CUZ IF THE LORD IS GONNA FIND ME, HE BETTER START LOOKING TODAY

Summer officially started today. Finished exams and shit. I got a new house. I saw Four Year Strong do an acoustic instore. Such a good day.

FUN.

fun.

I have been listening to this band all day instead of revising. So so good. I saw them last night and I only wish I had gotten into them earlier. They're really awesome. They play poppy rock in the vein of Queen, but there's so much more going on instrumentally as well. I'm not really a fan of Queen at all but I'm really enjoying this band. So awesome. Here's the album, get into it and buy it.

There's been so many amazing gigs happening in Kingston lately. Set Your Goals also played last night with secret support, which turned out to be Fireworks and New Found Glory. It was so insane. It was in a tiny little venue and it was packed to the tits and there was sweat everywhere.

A Wilhelm Scream played twice last week, doing the whole of Mute Print in the same tiny venue. Also insane. And tonight Capdown are playing the first of three reunion gigs, ALSO in the same tiny venue. I've been listening to Starters loads and loads lately as well, they're amazing. It's an amazing time for music right now, just a shame that I have exams. I wish it was assingments again so I could just get it all done and hand it done and be free. I hate this waiting around bullshit. Especially since Fireworks are playing their own gig in Kingston the night before my last exam, with New Noise on afterwards. I'm definitely going to Fireworks but I'll have to skip New Noise. But Four Year Strong are doing an instore that day too and then Crime In Stereo play all of The Troubled Stateside a week or so later. And if that wasn't enough, I'll be seeing ALL these bands anyway this Sunday at Slam Dunk. Really fucking unbelievable.

War Poems

My favourite kind of poetry, and here's my favourite war poem, by Isaac Rosenberg.

The darkness crumbles away
It is the same old druid Time as ever,
Only a live thing leaps my hand,
A queer sardonic rat,
As I pull the parapet's poppy
To stick behind my ear.
Droll rat, they would shoot you if they knew
Your cosmopolitan sympathies,
Now you have touched this English hand
You will do the same to a German
Soon, no doubt, if it be your pleasure
To cross the sleeping green between.
It seems you inwardly grin as you pass
Strong eyes, fine limbs, haughty athletes,
Less chanced than you for life,
Bonds to the whims of murder,
Sprawled in the bowels of the earth,
The torn fields of France.
What do you see in our eyes
At the shrieking iron and flame
Hurled through still heavens?
What quaver -what heart aghast?
Poppies whose roots are in men's veins
Drop, and are ever dropping;
But mine in my ear is safe,
Just a little white with the dust.

One down, three to go.

I handed in my first portfolio of work. I've got one more portfolio to hand in and then two exams. I'm not too worried about the exams really, I just have to read some books and waffle for 500 words. But this portfolio is kind of annoying me and freaking me out. I stupidly didn't show up for a lot of the classes and I'm kind of lost. I have to write a 5000 word prose piece and then I have to write 1000 words on the research I did for it. I have written about 2500 words for the piece and as of yet I have done no research. I have no idea what to write about. I'm basing the story on personal experience and then just making shit up as I go along. They want me to include newspaper articles, photographs, character sketches and other assorted bullshit. They say that any writing of this length is always accompanied by research. I am certain that not every writer in the world researches that much. What the fuck is wrong with just making shit up as I go along? Why have I got to go out and look at magazines and pictures? It's really annoying me. I almost just want to write 'FUCK YOUR RESEARCH'. Ugh. University professors, what do they know...

University

I've got one year left of my degree. I have been so incredibly lazy with it though, I'm not quite sure how I've come this far. And with some good marks as well. I never feel motivated to do the work until the last minute though. I never think 'I'm really interested in this stuff, I'm gonna finish it right now!'. Even though I do enjoy reading and writing, it always feels like such a massive chore having to do any work. Maybe it's just the mindset and attitude I have towards education. I never liked studying or did any homework. I got 330 in my Leaving Cert and I have no idea how. When you take something you like and actually start studying it, I think that it loses a lot of the excitement that it used to give you. My first love is music, and I studied it for my Junior Cert and I fucking hated it. I have a layman's interest in Science and I learn things about it by myself in my own time, and I haven't lost any interest in it. I'm sure if I started studying it, my interest would just die. Why does it work this way?

I know I'm not alone in this. I know and have heard of plenty of people who say 'doing it in college has just killed my interest in it'. Maybe the expectations are too high. Maybe it's because everyone wants the end product without having to do the middle bit; we want to be experts in our chosen field but without having to put in the hard work. It's impatience, isn't it. It's not the educators fault, and the subject is just as exciting as you'd thought it would be, but you just want to have the degree right now.

Sometimes I wish I had chosen something that was just learning facts, rather than all these theories and bullshit that come with English Literature. At least it's only a minor. Creative Writing is fun I guess. But I want my degree now.

Broadway Calls - Basement Royalty

Check out this video for Broadway Calls song Basement Royalty, I'm in it.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=104895454

0:11 and 0:32 and various other parts. I'm wearing the Letterman hoodie. Which is actually a Four Year Strong hoodie:

Thorpe Park

I just came back from Thorpe Park and it's fucking awesome. Although it's relatively small compared to most theme parks, it's better than a lot of the ones I've been to, including Universal Studios in Hollywood (which I thought was shite). So many awesome rollercoasters. Saw Live wasn't that impressive, I've been to similar things that were better. The Saw Ride was fucking immense though. Every ride was, in fairness. So good. I'm totally knackered now though. I am definitely ready for bed. I might even get up early and do some work that really needs doing. Deadlines are looming closer.

Seriously loving this lad lately.

Procrastinating

I can't stop. However, I'm not procastinating like normal people. I think people like to do anything else other than work or study, like cleaning their room, walking their dog, counting the individual fibres of their t-shirts etc. I do nothing. I lie in bed, clicking refresh and staring at Facebook. I don't understand why I don't think 'fuck me, I'm so bored. I should at least do something a little bit productive'. It never happens. I wake up most mornings and say 'this is the day that I'll actually start to do things properly' but within an hour I'm back in bed hitting refresh. I am incredibly bored. I have so much work to do. Ah. Agh. Augh. AUGH.

AAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH

The Five Lies Game

Here's a little something I learned from The Game, and it's pretty much a perfect flirting technique. It can be used on any girl (or guy, whichever way you're so inclined, although The Game is aimed at straight men) even if you've just met them. It's fun.

You: So, have you ever played the five lies game?

Girl: Nope! What's it all about?

You: Well, I ask you five questions, and you have to give me a false answer; a lie. If you give me a truthful answer, you lose. (You could always bet something to make it more fun: a pound, a drink, a smooch.)

Girl: But, how will you know if I'm telling the truth? (Invariably the first thing they ask.)

You: I'll just know. Let's play.

Ask them three questions. Anything simple. What's their age, favourite colour etc. It doesn't matter. After they've answered those three questions, look like you've forgotten something and say 'Eh, what question are we on now?'. Most of the time, people will catch on straight away and say 'Oh very good, I think we're on question a million, duuuuh. What a shit game'. I have had one or two who didn't catch on however, which is way better. Anyway, if they do say something along those lines, you say 'Oh, damn you caught me out. Have you played that before?'. They'll say 'no'. You'll say 'caught you on the fifth'. Collect your money/drink/smooch.

I don't how clear that is, so here's the master in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aWoN8MvGKw

Losing Skin

Today in work I was putting some rubbish into a bin which has a metal flip-lid. I tried to do it too fast and my finger was grazed by the side of the lid as I brought it back out. It starting bleeding a lot and was stinging pretty badly, but I'm a hardman so I kept the tears back. My assistant manager helped me put Savlon and a plaster on it, haha. I felt like I was in primary school again. My finger started to swell then, and it kept getting stuck in the handles of the coffee cups.

I'm used to losing skin by now, having had pretty bad eczema all my life. There's not a second that goes by when I don't feel an itch. A lot of the time it's easy to ignore if I just keep myself busy but I'm a lazy asshole so I just lie in bed scratching most of the day. It hasn't been bad to the point where I actually can't move for a couple of years though, thanks be to dragons. But those times are the worst. The fibres in my clothes stick the sores and it's not a pretty picture.

This is a pretty picture though:

Displaying Higher Value

I've decided to start blogging again. I have recently caught myself having full on conversations with myself and decided I need somewhere that I can vent once more. I had an old blog, but it became incredibly personal, emotional and embarrasingly cringeworthy so I stopped it. I also have a Tumblr, but that's just for posting cool shit. This blog will just be somewhere I can leave thoughts that have been floating around my head so that I can sleep at night without thinking about it anymore.

The title of this blog comes from Neil Strauss' The Game. A friend of mine introduced me to this book and I read it in a matter of days and was engrossed. Before, if someone had told me to read a book about how to pick up women, I'd have told them to get fucked. But when I really thought about it and had conversations about it without other people (one of them actually being an Aunt of mine), there is nowhere for men to actually learn how to do this properly. For some reason, we're supposed to just know it already. If a man were to admit to his peers that he needed help with talking to girls and was considering reading some books on it or even taking classes on it (they exist), he'd be laughed at, socially degraded and his confidence shot to hell. A lot of men would just say 'fuck that, just talk to them' and some might even say 'be cool and be yourself'. These are, in a way, good pieces of advice. But they are altogether too vague. What do you say to them? How do you be yourself? There's nothing wrong with being yourself and it's definitely imperative that you act in such a way. However, no one can define themselves in one sentence. Who is 'myself'? There are a lot of things I don't like about myself, do I put them across as well? Of course not. That's what 'Displaying Higher Value' means. Be the best version of yourself you can be. Sit down and actually think about what you do and the things make you a good person, and bring that to the table. It sounds like something that doesn't need to be said but a lot of guys just go in there and talk shit and girls get bored. Some just lie, which may work in the short-term but if you're interested in finding a girlfriend then it's something which needs to be avoided, just for the awkwardness when the truth, as it does, comes out. Don't lie. Display higher value.

I'm starting sound like a motivational speaker so I'll wrap this up. I'll probably be talking about The Game again and one of the challenges set forth in The Rules Of The Game, the follow-up.