23/10/2002 - Entry #34
Man, I'm really doing badly with this whole updating business since I got back. Sorry about that. I've been so busy the last week or so it's ridiculous.
Main reason I've not been around is Becca. That's Rich's girlfriend, incidentally. She comes up to stay every once in a while, since they've been going out for almost 2 years, and everything has a tendency to grind to a halt when she does. Everybody stops going to lectures, ignores their responsibilities, fails to get anything done, etc etc. We usually use her visits as an excuse to go out every night, come back and watch videos or something. Even worse, recently she's taken to bringing her Gamecube with her. Now, the Gamecube is pretty much the one and only console we don't have in this house, and personally, I'm fine with that. I've played about 80% of the games available on the Gamecube, and I'm far from impressed. They all seem to have horrible cameras, for some bizarre reason. Sonic Battle 2 was the worst, with the camera visibly taking great pleasure in focusing on a small shrubbery in the background while you're trying to traverse some irritatingly difficult puzzle, and Mario Sunshine isn't much better. Anyway, I'm the only one who seems to dislike the Gamecube so much, as Rich and Pete played it pretty much non-stop any time they were indoors. I'd wake up and come downstairs, and they'd proudly tell me they'd stayed up all night, and had "beat the caterpillar boss, so now we have 39 stars." Yeah, wicked, well done lads. Jesus. Don't get me wrong, I love it when people stay up all night wasting their lives on something as utterly pointless as a computer game, I really do. I do it all the time myself, and it's one of the reasons I want to make my own games. I just love it when people spend so much time and effort for entirely short-term gain. It's so true to life. Makes me smile. But the least they could do is waste their time on a good game! We've got two Xboxes and a PS2 sitting down there, with all manner of games. I've yet to complete Project Gotham, Amped, New Legends, Dark Summit, Dead or Alive 3, 50% of Munch's Oddysee (I got the Perfect ending, but haven't got the Abysmal ending yet) and Gun Valkyrie. Pete has yet to complete Final Fantasy X, Timesplitters 2 or Onimusha. Rich has yet to complete ANY of his games. But as soon as Becca brought her Gamecube round, Rich and Pete were hooked, for some reason. I can only assume it was the novelty value, because neither of them are even remotely tempted to buy a Gamecube. They just seemed to enjoy playing on one for a week, and saying how great the games were. Mystifying.
But yeah, so any time we weren't out, we were doing 'stuff' downstairs. We did go out most nights though, too. There were, of course, the two England internationals. I thought we did okayish, to be honest. On paper we should have done a hell of a lot better, but watching the games, it's not as if we should have won by 10 goals to nothing, but didn't. The game against Slovakia was a complete write-off. Yes, the only thing the pitch was good for was flying kites, but we can only blame so much of the game on that, and it even helped us out on several occassions. The fact that Scholes took to his role on the left like a duck to ice didn't help matters, but we got the win we needed, and that's the main thing. The Macedonia game was disappointing, but you have to expect those kinds of results from time to time. I can't understand the media sharpening the knives for Sven already. I just don't get it. As far as I'm concerned he's doing well in a very difficult job. England have always been plagued by the same old problems, including the left wing and an awful habit of making life difficult for ourselves in qualifying rounds. Why do we have this tradition of criticising our managers when they do okay instead of really well? We seem to have absolutely no patience or confidence in our coaches. Why? England have only lost once in the last 13 competitive matches, and that was to Brazil, the current World Champions. Give the man a break!
Aaanyway, what else? Oh yes, on top of Becca's visit, I've been busy with Uni stuff. I've apparently been working at Badlands for long enough now to warrant an inspection! See, there are basically three stages to the placement year. After about 3 months, I get an inspection stroke check-up, and also have to write a report on what I've done so far, what kind of challenges I've come up against, whether I overcame them, all that kind of stuff. Exactly the same thing happens at 6 months, too, presumably in the hope that I won't still be doing the same stuff, which I already know I will. Ah well. Oh, and then there's the final report which I have to do at the end of my placement, detailing the entire year and what I've accomplished. So I had to do the first one for today, and go meet with Liz Atkinson, the Principal Placements Officer, who is officially the loveliest Placements Officer in the world. Every time we meet she fusses over me and snaps into maternal mode. She tells me I look thin and pale, and that I should eat more, and offers to buy me food, and to wrap up warm and get fresh air. It would be soul-destroyingly insulting if she weren't so nice about it. It's more like affectionate care than spirit-crushing scorn. Today we went for coffee and chatted about the woeful decline of the University system. Guess what I have to pay while I'm on my year away from University? That's right! Tuition Fees! I owe the University £740 for the privilege of not being taught a damn thing! Gee willikins they're good to me. Yes, apparently the government decided that every year, students will pay tuition fees, regardless of whether or not they're attending University that year. So despite the fact that I won't be attending a single lecture, won't be conversing with a single tutor, and aren't even allowed on campus right now, I owe them £740 (that's $1,145, to you American types. Oh, and, er, $1,792 to you Candian type. Singular.) It's at times like this that I'd probably say something like "what's this country coming to?" if I didn't have such a furious, rabid, genuinely shaking-with-violent-rage hatred of absolutely anyone who makes such ludicrous statements. If I wanted to be bombarded with endless rhetorical questions and mindless speculation that doesn't go anywhere, I'd read the Daily Mail.
Oh, by the way, I'm finally going to be changing that stupid Snapshot thing down there. I've been meaning to do it for the last 3 months, so I suppose I really ought to get on with it. I'm just gonna change it to a picture of whatever I'm working on at the moment, be it 3D, 2D, whatever. I've been working on my sketching a bit lately, cos my hand-drawing skills are painfully inadequate. So yeah, tomorrow or sometime soon after, I'll be changing that thing into some kind of tiny, blurred, low-resolution, difficult-to-make-out picture of something even I can't recognise. So say hello to even longer loading times!
Speaking of hideously long and frustrating load-times, do you want to see what I actually wanted my 'window boxes' to look like? If so, head over to Spoono.com and wait a few weeks for it to load. See how good they look? The style, the class, the panache. All those things I don't have, cos I couldn't be bothered! Instead, you get this. Maybe one day I'll actually spend more time sprucing this thing up, making it look a little bit better. To be honest, I quite like this design, purely because I do think it's fairly original. That can either be a good thing, or just a sign that nobody is stupid enough to use it. Ah well. Not to worry. I suppose it's better than the endless incestuous copying of each other's ideas. I swear, Kaliber 10,000 and Spoono.com love each other to bits, and they look so similar it pains me. Although I'm seriously in love with the little green/yellow animated buttons at the top of Kaliber's site. Man, they're the greatest piece of web design in the history of the world, and I say that without even a trace of sarcasm. I love those buttons.
Anyway, gotta go. Sorry this update was a little bit dodgy (in the same way a rat is a little bit covered in fur). I'll update again tomorrow. Have fun.
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