23.12.11

Hijacked Crumpet

I just logged into my email account, and got a spam email (a viagra ad, if you have to know) with a message name of "Crumpet", and sender "Hijacked". So, now I have to name something Hijacked Crumpet. The title of the blog post will do for now.

The university matters got nuked from orbit, I'm alive and able to tell the tale. Feels kinda funky knowing that it was my last exam session as an engineer student.

It's all nice and snowy outside, I'm starting to feel a little Crimbo inside. About damned time, considering Christmas Eve is just around the corner.

Snapped and downloaded a death metal demo today. Hey, some death is good death, as long as I limit myself to the creme de la creme all's fine. And Youtube's here to help me tell the gems from the tripe. This was closer to the former, so it got the HD space it deserves.

Practicing guitar, getting back on my feet a bit. Opted to aim higher, I'm working on some slightly technical crud I haven't been able to play thus far. If I get it down, it will be a pretty obvious step forward and I'll be able to stop worrying about regressing. Especially as constant practicing against a backing track/metronome has already done miracles to my noodling timing. Playing alertly at least an hour a day really does work.

So yeah, everything is headed in a pretty passable direction overall. Yay.

17.12.11

Pinkie Pie

Today was Spontaneous Christmas Shopping Day. We bought way too much random crap, and had to rearrange the freezer to tuck in the ginormous duck (?!), but all in all - mission accomplished. Sorted out gifts, and picked up a little ditty for myself. Pinkie Pie the miniature blindbag version is standing next to my laptop.

I used to be annoyed by Pinkie Pie's constant doofus antics, they got old quite quickly and she was an annoying wart more often than not... but then I got to that part of the series that explains why she got that way, and what happens when stuff starts going wrong in her head, and I understood. It's hilarious how easily I "got" her, considering how different our character traits are. But yeah, new favorite pony. So I let Hasbro have the bit of cash they decided to charge for the figurine, and I have my very own piece of My Little Pony memorabilia. The pinkest, most superficially stereotypical piece of girly show memorabilia imaginable. Heh heh heh.

My university work is chugging along fine. I should be studying Ergonomy for a test on Monday right now, but hey, why not deprive myself of another half hour of sleep and type up a long-neglected blog post while hoping the slides magically scroll in the background? Ayup, that seems logical. My project has a pretty firm first draft, and all the computations and stuff are done. Just gotta nuke two tests this coming week and I'm pretty much done with all the petty stuff.

Recently, it hit me like a truck that my guitar playing is a bit off. Whilst I may have slightly progressed technically since my "glory year" of 2007, as I tend to wiggle my fingers a teeny bit more when I noodle, the lack of playing against any sort of backing or metronome (and an overall erratic practice schedule) for quite some time now has roughed up my rhythmic kneecap a bit. I still have the phrasing ideas and stuff, but my hands slip up a little and it ends up sounding like a nooby mess at times. Thus, I've established a minimum of 1 hour of guitar practice a day, no matter how busy I may be, and I'm doing my best to derust myself. It shouldn't take too long. I hope. If the worst comes to worst, I'll just play written solos for a while instead of improvising...

So yeah. A blog post when I'm not in a nihilist mood for a change. Why bother focusing on how we're just an evolution misfire when I can harness the fact that I'm a pretty functional being and live a life? That doesn't make the world any less futile, it just makes me considerably less bent on the subject. Hope more non-depressed posts will follow, although I do have a history of posting more when low.

2.12.11

Look, Ma, I'm Slow-Motion

The last couple of days weren't really that awesome. The depressive, oppressive smog refuses to go away, but the world demands attention from me and I had to fight my way through all sorts of obnoxious bureaucratic obstacles on my way to creating an application for the serious UK university I fleetingly mentioned in one of my earlier posts. Now comes the fun part of collecting all sorts of hilarious certificates and other paper memorabilia they may desire, and I'm afraid to think of the visa process, assuming I get in. Very, very stressful stuff overall (I still have no idea if I did it right), so I'm mentally exhausted. Yesterday my dad took one long look at me and told me to take a choice selection of meds. Today, I got hit with a throbbing headache that gave way to a nearly narcotic-like dumbness stupor.

I can't do anything fast. Anything at all. It's pretty darn cold outside, my hands and face are freezing as I walk the dog, but I can't speed up to get home quicker. I can't make it to the phone before it stops ringing. The world feels like sludge that bogs me down and makes me unable to function. I crashed in bed and read a book. About twice or thrice as slow as usual as well. This is insane.

Was fun when I got sent to the shop to pick up some bread and ham for supper. Not only was I gone forever, I actually managed to lose track of my conversation with the shop lady a fair few times. I hope the state goes away, it's hard to function like that.