1. Nightwish – Away
2. Nightwish – Dead Boy’s Poem
3. AFI – Morningstar

Happy New Year…

Year of the Rabbit – thank you!

Sooo….. I guess a recap on the last day of the year is appropriate. The thing is, I’m too lazy to write lengthy stuff, so I’ll be blunt… again.

2011 started a bit shitty, and was shitty more or less the entire first 6 months. But by the end it got pretty freaking good, so I’m overall positive about everything. Yeah, I lost some friends, got others back, made new ones, and my heart is finally happy, so I can say 2011 didn’t totally suck. To the ones I hurt – I’m sorry; to the ones that hurt me – you’re forgiven; to the ones that make me happy – keep doing it! As for resolutions – I can’t really think of any. I only wish to graduate with a nice degree and have more luck in that area. And write some scribbles soon. Oh, yeah, and I also want for the world not to end, ‘cause I’m attending an afterparty in 2013 and really wish to go.

Well, that’s enough from me. Have fun, all you unfortunate enough to read this, and I’ll be back sometime these days, again with the first 3 songs listened to during the new year. 2011, I thank you kindly, 2012 – please be as kind. See you all next year!

Ho-ho, yo-yo!

I’m gonna be very brief – because I’m too lazy to write. So – Merry Christmas to all the Christians, Happy Hanukkah to all the Jewish, Happy Kwanzaa to all African-Americans, and to all the atheists like me – have a nice day! Hope everyone is having fun, getting whatever you wished for, having lots of snow, and don’t go too far with the Christmas dinner and drinking. Happy Hallowmass!

P.S. – You didn’t think you’d get away without my disaster piece, did you?

'Twas the NightMare before Christmas, when all through the loss not a creature was stirring, not even a ghost.
The stockings were hung by the chimney without care, in hopes that Sandy Claws soon would be there...
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight, "Terrible Christmas to all, and to all a good fright!

P.S. 2 – And I wanna wish Tuomas Holopainen from Nightwish a very happy Birthday, because he’s one of the few people because of whom I still believe in music – thank you!

“Only the weak are not lonely”

I’m not dead, in case anyone’s started to worry. I just didn’t have time to write here, I’ve been busy with uni work and being happy. Basically that’s it, nothing ground-breaking has happened, but you’ll get a recap anyway.
University stuff is almost done, I’m starting the interviews for my dissertation tomorrow, extremely excited about that – I’m dying to talk about music anyway, so that’s gonna be fun. After that I need to transcribe them (or at least start, it’s really tedious) and I’m off to home on Friday. The last course work is being submitted tomorrow, it’s a research proposal for a study that we’re interested in but won’t conduct ourselves. I never thought I’d get that interested in robotics and artificial intelligence, but the cognitive part of it seems really fascinating, especially the implications of human cognition in robots. When I did the presentation at my seminar, I feared that I’m talking complete nonsense and my idea is physically impossible. However, I got only positive comments from my peers and couldn’t stop smiling the entire day. Let’s hope my teacher’s mark will be nice too.
As for the “being happy” part – well, that’s not really your business, I just wanted to let the evil wishers know I’m doing okay, so – BOOYA!

However, one thing that contributed to me being happy was FINALLY getting my hands on Nightwish’s Imaginaerum yesterday. The ones who know me have probably guessed I haven’t stopped listening to it and won’t stop at least for the next month. It’s absolutely brilliant, lyrically and musically, and especially vocally – Marco sounds great as usual, and so does Anette. I never thought I’d say that, I wasn’t a big fan of hers, but her voice is amazing in this album. I fell in love with Slow, Love, Slow – it has such a dark jazz vibe, plus her singing… absolutely stunning. I can’t wait for the movie now, I’m sure it will be magical as well.

Like I said somewhere up there, I’m going home on Friday. It’s gonna be another almost 12-hour wait at the airport, but 3-4 movies should do it. I just hope nothing will screw up, because my rule number 1 is: Always assume the worst so it doesn’t happen. No, actually that’s my second rule, the first one is “Always look up” (I don’t know why, don’t ask). And then home for an entire month to pester my puppy! I might even get some snow, if it decides to get colder.
Still no new scribbles, haven’t been in a creative mood lately. At least you don’t get to read crap, haha! So I guess that’s all for now, the next post will fly from home… so all the volcanoes better watch out! Alrighty, bye-bye!

How wonderful life is, now you’re in the world…

Soooo, here I am again, late as usual. But you can’t blame me, the past week was more than eventful for me to remember to write here. I’m officially 21, as of 11 days, and I feel perfectly 12! It was a really nice “party”, full of (evil) plotters who managed to keep a secret for more than a month the biggest present ever – my mom. All I knew was that one of my friends was late because he was on a train and that he would arrive around midnight. No problem, we’re not hurrying for anywhere, we can wait. Then he shows up carrying a suitcase – my initial thought was that that’s the present… Oh, silly me. While I was beginning to ask “What’s in the box?”, my mom jumped behind him and I forgot how to speak… for about 10 min. All the things that didn’t make sense prior to my birthday finally lined up – showing once again that I suck at logic. But it really was a great present, and I got to spend a week being pampered by mom. Of course, by the end I got really nervous being with her 24/7, since I didn’t wanna leave her alone anywhere. When she left I was both relieved and crying like a baby, as usual. The good news is I’ll be going home for Christmas, so I’ll see her again soon. But before that I have a month of procrast…. I mean, damn heavy studying! Things are looking up for a change, though, so we’ll be alright. And I think that’s it for now, ‘cause I know nobody likes to read long stuff. Live long and prosper!

P.S. – Dear world, please don’t end, I’m finally happy.
Sincerely, me.

September ended, wake up!

What’s that? That’s just me, forgetting to update this thing. Which I apologise for, if anyone was worried, which I doubt. So, let’s see what has happened since… *checks last post’s date* … September 13! Well, we had another moving to a new house, I was a Freshers’ Hero, and the third and final year at Aber Uni started. Oh yeah, I passed my resit, woohoo! Now to extend my explanations on these three… things.

There’s not much to say about the house, actually. It’s the same as last year, but with different room and less people. And for the first time that I’m here, I’m not living with my best friend. I got so used to her, especially over summer, ‘cause basically, she was all I had here. I do go to visit her almost every evening – her and the other three weirdos of friends that currently make my life bearable. It’s not as bad as I always turn out to describe it, but I really feel lonely without them. My other friend lives all the way on campus, which is really inconvenient. And the girls I live with – well, the two of them are more alike and can have fun together, and I’m the black sheep, as usual. On a brighter note, speaking of friends living on campus, I want to thank Trang for getting me my first birthday present yesterday – a necklace with three bunnies running in circle, like AFI’s logo. I know you know it, woman, but I really love you!!! ^^ I’m not gonna wear anything anytime soon! Apart from clothes, of course. ‘Cause it’s getting a bit cold, it’s October, you know, and walking around naked with only a necklace is a bit strange….

Anyway, moving on. I thought I said here somewhere that I was chosen to be a Freshers’ Hero, but apparently I didn’t so I’m gonna do it… tomorrow. Or how about now, I’ll forget tomorrow. Basically, the job of the Heroes is to help freshers – these bright young minds – find their way around campus, showing them to their rooms, answering any questions they or their parents may have and other hero-y stuff. Some go to the airports to pick them up, others stay on the train stations in case someone doesn’t know which train to get on. I wanted to go to the airport, get out of Aber for a day, but I was allocated at the reception of the residence I was in my first year. The job was only two days, and the second one it was pouring like hell, but it was really fun. I felt so proud helping the innocent little souls who have no idea what awaits them. And, you know, you also get paid for that. But it really was a rewarding experience.

And last but not least (actually, it is) – my final year here started. Everything is going okay for now, I’m mostly dealing with the research proposal for the dissertation. The good news is, I don’t have that many essays to write, but I think that project is challenging enough. I really don’t want to fuck it up this time, fingers crossed.

My birthday’s coming fast. Only a week left… I really don’t feel 21. Hell, I don’t even feel 20. I think I stayed somewhere between 17 and 18. And that seems so long ago. Sometimes I don’t even want to celebrate it, but you’re only 21 once, I guess. What’s stopping me from being happy is probably the fact that half of my friends won’t be here, I’m surrounded by a bunch of people I can’t wait to get rid of, and there’s no possibility of going home anytime soon. That will be an interesting Christmas for sure. Man, I’m whining too much, I’m sure I’ll be fine. Nostalgia’s just stronger at times like these…

Okay, this turned out to be longer than my normal posts, and I know you’re lazy to read that much, so I’m drawing the line right…. now! ---------

Did you see the size of that wave?!

Okay, time for Joe’s weekly update (that doesn’t come every week). I finally visited Cardiff last Friday with some friends and got to see what a real castle is. Not like the petty ruins we have here in Aber, that’s for sure. It’s a really beautiful place, even though I couldn’t see half of the halls because they were closed. Still, took plenty of pictures of the rest. On one of them I was absolutely sure I’d caught a ghost, but when I looked at it on the laptop, it turned out it’s just one of my friends, highly blurred. Very disappointing. BUT, we found our country’s flag among all the others going around the castle’s wall, so that made up a bit for the other things. We spent about two hours there and then we were supposed to check some museums, but the others were eager to check the malls and clothing stores more, so you could guess what we did for the rest of the day. I managed to find some stores for my “kind”, so I wasn’t very bored, though I didn’t buy anything except a t-shirt. And the whole time I felt like I was in one of the cities on the seaside in my country – enough for me to like the place. From what I was able to see, Cardiff is a really nice town, and I’d love to go back for more sight-seeing and less shopping.
Apart from that, nothing really exciting is going on (restrain your sarcasm, please). A few days left till we move again to a new house for the academic year. Oh, yeah, and I got chosen to be a Fresher’s hero. Basically, you get to go to the airports, pick new students up, show them the university and things like that, so that will be interesting. And then, lectures, lectures, and more lectures – hallelujah! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to spend the rest of my evening watching The Simpsons. And maybe other stuff. But mostly The Simpsons.