Hold your hats, folks!

At some point, I made a calendar of the last three weeks of term. I had planned for a couple people to come visit, as well as the Pride-y, debate-y things I'd hoped to do. Attend all the socials, read and gym in the gaps between.

What actually happened is some Tristan time, and lots of other random things creeping in. LGBT Midlands Coalition meetings, WSAF gigs, meetings with David Preiss (DAVID PREISS!), and so on.

In particular, the last five days have been particularly challenging. I suppose I didn't realise quite how challenging until last night, when, in a delirious haze of exhaustion and headpain, I made a cake and then fell asleep almost instantly.

So. This is what I have done recently.

Thursday: Meeting with David Preiss about 4th year project. To get ready for this, I'd had to read a 12-page document, and then read as much as I could about integration in general. On top of this, my brother had given me a piece of work to do too (writing some text for a website), due for Friday. So, already, the week had been quite full of writing and reading. The meeting went really well, then as soon as it was over, Tristan and I drove madly down the motorway to get to my brother's prize giving. After mingling and wine and dinner and "look this is the family house", we drove all the way back.

Friday: At some point in the early morning, say 3:30, we fell asleep. (I don't have a great deal to say about that bit apart from that it was both fun and amazing.) Woke up, eventually, got my brother's work done and emailed to him by the deadline, then rushed into the shower to see my housemate's band play their final ever gig, at WSAF. Came home, made food, went back out, Crash time. Oh, Crash. Drunken, dance-fuelled madness. Nick, Richard, Zal, Mash, Buzz, Engineering Matt, faces and crowds and wonderful things.

Saturday: Entirely unwonderful things, to start. Including lots of chundering. (I did party extremely hard). Hangover started to subside at about 4 or 5, just in time to rush into the shower AGAIN and get to campus in time for dinner in the Duck and watching more bands play at WSAF including the very fun Lilac Joke, and the ever-awesome Hot Magenta. Then, onto Last Exit. More bands, more dancing, and GUITAR HERO which was really good. I chose to play King Crimson. Seven minutes of guitar noodling at an almost impossible pace. Then, Matt and Buzz played Rush, "The Spirit Of Radio". LOL. That was hilariously awful. But, impossible to play. In the end, it turned out that Matt and Buzz had been looking at each other's corners, so they were playing the wrong stuff :P (Matt still won though). After a while, Tash and I crashed out, so Mash and I went home.

Sunday: A relatively relaxing day. Bus trips around the Canley area to pick up icing pens, since my local supermarket doesn't sell them big enough, and it was too hot to walk around, hence the bus. Finally got home, made some chocolate cake, watched England get thrashed. Iced the cake, decorated the cake, went to campus and back to give Katie a disc for the last acronym film social. Early bed time in time for the day ahead.

Monday: 6:45am start, for a 7:45am taxi onto campus, arriving minutes to 8, to await my lift. Why this horrifically real-person start? To teach debating at a school in the Banbury area! A full day with a group of Year 12s. I had a crib sheet, and it worked pretty well. I was nervous at first, but I grew to feed off their enthusiasm and really enjoyed watching the quieter girls grow in confidence over the course of the day. Lunch was 25 minutes, break was 10, the whole day finished at about 5 or so. Got to campus again at about 6 ish. Went to see Tristan. Began to feel kinda tired. Realised I had a cake to make for him. Took a taxi home, collapsed a bit. After resting for a while, I dragged myself outside to get Chinese takeout and then came home and ate it. I felt a bit better, so made the cake bases. By now, it was approaching 10. I realised I didn't have enough icing sugar. Left the house again to get it. Called home; a family member had died. I'm borrowing some of Mom's black clothes to wear for the funeral. (My first ever funeral, occurring the day before we go on holiday.) Mom'd also been to A&E, for some really bad allergic reaction she had. Got home eventually, icing sugar in tow, fell asleep for about 30 minutes. I couldn't help it, I was just so tired and hurty. All the lights and sounds of the house were just throbbing in my head and my eyes. However, I got myself up, took some Norah Jones downstairs on Audrey and dimmed the lights in the kitchen and iced the cake. After this epic set of manly endeavours, I went to bed and passed out.

I'm not sure exactly what possessed me to ignore everything my body was telling me, so I could finish that cake. It's like I found a strength somewhere. I'm glad I did it though. Not sure I'd have forgiven myself if I hadn't. Cake is SRS BSNS.

I guess people do crazy things when they're in... summertime. Yes, when they are in summertime. (That is clearly the word I want to use.)

Girls in dresses.

Went to a party the other day. Pretty epic. Lots of booze. Lots of Jewish boys.

In particular, there were two girls dressed in particularly eye-catching dresses. They just looked awesome. I've seen the Facebook pictures, and they just don't look as amazing as they did in person. Still attractive, just not as good.

Girls are cool. :)

A thought.

It often occurs to me that there are a lot of memories I have, involving all sorts of people. (Pizza Hut Dan, Emile, Phil, that maths teacher at Bows, Blonde Joseph, not-very-Scottish James, Jack in Year 3, Decimating Ben, Swedish-Israeli Ben, three Matts, Tom E and Tom F, all the Davids/Daves, Bethany, Jewish Richard...)

They might have forgotten me. Several of them probably have. I know, I've probably forgotten some people who remember me.

There's plenty of one-sided memories out there. But, I'd like to hope that I'm remembered by people. The idea of just dying with nobody remembering who you are doesn't appeal to me much.

Would Channel Four please come to the diary room?

It's the end of an era. Big Brother first appeared on British screens in the summer of 2000. I was 11. I didn't particular watch it first time round, but I knew it was happening. And then, every year for the past 10 years, every summer, it's been there.

It's ending this year. I mean, it had to, really. The format was tired and old, peaking in popularity sometime around 2004. It's the perfect example of what the first decade of the new millennium offered to television: voyeurism. For the first time, we all had the technology in our homes, offices and phones to watch 24 hours a day what someone was doing. What's more, we had the drive to watch 24 hours a day. The idea of having people Just Like Us on national TV, living in a house with strangers, that was new. Exciting. We could see them live. Every conflict, every love story, live. All the time.

The newspaper media machines were more than content to publish stories of the housemates; evictions became headlines, shoving international affairs or government politics aside. We, the public, were far more interested in the politics in the Big Brother house. Who wants to read about a stuffy bunch of white middle-class men when we can see people Just Like Us?

But they're not Just Like Us. Sure, they're human. They're going to have feelings and concerns, and so we can relate to them there. But two things come to mind:

One: who applies to be on a show like this?
Two: who do the producers want to see on a show like this?

Exhibitionists. Conflict-making. Loud. Attention-seeking. Fame-hungry.

I've heard all those things said about people in the Big Brother house. I'm not saying everyone in all the houses were all of those things all the time. But, well, they wanted to be on TV 24 hours a day for months in a row. It's not a particularly normal balanced thing, I don't think.

Still, it's coming to an end. I think it's time for TV to find something new. The Noughties were all about reality TV. What's going to be the craze for the 2010's?

But is it lucky underwear?

That is what I am trying to work out today.

A few weeks ago, I bought some truly awesome underwear. Three pairs of Spongebob Squarepants shorts, and some pants with My Little Pony all over them.

Probably the most arousing clothing I own, the MLP pants.

So, it occurred to me that I haven't quite studied enough for Manifolds. So, what do you do? Wear your lucky pants to the exam, of course!

Except my previous pair is in the laundry basket, and it's looking decidedly less lucky as the months progress.

So, time for a replacement, perhaps. The plan is to wear the MLP pants to the exam, and if I ace it, they become my new lucky pants.

This is a perfect plan, with no downsides. (And I'm not planning on being naked around anyone today, so nobody will be able to see the pink pony and rainbow on my butt.)