Having done a lot of this over the years it seems somewhat tearful to think that this could well be my last blog from DEC-10. It’s been like a home to many of us, particularly those of us who have spent more time in here than our actual homes (I wish I was joking lol).
While my room is very noisy with the hum of computers and climate control devices I’ll miss the quiet hum of DEC-10, the endless late nights we spend in here coding. I hadn’t really been dwelling on the idea of one chapter coming to a close and another beginning but sitting here is really making me think. And we all know that is a bad road to go down :P.
Then again, who really wanted a good degree from the University of Leeds anyway?
I mean, it’s not like such a hideous failure in my degree means my entire life is a failure. I have many other strengths outside of academia. I have many other areas of interest and expertise – such as my intimidating knowledge of Simpsons quotes.
And after all, who really wanted the opportunity to go on and do further study or be hired in an exciting graduate role? I’m sure their are companies just crying out to pay people huge wages for researching just how many flips make the perfect burger.
Having ordered my car on Friday and picking it up on Monday I really should get round to posting some pictures of it. It’s a 1.6 Astra, 2001, 50,000 miles so not the fastest thing in the world but never the less reasonably fancy. The air con actually works in it which is always a nice suprise with used cars.
Friday night saw the long awaited Summer Ball. 9,000 students, 7 massive arenas and 12 hours of madness promised to be good night and it being my final year I figured it was something I should definitely do before I graduate.
The entertainment lineup wasn’t looking particuarly good before the event but once there it actually turned out to be rather good. We spend most of the night in the Fruity arena where a band called Huge really kicked things off at midnight, I found that I actually recognised some of the songs by headline act as Mutya Buena and as predicted, Booty Luv put on a good performance at which we were able to get really close to.
I was amazed at how many people I ran into that I haven’t seen since my first year or similar timescales which was really nice as well as plenty of people from computing which was good as it is the closest thing we’re going to get to a computing ball. Nicola ended up coming to find us as well so we spend some time chatting to her and much to Michelle’s delight she also bought a round of donuts :D.
All in all, a really good night and one I’m glad I went to before I graduate.
After months and months of waiting, the time had finally arrived – myself, Norm, Michelle and George boarded a train bound for Manchester. Once there we quickly located a McDonald’s and several bars for a variety of taste before moving on to the M.E.N. Arena in anticipation for the main events. The weeklys of training, learning lyrics and drunkenly singing along all came down to this :D.
Avril came on stage around 8:30 and was actually on till gone 10 o’clock going through almost all her singles. There was a lack of non-mainstream stuff but that was really to be expected and makes it easier to sing along anyway. Her encore was a bit unspontaneous with the dancers coming out first but never the less a classic finish on Sk8er Boi rounded the evening off nicely.
Plus, as to be expected, I bagged myself a tour t-shirt which is always a good way to finish a night. Avril accidentally forgot to seek me out and confess her love for me but I’m sure she’ll realise her mistake by the next door. Which we’re already planning a visit to :D.
The Computing Ball having been cancelled due to lack of ticket sales and general apathy on the part of the organisers it was down to Atheist Society to provide an end of year ball in some form or another. While we didn’t have the grandeur of some of the larger events we never the less enjoyed all the basic trappings of a good ball – dining, drinking, dancing and good company.
The food was excellent as always (and half price too!) and it being Tiger Tiger’s student night we decided to stay to take advantage of the ridiculously cheap double vodka and mixer offers.
While some of new committee bailed like the old age pensioners they are rather early (jokes on them as they were kept up all night by Sarann having sex rather loudly in the room above) myself, Nicola, Danny and Rosie danced the night away until it ended at 3.
All in all it was actually the best night I’ve had in quite a while and a fantastic credit to all those involved at A-Soc in organising it. It just goes to show that atheists really do have it larger :D.
Friday was our long awaited house party. Despite an array of individuals being determined to bring the spirit down we never the less partied hard until the early hours even if there was only myself, Liz and George left up at 4am. It seemed to go down a storming success anyway so I’m counting this one as a victory.
I had work on Saturday so we were looking to get out nice and early so I could head over to Nicola’s party. Then just before 11pm Elland Road kicked out from the Kaiser Chiefs gig. So then £15 predicted hour we were supposed to do with our 3 members of staff left on shift ended up as a £160 hour.
Not getting out until 2:30 I headed straight off to find that half the roads between here and Clarence Dock were closed. So having to go on detour after detour and eventually ended up on the far side of where I wanted to be I eventually managed to get there. At which point Nicola didn’t have her phone on her so 4 missed calls and 15 minutes later I headed home.
Sunday I was at work again before Kieran and Matt’s house party. However by the time I got out of work everyone had gone home so I missed out on that as well.
I recently watched the Horizon episode on research done by some of Britain’s top drug experts published last year in The Lancet, a medical journal, which offers an alternative system to the current ABC classification for drugs which is far more based on science and evidence.
The new system would rate the harm each drug causes based on a number of factors, most notably – physical harm (what it does to the user when they take it including the route of administration and long term effects), how much dependence the drug induces (and what dependent behaviour it leads to) and social harm in terms damaging family and social life as well as the social costs of medical treatement and policing a drug.
The study ranked 20 commonly abused substances and had some suprising results…
1. Heroin
2. Cocaine
3. Barbiturates
4. Street methadone
5. Alcohol
6. Ketamine
7. Benzodiazepines
8. Amphetamines
9. Tobacco
10. Buprenorphine
11. Cannabis
12. Solvents
13. 4-MTA
14. LSD
15. Methylphenidate
16. Anabolic steroids
17. GHB
18. Ecstasy
19. Alkyl Nitrates
20. Khat
So, anyone fancying dropping a few E next weekend? ;).
If you want more information the text is available online (you need to register but it’s free).
Just to pick out a few of my favourite quotes…
“They [kids] are so usable in Christianity.”
“Where should we put or focus? Our enemies are putting it in the kids.”
“I want to see [young people] radically laying down their lives for the Gospel.”
“How many of you want to be those who would give up their lives for Jesus?”
“Use your cute kid thing until your thirty, and [by] then you’ll have good content.”
“They jump round him [my dad] yelling martyr, martyr! It’s really cool.”
You have deviated from the path of win.
Welcome to fail.
