Wednesday 13 January 2010

Student Life Necessities or Reasons Why We Failed. (a version of this complete with pictures (yay!) in available on BrainWork)

 So, I've been at university for 3 and a bit years now, and I've come across a few things that are essential when it comes to living the student life. Whether it be just general day to day necessities, methods for procrastination or for when it comes to finally doing some kind of work, here are the things that have come to be invaluable in the lives of today's students...

1.The Laptop:-
   This is pretty much your life. It is your be all and end all. Here you keep you're essays, your stories, thoughts, videos, music, you watch DVDs on it when you're ill and lying in you're bed (hungover...),and most importantly of all...your laptop houses your best friend in all the world, the gateway to everything...the beloved Internet. Here you find everything you didn't find the library on Google Scholar or JStor. Who needs a TV? You're only going to watch it on 4OD, iPlayer or track down some programme that hasn't been broadcast in 20 years. You don't need a CD player or radio, you can just go online and listen to whatever you want, pretty much whenever you want. And...possibly the most important thing of all, it houses this next entry...

2. Facebook.
   Oh how empty and desolate our lives must have been before the age of Facebook. Goodbye Myspace! You were too alternative for us lot who weren't in an unsigned indie band. Bye bye Bebo! You were just on the borderline of chavvy, too much for us, and we grew too old for you. And so we turned to our saviour - Facebook. Oh you're clean lines and status updates confused us at first, but how we warmed to thee!
   Now every moment of our day is spent on Facebook. I've got Facebook open just now in another tab. I'm going to pause to check if anyone's spoken to me...They had, yay! If there is someone you knew at school, you didn't know them but want to snoop and see what their doing now, that's okay, add them on Facebook. If you thought that Kelly Rowland said 'Winner takes over' in that David Guetta song instead of 'When Loves Takes Over', which is the song's title, like I did...that's cool too, because there's probably a group dedicated to that very thing. Most important of all, it is the prime offender when it comes to methods of procrastination. ''So...you have a 3000 word essay due.'' "Yup." "When?" "Tomorrow." "You started?" "Nah. I'm playing Geo Challenge." Alternatively you spend all day staring at the screen waiting more that little red notification sign to pop up saying someone may have commented on a status that you like yesterday. Or that someone's just levelled up on Mafia Wars...one of the two.
   It sounds like I'm being quite harsh on Facebook but I'm not. I love it. I literally check every 5 minutes, just out of habit. It has consumed my time. It's pretty good for keeping in touch with people, but it has become so much more than that. 


3.Twitter.
   My new favourite obsession. I'll admit for a while I wasn't fussed when I first joined it, but after setting myself up with Twitterfox (Echofon) and now Tweetdeck, I can't get enough of it. For us Media students, it's just one of many endless networking/blogging etc applications that we surround ourselves with. Though I first didn't see the point in it, I now enjoy Twitter. It eases the slight celebrity stalker in me, and I think it's nice that 'celebs' can kind of keep in touch with us regular folks, keeping all the fanboys updated, and keeping connected to their fanbase. I've also found it excellent for getting answers actually, particularly for any kind of technology/internet based questions, as a lot of the people on Twitter are generally that way inclined. For a student, yeah, it's just another thing that stops us from working, but I reckon it appeals to that part of us that like people to know our thoughts, what we're doing, etc. Twitter allows us to share with the world whatever is going on at almost any point in time. As does my next item. 


4. Smartphones e.g iPhone, Palm Pre etc etc
   Now I personally feel a little left out here. Everywhere I turn somebody's got some really swanky new phone that does pretty much everything in the world. I would blimmin' love an iPhone, almost only because of the Tea Round app, and yet here I am still chugging along with my little Samsung E250, though I do love that little thang. Anyway, thanks to these Samrtphones we can now be connected to our beloved Internet 24 hours a day, wherever we are (unless we've got no 3G...ugh). There's not much more to say really, bar that these phones allow us to be connected to the things that consume our lives, but while we're on the move. But actually, aside from us checking Facebook and all manner of things, we students, when we're in uni, we are flying round like blue-arsed flies. We've got emails to check, grades to get, classes to go to, books to request from the basement :(, dissertation tutors to track down, amongst other things, which these days, are pretty much all done online. Apart from the classes...although, the notes for them are online too...


5. Spotify.
   Spofitfy has certainly become a large part of my life, my only problem being that I never have enough money to buy the songs, so they just have to stay on my laptop while I trudge round listening to whatever rubbish I've got on my iPod cos I've not put anything new on in months :( 
   More than that though, thanks to Spotify I've been able to discover a whole world of music that I've never heard before. These days I've got my Spotify playlists pretty much in the background on a loop all day. If there's a party, chances are there's a laptop on somewhere, with their playlist on the go. The adverts are a bit irritating, but after a while you're not really fussed anymore. So good on you Spotify, hurrah for meaning I don't have to clean my flat in silence.


6. iPod.
 In a similar vein to the above, though I feel I perhaps may have got to it sooner. So Apple is carrying on with it's Tesco-style invasion of our lives, and possibly no more so than with the hallowed iPod. I've got one, you've probably got one, we've pretty much all got one. I at first refused to get one, but alas then my beloved Sony Walkman MP3 thing broke and was replaced my (now almost old-school) iPod Nano Video...1st Generation. Yeah, I know...how retro. Anyway, I challenge you, sir, to walk down the street of any town, or round the campus of any university and find someone who hasn't got a pair of headphones sticking in their ears. It won't matter even if you do, because I'll have my headphones in and I won't be able to hear you. iPod's are pretty much essential to student life. It provides the soundtrack to your day to day life, all tucked up in your pocket. Can you imagine having to sit in the library all day and just have to listen to the rest of the place, sniff and cough, and god forbid, talk to each other. Never fear! Headphones in, Dead Man's Party by Oingo Boingo on shuffle and you're away! Just make sure you charge it before you go out. Though actually, that won't matter because you'll probably have your laptop with you to charge it, or you'll iPhone with you, so it's not a problem :)

 
7. Digital Camera/Video Camera.
   We all need a good digital camera. Whether it be from taking those traditional high angle Myspace photos (we all do it, let's stop the stigma) or doing what I do, which is pretty much walking around with it stuck to your face and documenting everything you ever encounter, we all need a nice camera, so we can share the photos on Facebook. Or Twitter. or Flickr. Wherever (you see how these things are all interlinked?). Also, we're a very media-savvy bunch these days, us students, so of course, we need a video camera, to make our short films, or our video blogs or whatever else we need to capture. We're a crafty bunch, and all you need to do is go on Youtube and see what some people can do with a camera, a laptop, and a half-decent editing software. Some of it is rubbish though. But some of it's awesome. 


8. Relentless, Red Bull, Rockstar, Tesco's Kick 6 Packs...

   This is my last one, because I feel I'm been concentrating on one thing for too long, and I need to check Facebook. I realise that the rest of this post has been a bit gadget/internet heavy, but this entry is as essential as everything that has gone before. Energy drinks. Yes they don't taste that nice, yes they turn you're tongue a hideous colour, and yes they probably rot your insides. But if you are sitting in front of your laptop, at 4 in the morning, and you have a 3000 word essay due in at 12, for which you have done absolutely nothing, you better believe that you'll have six cans of some high in caffeince carbonated drink sitting next to you. 

I can imagine that I have probably left a few things out, but these were some of the major players. Please feel free to chastise and shout me down :) Also looking back at it, there are some excellent product placements in there, so a big 'You're Welcome', to Facebook, Apple, Twitter and whoever else I've mentioned. 


Cheery Bye!

A Final Farewell to 2009...(from 31/12/09)

Greetings to all...

And so 2009 is drawing to a close. I had planned on doing a very long review of the year, much like everyone else's to be honest. Celebrity deaths - 2009 was not a good year for the celebs, the Bernie Madoff Scandal, Barack Obama's innauguration and Nobel Peace Prize win, big film releases etc etc. That was what I had planned to do here, along with a few of my own personal highlights. But alas, now there is no time, for I have the traditional Huntly New Year's Eve Ceilidh to prepare for, (All the town's supposedly upstanding citizens/all my friend's parents, my parentals and me, all getting rat-arsed to Ceilidh music-Hells to the yeah). Also, I can't really be bothered. So instead I have decided to summarize 2009 in a list instead. So here it is...my rundown of 2009:-

Barack Obama being just generally the SHIZ, Jade Goody's grim media coverage, Swine Flu and all the jokes that came from it, Bernie Madoff's life going down the pan, The Mighty Boosh live in the Deen, my disasterous Radia Production module culminating in spending 38 hours at uni with no sleep attempting to make sentences, quitting HMV at long last, spending too long in the flat by myself, EUROTRIP ROLL OUT, Big Beers, using the word 'big' as a unit of measurement, summer at home, LIVING LIKE ITS 2006 (which I'm carrying to 2010), going stir crazy in the flat, a wonderful year for cinema in the forms of Watchmen, Star Trek, New Moon (as a guilty pleasure), Dorian Grey, Wolverine, Terminator Salvation, Paranormal Activity, Up and the magnificent Avatar,gratuitous cake day, a year of re-discovery - The Thick of It, Incubus, Spaced, Dark Crystal, anything by Mel Brooks, and the glorious ADAM AND JOE who have become the sound-track for my uni travels, new music discoveries (for me anyway) - Oingo Boingo, School of Seven Bells, Wild Beasts, Regina Spektor, Laura Marling and Fleet Foxes, TV Feature Production - it almost ended moi..., Facebook taking up the whole of my life, Twitter taking up even more, Rage Against the Xfactor, the eternal power struggle between the Eagle, the Hawk, the Osprey and the overlord - the Owl, Whisky, Port, Cheese, Champagne, Profiteroles and Cigars days being poorer than ever before, the best winter in years (that has continued up until now and hopefully beyond), Board Game day...and every hilarious moment I have shared in over the year.

2009- 'Twas awrite. 

So I now bid 2009 a fond farewell, and hope for even better things in 2010. Except that I need to find a job, and work experience, and then I have to graduate, and then I have to find a real job, and be a grown-up....


Fuck it. Screw you 2010, I'm staying in 2009.

R.I.P  The Rev  \m/



Happy New Year's to all...see you next year...:D


Good Bike xxx


P.S. Hope you're New Year's is better than Adolf's. He was soooo looking forward to Eric Prydz...




The 12 Glorious Videos Of Christmas...

Bonjour and yuletide greetings to you all...Tis Christmas Eve, only one more sleep to present-time and in celebration of this, the best holiday of the entire year, I hereby present some little festive vittels, or nuggets if you will, to celebrate this glorious time of year...
So here it be...my 12 Videos of Christmas...
12. The Coco Cola Advert in all its incarnations...
Nowt says Christmas like Coca Cola, and in recent years it has become the signal for the beginning of the yuletide season. Now the Coke lorries are all very well, but it is this batch of ads from the nineties I reckon, that I still sing to this very day I tell thee. Plus it lacks the presence of some ever so slightly creepy Santa that has followed the same girl for years and then moves on to her daughter...Yeah Santa, I gots my eye on you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CF5SVQYO8A - I'm just putting the link because Blogger's being a cock and won't let me upload it...:[
11. Santa ain't got no need for no sleigh...
Well how did you think he managed to fit down the chimney? There is no way his protruding pie and whisky filled gut would squeeze in, and so I think you'll agree that the most logical conclusion to draw here, is that Santa Claus is an excellent free-runner...


10.Reindeer Eating Magic Mushrooms - *Insert designated drug-derived 'flying' joke e.g. Well they do fly high!...Haaaaaa :[*
I like the BBC's use of the 'psychedelic' camera work here i.e..."Right, we'll just make it a bit woozy, so that it makes the viewer feel like they're trying on someone else's glasses...just enough for them to feel a bit sick"I, but not like 60's fluorescent, acid psychedelic cos you know, its the BBC, they're not meant to know what that's like. I would also like to know what the reindeer see when their off their tits. I bet its awesome. I can imagine it being something to do with catching Santa in a compromising position...

Again, Blogger is being a penis and won't let me upload the vid, so here's la link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkCS9ePWuLU&feature=PlayList&p=103A03EEC5A1C0A6&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=39
9. A Christmas Greeting from Smosh...
Mmmm I love Smosh. I wish I could spend my day dicking about with my comrades all day and make some moolah from it. I mean, that is what I do all day but you know, no-one sees it. Anyway here's Ian and Anthony's Yuletide greeting from last year...Yo dat shit is off da hooooooooooooooooook!


8. Father Christmas, Raymond Briggs stylee...
I love this...I love hard man, I love it more than The Snowman. Yeah I said it...And Mel Smith did the voice I think which makes it even better. So yeah, not much else to be said...


7. Jack Skellington's Yuletime Funzies...
Ahhh...the gloriousness that is Tim Burton's vision of Christmas. This is mainly in here because I currently love anything associated with Danny Elfman...the man is a God. Anyway, Christmas isn't Christmas without this...Jack's first experience of the wonders of big JC's birthday...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaxKiZfQcX8
6. Harry Hill's Christmas Observations...
Here's Dr Hill on TV Burp, featuring JLS's cover of 'Last Christmas' on last year's X Factor final. When I watched the live final, and little JB had his big moment, I pretty much creased myself. Here it is in all its glory...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_IkaVp-igQ
5. 'My name is Aled Jones, I like to pick my nose, I doooooo...I like to pick my bum, especially with my thumb...awoooo..."
Having stated my case for my love of 'Father Christmas' above all else, it really isn't Christmas without 'The Snowman' and Peter Auty's pre-pubescent tones...

4. A very tasteful lighting display...
I hope when I am older and disgustingly rich, that I love Jeebus and Xmas time so much that I do this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTbpuQzMnxA
3.'What time is it Eccles?'
Ahhh The Goon Show. There isn't much to say really except that the combination of Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers only allows for hilarity. Here's a little festive nugget from the trio...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPkJv2lDaeU
2. "It's..."
I hope this is what Heaven is like...


1. FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME
Well I thought it would be nicely topical to end with this year's Christmas Number 1. I feel a bit bad, because I did vote for Joe, and it is a little bit of a shame. But then again I voted for Alexandra last year, and followed it up by buying 4 copies of Jeff Buckley's 'Hallelujah'. Whatevs...I'll take Rage any day of the year, so here it be in all it's glory....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkuOAY-S6OY



So there you go...a small festive picnic for everyone...If only Blogger would have let me upload all the videos...Alas it was not too be. Indeed it took me so long to upload the few that are on here, that it is now officially Christmas...

Therefore I shall bid you farewell. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Toodle pip!

The Top 10 Things In My Life Currently...

This list is by no means exciting, worth reading, or really even worth subjecting your eyes to. But if anyone does happen to come across it, all I can hope is that at least one of these things maybe become one of your 'Top 10 Things In My Life Currently'...anyway...
In reverse order...

No.10 - Quavers - Fuck me I love Quavers. There are very possibly my favourite crisps ever. Wait I take that back. I don't want Pickled Onion
Monster Munch to be upset at me. Anyway, yeah...I've had very possibly about 6000 packets of Quavers this week, 247 today alone. Yes that's an exaggeration but I've definetly had one packet today and it was shweeeeeeeeet.
I did try to find a picture of someone taking a bath in some Quavers or something else to suitable illustrate my love for them, but the best thing I could find was this rather natty little quaver shaped chair...

No.9 - 'Good Omens', by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman -
I aim to read this at least once every year. It is the book equivalent of Quavers in my world. I recommend it to anyone, particularly those of perhaps an Atheist disposition, but really just anyone because it's a damn fine book I tells thee...

No.8 - Having Nothing To Do -
Awwwww yeah, finished 7th semester motherlicker...though I have yet to see the fruits of my labours...and to be honest I'm not hopeful, but that doesn't matter, BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE TO DO ANY WORK TIL FEBRUARY!!!! Or rather I DO NEED TO DO WORK BEFORE FEBRUARY, REALLY NEED TO GET WORK EXPERIENCE FOR THE WHOLE OF JANUARY, AND ACTUALLY I'LL PROBABLY HAVE TO TO SOME KIND OF PREPERATION FOR CLASS BEFORE SEMESTER STARTS, BUT YEAH APART FROM THAT I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING!!!!
Anyway, the only things I currently see in my immediate future are Labyrinth, Dark Crystal and The Princess Bride, for a day spent reliving my childhood through the magic of Jim Henson and Iningo Montoya...

No.7 - Spaced (And subsequently anything remotely related to Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson, Nick Frost or Edgar Wright)...
I recently rediscovered the joy of Spaced thanks to 4OD. I vaguely recall watching it when it was on TV back in the day, but I was really too young a bambino to fully understand it, but remember enjoying it nonetheless. Anyhoole I purchased said doovde and pretty much watched nothing else for two weeks solid. God I love that show. Have also decided that I am actually Daisy...though I think that's no bad thing...

No.6 - Pub Quiz
I challenge ANYONE to find something better than pitting your wits against elderly drunk men on a Sunday night. There isn't, so don't bother, your search will be futile I tells ye. I like nothing better than glugging down 3 pints of real ale (followed by a small Baileys just to finish the evening) while attempting to outsmart those god damn Quizee Rascals...(our rival team of adults, so you know they've got a few more years of knowledge on us PLUS they normally have a 7th member which is COMPLETELY against the rules. And those bastard Artois aren't much better.

Also, one of the best bits is picking our team name, as we refuse to conform to just one name week after week. A few highlights include; Ten Inches of Wogan, The Rimmers, The Afro Clams and The Whispering Eyes...


No.5 - My Camera...
It's fucking A...simples. Thanks to my dear parentals buying me it for my b-day, I am now going to be one of those really annoying people who take their camera EVERYWHERE and whip it out whenever anything remotely catches their eye and then immediately go home, upload them and stick them on blogs just like these...So yeah, I'm going to stick in the obligatory nice and poncey looking picture...


No.4 - Oingo Boingo and everything Danny Elfman has ever touched...
Thanks to an Avenged Sevenfold DVD I watched a while back, I became aware of this 'Oingo Boingo'. When I was putting all the music in the world onto me Spotify playlist, I thought I should probably check them out. It wasn't until about a month ago that I actually bothered to listen to them. Well burst my shirt and paint me green, they are fucking awesome. I demand that anyone who ever hears about them immediately look them up because they are the shiz. 'Stay' is my current favourite song, and I listen to that bad boy pretty much aalll the time. Though anything off the Dead Man's Party album rocks my proverbial socks...

No.3- The Thick Of It...

Oh my sweet lordy. I remember when the first few episodes were on 4 or 5 years ago, and even though I don't know even the minutest thing about politics, I remember it being utterly hilarious. So seeing as the new series started I decided to go back and catch up on the old ones. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. <--That is the sound of my political satire-based satisfaction. Plus its written by Armando Iannucci and I goddamn love him...

No.2- ADAM AND JOE!!!!!
This is another thing I am rediscovering. I started listening to their BBC 6 Muzak show a while back, after being bastarding ecstatic that they were still around. Like Spaced I remember them on Channel 4, but I was only like 7 so again, probably had no idea what the happy happ was. But again, thanks to the glory of 4OD, I spent 2 weeks bombarding my mindbox with their old TV show...and by gum it was glorious...

And finally...Numero Uno.- Malcolm Tucker...
Yeah, I know that The Thick Of It was already at number 3, but
A) This is my countdown and I don't give a jimmy tits about yo' rules blood...and B) Malcolm Tucker can not be contained by the constraints of a tv show...he transcends all boundaries...
Tucker I think is possibly my favourite TV character ever...he's a stroking of fucking
genius. I literally couldn't get to sleep the other night because I watched Episode 7, and the possibility that he could be sacked...tis unfathomable...almost gave me a panic attack.. Oh he will be back viewers fear not...and he will unleash almight hell upon thee! All hail Tucker!



Yeah...so that's it...Seeing as I have a very distinct lack of imagination, this blog may soon solely become assorted countdowns of whatever I see fit...hopefully not though...that would be frightfully dull and terrribly long-winded...

Anyhoozle, until the next time I see fit to write uponst this hallowed blog...
Toodlepip xox

Return of Mind-Vom...Return of Post Numero Uno (from November '09)

Disclaimer - After much reshuffling, transferring Mind-Vom over to Wordpress, and changing this site to a new blog, then deciding I didn't like Wordpress, then having to deal with Meta-tags...I have now returned Mind-Vom to it's original home...So here, once again, are the original Mind-Vom Posts back once again...


So...first post...


I've had this account for how long now? And in that time I've basically been thinking what to write about. I've come up with pretty much nowt. So I have made an executive decision to just start typing and hope that something sufficient pops out.


Well, currently in my life right now it is the hallowed half-term week, joy! So I have made my own Tolkien-esque journey back to the Shire. And by Shire I mean Aberdeenshire, and by Tolkien-esque I mean in terms of length, and not means, (I got back on the Megabus, instead of trawling for miles accompanied by a gardner and suspicious looking gents on horses).

So have come home and reckon I deserve a break after the barrage of filming I've had to do over the last couple of weeks. Full days of dragging cameras and tripods and booms up to the castle, up to the Wallace Monument and round bastard town has someone taken its toll. Some of it was pretty shweet though, like filming a time-lapse of the sunset from the monument.




Anyhoozle, back in Huntly now, tis Sunday night and I'm attempting to amuse myself. It is not going well. Half-expecting a call to be summoned to come and watch the Xfactor result show. Fuck yeah. Actually, that sounds like I'm being sarcastic, but I ain't. I bloody love Xfactor. I love that is trash tv and that they try to pretend it's still a talent contest and not just entertainment fodder. And I love Simon Cowell. 'Cause he's always right.


Or, equally I could be incredibly media-savvy/hip and cyber-modern and take part in the Fry's Pub Quiz on Twitter, seeing as I'm missing my real-life one this evening. For those of you who don't know, Edna Fry (Stephen Fry's long-suffering wife and mother to his children, follow her @MrsStephenFry or @FryQquiz to take part) holds a pub quiz on Twitter every Sunday night at 8pm, with the Grand Final taking place in November. I only just discovered it really, and I can safely say, I've not done well.

There's another slight problem with Twitter in that it plays to my dream that all the celebs that I follow might one day be my friend. Every night I tweet Peter Serafinowicz with a word that he can make a joke from, and not once has it happened. I tweeted Edgar Wright the other day saying how I almost referenced 'Spaced' in a tutorial about Freudian psyco-analysis and 3rd Wave Feminism, because at one point I decided that Mike wanting to rejoin the TA was relevant, but got no reply. Ah well, I'm sure one day they'll realise what a talent and wonderful friend I would be.

No really, in all honesty I have come to somewhat love Twitter, having first thought 'twas a bit shit. Really I like it just for the comedy value. To name but a few -Chris Addison, Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright, Nick Frost, Peter Serafinowicz, Derren Brown and Graham Linehan are all utterly hilarious.

...went off on somewhat of a tangent there, attempting to make it look like I had real opinions and viewpoints on things, when I don't really. Anyway, the call has come through so I'm off to see who's getting booted off of Sex Factor. Hopefully the next post I do might be worth reading...

Boi Boi

xxx