PHinisheD

I'm going home! Replace Caledonia by Cricklewood:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLYJBU168QQ



I don't know if you can see, 
the changes that have come over me.
In these last few days, 
I've been afraid that i might drift away.
And I've been tellin old stories, 
singing songs,
that made me think about where 
I came from.
Thats the reason why 
I seem so far away today.

But let me tell you that I love you,
and I think about you all the time.
Cricklewood you're calling me,
and now I'm going home.
But if I should become a stranger
you know that it would make 
me more than sad;
Cricklewood's been everything 
I've ever had.

Oh and I have moved,
kept on moving.
Proved the points 
that I needed proving.
Lost the friends that 
I needed loosing,
found others 
on the way.
Oh and I have tried,
and kept on trying;
stolen dreams yes 
theres no denying.
I have travelled hard 
with coat-tails flying
somewhere in the wind.


But let me tell you that I love you,
and I think about you all the time.
Cricklewood you're calling me,
and now I'm going home.
But if I should become a stranger
you know that it would make 
me more than sad;
Cricklewood's been everything 
I've ever had.


Now I'm sitting here, 
before the fire.
The empty room,
the forest choir.
The flames that couldn't 
get any higher,
they've withered
now they've gone.
But I'm steady of thinking,
my way is clear,
and I know what 
I will do tomorrow.
When the hands 
have shaken,
and the kisses flown,
I will disappear.




Keep On Trucking x

Hard Gay

The Japanese sensation that is 'Hard Gay':

fooooooooooooo!!!!!

Hardogaayness!!!

Say! Say! Say! Say! Saaay!

Hard Gay Pop-Up Pirate!!! Hooooo!!!

...you get the idea.

Some other stuff:

Watermelon man,

and this legend here.

Keep tucks indoors x

Offsides

Some fucking yank sitting next to us kept pluralising the word offside to offsides, which didn't help the situation. Now, as England disappoints once again, and Badiel and Skinner's famous 'We're going home' song runs around my head, seems as good a time as any to write about the sporting situation out here.

Firstly, there is the concept of 'the sports fan'. Something which is pretty non-existent in the UK, a sports fan will happily watch any competitive action on TV and get damn excited about it. They'll know statistics from Baseball, Basketball, American Football and then a roster of other secondary options. With the world cup on, these sports fans have come out in force, dealing out massively uniformed commentaries on games, pluralising words, and generally being dicks. There are people who are into sport in England, but normally they choose two or three and stick to those.

Then there is the American sports themselves. The worst, by some distance, is baseball. Imagine cricket, but with no decisions on where to place fielders, no wickets, and no bowling. Pretty damn shit, and moreover endlessly long - games take 4 hours regularly. Then there is basketball, which to be honest I haven't watched much of and seems pretty exciting. The big one is football. After watching a few games, especially the superbowl, my opinion has shifted from complete contempt to mild acceptance a s a good thing to have going on whilst you drink. There's a lot more going on than meets the eye, and the stop start of it can actually make for some really explosive moments. It is also interminably long though, another 4 hour extravaganza, that despite the fact that the actual play time is only 1 hour.

I watched one football game live, a university game between Cal (which is what one calls Berkeley) and Maryland. We screamed and shouted for about 90 minutes, but come half time we were ready to go, the main problem being that as it was a university team stadium, there was no booze on sale. The phenomenon of university sports in America was far more interesting than the game itself. On the day of a game, thousands upon thousands of Berkeley alumni will come into town. All the frats make money by selling parking spaces and cold drinks. The majority of the undergraduate population gets dressed up and painted blue and gold. The frats start their pre-parties at about midday, and everyone gets fucking wasted before heading up to the stadium to see the marching band before kick off. The numbers are mind blowing - 60,000 people for a sell out game. 60,000!!! The biggest university game of the year in the UK would attract that many if it was lucky, and this is just one university in one town and it sells out regularly. If Cal win the whole town ignites into partying, and things will go on for as long as it takes the police to shut it all down. Its great.

People fucking love their university teams, and the university teams are in fact the way that most people become professionals, getting selected to join the AFL on the basis of their university performances. The phenominon is not unique to baseball, and all the major sports have massive fan followings. It all seems a bit ridiculous, but when your involved and spirits are high, it doesn't feel ridiculous.

Keep on Truckin' England, here's to 2014.

x

Cool Britannia

I shit you not, I saw this exact design on a t-shirt a few weeks ago. For the sake of my sanity I desperately hope the guy wearing it knew what was going on. Since then I've noticed two or three other people with union jacks on their tops, three (!) people with union jacks on their wallets, and one person with the flag even on their shoes. Lets face it people, we are fucking cool. You don't see people here wandering around wrapped in an Albanian flag, or decorating themselves with a French or German flag. Culturally we are the most respected of the nations here, especially in the worlds of music and comedy. The British wave arrived in the 60s and never left, and it makes me very happy to be a part of it.

The accent is of course a bonus, but only when people actually recognise it. A lot of people just know that you're foreign but can't really place where. And when they try and do an English accent they always always do a bad cockney accent (not that I'm having any luck impersonating the american accent; brash as it is there are a lot of subtleties that are hard to master). Once you start talking with Scottish or Welsh accents they literally have no idea what you're talking about. The rest of my house went to watch a screening of trainspotting (I didn't go, too much work in the run up to the end of the semester) and my flatmates girlfriend had to constantly lean over and ask him what was being said.

After a couple of weeks here, way back in September, one of the guys in international house said to me that my accent was 'unfair' when it came to the ladies and it was like being the only kid at school with a car. I told him that any girl worth her salt can see through an accent and from what I've found that is true. Dressing up as Bond a couple of times certainly helps the British image, but if anything its too much, it does more to separate you from people than gain their respect.

I rarely think about stuff like this, but occasionally I am very, very glad that a few generations back my family decided to come to England and not go to America. I wouldn't want to be from anywhere else. I'd miss out national sport, irony. Perhaps the guy wearing the Greece/UK t-shirt was trying to join in?

Keep trucks indoors x

Futuredancer

From now on, I only dance like this.

I found out last week that I can work with the prof. that I want to in the summer, and that means that I'm likely to work with him in the future as well and have him as my full supervisor, which is great! I also found out the courses for next semester and they look amazing! Four (yes four!) graduate level probability courses. If I was ever in doubt as to the wisdom of doing grad school here then there's my confirmation.

Keep no truckers x

Wanna be your lover

oh HELL yeh. di di di disco x

Donkalicious

After much wrangling the theme for a next house party has been decided. It's gonna be a Wigan Pier themed party. If by some horrible misfortune you haven't heard of Donk, or Wigan Pier, watch this, and then watch this donkumentary to flesh out the horror.

You can recover a bit by watching this wonderful bit of animation.

So, what's up?

Well, our house has become a home, and the third housemate, who might have been leaving to go back to Norway in June, is now staying till December. Security abides.

The rainy season is coming to a close, and the long dry awaits. I had what I think was my most American street exerience in the rain last month. 4 in the morning, thick, straight-falling rain, warm air. Hood up, head down, gotta get past the danger zone in the center of town - the homeless paradise, 'People's Park'. It feels fucking ghetto out there. Someone is walking on the opposite side of the high street, pacing backwards and forwards. i heard him shouting from some distance and as i get closer the words become clear:

"I am ALIVE! I have a god damn RIGHT to be alive... How DARE they not let me work for my family... GOD made men to LIVE damn it..."

It goes on after I have gone past.

Just another crazy in a crazy town. One more left on the curbside by the state.

Back in the 80's Reagan massively cut funding for mental health care. The result was thousands of insane people ending up on the streets. Many are still there now, and they and all the new homeless all around California they head to Berkeley. It has the highest per capita homelessness rate in America and is known to be kinder than other areas. There are soup kitchens, parks where they can camp, and guilty students with spare change. In some nearby towns, any homeless people are picked up by the police and given the bus fair to get to Berkeley. We are the people dumping ground.

But the university remains a flashpoint for revolutions. Riots and protests that began in Berkely have spread nationwide and last Thursday there were protests in the capitals of no less than 21 states in support of public funding for education. Not just university education but all levels of education. It is probably a losing battle, but those who make the least noise are killed off the fastest.

I hear that higher education in the UK is just beginning to feel the brunt of the governments monetary problems. Good luck, it is a painful process, but universities that deserve to survive will, and in time the humanities will have their funding restored.

Okay, got a bit carried away with Berkeley stuff there, back to me. I am deep in the ride now - 7 weeks down, 7 to go. Thank god we have spring break in a couple of weeks! My courses are great, and the research is interesting but I wish I had more time to do it in.

Truck no keepon x