Sunday, November 19, 2006

Lectures, Exams, Pirates in da Hood Oh My!

It's been a busy week. After my crap Monday a good evening's sleep meant that I returned to my regular game. I even went so far as to basically redo my errant lectures under the guise of a recap, a recap where I explained everything I had glossed over during my haze of sleeplessness. Further to that I've discovered that exam writing is a science in itself and it takes weeks to prepare a single paper.

We're getting a glass door, or more precisely a glass window into our door. I think this is supposed to alleviate the arguments over whether a drop-in centre should have a closed door, though it threatened to start an argument over who should be here at 8:30am on the day when the workmen turn up. I expect tantrums and tiaras soon.

At fencing I've been learning epee for a few weeks and some weird retroactive learning effect means I now find foils far too light and have little control when fencing with them. I also think my accuracy has decreased as I keep getting lots of near hits or hits with the flat of the blade. Today a fresher creamed me in epee. I've also finally bought some kit, though this stuff is not cheap, costing >£100 for a jacket and breeches, but at least they'll fit and I can finally do electrics.

I've uploaded my photos of the Pirate Pub Crawl and Bonfire Night - Bonfire Night was spent in the Old Horse watching a pirate themed burning of a ghostly galleon. Hence me wearing the pirate hat I am clearly getting good value for money from. It was certainly a lot better than watching the fireworks from the bus stop near my old gaff in Ireton Road last year before going to the pub I now aptly refer to as the Wyvern's Armpit.

In terms of TV I am starting to watch This Life, which was a show in the 90s I missed as I wasn't a 20-something back then. My mother watched it, despite I suspect disapproving of some of its themes and characters, and it is definitely "Friends on Acid" as A. described it. Torchwood has been good, though I wasn't so sure about the fairies episode, but overall it's a quality show. Season 3 of Galactica has proven epic, without a bad episode so far, compared to Season 2 which lost its way after the resolution of the cliffhanger from Season 1 (which took too long back then).

This week's episode of the increasingly mediocre Robin Hood 2006 was pure brilliance. Marion being maneuvered into marrying a somewhat dim Gisbourne and the Sheriff hanging Robin's men an hour early, preventing the obligatory gallows rescue, were genius - though I was worried how I was actually cheering on the villains rather than the excessively modern-moralistic heroes.

An example of this twaddle was in last week's episode where we had Robin shutting down a butcher for providing poor quality fly-riddled meat to peasants. I can see why Jamie Oliver inspired this incarnation of Hood. This week had a mobile pawn shop where peasants could sell their valuables (bit of a misstep in logic here, but hey). I am also not taking to the politically correct female Turk merry man Djaq though - so far she's been superfluous to all the plots. I'd say bring back Roy but his death added much needed grit to the show.

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