Only interesting to me.
My course leader, Doc Chris Ritchie, keeps mentioning a journal he's going to have us all keep of our evolution as comedians. I keep toying with the idea of setting up a separate blog to deal exclusively with that type of thing. Talking about the jokes I write, audio of every gig I do. Seems like a good idea.
The one worry is the fact that if I don't renew with Web-Mania by October 7th, this website and everything in it goes down, so I don't want to something up only for it to disappear a few days later. I would just stick my comedy journal on a Blogger account, but that doesn't leave me the freedom I relish.
Hopefully I'll get my student loan in a few days and this will all be fine. Which would be handy, as if this website goes, so does my e-mali address, which I use for a lot of things. Including, but not limited to, e-mail.
30 September, 2007 - 21:06Comments (View)
More risqué than usual.
Richard is an absent man,
And I'll give you the reason,
Richard is a jailed man,
Yes Richard's now in prison.
Only for a few short weeks,
Not long -just a smidgen,
Cos Richard was a dirty man,
Who tried to f*ck a pigeon.
Richard took a day trip,
To sunny Brighton seafront,
Richard thought that this would be,
A prime place for him to hunt.
Richard didn't think that this,
Would get him 3-6 months,
As he scoured the beaches,
For a lovely nice bird-c*nt.
29 September, 2007 - 22:02Comments (View)
Are you fucking kidding me?
It's 430 in the morning, and I believe my entire floor must be having a party outside my room's door. And I think the guy in the room above mine has to be either hitting the floor with a hammer again and again for fun or... I don't know. I literally don't know what else he could be doing.
I know it's friday night. I get that they're all pissed from a night out. I get that they want to get to know their new dorm-mates.
But it is 430 in the morning. And I tend to have trouble sleeping when there are two stereo systems outside my door playing conflicting rap music.
UPDATE: They stopped around 630, and I was able to go to sleep. I'll definitely be picking up my earplugs when I pop back home later, though.
29 September, 2007 - 04:47Comments (View)
My Room.
Admire the Superman bed cover, the ever-present glass of Coke, and thousands of wires already streaming from my laptop.
28 September, 2007 - 22:10Comments (View)
I've arrived.
I'm here in my room at University. It's Room 321 in Chantry Residences, if anyone gives a mangle-wurzel. I like that's it's room '321', easy to remember and fun to say!
I didn't really want to move out of my Mum's place. It was cheap, the internet was super-fast and the food was free. Plus I got to hang out with my sister a lot, and the train journey's into SHampton gave me time to get reading done(or play Mario Kart a lot. It depended on whether I was m or d.)
One of the things that attracted me to coming back to University was the idea of living in halls. Put simply, 'Undeclared' makes it look like a lot of fun, which I'm sure it is for the rest of these people. I don't know if I'm feeling it. It doesn't help that I'm moving in on a friday night - the music is blaring, people are stomping and I forgot my duvet.
Still, being this close to University means I get to go to the library early tomorrow, and hunker down with some Comedy DVDs. Which is pretty awesome.
28 September, 2007 - 20:47Comments (View)
22/09/2007 :: See my Bum
Video flicker not my fault. Honest.
22 September, 2007 - 21:15Comments (View)
Time beats noise.
Lately, I've been1 frequently experiencing the effects of zeitgeist. Literally, it means "the spirit of the age", and is used to describe the cultural and cultural climate of a particular time or era. Often, two people coming up with a similar or same idea at once despite having never met or spoken can be attributed to the zeitgeist - the idea being shared through collective consciousness.
I recently found out that a joke Tim Poultney and I(well, mostly him but I helped) made in a Pizza Express several months ago had been written(far better) by the webcomic "Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal" several years ago. Neither of us had seen the comic in question, and it's quite an easy joke to arrive at - so we attributed it to the zeitgeist, and rightly so.
Yesterday I was shocked, however, to find that another joke I often make has also been done before. Jack and I often talk about how to approach women, and during one session where our talk turned to ridiculous chat up lines I came up with "Hi, quick question - I'm thinking of getting a tattoo. Should I get one of my face on my face or my arm on my arm?". This tickled me so much that I started slipping the line "a tattoo of my face on my face" in other jokes I made, sometimes adding the idea of scaling the image to freak people out.
Yesterday I was listening to an episode of The 99p Challenge, a radio comedy that last aired 3 years ago, and that I started listening to recently thanks to the Intertubes. During one round where contestants were asked what their favourite "waste of time" was, Simon Pegg replied "I like to tattoo an image of my face onto my face."2
I promptly fell off my unicycle.
A Google search reveals no less than 6 distinct examples of people using the exact same joke. I'm a little annoyed, because it's a joke I love using very much. At the same time, I can see now thta it's clearly a very obvious joke(perhaps why no-one else ever laughed...) and there was some odd reason why I couldn't see this before.
I can't remember where I read/heard it, but I recall the advice that "A comedian doesn't make the first joke that comes to mind." It's something I try hard to work on - not making the obvious jokes(which is why I'm dissapointed with Captain Deluge's super-power).
So, with that bombshell, I now publicly announce the changing of my joke, which shall now go "I'm getting a tattoo of my arse... on my bottom."3
1 - At this point in writing, I sneezed with my mouth open and no small amount of snot flew across the room, and I had to get up to clean it.↑
2 - Click here for a clip of this entire(very funny) round.↑
3 - Not really. I'm just retiring the joke all together.↑
22 September, 2007 - 07:33Comments (View)
Super-heroics ain't what it used to be.
Captain Deluge looked out through the Cessna's dashboard window - the mountains were getting closer at a frightening pace. With the engines non-existant and the pilots knocked out there was nothing he could do to stop the inevitable descent of this doomed machine. That was definitely going to crash. Into the mountains.
The Captain felt a dull thud against the back of his head as one of the assumed-unconscious-but-apparently-very-awake terrorists struck out at him with a rolled-up in flight magazine. Deluge almost fell into unconsciousness, lacking as he was in any kind of invulnerability or healing factor, but a simple question filled him with rage and adrenaline.
"WHY?!" screamed the Captain as he turned and started pounding his fists into the testicular region of his attacker with untamed fury. "Why is there an in-flight magazine on a bloody CESSNA?!"
The question went un-answered, as the assailant fell into a foetal position, clutching his globes desperately and crying anguished tears. The Captain saw no shame in kicking a man whilst he was down, and promptly did so, stomping on the wounded terrorist's head until it was a garbled mess of face and blood. Captain Deluge imagined a swelling trumpet score playing in the background as he bent down and closed shut what remained of his deceased opponent's eyes, gently whispering "Goodnight, old friend." He had not known in any way, shape or form the man he had just killed, but the Captain felt he owed it to him to say something nice.
The light aircraft was still plummeting at an ever-increasing speed(no, it had not yet reached terminal velocity) towards the snow-topped mountain range. The Captain knew that the soft white powder would not even begin to cushion the fall of this small vehicle, and there weren't enough parachutes for himself and the sleeping pilots. Deluge knew that now was the time to use his powers once more. To let go and release the filthy torrent - the Deluge - of excrement from his buttocks and build a makeshift shit-pillow for the plane to land in.
He dropped his trousers, aimed through a shattered window, and released the dirty stream of shite from his arse. More poo than one would think possible for a man to contain flowed out from twixt his legs, curling and dancing in the air on it's journey to the ground.
There was barely enough laid down by the time the plane finally ceased it's "flight". The landing was still rough, but all the inhabitants appeared to survive with only a few bumps and bruises. The Captain pulled himself from the window he had become stuck in, and tended to the pilots. One, awake now, was mystified - although it was hard to tell as he was vigorously vomiting in his hat. As the other awoke, he barely had time to work out what was happening before the cockpit windshield burst and covered him in feces.
Sure, they'd feel a little poorly, maybe even catch dysentry, but there were two pilots alive now who wouldn't have been had it not been for Captain Deluge's quick intervention and heroics. And that made him feel pretty pleased with himself, as he searched for something to wipe himself with.
21 September, 2007 - 10:56Comments (View)
I'm so next-gen.
Next year will see the release of "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" on the DS, PSP(who owns one of these?), PS2, X360 and most importantly, the Wii. Rumours abound that in this game, set between the Bantha fight in SW:The Phantom Menace and the Meteorite Meleé in forth-coming SW:The Creeping Fog(thanks for that one, Mr. Pegg) the mysterious 'force' will apparently no longer be 'leashed'. It remains to be seen whether or not it will indeed be restrained in any way at all.
None of which matters, obviously, since it has been reported that players who own both a copy of the game and a Nintendo Wii will be able to use both together(at the same time) to control a lightsaber with their Wii-mote. Naturally, this makes 'The Force Unleashed' the most important game since Pong. And Pong 2: Electric Pong-a-loo.
I am both excited and concerned. Excited because Tim has a Wii and I'll be able to try that shit for free(thanks, Blud). Concerned because... well... I've seen Star Wars(boxset, natch) and those lightsaber fights tend to be kind of... fast paced. We don't all have the lightning quick reflexes of David Prowse and pre-Joker Hamill. I can forsee a steep learning curve, to be honest. And repetitive strain injury. I mean, we're not all the Captain of Santa Fe Preparatory School's fencing team(cos we're not all super-gay).
I'm a little relaxed by the information that the player will control a dark-side character. Which means(that's if I correctly understand how the dark side works) the player will easily be able to go round chopping everyone he meets(defenceless or no) in half1 with a burning stick of pure photons.
Which brings me to my next question: Lightsaber blade - particle or wave?
1 - Apparently, you'll also be able to toss objects around using the force, specifically mentioned are 'storm-troopers'. Yeah, because those guys don't have it bad enough.↑
20 September, 2007 - 23:38Comments (View)
Hey Mr. Postman.
A few minutes after my last post to this place, I received a letter from the Student Loans Company. It turns out that since I left University last year so very early in my course, they would like the £2249.00 grant they gave me back.
I can't give it back, obviously, since I spent it all on stupid stuff like food and electricity whilst I was living in Penryn, Cornwall.
Obviously I'll ring them up and arrange to pay it back in installments either now, or after I finish university.
However, I am tempted to simply not pay it back at all. Not that I feel I deserve it(it was given to me so that I could attend univursity - something I did not do) but rather, since I'm having to go into Dorchester to prove that I'm the same me I was last year so that they can give me money, should they not be asking me for the same proof to make sure that they're not demanding money off of the wrong Kyle Hayes?
I don't think that comes across written down the same as it is in my head, but the basic idea still made me roflcopter.
19 September, 2007 - 10:40Comments (View)
How excited am I about starting University on Monday? Very excited, thanks for asking.
Yesterday I stayed in bed all day1 because I didn't want to get up and 'phone the loans office. I needed to get in touch with them because they sent me an e-mail asking for evidence but wouldn't tell me what it was.
I'm historically very bad at using the telephone. It's the main reason I haven't kept up with the various people I met/stayed with in America. It's tremendously rude of me to just not contact people, but my dread at using the device overwhelms me to such a degree that every time I think of picking up and dialling, I decide to "do it later".
I'm sure it is a surprise to no-one that I am a huge pro-crastinator.
I do, however, like leaving answering machine messages. I love speaking and performing(as evidenced by my upcoming uni course) and the venue of a telephone message is perfect. The fact that the person on the other end has to sit there and listen to me ramble on in an 'endearing' manner is intrinsic to the very nature of a voicemail. It's bloody great.
Of course, Jack has instructed me to never leave messages on his phone, since it is apparently "bloody annoying". One man's opinion, Jack. One man's opinion.
To provide some closure, I just called the loans company - they need me to drop by with my passport. So that's all well and good. Now I just need to stop time so that everything can be processed by monday - when I need written proof of the fact that they'll pay my tuition so that I can enroll.
1 - Incidentally, wearing the same boxers for three days(and spending the majority of that time in bed) has the horrific side effect of making them smell so bad that you disgust even your own filthy, stinking self.↑
19 September, 2007 - 08:59Comments (View)
Atonement[spoilers].
I've just got back from one of the most relentlessly depressing films I have ever seen. Actually, that's unfair. Only the last hour is the real grim-fest, with the first hour merely being fucking insane.
I learnt some very important things from this film. 1 - Keira Knightley is still smokin'. 2 - Whilst we're on that subject: smoking is cool and sexy. 3 - You can be an absolute bastard to everyone you know and still maintain a smug sense of satisfaction as long as you write a bloody book about it.
Oh, and 4 - War is pretty bleak. Even the 'uplifting' bits.
17 September, 2007 - 23:44Comments (View)
What to do if you're feeling a bit tired, but still fancy touching yourself up - by someone who would have absolutely no idea about that sort of thing.
- Think about some bosoms. Any kind of bosoms, whatever takes your fancy.
- Take a long walk down an old street or a busy road. Smile at all the people, while at the same time secretly plotting their inevitable demise and getting your rocks off.
- Play "Remote Roulette" by turning on your telly and flipping to random channels with your eyes crossed. Whoever's on the screen when you uncross your eyes is who you have to think about during the quick hand shandy.
- Drink a cup of tea.
- Have a cold shower, then switch to a warm shower. Then stick a finger up your bum.
17 September, 2007 - 07:41Comments (View)
A foolproof plan.
Jack - So I uh... I’ve finally worked it out.
Kyle - Excellent. Be more specific.
Jack - Super powers. I’ve worked out how to get super powers.
Kyle - I predict that your plan gets at most 5 seconds in before I find a flaw.
Jack - Ok, well, first I break one of my legs...
Kyle - I’ve found the flaw.
Jack - No, listen! I break one of my legs, go to hospital, knock out the x-ray machine operator... man... person, and jig the controls so that I am bathed in radioactive waves for a few hours, emerging with astonishing preternatural abilities and gifts.
Kyle - Or cancer. And a broken leg.
Jack - No, seriously, it’s a foolproof plan.
Kyle - For getting a tumour. Seriously - this will cause you to die.
Jack - We’ll see. We’ll see.
Kyle - No, I’ll see. You’ll be dead.
Jack - We’ll see.
16 September, 2007 - 21:30Comments (View)
Eggplants are like eggs in the same way that homeless people are like... people with... homes.
Yesterday I visited Winchester with Jack, Leo and Jonathon. We were visiting our friend Theseus, and his housemates Eurydice, Medusa and Helen(names changed to protect the guilty). In the course of the evening/night I cut my hand open, nearly went deaf in an overbearingly loud and hot nightclub, got yelled at by an over-weight and over-strung performing arts student, and got four hours sleep on a damp floor with my jumper for a pillow.
At the time, it was one of the worst nights of my life. Looking back, it's all pretty entertaining. Especially the bits where I got mistaken for a dude who got "totally mashed on ketamine" and when I had to pretend to be Irish because that's how Jack introduced me to all his pretty girls.
I think I would have had a good time if it hadn't gone on for so long, which bodes well for uni. In Winchester I was reliant on Jack for a lift home, so couldn't just leave - naturally at Uni I'll be able to do just that when things start to suck.
15 September, 2007 - 04:38Comments (View)
Nostalgia destroys everything.
I'll be honest - some days I just don't feel like I have anything to write here. These are days when nothing particularly exciting has happened to me, or the things that have happened just won't translate to the written (web)page. On days like these, I try to think back in life, think of something interesting.
One of my earliest memories is of being 4 years old, living in Wool(we'd recently left Scotland) and coming home from playgroup to a nap. I've not asked around or checked in any parenting literature, but I feel pretty safe in assuming that most other kids of that age get after-noon naps too. Even if it's not the usual 'done thing', I don't begrudge me mam making me take one. She was a single parent, and could do with a break, I'm sure.
My bedroom at the time was slightly smaller than the one I'm in now - barely big enough for a single bed. It was so small, in fact, that the bed folded up into the wall when not in use. To this day I maintain that this small, space-saving method is one of the most under-used ideas in the history of the world, and one of the more ingenious inventions of the 20th Century. Everyone else I've spoken to seems to think it's a bit tacky, and smacks of 'poor'. I shall not be moved.
We'd just eaten scrambled eggs, or at least my sister had. I had repeatedly asked for scrambled eggs, fervent in my belief that they were flat, yellow in the middle with white around the edge. I waited in the living room whilst Mum made them in the kitchen, and immediately burst into tears upon learning that I had requested the very kind of eggs I hated. Clearly, I had meant fried eggs. I was too young to understand that Mum was not psychic, and got increasingly angry. At one point I may have beaten my hands and fists upon the ground - the memory grows fuzzy.
At any rate, my sister finished her eggs, and I was told that I could go to bed without lunch. That was fine with me - Mum could make me lie down in my room all she wanted, but she couldn't make me go to sleep. I didn't want to waste time even then, and the idea of staying awake was delicious. I'd be able to play with toys in my room, and get revenge on my mother for making the wrong eggs. It was the perfect crime.
I remember lying in bed and counting to a thousand to keep myself awake, desperate to keep my mind doing something so that sleep wouldn't take me. Mum had tucked me in tightly(after folding the bed down from the wall) and even if I had gotten out of bed, my toys were all on the floor - covered by a bed too heavy for me to lift.
I got up to 700, I'm sure. I was very proud of doing that, and focused very hard on picturing the number in my head so that I wouldn't lose my place. I was so... pleased with myself - I was staying awake and accomplishing things. Counting that far! Can you imagine?
Then I looked at the curtains. Normally brown, they glowed a bright orange in the after-noon sun. It was re-assuring, somehow, the soft warmth of the sun's rays relaxing me. The dust floating in the light gave my eyes little visual treats to play with. The "700" tumbled out of my mind. My thumb went to my mouth. My eyes fluttered closed. I fell asleep.
13 September, 2007 - 03:23Comments (View)
Paying £3000 entitles me to write about this stuff. Honest.
Graham Linehan is the writer of some of the late 90s and early 00s best comedy shows - 'Father Ted'(with Arthur Mathews), 'Big Train' and 'Black Books', along with his latest series - Channel 4's 'The IT Crowd'. He also maintains a blog titled "Why, that's delightful - with Graham Linehan", where he posts on a variety of topics, including American politics, the shite put out by BBC3, and(almost inevitably) 'The IT Crowd'.
Linehan is clearly appreciative of the interactivity the internet has granted him and the fans of his shows. He writes small 'heads-up' posts every week reminding readers that his show is on that night, he posts links to illegally uploaded YouTube videos of his work for all to see(and jokes that watching it means you 'owe him 50p') and converses with his fans in the comments section of his posts.
Linehan has long been a proponent of using the latest technology to reach out to those who enjoy his work. His commentaries on the 'Father Ted' DVDs are a master-class in sitcom writing, and his self-deprecating wit in the 'Big Train' chat-track showed fans that no-one is more critical of his work than he. Many DVD commentaries are bland or useless, whereas Linehan saw and utilised their potential to really benefit the interested viewer, as opposed to being just another special feature to list on the box.
He seems to understand the benefits of interacting with your fans via the internet, as well. As I mentioned earlier, he is happy to converse with fans as soon as that weeks episode of 'The IT Crowd' has ended, thanking them for their platitudes and brown-nosing, over-the-top praise with polite and humble dignity. He politely answers questions from enquiring commenters("James C, I’m sure Katherine will provide you with a signed pic, but I’m not the one to ask…try her ‘people’."). When it comes to negative comments1, though, we see a very different reaction.
When one allows comments on one's blog(speaking from experience, as mind-shattering as that may seem), you have to open yourself up to both sides of the coin(bit of a mixed metaphor there). If Linehan is going to leave up the slavish comments from idolising fans(a great big bunch of them here) then he should also leave up comments like this:
Matt Berry is utterly dreadful. The difference in quality between last week and this week couldn’t be more pronounced, I think from now on I’ll have to watch this with sub-titles on.
The phone was over-played too much in the first half, meaning that it was absolutely no surprise at all when it went off in the church.
Just…disappointing. There’s a great show in there struggling to get out, despite some extraordinarily dubious casting decisions (Parkinson, Fielding, bloody Ayoade and now Matt Berry, who is effortlessly the worst of a bad bunch.)
But instead, he just deletes them. If he's feeling particularly kind, he'll leave them up and reply with the odd phrase "Thanks for the note on the first night of the show, though!".2 Although that's a nice sentence to say in Linehan's natural Irish brogue(seriously, try saying it) it's slightly confusing, and smacks very clearly of hypocisy. It's okay for fans to instantly leap to their computers as soon as the show is over and heap lurid pleasentries upon Mr. Graham, but the slightest dissenting comment earns you scorn for the same action.
Obviously, Linehan is very protective of his baby3, and when he reads comments suggesting that he fire most of his cast, people he knows and works with, it has to hurt. But still - that's what comments are about, opening yourself up to crliticism from the people reading your blog. Unfortunately that means you get bad comments as well as good ones, but that doesn't mean you can go through deleting everything that "make[s] bunny cry"(real quote there) without looking like some Stalin-era historical revisionist.
I predict that it won't be long before the strain of deleting more and more comments gets to much for Linehan and he removes the option to have comments at all from his blog. Which will be a shame - he is an intelligent and witty writer, man and conversationalist, and if he would discuss the faults of his show with those who visit his website he'd definitely engender himself to readers whether or not they liked his latest televisual offerings. Instead he's acting like a child and pissing off a lot of comedy fans like myself in the process.
1 - I would like to make it clear that by "negative comments", I mean constructive criticism, and not simply the "trolling" known to many members of the net community. If Linehan was simply being trolled, then I would blink nary an eye towards his reaction of deleting comments(the only sensible thing to do with trolls).↑
2 - Linehan retracts this line in his next comment post, saying "I really don't mind". However, the startling frequency with which he uses it as a comeback leads me to believe that he really does mind, and thinks that the rebuttal is spot-on.↑
3 - A baby I quite like - the first episode of this season was amazing stuff, and I was shattered when I saw the piss-poor episode 2.↑
11 September, 2007 - 01:44Comments (View)
Guess the list.
09 September, 2007 - 20:45Comments (View)
One of the best things about doing a comedy degree is you can sit around watching funny TV shows and call it "summer reading".
Unfortunately, since I have absolutely nothing else to do at the moment, I've slipped back into staying up all night and sleeping all day. I'm back on USA time, strictly speaking. Which means I'm going to have to either have either a 5/6 hour day or 30/31 hour day to set it right. I can't stand my relationship with sleep.
The Science says that any sleep debt one incurs, even an hour or two, can never be 'paid back'. You could miss just a few hours sleep and then doze for a week and still not get back to normal. That depresses me - what does that mean for my 'tired lines'? Are they just going to get worse as I create more and more sleep debt?
And how much sleep is the right amount, anyway? I remember reading in 1998 that an adult should get 8 hours a night. But at the same time, I also read that everyone should sleep in three hour multiples. And different people have different levels of energy. Some can get by on a few hours a night, some need to sleep for half the day. How are we supposed to know without experimentation? How are we supposed to experiment without creating sleep debt that can never be repaid?
This is why I was so attracted to polyphasic sleeping. It had a clear system based on science, and nature. It seemed logical to me(lets not forget, though, that I am crazy). Of course, I have almost zero willpower and could never get past the adaptation period, so I don't know if it works. And even if I had made it - it doesn't fit in with the way the world works. You can't always find a way to take a nap every 20 minutes.
I think the entire world needs to take a look at how we treat sleep. It won't happen, of course, there are too many of us now to for any kind of system for such a huge part of our lives to take over the current one(one big chunk of sleep, slowly lose energy through-out the day). The only time things are going to change is when the Corporatocracy decides that we're ready to work for them more, and releases Modafinil (a drug which allows everyone to sleep for only 4 hours a night) for general consumption.
Which is totally not a downbeat way to end this post, I'm sure.
09 September, 2007 - 16:57Comments (View)
To fail is art, drink ale and fart.
Since there's no accommodation for me at University until someone drops out, I've spent some time today arranging The Funnel Web(the small room in my Mum's house where I live) to make it more habitable.
Since I got back from the States, I've been sleeping on a mattress on the floor(which isn't nearly as squalid as it sounds) as we have no bedframes spare. I can't afford to buy a bed frame(and I'll only be here another couple months at most, hopefully) so I have used 7 comic longboxes to raise the mattress off of the ground. It's almost real-bed height now.
I've also managed to arrange all the clothes I own into one very small shelving unit(with shirt piled extremely high on the top shelf, I must add) and the rest of my possessions are stored on top of the tumble dryer.
Oh yes, there's a tumble dryer in my room. Did I not mention that?
When I moved to Falmouth last year we needed a pretty big van to get all my stuff there. Obviously I had an entire flat to populate, but still - that was a lot of stuff for a 18 year-old. When I do finally move into halls at Uni I'm going to try and be much more Spartan about it, I think. Maybe just enough clothes for a 9-day cycle instead of the whole wardrobe-full. A couple of books I haven't yet finished, as opposed to my entire library. The small unicycle. Oh, and the projector, surround-sound and PC, as well as my laptop.
Yeah, the last sentence kind-of destroys the 'Spartan' element, doesn't it?
I'm quite worried about which of my DVDs to take. I would prefer to take them all, as I like to have my entire 250+ collection to peruse when settling down to a film/tv show, but I don't think that'll be possible in the small room typical of a University dorm. Aside from a few clear favourites(Empire Records, High Fidelity, Big Train) I just don't know what to take.
Luckily, of course, I'm only going to be an hour and a half away from home. I can always pop back to fetch something I need. I'd rather avoid doing that, obviously, but it's nice to have the out.
08 September, 2007 - 19:15Comments (View)
Bells and whistles or warts and all?
From my 1993 school report(emphasis in text mine):
Kyle has settled in well. He is able to mix with both boys and girls and is co-operative when working in a peer group.
In familiar surroundings and routines, Kyle has started to grow in confidence, but he can still find new situations difficult to cope with and will often burst into tears over any uncertainty.
Kyle is able to participate in lively discussions about his work and is becoming quicker at recording onto paper as his pencil control starts to improve.
Kyle possesses a keen sense of humour and has a helpful and caring nature in the classroom. We will miss Kyle as he leaves us but wish him every success at his new school.
A few months later, at the aforementioned "new school":
Kyle is a delightful boy.
Three years later:
Kyle places great demands on himself to achieve perfection. This can make him anxious about his ability to achieve success in a task, when in fact he has no need for concern. Humour usually wins him round, but I hope that a developing maturity will allay the worries he has.
07 September, 2007 - 21:21Comments (View)
I wish no one had told me about masturbation, so I could have been so pleasantly surprised.
Yes, yes, we're open again. Archives are being uploaded as we speak(currently up to February). I think it'll be tough to get into the routine of writing a post a day again - but I just have to think of the reward down the line, I suppose.
This marks something like the 10th redesign of the site in almost as many months. I can never seem to settle. The main title should be displayed in a lovely font called "Primer Apples", but it's apparently a part of the CSS3 specification that isn't widely supported. Balls. Sorry, more boring coding chat.
I've taken recently to wearing a shirt and tie with a jumper over it. At first it was to hide the fact that my shirts have been horribly stained by colours from my jeans, but I like the look and I think it might be my main mode of dress for the coming Uni year. It makes me look pretty studenty, I think, and I do love a good tie.
07 September, 2007 - 00:27Comments (View)