Wherever I May Roam

So today's been a typical Friday--lots of rushing and working and not much happening the other way. I always find myself packed up on Fridays not only because I have more lectures than Tuesday-Thursday combined, but because I have a short essay due every Friday and I never bother starting (and of course, not finishing) it before Friday. So yeah, After my packed schedule I usually have to write it all (just like explained in last week's entry).

This week's essay wasn't too bad, though. I sort of enjoyed writing it (but after the one that we had to write for last week, I think I would've enjoyed writing about anything). It was on my personality type ISTJ. Although there are some incorrect things there, it is mostly spot on, which is quite scary. At first I had loads of mistakes to write about, but as I kept writing the essay I kept proving them right (some of them even without noticing... I should post the essay here for you to read and laugh) so I only ended up with like three wrong statements.

Another thing, though, is that I've gotten in the habit of being "late" for classes, or at least rushing at the last moment to get there in time (by late I mean after the o'clock time specified, but all lectures start five minutes past). How could this happen? I remember during my first weeks I'd get there up to 20 mins before the lecture started. But at that time I wasn't sure how long the walk would take... apparently I'm still not sure. But seriously, it's a pain, because I leave with "enough time" to make it by walking a bit fast (especially on mornings... on afternoons I can usually make it on time), but once I check my watch about halfway through I see that it's already 9, so I have to sprint to my class. I could go in late, but I hate being late, I'd rather miss the lecure altogether. But yeah, today I made it at 9:04. Close call. Something that's also been messed up is that I've been having Jaffa Cakes for breakfast for the past week... what the hell's all that about? Goodbye to healthy Jimmie.

Now here's an old joke courtesy of Damasio. I was reminded of it today, and for some reason it just cracked me up. Good old Damasio: Why did Pinochio catch on fire?

Today, I also had a demonstration of typical British weather. I left my flat in the morning when it was raining with very strong winds. About halfway through the trip, it all of a sudden stopped raining and the winds died (all of a sudden means that in a second they were both gone) and the sun came out. Then, as I was transitioning from my first lecture to my second, it was hailing (that was cool... sort of), but by the time I got to the next building the sun was out again! It rained quite hard while I was in the lecture theatre, but once I got out it cloudy but with very strong winds. For the rest of the day it stayed cloudy with strong winds, although the sun came out a couple of times and it rained at night... and then we all wonder why the weather reporter always gives us wrong information!

So I'm being fucked in uni now, it's official. I'm supposed to write a form/picture/url-subitting website in PHP that I have no clue how to write, and I have to write a Java program for a fucking lazy secretary that I'm not sure how to go about. Well, I guess I'll worry about that later, right? This is what uni's all about...

Answer: Because he was masturbating!

You've got to love medicine

So today I woke up quite late for no obvious reason. I then killed time until my first lecture even though I should've been workin on an essay, but what the hell... there's always the day it's due, right?

The main event today, though, was my lecture at the medical school. I usually have my marketing lecture inthe dental building, which is right next to the medical building. The dental building is quite cool, very big and stuff. But, I decided I'd check my email before leaving for lectures and it turns out there had been a problem with the lecture theatre we're usually in and the lecture had been moved to another lecture theatre in the medical building. But I couldn't remember the name of the theatre, or the building, just that it was on the first floor. So I go into the dental building and start to look around. I find my way to the first floor, only to realise that I'm about to enter the hospital... voluntarily! Would you imagine that!?

So I get the hell out of there, and start looking again... maybe I misread and it's one of the many lecture theatres in the ground floor... but then I decide to take a look into the medical building. Lots of stuff on the listings, but I do see a lecture theatre on the first floor, so bingo, that should be it. I go into the medical building. So fucking nice! All modern and... I don't know what was so impressive about it, maybe the fact that I've never been there, but I was well impressed. I make my way to the first floor but I get locked inbetween the lifts/stairs because neither of the doors will open (the ones that lead into the actual first floor). Then. when I'm about to give up I notice on the side the squared reader for my smartcard, so I get out my wallet and it lets me in. At least we've got something in my school that they don't have in the medical school... labels!

So I follow the directions to the lecture theatre and there comes a time when I can't open any more doors. There's a small button/switch labeled "exit" but I'm afraid to press it thinking it might trigger some alarm. So I make my way to the first floor receptionist/helper/whatever she was. She tells me to just keep going straight and I'll find it on my right eventually. So I do just that and it just leads me to that same door. So I decide to go for the button. I press it and nothing happens. At least that's a good thing as the alarm didn't go off. I try pushing the door, and amazingly this time it opened (wow...!). So I keep on going and surely enough I find it. I just wait in the huge waiting room for the current lecture to finish. Seconds later one of the blokes from my course arrives and we comment how hard it was to find this place and all... good thing we were let out 30 minutes earlier from our previous lecture (first time ever! Such a good start to the day!).

So we finally go in, and the lecture theatre is huge! Not only is it huge, though, but it's very technologically advanced and well designed. It was also very comfortable, with very nice chairs (sofa style) and accompanying "working space." It was just an amazing experience, where most of us marvelled at the lecture theatre instead of paying attention to the lecture. At the end we were all discussing how bad we felt about our schools and how crappy they were compared to the medical school. But fair enough, half the uni budget goes into the medical school... but it woudn't hurt if they didn't rub it in our faces!

I'd do it all over again... although the next time I'd use the exclusive entrance to the lecture theatre right in front of the main entrance!

Ramble On

First of all, a response to Tiny's comment from the previous entry: There's no more Mad Cow here, it's in Canada now, so if anybody's allucinating because of milk it's Rod. Now it's the bird flue, get with the times man.

Erc: Yep, you George, definitely. And so much work I put into the entry not to name names and you just go out and say it. Oh, well...

So pretty eventful day today, although not much really happened, but at the same time quite a bit did happen... yes, it's Jamestalk again.

I only had one lecture today, in the morning, which means, to all of you out there that make sense, I had the afternoon off. I decided to spend a chunk of the afternoon with James in order to teach him the ways of the music. We ended up going to different record shops and I'd comment on some albums and artists and all, and for the most part I think he was paying attention (or he was completely ignoring me in a way I couldn't tell... much in like the way I ignore everyone). In the end, I convinced him to buy Appetite for Destruction, as I believed that'd be a good intro to some hard rock (and who doesn't have Appetite!?) and I even ended up with a birthday present! How nice of him!

Anyway, before that when were were having lunch at the Union, there were these different people with little stands trying to persuade you to buy their stuff by giving you free stuff (you know those people). There was a stand giving free condoms, but James told me not to get any as he knew of a person back in his home county that was giving away condoms, but had opened little holes on them with a needle... you can tell he works for Pampers or some kid's company, can't you? Anyway, there was this "Free Body Fat Test in a Minute!" stand, and you could clearly tell that they'd try to persuade you to buy some dieting milkshake or something of the kind. So I tell James, I wonder what would happen if I get a body fat test... what could they possibly tell me? I'm pretty sure I've gone under average in body fat as of late (yes, I'm perhaps the only person that has lost weight whilst at uni.. and Oliver, one of my flatmates--we were talking about that yesterday). "Uhm, well... you can drink this and it'll help you gain some weight..." Me: "This says 'lose 10 kilos in 3 days'..." Seller: "Erm... don't read the label, it's rubbish..." In the end I didn't have time to try it out as I had to rush home to pick up my groceries that were being delivered... shame really.

Later on in the afternoon, James wanted to go into a game shop (conveniently called Game) just to browse, and I decided I'd do that for him as I had taken him around to virtually every record store in the Newcastle city centre against his will. We start a debate on which game is better, Footy Manager or World of Warcraft (his bloody addiction... and Ryan's as well) and I end up switching in favour or Age of Empires III just because it's in a higher chart position than Warcraft... and just as we're in the middle of the debate, this woman comes and grabs a copy of Age and takes it to the till. I give him a know-it-all smile and he gives me the mean eyes. Then he turns around and calls out to the woman "you picked the wrong one!" She doesn't turn around, probably thinking that he was yelling at me, but it was well funny. I would've liked to see her reaction had she connected the points.

On our way back, we get flooded with flyers that lifeless people are handing out. We do our best to avoid them, but as soon as we turn to go right into the uni there's an inevitable one. James pickes up one because he's too nice to refuse, but I brush it off and just move on. He doesn't even take a quick look at it when he tells me "this is going straight to the bin." As we approach the nearest bin, he can't throw it away because the bin has been overflooded with the same flyer...

Moving on the the evening, I go out with the lads (that's Ryan and Steve) to watch the Chelski match and then to play some pool. Nothing to remarkable happens during that time, just same old same old... with the exception of some moments when we pick on Steve for his need to carry his passport with him as a form of ID and stuff like that. When we're on our way back, though, we're walking past this part of the uni where they're reconstructing part of the walkway, and Ryan tells Steve that he bets he can throw Steve into the ditch. Steve's not the lightest of all people, if you get my drift, so Steve laughs it off. So Ryan just reaches for him and starts to lift him up, but once he reaches a certain height he just can't, so he drops him and tries again. At about the third try, they both fall into the warning signs around the construction. Steve's clearly pissed off at this point, but he keeps his cool by saying it's his turn. So he starts trying to grab a hold of Ryan to push him over but Ryan's trying to run away, so they pretty much start a fight. Meanwhile I'm trying to calm the guys down, but I don't want to get in the middle of it because I don't want to be the one getting thrown into the ditch, so I just try to calm them down verbally. Seeing that they're about to start a proper fight, I just get in the middle and say "come on, lads, break it up, we all know here that I'm the only one that can thrown anyone in there, so quit fooling around. Plus, if you go any further they'll be looking for you guys tomorrow" (my latter remark meaning that if they start a fight they'll be caught on the CCTV and they'll be in trouble). So they get up and start walking again... and it's not even been a minute when they start taking the piss out of each other again. Incredible.

After that we just spent the rest of the night eating takeaway and waching Seinfeld. Oh! I got my first comparison to Kramer! Oh, and a documentary on sex tapes...

The Ex-Girlfriend

So I was watching Seinfeld earlier today (surprised?) and I came upon an episode that just cracked me up (more than the others). The title is in the title.

So in this episode, George wants to break up with his girlfriend, and he eventually does after putting his act together. But he forgets some books at her place, so he asks Jerry to get them for him (although, as Jerry says, what's the point if you've already read them? Did you know that the second time you read Moby Dick the dude and the whale become good friends?). He goes out for coffee with the ex-girlfriend to get the books, and he notices that she's very pretty, but she will just go on and on and on and on, never give you a break to stop the conversation, and the conversations will generally be about nothing important. There's a point when Jerry starts falling for the ex-girlfriend, and he has to tell George... when he does, George simply tells him to go ahead and knock himself out. Jerry is stunned at George's lack of... whatever it is, but well, whatever, nevermind.

This episode is very similar to a real-life experience we've had (and it's vague on purpose... but if you're involved you'll know exactly what I'm talking about). For the exception of Jerry falling for George's ex, it perhaps is a perfect representation of a real-life experience. And, actually, the title of ex-girlfriend also goes really well! Can't believe Seinfeld ripped us off!

And well, for the rest of you who have no clue what I'm talking about, I'm feeling a bit better today, although yesterday I was arguably in a better state as I wasn't hallucinating. My nose just keeps running like a fucking tap. Oh, and I've found out that every once in a while I'm gonna eat cheese right before going to bed, just because I get these very strange "dreams"... it's almost like LSD! And it's much cheaper! Yep, pizza every Wednesday!

Limo Wreck

So today I feel surprisingly better, I never thought I'd make it through that. Because of the scare, I've promised myself to get my vaccines as soon as I'm feeling well (yep, I still haven't gotten them...). And well, when I say I feel "surprisingly better" I don't mean I'm feeling okay by any cirumstances, only that compared to yesterday I feel a lot better (but then, I would've felt a lot better had a truck ran me over... twice). Yep, terrible day that was yesterday... so bad I managed to sleep 22 hours. You wonder how it could've been that bad if I slept through practically all of it, but I tell you, it was terrible... just take my word for it.

But well, like I said, I felt well enough to go to lectures today. I really considered missing out on Monday, but it being one of my busiest days (I'm sure I've been over this already) I thought I'd get up and attend my lectures. Wasn't too bad, actually, I made it through the day. That's all I'll say about that. I don't recall much happening as I was half brain-dead, but at least I was there and took notes... how useful the notes will turn out to be, I'm not sure.

The only thing that cheered me up was the fact that I got my Seinfeld DVDs delivered today. Seinfeld Seasons 1-3, all 40 episodes... yeah. The best thing is that I got them on the cheap at 22.50 pounds, delivered. Great stuff.

A better entry to follow, I'm really not feeling at my best at the moment. And Erc, expect an email soon... was gonna post it here but then figured this open communication crap had to end sometime. Not just now, though.

Uncomfortably Numb

So remember when I said that a cold would be striking me soon? Well, today's the day (or yesterday was the night?). I woke up feeling terrible, there was no pain, I was receding--a distant ship's smoke on the horizon--light was only coming through in waves, their lips were moving but I couldn't hear what they were saying... when I was a child, I had a fever and my hands felt just like two balloons... now I've got the feeling once again, I can't explain, you would not understand... this is not how I am!

Okay, so it wasn't that bad (I couldn't breathe, but that was about it... oh, and instead of my hands feeling like two balloons, my head felt like one balloon). If you're wondering why all that sounds so familiar, it's because it's a cheap modification of Comfortably Numb. Good song. Anyway, at first I thought it was a hangover, but then after a while I noticed I did have fever, so unless it was the worst hangover ever it wasn't. I took a pill and went back to bed (and, of course, drank some water). Now I've woken up and I feel much better... but that doesn't mean I feel good at all. but well, whatever, I had it coming.

I hope it's a cold, though. Hope it isn't some weird thing I contracted while using the toilet... or bird flu! Ah, couldn't be the latter... haven't had chicken since I was in Valencia... plus, I'm not a bird, and Tiny's not around here, so it's all safe.

Anyway, I've slept through the whole day, not having anything to eat, and then the next thing I know is I'm feeling a bit wet. Hmm. Again. WTF? I open my eyes, only to basically feel something around my face (not sure of what it was) and then I see Steve, standing by the door, aiming that fucking water machine gun. The bastard squirt me while I was asleep! He wanted me to go to the Chelsea match with him, but I was just too fucked to go anywhere. It took me a while to get him to leave me alone, but once I got hold of his gun it was quite easy. The cunt.

Yep, I know the last paragraph sounds like quite a sexual encounter, but I really can't be bothered to change it, so enjoy. I just want to say I didn't purposefully write it like that, it just came out. Damn, this fever is making me hallucinate... cool!