Transferral.

Well as the title suggests I'm considering transferring to a different University for my second and third years. Already emailed a few University departments to make inquiries. Liverpool, RHUL, Warwick, Leicester and Glasgow. Got a few more interesting looking Unis to email, but I think that's enough for now. It'll be weird going to an ACTUAL University, living in Halls again. Was only in them for a week or so last time, at Nottingham. Noisy, noisy experience. Oh and the fire alarms OH GOD THE FIRE ALARMS.

Essays and transferrals.

After my tutor made a frantic search for the essays, I got my mark back for the essay I wrote.. a couple of weeks ago, I think. 75/100. Rather pleased about that. Certainly better than I was expecting.

The three weeks I have off seem to stretch out before me like a near endless horizon. They'll most likely be spent asleep, or reading. Perhaps both? Sleep reading, now there's an idea. Two of my favourite activities!

Plotting a transferral of University. Unsure where, somewhere with a very good English department, and a specialisation on the Renaissance would be nice. Emailed a few places.

Bought Murakami's Kafka on the shore today. Pile of books to read over the holiday is mounting steadily. Oh god and the essays, and the revision. aaahhhhh

Late awakenings.

Got up at two pm, which severely reduced the time I have to spend on things today. Massive headache as well, which makes the essay editing I have to do even more painful than it promised to be. Thankfully there's not much to do on it, just clearing up a few sentences and then I have the tedium of adding the bibliography.

Revenger's tragedy.

Just watched about three or four minutes of a film adaptation of middleton's 1606 play. It is set, apparently, in a dystopian Liverpool. Okay, 5 minutes in and I'm not going to bother watching the rest.

I met Kilgore Trout!

No, no I did not. But it's at least different from the thousand different variants of 'today' that have so far peppered my blog titles. Anyway, less prevaricating, more actual blogging.

Today got off to a very crap start when the first lecture was cancelled, so I had about six hours to kill. Instead of looting (in a civilised manner) waterstones like I usually do, I decided to give my bank account a rest instead. Then my headphones decided to quit on me, so I ended up having to spend the outrageous sum of £21 to replace those. Fucking expensive Apple merch. Then spend the rest of the morning/afternoon 'til three reading and drinking coffee. Nearly finished Capote's In cold blood. Quite an interesting, yet simultaneously chilling book. I suppose the 'thrill' comes from the fact that it was a real family that the two guys killed - the 'plot' actually happened. Was apparently one of the first true-crime novels.

Also finally spent the gift card I got for xmas at HMV, which I'd continually forgotten to take with me into town for all the Thursdays since I returned to Uni. Nice to see my memory works.. eventually. Ended up buying the film adaptation of Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated. I enjoyed the novel immensely, and from the trailer and reviews I've seen the film looks rather promising. I remain hopeful. Had a search for Capote, couldn't find it. Ordered it - should be here in a couple of weeks. Some credit on the card still remaining, something like £5? Unsure what to spend the rest on. No country for old men comes to mind, but I've half a mind to read Mccarthy's original novel first.

Thirteen hours sleep.

Yeah, that's how long I slept. Don't feel particularly refreshed, but that's not anything new. At least there's at least some of the day left, however. My latest subscription to the believer magazine came today. For those who don't know what it is, it's an American literary magazine, part of McSweeney's. It publishes latest reviews of indie film, books, independent articles etc. This edition has a free DVD on the front, which is something I haven't seen on any magazine in many a year. Apparently it has 'Beautiful, funny and rare short films from the Yugoslavian Black Wave'. It also has an article on Vérité sheep. I wasn't aware that sheep could direct! A shame it's not sold in Britain, but it's worth importing.

Got to read Waiting for Godot today. Much coffee required.

Sleep deprivation.

Well the 'funny side' hit me this morning finally. Might have been the sleep deprivation, though. At any rate, I found myself giggling at the absurdity of it all. Unfortunately the place I my subconscious decided to find it all so amusing was when I was walking past the primary school. So this morning at the bright and early hour of 8:10am a pale, hollow eyed, sleep deprived ginger guy was walking past the primary school with the giggles.

I bet that looked BRILLIANT.

In other news *cough*I'mawelladjustedpersonhonest*cough*, got the final package of books I need for the rest of the year through Amazon this morning. They apparently arrived while I was making an arse of myself. Thus, tomorrow shall be spent rereading Waiting for Godot for the first time in nearly a decade.

Lectures on no sleep are, as you can imagine, interesting experiences. Managed somehow to keep awake through all of them. Post-Modernism and Slaughterhouse Five lecture was interesting. The residual excitement kept me going through the marathon that was Althusser and Ideology.

Adequate summation.

OH GOD WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK FUCKINGTON.

Ahem. Yes. Arse. Well, swearing aside.. actually, no swearing not aside, there are no words to adequately describe this. But hey, at least I know my rambling here have actually been getting an audience these past few months. As for making this less arty, I wish I could say that this is due to me being a tortured artistic soul or something, but it really isn't. I just have a really fucking boring life, hence I make stuff up etc etc, anyway a summation.

Yes, I was quite deeply in love with lottie.

No, I did not equate paying for a holiday with sex. I'm not that sort of person.. at all.

Nor am I a psychopath, I'm just utterly crap at thinking up character names. My second name is James, anyway, that's where its ubiquity comes from.

Needless to say, I fucked up the telling her bit quite badly. Very badly. Hilariously badly. Then made a pass at the waiter.. I wish I was making this up.

Oh balls.

A Holiday

Well that's what I'm calling this short story I'm working on. It started off as a critique of inter-personal relationships while on holiday, and it's ended up as half that, half corporate satire. I'd like to get to the point where I can write something serious without it having a black-comedic edge. Not that there's anything wrong with making someone giggle while read, it's just a skill I'd like to have.

I also need to get better at character names, James seems to be the name for a lot of my protagonists, and as they usually meet a sticky end, it seems a bit odd that he keeps cropping up in everything I write. Speaking of names, perhaps the female characters also need a name change. I can't write any of Mary's dialogue without putting on an Irish accent, for that, I blame Dara O'Briain. Then of course there's the danger of your characters becoming Mary Sues..

N.B This is not quite as psychotic as it sounds. Honest.

Prose.

I haven't written properly for a while, so you'll have to excuse me (oh imaginary reader) if my posts suddenly start becoming both more numerous and rambling. I've decided that the only way to actually get better at writing, and more lucid with my ideas is to write as much as possible, therefore these blogs will increase in frequency. Hopefully, they'll become better written as time goes on, but we'll see. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll feel happy enough to continue writing short stories.

I've been slowly reading The Satanic Verses recently, and although at first I found Rushdie's prose complex and rambling, I've come to appreciate it as richly poetic. Someone in my class asked me what I thought it was like, having themselves read a few pages and found it confusing. I replied that you really had to get a couple of hundred pages in before it 'makes sense' and comes alive. But on reflection, I'm 400 pages in now and each page brings with it an enrichment.

Unsure what to read after I've finished it in a few days. I ordered three of neal stephenson's works, anathem, snow crash and cryptonomicon and Capote's 'In cold blood'. Thing is, I still have some Bukowski to read, not to mention the thousand word tome that is the first Jordan book in the wheel of time series. Perhaps I should just stop buying new books for a while until I've gotten through these.

Writing.

I've come to the conclusion that I need to carry a notebook and pen around with me. Whenever I get the urge to write, I'm never anywhere near my laptop. By the time I get home, the muse has left me.