New Year

I told Rachel at VerticalBlue that I would write about my New Year's resolutions. I only have to confess that I don't actually have any, because I didn't make any at New Year. I was too busy trying not to look into the past to look with any meaning into the future.

In any case, there's no point in writing New Year's resolutions, because it's a well-known fact that nobody ever keeps their New Year's resolutions. So I am making some now. Most resolutions get broken within the first week, so by skipping the first week I'm bound to succeed!

• End 2010 happier than I started it. My December was pretty shocking, I'll be very disappointed if December 2010 is as bad as December 2009.


• Learn to touch my toes. Try every day until I manage, and it'd better be in 2010 because this resolution thing is supposed to be yearly


• Cycle to work 3 days per week on average minimum


• Tidy your room and then keep it tidy by tidying it every day


• Somehow escape the habit of stopping half way through a sentence and forgetting my words. Remember that the end of a sentence is just as important as the first half and that even if it is clear where my sentence is going, the listener still wants me to finish it, so I have to make the effort to finish it off. I don't know when I started doing this a lot, but I have been annoying myself by doing it every sentence, and it needs to stop!

I hope these work out. I think I've chosen a manageable amount of measurable goals, rather than vague ones or a ridiculous amount of goals that will not give me any free time at all. Will thinking of goals and putting them on the internet help me to succeed in improving my life? Will fulfilling goals make my life happier? It might help me understand the questions I was asking here

My life - updated

Well, a lot has happened since the last time I mentioned anything. I think the best place to start would be at my last newsy post here.

I mentioned three things: being asked to move out of our house, having an insecure job and having a good holiday.

The landlady changed her mind so we can actually stay in our house. It's not a perfect house, not least because my room measures around 8' by 9', which is okay but I'd like more (and I'm not usually a person who says they need more of anything).

My job is still not secure, and incredibly, they have still not decided what I am going to be doing in the company. I don't think I'm going to be made redundant in the next few weeks, but dragging it out for months doesn't help morale in the place. Still, I'm less concerned about that now because we have a rolling one month contract on the house so we can basically move out very quickly if the job disappears. Everything is connected, as people always say.

The holiday story doesn't quite end there either. I mentioned that I ended up closer to two people and less close to a third. Well, that trend continued. I ended up dating one of them and seeing a lot of the second, while the third doesn't really talk to us and seems to have given up on The North, or at least our little corner of it, and is desperate to leave without saying another word to anyone. I don't like falling out with people especially when it affects a large group of people, but despite efforts to include him in social activities, it's not happening because all he wants to do is leave.

It seems like the last month has just been a progression of what has gone before. But then what do you expect? I mean, who are you to expect that my life fits into short blog-post size chunks? People like you are very infuriating when you start pushing me around and forcing your expectations on me. How dare you?!

If you must, there is one new thing. Martin's girlfriend Kelly has been living in or house for most of the year I have been living in The North, but she moved out recently. She has been a good housemate in my opinion, added a little je-ne-sais-quoi (spelling?) to the house. I have hardly lived with only blokes the whole time I have been here (despite all the anticipation that I was feeling). Let the fun begin!

Building Suspense

I have not posted for almost two months and only three times since June, and yet people still stumble across this blog. I know because I had an e-mail telling me that somebody arrived here for the 3300th time (since records began) over the weekend. That doesn't mean that I have many readers, but surely I still have a couple. Which means that I have a duty to write something. I feel that my time is freeing up now, for the first time in a while, so don't get your hopes up too much, but there may be posts appearing here in the coming days

A month without a post

When you get out of the habit of blogging it feels very strange to come back to it. I can hardly believe it has been almost a month. I have been battling with myself a bit because I don't really know what I should put in a blog post.

Until recently, privacy has not really concerned me. After all, most times we lose our privacy is in a beneficial way to us. We put our information on facebook so that friends can contact us, or to make it easier to exchange photos, and there is a whole load of other information that we might want to share. We have CCTV cameras so that criminals can be caught and keep us safer. I'm pretty law abiding, and surely the police don't have time to watch everyone. They only have time to look at particular sections of the footage where there is something wrong happening. We allow our internet traffic to be monitored for the same reasons, and our bank details are being monitored for our spending patterns to see if they vary suddenly because we have had cards or details stolen. We give companies our details of what we buy every time we buy something online or get a loyalty card. This allows companies to discover what we like so they can target their marketing so we are aware of new products, and they also pay us in loyalty points for the privilege.

Unlike many people, I don't believe there is some big 'evil' socialist agenda to all this. I don't really think that people are collecting information about us all so they can control us better. However, I think the technology is almost there that someone with bad intentions could start to use our information against us. An article in Time magazine (that I only flicked through or didn't buy) got me thinking about it. They say that use of tracking from mobile phones along with shopping habits from banks and loyalty cards would allow companies to target marketing more closely than ever, placing shops in the right locations or making person-specific advertising. At the same time, video analysis software is gettin better and better and could soon allow large amounts of CCTV to be analysed with a lot less hassle than by sitting people in front of screens. It's still a little way off, but probably not that far, if the price of computer processing power keeps decreasing as it is, and with companies like facebook holding onto our details long after we even close our accounts, things that happen now could come back to bite us.

Blogging is not really a part of this, especially because the blog is anonymous to all but the people to whom I tell the address. But it does leave me being careful what goes on here. And just recently my life has got lots of parts to it that I need to be careful about talking too much about.

I couldn't just keep you holding on on without telling you (my loyal readers) what has been going on though. After all, I haven't spoken in Rachel, ChrisE or indeed anyone else for far too long. So here is the rundown, in a slightly more secretive manner. I might tell you more later, when I find an interesting way of telling all the interesting stories attached, because there are interesting stories attached to all of it, especially the last bit of news.

Firstly, we have to move out of our house. That means searching for a new one and all the hassle and panic of househunting with an upcoming deadline after which we are homeless.

Secondly, my job is at risk. So are a lot of people's, but my company has reached the stage where it is culling large amounts of staff and we have been told we are at risk. That would all be fine in times when I could go and live at home for 3 months, find another job and move out again. But right now there are not many jobs, and I might be given the boot just after signing a new six month contract on a new house, which would leave me stranded in The North without any good reason to be there! Urgh!

Thirdly, I had an awesome holiday in France. I went with three people, two of whom I am now much closer to, and one of whom I'm less close to. That's why I don't want to talk about it in detail though. I'd have to be very careful to write about the people who came, and it would be odd to write much about the holiday without mentioning the people I went with. Our holiday was great though, full of variety both in the country or in a city. We had experiences to tick boxes in every section possible - cultural, scenic, awe-inspiring, challenging, celebratory (I had my birthday away), sporty, unexpected, lazy. And it was cool. I'd definitely do a road-trip/camping holiday with friends again. Awesome. I might put something better if I find a good way of writing. I just don't have creative juice today

Interesting fact for the day

The first flowering plants were in the cretaceous period. I know, that doesn't sounds interesting, but I was interested, and you might understand if you read on

From my extreme curiosity in dinosaurs as a child I still have the book on dinosaurs in the "Usborne Spotter's Guides" series copyright 1980. Usborne were perfectly justified in making books in the same series for birds, butterflies, garden flowers and even ponds and lakes, but dinosaurs?? Maybe I just don't understand because I'm not a "spotter", but I thought there was a good reason why people can't just go out and "spot" dinosaurs. What were they thinking!??

This book clearly describes which dinosaurs were alive at what times. To give you a quick idea, the Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago, the first life was 3.8 billion years ago, and humans only arrived under half a million years ago. Dinosaurs lived in the Triassic period, the Jurassic period and the Cretaceous period, which were from 225 and 65 million years ago. Dinosaur-like reptiles existed before that, in the Permian period.

Flowers only arrived on the scene in the last of those periods, so lots of dinosaurs existed before there was such a thing as a flower! The Earth evolved stegosaurus, brontosaurus (apatosaurus) and dimetrodon before flowers. These animals never saw a flower!

Interesting fact of the day is unlikely to become a regular feature on this blog for a number of reasons. Here are a few of them: it's been done before, and done better than I would do; I don't write posts every day; I don't have interesting facts every day. This fact was actually my interesting fact for 15 days ago, and it could just as well be called "Interesting Fact For 135 million years ago", but it's hard to claim it to be especially interesting today.

Sorry, dear readers

I'll explain sometime while I haven't written on here in ages. Maybe you already know. However, I apologise for the lack of attention I have been giving to this site. I hope to be able to pick up where I left off in a week or so, when this site will once again be filled with my insight, emotion and bullshit as it usually is

Excuses excuses...

In my department at university they set everyone exams to work out which grades to give. But to make sure that everyone has the right grade, they give some people a viva (oral exam). They interview a few people to work out the quality of the year as a whole and also some people who are near grade boundaries so they can decide which side of the boundary to put you.

I figure I need to talk like someone who tried his best and has excellent knowledge but somehow didn't show it in the exams. And that got me thinking about excuses I could use.

1) We went to the tea shop after each exam and so I was really distracted thinking which tea to have.
2) I have been in a state of worry and tension because the fridge taunts me with noises that I can't respond to. And it does that really loudly and at me, even if there are other people in the room.
3) I have been in a state of worry and tension because some people managed to get a balloon tangled in the telegraph wires near our house back in spring and it bothered me. I moaned incessantly to my housemates about the fluttering of them in the wind, the problems of littering and how they were in my field of view when I worked







Until eventually, a man from BT came to get them down (right hand picture)












4) I understand everything, there was just too much to learn
5) I'm a slow eater and I shouldn't be persecuted for it.
6) My Gran died
7) I was troubled about the lecturer I mentioned here and couldn't possibly work
8) Living with girls clouded my brain
9) My shoelace kept coming undone because it was in need of repair
10) I spent too much time writing silly blogs like this instead of revising

Anyway, with the viva in only a few hours, I'd better do some work...

This blog is a year old

I've become quite attached to blogging over the last year. I enjoy thinking about what to write and what might be interesting to someone who's not me, often to people who don't even know me. It has to be varied and not just descend into a pathetic diary, while being personal and interesting, and without being pretentious - basically I hate stereotypes so most of this is trying not to drop into one. Oh, and it has to make sense - I'm not very good at that, so I have to concentrate!

When I started, I said I'd write short posts, so I apologise if they have been long in places. They were meant to be pointless too, but sometimes it's nice to write things with meaning.

At about the same time, I started reading blogs, so in recognition of this, here are some that I sometimes look at when I'm wasting time:
http://conspiracyfactory.blogspot.com/
http://www.thepropheticyears.com/wordpress/
http://www.bristlingbadger.blogspot.com/
http://soundofmusique.blogspot.com/
http://mccabism.blogspot.com/

An exceptional time

I really want to blog, it's quite addictive, you see.

I could write a blog about what a fantastic time I have had over the last week. I could tell you about the feeling of exams being over, of seeing Polysics (which was the most crazy and amazing gig ever, and which has made me find every far eastern girl look spontaneously attractive just by the association with it), of punting, of parties, of new friends, old friends, friends becoming closer friends, of tea, chats, jokes, stories, traditions, birthdays, cakes, exam results, family, G&T, wine, beer, pimms, food, Vimto, the list goes on... yes, it's been a good week.

I could also write a really sad, depressing entry, about the year coming to an end, about how everyone else is in couples except me, about the time being too short to get everything done, about houses, jobs and the passage of time: or about people who are always bitching or grumpy, distant or inconsiderate.

But the truth is that none of this makes very good reading. You wouldn't actually want to hear me going "yeah, the whole week's been great, bet you wish you were here", or "the world's coming to an end".

Instead I'll tell you about some new music that I can recommend to you (apart from Polysics):
The Cinematic Orchestra do amazing, relaxed jazz which sounds like your favourite, thick chocolate.
Dizzee Rascal has a new album and is still doing his feel-good, silly rap. I don't like rap, but if it's going to be this funny and still done by someone with enough talent to make it bearable, then I'll enjoy it - i guess it's more like smarties.
Scissor Sisters are not a new band, but they do cheesy, fun music with such aplomb and style that it's great! Maybe this is the equivalent of Cadbury's?
That's about it for now, but I am still listening to a lot of the cardigans, zero 7, gilles peterson, moby, athlete and muse, and I hope you are too.

This is a blog

Hello blog-fans,

I told myself many moons ago that I would never write a blog. Then I started this one. I'm not deliberately contrary; well, sometimes I am, but not usually to myself, that's a bit unproductive. Anyway, this girl told me I should. She's called Rachel and she has cool hair today, because she dyed it pink yesterday. She has had a blog for a long time, and she does Materials, making her automatically pretty funky.So this is the first of many posts I suppose, but I'm keeping them short and pointless, so just you remember that.