My week

So this was my first week of classes. It was great. I have three modules: Nietzsche; Social Futures; and Neo-Nationalism and small wars. They are all awesome. I have been reading Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy and I'm really enjoying it. It is basically an essay which asks where Greek tragedy came from, and how come it was so moving. And it blames "The demon,Socrates...that logical despot" for bringing down the Dionysian beauty of the original tragedians (like Aeschylus and Sophocles). The other modules are cool too.

Also, last night I went and saw Imogen Heap perform at my university. It was dope. The whole thing was very aesthetically pleasing experience. She was damn good live and basically did live DJing/mixing while also singing, playing the piano, and multifarious other crazy intstruments. She was very tall and thin, and fair and she had a really cool hairdo. Imogen Heap used to be in a band called Frou Frou, which was on the Garden State soundtrack, and her solo album's really good too. It was so cool because she was one of a very small group of artists I have wanted to see and then not only did she come to my University, but my neighbour and his wife had two spare tickets and they took me along for free!



PS, tomorrow is my birthday and I'm going to an all-you-can-eat curry buffet. I don't know if that is safe. Has anyone ever completely gorged themselves on curry? And if so, how did they put out the fire in their butt the next day?

Hope you are all doing great, friends.

I'm a dish-washer

Hi everyone,

It's been awhile I suppose since I've updated, here's what I've been up to:

Since I got back from Canada I had that awful fllu for two weeks and I swear it almost killed me. I was so constantly and unrelenting ill that I think it permenantly altered my consciousness and perception. I can't remember ever being so ill in my life. It was the first time I've ever been so ill that I couldn't sleep, at all. For two weeks I was sitting in pure misery watching the sun come up at 6am with bloodshot eyes wishing that sleep would finally come but getting no relief. It was seriously so bad that you realize life is not quite what you thought it was and you end up re-evaluating the world in light of your misery and the knowledge that many others feel much worse and that you may well feel worse at some point in the future.

Once I finally got better I really felt appreciation for good health and I feel like I have lived more vigorously since then. I've been eating, drinking, loving and skateboarding with new passion. I've really gotten back into my skateboarding and am enjoying it alot. I have to skate a few miles to the skateboard park but really enjoy the excercise and there's lot of fun stuff to skate on the way. There's a skateboard park closer than that, but it is occupied by a camp of Gypsies. Since they have moved there the place has become un-skateable as it is covered with junk food, rotten vegetables, dirty kids, and all sorts of other garbage. I don't care what anyone says, gypsies are parasites. While I was there one of the gypsy girls took an quad-bike [or ATV] into the half-pipe. The park is made of woody stuff and I'm worried that when the gypsies move on there will be nothing left but a smoldering pile of garbage.

Also, Beth's bosses at the Vegitarian Cafe asked her earlier this week if I could fill-in for some shifts washing dishes as their regular dish-washer is on holiday. So I've been washing dishes the last couple days and its been swell. It's nice to work. Today one of the cooks threw all the rubbish into a cardboard recycling bin that belongs to the furniture shop next door. The furniture dude came over and raised hell so I had to go and jump into this dumpster thing and lob all the bags out into our proper trash-dumpster. I thought it would be quite clean, being a recycling thing only, but for some reason there was about two inches of noxious liquid trash on the bottom so the operation was a bit smelly. Still, it was fun to go and jump in a dumpster and lob trash. Seriously, what is not to love about jumping into a big dumpster and throwing trash? I realize the preceding sentences seem to sound sarcastic (and this one has alot of "ssss" in it too), but I really did enjoy it. It was the end of the day, and I was wearing kitchen scrubs which I simply peeled of and threw in the laundry bag.

Hmmm, what else...Oh yeah, I also dowloaded all of Sufjan Stevens CDs, minus one which I had to buy from Amazon Jersey (at £5.99 it wasn't too outrageous by British standards) and have really enjoyed them immensely. I would say that his album Come on Feel the Illinoise is one of the best and most interesting I have come across and there are some truly beautiful songs on it. He sings about God alot, but in a way that I actually enjoy (I usually find most Christian music seems as though it could be written by a machine). One song is about a girlfriend of his who gets cancer and they pray for her and lay hands on her or something but she never gets better and he feels that God doesn't make sense. The song is called "Casimir Pulaski Day". The other really good song is called Decateur. But there's alot of good songs, and alot of weird songs, which I like. His other albums are really good too, except Enjoy Your Rabbit which is electronica and I pretty much hate most electronica.

Ironically, after acquiring all of Sufjan Stevens's albums, the one I'm most disappointed in is the only one I didn't download illegally via Bittorrent (ie. via the internet) but paid for in full. I have just decided a few days ago that I won't download anymore media illegally off the internet. It's not that I feel guilty really. I was just worried that one of the various recording organizations (MPAA, RIAA, or in Britain, the BPI) would sue me, which they apparently do alot (although any one person's chances of getting caught are still only about one in 10 thousand or so, at least in Britain). So there you have it, sometimes fear of punishment has to fill in where guilt will not. The thing is, CDs cost usually around £14-£18 and often over £20, which is like 50$ Canadian! And seriously, I find that, unfortunately, lots of CDs just totally, completely suck. Add to that the fact that you can download perfect copies of these CDs off the internet for free, and buying ripoff CDs that may well be garbage just doesn't seem like such a great deal. To be honest I think the 'anti-piracy' ads they have over here just make things worse. They always go something like this: "You wouldn't steal a car, would you? You wouldn't steal a purse, right? You wouldn't mug your poor old nextdoor neighbour for their bus fare? Well, downloading CDs illegally is stealing, and is just the same as all those things we just said!". Ummmm, no, it's not I'm afraid. And anyone who can't tell the difference between making copies of copyrighted material and breaking and entering their neighbours house is a sociopathic psycho who probably shouldn't be free in society. Have you ever photocopied something without getting permission from the author? Have you ever watched a DVD in your classroom, oil-rig, or prison? (to quote the FBI warning at the beginning of my Futurama DVD) If you have then you are an evil criminal like me, only probably not as bad. Anyways, like I said, I don't want to get sued so I'm not doing it anymore. I suppose I also agree with the economic arguments in favour of intellectual property rights like those which make it illegal to download CDs and Simpsons episodes for free.

Mmmm....I got to take a nice break in the middle of writing this to eat a yummy mixed-berry crumble, with custard, that Beth made. She is a damn good cook. Also, I just watched an interview with former US president Jimmy Carter, and he was really cool! I am so suprised. I thought all former presidents were kind of lame and stupid, like Reagan. Maybe Jimmy Carter is lame and I just didn't realize it.

I'll shut up now. Bye friends!