Looking forward to returning to Norfolk, especially given how busy I’ll have been this week. Labour party stuff yesterday, more on Saturday, job interview tomorrow, and… what else? Something to do with university…

Role-play starts up again when I return, which I’m looking forward to immensely. It will keep me sane while not in my natural, i.e. academic, habitat.

The new Labour leader will be announced soon. Gods I hope it’s Ed Milliband. On the other hand, no-one will go for Labour next election no matter who’s in charge, so maybe it should be the Other Milliband, or the Other Ed. I don’t know enough about practical politics to be able to evaluate the chances of the coalition government, even in the short term. Nonetheless, perhaps some nice left-wing policies will steer Labour back into a position of influence and respect. Optimistic?

Where were you? Do you not think it worth your time to express your anger directly at Joseph Ratzinger? That he and his evil organisation (and I use that phrase in complete seriousness) have not committed sufficient crimes against humanity to warrant your attention? Of all of the millions of people I am addressing, only around twenty bothered to show up. How embarrassing. Not for me, or anyone else who showed up. You didn’t embarrass us or let us down. You let down the millions of victims of the Roman Catholic Church, most of whom do not have a voice, do not have the luxury of an opportunity to at least present their views to the paedo-helper general and his crowd of gaping moronic followers. I’m hardly an activist, but I deigned to give the matter some attention. And I’d do it again tomorrow. Holy Joe needs to see people angry with him, but all he saw yesterday were fifteen disgruntled humanists and one very sweet Christian raving about idolatry. Can’t we do better than that?

The guilty ones, in my opinion, are especially the Birmingham Humanists. Where were you? No-one whom I spoke to yesterday was a member of the Humanists, or had come from Birmingham for that matter.  When the committee next meets I shall have a few things to say about this, rest assured.

Anyway, congratulations. You’ve officially participated in the Great Apathetic Conspiracy. No doubt David Cameron and the Windsor Bitch will present you with your complementary t-shirt.

Yeah, I know. No-one reads this. Still, it’s here. Fuck you all. Especially the ‘Pope’. Joseph, you are a dreadful excuse for a human being, and one day I hope I can fully express my feelings for you in person.

Rant over.

Where was everyone? The London protest had thousands of attendees, why did we only have 20? Ratzinger and his flock came right past us, he himself saw our protest. Why would you not want to be there? Are the crimes of the Roman Catholic Church not sufficient to get you out of bed? Where were you, Birmingham?

This weekend, between the two of us, Amy and I got eight books and other objects signed by Terry Pratchett, met him, shook his very hand, got photos with him, photos with Stephen Briggs, saw a Discworld version of Rocky Horror featuring a cross-dressing Vetinari, and acquired more free foreign-language Discworld books than I care to remember.

So no. I shan’t calm down about it.

It was an excellent weekend, really… indescribably excellent. What a fun group of people Discworld fans are! How nice and how strange. It’s fun to be among them, to be one of them. There were some very creative costumes around. I might put some photos up on my DeviantArt page at some point.

Character creation tomorrow at the House of Tom! I am looking forward to my first bit of (sort of) D&D action, and from what I’ve seen and heard, Tom is an excellent GM. I certainly know he’s a brilliant player. Speaking of, I’m trying to cobble together a Vampire campaign to which I shall invite Tom, Izzy, Chris, Phill and Ed… They are some cracking players right there.

Oh, speaking of things I’m meant to be cobbling together, better get on with this ‘thesis’ people keep expecting me to write/have written.

Day 1 – Monday 26th July, 16:48

I’m hot. I’m hot and tired and terrified of the sheer number of people. Already met one… seems a nice chap, unfortunately we don’t have much in common since he’s a Catholic, a tory and a monarchist (yes, I establish such things as early in a relationship as possible). My room-mate, Nat, seems an amiable chap. Our room is in Haversham House, henceforth (because I’m fantasy-prone) referred to as Slytherin. I’m supposed to be locating the common room, but I find myself afflicted with a terminal case of the Not Bothered. Missing Amy already.

19:53

Just off to the welcome party. First piece of homework waiting for me, so I probably won’t dawdle. Sixteen lines of Horace, shouldn’t be too daunting.

2040

That’s about as much socialising as I care to endure. Homework time.

Day 2 – Tuesday 27th July, 07:13

Awake and dressed. Two interesting facts about room six: the door does not lock, which as you can imagine pleased me immensely (when I said pleased immensely, the ‘pleased’ was in massive sarcasm quotes); and there’s a loft hatch above my desk. I smell shenanigans! Of course, the house itself is locked, nut only with a code pad, and too many people for my taste know the code…

Finished my homework in fairly good time last night. I hadn’t realised how rusty I was. Rusty and ignorant, in my defence; I have never studied future passive indicative. Well, I have now.

Time to get my shit together and wander around until breakfast. Looks like the only internet access is via wireless, so I will probably not be able to post this until I return home.

THIRSTY. Must fine kitchen… Slytherin is built like a maze. I imagine the same trans-dimensional principles were employed in its design as in the Mall in Norwich.

16:16

The workload is quite heavy, made to seem more so by the fact that Nat apparently has time to have an afternoon nap… Did I mention that the room has no electrical sockets? Well, it has no electrical sockets. Hence my standing in the hallway, where there are several, charging my phone and writing this ridiculous journal. I hate writing by hand.

I still haven’t found time to go wandering around Wells, but there are a couple of grammar lectures I don’t need to attend. Time is at a premium here!

Day 3 – Wednesday 28th July, 08:45

I might have the coveted Free Time today. The optional grammar class is on indirect statements, and it is said that I know how to do those (SEE WHAT I DID THERE?!). That means I have about four hours between lunch and our final session of the day. With any luck I shall be able to potter around Wells with my little disposable camera.

18:43

Food’s too good, I’ll be obese beyond recognition by the end of Latin camp.

Work was a bit harder today, but soon we’ll be moving from verse (hate hate – imagine Carol Ann Duffy, but she’s moving the words in every sentence into the most ridiculous word order. Actually not her, she’s shite, imagine someone difficult but good)) to prose; a nice bit of Tacitus apparently (as if that’s any better). Apparently we’ll be moving on to an entire book soon, which is… daunting.

To be perfectly honest, I’m not too keen on the idea of not learning anything substantial. We’re getting more translation done than I care to relate, but not much in the way of learning grammar (which most people in my group seriously need, especially noun accidence). We were given an activity concerning noun endings today, and it was pretty clear that some in my group do not know them. I suppose that the groups are organised according to experience translating rather than knowledge of grammar. I don’t know how to feel about that.

Time to go to tonight’s guest lecture. Last night’s, ‘The Sounds of Latin’, was awesome. Hearing Latin as it was very probably spoken in the time of Caesar (I was surprised by the volume of evidence supporting the pronunciation) has gone a long way towards renewing my determination to master this language.

I took the time to potter around Wells today. There’s not much to it, but there is has its charms. Needless to say, the cathedral was awesome, but I’m saving my camera for Wales and Bath.

Day 4 – Thursday 29th July, 11:34

PROSE!!! That is all.

Our teacher is aiming her spiel at GCSE students, which continues to irritate me. GCSE students are, byt and large, not enthusiastic and need to be goaded. More importantly, they only have to pass an exam rather than learn a language. Therefore far more laziness is tolerated when they’re translating than I find comfortable (fecit is fucking PERFECT, not present, COME ON). I’m also pretty sure our teacher made something up earlier. Not impressed.

Day 5, Friday 30th July, 14:36

We’ve moved on to a nice bit of comedic prose, woop. I am very tired.

I underestimated how much recreational reading I’d want/be able to do; I’m over halfway through Small Gods since Wednesday. I should have brought Lords and Ladies with me. Nunc laborabo ut quiescam.

18:45

You know you’ve been doing too much Latin when yo find jokes about the language funny. Especially sexual references centred on the word ‘deponent’ (you have to understand certain aspects of Roman sexuality and language to get that, but it is quite funny, possibly).

Should be a good talk tonight, but the downside is that I’ll have to delay beginning my class prep until after half 8. 7am to 11pm is a long day, and I’ve had four so far. Very tiring. On the other hand, I now know how to translate participles, purpose clauses and the supremely thrilling ablative absolute. There are none of those in the Navy, so. Note that.

I’m beginning to feel as though, by the end of Latin camp, I might be able to pick up a text and work through it on my own. In spite of the aforementioned inconveniences, I have benefited from coming here, and will consider doing so next year.

Nat’s good fun, and that’s a bonus (actually it’s a bonum, but the neuter form apparently isn’t sexy enough to have made its way into English). Ben and Leo are also great chaps, or boni. Oh my, earler we translated bone as ‘old chum’ or ‘mate’, which is… just brilliant. Salve, bone!

22:10

Awesome fireworks visible from our window. Shame they couldn’t wait until I was free to enjoy them… Ah, and in the distance, the screams of children. A magical night.

Day 6, Saturday 31st July, 10:28

It’s getting easier, already. I finally feel warmed up to Latin.

I finished Small Gods, so I shall have to use this afternoon’s Precious Liberty to purchase a book from the place of books.

14:22

Shopping was successful! More graphite refills, a book, and people dressed as eyes were handing out cheap glasses cases with cloths in them. I can see once more! And not only that, but the cases had sweets in them that look like eyes. It took me two seconds, walking down the street, to get the pun, and groan accordingly.

No more sessions today, but considering I have over 30 lines to translate by Monday and will be in Wales all day tomorrow, I’m not going to be able to enjoy much rest.

By the way, get a translation of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses. It’s hilarious.

Day 10 – Wednesday 4th August, 17:44

Bath was awesome. It’s an indescribable pleasure to watch water bubbling to the surface of a pool, it having not been in contact with sunlight for about 10,000 years, to hold one’s hand out and feel its warmth… to contemplate purchasing a bottle of the filthy stuff from the gift-shot is less of a pleasure. And no, I didn’t.

Last proper session right now, then a play put on by the staff, then the costume party for which I shall not be in costume (Retronote(TM): I totally had a toga on). I’m looking forward to going back to Amy, but I’ll miss Nat, Leo, Sophie, Ben, Alice, everyone. Well, the Slytherin lot anyway.

Final day, Thursday 5th August, 14:32

I’m on the train back to Birmingham, and I can’t think of anything to do but translate. It was a bit of a downer to leave everyone. The summer school had a special atmosphere to it, derived from a common purpose and interest. Outside of this rarefied environment, certain things don’t make sense; no real privacy, the constant presence of Classical literature as a conversation piece, and the general enthusiasm for Latin. I felt something similar while in Wells to when I first joined tabletop gaming soc, the sense that I was surrounded by My People.

Norfolk tomorrow! I shall have to get my cameras developed. I filled an entire camera (and a half) in Bath alone.

Oh, yes. I still have a thesis to write, or the final chapter thereof, at least. Yujin seems to think that it’s going quite well, which is somewhat reassuring. Nonetheless I am not looking forward to my exam.

The End

Well, there you have it. There are yet more anecdotes left untold, including a particularly fascinating tale of a phantom embryo.

I had a great time with Robin and then Graeme, getting up to the usual larks with the latter. We went to see The Last Airbender and while on one level I’m glad I saw it to get it over with, I doubt I shall ever see it again. Both G and I found it generally abysmal. Not even in the same way that Star Trek was abysmal. Just… generic and bland. I liked a couple of the casting choices. The kid who played Aang was probably the best part of the film, and against all expectations I enjoyed the performance of Shaun Toub as Eeroh. Yes, the pronunciation was generally shocking. Soh-ka, Ee-roh, Ong (rhyming with British ‘farm’), and for some reason Katara couldn’t say Avatar properly. The whole thing was too short and too rushed. The combat sequences were sluggish… the bending of elements should be quick, not comprised of a ridiculous warm-up dance and finally attacks that don’t match the gestures made. I do, however, adore what they’ve done with Firebending. It makes Iroh (and presumably Azula) a little bit more special. It also makes the function of Sozin’s comet rather more obvious. I do hope they make a sequel, but I hope that they learn from this one, and try not to write it so clumsily.

Back to Thesis City now. Strange to think that in two months it’ll all be over and I might even have a Job. Cheerio ducklings.

Suffice it to say that I feel very different this summer than I did last summer.

For one thing, I’ve got nothing to look forward to on the other side of September. For the first time since I was five years old, I am leaving full time education. Do not want. This time last year I was excited, and champing at the bit, and of course I was unaware of everything awesome that was about to happen. Now I face some sort of oblivion; for once I have a complete uncertainty about what I’ll be doing after the summer ends. It’s not that I mind working, but I dread working for idiots.

I made the decision not to go on with philosophy after the MPhil rather quickly; a taste of real academic philosophy was the castor oil I needed to draw me away from something that I was never all that good at in the first place, and into history which involves skills I either have developed or can develop. If I never hear another modal argument again, it’ll be too soon. Actually, the philosophy hasn’t been a bad experience overall. I’ve actually done well. I’ve gotten a good few firsts under my belt, and overall I’ve come out of my taught modules with an upper 2.1, which is better than I had expected. My thesis continues apace, though it is without a doubt the most terrifying thing I’ve ever written. A couple of days ago my supervisor nominated my external examiner. Having a potential external examiner, like the prospect of being hanged at dawn, rather focuses the mind. Or it would do if there weren’t all of this abject terror getting in the way.

I have a social life now, and finally a hobby that truly consumes me in a way that computer games never quite managed. Well, computer games per se are obviously still a passion of mine, but no particular one has ever quite ticked all the boxes as far as my quite high standards for entertainment go. I am a natural role-player, and no computer game yet has been able to accommodate me. Oblivion came close in the age of the Bosmer Finder General, however! With roleplaying has come new friends, whose company has been an unmixed pleasure. Building a game from scratch has been a challenge and a delight, and I look forward to testing it, especially if Graeme can come for it. I miss Graeme, and Robin, and Emily, and Norfolk in general, no less than I did a year ago, but Birmingham’s horrors have faded somewhat.

I’m a member of the Labour Party now; with Brown out of the way and a new leader due to be elected, I feel the time has come for me to step in and do my bit for what’s left of the left. From preliminary investigations (I say preliminary, but in reality I have used a spreadsheet and a scoring system) I believe either Ed Miliband or Diane Abbott to be the best choice. I’ll probably vote for whomever I feel more likely to win of the two of them, if there’s a significant difference (there is; this is essentially a battle of the Milibands, one horribly New Labour, the other delightfully Left-wing). It didn’t take long for this government to disgust me. Something about the way the Lib Dems have turncoated their beliefs in the VAT rise, their decision to abandon the anti-Trident cause, and their general footlicking attitude have left me feeling somewhat ENTIRELY UNSURPRISED. And now the government is trying to prevent the Pope from being arrested for crimes against humanity, which infuriates me beyond words. Guess what? When you protect criminals, you’re a criminal too. I wonder if it’s a record for a Prime Minister to be guilty of crimes against humanity within a year of taking office? Even Blair waited a few years.

Ugh.

On Monday I’m off down to Wells, Somerset for ten days of Latin and classical history tuition. It should be a fun if somewhat exhausting experience. I’ll keep a journal of it, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to update here daily or all in one go. I don’t think I’ll have as exciting a time as Embles, who’s in RSA for two months doing something or other. And apparently she graduated recently, so brava!

I’ve run out of things to say, and so I must cease procrastinating and resume my work.

Overall, I’m quite happy. I made the effort to have a social life, and I have one. Not only that, I actually socialise with more than one group! Shock! As for the reason I’m here, university, it’s gone well enough. I was a mediocre philosophy student overall, though I did have a few moments of coming close to being good at it. I took up a new language and shortly afterwards a new direction in life, and along with that new language came new friends. I’ve discovered a new passion, and with it made a dozen or so new friends. FRIENDS. MMM. I need those this time. I didn’t mind not having many people at Northampton (two, in fact, except for Amy, and sadly one of them left before the end of my second year), but since we’re going to be here for more than a decade…

Had a great weekend. We went back home for Amy’s dad’s birthday. The first part of the day involved five or six hours on a boat on the Broads, which was awesome. First of all because I got to wear my Navy overcoat because I’m secretly a child, and second because on our way back to the boaty place we were literally in the middle of a massive sailing race. It was really awesome to see them up close. Unfortunately, our little electric boat had neither the speed nor manoeuvrability of the sail-boats, so we had to be very careful in staying both out of their way and out of the way of the bank. Stressful driving though it entailed, watching hundreds of sail-boats zig-zagging along the water was the highlight of that part of the day.

In the evening we went to Le Restaurant Fancie. There I was adventurous enough to have, as my starter, pigeon. Well, I don’t think I’ll be doing that again. Apparently, game isn’t cooked properly. It’s hard enough for me to persuade myself to eat flesh of rat-bird without it being undercooked and very visibly so. Ah well, I tried it. I think I’ll stick to normal meat creatures from now on, like cows and potatoes.

I even got to go Home, and to see my new sister. She’s much like the old one, only brown.

Graeme and I are in the midst of redeveloping Life as a tabletop RPG, which certainly makes a lot of things easier (for one thing, we don’t need to contrive a death mechanic – people just DIE), but it does mean retooling some of our lore elements. For instance, the old Clique as Race idea no longer suits. While it’s perfectly legitimate to have an ethnic group called Goths, I somehow doubt that Geeks, Preps and Jocks will fit in quite so well. If we can avoid elves and trolls, I’ll be happy. If we can also avoid stupid names that just mean elf and troll, I’ll be happier still. I don’t want people asking ‘so, what are the Elves called in this game?’ Though to be fair the Hos and Goths are already basically elves, so that might be optimistic of me.

Meeting Lisa and Charlotte for lunch today. LUNCH AT THE GUILD. It sounds so posh until you realise it’s a bar in a student union. I suspect clothing is appropriate for such an engagement.

Ta.

Speaking of things that worked out as they inevitably will, we have one of these ‘coalition governments’ that are so popular EVERYWHERE ELSE IN EUROPE. I myself was so refreshed not to have Mr Brown as PM that I didn’t bat an eyelid when Mankar Camera-on stepped into his shoes.

I’m not totally happy with the coalition agreement. For one thing, the Lib Dems have agreed not to vote against Trident, and have also accepted a referendum on electoral reform. Good old non-binding glorified opinion polls. Who knows, maybe the Cons will honour public opinion. Of course, if public opinion is wrong then they shouldn’t. Because that would mean democracy is stupid. They have agreed to restore certain civil liberties, such as the right to protest and they’ve promised to expand the remit of the Freedom of Information Act. I haven’t seen any mention of the Digital Economy bill, but since both the Tories and the Lib Dems were keen to point out how rash and hasty was the passing of said bill, I’m sure a review of it will be considered and placed on the long-term schedule, eventually.

We’re back in Birmingham now, but it was lovely to have had a fortnight at home. We didn’t get much time to spend with folks such as Robin and Graeme, and the Paranoia game never happened, but it was nice simply to be back. Now the thesis proceeds in earnest, with my first mini-deadline… sleepline? Anyway, in a couple of weeks. That’s fine. I probably should have done more while at home but on the other hand I’d rather have spent that time being At Home and then have a bit more pressure in the next couple of weeks than have been working so hard I may as well have been in Birmingham anyway.

Quelle excitement! Amy and I both received our Discworld Convention stuff! Although I didn’t see any actual tickets or confirmations of membership or anything like that, other than a letter saying “You’re a member, cheers” which isn’t official enough for me. I hope that Mr Pratchett makes an appearance; it would make my year to meet him, even if he isn’t signing books. It would make my year to be in the same room as him. I’m not usually a devotee to people, and I’m normally quite capable of enjoying someone’s work without becoming a moron at the thought of meeting them, but Terry Pratchett has had such a formative role in my life that I feel as though I owe him my identity, to an extent. After one has read a few of his books, one begins to think in a particular way about the world. I am very grateful to Emily for introducing me to Discworld, because I know it’s had a similar effect on her and it’s one of the many things we have shared, and continue to share. We even share the memory of a quite bad production of Maskerade which was not all that bad, but featured ‘Gytherrr’ among its sins.

I have missed role-play while I was away. Two sessions of Paranoia and one of Vampire, and I’m especially irritated about the latter because apparently Shit Went Down, one of the results of which is that Izzy’s character is now Prince. Not bad. Not bad at all. She’d better not fucking kill me this time. No grudges, Izzeh. No grudges. Sniff.

Not too long to go until the Latin school down in Somerset, so I’m keen to brush up. I’ve been patiently scribing all of the vocabulary we should have learned this year, and hoping that it’s all going in because with everything else I don’t have much time to actively absorb it. By the way, note how I am still splitting my infinitives. That, dear children, is because English doesn’t have an infinitive. Latin does. Greek does. French and German and Italian and probably every other language does. We don’t, so get over it. We have two words, and the thing about two words is that sometimes people like to put things into the middle of them. So there I draw the line. I’ll use ‘will’ and ‘shall’ wherever I remember to do so, I’ll use who/whom, I/me, he/him &c as correctly as I am able (note &c, also; I’m growing fond of the little bugger), but I’m not going to bother about a ridiculous Victorian convention of trying to make English seem More Classical by agreeing that we do really have an infinitive, yes, and should treat it as such.

That was a bizarre sort of rant.

Part of the brushing up is a meeting of some of the Latin chaps to pick through Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis, although I think that Lapis Philosophi sounds better and is probably more in keeping with classical word order. It’ll be far too super cool. Seriously. Speaking of super cool, I’m currently wearing a cord around my neck from which is hanging a small cage, in which is a D20. Clearly I’m trés chic.

Amy and I went to Oxburgh Hall last week, which was good fun. The downside to this not being the Child Season is that there are no cool musket people and such. And of course the National Trust (and Tussaud is very much the same in this regard) do not seem to understand that YES I, AN ADULT, WOULD LIKE TO TRY ON PERIOD COSTUME, THANK YOU. There was a Sherlock Holmes hat at Warwick Castle, though, so that was okay.

Mmph. Bed and such. Everybody must send Amy the good luck thoughts, for she begins her new job tomorrow and it is our duty to wish her well.

PS: I worked out that the motto of Hogwarts, Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus means “the sleeping dragon  is never about be tickled” OR, perhaps more humorously, “the dragon that never sleeps is about to be tickled”, or even better, though far less likely because of word-order, “the dragon that is about to be tickled is never sleeping”. I’m pretty sure that’s correct, but everyone on the internet seems to think that it does mean ‘never tickle a sleeping dragon’. I submit that in fact it would be ‘noli titillare draconem dormientem’, because that’s an imperative instead of the indicative original, but I invite a discussion on the subject with someone more knowledgeable. Seriously, it mystifies me that the given translation predominates, and I presume that there’s some nuance that I have not yet been taught.

I’m watching the BBC website to see the last 60 or so constituencies declare. I know the Cons will get the largest proportion of seats; I have made peace with that, sort of. There are a few rays of sunshine, however: my constituency in Brum stayed Labour, even though the Tories only needed a 2% swing to snag it back; the Greens have their first seat, in Brighton; the BNP doesn’t have any seats, and nor does UKIP; most of Brum is Lab/Lib, and delightfully one was even taken from the cons; Norwich South is Lib Dem; a Lib/Lab coalition would be just as successful a minority government as a Con one (very few seats’ difference); at time of writing, a Lib-Lab coalition will be larger than the Tory minority; and at time of writing, the Tories will still need the Libs in order to form a government, as long as the seat proportions stay roughly the same. The Libs are going to be important in one way or another during the coming parliament. Some seats are still estimated to be counting until this afternoon, so as the doctor told Ron Jeremy’s mother when she had her first ultrasound, “It’s going to be a long one.”

Our first week home is almost over, but thankfully it doesn’t feel like we’re nearly going back to Brum. I still haven’t had any time at home yet, and I’ve pretty much been counting down to that. Hopefully we’ll be having a Paranoia game this week – I shall be introducing Graeme to the world of role-play, although it’s about the most bizarre game I’ve heard of. It will make a worthy substitute for playing it on the Wednesdays I’m back here, though I am a little put out to be missing a VTM session on Sunday.

I’m going ahead with the thing I was thinking of doing but dithering about, thanks to some advice from Kirstin. Probably best not to describe it too overtly until more has been done/achieved, but watch this space.

It’s all kicking off now. I’m too excited.

Best be off! See you on the other side, reader(s)!

After this week, Amy will be finished at the turd factory and we shall be going Home for two weeks. Two weeks! Isn’t that exciting? The answer, of course, is: yes. We’ll be home on the day of the Election of Dume, so won’t be able to vote ourselves but we have engaged the services of a friend to do the deed on our behalf. I might actually be at home for longer than a couple of days, and hopefully this time I won’t be horrendously ill! Wouldn’t that be cool? Again, the answer you are looking for is: yes.

Ahaha, the unicorn song has just come on my playlist. SHUT UP IT IS CALLED THE UNICORN SONG.

I’m quite excited about role-play this semester; with any luck I shall be attending Paranoia on Wednesdays and Vampire on Sundays (OWoD FTW), so fingers crossed! Although of course from now on the Dissertation of Dread is the focus of my life, I’m trying to see it in a positive light. It will be fun to write, not hideously demoralising as I come to terms with my ignorance and inability. It will at least be satisfying to have completed it. I only finished the plan a couple of days ago, and that hasn’t even been scrutinised by the Eye. I’m quite pleased that I managed to invent a question, guess at my answer, and then describe the steps I will supposedly take to get from one to the other.

Izzy’s birthday today, party tonight. Top drawer. She’s definitely One Of Me, so has been given the seal of approval for continued existence (I don’t just give those away). RP and Latin are the entirety of my social life still, and I’m not sure if/when I’ll ever encounter my philosophical compatriots. It would be a bit sad not to see them again.

Saw The Ghost yesterday. Really good, very well acted, except by Kim Cattrall, who should never be allowed to attempt to sound British. Apparently Eli Wallach, who was in one scene and whom one might recognise as having starred in The Godfather, Part III as the treacherous Don Altobello, was born in 1915. Wow. Anyway, go see it.

Kirstin and I had a great time in London a couple of weeks ago, as I knew we would. Recent events have caused the contraction of the Inner Circle and the realisation that one cannot simply declare someone to be a close friend because one gets on well with that person. A person has to become a close friend, and to that end I intend to reacquaint myself with Kirstin. She’s so awesome, and we appear to be more alike than I had previously appreciated. That makes it sound like I think I’m awesome, so I shall clarify: I think people like me are awesome, but someone identical with me would irritate me. Possibly. Maybe it would present unique opportunities in the area of world domination!

Ack ack ack, election is nearly upon us. Come on, balanced parliament. I did have the delightful realisation that as far as I know I don’t know anyone who’s voting Tory. This is in part due to my recent friendship purge of anyone who declared themselves as actively conservative. If the Tories win the election, I might have to purge those whom I suspect of having voted for them. It doesn’t do to associate with such people, though I’m sure eventually I’ll forgive them. If they stay the hell away from me forever.

Speaking of politics, I recently contemplated going to the Republic annual conference this year, but I’m not sure I’m ready for all the bloody democracy. I think they’ve done the republican cause something of a disservice by seeming not to understand the difference between a republic and a democracy. The two go well together, and we could certainly do with a bit more democracy, but they aren’t to be conflated. Also, the use of an elephant in conjunction with a group of republicans is somewhat reminiscent of something. At least Republic’s is pointing to the left.

I had better go and Spruce myself, like some form of Winter Celebration Plant.