May 2008 Archives

Now I'm approximately half way through my essay. Strangely I am enjoying the fact that I started it so early and am able to just write lots of crap in the document, then strip it out later. Plus, as DD100's TMA06 gives me free reign over whatever part of the course I choose (so long as I reference three seperate modules), it is somewhat easier than being constrained to 200 pages in one book. Also, now that I have been able to download my course books in PDF format, I can quickly search them for keywords, rather than having to spend hours going through each real book and never quite finding what I am looking for.

Tomorrow I have every intention of finishing up the essay before making it good and proper next week. Next week it's back to [real] work, therefore my time will be somewhat more limited, and it will be better if all that I have to do is edit it.

I'm so close to the end. I'm this far, *indicates with thumb and forefinger*, from the end of my first year as a university student. It's a weird feeling. All of that effort, and a slight amount of worry for...what? Nothing at the end of this year. Nothing for at least another three years. How much does that suck? Quite a lot I will have you know. I am quite a results and reward - I started to type "retard" there - driven person. It will take ages before I get the result of this TMA, as it's sent by post, and even longer until I get my final result, although I can estimate that myself. Bleh to waiting.

And do you know what is annoying me today? They said it wouldn't rain, so I put a wash on. It's now raining. Balls.

I finished reading The Great Gatsby a couple of days back. Very good book, I rather enjoyed it. Now I have picked up Stephen Fry's autobiography but have not started it. Autobiographies are strange creatures to me. I never know whether I really want to read them, I feel as though I am somehow intruding on someone's personality and privacy. I feel as though I may come out the other end having learnt something that I did not want or need to know. That's the reason why I've only picked into Gordon Ramsey's autobiography a few times. I'm sure I'll get to the end of it one day. It's sort of like the Complete Works of Oscar Wilde that I have - I get into it for a bit, then abandon it for months for fear of reading something that I don't like. I'm a strange creature.

We had a huge thunderstorm the other night. It cost me an hour worth of sleep. It had this lightning that was utterly blinding, and thunder that wasn't just the rolling, deep sound that spreads out across a large area, but the truly amazing whipping, cracking thunder as though the earth had just been split in two.

Talking of halfway there, I am pretty much half way through my waking hours. Got up a little earlier than I was expecting this morning. Gave me a good start on the essay though. I had already done the Wii Fit stuff and the essay by 1pm. What joy. Now I've just been mooching around with little idea of what to do. I guess I will probably get back on the xBox very shortly. I'm just a few achievements away from almost completing a game. What joy.

This started out as yet another entry about my TMA. I'm almost done. Not just the TMA but also the entire course. Keep thinking of that...I'm almost done.

Oh the melodrama more like.

I always find starting an essay far more difficult than writing the bulk of it. Once I've started, it's pretty cool and it flows, but getting started is like trying to get an anorexic to eat a chocolate éclair - difficult, and only occurs if held firmly down. Today was one of those instances.

Funnily I did not suffer the normal:
"OH MY GOD! I DON'T FUCKING WANT TO! FUCK OFF ESSAY! I DON'T CARE!"

After a few biscuits, many hours of procrastinating, an hour on Wii Fit, more than an hour pissing around online, and at almost 3pm, I finally started it. Well, I wrote out the plan at the top. Good stuff. At least that gives me somewhere to go with it. What worries me slightly is that my tutor isn't going to see it. This is going to be sent to some random tutor somewhere in Britain who has never seen me, spoken to me or even knows of my existence. I hope the mark I attain is as good as the others, and it's not a case of, as The Boss says, me being the "Teacher's Pet". I'm sure that if I work hard enough, and don't take quite as blasé an attitude as I currently have towards it, then I will do fine.

However, it is TMA06 of DD100 - that's the only essay you really must submit, and you must attain something like 30% in it to pass the course. Nah, I'll do fine. Srsly.

I feel as though I have been waiting for summer for absolutely ages. I do not exaggerate that either. It feels longer than at any period of my life. The winter felt as though it dragged on for years, and not because it was still cold and snowing in April - it felt as though it had been going on for three years by the time we got to December. And then, a couple of days ago I noticed that summer is pretty much here. Good stuff. The academic year ends in five weeks time, meaning summer will be over before we know it, and it will be back to Autumn and winter again. What a depressing thought.

And this week at work has just been an utter shower of bastards. Yesterday we had some stupid woman bitching and wanting us to buy her a new colour laser printer because the one she currently uses is going to be moved downstairs. Fuck off. What's so fucking difficult about walking down one flight of stairs? It's "not practical" apparently - what a load of bull - she's just a lazy fucker.

Today was an absolute corker with one of the questions I had. The morning was fairly alright, had a meeting about a website I'm making someone, that was cool, easy, simple, good stuff. Then later in the morning I answered the telephone. The stupid whiney woman on the end wanted to know how to select multiple messages in Outlook Express all in one go. I told her how to do it using the shift key. Her response to this was "What's the shift key?" And then, "I don't have a shift key". Yes you do love, it's underneath the return key, you know, the enter button? Fucking hell.

What is it this week? Retards' day out?

Right, yes, I said that I would write about this.

On Tuesday 13th May we attended a recording of QI (as it is known to its friends, it is Quite Interesting to everyone else) at The London Studios on the South Bank. And what a cracking night it was.

We turned up approximately three hours before the recording was due to start and joined the queue. That's what the British do best. After a few worries that we weren't going to get into the recording as the line of people with Priority tickets got longer, we were finally admitted around 7pm.

We took our seats. A little while later the warm up comedian came out and warmed us all up. He was quite funny. Then he introduced a man known only as Stephen Fry. The audience, myself included clapped this tall, dark haired, bereted man who stepped out before us. We all clapped for a bloody long time actually, must have been a couple of minutes. He spoke for a little, then commented that he was babbling nonsense and began to introduce the guests. In order of appearance:
Hugh Dennis
Jo Brand
Phil Jupitus
And of course Alan Davies.

This was the point at which we found out that the show was about France and The French. We couldn't have guessed though - they were all wearing Berets and garlands of onions around their necks.

And so the next two hours followed with an almost perfect recording which required no pick-ups or retakes at the end. A rare occurance according to one Mr. Fry.

And you know what, I'm not going to tell you all of the detail because that will spoil the show when it is eventually aired in the Autumn, however I will mention a couple of things that I believe will not make the final cut. We were after all warned by the warm up comic (a one Mr. Stephen Grant) that most of what we would see would not even make the DVD edit because it would be too dirty or too libellous to broadcast. And when you think about it, out of a two hour recording, they only end up broadcasting a quarter of it.

There was comment made about smoking, which had Jo Brand whipping out...(you and your dirty minds!) her packet of fags (Marlborough menthol I believe) and flaunting them on camera, because of course in Britain there is a smoking ban and we cannot show or talk about these things on television. "Fags! They're fucking lovely!"

There was also comment passed upon Vanessa Feltz and her appetite for "personal trainer cock". Oh yes, far too bad to be broadcast. Her bad fashion sense was also touched upon. Cannot stand the woman myself, so I had a hearty laugh.

However, the best bit, which I can almost guarantee will not be broadcast, and will be very unlikely to be put onto the DVD came from a joke about a rather questionable Japanese sexual practice. I was one of a very small handful of people (probably about 10 in total) in the 500 strong audience that laughed at it. I laughed very loud. The response given by Fry to those members of the audience who laughed very loud was "All of the members of the audience who just laughed at that, leave now". There then followed a conversation amongst the panellists about what it was, or rather Hugh Dennis asked what it was, Fry went to answer and then told him to Google it. Jupitus told him to erase his history afterwards, Davies said he knew a good bit of software that could do that part for him.

All in all it was a bloody funny evening, with five of the greatest comics that Britain has to offer. Each one just had great anecdotes, or in the case of Alan Davies, was funny while messing around, which is what seems to make him so lovely. It firmly cemented in my mind just how funny they all are, and what a lovely, lovely, lovely gentleman Mr. Fry is (it kind of helped that I had seen Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out the previous evening).

I am thoroughly looking forward to seeing the "F" series in its entirety, and particularly this episode on France and The French.

QI, The "F" Series will be shown on BBC Four and BBC Two during the Autumn schedule in 2008. Most likely from the end of September until Christmas.

Aaah.

I'll write about it tomorrow.

It's been over 24 hours since I had a cup of tea. That's more important.

Yeah, according to MT the last entry on here was on 29th April. Then we had the bank holiday weekend. Then I went to work on Tuesday despite waking up at 3am with a horrible migraine.

Then wednesday came around. Oh boy, did that suck. I didn't feel terribly well from waking, so I spent a little longer in bed, eventually coming to the conclusion that I had to get up if I was going to work. So I got up...went to put my dressing gown on and before I could I started to feel even more ill and went downstairs (yes, our bathroom is downstairs) before I threw up on the carpet. I got to the bog just in time.

Woah, that was a horrible day. I spent the rest of it in very fitful sleep, vomiting often, feeling rather unwell. Later in the day I got up and sat downstairs but threw up even more then so I went back to bed. I slept a bit overnight. Ugh. It was about 36 hours without food or water which isn't the nicest.

Yesterday I started small with food, just a bit of dry bread, a few crisprolls, then crisprolls with butter and cheese, but still only water. Today I had marmite on toast, but still only water. You know, I haven't had a cup of tea since Monday.

This morning I decided not to go into work because I felt so very tired, I tried to get back to sleep and thought that I had been to sleep for a couple more hours, but it was only one, was very broken with very chaotic dreams, and a painful head. Ugh. Can do without. I decided to get up as I was probably only making myself feel worse.

Over the past few days the most important things to me have been:

• Finishing my Essay


• Not missing QI next week

Yep, that's it. I was so fearful that I would smear my good record so far with my course by not being able to submit it on time that I was tempted to ask for an extension. No need now, I've written half of it, and will write the rest in just a moment, I hope.

The second one...I am so glad that it was this week that all this happened, and not next. Dude. I would have been so disappointed if I couldn't have gone to the recording of QI next week. SO DISAPPOINTED! Now, let us hope that this was a one off and will not return next week.

That would suck and blow.