The Age Of No Technology

Last week Monday, my housemate who owns the TV moved out and left us with a big blank space where our TV used to be... (actually, a reasonably small space, but that doesn't sound as dramatic) I did not mind too much as I still had the internet, dvds and the radio to entertain myself with. Or at least, that's what I thought.
Until last weekend when our internet stoppped working. Not because anything was wrong with it, but because the mother of one of my housemates, who pays our broadband on her credit card, cancelled everything on said credit card because it got broken into.
Living without TV (which is not that big a problem for me) and internet has proved quite difficult: I can no longer chat to people on msn, read my email every day, read and write blogs as often as I want, look up actors I fancy on Imdb, or play Quickstack, which I was getting quite addicted to, or do my daily crossword (yes, I am an old lady, so sue me!).
But I still have the comforts of my trusty mobile (which is running out of credit and I am broke), the radio and my laptop to watch DVDs on. I would say I have books to read too, but they are all in boxes ready to be stored for the summer, and as they are extremely expertly packed I dare not open the boxes and mess with the system (all hail Leni, queen of packing books).
Again, this assumption turned out to be wrong. My stereo seems to not want to give me a nice clear radio signal, which means I either have to listen to Radio 2 with lots of static and the occasional outburst of Spanish, or listen to my CDs all day. Which are, hm, packed. And I quite like the radio, because it plays songs I do not know by heart and even Johnny Cash gets a little annoying when you hear the same song over and over and over and over again. (although it pains me to write it down, it is true...)
With nothing left to entertain myself but the DVDs of my one remaining housemate, as I had finished reading the biography of Roald Dahl that has been waiting patiently all term for me to finish work, I settled down with 'Back to Future', one of my favourite films of all times (and my housemate has the trilogy, so I am good for the next two days). While watching the Bonus Material, however, my computer froze!! Nothing worked!! I controlaltdeleted the shit out of it, but nothing happened, so I turned it off and on again, which seemed to make it work, but the whole episode has left me worried.
Am I to live my last remaining week in England in complete solitude, with no contact with the outer world except the people at work?
Is my laptop going to die when it is not even one year old yet?
Isn't it time I started to learn something about technology?
The age of truce between Merel and the machines has ended. War is upon us.

My Internet Has Broken Down

So I won't be online very much in the next two weeks, getting onto campus is such a drag... I might be on tomorrow, tho so you don't have to miss me too much..
And in other news: I got a 2:1 for my degree!! Wahay!!!

If I Had To Be One Of The Fellowship Of The Ring

I would want to be Boromir.
I know he is weak and wants the ring, but at least he is honest about his weakness and he is not genuinely evil. I was watching the first film last night (second one on the schedule for tonight), and realised Boromir is played by Sean Bean! Now, as in the case of the Hanson/Penhall debate, I will try to not let that affect my judgment (but let's face it, he is one of the coolest people ever, he made Troy almost bearable!), so I should probably tell you why I would want to be him.
So, we've established he's weak and wants the ring, but he doesn't actually take it, and he joins the fellowship not to kill everyone and take over, but because he genuinely wants to help (well, that's how I am seeing it, I haven't read the book so I am not sure on the details).
The most important reason, however, is the way Boromir dies. He dies fighting to protect Pippin and Merry (who, let's face it, are blundering idiots), and even when he has three (3!!!) arrows sticking in his chest he keeps fighting the ugly ork/something else people. So, for his brave death, I will choose to be Boromir. Moreover, it means he doesn't have to be in the other to films, and that last film really made me puke, so good on him! Although I saw on Imdb that he is, hmmm, I don't know how that's going to work...
The reasons for not being any of the other ones:
Gandalf: is a bit up himself, really.
Frodo: is way too sensitive and annoying.
Merry: is just a no.
Pippin: is very pretty but also very stupid, and he has hairy feet. I like his full name, though, so he's a maybe.
Sam: is way too submisive.
Gimli: is awesome but lives underground and that is just not on.
Aragorn: is way too good. Does he ever do anything wrong? Sigh.
Legolas: is definitely the sexiest and the coolest person in the fellowship, but the reason I do not want to be him is because I have decided to add a person to the films: Random Elf Woman #1 (played by, hm, me!), who later becomes Mrs. Greenleaf. (Is it sad that I know his last name? I think it is.) Problem solved.
(Just so you know; I don't fancy Orlando Bloom, just Legolas. And no, that is not weird.)

Random Ramblings About Yesterday

Yesterday was quite a nice day.
I went into campus to pay my credit card bill, and on the way there realised I might have some essays back! I went to my department, and I did indeed have two essays to pick up:
I got a 65 for my second Gothic essay which means I now have a 60 overall for the module (yay! not really what I had hoped for, but pretty good considering!) and I got a 68 for my second European Theatre essay!
This means that I have absolutely no modules at all that I have a First for, but at least I have two essays from the two years that count that are Firsts! And, more importantly, this means that I should definitely have a 2:1 for my degree, so I can go to Reading!!!! Woohooo!
I thought I'd celebrate so I bought a book for myself for the wait on campus until Leni was going to come over and have dinner with me. The book I bought is called 'My Sister's Keeper' by Jodi Picoult, about a girl who is basically brought into life to be a donor for her sister. It is really good, narrated from different viewpoints and in different times of the girls' lives, and I am really tired today because I was reading the book until 3 am at night cos I couldn't stop reading it... The ending is really surprising, and the whole book is really amazing, quite suprising when you just pick out a book in the bookshop because it sounds okay.
Dinner was nice, although there was a bit of plastic in my waffle!! Psh. The pasta was nice, tho, so all was not bad.
There was no point to this post, just wanted to let y'all know what happened yesterday!

Artist's Rendition Of What Happened To The Wench Today

I got the following text from the Wench today:

"[some obsessive text I wil not disclose as it would shame us both] On a different note, a pigeon hit me in the face today!"

Naturally, a picture of this came up in my head:

Now, I am not the best artist in the world (gene logic sucks), but I am pretty sure this is the exact thing that happened. Any other suggestions welcome, although they should be in the form of a drawing. Just because I say so.

I should probably make it clear that Lizzy(AKA The Wench)'s hair is much nicer in real life. And she has real feet, and generally looks less like a bad drawing of a woman.

Two Reasons Google Is Awesome

Reason # 1:
My older brother invited me to a gmail account, and I love it! Although I am crap at the intelligent computer stuff, so you should all reply to the email I sent you (assuming, as always, that only people who know me read this blog) so I can add you to my new Contact List. I like it, it is very pretty and useful and now I can put my personal email address on my CV!! Yay.

Reason # 2:
I looked up 'Hungry' on the internet (because I am hungry but don't really feel like food... I know, it is weird) and I found this AWESOME site called 'The Hungry Cyclist'!! Go to my links and look at the site! I am AWFUL at the game, but it is fun! And it has recipes and lots of other stuff I haven't had a chance to really explore yet, but you should find out for yourself anyways!

My Phatic Whales

Today I am trying to tidy my room. I have started with throwing away all my old University notes that I never look at anyway, and while I was sorting through them to take out all the staples, I found my Phatic Whales!!!
Last year, in The European Novel, we had some of the most incomprensible lectures ever. I mean, US Writing and Culture was a close second, but in EuroNovel, I could sometimes not even understand what book they were supposed to be talking about for all the difficult words and other references they used. One lecture, about 'Tristram Shandy', by a lecturer whose name I didn't know then and still do not know, he talked about the phatic qualities of the novel...
OED definition: phatic: Of, designating, or relating to speech, utterances, etc., that serve to establish or maintain social relationships rather than to impart information, communicate ideas, etc.; esp. in phatic communion speech communication of this kind; (also) trivial or purely formal verbal contact.
So, instead of trying to find out what the hell this man was talking about, I drew some Phatic Whales (the things they say are actual quotes from the lecture). Make them your friends, because they want to be, and will cry if you won't. And whales crying in my room is going to wake me up and annoy me, so be nice to them!

The Kindness Of Leni

Look at what I got in the post today!!! It is a good thing Leni told me I would get a package this week, because otherwise I would have been very confused... Although I still am kind of, because it isn't my birthday and I haven't been extremely nice lately (just my own lovely self, teehee), so why is the Leni being such a generous Cash giver? Maybe I should just accept it and thank her for it, so here goes:

THANK YOU LENI!!!!! You rock.

My Hair, And A Rant About The Bursary People

Yesterday I had a really fun day: me and my friend Leni were going to do some packing and clean her bathroom because it was PINK, but as she really hated the way her hair had turned out (highlighter pink not being the colour she wanted for her hair) we went shopping for temporary dyes (spelling?) instead. We decided to try and dye my hair as well, choosing a slightly reddish colour that wouldn't stay in too long.
Now, I have dyed my hair using natural henna many many times, and all of these times, no matter how long I let the henna work on my hair, I would end up with the same colour hair as before, except my hair would have a slight red glow to it, if you knew about it. As we were using chemical dye this time, I thought that maybe it would actually change my hair colour, especially as we used two packs and let it in a bit longer than the recommended 5 minutes.
But it didn't. My hair is ever so slightly darker, and even I find it hard to spot any redness.... I think maybe I have to accept the fact that my hair is stubborn and will never allow me to change its colour. But, I had a fun day and Leni's hair is now a nicer pink, and I am sure her new dyes will come in soon so she can achieve the red she actually wants!
In other news, I got two emails from my new bursary woman today. One had a very promising title, and included a form to send off in which I could claim more bursary money for next year. However, the next one had only one sentence:
[said bursary woman] would like to cancel the previous.
WHAT????????????? So, I phoned up the bursary people, and the man on the phone said she wasn't there and I should phone tomorrow or send her an email, and when I asked her whether maybe I could ask for his help, he snapped at me: 'Well, no, obviously, because I don't know anything about these emails and you should phone her tomorrow!!!'
He really upset me; all I wanted was to ask him whether maybe he could try to explain some things to me, but he wasn't even willing to listen to me for a little bit.... So I sent an email back to the woman and got back an email straight away (never a good sign) saying she was on holiday and would be back on the 19 of June!!!! That's not TOMORROW!!!!!! And also, it said urgent things would be dealt with by someone else, so maybe the man could have transferred me to that person? But no, I think I am going to have to deal with the fact that the people who give me free money (which I am very happy with) are not willing to also give me free good manners.
At least I will get my money for the summer, which means I will be able to buy all the birthday presents I haven't had money for lately, and maybe not feel like a poor bum for once...
The evil man inspired me to phone the University of Reading, though, and this lady was really nice to me and said everyone would be enrolled provisionally, and then when the marks come out they will sort it out... Hmm, not sure how that will work but it works for me! Also, she said I should send in my last marks, accompanied by a letter from one of my lecturers if the marks do not represent my usual level of achievement.
Conclusions of this post:
My hair will probably never allow me to change its colour
The Dutch bursary people are both confusing, mean and disorganised
The Postgraduate Admissions people at Reading are nice

Update and Happy Birthday

So, I am now over halfway done!! Only 2192 words to go, yay. I have finished writing on The Joy Luck Club and am gonna start The Woman Warrior in 15 minutes.
And HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! to Boris (he told me off for not saying hi to him and congratulating him straightaway, but I didn't do that cos I'd forgotten or don't care, I am just very caught up in my essay right now)
Toodles!

**UPDATE**

I have about 500 words to go, so I am calling it quits for tonight and I am going to go watch some tv. My left shoulder really hurts, even though I did all the exercises I was told to do... (by my mum, just so she knows I do listen to hear sometimes). Nighty night!

Essay Number Two

Pfffff, I have started it!! 649 words so far, which means I have finished the intro and now have to start the ACTUAL intelligent stuff, hmm...
I do finally have a thesis tho, I just hope it will all work out with what I will write about, I always find the start of the intro (and each section afterwards) is the hardest, once you start writing it is okay...
BUT!! I have great plans for the summer which do NOT include me working like a dog in Leamington, but actually having a holiday, which I really need, so I will do a little 'European Tour' over the summer (well, Holland, then Switzerland, and somewhere else if my nan wants to go somewhere exotic). It is going to be so nice to just have some relaxation, and not having to get up at 7 to go to some stupid job I never really wanted anyways.
And because now my father is not coming to graduation, I feel so much more relaxed about that day as well (although I will obviously miss him); only one parent to please, teehee.
Okay, back to work woman!!!
Don't expect much news from me in the coming few days, I might just go on a little crazy tour of the world to celebrate my DEGREE being OVER!! (only 4351 words to go...)