Back 2 Uni (I hope)

It was May 16th last time I wrote here. This means the gulfs between these little review sessions are getting steadily smaller. This is good.

These past couple of months I've mainly just been battling with my own laziness. It's been an uphill struggle. It's really unfortunate that, even though my mattress is slightly uncomfortable and my sheet is slightly too small so the corner nearest my face wrenches off if I turn over more than twice, my bed is the nicest place in the world. It is my home, my sanctuary, my muse and my flame.

But Benjamin Franklin didn't sleep in until 12 noon every day. Leonardo Da Vinci didn't hit snooze for 3 hours. Motherfucking Alan Turing didn't do any of that shit either: he got up and got to work and wrote some papers which lay the blueprint for modern day programming and computability. Now I don't think I'm anywhere near as gifted as any of these three legends, but I'm sure that if I worked as hard as them I'm sure I'd be in a different place right now. A different place other than sitting on my bed at my Dad's house writing a blog post which is only intended to be read by none other than myself. Good job Jas, good fucking job.

But there has been some progress. I've started reading again - which to me usually indicates that my mind is starting to work in a rational way again. I'm not sure if I'd read "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" and "Neverwhere" before I posted last but I got those out of the way before reading "Birdsong" and then ploughing through the "His Dark Materials" trilogy. Amy J was right, "The Amber Spyglass" is the best one. I also borrowed a "Sams" book on DirectX 8 game programming which is fun. It meant I had to get Windows XP running in a virtual box on my Mac. That in turn reminded me of the the delights of QBASIC and also getting my hands dirty making stuff work.

And on that vein I decided to apply for an MSc in Computer Science at Liverpool Uni. I finished my application on something like July 16th but there were a few hiccoughs to do with the drink driving charge that will continue to loom over my head for the next 5 years of my life. I think that's how long I have to declare it to employers and the like. I should hopefully know by next week whether I've got in or not. Come on Liverpool. Surely there's room for one more? I know I've got a big arse but it's not THAT big.  

And on that note I've started a soup in the evening diet. The vague plan is to have oats for breakfast (to reduce cholesterol - which is SEVEN - it should be BELOW FIVE fgs - though Dr. Ali says this could be something to do with the Olanzapine), have some sort of lowish calorie ready meal for lunch and then soup and, if I don't manage to resist it, bread for dinner. It seems to be working so far. In weeks previous I was having a bigass pitta bread and half a tub of houmous before every meal. "It's just like a starter" I would tell myself. That sort of foolishness leads to fatness.

Other progress reports come from my build a bike course with the wondrous Steve and Graham and the healthy dose of West African Drumming I'm exposing myself to every week. I'm building a bike for mother dearest. It was her idea not mine!

Probably the most social thing I've done in the past few weeks has been the Liverpool Pride march. Good quality drumming and good quality free Nandos afterwards. Such chicken, such drumming mates.

It doesn't get much better than that really. Well of course it does get much better than that. You could be fucking Denise Richards in the 80s. But it's about the little things I suppose.

Much love xx