The Miseducation Of John Robinson...

For the past few months I’ve been thinking about returning to college to finish off my work, last week I decided to stop thinking about it and to just do it. Nothing was going to stop me. When I got off the bus I pressed the button on the crossing to get to the college, I decided I couldn’t be bothered waiting and made a run for it across the road, when I got to the other side of the road the lights had turned red and one car was already stopped, just as I stepped onto the pavement I heard a bang, a transit van had hit the back of this car pushing it forwards over the crossing, maybe this was a bad omen, or maybe I should just stop stupid and get on with things.

I got to the door of the art block, the code on the door had changed so I waited for someone to come along and open it, after 10 minutes of waiting, Larrie - my tutor came along and pushed it open, it wasn’t locked after all that. Two other former students were there too that day so it seemed like a bit of a reunion, even though I don’t know them that well. Larrie said it would be ok for me to come back and that my days would be Mondays and Fridays now.

I officially went back to college on Friday, it was good to see all the other students again, it felt like I had never left. I’m not going to get myself in the same mess as I did last time now though, I need to stay focused (no pun intended) and be more organised. Here’s my reason why…

Mondays
Digital imaging 9 - 11
Photography 11 - 4
Web design 4 - 6

Fridays
Contextual studies 9 - 11:15
Photography 11:15 - 4:30

I’ve already done all my contextual studies work so that shortens my Fridays, if I finish my web design then I can finish at 4 on a Monday, and my digital imaging is already half finished, which just leaves the photography in the studio which can be done within a week. By shortening my timetable it will give me more days at home to sleep.

…Did I say sleep? I meant do my written work

Oh, ok then, maybe both.

Money For Nothing...

We’re a few weeks into 2006 now, so it’s good to get the new year off to a good start.

Last Tuesday, Me, Adam, Gareth, Carl, Marcus and Bobby went to the pub quiz at the jug again, it was really busy in there and we couldn’t get any seats so we stood with Helen’s team for a while (which consisted of her boyfriend, Alex, and Pete, Tom and John from Distophia) before deciding we’d be better off forming our own team. We were stood in the furthest possible place from the speaker so we had to guess some of the questions before having to guess the answers. We totalled up our score at the end of it and we had roughly 65 points, which isn’t bad, but not enough to win. As they were reading out the winners we started to get our coats on to go, but there was a problem, they didn’t call our team out, we were supposed to come about 15th out of 20 so we thought nothing of it at first, but then he announced our team in 2nd place with 85 points! We were stunned and we’d won half a gallon of beer (about 4 pints), we didn’t say anything to the quizmaster though.

That Thursday we all went for a curry at Rubery and then to the white swan in Wythall, there were a few people in there I knew from Woodrush, they hadn’t changed much, although they never bothered saying hello to me but had the cheek to call me an ‘unsociable git’, I’m glad I didn’t say hello now.

Monday we claimed our free pints before they ran out, alcohol tastes much better when it’s free. The jug is really quiet on a Monday, and we managed to get the sofas by the window.

Tuesday morning I was up early to put the rubbish out, just after I went back to bed the doorbell rang, I jumped out of bed and put my jeans on only to trip over them and head butt my stereo. I ran down the stairs (still doing my jeans up and slightly dazed from flying across my room) to answer the door, it was a package in my name, so I signed for it and went back to bed. I sat up in bed wondering what it could be, I carefully unwrapped it to see a black box with a picture of an iPod on it…

…MY FREE IPOD!!!!!!!

After 6 months of getting people to sign up I finally got my iPod, it’s a white 30gb video one, and to be honest it kicks some ass.

That evening we all went to Woks Hall for a Chinese buffet to celebrate Adam’s birthday, I showed off my shiny new iPod and then commenced stuffing my face. I’d been so hungry so I filled my plate up and then transferred food from plate to mouth, but when it came to dessert I got a little excited and picked up sushi as well as cake and a visit to the chocolate fountain, unfortunately I’d spilt choclate all over my sushi but didn’t care so I ate it anyway. All of a sudden they started playing ‘happy birthday to you’ and brought out ice cream and jelly with a candle in the top of it for Adam, the whole restaurant stared while we sang and the waiter took a photo.

Last year just before Reading, I bought a 256mb memory card for my camera, although somehow (don’t ask how) I managed to buy 3, so I decided to sell them on ebay. I sold the first one last October for about £15 (which was what I paid anyway) so I decided to sell the other one just after Christmas, I got £26.80 for it so I decided to buy something with the money. Last weekend I ordered X-box live which was £27.99 from play.com in the sale, on Thursday it came so I set up my X-box to try it out, the only problem was I’d suddenly lost my picture but still had sound. I phoned customer support and they said they’ll send a new lead out. The next day however, I tried my X-box again and it worked, I’ve been playing Halo 2 online and it’s brilliant, I get my ass kicked at it but it’s brilliant.

I’m off to listen to my free iPod some more now

Story Of The Year...

Well its 2006, so a happy new year to all of you, I was thinking of doing a kind of review of 2005 but looking back I’ve missed a few things out either through forgetfulness or laziness, so I’ll tell you about them instead.

In May I had my Bullring photo in the British Journal of Photography, it was only part of an advert for the college but I was quite proud to be able to pick the magazine up and say “You see that photo there? Well I took that”, I searched high and low for a copy but couldn’t find it anywhere, it must have sold out.

In June I went to Dudley Zoo for the day with Chloe, we spent all day taking the piss out of Dr. Dudley and searching for the creperie (that’s pancakes before anybody says anything), although the highlight of the day had to be seeing this little girl throwing glasses at these birds that were walking around the grounds trying to kill them.

In July you probably heard about the tornado in Moseley, well it was in the same road where my sister works, she said it went pitch black outside for a few seconds so everybody went outside to see what was going on, that when they saw the tornado, my sister said that she could feel it pulling on her clothes. Working in a glass factory though they all had to take cover somewhere safe, when it cleared my sister organised Sky News to come in and film the footage off someone’s phone.

I’m sure I’ll think of something else the moment I’ve posted this blog so keep checking just in case.

Anyway, last night was new years eve and I wasn’t eating grapes at my nan’s house after all, Adam was meant to be going to London but after a heavy nights drinking the night before and a rail strike he decided to go to the drawbridge instead.

Stuart, Amy, and 2 of Stuart’s friends were coming too so we all met up at Stuart’s house and walked to the drawbridge from there. When we got there we queued up at the bar for a good 20 minutes before finding a patch of floor to stand on for the next 3 hours. Just after we claimed our patch I heard someone calling my name and tapping me on the back, it was Claire from college, she was there with some of her friends but had to leave early, I had a feeling I'd see her in there.

I didn’t like where I was stood, every 2 seconds people were trying to get past with drinks and I really needed a sit down, it must be my old age. As we got nearer to midnight people were getting drunker and all the ugly people started dancing, on man who was about 5ft tall started dancing with a woman who looked like miss piggy dressed as a hooker, he started undressing and dirty dancing with her, it wasn’t a pretty sight.

After the DJ was done singing all his Frank Sinatra and UB40 he played one last song before we counted down to midnight, unfortunately he didn’t judge the length of the track so we all saw the new year in at 2 minutes past midnight, I seem to remember the same thing happening there a few years ago too.

After midnight we all drank up and headed back to Stuart’s house where they got the karaoke machine out and sang a drunken version of ‘You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling’ by the Righteous Brothers. People kept reminding me of new years eve a few years ago when I walked into the cupboard thinking it was the toilet before (thankfully) being stopped, I was hoping people would have had forgotten about that by now.

Towards the end of the night (and after a bit of Dutch courage) I did a bit of karaoke, I cant remember what it was I sang, I think it was clips of different songs but I do remember belting out some Tina Turner at one point, I got a high score for my efforts though which surprised me.

I got a taxi home, it was double fare and ended up costing me £16, which I wasn’t too happy about, but I wished the taxi driver a happy new year anyway - to which he said nothing, so on the way out of the taxi I called him a ‘miserable asshole’.

...Nothing like a bit of festive cheer!