Dave's Inferno
Okay, well it's been over a week since I last posted so sorry about that. Not a great deal has happened to me this week since I've been revising for my exams and there's nothing organised at Uni for the first week of term. I had my 2 exams on Thursday and yesterday (having an exam on Saturday is not good) and they went alright. The one on Thursday was the one I thought was the easiest of the 2 but actually turned out to be harder. Yesterday's exam gave me some pretty sweet questions, especially the one that I actually did my essay on. I just rewrote it in the exam so that was good and the other 2 questions I did were okay as well, although one of them I was doing some major blagging on. I'm just glad they're over and hopefully I'll do alright in them but they're not particularly important so it doesn't matter that much.

Other than that I got this term's timetable and it's much better than last term's. I only have one morning start which is good but a couple of late finishes. I guess you can't have the best of both worlds. I also joined the campus gym and went for my induction on Friday which was pretty basic stuff but important nonetheless. That really is all I have to say because I really haven't done much this week. I went out on Thursday and again last night but nothing special.

I'll try and post again with something more interesting to say soon.

Return of the Jedi
Following on from my post the other day, hopefully this will get published today (Friday) albeit in small parts because of stupid blogger. Anyway, to update you all on my 5 week Easter break, I’ll start off by telling you all about my dire financial situation and new-found wealth. When I got back for Easter I checked my bank balance and found I was £230 overdrawn which was a lot worse than I had expected. Although my parents owed me £200 for the deposit on my house next year, I was still theoretically £30 in debt with the next 5 weeks to get through. Sadly, I needed a job. I had a look in my local paper and noticed that the fairground were heavily advertising part-time jobs and I knew Robin worked there so I thought I’d ask him what it was like. Not only did he tell me what it was like but he also got me a job with him. What a guy.

I am The Game
My job was on the game stalls (you know, having to get a ball in a basket or knocking bottles down, that sort of thing) which is relatively straightforward. Also, because I’m 18 I was on a whopping £4.10 an hour (suck on that Partners) which I was very pleased with. Over the two weeks that the fair was open over Easter I worked most of it and a couple of weekends afterwards. Although it’s pretty easy, (really all you have to do is give out prizes and keep an eye on the games) it’s very tiring and you have to deal with loads of idiots. It’s tiring because the hours can be quite long (an average day is 10.30am – 9pm) but that’s good because you get more money (which I desperately needed). I enjoyed working there, everyone was really nice to me and I made quite a few new friends including some very attractive young women. I can go back in the summer to work full-time and I’m leaning towards it but I may still have a look around for something else when I come back in the summer because ideally I’d like to work in an office of some description.

Moolah
Basically, thanks to working and the money my parents owed me, I not only cleared my overdraft (yeh!) but gave myself a surplus which I immediately wasted on alcohol, Wipeout Fusion and 4 DVDs. I had been intending to buy some new clothes but alas, my money has now all gone. I also set up my standing order for the rent on my house next year. I’m paying £200 a month for my house starting on July 1st and I probably won’t even move in until the end of September. What that means is I’m paying £600 for 3 months rent when I won’t even be there. D’oh. It’s not like that’s unusual with student housing though so I shouldn’t complain. If I’ve said any of this before (and somehow I think I might have) then sorry but I can’t remember if I’ve explained all this or not. Over the summer I really need a job, not only to keep up with my rent but to save some up for bills and utilities as well. I worked out that if I paid for everything on my student loan, I’d have about £2 a week left to spend on drink and entertainment. Stable income is a necessity, not a luxury.

The Infamous D’lo Brown
Regular readers will know that I am obsessed infatuated a big fan of WWF wrestler D’lo Brown. So it was to my delight that with the WWF’s recent roster split brand extension that D’lo was put on Ric Flair’s RAW roster and has since wrestled a couple of house shows and been on Jakked. Not long now until a monumental feud for the World Title surely. It’s good to hear he’s back (without the frog splash though – that’s the preserve of Eddy Guerrero and Rob Van Dam) and fingers crossed he’s in line for some sort of push. They’re not doing much with the European Title at the moment and since D’lo is a 4 (5?) time champion perhaps they should start there. Also, whilst on the subject of wrestling, I won tickets to see The Scorpion King at the cinema, starring The Rock, and I go to see it tonight. Based on preliminary reports, the film is what most expect it to be (mindless action) and The Rock is a lot better than most predicted. The comparisons with Arnold Schwarzenegger as the next big action hero are inevitable. (N.B. Arnie and The Rock are very good friends in real life so you never know, one day we could see them on celluloid together)

Back for Good
I go back to Uni on Sunday and I’m only half looking forward to it. I say “half” because I’ve got exams the first week back for which I haven’t done nearly enough work and because I’ve also got used to being at home again. It’s weird because I didn’t particularly want to come home for Easter but after having been here for a sizeable period of time, I don’t particularly want to go back. I could quite easily spend another couple of weeks sat at home doing nothing all day. Oh well, I’m sure once I get back I won’t even remember what home looks like. Anyway, I’ll try and post again next week, before my first exam. See you in York.

Quote of the Day
“We all know that we have to put up with a bad government when it is bad; the problem is to find a good government” - Jean Jaques Rousseau

Apologies
Hopefully, this will be my first successful post in 4 weeks. Although I've been lazy and haven't done much (attempted) posting I have at least tried a couple of times but blogger seems to have problems working with my computer and it never lets me post. I apologise for this but it isn't entirely my fault. I've so much to say yet it all eludes me now. I go back to Uni on Sunday and have my dreaded exams next week (for which I have done hardly any work) and I got a job over Easter thanks to Robin at the fairground to pay off my overdraft which I succesfully did. In fact, I have a slight surplus. Also, I won tickets to see "The Scorpion King" at the cinema on Friday so I'm looking forward to that. Watched Blade 2 as well, was nowhere near as good as the original. Anyway, this is all I have time for now. I'll try and do something a little more substantial before the weekend.

N.B.
The reason I'm posting in such short measures is because Blogger only seems to accept posts of a small length. Bah.

Whole Again
I’ve finally returned home for the Easter holidays after another tumultuous term at Uni. I promised I’d blog more often this term just gone than I did last term and I think generally, I stuck to my promise I as I actually did manage to make a few posts. However, it still wasn’t good enough and I shall strive to do better next term. I had a pretty good term overall, nothing out of the ordinary happened, but I still enjoyed it. I was sick once (which has left a big purple stain on my carpet) and I’m still single but there’s still a term to go this year. I also got all my work done on time, which I was very pleased with and I also chose all my modules for my second and third years.

Home is where the heart is
Anyway, I’m home and at the moment I really have nothing to do. I’ve got exams when I go back so I really need to do some revision over these 5 weeks, but apart from that I have nothing else to do. One thing I really ought to do is get a job, and thus some money. However, I’d only be able to work for 5 weeks and I don’t know if I can be bothered putting the effort into getting a job just for a month or so. I am tempted to go through a temping agency but as of now, I don’t think I’ll be getting one.

Sons of Liberty
The game that many people bought a PlayStation2 for, Metal Gear Solid 2, was released a couple of weeks ago, and I diligently went out and bought it because I’d finished my work and had nothing to do for my last week at Uni, despite my financial situation. A weekend and 14 hours of gameplay later, I had finished the game and now I can share my thoughts on it with you. MGS2 was probably the most-hyped game on the PS2 if not on any system ever. I tried not to listen to the hype too much but after played through the first game and having completed the demo you get with Zone of the Enders many times, my expectations were admittedly high. After finishing the game, I wouldn’t say I was disappointed with it, but I did expect more. I can’t really give away many details without ruining the plot but I thought the storyline was nowhere near as good as the original Metal Gear Solid’s on the PSOne. In fact, it was downright confusing and I’m still not entirely sure what happened. The plot was very similar to the first game and was doing okay until you get towards the end of the game (it was kind of like A.I. in that respect). It just got a little weird and I’m not entirely sure what it all means. Like the original game, the voice acting is generally pretty good but some characters are worse than others (*cough*Raiden*cough*). The actual game itself is more or less unchanged from the original and includes several parts that are virtually identical to bits from MGS, however this is partly explained (I think). Some of the new bits are pretty cool including using the excellent first-person viewpoint, coolant to defuse bombs and holding up guards to get their dog tags.

Looks are Everything
The graphics are great, the weather effects are spot on and some of the set pieces are really good. The attention to detail is astounding – ice cubes melt in real time, you leave wet footprints when coming in from the wet and condensation steams up the camera. The cut scenes are all rendered using the game’s graphics engine and they all look superb and many of them could have come straight out of a Hollywood action film. Speaking of Hollywood action films, the music from the game is done by real-life Hollywood composer Harry Gregson-Williams, who has done scores for The Rock and Enemy of the State among others. The music fits perfectly and it’s hard to believe that Gregson-Williams didn’t have anything visual to work with – he only had lists of adjectives. The music too adds to the whole Hollywood feel of the game, which creator Hideo Kojima was aiming for. So, in conclusion, MGS2 has great graphics, great music, good voice acting and excellent gameplay. The only downside as far as I was concerned was the plot. And yet for me this still makes it a disappointment. The fact that it only took me 14 hours to finish didn’t bother me too much, even though I skipped Very Easy and Easy modes and went straight onto Normal because the game has lots of replay value. No, the only real downer was the storyline. Yet, because of the nature of MGS, this is exactly what makes it such a great experience. I don’t know, the plot just seemed a little clever for its own good and ended up just confusing me. At the end of the game I didn’t really feel like I’d achieved anything and that it hadn’t particularly been worth all that effort. It was worth the money and I’m glad I bought it but I just can’t help feeling that it could have been so much better. I’m not saying it’s a bad game, in fact it’s a great game, but still there’s just some intangible missing. Of course, things were left open for another sequel but right now, I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Wrestlemania
The highlight of the Wrestling calendar took place last night but for those of you who haven’t seen it, I’m going to leave my discussion on it for a couple of days (so that I get time to watch it too!) The main event was Jericho against Triple H, but the showstopper was undoubtedly what I’ve called the “legends” matchup – 80s icon Hulk “Hollywood” Hogan against the latest living legend The Rock. Hogan and Rock aren’t the two best workers in the WWF but with the crowd behind them it isn’t so much about the wrestling side of things as the psychology and the spectacle of the match. And maybe D’lo Brown could enter the fray and make it a triple-threat legends match? Or maybe not. And in the future we can see what I consider an even bigger match-up: Southport vs. Everton Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Hogan; 80s vs. 90s; old school vs. the attitude era. I can’t wait.

The End?
I think that’s all for now. After venting my frustrations about MGS2 I can’t remember what else I wanted to talk about. Oh well. I am still playing MGS2, despite its plot, just to try and show that maybe I was wrong about it. Wishful thinking.

Quote of the Day
“Respect for the truth comes close to being the basis for all morality” - Frank Herbert