Journal Entries
Cake or Death - or Coursework?
Posted Feb 17, 2003
I may have to seriously consider some kind of career in cookery! I spent large amounts of Poets evening inventing and cooking a yummy scrummy "Cake of Peace" (
). And not only did I invent it from scratch, I really enjoyed it - and it wasn't at all bad as a finished product, either! Hmmm...
Of course, the reason it was a cake of *Peace* was that Doobry was the big peace march in London - yes, I can proudly say I am but 1 in {between .75 and 2} million! I still think it very 
to be part of something so historic, and it was good fun - although very tiring... It took me almost 2 hours from Waterloo station to the Houses of Parliament, by which time the front of the march had just about reached Hyde Park - by the time I got there, with the tail end of the "march", the rally was over, that's how much of London we stretched through! And although, contrary to popular belief, 2 million people *can* be wrong, they're pretty hard to ignore! I don't disagree that there's a problem in Iraq, but I don't think war is the solution - and it would seem a hell of a lot of people agree with me there...
Which is all very well, but I'm actually doing an Intelligent Systems degree, and have a piece of coursework due in on Wimpy [
- pass the 
], another next Poets, and a third plus a load of revision that I should be well into by now. You can see why sometimes I wonder if I'm doing the right thing, can't you? But I do enjoy coding and stuff as well, it's just - well, I guess I'm finally getting the full life I've been after for so long!
I ought to include mention that I got some rather 
photos back on Poets, as well - isn't it fun when you've completely forgotten what it was you took? And as an example of my full life, I've seen some great films lately: if you ever get a chance to watch "Donnie Darko", go for it...
And finally, I got a wonderful "bad news, good news" moment earlier: Delphi suddenly died while I was debugging my program, causing me to lose about an hour's work 
. But then my brother rang me - he's just got engaged! 
Which really shook me, cos nobody *ever* gets married in my family - even my other brother, with three kids, isn't married; I haven't been to a wedding since I was about 3! 
So there you have it - the last few days in the life of 
Increase 
Mathers, Shrubber 
of Pelamar
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Latest reply: Feb 17, 2003
Snug as a bug in a rug
Posted Feb 11, 2003
It's amazing the difference a clean set of sheets can make, isn't it? For the last few days, I've been going round feeling kind of... cosy... well, like sleeping in a freshly made bed...Hmmm, well, aren't I the one for mood swings right now?
After the whole "insignificance" thing, I kind of hit bottom and bounced out again. And what I figure is, you go round life, and you live it, and you enjoy it. And that's what life is. If you lose sight of that, you go mad - you can't actually run away from reality.
So, I'm going round with a silly bounce in my step again at the moment.
My coursework's utter 
; I made the big mistake of food shopping when hungry yesterday; and I'm as hopelessly disorganised as ever - but I'm ENJOYING it!
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Latest reply: Feb 11, 2003
What, actually, IS the point?
Posted Feb 8, 2003
First of all, I got to see Lifson the other day - YAY!
It was, in fact, a thoroughly wibble wibble, since she'd actually come all this way for a meeting which turned out to have been cancelled... 
But, that evening, and ever since, I just realised how utterly insignificant I am. My life really is completely inconsequential - I mean, y'know, it's hard work all this living business: eating, sleeping, going to the toilet; and I do all this coursework, go to all these lectures, try and make sense of it all; but at the end of the day, what do I gain? What's the point?
I don't want to just be going through the motions, following a well-trodden, thoroughly defined path. I want to be *important*; I want there to be some reason why I'm noticeable; or, at least, I want to feel there's some *purpose* to what I'm doing. But there isn't really, is there? I'm just kind of carrying on.
I dunno, maybe I'm just being silly - that's life, I guess. But still, it would be nice to feel at least a little bit consequential to the world - else why bother carrying on?
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Latest reply: Feb 8, 2003
2 Questions
Posted Jan 27, 2003
1) How do I manage to spend so long getting so little done, and having such great ideas but implementing them so badly, if at all?
2) Why do I bother spending so much money on train tickets when I never actually have to get them out of my wallet anyway!?
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Latest reply: Jan 27, 2003
Well met - I think...
Posted Jan 26, 2003
So, here's a quick run-down of my yesterday, in all its glory!
10:10 Leave my house to catch the train; on my way out, my house-mate enquires what I'm doing up so early; I explain that I'm catching the train to London, and why...
10:14 The London train arrives at Earley station.
10:16 I arrive at Earley station. I hate it when the trains are on time! 
10:43 Just before the next train arrives, my housemate appears at the entrance to the station, opposite me, and waves. She then does a double take, and is incredibly surprised to find I haven't left already.
10:44 The train arrives; my housemate is going to Clapham Junction, so we chat for 90% of the journey.
12:05 Arrive at London Waterloo. I was supposed to be meeting Lifson Kofie
at midday-ish, but she managed to catch an earlier train than me, so said she'd get tubes to Waterloo. Her train turns out to be late, so she gets there shortly *after* me.
We wander off round London, seeking lunch etc. - however, Lifson seems to think we need to leave lots of time to get to Somerset House, so we don't get very far, and she's not keen to slow down and look around.
13:40 We arrive at Somerset House, with no problems finding it, 20 mins early.
14:00 We get our tickets, h2g2 pens and mingle with various degrees of complete stranger, comparing towels, name-badges, and other such essential accessories...
We head off with the pub contingent. Once there, we play snap, quizzes, and chat some more.
I begin to get into random -y conversations with people whose names I don't know, and whose nicknames I'm guaranteed to forget.
18:00ish We move off to the evening venue. Much argument abounds as to where it actually is, but reassured by who I realise is IanG, I arrive safely. More mingling, murmurs of food.
"We've really over-ordered on the food" an italic has been heard to say, earlier in the day. A brief queue of researchers later, the food is all gone. 
Spend the rest of the evening having random, meandering, and probably fairly pointless - but nonetheless interesting and enjoyable - conversations with more random people, whose names I wish I had a way of remembering (if you were one of them, please tell me!)
23:10 Leave to head for Waterloo, as the last train back is 23:37
23:15 Decide it'll be just as easy to walk to Waterloo as get a tube.
23:20 Realise I'm not actually sure where I am any more. Begin to panic.
23:25 Get to the Embankment. Realise you can't get onto Waterloo bridge from Embankment, you have to go along further...
23:28 Manage to get across the road to the steps and run up and across the footbridge.
23:31 Realise I'm not quite sure where Waterloo station is.
23:33 Run into the station with minutes to spare. See a departures summary: 23:35 Reading: Platform 18
23:34 Run up platform 18, glance to see if this is the right train - notice it saying something about "front four coaches". Hope I've read it the right way round, and sprint towards the front of the train.
23:35 The train pulls out. It's absolutely packed; I feel like I'm about to collapse, but have to support myself on a metal post.
The announcements are completely inaudible because it's a hopeless old train; I hope that a) this is one of the front 4 coaches, and b) the front 4 coaches are the ones going to Reading...
The train splits at Staines; I'm now pretty sure I'm in the right bit, and everyone gets off at Egham
, so I collapse on the nearest seat.
As we pull into Sunningdale, the couple next to me ask whether I know when we'll get to Chertsey. That was the other half of the train. They get off at Ascot - I hope they found a way back OK, 'cos that was the last train...
The person sitting opposite me, having helped explain things to the lost couple, starts chatting to me. He's at college, apparently, and we discuss what he intends to do next, what I'm currently doing, and the like.
He gets off at Bracknell, but not before asking for 20p to phone his dad for a lift, and introducing himself as Ben.
1:10 I arrive back at my student house, and am amused to see from which lights are on that abolutely all my housemates are still up. As I open the door, I manage to surprise my housemate for the second time that day, by not having stayed over in London.
Feeling like my head's melting, I make my slowly towards bed.
All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable day - I think...
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Latest reply: Jan 26, 2003
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