Bored

we caught eyes across the room. She smiled, the type of smile you're pretty sure could give you syphilus just from looking. I decided to leave. The air outside was getting warmer, as the nights continued to grow shorter. The trees filled fat with sleepy pidgeons swayed ominously under their girth, newly thatched with baby green leaves. A dog arrived, he licked the toe of my shoe. He then preceded to urinate on my leg. Stunned and curiously arroused I let him empty the rest of his unusually large bladder into my strangely, already urine soaked sock. I continued down the street listening to the lopsided slushing of every other step, feeling the warm dog liquor flowing between my toes. The dog followed along side. He looked up and if I hadn't known better I would have thought he was smiling, laughing, knowing the horrible truth that lay at the bottom of my shoe. He knew but he wouldn't share. He knew, that mangy park rat, he knew that they knowledge would only lead to my insanity. Cornelius, he said his name was, if it's true that he could talk, although I'm sure that he could laugh. He laughed and snickered and wheessed as he stroled beside me occassionally stoping to rub his anus upon the cool green turf bordering the park. The grass was inviting and the park empty. I moved from the road into the park, carefull to avoid the streaks where Cornelius had cleaned his cravace, feel into the faetal position and slept. This is a completely fictional story, and likeness to fact is pure coicidence. Thank you and good night.

Getting physical

So I joined a gym yesterday. I started running again. Monday I had my first run since last summer. It was alright, I went for about 25 min. My legs hurt. Then when I joined the gym yesterday I ran for about 30. My legs still hurt. It's all about getting back in the game. I figure that I'll use it a fair bit this summer... at least I should use it a fair bit. In case you were wondering the top picture of the last post is Prague Castle at night taken from next to Charles bridge. The other is the parlement building at sunset. I'm gonna go to the gym tomorrow and run some more, and hopefully use some weights. It was good lastnight to actually feel tired when going to bed and not just fateagued if there's actually a difference. I just really shouldn't have had that Kebab right before getting into bed. It does strang things to the mind. That, and I hate sleeping when over full. I went grocery shopping today. It's nice to have food again, although I'm never satisfied when I get all the food home, it just seems like I'm missing something. This morning I did laundry. I now have a routine that every week on either wednesday or thursday I'll do one load of laundry. This way I only every have to do one load. It makes things easier. I was satisfied with my laundry this week. I have now remembered to wash my towel two weeks in a row. Did you know that they call turnup "Swede" over here, it's so strange. I bought a bag of seasonal british vegetables, it came with three carrots(large), a parsnip, two onions, and a "Swede". I haven't decided what to do with them quite yet. Maybe just bake them all... or not... I'm really not too sure. I did my laundry before I got groceries. They had no skim milk at the store so I had to get 2%.

I'm starting to question this whole post-grad thing. It seems that most people(including myself) who happen to be doing post-grad studies seem to have a lot of time. Curious.

I found my UWO hat. It was under my bed, and covered in dusk and lint. I've hung it on my bulletin board. It's still quite dusty, british dust seems to be stickier then dust at home. I've decided that I really need to start reading more for my exams. I have this sneaky suspicion that despite my appearent confidence over these exams that I'll walk in read the page and hyperventelate for half an hour before I pass out and urinate on myself. The calm part of me knows that it won't happen like that, at worse(and probably at best) I'll go in read the page. Quickly decide that I don't know how to answer any of the questions. Take 15 min to read it again, and slowly start writing. Luckily I happen to be unsually concise(really I'm pretty sure I don't say much) so I'll be able to finish the three essays in the three hours. Then it's wash, weep, repeat if necessary for the next one. I don't really have much else to say. Let's see if I have any other pictures. Yeah I just looked and couldn't find anything I really felt like sharing. I'll take requests if you have any but right now I'm drawing a blank. Good night Detroit!

HUZZA!

after many long hours of frustration and hissy fits I finally did it. I've thrown off the shackles of Netscape and pushed away the welcoming arms of Explorer. Only to find solace in the incredibly wonderful Firefox... I feel emotionally drained... it seems rather pathetic to be so excited about such a little thing but now I can rely on one program instead of two and do even more than the two programs would let me do!!!

As toast

Yep, nothing much going on here. My flatmate lent me a novel which I've been reading quite aggressively(if you know what aggressive reading is then you're a better man than I). It's actually not the greatest book. Sometimes I think it's downright horrible, but othertimes I think it's so so.

I broke another dish. This time it was a Starbucks mug. The last two times it was a wine glass. I've only broken three dishes... that I'll admit to. The funny part is that they all belong to the same flatmate. There has been some theories of some sort of subconcious anemosity, maybe we should consult the flat psychiatrist(she's really a Doctor, she can perscribe drugs and the whole nine yards, although she's not qualified in british terms I can't see filipeno people as really that different from brits). Or, alternatively I could just go out and buy her a new mug.

On a brighter note, I successfully made schwienerschnitzel(pork schnitzel, as I like to call it pour man's schnitzel). I used a can of beans to tenderize the pork, it's probably good that I couldn't find any rocks in my room. being impatient and hungry I decided to forego the soaking in milk, also I couldn't come to terms with wasting that much milk. I also was able to find breadcrumbs! This made me incredibly happy, probably more than is healthy. It was in the stuffing section, I don't get these people. My flatmate had, with great relish, looked at me like I was crazy after my first sorti in search of breadcrumbs and described that it's not a european thing to sell ready made breadcrumbs. I am victorious. Interestingly enough it happens to be the same flatmate whose dishes I keep destroying... I'm sure it's just coincidence. Unfortunately, not thinking ahead I ended up eating my schnitzel at 930 at night with no side dishes. I'm trying to get back in the habit of my multivitamin.

other than that it's been pretty uneventful... yep.

Trains

It's happened again. Well not exactly like before, much smoother than before but still not the sailing that I had had in mind. The plan was a nice relaxing day at the beaches of Brighton. We arrive at the station only to discover that there would be no train service to brighton all day. Dismayed we examine our options. First would be to take the bus to brighton but it met with less then good reception. Second was to take the day and spend it in the city seeing the sites that we've been ignoring all year. Thirdly was to find an alternate destination. We discussed the options and gauged each other's reactions and decided that Castle Leeds in Kent would be a good decission. Turns out the tickets are only 6.18 which was a bonus, but the train was leaving momentarily. We reach the platform only to find little more then nothing, at least no train. We then hope on the next train that comes along only to quickly realize that it's going no where near Kent. The train hits the end of the line an hour later in a place called Gillianham(I think). We get off. Someone then points us towards the other platform telling us that it'll get us near the coast, never mind that our destination wasn't really on the coast. After deliberation it's decided that Cantebury would be our destination having gotten turned around from Kent. It then occurs to us as we near the station that really our tickets say "Kent" and not Cantebury east. The problem was quickly resolved when we find the gates open. We check out Cantebury. I know this story isn't nearly as random and mystifying as the last train experience but I still think it's not without it's amusement, if only for the fact that it's further evidence that the train companies are out to confuse me. The return was fairly uneventful, although there was a run in with a ticket man who agreed that we were very lost and even though alluded to some sort of reprocutions did nothing.

Cantebury was beautiful. It's a very lovely little city and I recommend it to anyone with the chance. If this damned browser where worth it's salt I would be able to show you. However, microsoft is always looking to screw me over and by extention you, so you'll have to accept my shimmering prose and illuminating poetry instead.

We saw a Norman Castle. It was really cool, crazy to think that such things you read about and imagine in history actually exist. It was constructed in the 11th Century, 11th!!! very cool(how's that for descriptive?) We continued on though the town, towards the cathedral. It was in the Dane John park that we ran into our first Cantebury-half-wit. He was very nice offering to take our pictures and such, but he wouldn't really go away. He was a young boy of about 13, wearing grey track pants and carrying a purple ball which he would run along the top of the fence guarding a garden bordering the path. He had very dirty hands. After finally convincing him that we were not in need of his assistance and his examining of my friend's camera he left ahead of us. We continued on our way. All three of us in various states of returning to sobriety we decide that food would be elemental to our pilgrimage. We find a nice wetherspoon's(a pub chain in england) and stopped for some chow. Over here, if you're not familiar, you need to order at the bar and then they'll bring the food to you. So my companions take my order and head to the bar where they meet the second cantebury-half-wit. It took him about twenty minutes to take the order, and in mixing our drinks created a bloody mary with tonic water(don't ask, I don't know. All I know is that it was truly a crime against humanity). Two of the plates came quickly but the other two for some reason were placed under a heat lamp while we waited patiently for 45 min. They came only after I pursuaded my friend (the least sober of the bunch) to inquire. This was met with more confusion on the part of the three waitresses all of whom gave us different stories. One said the order was never taken, one with no idea of what was going on(the guy who made the bloody mary), and one who promptly brought us our meals.

We finished our heatlamp-dried meals and left. Across the street was a tea shop est. 1558 the curious little building was bowed and crooked with a very small door. We continued towards the cathedral. I just think it's crazy the history here. Approacing the cathedral we walked through a parking lot where the third half-wit, the parking attendant, eyed us with more then disturbing "I'm going to kill you all and eat your livers" look.

I cannot call myself a religious man, but to gaze upon such a structure and walk with such walls is incredible. Such a powerful place it is. The faith and emotion of all those who worked to designe and contruct it seems to just emminate from every particle. It lead me to thoughts about religion and how twisted the Christian faith really is. I'm getting tired now. Night

just another week

It's been two weeks since the end of class. It's been one week since I handed in my last assignment. The weekend passed as a blur of nothingness. Unproductivity danced with the sloth of my body, which had for some reason converted to eastern standard time. Little activity has been the standard for the rest of the week. Monday I retrieved my debit card from a pub where I had left it even though we had left after only two pints. Following its retrieval I then went to the library where I took out a book and then returned home stopping for a few groceries along the way. Tuesday is a bit of a blur, which leads me to believe that nothing much had happened possibly some reading of the book which I had taken out the day prior but I really can't be very certain. The following day, being yesterday, was unusually productive. My canadian lawyer friend from upstairs came down and convinced me to go for an english breakfast with him. This seems to be becoming something more usuall then if should. Although the breakfasts are very nice and filling, they seem to be incredibly fried and probably not much for the health. But at 4 quid it's a pretty good bargan. Following breakfast, I escorted my friend to the barbershop that I've found that is less then unreasonable(relatively) and better then good. I left him there and the preceeded to the library. At the library I found three books I was in search for then a nice chair in which to read as the sun came through the window and crossed the room. I was there for about three hours reading(I'm guessing and probably over estimating, just to sound more productive). After reading the important bits I consigned myself to take out two of them and leave the third. I then returned home walking along the Thames. Yesterday was by far the most productive studying I've done in, well, possibly ever. It was followed by a day not nearly as productive. Today.

I think the culmination of today has to be the instant mashed potatoes I made for a late lunch.

Tomorrow is uncertain, I'm not sure what to do. I've recently discovered that I'm actually going to have to do some research for my dissertation which is disheartening to say the least. For someone as lazy as I am I seem to have gone quite far in this education thing. Besides that the Dissertation has really started to form, at least in my head. "An Evolution and Future of Leadership, in a Post-Hero Society" is the working title which I was able to scrible down drunk on sleep in the middle of the night(early morning) some weeks ago. I guess I should have seen it coming though eh? I mean "evolution" is in the title I should probably base that on something closer to fact right? I think I've figured out how I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna hopefully find a bunch of pamphlets and guides on who to be a good leader and hopefully they'll lead to different ideals as time progresses. I think I've found one from the first world war 1916, and one from the second (1942) personally I'd like to find some from interwar periods just because I think that conflict has a habit of changing things but we'll see what's out there, there's got to be something. I'll secumb to secondary resources if I have to but it won't make me happy. What really makes me unhappy is that I know now that I'll have to spend some time in the archives... I hate the archives. GAH! and I'll probably have to do that soon just incase it screws over what I want to say in the dissertation itself.