Friday, November 21
Stranger Things Have Happened
I must remember to bring my camera with me when I go into uni next Friday. Every Friday there is this strange woman standing outside the Law Courts, handing out leaflets to passers-by. She is in the same spot every Friday afternoon, and is always alone. She is a very small, slight woman, and seems quite meek. I think the leaflets are about praising Jesus or some Christian-related thing.
Anyway, I want to get a picture, because it amuses me somewhat.
Thursday, November 20
It Gets Worse To Get Better
Almost missed another tutorial this morning. My alarm went off at 8.15, so I switched it off, rolled over and fell asleep again. Not deliberately, I might add. I woke up again with a start, checked the clock, and it was 9.15. Bear in mind that I usually leave the house at 9.00 on a Thursday in order to make it to the class on time. I've never got ready so quickly in all my life. I skipped a shower, which I hate doing because it means my hair feels horrible for the rest of the day (I run my fingers through my hair a lot, so I know these things), and somehow managed to get to the class on time. I've never moved as quickly through Westminster tube station between the Jubilee and Circle lines!
I'm glad I made it in on time actually, because it was a good class, all about prosecuting (or not) doctors for killing patients / hastening their deaths. Very interesting stuff, and good for some lively debate (are doctors so important to the public good that they should be accorded higher protection from the criminal law?). My Criminology lecture was also very entertaining, all about a study on the Metropolitan Police and how (in)efficient they are. I definitely like Criminology and Advanced Criminal Law.
As you can no doubt tell from the time of this post, I didn't make it to the Anti-Bush march. Just too many anti-war types around. They annoy me far too much to spend a decent amount of time with.
Plus I was hungry.
Hence I find myself once more in the library, sitting at a computer in an attempt to get no work done. So far I have succeeded for the best part of 2 hours. I have been doing some worthwhile stuff though, posting on RAGE and reading about the news at BBC News and Sky News. They're my two main sources of news online, and newspaper-wise I tend to read The Independent, because it's very liberal, intelligent and comes in an easy-to-use tabloid size. Hurrah!
One thing I found on the Sky News site is the story that a Russian pub held a competition to see who could drink the most vodka. One person died, 5 are in hospital, and the losers came back the next day for some more alcohol. Genius.
Speaking of alcohol, we've (me and my housemates) finally decided what we're going to do in honour of my birthday. Nothing happened last night, because of my early morning start today (which I almost overslept anyway), and I was a little bit iffy about getting smashed on Friday night because of the ridiculously early start of the Rugby World Cup final. I mean, really?! Who schedules a final to start at 9am?! Anyway, I have been talked into going out Friday night, getting smashed and then staying up through the wee small hours before heading to the pub at 8.30am to start drinking again and to watch the rugby. Genius plan.
Finally, I read a chapter of my new book today which was so brilliant I'm going to re-read it again and again for ages. It's about the propaganda (read: "lies") that the British public were told pre-Iraq about the reasons for going to war. It's scary just how much we were lied to, and how the politicians kept changing their stories. I'm going to write a little piece on it over the weekend (if my liver doesn't force me into hospital), just to illustrate how much it means to me, and how much I view politicians (politics?) with disdain and distrust.
Until next time, sports fans.
Wednesday, November 19
Guilty Mind
I'm currently missing my 3rd tutorial out of 4 so far this week. I feel very bad for this, but at the same time, I just really can't be arsed to go to it. This one is particularly weird because I normally enjoy my German class, but I'm just not in the mood to go. I will definitely be going to my Advanced Criminal Class tomorrow, because I've just finished doing the work for it, plus it's my favourite subject of the 7 I do. At least if I go to the other 2 still remaining (Evidence and Tort), I'll have been to more than 50% of the tutorials...
Not sure why this week is particularly different from any other, since I'm usually very, very good at turning up to everything. Even 9am lectures! This week has just been a depressing time, for no apparent reason. Meh. It'll get better. Eventually.
Oh, and would it kill anyone to leave me a comment from time to time? I would like to know that this is still worthwhile, and that I'm not randomly typing out my thoughts and feelings for no reason. Yes, I have an ego, and yes, it needs pandering to.
What A Crap Birthday
An officially crap day. I think only one of my (6) housemates knew that it was my birthday today. Boo at them. Plus I only got 2 text messages from friends from back home. Oh joy. Glad to know that I'm being remembered.
I'm in a thoroughly depressed mood as well, what with the combination of the above and last night's conversations in our lounge. For some reason (actually, we had been watching the Adult at 14 season on C4) the subject matter was sex. The conversation went on for ages, and I sat there, mostly dumb. I'm not sure if any of my housemates even know that I haven't had sex yet, and I wasn't particularly keen to raise the matter with them. I don't think it's so much that I'm ashamed of it, just that I don't overly want to spread the news.
After that, it was just me and Pete left up, watching a little bit of TV. It had just gone midnight, and Pete asked me what I was doing tomorrow (today). I said a couple of things, like going to the library (now) and a German class, then finished by saying "What a great way to spend your birthday." Pete was dumbstruck. He thought it was this Friday, because we had vague plans of going out that night, and was very apologetic. I laughed it off, because it was no biggie, but he said something that struck me as true: "This is the year where you realise you've done nothing with your life yet."
It's true. I haven't. I went through the school system, not doing anything really interesting or away from the norm. I then went to uni, and am still just following the crowd, doing whatever everybody wants me to do. I haven't done anything worthwhile, and I haven't even made anybody (that I know of) happy. And vice-versa, there's never been anybody who has made me overtly happy. It sucks.
How to change? I don't fucking know.
Tuesday, November 18
Hmmm...
So much to say, so little coherence in writing it.
There's a shedload of random crap I want to write about, but I can't think where to start. How about first I say that TOMORROW is my birthday!!! Only less than 12 hours left of being a teenager. And yet I'm still a virgin. For fuck's sake.
What else? Well, I'm thinking of going on the march on Thursday, protesting against George Bush's visit to these fair shores. My only sticking point is that there is going to be an absolute shedload of anti-war demonstraters there, which I really can't be arsed to deal with. My own personal agenda for being anti-US is its hypocritical views / practises concerning free trade. It advocates the freeing up of developing countries' markets by removing all trade barriers, then promptly imposes ultra-high trade barriers for imports, in an effort to protect its own markets / industries. Basically, the consumer and the developing world lose, and the big corporations in the States win since their inefficient and useless industries are protected so much. Stupid fucking Yanks.
My Matrix obsession has died a death somewhat, after the extensive hours I spent last week reading every snippet of information that I could find about the films. Now I'm waiting for Return Of The King, but in no way in as obsessive a condition. 16th of December is the release date, I believe.
Yesterday was dominated by Championship Manager 4. We (me and 5 (!) of my housemates) have started a 6-player hotseat game, and it has quickly become an obsession. Unfortnately, the computer is in my bedroom, so my personal space in the house has become a very communal area. Ho hum. I can't wait to get back home and carry on playing!
What else? I bought a couple of new books yesterday. Damn my inability to walk past a bookshop without popping in and buying something. I bought Tell Me Lies, a collection of articles which show how the public was lied to by the US and UK governments, along with the mass-media, during the Iraq war. It should make for interesting reading. The second book was The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, an expose of the most recent US Presidential Election. You know, the one where the guy with less votes won, in the Greatest Democracy in the World (TM).
I should be doing some work for my Criminology tutorial tomorrow, but I'm really not in the mood. Meh.
And I still haven't got round to getting the internet sorted at home yet. Dammit. I fucking hate having to do everything online in one go whilst I'm at the library. Fuck's sake.
And that's it. That's my life for the past few days. Man, I suck.
