Exodus?
Ok....after my last blog, I'm kind of considering quitting this whole thing. I'm beginning to think the whole thing is a bit pathetic.

If anyone reads this, and thinks otherwise, get in touch. Othertwise, in my current frame of mind, this might be my last blog.
Blog Affections
Yusss! Went to the gym as planned. Legs still ache, but it's another session in the bank. Awesome.

On the drive into Inverness I was kind of thinking about just why I have this blog, and why I started it in the first place. I think I really just use to express some things that I really wouldn't usually tell people, as well as just talking about stuff that no-one else is really interested in listening to. Which is sad but true.
To anyone who reads that, don't take that the wrong way, I know there are some people I talk to a little bit, but I don't really have any good, close friends to talk to about some things. Hence, this blog.

I don't know if that makes sense, but nevermind...

I've added the Only Ones to the playlist, because I've heard "Another Girl, Another Planet" no less than 3 times today, which is unusual. It's a great song, and has been covered loads of times, and was the last track that blink-182 recorded before announcing their hiatus.
Dreams of an old life
I always become hugely inconsistent with my blogging habits towards the end of the month. It's a bad thing.

Know what else is a bad thing? Amazon.co.uk, that's what! It just stole a TON of money from me. They emailed me to say they're gonna send me a bunch of CDs in exchange, but I mean, come on! What's that you say Amazon? I can even choose the CDs I want to receive? Well, I still don't think it's fair that you want money for them....but I did get a pretty spectacular pay last week...

MC Lars tweeted me a few hours ago. Pretty big moment in my life to be honest! I had earlier tweeted about being not sure about going to see him next week. I won't go into details, but I'm now thinking I will. What a legend he is.

Been having a few bad dreams recently about some people from an old life. Not too nice. The worst thing is waking up and thinking about them for the next few hours. It's a really unpleasant way to start the day. Plus, it makes me think about things like, do I need some sort of closure or something? I can't explain it very well. I mean, I'm totally over all that, but when I dream about that sort of thing, I wonder to myself, have I really, properly moved on? Ah, who knows? I know there's only a couple of ways to solve the problem, and I know which one I'm opting for (not my Dexter-esque one, as previously blogged about!!)

Tomorrow, I WILL go to the gym!!
5 Day Catch Up!
No blog for five days?! Criminal I say!!

Shutter Island was a gooood film!! It's one of those films where two people could have a completely different idea about what exactly happened in it. That perhaps sounds kinda stupid, but it's true.
Also, 24 FINALLY got kinda good. I think that happened at the 11am-12pm episode, so it's definitely a slow starter!! FYI it started at midnight and each new episode represents another hour of the day.

What else has been happening? Man United beat Liverpool today while Chelsea drew with Blackburn, so that was doubly great. Park Ji-Sung scored the winner for United, so I will share my favourite United chant, about the South Korean, to the tune of Lord of the Dance:

Park, Park, Wherever you may be,
You eat dogs in your home country,
But it could be worse,
You could be a Scouse,
Eating rats in your council house.

Sheer poetry, I'm sure you'll agree.

The last few days have contained work, filling out various forms and job applications, oddly bizarre and sexual dreams (sorry...you know who you are!), going out for a meal as a joint celebration of mother's day and my dad's birthday (I had a haggis starter, haddock main, and a heavenly toasted gingerbread with vanilla ice cream and butterscotch sauce dessert).

Talking about that epic dessert reminds me; you might remember that diet thing I mentioned about a month ago. Well, at the moment, I can't get to the gym as much, but only because I'm doing longer hours which means a lot more walking....so it kind of balances out. Anyway, all my jeans keep falling down on me....which is sorta annoying, but it does mean I've lost weight. Which is good. Obviously. It does mean I now need new jeans though....unless I start using a belt all the time....which I'm not used to. I digress.

One day of work, then two off. Bring it!
Di Caprio and Pitt Appreciation...
Why do I almost always blog so late? It's always like the last hour of the day that I remember to blog. Oh well...

Right now I'm halfway through watching Shutter Island with Leonardo Di Caprio. It's pretty compelling. It's set shortly after WW2, and revolves around two US Marshalls who are investigating a disappearance in a facility for violent mental patients, on a remote island. The marshall played by Di Caprio is suffering from persistent migraines and flashbacks to the war, particularly his actions when his squadron came across a Nazi concentration camp.
I'm not going to give anything away, but a storm has hit island, cutting out all the power, so some patients are running lose, and Di Caprio's character is suspicious of foul play, and beginning to wonder if he was set up to come to this place.

Di Caprio is probably one of my favourite actors, along with Brad Pitt. Usually, these are the sorta guys that piss me off, but I think they can pull off really difficult roles so well, and so convincingly. Pitt especially, has portrayed some of my favourite movie personas, but at the same time, he's been in some really awful awful flicks.

I went to the gym for the first time in a couple of weeks (I've been working a lot, ok?!) and hammered out a 40 minute run, which I was quite pleased about.

Chelsea got knocked out the Champion's League tonight, thanks to Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan. I'm actually a bit concerned because I think Jose might have just helped Chelsea win the Premiership. They now have a lot less distractions than United or Arsenal, and will have fresher legs for their games. Damn you Jose....
I'm Lost at Sea
I'm uber bored so I'm gonna bash out a quick blog to pass some time.

I've started watching 24, gotta say, really not that impressed. I mean, it's ok, but I'm really not all that interested in any of the characters, and the storyline travels at a snail's pace. I might explore some other suggestions tonight.

Work was kinda awesome today. This new round I'm on is really pretty straightforward, and it is so much extra money for me. I kind of love it. A few people had told me how it was the best delivery round, but I didn't really believe them, but now I'm seeing their point. One of the biggest differences is the general cheeriness of people to see you. You actually feel welcomed, as opposed to being treated like some sort of criminal within the actual village. I have tomorrow and wednesday off as a result of being on this round. Again, awesome.

Found somewhere locally that does guitar tuition...I'm just doing a bit of research before signing up for it. I like to have a good idea of what I'm walking in to. It seems to be some kind of group lesson thing, which I'm pretty unsure of, considering my total beginner status.

Almost forgot the thing I've been wanting to talk about for about a week or so now! This is something I've been fairly conscious of for a few weeks now, but has been pretty obvious from looking at my overall Last.fm charts. Since you're reading this, you'll probably be well aware that my favourite band is blink-182. Now, I'll be the first to admit they are a really immature band, and more suited to 16 year old rebelious teenagers....maybe with the exception of their last album. I kind of feel as if they shouldn't be my favourite band anymore...I mean, I don't really like the idea of being a 35 year old guy who still listens to "Fuck a Dog". If I had to choose a replacement for them at the top of my list it would be a toss up between Jack's Mannequin and Something Corporate. These bands are 2nd and 3rd in my Last.fm charts, and considering I only discovered them a few years ago, I have listened to them a phenomenal amount. They have done a formidable job of catching up to my number of blink play counts. I think one day, one of these bands will be my all time favourite bands. They are both fronted by Andrew McMahon, who I think is such an amazingly talented lyricist. As a demonstration of what I mean, I've added SoCo's "Watch the Sky" to my playlist....it pretty much captures my mood right now. Sometimes I feel completely lost at sea, and I feel like there's only a couple of people....one in particular, who can rescue me. I just think the imagery Andrew uses is just so unprecedented, I honestly can't think of anyone who is able to paint a picture with a song, quite like him.
Opening Up
Sad times. Dexter is finished. Pretty awesome show I thought, and I'm looking forward to season 5! I was completely gutted at how season 4 ended. I think I've got quite a wait till s5, because the lead actor is undergoing treatment for a form of cancer, so I'd assume they will have to wait for his hair to grow back before shooting restarts. Think I'm going to start watching 24....even though it reminds me of bad times in my first flat at uni. We'll see how it goes...

I am now officially covering a colleague will he is on sick leave, which means I will be working full time, but only for 4 days a week. Which is kinda awesome, because it will still be a lot more money than I usually earn, and I'll still have a decent bit of free time.

The past few days have been pretty packed, I've worked about 65 hours this past week, so needed to catch up on a fair bit of sleep in my downtime. It's kind of weird because it makes me forget a lot the things a regularly think about when I'm not doing anything else. I think a lot of that caught up with me, and I remembered how completely hung up I am over a girl. I would love nothing more than telling her, but the situation is far from ideal. She has a smile that convinces me everything in the world is ok. Urgh. I'm so completely pathetic. I'd be totally overjoyed just to spend like an hour with her. Nothing sinister in that, just hanging out and talking and that.

Definitely a contender for my dumbest blog yet.

There's something I've been meaning to blog about for ages, tomorrow, I will definitely do it. Promise.
Labels: , , 0 comments | edit post
Real "Laughing Stock" Madrid
Hmmmm...the website that posted the blink-182 tour dates in Scotland has removed them from their site. Mysterious....

Anyways, past two days I've been getting trained on a new delivery round. It's pretty tiring. I really hate the whole process because it is just a total mindfuck for a week or so until you really get to grips with what you're doing.

Terrific win for Man United tonight. AC Milan were well and truly thrashed. To make it even sweeter, Real Madrid got knocked out by Lyon. The same Real Madrid that bought Ronaldo, Kaka and Benzema for £80 million, £56 million and £40 million respectively. I find that hilarious. In total they spent £215,000,000 last summer, and have fallen at an early hurdle. Manager sacking on the cards me thinks....

Not much else to blog about right now...off to watch some Dexty :)
Forever and Ever, Lets Make This Last Forever
Oh
My
God

At long last. It's been 5 long years since I last saw them. The 1st of December 2004 is a date that I can instantly recite as my first concert. Now, at long last, it seems that blink-182 will return to our shores.

Dates have slowly been announced for European shows and festivals in august and september, but today SCOTTISH TOUR DATES emerged. And not just the compulsary Glasgow visit, but they will actually be appearing in Aberdeen!! I'm seriously gobsmacked!

I mustn't get too carried away, neither date has been officially confirmed, but they fit perfectly into what tour schedule there already is. Amazing.

Lianne, I kind of love you a little bit for breaking the news to me. I know, gross. Euw.
Laura, I'm sorry I got a bit excited in Tesco. Had it been official I might have danced a little bit. Probably a la David Brent.

I had actually planned what this blog was going to be about today as well. With this sort of news, I am more than happy to deviate however. At one point, back in the days of +44, I really didn't think blink would ever reunite. Which completely sucked.

I am so, so psyched at this. I still remember that cold, dark night at the start of December 04. Arriving in Glasgow to see Nathan for the first time since we started university. The quick fish and chips before heading to the gig. The mad taxi man asking about the Inverness pussy. The sheer overwhelming number of people when we arrived. The insane movement of the crowd. How much the first supporting band, The Kinison, sucked. How awesome the second supporting band, Sugarcult, were. How thirsty I got. The black blink-182 flag waving before the drums kicked in for blink's opening song, Feelin' This. Mark knocking Tom's guitar out of tune. Tom skipping half of First Date and them having to re-do it. Mark's closing drum solo. The hoardes of people leaving the arena. Having to jump a fence to get back into Nathan's accomodation.

I've added Feelin' This to the playlist. It was the first single from the self titled album, and has a fantastic energy to it. It was written by Mark and Tom, who went into seperate rooms to write, and when they met up, discovered they'd written about contrasting viewpoints of sex. Tom captured the lustful side, and Mark the romantic aspect. There's something about the video that I just love, and I can't put my finger on it. It just seems to capture the whole song, band, and genre perfectly, in a sense. Plus it has a giant inflatable baby and pig in the background. Awesome.
And Today's Nugget of Insight
Decided to blog before the dying hours of the day, for a change. I'm not sure why...perhaps I want to record my current emotions.

Might as well start at the start, turned up for work with no idea what round I was meant to be doing, so just went about my usual one. A while later my boss texts me apologising for texting me on a day off and asking me to come into work because someone has called in sick at the last moment. Again. So I reply telling her I'm already at work, and that's that for a little while. She then replies telling me to do this other guy's round as well as my own. Fantastic. I didn't text back, and went on and got both jobs done.
I've just received this week's rota....a tad late you'll probably agree, and I'm getting trained on a new round this week for 3 days, then doing it by myself the next 2 days. No day off, and no asking me if its ok to put me on that round.

My CV is now printed out and ready to be handed in to a potential new employer. Which will probably happen tomorrow.

In my travels around Drum today I noticed a plume of smoke coming from the far end of the village. Turns out someone's caravan had gone on fire. They had gone out, so no-one was hurt as far as I know. It's usually pretty quiet around the village, so it was kinda amusing seeing all these people driving around the place to see what was going on. Fire perverts.

An old woman also tried to give me her phone number. I was scared. Obviously there is a story to this, but it's so stupid.

Lastly, I bumped into one of the few people I'd regard as my friend in this village. I think I sounded like a bit of a whiny, emotional bitch to him, but I hadn't seen him in a long time, and he actually gives me some really good advice from time to time, so it was good to see him. Today he said something which hit the nail on the head perfectly:

"Drumnadrochit is a really shit place to be, when you don't want to be here"

Poetry.

I meant to mention yesterday, I feel about 5 years younger all of a sudden. When I was off work I didn't shave at all, which resulted in a considerable beard formation. The upsetting thing about my facial hair is that is seems to consist of about 70% ginger hairs, and 30% dark hairs. I really don't like it. Needless to say it looks really weird. Anyway, that's all gone, so now I feel all baby-ish again.

I'm going to add a Rocket Summer song to the playlist. The Rocket Summer is Bryce Avary, and he writes and produces all his own music, as well as playing all the instruments featured on his tracks, which must be quite the workload, and he only uses a band when he's on tour. Talk about a work-aholic! The track I've added comes from the similarly titled album "Do you Feel?" and the video has a sort of PostSecret theme, dealing with real people who have real problems. It also features cameos from members of Paramore, Jack's Mannequin, MxPx, Forever the Sickest Kids and The Cab. A very good crowd!!

Oh yeah, the real I added TRS to the playlist, he's just announced a UK tour, see you in may in Bryce ;)
54 Minutes
Damn you Megavideo!! 20 minutes left of the Dexter season 3 finale and I have used up all the minutes you can watch without paying a suscribtion. Gah!! I have to wait 54 minutes to watch anymore!

Today was relatively productive. Sorted out my CV a bit, and put a bunch of old console games on eBay. 4 of which have already been bought. Awesome.

There have been a couple of recent developments in the Ferguson household. Number 1, the boiler broke a couple of nights ago, all I can say is, thank God for my electric blanket. Secondly, we're all on some sort of detox, low fat diet, which is being overseen by mother. I'm not hugely against it in truth, despite a few complaints, we've actually enjoyed some pretty awesome home made meals. Plus it might hopefully contribute to my get fit campaign thing.

The worst thing is, I've recently discovered the awesomeness that is the Hairy Bikers. They are a Geordie pair of bikers who have a TV cookery show. They are epically funny. I think it's a Geordie trait: to be hilarious. Anyways, they have some pretty gorgeous looking, indulgent recipies. I currently have a craving for their maple syrup and walnut scones. Nom nom nom....

Right, 25 mins left....I'll go scour ebay or something I guess...
Nemesis
Blog time muhfuckas. I'm almost forgetting to do these, but not quite. Go me.

Today was actually awful. I won't bore you with details, but basically a colleague phoned in sick, so I had to do 2 people's rounds today. I wasn't asked, I was told. Spent the rest of the day walking around Drum, delivering post, cursing my luck, and planning my resignation letter. Again.

Trying to find a light at the end of my gloomy, dark tunnel is getting really hard.

Anyways, the result of all this is that progress will be made with my escape plan tomorrow. A full scale assault is in order I think.

I might as well mention, I found myself practicing a Dexter-esque, murderous stare, while I was going round the village today. For those of you who aren't in any way familiar with Dexter, the protagonist works for Miami Metro Police Department, in the blood spatter forensics lab. And on the side he's a serial killer. Which leads to all sorts of problems and complications. The compelling part is that is that he has morals, and a "code" that he follows for each kill, ie, each one of his victims is "deserving" of what they get. Usually his victim will have somehow wrangled out of a prison sentence due to some loophole in the judicial system, when they really shouldn't be walking free.
Anyways, it got me thinking about who I would target if I was Dexter. Trust me, when you're all alone delivering post for so long, you ponder all sorts. One of my colleagues has described someone I used to know as my "nemesis". A bit extreme in my eyes, no-one has ever really managed to get under my skin to that extent, but I can see where he's coming from. That seemed like the obvious place to start imagining. Safe to say it amused me for a while. The thought police would run riot with me.

Talking of thought police, check this out. Scary.

Right, back to my Dexterathon.....Dexathon....I think Dexathon sounds better....
Labels: , 0 comments | edit post
Rant time apparently
I'm taking a break from my Dexter marathon for this blog. Just got to a cliff hanger as well. Curse my dedication!!

I think my last blog was a bit thought provoking. That's actually kind of satisfying.

I had football training with the primary kids today. First time I've done it in weeks, with being in Glasgow, being ill, and snow days. I can't say I've missed it. I was sort of in charge today, which I don't love, but at least I can actually do some form of actual coaching.
There's this one kid, who I swear must have ADD. He is absolutely nuts. I suspect his mother feeds him mouthfuls of sugar before coming. In fairness, it doesn't surprise me. I knew his eldest brother fairly well when I was growing up....safe to say we didn't see eye to eye, but he was a bit....erratic, as well.
I had literally walked through the door of the astroturf and 5 seconds later I had kids complaining about him and grassing him up to me. I don't want to say I can't stand him, I don't think that's right, but life would be a lot simpler without him.
I'm starting to sound like Dexter now....
This kid also used to piss me off at work. His mother made a complaint about me and the "excessive" speed with which I drive up to her house. From then on, whenever I saw the kid he told me to drive at "Five miles an hour". Which is taking the piss to be honest. I know it sounds petty, because it is. This kid is near the end of the delivery round, and the last thing you can be arsed with at that point is a kid lecturing you.

Rant over.

I never did buy any new CDs from Amazon. I added a few to my shopping cart, but never followed through. I'm thinking about getting Windows 7....but it feels like a hell of a lot of money. Oh, and an external hard drive.....for all my music. So yeah, I'm weighing all that up in my mind. If anyone has any advice it would not go amiss.

Off to find out what happens to the D-man now! I could well finish season 2 before morning. Awww crap, I'm working tomorrow. Gutted. I'm gonna be rough....
Labels: , 0 comments | edit post
Flashback
I don't really have an awful lot of subject matter to work with tonight, so go easy on me.

I'm into season 2 of Dexter now. I love websites where I can watch this kinda stuff. No adverts, no waiting a week for the next episode, just perfect. Thank you Ninjavideo. You are a (illegal) Godsend.

This little flashback is kind of fresh in my mind, after I read some group that a couple of people have joined on Facebook, but it's something that obviously resonated with me for some reason or another. I guess I must have been about 10 or 11, and me and my best friend at the time were talking about girls. My friend by this point had already had a couple of girlfriends, whereas I was still stuck in the world of having crushes on girls and doing nothing about it. Easier times. I think we must have been talking about girls that I used to be keen on, and I was making my case for no longer liking them, and he said "Once you love someone, those feelings never completely die". Powerful stuff for a prebuscent kid, but like I said, I still remember that, and I'm still curious if it rings true. I think that in a lot of ways, this theory is right....with a few obvious exceptions.

I have a craving to buy some CDs. I'm heading over to Amazon. Peace out dudes.
Music that is too cool for me but I still like it
Ok, so after complaining about lack of sleep yesterday, I stayed up till like 3am watching Dexter. It's rather good. I squeezed in 3 episodes last night, 2 today, and another 1 just before writing this. I'm already halfway through the first season! Yikes.

I've had a lot on my mind lately. I guess with all these days off, I find myself lost in my thoughts a lot more than usual. Part of it is trying to work out the next stage of my life. Another part is down to regret and missed opportunities. And another part is about some people who used to be in my life.

I think about people, in general, an awful lot. I think I over-analyse what people say, and when I see a photo of someone I know, I'll try to understand the theme and mood of the moment.
Psycho talk? Perhaps.
The unfortunate thing is that I think by doing this, I tend to develop a dislike towards some people for no real reason. I've kind of talked about this with one of my friends, who I think in some ways, does the same sorta thing.

In saying all that, there's people in this village who have made it quite clear they have something against me. And I have no idea why. I don't consider myself to be a bad person.

Oh, mum added The Audition to her "Music that is too cool for me but I still like it" list. I thought this was a bit weird considering I was listening to "I love the way that you move" at the time. Nevertheless, I donated an Owl City album towards the cause, since I had two copies. Don't ask.

I had a song in mind for the playlist today, but I'm going to savour Audioslave for a little bit longer I think. It's just that good.
Be Yourself
I'm absolutely shattered. For the past 3 nights I haven't been able to sleep until at least 3.30am. Not long ago I took a tablet to make me sleep easier, and I'm really feeling the effects. So hopefully I don't fall asleep writing this.

One thing I meant to talk about a long time ago, is Lost. It's one of the very few tv programmes I'm hooked on now. It's going to be finishing in may, which is carries some mixed emotions. Obviously I'm sad to see it end, but ever since the very first episode, Lost has mystified and confused it's viewers, and revealed very little. When one of the mysteries in the show is resolved, it's done so very gradually, and often just leads to more mysteries. I'll try to explain; the show follows the survivors of a plane crash on a (what appears to be) remote island, after stumbling across some sort of throwback, indigenous tribe, they discover a metal "hatch" in the ground. The survivors used dynamite (found on an abandoned shipwreck in the middle of the island.....another story!) to blast the hatch open, to reveal a station full of computers and equipment, and a man who had to enter a sequence of numbers (4 8 15 16 23 42) into these computers every 108 minutes or the end of the world will occur. This was all in the first two seasons, and we are now into the sixth.
A lot of people have sort of given up with Lost, ie, they watched the first couple of seasons and got sick of the mysteries. I can understand this, it can be so frustrating at times, but my God, what a tremendous story it is.

I have to write a personal statement for something I'm applying for. I rather hate doing this sort of thing. It's like doing that "About Me" section on Bebo, except it has to be professional. Erk. At the same time I'm sorting out my CV because I asked someone for a job and they wanted to see it. Super fun.

I was listening to Audioslave today, and my mum popped her head in the door to ask who it was, and remark at how good it was. She want on to tell me she liked a song on the radio that she thought was in the charts, about flies dancing at night. My mum likes Owl City and Audioslave. This disgusts me.

Nevertheless, I'm adding Audioslave to my playlist. I never knew I liked them, but I have a couple of their albums on my hard drive. I'd put "Genius Mixes" on iTunes while I played Fifa 10 online, and this song came on. I instantly recognised it as a song from Scrubs. It's funny how many songs remind me of Scrubs, it's not a hugely musical show, but they do use some outstanding music, particularly to capture poignant moments, where the shows humour is maybe not as relevant. Anyway, it's led to listen to some fantastic tracks and artists, such as OK Go and Rhett Miller, to name a few.
Audioslave were formed when Rage Against the Machine disbanded, and contain 2 of RATM's members. They were originally described as RATM with a different vocalist, but their second album forced people to change this opinion. I really love this track. I think it's really empowering. Be yourself, it's all that you can be.

I'm going to watch Dexter. Never seen it before, but apparently its good....
March catch up!
Hello March!!
This year is flying by. Somehow!

I was back at work today, and feeling a good bit better. I was dreading getting back to work, but the amount of good news that was waiting for me made everything better. Firstly, I got a brand new pair of work shoes (which I had ordered in about september of last year!!), and yeah, they're not just crappy work shoes, they're proper Cat shoes. Seriously cool. Well, for the Royal Mail at any rate. Then my boss came in, which doesn't happen very often, and told me I'm not working again until saturday. Sweeeet!!

The weekend also went fairly well for me. I completely forgot to blog any of it, but Man United won the Carling Cup, and Man City thumped Chelsea. Admittedly I hate both those teams, but City did us a bit of a favour. Plus, it was great to see Wayne Bridge get one over John "I'm a total cunt" Terry.

I think I mentioned before that I am slogging my way through every episode of the X-Files. I'm finally onto the last season (9) now, but I got a huge shock at the end of season 8, because Mulder and Scully kissed(!!!!). I totally thought that they didn't have that sort of relationship in any way, I mean, I knew people made a big deal about them back in the day when it was on tv, similar to Ross and Rachel in some ways I suppose, but I really thought nothing happened. I realise this sounds quite sad, but I have been watching X-Files for almost 3 months now....I'm pretty heavily immersed!!

Again, I probably do have other stuff to talk about, everytime I write one of these, I remember something I intended to talk about, but for now, my head is empty.

Goodnight peoples.