My Life Online

On Holıday

2008-08-06T12:33:39Z

Hı everyone. Please excuse my bad spellıng and weırd I's. Im usıng a Turkısh keyboard. Yep, I'm fınally ın Marmarıs ın Turkey, on that holıday wıth 6 other frıends. It should have been seven, but someone pulled out and we had to pay for hıs share, even though he's not here. That kınd of sucks. I'm kınd of glad, though. I don't really lıke hım and I would have had to share a room wıth hım.

Apart from that, we've all been doıgn really well on our fırst holıday abroad. We've dıd some excursıons. We went to a Turkısh bath, whıch was amazıng. We went on a boat trıp around the bay, and just generally lazed around the pool. We went to a foam party, and have also been drınkıng quıte a lot. Fun fun.

I'll probably post a more coherent pıcture of my thoughts on my own keyboard back home, but that ısn't untıl Monday. So I'll talk to you all later. Hope you're doıng well, everyone on my flıst.

Update

2008-07-17T18:54:22Z

So I've generally been doing nothing over the last few weeks. I'm on a zero-hour contract at work (in Debenhams) and overtime has completely dried up. I've worked eight hours in the past four weeks, meaning that I won't have any extra money for going away on holiday, which is kind of crap. This credit crunch is worse than I originally thought.

Apart from that I've either been playing the PlayStation 3 too much (I got i on the way home in the airport), been drinking with friends or watcing loads of anime. Not a very productive summer, but a relaxing one nonetheless.

If anyone has a PS3 and wants to add me as a friend, I would be more than happy. Just make sure you say you're from LJ and I'll know it's not some random person. My PSN ID is gerjomarty.

As far as anime goes, I bought the 2nd Gig of GITS SAC, which, true to form, has been very good. I love its mix of philosophy and action. I'm also nearly finished watching Kokoro Library, which is a real gem of a slice-of-life series about three sisters running a library. Really sad that its nearly done.

As far as games go, I have GTA4 and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for the PS3, and have been playing them alot, but none moreso than Super Stardust HD from the PSN Store. It's a really addictive game! And it has trophies, which is a bonus. On the DS, I bought Another Code: Two Memories (Trace Memory in the US) and Cooking Guide. I've finished Another Code already, but it was a great game. I just bought Cooking Guide today, so I'm going to make dinner with it tonight to see how it does. :)

Back to Normality

2008-06-14T00:56:50Z

Hello!

Exams are finally over, and the soul crushing and utterly defeating part of the year has now passed, which has made way for a week and a bit of pure relaxation with brief interludes of alcohol. It's just so nice to not have to set an alarm every morning. But seriously, this place changes so much in the exam term it's scary.

The next week, which is (inexplicably) called May Week, is full of garden parties and our college's June Event, which this year has the theme "Pangaea". It's like a massive festival in which they transform the college grounds into a music and entertainment venue for one night. I can't wait. Apart from that, I think it'll just be lazing around and wasting time on the internet. Which is what I usually do anyway, but now I can do it guilt-free. :)

I won't find out how I did for another week or two, but I'm kind of glad, as I'm pretty sure it won't turn out to be the greatest set of marks ever.

Despite hard revision, I did find the time to buy stuff. I knew that as soon as I seen this Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya wall scroll, I would have to buy it. It just screams cool - it doesn't even touch any other posters. It was much bigger than I thought, which just makes it even better. Images under the cut...

Elfen Lied - I had wanted to watch it for a while, but I finally got to when my friend had the DVD boxset and lent it to me. Needless to say, I was gobsmacked by how shocking it was and just how good it can be. So much so that I had to go and buy my own copy. I'm hoping to introduce my non-anime-appreciating friends to it when I get back, as they quite like horror films. I'm not quite sure if they'll think it either too tame or too extreme.

Anyway, it's nice to finally post again here. I hope everyone still reading is doing well. :)

Update

2008-04-18T00:03:51Z

Hi!

I probably won't be updating very much in the next month or two. I'm already trying to revise for exams at the start of June, and already failing miserably.

I preordered GTA 4, but I'm having it delievered to my house, so I won't get it until I come back home in June. I don't even have a PS3 yet. Yes, I am crazy. I did this for Pokémon Diamond too - preordered before even getting the console. My plan is to get it really cheap in the tax free shop on my way home from the airport. I'm just praying that they announce a better SKU for Europe between now and then.

I'm getting so excited about the new GTA, but I won't even be able to play it. -_-

Anyway, I hope everyone has a nice few months. Because I certainly won't. :) Feel free to add me on Twitter, because it seems that it'll be easier to update in short bursts rather than long journal posts.

Bye for now.

It's Web 2.0-tastic!

2008-03-25T23:37:11Z

I'm now on Twitter. Does anyone else actually use this? Anyway...

http://twitter.com/gerjomarty, if you're interested. :)

Back for Easter

2008-03-24T00:32:37Z

Hi.

So I'm on my vacation in between the second and last term now. I really need to start revising for exams, given that they're not very far away and there's so much stuff to cover. I *will* need to start tomorrow, after saying that for the past three days. -_-

Don't know if I mentioned, but me and about 7 or 8 other friends are going to Turkey this summer, which I'm really looking forward to. The only problems? Two of them are very close to having a major falling out, which may wreck the holiday before we even step on the plane. And one person we probably won't even see until the end of July, when he actually *has* to be there. Hooray! </sarcasm>

Closer to now, I'll be heading back to Cambridge on Tuesday week, and hopefully then heading up to Leicester for a day or two to meet up with some university friends before next term starts. I'm very much looking forward to that, as I really haven't seen enough of England, and (though I haven't really done any research) Leicester does sound quite nice.

Anyway, time to get back to watching anime late into the night... while I still can. :) Bye!

Last.fm meme

2008-02-02T13:27:38Z

Musical meme stolen from megchan...

Take your top 25 artists from last.fm and answer these questions (OR DIE).

1. Röyksopp (201)
2. Keane (182)
3. Air (179)
4. Razorlight (174)
4. Coldplay (174)
6. Bloc Party (160)
7. Snow Patrol (149)
8. The Go! Team (139)
9. Zero 7 (135)
10. Mark Ronson (123)
11. KT Tunstall (119)
12. Muse (118)
13. Mylo (112)
13. Groove Armada (112)
15. Massive Attack (110)
16. Digimon Savers (99)
16. Feeder (99)
18. Travis (94)
19. Morcheeba (93)
20. Faithless (86)
21. The Chemical Brothers (79)
22. The Killers (78)
23. Basement Jaxx (77)
24. Lemon Jelly (74)
25. Editors (72)

What was the first song you ever heard by 6?
Bloc Party: It was a couple of years ago now, but I clearly remember hearing So Here We Are on the radio for the first time and being blown away by how atmospheric and beautiful it was, even though it had drums and a great guitar riff. The vocals on it are really something else.

What is your favourite album by 2?
Keane: They've only had two, and I'm starting to really like the second one, but the first, Hopes and Fears, has some absolute classics on it. I seen them live and I swear, the experience of hearing songs like Somewhere Onky We Know like that is just unmatchable.

What is your favourite lyric that 1 has sung?
Röyksopp: One of the first songs I heard from Röyksopp was Remind Me. It has such simply lyrics that can sometimes sound like they don't really mean anything, but then: "And everywhere I go, there's always something to remind me, of another place and time, where love that travelled far had found me."

How many times have you seen 11 live?
KT Tunstall: Never, unfortunately. Her live songs sound really personal and intimate, so I definitely wouldn't hesitate if she ever came to play near where I was.

What is your favorite song by 7?
Snow Patrol: It's got to be Run. Such a powerful and emotional song. I've found myself of the verge of tears just listening to it.

What is a good memory you have involving 20?
Faithless: :) One Saturday in April 2003, loads of people gathered in a big blue tent to watch Faithless headline Radio 1's One Big Weekend. I was there. It's just an amazing memory of 10,000 people raving and leaping about in complete synchronicity, while listening to one of the best, possibly *the* best dance act ever. Me and my friends looking at each other with shocked and happy faces, just thinking: 'We're seeing Faithless live! OMG!' A memory I hope I never forget.

Is there a song by 3 that makes you sad?
Air: You would think there is, but there isn't. All of Air's tracks are so chilled out and ambient that there's no way they could be sad. I had to check, but all of their songs are quite positive and brilliant.

What is your favorite lyric that 14 has sung?
Mylo: You couldn't really call it a lyric, but from Mylo my favourite has to be from Destroy Rock & Roll. If you know the song, you'll know why this is a good lyric.
"All perversions of the third eye through distorted and exaggerated images, perverted movements of the body and breakdancing, and other forms of dancing, and we especially call for the judgement in this hour and the destroying of rock music directed specifically against children through the videos that were portrayed, and working specifically through these individuals, for whom we call for the judgement of the sacred fire of this hour, before the throne of almighty God... Michael Jackson, Prince, Bruce Springsteen......et cetera."
Groove Armada: One of their best tracks, also has one of their best lyrics. It's so simple, yet it's really powerful when used with the music: "If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air, quaint little villages here and there..."

What is your favorite song by 19?
Morcheeba: I think it has to be The Sea. It paints a beautiful picture of worrys vanishing and relaxation. The ex-lead singer has such a velvet voice that all of the bad stuff is forgot about for 3 minutes.

How did you first get into 22?
The Killers: I think it was at a stage where Hot Fuss had just been released and some of their singles were in the charts. Everyone just started talking about them, and so I bought the album. And it lived up to the hype; it was great.

What was the first song you heard by 21?
Chemical Brothers: That's a difficult one. They've been around so long, and I've remembered bits of their tracks from my childhood of watching MTV. There's a story here. I had just bought their Singles 93-03 album, and I was listening to the song Let Forever Be, and something clicked. It had that familiar sound, and I was sure that I had heard the same song probably about 10 or 11 years earlier. I investigated, and then saw the amazing video, and I instantly remembered. So I think it was either that, or Block Rockin' Beats.

What is your favorite song by 4?
Razorlight: A difficult one, but I think Los Angeles Waltz. It's an album track, but the lyrics really resonated with me moving away from home. The music itself is brilliant, but the lyrics just really make it.
Coldplay: I think after hearing Fix You at a gig of theirs as their last song really solidified it as my favourite track of theirs. It's a beautiful song, uplifting, and it has a great Coldplay signature guitar solo right in the middle, with Chris Martin singing over the final crescendo. It's just an experience to hear it live.

What is a good memory you have involving 13?
Mylo: None, not that I can remember at the moment.
Groove Armada: None either. :(

Is there a song by 23 that makes you sad?
Basement Jaxx: I don't think Basement Jaxx are the band that could make a sad song. They're all very dance-y and upbeat.

What is your favorite album of 15?
Massive Attack: Their greatest hits colection, Collected. It has so many brilliant songs from down the years that I've grown up with, all together on one album.

What is your favorite lyric that 9 has sung?
Zero 7: I think it has to be Destiny. It's beautiful anyway, but the lyrics really make it special. "When I'm weak, I draw strength from you, and when you're lost, I know how to change your mood, and when I'm down, you breathe life over me, even though we're miles apart, we are each other's destiny."

How many times have you seen 5 live?
Razorlight: None, I'm afraid.
Coldplay: We seen them on the last date of their UK tour, three days before Christmas 2004(?), in Belfast. One of the best gigs I've ever been to. Our crowds are always so pumped up, and everyone was singing the lyrics, and it was just amazing. And Richard Ashcroft was the support! The *support*! Something I'll never forget.

What is your favorite album by 12?
Muse: Black Holes and Revelations. It has some proper anthems on it, even the album tracks are just as good as the singles.

What is a good memory you have involving 25?
Editors: None again.

What was the first song you heard by 18?
Travis: I have absolutely no idea. Perhaps Turn or Writing to Reach You. Whichever came first, probably.

What is your favorite song by 17?
Digimon Savers: Main Theme. I'm nearly crying just thinking about it.
Feeder: Satellite News, I think.

What is your favorite album by 24?
Lemon Jelly: I have '64-'95, which is an excellent album and thus my favourite, though I haven'y heard the album tracks from lemonjelly.ky or Lost Horizons.

How many of your top 25 have you seen live?
Just three: Keane, Coldplay and Faithless. Hopefully I'll be able to see a fourth, The Go! Team, in a couple of weeks. :)

Back at uni

2008-01-19T15:00:43Z

Hi flist. The reason why I haven't been replying and posting and stuff is because I'm now back at university in Cambridge. There must be some sort of acclimatisation that needs to happen because I always feel so strange when I start living either here or back home. But I'm back to working now, so stuff is starting to calm down now. And when I say calm down, I mean get hectic.

But I'm used to it from last term anyway. So this will probably be it for me on eljay for another 8 weeks save for some procrastination by reading my friend's page.

I'll talk to you all soon, hopefully! ^_^

雪 !!

2008-01-03T23:55:08Z

It started to snow! For the first time in about two years! The forecast said there would be some flurries in England, but I didn't expect any here. Naturally I had to take a couple of photos. Isn't it nice when it snows? It's like everything becomes the same creamy colour - the sky, the ground, and everything in between. It's really mystical.

Decking in the back yard
We actually keep those Christmas lights up all year now. But not the tree.

Our car
Completely covered. Amazing.

View from the front window
No, the camera's not fuzzy, that's the snow falling. The same picture with the flash on shows this.

I might be getting a little fanboyish though. One of the first things I thought to do was stick the Kanon 2006 OP on the MP3 player and walk about in the snow, y'know, just for the hell of it. It seems to be the right thing to do, since Kanon's all about the snow. :)

In other news, I bought the box set of the 1st gig of Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex today. XD It's great, I love it.

:) I had a good day today.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T19:44:36Z

A merry 2008 to you all. My purpose of writing today is to let you all know my Mario Kart DS Friend Code.

It is 3308 3274 2557.

I haven't been able to finish a race on Wi-Fi so far due to the 94030 error, though. Not sure how to work around that, really. I'd love to add some of you if you also have the game. :)

I'm back

2007-12-16T03:33:35Z

Osu!

Woah. I took a bit of a break from LiveJournal for a few weeks over term, mainly due to time constraints. Now that I'm back home for Christmas, I can post again! Happy to be reporting that things are progressing nicely over at university, apart from the stupidly large workload that I have over Christmas to catch up with everything. But I'll get that done eventually, even if I need to cram it in before I go back.

Worryingly, I think I've become a bit of an anime otaku while away. The uni has an anime club that shows fansubs two times a week, so I went to those, then at those I heard about other series I need to watch. I also had the use of very very high speed broadband and YouTube. All of these things came together and I ended up watching far more than was healthy.

So far, I've finished off watching Lucky Star (I adore this anime) and Excel Saga and am close to finishing Welcome to the NHK. I'm also currently watching Kanon 2006 (I also adore this anime), Black Lagoon, Mushi-shi, Higurashi no naku koro ni, Ergo Proxy, Maria-sama ga Miteru and Wolf's Rain.

Just back from our work's staff Christmas party, too. T'was a good night, if not a little taxing due to everyone being slightly tipsy and there being so many people I don't know from being away all this time. It's so strange how people can be so different to interact with when they live in different places. I had to get used to talking to people back here in N. Ireland, and soon I'm going to have to get used to talking to Cambridge people all over again.

I'll probably post before Christmas again. Until then... :3

Better...

2007-10-05T23:30:57Z

Feeling a lot better now. The work's starting and I'm meeting loads of people. It's really great here, I'd be mad if I left.

:D

I'm here

2007-09-29T23:16:46Z

I made it! :D I'm in my room now after a hectic day of getting up at 6am, catching a flight, dragging luggage all over town, getting keys, having tea and biscuits with fellow freshers and going to the Fresher's barbeque. :)

Obligatory pics of new room, under the cut! (Sorry for the bad quality...)

Sink, shelves with CDs and books and what-have you. The yellow books are my small Digimon Tokyopop manga collection. XD

Wood in the period style. Believe it or not, these are some of the best rooms money can buy. I can see people punting down the river during the day from my window. ^_^

My desk, which I have duly messed up. Plus, that's the laptop I'm posting this on.

My comfy bed and pillows. But what is more noticeable is the great big pole in the middle of the room. It's there for structural support, and it's a bit odd, but I don't mind. It gives the room "character".

That's all that. I've got an action packed schedule this week, so hopefully I'll speak soon.

Nearly Gone

2007-09-24T21:58:33Z

I'm away to Cambridge on Saturday morning. I've also did my timetable into a calendar, it looks like I'll be up at 9am every morning for Maths and Physics, every day except for Sunday. -_-

I've been buying and packing and doing general pre-Uni stuff, which is why I haven't posted on LJ for a while. It looks like I won't be on for a while after my lectures start too. Ah well, I should be grateful in truth.

In other news, a blue moon rose overhead a couple of weeks ago, as the UK's second regular daily anime block starts, this one on it's own actual channel. It's Anime Central, and they do this fantastic thing of repeating their programs three times throughout the night so I don't have to miss any because of my parents watching the TV...

OMG, they have Vision of Escaflowne. I used to watch this regularly over 8 years ago. And now I'm watching all over again. I love this show, it's so escapist and beautiful. It's about this girl, Hitomi, who reads tarot cards and can predict the future, getting dragged into another world called Gaia, where there's all sorts going on.

After that there's Bleach, which I had heard about and was coincidentally going to start "acquiring". But now that it's on TV, I don't have to. I'm really enjoying it's comical moments, along with the serious stuff in it too. Its' really engrossing, well made, and it's music is unbelievably catchy. Seriously, I've had Life is Like a Boat in my head for days on end now.

I recently seen the latest Full Metal Alchemist movie Conqueror of Shamballa at Tomo-Dachi, and remarked that I've spoiled myself for the whole series if I was ever to watch. Well, now I can anyway. I'm really enjoying it, and I really think that if anime were ever to break into the mainstream, this is the show that would do it. It's deep, it's enthralling, it has two great main characters in Ed and Al and a fantastic plot to boot.

The last one I've been regularly following is Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex. Another really good show, especially because most of the episodes are indeed stand alone, so that here's no backstory required. Because I still haven't seen the film Ghost in the Shell either. It's like a futuristic cop drama, very good. Yoko Kanno's also added her special touch to the music, which can only be a good thing.

So I'll probably post again once I get to Cambridge, find my room and get everything set up. Ooh, I can post pictures of my new room! Exciting! Anyway, until then, talk to you all later.

My First Anime Con

2007-08-26T00:13:06Z

So yeah, all this weekend I've been at Tomo-Dachi 07, an anime convention in my home town of Derry/Londonderry. I really didn't know what the hell to expect, given that I'm a con virgin, but it's been great fun.

None of my friends are in to anime, so I'm here on my own, but that's not so bad. I've met many people that are in to anime and manga this weekend - it's nice to know that you're not the only one with this weird obsession with things from Japan. In fact there's been around 250 people each day so far this weekend.

Mike McFarland is the guest of honour - he's done stuff like directing the new Full Metal Alchemist film, which we watched today. It's the first time I've ever seen FMA at all, so I've completely spoiled myself for the actual series. But I still enjoyed it very much. It's slightly complicated with all of the world switching stuff, but once the story is gotten the hang of, it's a very engrossing film. Ed is a very cool protagonist!

There was an extensive manga library present, and from it's shelves I picked up a Tokyopop manga I've been reading the blurb of for a while - Fruits Basket. The basic premise is a girl called Tohru is taken in my the Sohma family and learns of their terrible secret that if one of them is hugged by a member of the opposite sex they turn into an animal of the Chinese zodiac. (You just gotta love manga.) I did really enjoy the first two volumes, someone as nice and sweet as Tohru makes you want to read more. And I don't care what it says about my masculinity reading it either! :3

I must say, I don't think I'm used to cosplay yet. I didn't know it was so popular at cons. Meh, glad to see the effort put in anyway.

Woo! At 10pm there, a couple of people were just sitting around the reading area with their DSes, so just to see, I fired up Pokémon Diamond and used the Link Checker, and sure enough, 2 people were underground. Entered the underground, waved, pulled up a chair and me and two random guys started taking each others flags to get platinum status, so we could remove those boulders from the secret base. Truly random. Someone else then did the exact same thing as me, and so we had four of us "raping each others bases" (not my words). Now this is what made me happy about today!

Just to top it all off, I'd also heard about Excel Saga, and it was showing there at 11. I'm sorry, but I've never laughed so much at an anime. That anime is hilarity on screen, it's absolutely brilliant. We were all in stitches at the dying and reincarnation of the first episode, the universe having it off with Pedro while his wife is making babies with "That Gomez" ( :D ), but the best was Menchi barping the ED while being seasoned, with a Japanese translator beside. I'm sorry, but this anime is truly inspired.

I'm there the whole day tomorrow, then I'm off to Belfast in the late afternoon for a random trip with friends for two nights. Talk to you all later! ^_^

The A-Level results are in...

2007-08-18T15:24:24Z

Actually, they came in on Thursday, I just haven't had time to post about them yet. Here's the breakdown...

Computing: A (563/600)
English Lit: A (524/600)
Maths: A (573/600)
Physics: A (548/600)

*squeeee* I'm going to Cambridge! OHYEAH! So that's that. I'm just glad to actually have them over with now. The rest of the summer can be enjoyed now.

It's Over

2007-08-11T01:06:10Z

The wedding's over. It was on Thursday there. It's been one and a half years in the planning stages and it was over in one day which just seemed to fly by. The actual wedding mass was excellent - the music was superb and the actual ceremony wasn't too stuffy to be nerve-wracking, it was all very relaxed.

We went to some lovely gardens to have our photographs taken for the final album, and despite being there for an hour, it was really enjoyable. I'm sure the champagne laid on by the wedding car people helped a little in this. :)

The meal was so, so brilliant. We hadn't eaten since that morning and it was like Christmas with the giant turkey, ham and stuffing with carrots, spuds (AKA potatoes) and gravy. I swear, I could have eaten another.

After that were the speeches by everyone. Luckily, since I was only groomsman, I only had to read out some cards from people who couldn't make it, so there was no panic there. Although it was nice to finally get the formal duties out of the way for the rest of the night. Proceed with much of the dancing and drunkenness of relatives (but not moi, of course ;) ).

We would have loved to stay over in the hotel the reception was in (the Redcastle), but unfortunately the rooms were €190 a night, which simply isn't worth it for a bed and four walls, even if the beds are extremely comfortable. So the bus took us home at around 2am. Even though tiredness was creeping from late nights and early mornings all this week, me and my parents managed to stay up chatting about the wedding until about 4:30 in the morning. That was nice, just to get a wee chat.

So this morning I had another early morning, dragged my carcass out of bed and went back down to the hotel to gather up all of the things we left behind. Considering it's about 30 miles away, it's quite a distance. Got the photos we took developed, left back the hire suits, and now the aforementioned blog has been written, so the final chapter on my brother's wedding has now closed. I'm dead happy about it, because he's been with his girlfriend for about 8 or 9 years now, and we all seen it coming eventually. I'm just so glad that everything has went down without a single hitch.

Just to wrap up, I ordered Elite Beat Agents and Hotel Dusk: Room 215 tonight, so they should be here on Monday. <3 the DS! *checks time* 2:04am? My bed's waiting...

:) See you all later.

One ball.

2007-08-02T23:29:17Z

I've been playing Pokémon Diamond non-stop ever since I got it last week. I lol'd at all of the internet references. There's so many!

I've got seven badges and a main party of five, all around level 44 at the minute: Empoleon, L45; Staraptor, L44; Luxray, L44; Rapidash, L43; Kadabra, L43.

I've just finished up with the Galactic Veilstone Building, Mt. Coronet and Dialga. And I wouldn't have posted today if the strangest thing hadn't have happened while I was catching Dialga.

So I go and prepare by buying forty Dusk Balls, because I'll be fighting at night, and make my may up Mt. Coronet. Get to Dialga, initiate battle, whittle down it's HP with Empoleon surfing and he faints Empoleon with a Roar of Time. No big deal, I'll just switch to Luxray and start chucking balls like it's going out of fashion. I recently replayed Pokémon Silver, and the pain of catching Lugia was still fresh in mind. Anyway, the ball is thrown.

One shake. It'll break out now. Another shake. OK, now it will. A third shake. Hang on a... O_O The three little stars fly out of the ball as the celebratory music plays. Hilarity ensued. I know there's always a chance of it happening, but I just want to state here, right now...

I caught Dialga with one Dusk Ball. XD XD XD

That is all.

My Pokemans. Let me show u them.

2007-07-25T10:30:50Z

Pokémon Diamond arrived this morning, TWO WHOLE DAYS before it's supposed to be out in the UK. Do they not embargo this stuff or what? I'll definitely be ordering from Game.co.uk again anyway.

Evidence:

There's just one problem. I don't have a DS Lite. And I'm not getting one until Friday. So I have the best Pokémon game sitting here, with no frickin' console to play it on.

It's still exciting just to look at the cover and read the instruction manual and all, though. :)

It's my birthday

2007-07-21T15:49:42Z

Hi. I'm 19 today. 19 is too old. It sounds too mature. XD

Me and a few friends were in Dublin yesterday and the day before to see Keane live. They were simply amazing. Tom's voice never faltered throughout the entire two-hour set and despite only having two album's worth of stuff, managed to build up the crowd throughout the whole gig. They were so good they were on par with Coldplay, who we seen at Christmas last year in Belfast. <3 live gigs.

We're having a small gathering tonight in my house, but my parents will also be in, and I'm not sure what my friends are planning to do. I can smell the embarrassment and awkward morning-after questions from here.

Ooh, I pre-ordered (yes, pre-ordered) the UK version of Pokémon Diamond the other day. Even though I don't even have a DS Lite yet. This is my commitment to buying one now. As soon as this month's payslip money enters my bank account, 90 quid will be leaving in place of a shiny new black DS Lite. Excitement!

That's me for now. *in Sky News style* I'll bring you more as I get it. ^_^

Alan Johnston Freed

2007-07-04T22:30:36Z

Early this morning (UK time), the BBC's Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston was finally released after 114 days in captivity. He was being held prisoner by an extremist group. Alan has been reporting from Gaza about the plight of the people and their situation for three years for the BBC.

This is just a small post to say congratulations to Alan on his release and thanks for the hard work he's done.

The Delights of Free Time

2007-06-24T18:17:49Z

Hay guyz~!

So, all my exams are over for this year and over for my secondary education, too. It's great being able to relax and finally do whatever. Me and my friends are having a film night tonight with a couple of the Saw films and Shrek the Third (what a contrast XD ), and hopefully 28 Days Later, too. It's so nice to do this guilt free.

Since I have all this free time now, I'll be working loads to try and get money. But it's the balancing of work and free time that's the worst to try and decide. I don't know whether to work more and have more money, or to have less money but more time to do piss all. Ah well.

I've also joined the gym, so I'm praying that that produces some tangible results by the end of the summer. Oh, and without all of that calorie controlled diet stuff, too. ^_^; Just for reference, this was my initial score sheet on Day 1...

Weight: 11 st 9 lb (74.3 kg)
Height: 5' 8" (174 cm)
Body Mass Index: 24.5 kg m^-2

DS Lite update - Game is doing a deal with a DS Lite and a free copy of Brain Training, which would discount the console a lot if I traded it in straight away. It's incredibly tempting.

Oh, and if anyone's wondering, the userpic is the Gatomon plush I bought from Megchan. It's such a well made plush, too. :3 It'll be going on the dashboard of my car... when I eventually get around to getting a car. Bye for now.

I'm Free

2007-05-10T20:40:45Z

I've just been to my last day of compulsory schooling ever.

o_O

Some Nice Surprises

2007-05-05T23:38:32Z

For those that haven't heard about Oban Star Racers, it's a French/Japanese anime with some great plotlines, brilliantly choreographed Star Wars-esque racing and a truly engrossing main character - Molly. Also check out Wikipedia's article.

I was surprised to find that this is finally being released in the UK. 30th July. Quite a wait, but it'll certainly be worth it.

Also, another Digimon UK DVD has appeared! Clicky. Thanks to vande_bot for spotting it on Play.com. It has one less episode than the previous version, but perhaps they'll proactively release it this time around, whoever is in fact releasing it. We don't know if it's the same company (Maximum Entertainment) as last time.

/me chants: BOX SET *clap* *clap* *clap* BOX SET *clap* *clap* *clap* BOX SET *clap* *clap* *clap* [and repeat...]

In related news, DIGIMON DATA SQUAD! This is just brilliant. I love it when dubs come out. I'll be honest and say that this is the first Digimon dub where I feel truly connected with the original characters and names *before* ever seeing the dubbed version, so I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to take it. I don't care about name changes, and I'm actually quite fond of Yoshi being a nickname for Yoshino, so I'm expecting great things from Jeff Nimoy and his merry band of co-workers and voice actors. Make it a great dub, guys!

Got tickets to see Keane at The Point in Dublin in July, two days before my 19th birthday! That's a date to look forward to, especially since four of us will be getting adjoining rooms at a hotel. ROAD TRIP! Oh, and the gig should be good too. :D Really, I love Keane, and the last time we seen them was back at Radio 1's One Big Weekend when they came to our wee city back in 2004. Good times.

In other musical news: I'm in love with Stop Me, a cover version by Mark Ronson of a song originally recorded by The Smiths, back in the day. It's just such a flowing tune, with excellent vocals by Daniel Merriweather, that you just can't help moving to. It's bang up to date with the musical style of the late noughties, and the jazz elements only make the track stronger. His new album, Version, has loads of these cover versions on it, so I'm planning to buy that when I get the time and money, which should be very soon, as next week is my last week of school ever!

Jesus. That's scary, now that I think. But it's also the best thing to hapen to me this year, so far. Back soon with more random updates. ;)

Hey You Guys!

2007-03-27T20:15:32Z

So here I am, back on LiveJournal after the foretold break of about five months. So what has happened?

Well, Digimon Savers is over. It's a saddening, yet happy experience overall, because the ending was lovely and cheesy, and it's eternal optimism really did make the world a better place for those twenty minutes. It's a series that will be missed. Now I only hope that the dub can match up and revive Digimon over in the US of A and here in Europe.

In Northern Ireland news, the two leaders of the diametrically and fundamentally opposed extremist parties here, who had refused to even acknowledge each other up until recently, have finally sat down together and said that devolution (us running our own affairs, instead of London doing it for us) will finally be restored and the peace process will be on track. It's a truly momentous day, but we've been let down so many times over here it's hard not to be pessimistic about the future. I'll resist the temptation. Roll on May 8th!

Oh yeah, I did pass my driving test eventually... on the 5th try. -_-; But heck, it's the fact that I've got the licence now, isn't it? Isn't it?! XD

The weather's been great recently, it's a slightly too far from the exams to start worrying about revision yet, and I've got all of my coursework done and handed up, except for a probable re-draft of English that won't take very long at all. At the moment, things are looking great!

So I guess I'll see you in another five months? XD