Showing posts with label recession. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recession. Show all posts

Friday, May 22, 2009

Same old tune, just not in tune...

Well i have been meaning to write this blog for a few days. It is after all a really really self serving moan bag of a blog. Basically i want to discuss the year (academic) so far and what i've done.


I apologise in advance for negativity, rambling and self-effacing depressive sentence’s and so on. I'm worried about exams, i'm not exactly prepared and doing this seems like a good idea to do because i don't have many people to talk to while i sit here at a computer waiting for my afternoon exam,






In a spring like attempt to lift the mood of this post i will try and keep the description of the year as brief as possible, REMEMBER I SAID "TRY".



So back in 08 during the lack of summer i tried to study for supplemental’s. This was a massive failure on my part. I did little to know work. I avoided the problem. I was terrified, i was obviously not right in the head. Some days i would sit at college computers ALL Day long, without bathroom breaks, and then in pain rush to the bathroom before sulking home and saying very little. My failing was completely my own doing. So was the summer exams that had led to this. I wasn't happy then either and it just continued and continued.

Roll on failure and despite trying to voice how miserable i was my parents put them at financial risk and made me repeat the year. I couldn't do anything else. I couldn't switch course without passing, i have no work experience or want to work low wage unskilled jobs. I also have an unrealistic dream of being a writer or doing something creative. So back in i went. General nursing second year all over again. Lost and upset and now finding myself with a hell of a lot more free time and no friends in my course other than Chatterbox i turned to my old friend Gammaman. Despite an even more gruelling course than mine he had made a life on campus in the society and i put aside my old prejudice at the idea of "campus elitism" (i don't know what that was all about) and signed up. After the Colours debate i was hooked, debating was my new thing. I then in my spare time spent far too long reading newspapers and sitting on those glorious couches’ then wrapping my head around the course work i had done last year and cementing it in my head. I took part in 5 first rounds of the Maiden's competition. This was mostly because of my ever presence there and encouragement from Gentle Ben and curiosity in trying to hone my fledgling skills.

The trip to the republic. That was when the first blog started. I had my thing for Hope and all that. It failed miserably. I did a lot of lonely walking around Cork. The oddest part being liberating a 3 litre bottle of coke for supposed mixed drinks afterwards if necessary. But upon arrival at the hostel the whole Hope thing failed and I-T and her studied for a debate the next day. Jilted, or angry or just plain depressed i walked back to the pub. This didn’t last to long at it was there that i discovered i was the 5th WORST person in the competition. Possibly something to do with my partner being unable to speak english, but still REALLY bad.



Now the first part of the year flew by pretty quick. And i didnt really make any friends amongst the new year, mainly because i had all of 1 tutorial day. There was brief friendship’s during placement and that went well at the time. Daisy being an example of that, and Jade to an extent.

Somewhere during placement i had a slight bit of rekindling friendship with people from my previous year. PG of course being an ever present force in my life. Despite breaking up with her more than a year ago she still talks to me the exact same amount as when we were dating but unable to meet in person. That can suck sometimes. Now in my infinite wisdom i quickly became enamoured with Cleo. She was an enigma that i was very quickly interested in unravelling. And by unravelling i mean both understanding and sleeping with. She was obviously a bit on the oddball side. The quick and honest revelation of Bi-sexuality and partaking or having interest in a swingers party was shocking to say the least. But my LUST moved far to fast. She never saw me the same way and i just got really insane about her. To the extent that i skipped a day of placement after a party in PG's and went to Cleo talking about odd dreams i had and my feelings for her. I sat in her dingy and student grotto flat and slowly went insane. I couldnt stop my thoughts. She wasn't interested in me. She was distant. And yet my mind became disturbed and i had to run. If i didnt i might have assaulted her. I was terrified of my own head and had to leave that mess as fast as possible. And i did.


Then Australia. My sister’s wedding. This was all about the family and my sister. It was a good time had. It was nice to actually experience some summer for once. But i also became very introverted while there. I was after all bored senseless. I spent afternoon after afternoon watching comedy repeats and so on. I followed all the tourist stuff. We popped up to Sydney. There i was possibly even worse. On one occasion in the sweltering heat and bare skin of aussie female's my mind wondered back to similar thoughts as to when sitting in Cleo's flat. Every female that passed me i had flash's in my mind of different acts and so on. It was terrifying. As soon as i could i separated myself from my parents and hoped on the monorail. iPod and McD milkshake weren't enough. So adult magazine, curtens closed. And i guess that helped. I then took to the swimming pool in the building we were in several times. Back for the wedding and so on i still wasn't right. I wrote one or 2 blogs, but i was still alone, still barely saying a word every day. Even at the wedding i didn't dance. I sat at my table for most of the time. Reluctantly at that but i felt paralysed with negative thoughts and so on and i just felt awful.

It didn't improve when i got home. Back into study. Well i tried. I missed my first day back and did a mini-IV in the society. Joker's IV was great fun. But without a partner i dummied just as a helping hand. I wasn't exactly in the right state of mind to talk for 10 minutes on my own 5 times but some how i did it. I contributed fuck all to most arguments and especially the last one i just felt useless. It was anything but fun but the finale was amazing and i loved it, i did have fun, of sorts. Due to a mix up over my timetable i missed some lectures that day. The next day reading the Guardian i spoke with Chatterbox and realised i had class's to get to. Then the whole Daisy thing. I had grabbed a spoon as i put it before Christmas. Hoping that this girl that seemed like a perfect match, a possible sure thing, would actually be interested in seeing me. It was not to be, she had to study. So did eye but when i spent the best part of 2 months including her in the odd fantasy in my head it pretty much hurt.

My second placement was far more lonely. I spilled to my CPC that i wasn't really happy, with my course or in general. I went through several avenue's to get help and so on. I was also sick a lot. This was to do with my water bottle, stress, the wet winter and mental health. I still have a weak to pay back thanks to that. The second placement within that placement was better, i was getting back on form. I had gone through several counselling sessions and other discussions and felt i could get on top of study and get through the year....

This of course didn't happen. My study routine didn't materialise as i had planed. I became very involved in the society. First was the Youngling debate. I had seen the request by Lenn for the younglings to get Gammaman something. Gammaman is one of my oldest friends, he has inadvertently helped me through rough times several times. The school play in transition year, the choir in 5th year/chicago trip(nothing to do with him but similar spirit) and now the Society. So i took charge of that little quest. The discussion had fizzled out so i rallied the troops so to speak and tried to get shit done. It wasn't exactly working but eventually on the day of the debate Boop and Nordie 2 helped out. I was suffering from yet another cold. I was running on caffeine and drugs. I chronicled this in a previous post but i ran around like a mad thing for most of that day. I was sick and i still did it, like being a nurse i did all these things even with or without thanks. I also fluffed my "privileged" motion to give Gammaman his gift. I did that for him to show my thanks and the younglings thanks. This was in spite of the fact i was giving more to the society than i was getting back. Thanking Gammaman more than i needed to since i didnt even get a 21st birthday present from him, but i did it anyway.

I coasted along through lectures and mediocre study for the following weeks. I also continued to spend far too long in the society. The football match and then the elections and the initial steps for the Star Trek outing. I took some photo's for the match and had a good time. Although i wasn't that sociable and that pissed me off, i couldnt think of much to say, at all. I also couldn't make it to Boops house party because of circumstance being the real bitch. DS being stuck in town and Gammaman never being able to accommodate anyone at short notice. Then the election trail. I forged my friendship with Dona and that was good. Even came up with the Trek thing, although eventually that turned out to just be me.

Then the election. What had i put myself in for. It was harrowing. And i didn't even vote for myself. I had done so much for the Society and loved what i was doing. I knew, if i made it to next year, and if i was elected, i would be very Busy. Percy pulled this out of me and did seed doubts in my mind. It also highlighted how much i was there in the society but not exactly as well know as other people. I have many an acquaintance but not so many friends. I didn't vote for myself. Hence i lost. It hurt, it really hurt. But i still stuck around. I still popped over at lunch and still read newspapers. I also organised the cinema trip, despite the turn out i eventually got i was still happy i had gotten that to even happen.


Study. Wow. Eh. Yikes. Yeah, i need to study now. Exams haven't been too peachy so far. I answered a question on Diabetic Ketoacidosis without mentioning Insulin. I technically killed a patient with a fluffed and misguided line about a glucose iv. Yep i don't know how i did that but i did. I feel like an idiot and a failure. I have GIT and Liver stuff today. I have to cram that now. I hope. I should.

Study plan for the summer i think :-(

Monday, April 27, 2009

My morning so far, in blog form!

Oh yes, i am procrastinating that much, no seriously i am. To give an account of my morning so far is of course rather odd but then again it's the narrative i have playing in my head right now and in a desire to shut it up i will put it in words and on my blog. Sounds like a good idea, let's hope it works.




Now i got to bed rather late last night. Oh how late you ask, well how about touching on 2 am. I had slept to 4pm for no reason that day and falling asleep wasn't exactly going to be easy. I surfed and procrastinated around the web following several things all over the place. From population density, to the aral sea ecological disaster, to the chicago river, to the Eastland disaster, to the Titanic to this little amazing story:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Jessop

An amazing story of a woman both lucky and unlucky enough to have been on all 3 of the Olympic class ships when they had accidents, ie when both the Titanic and Brittanic sank! She was a steward for white star line and was on the Olympic when it hit another ship, survived Titanic and was a WW1 nurse on the Brittanic when it allegedly hit a sea-mine. She was unlucky still to have been in the lifeboat that was sucked into the propeller as the ship sank, but jumped out in time and hit her head on the hull of the ship. An amazing woman, best cheap biopic of an ordinary person never made goes too.......


Now as for today. Very little sleep as i was saying. Did my a bathroom break before hopping into a pointless attempt to slumber due to my excessive sleep and inactivity. But 4 hours later i woke up rather reluctantly and scavenged for un-ironed cloth's in the wash basket and took a shower. Even with my new haircut my washing routine didn't change much, possibly a waste but i don't care. Breakfast oh breakfast. Well firstly i had a pre-made pancake from the package and then check the clock, plenty of time. I decided on Rasher sandwich's. Unfortunately the puppy doo doo i didn't pick up infront of the fridge had the audacity to be under where i stood and i ended up wasting precious rasher cooking time wiping my shoe. Then i chucked the rashers in and poured some smoothie for myself and filled my water bottle, currently a 500ml former sprite bottle. Mmm, good rashers, butter a bit solid so i chucked it onto the bread in clumps. BBC NI weather report was Heavily unusable for louth, not a cloud in the sky and i couldn't find my sunglasses in my bag. This meant the whole way into dublin the light hitting my eyes flickered faster than strobe lights as the sun ducked in and out from behind all the bushes and banks along the coast.


Arriving in dublin my mother in her kidness gave me a fiver. You know that little blue note that should go very far in a time of recession but its most useful usage has gone up in price, evil! I'll get to that in a minute or two. Firstly straight off the train into the Java Hutt's. The email thing a bit of web browsing and then the fecking thing crashes. My mobile phone was getting faster results on html page's that it wasn't built for than the speed the computer took to tell me it was broken and couldn't find a connection to the web. A reboot didn't matter it froze even worse again. That was the last straw, up i got and walked on to eason's. Empire's 20 years issue was a must item to see if it was worth buying. After all Spielberg himself was guest editor. Mean's jack shit really. Other than a few nice picture's from famous face's it's not exactly that great of an issue. Didn't give myself enough time to read the star trek review but it received 4 stars, i'm happy with that.

Then on to my cinephilia mecca that is Cineworld. A megaplex that is just great. I was hoping that my fiver and assorted change would get me into an early bird movie and i might perchance be able to sneak a second one in. But it was not to be. Dropping an ear bud, pausing my music i asked the desk clerk the price of the early bird,(formally 5 euro exactly) it was now shockingly 630 or more. I said to the clerk in return "oh right, i'll be back." just after fishing in the change pouch of my wallet hopping, just hopping that there was a euro i had missed. There wasn't. Back to Henry street, sunlight and truck's lining each end. I queued for the ATM and a beggar with an mp3 player and an mobile sat there asking for change. People actually gave it to him. And after being asked directly i handed over 3 20 cent coins, why i don't know. I had noticed his accoutrement's, his forwardness, but i guess i was aiming to extract paper, i had no use for metal! Of course i needed metal how silly. This reminded me of a similar beggar last monday. He came up to me with the biggest fake sincere and forced polite accent ever, almost as if he was a comedian or an actor. It was giving me a sense of dark humour and parody, i found it almost offensive and also innovative and that. I gave him a euro and told him he didn't have to be so polite. I didn't queit get his response but the moment stuck with me. Politeness as an act being off putting but still making me give money, I NEVER GIVE MONEY. Upon entering my pin into the ATM i tried in vein to see the screen and search through what was yet again a different user interface to every other machine i had yet used in the short time i've had a debit card. Annoyingly the main selection didn't have a 10 euro as a choice, so i tried to request it another way. To no avail, but i tried again. Knowing i only had around 18 euro i attempted to get a 20, nope this didn't work either. So knowing i "wouldn't be back" i walked back south, disapointed.

I popped into marks and sparks after looking for a yoghurt or health drink in a near by londis. Seeing the Sandwhich, softdrink and crisp deal for 2.75 i though, "mmm, lunch". I then moved to the adjacent aisle and saw the smoothies. Such amazing choice, for some reason however i settled on the Vanilla and Maple syrup smoothie for 1.90. I then picked up the lunch, mixing and matching Tuna and sweetcorn sandwich, light sparkling florida orange and ready salted crisps. I then queued at the cash register. A thought crossed my mind, debit card/laser card, aha that cashback thing! I had no idea how it worked but it could be useful! Of course as fate would have it the customer in front of me was attempting to pay via credit card, but the machine was "broken" apparently. This meant she had to sign for her purchase but without that old kind of mechanical swipe. No it was a swipe on the price screen and a receipt from the till, odd, maybe a m&s card and not a credit card, who knows, not me. So forgetting the convenient idea of using my now defunct laser card i pennied up the small blue note that had shaped my morning.

Walking back via the Ha' Penny bridge and temple bar i noticed interesting deal's in the walk through centra. For one a breakfast roll all day for 1.99, now that's fattening and cheap all at once, sound's good! I also saw an odd very large black machine. Apparently a coin collector of some sort. Possibly for all that underused copper we all have. It equate's it into a voucher and you can use it for purchasing within the store, how quaint!

Warning Disturbing thought:
Now as for the M&S vanilla and maple syrup smoothie, not just any smoothie a very strong and sweet M&S smoothie. It was odd to say the least, i liked it but it also gave the slight reminder of a certain bodily fluid that many are not to found of. Although if that particular substance tasted like this i'm sure it would be far more amenable and a lot more girls would switch to specialist porn to "ride" out the recession, just a thought.

Now on College green i noticed an electronic's shop with a electronic book reader advertised in the window, cool enough unto itself. But then i saw it. The thing i must have, the other goal of my summer. A white samsung "notebook" laptop with a gig of ram and 160 GB of space for €399. Just wow, the idea of that uber-sleak dainty white keyboard and screen in my pocsession. Wow, i rarely want gadgets or anything really. I can pirate music, i can watch movies and tv online, i can break all those laws. I also have 2 camera's, a bitching one from my sister and a cheapish model from a few birthday's ago that still can take a lot of physical punishment. I also have an ipod and my glorious new phone with web access and unlimited Mp3 play potential via micro-sd cards. But the thought of a notebook. A mini-laptop where i could ratta tap tap my blogs, my stories, my college work if need be and gain repedative strain injuries from trying to control Train empires on it's tiny touch pad! OMG typing, the web, and Open TTD on the move! I must have, i must have! Yeah, a gf wouldn't be more likely than a job or enough money from said unlikely job to be able to get it. But i can dream.......




Also since when was there a webcam on front Arch? Is it a security camera or can you log onto it or something?


With 5 minutes of the "morning" left, i say good by for now and will blog as always and increasingly at some other point in the week.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

An ace on my forehead and 22 in my pocket.

Oh lookie here, i am back again. I really do have a blogging mood about me don't i. Now this is going to be a bit more wordy, i could grab some choice pics and a nice embedded clip but i thought no, this is a rant.


#AmazonFAIL and the blogosphere:

Yes i had a very slow weekend, it get's like that when procrastination rules and you have no easter eggs because you're poor and a heathen. Well less of that right now. No i would like to talk about my developing addiction to the blogosphere and celeb gossip and so on. Perez, oh perez, he's annoying, informative and rude, and damn addictive. I guess you have to love to hate him. His treatment of some celebs is just plain awful but at the same time he has become an almost "vital" source of pointless plastic up to the second gossip and general pointless trivia that won't be worth a damn in the history books. But i will still watch him and the celebs on the wonder of twitter. Where else can i see Miley Cyrus and Mark Hoppus complain of being awake at 3m while i grow weary of lecture's on the endocrine system. I love twitter, i plan and hope to use it more and more but for the moment if i want my friends to know my microblogging pointlessness i have facebook's status for that, but soon the world! (via twitter..)

Amazon and their FAIL. Wow, dumb move. Okay so most of the blogosphere was tweeting and blogging more about the outrage than actual facts but they won themselves no favors. This so called "glitch" is ridiculous. They were obviously trying to censor the website or on a lighter side make it less accessible to susceptible children and easily offended crybabies of America's conservative underbelly. Major failure! They are after all a website, a book source and did i mention that both of them combined are part of counter-culture's, subversive groups and so called deviants? Books and the internet are breeding grounds of free thought and expression. Books especially. To try and make it harder to find specific books that fit "adult" points of view is just censorship, especially when things such as playboys center folds catalog isn't labeled the same way. No instead it was gay and lesbian literature, politics, biography's/auto-biography's and education. Truly a face palm moment in internet history.

Armand de Brignac, aka Ace of Spades champ-hagen:

Wow. Just plain wow. Big fancy bottle, pretentious and pointless bitter liquid and a snobbery perpetuated by cali-trash in response to supposed racism from the makers of Cristal. Jay-z switching to a smaller less known and outrageous champ-hagen as a boycott of Cristal is just the oddest story i read today, but also the most interesting. Forget yet another revolt in Thailand, or piracy, this is the "REAL" news. Veiniculture has always baffled me. It's bitter or some other adverb-ed grapes mushed and fermented into several species of unbearable sickening acidic liquids some red and evil, some sweet and white, others powerful and sparkling. Now i liked the movie Bottle Shock about the Californians wining recognition for superior wine's to the French, it after all has the future Captain kirk in it. But wine to me, a non-drinker and someone with the worst palate imaginable is just an enigma i will never ever understand. It's awful stuff, acidic and downright awful. But Champ-hagen is the creme de le creme of it all. Sparkling, expensive and a sign of wealth or lack of sense. And the very idea that Hollywood and r'n'b hot heads are going nutzo over this new really rare and high demand champ-hagen is just crazy. I thank you english Independent for intriguing me with news as pointless as religiously following perez, Out with hot tubs of Cristal, in with ACE OF SPADES!


The recession loike, is loike this bad thing?:

Loike i didn't know what the fock was going on. Loike in passing over loike the last 2 years i saw this like new cereal that was on ch4 news a lot. Snowy was talking about this credit crunch thing like it was the bee's knee's. But then loike the sub-prime's went sour and it all got into this massive cathrine of banks foreclosing and loike Communists complaining of a black guy in the Cassa blanca up there in the O.C. But loike i didn't mind loike, i was fine this is, loike ireland? We're loaded roysh? I guess i was wrong there, i don't apologise but i'm sorry i got that wrong big time. Even Darcy and all those planks have to take a cut, and biffo, that lump of ham in the gallery, he has to like sort this all out and he was the wan who slow baked this in his easy bake oven in loike the first place. Now it's like the weather, if you've got nuttin' to say to a boird it's lioke how's the recession going for ya? Then it's loike everyone's a banker on dress down wednesday it's brilliant loike. That man about town old Rosser he'd be milkin' it for all he's worth if he weren't fictional loike.


HUSH HUSH, on the QT, Down low, get down and buggie!:

It's politics time. I don't even think i can say anything. I don't really have a clue of how restricted the NO CANVASSING rule's are. Can i even criticise and complement the potential new underdogs of tomorrow with nicknames and minor descriptions? I haven't a clue! But i may ask gammaman and then get back to it....


Okay i got a bit tired of waiting. Who really read's this anyway? It will also be delayed in appearing on facebook where it is most liable against people who's names i am protecting for several legitimate and pointless reason's.

I will be as cautious as possible:


The Fresher's/harem/posse who are eligable, i think, for positions are:

Nordie 2 (discribed long ago, talented and a great asset)

Sherminator: Oh sherminator. Great guy, very talented, great idea's, some times a trainwreck but a hilarious one and he can't really go wrong.

Ripper: Not exactly the most talented but a constant face, great sense of humor and it would be heard to imagine the group without him about the place.

Cailin: She's been rather sparse in sighting's lately but she ain't so bad, sort of an obvious person for at least some position.

Dona: Oh Dona, possibly the greatest of us all. Her personality is bigger than most people's combined talent or experiance. Even if she never speaks again she would still be one of the most valued people of the society.

Vickie: Ah the interloper. She is good, she has fire, she has ambition, but some have misgivings but she is bound to get something from either us or the others....

Boop: She is basically a combination of all the girls. Also a prodigy in the making, possibly the best female of our group at that. Love her or hate her, she's a keeper.

Roxy: I'm not sure if she has spoken but she is talented, in more ways than one.



That's as vague as i can leave it. Hope and IT unfortunately are erasmus students so they won't be with us next year but they are both amazing. IT is more cockiness, bravado and knowledge but damn does he do it well, he's basically flawed in tactic but it would take someone substantial to shoot him down the right way. I have yet to imagine how, but i doubt i will ever see it, it would be a chalange for even the greatest speaker.




Ah lectures and study:

I really have to hit the study plan tomorrow. Start the whole Sociology scene question thing that i've had for, what 8 weeks, and have less than 5 to do it in? Better get cracking. Then of course my fuck up with the assignment means i really need to get my head out and work flat out madness from tomorrow and election onwards. Charm offensive maybe but i doubt i have time or am allowed to do so. So i shall study from now on. I've said it before but i really really really really must.

As for in lectures, Chaterbox was around today so not so lonely. Still saw some odd instance's, like Jade almost sitting in my row but then turning away to sit else where. There was something about it that raised several paranoid and hypothetical question's. All of which don't matter. She wears ugg boots, is basically orange and even if she is a Mucker and i'm a Griffen it's not as set in stone as my fantasies suggest. I couldn't give a rat's arse at the moment about any of them. After all i don't know them. Sure Mystique and Jade are hot, and Daisy a missed oppertunity but who am i kidding why should i even bother? I think i'll ignore pursuing relationships for the moment and just let shizzle happen.



In other scary news that wasn't resolved or discussed how i would have prefered. It has come to my attention that during the fabled xmas that led to the downward spiral of my relationship with PG, apparently she didn't like me very much because i got on her nerve's or some such shit. But afterwards it was all fine and dandy to her and it continued for another 3 months. I feigned that relationship after that horrible month. If we had broken up over that stupid spat maybe things wouldn't be this way, and just maybe i might not have failed..... Although nothing convince's me that i would have worked.... Although the hypothetical of a relationship forming with the a-sexual hattrick would probably still have been a goal of mine that would probably have failed also.



Tuddle pip for now. And i hope my nicknames don't get me into trouble.