Wtf? Gecko!

.. and all through the house, not a creature was stiring, not even a mouse.

Mainly because we were all passed out from the excessive amount of Christmas dinner consumed. Just sayin.

Ah, Christmas. How I love Christmas. So full of cheer. But its not, its full of people running around, cramming shops trying to buy presents. I hate Christmas. And it doesn't even snow properly anymore! We had some snow, it was pretty pathetic. However, it does mean that you can stuff yourself with food and drink, and go to shindigs with old work collegues you haven't seen in ages. So thats just what I did. Friday night was the time, Dr. Gaywoods house was the location.

First obstacle: his house is 25 minutes away on the train. No problem, I'll walk to the train station, hop on, hop off again. Nooo, of course not. The train was 45 minutes late, leaving me on the platform freezing my ass off. However, once I had arrived, a merry time was had. There was feasting on Indian takeaway, consumption of exotic and weird spirits (but not by me, I only got to sample them, and they did include Skittles Vodka at one time), then some Left 4 Dead 2, then excessive Rock Band and topped off with a fine round of Forza on the most incredible steering wheel controller I have ever played. Tada, some photos (including a very poser-ish, smug looking Dr. Gaywood):

There was also some Kickback action this week, my first appearence this semester. Kickback, the LMS open mic night, is usually full of depressing indie/emo acoustic songs, so Adam and I kicked it up with a performance of Bad Touch.

Finally, there was Sunday. Sunday OJ and I decided we should go shopping in Iceland. We then saw a selection of Christmas foods, and decided to take it upon ourselves to make a Christmas dinner for the flat. We went all out, roast turkey, potatoes, mixed vegetables, stuffing, those little sausages with bacon rapped around, gravey, and the all important cranberry sauce. Then we turned on the radio, and discovered the internet campaign to make Rage Against the Machines' Killing In The Name was the Christmas Number 1 single, much regoicing, and then we had a mosh in our living room. Excellent.

Did I say how cold it is? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I mentioned that already. Well, it kind of snowed last night. That is, it fell 1cm, then froze solid, making walking impossible. Look how pathetic it is. Also look how emo OJ is. Twat.

And now I must pack and go home for Christmas. Adios.

So, its getting late in the year, the days are getting dark, the temperature low and the coursework heavy.

If you've not been paying attention, I've been studying an MSc in Computation Chemistry (visualizing molecule bonds, computing reaction chains etc). It sounds pretty hard doesn't it? You're fucking right. Its a total bitch. And I can't really do any of it. And I'm ages behind already as I've missed quite a lot of lectures because of sleeping problems *again*.

How is it compared to my undergrad? Its totaly different. Its a lot more reading around, a bit of a system shock really, my undergrad, whilst a good degree, was too easy. I did hardly any work outside of lectures, revision was minimal, and in my three years I checked out 2 library books. And they were for something else I wanted to read about at the time. Now, I'm checking out books every day, spending hours reading them, frantically googleing, and throwing forumlas at Wolfram Alpha (which has proved invaluable).

On the whole its far more fun though. I am actually learning, and its not far off interesting. Its just, most of my time is spent as depicted below, at 2am.

St Davids 2, before I was kindly asked to stop taking photos 'without a permit'. Err, nice try, but I'll be back.

40D 28mm F/1.4 + Lightroom High Contrast B/W.

Ok, so I finnaly got fed up of Steve bugging me and I'm writing in here.

What a week. Not that I remember a lot of it after tuesdays all night election party.

I arrived some time after 11pm and after some time spent admiring Tristans Marshall amp stack the drinking began.

After the first few states were announced, it was clear Obama was taking a large lead. This was met with much satisfaction, and more drinking! Then came the great news. California, and Washington were announced, which sealed the 270 votes needed, and the TV announced he was to be the next president. Even more drinking, some chearing, and some clapping was heard!

And then McCain gives his concession speach. Lots of chearing! (and boo-ing)

And then (over-used phrase of this entry..) Obama gives a somewhat excallent speach, making various promises (some of them of a pet dog like nature). Lots of clapping and cheering was heard from 29 Salisbury Road.

At this stage my bottle of rum is empty, and I am searching for some more alcohol to consume. Jim and Tristan can be seen in the above now somewhat blury photograph above.

8am and I am finally gone, back home and asleep. It would be 12 more hours before I awaken from my slumber.

Other things that have been happening:

Airbourne. I dunno, some mediocore 'look at us we copy AC/DC' band. But I was taking photos! Heres the best of the bunch (EOS 40D, Sigma 30mm f/1.4)

So ya.

Other news is slim on the ground, my final year project is well under way (post detailing that soon), and planning is equally under way for the trip backpacking the USA next summer.

Peace.

I'm off on holiday tomorrow, currently dossing around in lovely Gloucetsershire

Its alright here, if a little quiet. I'm flying out from Bristol airport tomorrow afternoon, heading there in the morning so I can take my time getting through customs (I can see a laptop + camera + lenses + 2 phones being a problem in this day and age).

iPhone Jailbreak!

I jailbroke my iPhone last night, using the new PwnageTool, must say, not really much point anymore apart from the activation (now works with my t-mobile contract). Having not had *any* experience with the 1.1.4 software, I can't comment too much, but it is being really slow loading up my iPod playlist (and it's only half of movies). What does really impress me though from a new user point of view is the quality of the video playback. I watched Alfred Hitchcocks North By Northwest on the train journey back here, it was quite a nice experience, and the battery lasted well (took a fair few hours of Super Monkey Ball that evening to drain it down).

Anyway, I will be posting more pictures as and when I take them throughout the next week and a half.