This is completely different from any other blog I've written. I wasn't sure whether I wanted this posted on here. So much so, I took a completely different approach to writing it. I sat down and wrote it last night, saved it and closed it. This morning, I came back to it and had another read through it, made some little changes and added one or two other things that I'd missed out. It's something that means a lot to me, and though I don't think there's anything deeply personal in there, this piece means more to me than almost every other thing I've written on here since I started the blog.
Here we go...
On Monday evening, I went to watch Senna. It’s a film I’ve been waiting for ever since it was first announced back in...ooh, 2009? It might have been a year earlier than that, but that’s around the time that I first remember there being something about a potential. Then last July, Top Gear did a fantastic piece on Senna to celebrate the fact that he would have been 50 years old.
I said back then that it was the finest piece of television Top Gear have produced, and is probably one of the best things that the BBC have done. Top Gear might be a bit silly at times, and they might joke around and act like buffoons, but this showed that a serious piece of television could still be done. It had interviews with people and clips of Ayrton at his finest, and it celebrated the man’s life. If you haven’t seen that, I highly recommend tracking it down. It’s on YouTube and it’s pretty easy to find.
Then the film came along and gave it some stiff competition. When I first saw the trailer, I thought “Wow..that looks absolutely fantastic.”
I’ll be honest, I’ve probably watched that trailer at least a dozen times. Finding out bits about the film, how it was entirely made up of archive footage and how Ayrton Senna tells the story himself from interviews and audio clips, seemed absolutely fascinating. Having seen the film now, I can give an honest and truthful opinion on it. I think it’s fantastic and is easily the greatest sporting documentary ever made. Really though, that can’t be hard when you’re making a film about one of the greatest sportsmen, or at the very least Formula One drivers, to ever live.
For me, it was so powerful that I made the walk home from the cinema teary-eyed. I didn’t listen to my iPod, I just wanted to be alone with my thoughts and contemplate the life of Ayrton Senna.
The strange thing though, is that I have no memories of Senna. I was born in 1991, the year he won his final World Championship and my first ever race was the 1995 Canadian Grand Prix. I could tell you all sorts of things about that race. Jean Alesi won for Ferrari, his one and only F1 victory, and his Ferrari carried the number 27, the same number Gilles Villeneuve raced under while driving for Ferrari. The Canadian track was named after the great Villeneuve...it’s the sort of magical thing you just couldn’t make up. It was enough to have me hooked.
Anyway, that was 1995. Ayrton Senna died on May 1st 1994, a year before my first ever race. So like I say, I have no memories of Senna. Every single thing I’ve seen of him, I’ve seen second-hand, whether it was through VHS, DVDs, television programmes or in recent years, the internet. That last thing has been so crucial for me. Though I’ve been an F1 fan for 15 years or so, I was aware of past drivers, but hadn’t ever seen many races. With YouTube, I’ve seen clips of all of the “great” moments in F1, and now thanks to streaming websites, I’ve found several channels that stream F1 races from years gone by. Through these, I’ve educated myself about things like the turbo era in the 1980s, the rise and fall of Lotus (and in recent years, Williams) and, of course, the Senna/Prost rivalry.
One of my earliest exposures to Senna was “Murray’s Magic Moments”, a VHS of Murray Walker’s favourite moments from F1. One of those clips was a segment from the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix, when Senna was driving for Toleman in the infancy of his career. He put in an astonishing drive and very nearly won the race in torrential conditions, and probably would have done so had the race continued for another handful of laps. Seeing Senna dance the Toleman around those narrow twisty streets fascinated me, and I was amazed to see how he was able to drag a midfield car right to the front of the race, overtaking cars with sheer will and determination almost to the point where it looked like he was in a completely different formula.
He spent his career doing that, dancing the car around the circuit, especially during qualifying. Whenever he went on a hot lap to get pole position, the world stopped. He’d throw the car into corners at speeds that other drivers could only dream of doing, and he’d know that the car would stick. Even seeing this back now on YouTube with slightly grainy footage from the onboard camera amazes me. Seeing him constantly working the wheel, always making tiny adjustments, and of course, these were the days of manual gearboxes, so he’d often be driving with one hand.
Of course, there are other moments like qualifying in Monaco in 1988, when he was almost 2 seconds quicker than Alain Prost in an identical car, his drive through the field in Japan later that year to clinch his first world title and the battles that raged between himself and Prost through the next few years, all climaxing in amazing fashion at Sukuka, with 1989 and 1990 ending in crashes. There are other fantastic pieces of driving like Donington Park 1993 when Senna, in an underachieving McLaren produced one of his best drives to win in mixed conditions. That first lap is probably the most played piece of footage from the 1993 season...and rightly so.
Senna’s death was tragic and ripped the heart out of Formula One. The sporting world was robbed of the chance to see Senna performing at the best of his ability in a Williams, and the potential of a Senna/Schumacher feud (which would have undoubtedly been brilliant viewing), while Brazil was robbed of a hero. However, from his death, new rules were introduced. To Senna, safety was paramount. We saw this through his career when there were huge accidents, such as Martin Donnelly in Jerez 1990 and Erik Comas in Spa 1992. With Comas, Senna pulled over during the practice session, abandoned his car and ran to the aid of Comas, who had passed out in his car. Who knows, without Senna’s intervention, Comas could have been seriously injured.
There’s a fantastic clip in the film where he argues with the FISA president about safety after having an accident at a previous race and show just how much safety meant to him. And of course, after his death, the safety of cars was improved significantly...so much so that there hasn’t been a death in Formula One since that day.
Like many others, I believe that had he not been killed, Senna would have won the World Championship in 1994...and probably would have done so again in 1995 and 1996. He was a man who had great faith and religion, and believed that God would do the right thing. Senna said this numerous times through his career. I’m trying my best to avoid spoilers in the film, but on the day of his death, unsure of whether he’ll race, Senna opened his Bible and turned to a passage that said on that day, God would reward him with the greatest gift of all, Himself. It might just be me, but that freaks me out. That’s legitimately scary stuff for me...and hearing it from his sister in that film caused a few tears to appear.
What does Senna mean to me then? He was a fantastic racing driver, the facts show that: 41 victories, 65 pole positions and 3 world titles. He was a brilliant person, a hero and inspirational figure to Brazilians at a time when the country needed it most. Michael Schumacher might be my hero, but if I’d been born 10 years earlier, it would have been Senna without a second thought. There are other greats like Fangio and Clark, but footage of races from then is so hard to come by, so my perception of them is based purely on pictures, stories and articles I’ve read.
With Senna though, I’ve seen plenty of races from his career. I’ve seen him race to the point of exhaustion and collapsing in Brazil in 1991, I’ve seen him win world titles and I’ve seen his fatal accident. There’s a train of thought that suggests that people who die while young leave a glowing reputation, and their star burns brighter for it...we’ve seen it with musicians like Jimi Hendrix Kurt Cobain. For me though, that doesn’t apply to Senna. Even if he were still alive, his career would be looked back on with astonishment, with joy and with celebration.
So...back to my question, what does Senna mean to me? It’s subject to argument from many, but this is my own opinion and view. And to me, Ayrton Senna is the greatest Formula One driver of all time. Senna said that he loved karting because it was “pure driving, real racing and that made me happy”. Watching Senna, I can say the same thing about him.
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Saturday, 4 June 2011
Part 2: Congas, Cricket and Comedy
As promised, this is part two of my entry from last night...which in reality is just a continuation of what I was aiming to try and write last night before I got tired.
Since I got back to Leeds on Tuesday, I've been running around doing various things. To be completely honest though, pretty much everything has been Honeydrum related. Over the past few days, I've had a couple of conga sessions...and I think I'm starting to get somewhere with it. At the moment, I'm not in a state of doing loads of things with it,, and to be honest, for a while I need to focus on getting technique right. Once I get the technique into my playing and I get used to making the different sounds on the conga, I'll hopefully start to progress. With the technique in place, I need to start to get the feel of the rhythms at the same time. I think if I get that, then in a couple of months time, I'll be somewhere where I can start looking to more complex stuff.
Aside from the congas, I've been sorting out some bits for next year within the committee. The budget plan was a bit of a marathon to complete as we were going off last year's plan which was essentially some educated guesses from Alic Ja. Turns out they were pretty accurate though, especially in terms of where we'd end up financially at the end of the year! Plans for next year aren't amazingly ambitious, but they're definitely realistic and I reckon that if we can achieve them, it'll set HD1C up really well for the next few years, especially in terms of a solid core membership of players.
As well as that, I've had some communication with the university, which has been useful in seeing how it works as a giant system really. We've started to make some links with a couple of people who will be useful for the society within the next year, and really, this sort of thing can only serve to help us get more established within the union. There was a training day on Thursday where we got some fairly useful tips on a couple of things, so I now feel relatively confident about being able to do some things like putting on a Give it a Go session and making it successful. I've even had my first interaction with the cash office, so it's definitely been productive. Quickly totting up a guess on hours, I'd say that since Tuesday, I've probably had about 15 hours dedicated to Honeydrum...which is a fair amount, and it's definitely kept me from boredom. That was what I was dreading most about summer...boredom. If I was just sat around in my room watching DVDs and browsing Twitter and Facebook for things to amuse me, I'd get bored so quickly and start to hate myself. If things carry on this way, I'll be keeping busy...especially once I get the bike back up and running.
So in that respect, life is going pretty well. I was down at Headingley...well, yesterday now to see the Twenty20 match between Yorkshire and Warwickshire. A good game, but I suspect I'm something of a bad omen for the White Rose. Whenever I've been to one of their games, they've lost. Just as well I've got a ticket for the Lancashire game in a few weeks. Coincidentally, Lancashire have never lost a game when I've attended (whether it's one day of a county match which they've gone on to win or a CB40 game). We'll see if that trend continues.
I've had some ridiculously funky dreams lately...one or two of you will know about these, so to everyone else, it might seem like a gigantic riddle. For that, I can only really apologise. But last Thursday and Thursday just gone, I had two connected dreams. Maybe my sub-conscious has made me the star in a series that will play out in my mind across a couple of Thursdays, maybe there'll be a primetime nap special over the weekend...but they're good. Apart from being slightly obscure, they are bringing a smile to my face because good things are happening in these dreams. If I felt more confident in myself, perhaps these things could actually leave the realm of dreams and become reality. That's something I probably need to work on myself...in fact, I definitely need to work on that.
As a final note, I'm currently watching Series 4 of That Mitchell and Webb Look. I honestly don't remember a lot about this series the first time around, but I've really enjoyed it so far. Sketch comedy is still managing to put out the goods...which also reminds me that I need to invest in a boxset of Fry and Laurie. Saying that, they've just closed an episode with a rather depressing sketch about an old and demented Sherlock Holmes which wasn't really funny at all. I don't know whether that was the point...and I'm quite confused by it.
There's a lot of good comedy in the world, and if you like stand-up comedy, there's a lot of good UK talent around that aren't in the mainstream. Stretch further afield to the USA where I've found myself watching a bit more comedy as a result of podcasts from the excellent Deathsquad network (check them on iTunes or on deathsquad.tv) and discovering a couple more comedians over there. Like I say, good comedy is out there and stand-up is continuing to succeed, and long may it continue to do so!
Since I got back to Leeds on Tuesday, I've been running around doing various things. To be completely honest though, pretty much everything has been Honeydrum related. Over the past few days, I've had a couple of conga sessions...and I think I'm starting to get somewhere with it. At the moment, I'm not in a state of doing loads of things with it,, and to be honest, for a while I need to focus on getting technique right. Once I get the technique into my playing and I get used to making the different sounds on the conga, I'll hopefully start to progress. With the technique in place, I need to start to get the feel of the rhythms at the same time. I think if I get that, then in a couple of months time, I'll be somewhere where I can start looking to more complex stuff.
Aside from the congas, I've been sorting out some bits for next year within the committee. The budget plan was a bit of a marathon to complete as we were going off last year's plan which was essentially some educated guesses from Alic Ja. Turns out they were pretty accurate though, especially in terms of where we'd end up financially at the end of the year! Plans for next year aren't amazingly ambitious, but they're definitely realistic and I reckon that if we can achieve them, it'll set HD1C up really well for the next few years, especially in terms of a solid core membership of players.
As well as that, I've had some communication with the university, which has been useful in seeing how it works as a giant system really. We've started to make some links with a couple of people who will be useful for the society within the next year, and really, this sort of thing can only serve to help us get more established within the union. There was a training day on Thursday where we got some fairly useful tips on a couple of things, so I now feel relatively confident about being able to do some things like putting on a Give it a Go session and making it successful. I've even had my first interaction with the cash office, so it's definitely been productive. Quickly totting up a guess on hours, I'd say that since Tuesday, I've probably had about 15 hours dedicated to Honeydrum...which is a fair amount, and it's definitely kept me from boredom. That was what I was dreading most about summer...boredom. If I was just sat around in my room watching DVDs and browsing Twitter and Facebook for things to amuse me, I'd get bored so quickly and start to hate myself. If things carry on this way, I'll be keeping busy...especially once I get the bike back up and running.
So in that respect, life is going pretty well. I was down at Headingley...well, yesterday now to see the Twenty20 match between Yorkshire and Warwickshire. A good game, but I suspect I'm something of a bad omen for the White Rose. Whenever I've been to one of their games, they've lost. Just as well I've got a ticket for the Lancashire game in a few weeks. Coincidentally, Lancashire have never lost a game when I've attended (whether it's one day of a county match which they've gone on to win or a CB40 game). We'll see if that trend continues.
I've had some ridiculously funky dreams lately...one or two of you will know about these, so to everyone else, it might seem like a gigantic riddle. For that, I can only really apologise. But last Thursday and Thursday just gone, I had two connected dreams. Maybe my sub-conscious has made me the star in a series that will play out in my mind across a couple of Thursdays, maybe there'll be a primetime nap special over the weekend...but they're good. Apart from being slightly obscure, they are bringing a smile to my face because good things are happening in these dreams. If I felt more confident in myself, perhaps these things could actually leave the realm of dreams and become reality. That's something I probably need to work on myself...in fact, I definitely need to work on that.
As a final note, I'm currently watching Series 4 of That Mitchell and Webb Look. I honestly don't remember a lot about this series the first time around, but I've really enjoyed it so far. Sketch comedy is still managing to put out the goods...which also reminds me that I need to invest in a boxset of Fry and Laurie. Saying that, they've just closed an episode with a rather depressing sketch about an old and demented Sherlock Holmes which wasn't really funny at all. I don't know whether that was the point...and I'm quite confused by it.
There's a lot of good comedy in the world, and if you like stand-up comedy, there's a lot of good UK talent around that aren't in the mainstream. Stretch further afield to the USA where I've found myself watching a bit more comedy as a result of podcasts from the excellent Deathsquad network (check them on iTunes or on deathsquad.tv) and discovering a couple more comedians over there. Like I say, good comedy is out there and stand-up is continuing to succeed, and long may it continue to do so!
Friday, 3 June 2011
A tale of two entries: Part 1
Another week has passed, and it's been a pretty good week to be honest. I was home Thursday-Tuesday which was really good as I got some time to relax and recharge the batteries a bit after some exams and to unwind a bit at what is essentially the end of the academic year.
On Friday and Saturday, I went off to Ellesmere Port to go and see some 1PW shows with Andrew. If you have no interest in reading about this, I'm sorry...it's pretty late and I'm just writing. Skip down a couple of paragraphs. I'll do a line break so you can pick it up again.
Pretty good stuff, and considering the amount of problems that were circulating with them having failed to bring a load of the advertised names and then visa issues for others, it was good. Just goes to show that you don't need to rely on international names as there is plenty of fantastic talent in the UK.
Friday was a bit dead in terms of crowd to be honest. I don't want this entry to turn into a full wrestling entry, but for the sake of it, in 2005-2007 or so, 1PW had a pretty loyal fanbase. And they were loyal. I remember being at the King of Europe event where a fight nearly broke out because a group of them were getting overly passionate about what they were seeing. But now, after a couple of changes of owner and a lack of trust in the fans, that fanbase is pretty much gone. What they've now got is crowds that aren't really there for the company, but for the in-ring action...and at points it seemed like there was just polite applause after spots.
Saturday picked up a bit, but the crowd must have been a disappointment. I was expecting a bigger layout in the building, but there must have been no more than 275 people in that building...and considering that was the "supershow" with big names, it's not great news. But I got to meet a couple of the UK guys and have a chat with them, so that was good. Very cool guys and hopefully I bump into them again in the future.
------------------------
I also got a chance to catch up with Sophie, which involved drinking rather large amounts of tea over the span of about 2 hours. As always, good to just sit down and chat and go on about everything and nothing at the same time. There was nothing amazingly unusual that came up in the conversation, it was just a lot of rambling and talking about random stuff. We briefly discussed me going up to Sheffield to visit her and her flatmate. From what I've heard, I've got a mini fan club in Sheffield, which is pretty awesome. So fingers crossed I'll be back up there in the next week or two.
So I don't really know when I'll next be back in Liverpool, but I need to head back sometime soon because there are some people that I haven't seen for quite a while, and I do miss them. It's just a case of missing opportunities and whatnot, and so there are people like Foy who I don't think I've seen for quite a while.
Currently, it's just after 1.30am, and I'm starting to feel sleepy. My sleep pattern has been thrown a little bit in the last few days, but I'll be back tomorrow or Saturday with Part 2 of my tale to share what's been happening in my life since I got back to Leeds on Tuesday. Put it this way, I've not really stopped since I stepped off the coach! I've found that my viewing numbers are pretty dependent on what time of day I post the blog, so I'll probably plug this tomorrow as well with the next entry, see if I can boost the numbers on it a little bit. Don't forget to share it with anyone else who might like it though! I'm getting readers from a couple of countries according to my stats, so let's see how far we can go!
On Friday and Saturday, I went off to Ellesmere Port to go and see some 1PW shows with Andrew. If you have no interest in reading about this, I'm sorry...it's pretty late and I'm just writing. Skip down a couple of paragraphs. I'll do a line break so you can pick it up again.
Pretty good stuff, and considering the amount of problems that were circulating with them having failed to bring a load of the advertised names and then visa issues for others, it was good. Just goes to show that you don't need to rely on international names as there is plenty of fantastic talent in the UK.
Friday was a bit dead in terms of crowd to be honest. I don't want this entry to turn into a full wrestling entry, but for the sake of it, in 2005-2007 or so, 1PW had a pretty loyal fanbase. And they were loyal. I remember being at the King of Europe event where a fight nearly broke out because a group of them were getting overly passionate about what they were seeing. But now, after a couple of changes of owner and a lack of trust in the fans, that fanbase is pretty much gone. What they've now got is crowds that aren't really there for the company, but for the in-ring action...and at points it seemed like there was just polite applause after spots.
Saturday picked up a bit, but the crowd must have been a disappointment. I was expecting a bigger layout in the building, but there must have been no more than 275 people in that building...and considering that was the "supershow" with big names, it's not great news. But I got to meet a couple of the UK guys and have a chat with them, so that was good. Very cool guys and hopefully I bump into them again in the future.
------------------------
I also got a chance to catch up with Sophie, which involved drinking rather large amounts of tea over the span of about 2 hours. As always, good to just sit down and chat and go on about everything and nothing at the same time. There was nothing amazingly unusual that came up in the conversation, it was just a lot of rambling and talking about random stuff. We briefly discussed me going up to Sheffield to visit her and her flatmate. From what I've heard, I've got a mini fan club in Sheffield, which is pretty awesome. So fingers crossed I'll be back up there in the next week or two.
So I don't really know when I'll next be back in Liverpool, but I need to head back sometime soon because there are some people that I haven't seen for quite a while, and I do miss them. It's just a case of missing opportunities and whatnot, and so there are people like Foy who I don't think I've seen for quite a while.
Currently, it's just after 1.30am, and I'm starting to feel sleepy. My sleep pattern has been thrown a little bit in the last few days, but I'll be back tomorrow or Saturday with Part 2 of my tale to share what's been happening in my life since I got back to Leeds on Tuesday. Put it this way, I've not really stopped since I stepped off the coach! I've found that my viewing numbers are pretty dependent on what time of day I post the blog, so I'll probably plug this tomorrow as well with the next entry, see if I can boost the numbers on it a little bit. Don't forget to share it with anyone else who might like it though! I'm getting readers from a couple of countries according to my stats, so let's see how far we can go!
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
I survived The Rapture, but is that really a good thing?
It's not quite the end of the weekend or Monday as I planned, but I've made it back here for another entry.
To be honest, this entry was very close to not happening tonight. As my title suggests, the internet seems to be falling apart with a variety of websites and pages not functioning properly. Obviously, websites go down and have difficulties all of the time, but it just seems to be happening a lot more frequently and to a lot more pages. Blogger (the site through which the blog page is hosted before being posted under the blogspot.com label) is being stupid. I think the system went through a bit of an upgrade the other day and there's a couple of bugs in this new system. Essentially, when I came onto the page, instead of directing me to my Dashboard, it was at a new log in page. So naturally, I enter my password and try to log in.
Nothing. A bit strange, but it didn't say the password was incorrect. So I try other passwords that I use, and they all show up as being incorrect. Reset the password, see if that works...again, nothing. So for the time being, it looked as though I was stuck at a new log-in page and was unable to log in.
I'm sure you've noticed that I managed to access the page since I'm writing right now. I found a lovely way in through the draft pages and got on to the site. Marvellous. So I can blog.
Then Twitter's started acting up as well. My complete timeline disappeared, leaving me with nothing. I can still tweet, and I can receive replies, but my timeline is empty. A look on Twitter's pages suggests that's another bug in the system that they're trying to fix.
So there's my...rather large ramble about the failings of the internet done. Onto brighter and better things! For example, I'm off home tomorrow which will be rather nice. I'm taking a couple of days there so won't be back in Leeds until Tuesday, but that's fine. Like I say, it gives me 5 days or so at home to chill out and maybe catch up with some friends since I think a fair few people are starting to make their way back from uni or are around anyway. There's also the Monaco GP which I'll be able to watch from home, and I might catch the Indy 500 on Sunday evening as well. Combined with two 1PW shows over the weekend (we'll see how they pan out as and when they arrive), it should be pretty cool.
I owe the postal service a gigantic apology too. I left my walking boots at home, and my mum kindly offered to post them up to me within a few days of coming back to Leeds. So I waited for them to show, and waited...and waited. It's been just over three weeks (I think) since the boots were posted, but it's only yesterday that I finally picked them up. We thought that someone had "borrowed" the boots or that they'd just got lost in the shuffle somewhere, and that's fine. These things happen. Turns out that they'd been sat in the site office, and I only found out because I got a "second ticket" about it yesterday. I'd love to know where that first ticket is...because I didn't see it.
So I apologise for doubting the postal service. I know you'll only go and screw up again at a later date and prove why I should doubt you to begin with, but for now you're in the good books.
One thing that has bugged me slightly is the end of the world talk that was going about last weekend. As we all know, some nutjob in the USA was claiming that on May 21st, God or Jesus (possibly both...help ease the workload I guess) would come to Earth and save those who deserved to be saved, leaving the rest of us to face the end of humanity and complete Armageddon.
Read that last bit again...those who were still left on Earth would be facing the end of humanity and the complete destruction of all life as we know it. So even if The Rapture had occurred and people had been swept off their feet and saved, being left on Earth isn't a good thing. Well, it'd be a great party once we all realised we were doomed...but that's beside the point. So all of the Facebook groups and stuff about "surviving the end of the world" doesn't really ring true. Obviously, it seems that no one was saved and taken elsewhere on May 21st and the beginning of the end of humanity didn't commence, so I suspect we can all safely say that the guy was wrong. Or he got his dates mixed up and forgot to carry a 0 somewhere or something.
It's not been an incredibly positive blog entry, so I'll end on something nice. I'm working on trying to start up a new project. If it does take off (which I hope it does), at the very least it'll be something cool to keep me occupied for while and it'll go well with the blog. Hopefully, people would notice it as well. It's in the very beginning stages of its infancy and there's a way to go before we start, but I'm keeping optimistic about it.
Enjoy the rest of your week people and remember, all achievements require great time.
To be honest, this entry was very close to not happening tonight. As my title suggests, the internet seems to be falling apart with a variety of websites and pages not functioning properly. Obviously, websites go down and have difficulties all of the time, but it just seems to be happening a lot more frequently and to a lot more pages. Blogger (the site through which the blog page is hosted before being posted under the blogspot.com label) is being stupid. I think the system went through a bit of an upgrade the other day and there's a couple of bugs in this new system. Essentially, when I came onto the page, instead of directing me to my Dashboard, it was at a new log in page. So naturally, I enter my password and try to log in.
Nothing. A bit strange, but it didn't say the password was incorrect. So I try other passwords that I use, and they all show up as being incorrect. Reset the password, see if that works...again, nothing. So for the time being, it looked as though I was stuck at a new log-in page and was unable to log in.
I'm sure you've noticed that I managed to access the page since I'm writing right now. I found a lovely way in through the draft pages and got on to the site. Marvellous. So I can blog.
Then Twitter's started acting up as well. My complete timeline disappeared, leaving me with nothing. I can still tweet, and I can receive replies, but my timeline is empty. A look on Twitter's pages suggests that's another bug in the system that they're trying to fix.
So there's my...rather large ramble about the failings of the internet done. Onto brighter and better things! For example, I'm off home tomorrow which will be rather nice. I'm taking a couple of days there so won't be back in Leeds until Tuesday, but that's fine. Like I say, it gives me 5 days or so at home to chill out and maybe catch up with some friends since I think a fair few people are starting to make their way back from uni or are around anyway. There's also the Monaco GP which I'll be able to watch from home, and I might catch the Indy 500 on Sunday evening as well. Combined with two 1PW shows over the weekend (we'll see how they pan out as and when they arrive), it should be pretty cool.
I owe the postal service a gigantic apology too. I left my walking boots at home, and my mum kindly offered to post them up to me within a few days of coming back to Leeds. So I waited for them to show, and waited...and waited. It's been just over three weeks (I think) since the boots were posted, but it's only yesterday that I finally picked them up. We thought that someone had "borrowed" the boots or that they'd just got lost in the shuffle somewhere, and that's fine. These things happen. Turns out that they'd been sat in the site office, and I only found out because I got a "second ticket" about it yesterday. I'd love to know where that first ticket is...because I didn't see it.
So I apologise for doubting the postal service. I know you'll only go and screw up again at a later date and prove why I should doubt you to begin with, but for now you're in the good books.
One thing that has bugged me slightly is the end of the world talk that was going about last weekend. As we all know, some nutjob in the USA was claiming that on May 21st, God or Jesus (possibly both...help ease the workload I guess) would come to Earth and save those who deserved to be saved, leaving the rest of us to face the end of humanity and complete Armageddon.
Read that last bit again...those who were still left on Earth would be facing the end of humanity and the complete destruction of all life as we know it. So even if The Rapture had occurred and people had been swept off their feet and saved, being left on Earth isn't a good thing. Well, it'd be a great party once we all realised we were doomed...but that's beside the point. So all of the Facebook groups and stuff about "surviving the end of the world" doesn't really ring true. Obviously, it seems that no one was saved and taken elsewhere on May 21st and the beginning of the end of humanity didn't commence, so I suspect we can all safely say that the guy was wrong. Or he got his dates mixed up and forgot to carry a 0 somewhere or something.
It's not been an incredibly positive blog entry, so I'll end on something nice. I'm working on trying to start up a new project. If it does take off (which I hope it does), at the very least it'll be something cool to keep me occupied for while and it'll go well with the blog. Hopefully, people would notice it as well. It's in the very beginning stages of its infancy and there's a way to go before we start, but I'm keeping optimistic about it.
Enjoy the rest of your week people and remember, all achievements require great time.
Friday, 20 May 2011
Summer is here, and it started to rain
Well, the writing of this blog can only mean one thing: I finished my exams and handed in the last of my essays. So I guess technically, I'm "free" and my summer starts. It's a crazily long summer though...I think I've got the best part of 4 months off until second year starts. I don't think I've ever had that long off. What on earth am I meant to do with myself for four months? Last year, after my A Levels, I had about a month less and that started to feel like an eternity.
Still, at least this time, I'll be doing some German work throughout the summer on the basis that I'll be returning to uni at the end of September rather than sitting around and waiting for results to come in and decide my future. Well, I guess it's the same to an extent. I still need to pass my modules to go on to next year. But I won't be waiting until mid-August for that...which is useful.
My actual exams weren't too bad. Two of the three German exams I had were recycled exam papers from a couple of years ago, and I think that the AGC questions were from last year (or at least, my one was). I guess that's pretty clever though, I wouldn't have assumed they'd give us last year's questions to do. Well played university. Well played.
It's a bit of a strange situation that I find myself in now though. While I've finished with my exams, pretty much everyone else I know has still got exams for another week or so. Which severely limits what I can do in terms of seeing people. At the moment, I think I'll hope for some nice weather and take the bike out along the canal and see how far I get. Worst (or best...I'm not sure) case scenario, there are milestones for Liverpool, and it's about 125 miles on the canal. There's no way I'll be doing that journey, but I could maybe say I've cycled that distance or something. I've also got a conga in my room which I've borrowed from Phen, so I'll be getting a bit of time on that and building up technique. I've only really played a couple of times so I'm not that strong at the moment, but hopefully we'll get there.
Catching up on sleep is one of my main aims for the next couple of days. My sleeping pattern has taken an absolute hammering in the last few weeks. I doubt it's due to exam stress or anything, as I try to not get stressed by exams, but I've definitely found myself getting much less sleep, whether it's been through taking ages to fall asleep or waking up numerous times during the night. I had a bit of a nap before and woke up with a headache, so that doesn't bode well. I'll probably grab a bit more sleep in a bit after dinner.
This weekend should be pretty cool. Tomorrow (Saturday 20th) I'm at Saltaire for the Day of Dance festival. The day starts at 9am or something, and workshops in various dance styles from across the world are running until 6.30pm. I'll be there with Honeydrum for the final session at 5pm doing a bit of drumming, and then we'll be in one of the rooms for the evening events playing some more grooves. It should be quite good though. I've not gigged since the end of March and we've only had one rehearsal on Wednesday, but it should be a fun little gig. I'm looking forward to it.
Looking ahead, I'm off home in just under a week. I'll be going Thursday-Tuesday (since Bank Holiday Monday tried to bump up the price of my return...sneaky!) and it'll be good to get home, play a bit of Xbox, see the family and relax. After that, there's the first T20 game of the season at Headingley on the 3rd which I've got my ticket for, as well as the Roses clash on the 17th. And maybe, in among that, I'll find some time to go back over to Sheffield and have that cup of tea I've been promised with Sophie and her flat.
Right, my head is starting to ache and I'm hungry, so I think the smart thing to do is end this entry here and go and find some dinner. Enjoy your weekend and I'll probably get another entry done at the end of the weekend or at some point on Monday.
Still, at least this time, I'll be doing some German work throughout the summer on the basis that I'll be returning to uni at the end of September rather than sitting around and waiting for results to come in and decide my future. Well, I guess it's the same to an extent. I still need to pass my modules to go on to next year. But I won't be waiting until mid-August for that...which is useful.
My actual exams weren't too bad. Two of the three German exams I had were recycled exam papers from a couple of years ago, and I think that the AGC questions were from last year (or at least, my one was). I guess that's pretty clever though, I wouldn't have assumed they'd give us last year's questions to do. Well played university. Well played.
It's a bit of a strange situation that I find myself in now though. While I've finished with my exams, pretty much everyone else I know has still got exams for another week or so. Which severely limits what I can do in terms of seeing people. At the moment, I think I'll hope for some nice weather and take the bike out along the canal and see how far I get. Worst (or best...I'm not sure) case scenario, there are milestones for Liverpool, and it's about 125 miles on the canal. There's no way I'll be doing that journey, but I could maybe say I've cycled that distance or something. I've also got a conga in my room which I've borrowed from Phen, so I'll be getting a bit of time on that and building up technique. I've only really played a couple of times so I'm not that strong at the moment, but hopefully we'll get there.
Catching up on sleep is one of my main aims for the next couple of days. My sleeping pattern has taken an absolute hammering in the last few weeks. I doubt it's due to exam stress or anything, as I try to not get stressed by exams, but I've definitely found myself getting much less sleep, whether it's been through taking ages to fall asleep or waking up numerous times during the night. I had a bit of a nap before and woke up with a headache, so that doesn't bode well. I'll probably grab a bit more sleep in a bit after dinner.
This weekend should be pretty cool. Tomorrow (Saturday 20th) I'm at Saltaire for the Day of Dance festival. The day starts at 9am or something, and workshops in various dance styles from across the world are running until 6.30pm. I'll be there with Honeydrum for the final session at 5pm doing a bit of drumming, and then we'll be in one of the rooms for the evening events playing some more grooves. It should be quite good though. I've not gigged since the end of March and we've only had one rehearsal on Wednesday, but it should be a fun little gig. I'm looking forward to it.
Looking ahead, I'm off home in just under a week. I'll be going Thursday-Tuesday (since Bank Holiday Monday tried to bump up the price of my return...sneaky!) and it'll be good to get home, play a bit of Xbox, see the family and relax. After that, there's the first T20 game of the season at Headingley on the 3rd which I've got my ticket for, as well as the Roses clash on the 17th. And maybe, in among that, I'll find some time to go back over to Sheffield and have that cup of tea I've been promised with Sophie and her flat.
Right, my head is starting to ache and I'm hungry, so I think the smart thing to do is end this entry here and go and find some dinner. Enjoy your weekend and I'll probably get another entry done at the end of the weekend or at some point on Monday.
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
Stammtisch, Stats and Studying
This might be a change to the new format of slightly shorter blog entries, but you'll just have to bear with me on this one.
Stammtisch was last Wednesday, and I wasn't planning to go to it originally. However, since the Honeydrum rehearsals are on hold at the moment while Phen and Alic Ja get used to having a baby, I had a free evening. Originally, I was going to spend that evening sleeping, but after a bit of persuasion, I went off to the 'Tisch...and it was a really good night. It been one of very few opportunities for me to get to socialise with the year since I'm always busy on Wednesdays (when they usually run Stammtisch), and I do believe I socialised. I had some cracking conversation with a number of people, and I got to show my "impressive" dance moves off in HiFi later on in the evening.
I think they're good dance moves, I'm sticking to that story. I mean, who doesn't love a bit of Cat in the Box (which was taught to me by Crawley, so thank you). If you can, there's photos of the evening on Facebook and if you can't see them, but you really want to, I created a Photobucket account so my sister could have a laugh at them. You can probably find the link if you have a little search.
-------------
After my former flatmate Vicky decided she wanted to start a blog, I pointed her in the direction of this site (you're welcome Blogger) and we had a bit of a chat about it. I'd completely failed to realise that I could actually see the hits on my page, and even the countries in which people are reading this.
I've had almost 700 views on the blog since I started it last September. I don't think that's too shabby, and I'm quite happy with that. So to everyone who reads my blog past, present or future, thank you. As you'd expect, the vast majority of my hits are from within the UK, but there are some slightly stranger locations. I've had over 100 views from the USA (though I'm not sure who these are from...please, make yourself known to me!) and hits in Germany (which I'm quite amused, though I doubt they're linked to my course in any way), the Netherlands, Hungary and even as far as Vietnam and South Korea. I have no idea who stumbled onto my blog in that country, but someone did.
This nugget of information brought a smile to my face, it's good to know that my writing is appreciated (or at least read) by people.
----------
And so, the exams are almost upon us. This time next week, we'l be into exams and I'll have already crossed my first exam off the list. That's IMG, and I can't wait for that to be over. I really don't like that module...and I think that reflects my module choices for next year, where I've tried to avoid history based modules and fill my mind with as much culture as possible.
Revision is proving to be rather uninteresting though. Saying that, I'm off to the library tomorrow to borrow the film and then I'll probably either try and keep hold of it until the exam, or I'll just take it out straight away again. I'm only really worried for IMG since that's the exam that I reckon will be the most problematic for me, especially since it's in German and it'll require a bloody good knowledge of the events. I think I've got that after we did a fair bit on the GDR through A-Level...but I don't know how strong it is in German. We shall see...
After the exams are over though, things are looking pretty good. The end of the month will be strong with a couple of shows back home, the summer gig season will be commencing hopefully with plenty to keep me occupied and I've got some other things lined up to keep myself busy and prevent madness from kicking in.
As a closing note, it's great to read that Africa Oyé has been kept as a free festival after the organisers were given more funding to prevent them from having to charge entry into the event. Fabulous news, as it's one of my favourite events in the year. Whether I'm playing or not, I'll look forward to going down there and checking it out once again.
Assuming this has come from the council, it'd be great if they can find other funding to prevent other events from not going ahead. The Lord Mayor's Parade is apparently cancelled this year, and I've heard things about other events and festivals possibly not happening due to budget restrictions as well. Fingers crossed!!
Stammtisch was last Wednesday, and I wasn't planning to go to it originally. However, since the Honeydrum rehearsals are on hold at the moment while Phen and Alic Ja get used to having a baby, I had a free evening. Originally, I was going to spend that evening sleeping, but after a bit of persuasion, I went off to the 'Tisch...and it was a really good night. It been one of very few opportunities for me to get to socialise with the year since I'm always busy on Wednesdays (when they usually run Stammtisch), and I do believe I socialised. I had some cracking conversation with a number of people, and I got to show my "impressive" dance moves off in HiFi later on in the evening.
I think they're good dance moves, I'm sticking to that story. I mean, who doesn't love a bit of Cat in the Box (which was taught to me by Crawley, so thank you). If you can, there's photos of the evening on Facebook and if you can't see them, but you really want to, I created a Photobucket account so my sister could have a laugh at them. You can probably find the link if you have a little search.
-------------
After my former flatmate Vicky decided she wanted to start a blog, I pointed her in the direction of this site (you're welcome Blogger) and we had a bit of a chat about it. I'd completely failed to realise that I could actually see the hits on my page, and even the countries in which people are reading this.
I've had almost 700 views on the blog since I started it last September. I don't think that's too shabby, and I'm quite happy with that. So to everyone who reads my blog past, present or future, thank you. As you'd expect, the vast majority of my hits are from within the UK, but there are some slightly stranger locations. I've had over 100 views from the USA (though I'm not sure who these are from...please, make yourself known to me!) and hits in Germany (which I'm quite amused, though I doubt they're linked to my course in any way), the Netherlands, Hungary and even as far as Vietnam and South Korea. I have no idea who stumbled onto my blog in that country, but someone did.
This nugget of information brought a smile to my face, it's good to know that my writing is appreciated (or at least read) by people.
----------
And so, the exams are almost upon us. This time next week, we'l be into exams and I'll have already crossed my first exam off the list. That's IMG, and I can't wait for that to be over. I really don't like that module...and I think that reflects my module choices for next year, where I've tried to avoid history based modules and fill my mind with as much culture as possible.
Revision is proving to be rather uninteresting though. Saying that, I'm off to the library tomorrow to borrow the film and then I'll probably either try and keep hold of it until the exam, or I'll just take it out straight away again. I'm only really worried for IMG since that's the exam that I reckon will be the most problematic for me, especially since it's in German and it'll require a bloody good knowledge of the events. I think I've got that after we did a fair bit on the GDR through A-Level...but I don't know how strong it is in German. We shall see...
After the exams are over though, things are looking pretty good. The end of the month will be strong with a couple of shows back home, the summer gig season will be commencing hopefully with plenty to keep me occupied and I've got some other things lined up to keep myself busy and prevent madness from kicking in.
As a closing note, it's great to read that Africa Oyé has been kept as a free festival after the organisers were given more funding to prevent them from having to charge entry into the event. Fabulous news, as it's one of my favourite events in the year. Whether I'm playing or not, I'll look forward to going down there and checking it out once again.
Assuming this has come from the council, it'd be great if they can find other funding to prevent other events from not going ahead. The Lord Mayor's Parade is apparently cancelled this year, and I've heard things about other events and festivals possibly not happening due to budget restrictions as well. Fingers crossed!!
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Cricket, coffee, sunshine and sleep.
I'm back in Leeds, and things are pretty good so far. For some reason, I'm feeling ridiculously tired since I came back. I'm not completely sure what's causing it, but it's very strange...
I went to the cricket yesterday at Headingley, which was my first time at the ground. I have to admit, I'm very impressed with that place, it's a nice ground and it was great to see so many fans for a Yorkshire CB40 game. I imagine a combination of Bank Holiday Monday and glorious sunshine were definite contributors, and it's probably even more impressive since the game was broadcast on Sky Sports! Yorkshire lost the game though...and they lost rather convincingly. I may have confused a couple of Yorkshire men when I got annoyed at Lancashire losing their game as well, which took some explaining. They'll be even more confused when I appear at Yorks vs Lancs and cheer for the away team.
I would wonder whether sitting in the sun for about 6 hours is responsible for my feeling of tiredness, but I don't think so. I drank loads and I've bought some factor 50 suncream. That sun isn't getting me any time soon.
I thought I slept relatively well last night. I fell into bed at about 10:30 and was completely out of it, but I woke up a couple of times. Still, I was up bright and early for the 9am start at uni. I think "bright and early" sapped all of the energy from me. In the 4 hour gap from the end of Core seminar to PSP, I headed back to my flat to do some work. I worked, but I was also incredibly tired (as those who read my Twitter will know) and I had 5 or 6 cups of coffee in about a 90 minute span. Not too smart really, but it didn't make a blind bit of difference. I think I screwed my body up in that respect a few years ago.
But I slept from about 7-9pm, which really isn't that clever. But it's what I seem to do on a Tuesday...it'd almost be a break from tradition if I didn't. On the plus, I might watch UFC in a little bit. Or I'll go back to sleep. I suspect sleep will probably win...
Quick congratulations to AlicJa and Phen~* for the birth of their baby girl in the early hours of this morning. Pretty awesome.
Definitely thinking about heading back to bed now. Hit me with some comments if you've read this pease!
I went to the cricket yesterday at Headingley, which was my first time at the ground. I have to admit, I'm very impressed with that place, it's a nice ground and it was great to see so many fans for a Yorkshire CB40 game. I imagine a combination of Bank Holiday Monday and glorious sunshine were definite contributors, and it's probably even more impressive since the game was broadcast on Sky Sports! Yorkshire lost the game though...and they lost rather convincingly. I may have confused a couple of Yorkshire men when I got annoyed at Lancashire losing their game as well, which took some explaining. They'll be even more confused when I appear at Yorks vs Lancs and cheer for the away team.
I would wonder whether sitting in the sun for about 6 hours is responsible for my feeling of tiredness, but I don't think so. I drank loads and I've bought some factor 50 suncream. That sun isn't getting me any time soon.
I thought I slept relatively well last night. I fell into bed at about 10:30 and was completely out of it, but I woke up a couple of times. Still, I was up bright and early for the 9am start at uni. I think "bright and early" sapped all of the energy from me. In the 4 hour gap from the end of Core seminar to PSP, I headed back to my flat to do some work. I worked, but I was also incredibly tired (as those who read my Twitter will know) and I had 5 or 6 cups of coffee in about a 90 minute span. Not too smart really, but it didn't make a blind bit of difference. I think I screwed my body up in that respect a few years ago.
But I slept from about 7-9pm, which really isn't that clever. But it's what I seem to do on a Tuesday...it'd almost be a break from tradition if I didn't. On the plus, I might watch UFC in a little bit. Or I'll go back to sleep. I suspect sleep will probably win...
Quick congratulations to AlicJa and Phen~* for the birth of their baby girl in the early hours of this morning. Pretty awesome.
Definitely thinking about heading back to bed now. Hit me with some comments if you've read this pease!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)