GenesisDreams

The Party Is Over

Friends - Fun - Personal - University - Work University is over. It's time to retire that category I think. I doubt I'll be writing anything else University related any time soon. I've been lazing about the last week. Well partying about is more apt a description. I decided to take last week completely off, have a holiday, a break, a brief hiatus from the stresses of the real world. So I partied hard the first weekend after my exams, and went out almost every night last week. I hardly got any sleep, and feel great for doing it. We went out to Bar BZA, The Works, Dogma, and a bunch of other places. On Friday night we went out to Ocean. We went there almost every Friday night all of last term, but hadn't been yet so far this term. It was the same as I remembered, crap music, but a lot of fun. Viki had her camera and took a bunch of pics... and here they are! First Picture, Second Picture, Third Picture, Fourth Picture. So the party is over. I've got to settle down now. My task this week, and the following week, and the week after, and for as many weeks after that as needed to succeed, is to get a job. I need to start working if I want to remain in this country. I'm going to try my hardest to stay in Nottingham, I don't want to leave here, leave the friends I've made. This will make it more difficult to get a job, but I'm going to do my best. I want to stay here. I don't know what will happen, where things will lead, but I know I want it to happen here. Written while listening to Crazy Sunshine by The Pillows.

Post-Patriotism

Friends - Fun My Australia Day went off with a bang. Drank more cans of XXXX that I can count. I wanted to be patriotic and drink a good Australian beer, more importantly a Queensland, a Brisbane beer. Of course the XXXX you get here is brewed in Scotland, but still, it's good stuff. We drank a few beers at our place first, and Nick and Little Matt from the office came round. After way too much beer we decided it would be a good idea to whip out the Absinthe. Heh well it was a good idea for most of us, but Bruce didn't take too kindly to it, and there is evidence on our front porch to prove it! This morning when I got back, the shot glasses were stuck to the table, and the absinthe had melted through the covering on the top of the table. This is seriously strong stuff. Taxis arrived; we all bundled in, and headed off to Bar BZR. Still can't beat those £2.50 triples. We drank there until last orders. We had already bought queue-jump tickets for The Works at the Grove earlier that night, so we didn't mind leaving until late. When we got into the Works we realised that it was School Daze! Lots of fit freshers dressed up in school uniforms to celebrate the start of the new term. It was a great night, and they actually played some halfway decent music. Came home and got some fantastic garlic bread from the place up the street! It's great; you get a pizza base but covered with garlic, butter and spices. So yummy. Viki and I stayed up talking and eating that for a while, before I eventually crashed out. A great night overall, a good way to celebrate my nation’s national day. Also a big shout out to Nash, who turns 23 today! Happy birthday Nash!

Happy Australia Day!

General - Music - Personal - Quotes

On January 26, 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip took formal possession of the colony of New South Wales and became its first Governor. The fledging colony soon began to celebrate the anniversary of this date. Manning Clarke notes that in 1808 the "anniversary of the foundation of the colony" was observed in the traditional manner with "drinking and merriment" (Source).

Drinking and merriment! That sounds about right to me. We Australian's like our booze. Today is National Australia Day, the day we celebrate the first steps towards the creation of our fine nation (even though we only actually achieved federation in 1901). As I'm writing this the day in full swing over in Australia itself. I got a phone call from Fragma at 2am his time, where only two hours into Australia day he was pissed as a fart and partying hard. Just the way to do it I think. The traditional way to celebrate Australia Day for me has been to hang out at someone's house, with numerous cartons of beer, or kegs if someone has been organised enough to get them, and drink the day away, cooking meat on the BBQ and listening to Triple J's hottest 100 on the radio. I really miss that. I'm not usually very patriotic, I'm certainly not as jingoistic as a lot of people I met while travelling around. I am proud to be Australian though. I would never try to pretend I’m from somewhere else, and I dislike it incredibly when people mistake me for a South African or New Zealander. We antipodeans share a common bond, but we’re not that alike! I often miss my sunburnt land, and wouldn’t have wanted to be born anywhere else. I like Australian’s on a whole, we are an extremely friendly bunch, honest, hard working, and laid back. We enjoy what our country has to offer us, the weather, the sun, the sand. We love our sports, our drink, our women ^_^ I’ve decided to stay over here in the UK. I don’t have any plans to return back to Australia any time soon. This doesn’t mean I don’t love my country; it’s just that sometimes you are drawn away. I know where my home is. Written while listening to Peter Allen's I Still Call Australia Home. I think the following verse is particularly apt. I'm always travelin' And I love bein' free So I keep leavin' the sun and the sea But my heart lies waiting over the foam I still call Australia home.

It's A Bit Fuzzy

Friends - Fun - University Where do I start? I’m only just sobering up. I didn’t sleep Thursday night. I was procrastinating as usual, and hadn’t done any real study yet. I had two exams the next day, and they were my last exams ever. So I stayed up all night, did a little bit of study, and then set off to Uni for my 9am exam. The exam went well, thankfully the questions I had prepared for came up, so I am pretty sure I managed to pass. I couldn’t wait to get out of there though, and as soon as 11am cranked round, I got up and fled that exam room as fast as possible. I met up with Bruce and Ben, who also had 9am lectures and we went down to the Ark, the student union bar. Let the silliness begin! We got in there, grabbed a seat, grabbed a beer, and started to kick back. That morning’s exam was Ben’s last and Bruce didn’t have another one until Saturday. Nikkie and Viki soon came and joined us, both of them having no exams to do either. And so I drank beer and got progressively drunk. While I was getting drunk, I pulled out my text book and past exam papers for Computer Security. I had my final exam starting at 4:30pm that afternoon and I was planning on doing it completely drunk! I also had to do some form of study for it. I wasn’t really worried. I figured I could go in and do most of it with my eyes closed. For an advanced subject it was pretty straight forward. However I wanted to be sure I could answer it in my increasingly drunken state. My friends thought I was crazy, but I’ve been so damn responsible my entire university career I wanted for once, for this final time, to do something really stupid. So I drank my beer, and then drank another, and drank some more. I spent almost five hours in the Ark, and I lost track of how many pints I had. I think Ben, Bruce and I bought two rounds each, but I can’t be sure. When it approached 4:30 though I left the other’s and went to my exam, almost falling over on the way. I don’t know how I managed it, but for a full hour I went into overdrive. I was in a drunken state of power writing. My booklet was almost full by the time the exam was over. When the time was up, I stood up, managed not to topple over, and triumphantly left the building. I had done it. I was finished. I was free at least. We had made plans to go out that night, so I walked straight home after my exam. The fresh air did some good in sobering me up, and it gave me time to think about my situation. Things are never going to be the same again. It's like the end of high school all over again, except I'm older, wiser, and better able to appreciate it. For some reason I had the Gurge’s Black Bugs mp3 on my phone, so I listened to that the whole way home. It wasn’t really relevant to my feelings, but it was still great to listen to. There will be many turning points in my life. Events which will shape the person I am. This wasn’t one of them. Those sorts of events are random, interactions that are spontaneous, and can change your direction forever. This was just an ending; one I knew was coming for a long time, and one I should have prepared myself for better. Anyway I’m rambling now, so I’ll stop and get on with the rest of my story. Friday night we went out to Bar BZR, but not before drinking half a bottle of Absolut Vodka and some 70 proof Czech Absinthe which really didn’t agree with me. BZR had triples for £2.50, so while I was there I had even more vodka. At about 12pm we headed out to the Works, where they played fantastic music and I danced until closing time. Most of the night is a blur. Drinking for more than 12 hours straight took its toll, and I crashed out at some point after getting home, somehow, and woke up the next morning with a splitting headache and no recollection at all of the specifics of what happened the night before. All good fun! My sore head didn’t stop me going out again the following night though. We didn’t go clubbing, instead we went to this bar called Dogma and met up with Nikkie after she went to an Ice Hockey game. Lots more drinking occurred, again I don’t remember much, but I do know that I got a taxi home early with the girls, for which Bruce, Graeme and Ben gave me lots of stick for. I am tired now. Its 3am Sunday night and there is more drinking ahead of me tomorrow. We are doing the slab challenge tomorrow, so I need to be rested and prepared for it. I’ll report back on my progress when I sober up from it ^_^ Ah my liver is going to hate me after the end of this week. I’ll start being serious come February, but for the rest of January, I am partying hard! Written while listening to Black Bugs by Regurgitator.

Penultimate Day

Quotes - University Ok this is an entry completely devoid of any real substance, but tomorrow I will undertake my last two (undergraduate) University exams ever! Of course I am procrastinating, avoiding doing the work I should be doing, and thus, here I am writing this… La! La! La! Told you this entry was devoid of any real substance. At this point in my schooling career, nearing the end of seventeen years of continuous education, I would like to think I’ve followed Mark Twain’s outlook on it all. "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." By this time tomorrow I'll be a free man. Hopelessly intoxicated on Absinthe. Written while listening to Everything is Alright by Fourtet (damnit, it only took me 2 minutes 31 seconds to write this entry, should have picked a longer song ^_^)

The End Is Nigh

Television - University This afternoon I sat my third last exam ever. It was on Financial Management, and as usual, I had done far, far too little work for it. For the first time I was actually coming close to almost fearing I might fail. It was a little scary actually. If I failed this subject it would completely screw up my plans. I wouldn’t be able to graduate, I would need to finish off just one more subject, and I would have to do it back at UQ… ewww The exam went well though, and I think I managed to somehow get a pass. I’ve got two more exams on Friday, but all of tomorrow to bum around and not do study for them. Then comes Friday night, when I’ll get absolutely shitfaced! ^_^ In other news, and in the current trend of me avoiding doing any study, I've now watched the first five episodes of season four of 24! I completely agree with the comments Brendan made to this entry about this season being much stronger up till this point than the equivalent place in last season. I’m actually glad that Jack is the only real main character back. Looks like he’ll get to do some real badass shooting in episode 6 as well! P.S. Brendan, I’ll be on Yahoo this weekend… when I sober up. Listening to Sometimes by My Bloody Valentine.

Another Weekend Expires

Friends - University

Thanks Calvin for the title. Calvin's (relatively) new blog can be found here.

A pretty uneventful weekend all round. Not too much in the way of distractions. Though I was awake from Friday morning at 10am till Sunday morning at 3am. I'm kinda tired now. I just got up. The weekend isn't officially over yet, but it is for me. I've really got to start doing some work. I had my Japanese exam Saturday morning. Went to it having not slept at all the night before, having not done any work at all in the days before it, and think I did alright overall. It is the first time I've ever done absolutely no preparation for an exam, but this one I didn't even need to pass, I didn't need credit for it back home, and I couldn't find the energy at all to study, so I didn't. Thankfully the work I did during the semester paid off and I'm pretty sure I scraped through a decent mark.

So now I'm on to study Financial Management, the subject whose average mark last year was 46%. Joy!

Best Friends

Friends - Quotes "a good friend will come bail you out of jail but a true friend is the guy sitting beside you saying we really fucked up this time" ~My best friend Fragma (who shamelessly ripped it off someone else)

The Hacker Comes To Town

Friends - Travel - University On Tuesday I had my Digital Business Communication exam. I probably studied less for this exam than any other exam in my entire university career except for Introduction to Chemical Engineering back in first year. I just couldn't work up the enthusiasm. Things kept on distracting me; I let them keep on distracting me. I am pretty sure I passed, but I know I didn't do well. Usually for me passing isn't the issue, what I am generally unsure of is how well I did. Yeah well this time, that's not the case. Oh well, one bright spark was that during my exam, Jimmy the Hacker flew into Nottingham East Midlands Airport from Rome... Yes just Jimmy the Hacker, not Ads in sight. I haven't really carried on my reporting about Ads other than mentioning that we met up with them in Paris and Amsterdam in December. Well he and Jimmy have travelled all around the place since then, and though Jimmy has to be back in Australia next week to start work, Ads hasn't organised anything specific to do now that he has finished Uni. So he got his plane ticket extended, and is currently off on his own doing some more travelling. I think it's a fantastic idea and wish him all the best. He said he will pop by Nottingham at some point in his travels, so I'm looking forward to that (I hope I'm still here by then). Anyway Jimmy the Hacker showed up, toting a big bottle of Absinthe from Prague. I had just come from my DBC exam, and I had some DBC coursework due the next day. It was supposed to be a 3000 work report, and at that point I had written about 500 words. So we sat around and talked for a while, not getting blind drunk and hallucinating, and then at about 10pm I started working on finishing my report. Boring I know, but even in my current state of apathy I couldn't hand in just 500 words for this coursework. Jimmy stayed another night and then headed off this morning. I don't think I was very good company, I've just buried in my books, or on my computer doing work all the time he has been here (well some of the time). He is off to London now for a couple of days before heading home, so I hope he has more fun there than he did here. All my housemates are of course studying as well, so there was really no one here to entertain him or show him around at all. Poor effort on my part I must admit. Anyway so now I am back to procrastinating, writing this entry instead of doing so much needed work. I've got a Japanese written exam at 9am on Saturday morning and then three more exams next week. Ah the life of a Uni student ^_^

The First 24 Minutes

Television Well in my continuing effort to avoid doing any work, I've obtained a teaser for season 4 of 24. Though I am still incredibly addicted to The O.C. right now, I can see this season of 24 quickly grabbing my complete attention. I had forgotten how much I missed 24, and these first 24 minutes certainly wet my appetite. Thankfully more episodes aren't out otherwise I would never get any work done.

Going Nowhere, Going Somewhere

Friends - Music - Personal - Quotes - University 'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?' 'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat. 'I don't much care where --' said Alice. 'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat. '--so long as I get somewhere,' Alice added as an explanation. ~ Lewis Carroll, from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Following on from my previous post; some things are going nowhere, because we have decided that is for the best, while other things are going somewhere, because I've finished University for good in less than two weeks, and then I have my whole world ahead of me. Also, inspired by Brendan's effort over on Digital Iris and looking for ways to procrastinate, I decided to make a quiz. So let me present Michael's Mystery Quiz!. Man I am so restless. I really can't get into the mood to study. I am in a Paul van Dyk mood at the moment, and I always listen to trance when I am attempting to study, so right now I'm listening to his We Are Alive.

Consequences

Friends - Fun - Personal This is the Internet. It's public and it's open. In the past I've tended to not to talk some aspects of my life here because they don’t concern just me and I don’t feel right talking specifics about other people without their consent. I censor myself a lot here; in particular I censor myself when it comes to girls and relationships. I don’t kiss and tell. It’s not me and never has been (ok well there have been exceptions when I’ve been really drunk, but that’s different!). I am going to talk about the following here though because, well, I feel like talking about it, and I know Nikkie won’t mind. I am not going to go into specifics; I still don’t kiss and tell. So Friday night, my housemate Nikkie came home from Leicester, where she is doing her current physiotherapy placement. I first specifically mentioned Nikkie back in April last year in this entry. Here is a picture of Nikkie from that post so you know who I am talking about. Nikkie and I have become very close over the past five or so months since we moved in together. She and I get on really well and I’ve found myself opening up to her completely. That’s a rare thing and I’m glad I found it here, I didn’t think I would be able to so quickly. Anyway so we have been getting closer and closer, and at the same time flirting with each other now and then, but nothing even really came of it. Until last night. Nikkie was desperate to go out on Friday after spending all week down in Leicester on placement, but nobody else wanted to go out because we all have exams on at the moment. I ended up being convinced though, and she and I went down to the Bag Of Nails, our local pub for a couple of drinks. We started by sitting next to each other on one of the leather couches there, and talked and talked. As the drinks started flowing we started creeping closer and closer to each other on the couch. The night progressed, it was getting pretty late, and we were getting pretty drunk. We were doing a bit of flirting, and then she suddenly kissed me. I was a little surprised, but at the same time sort of half expecting it, and I like her, so I kissed her back. After a little bit of making out we promptly went back home and, to avoid specifics, we spent the night together. My other housemates will probably read this, but that’s ok, because they found out anyway. Nikkie and I spent about ten minutes kissing at our front door without realising that our other housemate Viki was just inside around the corner watching TV. So that kind of gave the game away, plus the fact that my bed was empty all night and Nikkie’s door was firmly locked with the music blaring from inside… ^_^ So Saturday morning we woke up, made out some more while watching episode seven of the new season of The O.C. and then had a talk, went into town and sat in Starbucks and talked some more. Conclusions: Though we both had a great time, and really needed the release, what we had done was a mistake. Neither of us regretted it, but with the current situation, and future possibilities, we agreed that we shouldn’t let it happened again. We are housemates, we live with each other, we are good friends, we each have crap in our past we are running from, and for all I know I could be in a completely different part of the country in a month’s time. There are consequences to our actions, and though during the night we each said a number of times, "What are we doing? We shouldn't be doing this!", with the clarity of day the full reality of those consequences was made clear. So while my other housemates are currently giving us endless crap about it, Nikkie and I are still sharing cheeky grins about our night of passion, secure in the (rather mature) decision to make sure it is just a single night, and that’s all it will ever be. I suspect Graeme of putting out odds on when he expects us to shag next, but the way we figure it, whatever bets he takes will be on very long odds. Anyway it’s time to go to sleep, back in my own bed tonight. Written while listening to Paul van Dyk – For An Angel, on repeat.

Nihongo no benkyo o shimasu

Japan - University I had my first exam today. A 20 minute Japanese speaking exam worth 30% of my marks for the subject. It was more difficult that I expected, but I think I did well overall. So my exam period has officially started, and boy do I have a lot of work to do. I have slacked off this semester more than any other semester in my entire university career other than my very first semester in first year. For two of my subjects, both with 100% exams, I have barely been to any lectures. Perhaps two for one of them and three for the other. I have to catch up a whole semester's work over the next few days. I have five exams in the next two weeks, plus two pieces of coursework due. So my social life is effectively going to be dead for a while. That's ok though because all my housemates are in the same situation so there won’t be anyone going out and having fun. This is my last semester. No more exams after this. I think this fact is partly to blame for my apathy. I really just don’t care anymore about exams. I am over it. My marks won’t count here. All I have to do is pass. At the moment though I am struggling to find the enthusiasm to do the work just needed to pass, let alone doing extra work to do well. I just can't wait till the 21st, when it's all over, and I can party! ... And then start thinking about what I really want to do with the rest of my life.

Christmukkah

Friends - Fun - Television It's been a really full on past couple of weeks. We had Christmas in Milton Keynes with my cousin Simone. It was just like a real family Christmas, lots of great food, and great company. On boxing day we walked down to the pub while Ed and Toby tried to canoe, however ones they got to the Grand Union Canal it was frozen over, so that quickly put an end to that idea. I drank far too much and ate far too much, and overall had a fantastic time. We went up to Liverpool on the 30th to stay with my other cousin John. Again we ate to much and drank too much and had a fantastic time. New Year’s was rather laid back, but fun all the same. I called home and talked to Fragma, Wulfen, Rur and Nash which was great. I hadn't talked to some of those guys since leaving Australia so it was really good to have a long proper conversation with them. On the 2nd, Ed, Jeremy and I drove down to Nottingham from Liverpool, via North Wales (a very round about way I know, but they wanted to see castles!). Mum stayed up in Liverpool because the plan was for me to take Ed and Jezz out for the night in Notts and show them what a party town it was. So this was going to be the last time I saw mum before she went back to Australia. She cried, told me to look after myself, said she loved me, all that nice stuff. It was sad to go, I really loved seeing her again after so long, but I still needed to leave and more and more I am happy with that decision and my decision to stay. So we went down to Nottingham, where all of my housemates except Bruce had already gotten back from their holiday break. We ended up going out to Dogma and having a great night. I got very drunk, but my brothers, needed to get up early the next morning and drive back to Liverpool, only got a little tipsy. Overall it was a great night, a very interesting night. Ed and Jezz left the next day. No tears here of course, just some manly hugs. No I am trying to finish off coursework and start on my study and catch up on everything I put on hold for the holidays. One of the first things I did though was watch the new O.C! Episodes 5 and 6 had been released while I was away and wow what fantastic episodes they were. I am not going to spoil it for anyone back home, but there is another Christmukkah episode! Fun all around. I'll try to keep this updated over the next couple of weeks but it will be difficult with all the work I've got to do. I'll do my best though!

Surviving

Friends Jimmy is OK I read those words in the topic of our IRC channel and was filled with relief. On December 26th the Asian Tsunami Disaster hit. As of today, according to BBC News, "Just under 5,000 people are known to have died in Thailand, but 4,000 are still missing, half of them foreigners." My friend Jimmy (whom I talked about in this entry), finished Uni in the middle of November. He then set out with his girlfriend on an eight week trip around South East Asia, specifically Thailand. For a while I didn't know what happened to him. I called my friends back in Australia but they hadn't heard anything. They said they were going to contact his mother and find out if he was alright. I don't know the details, but Jimmy is OK according to IRC. Of course I always thought he would be. If he was at the scene he would have held back the wave with his impressive strength and then built bridges, mined trenches and saved children from collapsed buildings. That's just the type of guy he is. I only hope that the thousands out there who have friends or family missing receive similar news that their loved ones have survived and are safe.