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20/04/07: *Phew*. Snowed under with University work, and there's more to come. In the next four weeks I've got to write a 2,500 word dissertation in Irish history and do the screenplay and SFX for my group's Film project (it's basically going to be "The Noir Film in Five Minutes" and is heavily influenced by Chinatown and Double Indemnity). I've completely given up on --H20-- after they failed to return my emails and put out another edition without even telling me. I really don't have time for them anyway.
I go back to Uni the day after tomorrow, and to be perfectly frank I'm not looking forward to it. I had to come home for a few days last term because I had quite possibly the worst day ever. I was extremely depressed the entire morning for reasons I hesitate to publish on the --interwebs-- , with the result that after doing my laundry I came back, hurled the laundry bag against the wall and lay with my head underneath my bed for about half an hour. When I finally plucked up the courage to return to the world, and took my laundry bag upstairs to iron it, I discovered that the cap had come off the detergent and all my clothes were now covered in a shiny purple slime. At this point I started crying and hitting the walls. This awoke my severely hung-over housemates, who greeted me with the benevolent enquiry "What the f*ck do you think you're doing you f*cker". Since I was at this point rather over the edge, I said nothing, but hid under the kitchen table instead (hey, they're the potheads and booze hounds - they should be considered the crazy ones, not me).
Eventually, I was able to force myself to cram my ruined clothes into a sink and leave them to soak. I then phoned my parents to ask how one goes about getting detergent stains out of dry clothes. Their answer? "put it through the machine again". Well, the stupid machines at our --University-- require exactly one £1 coin and one 50p coin, and another 50p coin for the drier. Fortunately, I had two £1 coins and three 50p coins, so I had just enough for one more run through the washer and drier. However, I was in such a state that I accidentally set it going on 'medium' (read: 'damp') and, realizing this, pressed the "stop" button before I remembered that it doesn't provide refunds. Well, I recovered from that, went home, took my key off my neck and unlocked my drawer to retrieve my remaining £1.50 and some loose change. I paid one of my housemates 60p for a 50p coin (this, by the way, is what Bath Spa University's washing machines are doing to the economy - madness, I tell you). I set off for the launderette again and set it going on 'hot' (read 'tepid'). I then realised I had left my key in my room and locked myself out. Since I live on the ground floor, I wondered if my window might be open - I might be able to climb back in. But, of course, when my parents said they were coming down to collect me I had closed it. Then it started snowing. I had to traipse across to the security guard and beg them to let me back in. So, anyway, not looking forward to going back.
In other news, anyone who hasn't had been buried alive in an elaborate escapist stunt for the past week is probably aware that the death of 32 people no-one has ever heard of in a place 99.9% of people have never been is suddenly the hottest thing on TV ... and radio ... and the newspapers ... and the Internet. What's that? They were rich Americans shot up at University by a Columbine-style killer? Oh, well that's OK then. Never mind the thousands of people who die every day in wars and famines all over the world. Tim's conspiracy guru --Alex Jones-- is already declaring that the killer was a hypnotised --Manchurian candidate-- brainwashed by the CIA and endowed with uber gun-kata skills. In reality, the killer was an over-stressed, working class boy who had been picked on by the 'pot and jet set' he castigated in his 8-page suicide note, and harboured elaborate persecution and revenge fantasies (the fact that the shooting was basically a cry for attention is fairly obvious when you consider that he posted on the Internet detailing his upcoming attack and posted a "press release" to NBC with pictures of himself wielding the murder weapons). The final straw appears to have been that all-American crisis, his girlfriend breaking up with him. Of course, the availability of guns in America means teenage angst and violent depression are all too easy to act upon, whether you are targeting yourself, or other people. But no - it's OBVIOUSLY because he was playing that terribly violent online videogame --Counter-Strike-- . Pop psychologist "Dr. Phil" --said so-- . The proof? He unloaded multiple shots into his victims, just like in the first-person shooters he played! It couldn't have been because he was consumed with frustration, rage, and hate, oh no. And his poses in his "press release" clearly indicate he was inspired by violent martial arts films, because they closely resemble poses on the poster of one specific movie he may have seen. How so? Well, both feature an Asian male in close-up pointing a gun at his own head. Wow, the resemblance is uncanny. No, the problem just COULDN'T be that he was able to unload real, lead bullets into whoever he wanted. No way. Alex Jones even claims the whole incident was set up especially to give the --New World Order-- an excuse to institute gun control.
Personally, I don't think this necessarily means America needs gun control (though as a Christian I am generally in favour of people not having the wherewithal to blow other peoples' brains out, even in self-defense), I think it needs better morals (not that Britain is any better anymore). And while we're on conspiracy theories, I came up with one when I watched the appalling press coverage of this event. I noted how they kept saying the killer was "a loner" and "dangerously introverted". Repeated it and repeated it. They sneered when they noted how his suicide note attacked the "depravity" of the "rich kids" on campus, as if to be anything else is to be a freak. They put on surviving students who said they had tried to be friendly to him (as if they would say anything else). I seriously wondered for a while whether 32 people had died just to make people think I was a potential murderer. Of course, that's ridiculous, not to mention incredibly self-centred. But, it is any better to assume everything you see is part of some huge satanic conspiracy? If there IS a conspiracy, it will be human and limited in scope, or else it will be a subconscious gestalt/memetic/demonic trend coordinating groups with very different aims, and none of the participants will know what they are working towards. Either way, there is room for --random events-- , and the only claim any conspiracy has on those is the spin they put on them.
On a more personal note, I've completed one of my epic projects - a volume-by-volume quantification of the powers and abilities exhibited in the comic and animated series --Dragonball-- and --Dragonball Z-- . You can download the .txt file --here-- . Hopefully this will assist debaters using this setting in "versus" forums (e.g. --spacebattles-- , --stardestroyer.net-- ) as well as stimulating discussion over what I believe to be one of the most significant literary works of the 20th century. Also get the timelines.txt file --here-- . I also had a significant chunk of the RefutedYouBleeps project (containing embarrassing radical feminist quotes and my snarky rebuttals) converted into .html, but accidentally converted the lot to Filtered before I was ready, screwing up the formatting. I'll try to fix it as soon as possible so you can begin to browse. The plan is to add to it bit by bit from my massive file so I can have something up in my "Rants" section.
Healthwise, my ear is a little better (though still crackling and popping at times), but my right eye has now joined the sick brigade by manifesting about four thick, web-like floaters, which drift across my vision just when I'm trying to learn to drive. The doctor and optician didn't even bother looking in my eye to see if they were floaters and not, say, a manifestation of the acute glaucoma that runs in the family, they just shrugged and said they eventually settled (what, like blocked Eustachian tubes just "go away"? - nonsense).
Anyway, I'd better sign off. Blessings all round, keep the faith, don't throw the sheep in the sherbert mixer, etc.
UPDATE: --RefutedYouBleeps-- is up! Go check it out!