topham

Tron Legacy Soundtrack By Daft Punk Thoroughly enjoying it

So tonight I packed all my stuff up, took my guitar apart and threw out a lot of crap. It's only a day and a half until my flight, and I cannot wait to get on that plane. I'm unsure what to do about this blog when I get home, as I'll be very busy for the next few weeks, but will try and write as and when I can. I'll try and update like usual, but that might not happen, but I can try. I've been doing no work, and I've finally collected all my data and got feedback on everything I've written and so I've really got nothing to do tomorrow but clean up in the lab. I'm kinda distracted right now. As I've still got stuff to do cleaning my room wise, and its nearly 1 am, and I need to sleep, and then tomorrow will be a little emotional I think. I'm not looking forward to saying bye to anyone at all. I'm not very good at it either as much as I just smile and don't look like I'm sad to be leaving them. I'm up to the addy defender now on scape, the update was released too early for my liking, given I'd only just started to get the defenders up to rune, but oh well. I hope to get the rune and dragon ones soon. Peace

Over the last few days I've had a lot of fun. On sunday I went on the singapore flyer and had some awesome food, which was unfortunately followed by a rough headache, but the evening was a lot of fun (thats the reason for the missing blog). I've then been in work the last 2 days, completed my data collection, then went out to Din Tai Fung for dinner tonight, which is the best chinese/taiwanese food i've ever had, seriously incredible. I'm going out tomorrow night for potato wedges and beer, before saying good bye to my american friends that I met here, and might not see again, as well as a someone we met from the uk. I'm also going out on thursday night with the people from my lab for the last time. Yesterday I got 98 hp, and a Guthix Kite. It was pretty epic and I was very excited. I'm working on getting a rune defender. I'm amazed that I haven't had one before, but it gives me something to do. I only have 3 days left of work now, and I've nearly done everything I need to. Not finish all the work and make what I was supposed to but nevermind. I'm flying home on Saturday and I've done everything here in singapore that I wanted to do. I'm sad that I'm leaving but at the same time I cannot wait to get home. Also, its less than a week until my 22nd Birthday =) which I will be celebrating at home for the first time in 4 years I think, and I hope for the first time in 5 years that there will be cake. Also all my friends are coming over hopefully and then we will get drunkard. Wooooo!! Actually more than a lil bit excited. Peace

I cannot listen to mutiny within enough apparently. I'm listening to the first track - Awake - for the 24th time since I got the album about 2 months ago. Thats easily doubled in the last week as I've had the song stuck in my head. Its incredible as well so its not a bad thing. I've been trying to get a lot of work done this week in the lab but have accomplished very little really. I handed in a draft of my report, still haven't heard anything back about it, so I'm gonna ask some of the people in the lab to have a look over it. I've also been trying to prepare a presentation but it's not going well at all and I'm supposed to give the presentation next week sometime. I've been playing some runescape and its been fun, actually enjoying it right now. Don't really want to dwell on it. I've just caught up with the whole season of the ultimate fighter, which was good, looking forward to the fight on saturday, especially as the integration of the lighter weights seems to have already begun. I went out last night and had some beer. It was good, and tomorrow I will do the same. I'm continually surprised at my ever increasing tolerance of beer, which is exciting. Peace

A week on saturday I fly home. Right now, with all the work thats going on, and the stress that i'm feeling it cannot come soon enough. Right now I'm afking my slayer task, got 172 dark beasts. Got a dark bow. Will be easily able to kill all of them in 1 trip. One of the easiest tasks in my opinion. I'm less than 100k away from 98 HP now as well, so thats a level I'm working towards now as well. I'm feeling a little distracted right now. I'd forgotten to write until my friend reminded me. Its midnight here right now, but I haven't been out of the lab for 2 hours yet I was there for so long today. I'm demotivated to do my work however I have handed my first draft of my project report in and am waiting for feedback on it. Not got anything else interesting to say. Peace

I'm nearly finished watching Airplane! I love this film.

Yeah!! I got 93 slayer today. It was awesome. I also had 2 clue scrolls, and sold a hexcrest. A pretty successful day. Made a lot of money. I've been out for dinner and had the most amazing time. Sure at times I was a little offensive, but it was excellent really. I'm pretty excited about the next few days, as I've not specifically got much to do but I'm hopefully going to be busy but also have an awesome time. I spent yesterday at the girls I'm here withs lab, and was rather productive and got a lot written. Hopefully can finish off writing this week and get the rest of the data collection that I need. Don't really want to write much more as I've had some pretty outstanding beer this evening and very much feel like sleeping. Peace.

So right now, I have a plan for this week, and I'm so far off it its silly. I'm no where near where I want to be with my work, and with only 2 weeks left, I'm never gonna finish my work. I'm currently planning out my first week back in the UK, and really looking forward to doing it. After talking to someone today I got truly excited as I haven't seen her in about 9-12 months, which really makes me want to get home sooner than I am going. But oh well. I've not really got much to say tonight. I kinda overflowed with words in my last blog. I finished my fire giants task earlier in the week, then got daggs, which is the easiest task ever, was hitting 570s which was epic fun. Other stuff was also done. I had my last session of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu this evening. It was good fun, and at the end of the session I said gooodbye to everyone, and it was wicked. I did want to write a lot earlier, but after that session I really calmed and really lost the mood I had earlier in the day, but today has been good. Nothing else to say. Peace

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

Things we Share - Inja. Excellent song, excellent album. Shame they called it a day after their first album, and didn't really get any large following.

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

Stinkfist - Tool

I have some Audio Technica headphones, the ATH-A55 and I got them 3 and a half years ago, but they're discontinued now. They still work, I use them for everything, listening to music, watching movies, recording music, specifically guitar, best headphones I've ever owned. I'm amazed they still work given how much use I get out of them. I think I paid about £40 for them, but I did get them in Japan when I went previously and the exchange rate then was very good in comparison to now. If I really want to get a good grip on a new album I'll listen to it on those headphones before playing it out on speakers so I get really immersed in the music and appreciate it. They haven't let me down yet, and have no sign of giving up. The 1.5m cable also helps as its a sturdy cable so it shows no real sign of any damage at any point. When they do eventually give up I will have to replace them, more than likely with a new model of the same style as I'm so pleased with them.

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

Very interesting race. Petrov was absolutely essential in that race and drove incredibly. I did not like what Alonso did following the race, was incredibly childish in my opinion. I think Webber was smart for not pushing up and trying to take Alonso for most of the race. This season has been absolutely incredible.

Awake - Mutiny Within

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.

Today my hot water got turned back on. Its been off for a week. Now I'm off to have a glorious hot shower.

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

I actually haven't had a chance to listen to the whole album that that tracks off, but their album Slania is some of the best folk metal I think I've ever heard. I cannot get enough of Mutiny Within right now, I'm listening to their album very regularly, so heres the first track, which is also one of my favourites. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvWDFGuBD_Y Found out that Oceano have a new album coming out this week, but i'll have to wait for it till I get home, as I absolutely cannot afford it right now. Their first album stuck me as complex and a brilliant listen and was similar in style to Gojira, but was not a straight rip off of them, and was a solid release last year. Also, Deathspell Omega are releasing their 3rd part of their trilogy of albums, which I'm inexcusably excited about, but again I'll need to wait. The band has an air of mystique around them, and don't have their own website, but their albums are pure black metal, with an insane atmosphere on their previous effort Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeturnum, that I found truly terrifying at points, but was an incredible album I'd recommend to any black metal fan.

Jenson Button is a lucky man. Glad he's ok after his car was shot at by an armed gang on his return to his hotel last night. Link to report on the express website I didn't manage to see qualifying however I was following it online, and I'm surprised at the time Hulkenberg put out, amazing pace. Also, I really wanted to see Webber win this season, as he's the only one of the 3 drivers that I like thats in with a chance. Hopefully he'll have a good race and finish ahead of Vettel, but I don't like how RBR are favouring Vettel.

May as well post this, its been stuck in my head the last few days, and its pretty awesome, in my opinion. Eluveitie - Thousandfold http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb8WGig0MLU Yes, weird instruments!! And they rule live, caught them and was pleasantly surprised and their music grew on me, fantastically fun band.