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Law Bolog

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All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;
And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

I mentioned a poem by Will in my last blog, as usual my referencing is pretty unclear and haphazard. Speech. Poem. Passage. Shades of grey really. This is what I was trying to refer to. I'm somewhere in the seeking bubble reputation stage, I think. I'd love to wax lyrical about the piece itself but I have lots to get through. Firstly, I decided this being a blog about Law I need to put more law into it. Again. Unfortunately I bought myself a copy of Beowulf and have been reading that instead of my legal warm-up books. Meaning I have nothing to talk about in a legal sense, just that I am waiting for my course materials. That I will then read. Read read read. Yup.

So anyway.

Nyeeooo 

I went back to my home town this week and spent some time with the family. We went out and walked the dog on what was a drizzly Tuesday morning. I was struck by the outstanding natural beauty of what I saw. Trees. Giant, huge, English trees. Majestic is a good personification of my view on them. You ever do that? Let your mind wander whilst watching trees sway in the wind, kind of look doing a magic eye without trying to give yourself an enema. I do when I have time to spare lying in the park. Perception is weird, I end up thinking that not only are trees every bit alive but that they can affect us (moods, emotions, feelings) equally as much as say music or cake. What I got to thinking was that now children play video games with these hi-res graphics and you compare the resolution of this game on that TV with this PC and its so beautiful and so detailed. Does that mean that as they grow up they'll appreciate natural beauty less because in some ways the 'definition' is actually lower than what can appear on a screen. As to say, if I look at a great oak tree from one hundred metres away with 20/20 vision the tree itself, the leaves, branches are in a certain definition. A computer game re-creating that could increase the resolution so you can see the individual leaves more clearly or contrast the bark more to make dramatic looking patterns. I just wonder in time if simple things like walks in the park or going to the beach will become functional, you walk your dog in the park, you go to the beach to party. I find a lot of peace in just watching the world and contemplating my place in it. I sound like a hippie. Moving on.

hmmmWomen. Oh my days. Now that being asexual is an acceptable sexual preference I am sorely tempted to jack the whole thing in. I've basically been on the verge of being an otaku for god knows how long now anyway, I could just cross the line, go to japanese class and stop thinking about how I'm going to get a girlfriend altogether. I literally understand Women less than 1%. If I know nothing is ever going to happen, which is usually the case, I'm alright but as soon as theres even the potentiality of something other than polite conversation and a hug I am completely lost. Whatever pseudo quasi-sexual mind games people play with each other these days through the vast universe of social media and online dating I cannot begin to comprehend it. I want a freaking cup of coffee, some nice conversation, best case scenario a kiss and a cuddle. Somehow that makes me a weirdo and I literally feel like a social pariah whilst texting/whatsapping/skyping any member of the opposite sex I am interested in dating. Which is such a blast. Ultimately most of the time I have feelings for the opposite sex I end up poorer and damaging my limited self-confidence, most of the time is an understatement, I'm not trying to get into specifics on a public blog. I disappoint myself.

Small world syndrome continues to whirl around me in a whirling maelstrom of impossible chaos so obscenely random that it must have a pre-destined form. Even though it can't possibly. Everyone I meet knows this person who knows that person. Easy to rationalise, as I get older I know more people and my 'generation' know more people so it becomes more likely to know someone who knows someone you know. The fact I have to go through this rationalisation probably one of out every three times I meet someone recently means I'm getting a little freaked out. There have been times when there have been way too many coincidences and I just can't get a hold of reality. At least now I am still here just with a very confused look on my face. I guess as long as I'm not sleeping with my 2nd cousin or something whats the worst that could happen.

Real life stuff, work is good, I don't want to see any words like festive or holiday for at least another month. Spooky and eerie first. I'm going to try and get back to board-game nights. I'll get into why when I eventually get around to going. Music wise, there have been little developments, baby steps. Steps in the direction I would dearly love to go though. Played Warhammer with Dave the Christian yesterday. He may take offence. If you're called Dave I think you have to expect a suffix to your nickname. He could be Dave, Slave to Papa Nurgle. Thats probably wrong too. Anyway was good game. I forgot you can't shoot into units in combat, even monstrous creatures so at the end of turn 2 start of turn 3 I was all set to put in some heavy fire and I could do exactly jack all. Start of turn 5 and it was all over. I didn't manage to kill a single whole unit. Nonetheless, much like with Netrunner, I am encouraged not disheartened. I've been ill. That was fun. All kinds of cold and flu maladies which result in me being poor as this week because I missed days at work. At least I can re-learn my cooking skills and stop smoking. Running. Defo getting back on that soon.

In closing, had a little dip of my toe in the events world again and I have learned my lessons. Theres not a lot of times I'll say, you know what, not for me. Promotion and events, as it stands, are that. I can envisage situations where I could feel like I want to dive in again but equally, there is this law degree. On the other small business hand, I have some ideas for little projects and stuff I want to develop. I just need to be organised. For the first time in my life.

I also realised I can do all my assignments, right now, before November. Which could be fun.

If I do decide to go Otaku I think I kind of have a crush on this girl from Fade to Black.

 OTAKKKUUUUUU

Anywomble, bonne chance to you all and may the dice be kind,

Joe.

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Joseph Jensen, Thursday, 16 Oct 2014, 15:34)
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if woe was me

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Happy Birthday me. I brought myself whiskey and self deprecation. I don't really care for presents like I used to. Or celebrating things. Or growing older. I had a hard time thinking of something I needed for Christmas, people had to ask me because they couldn't think of anything. I got a hi-fi that I have since given away.  I don't know. Now I've started collecting graphic novels and whatnot maybe I'll just get really big shiny picture books. Instead of gadgets and video games. I guess Will was right on with the stages of man. Not too long and I'll be back to not being able to see properly and mashing up my food. Not that I'm being nihilistic. I'unno. Read the poem. If you haven't.

So yeah, haven't had a nice grog since ... ahh. Christmas I guess. I got up to go to work and all that, painkillers, water, in the shower, get dressed, have breakfast, feel human. Turns out I was 6 hours early. So yeah. I would've probably just lied in bed all day, its a blessing in disguise. Making myself bubble and squeak with roast leftovers for lunch. Which even thinking about is making me grin. Cannot beat bubble and squeak on a hangover. You can't actually beat it most of the time. I had bagel for breakfast though. Which can almost beat it. If I had to choose between the bagel for breakfast or the bubble for lunch, heck, I really don't know. No sense in sweating that which is beyond your control. Having both. Which means I win. Tuna bagel with avocado and olives. So yeah. big decisions, mint jelly or redcurrant sauce. Hmm. I may even make gravy.

  Martin Freeman

Don't have a lot of law related things to talk about as my course mats still haven't arrived (THE HORROR) but I guess this whole noise abatement, music venue thing is relevant. An acquaintance, Jason Dormon, is having his business threatened because they are building a new block of flats near the venue. Thanks to an excellent and organised local music scene all of the right steps have been taken. The council have been contacted, petitions signed, ultimately everyone is on the side of the venue. Even so. It comes down to law, which I thought was generally that when you move to a property it is your responsibility to check the surrounding area. Very wrong. They have now been directed (by local councillors and friends) that the law would need to change for them to be able to protect the business, if residents move in, they will have a right to complain and the venue simply will not be able to comply with the noise restrictions the council will have to impose upon them. Even if the council don't want to apply the restrictions or let the building be built. Its not that they won't soundproof and install limiters on the sound system, the money they would have to pay to do so is too much of a risk. It only takes one guy to do one thing and even after spending all that money it could just get closed down. May go on the forums here and do some inter-versing with some folks, as my knowledge is out of date. Seems though that its the same sort of right wing culture that has led to the deconstruction of economy in the U.S., business people turn up sensing there is an opportunity in an area and they intend to take it. To make their money. Even if it is a detriment to the local area. Words like, business isn't personal, and competition is part of progress, are utter nonsense in 2014. Sure when you're actually growing villages to towns, you need everyone to be making something and competing to increase the quality of the product, its production and ultimately manage the cost of it. Or so I would think, at least. Those phrases today are rhetoric. As relevant as the idea the world is flat. If they held truth, now, then how did we come to have an enormous global recession? One thing most people in business know is that you must look successful to be successful, which infers the basic principle of business is to lie to people, then cheat them by selling them the worst product at the highest price so as to maximise your profit. Which you will then put in the bank, and take away. So you can eventually sell the business for a lump and retire. All of which is totally accepted modern behaviour. Like the continuing mass production of fossil fuel or McDonalds. I'm not burning my bra and saying its all going down, I just don't understand how we can continue to accept the way we treat each other and think that everything is going to get better before it gets worse. 

/rant

I got invited to play in a football tournament, my wrist is still bad enough I can't risk it. Very frustrating. I did, drunkenly, do my ALS challenge though which is good. Not for ALS. For me. I have to get the video and stuff. Kinda thinking I might go back to football when I can. I'unno. I fixed the homestead which was nice. Is nice. I still have to decorate but I think I have the space how I want it now. I'll have to move in 18 months anyway. Long enough for me to bother though. They re-painted the containers so we no longer have tags all over us now. Yay. We're growing vegetables and having cook outs on the weekend with the produce now, which is nice, they did one Saturday unannounced. It was more hangovers than green fingers. There is a part of last night I can't remember, I just remembered. I wonder if as soon as I actually get around to having a go at making music that I will instantly decide to go back to writing. If I keep changing my mind forever I never have to do anything. 

Been playing Warframe from release as well. Which has been alright. Too many late nights. Finished my Ultimate X-men collection. Like a boss. Oh my days the ending is. Oh my days. Without spoiling the whole series, it basically has every plot-line that you have ever heard of. All the major characters and arcs, except the phalanx, anywho. I kind of thought it was going to leave me feeling glad I got to the end but unsure of what I really feel about the books as a whole. Often the case with comics. But yeah, it is utterly stonking. May have to collect one of the new 52 now. Maybe Lantern or Aquaman. I have issues. The different way people react to me when they find out I like anime and manga has been amusing me lately. A very cool dude who was around mine making music and stuff, who I barely knew, instantly thought I was the man and bust out his manga collection on his phone when he saw my (new) bookshelves. Which have my comics on them. Law books and comics. Such a gangster. A middle aged couple at work think that I am some kind of sexual deviant. Maybe some people in the UK don't know what Otaku means. They probably just think pedophile. Not that I even am anyway. Or that it changes my opinion as a whole. I am going to start reading oneman punch, when I get my phone sorted. What a saga. EE have to go. So I tried to get the phone unlocked, waited days, couldn't. So I have to get a new phone. And a new sim card. With credit. Looked at contracts, which are still an unbelievable rip off. So I'm currently offline and out of touch. When I do get it sorted though I know how to tether hotspots now so I can actually use the internet. On a computer. w00t. 

Work today. Two days off. Going to see the Mother Unit. For to say that it is nice that I had birthday. Now she lives in the town where I was born its gonna be weird. I was so wasted most of the time I remember being there, it'll all look different. I'm trying to sound cool. I wasn't that wasted .. though thinking back I can't remember the last time I was there that I was completely sober. God I don't know. I go now to continue my day with this attitude-

whiskey

- Thanks Lazarus.

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Changing Seasons

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Edited by Joseph Jensen, Thursday, 15 May 2014, 23:48

animated gif of xmen opening

How many people are not X-men fans? I've not met anyone who has said to me, "Nope. it sucks, its a horrible idea and I don't like it". Some people, you know, they don't like the movies so much. Plenty of people haven't read the comics. But somewhere along the line, most people, have seen some iteration of mutant heroism and liked it. This of course may be because Marvel make sure to put out a decent cartoon of it on childrens TV every few years, during peak Saturday morning time. Marketing cynicism asides, It's a great product.

I used to watch the original cartoon when I was very small, but back in those days it was hard to actually follow the story. Some mornings I would be busy playing Street Fighter or watching Transformers videos. It was a stressful time. A couple of years later, around the time I became a teenager, X-Men Evolution came out which I watched judiciously. I saw about three seasons of it. I never really got into comics or fandom (persay) until I as around twenty or so, I always liked anime though and eventually stumbled across Bleach. It was in the top five most searched things on Google at the time, if I remember rightly, Christina Aguilera, Briney Spears and Paris Hilton were on the same list. I watched it all, then heard it was a comic, which I then read as well (online, legally) which led me into wanting to buy the physical work to support the, well I thought it was to support, the artist. I know now that Shounen is probably as big and corporate as Marvel. Interesting factoid, mildly interesting legal note I should say, the big anime/manga products never got licensed in this country until 2010. Which is how things like Bleach, Naruto and One Piece managed to become so huge. Dragonball even re-made the show which they had originally licensed to UK/US/European TV, then didn't re-license it. At the time it was a really big deal, these giant websites with literally thousands of episodes of anime and volumes of manga, whose flagship was Naruto and Bleach, suddenly took all the big products down (along with a few other choice things) and stayed legal. Though still hugely popular, now, there are lot more series that receive recognition than just Bleach or Naruto. Attack on Titan has been this enormous hit, for instance. Strangely, Naruto and Bleach (and One Piece) have become quite inaccessible to the layman whilst other things, like Attack on Titan or Sword Art Online, are really easy to get into and instantly gratifying.

 

xmen premiere cosplayers

Topic?
Me and a couple of friends went to the premiere of the new X-Men: Days of Future Past movie to try and set a world record for the most amount of cosplayers in one place. I think. Now I think about it harder I'm not sure if it was for X-men cosplay specifically, or cosplay generally. Anyways, we had to get 250, which we didn't so sadly we didn't break the record. We got to go into the cinema at Leicester Square though, did a bunch of photos (my friends are photographers too), did a music video and had a swish after-party at a club in Leicester Square. Where we danced to the X-Men theme tune, which was one of the greatest musical experiences of my entire life. We also got prime position for the whole red (or blue as it was) carpet experience, which we declined to take up. We did something much more amazing instead.

We went ..

speedys cafe
... to Speedys.

Which too was pretty freaking epic. Well, as epic as a sandwich shop could be. Maybe it was because I ordered an epic sandwich. When did epic become a good word anyway? Most epic's are horrible, movie wise. Gladiator is good I suppose. I don't know. Maybe I don't hate epics. Whatever the epic. We had lunch there, still in costume, went to Tokyo Toys and then to Forbidden Planet. Where the whole Marvel/DC section was shut for stock take, not just the products but the comic books section as well. The manga section was closed too. I almost bought a hundred quids worth of DVDs in protest. Fortunately my friends were there to remind me, I have an EMA to do!

Which reminds me and brings me back to the actual topic of todays blog. Last summer I was volunteering my way out of a life that had careered out of control and into a car crash. I enjoyed my stints at Amnesty and cooking reclaimed vegan curries, but when I got a job in September and started this degree I thought I was starting to move my life in a better direction. Now I've been in work for quite a while, I can still pass my first year as long as I don't fluff the final essay and its time to move on. The premiere, the end of the EMA and a football tournament (which I shall detail in a moment) are kind of the culmination of a year spent trying to piece my life back together. I was hoping to do the treble but sadly we failed to break the record. Which is sort of like losing the FA cup. If we don't win today, the league cup goes too. As long as I win the league though. Its all worth it.

See what I did there? Always love a football analogy. So as far as moving on goes, I want to find a better, permanent and decent-ish paid job. So that I can move out of the place I'm in now, I'm in no great rush to do that, I would just like to be able to pick where I live now that I know Brighton a lot better. Post end-of-the-season I have some good stuff to look forward to in the summer.

So football. Tournament today. In Lewes. Vay exciting. We've been drawn against Palace in the first round. Which for those of you who don't follow strange rivalries, is a big deal. We're actually playing them in the very first match. No pressure. The word is that we're in with a shot, there are maybe four teams who have played together for as long as we have. So that could be great, if we win it'll be a night out at Lewes fireworks, if not I'll be going to boardgame night at the pub. Which is also awesome. Nearly thirty of us going today. Woo-hoo!

Lastly on the EMA itself, I am pretty intimidated by it but hopeful I can get through it. I scraped by or failed the essays so far, but have steadily been getting better. If I put enough time into the EMA I will be able to piece together enough marks for a pass out of it, I think. I actually really like the topic, which is generally a bad sign, as that gets me rambling generally rather than giving a focused answer. Going to actually go to the last tutorial and get all the advice I possibly can. Rather than nipping out for tennis.

That too is another ambition. I would like to play tennis more than once this year.

If you want to see some photos of the X-Men event:
https://www.facebook.com/SandgoosePhotoandDesign

(Shameless plug too XD)


Next time I'll upload a shot of me in costume. Points if anyone can guess who I was in the comments. I'll send you a muffin.

Speak soon!
Joe

 

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