Running Out of Steam

The title says it all really, for whatever reason i've nearly just completely run out of steam and motivation. It's not just this advent blog, but also lectures which are being affected. It's got to the point where i'm not really sure whether it's still worth blogging daily, as i seem to be just writing loads of sort apology posts, which wasn't exactly the point. Maybe it's because of a total lack of material, that might be true, but there's plenty of things to write about out there. Although i do know that my writing style really doesn't work like that, if someone gives me a topic to write about i can normally spurt out some totally grade a waffle. Otherwise i just tend to well... write, it normally starts with only a simple idea and then my brain just takes it wherever, sometimes without ever really being consciously recognized.

 Surely given that i could very easily pick a news story of a event of the day and just start writing about it then. I could but i really think the core problem here is deeper than just writing style. For starters the reason i really can't be bothered today, goes down to the fact that currently i want to go and talk to other people elsewhere in college, unsurprisingly writing blogs isn't the most social thing in the world. This feeling has been especially empahised this last week as the realisation that i only have a few nights left here in Durham and that it might be nice to actually spend that time talking to them in person. Will it be easier when i'm back home? No, if anything it'll be harder as the there i want to spend all the time i can chilling out with my girlfriend. After all i only have 5 weeks at home before coming back to uni for another term.

The other reason is the Pokemon game, which is no longer following the rules of the Nuzlocke challenge: i still can only catch the first Pokemon in each area, but the fainting equates to dying is no longer in effect, but the nickname one is and is the cause for the attachment that doesn't want me to release them once fainted really. Does this make the whole thing a futile exercise, well in terms of Pokemon, no as i'm still using Pokemon previously that i wouldn't. In terms of general life, yes it is quite futile but so is playing Pokemon at uni really.

This leads me on to the final reason why i think i've run out of steam. The workload. No not the huge amount of work i have to do, quite the opposite. Engineering has quite simply wound down for Christmas with less lectures no maths work or problem sheets, and only a solitary CAD assignment to dig into, which before you ask will be finished tomorrow once i've queried a few things. It's similar to sleep really, if you sleep little you'll be tired, but if on the other hand you sleep too much and relax too much, you'll be just as tired.

Having said all these things about why my questioning of the daily blogging, i now realise that they are somewhat hypocritical as they have given me something to write about. However i can say, and previosu days can testify, that this will not be the case everyday. I will keep blogging daily though, whether for the odd moment of inspiration that was lurking below the surface, or just to keep me in habit so when something does happen which i can write about, i will be forced to write about it. See you all tomorrow.

Day 10- double digits, doesn't really mean much since we're still less than half way.

Let it Snow!

It feels a bit writing this post about snow, when it is currently drizzling outside, but it's ok because this post is not actually just about snow, it was just too good a title not to use. To explain Durham has been through... well let's just say a quite lot of weather recently, i would say varied but the heatwave i was hoping for hasn't happened unfortunately; a bit annoying since the only reason i came to Durham was for the brilliant and warm weather... oh no wait i'm getting confused with myself, that was why i like the Med.

This is the story of how my advent calendar got slightly damaged.

(roll title theme, with suitable picture montage taken in a bar with some friends)

The story begins sometime ago, whilst i was back at home for the weekend. Waiting on platform 13 (i platform i didn't even know existed a while back) at Manchester Piccadilly. I was just coming back from a great weekend, although the 6:30 start wasn't so great. To cut a long descriptive link to the next part (i really don't do descriptive) my train was late. Not unusual you say, well it was for me after i was just boasting how great Transpennine were for being on time all the time, also the fire near the tracks between Oxford Rd and Piccadilly might have had something to do with the lateness.

So the train arrived 30 minutes late, but that was fine with me, they said they could make up the time. Then after getting stuck behind two stopping trains (one to Leeds, and the other to York) this illusion was pretty much shattered. Needless to say by the time i got to York, we were an hour late with still another hour journey to make. Then what was a funny moment became reasonably annoying. A woman got on our train, asked whether it was the Middlesborough train, and we duefully replied no, she then tried to get off, only problem was that the doors were now firmly shut. So she was there shouting at them and trying to force them open.

Magically they seemed to open. It wasn't magic, they had opened to let us off not her, as the tannoy explained that we had vacate and wait for the next train to Newcastle, as this train was now going to Middlesborough. Thankfully after all this and after we had all gotten onto the next train nothing else happened, apart from everything that was meant to happen, like the train going to Durham, so i should really say, nothing else unexpected happened.

Wait a minute this story has got nothing to do with my advent calendar, that happened a few weeks later. Ah well it's not as if the start of this story gave the wrong impression, and that it will actually take at least 8 series to get to the actual point. I might add that they are 8 great series and also if you're confused you've just totally missed a reference, but i'm quite used to people not getting my references, though quite a few of my friends have figured out that the answer "hitchhiker's right" is normally correct (it isn't in this case FYI).

However i do feel a bit guilty now, and so i will tell you the actual events of how my advent calendar became slightly damaged. But for whatever reason (i really don't feel the need to come up with one) i'm going to start from now and work backwards... because that's the way i roll. Actually it's not i tend to roll in a haphazard way whilst incurring many injuries and in any direction with flailing limbs.

So as i have previously mentioned my view from my window is of beautiful snow (well more sludge now, but i assure you it was beautiful snow at some point). This is because it has been snowing up here, twice in fact. Once in the depths of night, so i did not see it happening at all, i mean who's up at 1am at university? But i saw the other, mainly because i was walking at the time and you tend to notice being bombarded with snow, if only because of the blurry vision, that would either be down to snow or a very sudden onset of shortsightedness.

The side effect of this snow is slippy paths, which are quite comical for those who are experienced enough to walk on them without serious adverse effect, whilst watching many who have not attained this skill. Of course snow on it's on can't have caused such problems and you're right the other reason for all this ice, is well the ice we had before. A week before the snow fell infact the ice was here, as the positive Celsius went into hibernation and the negative came out to wreck havoc, and very cold noses.

Now you can't have ice without water (i really hope everyone reading this understands this principle). So for all this ice to appear there had to be water before, and i haven't led you down a blind alley because surprise surprise just before the ice it had rained... a lot.

Now back to Piccadilly train station. This time the train was on time, and i had firmly put the events of the couple weeks before behind me, all ready for a straightforward train journey. Any of you who follow the news, will probably know that this was an unlikely event since the rain had caused a few problems in the north east. Well a few problems equates to flooding, i mean proper flooding: i saw a river where it was a foot below the top of a telephone pole, somehow i don't think that's how it was designed.

Basically it meant another delayed train, although the views were very interesting, and we didn't have to change in York, despite being told over the tannoy again, luckily this was quickly rectified as we were let through Darlington (and actually the last train that day to stop at Chester-Le-Street). Durham fared better than the Darlington area, but nevertheless there were still problems.

When i got back the river bank had flooded the pathway and some lecture rooms were actually flooded. A new river had also appeared near Prebends bridge, down the hill and was nicely filling the reservoir on the roundabout, or should that be the reservoir that was the roundabout.

So it's been an eventful few weeks in terms of weather here, i've managed to make it through it all reasonably  well though, i mean my boots have quite high water marks, and my hair has been towel dried after walking from town but no ice related injuries or such. This has been the story of how my advent calendar... oh wait, almost forgot: basically it got bent in my rucksack on the train, having been given it in Macc by my parents, and then got damp when walking back through the rain and flood. You see i definitely needed all the build to that thoroughly exciting story and in no way have i over dramaticized something.

Ok maybe i did, sorry about that... but i assure you waiting for the story of the throat lozenges or the one-point perspective drawing, will be well worth it...

Day 6- You'll never look at this calendar in the same way now you know what it's been through

I've Been Busy Ok...

I am quite sorry for this, although i knew at some point this point would occur, and as i'm not one for saving pre-written posts for such occasions (that just feels wrong), this is going to be a very short post today, but i am posting and that is what counts. Normally i would probably just leave it and say sorry tomorrow, but not this time. This is time i'm determined to be different, if only by apologising on the correct day. So yes, i am sorry especially since it's only day 5 into this series, but c'est la vie really, well more like c'est le Sean (my french is not that good, so sorry if that doesn't make sense). 

Basically today hasn't been particularly busy primarily, as i only had one lecture and then a formal meal, but inbetween i have been revising for an exam tomorrow (my revision is still working) or talking with my friends before/ after said formal meal. I thought i would have time after the meal for a proper post, not well thought out i will conceive, after all my social life does come before this blog (sorry for anyone who thought otherwise).

So that's it really, sorry is all i've got to say. I might add that i can't promise that this won't happen again, because it most likely will, knowing me, but i'm not posting this on facebook, there really doesn't seem any point. Will i write a longer post tomorrow to make up for it? Probably not, that's not the way this blog works really, i tend to just arrange my nonsense into to some form of English and leave it at that, and nonsense cannot be forced out. Anyway i'd best be off to get a proper kip before the exam tomorrow, i always find sleep and a good breakfast are much better than any revision, see you all tomorrow... hopefully.

Day 5- has Sean sunk into his old ways already... not quite, but the photo gives away how late it was when i got round to taking it.

Packing Up a Week Early

Ok, i know that that isn't the greatest title ever thought off but it quite accurately describes the current process i'm going through. On a side note if the title is different to "Packing Up a Week Early" then please ignore this and the previous sentence, i might go and changed the title later once some moment of inspiration enlightens me, but i highly doubt that i'll ever change what i'm writing here.

Back to the story, so yes the title above (may or may not) describe the current process i'm going through of packing up my stuff from my uni room. But wait a minute, why am i packing a full 10 days before i leave? It's rather simple to be honest, nothing to do with being highly organised, on sunday our college has a room moving day. You might think that that sounds very weird, and it does frankly, it's also a bit annoying. I won't complain too much though, because as events have conspired i've managed to find myself in the situation where i'm leaving the room with noise from the bar, a neighbour who has the widest range of (loud) music taste, one minute it's the Dire Straits then Cinematic Orchestra then to dubstep, though i only dislike one of them being blared through the wall. Probably worst, even though i've come to live with it, is the hot water tap.

Now when i arrived in Durham my hot water tap dripped, only a little, but it dripped. I was perfectly fine with that, it didn't annoy me, then after a couple of weeks it started to get worse, until it was pretty much a full trickle coming from it. So like any sensible student i went to the porters to get it sorted... and well i can't argue that they solved the problem, but wrenching the tap closed then leaving it wasn't quite what i had in mind. Ok, maybe i'm not being so truthful, they did say that they'd fix it as well at some point, but this was just an intermediate stage, a at least 8 week stage and counting though.

So yeah, i'm leaving all this for a refurbished room, in a quaint corner of college with a better kitchen (though not quite equipped enough for any kind of proper cooking yet). I suppose this is probably being viewed through tinted glasses though, and when i'm there the faults will no doubt shine through (ever the optimist). Despite that i will still claim vigorously that it is the best room, even while admitting the flaws, not sure why i do both, just complaining or just boasting would seem normal, but both at the same time, is that weird?

Packing has been the order of the day because of this, and also the revision that needs to be procrastinated, so two birds with one stone really. I might also mention that it's not weird for me to start packing several days before going away, i've always done that. To me it makes it so much more relaxed, and it also spreads out the excitement as well. It also means (in this case) much time can be wasted sorting through every single little thing, rather than rushingly sweeping everything into boxes, crates, suitcases, and anything i can use to hold things.

This has led me to sorting out all the things i picked up during fresher's week and then left in a draw, i dubbed the freshers junk draw. Freebies that seemed excellent at the time, mainly because they were free, but that i thought: maybe i will use them at some point, so i best leave them in this drawer which will no doubt ever be opened this whole term. This thought was wrong of course though, not only have i never used any of it, i also did open the drawer if only to clear it all out into the bin (and the paper into the recycling because i'm good like that, and so should you be (does that make me a eco-warrior, i feel like it deserves some accolade, i mean this is a well established (-ish), well read (-ish) blog)).

What makes this whole exercise a bit pointless though, is the fact that on sunday i'll move and start unpacking and then my packing for going home will probably start around tuesday. But that's just one of those things isn't it? That's not rhetorical btw, is it actually one of those things? as i'm not quite sure what one of those things is. So to anyone packing to go home from uni, or to go on holiday, if you get annoyed just remember that at least you don't have to pack to move rooms and then repack to go home. Also it's Christmas, so stop being so miserable...

Day 4 - This photo is definitely not faked just to add emphasis to my post.... definitely not.

A Music Related Post on a Monday... That Sounds Familiar

When thinking of what topic to write about today literally only one thought crossed my mind, and so frankly it was an easy decision to make. Why am i telling you this? Well because whilst that decision might have been easy to make, i couldn't quite figure out how on earth to start this post. In my head i had a clear idea and when it came to writing it... well i forgot the essential first word of the sentence and without that it didn't make any sense whatsoever, so instead i did this and i think it's working pretty well as an intro. Well as the very least it's better than a sentence with the key word missing. 

So what is this topic? Is it the elusive story of the advent calendar? Or about the snow that greeted me as i arose this morn and drew back the curtains? No, no it's not, it's actually about my Christmas playlist, as i thought it's monday and once upon a time i set about trying to write music reviews every monday, if you do so recall. Now rather than letting those times fade into the past, i decided instead to highlight my inability to post regularly and make you all remember what happened that first time i attempted to write anything of a regular blog, it might serve as an explanation if at any point in the next 22 days i suddenly just stop, which will definitely not happen, though it might to be honest... i mean it won't... let's just see how it goes.

Every year i make a Christmas playlist filled with festive tunes, so i can wile away the hours in the build up to Christmas day, by filling my head with such happy tunes. This year was to be no different, though it was, as i couldn't make a playlist whilst at uni because all my music is on my ipod and on the home server and not on my actual computer, meaning itunes won't let me make a playlist, even though i have the songs on my ipod (sorry i won't get dragged into another itunes rant again, that can be saved for the future).

I realised this annoying fact a few days before my journey up north and so had very little time to make a playlist, as i was preoccupied with other pre-uni things, namely packing because somehow i think that bedding is more important than a Christmas playlist, though it is a very close call. So my playlist is sadly lacking, but nevertheless it still has some great stuff on it and of course Spotify is always here to help fill in some gaps and give me some new music to listen to.

Over the next few mondays i might take the time to talk about specific albums in particular, especially in 2 weeks time as i will be back home, with access to all the Christmas music (insert relevant meme here, if you have no idea what i'm talking about, then just ignore this brackets). But for now i shall simply list the current songs/albums on my playlist/ Spotify playlist

In no particular order (well actually the order they appear on the playlist, as i'm just reading them off): Peace On Earth - Casting Crowns; Let it Snow Baby.... Let it Reindeer - Relient K; Over The Hills And Everywhere - Seabird; How Many Kings - Downhere; Drummer Boy - Jars of Clay; X Christmas - Various; Christmas! - Newsboys; Christmas in Diverse City - TobyMac; Oh For Joy - David Crowder Band; Christmas - Michael Buble; Gloria - 29th Chapter; The Ultimate Jazz Christmas - Various; and as ever the best Christmas song ever: Fairytale of New York - The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl.

So that's all i've got at the moment, not much pop Christmas songs, though that's because they're the ones that didn't make the journey up north. Have any recommendations for me? Feel more than welcome to post them in the comments below. I will endeavour to go through the best ones out of that list in the next few weeks and believe me some of them are quite brilliant and others are.... well different, in a good way though. 

That's all for today, as i need to be getting off to a carol concert in Durham cathedral, which promises to be amazing. So happy listening, whether to your own playlist or to a few of mine or a mix, whichever it is, it doesn't matter, just have a Merry Christmas and don't feel too embarrassed to sing along, after all isn't that what Christmas songs are for?

Day 3 - I should probably sort out these photos at some point, as they're not that great.

'Tis the Season to do Revision...

Wrapping presents, writing cards, putting decorations up (not trimming up), eating mince pies, singing along to carols… and revision? Ok, so that’s not strictly true, out of all of them I’ve only partaken in the last three activities, and I haven’t eaten a mince pie in December yet. So basically all I’ve so far done in this most festive period is sung carols and done revision. Those of you who know me well will know that that is an absurd combination of things to find me doing.

I don’t sing much in public (or in private to be honest, so I could have just left out the “in public” bit… could of). Well this is true if you don’t count church, down a cave, up a hillside or just general walking around (the latter I get some weird looks for doing, but that’s the benefit of headphones, I don’t have to listen to myself), so apart from all that I don’t sing much, so basically I sing a reasonable amount. However I haven’t sung in any professional-esque way since quitting choir in year 7, right after achieving my goal of going to Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Now this was something I had resolved to change when I arrived at university, the singing bit, not going to Blackpool again (though I’m not saying I don’t want to go to Blackpool again, so no offence to anyone from there). However this was soon put into doubt after only one choir practice, after which through a combination of busyness and can’t-be-bothered-ness I didn’t go again; but yesterday I found the perfect way to overcome such trepidation... the allure of singing carols, that and my new fondness to singing bass, the nice vibration when singing low is much better than the slight pain of trying to reach the highest tenor notes.

That was only one part of my weekend though, and whilst the Christmas festivities beckoned me into their warm arms, I had to resist such temptation. Instead I knew I had to embark on the daunting task of revision. Can I just say, (well it’s my blog, so I guess I can) who puts exams a few weeks before Christmas, that’s just against the Christmas spirit. Although I suppose it’s better than just after Christmas, and the fact that they moved them forward a week leading to 3 days of blissful nothingness (apart from an assignment) in the last week of term.

Before anyone questions, yes I did actually do some revision, and I’m glad I did having found out a few things I didn’t know, and then during revision today finding out that the few things I didn’t know were actually all helpfully laid out on a nifty formula sheet. It wasn’t all wasted though, as today I got absolutely scuppered on a whole section of a past paper, though I then realised that the equations I needed were also listed helpfully in a section later down.

So the first lesson from my revision is get to know what you’re given in the exam; useful stuff. Of course the rest didn’t go all swimmingly either, there were a couple of questions I didn’t get and am now tasked with reading up on said related topics. I realised though that these topics were the ones I missed because of my train being late one Monday morning (this is another interesting story to come, quite possible more interesting than the slightly damaged advent calendar, though they’re both frankly riveting stories, that in no way could be explained in just a few sentences, thereby cutting any attempted suspense. If you’re one to say, what suspense and laugh at this seemingly pathetic attempt at it, be warned in just a few days’ time you won’t most definitely not be able to sleep because of the suspense that will be eating away at you, like a hamster eating a mountain)

Lesson two therefore is go to your lectures and if you do miss one, actually read up on the missed topic and don’t just assume that it’ll all be alright (also be sure to read up on mountain eating hamsters, they most definitely exist and are in no way a figment of my slightly weird imagination, and a terrible simile as well).

My final lesson for successful revision is this: whatever you do don’t just give up because of one question that has a massive amount of words, that as an engineer scares you to no end, and turn to writing a blog post instead. That should never, ever be done…

Another door another day... also to add to the already overwhelming suspense, some of those items you can see will be talked about in the upcoming month.

It's Christmas! Well the Start of my Celebrations...

Yesterday was a very long day. All the talk about the Last Day of Non-Christmas, made me feel... well quite Christmassy, and yet i had to bundle it all up and keep it under wraps until today. Now it is today, and therefore the start of my Christmas. The advent calendar has been opened, the chocolate quickly gulped down (it tasted so Christmassy, not sure what that taste likes though), that might have been due to me missing breakfast having had my first lie-in for a while (but i predict many more to happen during the festive period). The playlist is out already and filling my room with the festivities, definitely making up for the severe lack of actual decorations; on a side note, does any here say trimming up the house when talking about putting decorations up, weird question i know, but one of my friends does and none of us had ever heard of it.

The other way i'm making up for the decoration absence is through the sprucing up of my blog. Last night i was playing about the blog's design and settled on something ever so slightly different from before (not sure if any of you saw it) but this morning i scraped all that, opting to make a festive template for this festive period. Though it was incredibly hard to try and find my own Christmas background that would actually work with my blog, so instead i've had to revert to a typical Sean-bodge job and use a blogger provided one. Hope you like it, if you don't then i don't really care since i do, and if you are annoyed with the lack of Christmas green, that feeling of not caring is equally extended to you, because frankly i just prefer red, whether it's original or not.

Hopefully if i can keep to my promise of daily blogging, all this sprucing up will be all worth it; especially since revision and an assignment has been put off to do it. On a similar note, due to the daily blogging, whilst i have many-a-things to write after over a month off, don't expect any long prose as i will be trying to stretch it all out, to make everyday have something worth talking about. If by chance new topics crop up (i'm hoping they will, otherwise this could be quite a boring Christmas), then i'll just rejig it all to fit everything in.

So whilst yesterday and today have very much been much ado about nothing, tomorrow should hopefully commence the actual topical posts. And as a sneak preview (a.k.a. everything i've actually thought of and have consequently written down, rather than just forget) here's a few things that i have to talk about: various Christmas albums which are essential to my playlist, the start of a truly mobile blog, various uni matters including the annoying room change, and last but definitely not least the story behind the slightly damaged advent calendar.

But for now, i shall simply say Merry Christmas Everybody, hope it's an enjoyable time of year for you all.

Day 1- hence one door has been opened, it's how advent calendars work.

The Last Day of Non-Christmas

So it's that time of year again, November is drawing to a close and December is just around the corner. Many have already taken the opportunity to affix the decorations or sing along to the carols, but not I. As ever i have stuck hard and fast to my December rule, for me Christmas shall always start on the 1st of the last month of each year, on that day and on that day only shall i open up my Christmas playlist and welcome the festive tunes to my room.

Being at university hasn't affected this either, even with the reduced time to celebrate, the December rule isn't affected by such a change of circumstance. However this year, the urge to let out the festive spirit has been greater than recent years, which has put the rule under serious strain. Could i make it to the 1st without any festivities? Alas i could not, i'm afraid to say, i have already played a few Christmas songs, though i console that with the fact is was more of a way of finding out what Christmas music had made the journey up north.

Also the first mince pie of the season has already been scoffed down, though i'm not sure this has ever been a part of the rule anyway. How can one possibly refuse a mince pie when offered? Anyway i believe the mince pie is a symbol of the upcoming festivities, a pre-marker really. Having said all this, i still haven't seen a Christmas advert, which might suggest to you i don't watch TV. Au contraire, i have been watching a lot of TV, it's just all online and so the annoyingness of early Christmas adverts has been mostly avoided.

However my excitement for the season is still higher than ever, which has led to my formation of an new part of the build up to Christmas, that is today shall now be known as "The Last Day of Non-Christmas". Ok, so it's not the snappiest name, and yes there might not seem to be much point to elevating this day to this title, after all surely it's just the same as any other year. Well yes actually, i haven't quite got round to actually figuring out what this day should encompass.

Obviously it can't have any real part of Christmas celebrations related to it, as that's the whole point of it. Frankly the less it is celebrated the better on principle really. So this is me telling you about a whole new part of Christmas celebrations, which shouldn't be about Christmas nor should it be celebrated. Yep that sounds about right. The only real significance it does symbolize is the start of what i hope to be daily blogging, to make amends for the lack of such over the last weeks which have flown by so so quickly.

Although this should not really be counted as the first of the series of advent blogs, since today has nothing to do about Christmas and therefore nothing to do with advent either. So it should be treated as any other post really, though now that i've mentioned all this it's probably better if you just forget it all ever happened and pretend that you didn't read a single word. So if you could do that, great; if you can't then i might have to find alternative ways to make you "forget".

So merry (in a totally non-Christmas way) last day of non-Christmas everyone!

This is a totally non-advent related advent calendar, that will be used as a visual way for the countdown of... well you know. (I'll explain why it's in a bit of a state at some point too)

My Cubic Dream

So it's new years eve, the last day of 2011, a weird and wonderful year that saw many incredible events occur and much to talk about. However i shall not be talking about any of that "important" stuff, instead i would prefer to talk about the events of the past week and when i say events i really mean two that were the accumulation of  the week. 

The first is my new (not so shiny because it has more of a dull finish) gadget which i received on Christmas morn, a Kindle! Now i must confess i'm not very big on the whole reading malarkey, i have a few favourite authors and i rarely differ from these. The unfortunate problem is that most these authors became my favourites when i was young and so have little interest for me now. However every year without fail i will inevitably be given waterstone gift vouchers, which has lead to me having a pile of several books all of which i've got part way through before my computer tempted me back.

So considering this inherent, not disliking but more of can'tbebotheredness, when it comes to reading, you might be wondering why on earth i was left a kindle under the Christmas tree. Well it turns out that this lack of reading does not stem from reading itself but from the medium of the book, as as soon as (3 'as's is correct, so don't come and tell me otherwise) the book is put onto a gadget with a screen and wifi, reading is so much more enjoyable.

I suppose that it might also be down to the fact that all the great classics are free in ebook format and other books are just as cheap with prices around £1, appealing to my frugal (yes frugal, not cheapskate) nature. Also let's face it the Kindle is just awesome, especially when you discover that you can send pdfs and documents to it via email and it plays music and has an internet browser and minesweeper and this weird game where you have to get 5 crosses in a row, i mean that is the definition of awesome. All this means that for most of next year i will be probably be immersed in my Kindle and probably my new found favourite "The Complete Collection of Sherlock Holmes" (which cost just 86p!), (well when i'm not watching The Complete James Bond Collection, which i got for just £22, and the reason i now love the boxing day sales)

The next event that occurred started when my cousins came to visit for Christmas. One of them is a massive minecraft fan and wanted to play it all the time, and so being a kind cousin (and because then i could continue reading Sherlock) i let him wallow away the hours playing minecraft on my computer. Now being the curious mind that i am i decided when he had left to see what all the fuss about minecraft was about. Needless to say a few hours later and i found myself building a fort on top of waterfall. Then a few hours later i was at the digging a mine in the search of gold and diamond. Then a few hours after that i was constructing a skyscraper that was taller than all the mountains. 

As you might have guessed, i enjoyed playing minecraft, hence the title for this post, and as it suggests it has pretty much taken up most of my spare time in the past few days. However since i am fully aware that in a few weeks i will be sat in an exam hall staring at a piece of paper with some nasty looking equations on it, I've realised that my time might be better spent doing some of this thing called revision. This has led me to the conclusion that in the new year i shall not spend anytime playing minecraft, and any other game until at least the end of the January exams.

So that is how i shall be spending the first few weeks of 2012. Well hopefully anyway. And as it turns out it might be easier than i originally thought as the minecraft my cousin downloaded has stopped working and to download another i would have to buy the game, which i'm not going to do (remember frugal not cheapskate). So here's to a Happy New Year, let's hope it's just as eventful as 2011 and that this time next year i will be struggling to fit everything i want to write into a single post rather than blabbering on about some words on a screen and a game filled with cubes.

The Seaneid

This is the tale of how one man went on the search for a new home for the next 4 years (and during term times only), and his other quest for search of Christmas presents. In case you have little classical literature knowledge and are wondering what on earth my title is talking about then go and read the whole Aeneid by Virgil, in the original Latin of course, none of this cheats English. Or you could just wiki it and prove to yourself that it exists and i haven't gone truly and utterly insane. Or maybe i have and just haven't realised yet, i may currently be sat in an asylum typing this on an imaginary computer in my little own imaginary world. I'm a bit worried now, is there a way to check if you're mad and have created an imaginary world to live in? Hang on why am i even asking because then you'd be imaginary too.

So anyway, leaving my slightly crazed ramblings aside, back to the Seaneid. In truth the tale began two years ago on a long and dangerous trek into the south. I know a dangerous place to go right, where the pies have vegetables in them and fish & chip shops aren't found on every street. So there i was journeying to Southampton (it even has south in its name) via Cambridge and tbh i can't actually remember what really happened but after two expeditions to the north this time (where i can confirm the pies are free from vegetables and the chippy is as common as the pub), i was only slightly clearer on where i would go.

All this jibber-jabber is essentially trying to explain why i found myself first going to Oxford, then Lincoln (actually this was nothing to do with Seaneid, but was occurred at the same time), then nearly going to Lancaster (although i thought better of it and didn't go in the end, just so i could partake in the epicness that was cipherfest '11, more on that some other time though) anyway today i traveled down to Loughborough and tomorrow i will be going to Manchester in the epic quest for Christmas presents (yes i know it's less than a week until Christmas, but i've only just started feeling Christmasy enough to buy them (plus a Taco Bell has opened in Manchester!)).

So as you can tell i'm glad i've nearly finished all this traveling, and soon my search for uni will come to an end, with pretty much all my uni's contacting me this week about offers :s, and with Christmas on Sunday the quest for the presents will be pointless (it might not be quite finished though i'm expecting late presents might be the case for some). So it's could be quite a momentous week with the next four years of my life being decided, although i have a feeling it still doesn't matter at all with my view of whateverhappens,happensandifyoujustgowithitandyoullenjoyyourself, and the awesomeness of my time in Oxford and the great people there (bit of a shout to my fellow St. John-iens (?) if you're reading this)

In case i don't write again before Christmas, Merry Christmas, and if i don't write before New Years, then shame on me because i won't be doing anything next week, apart from maybe contemplating my future...
and revising for January exams...
and finalizing my DofE...
and probably buying people late Christmas presents...
and something else which i've forgotten.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

Yes it's that time of year: the carol sheets are out, the Christmas tree taking up half the lounge, and the weather is truly dreadful. Now i do like Christmas time but the shops think that it gets earlier each year or that people forget that Christmas happens every year leading to adverts and the Christmas specials to be stocked months beforehand. So when can one start to blast out the Christmas jingles? If you do it too early people think you're just a weirdo (well one of the reasons they probably think that) and too late and... um well i don't think there's any convincing argument i can write but for me i would like for there to be a specific date to work with.

This year i went for the 1st week of advent, that didn't go down well with some people who questioned why on earth i was playing 12 days of Christmas whilst giving them a lift, but surely that's the most accurate date to use, the only other real way is to start when December starts, or just to be a total Ebeneezer and just never start to celebrate Christmas but instead mock people who do.

This is of course the least of the worries when it comes to Christmas; probably the biggest is buying gifts for people (surely if people wanted something enough they would have already bought it for themselves) which leaves two options: an effort to find something that they don't know about but would enjoy, or just to find something hilarious to give them. Now i have tried to do the prior occasionally but all it has ever done is made me find myself wandering around Macc the week before Christmas, staring blankly into shop windows without a clue of what to buy. This conundrum is especially apparent with the dreaded secret santa, which if you try to find something thoughtful is going to take way too long, especially when someone like me will have your name, and will buy you something cheap and weird (like a potato in a terry's chocolate orange box).

Then i haven't mentioned the truly most annoying part of Christmas, which is the accolade easily won by the terrible winter weather. No, i don't mean snow, i frankly love snow (as long as i'm in a coat, scarf, gloves, boots and many other layers of clothing), i'm talking about that inbetween weather, which isn't quite snow, but is more of a mix of rain, hail, sleet and snow. It's cold and makes lots of sludge on the ground which is just frankly horrible.

So that's Christmas for me, well so far, i think, if i can remember correctly, that it does get better at some point and the Christmas cheer finally shows itself, and when it does i shall write a more positive Christmas-y post, which was my intention to start with but i realised that it was easier at the moment to do the opposite. So "Bah-Humbug" for now, and a future "Merry Christmas" for when it finally feels like Christmas.