I tend to have a lot of nightmares that feature zombies :/

Not necessarily a malfunction but I once stabbed a coke bottle with a compass and it went all over my school uniform. I was sticky for the rest of the day. It was not pleasant.

The Wee Free Man by Terry Pratchett because its so quietly beautiful and easy to read

Bob!

I happen to be in uni this morning with nothing to do so I thought I'd blog (since I haven't in like forever).

So far I've been in the library, reading books that don't pertain to my course and have made up a short story which I have emailed to myself so I can fix it when I get home. Normally I'd be freaked out if I had just spent half an hour in a dimly lit room on my own but it was full of books so I'm fine. Books have a very calming effect on me. Especially old musty books full of wisdom and such.

My degree is going good, I'm passing so I'm happy. I may have been the first in my year group to hand in our first essay of the semester so I'm feeling good about that. Either that or everyone else is lying about their own essays. Also, I'm applying for the position of peer mentor next year, a position that I will be paid for (I didn't know that when I applied but happily, do now) and basically requires me to hang out with first years in a cool sort of second yearish way. Wisdom will be bestowed upon the masses.

Interestingly, most of the books that we have been assigned to read feature a male protagonist who happens to be an academic having it off with pretty young students. My buddies and I wonder what kind of message the male teaching staff are trying to send us. Baffling.

I'm also planning a holiday this summer with some of my mateys who went to England to study. We'll meet up in York and hang out for a week then go our separate ways. So far it seems to be quite economically doable. My other job in the treatment room pays pretty damn well and so long as I'm sensible (which I generally am) I always have enough to last the month with a little left over for good measure.

Another benefit of uni is the weird and wonderful films I've had forced upon me in film studies. Palestinian cinema has been the best so far. I highly recommend Divine Intervention. The soundtrack alone is worth it. The downside of uni is the lack of personal reading I get to do. I book the Gargoyle, which is very good, but have only made it to the third chapter. In my defence the chapters are long. Also I still have to read the Historian, Nightwatch and a pile of comics. Such is life.

Right. I'm off.

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
The Stormthief by Chris Wooding
Sabriel by Garth Nix

Brisp is an old characters name from a story I wrote a long time ago when I was in school.

Forgot how that stupid song goes!

Anyway, it seems I haven't posted anything in ages! Mostly because I don't have much freetime on my hands anymore. Queens is pretty demanding but I feel I'm coping. The main problem that I'm encountering is the huge increase in creativity that comes with hanging around literary types all day. I'm writing more than I've ever written and I like to think that uni is a positive influence on my talent. Especially the creative writing group that I joined. I only realised recently though that most everyone else is a Masters student! How intimidating. Well, it would be if I was insecure. But I ain't! ;) Not yet, anyway.

So aside from uni and writing I'm not up to much. I'm off to Aus (again) for christmas which sucks because I have so much bloody studying to do not to mention essays that need to be in pretty much as soon as I get back! Large amounts of hair are being pulled. I'm sure I'll manage it just isn't a very ideal situation. I'm also working in the local treatment room basically as an assistant to the lovely nurses. I mostly do all their paperwork and computer stuff but I'm really enjoying it.

On a sadder note we had to put our dog Tiny down on Friday. It was so sad but she was suffering so it was the right thing to do. Seeing her in pain was worse than having to put her to sleep. But we've already been out and bought two puppies! The guy who sold them to us said he would hold on to them until we get back from Aus so as soon as we land (pretty much) we'll head over and bring them home. Yay! Puppies are cute.

That's all the excitement in my life so far. Have a happy holiday and a groovy new year y'all.

I'm not actually going to any Halloween parties but if I were I'd go as an evil angel; black feathery wings, black corset, black mini skirt and big ass black boots! Scary or what? ;)

So my first two weeks of Queens is coming to an end. I thought you might like to hear about it :)

The welcome week, or freshers week, as its commonly known was a bit of a bust. I'm not into the party scene and getting hammered doesn't appeal to me (mostly because I just get sleepy and dizzy) so I was rather bored by it all. But getting to meet old friends from the access course I did was great and meeting my lecturers and tutors was a wonderful experience. I love sitting in a room and listening to people who really known what they're talking about. And not only are they incredibly intelligent people but they are also very cool and groovy. My film studies lecturer jokingly remarked about acid flashbacks and one of my English lecturers decided he wasn't very keen on his lecture and ad libbed most it. They are very cool, very interesting people and they have no idea how much respect I have for them.

I also went to the creative writing group on Wednesday which was a rather intimidating experience it has to be said but a very refreshing one. Listening to people discuss the merits and short comings of their work was very positive and enlightening and it is definitely a community that I intent to immerse myself in.

I still haven't received my student loan, a worrying fact considering all my Uni books cost roughly two hundred pounds, but I have been assured that it will arrive in the next two or three weeks. I will also be missing the last week of Uni due to our Christmas holidays in Australia and I will only have two weeks when we return to study for semester 1 assessments. Thus, I don't want to go to Aus but the tickets are paid for and everything is arranged so I'm stuck.

I have spent the past two days reading about poetry and language and film studies and I have yet more to read before Monday but I am loving it. Being immersed in an academic environment really suits me, for now, until the panic sets in and I start pulling all-nighters :)

Anyway, I should get back to my books so bye for now

Yay! Birthday, birthday!
 Twas my birthday on Wednesday so it twas. Thanks KOR. I kind of forgot it was my birthday so I spent last week bounding around telling people it was my birthday. A lot more people remembered than I had expected and wanted to know why the heck I was reminding them! Tee Hee! Sometimes I am a very silly Cherith.

So, anyhoo, I ain't been up to much of anything cept working and complaining about working. Though it was a nice surprise to see Jo and Davey in my castle at the weekend... or whenever it was. I can't remember exactly. It was definitely recently and it was definitely nice to see them. Hey you guys, hope you liked the castle that tells lies about itself! ;)

Saw Hellboy 2 at the weekend and was well impressed. I'd hate to get trapped in Del Torro's head. Something horrible would probably chase me down and eat me whole. That wouldn't be nice.

I baked cookies tonight for Helen's leaving day tomorrow. Tis very sad since Alan's away now too and I'm leaving in a week as well so there isn't the staff to keep the castle running. It's going to have to be closed on certain days because there will be no staff at all! Sucks. Stupid civil service need their asses handed to them.

Uni starts on the 22nd and I can't wait! It's gonna be awesome. I'm gonna rock the socks off Queens and come out with a mega first because I'm going to work as hard as I can, give 110% and so on and so on. Seriously though, I am going to do the very best that I can because I do want a first. I also want to do my masters in creative writing and then do my PGCE so I can teach English and I suppose creative writing but that's really just for my own benefit.

I think that's all I have to say for now so I bid you all farewell.

No one visits the grave anymore.

I'm not sure if that really counts but it came to me so there.

It seems that my previous posts have been a little eratic, having read over the last five or six. I seem to have failed to mention, for instance, that I got 71% over all in my course and that Queens have sent me a letter of confirmation that they will take me on in September. I gave my boss my notice yesterday.

I spent my weekend in another hotel room for another cousin's wedding. Wedding's depress me. Mostly because people keep asking me when I'm getting married which I feel is a somewhat insensitive question. It is also troubles me as to whether or not I actually want my family to come to my (hypothetical) wedding or not. I don't want to get married in a church and this may not sit well with elderly relatives. There are other issues involved but we'll not go into those. Certainly not over the internet.

My brother has been recently laid off due to the slump in the property market. As no one is capable of buying houses anymore no one is building them either therefore my brother's boss had no further need of him. On the plus side he seems to be enjoying his free time to the extreme and has made me a desk today. He's also making me bookends. Not a bad deal for me at all. :)

Me, I'm spending a lot of time writing which is good. I'm trying to get myself in shape for this years NaNoWriMo. It's a very cool challenge for writers and one which I am looking forward to. I'm pretty much fed up with my job and am looking forward to leaving except for the little cat who has taken up residence in the castle. She spends her days following me around and trying to wriggle into my lap where she purrs constantly until I have to get up and pretend to do work. I would take her in, in a heartbeat only my parents don't like cats and also we live right next to a pretty busy road and so far as cats go she isn't very bright. Although she did kill and eat a seagull yesterday. I think I'll take her to a cat sanctuary before I leave the castle. Unless I can find someone else to take her in but it seems unlikely.

Anyway, there's no practise on Friday (which means I have missed almost two months worth of practise, due to weddings, holidays and other miscellaneous reasons) so I'm staying over at Jenny's on Friday instead so I can hang with my fellow sword fighters. That should be fun.

Bye for now.

So I guess I'm feeling a little threadbare at the minute. That's kind of the best word I can come up with at the minute anyway.

Aside from that life is peachy. Work sucks as usual but its only for a few more weeks before I go to Uni! Woo hoo! Unfortunately I have to miss out on the chapter masters meeting but my degree takes priority over everything else. Except possibly writing.

There's a party tomorrow night which should be rockin and I'll be staying the night while will also rock. My family and I are going to see the bonfires tonight which will be fun because we'll just drive past and not stop or anything. Our dog is getting old and possibly stupider. We suspect she may kick the old bucket sometime soon though we have been wrong about that in the past.

I'm reading Stephen King's Cujo and wishing to hell that he would just get on with!

Bye. :)

So I'm currently living at Jenny's due to undue aggro at home. Things aren't so bad but I just need some space and time. Living away from home is actually pretty sweet. I get to do what I want when I want and I'm accountable to one. Of course, I can't stay at Jenny's forever but this is only temporary.

Aside from that the gig at Lietrim was awesome! I had to go to bed early cause my stomach was killing me but aside from that it rocked. George is a very cool bloke. The weather wasn't too terrible at all, everyone had heaps of fun and more importantly, I got an ipod! Hells yeah :)

Anyway, I have had little to no sleep this past week so this is a short post as well you may have noticed.

So anyway, things seem to be settling down a little on the homefront. Mum and I had a 'talk' where she talked and I resisted the urge to yell at her. She thinks something awful must have happened in my life to change who I am but really she can't see that this is how I have always been. I was never happy playing the innocent little christian and I probably never really believed in the whole thing anyway. I mean, I expect there is some kind of deity out there and living by the christian ethos is an okay way to live your life but on the whole, going to church and 'saving souls' is a little on the pointless side. After all, everyone is entitled to live their lives however they like and standing with a microphone on the street shouting verses at people doesn't make a hell of a lot of difference. It just makes people angry. So I think my new found moto shall be 'life's too short for this shit'.

Getting back to sword fighting seems to be very theraputic for my soul. I like swinging wooden swords. It makes me feel complete, like I should never be without a sword. Perhaps I was born in the wrong era. Having said that if I had been born in medieval times I may not have survived due to all the raping and pillaging and child birthing and whatnot. So perhaps best that I was born now. ;)

Aside from that I am currently wallowing in a writing rut. It sucks. But these things happen and I will eventually recover. Hopefully.

Certainly not with my family and my crazy granny in tow anyway. My brother and I, on the other hand, have the amazing ability to remain totally chilled out for the duration of any and all journeys. Ah well, at least we're only going to Sheffield for my cousin's wedding. Dern cousins, getting married before me. I feel like I've been left on the shelf :( Well, kind of, not exactly, I don't mind being single but when other people are settling down it makes want to as well even though that's not really what I want... god, I'm complicated...

Anyway, I'm replaying Saints Row in anticipation of the sequel. Also I can't decide if I should paint my nails orange and blue or lime green and blue for the wedding? Decisions, decisions...

Aside from that I'm grand! ^_^

Pirates all the way! Ninjas are lamers who hide in the shadows with no honour! Give me Jack Sparrow or death :)