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Woo - I have done all of the essays, assignments, project work, revision, exams and last-minute cramming required to say: I’ve finished my degree!

As with most things with such a build up (like at least a couple of years thinking ‘OK, it would be silly to quit, it’ll be alright really, just get it done however frustrating it is’) it was a bit of an anti-climax.  Oh well, it is quite nice all the same.

I don’t have the crushing realisation that I will be leaving Aberystwyth for good though - because I’m not!  I’m going to be working here doing website things with a company called One Bright Space based in the Technium on the Marina.

Before that though, I have an action-packed summer of unicycling:

• Ride The Lobster - A five-day long distance road race (think Tour de France for unicyclists) with 100 of the world’s top distance riders.  I’m on team #78 called “Smile” (I was hoping to get sponsored by the ethical internet bank of the same name, but that didn’t quite happen).
  After the week of racing I’m going to make the most of my transatlantic flight* and go on a train adventure down to New York City and be a tourist for a week.
• Luxembourg to Liechtenstein - A 500 mile cycle tour between the two smallest European countries which begin with the letter ‘L’, hostelling and camping with some good friends old and new.
• UNICON 14 - Copenhagen, Denmark: the World unicycle convention and championships which happen every two years.  I’d describe it as the Olympics of unicycling - all the disciplines of one-wheeling from synchronised freestyle dance routines to trials stunts to track racing to off-road and long-distance racing (that’s what I’m entering, and hoping to bag a bit of bling, if I’m lucky).

I’ve been fortunate enough to be awarded a travel bursary from the University’s ‘Tithe and Capitular’ fund which will cover the transport for the two big competitions.

* Hello, yes - I know I’m a ‘greenie’ type who can happily tell you about how damaging climate change is and how flying contributes so much to it.  It really is serious, and we - the rich - contribute way, way more than our fair share to the problem; especially unjust as we are not the ones whose houses easily collapse in flooding or whose subsistance-level farms grow less and less. So…

A return flight to North America will emit about 1.3 tonnes of CO2 per person (me).  I think I will ‘offset’ this by paying a trifling £11.14 to ClimateCare who invest in carbon reduction projects.  But really that’s a far less convincing thing than actually not polluting in the first place.  For excuses I could say that because I don’t drive a car around (12000 miles/year in a small car emits about 3 tonnes), or eat much meat, I already have a ‘footprint’ of only a couple of tonnes, compared to the UK average of 10.

That really doesn’t ‘allow’ me to go and pollute more than I can avoid, but at least it makes me feel a bit better about it.  My logic is that this is the biggest unicyle racing event ever done, and it is a wonderful thing to have people from across the world getting together for something like this - it’s not just a random urge for an exotic holiday, honest.

For the other two European trips I’m doing this summer I’ve chosen to go by train (figures vary, but it’s at least a third less carbon-tastic than flying the equivalent journeys).  It won’t cost much more, and we’ll see much more of the places we’re going to as well.  Trains are cool.

There we are.  Hopefully that wasn’t too much in the way of liberal hang-wringing for you.

I have handed in my final essay of my degree. It was about ‘reflexivity in visual media’ and was completed according to the schedule above. The time line starts at midnight, and ends at the deadline of noon. Some notable points are the finish with an easy 20 minutes to spare for printing and handing in. This turned into a slight panic when I forgot to print the references page, and then the university computers wouldn’t read my USB stick to print it again. But the paper copy was accepted at 11:57 - three minutes clear. Easy does it.

I wasn’t hardcore enough to manage an all-nighter on it, and as such it never quite got to the word limit of 2500, stopping dead on 2000. The large flat line at 3-7am was when I was asleep due to feeling like a rather un-intellectual lumpen mass. Then there was a smaller flat-line at 10am when I walked up the hill from my house to campus so that I could finish it and print it without having to run up the hill.

What mark it gets, I will have to wait and see. But I can tell you now that it included the phrase: “so perhaps it could be turtles going out in every direction.”, a reference to the wonderfully obtuse Slavoj Žižek and the quote “My Dad went to New York and all I got was this lousy T-shirt”.

Just three exams (sadly all mundanely computer science ones) and my degree will be complete!

It is very nice outside.  Finally it is warm and sunny and well worth wearing shorts and sandals.  Or a skirt if you are inclined.  The bluebells are out in style in the woods by PJM.

At this point in the year, doing anything indoors seems quite inferior to anything else outside.  Time to go and do some ’study’ in the sun…

Thought for the day:

Even in a dark tunnel of fear, doubt and self-loathing; where the walls are damp and the shifting ground is uneven and hard; when the light at the end seems to be only a reflection in the darkened windows of your soul and the scratching noises all around make your skin crawl… it may still be that shouting “ping” can make quite a funny echo.

The conspiring factors of having stupid amounts to do on final-year university work and my inability to make myself do it when I should are making me think more than usual about The Big One (my emphasis). How about this for a 20 000 mile jaunt: through Europe, Asia, Australasia, South America, Africa and Europe again to finish.

Popping in on Timbuktu along the way.

On a unicycle. Carrying all I need to survive.

All I need now is a good, wholesome, moral/ethical reason why taking over a year on an extended holiday jolly is somehow a self-sacrifice and does more good to the lives of others than not doing it. That and money, time and supportive people. Oh well.  I’ll write a book about it, with pretty pictures - how’s that?

P.S. True connoisseurs of April Fool’s Day will know that pranks should not be made after noon. So this isn’t one. As on the previous 23 times in my life I didn’t manage to think of anything cunning to do today.

I’ve been away from Aberystwyth for a week. With about 50 other student type people I went to spend time with a church in Hyson Green, Nottingham. There is a small (about 20 people I think) pentecostal (amen, yeah! testify…) church there who are passionate, passionate people. They are commited to their community and to building the Kingdom of God there. Us white (yes, every single one of us), privilaged (university students) people got to let some of that rub off on us. We did some stuff they wanted doing too.

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The joy of english is that ‘read’ and ‘read’ mean both the present-continuous and past tense, and you can’t tell without either context or pronunciation. I meant the past-tense version, like the colour, not the riverside plant. I don’t often get a paper at the weekend, and don’t make a habit of reading the Women section (although, thinking about it, I secretly like reading ‘girl’ books or whatever, as a non-girl can often learn more about them by seeing what they want to say when it’s not supposed to be for guys than what makes it as far as the ‘advice about females’ in general or men-targeted stuff - it feels like a kind of back-stage thing), but there were Circumstances. Yes, they deserve that capital letter.

It involved a conspiring combination of my phone’s clock, Which (and indeed What?) Digital Camera magazine, McCoy’s crisps, Arriva Trains Wales, darts, dominoes, Jeremy Clarkson, John Humphries, gentle but persistent rain and a pint of Greene King in The Green Dragon pub.

So, for reasons you really shouldn’t expect me to expand upon, I was reading the glossy Women section which falls out of the Observer Sunday newspaper. Most of it didn’t interest me that much, but I did read an interesting article:

Is virginity the last taboo?

Yes, says a group of hip, savvy and successful Christians. Elizabeth Day meets today’s new radical twentysomethings

You don’t get the whole effect with the online version, as it doesn’t have the several photos of the girls being interviewed - very glamorous etc., and much like any other professional models on the other pages. Apart from the rather petty (given the context) comment I could make on how perhaps Christians shouldn’t revel in being able to glam-up and parade as ostentatiously as anyone else, I was impressed at how sympathetic and admiring the article was.

The Observer (and/or Guardian on weekdays), as a left of centre liberal publication (which is why I choose to read them), isn’t renound for giving religious types an easy ride. Often quite rightly. But what this article is at pains to convey is that these girls (is it patronising to use that word for unmarried females over 25? Maybe.) aren’t weird, judgemental or pushy. There’s no talk of doctrine or damnation throughout. The Silver Ring Thing is given pretty short shrift. They’re just worth comment because they seem different, for having found satisfaction in doing things with some restraint required… not for being needlessly un-cool or for annoying people.

“We all do stupid things, it’s how we cover them up that maketh the man” - Alun J. Evans 2008

Happy New Year everyone!

The fresh-faced year arrived whimpering and mumbling on Aberystwyth sea front, with revellers just about out-numbering the three pairs of police patrolling the promenade. I’m not complaining - I had a lovely time with some great friends - but it was something of a stark contrast to last year when I saw the fireworks of the London Eye, and the ensuing four hour journey between human tides moving in various directions to get back to Poppy’s house (usually more like a 45 minute journey).

I think I may have one or two resolutions which have not yet been broken, but they don’t quite include:

1. Cycling every day
2. Eating fruit and vegetables every day

Never mind. I still have those goals in mind. In other news I’ve managed to put on about 6kg (1 stone) since a couple of months ago. Not that I have any need to loose it again. But I want to get much fitter than I am, with the Ride The Lobster race in Canada in June and Unicon world championships Marathon in August to look forward to!

And another new thing for the new year: a puncture. I’ve never had a puncture in my big wheel while riding before, in over 6000 miles. I was having a nice pootle along to Machynlleth this afternoon when the gentle hum of my tyre against the smooth resurfaced road gradually got louder. It became a rather rasping grind - very odd. Then I started having trouble keeping the wheel going in a straight line, until rather like a single-wheeled Bucking Broncho, it forced a swift dismount onto the verge.

Luckily I’d made it about 14 of the 18.5 miles from Aberystwyth. I gave the tyre about a hundred quick blasts of my rather small capacity pump and tried riding again. After another half a mile the tyre was again doing a passable pancake impression.

Right. More pumping this time. I pumped and pumped until my arms wouldn’t take any more, and the tyre had got back to the ‘quite hard’ stage. Like this it lasted over one mile. More pumping. More pedalling. More riding in a less-than-straight line. Eventually it got me to within walking range of the glorious town of Mach, and I gave up with it.

But at least it has exciting new Wellgo MG1 Magnesium pedals (380g/pair - light considering they’re comfy platform pedals which are needed for unicycling) in pimp-tastic white to bling it up. You know what that means… faster, faster!

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” - W.B. Yeats

To many people I know I think that lacking conviction would be seen as a great loss, and having passionate intensity as a great virtue.

But I found this quote in Phillip Yancey’s What’s So Amazing About Grace. I read about two chapters standing at the bookstall at church this week, realising why it is so well recomended. It has an idea of Christianity which sounds a lot more like the Jesus the gospels talk about than much of Christian stuff. I think it was about God being good, and being nice to people who don’t expect it. I liked it.

And I liked this quote above. Because it made me feel like I could sit on the ‘best’ side of the fence and be approved of. Because almost all the times when someone is without reserve in their convictions, be they Christian or otherwise, it doesn’t seem great. And I’m pretty wishy-washy.

Enter Smugness stage-left, who sits down on the nice comfy armchair of Righteousness and starts flicking through the Reasons Why Most Other People Are Probably A Bit Less Holy Than Me.

Ooops.