Weekends

This is just going to be a mini moan at myself.

I remember when I used to skateboard. I used to look forward to every single weekend because it meant there'd be no School and I could spend almost the whole thing just skating and having a laugh. I'd be gutted when it rained, as it meant I wouldn't be able to go out and skate and would have to find something else to do, which I usually managed, but it wasn't quite the same.

A few years on and I'm at Uni. I really don't look forward to weekends any more. They're probably worse than weekdays in terms of entertainment value, And I always have a horrible feeling at the back of my mind that because it's the weekend, I should make the most of it while it lasts.

I never do. BrInG oN dA wEekdaYz LoL!

Anyway, It's currently Lent, and has been since Wednesday just gone. It ends on the 3rd of April... I think.

I don't believe in any of the Spiritual side of it, but I like to use the opportunity to give up something, and hopefully feel better for it.

After a hell of a lot of deliberation, I've decided that I'm going to give up drinking excessively... Beginning with no drinking whatsoever for the first 2 weeks or so. Just to be boss like that.

Anyway, I've got nothing to say anymore... Bye.

Whaaaaa?

It's been a while! How the hell are you?

I don't really have much to say in this blog, so it'll just be short. I'm only really writing it to kill time before my lecture starts.

Semester 2 started at Uni today, and I'm actually sort of looking forward to it, but at the same time, I'm not.

It's safe to say that since returning to Sunderland I've done pretty much nothing. I completed an essay and handed it in. After that, I've pretty much vegged out as much as is humanly possible. I've got into the routine of:

• Waking up
• Sitting round until about 2
• Leaving my house for something pointless
• Returning, then sitting round until about 8/9
• Going out (Depending on what day it is)
  
• And going home to bed.

Rinse and Repeat... It was alright for about a day, but then it got really boring.

So in a way, beginning lectures again gives me the chance to get into a routine that is actually worthwhilse, and it feels good... Even though I did manage to come to Uni an hour too early, But hey, at least it means I'm not going to be late :)

On the other hand, a downside to lectures starting up again is the fact that it is undoubtedly Semester 2... Meaning it's closer to Summer than it was at the start of Semester 1.

Uni is flying by so, so quickly, and it worries me. In next to no time it'll all be over and it'll be back to living at home (Which is good, believe me) But it's the people I've met here that I'll miss.

It may be over a year and a half away, but at the rate that time is flying by, that's no time at all.

Pretty soon we'll all be living in different corners of the country again. We won't be able to go out of an evening, or pop round every now and then and see each other. I know there's facebook and MSN and all those other thingymajiggs that'll make it easy to keep in touch, but it's not quite the same as seeing them in person.

Thank God for National Express. It may absolutely ravage your wallet when you use it, but these people have become my absolute bezzies, and no amount is too much to pay.

I've made myself sad now... Stupid blog.

I swear I had a little bit more to talk about, but my mind has gone completely blank.

...

I have French people living with me now! They're really nice n' all that, but, they say Hello to me, then carry on talking to each other in French whilst i'm still there. I know it's not rude or anything, because it's their native language, and I don't expect them to involve me in their conversation... But bloody hell, it's uncomfortable, especially when they laugh at the same time... I can't help but think they're laughing at me... It's a nightmare.

Anyway, I literally cannot think of anything else to write about, so I'm off.

Adios.

It's Brass Monkeys

Isn't it?!

Britain's going through a 'cold snap' according to the News... Well, according to everyone really. You'd have to be a bit of a halfwit to be unaware of the majestic blanket of white ('ello poetic) that's been covering our fair land since Monday night/Tuesday morning.

I love the way the News reports the cold snap. Obviously when it first happened, it was News. But then, the next day it's less so. Then the next day, even less so. Surely they're going to run out of things to say eventually? There's only so many different degrees to cold weather (Pun intended, Sorry... There's a good joke later on, I promise)

The stages are basically:

1. It gets a bit nippy,
2. It snows,
3. Southerners Panic (Apologies to any of my Southern friends... But you know it's true :] )
4. It eventually melts, and life goes on.

I'm dying to turn on the TV one day to see Jon Snow (The perfect man for the job with that surname) simply go; in true Ollie Williams fashion: "IT'S STILL COLD!"

That would absolutely make my life.

My Dad got an E-mail of Diane Oxberry yesterday, She's the weather lady for North West tonight by the way... Yup, my Dad knows famous people.

This E-Mail said that the North West should expect some 'Organised Snow'

Pardon my ignorance... But what might that be? How can snow be organised? It's possibly one of the most disorganised things I've ever witnessed... And I'm a Student, so that's definitely saying something.

My Mum wins, because she suggested that maybe organised snow, is snow that falls as ready made Snowmen, so we don't have to go out and build them. I think that's a boss idea.

I was watching ITV News yesterday, and they seem to have so little to say about the weather that they're just showing gratuitous clips of people falling over!

Personally, I think that's completely out of order. Seriously. People know it's slippy! It sort of comes with the territory when it's icy! There's no need to show people footage of some poor woman going arse over tit! It's not chuffing FailBlog!

I half expected the caption to be "Whaaayyy! Who fell over?! Who fell over?!"

I think what annoyed me most about the clip, is the fact that the camera crew have clearly gone out to get an interview from someone, but they've seen a few people slipping at that particular spot. So, they've set up the camera there waiting for it to happen again, just to prove a point that doesn't need to be proved.

I know all this because I'm a Media Studies student... obviously.

This woman's now going to be the laughing stock of Youtube. She'll be 'that woman who fell over on National TV, then got pasted all over the net for people to have a massive giggle at.'

If I was her, I would definitely take them to court. I'm not sure how well it'd stand up in court. (Probably better than it'd stand up in a street in Bristol... WHAYY!) But she should have a go, then share the money with me for feeling sorry for her.

ITV are stupid.

Now I'm off to write a sternly worded letter.

A Tribute...

First of all. I have 5 followers, one of which, I've never met before, which is cool. So, Hello! Thanks for following :)

On a more serious note, on Tuesday the 22nd of December, at 9pm in Fazakerley Hospital, My Grandad passed away.

It was something that had been coming for a long time, him having been diagnosed with Alzheimer's 4 years ago. So in a way, it softened the blow and made things a little bit easier for everybody, but obviously, it's never easy enough.

My whole family (especially my Mum, Grandma and Uncles) are at the stage where almost everything they've said in the last few days is about him, and the way he was. The kind of things he used to say have been passed down through the years and I doubt you'd go a day without saying something that could be traced back to him.

A lot of people will tell you that I have a really 'bad' sense of humour, based around Puns and strange little sayings, but I'm glad I do. It's almost exclusively a result of my Grandad.

I've been told that the Church is going to be absolutely packed for his Funeral, simply because of the amount of people he knew through the various things he did.

I don't think you'll find a single house in the Merseyside area that he hasn't done some kind of work on. Then, in his later life he became a Eucharistic Minister, which is something he was totally devoted to.

If anybody deserves a place in Heaven, it's him.

Here's to you Grandad Jim.

R.I.P. x

Ha'way I'm Gannin' doon to Durham like pet.

I went to Durham on Monday night. It's a stupidly nice place.

I felt kind of bad that I only really went to have a night out. I feel like it deserved more attention from me, like I should have stayed longer and seen more of it, Especially the Cathedral and Castle, they're mega impressive.

I reckon after Christmas I might actually just have a day trip there to see the sights, and not just get pissed.

Loveshack is boss though, If you're gonna get pissed, you should go there.

When I was in the editing room today at Uni, I started to play around 'Garage band' on the Macs. I'd seen it a few times, but had never actually given it a go, so I decided to have a play.

It's really cool. You can record loads of different tracks, and play a Midi Piano using the keyboard, so you can actually play in real time. It has ooooodles of different sounds as well, so you can create whole songs. Sweet as a Nut la.

So I started wondering if there's an alternative product for Windows that basically lets you do the same thing. Yeahhhh... There's not.

A lot of things claim to be exactly the same and stuff, but they're really, really not.

One programme that was recommended was something called Magix Music Maker. I'd already downloaded loads of free trials of other programmes, so I couldn't be arsed downloading another one.

I did a quick search for a tutorial video instead, and came across this absolute ballbag.

His name's Benjamin and he'll probably seduce your kids.

It's annoying that all these programmes basically work around pre made tracks... so you literally just put them in order and play them back... Where's the fun in that?

I like Macs, but they should get off their high horse and let Garageband work on Windows...Or for Windows to stop being rubbish and make a programme that is exactly the same. For creativity's sake.

Apparently they had one in the works, but for some reason, nothing ever came of it... Instead, Bill Gates, the King of the Nerds just wastes time hiring these absolute melvins to say that the new operating system 'Windows 7' was their idea.

No it wasn't you absolute jebends, you're actors... Not very good ones at that.

Nerdy people make me giggle. If they're not flying round a virtual world pretending to be a dragon or something, they're going to Presentations by Steve Jobs then cheering and laughing when he says words like "iPod" and "Phone."

Check out 2:30 onwards... That's when the audience really lose their minds and start to reach for their inhalers.

It makes me wonder if they would do the same if he was making a butty.

"Bread" *Woop*

"Butter" *Woop*

"Cheese!" *Woop*

He mentions that it's a revolutionary mobile phone, but honestly, I don't see how the Mobile can advance any further than it has done... They're mobile... and you can call your Mum on it.

What more can be done?

Tell ya what, Stevie boy. Stick a time machine and a toastie maker on it, and then I'll sit and watch your Presentation with the same level excitement as the fellas in the video.

For the iPhone, there's an advert that states that you can get an application that can help you learn the Alphabet. Now, I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that if you don't know the Alphabet, the chances of you being able to use an iPhone are slim to none. Am I Right?

The only people who are in the position to need to learn the Alphabet are little kids between the age of about 2 and 3... and if they actually own an iPhone... Well, that's just bad parenting on the part of... Well, their Parents... Believe it or not.

In other news, we finally finished our film for our Uni production... We had some serious problems, and needed to refilm, so guess who stepped up to the plate... Yup! Li'l ol' me.

I don't like acting... If you could call it that.

That is all.

If anyone...

Ever tells you that making a film is an easy process. Give 'em a good hard punch in the head and tell them Si sent you.

My dearest Mother shouted at me over the phone the other day because she's had a look at this blog, and apparently I'm "too negative." I can sort of see where she's coming from.

A lot of my blogging is done because something's annoyed me, and I find it therapeutic to have a little rant about it. It's rarely an actual, full on rant though, I like to think that I'm going about it a light hearted way, as shown by my use of bad jokes and various other 'comic' devices. I'm very rarely funny through writing... But at least I try... Right?

But yeah, The amount of rants that I actually have in this blog outweigh the posts where I'm generally just talking about my life and stuff... so I can see why my Mum might think I have a bleak outlook on life...

But I don't!

I love my life. I have no problems that actually make me unhappy. Sure, the whole situation with this film I'm making for one of my Modules is a bit of a ball ache, but it doesn't actually get me down, because I know that the chances of it working out just fine, and getting a product I'm actually proud of, are pretty high.

Everything else is freakin' dandy.

I honestly, really love my life.

I just like to have a bit of a rant from time to time so that I don't get all full of annoyances until I eventually lose my mind and start walking along motorway embankments, warning Hedgehogs that they'll come to a sticky end if they don't remember to use the Green Cross Code.

So yeah. I'm happy... I'd be even happier if I was a Youtube celebrity... But until that happens...I'm sorted.

Happy Mum? :)

Argh, My eyes...

I'm back in the David Goldman building having my senses raped by the sheer ridiculousness of the god forsaken place. There's also a guy sitting near me with a really annoying voice... kind of a mixture between Frank Spencer and any given member of any given London based hip hop group.

I wish I didn't have to keep coming here to kill some time between lectures, but since the actual Library got better computers, for some reason the number of them has gone down by about half, so your about as likely to get on one as Michael Owen is to be given a hero's welcome at Anfield.

I could just walk home and come back when it's actually time for my 5 o' clock Lecture, but it's just so tedious, and I'd only be bored when I got home...

Anyway... I'm rambling.

Don't you just hate those desks that have an inexpicable metal bar at about knee height?

I'm sitting at one as we speak... As I got here, I pushed my self under eagerly, because I was just so excited to write when both my knees connected with the bar at approximately 400mph.

I'm now I'm in pain.

Right then! Because the start of a brand new year is fast approaching, I decided that I should start some kind of project that'll hopefully turn me into to be a Youtube celebrity, and we all know how much I want to be one of them (see previous posts for details).

I know it's been done before, probably hundreds of times, but I'm going to take a picture of myself every day for a year and then compile them into a video slideshow at the end of the 365 days. It's completely pointless, and I gain literally nothing from it, but once again, it's just one of those things that helps to make life a little bit more fun, even if it is only for me.

I might even get prettier over the course of the year. If that happens, I'm going try and pin point the exact picture when I become an absolute God to women.

The good thing is, it'll take literally 10 seconds a day, so i'd have to be a proper lazy bastard to lose motivation. And I honestly think it's an interesting little experiment.

I'm also going to try and be more creative next year too. I used to be crazy into stop frame animation, and have still got some of my best work up on my Youtube page, but nowadays I can't really think of anything to animate, so I don't really do it anymore... Which is pretty devastating. All I do now a days is sit on my bed and refresh Facebook and Twitter and stuff... My life is boss.

I don't usually make New Years resolutions, mainly because I never make an effort to keep them, but I think 2010 should be different, I'm going to make a few and put loads of effort into keeping them. Hopefully they'll have a positive effect on my everyday life, which can never be a bad thing, can it?

So here goes, In no particular order:

1. Don't Die.
2. Take a picture of myself everyday for the duration of the year.
3. Stop taking the piss out of Sunderland, and have a more positive outlook on it.
4. Start, or join a band that actually plays gigs 'n stuff.
5. Get back into stop motion animation.
6. Stay healthy.
7. Moan less.

I'll probably add more as I think of them, But I'd say 7 is enough for now.

Anyway, that's all from me for now, I'll leave you with Sir Mark of Knopfler being a genius.

Auf Wiederschnitzel.