Absolutely Ravenous

I was over in Huddersfield last night - and went out for a meal with Sally. Great time, had all three courses and some wine and so on. I was stuffed by end of things. Which makes it weird that on the train back to Hull this morning, I was absolutely STARVING. Really, really, painfully, stomach-digestingly hungry. Strange how that happens after a big meal? I've been taking it easy today (as per), have had a couple of cups of coffee, and a sedate - if large - lunch. And guess what? I'm *still* hungry. I can't believe it!!

As my Dad always says, I must have hollow legs. :-(

Lack of photos

It's been a little while since I've put a photo up, but worry no longer. About a month or so ago, I was down in Reading for a PsyPAG committee meeting. Since we were a roving band of postgraduate psychologists, we all wanted to stop off in this particular pub. And who could blame us? Well, Rachel could. (As she was one of the locals who organised the meeting/meal, and she was able to tell us that the pub in question was a bit pants). But your intrepid hero needed a photo opportunity so here it is. Apt.




Note: weekends away from Sally appear to provoke demonic possession!

Pitter-patter

Oh, and while I'm blogging,

A huge congratulations for Andy + Fi. Yesterday saw Sam Jack Horrocks brought into the world at 6lbs 9ozs. Well done you two (slightly more credit going to Fi, I suppose!!).

Time Sinks

It's finally happened. I have time on my hands. Not much, granted, but some. Thesis is in - the corrected version - the storm of paperwork is over - so I'll graduate in January - and I've sent the latest issue of the Quarterly - the postgraduate Journal I edit (with lots of help!) - to the BPS for printing. So, erm... what now?

Papers. Writing papers - I'm supposed to scrape up two and send them off for publication by Xmas. Jackson, Coyne & Clough (2006) anyone? But this new-found freedom has coincided with lots of new computer games - and the pressure on me isn't as much as I need to get things done. Civ IV, The Movies, WoW, Guild Wars... I'm just thankful that Oblivion has been delayed. That thing could be the biggest time-sink of all time.

Feeling slightly geeky (this is a 32-year old talking here),
Me.

Wow, what a day!!

Phew. But the good news is that almost my entire workload has firmly shifted into the Out box. In fact, I'm a little unsure about what to do next. Long and short of things is that I'm feeling much better, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I spent some of last night playing "The Movies" on my PC. What a great game. What terrible films my studio produces!! Actually, you have to see them to believe them. Bad black-and-white films set to madcap piano music. I wonder if I can somehow link them to this site? That really would be something. They are terrible, in full 1930s filmorama.

Plus, I fell through a desk today. Yep. Smashed it completely - though not my fault. Not the left desk, not the right desk, but the utterly unsupported curved bit that joined them together. And in the main departmental office too. At least five people came running. Most ran to my aid. One cried out "Thank God it wasn't a student!"

At least I'm not likely to sue(!)

All hands to the pumps.

Seriously, it's a crazy week. So crazy in fact, so snowed under with everything that I am, that the only natural response is to side-step all of it, and write a Blog for myself. The awesome power of distraction.

To tell you the truth, things aren't going well right now. You loyal people who check fairly often, can't have helped but notice that blogs are few and far between at the moment. There are reasons for that, but no need to go there at the moment. When it gets like this, I get reflective - quite possibly reflective for the wrong reasons. But reflective I am. A friend of mine recently lost a grandparent, and knowing the age of most of you, I'm guessing that you have too. I've lost all four, with my Mother's parents passing away quite close together several years ago now. From then on - as an only child - it's been my parents and *me*. And since I don't go home as often as I'd like, they're getting older and frailer each and every time. It's distressing.

But life goes on. Elsewhere, Jason and Serena have brought Lauren into the world. Andy and Fiona were expecting on November 7th and while they haven't heard the pitter-patter of tiny feet just yet, it's a baby over the weekend, or one induced on Monday. As I say, life goes on. I've recently read a book about the Fermi Paradox. The idea that if aliens exist, why aren't they here to be seen? Turns out, we might be living in a dark, cruel universe that just keeps knocking back any civilisation that evolves up out of the slime. Life just happens, and life just keeps on plugging away and coming back in a different form. I kind of like that idea. I think it's reassuring, not desparing. Still enough of my rambling - and this is a ramble - let's all remember that life goes on, and it's worth fighting for.

Thank you for listening. Ridiculous as it may sound, the above has helped me make an important decision. :-)

It's been a while...

I haven't written here for ages, have I? Not entirely my fault, as while I've had my Karoo broadband modem and what-not for a good week now, I still haven't had my line "activated", whatever that may mean. The good news is that it's happening tomorrow - between the unlikely time of 8am and 6pm - at which point I can e-mail from home and have more time to fill you all in on my exciting adventures.

Yay!

Oh, and while I have the chance, fingers firmly crossed for Andy and Fiona, who if all goes according to plan, are expecting their first child *today*.

Double Yay!

And another one.

It's *Dave's* viva today. In 20mins, in fact. Good luck mate. :-)

Karoo Quibbles

The great broadband debate goes on!!

Well, actually, it doesn't. Sorted. As it turns out, Karoo have a sister company called Eclipse. If you terminate your Karoo contract early *but* switch to Eclipse outside of the Hull area, no termination charge/fine/whatever. So that works. I think. Telephone is in, so now Sky and Broadband. Give me a few days so that I can have my technology back and the world is a better place. :-)

Plus, I was sent this the other day. Marking seems a bit harsh, but it appeals to me.

Living in Hull

Ok, ok, we know that Hull gets a bit of a bad press, but it's not that bad. Today, however, I'm a bit p****d off with the whole Hull thing. Or rather, the Kingston Communications thing. Some of you may not know that Hull is seperate to the BT phone system, has white telephone boxes and only *one* possible internet provider. Kingston Communications. Or rather, Karoo.

All I want is broadband for six months. Not twelve months. Just six. I'll even pay over the odds - as you have to with Karoo. But only for six months. That's all I ask. Is there any techie out there - and many of you are techies - who can suggest some other way of getting broadband? Through satellite TV or any other side-stepping suggestion. Six months is long time on dial-up (when I get my phone connected).

Help?

And he's back.

Yep, I'm back in Hull after an enforced absence of maybe three months (Raglan Street). Internet currently spotty but that's what offices are for. Blog should be updated much more regularly now.

See you again soon.

And we have a winner...

Well, all over. Took two minutes of deliberation on the part of the examiners. In fact, I was barely out of the loo before they called me back in.

Accepted with minor changes.

Understandable since page 234 was missing!! lol. And the whole of a correlation matrix I said was in the back but wasn't - I'd only put in the important bits. That and a few tweaks here and there to tighten up a few sentences so I keep to the same definition throughout. I have three months to do three days work - if that - and hand it in. Then I'm a doctor. Yay me. :-)

Twenty minutes to go!!

I feel sick. :-(

Oooh, scary!!

2.30pm on Thursday, September 22nd, 2005. Dress code: smart casual.

Yep, it's viva time. My (2hr?) oral examination on the 285 pages (minus appendices) of Thesis that I've spent the last four years writing. No place to hide, hopefully, no need to hide. Funnily enough, I'm looking forward to it. For the first time in years, I'll be in a situation where I can talk about my Thesis and my two examiners won't be able pop out for a quick fag or mumble excuses about having an urgent doctor's appointment. Yes, I get to talk about my work. And talk, and then talk some more. It'll be fun!!

Weird, aren't I? No, no need to confirm that in the comment box... :-)

Plus, Dave and I have sorted out the relevant paperwork for the house so it's back to Hull to sign that contract. Raglan Street, here we come!!

And another one!

A quick update to let you all know that one of my trusty Sheffield flatmates - Kean - has also started up a Blog. Looks like he's travelling the world. India and Nepal. Kean - you lucky, lucky *******.

Link to his now available. 'Natch. :-)

Sixteen long years...

Well, it's been a long time in coming. *Sixteen* long and painful years of humiliation since we've beaten the Australians at cricket. But at last, that four-inch tall trophy is ours once again. :-)

Yay England!!

Sorely neglected Blog...

It's weird.

I have no PhD to write - only the viva to go obviously. No presentations or lectures to write, as I currently have no job. I'm still waiting on an interview a four-six month contract from Hull (one of three posts and my chances are good). But what all this means is that I'm short of things to do. This means that I have plenty of time on my hands to do what I want to do, right? Wrong. :-(

It just doesn't seem to work that way. If I had a job lined up, and I started on X, then I'm sure I'd be running around, filling up my day with all sorts. Right now though, I just can't be bothered. Bugger.

Still, there's something to blog about today. You know how you can get a tune stuck inside your head for days, don't you? Well, it's happened to me this week. I was in town (York) a few days ago and I was looking through some DVDs and I found - but point out that I DID NOT BUY - a DVD of Magnum PI. With Tom Selleck. The TV series in Hawaii which denied us Tom Selleck as Indiana Jones - he couldn't get out of contract and they gave it to Harrison Ford instead. Some film trivia there... Since I saw that DVD cover, I don't seem able to get the theme tune out of my head so I thought I'd share the magic. :-) Here you are.

And since it's detective/cop shows today, here's a theme tune that is a personal favourite of mine and in my search for Magnum, I turned it up. Hill Street Blues. Anybody remember it? Clicky.

Scary news

Very scary, in fact.

I've a date for my viva. 22nd September, 1.30pm. Aw heck...

On a lighter note, it's my birthday on Thursday. And no, I'm not saying how old I am. If you don't know, you really should do. ;-)

Back from Exeter

Yep, I'm back, and I enjoyed it. The late nights, the drinking, the conversation, the mind-numbing pre-presentation fear. The lot. Great to see some new people and to see some really nice new people join in the fun. But I know most of you aren't psychologists, and I'm even surer that most of you won't be all that interested in our slow climb up the greasy pole!!


Anyway, here's photo that proves I went! lol. Funnily enough, I was convinced that Exeter was on the south coast. It's not - but most of the others were under the same delusion. I was gutted though. Honestly, FIVE hours on the train and I didn't make it as far as the Channel. Twelve miles short, apparently. If we'd have had the time, we'd have got a taxi down to the sea. We didn't.

I'm away *again*

Yep, here I go again.

In a couple of hours, I'm off down to Exeter for a conference. Over four hours on the train - I even toyed with flying down from Leeds/Bradford but getting there isn't too easy. So the train it is, followed by three whole days of psychology presentations from fellow PhDers - myself included. Yep, the majority of you get to miss out on 20mins of waffle about tinnitus. You lucky people!! ;-)

Nah, it'll be fun! Perhaps only fun if you happen to be a soon-to-submit postgraduate psychologist who enjoys seminars and getting plastered nightly, but there you go. The only thing I regret is all this traveling back and forth and back again. What with rendezvousing with Sally in Huddersfield before flying off to have fun in Corfu - that followed quickly by a stay over in Hull (thanks lads) - I'll have only spent one full day at home in three weeks by the time I get back on Friday!! Who said signing on (three full weeks on the dole now) means you have to stay at home? For the record, I'm beginning to wish it did.

Simon, Craig, Catherine, Dave. See you down there.