Death Of A Better Man

I'll be honest with you, I have no idea what I'm doing.

I don't mean for writing this blog, I mean in general.

I've finished university for the year. As in, the first term of university has been and gone. What do I have to show for it? A Macbook, a Web Premium suite for the Mac and the newest Guitar Hero game. Yes, it is a lovely thing.

Luckily I have finally finished the miserable module named Video Production. We finally gave in the final video project last Thursday, meaning all that's left is the dreaded evaluation essay. I mean, what am I supposed to write about? God, this module has just been one enormous patronising pain in the arse since the beginning.

The first day I went in to the lecture, I knew it wasn't going to be a fun module. One of the first things he asked us was who hasn't used a camera before? Because I had no idea what type of camera he meant - a camera they use in television shows, one that records on tape or one like a camera phone - I put my hands up. Then he asked me why I decided to do this module. He asked the same about who's edited video before. Again, I stuck my hand up (as the only editing I've done is on Movie Maker). He asked the same question, why are you doing this module?

I had the urge to go on a mad one. Well, not a mad one, more like a rather polite yet assertive one. First off, I didn't chose to do this module, it was more like an annoyance more than anything. Second of all, since this is the first year of the module it means that it's more of an introduction than anything else, so it is to be expected that most of us hadn't used cameras or edited video before. Grrr.

I'll be honest, I really do not understand why some people can be an artistic snob. Okay, I understand when they go in about the colours and all that jazz, but not when they compare the light to a passage from the dictionary. It makes no sense.

Meh.

In other news, I have three extensions for different assignments. Since my lecturer's wife gave birth to a baby, I have an extension that I badly needed for Internet Technology and Media for Applications. The other is because of the snow. Lovely.

So yeah, a few weeks after beginning university and all I have to show for it is a few assignments and a story about going to Hooters for the first time. Nice.

One thing I noticed mind, is that there's hardly any difference between university and school. In my class, there's a definite split between the popular people and the others, quite like the split that was in my year in school. There are lessons (even if they are called lectures, they are still lessons of sorts). The only major difference for me is that you have less time in university (seventeen hours in university compared to about thirty in school). Other than that, it's all the same. Maybe it is because I live at home.

So yeah, a term of university down, and I'm at that point in the year where I'm somewhat cut off from the world. As I see Christmas and the New Year just as an excuse to get urinated, I just stay away from it all, meaning that I lose touch with people who I actually like. Sometimes I hate my train of thought. Hang on, most of the time. Grr.

In other news, I kind of realised that the only reason I went to university is to avoid going into full time work. Well, that's not completely true. I did want a good education, but also I just saw it as the next stage of life. Since everyone in the sixth form were going on about going to university, so I did. I followed the higher education crowd. Maybe, it would've been a wiser decision to go to collage first and then university. Why? I don't feel mature enough for university. I still don't think I am.

I'll be honest, I apologise for the rather shite blog post. I shall leave you now.

- Devil May FIN

Eight And Twelve

You may be wondering, why I called this blog post Eight And Twelve, yes? Thought not. Anyway, it has something to do with binary.

In a four-bit binary code, what is eight symbolised as? Well, its 0100. And what a coincidence, this is my hundredth blog post.

And it is at this point, that I would like to apologise for all the crap that you've had the misfortune to grace your screen. One hundred posts in under two years, there's something sad about that fact, yes?...

So, you might have guessed what twelve is about? Yes, binary again. Twelve in binary is 1000, which leads me to the news that in December, I hit 1,000 views since I started the Blogger In Draft thing late June. That's mad, that. Thanks to everyone who has taken their time to read this blog. I know that most of them have decided to stop reading my dreary posts, but thanks to those anyway. =].

One thing that happened recently, that I'm not sure that I mentioned, is that I was the joint winner of Clic's Best Overall Contributor award, along with a girl from Neath Port Talbot who laughed quite a bit while taking photos of people. The reason I won this is because I do a lot for Wicid, being sub-editor, looking after Wicid's social networking accounts and writing shitloads for the site. I've written eight Dear World articles (which I cannot be arsed to post), with half of them going up to Clic, so they must be good.

Not only that, but out of the seven that has been made live on Wicid, they have had over 1,500 views. Not bad, considering my writing skills aren't the best thing. Not sure if they take Clic views into account also, but who cares? =].

In other news, I had my first assignment back. It was for Video Production (the shit one, y'know... Documenting a Space). The module leader talked to me about the film, saying that I documented a place, not a space. Grr. I thought they were the same thing. Anywho, he also told me that I was too cautious with my filming. I was filming the Taff Trail, maybe if I filmed the inside of Al Qaeda's base, that would still be too cautious for him. Ah well, I still passed the assignment, mind. I had to get 40% to pass, I got 53%. I'm not bothered about the relatively low mark, as this is a really dull module. But on the plus side, we do get to watch music videos like these...







This is what the group assignment is about. We get to fuck around with all these things. No, we're not allowed to use music, its the whole visual thing. But yeah, I didn't realise how good Vermillion was before watching these videos. Brilliant.

In other news, I wrote an essay on resistors, and I'm expected to write an essay on sound. Lovely. I've also written an essay about file types, and I shall let you know how bad I faired when I have the results.

I shall leave you now, as it's twenty to one, and I have to wake up early for something or other.

Fair the well, fellow humanoid.

- I'm just a FIN machine.

Book/Face

For some bizarre reason, someone has decided to change their Facebook display picture to a cartoon from their childhood. The reasoning? To raise awareness of child abuse.

First things first, how does this raise awareness of child abuse? So, just because you changed your display image to Pikachu, does this mean a child in poverty has finally stopped "walking into doors"? No.

You may be reading this and think, fuck, Ga, it's for a good cause. Yes, it is for a good cause, but there are endless adverts by the NSPCC that has more of an impact on people than some people changing their display pictures to a cartoon character for two cocking days.

See, I don't understand these things. Since when was changing a display picture to something else, or changing your status to a chain-letter-like thing, will help in raising awareness of any charity? I thought, and forgive me if I'm wrong, that if you support a charity strongly, the least you can do is give the charity something. I know its an extreme train of thought, but surely that's a better way to support a charity than changing a display picture?

Though, on a lighter note, it has given me one of the best laughs I've had in a long white.

Many of these changes of display pictures are rather typical. The girls who love Disney changed their pictures to Disney princesses, while others who were fond of Saturday morning television changed their pictures to characters from programs like the gang from Recess or someone from Fairly Odd Parents.

While one person, who had the same thought as me about it being a pointless exercise, also changed their display picture.

But what to?

Well, to this...



Yes, she changed her display picture, to help raise awareness of child abuse to an image of Pedobear.

I laughed so hard at that. Best thing that happened today.

Right, I shall leave, before someone attacks me for accepting child abuse just because I didn't change my display picture. If you are said person, look at my current display picture on Facebook or Twitter. That is my reply to you.

=].

- Na, na na na, na na na, na na na na na na na, na na na, na na na, na na na na na na na, na na na, na na na, na na na, na na na, na na na, na. FIN FIN FIN FIN FIN FIN FIN.

Lovely

I went to Hooters, today.

The only reason I went was because someone from university turned to me and someone else saying I want to go to Hooters. So we did.

I'm not going to go on about what I think of Hooters, nor am I going to go on about the females there. All I will do is map out the forty minutes or so.

The obvious place to start is the beginning, so that means walking to Hooters. For some reason, Dan (the guy from my course) was really wanting to go to Hooters. Why, I do no know.

So, when we walk in, me, Dan and Maria (a girl from university). We are welcomed with the choir of voices singing us to our seats. Er. Not really. It was a burst of Welcome to Hooters as the girls were doing their stuff.

When I walked in, I'll be honest with you, the first thing I noticed was that the music they were playing was pretty epic. I mean, the first song they were playing was this...



Forgive the fact that it is a Guitar Hero video. They have disabled embedding on the official video. But anyway, this song is a funky song. Brilliant.

They did play Lady Gaga's Just Dance, which isn't bad, to be fair. But the thing that clinched the fact they play good music is this...



Man, that is a pretty epic song. No idea why, its just one of my favourite songs. It is pretty epic.

The second thing I noticed is that there was a hell of a lot of televisions in there. The first thing that was on the tellies was an American football game between the Patriots and the Steelers. The Patriots won, mind. Then I found out how crap England did on the first day of the Ashes. England, all out for 290? Whoa, you're going to struggle to win the first test now. England will need a miracle.

And as I thought all this, Dan was ogling the girls, and Maria was looking at anything but the girls.

I've never felt more of a man and less of a man at the same time. I've never been more interested in sports than I was at that moment in time. But, as people may think of men as being more interested in barely clothed women than sports, I felt like I kind of let the side now. Well, no I didn't. I just felt really odd there.

Even when one of them served us, I either kept eye contact with one of the the numerous televisions, or the Clic pen I was holding. It was green. Only when the girl asked me what I wanted, I looked at her. And even then, it was her face that was in my vision. She wasn't bad looking, to be fair. She was rather surprised when I said I didn't want to order anything.

One thing I found bizarre was when the music suddenly changed to the YMCA, and the girls all just started dancing. No idea why that is. Though, I thought it was rather odd that a woman came into Hooters pushing a baby push chair things. Whoa, it seems like they start them off early, eh?

So yeah, that was my first experience with Hooters.

- Grand Theft Auto: FIN Andreas.