation to sit down and slog at the work for a while, despite the looming deadline. I just can't get into it at all. With virtually all of my other essays in the last couple of years, after a couple of days of reading I've found myself interested in the subject and keen to do the essay. For whatever reason, this same interest is failing to materialise with the dissertation. I'm now wishing I'd chosen a different topic, but its far too late in the day to go changing it.

I'm really wishing I could be a month further ahead, with all my work handed in, but without having to go through the hassle of actually doing it. This dissertation is my final deadline, and I have no exams, which means that I'll have finished my degree on the 28th of April. This seems awfully early to me. Its good because it means I can have fun in May and do what I want, and start earning some money by June which is still before most people finish, but its also bad because I have to get everything done very early.

Which brings me full circle. My dissertation is due in just over 3 weeks and I can't make any progress. Gah.

Stop motion

2006-04-04T15:03:00.000+01:00

Well its about time I post something up again. Not really done anything of note over the last few days, but I've finished all my work except my dissertation, so woo to that. Three and a half weeks to go till I finish my degree!

In the mean-time, have a rather good stop-motion film. It must have taken ages to make, and I likes it a lot.

Girls and Games

2006-03-30T13:02:00.000+01:00

Lucy said she was intrigued by the game in the video below despite not being interested in video games, so I thought I'd elaborate on the reasons that (probably) lie behind this. This is not something I wrote myself, but was taken from a discussion at 5punk.

The general consensus is this: Women think differently to men *SHOCK*

1)Men look at games as a series of challenges to be overcome, be that beating levels in a Real Time Strategy, winning rounds of CounterStrike:Source or whatever. Women see games as a much more "experience" based things; they want to have fun, not necessarily be challenged.

2)Men like to build, expand, improve things, all for a practical purpose. Women like to organise things, and make things....well, nicer. They also like to build and expand, but for more artistic than practical reasons.

3)Women are more social creatures than men.

4)Women physically see things differently. I don't mean in some vague emotional way here, but rather their eyes and visual centers of the brain are built different. Men, due to the evolutional role of being the hunter, have very centralised vision; they concentrate almost entirely on what they are directly looking at. Women, on the other hand, were gatherers, and have a more "dispersed" vision; they are much more aware of things on the periphery of their vision. As a result, basically, women are more likely to notice the backgrounds in games, while men see more of the central characters, be that the player model or the thing the player is shooting at.

Basically, games are, by and large, made by men. So they cater for men. They involve lots of building things, improving things, shooting things dead. Practical issues take precedence, whilst aesthetic issues either take a back seat or are utterly missing. Social sides of games (mmo's notwithstanding, but I'll get to that in a minute) tend also to be either a bit rubbish or totally non existent. And graphics concentrate on characters, rather than the settings. If the characters are great, the landscape they are in tends to be merely good. If the characters are rubbish, the landscape will more than likely look like its constructed from lego.

The trouble is, games are made mostly by men, and therefore appeal mostly to men. So the people who want to go into the games industry are mostly men. Viscous Cycle Tiem!

I think the reason Massively Multiplayer Online games seem to have more women playing them than other types of games is because there is a heavy emphasis on a)interacting socially and b)the aesthetic side of things. Take City of Villains for example: theres a hell of a lot more options for making yourself look cool than there are for actually customising what you can do.

Finally, to pre-empt the inevitable daft response that always crops up when you are discussing the differences between two groups of people: All the above is a generalisation. When I say "Women are like this" I actually mean: "Most women are like this", and visa versa.

These reasons go a long way towards explaining why things like The Sims were far more appealing to female gamers than the majority of games available, and why Spore is likely to be the same. Also, the pictures make the game look a lot nicer visually than depicted in the fairly low-resolution video:

Another day, another video

2006-03-28T23:12:00.000+01:00

For those of you who didn't see or didn't click the link down near the bottom of the page, here is the gameplay video for Spore. Its the next game to be released by Will Wright, the creator of the Sims, and it looks like its going to be fantastic. I'll also have finished my degree a while before it comes out so I'll no longer have that feeling of guilt when playing games which will be nice, and I'll also no longer have to turn down invitations to go drinking!

Its a little long at about 30mins, but it just keeps getting better.

Having achieved little to nothing towards my dissertation in the last few days I have instead turned my attentions to my other remaining report. The research for this report involves spending all of tomorrow walking around Corbridge, and I will get to have my first proper pub lunch in ages too. But after the weekend, when that report is written, its going to be a 3 and a half week slog for the dissertation which I am not looking forward to in the slightest. Humph. This degree malarky had best be worth it later on down the line, for the money its costing as much as the time.

False accusations

2006-03-27T14:02:00.000+01:00

I have been accused by some people of finding too much useless but entertaining crap on the internet. I'd refute this claim if it wasn't, to a large extent, true. Its my most common form of procrastination, and I easily fall into doing it since most of my dissertation's research is web based. Google Scholar is easily the best tool available for finding journal articles, and has made researching a whole lot easier. However, since it works in a web browser, you're only ever a few clicks away from something that is not in the slightest bit work related, but infinitely more interesting.

Whilst attempting to do some of the aforementioned dissertation research today, I found this video. Its horribly wrong, since mammals should always come above insects in the food chain. Fact. Don't press play if you are particularly squeamish or have a soft spot for mice.

You've just got to love Fox News

2006-03-26T14:12:00.000+01:00

This is the opinion section called "My Word" on Fox News by John Gibson.

In my lame attempts at coding I added a play="false" command into the embed code, but it now means you have to press the play button twice for it to work. However, this is much better than it playing every time the page loads. If anyone cares to instruct me on the corrcet way to do this, please do.

The man is clearly a moron, and fully deserves this.

Here are some more of his insights.

The Second

2006-03-24T11:24:00.000+01:00

I found the second film and teh codez to let me share it.

Drinking Club was a resounding success last night. Having had a few pints I managed to escape only two hours later than planned, and still only had the mildest of headaches this morning. I'm looking forward to May when I can go out and not feel guilty about it, but I fear it will be somewhat a drunken month. But these things must be done!

Several new people were successfully initated into drinking club last night, but it didn't involve any fights, and they are allowed to talk about it. They may be talking gently though, since their heads are on the delicate side of things today.

Saturday 8th will probably be my only hangover between now and April 29th, since the Beer Festival is on, and it would be rude not to go. Friday is the best day to go, I have been reliably informed, since Saturday is 'dregs day' and all the best stuff is gone.

Right then, back to dissertation stations and some thrilling reading.

Drinking Club

2006-03-23T16:03:00.000+01:00

Today is thursday, so as noted before, its Drinking Club day! However, having recently started making progress on my dissertation, I shall not be staying out to get hammered tonight, nor the next two nights either. Its a bit of a pisser turning down what looks to be 3 very entertaining nights out, but I really can't afford to write any days off to hangovers just now. I have all of May for that instead.

In part as an experiment to see if it works, and in part because I like them, have a funny video from Battlefield 2. Its very much like sketch shows, made using the game, and would be all the better for having played the game itself. There is a second, longer one out which is better, but not yet available anywhere I can steal it from.

Mine 1

Early Controversy

2006-03-22T17:23:00.000+01:00

Well after an "anonymous" request to piss anonymous off, I did. In fact, I did it in my reply. The reference to anonymous's girlfriend, who for discretion we shall call "Hilary", and her 'things' had desired effect of getting anonymous in trouble with "Hilary".

Now, for the record, I was never told anything about "Hilary's" things, and their existence was mere speculation. Far from it for me to want to provoke further controversy, but the reaction to a speculative comment about "things" leads me to believe that "things" may in fact exist. I shall investigate and report back...

Now enough of the speech-marks and inverted commas.

On a positive note, I saw something that made me smile whilst on my way in to the library yesterday. It was a very happy dog running around fetching a tennis ball being thrown by its owner. Well I say thrown, but she was using a Ball Tosser, the lazy bugger. Anyway, the dog looked very happy indeed, and reminded my of my dog, Sandy:

He is about 7 years old now I believe, and has recently developed both arthritis in his hips (as Golden Retrievers are prone to) and epilepsy. These things make me a bit sad, because I love my dog, and to think of him as anything except overexcited and energetic just isn't quite right.

Now for something less fluffy. This morning I received a letter turning me down for a job.
"What job?" I hear you cry in unison.
Well, I applied for Newcastle City Council's temp register. It basically provides fairly low level administerial positions and maternity cover; things of that ilk. I was hoping to get something in one of the Planning related departments for my nine or so months out next year. I was turned down because I don't have six month's consecutive clerical experience. I've been in full-time education since I was about 4 or 5 years old, and all jobs I've had have consequently been either part-time or short-term during the summer holidays. In the last two or three years I've racked up about 8 months office experience in various jobs during the summer holiday period of my degree. However, since it was not consecutive, I "fail to demonstrate that criteria" [sic] and was turned down. Apart from that factor, I "submitted a good application form" according to the feedback I had from chasing them up via email.

This really pisses me off.

I'm an intelligent, articulate, and competent person, who, because he hasn't spent six consecutive months answering telephones and dealing with other people's mail isn't elligible to do a job a monkey could do if it was trained to use a typewriter and wasn't inclined to reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare.

Bastards.

Beer and Curry

2006-03-17T13:28:00.000+01:00

Last night I went for a 'couple' of drinks with some friends from the Union where I used to work. Since we only ever used to go out a couple of times a term, and get really hammered when we did, we thought it would be nice to meet up for more regularly for an after-work/uni/sleep drink or two, an lo: Thursday night drinking club was born!

After the first three pints, we agreed that we all needed food, and since the shite 'Scream' pub we were in had stopped serving, we went next door to Spice for a curry instead. And very nice it was too. Its a slightly odd location for a restaurant, with the dining room being on the first floor of a 1960s officeblock, overlooking a dual-carriageway, but its very nice. Nevertheless, it was slightly odd being the only people in the restaurant. After curry and more beer, we left and went to another pub next door, Mr Lynch.

Mr Lynch is a fairly new bar, which opened last summer, and is not one of my favourites. Its all decked out in 60s and 70s style furniture, which was clearly gathered from a wide range of car-boot sales and specialist shops, and intended to look very 'cool'. However, its the kind of contrived mismatching that I really can't stand, and on the whole the place is appropriately filled with pretentious idiots. Even so, it was the only place between Spice and home that was still open, so choices were limited.

So after a fun night of drinks and food I went back to clares and after a bit of banter with Becky, Zig and Miranda, who were also drunk, I went to bed and peacefully slept the night away.

Which brings us to now.

Now, my head fucking kills and the combined efforts of the lager and the curry are making themselves felt on a regular basis. First hangover in a good while this, and I've not missed them one bit.

In other news, another essay was handed in this morning, and the third of the term is about to commence. I've only got 6 weeks left of my degree and I'm becoming increasingly concerned about the amount I have left to do (a total of about 18,000 words), and yet I still have trouble motivating myself to work properly. I'm sure the panic will kick in sometime soon, but until then I'm going to force myself to get at least another 1,500 words written today.

And Fletch - you'll get an opinionated, anger-inducing rant sometime soon, but I'm feeling too 'meh' to be bothered today. In the meantime, have a link.

A little link to entertainment

2006-03-09T16:41:00.000+01:00

I found this today for the first time.

I may be easily amused today, but its better than the shite essay I've been trying to write. I powered through about 1500 words yesterday with ease. Came back to finish it off this morning, and I've managed about 2-300 so far. I have a few points left I want to make, but I don't seem to be able to make them into any form of prose, and they just sit there as disjointed sentences.

However, I have incorporated a little headline box from the BBC. Clever me.

More will be put up here when I'm feeling more like writing, which sure as buggery isn't today.

A proper introduction

2006-03-07T22:11:00.000+01:00

I guess this is perhaps what I should've started with all along, but meh, who cares.

I'm Tom. Hello. I'm a 22 year old student at Newcastle University, in my final year of Geography and Town Planning. I have a lovely girlfriend called Clare, who features in a few of the images below, and whom I am planning to move in with in the summer until we go travelling at around this time next year. After that, I'm probably going to do a Masters in Town Planning, become professionally accredited, earn and spend money in roughly equal proportions until I retire, and then go travelling for years at a time.

I have the usual variety of interests, seeing friends, going to the pub etc etc blah blah blah. I enjoy skiing a lot, and I've been lucky enough to go about 10 times or so in the course of my life. I would be going again next xmas, but the travelling will be requiring at least all of my money, and probably more. I spend a fair amount of time some evenings playing PC games, many of which I play with the friendly people over at 5punk, where I go under the name 'Lateralus'. For anyone interested, these games are mostly Battlefield 2 and Counter-Strike Source. I am also looking forward to the release of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion later on this month, and Spore which is the new game from the creator of The Sims, due out sometime in the Autumn. Have a look at this video and be in awe.

If you recognise name above you will probably realise that I like the band Tool, as well as a whole assortment of other music. The band I'm listening to a lot at the moment is godspeed you! black emperor, who are lovely. Their site has quite a few samples on it if you're interested in that sort of thing. In terms of TV and film, I'm currently suffering from a mild addiction to The Sopranos, which is a show very much in keeping with the kind of film I like too. Other favourites include anything by Wes Anderson, especially The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind by Michel Gondry. If you haven't seen either of them, I demand that you do so, and soon.

I'm bored of writing just now, and have other things I need to get on with, but I hope that this will suffice for now. If not, tough. The internet is a big place and theres lots out there.

By demand of James

2006-03-07T21:21:00.000+01:00

Here are some photos.

This is the closest to making art that I've ever come

2006-03-07T12:35:00.001+01:00

Its a vector image of Clare, and I am very proud of both the image and its subject. Click it to appreciate it in its full-sized glory. I may do some more of these since I quite enjoyed doing it, but it took a very long time to do, and time is at somewhat of a premium for me just now.

And some more of the same

2006-03-07T12:23:00.000+01:00

Who you gonna call?

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Temple of Doom

Last Crusade

These things take ages to do, and so a lot of respect is due to those that made them. I'll try to put something up that was actually made about, or at least involves, me, next time.

Some pictures I like, to start the ball rolling

2006-03-07T12:09:00.000+01:00

A New Hope

The Empire Strikes Back

Return of the Jedi

These were all done by FoldsFive over at b3ta

Well everybody has got to start somewhere

2006-03-07T10:48:00.000+01:00

So here am I.