Well, after handing in 3300 words worth of law coursework on Tuesday and doing my mooting assignment earlier this morning, I now have nothing but exams to look forward to. The moot went fairly well, although having went with a white shirt and a red tie I resembled Agent 47 from the Hitman series more than I intended (although I do have hair of course). Not necessarily a bad thing, but I was going for more of a lawyer look rather than a professional assassin look. It has been a very busy month an
These have been released to celebrate the return of the metal band earthtone9 and their new album IV, and since I used to collect playing cards back when I still did a lot of sleight of hand, I figured I might as well pick them up. They are very nice and a fine addition to my collection. Excuse the not-so-great picture though, I seem to have forgotten how to use my camera. Now I'm actually considering starting to collect interesting decks of cards again. And I should also probably mention
So, I went into the kitchen intending to get myself a cup of mint green tea, daydreaming as I did so, and everything seemed fine in the moment. However, it was only upon returning to my room and taking a sip of said tea when I noticed that it tasted a bit odd, at which point I came to the realisation that what I have actually made was, in fact, a cup of coffee. I am not sure how I went through the whole process without it even occurring to me that I was making an entirely different drink, which
These bloody stickers on the top of the case. I don't know if it's just me, but I can never take them off without them tearing and they always leave marks on the case. It's becoming my biggest pet peeve in terms of CDs. I mean, why are they even there, other than to be annoying? The bar code is already on the back of the CD, and new CDs are wrapped anyway
So, I went to see three Canadian comedians - Stewart Francis, Craig Campbell and Glenn Wool - on their The Lumberjacks tour tonight. Stewart Francis has been one of my favourite comedians for quite some time now, so it was great to finally see him live, and the other two were brilliant as well. Haven't laughed that much in a long time. It was just their second show of the tour, which meant that there were still some imperfections and they were still trying some new stuff out, which only made the
There is now a trailer for the Thief reboot, and of course it doesn't tell us much about the game at all, but it still has me pretty excited. Although I am a bit worried about what direction they'll be taking it in, I have high hopes for it after Eidos Montreal's masterpiece with Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Just hoping it doesn't end up like the somewhat disappointing Hitman: Absolution from last year. I mean, it turns out they're not gonna call it THI4F after all, which is certainly a good sig
Well, as I was looking forward to perhaps picking up some albums today, I was greeted by the rather unpleasant news that my local independent record store has closed. It's a real shame, as it was a fantastic store and I only found it a few months ago. It always sucks to see a good record store go out of business and hopefully the staff manage to find new jobs. This also means that now my only way of buying albums is online, which I've been doing a lot anyway, but I'll still miss my weekly trip
So, I got myself a copy of Paradise Lost's album Believe In Nothing, which has finally completed my collection of their studio releases. Thirteen albums and one set of demos. And you know, it's worth every penny. They are a fantastic band. This is, and will likely remain, my only complete collection of a band with a discography of this size, as I can't really think of any other band with 10+ albums, all of which I'm interested in having a copy of. Also, I'm really loving Century Media's Metal
One of my favourite record labels - Century Media - mark their 25th anniversary this year and have released 25 of their classic albums as limited 2CD editions, which is pretty cool. I got myself City by Strapping Young Lad today and will probably end up getting Paradise Lost's In Requiem despite owning the original, just for the second CD and because that album means quite a lot to me. Might also use these reissues to get some albums by bands I've been wanting to try out, like Turisas, Iced Ear
Well, here are my five favourite albums of last year. 5 - Eremita by Ihsahn This is a superb progressive metal album with black metal influences. The songs here range from beautiful to brutal, and the riffs from simple to wonderfully complex, but it all flows together very nicely. The musicianship across the album is brilliant with lots of absolutely fantastic guitar playing and great drumming. It's a very heavy album at times, but there is always subtle melody to the heaviness and the so
2012 recently ended and it has been a great year for music, so here are albums 10-6 of my top 10 albums of the year. I was intending to do reviews or something detailed for each one, but I guess I can't be bothered Anyway... 10 - Sentenced To Life by Black Breath A remarkably heavy combination of death metal and hard rock with crust punk undertones, full of great riffs and drumming. 9 - Dead End Kings by Katatonia A brilliant melancholic atmosphere with enchanting melodies. Per
Well, submitted my last two assignments this morning, and with that it's the end of my first semester of university. Got to say it was quite enjoyable. Very enjoyable even. Definitely the most enjoyable time I've had in education so far. I'm glad that I decided to go with Law after all, as it's actually a very interesting and relevant subject. Although the workload multiplies at a rather staggering rate if left unattended for even the tiniest amount of time, most of that work is fairly interesti
Decided to finally spend some of the money I got for my birthday and got all this stuff in the last couple of days. You know, just to make sure I have things to distract me from doing university assignments and revising for exams.
So, I mentioned yesterday that I got a used copy of the limited edition of Paradise Lost's album One Second. As I was looking through the booklet, this piece of paper fell out: What does it mean? Does it mean anything at all? Has it been there for the whole 15 years that this copy of the album existed? It kinda makes me sad that I will never know.
So I decided to get myself a copy of the 20th anniversary special edition of Rage Against The Machine's debut album. Although usually I try to avoid reissues, especially of albums I already own, the demos and unreleased tracks included on the second CD were enough for me to get this one. I'm quite happy with it. As you can see, the packaging is great and includes some good pictures of the band, although more liner notes from the band members themselves would have been nice. The remaster of the
So, I went to see the brilliant Steve Hughes tonight, and it was great. Bonus points to him for having Motorhead songs playing before the show started. This was actually the first time I've seen a comedian live, and having enjoyed it quite a lot, it seems that a fair amount of my free time at university will be divided between going music concerts and going to comedy shows. Often at the same venue too.
Well, I am now 19. Which is quite a boring age really. Nothing of much significance comes with it, but I am getting to the point where birthdays are becoming mundane. Ah well, I'll go listen to I'm Eighteen by Alice Cooper now, and pretend that I'm still 18 and that song is still the perfect fit for celebrating my birthday.
I tend to make playlists of horror themed songs for Halloween, and here is this year's. Just gonna leave it playing in the background throughout the day ^^ Always a struggle to not just fill it up with Alice Cooper But it does always have to start with Dada. Anyway, happy Halloween everyone!
So, some drunk students in my accommodation apparently thought it would be funny to activate the fire alarm at 4 AM, thus waking everyone up and making them go stand outside in the cold for 20 minutes. It's fine really, not like I was planning to get a decent amount of sleep for once before a day at university or anything >.>
Well, I'm back in London for the weekend, and you know, I like London a lot less now. Getting around is way too difficult with these endless masses of people, and while I did get used to it before, having spent a month in university and coming back, it's less than enjoyable. Seriously, I got from Cambridge to London quicker than I got from one point in London to another, and it barely cost me more. Also, that Devin Townsend show I went to on Wednesday was absolutely brilliant, and I am very je
Getting the notification "you have been given a warning" is a bit unsettling when you have forgotten that you renewed your premier membership. And other than that, I still don't have much to blog about. My first coursework was set on Monday, and it involves 3000 words about the European Convention on Human Rights... done in a website FAQ format. I really hate doing writing that is supposed to be done like a website or magazine article, especially when it's just not something that you would act
Well, it's my second week of lectures and my third week at university overall. So far I'm enjoying it, but I can confirm that law does indeed require a lot of work and reading. Just looking at the pile of books I have to read is enough to rid me of any joy or energy I may have. Admittedly though, they are pretty interesting and it does remind me of Sociology, so that's good. Fresher's Fair was on Thursday, so I took the opportunity to sign up for the Alternative Music Society, the Poker Society
Well, university starts soon and I visited today to collect my keys and check out the place where I'll spend the next three years of studying. It's actually pretty nice, about the same size as my room now, so that's great. No wi-fi though, and the internet provided is probably going to be fairly slow, so I'll have to look into getting better internet for myself. I came to the conclusion that I am the second to visit my floor/hall, as there was some milk in one of the fridges, however I did not c
I got a new monitor, so I can use the computer again =D And I ended up not having to spend any money because my dad kindly bought it for me in return for me doing some accounting for him. So that's good. It's also vastly superior to my previous monitor (even if my previous monitor still worked), although it's gonna take a while to get used to the wider screen. Didn't do too much during my two days without a monitor, although that was where buying CDs really payed off as I could still listen to
So I was just casually browsing the internet when my monitor decided that it had quite enough of me wasting my life away in front of the computer and went into what I believe is known as the 'white screen of death' mode. Well, I'm assuming it's my monitor, since it stays in a white screen even if disconnected from the computer. So there go my plans of saving up some money, as I'm gonna need a new monitor.
