I Leave Norfolk

So this is my last entry on my holiday in Norfolk with all sorts of random bits in it.

So, Wednesday. One of Josh’s friends came round and we messed around on the ever tiring Xbox Kinect and then went into the lovely little town of Wroxham. The local broads around there are really nice though I did find the town a little odd. The majority of shops there are called Roy’s. This brand exists nowhere outside the county yet in Wroxham virtually everything is Roy’s. The garden centre, the supermarket, the department store, the toy store…The list goes on. It was all a bit odd. There is also a McDonald’s though and this helped with my ongoing quest to collect Monopoly stickers.

Wednesday evening saw the return of Josh’s brother from university and I was able to witness the full family dynamic. Josh and his brother fight and argue like any other brothers do and that sort of relationship is always amusing to witness. I accompanied the family for a meal in an American Burger Bar in Norwich and had a truly delicious chicken burger. It was amazing. I do love a nice chicken burger.

This morning, after something of a lie-in, we watched Disney Pixar film Up. Essentially an old man follows his and his late wife’s dream to go exploring but by accident he manages to take a small kid with him and all hell breaks loose when he arrives. It’s very funny and deals with some very touching issues of death and old age. It’s a lovely little film and once again Pixar made another fantastic movie!

Eventually the time came for me to leave the flat county and return back to Hampshire and my home. I had a lovely time in Norfolk and here is yet another excuse to say thank you to Josh for such a lovely time! It was lovely! Sadly my return journey was not exactly pleasant. Thanks to a fatality at Wimbledon my train was delayed by an hour at London Waterloo. Due to this delay the train became packed and there were people sat all the way down the aisle. I also hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for hours and by the time I got off the train I was starving. In the end I was an hour and half later than I should have been. Not good!

So now I am back home for three weeks which is rather nice. Quite what I am going to do for these weeks I don’t know. I have an assignment to do and also a video to make. All our housemates are making a video of where they live for general entertainment and to disband stereotypes. I am rather looking forward to making this work of art…

Norfolk Misadventures

Today was my first full day with Josh in Norfolk and we decided to be vaguely adventurous by driving to a few Norfolk places. Let the fun begin!

Our first and main stop was the seaside resort of Great Yarmouth. There is a nice little beach and loads of seafront entertainment with loads of amusement arcades and other stuff like an amazing adventure golf course themed on pirates. Unfortunately the tourist season has yet to begun so apart from a few amusement arcades everything was shut. It was like a ghost town with myself and Josh being intrepid adventurer’s into it. We began the day with a little beach wander and here is what we did:

We then went into a few amusement arcades. You probably know of coin pusher machines where you put in a coin and try to get more coins out, on rare occasions accompanied with a prize. They are extremely addictive because you keep thinking that the prize will soon be yours, though this never seems to be the case. I spent far more time and money then I ought to have done on trying to win first a rubber duck and then later a £5 note. I failed to win either.

After a while of wandering around the seafront we decided to try and find something to eat. Josh led us to a fish and chip shop he knew, which turned out to be closed. We then decided to head to the local Subway restaurant and although there were people in there it too was closed. At this point we began to get to a little frustrated and eventually had lunch in KFC which was certainly not top of the list but was pretty much the only place open. During this break for lunch we decided there was little point in staying in the desolate Great Yarmouth so headed back to the car. On the way back to the car we passed through a creepy looking alleyway and this happened:

Eventually, after a panic that Josh’s car had been stolen (we just couldn’t see it), we began our next journey. I’ve never really been friends with someone who can drive before and it is rather brilliant. Due to cost Josh has to keep his car at home so today was the first time where we hit the roads in the little VW Polo. It was pretty fun, especially with Josh’s, shall we say, unique taste in music. Quite what the other users of Norfolk’s roads thought today as we raced past with the likes of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” blaring out of the car I dread to think.

Our next stop was the small town of Diss. Diss is quite frankly a brilliant name for a town and is the subject of quite a lot of silly puns like “Diss place is quite small”. It is indeed quite small and we mostly visited the charity shops it had to offer. I managed to pick up perhaps my best charity shop haul ever, an encyclopaedia of cheeses. Now I shall be a proper cheese connoisseur with the proper knowledge and everything!

On return to Josh’s hometown of Wroxham we went for a short walk down to the Norfolk broads which are really, really lovely.

What a lovely day I had, mostly thanks to being with Josh who has become such a close friend of mine since we met in September. Even if he has just fallen asleep in front of the TV again. He always does this! And with that I shall see you tomorrow!

Norfolk or Bust!

After one night in back at uni today I travelled North with my good friend Josh. I am staying with him for a few days in a small town called Wroxham in Norfolk. As someone who has always lived in the South of England and goes to uni in the South, anything North of London is classed as “up North”. So today the epic quest to actually go “up North” occurred.

We managed to leave Winchester on an earlier train than planned meaning we were running ahead of schedule. Somehow this didn’t turn out for the best. There was a “fatality in the Woking area” which was very annoying-fancy dying on a day when we wanted to travel somewhere. After a long wait next to a leisure park in Basingstoke watching an old man painfully slowly carry his bowls across a car park we got going again, only to be caught up with by another train going to the same place as us, presumably the one we would have gone on if we had followed the schedule. This train then proceeded to overtake our one and in annoyance Josh pulled various faces at the passing passengers, some of which looked back rather confusingly. Also on this leg of the journey the man walking down the train with the catering trolley managed to park it on Josh’s foot and I could only watch as Josh became redder in the face.

After some time we arrived in London Waterloo where we had only a few minutes to make our way across London to Stratford train station. We did this via the London Underground which is always a treat on any journey. For this one we had to use the Jubilee line which is slightly posher than the others only because it has sliding doors on the platform as well as on the trains. On arrival in Stratford station we discovered the platform we needed was quite a walk away with little time to get there so there was quite a kerfuffle as myself and Josh half ran/half walked quickly with our wheeled suitcases trundling along behind us. We made it to platform, only to be told via loud speaker that our train was now arriving at platform 8 so there was another little rush for that.

Soon though we were on the long train journey between London and Norwich. This went by with little excitement beyond collecting a few people on my 3DS’s Streetpass. Gradually the landscape grew flatter and we had arrived in the delightful country of Norfolk. Norfolk, for those of you who might not know, is probably most famous for being very flat and having a lovely system of waterways known as the Norfolk broads. Josh’s mum picked us up from Norwich station and took us to Chez Josh in Wroxham. To begin with it was rather weird seeing the other half of a uni friend’s life. We have spent most of the last six months together yet my knowledge of his life beyond university was limited to say the least. Not any more though.

Josh rather eagerly got us playing on the Xbox Kinect, a motion sensing device which sees you playing without a controller. At first we went on an adventure and jumped around on a raft and then we partipated in an entire Olympic pentathlon. I quickly became very tired, especially after a day of travelling which I’m not really used to.

So, my short holiday has begun and I must say I am rather enjoying myself so far. Josh’s parents and house are both lovely so everything is going well. Tomorrow we have some fun-filled activities planned which I shall no dobut inform you of, quite possibly with the help of pictures and videos!

Some 3DS Game Reviews

As promised, and eagerly awaited by some readers it seems, today I am going to give you some short reviews of the two Nintendo 3DS games I own.

First up it’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 3D!

Many consider this one to be the worst of the 3DS launch games and from what I’ve seen of them all I’m inclined to agree. That doesn’t mean this is awful, it just means everything else is better than it. It’s a shooter, a fairly unusual genre for a handheld console but then again the 3DS is unlike any other handheld console. As a shooter it works, just about. The controls are unnecessarily complicated but I guess once you get used to them it’s not too bad. The 3D does indeed look pretty good but the camera is probably the game’s worst feature. Time after time games are slated for having rubbish camera angles and here we have another one. Essentially you have to control the camera as well as Sam Fisher which is really frustrating. It makes gameplay much slower than you’d like because you have to adjust the camera before you can move on and to begin with this fact keeps getting you killed. It’s not awful but it’s not going to win any awards, that’s for sure.

Secondly we have Nintendo’s own Pilotwings Resort.

Pilotwings was last seen on the Nintendo 64 which was highly praised at the time and it’s about time that it was brought back. Essentially it’s all about flying things around Wuhu Island (the island that features a little in Wii Fit and a lot in Wii Sports Resort). In fact the game is essentially an extension of the plane bit from the latter of those. In “Free Flight Mode” you can fly anywhere you like around the island and collect information points and pop balloons as before. In “Mission Mode” there are various tasks you have to do from flying through rings to landing properly to taking pictures. To begin with their are three vehicles, a plane, a rocket belt (which is basically a jet pack) and a hang-glider. All are different and all are fun in their own little way. As you progress through Mission Mode, which is pretty difficult, you unlock more vehicles such as a jet plane (which is amazingly fun). The 3D is this game is AMAZING and I would recommend getting it. It’s a little frustrating learning to fly everything but once you get the hang of it it’s immensely enjoyable!

Over time there will many more exciting games coming to 3DS including the likes of Metal Gear Solid. The most highly anticipated title though is the new Mario Kart game which I can’t wait to get my hands on…

An Awkward Bus Exchange

Bit of an odd entry this one but stick with it as there will be some amazing discussions taking place.

Today I accompanied my friend Chris on a trip to the lovely town of Salisbury. We had actually wanted to go to Bournemouth but thanks to it being a nice day the bus was absolutely packed and we couldn't get on so decided to take it in the other direction. After my praise of travelling by train a few days ago I feel I should do the opposite for travelling by bus. You get on and the bus driver is almost always grumpy because you don’t have exact change. It’s not our fault cash machines don’t give out change and if the bus company used rounder figures like £4.50 or £5 instead of £4.80 perhaps the problem wouldn’t exist! The seats manage to be really uncomfortable and the ride is awful thanks to a lack of decent suspension. Then there are the fellow passengers which tend to be chavs who aren’t quite old enough to drive yet and old people who are mostly grumpy.

Today on the bus there was a rather moment. Well awkward for someone like me who really can’t stand any kind of confrontation and tries to avoid it wherever possible. It was a warm day and the bus was full so you can imagine that the temperature was escalating. A man got up and leaned over some people to close a window and then asked me to close another. How this man could possibly be cold I don’t know and clearly this thought had come across the mind of a man sat a few rows in front.

Front man: Some of us want some fresh air up here!

Window man: Well you can go outside and get it then! I’m bloody freezing.

At this point there was a moment of quiet as everyone on the bus wondered whether the situation would advance any further but the front man didn’t reply so window man sat back down, muttering various expletives under his breath as he did so. I felt so uncomfortable during this whole episode it was ridiculous.

Eventually though myself and Chris found ourselves in the lovely and small city of Salisbury. We both decided we were hungry and today our lunch destination, as it often is, was McDonald’s. This has started off a new addiction of mine. McDonald’s have recently started their Monopoly game in the UK again. Basically everything you buy from McDonald’s comes with a few stickers. Some of these you stick onto a Monopoly board and you can win a prize if you collect all the squares of the same colour. You can also get “instant win” stickers which are usually free things from the restaurant. I love collecting things and only a few hours after lunch we were back in there finding something else to get stickers from. Pleasingly I won some Oatso Simple Porridge which I feel I really ought to have seeing as though it’s free. I love collecting things so it looks like I may be visiting McDonald’s a few more times whilst the game is still going…

We spent some time by the lovely cathedral (tallest in Britain) which was nice and I did a little shopping. I bought some new shoes as once again I have managed to wear a pair out. I think I am on my fourth pair of shoes so far in 2011- I really don’t know how I managed to wear them out so quickly. I was also after some new jeans and shorts but was having issues with the prices in all of Salisbury’s stores. In Primark I know you can get a pair of jeans for £6. Salisbury doesn’t have a Primark and every other shop couldn’t offer me anything less than £12 which is twice the price! And how are short’s as expensive as jeans, surely they should be cheaper because they consist of less material!

Hmm, I’m full of rants today aren’t I? Whilst I was out I had my 3DS in my pocket and it managed to find another 3DS to connect to on Streetpass so I have another Mii in my machine. Hopefully I will get many more over the coming weeks, months and years.

All in all it was a pretty good day with my bestest friend. Which is odd because that’s not really the way I have described it. Anyway, I shall be back tomorrow with some 3DS game reviews so watch this space!

I get a 3DS

The long awaited day has finally arrived. I got up this morning to find that my Nintendo 3DS had been delivered to my house, on time for release date. And blimey it’s good in all it’s aqua blueyness!

It was a little weird compared to having got new consoles in the past because I have actually played a 3DS before, back at that preview event. There’s nothing like having your own one though and I could do everything properly this time.

The home screen is perfectly set out and I decided to begin by making a Mii. Handily you can take a picture of yourself and the 3DS will turn it into a Mii. This was most pleasing though it seemed to give me a massive nose which I took rather personally. I soon got onto playing one of my fave games from the preview event, Face Raiders. Before I knew it my face was floating around my living room and I was shooting it down. Pleasingly the game actually has lots of levels and after a few plays it was beginning to become challenging.

Then there are the AR (Augmented Reality) cards. You put one of the cards on a surface and the 3DS puts various games or characters onto the card, making it look like there are actually things happening to your desk or floor. There is a shooting range and a sort of golf course thing and even fishing. The fishing makes it really look like your table has been caught in a flash flood and with all three I had to keep checking that my desk wasn’t actually mutating. All three games end in a battle with a dragon which is really pleasing as I love dragons. The other feature of AR cards is putting characters into real life so you can take interesting pictures. Thanks to the handy SD card I can easily put some I took into this blog!

There’s my Mii lying on the arm of my sofa.

Here we have Mario flying near by local lake. Next time I will go closer to the lake and make it look even better.

And there’s me holding a little box thing up. I especially like this one.

So there you go, some lovely pictures! There will certainly be more like them as I play around with it.

Another fantastic feature is Streetpass, where your console can connect with other consoles and import it’s Mii’s. This helps with a quest game in which the Mii’s you connect to help to free your Mii from a cage by fighting off ghosts. It’s pretty fun so far though I haven't actually got any Mii’s on Streetpass yet as I live in a small town and the 3DS was only released today. Fortunately I am travelling a fair bit over the next week so hopefully will be able to connect a bit.

All in all I am very excited about what I’m already thinking may be the best console I have ever owned. It really is fantastic. In a few days I shall give you my thoughts on games Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 3D and Pilotwings Resort once I have time to play them.

And for those of you who might have a 3DS already, connect with me! My friend code is 3351-4038-2468 so add me if you like. You need to let me know your friend code too if you want to add me though, do so in a comment. Also you can have my Mii on your screen by going to “Scan QR Code” in Mii Maker and scanning this:

That’s all for today, over and out!

Choo Choo

Trains. I love them.

So today I took the train most of the way home, which is unusual for me. I enjoy travelling by train by rarely get the opportunity. Not that it’s all enjoyable though.

Firstly you have to get to the train station. There is always quite a quandary on what time to leave. You obviously want to be there early so as to ensure you make it onto the train but how early? Ten minutes is about as long as you want to wait but what if the train is late (which there is a high possibility of)? Suddenly your time waiting can shoot up very quickly and stations are not pleasant places to be hanging around. Many are grim and the home of various shady looking characters whilst all the others are packed full of people, many of these businessmen, the worst kind of people. Standing on the platform because all the seats are taken is bad enough but when a baby decides to cry until someone's glasses break it becomes even more unpleasant.

Before the waiting though there is the horrible moment of uncertainty when you arrive. You have to check which platform you need to go to and when you find out which platform you have to get your ticket out and put it through the machine. For some reason they always seem to give you more than one ticket and you have to work out which one you need. I usually find that the ticket goes through the machine but the gate doesn’t open. This seems to happen to me almost every time. I then have to wave my ticket in some official-looking man’s face and he presses a button and lets me onto the platform.

After a few minutes of unbearable waiting the train pulls in. All of a sudden the near empty platform is awash with people, all wanting to get onto the train through the same door as yourself. You squeeze in and then have to find a seat. Just taking a medium-sized bad down the aisle is difficult enough as it is so narrow. Eventually one seat looks somehow better than the rest and you plonk yourself down on it after putting your bag on the ridiculously small shelf designed for such things.

At this point the experience becomes lovely, as long as no-one comes and sits next to you. I like to put my iPod on and have my favourite music playing as I watch the British countryside drift by. The town and city views are usually pretty grim because the train stations are in the inner-city areas but the bits of track running through open countryside provide spectacular views. Going from Winchester to Bournemouth you pass right through the New Forest and it looks stunning, especially on a sunny day. All of this whilst your music is playing and you can hear it better than usual because most train carriages are virtually silent.

So yeah, trains are amazing once you actually get on them. I think the child Thomas the Tank Engine fan in me is trying to get back to the surface. If only trains were still steam-powered: it would be beautiful to see steam trains chugging their way across the countryside again. And would give the title of this post a little more legitimacy.

Now that I have raved about trains, what else is there for me to talk about that happened today? Well we had ICT this morning but I won’t go into that into after out next session. I am now at home having made that train journey and on arrival here discovered my first 3DS game has arrived (Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 3D). It’s just a shame the 3DS hasn’t yet but it should arrive tomorrow and when it does I will be ridiculously over-excited. Expect virtually an entire blog on my new Nintendo 3DS tomorrow.

The Easter holidays have now begun! Which is weird because it’s only the 24th March and Easter is nearly a month away. As a university student I get stupidly long holidays. This Spring break I’ve got loads planned so stay tuned to see all the exciting things. Oh and there is a new GIF on the right side of this blog page, enjoy!

Sunny Day at the Zoo

Today I accompanied the Book Club on a trip to the zoo. This had nothing to do with books but we fancied going to the zoo so did. We got a taxi rather than faced the ridiculous walk that I had last time I went. So what did we see?

The penguins, unlike their stereotype, were very much enjoying the warm weather. They looked extremely relaxed.

This is the new “African Plain” the zoo has recently created, complete with zebra’s and ostrich's. It looks spectacular.

Grumpiest Monkey ever! “What are you looking at?”

It’s a hard life being a chipmunk in a zoo…

This Red Ruffed Lemur seemed to be enjoying the sun too.

And that’s a kangaroo, in case you couldn’t work it out for yourself.

I took my recently purchased video camera and filmed a few bits too. I then put them together and put some random music over the top and this is the result:

There were several interesting moments during this zoo visit as well. One of these was the amusement of my friend Louise being creeped out by the rubber rats in the gift shop. I kept putting them in her face and she didn’t like it one bit. I was sorely tempted to buy one to use as entertainment with half the people on the student village but I decided it was probably for the best that I didn’t. Still, it was brilliant entertainment in the gift shop.

The other moment involved some macaques'. There were two parents and a baby macaque and quite a crowd had gathered to watch the baby macaque be mischievous. Meanwhile, Daddy Macaque was getting rather excited and started…erm…playing with himself. At this point the majority of the crowd decided they would leave the macaque to have some alone time and we went to see the giraffes. Oddest, most disturbing and funniest moment I have ever had at a zoo I think…

Yawn

Blimey. I am tired. My lack of sleep over the past few nights has caught up on me, turning me into what is virtually a zombie. My poor personal tutor had a whole conversation with me that was rather confusing as I could barely function. I decided after two and a half hours of lectures I couldn’t take anymore and returned home for a sleep. I had time for three hours of sleep and this helped for a bit but I am now once again exhausted. My sleeping pattern is more messed up than it has ever been before. Hopefully I can have an early night tonight and reset my internal clock as it were.

So yeah. I am so tired that this is as much of a blog as you are going to get today. I shall leave you with a couple of philosophy questions for you to think about, comment with your answers please and I will discuss in length tomorrow:

• If I swapped brains with you would you still be you and me still me?
  
• Is a millionaire who is marooned on a desert island still a millionaire?

 

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

March Miscellany

The last few days have been a bit weird really. My mood has pivoted from happiness to depressed with very little in between. Saturday began with me getting up in the middle of the day after recovering from getting drunk on Friday night and from the whole carrying drunken friends home incident (my arms have been aching all weekend). Said drunken friend did make me a fish-finger sandwich though which I was given in bed. I think it was the first time ever that I have had breakfast in bed but it’s something I could certainly get used to. It did sort of make up for the rubbish night before. I spent most of Saturday watching various things which I will share with you now.

Firstly, I caught up with Friday’s night’s Comic Relief (a TV telethon). My favourite two bits were two Doctor Who mini-episodes where the TARDIS materialized inside itself and the Smithy sketch which featured a whole host of celebs including Rupert Grint, Gordon Brown, JLS, Kiera Nightly, Paul McCartney and even Justin Beiber. Something for everyone I felt. That Smithy sketch is proper hilarious and is one of the funniest things I have seen in a while.

Then I continued watching the new DVD box set I bought the other day, Outnumbered. Outnumbered is a sitcom about a family consisting of two parents, a nearly teenage son and two younger children. The best thing about it really is that the children are hilarious, partly because a lot of it was done with improvisation. The boxset consists of three series, a Christmas special, two Comic Relief specials and a whole host of extras so I have loads to keep me entertained. It’s absolutely hilarious.

Today my messed up sleeping pattern meant I got up just after 3PM. I feel lazy but I haven't actually had that much sleep. Not a lot really happened today. I finally finished my maths assignment. It' was perhaps the easiest assignment we have had so far but I have kept procrastinating and not doing it. Done now though. As I finished this off a Frisbee game started happening outside my window with my housemates and then friends from other houses which was all pretty fun. It felt like a prequel to the great times we are going to have during the Spring and Summer months. As we were all outside it seemed a good time for a group photo which took far more organisation that it actually should have needed. Still, we managed to get a pretty good one in the end.

It’s so nice to be part of a group like that and makes me realise that whatever comes out of my uni experience, it will have been worthwhile.

I have a particularly scary dream to share with you now. In the dream I was being threatened with a knife, not entirely sure who by but I think it was by a complete stranger. As I tried to avoid being stabbed the knife slashed by hand and I felt actual pain. I realised it was a dream and tried to wake up but I just couldn’t for a while and was still tussling with my would-be-murderer. Eventually I did manage to wake up, though I was in quite a panic. It seemed that I must have laid on my hand during my sleep and that was why it had been hurting. My dreams seem to be becoming ever more realistic and I don’t like it much.

But wait, I have another recent dream to share with you. I dreamt that I had failed an assignment and woke up convinced about it. It took a few minutes of thought to realise that I wasn’t due an assignment back and that even if I had been I wouldn’t find out the result lying in bed. It was such a panicky way to begin the day though. Weirdly I get periods of my life where I have a lot of weird dreams within a short space of one another. I’m sure psychologically there is a reason for this but goodness knows what it is. Minions, if any of you have some phycology knowledge let me know what you think these dreams could mean.

Well that’s about all I have to share with you today. It’s now nearly 3AM yet I am still very much awake. This wouldn’t be too much of a problem but I need to be up by 8AM. My sleeping pattern really is messed up…

24 Hours in My Life

Using my new video camera I filmed periodically throughout today and have created this video which explains or shows everything that I did today:

I don’t really need to write a post for today then. I guess though I should explain that last bit a bit better. So there I was at Flirt, having a reasonable time and all of a sudden Louise went all weird and virtually fell half conscious onto a seat. Whilst I tried to look after her some douchebag started pulling my bandana thing off so I told him to f**k off and was very tempting to punch his lights out. I then attempted to take Louis home and this was one hell of a challenge. I couldn’t get her to walk more than a few steps without her slumping on the floor and in the end was forced to carry her some of the way. This became too much of a challenge though and I had to call two housemates in order for them to help me. Some considerable time later and we made it to her house, where I ended up staying to about 3AM, mainly because she was refusing to let go of me. As I said in the video, the perils of alcohol…

Let me know what you thought of the video, if you liked it I will be more inclined to do it again sometime. Tomorrow I shall be recovering from tonight’s events and won’t be doing a lot so my next post will be on Sunday. See you then…

Technology 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 the turn of Design and Technology.

I am thinking that today was probably the best subject-workshop so far. After a little bit of chat we were given the task of the day: to make a model fairground ride,in groups, that actually moves. We had a little bit of a think and then decided to do a Pacman themed one, which I was very excited about. Whilst the other members of group set about making the details and the aesthetically pleasing parts, I worked on getting the mechanism to work. Now you would have thought that working with a battery, a tiny little motor, an elastic band and a switch made of two pins and a paperclip would be really easy, but in actual fact it only needs the slightest thing to go wrong and it doesn’t work. Eventually though the mechanism was made to work properly.

The building of the whole thing was pretty fun and we had a good laugh doing it, especially because one member of the group was exchanging, shall we say, suggestive text messages throughout the day. There was also an accident with another member of the group when she burnt herself with a glue gun. Glue guns are hot and should not be messed with, as we discovered today.

The ghosts and Pacman were all made and so we just had to make a roof to attach them to. We did this with a bit of cardboard which we decorated with a load of felt to make it look nicer and also to make it a little stronger. And here is our work of art, which is probably the best thing we have made on the course so far.

I also have a few other bits to discuss in this particular blog entry which is nice!

Firstly, I purchased the classic game DoodleJump on my phone the other day. It’s the Blackberry one not the iPhone one but it’s still ridiculously addictive.For those that may have not heard of it, you basically have to jump up on platforms by moving left and right and try to keep going as high as you possibly can without falling off or hitting an obstacle. It really is rather fun.

Also I started playing on Pokémon Soul Silver again and got rather excited when I defeated the Kimono girls and was able to go and catch legendary Pokémon Lugia. This happened at 1AM and I was very excited by it!

And yes,my Feraligator is called Dave…

Finally, I am excited to say that I purchased a small video camera yesterday and I shall be trying it out tomorrow by filming pretty much everything that happens to me over a 24 hour period and you will be able to see that in tomorrow’s blog!

Dear Dan 1#

Hello and welcome to by new “Dear Dan” feature. Essentially it’s a revamped version of my question and answer where I share recent comments and respond to them. Names are in italics and the comments in bold. Let’s begin with my latest awards:

This one was awarded to me (for the second time) by Adrian Paul:

And secondly from addyourblog.com: Congratulations! Your blog has been hand selected and recognized by add your blog.com to receive our - "Blog Star Award" ! Your blog was chosen by our webmasters, to honor your hard work and dedication in providing a quality web log. Requirements: 1)Quality Web Content. 2)Great Design . 3)Web Log Everyone Will Love To Read.

Blog Award By: Blog Directory - Blog Sites

News Shopping Games Home & Garden
Personal Technology Arts & Crafts Health

And now onto the comments. Firstly from killermillar: Nutella my friend, is godlike >:D It’s weird that anytime I vaguely mention Nutella on this blog someone gets excited. It is perhaps the best substance known to man though so I guess I get a fair enough response.

Tom Millson: Only boy in dance eh? ;) I know the feeling. Although I went from doing drama in an all-boys school, for GCSE and then a mixed 6th Form doing drama for my A-Levels and I was the only guy! It was quite a contrast but still a pretty awesome one. Drama I wouldn’t have minded, I can do that. Dance is most certainly not my forte.

I see you have an appreciation for Mumford and Sons too; Little Lion Man is a great track. I do love Mumford and Sons, they are amazing!

And finally, Nando's hot is nothing! I've had it a few times and while I don't think it's a good heat if you want to enjoy your food, I can still take it. We're all different though. But one time I was in Oxford and ate something incredibly hot. I blogged about it once so if you want to check it out here's the link. I may have exaggerated it’s effect to make it sound better. I can take it but I agree, it’s too hot to enjoy.

Adrian Paul: Wow how awesome! Congrats on the new laptop! Red is my favourite colour! I need a new computer. I love my MacBook but I've had for two years now and I want another one. Maybe an iMac. Maybe in the next couple years, LOL. I flipping love my new laptop, it’s so much better than the old one.

Haircuts are always great. I tend to get my hair shorter and shorter every time I go back. LOL. Something about a clean cut just makes you feel... clean. There is. My new short hair is actually fantastic now that I have got used to it. I’m not sure I ever want long hair again!

The earthquake in Japan is horrendous. I hope everyone is okay there. Yes, it’s horrific. My thoughts are with everyone effected.

Scarlet: I love The Sims. I tend not to create myself anymore, however as I have accidentally killed myself several times. Whoops :P I would feel pretty bad if I did end up doing that. Not happened yet though…

Ishashime: Geology has never really interested me. :/ Although I am quite amazed and thankful at how Japan managed to prepare for an earthquake of that magnitude. Geology is fascinating! Sadly even Japan’s amazing preparation couldn’t save all those thousands.

Also, hooray for Sims 3! i haven't gotten around to playing it since i know my laptop right now would hate me if i installed it along with both the Sims 1 and 2 already on here plus a couple of other games like Starcraft, Red Alert, etc.It is good though I don’t know how much better than it’s predecessors ‘cos I’ve never owned them. I’m sure it’s an improvement though.

Tom Millson: Ah The Sims is great! Although I barely get any time to play it anymore as uni gets in the way :( Plus I recently bought Pokémon White :P I am not sure what to think of Pokémon Black/White. Whilst I do love Pokémon games I’m not so sure that I want to play one with entirely new Pokémon in it. Plus I can’t afford to buy it at the moment anyway.

Do we just get to ask you random questions? If so mine is: If you could make the ultimate sandwich, what would it be? Say whatever you like, but I do like a good question. I already know what the ultimate sandwich is as it’s the one I always ask for in Subway when I go: Subway Melt which is bacon, turkey and chicken with cheese and BBQ sauce. And it has to be toasted.

Ishashime: I laughed so hard at the old men and fat women coming to sim-you's swimwear themed wedding party. xD Good, glad I entertain occasionally. It was quite funny though pretty disturbing at the same time…

Danielle McWherter: Hey there! Your blog title has sucked me in! I am seriously dating a huge geek and I love geek things too! Your list of things to do before you die is really awesome too, I am officially a follower of yours :) Wow, I love comments like this. Thank you very much and I hope you stay a follower for ever and ever!

Nanoinfinity: I... I guess we can all be glad that your real life does not resemble your Sim life. The world needs fewer swimwear weddings That is very true, I don’t ever want to go to/be invited to a swimwear wedding though it would be nice if my real life could be as exciting.

And there we have it. Thanks to all those wonderful people for commenting and I very much hope that you keep on commenting. I have so much to blog about at the moment it’s ridiculous so keep coming for more exciting stuff.

My Nineteenth Birthday

Approximately nineteen years ago in a hospital in Salisbury, England the world was graced with my presence for the first time. Nineteen years later and it had become traditional for this event to be celebrated and that’s what happened today!

The morning didn’t begin too well as my supermarket delivery was cancelled due to the bank being far too over protective and then I actually had to sit in a seminar. Not that it was a bad seminar though as we spent some of it doing circle time. I sometimes wonder whether I am training as a primary school teacher or a primary school teacher.

My friends know me very well and so the presents I received during the day were particularly good. Josh got me a colander, mainly because I always borrow his. I have also discovered it makes a good hat and a musical instrument. Danie got very confused by my friend the cheese man and so ended up giving me money to go towards go buying some cheese. Louise got me my childhood favourite film on DVD, The Jungle Book which I watched this evening. It’s as brilliant now as it was when I was five.

Tiffany and Alice made a fantastic cake with my name written on it in icing and it turns out it was extremely tasty.

I was also given money and vouchers from various family and friends which I am also extremely grateful for, I need everything I can get really.

Tonight I played host to a magnificent party, which means I have actually managed to complete another thing on my list of things to do Before I Die, No. 31: Throw a party. I purchased a load of food along with a table cloth, party hats and some brilliant Toy Story paper plates. Check out the lovely spread I put out:

I invited a bunch of my friends over and all in all we had a lovely time. Cue “lovely time” photos:

Cheese Twists: the party hasn’t started without them.

Everyone us having fun in that picture.

And there’s me cutting the cake, in a ridiculous pose.

As the evening went on I consumed some alcohol and got a little drunk. Also a minor food fight occurred and by the time I went to bed there was a fair bit of food on the floor. That’s a job for the cleaner in the morning. It also led to me yelling “NOT THE QUICHE” quite loudly at one point, which I must say was quite funny. All in all it was a good night spent with my friends and I would like to thank any of them that are reading this for making the whole day so good. Being 19 is a scary prospect though because I am in my last year of being a teenager and feel like I am nearly properly grown up. Blimey.

Swimwear Wedding Drama

I am now back at university and it’s all gone very well. Everything seemed to return to normal as it has been before my mental period last week. I managed to sort out and apologise for any/all problems I caused and all is good once again. Phew. Panic over.

Before my return yesterday I spent a rather long time wandering around a garden centre with my parents. They’d gone to get some seeds for the allotment and I tagged along to go for the coffee afterwards. I have never seen someone take so long to choose some seeds! We were stood looking at the same set of seeds for a good twenty minute before a decision had been made. I tried to be enthusiastic and I am actually quite interested in the allotment but twenty minutes to choose a few seeds? Come on!

Anyhows, back to the daily grind today after my weekend at home. I was pleased to discover I had no early morning lecture today so had a longer sleep. Maths, whilst continuing to be useful, continues to be dull and difficult to pay attention to. It is hard to be enthusiastic about the expanded methods for subtraction and multiplication, no matter how hard you try. English is much better with my understanding of phonics being considerably better than it was a few weeks ago. The other session of the day was a lecture introducing our next assignment. It’s another essay and looks like it’s really hard. Must try not to panic…

This afternoon I had a fantastic session on The Sims 3 again where everything turned out a bit weird. Sins-me’s relationship with a Miss Molly French seemed to be progressing well and clearly we had been together for long enough to feel comfortable around each other- Sim-me was perfectly happy to go for a wee whilst Molly was in the bath.

 

All of a sudden I discovered Molly was pregnant and so I did the honourable thing and asked for her hand in marriage. I decided it would be best to have a swimwear themed wedding party, which was perhaps not the best idea because old men and fat women turned up in their swimwear, which can’t have been very pleasant.

This video explains what happened next,with an unnecessarily long introduction from yours truly:

So there you have it, our swimwear wedding was ruined by my fiancée (who is officially a slob by the way) going into labour. We had a lovely daughter called Jillian and it was there that I decided it was time to finish for the day.

Tomorrow is my nineteenth birthday and the highlight will definitely be the small party I am playing host to. Jelly has been made and Tesco are delivering some party food in the morning. It’s all pretty exciting, though it’s quite a scary thought that I will be nineteen. That feels old! I shall of course let you know how it goes. Keep posting your comments: ask a question, say something, tell a joke or pose a problem you want to be solved, whatever. Thanks and goodnight.

Earthquake Geology and The Sims 3

OK so I promised to do a geeky geology bit about the Japan earthquake. Things appear to have been much worse than first thought when it comes to casualties with 10,000 people missing from just one town. There’s also all sorts of worries due to a Nuclear Power Plant partly exploding and the possibility of huge amounts of radiation leaking out. Still, if anyone can sort that out it’s the Japanese. This disaster has showed me how fantastic the Japanese are at building things, organising things and generally being brilliant. I think we should put them in charge of the whole world once they have recovered from this.

So, time for some geology. I’ll keep it extremely simple in case anyone gets confused easily. Japan is on a complicated bit of the world where there are several plate boundaries,like this:

Don’t worry too much about the microplate thing, just pretend it’s part of the Pacific plate. Essentially the earthquake was caused by the sudden thrusting of the Pacific plate as it is subducted under the Eurasian plate. This means it is sliding underneath the Eurasian plate and is being melted into the mantle pretty much like in this diagram:

The tsunami happened because of this massive shift forward, moving the water on top of the plate. The earthquake was 8.9 on the Richter scale which really is big. The ground shook pretty violently and it would have been very scary. There were also a number of aftershocks and some of them were as high as 7 on the Richter scale. The situation is horrific but it is thanks to Japan’s preparation that it is not a whole lot worse.

Enough of a science lesson for today and back onto the usual random stuff I talk about here. So, my day? All in all not too bad, if a little dull. It was just a relaxing day sat at home really. I did start playing The Sims 3 though…

I bought this ages and ages ago, only to discover my crappy old laptop couldn’t play it. Fortunately this new one can easily. I began by making me and moving myself into a lovely house in “Sunset Valley”. The sim version of me’s main goal is to go out with ten different people during it’s lifetime. To begin with I played the game fairly normally, keeping the sims move up and getting it a job in the laboratory. Sim-me is a computer whizz-kid too. When I wasn’t at work I wandered round the town and met some people. I soon decided that it was about time that my sim began it’s life goal and it wasn’t too long before it had a girl over. These screenshots pretty much demonstrate what happened next…

So it turns out that sim-me is quite the ladies man. Still, it wants to have another nine relationships' during it’s life so the fun has only just begun.You can see in the above screenshots that the oven is all burnt which is because I left some waffles in there whilst I went to work. Whoops. I rather love the screenshot feature and no doubt I shall be sharing many more of sim-me’s adventures over the coming weeks.

And that’s about all for today. I’m not entirely sure what’s coming tomorrow but it may be the drama of real life rather than my virtual one. I will also have my revamped question and answer post coming over the next few days so keep reading for that. To take part, simply write a comment about anything I’ve written on this blog or anything else. I would quite like to have a “Dear Dan” bit where I try and solve a problem so if you have any kind of problem, no matter how big or small, write it as a comment and I shall endeavour to solve it as best I can. See you all very soon!