My first guitar song

I thought I would be cool and try and write a song for guitar. This is something I find challenging, because I have never done it before.

I wrote this random song for Phil Murphy. Hope you enjoy it!

"Jesus's birthday pre-lash"

This afternoon, I got woken up by Tom Woollacott at 3:30pm. (Thats right, I was still asleep). He was at my door shouting 'JD! You wanna come down for the epic lighting of the christmas pudding?' I could of course not refuse what would be my first actual meal of the day! I got dressed and went downstairs to find mark and tom had got brandy and a nice christmas pud on the go.

Some of us went into Ollie's room to pass the time while the pudding was being cooked. As I did this, I couldn't help but spot Tom sneak up to the fire alarm with a plastic bag... I said to Phil, 'Is Tom tampering with the smoke detector?!' to which Phil turned around to him and disapproved.
We explained to him that the 100 pound fine tied into tampering with the smoke detector is not worth a serving of hot christmas pudding!

In all seriousness though, he was concerned about any extraneous smoke generated from the pudding as it was lit. Me and Phil put another dampener on his theory however, when we pointed out it can't possibly make more smoke than some of our food has done in the past... to which he had to agree, thinking back to Haaziq's toast incident.

So we all sat down with the pudding, and were just about to light the pudding after dousing it with some brandy. Somebody said, 'merry christmas!' Then somebody else said 'Happy birthday Jesus!'. It was then that we realised the wierdness of the situation because it wasn't even christmas yet. As we were contemplating this, Philip Murphy came out with another one of his ever popular one-liners, hence the title of this post.

"We could think of this as Jesus's birthday pre-lash"

This was of course hilarious. So Tom lit the pudding, and God said it was good. Not that I am religious, but I'm sure that if he is real he would approve of the lighting of a tasty, scrumptious christmas pudding. Admittedly, it wasn't very spectacular. It didn't quite provide the billowing fireball as some of us may have expected. Not exactly... mayhem. But anyone who has seen burning alcohol before will know that it catches with a flickering blue flame that lasts around 10-15 seconds on a pudding. This was very hard to photograph, as not only does it not show up on the camera, the 'flickeryness' of the flame avoided each shoot. believe it or not, here is a photograph of the pudding, actually on fire!



We ate the pudding with a nice helping of single cream provided by Mark, and we had a semi-festive half-house gathering in the kitchen. This was also good. Pleasant chit-chat and casual mockery of certain individuals filled the room, as a christmas shot of brandy was drunk by all. Even non-alcoholic, Phil.





Above is a picture of Phil, before the shot. Below is a picture of Phil, after the shot! what a lightweight... Although its probably fair to mention that his position does not have anything to do with his inability to handle a drink, he was in fact just quite tired.



Merry pre-Christmas!

Bath Water?

When I first came to Bath for University, everything was fine and we were all settling in. However, I did have one annoyance. Usually at home I drink a lot of water throughout the day, wandering about with a bottle half the time. This is a useful habit, as it keeps me fresh and perky and helps to keep me awake when I'm trying to work. Unfortunately, the water here was alien to me.

As my Devonshire friends will know, the water in Devon is lovely. Very lacking in all the minearls which bring about hard water, its also clear, and refreshing. The water in devon is soft, and is brilliant for making a nice cup of tea. So you can imagine my horror when I first went downstairs to have a glass of water, only to find it is hard, 'mineraly' and a bit cloudy. It tasted like absolutely what I don't want from a glass of water. Zero refreshment, only a slight change in facial expression as it is drunk. (You know that kind of slight shudder and wince akin to a child sipping beer)

I then went to Games Workshop in bath to buy a few paints for some of my Warhammer. I got speaking to the manager about life back in Paignton and Torquay. You see, Alan worked in the Torquay store funnily enough, and has since moved to bath. He asked how I was finding it here compared to Paignton, to which I replied 'The water is shocking'.

He seemed surprised. Sipping at his mug of tea, he explained that he hates the water in Devon. Finds it tasteless and vile. He said the water here is lovely. I couldn't help but disagree and explained my predicament with the variation between soft and hard water. He chuckled, and nodded. 'Ah, It'll grow on you', he said.

I will now with a heavy heart say that he was in fact correct. When I first came back to Devon, I took Devon water back to bath with me because I couldn't stand the taste of it here. But now, I don't feel the need to do that. In fact, I had a shock when I found I slightly dislike the taste of Devon water now... I class myself as a convert. It is depressing, considering how much I used to love Devon water, but at least now I can refresh myself here in peace.

Oh, yeah my Uni Hood

Forgot to mention that I have this. I saw Karys did a post on her UCA top, and made a big deal about it, so I felt very left out sat around in my 'unannounced' Bath University top. I went for one of the limited edition ones (because I'm cool like that) 'Forest green, and red on the inside'. There were others, but some of the limited edition ones were even too loud for my standards (i.e. purple and yellow, turquoise and hot pink)



So here it is, me delightfully modelling it. Lovely. As far as practicality is concerned, I must say it is both comfortable, warm and soft. Rarely do you get aesthetically pleasing clothes that are also cosy. This is the definition of a win-win situation.

Can my room tidy itself?

The answer is yes. Yes it can, with the help of the new stop frame animation software ricky has shown me. I took on this task because this was the only night in the last 2 weeks where i have actually not had any work to do! win. So I thought i would be productive to make you this 30 second long, 405 frame, 4 hour slog-fest of a clip. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy a good slice of cheese.

Yet more pointless software

As many of you know, I have been through the animation stickman thing, and the photograph morphing thing too. Now, thanks to ricky, I have new software. His stop-animation broast video was epic. If are yet to see it, first of all, why? and secondly, here is the link.
Broast animation

He referred me to the website for the software, and i swiftly downloaded it and instantly began mucking around with it with ollie and phil. the resulting video is the result of us just sliding around.



Expect to see more, as this was only my test run!

KFC. Kompletely Full of Chicken.

Yesterday evening me and Ollie went into town to buy a birthday cake for one of our housemates, Haaziq Basir. On the way back, we began discussing what we may have for dinner. We both agreed that neither of us were particularly in the modd for cooking anything. It then dawned on us both that we have not eaten any fast food since the episode with the pizza, which was way back in Freshers week!

After a few seconds of discussion, we decided on the local KFC. The actual ordering part of the meal was uneventful, as one would expect. We just ordered a bucket of some kind between us and made our way. Oh, and someone smashed a jar of mayonaise as we left- but we were too hungry to bother gawping at their mishap.

The plan was, Phil would go to mass in town, and we would meet him back at home. But this never came to pass. Ollie and I spent forever waiting at the bus stop waiting for the correct bus. What was so painful is not that there were no buses, but all 8 of the buses that drove past were not the correct one! It was beginning to get beyond a joke.

My phone rang. It was Phil, fresh from mass. He was surprised to find out we were still at the bus stop, and said he would be with us in a few minutes. Ollie knew exactly what was going to happen, and so do you guys probably. No sooner had a put the phone down did an orange bus come around the corner. Statistically, this shouldn't happen, but it always seems to. anyway, we were like, Phil is gonna miss this, but to our happiness we spotted phil trotting around the corner.

We made it.

When we got home, we ate a lot of chicken. Even Haaziq, who generally doesn't make much conversation, pointed out it was a lot of chicken for 2 men. He was right. but we soldiered on.
Here is the chicken, before it was eaten.



Here is the chicken, after it was eaten.





Simple. Job done.

Polly want a Soundbite

Hey there, I would like to introduce you to Polly, my new Dictaphone. I’m sure Karys will once again approve of my naming of inanimate objects, but now it doesn’t feel right not doing it! It is called Polly because it can repeat things it has heard! For those of you with confused expressions on your faces, Polly is a standard name for a parrot. (I shouldn’t have to say this, but statistically, one of you probably won’t get it)

Anyway, she is very clever, because she is going to remember my lectures for me, and remind me of things I have forgotten in them. I must add that this is no excuse for falling asleep in lectures- I don’t want to hear snoring on the tape! She also has voice recognition dictation, so should I choose to, I could ask her to write what the lecturer is saying. She can play music, and alter the speed of any recording which could be fun. She will let me rest and learn, eat and revise, and listen to lectures I didn’t even attend if I’m ill! So it should be very useful!

Wish you were hair

As you can possibly tell by the title of this post, I have indeed had a haircut. Many of you may be thinking, ‘I thought you liked your current style’, and you are right. I definitely prefer the middle length hair to the shorter hair.

Gone from: Greasy grunge listener

To: Shiny-eyed respectable human being

I hear you ask, why change?

Well you see, in just over 2 weeks time I will be jetting my ass of to sunny Florida for Christmas. Now this suggests a problem with my hairstyle that I would rather avoid. I tan fairly easily, even on hot days in Paignton. When I go to Florida for a few weeks I tend to go a bit brown. However, looking at the photograph of my old hair, you can see that my entire forehead is obscured by thick purple and brown hair…

Therefore, given a length of time in the sun with little or no cloud cover, I will end up almost certainly with a brown face from the eyebrows down, coupled with a gleaming white forehead.

Hair grows back, but tan lines fade painfully.

I made this mistake (albeit not as seriously) as a child, when I went on holiday to Florida. I had short hair back then, but by my standards back then, it was fairly long compared to the current average. So when I got home, I had a haircut. Much to my 13 year old disappointment, I had a half inch line of white all the way around my hair line. This made my face look like a white kid wearing a brown mask.

So in this fragile stage of development at 18, I would rather not go through that again, especially because my hair was longer.

So there you are. A perfectly lovely anecdote about embarrassment and tanning. I’m glad I don’t have more.

God Damn Dougnut Holes

When I was talking to Sophie, the subject of doughnut holes came up. Don’t ask how, but it found its way in. Now, I’m not talking about the holes themselves, I’m talking about the dough balls covered in glazed icing that claim to be doughnut holes… you know the ones? You can buy them in supermarkets in plastic tubs containing usually about 15 or 20 of them.

I never batted an eyelid to these before. Well, I ate them, but never questioned their name. Let us start with the term ‘hole’ used in the name. This implies to me they are selling holes… which as we all know- are nothing. So, this means one of 3 things.

1. They are misleading customers, giving them false information.
2. Someone has invented a portable hole, finally. And yet its primary use is food?! No way man, I can think of many better places to put an instant hole.
3. Morrison’s have developed a way of making you pay for less than you came in with, subsequently making everyone die of internal bleeding after making their customers eat small holes.

Secondly, I don’t know if you knew, but the whole concept of these so called ‘doughnut holes’ is that they are the bits of a ring doughnut that don’t get used, so are sold separately. This is farcical!

This gives the impression to consumers that doughnuts are produced in the same way as polos, whereby a machine punches a hole through a thick disc to make the finished product. This is of course absurd. A doughnut is simply a roll of dough joined at both ends, then baked and iced. ‘Doughnut holes’ have nothing to do with doughnuts, and are simply balls of glazed dough made by idiots who either lack the skill or can’t be arsed to make a real doughnut. So essentially, Doughnut hole manufacturers are the baking equivalent of identity frauds. They should sort their lives out and learn to make a doughnut like real men do.

This kind of fraudulent, heretical behaviour would not be seen in a good bakery, oh no. You really think that master bakers waste any dough by gathering up non-existent holes that were made as a by-product of doughnuts? No! Why? Because they have dignity and respect, that’s why.

Once again, perhaps this is one of those posts where I have thought too deeply about something trivial. I’ll leave that for you to decide- am I mad … or right.

The Lord of Ruin has spawned near your base

Thats right guys, the moment you have all been waiting for. James Strutt has finally joined our community of bloggers. His first post is a brilliant tale of dismay and adventure, (I won't spoil the surprise) far surpassing my effort at a first blog.

Considering he is a regular reader of our blogs, I suggested he make his own. Fortunately for him, he did- he has even put the effort in to produce a witty story that made me ... 'giggle'.

As fellow bloggers, we should knit together our community, so I urge my current 12 followers to pass your patronage onto the Strutt. Just follow this link!

http://lordofruin300.blogspot.com

cheers. I'm sure he will feel both flattered, and... pressurised.

The Ultimate Broast Tutorial

What a way to start off a new month. What can I say, i worked hard on this because it is something that I'm passionate about. Enjoy. And for those of you who don't know, this should explain everything.



Also, congratulations to those of you who got the Brian Butterfield reference

Articulate gaffs

Let me first begin by saying Merry Christmas everyone, as it is the first of december! god knows the shops have assumed 'Christmas-mode' from about mid september onwards... I don't care if the date of this post still says the 30th of November, trust me- it is DEFINATELY 3:06 in the morning.

Anyway, this evening me and some of my housemates played a game of 'Articulate'. This is kind of like a more basic version of trivial pursuit, but there is verbal description similar to charades. The rules are, no saying the word your trying to describe, no ryhming, and no 'beginning letters' for hints.

It was fair to say it was a hilarious game, much more well known for the number of Cock-ups and gaffs made by some. The idea is there were 3 teams of 2, and one describes to his partner an object or word thats on a card. The other guesses, and hilarity ensues. As you can see, there are ample opportunities to make an arse of yourself by not getting something really obvious, or not explaining a really basic word correctly. Here is a list of memorable gaffs, faux pas, cock ups and howlers made by the players.

Phil Murphy:

1. Given the description, 'a parasite that feeds of your blood in the jungle in water', Phil did not instantly get LEECH, and preceded to say "I probably never would have got that one"
   

Joe Rye:

1. When explaining words to his team-mate Mark , he passed on the word 'artery' because he didn't know what it was. It turned out his thought process was 'Artery? where they keep art? ... i thought that was a gallery...'
2. It took him over 3 minutes to get CRANE from, 'a birds name that is also a construction machine'

Tom Woollacott: My god this could take a while....

1. When describing 'Paul McCartney' he said, don't know who this is, but they have like a scottish sounding name. When revealed, his team-mate phil promptly exploded in rage.
2. Tom could not name the lead actor from the great escape.
3. In the all-guessing round, The description was 'When you are angry you get a...', to which tom said 'throbbing temple?'... The answer was in fact TEMPER.
4. When asked to describe 'The gulf of Mexico' to phil, he started the sentence with, 'In mexico, there... S*** you cant say mexico...'
5. Tom thought Tiananmen Square was in Moscow..
6. Tom tried to describe the word 'Borstal' (as in confined training camp). He thought it was a person or a place name...
7. When prompted with 'Something, rack- a shop in the high street that sells neckwear' he failed to get Tie Rack. once again, much to phil's disappointment
   
8. There were more, I just don't remember
   

Leekspin

Here is a short video blog i have made... I seem to be doing more of these. Oh well, there was no other way I could show you this.

Prepare to be amazed. People with a nervous disposition should mute the computer. You are quite possibly going to crap yourself when you see what I have done. It is a feat of acheivement that far surpasses:

• The building of the golden gate bridge
• The world cup win in 1966
• Susan Boyle
• The success of the Numa Numa guy
• The votes for women campaign (oops sexism)

So here it is. If you like leeks, then you'll like this video.



Feel free to try it yourself, and rise to the same god-like level that I have as a result.

http://leekspin.com

Fun Facts about leekspin.

1. The Song is actually a looped version of the song 'Leva's Polka' sung by finnish band Loituma. It was released in 1995.
   
2. The looped version only incorporates the section of the song which is essentially scat singing...
3. The Song has got absolutley nothing to do with Leeks
4. The Song has got absolutley nothing to do with the girl spinning the leek
5. The girl spinning the leek is called Orihime Inoue
6. She is from the manga 'Bleach'
7. The looped track is exactly 27 seconds long
8. The animation of her spinning the leek is 5 frames long

And thats all I know about leekspin. Its fair to say that it could be too much information...

The Accordio-blog

As some of you may already know, I have a new accordion. (This was another post that got deleted, gah) ... On the other hand, it is probably a bit of a farce to call it new... It is actually all the way from 1937 in Italy. Thats right, that makes it pre second world war. It is a lovely looking thing, but it doesn't half sound like it is pre war. Don't worry, at some point I will invest in fixing it up a bit!

So below is my first 'Accordio-Blog'. It is the video from when I first learned a few things on the accordion. (Yes, I know I said first world war in the video- I actually mean second world war.)



So there you are. Its true, I am currently working on the battery powered rock, but to be honest its not sounding brilliant at the moment... On the contrary, my accordion rendition of the leekspin tune is going very well...

McPredator

When Chris McGreal came to stay, we didn't really do much other thanchat and eat. This made a pleasant change, because sometimes my weekends end up being quite busy. On the friday morning, Chris queried how I used the morphing software on my blog. (I was just about to reference it, but unfortunately that was another deleted post). So I decided to give him a small demonstration. We both like predator, and i saw this as a challenge. So, in a short movie, here is what happened.



On a lighter note, on the friday evening we debated the pronounciation of the word 'escalope', as in chicken or turkey escalopes. (flat-ish fillets of breaded chicken or turkey). We came up with a few possible variations, all of which could be correct. Please shed some light on this matter if you know the answer.

• Es - ca - loe - ps
• Es - ca - lops
• E - Sca - lups

Any ideas? All I know was, they were tasty with a bit of red sauce.

Stop your Wine-ing

This evening, me and Ollie decided to watch Alien vs Predator 2. However, we wanted some...er.. beverages.. to drink while we watched the film. We headed off to the campus shop. We came across some wine which was on offer. Job done.



When we got home, I said to Ollie, "Wouldn't it be funny if it was possible to down a bottle of wine?"
At this point, I realised it could be possible... i figured that if I could down a pint then i could down a wine bottle at a push. So we tried it, and it worked... for me at least. I knew you guys wouldn't believe me, so I made sure the attempt was filmed just in case.



Needless to so, less than 10 minutes later, I was fairly giggly... and yes, I am aware of the wierd laughter I did after I won.

The Disaster Blog.

So there you go, the rumours are true. I was being a prat and accidentally deleted a months worth of blog posts. Don't even ask what I was trying to do. Just the fact they ended up deleted. Try as I may to recover them, unfortunately there were no cached URLs for my blog, so none can be found on any internet archives. Also as another twist to this already horrible plot- the very day before I wiped my SD card on my camera to make space for new blog pictures. so none of the old photos could be retrieved either...

The only thing I can do to resolve this is to produce a list for future reference
of things that have happened in the last month.

• I played a match of unicycle hockey, and scored three goals in the process
• I rode a 36" unicycle called a 'coker' and i also rode a 6" mini unicycle
• I had a gap from blogging to paint some eldar harlequins (warhammer)
• Oli spent an 'undisclosed' amount of money on warhammer
• i had Irish stew with an irish person
• Oli built some home made chicken nuggets with tom 'man food' woollacott tried to steal
• I have a new accordion from 1937
• I learned how to use photographic morphing software
• James strutt came to stay, and Oli made burgers
• Wade and Ricky came over, and we drunk a hell of a lot of flanders beer
• I built a wall out of flanders beer and bulmers bottles for my windowsill
• People kept clogging up the fridge with useless items such as bread and marmalade
• this made phil angry- he described him as 'worse than hitler'
• I finished my lab report, thanks to a magic book that me and will found
• There was some fog- i posted a picture of a particularly foggy day
• I posted some pictures of Devon for my Friends in Bath to see

Well there it is. A not so detailed account of my last month of life. Unfortunately this also sets me back for my 100th blog celebration... despite the fact I have done 86, my blog thinks I have now done like 65.

This is what the disaster could be compared to.

1. A bug's Life- the bit where flik destroys the harvest. He makes a machine that was supposed to harvest berries faster than 10 ants. But it went wrong. It ruined the harvest. But.. it was rebuilt. The ants were like- 'we're awesome' and beat up the grasshoppers.

2. Jurassic park- John Hammond was like, yeah lets make some dinosaurs from mosquito DNA and frogs. This will work.



3. The san fransisco earthquake- I know its pushing the boat out, but it feels like this to me. 80% of the city was destroyed, but over time it has been rebuilt. This is what is going to happen to my blog.



I will rebel against all that say I should quit, and deny the non-believers. I will soldier on and rebuild this blog to its former glory, and take it back to the level it once was. Tonight, we dine in hell. but soon, we will dine in... I dunno... Pizza hut?

Nonetheless, I will not fizzle out like some 90s fad, I remain for eternity as an undying force of nature. Unstoppable, unresting.

And there it is. prepare yourself for business as usual. despite the loss of many a good post- such .are the casualties of war. I will continue with my quest, whether fate likes it or not.

JD. Out.

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Just accidentally deleted my 25 most recent blog posts. Life is so unfair. so many cool things happened... so many cool pictures lost forever... using my computer whizz-ness I was fortunately able to recover a few of the more recent ones, which i'll try and put up again. SADFACE.

Frying Pan = Fail

Today, I threw away my frying pan. And no, not because I could not be bothered to wash it.



My Frying pan has numerous faults with it, and they built up to the point where i seriously considered just frying an egg on the bare hob because it would be 'easier'. It had become such a chore this morning to use I decided to just throw it away and buy a frying pan that actually 'serves its primary function' of 'frying things'.

*Rant*
First of all, the base of the pan is deformed. So when you put it on a flat surface, it is possible to spin it on a point. Not good. Ordinarily, it wouldn't be a problem, but our hobs are electric. Therefore, they cook by convection (Alan will understand) so only about 2cm squared of my pan actually heats up enough to fry stuff because that is the only section of the pan that is in contact with the hob. In fairness, this does actually provide the phenomenon of frying an egg where only the yolk cooks...

*Rant*
Also, the non-stick surface comes off and sticks to my food. Maybe it means non-stick as in the non-stick doesn't actually stay on the pan. Seriously, it just comes off like paint. So when something sticks and burns on to a section of the pan where the non stick has come off, I clean it off, which drags more of the non-stick surface off. Its a vicious circle.

*Rant*
As a result of the non-stick situation, parts of my food burn onto the pan, creating smoke. By extension, many of my housemates get the impression i'm and idiot and can't cook food properly. I'll show them with my new pan... I think I will name it Michel, after famous chef Michel Roux Jr.

by that logic, my old frying pan should have been called Mr Bean.

Spreading the Gospel... about 'Broast'

Some of you may not know what 'Broast' is. I have already explained it to a few of my housemates, and they thought it was a fantastic idea. However, for those who do not know, I will start with a small history lesson...

Roughly a year and a half ago, there was a man who was feeling hungry, but also impatient and couldn't be bothered to wait the standard food-preparation-time (FPT) that making a meal generally requires. So to save time and double the efficiency, he put two slices of bread in the same slot of the toaster.

When it was ready, we all marvelled at his accidental invention. Well toasted on the outside, soft and starchy on the inside. This followed by a filling of chocolate spread to create something resembling a sandwich, and magic was created in that very room. He labelled his outstanding invention 'BROAST'...

That inventor is none other than physicist, bass player, and long time irish friend of mine, Alan Dermot Octavius O'Brien- as pictured below.



He is also the mastermind behind 'Cariko', which is cake and Doritos. Another Nobel prize winner there Alan. (seriously, try it out)

Watching 'Utensil Pals' this morning again reminded me of what good times we had, and subsequently I instantly knew what I had to do for lunch. I had a toaster. 4 slices of bread. Chocolate spread. I feel like a goddamn Wizard. I took a deep breath, and underwent the process.



2 slices of bread were placed into the toaster.



One side toasted, one side soft.



The chocolate goes into the middle.



The Finished Article minus one bite.

Thanks Alan for such an amazing invention, I will be sure to 'spread' the word. Battery Powered Rock!

Utensil Pals! Episode 2!

Because you loved utensil pals so much the first time, here is episode 2. It makes so little sense that it deserved a sequel, but there you go. Featuring Alan and Ricky as the utensils again, enjoy yourself. Watch it as many times as you feel necessary.



If you have watched it more than 2 times and still do not understand, you are quite frankly one of many. Good night, and please don't heckle me as to what this whole thing is about.

Utensil Pals! Episode One!

Well its been a long wait, but here it is- dug up from the archives of my camera by request from Ricky Moysey. Featuring Alan and Ricky, their nonplussed genius as puppeteers will live on forever.



What you just witnessed was utensil pals. Good Night.

Life long Dream Fulfilled

Karys, you said you were pleased when you got an excuse to dress as adam ant- Well, I too can now share your feelings, as I FINALLY got to dress as the GREEN LANTERN!!!



A few days was the first social outing exclusively for the juggling club. It was superhero themed, as you can probably tell, but therefore I jumped at the chance to go as my favourite super hero. I will explain how I made the costume.

First of all, i put on a black shirt underneath, in order to create the black neckline. I then cut a pair of tights in half and put them on my arms. Followed by white gloves and a green ring (of course). After that, I put my own green lantern shirt on over the top. I painted the mask on using face paint.

The bottoms are quite clever too- I had some black shorts on underneath, and put a pair of black tights over the top. I then cut the legs off a pair of green tights to make the pants, and used the green legs to wrap around a pair of trainers to make the green shoes! awesome!

One problem was however, that not many people knew who the green lantern was. credit to the 5 or so members of the club who did know, but shame on the rest for not. Someone on the bus even confused the green lantern logo for the oxfam logo, and promptly assumed I was 'Oxfam Man'...

The evening was a resounding success though, and here is a list of some of the good superheroes who turned up:

• Captain Planet
• Superman
• Captain Hammer
• The Green Lantern
• Batgirl
• Catwoman
• Gambit
• Storm
• Mrs. Incredible (elastigirl)
• Wonder woman
  

However, there were some of the less 'legitimate' superheroes at the party as well...

• 'Bubble Wrap Boy'
• A Gorilla
• 'Green and Yellow Man'
• Bananaman
• Goku from DBZ
• Austin Powers
• Captain Scarlet
• 'Get into my pants man' (he had a pair of 'double-pants' on)
• Peg Man
• 'Civilian'
• 'Ieuan Maiden'

Here are a few pictures from the social.



Peg Man (Owen) and Gambit (Ollie)



Captain Scarlet (Andy), Batgirl (Kate), and Captain Hammer (Andy C)



The Green Lantern (Me, notice the green ring) and Catwoman (Fiona)

Woollacott eats Pasty, then demands Refund

Extra! Extra! Tom Woollacott rages at a pasty he described as 'rubbish'!



So what happened? I was just wandering around in the kitchen, then I happened to bump into Tom, who was currently engaging in the consumption of a pasty. He did not look pleased...

I asked him what the problem was, and he explained his predicament. It turns out that he had eaten well over half of the pasty, and only once he had got to the bottom had he found any of the meat filling. This, as quoted, was 'rubbish'. Here is a picture of the pasty in question. What you see here, is the only meat that was actually in the pasty.



This was a fairly brief encounter, as he went on to finish the pasty, promptly grumbling about the lack of meat. As a big fan of his 'Man Food' (just things with meat and fat in them) he was
furious.



But he brightened up when he realised how cheap it was. He said 'He didn't expect much more'.

The Many Adventures of Phil Murphy

So this is Phil Murphy. He is my Northern Irish neighbour, in room 10. He gets up to all kinds of things, many of which are fairly bizzare...

Number One: He dressed up as a bee.



Thats right, a bee. He went to a american football social where the theme was 'yellow'. So by extension, went as a bee. I was even there when he bought the outfit! Strolling up to the counter, he just casually bought a bee suit as if it was something normal. Here he is in all his glory.



'Float like a Bee, Sting like a Butterfly'.

Number Two: He spent well over 10 minutes getting a ladybird out of the room.



It was essentially just flailing and grumbling. But nonetheless, he spent long enough doing it for me to get my camera out. If you look closely, you can see the ladybird on the ceiling in this amazing action shot.

'Float like a ladybird, sting like Phil Murphy'

Number Three: He has amazing quotes:

• I want a T Shirt that says FECK: the Irish connection
• I have never used a microwave
• People that cook well depress me
• I accidentally ate 2 boxes of brownies
• If you came from where I do, your accent would sound stupid too
• Is this can opener broken, or am I just being an Idiot?
• I could drink 5 cups of tea in the time it takes for this kettle to boil!
  

'Interested in Phil Murphy? Check out his blog!'

Yet another Food Blog

Today, me and Ollie just decided that during the hour break between two lectures, we could cook and eat a massive fry up. So we went to the shops, bought the meat and headed home.



Thumbs up for frying onions and mushrooms



Thumbs up for bakin' bacon and a new hat



Thumbs up for massive fry ups.

So we began to eat, tucking into our bacon, eggs, beans, sausages, onions and mushrooms. It was amazing, as I have not had a fry up for a fair while. However, it then dawned on us just as we sat down that people were walking past the window, on their way to lectures...
Ollie said, 'what time is it?' To which Tom replied, 'you have less than 10 minutes to eat your fry ups and get to your lectures guys.'

This was a tough one. Do we clingfilm it and eat it later? OR do we eat the whole lot as fast as we could...

Flame On!

Yesterday, the Juggling society went down to the lake to play with FIRE. Armed with our staffs, poi and clubs, we set about setting the night on fire with our mad skills. We also invited some of the folks from the photography society to come down and take pictures of us using their cool cameras.
I personally enjoy fire staff the most. I am currently being taught by Ieuan Evans, the primarch or the staff users at the club. Below, is a whole bunch of cool photos from that very evening...



First here is a photo of some of us just sorting ourselves out. As you can see, even though it is pitch black, the fire lights up everything.



This is me, performing an overhead spin under high camera exposure



Here is some regular spins too!



Above is the cool part. What you see before you is the before and after of the biggest 'burnoff' I have ever done. When you douse the ends of a fire staff in paraffin, you always end up with excess. So therefore it becomes dangerous to spin it round because flecks of flaming paraffin will fly off and hit people in the face.
So, we do a 'burnoff', which involves throwing the staff in the air at the same time as giving it a hell of a lot of lateral spin, burning off the excess without harming anyone.

Fire is so cool.

Master of Spoon Balancing

Thats right, I finally did it. After 2 weeks of almost solid practice and encouragement from fellow jugglers, I can now BALANCE A WOODEN SPOON ON MY NOSE. Epic. I originally gained the inspiration to do it when when fellow juggler in the club here at bath, Owen Greenaway, showed me he could balance a pen on his nose. For which he won young juggler's trick of the year for last year.
It was so impressive, and he gave me a few balancing tips. Here is photographic evidence of me performing this feat with the spoon, taken by a passer by at the juggling club during training.



Awesome. I mean, what can you say to say to that. Apart from 'Do a backflip'.

The Squirrel Nut Zippers Rock

So here I am, at university after having been exposed to various crazy people with strange tastes in music. As a result, I have discovered a few new bands that some of you may like. I will recommend the bands themselves, and maybe a few tracks that you should check out.

First of all, a band called 'The Squirrel Nut Zippers'.



I will put this band in the category of modern swing, and the lineup is as follows. They have a ukelele, a double bass, a piano, rythm guitar, a violin and whole lot of brass, of course! So as you can tell, they have a fairly quirky sound to them.
If I could recommend a few tracks by them, I would choose 'Interlocutor', 'Hell' and perhaps their covers of 'the suits are picking up the bill' and 'sleigh ride' (thats right, the christmas song). I think Wade may like this band.

Next Up, another odd band called the 'Cherry Poppin' Daddies'.



Wierd name, i know, but they are very good. They also slip into the category of modern swing with a quite brassy/ electric feel to their songs. there is one song in particular that I really like (the others are good as well) called 'Swingin' With Tiger Woods'. This is awesome! Alan, you will most definitely like this because the first line of the song is 'Lets get Hip to the Rythm'. It is pretty hip.

I stongly suggest you have a look at both of these!

The Chemistry 'Safety' Video

For our first assignment in chemistry, we were all given topics to construct a humorous safety film. As group 13, we were assigned the title 'Chemists always wash their hands twice'. This could have been interpreted in a number of ways, and we chose the importance of washing your hands before and after preparing food after working in the lab. Here is the results of our labour, Enjoy!



Yes, i did actually have to put my face in soup.

Screw Chicago Town, We're Going To Domino's

Yesterday was decided to be Pizza night, in order to take advantage of the buy one get one free offer at domino's. (Don't worry mother, i'm not spending all my money on pizza) Anyway, it was a success, and hereby commences another blog post based entirely on food. Consistency if anything i suppose.



The evening started well, when we ordered 8 pizzas. The 8 pizzas subsequently arrived, and were subsequently engulfed by the mouths of eastwood 4. We had everything from large hawaiians to medium pepperoni, its fair to say it was a good evening. However, being a university student, it felt wrong to feel that full considering the meagre diet of instant curry we are supposed to be budgeting on... It was an evening to celebrate the end of freshers week and new friends made. And pizza eaten.

During the course of the meal, there were a few debates. One of which concerned Gareth, as you have met before... (see post 'Chew your food, Gareth!') During the meal, it became apparent that the South African born math student EATS HIS PIZZA BACKWARDS!!!

Admittedly, he has developed a technique for this. By suspending the pizza by the base using 3 or 4 fingers, he consumes the crust first, and follows by eating the rest of the slice from crust to tip. As you all know, this is not the convential way of eating a pizza. If you eat the crust first, the shape of the slice is lost, and generally, the topping and base become 'wobbly' (technical term) and difficult to eat without making a mess. But as Gareth has proved before, he can full on laugh and have a curry without making a mess, and in his defense he said he was left with the 'best bit' at the end.

The following photos are of my housemates and me gorging ourselves on pizza

Me, taking the first bite of a well earned pizza.

Mark, looking totally unsurprised to find a pizza, inside his pizza box.

Tom, who's stomach had been growling all day after his massive dinner of 'one slice of toast'.

Phil, demonstrating the polite way to eat a pizza.

After the meal, many of us regretted mindlessly swallowing whole pizzas. The housemate who regretted this the most, was unfortunately Oliver Jefferies. Here is a picture of him, looking horrendously full. He described it as a 'Pizza Coma'.

I promise my next blog will NOT be about food.