See you all in 2009!

No this is not a tutorial, although I might write one at some point – this was too simple to do in my opinion but I am sure some beginners would find such a tutorial useful…

At any rate, wkossen asked that someone photoshop a christmas hat onto his twitter avatar and I have done just that. Using the free stock christmas hat photo from Quentin available at sxc.hu with wkossen’s photo I have created the below. This blog post is really just to make it easy to show him. Nothing much else really happening here.

Much to my appreciation I have received some really positive feedback about my Sexy Long Socks article I posted yesterday unfortunately mostly though MSN and none though comments posted on the website – why can't people comment more?

This year's Christmas for the best part is over for me as now I have to work, unfortunate as it seems it is for the best as I do want to achieve at least a 2:1 this year and that involves a hell of a lot more work than what I put in to archive a 2:2 last year. For the most part I have to design and publish a website – I could use this one, actually I'm using it as an excuse to expand this one to include my new video work and you shall see some updates on that tomorrow when I begin working on it. On top of that I have research for my group project to get completed that shouldn't take more than a couple of hours and it's on a pretty interesting subject so I should be enjoyable – I may actually do it tonight seeing as the night is young. Lastly the one piece of work I am dreading is the bibliography on 6 excerpts of books we have been given. I have read two of them already, however I shall have to re-read them again as I have rather inconveniently forgotten what they were about!

So the long and short of it is that I shall be working pretty much solidly this week to get everything done so I can return to Coventry with nothing hanging over my head.

SONY ERICSSON w950i

I just found out about the Sony Ericsson w950i and it looks like a really nice phone, if I did get one now at least it would save me getting a separate mp3 player for my daily 20 minute walk to uni. Unfortunately the one reason why I wont be getting it is because it doesn't come with a camera the one device on a phone that is useful other than the obvious calling and texting features. I don't always carry a camera around with me and it's nice to know that you have a camera with you at all times albeit my phones camera just incase you meet some famous person or witness some spectacular event.

I would just like to take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I am spending the next half an hour or so visiting all my favourite blogs and sites leaving a christmas message. So if you have found my website though one of my messages then it would be nice if you could leave a small comment here and spread the “Christmas Cheer”. 

I had Camilla come round for the past week, or more acuratly I spent the past week with Camilla between my parents and her parents house. We spent some of the time with family while the rest was used productively searching the shops for things – Camilla took me to Oxford street for the first time in my life and into the spetacular innards of Selfridges & Co which is amazing on the inside and a place I definataly want to return to for further exploration. Appart from shopping we did little else other than crash in front of the tv and enjoy the time we had together – we did get to see Happy Feet though somthing I didn’t think I would enjoy but did anyway – suprisingly.

Now it is Christmas time and we have to spend it with our families *sigh* I’m not to excited about this Christmas having come back home from Uni pennyless I’m simply worrying about money not that I should, just it’s pretty hard not to think about the fact that the 26 pence sitting in front of me is all the money I own in the world right now…

I guess I just miss Camilla…

In other news allofmp3.com being sued for $1.65 Trillion

This is just insanse im sorry but the RIAA are just being idiotic  and utilising such a thugish move by sueing a company not under American duristiction for more money than the gross domestic product of the country that said company resided in simply proves how idiotic they are. Do the RIAA actually think they can squeeze $1.65 trillion out of any company let alone allofmp3.com? Well no, the move is being played to try and put allofmp3.com out of buisness however it is a move that will enevitably fail to gain the RIAA any form of favourable return. This is simply because allofmp3.com is doing nothing illegal in its country of residence and none of those responsible for the website will be visiting America therefore there is no way for the RIAA to exert their force as I can’t see the Russian government damaging its own ecconomy just to aid an American organisation.

Source: cybernet

A little truth behind the Media And Film Industry of America (mafia): they shaft artists and keep the majority of the profits for their own greedy means. What happens when an artist signs up for a label they pretty much sell their soul to the devil. Yes they get all the publicity and gig’s booked, albums sponsored and all the rest of it. But in the end they have pretty much signed a contract that absolves them of all ownership to their material, their image and the sadest thing of all – all profit the record company make from them. When an artist signs up to a label they become an employee of that company, essentially becoming employees which allows the record company to pay them, but usually they will make less than

Not that I don’t like Christmas, it is actually a nice time of year and when it snows it’s even better. The cold doesn’t bother me so much as long as I don’t have to actually go out in it at any sort of ridiculously early hour of the morning in a half asleep state and the best thing about being in education during Christmas is that you get to go home and do as little as you like for it… or so you would think/hope.

This Christmas has actually been quite good in that it’s not been too cold and I don’t feel as though it has been pushed on us so much this year. However that could simply be because I am currently living away from home in a student flat and we are being scrooges and not putting up any form of decoration, although that is mostly due to the fact that we are all going home for Christmas tomorrow and by then our respective families shall have done all the hard work for us in making our homes look Christmasy.

What have I been upto then?

So less about me half slating Christmas, half enjoying it and let’s me share with you what the past few weeks have been like seeing as I have once again ignored this blog and let it sit absent of input. Over the past few weeks I have basically been feeling “under the weather” (the polite way of saying “like shit”) as it were – pretty much had one or more of the following at some point:

• Headache & Migraine
• Stomachache
• Cold
• Back pain
• Fatigue
• Sleep-dep

It’s not been nice, however I have been getting though well enough. Not missed any important lectures and have actually managed to do uni related work. Actually one thing the past few months of uni have taught me is that it sucks to be poor. I actually had a taste of full time work over the summer and to be honest I liked it. I liked having some sort of order in life and actually enjoying what I did, unfortunately university work is not like a 9 to 5 job. You don’t work 5 days a week, I get lucky if I’m required to turn up three days a week the rest of the time I would normally spend in bed or watching entire seasons of tv shows. Unfortunately I am not that lucky, although I only have lectures three days a week the rest of the week is pretty much packed with other things, such as doing Joey Brannigan Presents with my friend Joey, my hobby photography, visiting my wonderful girlfriend Camilla and university related work such as video projects, essays and the rest of it. I haven’t actually played a computer game in weeks, I brought my gamecube up from home and have yet to turn the damn thing on. I’m not saying that I dislike any of this just that it costs money. Money I don’t have because I am a student and therefore don’t have a job!

I’m not your typical student stereotype, I don’t stay out late drinking my liver into an early transplant or pulling and fucking the nearest thing with tits. I actually came to uni to learn something, not piss it all away while causing long term internal damage. You would think due to this I would have more spare money than your typical wasted student. I can inform you that, unfortunately that is not true. I like to go out to lunch/dinner with friends, I like to travel to other towns and wonder about, I love going to see my girlfriend, I travel home regularly and I love to buy myself and my girlfriend things usually spontaneously. All these things would be part of any post uni life however I am doing them now, the only real difference and problem is that I don’t have a job, therefore even though I am not going out killing myself with pointless consumption of overpriced liquids I am still spending as much if not more than my peers.

I’m also not alone, many students whom I hang out with probably will continue to live there current lifestyle even after uni. They actually came here to learn something and do work, unlike those other layabouts whom both give students a bad name and attract other idiots to university education with the expectation that it’s just a three year party and extension on exemption of income tax. This is what really annoys me about people who intend on studying at uni (I use the term studying very loosely here), they just seem to think that it’s going to be about getting drunk and stumbling home with a different girl every night, to some it is and mostly they drop out before ascertaining the degree – unfortunately for me most of those do courses related to mine

The comodification of university education hasn’t helped either, and with the inclusion of top up fees many students will leave uni

Well, I got bored of seeing Mr Twelve's post everytime I loaded up this page (most mornings) and so I thought I would write a post about christmas.

Firstly, I love christmas, I get all excited and do all sorts I wouldn't do much otherwise; buy sparkly things I'll only wear during December, buy silly things for my friends to wrap up in silly paper, eat too much chocolate, have family visit me (I live a long way away from most of my further family), listen to chritmas music, smile a lot and look forward to waking up at 7 in the morning! (which has changed since I was about 10, when I would wake up between 5 and 6…)

Uh… and I don't know what else to write. I'm not cut out for this blog writing thingy… I'll try to dig out some more phobia pictures over the holidays. Until then, take care and have a merry christmas :3

If you could get me one of the items listed below for Christmas, I would love you indefinitely, however I know not everyone who knows me is loaded so therefore if you could provide me with some money to go towards one of these lovely items then it would be very much appreciated.

GPS: Shinco Navigator/Entertainer GM 400

I have spent a good while shopping around online for a GPS device that met my requirements. I bought my car a little over a year ago and have since done 19800 miles a lot of that is routes I know, such as to and from Portsmouth, London, Blackpool and more recently to and from home and Coventry – in all that time I have rarely got lost but when I do it is spectacular – imagine trying to get to London from Southampton and ending up in Exceter. But I do like exploring and having an electronic guide will help me discover many more places in England that I would not have otherwise found – also it aids me in getting to Camilla's without getting lost in London.

After a big long search I found the Shinco Navigator GM 400, at £229.99 it's not cheap, however it does appear to be a quality device with a wide variety of useful features. Its apparent "top-of-its-class high definition 4" touchscreen" won big bonus points with me, as when your in the car driving the last thing you want to be doing is playing about with buttons, it's nice to know that a simple touch of the screen will yield what I want. The second feature that sold it to me is the 2 Million points of interest that it holds within its database – these apparently include restaurants, petrol stations, parks and hotels to name a few. The deal maker however was its postcode and address navigation system, whereas I guess I enter any postcode and it navigates me there – which is a, very, very useful tool. Finally the last feature that caught my eye was the speed limit warning, letting you know if you are going too fast for the road, and what the current speed of the road your on actually is (a life saver for me and those driving behind me as if I am unsure of what the speed limit is, I tend to slow down to 30).

So there you have it, the one GPS Navigation system that I would really like for Christmas

MP3 Player: The Ipod

It has long been my wish to own one of these fantastic icons of modern consumerism and corporate manipulation of people. However I never really got round to getting one, or changed my mind at the last second. I know how expensive these bastards are but I still want one, if it became a choice between one of these and the aforementioned GPS then the GPS would win hands down, although one of these could prove useful, not that I really absolutely must have one, or even need one. I simply want one, and when I get the money I shall eventually get one – i'm stubborn like that, even if the apple store have shitty DRM, I'm not going to be using it am I? I have plenty of CD's of my own to rip to the sexy little device.

My new Flat

This isn't part of the wish list, just simply a update on my day to day going on's in life. I have recently been invited by my friends who recently married to share an apartment with them – as it works out to be a lot cheaper with three of us and on top of that it's a sodding LUXURY apartment, who in their right mind is going to turn that one down? We are hoping to move in over Christmas which will be amazing, not simply because then we can have a christmas party If all works out fine I shall probably be spending next year there too, awesomeness! Hopfully oneday Camilla can move in