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!
And here was Labour, his own bond-slave; Hope,
That never set the pains against the prize;
Idleness halting with his weary clog,
And poor misguided Shame, and witless Fear,
And simple Pleasure foraging for Death;
Honour misplaced, and Dignity astray;
Feuds, factions, flatteries, enmity, and guile,
Murmuring submission, and bald government,
(The idol weak as the idolater),
And Decency and Custom starving Truth,
And blind Authority beating with his staff
The child that might have led him; Emptiness
Followed as of good omen, and meek Worth
Left to herself unheard of and unknown.
The Prelude, Book Third: 630 - 643
I’m back in Aberystwyth, the sun is shining and I’m feeling pretentiously literate. I’ve had an old copy of some William W. in my bathroom for years to dip into while using the facilities (in a manner of speaking) - but this is the first bit that made me want to quote him. Nice. I can’t claim very much more literacy though.
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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“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:
- Cycling every day
- 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.
