Ben Folds

I've just got three Ben Folds EPs.  Super D, Sunny 16 and Speed Graphic.  They rock, he's playing Brighton on the 19th of November, I have to go.

All of my courses, or the continuing saga of get Rob a Degree.

Ah, it feels good to be back.  Up until the beginning of October I had been going a little stir crazy back at my Girlfriend's house, in the ever-annoying limbo between years, dreaming of jacking in my job, simply because I couldn't be bothered with the two hour plus journey to and fro every day.  Luckily Fay kept me slightly sane and very much on the straight and narrow financially.  I found out recently that it is me that is bad with money, not my bank, not the student loans company and not my employers.  I figured this out when I forgot to apply for a student loan until I was a week from starting my course.  Which was not clever.  I'm extremely lucky that I've got an understanding landlord or else I would be on the streets right now. 

The beginning of the term was marred with more bad luck.  Firstly, the school course I was taking this year was all wrong.  I had applied last year to study Fantasy, Culture and Society, a lovely course which would have suited me down to the ground.  During the Summer break I had checked online to see which course I was down for and found I had actually been put on TWO school courses, one was my choice, the other was Power and Identity, which sounded okay, a situation I thought I could rectify at the beginning of the year, but of course it didn't turn out like that.  When I got back to Brighton I thought to check the Sussex University website, just to make sure they hadn't rectified my problem, only to find out they had, in a way, by putting me on the other course, Power and Identity.  I figured that maybe my first choice was over-subscribed, and the title of the course didn't seem a million miles away from some things I'd been studying already, so I thought I'd give it a go.  My first seminar was a week last Tuesday, so I decided to go in a little early to get the course document and make sure I would be able to twist my ideas into the course.  It turns out Power and Identity was an Art History course, studying and comparing Chinese and German art.  After my fairly disasterous experiment with Opera last term I knew I had to change my course.  I rushed to the History course co-ordinator who seemed to think it wouldn't be a problem to switch, so I was fairly relieved, but I had to get my course changed formally at the school course co-ordinator's office so I popped down there expecting no hassle.  My expectations were dashed when I was told that there were only certain courses that I could transfer onto, and not one of them was my original choice.  I felt like shouting at the woman who told me, yelling that I'd paid my god-damned tuition fees and I was going to be on that course if she liked it or not.  But I didn't.  I calmly complied and asked if I could go on the Rural Communities course instead.  She noted in passing that I should have handed my course form in at the end of term, as everyone that did was on their first choice.  I realised that I had handed my form in, weeks before anyone else, because I knew that my luck was this bad.  I told her I had handed my form in, I told her I had been put on the course all Summer and I explained, by her rationale, I should be on my chosen course.  She checked the forms.  If mine wasn't there I was going to be studying The Archers and Wellies, Rural Landscapes and sheep flocking formations.  Thankfully she found it, for all our sakes, otherwise I would be bitching from here until the end of time.  Relieved I carried on as normal.

Secondly, and much more succinctly, I was supposed to be have a seminar a week last Thursday about my final History dissertation, probably the most important thing I have to write all year.  Except no-one turned up.  Now, this wouldn't have bothered me so much except that I had to get up at the crack of dawn to catch a bus, with barely enough standing room, to get to University.  I hate mornings.  I especially hate mornings when I don't have to see them, so I hated that morning like no other.  Turns out seminars don't start until the week after.  I turned up last Thursday and I found out I was only due to meet my dissertation supervisor for two and a half hours ALL TERM!  Which seems a little, well, pisspoor.  At least I won't have to get up on too many Thursday mornings.