I Don't Approve Of That

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2009-05-27T20:15:00.001+01:00

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2009-05-17T03:31:00.001+01:00

Hipsters, General asshats
Circle I Limbo

Goths
Circle II Whirling in a Dark & Stormy Wind

George Bush
Circle III Mud, Rain, Cold, Hail & Snow

The Pope
Circle IV Rolling Weights

Militant Vegans
Circle V Stuck in Mud, Mangled

River Styx

Republicans
Circle VI Buried for Eternity

River Phlegyas

Creationists
Circle VII Burning Sands

PETA Members
Circle IIX Immersed in Excrement

Scientologists
Circle IX Frozen in Ice

Design your own hell

Goodbye Blogger.

2009-05-04T03:00:00.000+01:00

You can now find me here:

http://noapproval.wordpress.com/

Fare thee well.

Eric the Half A Bee

2009-04-13T17:04:00.000+01:00

Half a bee came to say hello to us whilst we were at the pub yesterday.

Courtesy of Ben Farmer.

A new tea every month

2009-03-14T16:15:00.004Z

After passing by the tea aisle in Tesco recently, a thought struck me: I've never really given any tea other than standard black tea a chance. I'm not being adventurous enough, and I can't really call myself a proper tea drinker unless I actuall try something other than Yorkshire Tea (which is delicious, mind).

So I had a quick look at the teas on display and discovered a wealth of different flavours and types just waiting to be drunk. It was at that point that I noticed the price, and my friend mentioned that they were a lot cheaper at The Natural Store, just up the hill.

So, off we went.

I decided to buy two different types there and then: Clipper Chamomile, and Twinings Lapsang Souchong. I picked up a box of Chamomile tea bags and a box of loose Lapsang, paid the man and left.

Later that evening I decided to try the Chamomile. Now, the smell of the teabag, I have to admit, was a little off-putting at first - it smelled like a cross between a campsite at night and a hamster cage. Nevertheless, I persevered and realised that, actually, the smell was quite pleasant. Since I didn't have my little teapot to hand, I chucked a teabag in a mug and let rip with the kettle.

After letting it brew for a while, I took a sip and realised that I may not have let it brew for long enough - it tasted a lot weaker than standard tea, and was a much lighter colour. That being said, it was a very pleasant cup of tea. Very relaxing, and despite the smell, it didn't taste like a campsite at all.

Later on that night, I dug my teapot and tea strainer out of the cupboard and gave the Lapsang Souchong a go. When I opened the packet I immediately got a strong whiff of smoke and peat. Reading the back of the box confirmed this - "[t]he unique Lapsang Souchong flavour is produced by laying the tea leaves on bamboo trays, and allowing smoke from pinewood to permeate through them." Unusual (to me, probably not to a tea connoisseur), but hey. I'll go with it.

Two spoons of tea in the pot, boiling water in, leave it to brew.

The taste is not unlike standard tea, but obviously with a smokier flavour. The peat smell doesn't come through in the taste at all. In my humble opinion, although the box says this tea can be enjoyed with a dash of milk, it tastes a lot better without it. Probably true of most teas, I would imagine.

These two teas are only the first step in my new quest: to try a new tea every month. I have a short list drawn up...

Earl Grey
Lady Grey
Assam
Darjeeling
Chai
Oolong
Ceylon Black
Fennel and xxx (there seem to be many different variations on fennel tea)
Rooibos

There are obviously loads more than that to try, but this list should do me for now.

Time for more Lapsang I think!

Finished!

2009-02-04T00:02:00.002Z

So I finished my script. Once I got into it I quite enjoyed it. It's been a good introduction to scriptwriting and, although it's not the best script in the world, at least I know I can do it now. I have something to work with and edit and make good.

It's rubbish now, but I'll make it better. This is just version 1.0 really.

Work, Work, Play, Work.

2008-11-03T16:15:00.002Z

So I have a dissertation to write. Or rather, two dissertations, one each semester. The first will be a sitcom pilot; How To Write Yourself Out Of A Paper Bag.

I'm sure you'll get it when it's inevitably snapped up by Channel 4 or BBC 2.

Holy Christ it's been ages

2008-10-20T16:04:00.002+01:00

July LAST YEAR? That's seriously how long it's been?

Sorry about that.

I'll try my best to update it a bit more often; indeed, it'd be a good idea, what with me now being a third year English with Creative Writing student and doing an Alt Dot Writing unit. We're encouraged to keep a blog, so that's exactly what I'm going to do. Start updating this blog again. Maybe I'll even become famous, you never know. Doubtful, but hey. Anything's possible.

Except...

Music Snobbery Ahoy

2007-07-25T03:19:00.000+01:00

I think I'm beginning to understand all the music snobs who snub artists after they become big. Now, I wouldn't go that far but I share a certain sympathy with them. For example, take the artist Kate Nash. She's been around since at least December '06 (this is when I first heard her) and now she is getting to be quite big - prime-time Radio 1 airplay, videos on TV, album out soon on a major label, the lot.Yet despite all of this I can't shake the feeling that somehow she's betrayed me. I used to be able to talk to people about her and they'd have no idea who she was. Now, however, most people will have heard of her and I feel like her songs are not addressing me personally anymore which is the feeling I got when I first heard The Nicest Thing. It was a great feeling, like entering a new relationship. I don't get that so much with her new single, Foundations. That's not so say I don't like it; quite the contrary. I love the song, it just doesn't feel personal anymore. The same thing happened with Reverend And The Makers. I saw them supporting Arctic Monkeys and I loved them instantly. Now they're getting big, some of the magic is going, although they're still great.

Now, I'm just hoping and praying that Kate Nash doesn't sell out.

Money, Money, Money

2007-07-17T15:14:00.000+01:00

I'm a student, and as such I have a student loan. Problem is, the student loan doesn't cover living costs, as it is supposed to. All it covers is rent, and then I have to use my overdraft to cover food, bills and other stuff. It's impossible trying to find a job in the town where I live too, so when I'm low on money I have to call my parents (and I HATE asking them for money). So now, at the end of the year, I have no money whatsoever and have to frantically search for jobs both at home and in Penryn, where I live during term-time. If I don't I'll have literally nothing to live on over the year.

More on this as it develops.

Whoops.

2007-05-13T00:30:00.000+01:00

The reason I haven't posted in a while (not that anyone's actually reading) is that I tried to install Ubuntu to my laptop. It failed. It completely fucked up Windows XP. it didn't like it at all, no sirree. So, as a pennance for my stupidity, I reformatted my hard drive and installed Windows afresh. Normal service will be resumed shortly once I get my laptop back to how I like it.

Life, The Universe, And (Not Quite) Everything

2007-04-22T20:49:00.000+01:00

I have days when I think about how amazing it is to be alive. I know how cliché and Christian that sounds, but it's true. I consider myself an agnotic-atheist (or atheist-agnostic, whatever). I was sort of brought up as a Catholic, but it wasn't strict. We'd go to church every Sunday but I was never forced to do anything other than that and I was never told that I'd go to hell when I did something bad. Plus, I recall my dad telling me that the only reasons we went to church in the first place were a) because we liked the priest and b) because it kept my gran happy.

So when I do think about life and how incredibly amazingly awesome it is, I never concede that there must have been some creator, some supreme being that made the heavens and the earth and everything that crawls around on it. I think that there are four real possibilities - the universe is a staggering coincidence; the universe has changed during every step of its evolution; or there have been countless other incarnations of the universe and that this is merely the one in which the conditions were right in order for everything we see around us to develop.

However, the possibility I see as being most likely is the theory that the universe has been in existence for all time. This is not too hard to imagine since, according to this theory, when the universe came into existence, time also did. The unverise has been expanding and collapsing gradually forever and this is merely the present incarnation of it. This hasn't really got anything to do with how amazing life is, but I don't care. This is my blog. :P

While we're here, I may as well share my thoughts on climate change also. I don't believe in global warming. I think we're about due for a new ice age any time now. How did the last one come about? Were the animals driving cars around kicking out greenhouse gases? I don't think so. It's just going to happen. We can't stop it. We shouldn't try to stop it. It's nature, let it be.

Here endeth the lesson. Fnar.

Piercings: Why?

2007-04-22T03:57:00.000+01:00

My girlfriend informed me today that she intends to get her tongue pierced at some point. Now, aside from me intensely disliking this idea and getting upset at the mere thought of it, it got me thinking about what it was that I actually dislike about piercings.

Some may say that it's envy - this Freudian-esque concept of repression. I tend to disagree with this, mostly because I don't believe it to be true, but partly I suppose because you can't actually know for sure what is repressed inside your mind and what isn't.

I read a comment by someone on the subject of body piercing who noted that piercings are not a part of western culture. Whilst I agree with this to some extent, I disagree inasmuch as western culture has adopted body piercing as a part of it. They've even formed a sub-culture of their own, now that I come to think of it - The Piercers. Or something.

I still think it's ugly and pointless though. Don't get me wrong - a pierced ear and some nice ear jewellery can look very nice indeed. Still though, people are taking this too far; stretching being a good example of this. Who needs a massive hole in their earlobe? It doesn't look good. It just looks like a hole. Nothing more. It serves no purpose other than aesthetics, but I don't see the use of creating something with no purpose other than to look ugly. I stumbled across a picture of a man with two stretched earlobes and two stretched nostrils. I would post the picture but sadly I neglected to bookmark it and it is lost in the annals of the internet for evermore, never to be seen by my eyes again.

Perhaps I don't like it because of the health aspects. I'm clinging onto this admittedly silly notion that somehow a piercing can cause serious damage to a person. It can't really. Unless it's left to get infected and the infection spreads.

I don't really go in for rebellion. I don't mind looking normal. It allows me to get on with my daily business and ensures that my travels around whatever part of the world I happen to be inflicting my presence upon can proceed unhindered and continue to do so until I decide to stop. Now, if I had a 'face like a portcullis' (to quote the inimitable Bill Bailey), this would attract stares. Being a naturally shy and withdrawing person, I would be slightly unnerved by the whole experience. Besides, I don't think I'm attractive enough for piercings. One has to look a certain way to be able to pull off a facial piercing. On ugly people, they just vastly accentuate their natural ugliness. No, one must be of at least average attractiveness to actually look good with a piercing, especially one as vile as a lip piercing. I've known people to have one lip piercing at either side of their mouth, thus creating the effect of looking like a vampire (I'm not sure if this is what the person was going for or not, but hey). I keep seeing stories of people wanting piercings just because 'they aren't very common'. Why? If it's common but you like it, why not go for it? Everything will be common eventually, I'm sure of it.

Surely piercings get in the way of everyday business, such as eating, sleeping, coitus and so on. You'd think bits of food would get lodged in tongue and lip piercings. Perhaps they don't. I don't know. Besides, I think I've said enough. Perhaps I'll continue this at a later date when I'm less tired.

So here we are!

2007-04-21T02:10:00.001+01:00

I decided I'd better get in on this blogging malarkey. It seems like a bit of a larf, really. I'll probably end up with a few speculations on life and the meaning of it all, with a few looks at modern society.

So nothing too heavy then.