mmm... 2006

I'm feeling good all of a sudden!
Can it be that my Seasonal Antisocial Disorder is passing?
Or is it that bong calling my name?

Nope, all wrong - AR'VE GET ME FECKING AMP BACK YU NOSE IT!



Aaah, those crazy welsh guys. Who'd have thought of that ey?

Anyways, the electric hum of my Marshall is quite reassurring, even though I know it should not really be making that sound at all. GRRRR....I'm not buying a display model ever again!
But its still loud enough even on <1. In fact, 1 is too loud. Who needs 11 anyway? I need to get my own place, noise restrictions stress me out :)

So , last weekend (over xmas 'twere) was spent in the homelands of shingle and slurry pits. I still cant handle my sister, but now she's just getting even bigger and stronger. And louder. Am beggining to remember why I wanted to leave home so badly now, all those years ago... The brother is still hanging in there, it looks like quite a comfortable existance, most of the time. And then the matriarch, more madcap schemes than you can shake Baldrick's muddy stick-for-a-leg at. But at least shes found some peace.

So back to this weekend. Up to shef i reckons. Party hearty most daftly. Bam.

In a bit.

One Lazy Dude

Well hey there!

How can I describe the last few months?

Obviously I've totally ignored some aspects of my previous year's existence. That happens when I'm thrown into a new scene.

The 'new scene' is the world of shirts. But nobody is wearing a tie now, much to my chagrin. What's it all coming to!?

I've been pretty much working solidly since October in the 9-5 corporate ziggurat, quite different to my September of stoner field engineer work. Now that was stimulating.

What I've accomplished:

1. Increased debt
2. Graduated from uni
3. Stopped smoking the sweet herb
4. Gained weight
5. Acquired replacement specs
6. Require replacement chronometer

That last one is still hurting, but as I've told myself many many times before:

"It's the only way you'll learn, dude"

Here's hoping...


Peace.

The good life

Hello to myself.

Its sunday night, and I've been in the south of France for a week now.
The good life indeed!
This place is stunning. I wish I listened in French class at school now, stupid Mrs Thompson always picking on me.

Dont really fewl like writing anything now, so I may update in the future.

Bye bye!

Welcome to Sarajevo

OK blog-afficianados, it is the first of August, I'm in Sarajevo, and so much has happened that I can barely remember...

I think my last post was from Budapest, a nice enough town, maybe a few too many wronguns for my linking, but that cant be helped.

From there me and the boy Luke trained down to Split, Croatia with a couple of Scottish girls and an Australian guy, friendly enough. A mission of 16 hours though as i recall, not too comfortable in our compartment, but at least we weren't gassed and robbed like so many others I've spoken to...

Croatia mainly entailed lazing on the coast and exploring the islands - so relaxing. On the second day on Hrav island, I dropped my glasses (barely six months old) in the sea, never to be recovered. Arse. I now resemble a pretentious cockend wearing my sunglasses with a five your old prescription, but at least I can see, kinda...

Well, we arrived in Sarajevo on Sunday 31st? after a farcical bus journey, the less said the better. We will be leaving for Dubrovnik on Wednesday before sailing to Bari and south through Italy.

Briefly we discussed Tunis, but thought better of it this time round. Maybe next year we will see North Africa, East to West...

Sarajevo is a beautiful town, I cant beleive the stuff that happened here4, its such a shame we like to hurt eachother.

Well, timeis up, Ash out.

Peace to one and all!

Where am I now?

OK, from Krakow we headed to Zakopane to check out the Tatras,
thi keboard sucks, insomme random hostel in budapet,

stopped over one ngh n the ukraine, a srious culture shock,

then was debrecen in hngary, the best three nighter party of all time. full details to follow forthose whoo care.

well im out Peace!

Good times in Krakow

Hello me myself and I.

Its Thursday right now, and I'm sitting in an Internet cafe just down from our hostel. This place we're staying in now (after slumming it in a hotel last night after nightmares across town) is perfect, way too good for the likes of us! I think its called the Garden hostel or sth, and it doesn't officially open til monday - so we are the first and worst!

It actually started to rain for the first time on our trip as we were heading south on the train, and by the time we had been turned away from several places it was throwing down buckets - but it was still humid and refreshing. I swear its been at least 27 degrees everyday.

We went to some bar/club called Prozac last night, and took over this pub-crawl organisers night something rotten. We did a similar thing to the other yank in Warsaw from Nathan's Hostel, who he was totally slagging off.

They both deserved it, the pretentious slimeballs.

Basically, he was pissed off the girls were chatting with us and we kept getting beers when he wanted to force his will on the group. And he insulted British humour - big mistake. That coming from a guy he told the three girls at a bar joke. Oh dear.

Seriously though, we've been having loads of fun doing pretty much the same thing as in England, but with much cheaper prices, far prettier and to some extent friendlier people; and of course amazing weather. But its summer, right?

This is how Team Fresh does it!

Peace.

Welcome to Polska

We have finally arrived in sunny Warsaw (Varsava), to be fair its sunny everywhere.

It was a nission getting here from Vilnius - a 10 hour bus journey with too many stops for Team Fresh standards.

We've found an ace hostel - Nathans villa, they even lay on breakfast till 12!

We'll stay here for a couple of nights before cracking on to Krakow.

It doesnt smell as bad as the Baltic states, and the people are much friendlier than in Lithuania.

Well I smell and feet are rotting - time to wash and shave.

Peace

A-fresh

Skonta-Riga

Today is culture day.

We will be visiting the war and/or occupation museums today for a piece of history.
The Baltic states thus far have been amazeering, but only through bingeathon tinted eyes I'm afraid to say.

We'll stay in Riga for another dsay before leaving for Vilnius, Lithuania on Saturday. Bam.

We met some nice American peace corps gals last night, but I managed my old trick of insulting their country and customs - though i dont think they noticed :p
Only joking, we love those yanks!

Okay, am off for scram now, you stay classy, the world!

edit 20:30
Got my degree classification through - a 2:1
What a relief!

Out on the beers again now - laterzzz!

Tallinn

Its Tuesday the 5th of July, and we have just had a proper nights sleep for the first time since we left for Stansted airport on Sunday afternoon - not that it was dampening my spirits or anything.

It is truly beautiful here, in so many respects. I would supply proof but I forgot my camera cable - will have to wait until I return. Never mind.

We`re going to an old soviet military town today which will be fun, there is still lots of evidence of the old regime here, but this will be a blast.

I'm gonna look for some postcards today and send them out!

Peace, Ash the ranger

101 ways to...

HEY HEY HEY!

Well we're not going to St. Petersburg anymore. Its been total jokes trying to get a visa for Russia - its as if they dont want us there...imagine that!

Still, that leaves more time for the rest of Europe.

I've been working like (that horse from Animal Farm) to scrape enough money together for the hols, but I think half the fun will come from living off your back eating chewing gum off the floor (admit it - we've all done it!)

Still, I'm not liking the way I've just slipped back into a 50 hour week. I can see me just being a hermit for the next few years, the krazy network guy, cables everywhere :p

Its the way it goes though:

you're born (introduction)

you learn (conditioning)

you work (consumption)

you die (peace at last)

Obviously I've over simplified the stages of life here, but its close enough. Maybe throw in some love etc if your lucky, but its all a distraction from the point of existence I'm sure many philosphers have mused.

Well, I'm gonna try for an early night, I've got a potentially grotty b&b to look forward to Wednesday Thursday night.

Peace!

Mister Anderson

Well, its Friday evening, and I'm in Chezzyfield.

Its been a loooong week.

Imagine life as a student bum for months on end; partying until is too bright to sleep; lazing in bed semi-conscious until its dark; general waster activities etc.
Now picture the culture shock of waking up at a reasonable hour like the rest of the working world; staying in random b&b's and hotels; tortuous train journeys around the country.

I reckon I'll head back to my own bed tonight, bliss!

another one bites the dust

check it out! distributed computing environments exam successfully (to some degree) completed today - 2hours 10minutes of funtastic computering distributedness.

i dont seem to be getting the hang of these seen questions like; another 50marks for this one and i still cant fulfill requirements. maybe i'm just a traditionalist at heart, fond of exams where you dont know the questions in advance...

tomorrow i've got networks and systems security, the last academic examiniation i'll ever take (excepting deferrals, which would be a first); only 20% of the unit this time tho, ideally i need 85% to average a first...even with the 2 seen questions on this paper, i'm still not feeling confident...

which brings me to...

little lad done good
i have rejoined the world of employment!
i do recall vowing never to return after the old work placement, but those ends just kept calling me back...

on a lighter note, the job isn't too challenging, same old stuff really, with greater rewards offered through my new employers - the saps! Only joking tho: they're great guys and i want to help contribute to the ongoing success of their new business.

And i want to get paid!

Seriously though, respect goes out to Steve and Simon for spotting my potential and making me the envy of my coursemates!

interactive section
and here comes the interesting bits...

this weekend saw extensive debauchery on many levels, the most amusing was G-fresh's whitey at French Jim's BBQ, sending projectile vomit a la me many years ago over a sofa, muchly impressing the hosts. not pleasant, but amusing.

the previous evening saw our own attempt at barbequeing, i take responsibility for the fire...



Little Jim's asleep on the left, G-fresh is obscured in't middle and K.K.'s next to the fire.

Rock on Wayne!

Management of Improbable Triumph Projects

or how to die through boredom

Its Sunday! 'bout to blow off....booooom!

Yeah dawgs, straight bangin' yo' face....

Enough son of a pastor from the burbs bollocks, its the moment we've been dreading all year - the MITP Final Exam...arse...

Just check out the exhilarating reading list:



You knows I've been avidly scribing away in those....

Not too confident about this one, its worth 60% of the units credit!

Fortunately its open book, and I'm bringing in the model answers....

Safe.

return of the pawn

my psychiatrist has given me clearance to resume espousing my world-view, being of the opinion that no right minded citizen of any culture would pay any attention.

i agree of course :p

update - wtf happened the last x weeks?

heres the rundown (from what i can remember)

i 'finished' my dissertation ahead of schedule, actually meeting the deadline...still trying to avoid thinking about this one.

no more pointless lectures and mindless sycophancy to put up with. its true i rarely attended anyway, but the finality is nice.

first exam of four out of the way - advanced networking. a total joke - since a large a proportion of the course couldnt even design a simple vlsm subnet in last xmas' paper for 20marks, we had a 50mark question on it this time round, which Al went through in the revision lecture.

the above refers to IP addressing, the most fundemental principle of networking in the Internet age. first year students should know this.

whats the point of doing networking at all you brainless sheep!

and to top it off, i'll be marked down for using all 0's & 1's subnets! just because Al thinks its better practise! read rfc1878 for saladins sake!

still getting rage issues with house cleanliness

still far too easily distracted by drugs and alcohol

still not found a new house

ok rant over. but this uni crap has really been pissing me off.

on a lighter note, SOAD's new album is pretty cool, and they're playing the festivals this summer.

edit:
just noticed ink stains on me favourite jeans

serves me right for being sat on my arse for 12hours.

bright eyes

oops, its been more than a month since i last posted!

i have just woken up, after a mighty eighteen hour sleep.
still feeling tired tho...
the explanation - working through night and day to finish our honeypot assignment!

i'm gonna go put the kettle on...

The Rage

Now my thumb hurts
Trust a video game to rile me up into The Rage, stupid bloody thing. There is little more infuriating to me than losing through no fault of my own. One blatantly well-exucuted tackle missed and I snapped - booted the table scattering two plates, a full pint of water, some empty glasses and several papers across the room.
They never saw it coming...

...and my head
workwise, the java assignment took a large step forward this weekend, being that it actually RUNS now. Bam! Not too worried about that one, the honeypot project is still not off the ground but the dissertation now has contents (only its not mine...) its looking a little late to start research for a research project...

The boy's still in hospital, but is off oxygen now and has had a nose thing put in so he can eat.

lord of the microcosm

yeahs! i was blamed for the abject failure of our last group assignment (although not to my face...come on, i wont bite!) i felt pretty hurt with all this shuffling going on behind my back, but at least i now know who my friends are :)

successfully returned home to celebrate me mums birthday for the weekend, still on a downer i barely moved the whole time, pretty much ignored alex and aston had to go to hospital. i really hate myself sometimes - i can be a right miserable bastard

have been considering jacking in uni again - such a cry for attention, considering theres only 7 weeks left. i think the influence of my dropout waster mates is getting to me, why not join them?

gonzo gonzo gone
skipping from self-loathing to the melloncholy, hunter s. thompson, the self-styled 'gonzo' anarchist-cum-journalist ended his life last weekend. cue a ridiculous number of obituaries and features by people who 'met' the man. this dude led a sobering life by all accounts, and rightly goes down as the literature legend of the 20th century. check him out.

well i'm gonna cook some dinner right now, maybe pasta with white sauce, possibly crackers and cheese, certainly cookies and cream ice-cream.

glutton :/

staring into the precipice

what a terrible week! but its only gonna get worse :(
i completely screwed our latest assignment, which reflects the level of effort i suppose (it was group work) but i've got two huge projects to complete within eight weeks...i'm not feeling too confident at the moment.

i did manage to make it into uni this morning tho, maybe this will be the foundation for success over the next two months.

on a lighter note, i think i have found my favourite altered state: three days of sleep deprivation, interspersed with occasional high energy and high concentration activities. so much cheaper than the demon sauce et al!

well, lecture in five, peace!

not another albatross!

well, i'm turning into an insomniac..dont you just hate that? i mean, i love sleep, waking up is sometimes the worst thing ever...i think lack of sleep is making me ill aswell. or a paranoid hyperchondriac.

rant complete.

yes! what could be more enjoyable than mooching back home friday afternoon, kicking back down the local finishing the crossword. nah seriously, i'll have a pen in my back pocket! but that is but the reward for more slavish submission to the doctrine of assessment. dammit, gotta finish this experiment....

Another 2005 Reasons to Buy

Yes! I made it through another year!
How they slip past barely noticed these days, oh woe!

I finally got around to making that first post of the year, but what should i say, hmm?

May aswell chat about xmas first then i'll see what happens.....travelled the land back to my home village to stay with the family. A welcome break from all this 'pressure' man. My little sister just keeps growing, I swear she'll be beating me up soon. sigh. My brothers still hanging in there, it was great to see him so happy. And then theres the mother, damn, just when i thought i had her figured! Well, everyone was pleased to see me and sad to see me go so i must be doing something right. maybe i'm finally mature.

but that was all weeks ago now, and i've had a couple of exams since and am gearing up for some serious assignments. goddammit.