Problems, problems, problems....! All I wanted to do tonight was fight with swords! All I wanted to do tonight was update about fencing, but it looks like politics are set to rip the Fencing Club apart! Basically Paul, our coach, wants to teach the club the best way he sees fit. He's an experienced fencer and coach and knows what he's talking about and I don't disagree with his methods. Problem is, he wants to teach the club in 6 week courses. According to the club committee (and they're right) the Student's Union says the club has to allow anyone who wishes to participate, to participate. Paul wants to stop people from joining, say, 2 or 3 weeks in (after missing the starting classes) and have them come back when he starts the next batch of beginners classes. If the club weren't a University club, this would be the norm, but cos its part of the Student Union it has to abide by the SU regulations! This has led to arguments between Paul and (Sabre) Dave, who's club chairman. Paul has said that its his job to teach fencing in a safe and professional way and if the SU won't let him do that, they'll have to fire him! I happen to think he's right... the problem is the SU rules (like Sith) deal in absolutes and he can't refuse to acknowledge them, but he is really stubborn and won't back down! As a result our club is on hiatus, until further notice! No training, no lessons, no nothing! Which sucks, especially cos we are fencing in the British Universities Sports Association (BUSA) leagues and most of the team are inexperienced. I have the experience but am rusty, and with no coaching.... well, we will probably get our asses handed to us! I didn't come here to have my ability to fight with swords decided in a committee! I hate politics! I hate bureaucracy! Gaaaahhh

The rest of the week has been relatively straight forward! We've started class and have found that Takako seems to expect us to possess fluency levels akin to N class at NUFS! Maybe higher...?! She had us watch a video on a Japanese historical figure, Shirasu Jirou, who was a major player for the Japanese during the post WW2 US occupation of Japan. We had to answer questions on this video as part of a homework project.. problem is the majority of this video was way beyond any of us! As a result the entire UCLan NUFS alumni (being myself, Balex, Kate, Sandra, Alison and Yann) gathered round Kate and Balex's and watched this video over and over and over until we had weaned just enough info out of it to give some vague answers. We did OK but if thats what all our projects are gonna be like from here on in... (Points fake gun to head. Pulls trigger! Bang!)
I've spent most of the rest of my time round Balex and Kate's, but engaging in decidedly more enjoyable activities! We have pledged to watch all 6 Star Wars movies in chronological order. We reached A New Hope (Ep. 4) today. Balex and I have been playing Star Wars Lego consistently and have recently moved on to Star Wars: Battlefront 2. Same plans for tomorrow I reckon. We do a lot of NUFS reminising and sure do miss everything! Kate has even been setting about creating "Neverwinter NUFS" on her laptop! Its unlikely but if any of you can make it over this year, do it! (Holly...! Mario...! ) We will, we must, meet again!

Until then, Peace Out! Everyone! "Because of Obi Wan...?"

Today is Cass' 22nd Birthday! Well, in Australia it won't be today for much longer but since her present is gonna be way late its in keeping with a theme I got goin on here! Though she has (unconvincingly) protested the posting of this birthday message, here it is! Tanjoubi Omedetou!!!
Ya'll know her Xanga, or there's always her LJ in my links! Do the appropriates...!

OK! I shall sign off here... big fencing update tomorrow! I'll try'n explain this whole hitting-people-with-swords business and fill ya'll in on my weekend of competing! Until then....

Peace Out! Insert song lyric here!

..... Ahaaaaaaaa!!! Finally I get connected! I've been arsing around with different wires and password-encoded wireless signals trying to get this set up all week! Finally I can recount my first, highly eventful and definitely trying, week back in Preston, as I sit in my shiny new dorm room eating chips and fried chicken. First off, it took me 3 and a half hours to get here cos the bloody M6 motorway was beset with queues every 5 minutes. This is a journey that normally takes me 2 hours or so (1 hour 45 mins one time)  and the delays meant I missed the dorm's office opening hours. Luckily, security let me in and gave me my keys, despite this being against regulations! Its refreshing to experience common human decency instead of anal, by-the-book bureaucracy for once! And the long journey did give me time to listen to all 4 Muse albums (in no particular order!) No sooner was I unpacked than my fencing coach Paul calls me demanding a night out! It would seem he's been looking forward to reliving the fencing club social glory that was my 2nd year! He was most disappointed to learn that I've abandoned my alcohol-powered psycho-antics and gone all straight edge! We hit The Warehouse (not Balex and Kate's dorm but a nightclub of the same name) for their alternative rock night. I had a good time, alcohol free, and the second floor suited me perfectly. (Its the emo/alternative/punk floor!) Thankfully Preston does have a couple of places that cater for my music tastes, inspite of its largely chav population!
I jumped back into fencing that Saturday, taking on the most gifted fencer at Paul's club. I felt the rust pretty badly, mainly in my movements as my  right leg gave out on me during our match! I managed (just) to scrape a 15-14 victory! We have been fencing outside the Student Union this week, to drum up interest in the Fencing Club. Sabre Dave and I have put on some truly barnstorming sabre fights and I'm finding my form starting to return. I'm jumping in at the deep end this coming weekend by entering the Ashton Open, which often attracts some of the top fencers in the North-West of England! On Sunday I drove Paul and some others to a competition (as his clutch had broken) and this is where the fun begins again! The rain was torrential... so bad I could barely see 10 feet ahead. We had just turned off the motorway, onto the slip road, when I had to drive through a huge pool of water that pulled my car to a near halt! That was when some doosh-bag white van man rammed into the back of me! Hit and ran too, so no insurance details. Any Britisher will know of the reputation white-van-men have in this country... as my Mum was married to one for all of 18 months I can honestly tell you its all true! They are arrogant wankers!!! This experience just compounds that impression! The summary of the long and boring process that followed the crash was that I drove my battered car back to Preston but am basically looking at a write-off! Bloody hell!!!  Still, I have fully comprehensive insurance so hopefully they'll pay out.  This might turn out OK actually... My car was due for the scrap heap soon anyway and I do need extra money...!!
I've been feeling pretty crappy, health-wise, too! Standing around in the rain surveying the damage to my car and waiting for a white van to pull over and swap insurance details (which never happened) has left me with a stinkin' cold and fencing with said cold has me aching all over! Luckily classes haven't started yet as its still Fresher's Week. In for our first Japanese meeting tomorrow... I'm not looking forward to it! My already lame Japanese abilities have been further compounded by a summer of noone to speak to and inspite of my efforts to study nikyu grammar this summer, I know that Takako's presence will have me freeze up and forget everything in a heartbeat! No doubt the others will be fine too! I swung by Balex and Kate's apartment during the week, as you may have read on Balex's xanga! I was indeed shot in the arm by a "mystery" sniper and have sworn to hunt down said sniper and cut my initials into his torso!
Thats pretty much the sum of this week.  Wish me a better week, beginning this Friday! I could do with some luck at this weekend's competition. I'm gonna try and enter foil and sabre... I'm a foilist traditionally, but I do love the sabre action! I guess I should do a full update on fencing sometime, so ya'll know what I'm on about. Well it'll have to wait... I gotta shower...

Peace Out! sXe forever!!!

OK... so the time has come! Tomorrow I'm heading up to Preston for the start of my 4th and final year at UCLan. Its weird cos no matter how many times I do this, and regardless of how far I've travelled, uprooting and moving on always feels slightly painful. When I returned from Japan I eagerly awaited this moment... mainly cos it would resemble my life in Japan more than living at home! But now Japan feels so far away and I am feeling pretty lousy, for reasons varied and unmentioned! I marvel at people who are able to uproot and move around so often. Everytime I do it I feel like curling into a little ball and shaking quietly in a corner! I often wish we could all just move to one place where everything and everyone we need and love will be and stay there. Its not quite so melodramatic... once I'm there it'll be fine. Its mainly other stuff playing on my mind right now, making the stress of moving seem much worse than it is...

I'll keep this one brief! I hope my internet will be instant and easy to set up, however, in light of any potential problems I may not be online for a bit. As soon as I'm settled and have my laptop working I'll update! One more possible spanner in the works concerns chibi-pic wantin' people. I won't have a scanner readily available so I won't be able to get pics to people so easily. If I find a scanner on campus, I'll use that. Otherwise it'll have to wait til I come home, when that happens. Same goes for drawings on my ill made knight xanga!

Well, so long. Wish me efficient internet set-up and no more speeding fines!

Peace Out! Catchya later (but rather, sooner!)

Bloody hell!!! OK! How do you top off a relatively pleasant day of walks in the country and stupid movies!? If you're David Benjamin Moss (that would be me, btw!) you get yourself a nice speeding fine and potential driving ban just days from having to drive 112 miles up the country to attend your final year of University! I live in hope now that the 6 points on my licence will not qualify me to be stripped of my licence (the website says 12 points are necessary) but dread the inevitable fine that will further wound my bank account, which is already on a respiratory system and taking its food through a plastic tube! (Doctors fear the worst!) Time for a rant about the UK speed laws, methinks...!

Anyone who lives here in the good ol' U of K (OK, that doesn't work...) will know all about speed cameras. They are posted on virtually every roadside in the country, awaiting some overzealous fool to do, say, 40 mph in a 30 mph zone! (Looks around conspicuously...) The theory is to deter drivers from speeding and punish those who do. I can't argue with that as a theory... its just many believe the real reason behind them is not speed deterrence at all. Rather they are designed as yet another way for the government to snatch more cash out of the people's pocket! Many cameras are strategically placed where drivers are most likely to be going above the limit, not necessarily in areas where said speed might endanger lives. Speed limits are generally fixed too. It makes no difference what time of day it is. The fact is, I was doing 40 in a 30 zone near a school... thus I can totally understand the need for safety in this area. However, it was 11:30 at night! No kids. No anyone! Whats more, said camera is positioned at the bottom of the hill, after the school gates! Whilst a car coming in the opposite direction, that would need to slow down before the school, will be about to drive uphill, which should do the job of preventing them from hurtling past said school at 40! Anyone caught by the camera coming the way I was will already have painted their car in "hint of teenager" by the time the camera flashes to tell them they are endangering lives! And since the camera is at the bottom of the hill, gravity will be aiding in that whole "going fast" thing! Smells like "screw the public" to me. The fact is, everyone goes over the limit! The national speed limit is 70 mph yet on the motorway, you can be doing 75 and have every last car zipping past you! What makes a driver a threat is carelessness, not speed. Had it been day and there been a real chance of my speed being a danger, I would have been doing the appropriate speed and, more importantly, driving with the due care and attention needed not to kill anyone! It was night. There was noone around. Bah! Grrrrr!!    OK, OK! I should probably just admit I did wrong and take it! In fact, I have been done for the exact same offence before! (D'oh!) I am not the most restrained driver in the world! I am a bit of a speed freak! I know and appreciate the need for laws on speed. Nothing is more important than someone's life. Its just I wish the world would use more human judgement and rely less on generalised and inflexible laws! Problem is... I am defiant. Always have been! I've just gotta fight the system!!! Its a sickness.....! Ahhh well! Hit me with the fine and get it over with!  

The day had been good before all that! Nathan, Dave (Hallrus) and I went to Bradgate Park, an area of woodland in neighbouring Leicestershire for some of that English countryside y'all hear so much about (I apologise for my use of "y'all"! It was wrong of me.) Poor old Dave is not really the outdoors-y type! We then took in the new DOA: Dead Or Alive movie! (And the reason for my title finally becomes apparent!) What can I say....? It was baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!!! Really bad! (Apparently, when a ninja leaves their clan, they become a "shinobi"! If you know anything about ninja, you will be laughing as hard as Nathan and I did! It would appear they have the same researchers as the guys who made Mortal Kombat!) Hey, it was entertaining enough, and better than the Streetfighter movie, at least! I had been after some goofy action entertainment and I got my wish, although I had been hoping for more on the action and less on the goofy! Oh well. It made me smile, at least until that speed camera zapped me! At least I have now found a song which seems to be able to cheer me up, whatever mood I'm in. Thats a good thing, right...? Matt....? Dani....? You want me to be more positive? I should listen to this song, right...? Well, here we go...

 "There you go
You're always so right
It's all a big show
It's all about you

You think you know
What everyone needs
You always take time
to criticize me

It seems like everyday
I make mistakes
I just can't get it right
It's like I'm the one
you love to hate
But not today..."

I love ya peeps! Later! "...Soooo  Shut Up, Shut Up, Shut Up! Don't wanna hear it..." 

Bored! Boooooooooored!!!    I'm not feeling quite as brooding as I was, but there's a whole lack of stimulation and motivation still going on with me. This time last year, I arrived in Japan for the first time! I saw I House for the first time and over the next few days had brief encounters with people, many of whom would become like family to me, and who I assumed wouldn't (or didn't) like me! Now, a whole bunch of newbies will be getting settled in for their NUFS experience and I envy them for it! I envy me of last year more so, cos I know exactly the experience he's gonna have! I haven't long til I head back to Uni and I'm hoping that'll give me the structure and sense of purpose that I need right now! On the other hand, I keep wondering if the intensity of my Japanese experience has moved me to a place where the day to day stuff that used to keep me occupied just ain't cuttin' it anymore! Its a difficult position to be in, cos right now I haven't much of a choice! I was doin' OK before.. channeling my Japan-found energies into my life here, but its wearing thin. I think its time I moved on from these last remnants of my old life. Its long overdue to be honest, its just been made all the more obvious having returned. I keep arguing with my Mum, over issues as trivial as my taste in music ("they're just screaming...!") and washing the dishes to broader topics such as religion and immigration! I'd like to say we could discuss these things in an intelligent, thoughtful manner but she insists on basing her opinions on uninformed "them and us" style reactions and getting shrill and defensive everytime I challenge her. I swore I'd never be the kind of student who gets all smart-ass/know-it-all with people on every little issue but damn, I can't let this stuff slide! Its not just my often strained relationship with my mother, but the fact I don't feel entirely myself, living under a parent's roof anymore. I guess that's natural, all things considered and, like I say, long overdue! So yeah! Getting out is a big must right now!

At least I'm over my cold, bar the occasional need to hack my lungs out, and continue to work away at my "Star Wars: Sarv's Game" character designs and some Japanese revision now and again. I gotta get my enrollment sorted (its all online this year!) and call my dorms to let them know when I'll arrive, and if they can have my internet connection ready to go when I do. I'm planning on moving in around the 20th and don't wanna have a week or so of computer headaches before I can get online! Heh! Knowing my relationship with all things computer, that'll probably happen anyway! I'm also awaiting the start of JET applications at the end of this month. I'm determined to return to Japan and it is as good a job as I can find! Its a weird feeling...! For the first time in my life I'm applying for a job I actually want!!! Admittedly, if I didn't have friends there now, and the hope of more heading out there later, I probably wouldn't be so psyched to do JET! I don't think I could face Japan on my lonesome. Still, its a decent, well-paid job, a good oppurtunity to improve my Japanese, and being able to be with some of my NUFS family again clinches the deal! I need out of the country too! I think you know you've got the travel bug when you see an airport on TV and get all nostalgic!

Not much to say here! Like I say, I'm kinda brain-fried! I've been going through the occasional bout of insomnia which usually occurs when I lack clarity of thought and/or emotion. Towards the end of Japan it happened a fair bit. May have something to do with periods of transition, states of uncertainty...! I find I'm able to lose myself in work or play to some extent, but I'm definitely still feeling a disturbance in the Force...

Until my next bout of blogging... Peace out! "Breath in for luck. Breath in so deep..."

Some My Chemical Romance there. I wish I could write lyrics that express my feelings as well as these do! I've been finding new potency in a lot of songs I've always liked recently and wishing I'd written them myself, cos in some cases, I couldn't have expressed myself better than with the songs in question! *sigh Thats right! In light of my limbo-like existence, ever present concerns over the past, present and future and the crappy cold my brother has kindly decided to share with me, I've been launched into sad introspective mode again! Jeez.... I swear I must be bipolar or something! Scroll down to the last 2 posts and compare them to this one... you'll see what I mean! Jeez! What the hell is my problem!?

So here it is. I sit at this computer everyday. I look forward to it! I check my e-mails, I read any new comments on my Xanga, I check everyone else's Xangas... I may do this 3 or 4 times a day! Its not like I do this to the detriment of anything else! If I have stuff to do, or plans with a friend, I do them. I draw, I do some Japanese revision, I watch some TV, listen to music, play video games.... but I miss people! I miss the life we had together. The impact of that year has been quite profound, I found many valuable things that year, myself included, I think! And now... well I'm not sure. I go through optimistic phases, I get to talk to Cass and Mario just about everyday at the moment and when I do get to talk to, or get e-mails from Rob, Sarven, CAlex, Matt or Dani, or see a new comment on my Xanga from anyone out there, I feel genuinely happy! I feel stoked, connected, still in touch with that new lease of life NUFS, and my brief trip to the States after, gave me! But NUFS set a certain precedent in terms of my relationships with the people I'm close to. Yes, we aren't all at I House anymore and our relationships have adapted to accommodate for that... but when you saw people everyday, people you now think of as family..... lets just say 4 or 5 days can feel like a lifetime! And during that lifetime my cursed INFP Introverted Feelings take several laps round the emotional track, often in the wrong direction! Love, energy, loneliness, anger, frustration, sadness, joy, hurt, lost, found, concern, apathy, fear, loved, ignored...!!! Connected one minute, disconnected the next. Part of something, then alone! As usual, I'm being utterly self-absorbed, I know that not everyone has the time to be on a computer, and like people have nothing better to do than e-mail me every other day or so, even if they did!!! One of these days I'll get over myself...! Not today though...

I sometimes wonder if it is the INFP's destiny is to always be alone, at least from their point of view!? At least some INFP's....? OK, not INFPs, just me! I realised that at I House, at NUFS in general, I got exactly what I've always wanted in life. I returned and realised for the first time ever, I wouldn't exchange my life with anyone! I was happy I was me! Weird! But now NUFS is over....! The people are still a part (a huge part!) of my life but even short periods without contact make me wonder if I'm supposed to have that feeling again. I'm not holding onto NUFS or I House, but I am holding on to the ways it made me grow, and the relationships which continue to cultivate that growth. I fear to lose them, losing the "self" that I became with them. Yoda would say "let go of that which you fear to lose!" but Yoda can shove it!!! I'll go Sith, if thats your attitude! I reckon I am already, actually! If something helps you grow, be happy, be the person you want to be, its natural we will hold onto it. Thats growth. Thats life! Unfortunately, Yoda's words (or stuff similar) gets to me. It makes me wonder if I am too reliant on my feelings, my love for people...? More lyrics that have moved me lately... Muse: "Starlight"! I love this song...

I don't question whether its worth it... I do question whether I can have it! Ahh well.... Back to Uni in a couple of weeks! I've been looking forward to it, but right now I'm just feeling out of step again. I'm worried what level of proficiency Takako will expect from me, especially in light of BAlex and Yann having been in higher groups at NUFS and way better than me. Sandra and Kate were/are way better than me too, and they were in my class! I just wonder how I'll fit back in to that life! Its been an unusual experience, coming home and finding yourself all "moved on"! I wonder how UCLan, post-NUFS will feel? Time to bring this sad post to an end... Whats more I'm so hungry it physically hurts...!

Peace and love people! Especially the love... please!?

Time for another NUFS Birthday shout out! Today is Mr. Sarven McLinton's 23rd birthday!!! Sarv is possibly (nay, probably) one of the coolest people ever and someone I consider, along with Matt and several others, a trans-global brother! Sarv is 5'6" of fiercely disciplined karate killer and a toilet humour master! Don't cross him or he'll kick your ass then call you a poo-poo head! Since at the time of writing this entry, it is likely around 8 pm in Adelaide, so it may be tomorrow by the time he reads it but "Tanjoubi Omedetou Gozaimasu Saruben! (Monkey Poop!)" Go wish him Happies on his Xanga, why don'tcha!? And yes! Here's some more photos! And yet more excellent memories!

As for me, still no work! But I have been drawing my ass off! I think I'm developing callouses where the pencil rests on my fingers! Its all good, though. I haven't drawn this much since I quit Art School, and I've never been this consistent! I'm on fire, its awesome! Maybe I've finally found the confidence in my abilities to stop dismissing everything I do as crap and ditching it after one slightly askew line, maybe I'm just inspired by this past year of friendship and adventure, maybe its both those things and more! At present I'm doing character designs for the Star Wars RPG I played with Sarven, CAlex and Holly, though I'm under orders for yet more chibi-pics and notions of the I-House X-Men and Were-forms are flying around (mostly from Mario!) Not that I mind. I'm glad I've got so much conceptual material to work with. I'll eventually post them on my "ill made knight" Xanga, but I can e-mail people stuff if they want copies (or they can copy and paste! Its served me well!)

There's no Matt and Dani update, cos its not necessary! The albeit sporadic WiFi connection in their apartment has been providing them with enough connection time to make an update in person! Matt's gonna update real soon, I'm told. And its looooooooooong! And it should be! Hmmm... maybe I just ruined a surprise....? I guess I could delete that last bit......but, Naaaaaaahh!! Ho! In other news, Kate has a Xanga! Say "Hi!" Shoot the breeze, chew the fat, and so forth!

Sarv, once again, "Happy Birthday!" Glad you enjoyed the Vader card (its Darth Vader! What's cooler than Darth Vader!?) and that thing you pulled on your bro was cool! From the Simple Plan CD (ahhh.. guilty pleasures!) I suggest we learn "Shut Up" off by heart so we can tear up our next karaoke together with the sheer might of our obnoxious, whiny pop-punk stylings! And you know Matt is gonna LOVE it!!! Climb Mount Fuji, a week or so of Star Wars with obligatory karaoke! I can't frickin' wait!!! I miss everyone, but I want to miss people so I don't mind! My bro and I are watchin' all the Star Wars in chronological order... like you said about watching "A Lost Hope" with your bro, its just not the same without all our in-jokes and references. But everytime I watch Star Wars now, you're all right there next to me!

Well peeps, til next time...! Peace, Love, "They're in the ventilation shaft!!!" 

Another week at an end. I haven't been given any work this week so I've had time to chill ( ) but made no money! ( ) I've been gettin' pretty nostalgic over NUFS and everyone, which is nothing new for any of us, but its different now! Its not painful, its not sad, its good! Its happy! It's still a bitter-sweetness to being so far away from my international family, but I still have them! I actually feel pretty hopeful for the future! I realised, whilst chatting on g-mail and doin' the Xanga rounds how our relationships haven't changed, infact, they continue to grow and I really look forward to everytime we chat, everytime we e-mail, everytime I log into my Xanga and find new comments! I have awesome friends, and this distance between us, whilst not ideal, will make our reunions somethin' really special! I live in hope of the adventures we have ahead of us. "Hope remains, whilst the company is true." Wasn't that in Lord Of The Rings...?

Dunno what brought this on...! Maybe it was the eventual realisation that I've not lost what I feared I might. Maybe its the combined results of the chatroom-based conversations (and Cass on the phone) that I've had over the past month. Maybe its the fact I watched The Phantom Menace with my bro last night, as the start of a nightly "watch the entire Star Wars saga" type thing, and that seemed to put me in a good mood, remembering how Star Wars became such a huge part of the NUFS culture-scape! Every endlessly quoted line, every annoying Jar-Jar moment, every awesome moment of that kick-ass lightsaber duel with Qui Gonn, Obi Wan and Darth Maul, I felt the kinship of NUFS, imagining everyone sat beside me laughing, cheering (groaning at Jar-Jar and Anakin) and quoting away! It just made me smile, feel happy inside, deep down! It also made me think how a Star Wars movie (if not a marathon) is vital for our reunions! Hows about we relax after our Fuji climb with Star Wars, including the Clone Wars cartoon, in chronological order!? Its something I woulda liked to have got in before leaving NUFS! Come to think of it, I think I'll set about a new "To Do List"! One for reunion activities. I'll be wanting contributions and suggestions from everyone!!! 

• 
  
  Climb Mount Fuji                                                           


• 
  
  Watch Star Wars (all of 'em!)


• 
  
  Karaoke at least once every Japan-based trip


• 
  
  Inuyama Castle


• 
  
  Snowboarding (with lightsabers!?)


• 
  
  Christmas together


• 
  
  New Years together


• 
  
  Go see a band together

I shall be expecting peeps to add to this list with further suggestions and ideas! "Come! Join me and we shall rule the Galaxy as NUFS Alumni!!!"

Its weird! When I look at pics and videos now I just feel happy that I experienced those things! And its all the better cos that stuff will last forever! I seem to have found that by looking to the future and setting those reunions up as goals I must work to attain in the present, I have been imbued with a sense of optimism and hope! So long as we remain mindful of this goal, of its importance, we can get through anything! We may be on different parts of the world but so long as we hold true to the bonds we forged at NUFS, and keep in mind we are all still together, still the NUFS Kids together, we can do it! Togetheeeeeerrrr!!! Foreveeeeeeerrrrr!!! Man... this has to be my corniest entry ever! And all this positivity is not like me.... maybe this'll be like an episode of The Simpsons and I'll be back to sad and brooding next update! Talking of sad and brooding, I've set me up an "alternate" Xanga! I was gonna have a bit of fun with leaving mystery comments and stuff but thought "screw it!", cos I intend to post my drawings up there, along with a bit of poetry (which is often depressing, hence the "sad and brooding" link..., see? Seee!?) Its www.xanga.com/ill_made_knight   At present there's just a bit of stoo-pid self-pitying poetry up. I'm just gonna update everytime I dig up an old poem, write a new one or draw a picture, so it will be pretty irregular!

No real need for a Matt and Dani update, as Matt grabbed some internet time earlier this week, enough to update himself! Hopefully that'll happen again sometime(s) soon! And I have received, at long last, my enrolment orders for my final year at UCLan! Looks like my first date of attendance is September 25th, so I at least know when I'm stating school now! Guess I should get revisin' an' stuff!

Peace and Love! And try spinning! Thats a good trick!

Damn!!! That's such an old joke. Everytime the Fencing Team at UCLan walked into our local after a home match, the bartender would make that same dodgy pun! It stands as pretty appropriate right now, though, as this update was gonna be about my return to fencing! But its not! Cos I've been foiled! The Solihull Fencing Club that UCLan teammate Sabre Dave (on account of him being a sabreur. I'm a foilist!) attend when not at University is on a 3 week break, so now I gotta wait til, like, I'm due back at Uni til I can fence again! I'm gonna need a seriously hardcore refreshers course, lest I suck big-time!!! I'm gonna head round Dave's tonight, just to say "Hi" and catch up. Jeez! I need my fencing to distract me from my missing of friends and dull work/dull no-work existence! Much like Sarv, who threw himself into his karate, I intended to throw myself into my fencing! Grrrrr!!! Arrrghh!!! I guess I will have to bore you with the details of fencing another time...!

OK, this past week I have worked a little (day shifts at a packaging firm, not nights at UPS anymore, thankfully!) The work is dull as hell and apparently I'm not "urgent" enough about the work! I guess thats why I haven't been called back in this week! I need the money, but I can't help feeling pretty apathetic about this working thing! 8-9 hours a day doing the same repetitive crap doesn't engage me enough to take my mind off how much I miss NUFS, I House and most of all, my international family! (I sooooo wanna be hitting people with swords right now!!!) My weekend was pretty nice, by all accounts. Chris and I paid our first visit to our cousin Rachel's apartment in Leicester! Leicester is, like, a half-hour car journey away so its weird we haven't been before, since she and hubby Richard have been living there for 3 years now! I guess me being in Japan the whole past year and being at Uni most of the 2 years before that made it hard to find a time! We had an evening of pizza and hardcore board-gaming. (I twice successively destroyed the Jenga tower!!!) Saturday Nathan and I fish and chips-ed it (only the 2nd time I've had them since being back!) and watched "The Day Today", a news-satire comedy show from the 90s. Its, like, cult, off-beat comedy which is lost on a lot of people, but we think its, like, the funniest thing ever! You kind of need to be familiar with British media to appreciate it, but I highly recommend it to anyone who likes Monty Python or abstract, random, off-the-wall comedy! "Punk Comedy", its sometimes called. After that we indulged in some video gaming (King Of Fighters 2003) and a Japanese movie called "Onmyouji" (translation: Yin-Yang Masters. Taoist clerics) It was pretty cool, and I understood I sizable of the Japanese too! Oh yeah! And my lightsabers have finally arrived!!! I think I'll allow myself a smiley for that!   

No big "Matt and Dani" update yet! As far as I know, Matt has seminars in the evenings for this whole week and Dani is off to Tokyo for a few days, presumably JET related!? Good News: They are getting their internet sorted and know when it will be "fully operational"! Bad News: It will be late September!!! Sad face, I reckon!    Another thought that occured to me, I'm wondering if me doing JET, at least near Matt and Dani, is a good idea...?! There's this Owen Wilson film coming out called "You, Me and Dupree" which illustrates why I think it might be a bad idea! I will probably be round , like, all the time and whilst at first it will be a delightfully off-beat sit-com type experience I can see Dani throwing knives at me after the first month!

My motivation is still kinda low. I go to the gym with Chris but my "regular crunches" are becoming "irregular crunches" and risk becoming "not-at-all crunches"! I planned to do a lot of drawing (I still owe Rob and Mrs. Lott chibi pics! I haven't forgotten guys, I'm just... well, read on!) I should get some solid Japanese practice in everyday too, but... *sigh! You ever felt... like... nothing!? Not good, not bad, just "nothing"! Since I'm in this mood, here's some depressing haiku I wrote...

Golden leaves falling                              Alone and standing,

Scattered by a sudden wind                   Broken. Amidst a cruel wind      

Gone! Our stolen dreams                        A tree in winter

Til next time! Peace, Love, "...so long and goodnight! So long and goodnight!!!"