Not even worth titling properly

Well, I managed to get some work done at least. It wasn't much but it was a (very late) start. My plans have now shifted to a combination of Maths and Computing tomorrow, then panicking for Maths on Thursday.


I really have completed wasted my day. I flicked through some notes, played some more Mass Effect*... and that's about it really. I've no idea where the time's gone.

I suppose my lack of concentration isn't helped by the fact that my wound has been acting up a bit, making it very uncomfortable to sit in my chair. And my neck still hurts. There's not really anywhere else in the house I can go to be undisturbed, or to sit in a comfier chair and be undisturbed. In fact, my brother's started making a habit of coming into my room to play TimeSplitters, so even my inner sanctum can get noisy without my own intervention.


Aaargh. It seems like the more I think about my day, the more depressed I get and the more my head and neck hurt. Maybe this is stress. Or some other kind of psycho-babble. I don't really care at this point.

I'm calling this a crappy post and going to bed.

Have a nice day.








*I really need to stop playing that for the next week or so. Maybe I should do what I did with my iMac's power cable before the last exams and just tell my sister to hide it so it can't distract me.

Very little to say, thus very little said

Once again, time is not on my side. Once again, that's entirely my fault.

I really don't have much to say... It seems like all my posts lately have been fairly lacklustre and concerned with my general activities and the various misfortunes that have befallen me, primarily my hospital trips. At least those are getting closer to an end. Possibly not before by birthday on Thursday but I'm hoping that I won't have to make any more trips on the weekend.

Speaking of my birthday, I have no idea what I'll be getting. I've given some suggestions to my parents and I know I'm getting an Eee PC but I've left it all so late that I have no idea what I'll actually be getting on the day. Strange thought that, and kind of depressing.

And now I'm basically out of ideas. I could go on about homework and revision I've not done but, if I'm not interested in it, I expect that no one else will be. Not that I'm sure if anyone would read it anyway. I really need to remember to ask Skippy about those visitor numbers this time.

In the immortal words of Porky Pig, “th-th-th-that's all, folks”.

Nothing Worth Saying

There's nothing quite like getting out of bed at noon and having a breakfast of a bar of chocolate to start the day.

While I did greatly enjoy sleeping in for the first time in ages, it did remind me why I used to hate it in the first place – it totally throws off my day so I don't get any work done.

So now I have to do all of my homework tomorrow as well as rearrange my room. I'll be moving my iMac to the other desk because this one has been making my shoulder hurt like hell for the past week or so.

Bah. Enough whining.


Nothing much else going on today. Went to PC World to see if they had any Eee PCs in stock, with no success. Looks like I'll end up ordering one online, which means it'll probably arrive more than a week after my birthday.


I really don't think I have anything else to say... I'm tempted to make this my first “crappy post” (as their tagged) in a while now. Well, the first one I've tagged as such.

I'm whining again, aren't I?

Nuts to it. I was trying to find something to link to here but I can't seem to come up with anything...

Here's a neat search engine.

Have a nice day.

Another annoyingly short post

I realised immediately after publishing last night that I'd missed yet another chance to make a reference to The 300. Curses.


So today's come and gone. I've left today's post too late again, though so I'll have to hurry. Not that that's unusual but you know what I mean. Maybe.

Anyway, saw my cousins today. Gave the little ones their presents – Hamish seemed to really like his Doctor Who set but he didn't get to play it as it needs 12, I repeat, 12 triple A batteries and Tristan loved his Airzooka. He doesn't quite have enough strength to work it properly without someone bracing it and something to hold on to, but he loves it all the same.

My day was otherwise occupied by various mundane activities – trying out the Spaces feature in Leopard (very useful), replaying Half Life 2: Ep. 2 with the developer commentary turned on (very interesting, particularly for a trivia and tech info glutton such as myself), finishing season 3 of House (very entertaining), starting season 4 of House (also very entertaining, though I've only watched half an episode thus far) and a whole load of other unproductive things.

You know what? It's been a long but dull day, my arm seems to have developed an allergy to my desk and I want to go to bed. So that's what I'm going to do.

Here's a funny picture of something recreated in LEGO. Have a nice day.

You really don't want to read this.

One of the first things you learn upon having a large wound dressing being put over your ass is that, despite the ridiculous number of synonyms for “evacuating your bowels” there are in the English language, very, very few are appropriate for discussion with you doctor.


Well, I apparently need to go to bed now so I don't have time for a long post. Well, I do but I'm not being allowed it by my mother, who seems to think that 20 minutes of sitting on it instead of lying on it will make my now-removed pilonidal sinus turn into exploding cancer or something.

I really hate doing posts when I'm angry, particularly if I did have something interesting to say before. Okay, so I could blame myself for not doing this earlier in the day, but let's face it, I figured I'd have time now. I planned to do it now. My mother coming into my room and repeating the same bloody points about sleep being good and bleeding copiously being bad for ten* minutes interfered with those plans.

This is why I hate doing posts while angry. Everything I type sounds whiny or irrelevant and like it should be yelled in a nasally voice by someone covered in spots while they run upstairs to their room to cut themselves and listen to music written by people who think they're vampires.

And now I'm getting so ridiculously stressed that I'm actually having trouble breathing. I had no problems like this before but one conversation with my mother, in so far as one person standing in a doorway and shouting at another person can be considered conversation, and I'm near hyper-ventilating. Any second now, she's going to... she just came in through the door and started complaining again.


I'm ending this now while I still have my sanity. I apologise to anyone who sat and read through that. I don't even have time to proofread it, let alone edit it for any kind of tone other than angry and whiny. Like I said, I hate trying to write anything when I'm angry. As always, I'll try to have something better for tomorrow. Possibly even the post that I would have been writing now if I hadn't been chased off to get an extra 20 minutes sleep. And I'll probably not even get that, considering that being ridiculously angry and stress is hardly a state conductive to restfulness.

That's it.





*In my opinion, I am showing incredible self restraint by not putting a swear word here.

Nothing Much

So, right now, I'm looking up possible Christmas presents. Is it really that time of year again?


You know, I think I truly have nothing to say. Today was just an average day. We tidied the common room only because failing to do so would result in [insert dramatic music here] consequences. I did a Maths test. We accidentally discovered that the Street Fight EX 2 Plus character Sharon can use a gun. Almost nothing happened in computer club, other than me slightly tweaking a Game Maker game I've been working on each week.

Nothing particularly profound or even particularly interesting happened, as far as I can recall. It was just an ordinary day.

I like ordinary days.

Other people might prefer to do something special or go on a holiday every once in a while to get away from ordinary days, finding them boring. My view on this is that if you find your ordinary days boring, you should change what you do on an ordinary day.

Like most philosophies, it might not hold up brilliantly under close inspection but it works well enough for me.

I'm really just rambling now, making short statements that seem impressive until you think about them. Well, maybe they do. I wouldn't know since I'm not really thinking of them. I'm also trying a little trick of adding a small, single sentence paragraph after some of my longer ramblings in order to add weight to the final statement.

I learned that from Higher English.


So anyway, the throbbing in the back of my head seems to be trying to tell me that I should go to bed. I'll see what I can do about having something more to show for tomorrow's post. Maybe I'll do some more fiction writing. You'll just have to wait and see.

Have a nice day.

Two days ago was SPARTA!!!!

With any luck, this time tomorrow I'll have an iPhone. My whole plan of hanging around in Ayr with Sam and Skippy has kind of gone bad, after we realised that none of us want to wait outside in gale force winds and biting cold. So, I should still be getting one... I just don't know how, precisely. I'll figure it out.


So anyway, two days ago was the 300th post on TWToday and I'm annoyed that I missed the obvious gag, hence the title today. The day before that was also my 250th post and I didn't mention that either.

You know what? I'm really sorry and all, but I'm talking to someone on MSN as well as trying to do Computing revision and I consider both of them more important than this. So... here's a funny link to something funny that I haven't decided on at the time of writing.

I'm calling this a crappy post and then going back to my sorting algorithms. The title should have been enough for you.

Have a nice day, all 15 minutes that's left of it.

iPhones, etc.

Tuesday's aren't my best day. The lessons aren't anything too hard and I have about half the day off (more if you count lunch) but my sister has art club after school, so I have to hang around in Ayr with my mum for an hour or so and then sit in the car while we also take home my sister's friend.

This is a surprisingly tiring experience and it throws off my whole daily routine. Which is bad.

On the bright side, I got to go into an O2 shop and find out some details about the iPhone. It's going on sale at 2 minutes past 6 on Friday evening and I'll hopefully be in the queue to buy one, possibly along with Sam and Skippy. And one of my parental units wielding a credit card.

But like I said, Tuesday is not my most productive day and I didn't get much sleep last night, so I'm going to find some funny stuff to link to then call it a night.

I've been reading more reviews at the Agony Booth and this look at Alone in the Dark has had me in stitches several times. Which, as anyone who knows me will tell you, is no easy thing to do.

Also, here's a funny trailer that some guys put together for a Contra movie. Have I linked to this before? Never mind. Just watch it again.

And here's a nice summary of Google's new Android mobile phone platform. I was dismayed when no one at school had heard of this the day after it was annunced.

That's about it. I'm going to post this now (assuming Blogger is being more co-operative than it was yesterday) and then go back to concentrating on a conversation I'm having with Sam about his dream Volkswagen camper van.


Slightly later edit: Although yesterday's post was up when I looked last night, it isn't there now and Blogger is apparently refusing to publish to some FTP servers. However, I do have a post written and I'll take a screenshot as proof, as I did last night. Hopefully the maintenance will be completed overnight and I can republish everything in the morning.

Too... wow, I've started a lot of titles with the word "too"

My parents were having their annual fireworks party tonight so I got stuck dealing with various people that I don't know and didn't like talking to very much. Fortunately, they all left me alone after a while so Sam and I just sat around doing our usual thing – viewing Flash cartoons, discussing anime and watching The Best of the Muppet Show, Volume 1.

Unfortunately, that took a while and now it's half past 11 and I haven't really got anything written. Now, I need to go eat cereal for 10 minutes (don't ask, it's a weird habit and a long story) so I'll finish this as best I can when I get back and just post it as is. Even if I mention Weebl and Bob or that Weird Al movie that I keep meaning to get on DVD, I won't even bother to add in my usual hyperlinks to the text, as much as it may pain me not to do so.

And I'm back. I always think that that's a really weird thing to do, considering you have no way of knowing how long, or even if, I was actually gone. Maybe one of these days I'll say that I'm going to take a break and then just keep writing so that you'll think I took time away when in fact I just wrote everything at once.

Or maybe I won't. Because that's a terrible idea and it's way too late at night for me to trust anything that I think of. So, as I always do at the end of these posts, I'm going to bed. If you're really lucky, I might bother to do some basic formatting before uploading this. No promises.

Krazy Klocks

Have you ever just sat still and listened to the air whistling through your left nostril? I'd recommend against it; it really is very, very boring.


You know my whole strategy of not having any homework and taking the weekend off to play video games? Kind of backfired at around 6pm today when a couple of unrelated IM convos reminded me that I had Physics homework to do and that I hadn't filled in some form for my university application that I said I would fill in.

So, I'm mildly screwed.

On the bright side, I get time off school tomorrow since I've got a doctor's appointment before lunch and there's no point in going back because I just have free periods after that. Unfortunately, I would actually quite like to be in school because it means that I can just sit around and kick ass at Street Fighter.

You know, I think that's all I have for today? It's not even 11 o'clock yet and normally I'd just put this off, adding little bits here and there until I had about 400 semi-coherent words but, since today is clock changin' day, it feels like it ought to be midnight. It was a nice surprise when I turned on the iMac after looking at my clock and thought that time had wound back by an hour, but it turned out that I hadn't installed Leopard in my sleep and now it's catching up to me.

So I'll leave you with one last link. I recommend not watching this before you go to bed because it will haunt your nightmares, especially if you liked any of the Gundam animes. In fact, even if you don't like them, or have never even heard of them, it'll still make you die a little on the inside. Ladies and gentlemen, I present Doozy Bots. It doesn't even deserve my usual bold formatting for titles. Check Wikipedia (I refuse to link to the article) if, for some reason, you want to know more about its origins and its ultimate fate. I suspect that both begin with “H” and rhyme with “bell”.

Also, I've just remembered that I have a Computing test tomorrow morning. Crud.

Why don't any spell checkers think that "combust" is a word?

Well, the trip to St Andrews was very interesting and informative. I got to know the town a bit better and learned a lot about the university itself. I also got to see the computer science building and meet some of the staff there – everything seems to be well-equipped and the staff are very friendly. They had a room full of iMacs that would have made Skippy spontaneously combust with joy.

I'll probably discuss that more at some other point. Or maybe I won't. My track record indicates the latter, but I certainly haven't got the time now. I had to get up at 6:30 this morning and I've been either stuck in a car or walking around St Andrews for most of the day, so I'm pretty damned tired. And I've got a headache too, probably related to the lack of sleep.

The journey there and back did end up taking about 3 hours each way. Of course, on the way back, we had to drop Sam off somewhere in Glasgow to see a play as part of his AH English. And, also of course, he had no idea where or when he was meant to be dropped off. This resulted in an awful lot of phone calls being made as Sam tried to contact somebody who might be able to give him the phone number of one of the people he actually needs to talk to.

It eventually all worked out but I didn't get home till after six o'clock, by which time my headache had already set in, so I've done none of the homework that I really need to do... Screw it. I'm going to bed.

Have a nice day. More tomorrow. Etcetera.

Another short post undeserving of a capitalised title

So that discussion of the TV Links debacle (yes, NeoOffice, it is a word) that I mentioned yesterday and was planning to do today? Seems like it's not gonna happen.

My excuse is thus: a visit to St Andrews University decided to creep up on me. This involves getting up ridiculously early and then having a nice, long (approx. 3 hours), boredom-filled drive up the road to St Andrews. There's then a tour around the halls of residence, etc., and then a big long gap until Sam and I attend a Computer Science lecture for half an hour. Then we leave.

So I've got to get to bed and I have little else to say. I'm also in a bad mood, for some fairly obvious reasons, and some other, less obvious ones.

But you know what always cheer me up? Star Trek parodies of inspirational posters! Go on. Have a look, they're funny.

And that's it from me. I should have more to say tomorrow but there's no way of knowing how tired/annoyed I'll be when I get back from St Andrews.


Oh, and here's a trailer for a rather weird looking animated movie based on the Turok games. I remember the original Turok. Never owned it, but I played it at a friend's. I recall there being more fog.

Not one of my best

You know what I want? A pencil sharpner. One of those ones that clamps to the side of the desk and you stick the pencil in and then turn a handle and it sharpens it. Maybe an electric one. I don't know why, I just vaguely remembered having one at some point, or maybe just using it a lot in school or something, and wanted one.

Well, Christmas is coming.


As is school. School is coming tomorrow, in fact. Unfortunately... well, I've not done a lot of the work I set out to do. I haven't updated The Grey Line (I really should stop linking to that), I haven't written much more fiction... I've barely even played any of the games I set out to play. I've even fallen way behind Sam on Phantom Hourglass.

And then there was my homework... yeah. I'm further along with Sam Potter's peer evaluation, the most important thing I had to do, but I'm going to make some notes and talk it over with him tomorrow. That's probably allowed. Maybe.

Also, I didn't do a woodle yesterday. I'd do a Stick Guys one now, but I kind of need to get some stuff ready for school. Well, I need to pack various games consoles since I'm the one who handles half of that stuff. At least I can do something useful.

So, I'm gonna call this a “crappy post”, my term for hurriedly made posts that I don't really like that you may have heard of if you read the topic tags at the bottom of such posts, and then go do that stuff then go to bed.

I may be a terrible blogger sometimes, but at least I acknowledge it.

This post never really had a chance

I'm making an effort to get this post done earlier than usual (around 7pm) for several reasons: I feel I can put more effort into them if I'm not under time constraints, I need to get to bed earlier (woke up at 11am again today) and Blogger's having an outage around the time when I normally post.

That last one's probably the biggest factor.

I've actually been a little distracted now, what with having to go and eat and then read some funny stuff on the internet. It's still kind of early though.

You know, it's kind of hard to concentrate on writing something coherent when someone's playing Halo 3 in the background.

It gets even harder when you're the one playing Halo 3, which is what I've been doing for the past half hour or so now. Ah, well. If you can't beat 'em...


So, preamble aside, what have I got for today?

First, another video of Will Wright demo-ing Spore. The more I see of this game, the more I want it. The more I want to build my own gaming rig just so I can play it in my bedroom. Then I realise that by the time it comes out, I may well be heading off to university, at which point I reconsider and start wanting to buy a nicely spec'd laptop that can handle it.


Okay, you remember how I said I was doing this early and that it was about 7 o'clock then? Course you do, as far as you're concerned, it was just a few paragraphs ago. Well, for me, that was over 3 hours ago. So I need to get this wrapped up and posted and then go back to reading a rather fascinating article on the development of Donkey Kong Country in Retro Gamer writing some more important stuff.

Stuff that doesn't have a time limit on it. Like the 20 minute time limit I have on this, because Blogger is about to go down for maintenance. Sure, it is just meant to be 10 minutes of downtime. But it may well be that Blogger and I have different definitions of “10”, as has been shown before, in similar planned outages.

So I'm calling it quits for tonight and heading off to bed. No, seriously. I mean it this time. I've wasted too much of today so I'm just going to get some sleep and make a fresh start tomorrow. Why would I lie about that?

Oh, yeah. The lazy unreliable jerk thing. Nuts to that. I'm tired.

And would someone, probably someone with no life whatsoever, mind counting up how many times I've mentioned that I'm tired or rounded off blog posts by saying that I'm going to bed since I started this endeavour? I'm just curious.

Thanks, much appreciated. You weirdo.

Third Time Lucky

Damn it! Third try. I keep running out of time. So I'm making this short and summarising in a few sentences what I would have put in the larger posts. I still intend to do them, so think of it as a preview or a teaser blog.

I think professional footballers should be punished.

I hate inter-house debating.

Halo 3 is awesome.

Sports are not.

I haven't had time to write any of The Grey Line tonight. Apologies.

I will have more time to write it because it is now the half-term holidays.

I'll also try to restart the VersusCOM podcast during that time, particularly if my parents head off to Edinburgh for a few nights, giving me some free time.


That's about it. I'm going to post this now. More tomorrow, when I'll talk about the interesting things that happened today. And maybe a woodle. Who knows.

Have a nice day, sorry to have robbed you of the 3 seconds you spent reading this when you could have been enjoying yourself.

Too hurried to think of a decent title

There's something deeply satisfying about going into my Blogger Dashboard and seeing Corbett's Fiction, a little tag saying “4 posts” underneath it, at the top of the list, the latest of my blogs to be updated. The MacTake has been on the bottom for a while now. I'll get round to that sometime soon.

But not tonight. I said I'd be online to play some friends at Halo 3 but didn't manage it, partly because I left some homework too late (some of which I still have to do) and partly because I was watching the fourth season première of Stargate Atlantis. It was a good episode and it's fun to have something to watch once a week again. I can do this with the 'Gate series because they start showing in the UK just a few weeks after the US and that means we catch up and surpass the Americans while they're hanging around at that mid-season hiatus thing.

I remember when SG-1 ended and various geek sites on the internet were hyping it and lamenting it. During all the buzz about the final episode, I was just thinking that I really should get round to watching it. It had been saved on the DVR for weeks.

Anyway, I've just been reminded of some other homework that I need to go and do, so I'm cutting this short. I'll probably still end up having to do half of it at school tomorrow, which will be difficult for various reasons. One, someone is bringing in a 360 for a Halo 3 marathon (technically, just to play Halo 3, but you know it'll never even be switched off) and two, the table I usually work at in the study room has been stolen.

We really don't know where it's gone. Someone took it for some school function and it never showed up again. Since one table is covered with games console stuff, that really limits the working space in the study room. And I don't have time tomorrow to lead a crusade to recover it because I'll be too busy stealing a little patch of table and scribbling down answers for Computing homework.

I really need to stop being so damned lazy about schoolwork. And I really need to get that fracking table back.

Things I should be doing instead of this post:

1. Finishing redrafting my personal statement
2. Fiddling around with an old NES that I plan to take into school
3. Studying for the Computing test I have first lesson tomorrow
4. Sleeping

And yet, here I am, clearly not doing any of those things. I figure I'll probably get the NES repaired before I go to bed, or maybe I'll just take it in as is and deal with it in a study period. After my Computing test.

I really have very little else to say today. I know, I know, I need to do these things earlier and with a clearer goal in mind. That could be said about most things in life, but I've been saying it about TWToday posts since... well, pretty much since I started doing this thing. I'll get back on track eventually.

Actually, I've not really left the track. I'm just going along it kind of slowly, swerving from side to side and not really paying attention to the road because I'm too busy over-thinking metaphors.

But that's beside the point. A few other things before I go:

I know Skippy will be reading this. So I'm telling him to go and either come up with a post here or at the MacTake. If he does it here, he should try for a New Word Thursday.

Speaking of semi-dead, semi-regular features, I need to come up with a woodle for Saturday. Don't let me forget.

I've just discovered that the new series of Stargate Atlantis is due to start soon. I still need to watch the end of the last series. I'll probably just end up watching it the whole way through again. Similar situation with House.


And that's about it. As always, have a nice day; I'm going to bed. Also, I'll take any excuse to use a semi-colon.

Forbidden Planet > University

I can't decide if today's trip to Edinburgh University's open day was a waste of time or not. On the one hand, the presentation we were given was fairly interesting and I got to see the area a little. On the other hand, I'd pretty much already decided to go to Edinburgh (as a first choice for applications) anyway, based on my previous knowledge of the city and it's excellent reputation for Computer-related courses.

I'd have to say that the best thing about the day was just passing the time before and after the lecture with Skippy (you remember Skippy – the guy who technically co-writes this blog?), Sam and Jimerson. After we'd heard the lecture we decided to go to lunch rather than having a tour of the building or seeing anything else. Everyone else had something at KFC and I just skipped that particular meal.

Actually, I'd just like to say something about being hungry right now. Being hungry is fairly unpleasant. Getting something to eat after feeling mildly hungry for several hours is one of the best feelings in the world. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog post.

We saw someone with a Forbidden Planet bag and ended up wandering around for 15 minutes trying to find that. When we did, we spent at least half an hour in it. I think we spent more time in there than we did in the lecture hall. After a long car journey home, we spent the rest of the day discussing school and playing Halo 3.

The biggest problem here is that Sam, the last to go, didn't leave until 9 o'clock, when I still hadn't read my daily webcomics or done any of my usual day-to-day routine. Which is why I'm writing this at half past 11.

I'd like to say more but I don't really have the time.

I think the biggest thing I got from the experience was the ability to say that, yes, I've been to a university open day and blah, blah, blah. Apparently, I also need to go to one in St Andrews and Glasgow. I haven't the faintest idea why the second is so important, since I have no wish at all to go to either of the two universities in Glasgow. No particular reason, I just don't.

I'm beginning to really hate this whole university thing. As always, I may discuss it more at a later date, since I'm too tired and tight for time to do it now. Probably not tomorrow, since I have to do revision, homework and the first draft of my university application personal statement. And maybe a peer review for a friend who's applying for college in America. If I find the time, I'll probably focus on Corbett's Fiction more than anything else.

I always seem to end posts nowadays with something along the lines of “have a nice day” or “I'm going to bed now”, don't I?

Universities and so on

It's been a long day. I suspect tomorrow is going to be longer. To be honest, I just want to go to Edinburgh, listen to a lecture about studying Computer Science and then go home. I really don't care about information booths detailing student life and seeing the halls of residence. Actually, I've already seen the accommodation, when my brother lived in it.

I am incredibly apathetic about this whole university. I've basically made my choices already, I just want to get the paperwork out of the way and move on, enjoying my last year of school and getting on with all the other stuff I want to do.

But, no, my parents are insisting that I visit all these open days and collect as much information as I can... I think I've really gone into whiny teenage blogger mode now. At a tangent, and to inject some humour, does anyone else think that Whiny Teenage Mutant Bloggers would be an awesome TV show? Okay, so I don't either. I was just testing you.

Anyway, the whole thing just bugs me on some level... I might try explaining it tomorrow, after I've been, probably with a slightly more balanced view. For tonight, I need to get to bed. I also need to tidy a single small section of my floor for some obscure reason, as decreed by my mother.


I'm doing far too many short posts these days, aren't I?


One final note. You know what's great? When people leave the copyright warnings on videos they've ripped and posted on the net. You just have to love that attitude.

I'm Sick and I'm Tired

Please, please, please, tell me that I'm not falling ill the day before Halo 3 comes out.

No, I'm fairly sure I'm getting ill. Headache, sore chest, tiredness... definitely symptoms of illness. And I've just remembered I've got a Maths test tomorrow (very easy stuff but still) and I need to do a presentation on using Audacity in Computing club during lunch.

I reckon I'll just have to wing it.

That's really all I can stand to do right now. I'm going to bed. Seriously, this time. Don't expect much out of me tomorrow, either due to illness or Halo-ness.

Have a nice day. Somebody has to, to keep the balance.

Bleh.

As I said I was going to do yesterday, I spent last night at a friend's house after a party of his. Despite only going to bed at about 2:30 – still significantly earlier than everyone else, from what I can gather – I actually got a relatively good night's sleep.

Still, it wasn't great and I do want to get to bed so I think I'll keep this short again. Not as short as yesterday's but don't expect any essays.


Okay, it's about 20 minutes later and I've just remembered that I'm still writing this. I probably should have written it earlier, as always, but I didn't have any urgent homework or much else to do, so I figured I'd take the day off.

Actually, time seems to just be flying by now. Ever since the summer holidays, 8 weeks of glorious free time, weekends seem pretty darned insignificant. It maybe doesn't help that I've been doing various irregular activities this weekend, but it definitely doesn't feel like Sunday night at all. I feel like I could stay up longer and just lie in tomorrow before doing my homework. But I can't because tomorrow is Monday. Admittedly, I have all of one lesson on Mondays, but I still have extra work to do during my free periods.

I still haven't found the time to write up anything for my fiction blog. Not even an introduction. I may try doing that in school tomorrow, depending on how busy the common room gets.

...

You know what? The whole “going to bed at 2:30” thing is really starting to catch up to me now, so I'm going to call it a night. Normally, I'd promise something super special awesome for tomorrow's 200th post but, honestly, I promise nothing.

Actually, I've had a rather amusing chunk of dialogue in my head for a while now that involves the phrase “I promise nothing”. And no, you can't see it now.

Since it's becoming my catchphrase and I have nothing more conclusive to say, have a nice day.

Hey, that sorta rhymes.

And that was sorta conclusive. As is this.

Warning: This post is terrible. Don't read it.

I've decided I'm going to do another one of my blogging throughout the day posts, since they're relatively easy and I've got some other stuff I want to focus on today. It's 11:08 right now, just for reference. I've been talking with my brother, whose interest in photography led him to the Canon Outlet on eBay, from where you can also get cheaper-than-average refurbished camcorders, so I may finally get round to buying one soon, if Mum can be nagged into giving Erin and I a budget.

Is it my imagination or were there a huge number of commas in that paragraph?


12:05 and I'm rewatching Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Movie. No idea why.


I'm looking through the Argos catalogue, ostensibly to find a toy for my little cousin's birthday. Some sort of gun was recommended. This brings back a lot of memories and also makes me want to buy the Potato Head version of Optimus Prime.


Just opened up Mario Strikers Charged. Both the Argos catalogue and new games have a distinct smell. I like new game smell. I think it's from some kind of addictive substance they put in the boxes to force me to keep buying games.

Love that smell. Kinda creepy.


In games, why are the instructions always stuck in at the back of the bundle of leaflets, after all the adverts and warranties and stuff? That always bugs me.

I can't believe I'm doing a running commentary on me opening a game box.


THIS IS GOING TO WIND UP (sorry, caps lock) being a really long and pointless post isn't it?

And I still haven't done this week's woodle yet. I was hoping to have something interesting but I'll just do a Stick Guys after lunch.


Wow. It just started bucketing down outside. I hate Scottish weather.


Played more of Red Steel a while ago. I can't believe I only got up to the 2nd level of that game before. It might not be a masterpiece but I think it deserves more attention than that. Of course, this means I haven't played Mario Strikers Charged yet.


Eating ice cream, blog later.


You know how I've been selling that Axim on eBay? I won't link to it because by the time I put this up the auction will (hopefully) be done anyway but some of the spam questions I've been getting about it are hilarious. I just got one vaguely promising to give me an "Iphone (4G)" "because our VIP member". It ends "best regards," then gives no name. Bizarre.

The second message is similar (same style of username as well - stream of letters then a random number) and offers me an "IPHONE" (keep trying guys, you'll get the capital letters in the right place eventually) and a "20G PS3". I can apparently get this if I spend more than €699 at a website that I won't name. Suffice it to say that the URL spells "bargain" wrong.

Who do spammers actually catch out with this crap?


There's another Final Fanatsy Retrospective episode out on Joystiq. I've recommended the series before but I'm not watching this one since I want at least some of the plot (that which I haven't picked up from the numerous internet references I've seen over the years) left for when I buy it, which I intend to do soon.


I think I might have given up on Red Steel now. A few too many "I'm walking into a room... and now I'm dead" moments coupled with some "Who the hell is shooting at me?!" moments do not a good FPS make. Still, I can now at least say that I gave it a shot (pun not intended).


There's half an hour till that eBay auction for my Axim finishes. I think I'll go play Strikers Charged or something instead of sitting here, clicking refresh.


Interesting. The clock on my Wii appears to be just a few minutes faster than all my other clocks, hence why I'm back up here before the auction finishes. Actually, I must have stopped playing Strikers with about a minute to spare. Go internal clock!

I did however miss a bid for something else that I wanted. Oh, well. It's a Buy It Now that'll probably be relisted anyway.


And I think my Axim auctions over. No buyers, far as I can see.

Yep, 1 unsold. Ah, well. I guess I'll lower the asking price a bit and relist it.


And that's that done. Now, I really ought to sort out some of the other crap I intend to sell.


I've completely forgotten about this now. And I never did that Stick Guys that I thought I would do.


I'm half-tempted to just cull half the stuff on here and try to make a coherent post out of what's left but I won't because that would be cheating. I'll reread it and, if warranted (which it probably will be), I'll stick it under "crappy posts".

I'll try to have something better for tomorrow. But, then again, I always say that. And I'm fairly sure that I haven't been improving, day in, day out, so I'm probably lying. Ho hum.

Bah. Headache. Probaby Superman's fault.

Nothing much to say today. I've got a serious headache which has probably been exacerbated by spending a couple of hours sitting in my room, inhaling stale oxygen, and watching Yu-Gi-Oh - The Abridged Series with Sam and Erin. I linked to it either yesterday or the day before and I can't be bothered doing it again. Scroll down, you lazy bums.

You know what else I can't be bothered doing tonight? Discussing how this is the 201st TWToday post.

So I won't.


Like I said, nothing very much to say. Sam and I have started poking around in that big retro bundle and he's currently busy trying to achieve his new life's goal of making a SNES Game Doctor SF II work.

We, along with Erin, also tried playing Superman 64. I apologise, I should rephrase that. We placed in my N64 a cartridge with a picture of Superman on it (no title) and manipulated the controls in such a way that a representation of Superman on the TV screen performed various actions that approximately corresponded to the relevant action performed upon the controller. You can't really "play" Superman 64 in the same way that you can't really "play" a Medieval torture chamber.

More on that later, I think, when I get access to a better capture card. But not much more. It's like radiation: there are government regulations stating how much exposure you can have to it in a year. The only reason that the developers are still alive is that no one has had the stomach to make it to the end credits and identify the culprits.

I didn't get a woodle up yesterday and I haven't got one for today. I might be able to put one together for tomorrow. I warn you though, it might be a Stick Guys.


And so, without further ado, I leave you with this thought:

In a fight between Wesley Crusher and Adric, who would win lose the least?

Can't blog, giant robots.

I'm doing a mini-post for today, since I had allowed some time to do a woodle and a longer post (the 200th post on TWToday) but the opportunity has just arisen to go and see Transformers with some friends, so I'm going to do that instead. Which means that, if I get this post up and a woodle tonight, I'll have to do any celebratory stuff on the 202nd post...

Meh. Giant robots FTW.

I'll put this up as a draft for now, so that I can post it if I get back too late to do anything else before midnight.

If I do that, I apologise for my lack of planning and direct you to watch this YouTube video. I warn you, there is much swearing.

I'm just adding this line so that there's a scroll bar on the text entry box. That makes me feel marginally better.


Nuts to it, I'm publishing this. Might edit it later, probably won't.


It's later now, about 20 to midnight. I've seen the film and I will now list the pros and cons:

Cons: Incoherent plot, too many human characters getting in the way of the robots, ridiculous misuse of computers and computer technology.

Pros: Giant fighting robots, giant fighting robots, giant fighting robots, giant fighting robots, giant fighting robots, giant fighting robots, giant fighting robots, giant fighting robots.

Overall, a nice way to pass the time and switch off your brain. Provided you like giant fighting robots. And know nothing of how computers and/or logic work.

Also, never, ever go to the cinema with Sam Stafford. Who stood up and clapped at the end of the film.

The elusive house spider is a highly-prized catch for a seasoned hunter...

I really liked The Simpsons Movie. (I never know whether to capitalise that "the"; I know it probably should be like that, it just looks weird). Maybe it could have been better but it had some great moment and that brilliant mix of humour, intelligence and emotion that has kept the franchise running for 20 years.

One thing that's bugging me about it though is that Sam, Erin and I are convinced that there was one line, fairly early on, that reminded all of us of Doctor Who. We don't think it was a particular reference, just a single line, but none of us can recall exactly what it was. The obvious solution is to go and see it again. Or wait for it to show up online, if it even exists.

But overall, a great way to spend a few hours, even if it has its flaws. To be honest, I would have gone just to see Homer riding a motorbike around a giant glass dome, but maybe that's just me.


Despite having two days with which to work on them (at least), Sam and I have made little progress on refurbishing the NESi. This is largely due to the many distractions that surround us; Sam, for instance, is deeply engrossed in writing a BASIC program on my Amstrad that will draw a version of the TARDIS similar to that done in Logopolis. His lack of simple mathematical skill has hindered progress somewhat.

For my excuse, I've been busy... playing Tetrisphere? It's a rather odd version of Tetris (it was originally another game altogether before a swift bout of rebranding led to it becoming the sole member of the 3D branch of the Tetris family) for the N64 that I recently got from eBay, as part of my never-ending quest to play all versions of Tetris in existence.


I feel obliged to have some kind of comedy sketch or something here since I've done very little except these diary style entries over the past few days. So....


Yeah. I've got nothing. I've just spent the last 10 minutes spider hunting behind my bed. I found a huge web and one that had clearly been there for ages but I didn't find the big one that I know fell back there. Saw it briefly but it got away. Caught another in a different part of my room. I'm now going to post this, regardless of its lack of content or coherence, and rekindle the hunt... until everyone else goes to bed and I can no longer suck them up with the Dustbuster.

This post is dull. You have been warned. You will be exterminated.

Update on Skippy's white screen o' death: he found a few fixes none of which he could get to work owing to a lack of necessary equipment (which, in one case, was owing to his own lack of common sense) so he's contacted Apple and they're sending a repair guy out to see what can be done. The bonus here is that this has prompted him to do a few more posts at the MacTake, where you can find the full story. It's also reminded me that I need to deal with my malfunctioning Mighty Mouse, either with an even more vigorous scrubbing or with a call to Apple for a replacement.

Speaking of things I need to do, you remember that to do list I made last Friday? Of course, you don't. Neither did I until right now, therefore I've done practically nothing on it. I've handled some minor stuff like cleaning up Deneb's hard drive, finding my old PDA's software discs and writing some sketches but beyond that...

Oh, well. I guess stuff has just kept coming up and so on and so forth. I've already written at length about my habit of procrastination and I'm not going to do so again.


I've got nothing much to say. Still reading through all the stuff on Agony Booth, which is taking a while. Got to catch up on Girl Genius now that the 101 section has caught up with the Advanced Class section (it's complicated; read the comic). I might manage to convert a video spoof I made a couple of years back into a decent format and upload it for tomorrow's post.

Nuts to it. I'm just going to label this as a "crappy post" and go get some sleep.

Too many links, too little activity

Apparently, Britain has terrible internet services. I could have told them that. What I want to know is, what the hell are they going to do about it? Maybe we'll hear in a few days. I'll keep my eye out, I guess.

Remember a few days back when I linked to the Joyboard, an old Atari controller, remarking the coincidental similarities to the Wii Balance Board? Seems the professionals have caught up with me. The site that Joystiq got it from even leads to more notes about those Guru Meditation errors I mentioned. Nah, I'm not gloating or anything, just kicking myself for not thinking to email them.

While I'm on a linking spree here, I'll point you at Agony Booth, a site named for a Star Trek mirror universe torture device. It specialises in long, rambling, hilarious rants about crappy movies. I've so far only partly read one recap but the number of times I've been laughing during the reading period appears to indicate the possibility of large reserves of humorous content held within.

That sentence kind of got away from me.


Today has been one of those slow days, filled with DVDs, ice cream, hammocks and replays of Fire Emblem. I've done practically nothing constructive and I'm fairly happy with how the day went.

The problem with doing nothing is that I have nothing to write about at the end of the day. The fact that I'm doing the writing at the end of the day is probably something else I need to work on and doing nothing every day will probably lead to bigger problems than being unable to update my blog but that's not the point here.

Nothing is the point here.

This is a circle.


I'm too tired to think or write coherently. Doing nothing all day is apparently more exhausting than I had previously assumed. I'll have to try doing some stuff tomorrow.

On downloads and small pieces of wood lodged in one's finger

So, it's 12:54 and I just woke up. I'm gonna got get some breakfast/lunch and then make a start to the day. This is what happens when I stay up to 3am talking on Skype.

Incidentally, I have another email paper trail that tells me that Sam was up for at least another hour after I left.


Hey, E3 started. And I didn't notice. I guess I'll just download all the press conferences from somewhere after I've done various more productive things. Started getting the Microsoft conference, Nintendo's should go live in a few hours. Might try streaming that since this is the first year I'll actually have a decent enough internet connection for it, even if I'm still not convinced about the speed.

Okay, that was going to take 12+ hours. I think I'll just cancel that until the servers are less overloaded. I guess I can try it out on a different system since Gamespots download manager promises a faster download, if you have a compatible system. It's worth a shot.

Nuts to that. Couldn't find the video on their system. I'll try it with a download accelerator of some kind and see if that helps.

Not quite sure what the point of this running commentary is. Bear with me.

Well, it's started. I may pause it later to get something else, the main advantage of download managers as I see it.


An aside: I hate splinters.


The download's finished now. This whole waking up after noon has completely thrown off my internal clock. It feels like I should be having lunch soon but it's almost four o'clock.

This has turned into another blogging over the day thing, hasn't it?

So, yeah. E3 looks promising and there are some really nice videos and games popping up all over the place. I'm just going to round this off here. There's not been much of a topic but I want to do some work for Skippy on StreamK and then do some other, unrelated writing.

Have a nice day.

On rain, the internet and poor blogging techniques

Ah, the Scottish summertime. One moment, it is but a little cloudy, the next, the heavens have opened and the gutters are overflowing.


It's getting kind of late now. The rain's gone off and I doubt I could have talked about it for a whole post anyway. I present instead, a mercifully (for all involved) short section on something that has been bugging me.

Trailers are a common thing in the world of video games. When a trailer is released, flame wars will erupt over whether it is pre-rendered or not (interestingly, if there is enough doubt to cause such a war, the footage is almost certainly in-engine) and people will either praise or insult the game based on a few minutes of footage and a tag line. But something else has cropped up now and again, which truly gets under my skin, as people make a snap decision and refuse to admit that they are wrong.

Videos on the internet, particularly embedded, streamed ones, tend to be low resolution, for obvious reasons. However, upon seeing a low resolution video of a game, many people will judge the whole game on the poor quality footage. They make quips about the graphics and try to turn it into a reason to hate whatever console or platform they are already biased against.

Then, when a better quality video appears, they either continue to complain or fall silent.

I don't know how widespread this problem is but I've seen it and it just serves to remind me that people are, on the whole, idiots. Especially on the internet.


Forgot the woodle again. Oh, well.

More recommended sites and apologies. Sorry.

Well, the post I had planned and mostly written for today no longer seems appropriate in light of my current mood and recent events. So what am I going to do?

Simple. I'm going to recommend Vendetta Online, a game which I've played for less than two hours and on which I've already become hooked.

I'm going to point you towards Ozy and Millie, an excellent webcomic I'm in the middle of reading.

I'm going to say that I'm extremely annoyed by this news due to the number of the times I've answered "Amazon" to trivia questions and been told that the answer is"Nile".

I'm going to tell you that tonight's episode of Doctor Who was excellent, although I suspect that it will all be erased from the timeline. Unless the Doctor regenerates, though that seems unlikely. But regeneration has been mentioned an awful lot lately... but that could just be to do with the Master... I really can't wait till next Saturday. If that sounds exceptionally geeky, bare in mind that that'll also be the first day of my holidays.

I'm going to ask you if you think you can say "an unaired version of An Unearthly Child" five times fast.

I'm going to decide to forget about the woodle for tonight and simply put one up tomorrow.

I'm going to get some sleep because I suspect that tomorrow will be a very busy day.

I'm going to end this blog post.

Short posts are easier to proof read.

Headache. Hurts. Brain no think good. Typing hurt head.

This be funny video.

iPhone look good.

This interesting as so many news organisations lead with relatively small section of unsurprising results that are related to teenage sex. This depress and amuse me.

This also amuse. Not know what "folksonomy" mean, but gives image of grizzled old guy with guitar and silly accent singing songs about... some country music cliché. I didn't know the word "blooks" either but it annoys me, even if I like the concept. No problem with "blog", "blogosphere" or "podcast" but my hatred for "netiquette" knows no bounds.

Headache's not so bad now but I'm ending this anyway. I've linked enough stuff to keep you occupied until tomorrow. It's either this or another rant about house marching so don't complain.

May contain spoilers and whatnot

It is way too wet and cold to be June. Seriously.


TV's been dull for a long, long time. Spoilers leek out, everyone knows what's coming through constant foreshadowing and online alternate reality games, forumgoers pick apart trivia and rumour, so that even surprising twists seem a little bit predictable.

But I've just watched Utopia.

Suffice it to say, it was incredible. So fantastic, in fact, that I've spent the last two hours discussing it with Sam. We scared the crap out of my sister when we started yelling about the Silver Devastation and how the Face of Boe must be involved. Sam tells me that a mutual friend has asked to join our Skype call because he wants to "hear us screaming like schoolgirls" about the contents of the episode. Actually, that's kind of creepy but I understand what he meant.

I'm not really going to say much tonight because I haven't had time to gather my thoughts since I've spent too much time talking about Doctor Who. I haven't done a woodle for tonight either, but I'm going to let an interesting discussion in real life take precedence over this blog. I'm sure that all kinds of things will come up that I can talk about tomorrow.

Until then here's an abstract thought:

How many hours must a geek spend discussing Doctor Who before he is a geek?

Okay, it's not an abstract thought but I've got nothing else unless I steal Sam's line about respecting fire. Which I don't want to do.

So, here's a quote from The Doctor:

"First things first, but not necessarily in that order."

I hate this post.

It's been another one of those nights when I've run out of the time and the will to finish my original post idea, which was one I was having a second go at anyway.

On the bright side, I've just discovered that I can touch type.

Of course, I've just remembered that I've completely forgotten about today's woodle. Crap. I don't want to do another Stick Guys one, even if I do like them, so I'll try to come up with something else tomorrow.

I am completely and utterly out of ideas so I'll just point you to this article at Bad Science which talks about that WiFi scare story on Panorama I mentioned a few days back. Apparently, the thing hasn't ended with the program and the BBC has been trying to defend itself against all reason. It seems the idea of electrosensitivity has caught on as well, since I've just noticed another article pointing out flaws in The Independent's look at the subject.

This sort of stuff really depresses me, especially since Panorama, as I had thought and as my Dad tells me, once had a very good reputation for factual journalism. How the mighty have fallen.

Now, after two rambling, incoherent paragraphs, I'm stuck again so I think I'm just going to call it a night. I'll try to have a woodle and a much, much better post up tomorrow.

4 out of 5

I can never understand the mentality of people who leave exams early. I've done it myself only once, maybe twice, at Standard Grade when the General level paper was ridiculously easy and I knew that only the Credit one would matter anyway. But people who walk out an hour before a 2.5 hour exams finishes? That's just stupid.


Well, today was my second last exam and tomorrow I just have to get Chemistry out of the way and I can relax for about 45 hours before Sixth Year starts. Yeah, life sucks. But I refuse to complain, because this is not MySpace, damn it!

I've given myself 10 minutes to get this blog post done and then the computer gets shutdown for the night because I'm seriously beginning to worry about Chemistry. It's not that I'm exactly panicking about it, it's more like I'm worried that I'm not worried enough, like I ought to feel more pressure and so be doing more work. It's kind of weird.

It's also dull to blog about and, I'd imagine, to read about. On the bright side, I've just noticed that a trailer for the Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles DS sequel, Rings of Fate, (the last one I mentioned was for the Wii sequel) is up here. I haven't actually had time to watch it fully but I've been waiting for this game almost since the DS was announced and had almost forgotten about it. If they have voice-chat along with Wi-Fi multiplayer (and local wireless, too) I will buy that game faster than you can say... “Sweet Cuppin' Cakes”.

Anyway, almost out of time now. So, it's on to Chemistry.

Can't title, studying

Posting early today since I have some last minute studying to do and I'll also be needing plenty of sleep tonight. I'm still confident in my Computing and Chemistry skills (or “skillz” if you prefer) but a couple of past papers have unnerved me slightly. Add to that the fact that the Computing folder I've been using for about five years fell apart today (it's had a big split down one side for ages, this is just the first time anything's actually fallen out) and I'm starting to worry.

Okay, so the folder falling apart doesn't really worry me but it's still kind of weird.

Hence (“hence” referring to the first paragraph, not the fact that my folder is weird), I intend to use the rest of tonight to study both Chemistry and Computing, rather than blogging. Which I think I already explained in the first paragraph. So now I'm just rambling. I wouldn't expect much more tomorrow, either.

And so, my crappiest post ever draws to a welcome close.

On the bright side, yesterday's Woodle is up below. If that makes any sense.

Too tired to ramble incoherently...

You know what I can't believe? I'm 16 years old, I have two major exams coming up in less than a week and what am I doing? Watching The Muppet Show.



You ever have one of those days when just listening to people talk gives you a headache? I'm having one of those days. It's either to do with hunger or lack of sleep. I might have thought it was to do with both, but "either" only allows for two possible options.

Either way, or whichever way, or whatever, you're stuck with a short, dull little post which will probably still not be short enough to bring my average word count down to a sensible level after last night's behemoth.

Fortunately, that little opening bit was written before I got the headache (which has actually subsided a little since I wrote the second paragraph) so there's at least one thing that isn't whiny in this post.

There's also this thing, which is a link to the first of a series of videos made by the guy who did that Yu-Gi-Oh (god, I hate typing that... word?) movie spoof I linked to a couple of days ago. it seems he's treating the whole anime series to the same thing and I'm in the middle of watching through them.

So, funny, irrelevant opening bit, complaint, admission of poor writing skills, trying to make light of bad post, link that nobody will follow and a reference to an older post that nobody will remember. I reckon that's everything I need to call this a TWToday blog post.

Oh, almost forgot - a ridiculous, out-of-the-blue, rhetorical question to round off with.

Why on Earth does NeoOffice's spellchecker not recognise the word "movie"? Or, for that matter, the words "NeoOffice" and "spellchecker"?

Lack of timing is everything

Very often, when I'm trying to create a blog post, I'll come up with (what I think is) a great idea then look at the clock and realise I don't have time to do it justice. And very often, I never do, for one reason or another. Yesterday, I mentioned the Panorama episode which was airing last night about concerns over the use of Wi-Fi in schools and how I was going to watch it and try my hand at debunking it.

Well, I watched it today and found several more articles about it online and the amount of rubbish in it amazed me. So much so that I have about 2 A4 sides of notes taken while watching the show and I've already written 500 words on it tonight, with no apparent end in sight. Okay, I guess I could conclude it fairly quickly, but that doesn't rhyme and I have more to say anyway.

So I've had to come up with a different topic for tonight's blog post but this time I'm absolutely certain that I will be returning to my original one tomorrow. Thus, on with the main-ish topic.

I'm currently in a rather odd mental state over my exams. For the last few days, I've done very little of anything constructive simply because, while I can't be bothered doing any revision because my two remaining exams seem too far away, I feel guilty whenever I'm truly focused on some task other than revision. I can watch DVDs and play my way through the simple, level grinding sections of Pokemon Diamond without too much trouble, I just can't find it in me to write down script ideas I've had or do blog posts early. Even stuff I really wanted to do in this short time, like various games I haven't had a chance to play yet (noticing a trend here?), seems like a bad idea when I actually try to do it.

I am a naturally lazy person, at heart, so I may not have got much done anyway, it's just strange that I actively feel bad when I try to get something done.

Then again, I have a sneaking suspicion that I forgot to take my antihistamine tablets this morning, so my lethargy may be less to do with stress and subconscious schisms than it is to do with hay fever.

Sorry for the rather poor post. To distract you look at this rude (but pretty) nebula.

Not so super blogging

Yeah, it's 20 past 11 and I have nothing to say. I gave some thought to various topics for blogging on over the course of the day but none of it really came to anything. Personally, I blame Seanbaby and his hatred of the Super Friends. Try looking at Aquaman's page for one of the most hilarious web pages you'll ever read.

I know I keep saying I'll have to sink more time into this blog and maybe I shall over the coming days, we'll just have to wait and see.

And as I conclude this, my shortest blog post, I note that over the last few days, with my recommendations of Bad Astronomy and now Seanbaby's Super Friends page, I've been doing something more akin to the original spirit of weblogs. Because, of course, "blog" was not a term then that could be combined with "web". Rather, it was a simple portmanteau of "web" and "log", the content simply being brief descriptions and links to sites that the authors found interesting in their journey's around the intertubes.

Survival of the laziest blogger

And after the third exam, Corbett rested.

Physics was, for those of you keeping track, one of my easier exams and I'm generally pleased with how it went. Curiously, there was a reiteration of yesterday's point, when I thought I'd missed out much more than I actually had on the first run through.

However, two days of exams and more of studying have now caught up with me and I honestly can't be bothered doing much more than rewatching Survival with the information text added. I may discuss that tomorrow, when I shall have some more free time to do one of those long, rambling posts of which I am so fond.

Today's, however, must be one of those apologetically short posts of which nobody is particularly fond.

I've been trying for over ten minutes to find some interesting little fact or website that I could point you to, in order to compensate for my total lack of inspiration. Browsing around my bookmarks, I've come across Bad Astronomy, a website run by one Phil Plait which aims to point out astronomical (the science, not the size) errors in works of either fiction or supposed fact.

It looks like the website has been redesigned since I read it quite some while ago, but if you're a glutton for trivia and knowledge like me, then you'll no doubt enjoy it.

Titles are hard

You know, I honestly can't think of anything to write? I have ideas and thoughts but nothing that could fill a whole post and I don't think a notes post would do them justice. Skippy's been talking about making bite-size posts for the many, many visitors we're attracting. All six of you. Give or take 34. And add 7. Divide by 12 and subtract 52. If the number you're left with is anything other than -48.1 or -53.75, then you're either rubbish at maths or you weren't using a calculator. If you're answer was one of those and you didn't use a calculator then you're very good at maths, particularly shown by that first number. Or you're lying.

Anyway, visitor numbers seem to be on the rise. If this is your first time here, I wholeheartedly recommend that you not take this as an example of my usual work. It may well be one, but I hope you don't take it as such. And how'd you find us anyway?

Like I said, my mind has pretty much gone blank. So, time to finish this post with a pithy summary and a witticism and then go back to watching The Sweeney.

I guess this has been one of those bite-sized posts. No, that doesn't mean you can eat it. Don't be silly.

Miscalleaneous-tastic

Just completed tonight's woodle (see below) and, for all the incredibly low quality, I'm actually rather proud of it. In fact, I think I'm going to turn it into a series. A series of woodles, anyway. After that, who knows? Maybe a sitcom series. Movie trilogies are all the rage with the kidz theze dayz, that could work.

No real plan for this blog (or this post, for that matter) so I'm just going to do one of my (in)famous notes posts.

Note the first:
I've just been watching the first few episodes of Chad Vader, which is the reason I can't be bothered spending much time on this post.

Note the second:
Note how this supposed notes post only has two notes.

Yeah, I've got nothing else. Spent all my creative energon on that woodle. All I've got left in me are obtuse Transformers references.

This incoherent waste of time was brought to you by Alasdair Corbett, who is not a robot in disguise.

Warning: Whiny teenage views ahead

I am, once again, not in a good mood. It's something I've noticed tends to happen a lot around this time of night. There seems to be a curious correlation between my bad moods and my parents barging into my room and yelling at me for having the computer on or demanding to know why I'm not studying at 10:30 or, if I am studying, why I haven't got it done done before 10:30.

All this is compounded by various other things that have happened today, for which I have naturally been blamed. When no one told me that we were going to the dentist until it was time to go to the dentist, I get yelled at for holding us up. Naturally, it's my fault that my Maths teacher has decided that she wants the class to hand in those past papers that she said before the holidays were optional. And that she wants them in tomorrow.

It seems to me that there's no way I can win. Any explanation is simply met with a reiteration of previous ranting at a higher volume and with less rationality. My iMac has been threatened with being put on eBay (not that anyone but me and Erin in this household could actually set up an eBay seller's account) if it's not turned off “in five seconds”. Thank goodness for sleep mode is all I can say. The alarm having just been put on, I predict the next threat is going to come now.

15 minutes later and I was dead on. She even used the five second threat again. And again.

I'll think I'll drop that subject now. Actually, I now need to go. Less ranting tomorrow, when there's a semblance of sanity in this room. No time for proof-reading.

Apologies and crap

First of all, I'd like to apologise for what is almost certain to be an extremely rubbish post.

Second, I'd like to apologise for tomorrow's post, which is also likely to be rubbish.

Thirdly, I can only apologise more for Tuesday's post, which will be posted while I'm in that peculiar state I am likely to be in after I get back from the first day of a new school term. I believe the clinical term is “dead”.

My eyes hurt, possibly due to hay fever, possibly due to something unknown. My nose is running for either the same or completely different reasons. The bizarre cramps in my stomach, however, are quite definitely due to some mysterious and unknown force.

Add to this the fact that my day was spent doing English revision (by which I mean a crappy essay on a crappy poem and answering some crappy questions on two crappy passages. The answers were pretty crappy as well, I guess.) and you can see why I'm in a bad mood, which is not in any way shape or form, a good mood for blogging. For examples of why this is so, see the following reference materials:

• The internet.
  

That said, I'm still fulfilling my self imposed obligation to write this nonsense. I'll try to produce something relevant and coherent in the next few weeks, once I'm done being ill, tired and fearful of uncompleted homework.

Until then, I leave you with this thought:

What evolutionary advantage do humans gain from beards?

I am angry

This would have been a blog post about my holiday.

About the good things and the bad.

I had several ideas that were funny and original.

I needed all of twenty minutes to put this into practice and if the universe, and my household in particular, were a sane and rational place I would have had those twenty minutes.

But no.

I've been given ten minutes to get to bed because last night, when I was in a totally different and unrelated circumstances, I went to sleep later than usual. My mum has just come in and decreed that I have ten minutes before she yells at me some more and then spent four of them annoying the hell out of me.

One thing which I believe tops the Grand List of Things that Annoy the Hell out of Alasdair is people telling me to do things which I'm already planning to do. Telling me to get my homework done as I put one textbook away and open the next. Telling me to wash my hands as I reach for the tap. Telling me that I need to get to sleep after a late night despite me telling them I was going to do exactly that just an hour beforehand, without prompting.

I hate that. I despise that. You already have every intention of doing something to achieve your own goals, but all that happens is that somebody else gets a smug sense of superiority out of seeing you carry out “their” instructions.

That's why I'm typing this. That's why I'm angry. That's why you have to read this tirade, because I have no time to do anything else. I've now run out of time so I'll no doubt be treated to a nice long lecture about the need for plenty of sleep even as I pull the pillow down over my ears.

I was having such a nice day until I talked to someone.

I can't think of a note-related pun

A little tight for time since I want to get up early tomorrow and finally start some heavy duty revision (where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, every day of the holidays so far) so this is going to be another of my lovely little notes posts.

First up, another link to Skippy's widget since the post that introduced it is now hidden (slightly) beneath this one on the front page. I'll probably also stick it in the sidebar. Simply download the file, install it on your Mac (nothing for Windows users, though I think Vista has some form of widget functionality, not compatible with this anyway) and go to the Dashboard to read yours truly's latest posts. And Skippy's as well, if you can be bothered doing an awful lot of downward scrolling.

Okay, that was a little unfair. He is planning to post more, at least assuming he's remembered that tomorrow is New Word Thursday.

I'll be away Sunday to Wednesday this coming week and I'm not sure what the internet situation will be on the exotic shores of Loch Lomond, so I may end up relying on other people, a method I've found to be largely useless. In this instance, I'll just be setting up various posts (Monday and Tuesday at the least) as drafts and getting Skippy to publish them, thus maintaining challenge.exe, or challenge.app depending on your OS preference.

Probably ought to mention challenge.exe somewhere in the sidebar as well, since nobody has any idea what it is, as far as I can tell. It's just my wacky scheme to post one piece a day for a year, just to see if I can. Obstacles like holidays keep interfering though.

On a spooky note, my internet connection has been relatively steady all afternoon. Seriously, it's weird. And it's scaring me. Which is also weird.

No wait, it's gone down again. The status quo is restored and I can look into faster internet speeds and a new router tomorrow. All is well normal.

If I can get writer's block, does that make me a writer?

I think I have writer's block.

I honestly can't think of anything to say. Maybe it's because the holidays, or at least these ones, really aren't a time for stimulating new thoughts or having exciting experiences (though if you want a plot summary of the first 2 seasons of Boston Legal, I can now easily give you that. Denny Crane.). Maybe it's just general laziness. I don't really know.

The point is, I can't think of anything to write for tonight and I can't be bothered hanging around till five minutes before midnight in the hope that inspiration will strike. So I'm just gonna put this up and say to hell with it, I need to get up before noon tomorrow.

But Alasdair, you say, this isn't a proper blog post!

Aha, I respond, yes, it is. And do you know why?

No, you say.

Because it's my blog and I can call whatever I like whatever I want, I calmly reply, before hitting “Publish”.

Surprisingly little scrolling

I got nothing.

I was going to do that “nadda, zip, zilch” bit again, but then I remembered I'd already done it. I had some kind of idea for what to do, but I couldn't get an image of a zombie indicating definite proof, so that's been stalled.

Got Saturday's woodle up, finally, as you may have noticed if you can be bothered scrolling. Don't strain yourself, probably not worth it. The incredibly lazy among you can find it via the conveniently marked link in the sidebar to your right.

Well, I've fulfilled my blogging quota for the day. I understand visitor numbers for the blog are going up, we may even hit triple digits daily before.... the Apocalypse. Anyway, sorry about the brief post. Or if you prefer the short posts, I'm sorry but you seem to have chosen the wrong blog to read.

Before I forget...

I knew there was something I was forgetting. Something nagging me all night. It was this. This post. Only remembered it twenty seconds ago. I've got nothing. Nadda. Zip. Zilch. Zero. I guess I could fill out the rest of this with other words for nothing but I can't be bothered thinking of them or looking them up.

Doctor Who had an excellent start to the new series with Smith and Jones, which was a brilliant introduction for a new companion and a very good episode with some nice twists in the plot. Spotted at least two references to Mr Saxon, the arc word for the new series.

I'm willing to bet that that paragraph was utter gibberish to a lot of people, or at least anyone outside the UK. Doctor Who is one of those things that has never really taken off except on our little isle. It has fan communities and viewers across the globe but nowhere is it quite so mainstream.

Oddly enough, most of the fan films on Youtube are American, as far as I can tell. They also have a tendency to be terrible. Still, they're fan films so that's to be expected. I'm giving them a shot at the very least, there seem to be a few ongoing series that have garnered some support.

Strangely, although I'm rushing this and I only thought of it late, I'll probably still be posting earlier than usual, if only by a few minutes. I blame it on the fact that I got out of bed at noon today and my internal rhythm is completely out of whack.

Like I said, nothing much else to say. Wish I could have some wonderful insight to round off every day, but, as the last month and tonight have proven, I can't.

Inane ramblings of a grumpy cynic at midnight

WARNING: The following is an incoherent bunch of poorly thought out ranting. Why? Because I'm in a hurry, I'm tired and I'm angry. Something better tomorrow. I highly recommend that you don't read this.


Rattling off a very quick blog post right now not because I need to get to sleep but because I need to get it done before I do yet another Computing presentation, this time on 3 types of rare and useless display technologies, some of which may enter common usage within the next 20 or so years.

I got various bit of bumf from the SQA, the people in charge of the future of Scotland's children, today, regarding my exams in May. These little leaflets bug me for reasons I shall now proceed to explain, hopefully in less than five minutes of typing.

1.“You must not use text language in any of your answers”

I think what they're getting at here is that you cannot write an essay using phrases such as “OMFG i thnk Othello rox. Cn i have a A? Kk thanx bye”. I would love to see the written answers which made someone feel that this was a necessary rule. I would not like to meet the person who wrote those answers.

I said that I “think” that's what they mean, because the only other interpretation is that I'm not allowed to use written communication to show my answers. This leaves recording (but no recording equipment can be taken into the exam room) and possibly some forms of pictograph, if they aren't picky.

2.The people in all the photos

Could they look more artificial if they tried? Every single one of the people in these photos is smiling and most of them are of ethnic minorities. Don't misinterpret that. It's not a racist thing. I just don't like the idea that a photographer or someone else has gone around specifically to look for people with different skin colours in order to avoid the slim possibility of being sued for something.

It also bugs me that none of these people are doing anything remotely relevant. There's a few people apparently doing exams but everyone else is just standing around in the open air or banging their heads together above the camera. Why? Why, I ask you, why?!

It also doesn't help that the people chosen to go on the cover of one of the booklets are hardly front cover material. Now, I'm sure these people may well be nice enough in real life if I ever met them (assuming they've never read this next bit) but that doesn't mean I want to look at them. One has a bucktoothed grin that makes her look as if she's been photographed mid-hiccup and the other is a particularly gormless looking acne-riddled young man with his jaw hanging open and half his eyebrow missing.

Now, not to be mean, but I don't want to look at these people. I don't pretend to look any better but that doesn't mean I want to see them every time I need exam information. And I'm fairly sure cameras can take more than one photo, so why, a word that keeps coming up, didn't they take another one where the two people don't look like brainless zombies? I'm serious. I can picture a speech balloon next to eyebrow boy saying “Brains!!!”

3.The exam timetable

Maths and Physics are on consecutive days. This really is a complaint. It's one of those things that I've mentioned before that could be corrected if people's thought processes didn't go like this:

“Nobody who does Physics could possibly be doing Maths as well, since they're totally unrelated. I'll put them next to each other so the people doing Urdu for Non-native Speakers have a few days to study before their inevitable Biology exam.”

Yeah, I'm a grumpy cynical bastard. But seriously, does anybody think this thing through? This really has been a rant and a long one at that. I apologise. But I'm still think there's way too much crappy bumf (best phrase in this whole post) in the world.