So it got colder...

Okay so first off, summer related pics etc have been way overdue, and I also feel an explanation of this horrendous week is possibly on the cards, however after at least two separate compliments and the subsequent realisation of a dear friend that my self esteem isn't exactly all it should be, has sort of vetoed all plans I had of fulfilling my obligation to chronologically updating this.

Maybe being called patient and kind isn't a big deal to some, but it meant a lot coming from someone I don't know overly well and, makes me optimistic that this is a) a correct assumption and b) that there are perceptive people out there and they apparently enjoy my company.

I needed some basic attention this week (i.e. see above) and Friday night as a whole cheered me up. Woo?

jetslag.

Just arrived back home after a week in Mallorca. It was a fantastic trip and sorely needed on my part. I'm rather tired and just heard someone ordering Chinese food, pictures and further riveting tales will be added asap. 

"But something's bugging you/Something ain't right"

Feeling very run down and a bit useless at the moment. Exam season is upon us and my motivation is definitely lacking. This not aided by occasionally snappy/apathetic house mates, which of course is forgivable but still unnerving. I feel all jittery and not in the good, upbeat, jitterbug, Wham! sense of the word.

Maybe I'm being a tad melodramatic (in fact I am and using too many adjectives?), it's not so bad and it'll all be over in 13 days, lucky eh?

Back to the task at hand I suppose, maybe I should put some Wham! on?

Closure! 'The closure of a set is all point contained within that...'

I've had a rather superb day. There have been some things bugging me recently, stuff that happened at school, things I didn't or did say, that I've never been able to let go of and that I feel I needed to get closure on. So without really thinking about it I got up and emailed a friend. As I pressed send I really wished I hadn't, but it turns out I should have done it a lot sooner. He reassured me and getting his perspective really helped me lay the neurosis to rest.

So put in a very good mood from the shedding of emotional baggage, and having defeated iTunes, finally (yeah took me a while to get round to fixing the registry errors on my laptop) working at uni went extremely well and lectures just flew by. We covered some very interesting and mind bending material on the Cantor set, K. Georg Cantor was a bit of a major player in Set Theory and when you look at the sets he managed to create as demonstrations of some of the more inconceivable set properties, it really is difficult to believe how much of a genius this guy was. My friend Graham also thinks that Cantor was also a bit of a 'richard' for coming up with this stuff making our lives difficult, and I suppose he's entitled to his opinion.

Diverting attention from the previous paragraph ( because I'm sure most people have no idea what I'm talking about and/or do not care) here are some of the pictures I've been taking recently in and around Manchester. I'm really fascinated by what people write on toilet walls and so couldn't help documenting some of them:

This made me giggle, I went back a few weeks later and somebody had got rid of the (what I presume is) eyeliner. -Big Hands.

 Also in Big Hands, this is on the ceiling above the door, this girl must have been pretty tall, those ceilings are pretty high.

 Loved this. -Sand Bar

Also on the ceiling of Big Hands. Seriously how tall are these women?

And now for some more arty pictures:

 The Alan Turing Building, University of Manchester. A building that I have come to love much more than I thought I possible. This is the solar paneled roof bridging the photon laser institute and the main block. 

Leaving Manchester via train, I've never tried to take a photo of the sun before and I have no idea if this is any good or not but I really like it.

"Ramona,*strum* Ramonaaa"

So basically this entire post is going to be about Scott Pilgrim... deal with it.
I can't be all cool and claim I read the comic before I saw the film etc. I saw an advert for the film and since it screamed;
Based on a comic/the writer is involved!/Edgar Wright directing /Michael Cera ~yay /nerdy game references and an awesome soundtrack, I thought 'hey this is probably the film for me...'


It was. It's awesome. I know it dived at the box office, I really don't care, it's now one of my favourite films.


Shortly afterwards my boyfriend's sister bought him the set of comics for Christmas and my housemate (who has around the same level of obsession as myself, and who I am now probably going to have to direct to this blog so he can appreciate my posting this) and I promptly 'drilled' them, as he would put it.


They too are awesome, in the true sense of the word, I really have never laughed at and loved a book/comic/graphic novel so much (with the possible exceptions of Douglas Adams work...)

So go forth and at least see the film if you're one of those crazy people who "doesn't read" [those right there are the typed equivalent of sarcastic air quotes].

The root of this ramble was from me scrolling through my friend's Tumblr (be warned those with a gentle disposition, there's often lots of boobs on his page ~sigh) and finding the below picture and comment. Yeah basically everyone who's read/watched any of Scott Pilgrim is in love with Ramona, not just guys...

"I don’t care if I’m just like every other guy on this planet… I’m in love with Ramona Flowers"

However I feel I need to make mention of a character that often gets neglected and is basically a work of pure genius:

Wallace Wells
Roommate
25 Years Old
Rating: 7.5/10

After two days even the week goes W(ed)T(hurs)F(ri).

Finally getting my act together!...sort of. Just had my introduction for volunteering at our local Oxfam (Charity shop for the unaware). I've been meaning to get into volunteering for over a year now but just hadn't found anything I could get really invested in, and didn't want to be another of those student volunteers doing it solely for their C.V. However, as I am working in a shop and currently have no work experience, this is definitely going to be milked. The shop primarily sells clothes and books, but also Fairtrade foods, bric-a-brac and music. Music i.e. CDs and LPs which apparently have been pretty poorly organised because nobody took an interest in it, until now! I've effectively been tasked with sorting through reams of the stuff, checking, pricing etc. I'm really looking forward to it. I'll be helping with the book sorting too and getting till training and window dressing (if I turn out to be any good at it), we get quite a bit of freedom to get involved in what we enjoy. I feel a bit lame for getting excited about it, but the thought of all that vinyl does funny things to me...

On the more crafty side of things; I recently knitting a grumpasaurus for my sister in attempts to cheer her up, she's been going through some rough stuff at the moment and it seemed to do the trick. Unfortunately, idiot here forgot to take a picture before I handed it over but here's the link: http://kat-knits.blogspot.com/2009/03/free-pattern-grumpasaurus.html
It was a really enjoyable make and not too difficult although I can't do cable binding on and picots, so being pushed for time I knitted around 7 little triangles on 3mms and stitched them instead.

Also my exceedingly good and very talented friend Emma (http://emmasaynor.tumblr.com/) restarted our mixtape exchange. We used to do this in school circa. 2006 and it's still really awesome;

So of course I got all excited, organised a playlist to burn and send one back, then iTunes decided to be ridiculous and so I can't burn CDs from it right now, I will sort it but I just hate faffing with computers and I'm quite okay with just ignoring it for now. Instead I decided to try and knit something resembling a cassette tape, which funnily enough, think came out okay;

I made up the pattern as I went along, and what appear here to be the 'eyes' are holes that go all the way through like a real cassette. I couldn't resist giving it a face, I'm like that, anthropomorphising everything.

"Love, love, it's who you know..."

Currently Listening to: Smashing Pumpkins - because I'm on book 3 of the Scott Pilgrim series and not only is it called 'Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness', a nod to their '95 album but also because he keeps showing up in their band merch on every few pages. Also! they are an awesome band .

So starting a new semester tomorrow, I have that naive excitement about the week, the new beginning, which will be swiftly quelled by Friday when I'm shattered and the mountain of work becomes fully apparent. I wouldn't want to break the habit of lifetime though, so I'm looking forward to it nonetheless.

I'm determined to manage my time better this semester and work more efficiently so that I can start some larger projects - knitting/sewing wise I haven't decided yet. I also keep doodling down lines and phrases that come to mind and I haven't done that for so long, I wonder if the bad bad poetry bug is back. We'll/I'll/You'll see. [I've always found it difficult to work out who to address diaries and blogs to].

Oh Tuesdays...

This is definitely not a good time to be starting a blog, so I should forgive myself, in part, if posts are a little staggered for the next month. There's a big, long, mental list of things I ought to be doing at the moment. Here's an short excerpt;
i) Revise for upcoming exams (2nd year degree level Mathematics).
ii) Type up something resembling a C.V. so I can apply for jobs- the money from which is sorely needed.
iii)There's always some cleaning to be done somewhere in this house... etc.

But I told myself I would make another last ditch attempt at an online presence that doesn't include scrolling endlessly through somebody's 'wall'. I've never understood why it's called that or why they become so appealing when you're bored at 1 in the morning.

So I'll end on the positive note that I shall be back soon and hopefully for a more lengthy and coherent stretch.