Destroy Topham's Blog of 2 worlds

Ok, so I think I have a lot to write, and I'll see how this goes.

A man is more than the sum of his parts. A phrase that recently I either heard or caught somewhere, but something that seems so relevant to me right now. Now I'm a very active person, and enjoying trying to do everything I am able to and I really enjoy it. While I might not excel in one thing, I think that everything that I know together forms some sort of wide knowledge base that allows me to tackle many problems that I'd every come across.

A more specific example is Runescape. My levels are all good, and fairly consistent, none of them are stellar, but none of them are poor. However, when looking at it, my total level is high, and my ranking because of it is high. However, look at each of the skills. Only Smithing, at level 86, and slayer at 92, rank higher than my total level. something that seems strange but thinking about it, is it really uncommon? Even with 2 99s at lower ranks than my total rank it still seems odd to me, but really exemplifies the phrase I'd recently encountered.

Take a look at your own highscores and see whether you excel in one area or if you're a jack of all trades.

Something I've thought about for a long time is that I'm interested in so many things and try anything that takes my fancy that in my life I am a jack of all trades, and really only excel in one thing.

Today, the reason I'm writing this, having had it in my head for a long time is that I'm listening to the radio 1 masterpieces show from last night. In which they're playing the entirety of the Elephant by The White Stripes. An album that I've owned for a long time, and one that is by many peoples standards a truly exceptional album. This show, and the shows that are on all week are going to be very interesting and I'm going to try and listen to them all. Also, they played a clip from one of the White Stripes Peel Session, and realised how far I've strayed from what I always desired to do with my life, become a radio DJ, something that I'd still like to pursue, but something that doesn't really fit in with much. Given a chance ever I'd take it, but right now its not something I could do.

I'm a music fanatic, and I'm constantly attempting to discover new music, and other things in life, but the music is always there, and there's so much more music than I might ever be able to find that I enjoy. I continually post here on the metal thread as I adore metal, but I'm really a music nerd and follow alot of styles, and today we were talking about albums at lunch, and I nearly spoke for a long time about the music I enjoy. I have so much to tell but right now I'm going to leave it here and enjoy the rest of the album that I really don't listen to enough.

Thanks for reading.

Peace

I woke up today to turn my computer on and immediately found some where to watch the ufc event that was on. the event was good, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.

After that I went to the science centre and met up with a friend on the way so that we could explore the science centre and have some fun. I had a good time there and there was lots to do, lots of hands on stuff and it was exciting.

After that we went to get some dinner, well, it was my first meal of the day but it was about 6pm, and I had some amazing indian food and it was 7 different kinds of gloriously yummy.

We then went to 2 of the shopping centres to see what they were like because I'd not visited them before and really wanted to look in the music shops and have a good look round.

It was a good day, and now I'm way behind on my report writing, but oh well.

I've not really done much over the past few days. The last TKD session was on friday, and I got to say goodbye to everyone, and it was awesome.

Not much else to say.

Peace

I know I only wrote a blog yesterday and it was a crap one. I've been feeling up and down all day today, not really sure whats going on, but I'm up at the moment so I've decided to capitalise and write about what I've been doing.

Today I learnt to shoot for a takedown. Its remarkably similar to tackling people in rugby, except theres no ball, and its more likely that your takedown will fail, and the opponent will sprawl. Its incredibly fun, and I had a really good time at jiu jitsu today, despite getting beaten in my first round, the other ones I think went to a draw, but everyone kept grabbing my arm for kimura, and my shoulders are starting to get ruined. I'm glad the last session is next week as then I'll be know more techniques but I'll finally get to rest up like I should have instead of training with injuries.

Tomorrow will be my last session of Tae Kwon Do here, and I might not do it for a long time. I mean, I plan to train it again, especially as the clubs are quite common in the UK, but when I get back I know I'll have other things to train instead. The club has made me feel welcome, and introduced me to new ways of training, and most of all helped me make some awesome friends.

I'm still working on my other blog about the effects of martial arts on my life, I'm not sure if I'll ever finish it properly, but its something for me to work on for a long time.

My lab work is going ok, but I'm going very slowly. This week, as yesterday was a holiday, its been difficult to be productive, but I'm doing work on saturday so I should be getting more done, and as TKD is finishing tomorrow, I'll have my evenings free to work in the lab more and get more work done.

I'm listening to Apocalyptica right now, the album is Inquisition Symphony, my favourite of their albums.

Its only 3 weeks till I go home, but right now it can't get here soon enough.

Peace

Apples are yummy, I've said this before.

However, this isn't going to be about apples. I think the title might be a little misleading.

I'm currently trying to work on a big post about how martial arts have changed me, and how I cannot imagine my life without them, and how different my life could have been had I started martial arts earlier.

It's kind of a bit difficult for me to write it fast so I'll write some other things. This was one of the reasons I didn't post a blog yesterday. I'm finding it difficult to really sum up what I'm thinking, and its becoming hard to write at the moment.

I'll try to write tomorrow, and I should have lots to write. Today I've done nothing, a tiny bit of work, some running, and some kung fu, and some kick boxing, some scaping.

I just watched the last episode of the first season of How I Met Your Mother, its kinda a sad episode upon repeat watches, with the secondary story being way way more important than the one thats really trying to grab your attention. It kinda made me a little sad right now, and I really could do with being home soon.

Luckily I only have 3 weeks to go, and I'm sure it'll pass by quickly. I don't really want to leave here because of all the people I've met, and everything thats happened, but I miss home so much more than I desire to stay here its unbelievable.

This blog to me seems incoherent and scattered. I'm not happy with it, but I'll put it up because otherwise I'll have wasted my time, and I'll not be able to remember what I was going through.

Peace

This weekend has been awesome for sports, specifically the ones I follow. Rugby result kicked ass, England are doing well again, the UFC event wasn't a complete bore, and the F1 was exciting. Well done Vettel. I also followed the boxing results, but don't usually pay interest, and wasn't surprised to hear that people were complaining about the quality of both the main fights that happened.

I've been mainly following things and getting caught up on the world, rather than working on my report, but i'll definately be working on it properly this week. I found out that theres only 2 tae kwon do sessions left, so that'll reduce my distractions to report writing so I should be able to get lots done.

I've played quite a lot of runescape this weekend. I've levelled dungeoneering twice since yesterday morning, and I'm having a lot of fun with it. I'm still doing c6 meds solo, which I'm enjoying, and I've only had one bad floor, where I died 7 times. Its the only time i've died at all recently doing it, and it was all due to a Mercenary Leader, which was infuriating.

At the moment I'm really rating using a familiar to help win the boss fights, and nearly every floor they have been so incredibly useful, helping me feel confident in beating the floor boss then the final bits of exploration.

Aside from that I absolutely destroyed my 200 dagganoth task, and from mtk I got an easy clue scroll, which landed me a 75k reward for 3 very simple clues, which made me happy. I mainly focused on dungeoneering this weekend as I'm warming to it... and I want it to be on par with my other skills.

Hope everyone else is good.

Peace

Tonight I had durian for the first time. It was horrible. It didn't taste good, it smells bad, and the texture isn't particularly delicious.

Afterwards we had this other fruit, however we aren't really sure on its name but it was delightful.

Today and yesterday my lab work has been going alright, but I've been trying different things with reactions I've tried before with varying results. Some have been good and some have been bad. I've been working hard at writing up, and wish I'd also been writing up along with this blog so that I'd have a lot written, however that's not the case. This blog already had more words than I think I'll ever write in this report and I don't really like writing that much, but am getting used to it for this blog, which I feel has helped me no end.

Yesterday at Jiu Jitsu I had fun, and got beaten a few times and beat people a few times. Everything is fair and fun in training, and I really enjoy training. Tomorrow I'm probably gonna make a return to Tae Kwon Do as I've not been keeping up with it too much and not training nearly as much as I'd like. Saturday, I'm supposed to be circuit training with the american guys I know then writing during the day and then going to a concert style thing in the evening followed by yummy dinner at a very nice place.

Today I went for beer and potato wedges with my friends and really enjoyed myself, and slowly started talking more and more about me, which I'm not really used to.

I still really miss uk food, and my friends and really cannot wait to get home. But I've enjoyed this experience, however I'm not sure if I'd repeat it, but I'd definitely recommend it when I get back to those thinking about it for next year.

Nothing to write about runescape except that I know when I play next I'm more than likely going to do some runecrafting and use all the essence that I've got sitting in the bank.

Peace

Yeah, I'm counting down the days till I go home... and to be honest, right now I want to be home. I'm missing it a lot. I'm working hard to try and distract myself, and get more results that I actually need. The only thing I'm really looking forward to this week is tomorrows Jiu Jitsu session. I know it'll be good. One of the girls from the lab has gone away for the week to Australia, and although only 2 days have passed in the lab without her around its noticeable her not being there.

I've been working on my synthesis, and I think i actually did something wrong today, but not really sure where, and hopefully I just misinterpreted the data. I'll be looking at it carefullly tomorrow, and seeing what comes out of my reaction.

I've not played any runescape so I could try and get decent amounts of sleep, which has kind of helped. The hot water, although working last night for the first time in a week, is out again, and I hate cold showers.

I have a big plan for this week, but have no hope for completing everything.

This might sound a little strange but I hope I can work in the lab this weekend, as I should have lots of stuff to do, and it'd help me out so much.

I miss my friends, family, xbox, cold weather, cooking my own food, cheese, and my car. Actually cannot wait to get home.

I've had friday off as well so I've had a 3 day weekend, and I've done no exercise at all, not due to me really being that lazy, mainly due to the fact that I kept injuring my legs so thought I'd give them a week off, and really went for relaxation this weekend.

The being lazy part mainly comes into the amount of runescape I've played in relation the amount of work I've done and should have done this weekend. Friday started off very well, I wrote up a lot of my project reports results sections, but yesterday I didn't do anything, at all. The same was kind of true of today, but I atleast attempted to work, which was sucky because I soon realised that today I couldn't type without huge errors in what I was doing.

However, I'm slowly warming to dungeoneering, and luckily I've had no bad bosses today, and leveled from 58-60 solo med c6 dungeons. I also did some clue scrolls and set my herblore up so that when I do get round to it i'll get a nice lot of experience for it. From my clue scrolls I got a Sara Full helm, and some other nice things, like a full set of rune armour from one clue to another pair of Sara chaps. I'm being quite lucky at the moment with my clue scrolls, and hope my luck doesn't run out.

Now, I don't know if this is bad or if this is what other people do but I got a blue dragons task today, and I really couldn't be bothered to make it into about 20 trips and bank all the bones and hides, or 10 trips and bank all the hides and bury the bones, so I made it into 2 trips and buried all the bones and didn't bother with the dhides. As it turned out I earnt more from a clue scroll that I got from the task than I would have if I collected all the hides and sold them, so it turned out well. I also had my desert strykes task to finish, and i had 2 clue scrolls from that, and then the blue dragons task, but in between did some herblore, levelled that up to 83, then got a desert strykes task, of which i've killed one, before realising that i really should do some more dungeoneering.

Like I said, I'm slowly warming to the idea, and I'm beginning to enjoy it more and more, and killed 6 bosses today, did tears for an xp boost, which is more than i was getting for the floors i was doing and also went penguin spotting for another xp boost. As I got 60 I decided I'd go back to slayer for a bit, do some more of my task but completely forgot that I'd get another xp boost if i visited the resource dungeon, so I did, then went to set up for the Jungle Strykes, which are always a fun task for me.

I feel I'm finally having fun in runescape again, however it might be due to the fact that I've got a lot of work to do, and its there as a distraction, a huge, awesome distraction.

I'm just about to relax and follow the F1 race. Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Peace

So I forgot to blog on tuesday, and i felt pretty crappy about it.

I realised at about 3am, and i'd got to sleep not long before, and woke up, wide awake, but at that point i realised that it would be incoherent and really wouldn't help anyone so I made a decision to leave it.

This is currently my favourite song, and I'm learning the original version of it. Something about it is so captivating, and so drastic that it has had a profound effect on me during my time away, kinda leading me thinking of Singapore and what I've done here everytime I listen, and zombies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahyvWheMRkg

So, this week I've started right from the beginning of my synthesis again, but this time I'm really going for it, and am gonna see how it unfolds next week as I have tomorrow off, as it is a public holiday. I'm having fun again with my project, but tomorrow I need to spend the day writing as much as I can on this project so that I have less work to do in the future.

I went to jiu jitsu last night, and every single bout everyone went for my neck to choke me, even in disadvantageous positions, which was weird, but it was constant and tough every single bout. I'm still recovering from it now and I'm bruised all over, but I feel good.

I am only 5 and a half weeks away from returning home, and I have the biggest list of Xbox 360 games, albums and DVDs that I want to get when I get home. I think right now the highest on my list is Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, as I loved the original one ages ago, and this one looks incredible. Also, Splatterhouse, which looks like a lot of fun. I came across it accidentally, when looking up info on 5 finger death punch, and seeing that they had a song chosen for the soundtrack, which made me intrigued and then explored further and now cannot wait to see what its like. I'm also excited about the big games that are coming out, and have come out, so really can't wait to get back.

I went shopping with my friends this evening for a new backpack, which I got, then went out for some drinks, then managed to catch the second last train home, which was quite lucky, and had an awesome time talking about stuffs, and it was wicked.

Supposed to be having a busy weekend, but not sure how things will transpire. Hope everyone is doing good.

Peace

6 weeks today I will be spending my first day back in the UK, which I really cannot wait for.

However, I still have 6 weeks of lab work to do, and I'm kinda looking forward to it, but I've also got a lot of work to write up.

On the plus side, today I got 92 cooking, got 58 dungeoneering, yesterday I got a Zammy Dhide body, and completed my first elite treasure trail, raised my slayer xp, and had fun while playing, organised my bank, and am looking forward to playing runescape to relax, which I haven't felt like in a long time.

Although that being said, I still don't like dungeoneering.

I trained TKD on friday which was good fun, and landed a back tuck for the first time in about 2 months, admittedly it was my only attempt, but I can still do it. I ran about 6-7 miles yesterday, and it was good, but then today I wanted to run about 7 miles, but only managed 3 as my calves started to hurt bad enough for me to barely be able to stand right now.

I'm looking forward to this week, I need to collect some results tomorrow morning, and it should tell me what I did at the end of last week. I'm still unsure of how my project is going, but hopefully it'll be good.

Not really much else to write about.

Peace

Last night I took part in a mini jiu jitsu tournament, which was a lot of fun, and in one of the bouts I pulled off a sweet set of moves with some awesome transitions that got the praise of the instructors, which was very encouraging. I ended up 3rd of 6 in the tournament and was very happy with that, as the one person that made me submit already had 2 years of training, rather than the 7 weeks that i've had, and the person that came in second, beat me by decision after time was called due to him having consistently better positions. I won my other three, 2 by armbar, and one by kimura. Those victories were good, one of the armbars was revenge as well as the guy I was against, although my friend, defeated my by RNC a while ago. Now I get to have an awesome rubber match with him at a training session soon.

So my work is ruined. My project is over, and I'm not sure what will become of it for the next few weeks. I guess i'll find out my fate and the fate of my project tomorrow.

No runescape news.

I'm currently really enjoying training as its consistent and brilliant, but everything else seems to not be going so well. Oh well, things will start to look up soon, I'm running 12 miles at the weekend. Wooo.

Peace

So I've been in the lab the last two days, working incredibly hard to get my project rolling, but upon attempting the step I was at I couldn't progress any further no matter what I was doing, so I've had to call an end to the work I was focusing on and find a new way to reach what I'm after. Which is irritating as I was so close to completing as well.

So I got demotivated, didn't want to carry on, and eat crap for the rest of the day. But I didn't, I went to TKD, and I had a wicked training session, it helped me with my attitude to my project, and it gives me encouragement for the work that I'm about to do.

I changed my flight home so that I'll be able to spend my birthday with my friends for the first time ever i think, which I'm very much looking forward to.

I haven't played any runescape, I know I've got a jungle strykeworms task to carry out, which is fun, and i'm looking forward to doing it, but slayer seems to be the only thing I'm actually motivated to do at the moment. Oh well, such is runescape.

I've also been trying to get hold of one of my friends, but she's pretty useless, and I really wanna chat to her, but due to me being in a very different time zone I can't get hold of her at all. It's also annoying that I want to chat to any of my friends and at the moment I feel a bit redundant as I can't get hold of any of them easily, other than facebook, which I'm not too much a fan of, and I really need some friendly encouragement from them.

I've not really got much else to write, so I'll stop here for now.

Peace

So I'm back, after a week away in Japan, a weird week where I had someone to talk to at any time, and right now feel lonelier than I have in a long time as I didn't use my time to talk.

(I haven't slept much last night, but was determined to be fixed so I can start my week well, so this may all be a little strange with no flow but eh... I hope is at least a little coherent)

Japan.

An amazing place.

A place I adore.

Somewhere I don't know if I want to visit again.

I went to visit my sister and meet my dad, both of which I spent nearly all the week with, which was strange. I usually am alright with being around people, but not for prolonged periods of time, which is where my problems lie. Oh well. So, here I am, back in Singapore, feeling good about going into the lab tomorrow, looking forward to it, but feeling a little down that Japan wasn't as amazing as last time, but still, I've got something to talk about.

When in Japan I visited Nagoya, and one day went into the Valleys surrounding to visit a village called Hiraoka, which is an absolutely amazing place, and the scenery in that area is truly incredible, hopefully the picture I asked my dad to take will come out well, and I might post it on here.

I expected so much from Japan, but got so little, my love for electronics and gadgets is clearly not what it used to be, and the fact that everything is the same in their currency as last time, but its worth twice as much as last time, due to the exchange rate, was infuriating as everything was horrendously expensive.

The trip gave me time to think, not specifically about my work and what I'm doing right now, but where I want to be next year, what I want to be doing, how I'm just coasting through taking opportunities as they arrive rather than hunting them down, and how nothing ever goes the way I expect, not in a bad way, but in weird and drastically different fashion to what I expect.

Now I thrive to be brilliant at what I do, and give a solid effort with every thing I try, and I gave my all at Ultimate Challenge last saturday, before catching my flight. It was a serious camp with a 6 hour training session, which seemed never ending after the 3rd of the 5 major stations, especially when hunger kicked in, and everyone became a little de-motivated, but everyone kept everyone going and it was definitely one of my best experiences in Singapore. I want to apply what happened at this camp to everything, from the team work and constant encouragement to the positivity that everyone had, and the personal drive and my willingness to complete the task at hand. So much so that I'm gonna cut back on the martial arts, try and work at the weekend and really complete this project in 6 week that I have left here. I don't have too far to go, but at the same time I have a lot of work to do. I've got to do all the lab work, and a 40-60 page report on the work that I've carried out.

I'm still unsure whether to pursue a PhD or go get a Job so I can have some money for once in my life and feel like I'm doing well for myself. I have a ridiculous list of things I want, things I want to accomplish, and I feel I can do them, but at the moment it all feels a little overwhelming that soon I'll finish here, have 6 months to really decide and get on with my life.

Now this week I'm getting back into it, lab work begins tomorrow at 10 am, I'll get in then leave I reckon after 8 pm, then Run in the evening a big lap. Hopefully see my mates during the day and sort my flight back to the UK out and move it a week and a half earlier so I can get back to the UK and to Northampton, my home town, where my best friends are, for my Birthday... the only one I'll properly have spent with them... ever... so far I think...

I wonder how many of you read the whole thing. I thank you for reading. Even if its not many people I feel this blog helps me really externalize and locate anything that seems to be going wrong, as much for personal reference as for other people to read.

Now I'm tired, not sure what I've written, not sure if it makes sense. Hopefully a more sensible blog will approach on tuesday, but as for me, I'm off to bed.

Peace

So, unlike most people are expecting with a title like that, my blog will talk about cheating in games, but first something more fun/delicious.

Today I decided, as I'm going on holiday and I've been particularly good all week with all my food, despite double lunches and large amounts of food for dinner, that I deserve a day where I can eat crap food and as much of it as I like. So I'm having a cheat day, and so far I've had cookies, crisps, mentos, peanut m and ms, i'm just about to have sandwiches with peanut butter, jam and m&m like things, then skittles and finish off with some mints.

YAY!!

So, another topic, cheating in games. When I was young cheating in games seemed like it'd be fun, and usually the codes were unlocked after completing the game, however, upon reviewing how many games had cheats, and whether they were useful or not, it really detracts from the game. I'm also glad that some games did have cheats, like GTA3, where once you'd completed the game there wasn't much to do so getting a large arsenal of weapons with lots of ammo was only a few quick button presses away, this is specifically the only game i can remember actively cheating since I've been playing games, that wasn't banjo kazooie that gave you most of the cheats throughout the game. Now, looking back at it, I feel my experiences of those games have declines as the cheating might have detracted from any game that was potentially good. Things like being rewarded for completing a game however, like Stealth, or the Bandana from MGS was a reasonable item to use, as it showed that you'd already completed the game, and you actually earned this item that makes parts of the game significantly easier. However nowadays most people I know don't cheat in games, and I don't think there is as much scope for cheating since the introduction of achievements, like gamerscore and ps3 trophies, as it'd detract from actually earning these legitimately.

I have no idea if what I just wrote makes sense.

Oh well.

In other news, I'm going to Nagoya, Japan for a week, so my next post will be a week on Sunday, I think it'll be about the 24th.

Peace

So I've been in the lab yesterday and today and I know my reaction has been going on, and when trying to isolate my product it is elusive and is difficult to find. Now I'm trying my best to find it, but I'm having no luck, and its becoming infuriating. So at some points I fear I might have accidentally chucked it away, which would be terrible as either the product or starting material has only been made by me and theres only about 200 milligrams of it in my lab, and its unlikely that anyone else is working on the same thing as me. Now this is both exciting and irritating, as "Yay!! I'm the only one to have ever made this" is a particularly weird thing to say, and then you need to characterise everything to do with the molecule so anyone else who is after it knows what to look for.

Oh well. The new scape update looks alright, not what i was entirely expecting but I think i'll be using it sooner rather than later.

In tae kwon do today I had a lot of fun, but now both knees feel bust and its difficult to walk and a bruise is growing just below my ribs and its rather uncomfortable.

I feel like I'm putting weight back on, which is not fun, and I'm not enjoying it, but I'm getting stupidly hungry as of late, enough so that I had back to back lunches yesterday so that I could fill myself up.

Peace.

So I'll start with some good stuff. I got back to back dark bow drops yesterday, which was incredible and was followed by a d med drop a few kills later. I also got level 91 defence which I think means this was a pretty productive weekend.

Now the title argument that I'm so engrossed with at the moment.

Cameras.

Specifically people with 'expensive' cameras.

At the moment, to me at least, it seems like everyone wants to take up photography and everyone needs an SLR. I really don't understand the fascination. I feel that taking a photo of a moment requires a set up to need it to mean something, where as anyone i know is snap happy and things anything will make a good photo, no matter what its about or what it involves. Now, today, in my opinion was a perfect opportunity for people to take pictures, as we were at a nature reserve, where pictures of animals are to be expected. However, waiting for these pictures to appear seems a bit redundant to me. Actively hunting them seems more appropriate, however the whole concept of taking photographs still I find utterly confusing.

I hope I'm not alone in this matter, but I honestly cannot understand the reason behind everyone chronicling every single moment they spend doing anything.

So this weekend for me has been pretty amazing, I went to a nature reserve and have a video of me close up to a lizard and it was so much fun, and I hope i entertained everyone I was with, and we had such a fun time, then we went out and got potato wedges and beer, which was a really enjoyable night, and I might have ended up a little drunker than I thought i would have, but at least I posted my blog on the right day eh?

Peace

So this week, the people that I came to singapore with, my friends from southampton all went to Bali, they should be back tomorrow, and then we will all be seeing each other probably on Sunday. Now, I've been surviving by chatting to my friends online, and spending time with the people in my lab group, who are all excellent people, and all people I would call my friends now. However, upon spending time with nearly everyone today there is a clear split in the group, which is understandable, but hopefully nothing will come of it.

Currently I really miss all my friends in the UK quite a lot, and I really cannot wait to get home and see everyone, and as much as I try I seem not to even slightly be able to keep up with everyone as much as I like, but I keep trying.

My lab work is going well, and hopefully I've made enough for now to get a few steps closer to finishing, and I've explored some new things this week which was exciting.

As for runescape... Nothing to report, trying to think of a decent goal I can get motivated to do.

Oh well.

Peace

I love peanut butter!! Its delicious and yummy and one of my favourite things ever.

I've just got in from having dinner, and it was delicious, even though it wasn't peanut butter based. I had a vegetarian briyani set and an egg and cheese prata. Both were yummy and I ate it all. I can still taste the prata as it was brilliant. Admittedly it was a lot of food and i'm only now realising that i shouldn't have eaten that much.

We trained for 3 hours at tae kwon do today and did some motivation things at the end which were pretty cool. I've signed up for the clubs ultimate challange thats a week on saturday, which is from 11am to 10pm, then at 3 am sunday I'll need to head to the airport as I'm flying to japan, so that'll be a hell of a weekend.

Kickboxing has been fun, but I'm really enjoying the sense of belonging to a club that tae kwon do has. I'm joining the boxing club on their first session at the weekend to try and help out at founding the club which is something I feel I can help with.

I'm currently really enjoying 5 finger death punch sooo much, I don't think i can listen to their album enough.

I was playing some runescape, and even after 50 levels and the skill being out for quite a while now I still don't enjoy dungeoneering. I tried, and keep trying but I feel its way too combat based, and I know that I play on my own, and my character is a good level, but I really don't like the amount of combat with it. I went to kill lots of bronze dragons but didn't get any good drops, but I'm still trying to fish, but its dificult for me to get motivated to do something I dont want to.

I did a reaction in a microwave synthesizer this week, and so I'm currentlly investigating whats happened and whether I should keep using this methodology to help me get a good amount of product. The work up, like the filtration and purification is much better, I've eliminated a side product formation as well which is always good, and means my catalyst is pure, which I thought was a problem before, it just turned out that the reaction was crap.

Also, green apples happen to be the best thing on the planet to eat. I can't go 2 days without an apple at the moment, as they're delicious yummy and incredible.

Peace

This weekend I've spent working in the lab, only to find out my access to a vital piece of equipment has been revoked, which caused me untold frustration, as I can't analyse anything that I've made. And I spent today studying nearly everything that I learnt in my first year, which I seem to have forgotten a lot of.

I've been playing some runescape, I've caught about 500 fish, I've burnt some logs, I've done some hunter, and done some thieving, although I've done nothing on a big enough scale to have got anything of value out.

I've started making lists of everything that I want when I get home in a few months, they mainly consist of food I want to cook and eat, and albums I want to get.

I'm gonna keep doing something every day for the next 2 weeks until I go on holiday to Japan, so I'm really looking forward to that, and I'm gonna be working hard.

So I haven't played runescape in a week.

But I've done some work in the lab. And its going well. I'll be working and studying this weekend. Which, although it sounds boring I'm really looking forward to.

I realise when I get home theres so many different games I want to get. Namely Resident Evil 5, Black Ops, and some others. I really wanna get a ps2 again and get some games for that that i miss.

I don't really have much to write as I've been drinking this evening and am not thinking straight. Theres a big seminar tomorrow that i'm going to and looking forward too and my friends are going with me, I actually cant wait.

Oh well.

Peace

I currently don't want to put much effort into writing as I'm about to take my first warm shower in 3 days, then go to bed, and I really want my shower.

I started reading the Scott Pilgrim books as I mentioned before, and am currently getting all my friends here to read them. I've ordered the 3-6th books so when I'm really looking forward to recieving them. I got poetry for the poisoned through the post yesterday and am really enjoying it, but feel its not up to the standard that Kamelots previous album was, but further listenings may change my mind.

My work is going badly as I can't get motivated to do more work, but I really need to do some more work and get further as I've not progressed well at al recently.

I've only played runescape for 5 mins in the last 7 days I think, and all I did was move to piscatoris to fish some monks to set myself up for 90 fishing. It should be about 11k monks, which every 1k I'm thinking i'll burn 1k Maples to level Firemaking as well, but I might change to 500 monks, 1k maples.

Oh well.

Peace

I've just got in from the F1 GP here in Singapore, and it was one of the most exciting races I think I've seen, and I was in a grandstand of about 12-15,000 people, and the atmosphere was incredible, and the race so close.

I had such a fun weekend, the other races of the weekend were also brilliant, and the conditions really gave some spectacular races, and some crazy spins.

My friends got tickets to the qualifying and other things that were on yesterday so we all got together and checked things out, and it was lots of fun and I met some new people.

Also, I bought the first 2 Scott Pilgrim books, and read them, one a day, and then ordered the other 4 to be delivered soon. They are such fun to read, and they are so awesome!! I cannot wait for the movie to be released here at the end of october.

My head is in a myriad state right now so I can't think straight so I'm not going to write any more.

Peace

So last night I went to the BJJ session, and got choked twice pretty severely due to my resistance to letting myself give up easily. I actually cant remember the result of one of the grapples, but I know I lost, and it was the first loss I'd taken in the club. I'd won my first two, first by guillotine, with terrible technique, and the second by releasing an arm triangle after nearly gassing my arms (and afterwards finding out that i'd nearly made the other guy tap), retaining side control and securing a kimura. The next 3 bouts didn't go so well. Like I said I can't remember the outcome of the first loss, I know I tapped but I have no idea what to, the next came to the same guy, this time by triangle choke, after I accidentally went towards the wrong leg he sank the choke in deeper, I struggled until I was almost ready to go then tapped, I just couldn't get out. The next came to my friend that I'd met and can riff on the UFC with, and after he took my back early, about 3 mins later he finally sank in the RNC, the first person to secure that choke on me, but everyone else last night attempted, but I'd managed to avoid it.

During these bouts I got really bad abrasions on my arms that are significantly large bruises right now, and I've done something to my shin, it feels like one of the worst bruises I've ever had, but there is no sign of any skin damage. And in the last bout, when my opponent slid his arm across my face at one point he busted my lip open, which caused there to be some blood around, and my first blood injury in the club. I might have been beaten, but I feel I'm still learning and progressing well, and that nothing can hold me back.

Today I played some runescape, and got 80 mining, about 50k exp today, which was good then collected my mtk. I think the motivation is there if i want it, but if not I can be very lazy.

I've been slacking at work something atrocious, but I think everything will pick up next week, as I'll be working hard, but tomorrow I'm off to the city centre to enjoy all the festivities of the F1 GP for the whole weekend. I hope to get lots of pics and maybe some videos.

Peace

Edit: Upon reading a thread in off topic just now, and feeling like that thread is getting nowhere productive, I want to post my ideas here, rather than using a post in that thread.

The vegetarianism post in off topic kinda got on my nerves, as people are throwing incorrect facts around about the subject, and some people were posting things that made no sense at all, like one post claiming that if vegetarians aren't eating protein then they need iron supplements. As a chemistry student this sounds preposterous, as protiens are complex carbohydrates, made predominantly of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, and have nothing to do with iron. And some vegetables contain large enough sources of iron, spinach is the first that comes to mind.

So I'm a vegetarian, I've always been a vegetarian, I'm not interested in eating meat, I have no problems with others eating meat, I believe its a choice everyone has. I'm a healthy person, a little overweight by my own admission, but I'm currently on a diet that I've formulated myself, and I'm happy with how its working. I've never had to take supplements, I've never been deficient of anything, and I've never felt that anything is missing in my diet.

I don't push vegetarianism on anyone, as I believe doing this perpetuates the pushy vegetarian image that everyone knows of. I've met some people who actively try to get people to stop eating meat, and I found that they're misled with a lot of the facts that they've accumulated, and despise their attitudes towards this. It also occurs that people who eat meat might be unaware of how things work and what goes into the food that they eat. While I know that I'm relatively uninformed of accurate information, I can tell when something isn't sounding right, like many things being posted in that thread.

So I've been trying to get motivated to play runescape a bit more, but due to my real life I'm having problems trying to find time, but thats good, right?

Well, runescape is one of the two games that I have to play here, so its nice to relax and play. But, I'm also trying to loose weight and get it better shape, but that seems to me to be taking over my life. I'm struggling to find a balance between the 2, and the work that I'm also carrying out, not to mention my poor financial situation, aren't really helping.

My lab work is alright, although things are still not being as good as they could be.

My motivation for getting in better shape is that I want to have something to show from being away and working hard at things, and so far I've lost 20 lbs, and am now 11 st, which I am very pleased with, but I still know I could loose more.

Fueling me for my work is the desire to get a paper published this year, and have get a high mark for my project report.

But I'm having a hard time trying to figure out a reason to motivate me to play runescape at all.

In other news, I have a 3 day weekend coming up for the Singapore GP, and am very much looking forward to it as it looks to be an exciting event happening. Also, UFC 119 is coming up, and I'm looking forward to one of the fights specifically, but it looks like the whole card should be thoroughly enjoyable.

Peace

Not much to say. My grandfather died yesterday morning. Made me sad, not really done anything worth mentioning, just trying to deal with it being so far from most friends and family.

RIP Grandad.

Peace