19.12.06

Back in Portsmouth

ill start of with this very insightful cartoon.

All assignments are finished and handed in... just. I finished my 3D Modelling for Film assignment at 3 on Friday. As it had to be in by half past I quickly filled in the hand in sheet and dashed up to Derwent's to get a lift up to the uni, getting to his house at about 10 past. I went in to find Dave desperately trying to burn his assignment to CD, Derwent still writing in his log book and Luke still RENDERING.

Derwent and Dave were eventually ready to go and by 20 past we decided we couldn’t wait for Luke any more, so we dashed out to the car, Luke trailing behind with his laptop, yelling at it to render faster. We got to the uni and Luke’s laptop was still saying it had 10 minutes of rendering left, so me and Dave jumped out the car, taking Derwent's assignment with us and literally ran to the Octagon while Derwent parked and Luke swore at his computer some more.

Me and Dave got to the Octagon (you'll never guess what shape that building is) and pelted upstairs to the hand in place. The fist thing I saw was a massive crowd of people; the second was one of the office women stood in the crowd, who said, "you’re late..."
That induced a very sharp intake of breath, a look of horror and me wondering the best way to kill Luke and where to dispose of the body.
Fortunately the office woman continued "...so you'd better be quick". She gestured towards the row of tables surrounded by hastily scribbling students, and it took me a moment to realise we'd already filled in our hand in forms.
As I turned to the crowd by the hand in desk the woman said "ah...you'll be alright".

Despite this I still used the trick id perfected on my many visits to Loughborough where there’s always a big crowd of people trying to get on a very small train at Nuneaton.
Instead of joining the back of the crowd, you join at the side, as close to the front as possible. Then, as the crowd slowly thins as people get on the train/hand in their assignments, you slowly insinuate yourself further into the crowd and you can then get in before the people stuck in the middle who were in the crowd before you, and no one seems to notice.

As a result I only had to wait for two or three people to hand in their assignments before me and Dave were served instead of about 20. After that the relief was immense and I enjoyed a very pleasurable adrenaline rush for the next 15 minutes or so. Luke and Derwent showed up just after Dave had handed in his assignment. I'd already handed in Derwent's with mine, and Luke had attempted to burn his to CD while running with laptop. Obviously it failed, and he didn’t have enough time, or CDs, for a second attempt so he’s handed in half his project on CD (if that even works) and his logbook. Good luck to him.

Went into town with Derwent and Luke to celebrate. Ended up trying the new Chinese take away in town. It was very good, and they deliver too, so I may have to change that one to my regular instead of the one on Western Road.
In the evening I went back home and gave my housemates their Christmas presents. A film rental voucher for Phil and Luke (different Luke to the one earlier) and Rachel got a Lego boat and aeroplane.

Spent Saturday washing clothes, doing my washing up, generally tidying up and thinking about packing. In the afternoon I went back to Derwent and Dave’s to pick up copies of our films for this semester and play Dave at New Super Mario Bros. He thrashed me at the Mario Vs Luigi battles, but I got my revenge on the minigames.

Parents arrived about 1 the next day to take me home. Mum insisted on vacuuming my room (first time its been done since I moved in) and ended up doing the hall too. No idea how long the journey home took, although I don’t think I fell asleep at all. 5 minutes after I sent Andrea a text to tell her how bored I was we were back in Portsmouth.

Pretty much settled in now. Going back to work in the grease mines (aka McDonalds) on Friday. Apparently we've been sold to a franchise. Hopefully ill get my soul back, as I technically wont be working for McDonalds any more, although it’s not officially going through until the end of January.

Hopefully seeing Andrea tomorrow and Muscat's arranging a get together at the Manor on Thursday night so should be a good week.

13.12.06

Just a quick one...

im currently halfway through my assignments, or thereabouts. Visual Media Applications is done, finished and handed in (yay!), my head model for 3D Facial Modelling is finished and just needs to be textured and then my sketch book needs padding out, and for 3D Modelling for film im about halfway through modelling and walfway through finishing my log book.....hopefully ill get 'em done before the hand in....

in the meantime, heres a fantastic animation i found last night.
I love it. i could watch it over and over again. brilliant.

9.12.06

Ta-dah

As you can probably see, I've given my blog a facelift.

No idea why, I just fancied fooking around with the settings. I think it looks quite good. Let me know what you think. Even if you think its rubbish. I wont be offended. I'll just unleash the flying wombats and you'll never be heard from again.

Not much to report to be honest. My Lego advent calendar is amazing. Not many people can say they got an airport luggage x-ray machine in their calendar. I also got a hospital bench with a drip which a burnt Anakin Skywalker minifig (post-lava burnings, pre-Vader suit-ification) is making use of. Unfortunately the doctor minifig can’t attend to him as the airport staff minifig x-rayed his suitcase and found it to be full of scalpels and needles so he’s in a spot of bother. As soon as I get a policeman minifig he will be arrested.

Thursday night I
decided to watch the 1989 Batman film by Tim Burton and its put me in a really Batman sort of mood. I'm downloading the classic 1966 TV series staring Adam West (who is fantastic, I might add) and Batman Forever, just to see how bad it is. I think I’ve seen the start and seem to remember a vat of 'boiling acid' as if acid alone wasn’t bad enough. And since when could bank security guards recognise the acidity of a liquid just by looking at it, anyway?

Andrea's coming to visit this weekend. Its only a short one over one night cos she had to work Friday evening and we both have quite a lot of coursework to do. Speaking of which, our group piece was handed in yesterday! Glad to get it out the way. If Aidan youtubes it ill imbed it here. I might let you see our last too with me stuttering like a good 'un.

Looking forward to Andrea's arrival tomorrow (I’m writing this on Friday night/Saturday morning so I’m between days...). Cos its only a short visit we probably wont do anything other than curl up together and watch TV (we have the 7 episodes so far of the new series of Family Guy to watch!) but I cant complain.
I will also be inflicting my first ever pasta bake on her. It seems pretty easy.... just a case of adding the sauce to the dry pasta then bunging it in the oven. What could go wrong?

Slightly embarrassing moment earlier.... the bulb in Phil’s room blew causing all the lights in the house to go off. The switches are in a cupboard in my room. I accidentally turned off all the electricity in the whole house instead of putting the lights back on. Never mind. Its sorted now.

That’s all for now. If anything interesting happens over the weekend ill let you know. Hopefully my assignments won’t take over my life entirely....

5.12.06

The Awards 2006

review of the year

1) Drinking buddy of the year?
hmm....think ill have to say Andrea. was it three and a half big bottles of Smirnoff ice?

2) Lifetime Service Award - Longest friend?
think thats gotta be Muscat. been friends since primary school, though ive known him since preschool

3) High point of the year?
2nd April - Andrea told me she'd love to go out with me

4) Low point of the year?
now....so many assignments!

5) Best Holiday?
only holiday i had was to devon for a weekend for my aunts wedding

6) Anthem for 2006?
Dont Stop Me Now - Queen

7) Any regrets?
Should have gone as a ninja to the union halloween night

8) Best night out?
Andreas birthday. i was dressed as the Phantom but everyone thought i was Dracula.

9) Worst night out?
the Havant College Crew Reunion. not a bad night in itself, but Andrea got so roped into trying to save other peoples dead/dying relationships we hardly had any time to focus on ours which had just started. dont think we got to kiss properly til we were tidying up after everyone left.

10) Who did you spend your valentines with?
think i just stayed in, online. but i did send Andrea a big Tigger and Eeyore

11) Best relationship?
Andrea, of course!

12) Worst relationship?
Andrea. not cos its bad, its not at all, just cos its the only one all year....

13) First gig of the year?
The Mighty Boosh live in march. not technically a gig but what you gonna do?

14) last gig of the year?
see above

15) best decision made all year?
telling Andrea how i felt

16) Best new album?
bought would be the 70s musical version of War of the Worlds, downloaded.....Meat Loaf - Bat out of Hell III - The Monster is Loose

17) Most proud moment?
see 3)

18) Most reliable person?
dont know really...probably Andrea

22.11.06

Musings on the universe

earlier today the lovely Paula sent me a handful of joke emails...and its got me wondering about how the universe works...

the exact email that started it all was entitled Irish Flat Screen TV and contained the following photos.





At the time i just thought it was mildly amusing and moved on.
but then....a couple of hours later, i got exactly the same email from my good friend Katie.
now that got me thinking. through what chain of people did this email get to me? does one of Paulas friends know someone who knows someone who knows someone, etc, who knows Katie?
or has someone emailed it to loads of friends whos emailed it to loads of friends whos emailed it to loads of friends, etc, until it reached both Paula and Katie seperately?

i also mentioned that id got the same joke email from two seperate people to Andrea without telling her it was the irish flat screen TV one and then she sent i to me too.

Andrea got it from her mum.

21.11.06

Mugging Update

Mr CID came round yesterday. apparently they tracked down one of the guys who did it from the car registration number and arrested him. hes admitted doing it, but his story is slightly different (he originally asked to buy the fireworks and it was the other guy who did all the punching). i think hes on bail for 4 weeks or something and they're trying to get the other guy.

also, my uni work is coming along nicely. i made massive progress with my 3D Modelling for Film assignment (i actually started modelling!) and tomorrow i plan to get as much of my VMA done as possible. go me!

15.11.06

busy time.....

started monday last week. About 8.45 there was a massive bashing on the front door. i opened it to find Luke on the doorstep saying 'ive just been mugged. we've got to find Rachel'

you can imagine the sort of images that comes up with. we all rushed out and we eventually found Rachel sat on the floor in the petrol station shop. while we were waiting for the police to show up it turned out they were cycling back from tesco and Luke had the tips of some fireworks sticking out the top of his backpack.
some guy came out of the petrol station, saw Luke and said something like 'are those fireworks?'
Luke just said 'no' and they both sped up. the guy got into his car with his friends and started to drive after them.

they rode into the park to try to get away but the guy followed them and rammed Luke off his bike with the car. he got out, pushed Luke over the knee high railings by the path and started punching him in the face. at this point Rachel rode back to the petrol station to escape. another guy got out of the car, took the fireworks out from Lukes bag and hit him round the face with them.

they tried to steal his phone, but luckily they believed him when he said he didnt have it so they took his wallet instead. fortunately there wasnt much in it. after that they drove off, and luke rushed back home, dumped the rest of his shopping and round us up to go find Rachel.
we asked the shop owner about the CCTV footage considering the mugger had just left the shop but apparently the camera was turned off. personally i think thats just an excuse to avoid lots of paperwork...

the police finaly arrived after about an hour and Luke and Rachel went off with them to show where the mugging happened and to go back to the station to make a statement. Luke got the car regestration number so hopefully something'll happen. the guy from CID came round saturday evening to talk to them, mainly to introduce himself and find out a bit more detail on what happened.

wednesday i had to be a russian with a stutter. we were recreating a 2 minute scene from Mirror for our Digital Sound and Image Manipultation project. if it gets youtubed i may post a link to it here....if my stuttering isnt too embarassing...
there was a bit of a panic on friday. we had to hand in our 2 minute sequence and Avid decided to mess us around. it took us about an hour to copy the film (which was only 2 minutes long, remember) to a DV tape and we just got it in with half an hour to go before the deadline.
in tomorrows DSIM tutorial we're doing a peer assesment to grade each other depending on how well we pulled our weight. if i slacked as much last year as Alex did for this project then im surprised the others didnt boot me out.

Andrea came for a visit at the weekend and we had a fantastic time as usual. didnt really do much as theres hardly anything to do in stafford, but spending the weekend wrapped up in a duvet together in front of some good DVDs is nothing to be complaining about.

had an amazing breakthrough with Visual Media Applicatons. i actually came up with an idea for my assignment!
im going to do an animation to advertise an Anime season for Film4. something involving giant robots in a Neon Genesis Evangelion stylée and ive found some good music from the .hack//SIGN soundtrack that i think will be suitable.
will have to rough out my vague ideas to make them more usefull this evening.

think thats about it for now. have to start coming up with ideas for our next DSIM assignment. a 3 minute film based on either a poem or an original 'experimental narrative'. i think Derwents idea from last years scriptwriting module involving invisible lammas and questioning reality would be experimental enough but we'll have to see.

oh, and im now using the post Google take-over BloggerBeta so if you have any teething troubles posting comment etc that will probably be why. apparently i cant post comments on non-Beta blogs at the moment but they're working on it and will be able to soon....at least thats what they say.

hopefully ill have something interesting to blog about sooner this time :P

20.10.06

blooooooog!

first things first: from Muscats blog

If you comment on this post:

1. I’ll respond with something random about you
2. I’ll challenge you to try something
3. I’ll pick a colour that I associate with you
4. I’ll tell you something I like about you
5. I’ll tell you my first/clearest memory of you
6. I’ll tell you what animal you remind me of
7. I’ll ask you something I’ve always wanted to ask you
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on yours

To which Muscat's reply was:

1. You're no longer shorter than me
2. Try Linux!
3. Green (no idea why)
4. You bought me a lightsaber
5. Vague memory of you at Highbury...
6. Rats (you know why!)
7. Will you forgive me for the slight delay?

so there you go.

i had a good birthday. Andrea got me Count Duckula series 1 and the Back to the Future box set, so at the moment im going through a bit of a BttF phase......
ive decided i want a delorean as an incentive to learn to drive. it'll only set me back £16000.
any donations welcome...or you could just buy me the car :P

uni life has been quite fun so far, although the amount of work required is quickly expanding to ginormous standards.....ill survive though. hopefully ill pass :D

im too out of practice with this blogging lark....ill write more later.....

24.9.06

one of THOSE ideas....

you know the ones i mean.
they usually come when youre quite tired.
they are initially met with great enthusiasm but eventually end up dead on their arses.
and yes.
ive had one.

i was watching CSI: Crime Scene Investigation earlier while musing over my current addiction to late 19th century science fiction novels when it struck me.....what happens if you combine the two...?

ive done a bit of research and had a think, and come up with the following:

Criminal Investigation Department: Victorian London or CID:VL for short.

its pretty much CSI but with less of the technology and more of the sideburns. it'll probably be a webcomic.

lets see how it goes...

im not quite that bad...

21.9.06

greetings human worm-babies

yep yep, im back in stafford.

and just like last year, here are some pictures of my room.
its bigger than my room in halls last year. speaking of which, Aidan from my film group is this years warden for Norbury house in the halls. apparently my old is empty this year.
apparently when aidan went in he was expecting all my random crap to be in it. he was disapointed.

not got round to putting up my posters yet. may do that today if i can be arsed.

enrollment went quite smoothly yesterday. i should be getting my loan in on monday, so woo and indeed hoo. i wont be going mad on expensive geekery this year. just reasonably priced geekery :P

seriously though, i wont be buying any lightsabres (the only one id consider getting is Obi-Wan and as far as im aware theres no plans to make one) or expensive replica coats or fake toasters once thrown by Simon Pegg.
i dont know what i will get but it wont be as much/expensive as last year.

it was good to see all my friends again, although apparently James has switched courses so hes technically a smelly first year. dont know if we'll be seeing him again. annoying really as he was the lead role in both our films last year :P

not really much else to say. may put up some more photos later. theres a free stuff fair at uni and i gotta go into town today so id better go get ready.

speak soon

15.9.06

im in a real mood to watch Star Wars...

...but i cant.

because its in a box in the car.

and so is my DVD player....and TV....and computer. and lots of my other stuff.

thats right, im going back to uni tomorrow.
doesnt really feel like im leaving again. im sure it will once ive been squashed in the back of the car for 3 hours though.

looking forward to it (being back at uni, that is, not being stuck in the car for 3 hours), it was a good laugh last year and hopefully will be this year too. should be more interesting too, what with living with Luke, Rachel and Phil instead of a bunch of malaysians.
i hope Phil is in tomorrow, or ill have to sit on the doorstep.

oh well, as Charlie Chaplin once said "im leaving! and i wont return until i have come back" or something along those lines....Buster Keaton is much better. but now im rambling. been a while since ive had a good ramble, might keep this one going for a bit just for a change, but no, it better not.

ill blog again as soon as im settled in and with an internet connection. probably with photos of my room, just like last year.

still cant watch Star Wars though, can i? grr

11.9.06

tiddly pom

not really anything that interesting happening at the moment.
last night i went for a meal with andrea and both sets of parents so that they could meet each other, and i think that went quite well. both our houses are a building site so they had lots to talk about :P

i only have 14 hours of McLabour left before returning to stafford...and thats happening this saturday! quite looking forward to it. have a couple of early starts though, and im not just across the road from campus any more. ill have to get up slightly earlier than quarter to 9....

in the mean time, other than those last two shifts at McDs, im pretty much just packing while working my way through my DangerMouse box set. slightly puzzled about that though. on the front of the box it proudly shouts 'Every episode ever made!' and on the back it says the show ran for 161 episodes, but if you count the episode titles printed on each disk, it only comes to 90. wheres the other 71?

ive sent Mark a text asking if he wants to go to the pub thursday night, but that almost certainly wont happen. probably wont even get a reply. but never mind.
Hopefully seeing Andrea one last time before we both head back to uni on wednesday, although im sure it wont be long before one of us visits the other once we're both settled in up there.

thats about it really. back to packing i suppose. hopefully ill get a reply from my landlord about the keys to the house tomorrow....

27.8.06

WOOOOOO!

this afternoon im gonna see Andrea for the first time in aaaaages! its been two whole weeks! im meeting her down Gunwarf and we'll probably be getting a burger king (the enemy!) before going to see Snakes on a Plane. looking forward to it :D

so whats happened in the last two weeks?

well last week was just pants. i was working every afternoon til evening except thursday so i couldnt really do anything during the day, and on thursday i was planning on going to the cinema on my own just to get out of the house, but Andrea complained because i was going to see Snakes on a Plane because i didnt think she would be interested when it turned out she was. just realised it might be because of the plane, what with her studying Aeronautical Engineering an' all.
instead i just ended up watching DVDs all day.

the week before was slightly more interesting though. i went to devon for my aunts wedding. i was expecting lots of drama because no one really likes Julian that much, but in the end it went quite smoothly.
i was right about my grandma getting drunk though. i have an entertaining video of her singing Delilah with my cousin. if it somehow finds its way onto Google Video or something i might have to post it on here ;)

i think thats pretty much it. id better go finish getting ready so that im not late for Andrea.

1.8.06

not blogged in a while....bout time i did...

its august already! when did that happen? i'll have been going out with Andrea for four months tomorrow. woo! :P

McDonalds has been quite interesting recently. Wayne has been in for at least 3 of my shifts since ive been back from Stafford. Mark is the big store manager boss bloke, and Wayne is Marks boss, so hes quite scary, although i did actually see him smiling yesterday, so that may have been an imposter.

i suspect hes been around because of our last Gapbuster. no idea why its called that, but its basically a mystery shopper who comes in twice a month and rates how well we do. anyhoo, last time we only got something like 57% for quality (apparently it was only cos of the chips. it was Marks shift too, i bet he was pissed off).

now that Waynes been in a lot, instead of packing the production bin full of food and waiting to cook more when one of the burgers is running low, we just cook a handfull of each and then do another handfull when things run out.
i think its better like that, because instead of standing around being bored and pretending to clean things for most of your shift youre standing around and cooking stuff for most of your shift....at least thats how it works on quiet shifts. not looking forward to my next friday shift....

ill stop talking about McDonalds now. mainly because youre all bored and partially because i just dug out my employee handbook and the bit about non disclosure of information is a bit vague :P never mind. no one from McDs'll read this anyway.

OH! we've been giving away cars from Cars in the happy meals and theyre great! ive got the first four and im planning on getting the rest. the VW camper is the best one :D im not stealing them....its just we cant sell the ones with damaged packaging. its surprising how often you find one with a big hole in the bag....*cough*

what else have i been up to?

seen Andrea a few times. went to the beach at west wittering with her and her mum last wednesday. that was a good laugh, and the sea was surprisingly warm. just remembered i was planning to make a sand Isengard so that when the tide came in it would flood, just like in Lord of the Rings. oh well :P
went with Andrea to see Superman Returns and thought it was really good. it was made better because they carried it on from the old Christopher Reeve ones, editing in old footage of Marlong Brando as Jor-El and having Kevin Spacey, who looks scarily like Gene Hackman, as Lex Luthor, Lois Lane not being able to spell, etc.
my only problem with it was that it was set 5 years after Superman IV, and in that short time there had apparently been HUGE advances in technology, like laptops and mobile phones. especially as i think its meant to be set in the 50s... other than that, though, fantastic!

ive also been rejoicing at the wonders of free FilmFour! brilliant films, all free! ive now seen three Marx Bros films, something ive been meaning to do for years, and i think theres a Charlie Chaplin one on tonight. not as good as Buster Keaton, but still funny.

am working my way through some H. G. Wells books. just finished the Time Machine, which was brilliant and im now on the Invisible Man, which isnt quite as good as TM, but i think its just cos its a bit slow to get started.

i think thats pretty much everything for now. got a day off today, so im gonna loaf around doing bugger all.

16.7.06

I'd say thats about right...

Your results:
You are Spider-Man
























Spider-Man
85%
The Flash
65%
Superman
60%
Iron Man
55%
Robin
55%
Batman
50%
Supergirl
45%
Hulk
45%
Catwoman
40%
Green Lantern
35%
Wonder Woman
25%
You are intelligent, witty,
a bit geeky and have great
power and responsibility.


Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

10.7.06

birthdays and mystery pants

saturday was Andreas birthday. great fun!

we all met up at Hayleys house in fancy dress, me as the phantom of the opera, Andrea as a birthday princess, Muscat in his fancy oxford stuff, Hayley as a fairy princess and Amanda as a sailor princess (shes going out with someone in the navy :P)

there we had a couple of drinks, took dozens of photos (each photo had to be taken on 3 different cameras too) and Andrea blew out the candles on her cake, athough they were more like candle stubs. they must have been in the family for generations...

we also gave Andrea her presents. she was very happy with her Phantom of the Opera book (the original novel by
Gaston Leroux. she even forgave me for reading it first considering its one of the few classic horror novels i hadnt read and id got it for her months before), accused me of trying to 'keep her fat' (although she isnt) at the loads of chocolate, but then was extremely happy with the chocolate fountain (and then she realised why i gave her so much chocolate :P)


shes said shes going to save the fountain for a party or something cos you need quite a lot of chocolate to run it. i hope she invites me to that party :P

after that we went down to guildhall walk for a booze up! we started in weatherspoons for a couple of quiet drinks and a chat. Andrea told me i had to snog Hayley, but Hayley said she wasnt drunk enough so i got a kiss from Amanda instead.

then we headed off to Walkabout where we had a couple of loud drinks.on the way back from a toilet trip i did a double take at someone who was on his way to a toilet trip and he did a double take at me....and it turned out to be Darren. he told me Katie was over in a corner so we all went over and said hello. she reminded me of the last time i went to guildhall walk with her and had a bad reaction to my first blow job (the name of a shot in V Bar). then i said something that i think shocked her slightly....she spent the rest of the time we were with her telling me i should still be sweet and innocent like i was when we were still at school.

we left Katie and Darren (and their friend Wellsey who Katie completely failed to set up with Hayley) in Walkabout and headed to V Bar (much to my horror) to meet Katie (Katie Goble this time, not Katie George). however, there was a mile long queue outside so we decided to wait outside for Katie and head straight to Bar Me (much to my relief).
we were waiting for katie for about 5 minutes, then i turned round and saw her standing in the V Bar queue at exactly the same time as Hayley received a text saying she was in the V Bar queue.

we pulled her out of the queue and all went to Bar Me for an even louder drink. everyone thought i was Dracula and one bloke told me "i dont mean this in a queer way but you look really good". the funny thing is i made him say it 3 times cos i couldnt hear him the first two :P
at one point Andrea, Hayley and Manda all disappeared to the loo and seemed to be gone for quite a long time, but eventually they returned and Andrea stuffed a couple of smallish boxes into my pocket (i later found out that theyd been looking at the vending machines and the boxes contained a glow in the dark condom and a wind up jumping cock)

we left there at about half 12, because Manda and Hayley were getting headaches and everyones feet were hurting from their heels (except mine...i didnt have heels) so we tried phoning for a taxi, met Katie (George) and Darren again who had just come out of Route, and eventually just went to the taxi rank and got one there.
about 20 minutes and £14 later we were at Drayton shops. we all got a chinese and headed back to Hayleys.

think i got to bed about half 1. i was in Hayleys bed and the girls were downstairs in sleeping bags. i slept quite well, but got woken up at 7.15 by a recording of a cockerel crowing. it took me a few minutes to work out that it was coming from Hayleys alarm clock and turn it off. after that i went back to sleep and had a strange dream. all i can remember from it is that i was walking home from Springfield school, back to my old house, and....John Cleese was in it. i think i had to keep up with him all the way home.
id just got to the bridge over the railway when i dropped my bag, so i went back for it, then there was a TARDIS sound effect which woke me up. it turned out to be my phone ringing (yes, the TARDIS is my ringtone) and it was Andrea telling me to come downstairs for some cake.

we left Hayleys at 11 cos she had to go to work, so Andrea came back to my house. there we watched Anchorman (the second film in Andreas bid to work her way through my entire DVD collection) before she had to go home.

after she'd gone, the Mystery of the Mystery Pants began...

mum told me she'd found and washed a pair of knickers that werent hers or my sisters.....hidden under the dust sheet on the coffee table in the living room. she thought they were Andreas, but i wasnt so sure because Andreas hardly ever been in the living room and had no idea how they would have got there even if she had.

later in the evening mum brought them into my room with a pile of my washing. i didnt recognise them, so i texted Andrea and sent her a picture message of them, and it turns out they arent hers either.......so whose are they?!

perhaps they just appeared due to transperambulations of pseudo-cosmic antimatter......

when Andrea gets her camera developed ill scan and upload some of the pics from saturday. and possibly one of the mystery knickers.....

28.6.06

back again

i have to say, now im over my tonsilitis, i am enjoying working at McDonalds more. not completely enjoying it, its just not as bad as it was when i had tonsilitis.

my main problem with McDonalds at the moment is Colin Owen.
i was going to have a massive rant about him but ive decided hes really not worth it. im just going to say that he likes nothing more than to boss people around, even when he doesnt have the power to, he acts like everyone is beneath him, and he seems to think im some form of retard.

for example, this scene from yesterday.

Gay Phil: [calling over from front counter] only 2 doubles left
Me: [calling back] thank you, they'll be after Big Macs
[I carry on dressing the Macs and, about 10 seconds later:]
Colin:
do doubles next, yeah?

i cant tell you how infuriating that is, and he does that ALL THE TIME. other examples are reminding me that ive got a special order on a mac AFTER ive done it and have started dressing the normal macs.

when i went on my break Sarah was in the crew room so i had a bit of a rant about him then. then she told me that shes been talking about starting the Colin Owen Assassination Squad, and EVERYONE shes mentioned it to wants to join :P

anyhoo, thats enough about him.
in the end i decided not to apply in that toyshop round the corner, but i am still looking for a different job.

spent the last couple of days with Andrea. on sunday we saw the remake of the Omen, which was very good. some great jump moments and possibly the best decapitation ive ever seen.
cant really compare it to the original because ive only seen it once so i cant remember it that well. i just had a vague feeling about what was going to happen next when watching the remake :P

still...its very good.

also Andrea has decided that she wants us to work our way through my entire DVD collection, so i added them all up and, including TV series and copied DVDs, i have 205 and it comes to about 20 days of non stop watching. should be fun :D


in other news, Shari has finally returned to the world of blogging, and her brand new blog can be found via the link to the right there ---->

i did have something else to say, but i cant remember what, so never mind. im gonna go get some lunch and then look into a free messageboard service to reunite the original IMDb Green Wing Community...




...and then possibly see if i can get any COAS tshirts made up cheap :D

UPDATE: ive remembered what else i was going to say:
i got a letter from stafford University yesterday....ive passed my first year at uni so they're going to let me back next year :D cant wait!

also, ive now set up the GWC message board and could get 35 COAS t shirts for about $11 plus postage.

19.6.06

tonsilitis. rah.

went to the docs this morning and yep, ive got tonsilitis. joy :P

apart from the sore throat, lots of pain when swallowing, the occasional need to spit out a glob of greeny-brown gunge and a general slight 'bleugh' feeling, im not too bad. still using it as an excuse to get off work for a day or two :D

just phoned to say i wouldnt be going in today. i was hoping for someone like Donna who would be quite sympathetic, but nope. i got Mark the big boss manager man himself.
he didnt sound too impressed, but i dont really care.

Me: hi, its Matt. im meant to be doing a 4 - 10 shift this evening, but im not going to be able to because ive got tonsilitis...
Mark: tonsilitis? well you seemed alright yesterday [he pretty much says 'hello' to me when he sees me for the first time and thats it for the shift]

he asked how long id be off for, so i said my next shift is on wednesday so id let him know how i felt in the morning. he told me to let him know tomorrow. ill probably be the same as i am now tomorrow, so looks like ill be having wednesday off too.

now, though, im going to go round the corner and see if the collectable/toy shop has any jobs going....

17.6.06

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!

its too hot.
im fed up of living in a house thats half filled with boxes and half in need of plastering.
i miss Andrea.
being back at McDs is hotter than working in the centre of the sun. the novelty of being back, which lasted several shifts last time, wore out about half an hour in. and THEN i have a 30 minute walk to get home. i hate it.
my throat hurts. it hurts every time i swallow or yawn. i think my tonsils are a bit swolen too.
i havent slept well in a while and get woken by the sun when it rises at 5 am every moring.
i keep getting headaches.

but!

Andrea is on her way home today, so ill be able to see her the first day McDs lets me have off.
next week im planning on trying to find a job in Drayton which doesnt involve hot grills or a 30 minute walk and does involve air conditioning.
ive moved my bed to the opposite wall so the sun doesnt wake me up any more, just the throat.

seriously though: i just looked to see if there was a maximum temperature that people were allowed to work at. i couldnt find one, but it turns out that on my shift last night i did have half the symptoms of heat stress.
they could at least get someone in to fix the air con.

im going to collapse on my bed with another pint of cold water and a couple of paracetamols for half an hour before i have to go back to McHell for another 5 hour shift.....

6.6.06

home, sweet.....home?

yep, im back in Portsmouth.

my last few days at uni were horrible. barely anyone left in halls to talk to, and all my stuff was packed so i was just sat in a bare white room with just the internet for company. i couldnt get home soon enough.

now im home....and im feeling much the same as i did my last few days at uni. the whole house was ripped out for re-wiring and only half of it has been plastered. im using my sisters bedroom (and shes home from Bangor tomorrow so i dont know whats happening after that) and all my stuff is still packed, including my computer, so i can only use my parents with its very tempremental modem.

on the plus side, my bedroom HAS been plastered, and i cant use it cos its being painted, its just that i only picked out the colours i wanted yesterday, the paint hasnt been bought yet, and im going to get kicked out of my sisters room tomorrow....
but one it is finished, ill be able to unpack some, if not all, of my stuff, get my computer out and wired up and hopefully itll start to feel like home again.

in other news ive just got back from McDonalds. I should be back grill monkeying friday next week. oh, what fun. and to be honest, i think it will be....for a week or so....catching up with the people i know from before, trying to convince the newbies that im not a trainee and am above them in the pecking order....and then the novelty will wear off and ill be back on the same old slog, waiting for my shifts to end as soon as possible. never mind.
at least im not doing closes any more.

this friday i may go back to Loughborough for the weekend. im just about to see how much it would cost and how long it would take on the train.

thats about all for now. speak soon!

30.5.06

What do you do when your uni turns off the network so youre stuck without internet for 32 hours?

me? i turn myself into a character from a 2D sidescrolling computer game!

its not finished yet, but you get the idea. no idea if im gonna actually do anything with it or not :P

27.5.06

Lufblog 02

well, we did go to leicester in the end. it seemed to be mostly people tramping it up hobo style and chavs, so we just wandered around the shops for a couple of hours. we found a brilliant shop witrh loads of lego, but i wasnt allowed any :P
we also found a d*sney shop where Andrea was magnetically drawn to all the Winnie the Pooh stuff. as much as i hate giving d*sney my money, i did end up getting a Buzz Lightyear.

we went see Da Vinci Code on monday, which was very good. Ian McKellan was great as Leigh Teabing, but lets face it, when isnt he great?
i've heard they're already starting to adapt Demons and Angels. will be interesting to see if they keep it as a prequel or turn it into a sequel considering they removed all the references to it from Da Vinci.

we didnt really get up to that much for the rest of the week. we did go and play pool on tuesday. i beat Andrea by either 4 games to 1 or 3 games to 2, depending on whether or not you follow the rule that you lose if you pot the black but then the white goes in too. (i do. Andrea doesnt)
and before you start saying i should have let Andrea win, if i had she would have complained cos shes too competetive :P

anyhoo, now im back in stafford and very bored. most people seem to have gone home already. Sanchia's still around so i might go and annoy her later.
im mainly occupying myself by packing stuff i can survive without between my parents visiting on the way home from my sisters until next saturday when they come back to pick me and the rest of my stuff up, and downloading Green Wing, Doctor Who and Family Guy. am just waiting for episode 1 of Green Wing to finish (apparently its going to take another 12 hours. its been going for at least 2 days) then i might watch both series back to back.

thats pretty much it really. oh and i did a stupidness test i got off Helens blog. turns out im totally smart :D

The Stupid Quiz said I am "Totally Smart!" How stupid are you? Click here to find out!

15.5.06

Lufblog 01

greetings from Loughborough!

friday was pretty uneventful. i arrived at about 3.30 and met Andrea at the station, hefted my bags into town, where we had a ver' tasty cheese steak sarnie in Subway.
after that we continued to heft my bags back to Andreas before venturing out once again to sainsburys to stock up on essential supplies.
in the evening we went for a chinese. and very yummy it was too.

saturday and sunday we didnt really do much. a brief trip to Blockbuster to stock up on DVDs. Andrea bought Legend of Zorro. i remembered too late that it was the one with Antonio Banderas in the bath....
on saturday Andrea cooked steak and chips, which was fantastic as ever, and last night i did pasta in sausage sauce, one of the few things i can actually cook. twas tasty indeed.
have promised Andrea that ill cook her some egg fried rice while im here too, and might try some of the things in me student cookbook. hot mars bar sauce sounds tempting :P

at the moment Andrea has abandonned me to go to lectures. she'll be back about 1 and depending on if its still raining or not we might go into Liecester for a look round.

speak soon.

11.5.06

Phew

the Film Tech exam turned out to be quite easy. everyone was bricking it when they read the front of the paper though. it said there was only 4 questions so we all thought it was essays, but it turned out to just be lots of sections to each question.
i had to guess a couple of answers, and from talking to others im pretty sure i got a few wrong, but im still confident that ive passed.

to celebrate finishing the year we went to see Mission: Impossible III. MUCH better than M:I-II. you could tell it was directed by J.J. Abrams though. it looked just like Lost. in fact i think the bit where Ethan Hunt's missus was doing CPR was identical, shot for shot, to the bit in series 1 when Jack was doing CPR on Charlie after.....Ethan....kidnapped him and left him hanging.

going to have a lazy day today. back to bed methinks...

10.5.06

Bono is really only 46?!

argh, i keep forgetting to blog.

to be honest, not that much has happened since last time. i handed in my 3D after a mad rush to get it finished, the same day i did a 50 question multiple choice exam for history of film which i finished in 20 minutes and in just over an hour i have a written exam for film tech which i have a feeling i might fail....

ive said this before many times, but im gonna start blogging more...
on friday im going to stay with Andrea at Loughborough for a bit, so ill try to blog what happens there most days, if not every day...

speak soon!

7.4.06

its been a good week.....

Last there was the long awaited return of Green Wing, and judging by the first episode, the second series looks like its going to be as good as the first.
looking forward to episode 2 tonight.

the weather has finally started acting like it should for the time of year. nice and sunny with a nice cool breeze. best sort of weather there is. puts me in a really good mood.

some days its still quite cold, but thats ok, cos on monday, at long last, after about 4 or 5 months of waiting, my Firefly Browncoat arrived! and very good it is too.



just like Mal's in the series and film, its very comfortable and keeps you warm too. i know of at least 2 FireFly fans who're quite jealous.

and finally, the best thing thats happened all week...
my good friend Andrea who i have known since college and regularly visit at uni in Loughborough, is now my girlfriend. i am VERY happy about this and i believe she is too :P


to finish off a fantastic week, im going home for easter tomorrow. am really looking forward to seeing all me friends again. hopefully will be seeing Katie and Daz sunday evening, then am spending monday with Andrea before going back to her house in the evening for the Havant College Crew Reunion. i havent seen some of those guys since the summer. i really cant wait!

thats all for now. speak to you on the other end of the country!

24.3.06

RAH! long overdue blogage

i should have done this AAAGES ago, but never mind.....
where do i start? ah yes...visiting Andrea in Loughborough

i went on the thursday and came back sunday afternoon. we spent most of the time watching Family Guy and having a good laugh with/at each other. On friday night we added alcohol to the equation and that proved to be a most entertaining night.
on one day Andrea cooked me steak and chips with peas and onion rings.......my favorite.....we also had my second favorite, chinese takeaway. t'was yummy indeed.

hmm...what have i done since then?

we've started filming for our Film Tech assignment, after quite a few false starts.
we did two shoots in the common room, one all afternoon, the other from about 9 til 1.
both were pretty much unusable due to shite sound quality and general poor shot setup
we've done many shoots of the street scene, all of which were ruined by either rain or the camera chewing the tape or varous other reasons.

then, eventually, we finally got to Derwent's aunts flat, did a whole day of shooting where we were getting excellent shots that looked really professional...only to find at the end of the day that nothing had actually come out on tape. no idea why.....it was really annoying. actually 'it was really annoying' is an understatement

anyhoo, we've since been back and got some useable footage. it looks like it could turn out to be quite good.

other filming news, i helped out Sanchia by being a zombie for her group. well....Lead Zombie and Corpse #1!
for the role of lead zombie i had some latex, tissue and red watercolour paint put on my face and wore my Ash from Evil Dead shirt which i had conveniently kept from halloween.
then i stood on top of a small hill looking disgruntled, then i notice the hero of the film, so i look even angrier, half point, half reach out in his general direction, speak something in zombieish (a random string of rasps, growls and gurgles i made up on the spot) then start to lurch forwards down the hill towards him as my zombie hordes come up the other side of the hill.

Corpse #1 was much more fun. i lay in the mud with raw sausages injected with honey and red food dye hanging out of a large tear in my shirt. then my future housemate Luke (not to be confused with film group Luke) ate them off my stomach :P
apparently it looked really good. i dont have any photos of either of my roles at the moment, but i know some were taken. ill do my best to get some asap and put them up on here.

im sure some other stuff happened, but i cant remember right now :P if it comes back to me i will be sure to update it.

but for now i will skip forward to Tuesday the 21st March where me and Aidan travelled to Stoke to see The Mighty Boosh Live!


it was hilarious. right from Howards play about pies ret in russia to the end of the encore.

Howard [dressed in military uniform]: woooould you like some piiiiiiiiiiiie?
Vince [kneeling on the floor with a banket wrapped round in a mother teresa style]: no i would not like some piiiiiiiiiiie
Howard: WHYYYYYYYYYYY would you not like some piiiiiiiiiiiie?
Vince: because laaast time you give me some piiiiiiiiiiiie i cut into the crust and millions of biiiirds flew out. they hit me in the eyes and temples.......it was a trick piiiiiiiiiiiiiie! whyyyyyyyyy do you give me trick piiiiiie?

Rich Fulcher (seen to the left as Bob Fossil) is a genius. ("or is he a retard? we just dont know" "im a renius")

lots of ad-libbing going on. i think he may have really pissed off Noel when he gobbed on him as Spanish Man.

Dr Pipe: Hello! I am Dr My-Car-Broke-Down
-By-The-Side-Of-The-
Road-So-I-Decided-To-
Fuck-It-Up-The-Exhaust-Pipe. Yes, its German
[Howard and Vince try not to corpse]

Vince [about halfway through the scene where Rich spat on him]: I just found something on my cheek and put it in my mouth. that had better not have come from you...
[vince drops to his knees and rocks backwards and forwards in disgust]
Vince: you know i can get you fired!


as for the plot....its a cross between the Tundra episode from the radio series and the Tundra episode from the TV series with stuff from other episodes and some new stuff thrown in.

Basically Howard lets the Hitcher out of the box he was imprisonned in for crimes against humanity (he fucked a dolphin)
the hitcher then kills Naboo, the shaman, and makes a break for freedom.
Bollo, Naboo's ape farmiliar, tells Howard and Vince that to bring Naboo back to life they must find the Ruby of Kukundu which is either in the tundra or Spain. so Howard heads off to the tundra to look, and Vince goes to spain where he meets Rudi (to the left)

theres a good feature about it here

it was a VERY good show. im just disappointed that my camera had died by the time Old Greg showed up. hes possibly one of my favorite characters.

after the show we hung around the stage door for about an hour in the freezing cold with quite a few other fans. it was worth the wait though. I met Rich Fulcher, Julian Barratt (Howard/Rudi/etc), Mike Fielding (Naboo) and Noel Fielding (Vince, Hitcher, Old Greg/etc) and got them all to sign my programme!!!
Mike is TINY! he only came up to my sholder, if that.

the Electro girls just breezed past about half an hour before the guys and i didnt see Dave Brown (Bollo) at all. ah well. will have to get them another time :P

think thats about it for now.....walked into town yesterday as it was the first actually nice day of the year so far. perfect temperature with a nice cool breeze. put me in a reet good mood.

will blog again soon....hopefully wont take as long as it did to do this one....

24.2.06

dont mess with me

Rusty Rastelli

People Iced:Forty
Car Bombs Planted:Two
Favorite WeaponPVC Pipes
Arms Broken:Ten
Eyes Gouged:Seventeen
Tongues Cut Off:One
Biggest Enemy:Jack Hammer

Get Your HITMAN Name

16.2.06

lookit

look what i made in 3D Apps this morning :P
















i think you will find it is amazing

15.2.06

aaaaah! lack of bloggage!

im sorry for the lack of postage, not that anyone reads this...

im going to visit Andrea in Loughborough tomorrow so i'll blog about that when i get back.
if i dont then i give you permission to beat me with pillows until i do.

in other news i have the Mighty Boosh series 2 on DVD and it is VERY good....

only another 34 days til i see them live....

30.1.06

I HAVE A HOUSE!

just a quick blog before i go to film tech to say that, as of yesterday, i have a house for next year!

saturday night i got a call from John saying "do you want to live with us?" so i obviously said yes, then he said "get to Sanchias for 1 tomorrow with £100 and we'll all go to see the houses and get the contracts signed".

long story short, im now sharing a house with Luke, Rachel and Phil and John, Sanchia, Damon and Jenny are in another house just down the road.
im really looking forward to this now. its gonna be great fun!

and to make a great day even better, i got paid to eat a quarter pounder :P
i gave the bloke a tenner and he gave me change for a twenty. AND he was a manager. he should know better...

i was going to put up some photos of the house, but somehow all the photos i took managed to miss all the important stuff :P

now im going to read my chat logs from the convo i had with Andrea last night because i had a few strongbows to celebrate no longer being homeless and i cant really remember what was said...

24.1.06

blah

as usual, i havent had much to say, so havent said anything.

on saturday Andrea arrived from luffbra to stay for a few days because she is a lucky bum and has the week off.
after her arrival our days were pretty much full of wandering into town and back, eating chinese takeaway, watching films and TV programmes (mainly Family Guy), eating bacon sandwiches, getting drunk, eating pizza, quoting Family Guy at each other, annoying each other and generally having a good time.

this afternoon we walked into town and she caught the train back to Portsmouth to visit there for the rest of the week before returning to uni.
now im feeling a little lonely and depressed because i have no one to watch Family Guy with....
however, we have decided that next time i go to visit her were going to watch all for series and the film back to back, so that will be fun.

last week i went to my first lecture in my elective module, Introduction to Programming 3D Applications. it was FUNKING boring. i switched modules asap and am now doing Geometry and Dynamic Character Design.

i had my first tutorial in Char Design today, which is pretty much how to draw manga, and its a lot of fun.

My first attempts at manga


and the profiles


and finally three quarter views. ive been told the top one looks a lot like me....

cant wait for next weeks tutorial, but before that i have to endure an hour of History of Film tomorrow morning...

speak to you later, you ragamuffins. hopefully it wont be so long til my next blog.

14.1.06

Im Back in Staffs

so heres a film related viral questionairre:

ONE (1) earliest film-related memory:

im ashamed to say....going to see Mrs Doubtfire at the cinema.

TWO (2) favorite lines from movies:

either "im a Derrek, and Derreks dont run" or "its Derrek! and hes gone apeshit!" from Bad Taste

"good....bad....im the guy with the gun" from Evil Dead III: Army of Darkness

THREE (3) jobs you'd do if you could not work in the industry:

sculpter.
second hand bookshop owner.
cartoonist

FOUR (4) jobs you actually have held outside the industry:

erm...ive only ever worked in McDonalds

THREE (3) book authors I like:

Robert Rankin
Terry Pratchett
Douglas Adams

TWO (2) movies you'd like to remake or properties you'd like to adapt:

the Brentford Trilogy by Robert Rankin, although technically thats 7 films :P

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, but hopefully Terry Gilliam will get a chance to do that first

ONE (1) screenwriter you think is underrated:

erm.....i dont really know of many screenwriters. perhaps if they werent underrated i would have heard of them...