I return!

Been in the new flat in Falkirk for nearly a month now, and everything's beginning to settle down. Aside from fights with the electric company (what kind of company obstructs you from PAYING them??), everything's gone pretty well so far. I started work a week and a half ago, so I'm getting back into the habit of that as well.

I've been playing a lot of Morrowind on the XBox while I've been offline. I never got very far into it before, so I never realised how much fun it was. I want to play it through properly without using the various exploits. Problem is, the way I play it it'll take me forever to get through it. I must rise through the ranks of every organisation, dammit!

Anyway, just a quick post to let everyone know that I haven't fallen off the face of the world. :D

I've been meaning to update here for a few days, but as usual, it's taken me some time to get round to it. It's been a good couple of weeks. I got my degree result back - masters with distinction! After a rather stressful year university wise, it was awesome news. Graduation is on the 25th June. After that, I'll officially no longer be a student, which is a weird thought. I'm getting old.. x_x

Last Friday, the CES students organised a meal out, as a farewell event. It was held at Kublai Khan's in Glasgow's Merchant City. While the mea was kind of expensive (£22 for an all you can eat meal), the restuarant was pretty cool. You pick your noodles/rice and any vegetables you want. Then you pick your meat, some of the choices being things like crocodile or springbok. Afterwards, you pick your sauce ingredients (with recipes suggested). Finally, you hand your concoction over to the chef, who cooks it all on a giant hotplate. Twas fun :)

Then, on Saturday it was Sharp's birthday. After a mess with trains, with delays of about an hour, a group of us headed over to the Time Capsule. I hadn't been there for years. It was fun going back again, and seeing people who I hadn't seen for ages :D

I spent the beginning of this week in Ayr, which was also lots of fun :) I think I've finally fallen to the dark side though, given a certain purchase on Monday.. >>;

I know I'm procrastinating when I actually finish artwork XD. It's always the same - I get flashes of creativity when I should be studying for exams. Anyway, tis my fire-loving blood elf Helias :D

( Clicky )

Four down, one more (ever) to go! :D

So, after an afternoon of studying for my computer security exam, I decided to do a bit of baking. It's not something I do too often, but I do enjoy doing it. I'd been talking for a few days about making oatmeal cookies (which I really love). The problem is, I'd lost the recipe I'd had previously for making them. After a while of trawling about the internet for one that used golden syrup, I finally came across what I was looking for :)

And the results - well, I thought they tasted awesome. I made several batches this afternoon, half with raisins and half without.



So I remember the recipe (since I'll invariably lose my bit of paper), and in case anyone else would like to make them, I'm going to note it down here :) Incidentally, I think the recipe would also work well adding a handful of chopped cherries. I must try that next time.

( Cookie Recipe! )

Why must people insist on using the *only* colour laser printer in the department to print out stacks of black and white emails?

Not only would it be faster and cheaper to print out on the black and white laser right next to it, it would also allow actual colour documents to be printed -_-;

He also used up the last of the colour toner, and systems support is taking its time getting around to fixing it. We should have had the report printed and finished by now...

I've just been thinking recently. I kind of want to code something fun - not something for any kind of university project or class, but something for my own enjoyment. I haven't really programmed anything that I've enjoyed this year, as my project hasn't been much fun. Only problem is, I have no idea what to do. That, and given that exams are coming up I probably shouldn't start on anything. Doesn't stop me considering it though.

Anyone got any ideas?

So, the walk around Cumbrae has been achieved :D We walked 10 and a quarter miles on Sunday for the CF Trust. It was a nice day, thankfully, unlike the first scheduled day, where the ferries got called off due to snow and rain x_x; Now I just need to collect my sponsor money.. >> Does anyone here owe me anything? :-P

While we were on the walk, 312z and Chris were talking about Oblivion. It made me want to play it, and as it happens, Alan had bought it for the 360 when it first came out. So, when I got home, I decided to give it a shot. And it's thoroughly enjoyable. I managed to lose 4 hours on Sunday to the game. I'm playing a Dunmer spellsword. Yay big-ass sword and magic combos :D

Yesterday was Steph's birthday, so I headed into Glasgow around 4-ish and met up with Steph, camtarn, 312z and a friend of Steph's called Will. We headed off to the Xscape centre in Braehead, which is a big complex with an indoor snow slope, aerial assault course, mini golf, shops, restaurants and a cinema among other things. We played a round of mini golf (which was a lot of fun, though I suck at it XD) and then went to Frankie's and Benny's for food, which was very awesome. :D I was supposed to be heading home after that, but ended up in Ayr instead >>; It was a very fun stopover though :)

When we got into Ayr, we noticed a sign for Mugenkyo. Turns out, they're playing in the Gaiety Theatre in Ayr on Thursday 31st May. Tickets are £14 (£12 concession). I think I have the possibility of being called for an oral exam the next day, but it's Mugenkyo and they're awesome. Anyone interested?

So, I've started watchin Heroes lately. It's really rather good - a little cheesy, but it's fun :) I've watched up to episode 5 so far, and I have to say that Hiro Nakamura is awesome. He's hilarious XD. I'm sorely tempted to watch another episode just now, even though I should probably be working on something.

Was over at Ayr last night for 312z's birthday meal. The food was great, and we watched Jackie Chan's Drunken Master afterwards. It's an awesome film, even if it does switch into the english dub in certain parts. My new weapons of the gods character must have the drunken master kung fu style :D

I've also managed to acquire the MST3Ks of Space Mutiny and Puma Man. I haven't watched either yet, but if a bad film night at SURGe is on the cards, then they may be candidates to bring in :D

In other non-film related news, I'm doing a sponsored walk for the CF Trust around Cumbrae on Sunday with along with 312z and a load of other friends and family (as well as a hyper puppy :-P). It's somewhere between 10-12 miles all the way round - it should be fun, but I'm probably going to find out just how unfit I am XD. Between everyone, I think there's been a fair amount of money raised, which is great. One of the pubs in Largs has also offered to raffle a Jack Daniel's guitar this weekend and donate the proceeds. They've also offered to provide food for all the walkers when we come back off of the ferry, which is really nice of them. :)

Now.. off to watch episode 6 work...

Ugh. Why is there always someone on strike towards the end of the university year? These train strikes this week are going to screw me over a bit, mainly since I was planning on doing some project work on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. Ok, so the trains will be running until just after 5, but there's no way everyone's going to be able to fit on the last couple of trains. People don't fit on the peak trains as it is, nevermind when *everyone* has to get on them. -_- So, I'm going to have to leave much earlier than I normally would.

Why can't they strike early in the semester?

So, it's cold, dark and wet outside (and I mean *really* wet). There's something about nights like this that makes it feel so much cosier when you're warm and comfortable inside. I'm just about to start on a few bits of work that I need to do tonight, but I have a laptop, a comfy bed I can use said laptop from and a hot mug of tea. Not to mention awesome fluffy socks :D

There's a lot to be said for owning a portable computer. Plus, when my work is done, I can WoW from bed ^^; (which I fully intend on doing later tonight :-P)

And also, on a totally unrelated note - I think I need some new icons..

...I just bought Rome. Damn you Amazon!!

So, Hot Fuzz. If you haven't seen it yet, then go. Now. Srsly.

Went to see it last night, and it was fantastic. I don't want to go into spoilers, but all of us were laughing our heads off in parts. I'm still undecided as to whether it's better than Shaun of the Dead, but I think it's definitely on a par with it :D Speaking of which, I had been meaning to buy the Shaun of the Dead dvd for a while, and never quite got around to it. I remembered last night, and decided to order it via Amazon.

..I ended up spending £30 altogether on random stuff from the site, although the dvd itself only cost £4. XD Amazon is bad for me, especially if I start looking through recommendations. I've bought enough from the site that its recommendations are generally spot on, so it's rather tempting to buy them. Which, I guess, is exactly what they're trying to achieve, really. Oh well.

( Course stuff )

After lots and lots of signing things, the car has been collected and now sits outside my house :) Managed to get insurance for around £480, which isn't too bad considering I'm under 25, have no claims bonus and have only had a licence for a year and a half. I've parted with rather a lot of money today, but at least everything's sorted out now. :) I think.

I still have no voice though :(

Blah.. I seem to have entirely lost my voice today. I've had a bit of a cold since late Saturday evening - I didn't think it was anything bad though since it wasn't really bothering me at all. Yesterday, my voice was kind of hoarse. I could still speak though, and it wasn't hurting me or anything. Today though, I just can't speak at anything above a whisper, which is really rather annoying. I'm guessing it's this cold I've managed to catch, which is the second I've had in as many weeks. Hopefully it won't last long though and my voice will come back tomorrow :(

So, firstly, Happy New Year to everyone :)

Just got back from Dublin, where I was spending the new year. It was pretty quiet, but we wanted something that was different this year. We were staying in the Dublin airport Hilton, which was not in fact located in the airport. It was actually about 15 minutes away. The hotel was really nice though, which some of the comfiest beds I've ever seen. So comfy, in fact, that my dad barely left his at all yesterday.

So, memorable points:

-Was the only one in my family who got searched at the airport. I must have looked suspicious :(
-Tried Guiness. Didn't like it at all.
-Had the most expensive (and biggest rip-off) breakfast of my life (€19.95 >_< )
-Saw the biggest suitcase ever on sale in Dublin. It was nearly the same height as me and my mum
-Nearly got blown over by storm-force winds returning from the city centre

We didn't get to see much of the city unfortunately, due to everything being close up on New Years Day, and it pouring on Hogmanay when we did decide to have a look around. I'd like to go back again at some point to see it more - probably in the summer. It looks like a really nice city :D

The last few days have been made of sheer awesomeness :D I'll update properly later, but I just wanted to say that ^^;;

Well, just finished cutting my Lucy wig for Auchi. It was a lot easier (and faster) than styling the Soi Fong wig, which took an age. It helps that it's supposed to be a choppy, messy cut so I didn't need to worry too much about being straight or anything like that. The only thing I had to worry about was trying to get a relatively natural looking cut.

Nearly had a panic when I tried it on though, as I thought at first that it was too short at the back. But when I compared it to the reference pictures, it was just about the right length. Just as well too. If I'd messed up the wig, I'd have been kind of screwed for Auchi cosplay x_x; I've had the wig for months too - I should have cut it much earlier.

( Pictures under cut :D )

I've done something terrible... I've made the mistake of getting Phoenix Wright the week I have a lot of coursework to do >_<. Of course, I'd heard all the hype and stuff about it from people that play it, but I didn't realise it was quite so horribly addictive. It's absolutely awesome, but now I need to keep off of it while I write my reports for this week x_x; It doesn't help that Auchi is at the end of the week, so I need to be done for Wednesday. I do have Tuesday and Wednesday off this week though, so I have a good amount of time to work on them.

Nearly got my cosplay ready for Auchinawa too. I was intending to have a lot more ready - 2 or 3 costumes, but with everything that's gone on, it kind of got pushed to the back of my mind over the last few months. Ah well, I should at least have one ready, and I might have the others done for Minami. I'm looking forward to the weekend though. It should be loads of fun :D

Now... I need to stop procrastinating and get back to work x_x;

You know, I think I've managed to get soaked every day for about a week and a half now -_-; I know it's November and all, but surely there could be at least *one* day where it doesn't pour down. It was dry when I left the house this morning. By the time I reached the train station fifteen minutes later, I felt like someone had poured a very large bucket of water over me.

I need to start carrying a towel in my bag or something x_x; Damn Scottish weather.