Virginia Tech

I found the following (written by a member of a US Christian band, Superchick) to be thought provoking. Worth a read:

"When I was a kid at camp, you had to go with a buddy if you wanted to swim in the lake – and you had to stay with him the entire time you were in the water. If you lost you buddy, you had to tell the lifeguard and he would blow the whistle and everyone would have to stop swimming until your buddy was found. Lakes aren’t pools; you can’t see under the surface. With a hundred kids in the lake, this was a good way to make sure that no one slipped under, unnoticed. The lesson was clear: swimming in the lake could be dangerous, but together, we could watch out for one another. No one would go in alone.

I wish we had a buddy system for life.

We can’t change what happened at Virginia Tech. We can’t change what happened at Columbine. But maybe we can change the lives of the people around us. We shouldn’t need tragedies to remind us that people are sad, broken and aching. The world is our family. If you notice someone alone or hurting or lost, reach out to them. Give of yourself. Heal the wounds inflicted by others. Replace hurt with kindness before hate grows in the empty space where love should be.

Pray that your eyes are opened to those who need your love in their life. We have the power to make huge changes in society with our tiny lives. Make your life about something more than you. All around you, people need you.

Let no one slip under the water, unnoticed.

Peace and brotherlove,
Max
Superchick"

Train Tales

Ok, so a couple of tales about things that have happened to me on trains or at stations recently. All in the last 2 days in fact, to be more specific.

Why is it that so many interesting things happen on trains? One of my current favourite (observational) comedians, Mark Watson, seems to draw a good deal of his material from train journeys that he's been on. I guess it's essentially because if you go on a busy train there's such a broad cross-section of people there that from time to time interesting stuff is bound to happen. And that's despite our English tendencies to be very reserved and negatively polite with strangers.

• So yesterday 2 things happened. Firstly, when I got on my train a family got separated. The kids got on the train, but the doors slammed shut before the mum and her pushchair could join them. Of the 3 kids one of them then proceeded to throw a panic tantrum, jumping up and down and crying and screaming (yes, the little girl) whilst the eldest child calmly reassured her and told her not to panic and that everything would be ok. Sure enough at the next station they got off and London Underground staff took care of the situation.

This reminded me of times that I got split up from my parents when I was little. Alas, being the eldest child, I didn't have an older sibling to reassure me. I seem to remember thinking my world was going to end when I was about 5 and got separated from my parents in Boots or somewhere ... only to find that they were just around the corner anyway. I'm sure if I returned to the same store today I'd find that it's tiny and only has about 3 aisles, but when you're so little the world seems so big and imposing!

• My second story from yesterday involves me in more than an observational capacity. Having not done a sudoku for ages I for some reason quite fancied attempting one yesterday when I got my free newspaper. I struggled a bit near the start, but as time went by and I got a few numbers I got more and more engrossed. Until IT happened.

I looked up from my sudoku just as the tube doors were making that "beep beep beep" noise meaning they were about to shut. To my horror my eyes latched on to the station name through the window. It was my stop. I did a double take. It was definitely my stop. How did we get here so quick?! I flinched as if to make a last-gasp dash for the door but hastily changed my mind. "No," I thought, "you'll only succeed in making yourself look like a moron". My reputation was at stake you see. Not that these people knew me, but nonetheless I was unwilling to swallow my pride and make a dash for the doors when it was so unlikely to be successful.

So instead I tried to stay calm, act as if nothing had happened and hope that the person sitting opposite me hadn't realised 1) how much I'd panicked in that split second and 2) that he was sitting opposite some kind of nutcase who valued getting home as far less significant than completing a simplistic puzzle in a free newspaper. (If I was to guess I think she knew, but being British strangers on a train, of course we didn't talk about it - but it annoys me even now that I think she realised!)

So I went on to the next station before getting a train back to the previous station. The only good thing about this was that it allowed me to complete both the 'easy' and the 'medium' sudokus due to my extended journey. The difficult one awaits me on a day when I'm feeling more daring! Ooh, living dangerously here ... the 'difficult' sudoku .... whatever next?! (and in case it's not obvious that last sentence is meant to be drenched in sarcasm!)

• Now on to today, and I hope I don't disappoint you by telling you that this story is from on a platform rather than on a train! As I was waiting for my train a lady near me was speaking extremely loudly into her mobile phone. And despite her moderately strong accent (though I don't recall the region it was from) it was crystal clear what she was talking about. She was talking to a lady (by the sounds of things, quite conceivably her daughter) and suggesting quite strongly that she gave a second thought to her upcoming marriage. What was said (and bear in mind this is just one end of the conversation) went a little like this:

"You need to think about whether you want to spend the rest of your life with a man who's a control freak ... cos he won't change, he'll carry on controlling for you ... it's not too late to pull out you know ... I mean everything's booked, but I'll pay for it if you cancel ... I just don't want you making a massive mistake."

In particularly the "he'll carry on controlling you" bit went on for quite a while. The lady on the other end of the line clearly didn't agree with this. So it was repeated several times, each way phrased slightly differently, with an increase in volume on each occasion.

So why did I find this worth re-telling? Merely because I found it quite shocking that this lady was talking about this in such a manner in such a public place. Perhaps it would be appropriate for her to raise her concerns about the impending marriage as marriage is a serious commitment and not one that should be taken lightly. I admire her integrity - she's obviously not afraid to make her views known. But to talk about this so vociferously in public?

I half tried not to listen (cos I felt like I was eavesdropping) and half tried to listen (as I was so intrigued!). In the end listening won the day, although I made sure I deliberately looked the other way as I just know that if I looked anywhere near her I'd have ended up staring at her! Anyway, I found that most interesting - the very situation for which the phrase "washing your dirty laundry in public" was invented.

Map of Countries I've Visited

I've just come across the site that let's you make one of these and thought it was pretty cool. Would be interested to see other peoples ...

Oh, and before anyone asks, I have NOT been to Hawaii. Ever. :( It seems it's classed as part of the United States by the website though.

(Below it's cut off the right of the map and I can't be bothered to fix it right now - if you want to see my full map then look on my facebook blog)


visited 15 countries (6%)

create your own visited countries map

[Currently listening to: Relient K - The Best Thing (see music player on rhs)]

Consistently Inconsistent

I seem to very inconsistent in terms of when I blog. I have a little intensive spell for a few days/weeks, then there's a big silence from me for months. I haven't posted here for ages. Hello? Anyone still out there? ;)

Anyone who actually reads this thing must get terribly frustrated by this - oh well, I'll try and have a blogging spell over the next few days.

Then I'll probably decide that blogging isn't the best thing in the world after all and become decidedly apathetic about it for quite some time. Blogging: it ebbs and flows (hope that's a correct use of that expression, cos I've never fully understood what it means!).

The Truth

So I was watching a bit of tv yesterday (the football highlights, what else?) and a trailer for a new BBC programme called "The Verdict" came on (think it started yesterday or today - don't really know). Whilst the trailer itself looked quite good, and I might actually watch the programme if I happen to be free when it's on, although that's unlikely as I don't watch much tv nowadays, there was something else that got to me. The tag-line really bothered me:

"The truth is what you choose to believe"

- which, when you think about it, is absolute nonsense. The truth is not what you choose to believe. Surely whatever you believe there's only one truth. You might believe something to be true, but that doesn't necessarily make it true! I just felt this was typical of the pluralistic society that we're living in nowadays, where someone can say: "well that's fine for you - that's your truth - I'll decide on my own truth thanks". Surely we should be looking at the evidence as closely as possible and trying to make an informed decision as what THE truth is? And this surely applies all the more in a court-room type situation, as I gather "The Verdict" is based around. Whilst its not always possible to prove something is 100% true (especially in court), anything short of a proper effort to get at THE truth is potentially misleading yourself. Anyway, that was just something that annoyed me a good deal.

[Currently listening to: The Fray - How to Save a Life (see music player on rhs)]

Visit Britain ... and ask your ridiculous questions

The other day I read one of the funniest things that I've read in a long time. It was a list of some of the craziest questions asked to VisitBritain (the British tourist board last year) by tourists arriving in Britain in 2006. The list included:

"Are there any lakes in the Lake District?"

"Can you tell me who performs at the circus in Picadilly?"

"What is the entry fee for Brighton?"

"Why did they build Windsor Castle on the flight path of Heathrow?"
(Surely this could only have been asked by an American!)

"What tube line runs to Edinburgh?"

and my personal favourite:
"Is Wales closed during the Winter?"

Hehe. Those made me laugh a lot. Fair play to the people for asking though: if you don't ask, you may never know! They could, however, have engaged their brains a little more before they asked!

5 of each

Some of my current favourite things in the world:
• Revels
• Wikipedia
• Coke Zero
• Musicals
• Razorlight

Some of my current least favourite things in the world:
• People who use "off of" as part of a sentence
• Bad grammar use in general (by native speakers who should know better anyway)
• Having to work weekends
• White Maltesers
• Not having played in a proper football match since mid-November ... in fact, that's probably worst of the lot

Everything seems to come in 5s in my blogging at the moment. I think I should try to break the trend next time around.

5 Exciting Things

I think I'll tell you about 5 exciting things that happened to me today. I've recently started a new temporary (whilst I continue to apply for other stuff) job at Harrods in case you didn't know and so far I'm quite enjoying it. Here's some of the things that happened today ...

1 I encountered my first out-and-out fraud case
Clearly I can't write too much about this due to data protection laws and what-not but I'll see what I can say. Basically I encountered a definite fraud for the first time. I was phoning a customer to verify his order so that we could authorise his card (just nod and smile if this is techno-babble to you) and for the first time encountered a customer who knew nothing of the order that had been place. When I told them which card the purchase had been paid for on I was met with the response, "but he doesn't even have a mastercard!". Clearly not a very good fraudster then, more like a prankster. Whoever it was it seems they'd obtained a legitimate name and address but then completely made up a credit card number to go with them. As if that was going to be successful. Not very professional (if you could ever call fraud "professional").

2 The Santa's Grotto had to be closed cos it was too busy
Not sure how this decision was received. Not so well I'd imagine. How do you cope when there's too many people to see Santa and people are getting annoyed by the crowds? Yep, close the whole thing so that no-one can see Santa. Oh well, I trust the relevant Harrods people knew what they were doing. If I was an excitable 4-year old though, hearing that I wouldn't be able to see Santa after all would not go down too well with me.

3 I had my first experience of giving a customer directions
Yep. I don't get many opportunities to do this as I work in an office just off the shop floor, but this afternoon as I was walking through the store I was asked where the teddy bears were. I was only too happy to oblige ... once I'd grabbed myself a store plan from a nearby desk to find out where the bears actually were!

4 There was a protest outside the store
I went out for a walk on the streets of London during my tea-break (like I do, cos I'm cool ;) ) and was surprised to see a smattering of protesters around the outside of the store protesting against fur. They had placards saying things such as "Stop the fur cruelty. Boycott Harrods." and were handing out leaflets. It was a rather small-scale demonstration: the protesters can't have numbered more than about 20 or so people and despite their best efforts to spread out, make some noise and hand out leaflets they were somewhat lost amongst the hundreds of people walking by the outside of Harrods. As I was walking towards some of the protesters the guy in front of me turned around saying "I'm not going that way - I'm wearing fur" and took a different route as he sought to avoid the protesters. Some of the protesters were dressed up as foxes. Interesting.

5 I momentarily took on the role of tour guide
On the train on the way into London this morning I was asked by a stranger what the landmark in the distance was. Overcoming the temptation to reply with some flippant remark like "Big Ben of course" I restrained myself and muttered that it was the new Wembley stadium. As the train got somewhat nearer to the stadium the 'askee' said "oh yes it is the new Wembley". Clearly he didn't believe me 100% when I told him. We exchanged a couple of humorous remarks about how it'll be a great stadium if it's ever finished. Then we went back to behaving in the way that us Brits always behave on public transport: minding our own business and pretending that nobody else exists.

So there you are, 5 exciting things that happened to me. Feel free to re-brand them as something like "5 vaguely interesting things that I wasted my time reading" if you wish. :)

CUs in the News

Christian Unions were the subject of a front-page article by the Times on Saturday, which is a bit unusual really. It's a subject close to my heart, having benefited from and really enjoyed 3 years being part of the CU during my time at Warwick.

There were also several articles discussing Christian Unions and religion at universities inside the Times and I thought that on the whole they gave a relatively balanced account of the current situation. The pick of the articles, I thought, was this one. A pretty neutral, sensible editorial about how tolerance needs to be a two-way thing. Anyway, check out the article and see what you think.

Christmas Music

No, no, no, no, no. It is just TOO EARLY for it!

Christmas music is something that's been bugging me for the last 2 or 3 weeks. You see I don't so much mind occasionally seeing a Christmas display in certain shops at this time of year. You can kind of get to know where they are and avoid them until you're feeling suitably Christmas-y. Christmas music, however, is a different kettle of fish.

I was in Harrods in London on Friday (just after I'd been for a temp job interview there) and had a little nose around (I hadn't been to Harrods for a LONG time before then, so seeing as I've applied to work there thought it only reasonable that I re-familiarised myself with the place). I could, however, only survive being in the store for about 30 minutes before the wall-to-wall Christmas music drove me mad and forced me to leave.

Don't get me wrong, I don't really have a problem with Christmas music in general (there's some really good Christmas songs around - both those to do with the meaning of Christmas and those with nothing to do with it), its just that right now, it's a little early too be playing it incessantly (and in Harrods every song was a Christmas song). Once we reach December I won't feel quite the same. I heard 'Last Christmas' twice on Friday. That's twice too many for the middle of November as far as I'm concerned.

Assumptions

I'm really rather good at making assumptions - and really quite stupid assumptions at that. It seems that if I'm given the opportunity I will quite willingly put 2 and 2 together and get 17! For example, earlier today when I was at a job interview (just for a Christmas temporary position) I made a stupid assumption and said "so is such and such the case?" and the guy that I asked the question of told me that I was quite mistaken and looked at me as if I was mad! This seems to happen to me all the time!

A few years ago I remember being told not to assume because "to assume makes an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me' "! And it does! It really makes both parties feel rather sublimely stupid.

I suppose I should probably ask more questions to clarify details rather than just assuming. But I feel that I already ask an awful lot of questions and people must be rather sick and tired of me doing so and wish I'd say something of real consequence! Why can't I admit that I'm not sure if that's the case though?!

Oh dear ... sometimes I just wish the ground would open up and swallow me! Lol.

Stats that reassure

I'm still engaged in a frustrating, time-consuming job-hunt where it seems that I'm rethinking my ideas all the time as possible career corridors open up or disappear (quite commonly the latter after the former not long before!).

Anyway, there's a bunch of stats that I'm keeping at the back of my mind, just to remind me that it's perfectly normal and sensible to be searching for that first job for so long. I thought I'd jot a few of them down here:

• Only 30% of graduates are in jobs 6 months after graduating (in the UK)

• Only 50% of graduates are in jobs a year after graduating (in the UK)
(With these kind of facts I'm guessing that by "in jobs" what is meant is in jobs in the graduate's desired sector or something like this [i.e. excluding temping and so on]. I find this stat particularly reassuring)

• For every aspirational graduate job, UK universities produce about 20 graduates
(This is reassuring in the sense that it indicates that it's normal to struggle to find a job ... although it's less reassuring in the long-run. Clearly the definition of 'aspirational' is quite subjective though. And it's far from essential to only look at jobs that someone else is labelling as 'aspirational' - it's what you think that's more important.)

• Your working life is made up of 16,000 days
(So it's not such a bad thing to take some time to get a good first job cos you're gonna work for a long time!)

• The average person graduating now is going have 25 jobs in the course of their career
(Actually this kinda suggests that it's best to just get on with any old job cos you're going to change anyway. Although perhaps by figuring the kind of work that you prefer before you start you can minimise this number of job changes.)

• HR departments say that only 10% of graduates are ready for the working world, whilst 90% of graduates think that they're ready
(Not sure that this one reassures me much actually! I just thought it was interesting. Do I feel ready for the working world? Reasonably so, yes. Maybe others would disagree!)

• 90% of people don't work for big organisations
(I guess this implies that even if you don't land a 'big-time' job there's still plenty of hope left)

• The top 3 things that graduates lack:
- The ability to sell
- The ability to speak on the phone
- The ability to portray the company's corporate image
(Again, this one's more interesting than reassuring but perhaps it's possible to set yourself apart by demonstrating that you have these skills which seem to be in short supply)

A good piece of advice that I was given: "Be prepared to look for up to a year for a job. If, after a year you still don't have your ideal job then take the best on offer." I think at the moment this is the kind of thing that I'm looking to do, but I shall see.

Anyway, whenever I'm feeling a bit down about my job situation (not having one, not being sure that I'm looking in the right areas [for a job that I'd enjoy and would suit me]), which is quite often at the moment, I recall some of the above. When I do that I realise that I'm not alone in my situation and that as your working life is extenisve, it's worth taking a bit of time to make sure that you start off in the most suitable job possible.

1:53:17

Well, I finished it. *sigh* And now, a couple of days later, I've just about recovered from the Lady Godiva half marathon.

It was a really good weekend all-round - great to see some of my uni friends again whilst I was up in the midlands. Now back to the harsh reality of job applications this week.

The half marathon was definitely the highlight of the weekend. Even though, as I said, I wasn't totally looking forward to it, on the day I actually did enjoy the challenge, despite the fact that not every second of the running could be described as being "enjoyable"! I finished in 1 hour, 53 minutes and 17 seconds. Steve finished about 20 minutes after me. I think we were both happy enough with those times, although of course there's always a little bit of you that thinks "I could have run that a fraction faster" (I came around 700th out of over 1700 runners by the way ... which is alright I suppose).

I'm also famous now, thanks to the half marathon ... well, kind of! A photo of me crossing the start line is featured on the BBC Coventry website. Click here to see it! Was pleasantly surprised by that - it's not every day you're featured on the BBC website. Stardom beckons ... not!

Would I do it again? Maybe. If I do another half marathon or similar then I'd probably do it for charity. Quite a few people have asked me something along the lines of "so, which charity are you running for?". Thus, I've had lots of practice at uttering the words "Actually I'm not. I'm just running for a challenge - a challenge with a friend." i.e. I'm running for myself - selfish, selfish me! Haha. Nah, I think it was alright to run this as a pure challenge. The fact that I signed up pretty late meant that there was little time to sort out any kind of fundraising or the like. But I guess if I did anything like this again then it'd be really ace to do it for a good cause as well as for the fact that it's a great challenge. Though maybe I should just aim to beat my time ...

Half Marathon

On Sunday I'm running a half marathon in Coventry. Or, to be a little more specific, I'm hopefully attempting to run the "Lady Godiva half marathon". (If you want an interesting read I suggest you look up Lady Godiva on wikipedia - she's a person with quite an interesting history, one which explains where the phrase 'peeping tom' came from amongst other things)

Except I don't really want to run the half marathon anymore. I feel overwhelmed and underprepared.

It's ironic that I'm not as keen to run now as I'm the one that came up with the idea in the first place and encouraged a friend that entering would be a good idea. When I suggested entering though, I'm not sure I anticipated Steve taking me up on the offer. I just thought that doing something like this would be "nice" - a fun challenge and enjoyable as the route goes through the campus of Warwick uni. I'd not really thought about the necessity of being motivated and putting in the spade work. (Before anyone starts to question my training techniques, I feel I should point out that I use the term "spade work" here metaphorically! :P Thank you.) But fair play to Steve for taking me up on that challenge and I'm sure we've pushed each other on in our training - let's hope we do the same on Sunday.

I mentioned that I feel a little underprepared. Well, I have done a few weeks training (so I'm optimistic that I should be able to complete the race at the very least), but people keep pointing out to me that I could have done a lot more. Like in the following conversation that I had ...

My Mum: "I don't think you've prepared very much for this half marathon - you should have started training much earlier, so don't go out there expecting to run a personal best or anything like that."
Me: "I think you're forgetting something. I've never run a half marathon before. Therefore even if the race takes me six hours it's still a PB. In fact even if I don't start the race I've already acheived a personal best due to the fact that I've entered, thus beating my previous best 'record' of never having entered a half marathon!"

(By the way another thing my mum told me recently was: "you don't drink enough". Before I go out on a binge-drinking spree though, I think she was talking about liquids in general. Yes Mum, I should really drink a bit more water. It's great living at home again! Nah, in all honesty she has a point, but I've gone off the topic just slightly: back to it ...)

Anyway, I'd best go get some sleep to ensure I'm well-rested ready for Sunday. Then I just hope I can last the course.

My Huge Embarrassment

Today saw one of the most memorable (although I now want to forget it) embarrassing things that I've done recently.

Having been at home for most of the day doing job-hunt related stuff (reading mainly), I paid a quick visit to the bank to pay in a cheque and pay a bill. Upon leaving the bank I thought it would be nice to leave in a cheerful manner, so I wished the person serving me "a good weekend" ... on a MONDAY!!!

I think this must be a consequence of me having a 'house day' where I'd not really been out the house much, but had been cooped up in my room and a scarce amount of contact with any other humans. :( Gah, having too many such days really get to me. I did realise earlier on in the day that it was Monday, but at that particularly point in time it would seem that for some reason I thought it was Friday. :S

Interestingly, the bank attendant didn't correct me. She just said "you too". I do hope she didn't really notice what I said, but I fear that she just chose not to correct me. Hmm, I can imagine the bank staff all having a good laugh at my expense after I'd left.

I think I'll have to avoid the bank for a while.

Job Applications

Currently wading through a stack of application forms (well, technically they're not in a stack, not a physical stack at least, cos they've all been online). Oh what a joy.

I've just realised that, having recently written it so many times on various forms, I have now memorised my National Insurance Number!

How sad is that?! Oh dear, oh dear ... it's all downhill from here ...

Flawed Heroes

Nobody's perfect. That's something that I've been constantly reminded of recently. Not even celebrities that so many people (myself included) so often elevate to such a high pedestal.

One of the most recent celebs to "fall from grace" is Tom Chaplin, the Keane singer, who is now in rehab. I'd built him up in my own mind in a way as I'm a huge Keane fan. He's got an amazing voice and is an integral part of a band that's produced some awesome music (in my opinion!), with so many things going for them. Keane have always had such a positive image - they tried to refrain from dissing other bands and so on. Because of this they were accused of being boring and ironically the media are probably happier now that their human-ness has been exposed!

Pete Doherty is recognised by many as one of the greatest song-writers of recent years. His struggles have been headline news in the last year or two though. Such is the extent of his drug-related problems now that many of his fans now daren't miss a gig in case it's his last.

Zinedine Zidane is to many people one of the finest footballers the world has ever seen. I totally agree - he has elements of genius about him, he would do things that no one else could do. He was certainly a flawed genius though. He was sent off a number of times, 2 of which stand out in my memory. The first was for stamping in the 1998 world cup - an act of malice if ever there was one. The second is now one of the most infamous sendings off of all time. In this summer's world cup final, with a few minutes remaining in extra time, Zidane headbutted Marco Materazzi in retaliation to a comment that Materazzi made. Zidane had already announced his retirement, so that was the very last act of his career. So, Zidane: a fantasically skilled sportsman, but by no means perfect.

Charles Kennedy, former Lib Dem leader, had the respect of many, but people were quick to turn against him after it emerged that he was suffering from a drinking problem. He was quickly replaced as leader and little has been heard of him since. It wasn't long ago that he was being heralded as an inspiring potential leader of our nation.

I could go on and on - it seems almost every week there's another celebrity scandal in the tabloids. It seems that the media (or at least certain parts of it) take great joy in building people up to knock them down again. But why shouldn't they? These journalists are only human and so it's unsurprising that where it's possible to feel better about yourself by showing that others aren't all they're cracked up to be, that some will take the opportunity (here the incident with Chris Martin - who has a pretty squeaky clean image - punching a journalist who "got to him" springs to mind) . If I'm honest, I think I like to know that these guys stuff up too. I like to know that they're human. It must hurt a lot of celebs that their flaws/mistakes are pointed out in such a public way ... just one of the prices of being famous I guess.

To the same degree I know that I occasionally build myself up as something of a hero and am audacious enough to mistakenly think that I'm without flaw. Even though such a mindset is usually only maintained for a short length of time it's one I can do without as it is a totally false one. I like to put on a mask and pretend that I'm better than I am. Often when things fall apart I'm brought down-to-earth with a crash. Thus whilst I can aspire to do heroic things, I'll always be flawed. But I can draw great strength from knowing that God loves me oodles despite these flaws! :) And I know that God can change me to chip away at these imperfections (in theological language I guess this is the sanctification after the justification bit if that means anything to anyone :P)

So why have have I been thinking about heroes and about the notion of flawed heroes? Probably in part because of press coverage of people like Tom Chaplin and certainly partly because of having a theme of superheroes for a week of children's summer holiday clubs that I helped with earlier this summer. However, I think it was also to a degree down to me reading the following quote, which I think sums things up quite nicely (it's from a book called "The Life" by J John - seems like a good read, although I'm only part way through it at the moment):

"We live in hard times for heroes. There is a cynicism in our culture that eats away at even the most glorious reputations. Almost overnight, selfless geniuses turn out to be selfish fools, great leaders are revealed as insecure bullies and champions of morality are exposed as hypocrites. One of the few figures to survive with their reputation intact is Jesus Christ."

Back again

Well, after another substantial break I decided it was high-time to give this blogging malarchy another go! So here I am :)

I'm hoping to get posting more regularly over the coming weeks and months, as I was when I started this blog. I'm hoping that I'll have time to fulfill this ambition now that I'm a job-seeking graduate who has no concrete timetable at present (which is kinda good and bad I'm finding btw ... but maybe I'll write about that in another post).

Anyway, that'll do for this comeback post ... it's good to be back from the blogging wilderness! :P

Bye Bye Coursework

I've just finished my last ever piece of university coursework (well, for my undergraduate degreee anyway). Wooo!

Of course it involved the usual all-nighter - no change there then. But why? Why do I put myself through this? I left this coursework right til the last week of the Easter holidays, but even then (after I started it last Tuesday) I should have finished it in 2 or 3 days.

1) I'm bad at disciplining myself to work - don't seem to have a decent sense of urgency until the deadline gets close.

2) I'm a bit of a perfectionist. With an essay or a report it's never finished to me until the deadline physically arrives and I'm not actually allowed to work on it any longer. Even if I think I've finished my work a few days before the deadline I'll still go back to it to have "one last look" and end up re-writing half of it and worrying about it. I tend to worry about my work quite a bit til its handed in ... and not at all after that (why should I? you can't change it once you've handed it in!)

3) All-nighters are kinda fun. Generally kinda lonely as it's pretty much just you and the work, but still kinda fun nonetheless. With no-one around and the deadline approaching fast it's easy to focus. I like seeing my housemates/flatmates get up in the morning and uttering things like "You're up early - what time did you get up?" and seeing their faces when I say that I've been up all-night.

Anyway, no more coursework ... yay!

Facing up to Facebook

Just as you thought I couldn't write any more about procastination here I go again. :) Undoubtedly one of the chief forms of time-wasting recently has been ... Facebook. For those of you who don't know, Facebook is supposedly the online way of keeping in touch with fellow students - a bit like "My Space" I suppose, but for uni students (whereas "My Space" is open to anyone). It's a bit of a craze that's sweeping Warwick at the moment, having previously gripped dozens of other universities. Anyway, I found the following quite amusing (from one of the "groups" on Facebook). If you're familiar with (and thus probably addicted to) Facebook then I'm sure you will do too:

10 REASONS TO GET OFF FACEBOOK...

1. You are at a bar or club and you suddenly realize you recognize someone. You can't figure out how and then it dawns on you... You have never met this person before, but have spent a considerable amount of time looking at their profile on facebook.
2. After meeting someone your conversation somehow leads to - "So, are you on facebook?"
3. You do not call people anymore, you post comments and send messages through facebook.
4. When talking with your friends someone says a random comment and you all exclaim "facebook quote!"
5. When you're out with friends and you take a good picture you exclaim loudly, "That's my new facebook pic!"
6. Conversations with friends tend to lead to, "Did you read that msg that ___ left on their wall?"
7. You check your facebook as soon as you wake up, and right before you go to bed, including the 10 times you check it during the day.
8. You know people who have gotten offended about other peoples comments on walls
9. You start off intending to check if you have new messages/comments but find AN HOUR LATER that you are still on and have no idea what you even accomplished during that time except stalk.
10. You find yourself laughing (sadly) and agreeing as you read these, and you know you're going to repost this for everyone else to see.