Taught To Drown But Told To Swim

or something to that effect.

Haven't been on here in so long.  Life's getting on now, but I'll be back soon with updates, and pics of Leeds if I can find them.  And my mum's wedding. 

Sarah, it was so cool to finally meet you, just wish we could have caught up more.

To anyone who is anyone, go see Control, you will love me for it and see a fucking great film into the bargain.  Seriously, the early demise of a musical genius has never been so beautifully nor humanistically depicted.  And to anyone who has read Touching From A Distance, you can get to see a little more from Ian's point of view.  And Tony Wilson rocks!

x

I just finished my dissertation today.  And now I want to party and celebrate, but all I can manage to do is make a hot chocolate.

My kind boyfriend infected me with some strange disease.  Ok it's a throat infection that appears to give me a headache and blocks my nose and ears.  My whole head is ill.  It's not pleasant.  I'm sure drinking shots of 40% vodka would help dry out the infection, but my body can't tolerate that.  Especially as I still have work tomorrow.

Perhaps I'll actually get dressed for the occassion.  Nah, my pj's are too comfortable.  To hell with it, a hot chocolate and maybe even some cookies.  Then I'll go blow my nose, don't stop me now, I'm a total party girl.

Thanks Christine!

 

The Rules:
1. List 8 facts...only 8.
2. You must then list 8 TAGS at the end of the post. This means you must name 8 people on Buzznet who now have to post the same type of blog (journal entry), you can't tag people who have already been tagged.
3. Leave them a note on their page asking them to read your journal.

The Facts:

1. My 3 main vices include music (all sorts), hot chocolate and old BBC Comedies (especially The Young Ones which I will quote at any given moment).

2. The year before I entered university I almost studied Accountancy (phew!).

3. I used to read at least 1 book per week, but in the last 2 years I have read a total of 11 new books and a few old favourites (textbooks don't count).

4. When I was 12 I was sent to a child psychologist for suffering from depression.

5. My first poem was published in 1995, after my gran submitted it on my behalf to a local competition as a surprise.

6. My first ever gig was Morrissey who played The Barrowlands, Glasgow, Sunday 5th December 1999.

7. After seeing 'Wayne's World' for the first time I spent 3 months saying NOT! after every sentence.

8. I have been a long-term relationship for almost 5 years, the same amount of time I have spent as a student.

 

I tag:

hyperballad13

pipsykins

fadeintoyou

weirdandrandom

angelicgrace

trashnerd

djrossstar

elias351

That has happened to me in the past three months is the final installment of Harry Potter.  I noticed that I placed far more importance on the book than on my moving country (that sounds cooler than it is, 4 hours from where I used to live), working for a huge global pharmaceutical company.

 

But ha!  I tricked you, in fact the most interesting and possibly heart-stopping event so far in my petty little life-time is seeing 2 of my all time favourite bands re-form.

 

Smashing Pumpkins, who I saw at the last Scottish show the played in the SECC, and SHED SEVEN!!!!  Second only to The Smiths, I have been a huge fan of Shed Seven and they were so close to being my first ever gig before they split.  But my mum wouldn't take me to Glasgow to see them.  I was only 12 and she thought it was fine if I skipped school to see them but I had to make my own way there.  If it hadn't been for Emma Harris' brother sitting his exams we might have seen them.

 

I got my tickets the very morning that Harry Potter arrived.  I so excited having recieved them both that my hands were trembling.  Then I locked up my tickets in my safe-box and sat down to read HP.  Had it finished within 11 hours.  I was expecting it to be longer, but oh well, it was a satisfactory ending.

 

My life appears to have only 2 obsessions.  Books and music.  And I can't write either of them.  Maybe crystallography was a good career choice after all....

Hi guys!

So I have been away for what seems like half a life-time.  I haven't checked through all my messages yet, so forgive me if I have not replied.

 

Had a lot of problems regarding my health recently and couple that with the move I made to continue my Masters work in England I have had no internet connection for almost 3 months or something.  Only just got it working on my comp in work and I should have it connected sometime at the weekend at home.

 

To anyone who has missed me, (and I'm thinking my chipmunk might be the only one) I am sorry but I'm here again.  Probably far more crazy than before.  I have lost touch with the world, I have no idea what has been going on in the music world except from the slight insight my Rock Sound subscription affords me. 

 

So yeah, um, hi.

Hey guys, I have uploaded a video of Patrick singing 'Golden' at the glasgow gig. I will get 'Arms Race' uploaded soon too.

Enjoy!


http://vimeo.com/172513

Finally got round to uploading some pics from the gig, still got loads to come.

Plus I am trying to find the other vids I took, Golden and Arms Race. For some reason my mac can't find them, so I'll need to try on my pc instead when I get back to my room.

I really wish I had taken more of Gabe. That man is sex. I liked him before, but after the gig I was completely enamoured with the guy. During the whole thing I was staring at him. Plus my brother totally started dancing with me to the songs.

I am also an extremely pathetic gadget geek. I had my LED tag and programmed to flash 'G.A.B.E. gonna get you high' when they were on. I couldn't think of anything good to flash during FOB until Dirty came out and got the entire crowd to chant 'motherfucking FOB'. That went straight onto my tag. I'm such a geek.

Anyway, look out for more pics coming soon, mwahahahahaha.

I don't know why I laughed so menacingly there...

...time to get back to work....

I'm back

no internet access for over a week

that's what happens when 3 people in your family decide to move within the same week and I'm tired
really tired, but maybe that was the champagne from last night

will update soon with some pics and vids from the Glasgow FOB gig

for now I'm awating crystal diffraction and some sleep when I get back to my room

I can do science me.....




































... and I love it


'proteins make my world go round'

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/alternative_spring_break_devolves

Bad Day.

Pretty much sums it up. Except for one teeny little point. LEEDS FESTIVAL!!!

I have had 2 sides of the x-ray machine available since noon today, and so far I still don't have any diffraction. Don't know how long I am going to be here tonight, but my head is aching and my eyes are strained from going from microscope to computer screen and back again.

And I dropped a whole plate of crystals, because I'm such a fuckwit. I managed to rescue one large crystal from the wreck, but it's not working either. Well actually I don't know for sure, because the computer lost link with the x-ray machine and now I don't have the password to logon to the computer because my brain thought it a good idea to shut the computer down and restart it.

Man, I haven't eaten since 11.45 and I am so thirsty, but I can't abandon my poor crystal. At least not yet. Why can't we have vending machines in our building? We are the only building on campus that don't have any.

St Andrews sucks, I want chocolate. Ok, crystal time.

That's all I really had to say. I caught my finger under the stream of liquid nitrogen for a couple of seconds, and my skin had turned white, like really white, and it stung like a scald.

Don't know why, but I find that quite strange. It feels all numb now. I wonder if there is any permanent damage...

I am bored. So bored I can't even be bothered to describe it. I am probably going to be in the lab until tomorrow, unless my crystals diffract, like now. It's not happening. I have trauled through every file on my computer trying to find something to spend my time on, whilst I wait for my x-ray data to finish.

Please, someone tell me something interesting, or point me to something that might take my mind off my work. Even for a second, I don't care how mindless it is. God, I need a hobby.

Kay kiddies, a new Coelho passage taken from Eleven Minutes.

 

And, behold, a woman which was in the city, a sinner; and when she knew that Jesus was sitting at meat in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster cruse of ointment.

And standing behind at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have perceived who and what manner of woman this is which toucheth him, that she is a sinner.

And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee.  And he saith, Master, say on.

A certain lender had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.

And when they had not wherewith to pay, he forgave them both.  Which of them therefore will love him most?

Simon answered and said, He, I suppose, to whom he forgave the most.  And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.

And turning to the woman, he said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman?  I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet; but she hath washed my feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair.

Thou gavest me no kiss: but she, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet.

My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this she hath anointed my feet with ointment.

Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

 

Luke 7:37-47

Sorry but I have to share this with people since it's quite old:

http://www.atomfilms.com/film/radiskull1_devil_doll.jsp

 

I love Devil Doll, well that's kinda obvious!

For anyone who hasn't seen the totally bizarre and disturbed salad fingers animation, please take a look:

http://www.fat-pie.com/salad.htm


"The feeling of rust against my salad fingers, is almost orgasmic"

For anyone who enjoys the works of Paulo Coelho you'll be aware of the small stories at the beginning of his books that usually relate, in some way, to the story he himself is telling.  This is one which I love, written at the beginning of 'The Alchemist'.

 

The alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had bought.  Leafing through the pages, he found a story about Narcissus.

The alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth who knelt daily beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty.  He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned.  At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called the narcissus.

But this was not how the author of the book ended the story.

He said that when Narcissus died, the goddesses of the forest appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.

"Why do you weep?" the goddesses asked.

"I weep for Narcissus," the lake replied.

"Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus," they said, "for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand."

"But ... was Narcissus beautiful?" the lake asked.

"Who better than you to know that?" the goddesses said in wonder.  "After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!"

The lake was silent for some time.  Finally, it said: "I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful.  I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected."

 

"What a lovely story" the alchemist thought.

Suiteds hvae pvoren taht eht barin rgensiecos mpsielst wrdos wehn het frsit nad lsat lterets rmeian teh smae.

 

Hwo deos yuor biran wrok?

Oh good Lord am I excited. I finally found out that I did in fact pass my first semester, so now I get to finish my Crystallography project and maybe, just maybe, I'll get to work for AstraZeneca in Alderley Park.

I thought I was going to fail, but lo and behold, I managed to pass it, and I actually did quite well considering. Woohoo! Pass. Pass. Pass.

My life has actually become so pathetic I feel the need to jump up and down and squeal sporadically when I pass something I really should have worked harder for. The joy of another few months at St Andrews. Still, who knows, maybe by October I will start my PhD, probably in London.

Not much of a difference really, quiet, little Scottish sea-side town, and London. Hmmm. I miss living in a city, but I know I will miss St Andrews when I leave. In the nice weather the Pier Walk is a great place to just sit and listen to the waves. I hope we get nice weather soon, at least by April anyway.

I just realised I am typing away here when I really should get back to work. Suddenly growing protein crystals and making compound cocktails seems much more appealing. Oh well, on with the diffraction data.