Archive for March, 2006

It’s great news! I was running round going crazy for about 10 minutes at the thought that I had lost my Millencolin t-shirt. Sure, it’s just a t-shirt but a) it’s my favourite t-shirt and the one I do most of my VNUs and, well, pretty much any video project in, or indeed go out in and b) I got it when I actually saw Millencolin which while isn’t some big achievement, was an awesome gig and one I have fond memories of.

I got to the point where I was searching online stores to replace it even though I knew it wouldn’t be the same. The only place I could find a mention of it though was on the official Millencolin site that have a t-shirt-ography cateloging all the t-shirts they have made. Mine is called “skull” apparently.

They have some stuff available from a company called Backstreet Merch. Not what I wanted though. Plus dispatch times were so random and so long. The Bullet For My Valentine tee I looked at was a 2-14 days dispatch time (I think I should point out, although it’s BFMV, I wasn’t actually considering buying it so it’s go :-P) and some of them I saw had a dispatch time of going on a month.

This pales in comparision to what I found earlier today on Giant Merchandising’s website though. I wanted some more band t-shirts that would be good to wear when I go out and given that Lostprophets really, really rock and they have some cool designs when I looked I decided it would be cool to get one of those. $16 but as long as the shipping was cheap that would be affordable. $21 shipping outside the US! I’m sorry, but it does not cost $21 to ship a t-shirt to the UK! That is such a con.

Yep, I finally made the jump to WordPress version 2. It’s basically the same now I’ve sorted things out (I’m not using the visual text editor crap for my posts). I can’t say I prefer the interface but it’ll do and this way it will auto generate the thumbnail code and allow me to browse images more easily even if I can’t choose what size the thumbnails are.

That’s one of the most annoying things about WordPress 2.0 I think. Also when you select an image, by default it isn’t linked to anything. I can’t see when you would ever want to upload a file, create a thumbnail of it and then not use the image, just use the thumbnail. It’s a waste of disk space. And that is presuming you would have a reason to use the thumbnail and not the image which I can’t see happening. But oh well.

I think I really am a blogging addict. I have been sitting here waiting for the files to upload (it’s taken a while as I’ve been uploading other stuff at the same time) and thinking “hurry up! I really need to blog! I think I’m going to burst if I can’t blog soon.” But with good reason, which I will go onto in my next post. Also, the fact that this is my 5th post of the day, I have another one coming, it’s only 5pm and that’s providing I don’t start posting all the photos I plan to.

The reason I never really use my camera is because it’s messy – first I would have to dig out my USB cable, plug it into the back of my laptop, plug it into my camera, I know it doesn’t sound like much but it is when you don’t know where you’re USB cable is, both USB ports on my laptop are already being used and even if they weren’t you would have to get round the back of what is already a jungle of cables.

It’s the same with the phone on my camera, I would need to find my Bluetooth adapter and plug that in and then configure it all. My phone isn’t doing me much good anyway as I can’t be bothered to carry around my actual camera because I have one on my phone even if it’s nowhere near as good.

However recently I found my Bluetooth adapter will just plug straight in and work so I have finally re-claimed my picture taking. I have a load uploading (it’s still a bit of a hassle uploading them as I have to confirm each one but it’s so much better. I can just browse through the pictures of my phone using the thumbnails and select which ones I want to be transfered to my laptop. No wires, it’s brilliant.

So yeah, expect a lot of upcoming posts with pictures in them. I think I may have to create a third category! Although I’m not sure, it’s a major discussion to add a new category to my blog. I only really added the video one because I was initially going to make the video totally seperate. This is something I am going to have to meditate on a little while I think.

I am also toying with the idea of upgrading to WordPress 2.0. I’m almost settled on it in fact. I really like WordPress 1.5 as it’s simple – the categories are just on the left rather than being on a menu you need to open in 2 but that said, it only closes when you haven’t been to the blog for so long it automatically logs you out (I think it’s like a week) and the chances of that happening with this blog are rather slim I think :p.

While I don’t feel like I have done much this morning, I got up early (well, I say early lol, 9am, so early for a student, not for the rest of you) and I’ve blogged loads and it’s only just midday now. Still, I just thought I would point out that The Met only has 21 societies while the uni has 158 :D.

Harvey Danger are the band that do the theme tune for Peep Show. They’ve released their third album “Little By Little” via their website free which is pretty cool. The proper MP3’s; none of this DRM crap. Have a gander.

Ever seen this before?

Sometimes you’re so intent on finding an answer to a problem you need to step back to realise there isn’t one. Of course, there is always a explanation ;).

You shouldn’t play with matches and petrol. You really shouldn’t play with matches and petrol at the same time. But the worst thing you can do is play with machetchel (pronounced ma-chet-ch-el, pretty much how you would expect really).

Sure, yeah I just made it up but that doesn’t make it any less dangerous. Do you realise how many machetchel related deaths occur each year? It’s frightening.

American Edit is a mash-up album based on Green Day’s American Idiot and it’s really entertaining :D. There is like every song you can think of thrown in at some point including the Doctor Who theme tune. Allow Dean Gray to explain more.

Yep, can you believe it :p. But don’t get over-excited I got the bare minimum taken off – just the tips which is less than half an inch. It’s just to tidy it up a bit and so it will grown thicker so it looks pretty much the same. First time in about half a year though :D.

As I’ve mentioned in a few previous posts, I’ve been meaning to write about two subjects, one of which is this, a conclusion of my second term at uni for a while now. Well, I’m finally getting round to it. Before I start, I just want to mention, I’m currently listening to The Used’s self-titled album. It’s really good. It’s fairly hard rock and screamy but then I’m quite into that :D.

Anyway, this second term has been quite a different experience from my first. As well you can expect I guess. The first term you don’t really know what to expect, everything is new and you are trying to find your feet. By the second term you are more settled in.

I think that’s true to an extent. A lot of more experienced people that gave us intro talks and we chatted to in freshers week say the first term is a bit weird and you miss home and can’t wait to get back there but then once you get back at Christmas you realise you actually really like it at uni and don’t get homesick after that. I never really had that. I was homesick in freshers week but since then I haven’t felt that way. I didn’t want to go home at Christmas, I was already settled in.

Though perhaps most people have felt this way and it’s because they have changed over Christmas and come back with a new attitude for the second term that I feel different this term. Not that I am saying I haven’t changed, I think my attitude has changed this term, particularly as it went on. It seems to be that in the first term I hung out with my house a lot just because they were my house, I knew them most and I like them. But it seems this term I am more content to hang out with friends off my course, as I click more with them more. Not that I didn’t do this before but I feel I have become more detached from my house this term as I build my own social circle. That’s probably the wrong term, I love them all but like when everyone is going out to The Courtyard, I probably wouldn’t go now whereas I would of in the first term. It was fun but these days I would rather go to The Cockpit with whoever wants to go over taking part in the mainstream events.

Maybe it’s just the natural progression of becoming better friends with certain people although maybe I just haven’t explored my house enough. I mean, it’s not like it’s devoid of people who do like going to Cockpit and Wendy House but it’s only really at the end of the term that I made the decision to pro-actively try and organise outings between those of us who are looking for non-mainstream events within Grant.

Maybe I just threw myself into socialising in the first term and now I’ve found my friends niche it’s less important to me. For the first term I would always have my door open, recently I’ve found I haven’t. I don’t really know why that is, but I’ve noticed it none the less.

I’d hate to think I was drifting away from my house. But then I don’t think I’ve formed as tighter friendship groups as most people in Grant have. I don’t want to blame this all on Jack but my Valentine’s Day rejection did a lot of emotional damage to me ;). We could have had something great Jack!

Still, I don’t think I’m bad off. It’s not like I don’t hang out with my house, we hang out a lot. While I don’t have an intimate knowledge of the goings-on in other houses and residences, it seems that Grant is definitely one of the more social houses. A lot of places seem to have very divided groups. Of course Grant has strong social circles too but pretty much anybody would hang out with anyone else from Grant which is why I love it.

Hmm, I’ll probably come back and re-write some of this later (actually I just did, this has been sitting on my desktop for a few hours) once I’ve meditated a little more on the subject. It’s been a great term. Plan for next term: get as much partying in as possible due to the limited time span. Also I think we need a Grant House MarioKart tournament. Or is it only me and Rob still playing that? :p.