I am currently sitting here, writing this, on my laptop. Pretty normal you may think but the HP Wireless Assistant on my erratic laptop, which has failed me many a time, decided to just die on me over a month ago. After coming extremely close to throwing it out my window- I read countless online DYI articles about fixing it, to no avail- the internet is finally working again thanks to a USB connection. It is surprisingly liberating being able to browse the internet on the privacy of my laptop- not that I do anything dodgy on the internet! But since my laptop has been out of action I have been using the home PC and so my use of the internet has been only for homework and the odd social networking.  Hence my less frequent blog posts. This may have been a good thing; I had more time for homework with less distractions of pointless internet browsing. But then again it did make me feel strangely out of touch with the world. I suppose only time will tell if the lack of internet is a good thing.

Regardless, I have been thinking about the internet, and particularly the rise of Facebook. I was thinking about how many things I use Facebook for and how handy it really is. Its just weird the amount of things that I would now struggle to do without Facebook and how inconvenient I find it when someone doesn't have Facebook. But is it really a good thing? I sometimes find myself resenting it, I'm never 100% sure why but there can sometimes be something sinister about it. I suppose if you weren't to have it it would encourage more "real" forms of conversation, like phone calls. It's just too easy to send someone a Facebook message, easier than talking some may say, but if we continue like this will our real communications skills suffer in the future? This generation is the first to have grown up entirely with social networking sites so the effects can't yet be known but surely it will have a vast effect on the future of the human interaction?

Well, I may have got a bit carried away there but in other news: I have a Reading ticket!!! Even better Muse are headlining!!! After suffering severely from PMWS (Post-Muse Withdrawal Symptoms) for the past 6 months and having nothing tangible to concentrate my obsessive levels of fan-Dom (hahar!) on I can finally begin the countdown to what will hopefully be another out-of-this-world concert again! Plus, it's going to be an Origin of Symmetry special to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its release with a 3D representation of the album cover on the stage and the possibility of B-sides!!! I think I might just explode!!! 

Lyric of the Day: "This is the last time I'll abandon you" - Stockholm Syndrome, Muse

Deals With The Devil

I don't know if anyone else does this or if its just me being weird, as usual. But I sometimes think to myself, "If I do this, then that will/won't happen". That probably sounds quite normal but I'm talking about things which are out of my control. A trivial example would be before receiving exam results, a more extreme case would be if someone was ill and I wanted them to get better. When I say this I don't mean "if I revise then I will get good grades". What I mean is if I perform a completely unrelated task, it could be as random as going into a certain shop, then I will get good results, or whatever it may be that I'm hoping for. I also sometimes think that if there are two different situations which can have good outcomes, in this example me getting good grades and someone getting better, then only one can happen. These thoughts seem to be completely uncontrollable; I don't actively think about it but they just pop into my mind. The thing is once they are in my mind I have to see them through. If I don't complete the certain task the guilt will drive me crazy and if there is a bad outcome I will blame myself, as silly as this may be. And that is why I call it doing deals with the devil. I hate it, I used to do it a lot but I do it a lot less now.

On a completely different topic altogether, I went to see The Wombats on Monday night. They were amazing! It was such good fun! We started off the evening one row behind the barrier, right in the middle. I had a bit of a disjointed view though as the people in front were a bit on the tall side. However, it was fine, until the second support act came on and this bunch of annoying, putting it politely, girls started pushing between me and my friends to get to the barrier. Trying to hold my ground, and thinking it would stop when they got off the stage, I managed to keep my space, but I was separated, only by one person at this stage, from my friends. I thought I'd be able to get back before The Wombats came on but then a group of guys also started pushing forward, pushing the girls even further forward, and pushing me further away from my friends.  The Wombats then came on and the situation only got worse, so I surrendered and let myself get pushed back into the crowd and into the mosh pit. This was not a wise move for me; the floor was wet, my shoes had no grip and I am not a very stable person at the best of times. Needless to say I was on the floor within seconds, but not before I dragged some random guy down with me in an attempt to stay upright. I now have a massive lump on my leg but quite frankly it's a miracle how I got back up without being stampeded to death. After that I moved more to the left where the crowd was still pretty wild, but there weren't any death traps. Thinking I'd have to spend the rest of the night alone but not wanting to spoil seeing one of my favourite bands for the first time, I danced like no one was watching for about 5 songs. Then I heard my friend call my name, I turned around, and there they were! Finally reunited, the rest of the night was amazing! They played most of my favourite songs and the supports, Team Me and Morning Parade, were actually pretty good! I would definitely see them again!

Lyric of the Day: "If you love me let me got, back to that bar in Tokyo" - Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves), The Wombats

I think I know how Locke, a character from my favourite TV programme, Lost, feels. At my part time job I have once again returned to the dingy depths of the garage, surrounded by a fortress of boxes twice my height. I have to haul these boxes down to a height where I can reach, empty the contents into a shredding sack and then try and drag the sacks somewhere within the already jammed garage whilst still keeping the boxes in the garage. It is like the real life version of some sort of flash game, the name of which I cannot remember but it really remind me of some game I played as a kid, how I managed to manoeuvre the boxes and the bags in such a cramped space I do not know. Anyway, it is a job so boring and monotonous it is enough to make anyone want to slit their wrists with the paper for the shredding sacks.  This is how, I am sure, Locke must have felt, not feeling fulfilled in his job at a box factory, and this is exactly how I feel, or would feel if it were my full time job. I was told by a passer by that I must lead a terrible life, after all. However, unlike Locke I probably won't find the purpose of my life on a mysterious island with a smoke monster and a guy who wears a suspicious amount of eye-liner and never ages.

This is actually a promotion from my last job, would you believe it, of de-metalling; which is a glorified staple remover. I thought that was bad but at least then I got to sit on a comfy chair and plug in my iPod. There is no rest in the garage, unless you construct a sofa out of cardboard boxes which I may have done on the odd occasion. Plus, in the safety of an office there is not the constant threat of attack from giant spiders. I cannot complain too much though; it pays pretty well for what it is.

Lyric of the Day: "Savour the moment, because the memory's fleeting" - Easy Target, Blink-182