Archive for the ‘Thoughts’ Category

A few days ago I swapped round the way I sleep on my bed so that my head is now closest to the door rather than my feet. Since then, I’ve never looked back.

It works so much better this way round. Most notably because I am now at far less of an angle when watching something on my computer and I’m closer to the screen and the sound too, about twice as close which is quite an improvement.

Also it means I’m closer to be bed side table which had to go at the end of my bed and it seems to make it easier to get in and out of bed without stepping on things as well. So there you go, the best way round to sleep is actually the wrong way round.

It occured to me as I filled my basket with a mere 3 items at Co-op yesterday to and then pulled out by extra big credit limit credit card to fund the purchase that I am back in suburbia.

Having spent the last 3 years living in student accommodation it feels strange to be back in, for lack of a better term, “real” house. I mean, I have an oven! A working oven! That’s so good. It’s taken until now for me to really discover a way of heating food beyond microwaving it.

And a shower. A proper shower that doesn’t just trickle out a bit of water if you give it 5 minutes. It doesn’t actually output hot water but at least it outputs mildly warm water with a decent force.

Still, I’m not convinced the trade off is worth it. I watched TV the other day. For most of us, we simply stopped watching TV while we are at university. Unless they had TV on at the pub. Now we’re back to watching TV in our own homes. It’s all very depressing.

Not to mention the fact that all the pubs and takeaways are closing at like 11 in the evening.

Finally the distance is starting to bite. Due to so many of us being graduates, nobody other than myself has rushed out to buy a car and start boy racering it around (well, you’re missing out, having a car is suberb) so whenever we’re planning events it’s a case of, “well, how is everyone going to get here?” That’s not to say there aren’t good public transport links because there are – but it’s not quite the same as just living 15 minutes walk from each other.

If there is a moral to be gathered here it is that everyone should buy a car and then we can all go dogging on Thursday nights. Trust me, it feels less weird every time you do it ;). The other problem though is that we are off to Wendy tomorrow – but how? I mean seriously, we all want to drink because opportunities are limited these days but that means arranging some kind of travel. Not just walking down the road. And if we want to leave at different times, what then?

Not to mention the bitching that is going on about parking on the street. Silly little unimportant problems that seem to mean the world – welcome back to suburbia. Still, guess my email address makes more sense now :D.

Despite things having been slowly coming to an end for months now, it really started to bite home that we have graduated and university is over.

That’s huge. It’s been like my entire life for the past 3 years. I can barely remember life before university now and suddently it’s all been taken away. The last 3 years have been the best years of my life and I’m sure other people feel similar, Kieran said the same to me yesterday and could possibly be the best 3 years of my life that I’m ever going to have.

I mean, how many people are we going to lose contact with now? It’s a lot. Let’s not kid ourselves. Most people we’re never going to see again. How many of the people I currently consider close friends and I going to know in 10-20 years? How do you really know when you have made a friendship strong enough to stand the test of time?

Furthermore I no longer have university to hide behind. There is no, “well I’m finishing my degree before I make something off my life.” The wall has come down, now I’m just undefensibly failing to do anything with my life, to chase my dreams and achieve my goals.

I don’t think it helps that with it being summer, lots of people who would otherwise be around have gone back home or on holiday but Leeds feels so empty. I’ve gone from living with 6 other people, near the city and campus where all my friends live to living with 2 other people with everyone living miles away from each other.

Still, not everything has changed. I’m still broke. My pre-tax income has tripled but I’m still broke. I’m still working every day (though I did rather enjoy my weekend off this weekend). I’m still not used to mornings. It’s good to know there are some things you can rely on to be constant in your life.

Anyone else having a similar experience? Open up, share…

The idea of intellectual arrogance is something that gets thrown around a lot in theological debates. Recently though I’ve really noticed in branching into other areas of discourse. There is something nice about being humble enough to admit when you’re wrong but some people will insist to the end of the Earth that they are right.

This came up recently when it was pointed out to me by 6Music’s George Lamb that nobody knows the difference between a sheep and a goat.

For example, sheep have wool. But if you shave a sheep it doesn’t. Goats have horns. But then again sheep can have horns. They have an almost idential facial and body structure, at least close enough that you couldn’t tell if it was simply a different species of sheep or goat or whether it was indeed actually a whole different type of animal. The more you think about it, the more you realise that you cannot infact tell the difference between a sheep and a goat.

Having raised the issue with several people since however I’ve found that most people simply outright refuse to consider the possibility that they can’t tell the difference. Arguments like “well I could just tell” get thrown around a lot – anyone for a “well I just know god is there” argument?

Really, I don’t see what the big deal is about the fact you can’t tell the difference between a sheep and a goat. It doesn’t make you any less of a person because nobody can tell the difference. That’s just facts, animal facts.

Ever get the feeling you sometimes made bad choices in who you befriended?

Fuck off and die like what matts parents did and what he should do aswell.

Claire. 18 May 2008, 03:22.

I’ll take that as a no, you don’t want to be friends again.

I don’t mean to be picky but on Futurama Bender is made of…

• 40% titanium
• 40% zinc
• 40% dolomite
• 30% iron

I love the UK.

It’s the only country in the world that can spend almost the entire year moaning about how bad the weather is then as soon as we finally get some sun people are like “awww, it’s too hot.”

To be fair though, it really is too hot to sleep. And I have an exam tomorrow! I need sort of air conditioned server room next year I think.

With us planning to move into a professional let next year, I think I’ll miss the querks of a student house. After all next year we will have…

• Front doors that stays open when you open it so you can carry things in
• Streets that aren’t lined top to bottom with cars 90% of the time
• Streets you don’t need a four wheel drive to safely navigate over the potholes
• Hallways you don’t have to swim through due to the amount of leaflets put through the door
• Door handles that you can twist without having to push it back together first
• Bathrooms that don’t randomly have woodlice appear in
• Kitchens that don’t randomly have slugs appear in
• Kitchen taps that release water when you turn them on rather than within about 5 minutes of turning them on
• Kitchen floors that you stop sticking to once you’ve cleaned them
• Washing machines that don’t randomly stop working and randomly start working again later
• Ovens that light when you turn them on
• Microwaves that turn on when you try to put them on for less than 2 minutes
• Irons that allow to entire your entire item of clothing rather than the bit within a foot of the plug socket
• Telephone lines that were installed within the past 200 years and so can actually carry a signal
• Surfaces that you can clean the dust off and come back to an hour later without discovering they are once again covered in dust

Then again, maybe not.

I was sending out the weekly Atheist Society mail-out today and arrived at the bottom of the message to sign my name. Traditionally this would be signed Chris, Society president.

But I didn’t. Because I’m not.

Having spent the last two years as A-Soc president, it’s a weird, weird feeling.

Having finished my FYP I was hoping I could relax a little. But instead I find my timetable full because I’m having to trail everywhere and re-arrange my timetable so I can do all these job interviews.

And the constant phone calls from recruitment companies. I mean, every week, usually multiple times a week.

Meanwhile there is a lot of stress in trying to throw together film nights so I can relax in front of my huge wall size screen with my 600w sound system.

Not to mention the number of neck turns I have to make when looking at all three of my different monitors. And keeping my 12 computers and servers patched up is just a mission.

And deciding what car to buy, in cash. What a headache.

Yep, life is hard.