I've decided to shut down this blog. It has charted my time in America, which is what it was meant to do. Life back in Britain (and possibly beyond) deserves a new blog - this one:
http://trivia-lad9000.livejournal.com/
Thanks for reading, sorry there hasn't been any posts in a long long while, and I hope you enjoy the new improved blog over on LiveJournal.
Tim
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Home
So I'm back.
I've been back at home for about a week and a half now. I've been spending a lot of time with Catherine, understandably, and re-uniting with friends (although there are still lots I've got to see), and in between and around all that, I've been trying to find work, as I'm pretty much penniless now. My last drips of money are swiftly emptying from my accounts, especially after paying overweight luggage charges at the airport.
The flight back home was pretty boring - I actually managed to sleep on this one, which I've never done before, and otherwise kept myself entertained with King of the Hill, the Simpsons and Family Guy. I kept my proud tradition of not reading the book I took with me, in this case Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union, although I am getting into it now, and it's looking pretty good so far.
Catherine, in between animating a three minute film, searching for a job of her own, living in the hottest flat this side of Venus and suffering through tonsilitis (which I think I've picked up myself) managed to find us a great little house with a couple of other art school people. We're moving in at the beginning of July, which will be a big adventure.
I'm living at my parent's house at the moment - it's great to see them again, and great to be back in the house I grew up in, although I lament the lack of broadband and a decent computer. Our internet mysteriously vanished last week, and I had to spend the weekend re-installing stuff to recover it. It's a little odd having to inform someone whether I'll be back for dinner again, but other than that, it's nice to be back at the ol' homestead.
Catherine's project is drawing to a close now. I've seen the finished film, and it kicks ass. She's still very nervous about it, and gets her marks tomorrow, but I'm certain she'll do great. She's the hardest working person I know, so she certainly deserves it.
My feet haven't really touched the ground since I've got back, although so far I haven't got a lot to show for it. My two parcels of comics, DVDs and CDs arrived safely (thank God), I've sent of forms that will hopefully get me my travel expenses back, I have a couple of job interviews lined up, and on Saturday I'm headed out dressed as a superhero, apparently. I'm also waging my own private war against pollen, and losing.
Still no ideas about a new name for the blog. Ho hum.
I've been back at home for about a week and a half now. I've been spending a lot of time with Catherine, understandably, and re-uniting with friends (although there are still lots I've got to see), and in between and around all that, I've been trying to find work, as I'm pretty much penniless now. My last drips of money are swiftly emptying from my accounts, especially after paying overweight luggage charges at the airport.
The flight back home was pretty boring - I actually managed to sleep on this one, which I've never done before, and otherwise kept myself entertained with King of the Hill, the Simpsons and Family Guy. I kept my proud tradition of not reading the book I took with me, in this case Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union, although I am getting into it now, and it's looking pretty good so far.
Catherine, in between animating a three minute film, searching for a job of her own, living in the hottest flat this side of Venus and suffering through tonsilitis (which I think I've picked up myself) managed to find us a great little house with a couple of other art school people. We're moving in at the beginning of July, which will be a big adventure.
I'm living at my parent's house at the moment - it's great to see them again, and great to be back in the house I grew up in, although I lament the lack of broadband and a decent computer. Our internet mysteriously vanished last week, and I had to spend the weekend re-installing stuff to recover it. It's a little odd having to inform someone whether I'll be back for dinner again, but other than that, it's nice to be back at the ol' homestead.
Catherine's project is drawing to a close now. I've seen the finished film, and it kicks ass. She's still very nervous about it, and gets her marks tomorrow, but I'm certain she'll do great. She's the hardest working person I know, so she certainly deserves it.
My feet haven't really touched the ground since I've got back, although so far I haven't got a lot to show for it. My two parcels of comics, DVDs and CDs arrived safely (thank God), I've sent of forms that will hopefully get me my travel expenses back, I have a couple of job interviews lined up, and on Saturday I'm headed out dressed as a superhero, apparently. I'm also waging my own private war against pollen, and losing.
Still no ideas about a new name for the blog. Ho hum.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
The Last Day
So this is it - barring dramatic events, this is the last blog I'll make from America. It's 5.45 here, and in 23 hours I'll be airbourne, headed back to wonderful old Blighty. I'll miss San Francisco a lot, and miss all the great friends I've made here even more, although a lot of them I'll be seeing back in England when classes start again.
The past couple of days have been a very focused kind of panic, and I feel like I'm held together by ibuprofen, deoderant and the Go! Team being played at high volumes. Our house is pretty bare now, with the majority of our furniture sitting on our street, waiting for someone to pick it up, otherwise it's off to the dump. My bags are almost completely packed, as are Vicky's and Rachel's, and all the arrangements have been made for a (hopefully) trouble-free return.
Since the last post, I've climbed one of the Twin Peaks, attended the Homeless Channel launch/Isotope's 6th birthday bash (where an inordinate amount of photos were taken), eaten my last American burger and generally had as much fun as I could while sorting everything out - photos will be up on Flickr soon-ish. Tonight, we're all taking the evening off from packing and going for sushi at No-Name Sushi (the best in SF, so good they didn't name it), seeing Knocked Up at the cinema and having a couple of drinks at the Millenium Falcon bar at the top of the Marriott. Then it's back home to pray that our bags don't weigh too much, and all our stuff will fit inside them.
Sorry this post's been kind of dotty. I'd like it to be a memorable one, given that it's the last in America, but I think my brain's too fried to form proper sentences.
I'll no doubt be continuing to blog once back home, but I'm considering a name change - after all, I'll no longer be on the West Coast. Any suggestions should be left in the comments section :)
The past couple of days have been a very focused kind of panic, and I feel like I'm held together by ibuprofen, deoderant and the Go! Team being played at high volumes. Our house is pretty bare now, with the majority of our furniture sitting on our street, waiting for someone to pick it up, otherwise it's off to the dump. My bags are almost completely packed, as are Vicky's and Rachel's, and all the arrangements have been made for a (hopefully) trouble-free return.
Since the last post, I've climbed one of the Twin Peaks, attended the Homeless Channel launch/Isotope's 6th birthday bash (where an inordinate amount of photos were taken), eaten my last American burger and generally had as much fun as I could while sorting everything out - photos will be up on Flickr soon-ish. Tonight, we're all taking the evening off from packing and going for sushi at No-Name Sushi (the best in SF, so good they didn't name it), seeing Knocked Up at the cinema and having a couple of drinks at the Millenium Falcon bar at the top of the Marriott. Then it's back home to pray that our bags don't weigh too much, and all our stuff will fit inside them.
Sorry this post's been kind of dotty. I'd like it to be a memorable one, given that it's the last in America, but I think my brain's too fried to form proper sentences.
I'll no doubt be continuing to blog once back home, but I'm considering a name change - after all, I'll no longer be on the West Coast. Any suggestions should be left in the comments section :)
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes
Sometime, hopefully in September, a new volume (the fourth, to be precise) of Scott Pilgrim will be released. To see the cover, turn your head 5 degrees to the left. If it is anything like the last three books, it will be the most awesome volume of wonderous words and pictures ever conceived of by man. And that's putting it calmly, and without undue hyperbole.Prep for the Big Return continues - my bedroom is in kind of a transitional phase at the moment, both tidier and more messier, with lots of things being taken out of the piles they have sat in happily for months and re-piled on the other side of the room, with new and different friends. Vicky, Rachel and I are donating much of what we would leave behind or throw away to a women's shelter in the Mission. I'm slowly realizing quite how many books I own, and have brought with me - it's a little bit terrifying.
The Isotope party was great - pictures can be found on their website (linked in the previous post) and I think you can spot me in a couple. I've met up a few times in the past week with Joey, a friend from the Brian K. Vaughan board who has just graduated from SFSU (Congratulations Joey!) and whose blog you can find linked somewhere on the right, as "A Fearless Journey", 'cos that's what it's called. Joey's a screenwriter, and headed for big things. You heard it here first. I'm headed back to the Isotope this Friday for a party celebrating the launch of The Homeless Channel, a cool little independant book by local Matt Silady, who I've been fortunate enough to meet a couple of times (he was on the infamous Isotope Tiki Tour). He's a cool guy, and the book is great.
As for more final days fun, I'm headed downtown tomorrow to sell off some books and DVDs, and coming back via Twin Peaks, the highest point in the city, for some cool views and touristy pictures.
T
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Alice Cooper Said It Best...
School's out for summer.
In theory.
I've still got dissertation work to do - writing up an abstract for it and doing yet more photocopying (I'm convinced that basking in the green light of the xerox machine is the closest I'll come to getting a tan over here), but my classes are officially over. I really enjoyed this semester's work - both Arts & American Culture and Contemporary Culture were intensely interesting, provided me with tons of great reading, gave me new perspectives on a lot of subjects and most importantly had great teachers. Creative Writing was even better - I found myself increasingly energised every time I'd leave it (not in a "phew, glad that's over" kind of way) and looked forward to it all week. American university may be very different to the English system, but as far as I'm concerned, it's not half bad.
In far, far more important news, I've finally managed to make my way through my entire music collection, listening to every track once. It actually grew while I was attempting this, so ended up as 2240 songs, or approximately 6 days of music. I can now go back to listening to whatever I want.
Michael Chabon was great - very entertaining, and the new book looks great (I'm saving it for the flight though). Berkeley was also very nice, an archetypal American College Town as far as I know, and very different to SF. I was amazed how quickly it became very very suburban - I felt like I was on the set of The Wonder Years or something.
As far as the whole "do as much as I can in the last of my time" thing is going, I've managed to get one last meal at Pizza Orgasmica, a delicious combination of Brazilian chicken, broccoli and buttermilk called a Romeo and Juliet, and did it while the Golden State Warriors, the local baseketball team, were playing (and unfortunately losing to) Utah Jazz in what appeared to be the playoffs. Tomorrow I'm headed to Hayes Valley in the afternoon for a browse of the shops (in particular, the famous Citizen Cake) and then headed to Isotope in the evening for the launch of Ed Brubaker's Criminal, and related boozery.
T
In theory.
I've still got dissertation work to do - writing up an abstract for it and doing yet more photocopying (I'm convinced that basking in the green light of the xerox machine is the closest I'll come to getting a tan over here), but my classes are officially over. I really enjoyed this semester's work - both Arts & American Culture and Contemporary Culture were intensely interesting, provided me with tons of great reading, gave me new perspectives on a lot of subjects and most importantly had great teachers. Creative Writing was even better - I found myself increasingly energised every time I'd leave it (not in a "phew, glad that's over" kind of way) and looked forward to it all week. American university may be very different to the English system, but as far as I'm concerned, it's not half bad.
In far, far more important news, I've finally managed to make my way through my entire music collection, listening to every track once. It actually grew while I was attempting this, so ended up as 2240 songs, or approximately 6 days of music. I can now go back to listening to whatever I want.
Michael Chabon was great - very entertaining, and the new book looks great (I'm saving it for the flight though). Berkeley was also very nice, an archetypal American College Town as far as I know, and very different to SF. I was amazed how quickly it became very very suburban - I felt like I was on the set of The Wonder Years or something.
As far as the whole "do as much as I can in the last of my time" thing is going, I've managed to get one last meal at Pizza Orgasmica, a delicious combination of Brazilian chicken, broccoli and buttermilk called a Romeo and Juliet, and did it while the Golden State Warriors, the local baseketball team, were playing (and unfortunately losing to) Utah Jazz in what appeared to be the playoffs. Tomorrow I'm headed to Hayes Valley in the afternoon for a browse of the shops (in particular, the famous Citizen Cake) and then headed to Isotope in the evening for the launch of Ed Brubaker's Criminal, and related boozery.
T
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Fun Little Widgets
In an effort to keep my blog on the cutting edge of Web 2.0, I've replaced my Last.fm track counter thingy with the altogether more fun (although awkwardly phrased) Playlist Player, so all you people out there in Internet-town can enjoy my musical taste (or mock it, whichever works for you).
Apparently, enough people have commented on my Daemon a couple of posts down to change in from a crow to a fox-type thing. Either way, it appears I'm scavenging for items most people think are inedible. That sounds about right.
Also, happily, my unlistened-to tracks on iTunes now fit in the small capacity of my iPod Shuffle. 240 songs left to go, and then I switch off the play count and see where I end up.
Anyways, off to Berkeley!
Apparently, enough people have commented on my Daemon a couple of posts down to change in from a crow to a fox-type thing. Either way, it appears I'm scavenging for items most people think are inedible. That sounds about right.
Also, happily, my unlistened-to tracks on iTunes now fit in the small capacity of my iPod Shuffle. 240 songs left to go, and then I switch off the play count and see where I end up.
Anyways, off to Berkeley!
SUGAR AND CAFFEINE!
Those wonderful twin engines that power the brain! SUGAR AND CAFFEINE! Makes the body vibrate with vim and vigour! SUGAR AND CAFFEINE! Why won't they let me go to sleep?
It's 2.14 am, and in an effort to power through some essays, I've been drinking corn-syrup laced Coca Cola and occasionally dipping into a packet of Chips Ahoy! Cookies, and while the tactic has worked, and not only have I completed one of my essays, but also done some more revision on my final piece of creative writing, I now find myself far too stimulated and twitchy to start on the next essay, yet incapable of going to sleep. The solution? I don't know, but in the mean time, I'll write here.
There's about three days of the semester left, so I'm really facing the final days of my time here. At the moment, it's all a mad scramble to get work finished and cram in as much dissertation research as I can, but by the end of the week, I'll be looking at two weeks with no real commitments beyond packing and coming home. It's strange to think that I'll never be back here except for in holidaying form. Being here for this long has been great - I've been able to explore the city at my own pace, and discover so much about America and Americans, and I've made some really great friends. I've still got a lot to do though, including:
Have a barbeque on Baker Beach
Visit Twin Peaks, the highest point in the city.
Go to the Palace of Fine Arts, the bison enclosure in Golden Gate Park and Emperor Norton's grave.
Eat Dim Sum, clam chowder in a sourdough bowl and have one more pizza at Pizza Orgasmica.
Browse through Hayes Valley.
Pick up an Amoeba Records hat/t-shirt/bag.
...and probably another twenty things I can't think of now. I'm finally making it across to Berkeley tomorrow (technically, later today) to see Michael Chabon talk at Cody's Books, and pick up a signed copy of his latest book, The Yiddish Policeman's Union. It'll be cool to explore another city, however briefly. Berkeley was where I was aiming for, in university terms, when I applied for my year abroad, but I'm glad I ended up here. As long as I was in the Bay Area, I would've been happy.
Anyway, more updates soon, I'm sure, as I pack as much as possible into these last few weeks.
T
It's 2.14 am, and in an effort to power through some essays, I've been drinking corn-syrup laced Coca Cola and occasionally dipping into a packet of Chips Ahoy! Cookies, and while the tactic has worked, and not only have I completed one of my essays, but also done some more revision on my final piece of creative writing, I now find myself far too stimulated and twitchy to start on the next essay, yet incapable of going to sleep. The solution? I don't know, but in the mean time, I'll write here.
There's about three days of the semester left, so I'm really facing the final days of my time here. At the moment, it's all a mad scramble to get work finished and cram in as much dissertation research as I can, but by the end of the week, I'll be looking at two weeks with no real commitments beyond packing and coming home. It's strange to think that I'll never be back here except for in holidaying form. Being here for this long has been great - I've been able to explore the city at my own pace, and discover so much about America and Americans, and I've made some really great friends. I've still got a lot to do though, including:
Have a barbeque on Baker Beach
Visit Twin Peaks, the highest point in the city.
Go to the Palace of Fine Arts, the bison enclosure in Golden Gate Park and Emperor Norton's grave.
Eat Dim Sum, clam chowder in a sourdough bowl and have one more pizza at Pizza Orgasmica.
Browse through Hayes Valley.
Pick up an Amoeba Records hat/t-shirt/bag.
...and probably another twenty things I can't think of now. I'm finally making it across to Berkeley tomorrow (technically, later today) to see Michael Chabon talk at Cody's Books, and pick up a signed copy of his latest book, The Yiddish Policeman's Union. It'll be cool to explore another city, however briefly. Berkeley was where I was aiming for, in university terms, when I applied for my year abroad, but I'm glad I ended up here. As long as I was in the Bay Area, I would've been happy.
Anyway, more updates soon, I'm sure, as I pack as much as possible into these last few weeks.
T
Friday, May 04, 2007
Hooray for Roadkill
I haven't read Northern Lights by Philip Pullman - I tried when it first came out, but it was a bit too heavy going for my young self- but Catherine's been reading them lately and reporting very good things, so once I get back to England, I may have to steal them for a bit. Anyway, the first movie adaptation is coming out soon (later this year I think) and the website has a cool little "Make your Own Daemon" thing that was too neat not to try out (although they have changed the title to The Golden Compass, the book's American name. What is it with Americans changing book names? It's called the Philosopher's Stone because that's what it is - you can't change it just because you don't know what a philosopher is). Apparently, my true animal companion/external soul thing is a crow.
I can live with that.
I can live with that.
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