The Into Geek Awards

Hello and welcome to the Into Geek awards, my new monthly feature that will essentially highlight my favourite things of the previous month. You’ve been given exclusive access to the Into Geek February 2011 awards because you are reading this blog. So let’s give away some awards shall we?

Best Day: 16th Feb. Not a lot happened. We went for a massive shop at a Tesco superstore and saw an amateur production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.But it was good because I left the miserable period I’d been in and had a day with my friends, which is always lovely.

Geeky Exciting Thing: Without a doubt it’s the Nintendo 3DS. I was lucky enough to go to a preview event and boy, I loved it. 3D gaming, without glasses and some absolutely fantastic games on it too. Goodness knows how excited I will actually be when mine arrives at the end of March!

Movie of the Month (this is the best movie I saw this month, not necessarily the best movie that came out this month): It’s a difficult choice between Back to the Future and Inception but I think Inception just wins. Everything about it is quite frankly brilliant!

Song of the Month (again, my fave song during the month, not necessarily one that came out during it): It’s a little bit of a shock really that the winner is Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (Spring). An actual classical song was my favourite. I must say that February has been a rubbish month for new music, everybody’s been too busy going t award ceremonies to actual release anything good.

Website of the Month: This is a new one I discovered called Snog Marry Avoid. The premise is simple: you see a picture of someone and decide whether you would like to snog, marry or avoid them and people decide about you. It’s great fun and I guess shouldn’t be taken to heart too much. Minions, I would very much like it if you could go visit and let me know that you would like to snog or marry me. Or even comment here if you really want to!

Person of the Month: This award goes to the person in my life that made the month slightly better and this has to go to my mate Chris after his recent visit. It was so brilliant to have him around as he is a brilliant laugh and I can have conversations with him unlike those I can have with anyone else.

Minion of the Month: This is quite exciting because finally I can properly say thank you to one of my lovely readers once a month. There will be all sorts of ways of getting minion of the month so keep visiting to find out. I need you minions to decided on what I should buy myself as a present, click here to vote. Anyway, winner this month is Adrian Paul has been a regular reader and commenter for sometime now. Thanks very much for keep coming back Adrian. And I love all comments, no matter who they’re from!

Blog of the Month: And now for the big one, the blog I’ve most enjoyed reading this month. I am giving that award to Delaney’s Diaries of a High School Sophomore as she continues to write entertaining blog posts on a regular basis. I love coming back here to see what’s new!

And there you go, I shall have another Into Geek Awards ceremony at the end of March! Well done to all the winner this month, you thoroughly deserve it. You can go back and see all the posts for February on the last month page and I shall see you next month (tomorrow).

I Wear Sunglasses

Evening. Actually I don’t no why I start entries with what time of day it is. There are many parts of the world where it is not evening now AND the majority of people that read this will probably read it at a later time. So in actual fact I mean Good Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Night all at the same time. Check me out for being so inclusive. Wait, what if someone is stuck in a time loop? Then it wouldn’t be any of those times! Man, I screwed up here.

So, where to even begin? I guess with the discovery I have the power of prophecy is a pretty good place. Basically on Thursday night I dreamt about visiting the cheese-man and buying some cheese and behold, this very thing happened on Friday afternoon. OK, so perhaps it’s not really prophecy, I’m pretty sure I dream about cheese at least once a night. In fact I just ate the cheese I bought yesterday, a Gorgonzola Dolce. Strong and creamy, the way I like ‘em. Cheese that is, not anything dodgy…

The big event of the entire week and therefore this very blog post was a night at the student union. It’s Flirt on a Friday night and this week there was a movies theme. Myself and Chris had spent the previous few days desperately trying to come up with a decent idea for a costume but in the end we stuck on some dark sunglasses (only £1 from the pound shop) and went as “Any movie character that wears sunglasses/people from The Matrix/The Blues Brothers”. For some reason these glasses meant we had to do a particular pose every time our photo was taken…

How cool do we look? (That’s a rhetorical question by the way…)

The night itself mostly involved myself, Chris and my friend Louise dancing together and spending a large amount of the time at the bar. We were already a little drunk by the time we arrived but many a unit of alcohol later and we were all pretty trashed. The three jaegerbombs we each had were pretty much what did it. It was another one of those occasions where someone told me to drink something that I didn’t really know what it was. I still don’t really, it’s Red Bull and a shot of some deadly alcoholic liquid (probably called jaeger) which really messes up your digestive system the next day. We won’t go into that in much detail. Cue a few pictures from the night of us being drunk, it’s sort of mandatory now.

Note the state of my sunglasses, it’s fortunate that they were so cheap!

Eventually we somehow made it home and despite being the one had drunk the most out of the three of us I ended up playing nurse to Chris and Louise. Hmm, that sounds dirty as well, I’m living in a innuendo nightmare today! What I meant was that I was making sure they were both OK whilst they routinely switched place from my room to bathroom as they alternatively felt sick though as far as I am aware the toilet stayed vomit free. I am rather pleased with the work I did, if teaching goes down the pan then nursing or caring seems like a good idea after last night!

I awoke this morning feeling not too bad considering with little more than a churning stomach. Sadly today was Chris’ last day in Winchester and I saw him off to the coach stop, after what turned about to be a free tuna melt from Starbucks. Somehow the useless staff didn’t charge us so that was a free lunch, which is always good for a student. It’s sad that Chris is gone but I had a brilliant few days with him, though it now means my weekend is over and I shall spent a huge majority of the next week doing various assignments. This coming week is going to be very challenging so I’ve got to put my all in and get it over with. Wish me luck.

Oh, and before I go I should tell you that I have been given “The Versatile Blogger” award from Nanoinfinity (who has an awesome blog by the way). Apparently I’m versatile now, how exciting! Her description of my blog was absolutely lovely as well so thanks for that. I shall pass on said award sometime in the near future when I have time/nothing else to post about.

Thanks for reading everyone!

I Have a Guest (Again)!

As the title suggests, my good friend Chris is has once again come to Winchester to stay for a few days. He arrived last night and we were both still awake at 4AM. We had an excellent laugh though and it wasn’t really an early start this morning.

Our first activity of the day was visiting Winchester’s West Gate,a historical building which gives a pretty good view over the city as you can see here.

 

Next I showed Chris the house we will be living in next year and we did a little shopping. I was heartbroken to discover that the cheese man (the man at the market sells cheese and I am now a regular customer off). I was distraught for hours! On our return home we sat and watched Scott Pilgrim which is such an awesome film.

Thursday nights as always are rock and roll bingo nights and Chris continued his winning streak from last time he came and managed to win £5. We consumed a fair amount of alcohol and we were reasonably drunk when we arrived home, leading to a fair bit of singing and dancing. This is nothing compared to our plans for tomorrow night however as we both plan to get completely hammered.

It’s so lovely to have your best friend around,especially when you haven't seen them for over a month. This evening we had a proper best friend chat which involved various bits of conversation that we wouldn’t have with anyone else.

This is a rather short entry I know but I’m a busy chap right now. Tomorrow is going to be a hell of a day with a movie themed night at the student union where will inevitable get really drunk.

Winnall Moors

Today’s blog will be something a little different as I share with you what is perhaps my new favourite place in the world, Winnall Moors Nature Reserve.

The site lies only ten minutes away from Winchester City Centre and is managed by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. It’s an  area of flood plain for the river Itchen which is famed for the amount of wildlife it contains. The site is only quite small but it’s amazing what you can see in such a small area.

Swans: Whilst swans aren’t rare they are still lovely to see (unless you have a phobia of birds like my housemate does). The other day the resident pair were gathering reeds so it looks like they are probably thinking about building a nest. With any luck I will get to see said nest and some cute little cygnets.

Otters: Apparently there are otters around as they are known to live in the Itchen but seeing them is a tricky job, partly because they are nocturnal and partly because they are very shy. At some point in the not so far future I shall go on a night expedition and see if I can see any but I will have to be very lucky.

Water voles: These are becoming more and more rare in the UK but Winnall Moors is the place to see them. There are loads and you tell that from all the holes in the river bank. I have seen three on just two visits and today one was sat right in front of me for a good few seconds. They are cute little things too.

Heron: OK so I didn’t see this actually in the reserve but it was flying very low over it so I assume it must live nearby. Herons are one of the biggest birds in the UK and there silent flight looks magnificent.

Water Rail: I know little about these birds but they are fairly rare I think but I saw one at the reserve!

And they are just a tiny fraction of the things you can see at Winnall Moors. I absolutely love places like this and to have it only half an hour from where I live, less from the new house, is absolutely amazing. Nature is always right on your doorstep.

Returning from said reserve though was a bit difficult today as I missed a turning and ended up rather lost. My sense of direction told me I wasn’t actually that far from the student village and it turned out I was right but I ended up going right round the back of it along a long, long road. I did start to panic a little and wondered if I would ever return but after what seemed like days of walking I eventually made it somewhere I knew. Phew!

Tonight my mate Chris arrives and I am really excited. Bring it on!

Recent Reflections

Hiya! I’ve realised that it’s been a little while now since I wrote a reasonably long blog post so that’s the aim of this one. Just length. Well I do hope to say perhaps the odd funny thing and make something worth reading. Fingers crossed.

So first thing for discussion is me right now. At the moment life seems to just plod along fairly dully with little excitement. Every time I start to get happy and begin to think my long run of rubbish days is over something happens and I end up feeling pretty miserable again. Generally this something is either a massive knock to my confidence or someone doing something to upset me. This something doesn’t even have to be that much. I’m not religious but I do sort of feel that the world is balanced and that if you do bad things, bad things will happen to you and vice versa. On that basis I feel that surely I should be entitled to some good things happening now? Apparently not it seems.

I have discovered how much Doctor Who cheers me up whenever I am feeling a bit down. I’ve watched a lot of series 5 online recently and I’ve borrowed some of Josh’s DVDs so I’ve got a lot to keep me going for a while. I’m not really sure what it is that improves my mood. I guess it’s partly because most episodes end happily and I really want some happiness at the moment. It’s also because it’s an absolutely amazing TV show, my favourite one! Planning on watching some dalek action tomorrow: THE GENESIS ARK IS PRIMED!

I am planning to set up “The campaign to make steps bigger”. I have size 12 feet (European 47, American 12.5) and I find that my feet just don’t fit on most sets of steps. This means I often end up nearly falling down them because most of my foot is stuck off the back of the step. It’s worse with old steps (which I can kind of forgive) and steps in fashionable clothes stores; they try to make the steps look good but end up creating a death trap for people like me. This need to be fixed!

The bizarre new thing I’ve got into is classical music. Most of my iPod is stuff that has been in the charts over the last few years so things composed by Mozart and Beethoven look a bit out of place. It’s the beauty in it that you rarely get from a pop song and a lot of classical music is really relaxing. I bought two classical CDs from charity shops today and have already had one lovely relaxing time with them.

My new eating and exercising regime is going really well at the moment. I have hardly eaten anything unhealthy in nearly two weeks and each gym session gets more and more intense. Usually I see what the person on the machine next to me is doing and realise that I am working out at a much higher level. If I can carry this on for a few weeks I should begin to actually get fit. The gym is quite pleasant as well often with some attractive women in it and not too many of the typical idiots you come across in gyms. The only problem is that after doing a load of exercise I then have to trot all the way up the massive hill back to the campus I live on and that is horrible.

I desperately need a hair cut. I do believe that my hair right now is the longest it has ever been. I can’t afford to pay for a hair cut though so I’m just going to wait another three weeks when I am going home and my dad can pay for it. My fringe does block out my eyesight if I don’t brush/flick it out of the way. When I do have it cut though it’s going to be so short it’s ridiculous.

I am changing very quickly at the moment. The Dan Hough that went off to university has died and been replaced by the Daniel Hough of the present day. Regenerated perhaps? Things I used to care about don’t matter. What people think of me is up to them. Of course I want people to like me but I want them to like me for who I am, not the person I pretend to be. I no longer do any of that stupid “attempting to look cool” acting that I used to. I am me and I do pretty much what I want. The things I liked aren’t influenced by anybody but me. Yet despite all this I crave to be around people more than ever. In the summer I got used to days and days going by where I hardly saw anyone. Now I want to be with people at every opportunity I have.

Tomorrow I have some exciting plans. First thing is yet another gym trip to get it over and done with until Sunday, then I shall be going to my new fave place to go, Winall Moors Nature Reserve for some nice time alone with nature followed by some Doctor Who watching and then the arrival of my good mate Chris, who is once again coming to stay with me here in Winchester for a few days. That means that the next few days should be really good but let’s not get too excited shall we in case something goes wrong?

Inception, A Picnic and a Water Fight

I have had a lovely day spent with my good friend Josh. It began last night where we had a “sleep over”. I’m not sure you can really call it a sleepover if you both live in the same house but anyway, Josh moved his mattress into my room and we watched some films and chatted.

One of the films we watched was Inception, our first viewing of the popular film. General thoughts? Rather good. You probably know that it’s about attempting to put an idea in someone’s head through their dreams. It’s also about how Leonardo DiCaprio’s character feels the guilt over his wife’s death and this storyline gradually develops throughout the film. It’s all very well done and has the right level of confusion: a little bit, but not too much. The cast are all fabulous and there’s even a few appearances from Michael Caine so it has to be a good film!

Josh fell asleep as I was busy talking to him, making me wonder if I had suddenly become boring. I mean, who wouldn’t be interested in the works of children’s author Dick King Smith?

This morning we awoke to discover the idea of leaving the window opened had backfired and it was like lying in an igloo. We collected up a few bits of food and made ourselves a picnic for the day. On the way to said picnic I popped in to see my friend Kate at her new job working at a chocolate shop. A chocolate shop! Is that not one of the best jobs EVER? She looked like she was enjoying herself anyway.

We soon arrived at the destination of our picnic, a nature reserve called Winnall Moors. It’s a lovely little place and I very much enjoyed it. It’s the sort of country place that I would like to visit regularly so it may well become my new walking destination. I had to shoo some swans out the way as Josh had phobia of birds, especially big ones and then we found a bench on which to eat our picnic. It was a little chilly but generally not bad. We also saw a couple of water voles which I found very exciting being a nature geek and never having see one before, let alone two!

This evening it all kicked off when we were randomly attacked by our friends at house 26 with water bombs and various kitchenware filled with water. Josh and Jaz got drenched and then a full on war went on. I was also subject to a soaking from Louise but I returned the favour shortly afterwards. Pretty much everything in the kitchen ended up drenched which was problematic seeing as though house 26 had stolen our mop. The fun had to stop when a site warden appeared and informed us that someone from the housing estate behind the student village had complained about the noise we were making. Our first complaint, that is a moment!

All in all, a very enjoyable day, mostly I must say thanks to my lovely mate Josh. Uni would be a lot worse an experience without him around. With only two days of lectures this week and a visit from my friend Chris, it looks as if the good times will continue. Woo!

February Q&A

Hello and welcome to my February Question and Answer, where I gather the best questions from my Formspring and blog comments and answer them.

How much is £200 in American Dollars [the price of the Nintendo 3DS]? The US price for the 3DS is $249.99.

Do you find girls with heaps of makeup attractive? No, when they go over the top and have orange faces it’s scary rather than attractive.

What’s your favourite animal? Penguin!

Would you like to have a penguin as a pet? :D Lol, yes I would but they are wild animals, not domestic ones, so it wouldn’t be right.

Is your refrigerator running? Yes, the fridge is most definitely working and keeping stuff cool.

What’s your favourite song from a Disney film? “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid. Or possibly “Bear Necessities” from The Jungle Book.

Opinion on people who have sex with other people whilst their other half is in the army/marines? If you are properly with someone then it is wrong to cheat on them, no matter where that person is.

Favourite sexual fantasy? What a bizarre question. I don’t really have any sexual fantasies, let alone a favourite!

How old are you? 18, 19 in under a month now. 15th March- write it in your diaries!

Baths or showers? Showers.

Relevance of pants. Discuss. Pants? Um OK. Relevance to what? For most things, pants aren’t relevant. Not much to discuss about it really.

What’s your favourite memory? I think the day out I had at the local country park with my friends and then-girlfriend probably. That was such a fantastic day. Ages ago now, July 2009 I think.

What do you want to be when your old/what are your goals? I want to be a brilliant teacher and improve the lives of as many children as I can. I would also like to have a wife and family of my own one day.

Do you believe society feeds culture or culture feeds society? Discuss. It’s a combination of both of course.

 Thanks again for the questions and keep them coming on my Formspring or leave a comment- ask me anything you want to know and I will answer it right here!

Geography Day

As I am studying to become a teacher, I have to learn all the subjects and how to teach them. That means that every Thursday for a while I have an entire day of doing one subject and today was geography's turn.

We began with an hour of being taught to, starting off with a dot to dot of countries. We learnt about fieldwork and the idea that it’s really important to help a child learn geography properly. I would imagine most of my readers have a negative view of geography and that’s probably because it’s often been taught really badly. But I am going to teach it well!

The main idea of the day is that we went into town and did some fieldwork. It was quite nice to be in a seminar yet having freedom to go where we wanted. Our choice of project for the day was to go round all the supermarket’s and find out where various items of fruit had come from. You get a fair few odd looks when you’re wandering round a supermarket, picking up fruit and then noting something down.

After some time of doing this and after failing to find one particular shop we returned to campus where I used a tool online to work out how far away each item of fruit had come and made a few graphs. You can never go wrong with a few graphs. We then had to put it all together in the form of a blog and I do believe I was at an advantage here. We did it between us pretty quickly and became the first group to have finished. You can check out the lovely little blog, our amazing work of the day, here.

All in all it was a fun day working with some good friends. We had an excellent laugh and I feel quite enthusiastic about teaching geography as well. It’s almost a shame that geography was first as the other subject days are going to have to be really good to top today.

It was of course rock and roll bingo at the local pub as per usual tonight and after a long losing streak I finally got a line and won £5. This is always pleasing it meant I only spent a few pound last night. Few days of seminars are as good as this one.

Back!

Evening. I am back. Yes, I know I said I wouldn’t be but hey, things can change really quickly. I woke up this morning and felt like my normal, fairly cheery self again rather than the miserable hermit I have been over the last few days. Quite how and why things changed I don’t know. But here I am thank goodness!

So first activity of the day was my induction at the uni gym. It was all fairly simple and soon, for the first time in months, I found myself doing actual proper exercising. I tried a bit too hard too quickly and soon became absolutely exhausted, making me realise just how unfit I am. But still, after a shower I felt really good. I have been really healthy for three days now and it’s already beginning to make a difference to my life. Also the gym people have yet to ask me for any money so I’m doing rather well there too!

This afternoon I accompanied housemates and friend Josh and Alice on a big shop at the nearest Tesco superstore, which is a fair walk away. The choice and prices were far better than the supermarkets in town and I managed to purchase loads of food, enough to last me for weeks and weeks. If you have an emergency and need pasta, come to me: I have at least six different types currently in stock. We decided to get the bus back so we could buy more and not have to carry it miles and this enabled be to buy a three litre bottle of orange squash. THREE LITRES! That will last me for months! It was great fun to do a proper shop and it’s nice to have full cupboards and freezer without spending too much!

Josh and I were busy going back and forth to the laundrette this evening when a man ran past with a funnel and a thin plastic pipe. He seemed in a hurry and we wondered what on earth the emergency could be that needed such equipment. He seemed to be heading towards the pub as well. Very odd.

After our laundrette adventures, we went to see a friend in version of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” at the uni theatre. I had no idea of the story and no idea of what to expect but turns out it’s fantastic. Essentially it’s about a group of people in a mental home and what happens when they get a new inmate. Almost all of the actors put in stunning performances and the entire play was really enjoyable. On our way back we came across loads of drunk people and I couldn’t help feeling somehow superior. There were these hordes of drunken idiots and there was us returning from seeing a play.

It’s been a fantastic day where everything has gone pretty well and the best thing is that I am back to being normal Dan again. There are times, like the past few days, where I lose myself and just get really miserable. I ought to talk about this with someone really but I’m so shy it’s not easy. Still, time to stop worrying about that for a while and live life to the full. Tomorrow I have a day of geography, including some fieldwork, which I am really excited about. I shall see you then!

Re-evaluation

Hmm. The last couple of days have been terrible. My mood has sunk to ridiculous low again for no obvious reason. I’m only coming out of my room when I have to: shower, toilet, food and lectures. Pretty miserable to say the least. Getting a lot of work done though.

I have begun a new quest to improve myself. I’ve joined the uni gym (my induction is tomorrow), have drastically improved my diet and am keeping to a tight budget every week. My new diet has made me feel physically better already so it seems pretty good so far.

So whilst I think about stuff and try to wade my way out of this emotional shit (good analogy I must say), I am taking a short break from blogging. My appearances on social networks will be pretty limited too. I aim to start blogging again at the weekend but it might happen sooner or later, I don’t know. Until then, stay safe and hopefully I will cheer up. And try not to worry :p

Love Songs

So it’s Valentine’s Day- let’s not go into how rubbish a day it was for me. The lovely people from www.priceminister.co.uk have requested I do a post where I choose my three favourite love songs, and this is it!

The Feeling-Love it When You Call: I’ve started with the most recent one and it’s a brilliant track by the feeling. As well as being a really cheery song with a brilliant tune it has the sad lyrics “I love it when you call but you never call at all”. Essentially it’s a song about unrequited love and it’s quite sad when you think about it. It has to be one of the classic love songs of recent years!

Queen- Crazy Little Thing Called Love: Going back a bit and we come to one of my favourite songs by Queen. It basically celebrates the best things about being in love with some awesome guitar bit along the way.

The Beatles- All You Need Is Love: The title of this track pretty much says it all. It’s the iconic song about love being the answer to everything and what a brilliant idea that is. Plus you can’t go wrong with a bit of Beatles!

Check out Price Minister's Pop section here! (By the way, that’s the closest I’ll ever get to advertising!)

So what did you guys think of my selection? What would your top three love songs me? Let me know the answers to these and or anything else you want to say in the comments!

Bristol and Other Tales

Time for catch up on my life I think, seeing as though I haven't talked about anything but the 3DS since Thursday. So let’s talk life!

Friday evening was spent with housemates Josh and Jaz at the pub as we had a proper man’s night out whilst the girls of the household were at a masquerade thing at the student union, which was not any of our scene. We moaned a lot about various women in our lives and it was lovely. It’s nice to do this once in a while where we can say what we really think and vent our anger a little. Oh, and I had a fair bit of alcohol too.

Somehow, despite the alcohol, I managed to get up early yesterday in time to head to Bristol for that Nintendo event. Bristol is actually a fair way away from me here in Winchester and was a two hour train journey. It was a good day though, starting with me finding that the vending machine in Winchester already had £2 in, meaning I could get some snacks for free. The journey itself was really enjoyable as I sat there with my iPod playing and the British countryside whizzing by next to me. On arrival in Bristol I discovered that the bus service I needed doesn’t run at weekend so I had to fork out for a taxi. This is something I have never done before. I had to hail a cab and this was tricky when there was a whole group of Northern football fans also wanting one. I just opened the door of the first one which came near!

This did mean I arrived outside the venue with an hour an a half to spare. I decided to ring home for a bit of a chat before wondering what to do and this was lovely until a police car pulled up alongside me. The two officers peered out of the window and were given me a real glare. I then informed my dad I had to go and walked off. It was only then that the police car left. I think they may have been considering arresting me for “loitering with intent”. I was waiting for a Nintendo event and was speaking to my father on the phone! I couldn't be more innocent!

After this slightly worrying experience I realised I ought to go somewhere that looked less scary, where there weren’t football fans or suspicious policemen. I decided to walk along the quay where I happened to find myself and it was then I discovered that Bristol, that part at least, is actually very nice. There were loads of boats and even a guy water-boarding. He was really good as well!

Eventually it was time for the event and you can read about that in yesterday’s post. After it I got another taxi back to the station, which had a very chatty driver (his dad sold fish don’t you know) and then had the tough task of finding a train home. Bristol station has 18 platforms and unlike Waterloo which I’ve been to, Bristol’s platforms are all over the place. I did eventually find the right train (platform 11) and eventually made it back to Winchester. Reflecting on the day, I am quite impressed with myself. This is the longest journey I’ve ever done alone and I managed to make my way around a city I’ve never been to before.

Today has been rather a dull affair. I’ve done a little work and went to the uni quiz, in which we did terribly. The rest of the time I have been either asleep or “chilling” as the cooler people of this world may say. I have made a few decisions about the way I live my life though. Firstly I am going to start budgeting a lot better and live of a set amount of money a week rather than just spending pretty much what I want. I am also going to join the uni gym in a bid to lose weight, get fitter and occupy more of my time with something worthwhile. I will also eat more healthily and less, which should help with both the other aims.

Tomorrow it is of course Valentine’s Day and it will be pretty much intolerable for me. Unless something incredible happens (and let’s face it, it won’t) I shall be doing a requested post about romantic songs. See you then!

Nintendo 3DS Preview Event

Today I was lucky enough to be able to go to Bristol for a preview event of Nintendo’s new handheld console, the 3DS. It’s essentially a new version of the classic DS but with better features. And oh yeah, the top screen is 3D but without the need for glasses.

After a short explanation about the Streetpass feature (that allows 3DS’ to connect when they pass each other), we were given a live action version of both Street Fighter and Resident Evil, both of which were brilliant.

We were then introduced into a room full of 3DS’ each with a demo version of a game loaded onto them.

The first thing I wanted to find out is how good the 3D actually is. The answer: awesome. It almost seems like something from science-fiction: 3D without glasses! The only slight issue I found was that it only looks 3D if you look at it head on but that really is only a minor issue. Gaming in 3D works really well, with menus and boxes being able to jump out the screen and things looking like they can fly out into your face. I got to play a fair few games so here is a quick overview each one:

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: This is a 3DS version of the classic Zelda game for N64. There doesn’t appear to be massive differences in the game itself though of course the graphics are hugely updated and it does look better in 3D. Apparently there have also been some improvements to the game itself, with things like the dreaded water dungeon being much less frustrating. Probably worth getting if liked the original.

Dead or Alive: Dimensions: This is the first game from the series to be released on a Nintendo console and you can see why they chose the 3DS. It really did look stunning with fight scenes that looked more like they were in a high-budget animation movie than a game. Though it looked lovely there didn’t seem to be a lot beyond the gameplay than blasting buttons to beat someone up.

Kid Icarus: Uprising: My favourite game I played sees the return of Pit in his own game for the first time since 1991. That was before I was born and wasn’t that big a game so this was my first introduction to the series. It’s essentially a shooter that sees Pit fight off the reborn Medusa. There are sections in the air with Pit flying and part on the ground. Once again it looks stunning and the flight sections and cut-scenes in 3D are absolutely amazing. Fantastic!

Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars: I didn’t get much time on this one but it seemed pretty much what you’d expect from the Lego series. It didn’t seem to make much use of the 3D apart from the cut-scenes and played like any other Lego game. It seems a strange choice though as part of the fun of the Lego games is playing classic scenes from movies and let’s face it, how many of use have watched the Clone Wars?

Face Raiders: This is the 3DS’ equivalent of Wii Sports, a game designed to show off the console's capabilities and it comes preloaded on the system. You take a picture of yourself and it then becomes balloons in the game which you have to shoot down. The background image is the image seen through the 3DS’ camera and some balloons appear off the part the camera is focussing on, meaning you have to physically point the 3DS in a different direction. This means you end up gradually walking around the room and it’s great fun. It really does show off the console’s abilities.

Rabbids: Travel in Time 3D: Probably the worst game I previewed. It’s seems like the developers felt they ought to make a Rabbids game for 3DS and so adapted the recent Wii title for it. What I saw was nothing more than a generic platformer that didn’t seem very exciting at all.

Super Monkey Ball: Not much to say about this really. It’s Super Monkey Ball in 3D. You can either control AiAi with the slide pad or by tilting the 3DS, depending on your preference. Quite fun though I must say.

Nintendogs + Cats: OK, I won’t be buying this one but it seemed pretty good. It’s an updated version of the game that was really popular with younger gamers when the DS came out, this time in 3D (looking awesome) and with the presence of cats. It works brilliantly in 3D with the animals looking more realistic than ever and things like throwing a Frisbee or a boomerang across the room for the dog to catch look really good.

Mii Maker: Not strictly a game but still. It was interesting to see the progression between the Wii version and this one. It’s pretty much the same but the Mii’s look a bit more like actual creatures than before and there is the option to take a picture of your face and automatically turn it into a Mii. For me it created a hideous looking Mii which was not very flattering at all so I’m not sure the feature works that well. It’s quite fun though.

AR Cards: These cards are just flat cards you place on the table. But when you aim the 3DS cameras at them something happens. For example in the one I used a box with a creature in appeared and you had to shoot the box. It looked amazingly realistic and I had to check that there wasn’t actually something on the card. This sort of thing has been done before, like with Eyetoy Pets on PS3, but this worked far better and apparently there are loads of different things that AR cards can produce.

Wow. The range and quality of the games is incredible and I didn’t even get to play them all. Pilotwings Resort is set to be another of the best ones and there are the likes of a new Mario Kart that have hardly been seen yet. The new slide pad, similar to a control stick on a console, makes gameplay much better than just using a D-pad. Also the two cameras on the underside of the 3DS allow you to take proper 3D pictures and that is amazing.

I may have pre-ordered a 3DS on the way out. They are around £200 from most places and are worth every penny. Absolutely incredible and Nintendo have once again proven themselves.

In tomorrow’s blog I shall talk about the rest of my time in Bristol and my experiences of travelling there, along with various other things! See you then!

Wagwan!

Hiya! It’s been a couple of days since I posted last, so what have I been up to in that time? Sadly it’s mostly been working on this assignment I have to do though for once I actually seem to have the motivation to work on it. It’s now ready to be discussed and dissected by my English tutor next week and I think it’s got off to a pretty decent start.

I awoke this morning after having only three hours sleep. My sleeping continues to be messed up and 9AM seminars don’t help with this. The seminar today was where we completed the project of the week, a video about one of the articles in the UN rights of the child. When I say “we” I pretty much mean “I” as my experience means I am pretty good at using Windows Movie Maker and quickly put the whole thing together. I must say though, having a tutor slowly explain things to you when you already know what you are doing is very frustrating. Here’s the video if you are really that interested:

Yeah I know, it’s a bit quick but hey, nobody’s perfect!

After this I returned home and after a quick bit of work on my assignment ended up taking an hour’s nap. Afterwards I felt pretty good and I quite like the idea of taking a nap at midday. There are all sorts of research saying siesta’s are good for you so I might try and make this a regular thing. It made the two hour gap between seminars seem much longer as it felt like I had slept for way more than an hour.

The second session of the day was one in the library where one of the staff member showed spent a very long and dull hour showing us how to find books and journals online. Whilst this was a very boring hour, I have to admit it was useful so that I can now actually find more references for my assignments. After the session I headed to the “stack” to find a journal. These are kept in the shelves that are really close together and you have to turn a wheel to move the shelves. I find these great fun though you must remember to check that no-one’s in the aisle first otherwise you risk crushing them!

My new technology addiction is Foursquare, an app where you “check-in” at places. It says where you are and you get points for visiting lots of places. I have managed to become the mayor of our local McDonald’s. Is this a good thing? It’s quite sad that I’ve been to McDonald’s regularly enough to become mayor but then again I find the idea of virtually owning somewhere quite exciting.

And before I go, I must talk about the new TV programme I have discovered,meant for young children, Rastamouse. It’s about a Rastafarian mouse and his friends who solve crimes on Mouse Island. Oh and everyone speak with in a Jamaican dialect for no obvious reason. It really is quite something. What makes it more amusing for us is that the mice use a lot of words that housemate Jaz uses, though Jaz is from London, not Jamaica. Example of this include “wagwan”(how’s it going) and “bangin” (good). If you are in the UK you can check out Rastamouse on the BBC iPlayer here.

I shall see you all very shortly, many thanks for all the kind comments about reaching a hundred followers, keep the comments coming!

One Hundred!

Hello! I am pleased to announce that I now have one hundred followers. How crazy is that? Thanks to all my followers and readers for making this blog what it is today. I have a special treat for you at the end of this entry as well!

It’s been a busy little day today and began with a session about “approaches to studying critical incidents”, which I didn’t really understand at all. For the second part of this session we were sent off round campus to take pictures to put in our movie thing. This involved going into the food hall and asking them if it was OK to take a picture of the fruit bowl. After some consultation with a manager we were told this was fine, though the staff member had to check that it was nice fruit we were taking a picture of. All very bizarre really. We then went to the school resources centre and found some toys there that enabled us to put together a few stills for the photo. There was also a lot of stuff to play around with, including these tiny spoons:

Our second of the session of the day was entitled “Target Setting” but was much more than that. We did a questionnaire that informed us of the way we work and the way you are supposed to work. I couldn’t have a further distance between the two if I tried. I had another massive knock to the confidence which is all I need right now. It was another time where I realised unless I dramatically manage to prove I won’t complete the course. Once again I have doubts about continuing but I know that the course itself is hard I am meant to be a teacher and I have to stick with it to do so.

To make matters even worse, we received an e-mail today informing us that our draft English assignment deadline has been brought forward to this Monday rather than the Monday after. I now have six days in which to read a whole load of material, plan the essay and write 750 words of it. I was waiting to start after I have had a meeting with my tutor so she can tell me how to improve but she hasn’t got back to me yet so it looks like I’m going to have to get on with it. Chances are it will be terrible. MAJOR MELTDOWN HAPPENING!

This evening we sat and watched Channel 4’s “The Joy of Teen Sex”, though I’m not sure why. It’s basically about teenagers visiting a sex clinic over various things. It seemed to me that the patients were either weird, stupid or just wanted to be on TV. It’s not a programme I would recommend. The only thing I learnt about was inverted nipples and I can’t see that being much help in the future.

Oh and I had a Domino’s pizza (meaty one) and it was as amazing as ever. I love a good take-away pizza occasionally!

Time for me to stop jabbering on and I shall leave you with a big thank you for having a hundred followers: me drunkenly singing That Don’t Impress Me Much (originally by Shania Twain)!

Sorry about the quality but clearly I didn’t film nor upload it to Youtube!

Back to Work

Today was the first day of my second semester here at Winchester Uni and it was a shock to the system to be up for a 9AM lecture once again. I was fine though and was really chirpy this morning but the little sleep I got last night has left me feeling pretty dead right now, at only 9PM. Still, it’s been a lovely day.

This week is actually only an induction week and the proper lectures and seminars don’t start until next week. Most of the activities we are doing are all part of a week long project where we make a video on Windows Movie Maker focusing on one of the article’s in the UN’s convention on the rights of the child. Sounds pretty complicated but it’s quite simple actually. Our work on it today has led us to choosing the article (Number 1) and made a brief storyboard with what we plan to have in the video. I did the artistic bit for this and my lack of artistic skills led the pictures on the storyboard being nothing more than stickmen, some with emotions conveyed by a smiley face.

We also had a couple of sessions that weren’t based on the project though. Maths was one of these, where we learnt the different methods that young children could use when they first do addition, subtraction and multiplication. I find this weirdly fascinating. The good news is that we have a different maths tutor to the one we had last semester, and they seem much better than our last one. We also had a visit to the public library in Winchester which probably wasn’t the best use of our time really. The bits that were relevant to us in becoming teachers were useful but we had a tour of the entire reference section which included the location of the stamp collecting books and the railway books. The other activity of the day was a test on grammar though this was much more than word classes, including phonemes, digraphs and the like. Thanks to my already pretty decent grammatical knowledge and a bit of revision I got 23 out of 24. I even knew the answer to the other question, I just misread it!

Despite the day being pretty hectic, it was really good. It’s fantastic to be actually doing what I’m here for again and nice to be back in  the group situation. I love my uni group because everyone in it is so lovely. Me, Josh and Jaz all returned home saying the same thing. The past three weeks here at uni with hardly anything to do have been horrible and dull. Finally we are doing work again!

On arrival home I discovered that The House of the Dead 2 and 3 Return had finally arrived in the post and this inspired me and Josh to have a two player slaughter on House of the Dead: Overkill. House of the Dead 2 and 3 is basically a console version of the classic arcade games and I shall be plunging into that when I have some free time- it was typical it arrived once my lectures had actually started.

This evening, as promised, we all sat and watched Back to the Future Part 3. I’ve only ever heard bad things about it but actually I really enjoyed it. OK, it’s certainly the weakest of the three but it’s still a good film and the ending is lovely, if perhaps a bit ridiculous even for the franchise. The ongoing gags in the trilogy such as the the catchphrases and Biff being covered in manure continue and it keeps getting more and more dramatic. One of the best film trilogies of all time and unlike the likes of Star Wars and Indiana Jones they haven't ruined it my attempting to make some more.

My day ending when someone mentioned that it is possible to move our beds around so that they fit between the desk and the far wall. This means by bed is now by desk chair and there’s loads more space in the room. It’s weird how a change like this makes you feel much better. It’s nice to change things round occasionally, life can become so routine and dull. Other than an issue with opening the desk drawers, this set-up is far better than the old one.

And so I leave you for another night but before I do I must say thanks to my friends who read this blog on Facebook (as I was informed today) and to say that on it’s own blogspot page I am just one follower short of 100! One more and a video of me drunkenly singing Shania Twain’s “That Don’t Impress Me Much” will be posted here. So follow!

Nobody Calls Me Chicken!

You know it’s been a dull weekend when nearly everything I have to talk about isn’t real. You’ll see what I mean about when as I continue, promise!

Last night I had a particularly good dream. I get a lot of good dreams actually. When I say “good dream” I mean it was particularly crazy and odd and perhaps even hilarious. In this one I was at the upcoming Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. For some reason I was walking down the aisle, with hundreds of people either side and TV cameras everywhere. I think I may have been page boy- I did it around ten years ago at my Aunt and Uncle’s wedding so why couldn’t I do it for the royals? I then went to the bit where the rest of the royal family were stood (and my friend Louise was also there for some reason). I then had a lovely conversation with the Her Majesty the Queen, who turned out to be a lovely old lady. She really was nice to me and I woke up with this thought in my head. Brilliant dream!

A large chunk of today was spent watching Back to the Future 1 and 2 for the first time ever! The original one is simply brilliant. I love the whole idea of time travel and it is done really well. The idea of Marty’s own mother having the hots for him is hilarious. The sequel is not quite so good but it’s still pretty good with the bit in the future (2015) was really good, if sadly inaccurate. If only we did have hoverboards and the like. Still four years though. Both films are amazing and I have realised how many little things in modern sci-fi have elements and ideas from Back to the Future in them. I shall be watching the third tomorrow, which I know is not as good but hopefully it will still be quite enjoyable.

Something that did actually happen today was the uni quiz. We came second and each won our entrance fee back. The uni quiz is pretty good and can end up in such frustrating situations. We lost by half a point and we would have won if we hadn’t have crossed out “Netto” as one of the UK’s biggest supermarkets. I have never heard of Netto in my life and that’s probably because the nearest one is twenty miles away from my house with second nearest being 35 miles away (I love the internet for finding out things like this). I think I shall make it a minor mission to visit a Netto at some point in my life.

Tomorrow I finally have lectures again. It’s our semester two induction week and tomorrow is a chocka-block day of session starting at 9AM. Goodness knows how I will be in the lecture theatre at 9AM after all these weeks of lie-ins and the fact it’s only eight hours away!

February Miscellany

After the success of the January Miscellany, I have decided to do another post where I talk about a whole range of topics in small chunks. Let’s do it!

I tried a new cheese the other day and so it’s time for a quick cheese review. Fourme d’ambert is one of France’s oldest cheese apparently and is a blue cheese made from cow’s milk. I had a particularly creamy variety of it and I have to say it was marvellous. I had about 500g in 2 days which is ridiculous. If you like cheeses like gorgonzola this one is a must. Best cheese I’ve had in a while.

Today was a very productive day for me as I washed the dishes, my clothes, did three bits of uni work AND went shopping. The cheese stall was there again so I couldn’t resist purchasing another cheese. This evening I ended up going out with a few friends and some friends of a friend. These situations are always a bit awkward I find as you don’t really know the friends of a friend and just end up speaking to the person you know, almost creating a divide across the table. Still, I actually had a good time and we played a few drinking games such as “Fuzzy Duck” and one involving calling people either Bruce or Shelia. It was a laugh and I actually fitted into a group of people I don’t really know for once. I feel that my social skills are certainly much more advanced than they once were, now nearly reaching those of a normal person.

Also today I ended up speaking to my Gemma, my ex-girlfriend, online for quite a while. We haven't spoken for a long while, not since September I think, and it was nice to catch up. The relationship with her is odd really. Whilst I don’t have romantic feelings for anymore she’s still much more special than a normal friend. I guess a relationship spanning nearly two years makes you very close, even if the relationship breaks up. I feel like she’s almost family, more than a friend but not in a romantic way. I’m glad we still get along and it cheered me up a bit speaking to her.

She brought up the subject of women and I guess essentially whether I am going to have a valentine this year. At this point my answer is “almost certainly not”. Of course I can’t rule out that someone might come along in the next ten days and profess their feelings to me but let’s face it, that is unlikely. My thoughts on this are confused at the moment. Part of me thinks it would be lovely to have a girlfriend again but then again another part says that it’s a lot less hassle worrying about it and would distract me from my studies anyway. We shall have to see how things proceed in that department but I have a strange feeling it won’t be as simple as it might seem right now.

Time for the technology bit! Google Chrome has done an update which includes an App Store (everything has to have an app store these days it seems). It’s actually rather good so far what with free games that can be played without internet connection and the “Quick Note” app is extremely useful. Meanwhile, Facebook has done an update where photos come up bigger and the background turns to black. This is rather rubbish as it looks different to everything else on Facebook, is still full of bugs and makes saving pictures much more difficult. I hope they improve it or scrap it all together, it’s seem to me to be the worst Facebook update ever. On my Blackberry I have installed a QR scanner app which scans those funny bar codes which direct you straight to websites. It’s a fun toy and I’m pretty sure I will use it at every opportunity I can!

And finally I am excited to announce that a week tomorrow, on Saturday 12th Feb, I am going to a special Nintendo preview event for the new 3DS. I will get to play on one before they are released. I find this really exciting and part of the fun is I can write a whole entry on this and it will almost be like proper journalism. I have high hopes for the new handheld and hopefully they will be realised, even if I have to go to Bristol to do so!

Bopping It!

An early start today as for the second time this week I had family members visiting. Today my father brought my grandfather to see me and as per usual in a morning spent with my grandfather we spent a fair bit of time in coffee shops and wandered round all the charity shops in the town. It’s rather odd that this can be quite a nice experience, mainly due to the fact I can just chat to loving family members that I don’t see as often as I used to. It was also quite a profitable morning thanks to the fact my dad had converted all my change into notes and my granddad gave me £20 just because he could. This meant I could get a new Nintendo Magazine and a massive lump of cheese which is rather pleasing.

Jaz has purchased a small pool table and it was delivered this morning, taking up a fair chunk of the kitchen. When I left the house he was really happy with it but by the time I returned he was fed up with and decided he wanted to sell it. Weirdly everyone else in the house rather enjoyed having it and we had a good few games on it, though myself and Alice demonstrated our complete pool incompetence in one game. But no, Jaz has changed his mind and no longer wants it so somehow he’s going to sell it. Some people.

Tonight we went to Bop, a night at the student union where they play lots of pop and cheese songs and is therefore awesome. Me and Josh decided we may as well get drunk and besides, I had an entire £20 from my granddad which I could use (didn’t use all of it though!). We were in a theme of cowboys, with house 26 as sailors, though I just had a hat on, and that didn’t last too long anyway. Oh, and Josh was dressed as the Milky Bar Kid. There was lots of drunk dancing and singing with the Grease Megamix being one particular highlight as well as me attempting to reach the high note in Jason Derulo’s “Ridin’ Solo”. I’m terrible when drunk though when it comes to girls. Of course my uni is mostly girls and I think my drunken head nearly exploded when it realised the sheer number of attractive young ladies that were nearby. Not that I’d probably find most of them attractive when sober though. At least I had the sense not to try anything with anyone as no doubt that would have gone very wrong. Awesome night and here’s a few pics to prove it:

 

A bit of help from some online thing and I discovered that tonight I consumed 9 units of alcohol, 42% of the recommended weekly allowance for men. I’m glad I don’t go out too often otherwise I would be getting pretty unhealthy!

February Begins!

Boy, do I have a blog entry for you. You really have to read to the end of this post to enjoy my retelling of a rather bizarre beginning of the month.

It began with me accompanying a group of girls to Southampton for some clothes shopping. Wisely I decided to leave the girls to it, which was probably a good idea considering how difficult some of them were being at finding clothes. I was doing proper man shopping where I visited every male-clothes seller in the city and spent no longer than five minutes in each one. Sadly this experience made me realise how poor I am thanks to being a student. I walked into some shops, read a few price tags and then swiftly left, realising nothing in there was anywhere near my price range. This meant all my purchases came from cheap shops but I got some fantastic bargains, saving over £50 compared to the recommended retail prices (RRP). Here’s a few pics of things I have bought over the last few days.

From left to right: Stripy hoodie, already has become my favourite jumper. Space Invaders T-shirt that glows in the dark! Comic strip T-shirt. Animal from The Muppets T-shirt.

My new Doctor Who poster of a crack in time. This is so striking it’s quite difficult not to look at it when you are in my room. It’s a bit creepy actually.

It’s a Venus Fly Trap, bought at the local garden centre. I have a strange liking of carnivorous plants. I’m calling this one Vera.

Wowie. I have almost a new wardrobe there (yeah, I really don’t have that many clothes). I’ve bought quiet a lot of new things this term so far and it’s almost like I’m developing my character and who I am. What you wear is definitely a part of who you are. My choices today are much less bland than most of the clothes I own and I actually chose these myself so they are properly my style. I actually got called fashionable when I showed them off, which may well be a first. What do you think?

There was some drama in the kitchen this evening. Housemate Dani had had a migraine for a few hours and appeared in the kitchen like something from The Mummy, not looking very healthy at all. She proceeded to collapse on the floor, much to mine and Josh’s surprise.Apparently this has happened on many occasions and all was fine. Me and Josh did what we could, firstly checking she was alive and then calling the site stewards as is the protocol. The weirdest thing about the whole situation was the fact that Josh was dressed as the Milky Bar kid from the classic TV adverts when it happened. This meant he looked rather silly when two site stewards arrived though they didn’t appear to question this fact. Jaz was ready to be a hero of some kind and was prepared to carry Dani to the hospital and even thought about using something from the first aid box (goodness knows what) to help the situation. It was like being in comedy that was only mildly funny. Nothing like a collapse in the kitchen to wake you up a bit though.

Two final things before I leave you to get on with your busy life. After a long gap of not writing any, I have written a new poem. This one is a romantic one and people that know me might well be able to work out who it was written about. Of course I usually take a subject and over-dramatize it in order to make a good poem, I’m not quite the person described in the first stanza. You can read “Broken Heartbeat” here.

Today I discovered that Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day is not until the 8th March. I am outraged. It's ALWAYS in February. I will not be able to function properly for days now I know this.

Over and Out.