The Into Geek Awards 5#

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

Best Day: Without a doubt this was the day my first year of uni finished. After getting a wonderful review and having had a great time on placement, I had one last day at uni where everyone was really nice and wished me a good summer, plus I got a first in the group assignment. I felt so happy and just the memory is making me smile right now!

Geeky Exciting Thing: This month it was E3 and more specifically Nintendo’s conference there. This year my games company announced the new Wii U but more excitedly Luigi’s Mansion 2 AND previews for Super Mario and Mario Kart on 3DS. I sat and watched the whole thing live and was literally screaming with excitement at some of the announcements!

Movie of the Month (this is the best movie I saw this month, not necessarily the best movie that came out this month): Having been so busy this month I haven't seen that many films but this award is going to The Hangover which I have finally got round to seeing (behind the times as always). A lot of people seem to rave about this film and whilst I thought it was OK I didn’t think it was anything particularly special. I guess it’s quite American in it’s style and that always puts me off. Still, not a bad watch.

Song of the Month (again, my fave song during the month, not necessarily one that came out during it): This goes to a song called “Leave Me Out of it” by The Feeling, also featuring Sophie Ellis Bextor. It’s not a well known song so here is them performing it live!

Website of the Month: It’s Tumblr again! I’m really enjoying going on there though and there are loads of awesome people and whovians on there. My “blog” can be found here if you would like to follow me.

Person of the Month: I’m going to cheat and give this to everyone on my course and the people who I live with at uni. Between them these people made me a very happy person and not just this month, throughout most of my first year at uni. So thank you everyone.

Minion of the Month: Now here is my chance to moan at you minions? Stop being lazy. I know people continue to read this blog but the amount of comments lately has been pitiful. Get your act together everyone! For that reason, none of you get the award this month. I want to see you lot commenting on every single post and perhaps we will have a winner or maybe several winners next month!

Blog of the Month: This goes to Defenestrated Feet by Ellen. It’s a wonderful blog and you should visit. Ellen wrote the wonderful and well-received guest post that was a guide for geeks and it shows you exactly why you should follow her blog. Off you go people!

And that’s it for another awards ceremony!

Now I shan’t be posting for a few days because I am moving into our new house at uni but we don’t have electricity there yet. I shall record a video tour of the new house and on my return shall blog about how I entertained myself for four days with no electricity. Quite how I shall cope I do not know. I expect to see you Monday!

A Twisty Cycle Track

Somehow, despite how tired I was this first thing this morning, I found myself at Chris’ house all ready to go on another epic cycle ride along with Mike. Surely today would be more successful than last week’s ordeal which ended in a four+ mile walk.

We decided to go down the old railway line, cleverly known as the Castleman Trailway, until we got to Moors Valley Country Park which is an ideal location for cycling around. We arrived fairly swiftly and soon went on a loop around what is known as Crane Lake. This is a lovely little track which is tarmac and a joy to cycle around. I then found the start of the new “Through the Forest” cycle ride and stopped to investigate- perhaps a little too quickly as Chris came hurtling into the back of me. Fortunately no people or bicycles were harmed in this little incident and we decided that the Through the Forest route looked a good idea. I’m not really sure what we expected but the track wasn’t it anyway. It was a very narrow course that did literally run straight through the woodland, winding around trees and had rocks on either side of the path as well as the occasional little bridge and uphill section. The twistiness of the course meant that the three of us all crashed into various trees and rocks, or at least bashed our arms, handlebars, pedals or feet against them. And I nearly cycled into a ditch. We stopped half way along and had our lunches, which demonstrated how late we were respectively that morning. Mike had only had time to grab some rolls but not actually put anything in them whilst at least I had put ham in my sandwiches, choosing ham simply because you don’t need to spread it, therefore saving time. Spreadable ham would be a good idea though. Better send of a patent!

Anyway, with the help of some luck we survived the 7km trail and decided it would be an excellent idea to do it a second time, which we then did. It was then time to return home which took a little while because we were getting quite tired. I think we must have cycled just under fifteen miles in total today which is not bad going considering we were only out a few hours. I feel well and truly exercised.

I have little else to report on today so I think I shall play a little game. (Actually I did go to the dentist but it wasn’t as bad as usual so I can’t complain too much). It’s amazing how funny putting “in your pants” after song titles. I shall put my iTunes on shuffle and demonstrate.

1. Not Fair in my pants.
2. Poker Face in my pants.
3. Right Now in my pants.
4. Baby’s coming Back in my pants.
5. Beautiful Day in my pants.
6. Lovers in Japan in my pants.
7. Born to be a Dancer in my pants.
8. Jump into the Fog in my pants.
9. She Moves in her Own Way in my pants.
10. Meet me Halfway in my pants.
11. Man I Used to Be in my pants.
12. Undisclosed Desires in my pants.
13. That Don’t Impress me Much in my pants.
14. Dangerous Animals in my pants.
15. Ok in my pants
16. Girls in my pants
17. The Only Exception in my pants.
18. Leave Me Out of It in my pants.
19. Bodies in my pants.
20. He Wasn’t There in my pants

See? Some of those are really funny. Play along at home and let me know of any particularly funny ones you come up with!

Tomorrow it’s the last day of June so of course it’s time for the Into Geek June Awards! Put on your best suit or dress and I shall see you then!

I’m Pretty Sure it Ruled

Today went better than expected. My day at Wimbledon had already been good but getting to meet the world number one Caroline Wozniacki was extra special. And then she asked me whether I could show her around London I couldn’t believe it! Fortunately I know London quite well and took her to see all the sights and some of the perhaps less famous London landmarks. We were getting on really well and she seemed such a lovely person. We shared a few jokes and got on like we had know each other for years. But it was still a huge shock when the world’s highest earning sports woman turned round in the middle of Covent Garden Market and kissed me on the lips. It was a quick kiss but I immediately knew that I had somehow managed to embark in a relationship with a renowned sports star. I knew it was going to be difficult but in that instant I became happier than I have been in a long time.

And then I woke up and returned to reality. That was a cruel thing for my brain to spring on me. I’m sure there are all sorts of psychological explanations about such a dream  but it could just mean that I’ve watched too much of this year’s Wimbledon and quite fancy some of the female players. I was surprised by the beauty of the dream though, it was like something from a particularly well-executed rom-com and wasn’t at all dirty in it’s content. I should probably write about something that actually happened now shouldn’t I?

It began rather oddly as I went to meet my friend Chris but he text me and asked me to meet him at his house instead of the usual place. This was because he was battling against a shoelace that had broken and a hornet which had somehow entered into his bedroom. Said hornet was well and truly splattered with a rolled up magazine, resulting in it being in several pieces. According to Chris’ brother the hornet’s legs were still moving sometime later which is a horrifying thought. It is perhaps a zombie hornet or even the hornet equivalent of Captain Jack Harkness (see Doctor Who and Torchwood for that reference).

After this minor adventure we made the twenty minute walk into town ready to get the bus…only to discover that Chris has left his debit card at home. This of course meant we had to walk for an extra forty minutes to get back to his house and then back into town again. Parts of my brain are beginning to link the sight of Chris with long and shouldn’t-be-necessary walks after this and the whole pedal incident t’other day. Eventually though we did get on the bus and met our the third member of our little trio, Mike. Poor guy had had to wait for us for quite some time, bless him.

After a lovely Subway lunch (footlong Subway Melt on Hearty Italian Bread for those interested),  we went to a phone shop as Chris wanted to purchase a new phone. Why is it that staff in phone shops can’t leave you to browse? Chris was taken off to a salesperson’s desk before he could say “but I don’t want an HTC Wildfire”. The salesman was determined that Chris would purchase said phone and Chris did. Whilst me and Mike waiting for Chris, the remaining salespeople in the shop seemed to decided that we must be interested in buying something as well. Phone shop salespeople are similar to vultures with carcasses when it comes to customers.

Highlight of the day I think has to be playing the Nascar racing game in the arcade. You can play with up to four players so myself, Chris and Mike all sat in a chair along a line and raced each other and the CPU cars. With my driving many a car ends up crashing spectacularly, including me on several occasions. Chris is the only one of the three of us who has actually passed his driving test and he cam last in two out of three races. This could mean he is a terrible driver or that he’s just slow. I’m not entirely sure which.

The day pretty much ended at the beach. Chris attempted to work his new phone whilst Mike played with a toy soldier he had found. It blows ones mine to think that he is very nearly nineteen years old, at time he has a mental age of five, though don’t we all?

We then took out a leaf out of The Inbetweener’s book (UK comedy show, people) and went on a “pussy patrol”. Said patrol is supposed to be scouting out the attractive girls of the area and seeing as though we were on a beach on a day where the temperature was reasonably warm. We found perhaps a handful of attractive girls of similar age to us but our chances of pulling are very low. But hey, it was entertaining and a proper teenage boy-type moment and we don’t get much opportunity to do such things together very often what with uni and everything.

All in all it was a pretty good day. Hopefully I am now coming to the end of the period of writer’s block I am going through and shall start producing more good blog posts again. There will be more action from our trio several times this week as well as me moving into my new house, the latest part of the “Personal Preference” video series and the long awaited (well there hasn’t been one for a while) next post about my own Blogs of Note. Plus it’s nearly the end of the month so there’ll be some more Into Geek awards soon too! Watch this space for all this exciting stuff! And please vote on the right hand side of this page too. I shall now leave for the day. Goodnight!

Summer Plans

Hello. The last few days have been relatively unexciting in my world. Apart from meeting my newly adopted five-year old cousin for the first time, I really haven't done much. Still, it’s not been too bad and with a heatwave coming over the next few days I can actually go out because it won’t be raining (it’s been raining most of the week and it’s infuriating). Fortunately my summer isn’t going to stay quite as dull as this because I have various things which I shall be doing. Here is a convenient bullet point list which explains said things:

- Move into new house- On the 1^st July I can go and set up “Dan’s Dungeon” in our new uni house! I am so excited about this, it’s going to be properly amazing.

- Holiday in Majorca- A week in the sun in a country I’ve never been to! There’s a huge water park next door. The food is all inclusive. There are loads of cool places to go. What’s not to like! Oh yeah, I can’t blog. I shall instead be recording an awesome video thing which I can share with you on my return!

- Watch all of Classic Who- I realised that I haven't watched very many episodes of old Doctor Who and so have decided to watch all the old episodes. There’s a lot but I’ve got all summer so why not? You can read about my thoughts as I join the Doctor through time and space by clicking here!

- Build a pond- After having a brainwave I have decided that I am going to build a proper pond in our garden. The parents have given the go-ahead so it’ll be all hands-on-deck once I return from holiday. It’s going to be tough to dig out with the horrible rubbly soil we have here but I reckon I can do it!

- Work- I need to earn some money so I shall be working for the charity I have worked with for many a year, looking after disabled kids.

- Read a lot- I have a whole stack of books ready to read and I’ve got free time so I am gonna get through as many as I can.

- Camping-This is only a maybe at the moment but there is a possibility myself, Chris and Mike will go camping for a weekend and get very drunk. Hopefully this will happen.

- Be bored- Even when you take all this into account, I’ve still got loads and loads of spare time. What on Earth I shall do with it I do not know! 

Who knows when I shall next blog, could be tomorrow, could be later. Maybe something interesting will happen or perhaps I will think of something interesting to discuss. Either way, watch this space.

If I was Never Born…

Today is a blog of two distinct halves. The second half is a video but the first half is something a little different. Let’s get onto to it then.

Several films revolve around what would happen if the main character had never been born, most recently Shrek Forever After but more famously Christmas flick It’s a Wonderful Life. The other day I thought it would be interesting to imagine that I myself was the main character in such a film and imagine what the world would be like if I had never been born. It’s quite a terrifying thought but let’s delve into it shall we.

Now the most direct people my lack of existence would affect would of course be my parents. Now one must assume in this parallel universe that I wasn’t stillborn or anything, I just wasn’t created. I would imagine that the likelihood would be is that my parents would have had my brother and had another child. How the other child would turn out is hard to say, though one would assume with my parents that it would grow up to be a good person. There is a reasonable chance that it would grow up and make more money than me and perhaps even be able to give my parents a better life than my poor teaching wages will ever be able to give them. It would probably make little difference to my parents then, which is a scary thought.

The next people I guess it would affect would be my friends. Most of them it would make little difference too and I certainly feel that my uni friends would be no worse off or at least better of if I didn’t exist. But I am trying to be as honest as possible with this entry and I would imagine that my lack of existence probably would make a difference to my closest friends. I would imagine that their levels of happiness, especially during sixth form, would be reduced but I don’t know how much by. It would be big-headed to suggest that I am capable of making someone much happier with their life but perhaps I could have made a positive difference.

I’m already running out of people I know now that those two categories are done. Ex-girlfriends would probably be a little different. Perhaps they would have grown up a little slower without me being around the difference would be minimal. I mean, both the big ones seem to have moved on and virtually forgotten about my existence anyway so I can’t have played that important a role in their lives. Of course, if I was never born I would not meet any future girlfriends or wife I may one day have. I can’t really discuss the affect this would have because I haven't met said person/people yet. If I do end up having a long-term marriage then of course that woman’s life would be completely different. But then again, surely they would just marry someone else and could be as happy.

Now this has been pretty miserable so far but I’m not writing this as a “I’m useless, nobody likes me” kind of post. I am genuinely considering the question and there is one fairly large group of people that I have yet to mention. The children I teach during my year’s of being a teacher. Now I assume I will get through uni and be a proper teacher and I am fairly sure that I will be quite a good one. Now I think I could make a huge difference to hundred’s of children’s lives. I might give them a better education than another teacher would, help them through a difficult time better than another teacher or improve the children’s life in other ways. So if I wasn’t born then perhaps hundred’s of children would have a worse childhood and possible even a worse life because of that. So I guess that my existence does make a difference.

Oh and if I didn’t exist you wouldn’t be reading this right now. Think about that!

The second half of today’s post is a video which is the first “episode” in a series of videos I am doing called “Personal Preference”, which are videos all about me. They will keep me entertained over the summer and will let you get to know me a bit better. Here’s the first video:

Oh and before you go, make sure you vote for which day you would prefer the new review feature to be on, vote over there →→→→→

The Pedal that Fell Off

What a day I have had. Mostly good despite some very frustrating events. It all comes together to make a funny little story, which of course I shall share with you.

It all began when my best mate Chris suggested we go on a cycle ride, along with my other best mate Mike. This seemed a good idea and I managed to choose the day of the week which had the best weather so everything was looking good. I woke unusually early and was ready in plenty of time, having made up a packed lunch and everything (jam rolls, yummy). I then headed to the garage to get my bike out. It was at this point that I realised that the only two keys we have to open the garage were miles away. My mum has one but she was at work and my dad has one but he had gone to play golf. It was very frustrating and I shall be having words with my father about the fact that he knew that I was going for a cycle ride yet didn’t think to unlock the garage or leave a key out. What use do either of my parents have with a garage key when they are no-where near the house? And why on Earth do we not have a spare?

So it looked like my plans were completely ruined. But fortunately Chris said it was OK for me to borrow his dad’s bike and so all seemed fine. The bike was a bit out of use and the gears didn’t work to well but it was perfectly satisfactory to begin with. (This is an important detail, take note of it for later). Most cycle rides around my area begin my going up a rather steep hill to get into the New Forest National Park. Yes, I live just yards away from a national park, lucky much! Usually this hill is far too long and steep for my weedy legs and terrible cardio-vascular system to deal with, and I have to get off and walk. But not today, I got all the way to the top without having to dismount. Considering I am currently the least fit I have been perhaps ever I am rather pleased with that little victory. Hill 0, Dan 1.

The three of us then continued on our adventure and cycled across some of the heathland with regular stops. In many of these regular stops I felt rather sick. When you do a lot of exercise that you aren’t used to, you can feel sick. Well I can anyway. Eventually this wore off without any bile leaving my body so that was good. We hurtled down a hill along a track that was more mud than solid ground , resulting in being fairly caked in mud. We eventually found a nice little spot under a tree where we could sit and eat out packed lunches. It rained at this point so we couldn’t have been better with our timing.

After our lunch had a chance to be partially digested, we decided to go a bit further afield. After a stop at a pub for some nice cold drinks, we continued on to the small village of Bickton. The reason was this is a bit weird really. On a cycle ride some time ago myself and Chris accidentally came to this village and it’s rather nice. We also saw a man with a canoe and no sign of water which was a bit odd. Disappointingly canoe-man did not make an appearance today. We did however see the van of an odd job man who has perhaps the greatest website address of his trade, “Weturnup.co.uk”. And it really is his website too! Chris’ bizarre love for Bickton meant he decided to have some photos taken with the sign and here they are, on my blog as promised:

We then carried on, mostly by footpath due to dangerous roads, to the town of Fordingbridge where we stopped for sweets and drinks briefly. By this point we were six miles away from home and everything was going fine. Not much later I discovered that the pedal on the bike I was using was unscrewing itself and despite our efforts to fix it, it fell of shortly after. This meant I had to walk my bike around five miles back home. We’d already cycled some twelve miles so this walk was really tiring. Eventually I made it home, with my hands, legs, bottom and feet all hurting from various aspects of the journey. Now if my dad has left a key and I had been able to access the garage, none of this would have happened. He has just arrived home so I shall go and complain to him shortly.

Still, the day was good apart from the killer walk home. The three of us had a good laugh as we always do when we are together and I got some good exercise. These cycle rides may well become a regular thing. We shall have to see. I am more physically exhausted than I have perhaps ever been. And I haven't been able to eat dinner yet. Need food and sleep. NOW!

Family Matters

So I have now left the student village for good, have handed my key in and shall never return. I am back home with the parents and am already bored stiff. But that’s not really important. This Summer marks a slightly new direction for this blog. Whilst I shall still be talking about what I’ve been up to there will be a bigger focus on other things too. I shall be discussing some important issues and doing a review a week, on a Monday I think. Hopefully it will make this blog even better, if such a thing were possible *crosses fingers and hopes no-one disagrees*. 

Today I shall be discussing family and why it is important to have a stable one. In the modern society we live in there is no such thing as a typical family. Back in the day a family would have a father who spent most of his time working, a mother who stayed at home doing housework and looking after the children, of which there were two of three. Even my family strays from this convention and I consider it to be quite “normal”. Just over nineteen years ago when before I was born my mum and dad both worked at the same accountancy firm. My mum had been there longer and so was higher qualified. Between them my parents took the decision that my dad was going to stay at home and look after me and my mum would be the one who earned the money. This was pretty much unheard of here around that time. It was because of my father that the local playgroup renamed their “Mother and Baby” group to “Parent and Baby”.

I’ve sort of gone off on a life-story tangent. But the point is that though my family wasn’t entirely conventional, I have turned out OK and did not have a bad childhood that affected my later life. But this of course does happen to millions of people across the world. But how much does that convention need to change before it does begin to affect a child?

I think that your best bet for having the perfect childhood is having two parents, with one that stays at home most of the time. That could be a mum and dad, two dads or two mums. And that’s not to say that only having one parent messes you up. But it can do. From my experience it seems that it’s the reason behind the single parenthood that makes the difference on how good a childhood the child has. Most single parents are due to divorce and if the divorce is particularly difficult with lots of arguing or even violence then this is likely to have a negative effect. But of course it doesn’t mean they will. Some children go through a terrible parents divorce and turn out just fine whereas some children live with both their parents and end up with all sorts of issues. I think one of the most important things in determining this is who the parents actually are. The majority of parents are rather good but there are some who shouldn’t be allowed to have children. These people, often neglectful and sometime violent, probably had a bad childhood themselves and end up passing it on.

As a trainee teacher I have already seen many example of unusual families. I once came across an elder brother whose father was the grandfather of his younger brother. Basically the mother had had kids with a much older man and then had more kids with that mans son. Now surely that is going to mess up the children? I have also seen that children that have had bad behaviour specifically because of things happening in their home life and the terrible worry that some children have because their father is away fighting in Afghanistan.

Now here’s the bit where I get to conclude. Many of you readers will probably have children one day and I want you to think about the situation you find yourself in before your child is pregnant. It is your responsibility as a parent to look after your child and give it the best possible start in life as you can. Is a rocky marriage that best possible start? I doubt it. It seems more and more common for parents to show little interest in their child and it’s welfare. Don’t let yourself be one of those people.

I Finish Year One of Uni!

Wowie! As I sit here and type this out, it is during my summer holidays. Yep, I have finished my first year at uni. There were moments when I thought I would never get to this stage but here I am and I feel chuffed with myself. But it’s about time I caught you up on what’s been happening over the week though because I haven't blogged properly for some time.

Now, as you may know, I have been on placement in a school over the last two weeks with a mixed year 5/6 class. And it has been wonderful. This week I ran a guided reading session, taught two science lessons and a history lesson. All went fairly OK considering this is my first of four years of training. The history lesson was a particular highlight though. As the class are doing a whole load of work on Australia I did my history lesson on a similar thing and did it about Captain Cook. I told the class that Captain Cook was coming in and left the room to go and fetch him. I then came back dressed up in sailor gear with a captain’s hat on. It was of course blatantly obvious that it was me but the kid’s loved it and asked many a question. They continued to talk about it for most of the day which was really pleasing.

During the week I was also lucky enough to spend a bit of time in key stage 1 where the children were no older than seven. I really loved this and when I took a small group to teach them how to solve written maths problems the teacher in charge says I was brilliant. It now makes me wonder if I should be thinking about teaching the younger children. They probably need a male role-model at that age. Male member of staff in that age group are extremely rare and if their father’s are working then there is no male role-model. That gap could be filled by me. It’s an interesting thought.

So yesterday was my last day at the school and it was a bit emotional really. The class has all signed a card for me which was really nice and many of the children didn’t want to see me leave. I got a glowing report from the class teacher which is really pleasing and I really couldn’t be happier about how the placement went. I thought my happiness could not reach higher levels but it did! Last night I went to the End of Term Party to celebrate, well, the end of term. The music was pretty good and I hardly had to spend any money on drinks thanks to the generosity of those around me. I came across loads of people I know and everyone was so lovely. All the free drinks did of course get me very drunk but it was the end of term so it didn’t really matter. Here are the obligatory photos:

And the year officially finished this afternoon with a brief meeting thing. It was as I left this that I really did get quite emotional. I saw loads of friends that I have made this year and they were so nice to me. All of a sudden, to top the high I already had from an amazing time on placement, I was given even more reason to be happy. I actually have a reasonably sized group of friends who actually care about me and like me. In the past I’ve not had that, just a couple of close friends. So it was on my way back to the student village for the last time that I realised that not only have I passed the first year, I’ve done it with my friends by my side. And what could be better than that? I am happier right now then I have been in some considerable time. It’s brilliant :)

Now I better get on with my packing. I need to have everything ready to be taken back home tomorrow morning. It’s going to be a long afternoon!

Guest Post Exemplar

I’ve got something a bit odd for you today. Every week I have a guest blogger posting something. One of the things they can do is answer some questions so today I am demonstrating how easy it is to guest post on my blog!

1) Tell us about you and your blog.

My name is Dan, I am 19 and I am a student training to become a primary school teacher. My blog is Into Geek and follows my life and it’s crazy goings-on. It’s really good and well worth reading, I promise!

2) What makes you a geek?

Where to start? I am a Whovian, meaning I am obsessed with the UK TV show Doctor Who. My blog logo even features the TARDIS going through the time vortex. I also love Nintendo gaming and a whole host of other things. And recently I have really got into reading comments which is an awesome new obsession of mine!

3) This is your last day on Earth. How are you going to spend it?

I am going to have a brilliant laugh with my friends and perhaps do some of the things I have never dared to do before. Tell people what I truly think of them, both the good and the bad.

4) Tell us about your favourite place in the world.

My favourite place is not far from where I live. It’s a spot on the edge of a fishing lake that is beautiful and secluded. Hardly anyone knows it exists so it’s all mine. It’s the perfect place for reflecting on things!

5) What's the most important thing in your life?

The people in it. I have met some wonderful people, especially at university and they are an always will be really important to me.

6) What is your favourite type of cheese?

Being something of a cheese connoisseur I love my cheese, especially the strong blue ones. I am going to say that Danish Blue is my fave though.

7) If you could be a ghost for a day what would you do?

Assuming you would be invisible and go pass through walls, I would probably be very pervy. I might also scare the shit out of some people I don’t like.

8) This post is over now. Well done. Did you enjoy it?

I did thank you Dan. It was very kind of you to let yourself do a guest post for your own blog.

There you go. How easy was that? And it’s really fun. If you want to join in the fun and do a guest post, like this one of your own unique post, visit the Guest Post page to take part!

Bookish Day in London

I’m sorry. I’m behind on blogging. But I am trying to catch up so stop your moaning!

So anyway. Today the uni Book Club went to London for the day. Our first stop was the Science Museum, which is not really book related at all but it’s a cool place to go. There are loads of buttons to press and that makes a museum worth visiting. My favourite section was the “Who am I?” section which was essentially about phycology but I found it really interesting. It had lots of little games but the best one was a moral problem which is as follows:

Scenario 1: As before, a trolley is hurtling down a track towards five people. You are on a bridge under which it will pass, and you can stop it by dropping a heavy weight in front of it. As it happens, there is a very fat man next to you - your only way to stop the trolley is to push him over the bridge and onto the track, killing him to save five. Should you proceed?

Scenario 2: As before, a trolley is hurtling down a track towards five people. As in the first case, you can divert it onto a separate track. On this track is a single (fat) person. However, beyond that person, this track loops back onto the main line towards the five, and if it weren't for the presence of that (fat) person, who will stop the trolley, flipping the switch would not save the five. Should you flip the switch?

So what would you do in the two scenario’s? Of course you would only have a split second to decide. I think that I would not be able to cope with the pressure of the situation and would do nothing in both cases. This might have terrible consequences on my mental state of course but it’s impossible to tell. Let me know what you think about this one in a comment!

After lunch in Kensington and a slight debate about where to go next we hopped on the tube and went to the British Library, which is the biggest library in Europe. There is a “treasures” section which has all sorts of important books and documents in it. Personal highlights include manuscript’s by both Austen and Wilde, Beatle’s lyrics and two of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta. There was also a few artefacts including one that particularly fascinated me: Beethoven’s tuning fork. But not only did Beethoven own it, it was eventually passed down to another great composer, Gustav Holst of “The Planet’s Suite” fame. I just find that incredible.

There was also an exhibition called “Out of this World” which was all about sci-fi. It traced the routes right back to Ancient Greek times and demonstrated various elements of sci-fi like trips to the moon, journey’s to the centre of the Earth and the possibility of alien life. Of course, I found this incredibly fascinating being the sci-fi geek I am. It was so brilliant. Oh and there was a steampunk version of K9 on display too which is pretty cool:

Our final visit of the day was to the massive Waterstone’s book store at Piccadilly. Of course I could not resist the urge to spend money and purchased four new books. The rate I get through books when I am at home though is ridiculously fast so I may as well stock up on things to read over the Summer.

There is something magical about London. It just has an amazing atmosphere that no-where else really has. I love it though I wouldn’t want to live there permanently. I love the hustle and bustle and that fact that brilliantly crazy things lie around every corner. In the tunnels as part of the underground there are now places where street musicians can play and the music echoes down the tunnels. It’s truly wonderful. My favourite city of them all.

I’m Glad You Came

Hello there. I am running a day behind on the blog but I shall do my best to catch up sometime soon. I’m glad so many people liked the guest post on Wednesday, it’s absolutely brilliant and that is what having guest-posters is all about. I would like to have some more guest-bloggers so why don’t you take part, simply click on the guest post page to find out more.

So all this week I have been on placement in school and it has been fantastic. Next week I am leading a guided reading session and teaching two whole lessons which is all very exciting. I am now starting to feel that the idea of being a teacher is actually happening. Of course if the lesson’s go terribly I will not feel so good about the whole thing but, touch wood, they will be wonderful. The history lesson I will be teaching is going to be amazing and I can’t wait. It involves me dressing up so I’m definitely on to a winner!

The downside to being on placement is having to leave so early. Our taxi leaves at 7:15AM, meaning I have to get up at about 6AM. And I know that it isn’t that bad and that some people do it every day and I will have to do it when I become a teacher. But the people that do it every day get into a routine and don’t have to suddenly start doing it like I do. Plus they don’t live in student accommodation which is usually fairly noisy well into the night. And I won’t have to do it quite so early because when I become a teacher I will actually live near the school I’m teaching in. But anyway, enough moaning, because I seem to have coped OK. I have even had a couple of cups of coffee and I have to say I liked them. Am I starting to become a coffee drinker? Gazing into the mists of time I can see me in twenty years sat in an lonely little flat with coffee being the only thing that gets me through a day of teaching. What a horrible image that it. Let’s move on.

My good friend Josh arrived back at uni for his exam yesterday and it was great to see him. He completes me. He finally got his birthday present which was a TARDIS wardrobe and is absolutely fantastic. A load of us all put money in towards it so Josh got a lovely present. It looks like this:

Having Josh back is a wonderful present though it’s a shame that I’m so busy at the moment.

Tonight we were supposed to go to a foam party at the student union but tickets sold out within an hour so we couldn’t go. Not perturbed, we headed to a place called Porthouse in town. I’d never been there before and felt really out of place on arrival. I nearly followed the girls into the ladies only bit of the building, only to be stopped by the bouncer. What an Earth goes on in a ladies only section? My mind can only imagine, and then I have to slap myself because such thoughts are inappropriate. I kind of took the evening as it went really. The music was fairly decent so I did some typically-me drunken dancing and singing. The bar queue was always annoyingly long (though I did get introduced to some lovely girls whilst I was queuing) so on one occasion I decided to buy two doubles, both for me. This and a concoction of various other alcoholic beverages led to be being fairly drunk. I’m just really pathetic and silly when I’m drunk. A lot of people find it really easy to chat-up girls when they are sober but I’m still too shy when I am completely out of it. I’m just pathetic really. Here’s a picture to prove the point:

Dear God!

Now I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently so thought I may as well blog it. I do like to share emotional thoughts from time to time. For the first time in ages I am properly happy about who I am and being single and all that. It’s a bit weird actually because I haven't had a week where I’ve felt really miserable for a couple of months. It’s a lovely change. But in terms of relationships, how old is the point of no return? There’s a point where it becomes much harder to find eligible partners because most people of a similar age have already settled down. Now obviously I am a fair way off this but I can see that it could easily creep up. What age is normal to get married and start a family these days? In some parts of society it would seem you start a family at 16 and get married at 18, 23 and 41. But what about for me in the middle-class life I lead? If anyone knows the answers to such questions, if there even are answers, please let me know in the form of a comment. I shall pick this up later and will also discuss families, especially the less stable ones, at a later date.

I think I should probaly end now. I’ve been rabbiting on a fair bit tonight. Tomorrow I shall bring you all the goss on my trip to London with the book club*. See you then!

*Interesting use of the word “goss” there, a word I have never used before and will never use again. I seem to be talking incredibly street at the moment. I must posh up a bit before I return home to the ‘rents.

Guest Post: A Guide for Geeks

It’s another Wednesday and today the lovely Ellen off of Defenestrated Feet. It’s a brilliant post and very funny so go forth and read!

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How to Blend In: A Guide for Geeks

Obsession is what sets us geeks apart from our fellow nerds and dweebs. Whether it’s music, sci-fi, math, Shakespeare, video games or (heaven forbid) cosplay, we all get REALLY involved with the things we love. And although some of the shyer geeks are closeted, many of us are loud and proud about our interests. But there are times when even the best of us may want to temporarily hide our flamboyantly geeky natures and, yunno, appear normal for once. Examples of such situations might include:

• Attending your great-aunt Mildred’s neighbour's cat’s funeral.
• Wooing a love interest who is not among the geekitrious.
• Job interviews — ‘nuff said.
• Performing an award-winning science experiment to disprove the hypothesis that “Geekitry is Inversely Proportional to Successful Social Interactions.”

That’s why I, Ellen, am here to teach you the ways of mundane normality in three easy steps!

Step 1: Wear the Same Boring Stuff Everyone Else Wears. Appropriate, non-geeky clothing is the first step to epic camouflage. Warning: for this step, you may need to rethink your ideas of what makes a person invisible:

But even once you grasp what definitely not to wear, just any casual outfit may not be appropriate. It’s well known that you’re not a true geek until you own at least one T-shirt displaying a favourite interest or obsession. Thus, T-shirts and other attire with references to any of the following are STRICTLY PROHIBITED:

• Pi
• Math Jokes
• Physics Jokes
• Chemistry Jokes
• Grammar (and grammar jokes)
• Star Wars
• Star Trek (As if Star Wars wasn’t bad enough.)
• Doctor Who
• The Princess Bride
• Firefly
• Buffy
• Actually, anything by Joss Whedon
• Actually, let’s just say “anything with a cult following.”
• Software, games or electronics
• Internet memes (Sorry, the Rebecca Black “Friday” shirt has got to go.)

When in doubt about the design of a T-shirt, use this rule of thumb: if you ask five random strangers and fewer than four of them get the reference, it’s geeky.

 Step 2 : Converse Apathetically (And Roll Your Eyes a Lot) So you're dressed like every other kid your age. Now what? Well, unless you're mute or a hermit, you'll probably need to talk to humans at some point. You can't afford to blow your cover by doing this, so now we'll go over some basic guidelines for avoiding tell-tale geek chit-chat.

Obviously any reference mentioned in the list for T-shirts also applies to conversation. But what about other topics or pop culture references so common that everyone, geek or non-geek, discusses them?

Since extreme interest and obsession are the true marks of a geek, to blend in you must portray exactly the opposite. Whatever you talk about, to whomever you talk about, must be discussed as if you don't give a Hedwig's hoot about any of it.

Be careful. It's easy to screw this up with even the most mundane topics imaginable... like the weather.

GOOD: "Wow, this weather sucks."

"Yup."

"I wish it should stop hailing."

"Agreed."

GEEKTASTIC:

"Wow, this weather sucks."

"It literally does! The quasi-steady rotating updrafts in this vertically-sheared environment have created a supercell with high vertical speed and directional wind shear!"

 "..."

"Look, that mesocyclone is becoming a tornado! Awesome!"

To avoid this common blunder, reply only with one-word answers, nods, and the occasional grunt. It's totally geek-proof; you will be guaranteed to make lots of friends who are in awe of your stoic indifference.

Step 3: Congratulate yourself! You now know how to act like a totally normal and extremely boring person. Do a victory dance or something! As long as it doesn't look like this:

If you are having trouble watching this video, watch it here! (Dan x)

That’s all, folks — go forth and socialize! And find me on Defenestrated Feet, where upcoming posts may or may not include vivid blue buttocks, exploding bicycles, and why my hair is secretly a ninja.*

*Three excellently hyperbolic reasons to follow my blog.

Nintendo @ E3 2011

E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) is the biggest gaming event of the year where most of the best games and new consoles are announced. I have watched Nintendo’s conference for a few years running and this year was no different. I shall now discuss the highlights.

First up, Mario Kart 3DS. Not a lot of new stuff was given about this game but there were two major surprises. In the new game you can fly on a hang-glider type-thing and go underwater with a little fan powering your kart along. As long as these features aren’t over-used they will be welcomed and of course when this comes out on the 3DS it will look spectacular.

Then there was a short preview of Super Mario for 3DS. It seems this game is a combination of New Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Galaxy. And that sounds like a good mix to me! It sees the return of the Tanooki (or racoon) suit which hasn’t been seen for many a year. It lets Mario do a Yoshi-style flutter jump. Once again this games looks wonderful. It shall be out in time for Christmas so hopefully Santa will be bringing it to me!

The third 3DS preview was a bit of a surprise, but a very welcome one. It is the announcement of Luigi’s Mansion 2, a sequel to the fantastic Gamecube game. Luigi is my favourite of the two brothers and what I have played of the first game was brilliant so I’m very excited about this. In full 3D of course. Wow!

Then it came for the big one! The announcement of the new home console, the successor to the bestselling Wii. It is called the WiiU and features a controller that looks like this.

Now this controller let’s you switch between the TV and itself as well as allowing for unique ways of playing games. It can act as a place where you hit a golf-ball off when placed on the floor or as a weapon that can be thrown like in the shot below:

The other big thing about it is the fact that it is in HD. This was one of the main complaints about the Wii. That and third-party developers weren’t making for it. But with the likes of Assassin's Creed and Batman: Arkham City coming out on it, that complaint has been blow apart too. I’m not really sure about the new controller though but I shall have to wait and try it out at a preview event. It won’t come out ‘til Autumn next year so there is plenty of time to learn more. Pick of the day has to be Luigi’s Mansion 2 though!

My Weekend

Hello. I have not written a post for several days yet still the new followers pour in. Nice to have you newbies, you have now joined my legion of minions. This doesn’t mean I am going to control you or get you to do things though. Well, some things but nothing too strenuous/illegal.

So. Another weekend at home. And I have to confess it was a dull one. I didn’t really do very much at all but it was all very nice and relaxing. I got to spend a bit of time with my family and that’s always really nice. The highlight was clearly Doctor Who’s mid-series finale, entitled “ A Good Man Goes to War”. Straight after the episode I wrote a quick summary/thoughts list which I shall now share with you. Of course there are massive SPOILERS so I suggest you either skip past the bullet points or read at a later date:

• Melody= Song, Pond= River. Reverse and you get River Song. It was bloody obvious really.
• I love the fact that the Doctor could call on so many allies. Silurians, a Sontaran and Captain Avery. And there were more I think, I can’t even remember!
• So River is part Time-Lord. But how?
• Who does River kill? It seems obvious that she is the girl in the astronaut suit and kills the Doctor. But surely that’s too obvious!
• How does the Doctor survive, cos of course he will. Though the skeletal hand holding a dimming sonic screwdriver in a teaser after the episode suggests otherwise.
• Who were the Headless Monks? I reckon they have more importance. 
• Who was Lorna? Presumably the Doctor will meet her later on in the series, wibbly wobbly timey wimey and all that. 
• Why is the next episode called “Let’s Kill Hitler”? Seems an odd title. I like to think that it could be about the moral dilemma of whether to kill Hitler or not.
• HOW CAN I LAST WITHOUT DOCTOR WHO ‘TIL SEPTEMBER?
• OK. Time to breathe.
• 

I loved it so much but it’s a massive shame that there is no more Doctor Who until the Autumn. But there is Torchwood: Miracle Day in the meantime which should be good.

In other news, I basically told my stalker what I think about them. Said person will no doubt be reading this. *waves*. I had to do something before I went completely mad and did something ridiculous. Of course, this wasn’t done face-to-face, I’m to much of a confrontation-phobe  for that. Instead I wrote a strongly-worded message that was sent via the medium of Facebook. Still, the message seems to have got through which is wonderful. Whilst I value my friends, there are limits to how much time you can spend with one person and when they become inescapable something has to be done. I could go on about the actual issue but I shall refrain from doing that today. Let’s just say one individual was giving me hell.

Moving on then. Erm, do I actually have anything else to say? It would seem not. Well tomorrow begins another stretch of placement in school. Four days this week and four days next week. Of course this means that blogging becomes tricky because I am spending most of my time doing something I can’t talk about. But worry not friends, I do have some plans for posts so don’t panic! And I am starting a new weekly vlog (video blog) at some point later this week, I just have to work out what day would be most appropriate. I shall see you tomorrow when I shall discuss Nintendo’s conference at E3, the gaming event of the year! How exciting!

Summer Musical Mayhem

After a short while of not a lot happening in the music world, suddenly all my fave artists are releasing new songs and albums. So today I am going to attempt to keep up with all this musical mayhem with a little discussion on who’s bringing out what and when.

Firstly I should probably discuss Lady Gaga’s new album “Born This Way” which came out not so long ago. It has had mixed reviews but I have to say I like it. It’s simple pop music though. There is little complication to it, just catchy tunes with, let’s face it, pretty meaningless lyrics. The song “Hair” is literally about hair which is really odd. But even that oddity is catchy. My fave track from the album so far is “The Edge of Glory” which is again makes absolutely no sense lyrically but melodically it’s fantastic. Here you may listen to it thanks to the wonders of the internet.

Next up are The Kaiser Chiefs. Just the other day I heard their new single “Little Shocks” and was surprised by what I heard…in a good way. It’s a complete change of direction but is absolutely fabulous. Here is the video for it:

Now although their new album “The Future is Medieval” is not out for a few weeks, you can purchase all the songs. On the Kaiser’s website you can choose ten out of a choice of twenty songs to put in your own version of the album which you can download for £7.50. Or you can just download someone else’s choice. My wonderful selection is available to download by clicking on the image below. It’s really good.

Next up are The Arctic Monkey’s. There fourth album “Suck it and See” is released this coming Monday. I of course will be purchasing it. Thank goodness I still have student loan left. It would be nice if the Monkey’s could be as good as their first, which was undoubtedly one of the best albums ever. Chances are it won’t be. The first single is “Don’t Sit Down Because I’ve Moved Your Chair” (good logic there) and it’s a decent little track with some fantastic lyrics involving running through chip pan fires while holding scissors and going into business with a grizzly bear. Yes, really. Here’s said track:

Perhaps my fave band, The Feeling, are releasing their new album “Together We Were Made” on June 20th. They are also going on tour in October and happily are actually coming close enough for me to go and see. They are still playing forty miles away from uni though and on a Monday night so getting back will probably be an issue. It’s so far in advance though I have no idea what I have the day afterwards. Either way, I’m to that gig no matter what. The first song from the album is called “Set my World on Fire”. And here it is:

And to end we have two more new tracks from artists with albums coming out in the not-so-distant future. Firstly is Coldplay with “Every Teardop is a Waterfall”:

And this is Hard-Fi’s “Good for Nothing”:

Thank you very much for reading and let me know your thought’s about any of the music in this entry. See you all soon!

Early June Happenings

I shall start today’s entry with a little tip for you: if you are doing a marked presentation and have spent two hours before hand working on it, remember to actually take the memory stick with the presentation on it with you. Our group managed to fail to do this today, resulting in a last minute panic. The presentation involved us talking about a location we could take a class of children to and connecting it to as many subjects as was possible. We went to the local country park which seemed to connect to most subjects fairly easily. Although I was in charge of connecting it to history which wasn’t that easy a task. This is pretty much what I said. Quite why you care about this I don’t know but I feel like writing a fair bit today!

The visitor centre provides an excellent link to history because it is actually a barn that was built in the late 1700s in Easton Royal, Wiltshire and was later moved to Moors Valley to become the visitor centre.

It was originally used as a tithe barn, a place used to store sacks of corn and other items that were taxed to raise money for the church and clergy. The barn was also used for threshing, a process separating the corn grains from the rest of the plant. This was until the threshing machine took over the process in the industrial revolution and the barn was barely used.

The national curriculum states that children should study “the way of life of people in the more distant past who lived in the local area or elsewhere in Britain” and this by looking at the barn we can do this. It also provides the opportunity to study the industrial revolution, perhaps comparing the barn and old threshing to another location with a threshing machine.

Sounds good, I like to think. I was also in charge of putting all the slide together and I feel on this I did a particularly good job. Our PowerPoint was truly a work of art, so well done me. The presentation itself went fairly well and it appears we passed, so that’s all that matters. I have to say though that I actually really enjoying working as a group this time round with a new selection of people. It was actually pretty awesome, even if there was a last minute panic.

I should probably now back-track a little to yesterday. I was ill. Well I started about 2AM yesterday when I was about to go to sleep but then my stomach decided to go berserk. I will refrain from going into details but let’s just say that it was really not pleasant. Quite where said illness sprang from I do not know. I thought it had been something I ate but it seemed to last a bit too long for that. But whatever it was, my body has fought it off and is pretty much back to normal. So take that, horrible germs/dodgy thing I ate.

Due to my illness I missed the budget meeting for rambling society. As from now I am jointly in charge of the rambling society of my uni and so have to do such exciting things as budget meetings. Actually I’m pretty glad I didn’t end up going because it appears we weren’t really prepared for what they expected. Still, I think we are getting £100 which is not bad considering all we do is go on walks. The majority of this will be used to pay for transport on The Big Trip we are going on. Quite where to, I don’t know. As I was ill and pretty much confined to my bedroom I used the opportunity to come up with a little plan for the society. From the new academic year in September there will be a walk on the first Sunday of every month. It will be so good, assuming we can gather some new member as it’s actually just the two of us currently. We shall gather new members at fresher’s fayre where we will have a table and some brownies to bribe people with. I’m quite looking forward to doing such things.

I have also been  spending my unusual amount of free time this week watching The IT Crowd, which it turns out is hilarious. It’s basically about the IT department of a company and features some brilliant characters who are really geeky. Moss is my favourite. Here’s an example of the show’s hilarity:

Hmm. This post has become quite long but I’m starting to run out of steam. I am actually sat at home, as in my parent’s house, now. It’s another of my rare visits home. I don’t have to be anywhere ‘til Tuesday so I thought ‘hey, why not?’. This long weekend will probably consist of me sleeping a lot, eating a lot and getting ridiculously over-excited about the mid-series finale of Doctor Who. I imagine I shall also post some brilliant blog posts during this time, I seem to be much more inspired to write at home. Perhaps it’s the comfy bed. And speaking of the comfy bed, I think it’s time to sleep in it. Goodnight lovely people, do leave a comment for me to pick up in the morning, it’s the best way to start the day!

Guest Post: Savvy

Today’s guest post sees Savvy answer my questions!

1) Tell us about you and your blog.

My name is Savvy and my blog is called 'A Brief Glimpse Into the Bubble'. It's a personal doodle-accompanied blog that details my own observations of the world around me from the safe location of my own little bubble. I'm relatively new to the blogging world but I already have plenty of posts up due to the large amount of inane and sometimes downright ridiculous thoughts that pop into my head at any given time.

2) What makes you a geek?

Besides my overwhelming interest in sci-fi and fantasy, I also have an unhealthy obsession with Portal.

I have always wanted to attend a Cosplay convention but where I come from not many people are fans and so the few conventions that DO crop up tend to be small and badly advertised. My clothes almost always make references to Invader Zim or contain obscure in-jokes from the internets!

3) This is your last day on Earth. How are you going to spend it?

First and foremost I'd eat all those muffins, pieces of bacon, bottles of cola and bags of candy I've denied myself over the years for health reasons.

Then I'd get my entire family, my friends and my Better Half into the same room together and watching a tonne of comedy movies.

4) Tell us about your favourite place in the world.

That would be my room. It's not a particularly fantastic room from an outsiders point of view but it's my safe haven from a terrifying and confusing world. It also, on occasion, contains hidden junkfood (that I hid).

5) What's the most important thing in your life?

My family. My family have gotten me through some seriously hard times and continue to support me.

6) What is your favourite type of cheese?

Melted. I know that's a serving suggestion rather than a type but trust me, if you melt ANY kind of cheese over bacon or crisps I will love it and believe it to be the best cheese I've ever had.

7) If you could be a ghost for a day what would you do?

I'd be a kind ghost. I'd look after people secretly. I'd find enjoyment in that. I can imagine myself using my invisibility to make it seem like my friends and family are experiencing really good luck.

8) This post is over now. Well done. Did you enjoy it?

I did! This is quite a good idea. So well done to YOU for coming up with it! All I did was blather on about myself! Thank you!

Thank you Savvy, that was lovely. Throw in a compliment and I’m bound to like you :)