Just a wetter version of the skies...

I am trying to tidy. Those who know me know that this is always a deeply, deeply flawed experiment and this time is no different. I have managed to minimise my washing up at last (this year it lives in a plastic washing-up bowl that I keep under my sink, which is great in that I no longer have mouldering dishes in the same place that I brush my teeth but makes it oh-so-much easier to ignore...), but the overflowing laundry basked and large scattering of graduate recruitment leaflets are going to have to wait. I am going to blog rather than getting my life in order- it seems to be the right way around.

Speaking of. Getting a job. This terrifying, horrible thought that I have been instinctively saying "AAGH NO" to for the past 3 years is now horrifyingly close at hand, and for once it's not concerning me *quite* as much as I thought it would. Maybe I am being brainwashed by these terrifying propaganda-like glossy leaflets that promise fun work with frisbee playing at lunchtime! and other such strange things, but... there's actually some pretty cool stuff out there. I probably won't ever get to do any of it, but still, it turns out that those crazy things like working in an office and having a salary might temporarily be quite a good idea. Until I get together the funds to jet off to a language school and get Chinese fluency then come back and study Sinology until my brain bleeds, that is. This thought process is brought on by the Oxford Careers fair, which was both over and underwhelming at the same time. On the one hand, it was depressingly predictable in that all the careers that I, as a PPEist, am supposed to want to do (O HAI BANKS) look horrifying and wrong, and all the ones that look sort of hip (working for Peter Molyneux? Huh...) require a skill set that I, as a pansy social science graduate, am unlikely to get. Emily and I wandered around this minefield chatting to the folks in charge of the few fun things- mostly involving charity, sweeties and in my case a free Rubik's cube- before despairing of life and escaping to Mission, where I availed myself of their version of the sweet potato burrito (for the record: it's good, but not THAT good. Vegan recipe with mustard is better.)

<3 cube. It's one of those ones with a pattern where it kinda matters which way around the middle piece is, which makes it simultaneously fun and INFURIATING. Mostly the latter, actually. I basically stopped mid-conversation with somebody earlier so I could get angry with it and how it wasn't working out for me. Damn cube. Also it comes from people called Metaswitch who want me to learn software programming with them and live in one of their company houses and go to the pub with other employees every day and play frisbee every lunchtime and do team building events. I'm not going to lie, it sounds suspiciously like a cult. I'm seriously considering an application. (ALSO THE HAT THE HAT LOOK AT THE HAT)

VSO haven't got back to me yet for Youth for Development. I really do have a year's professional experience, guys, pleeeease want me! Then I can stop thinking about which cult I want to join for at least a year.

This week has otherwise been pretty good. Still enjoying Taiqi, although I had a work crisis on the Wednesday night where I had specifically booked out of dinner so I could do an extra class. Being in third year has made me work harder when I actually get down to it, but it's also apparently made me boring already. I got Professor Layton and the Lost Future last week (just after the announcement of the BEST GAME EVER Layton vs. Phoenix I am so excited I might pop) and finished the storyline on Thursday night and the game proper last night- it was the usual Professor Layton thing of setting up a supernatural contrivance where you can pretty much suspend your disbelief (mysterious disappearances and lost treasure, vampire town, time travel), then "solving" it at the end with some ABSURD "scientific" explanation (HALLUCINOGENIC GAS, ANYONE?), with the added fun of some hardcore Downer Ending right at the close- I played this through whilst drunk post-crew date and thus was openly whining as Bad Things happened- all good fun. Then of course they unlock a bunch of other puzzles which tend to be sliding blocks, which I should really stop myself from playing after 10pm, otherwise all I think about when I eventually do try to sleep is moving bricks around. Jolly good fun though, highly recommended. And I am getting damn good at those block puzzles now.

What else? Oh, some direct democracy but let's not chat too much about that. Suffice to say, things are happening in this country which are bad enough that I am now willing to actually try to do something about them. I have political convictions at last! It's been a long time coming but I am not going to quietly fail to disagree with any more right-wing libertarian morons any more. Hurrah!

...What am I saying, of course I will quietly fail to disagree when I am talking to them. Arguments suck unless you are drunk or not face-to-face. But in all seriousness, one day I will sit down and thrash out a sensible "wot I believe" post and the world will be better for it. Or something.

There are motion sensitive lights in our hallway and every time I walk past one I feel the need to do jazz hands in its direction, otherwise my movement might not be obvious enough to turn it on. Is this normal? You decide...

Enough for now. Cleaning Essay, Logic work, travel grant report, NWF entry, cross stitch and episode of the Apprentice are all crying for my attention. Who will win? What a mystery!

Oxonia, 'tis for thee

Dude, a blog from Oxford! What an exciting thing!

Ssooo I need to avoid the pitfall I normally fall into when I don't write anything for a while, which is "oh boy I need to write about all the things I've been doing for the past 2 months how will I ever catch up". This would be foolish, because there is simultaneously a lot that I *could* say about the past two months, and very little that I *should* say about them. I spent a month at home getting my head straight and avoiding work, and then the past three weeks have been getting back into the swing of life back in the bubble. They have been, by my standards, pretty stable, which is sooo very definitely a good thing.

(I also got a haircut and regained my peripheral vision on my right hand side for a couple of weeks, but it's gone again now. Side fringe I freaking love you so much more than my old fringe but you don't half make it tough to cycle sometimes.)

Anyways. A lot of silly and odd things happen to me in Oxford, so it seems stupid to not talk about them even if I can't remember half of them for more than an hour after they happen. But here goes some Stuff that may or may not be interesting:

• I have three more tutorial essays in total left in my Oxford career. Oh god, where has it all gone.
• I live on a big awesome staircase with fun people. It is so incredibly relaxing to not have inner tension every time people walk past my door. I also live in an incredible barn room that I need to continue to appreciate otherwise I will become boring and rubbish. I do miss Ben though (ARE YOU READING THIS, BEN? GET OFF SKYPE AND COME VISIT ME SOMEDAY). I would also miss Amyus but I see him ridiculously often. Ubiquitous smellyface.
• I'm a vegetarian now. Although I have averaged one "oh fuck it" meat meal a week.
• I have given up every single thing I did last year apart from sorting out the Moser Store. Amusing discovery of the week was finding out that the Wadham Conference Assistant, who was previously paid to manage bookings to all the rooms except the Moser Theatre, now ONLY does the Moser- that's a job that I used to do alongside rowing, writing and putting on my own plays, managing academic affairs and the occasional bit of degree work. And now they're paying someone to do it solely. As far as I know they have made no effort to sort out sound and lighting systems, so GOOD LUCK all those people I booked in last term. Lolz.
• Also I'm stage managering something cool later this term. And I have now officially done every job available to students in the Burton Taylor- acting, "stage managing" (i.e. standing behind the scenes and panicking), lighting, sound, watching and now Box Office. The last one got me an hour of enforced work time (necessary) and a free ticket (awesome) so good times all 'round.
• To fill the void left by the above giving-up-everything, I have taken up taiqi. So don't act surprised when I kick your arse with it.
• I still want to gossip about rowing and the SU despite having NOTHING TO DO with either any more.
• I am amused by the Supermarket Wars. "Big" Tesco is starting to lose its shine a bit though- it's not *actually* that big compared to Tesco Metro back in Cowley. I don't miss most of living in Cowley (proximity to the Covered Market makes up for lack of proximity to Cowley shops) but I do miss Tesco and their 10 types of beans and being able to buy things and then cook them without ridiculous amounts of forethought. I also just generally miss having a proper sink for filling kettles and washing up in; the tiny basins we have here are impossible to get a kettle under and I now have coffee grounds on my toothbrush. Tch.
• I have made a poster of all the relevant library opening times in my life...

So that is all good. I have also tried to take up hourly comic making, but I forget to do it when I don't have paper to hand and when I do, there is paper everywhere and it looks messy. Frankly I think that I have taken up enough new regular things without trying to draw on a regular basis as well. Particularly as I really, seriously, can't draw. Proportions are something that happens to other people.

Soon I will have to fix my post-Oxford future. Right at this moment, I would like a scholarship to language school in Taiwan and a full set of scuba diving equipment so I can spend the non-language learning times in the subtropical sea. But it will change by next week. And then again the week after that. Also some day I will have to make money and pay back £20,000 to the government (PLUS INTEREST; THANKS A FUCKING MILLION, BROWNE). But not until the future, and by then I will have a jetpack sooooo. Yes.

This has been short and nonsensical but hopefully it'll get me back into writing down more Shit That Happens (and next time it will be anecdotal and fun, promise!) In the short term, though, it is just so fucking nice to be stable. And happy. Focus on that, and the rest will sort itself out... maybe.