Hype Dark (Phil)

Perikieromene

2006-11-03T11:37:00Z

Is the title of a play by menander, only partly extant, and which I should really have prepared for my next tutorial at midday. Ho hum. Winging it once again! Nothing wrong with a bit of emergency greek though, as the bishop undoubtedly has at some point said to the actress. Well, what do I have in the way of news?
My parents are coming up this evening to visit me, which will be interesting. I need to convince them that I am happy - which I am, so there shouldn't be a problem there - and that liverpool isn't totally crap. That one is going to be a little more difficult, because we're going to have to walk through Church Street late on a friday evening (think the feeding scene from Dawn of the Dead, but with scousers instead of zombies). What else? work goes acceptable well, although I have a Big Scary Essay in this wednesday so I'm going to have to spend some quality time in the library.

I haven't really got time to write much more, so I'll sign off here. More later!

Philisophicos

2006-11-01T01:46:00Z

OK, I'm drunk - and therefore philospohpical - enough to post. Just had a really great chat with Sunil over skype in which he reminded me of my duty to hypedark. So: I am in liverpool. My friends and I have just had a pleasant evening involving rather too much to drink. I now have skypeout, which is exciting. Oh, and firefox 2.0
So, what else? Lectures are dull, tutorials more interesting, in a kind of haven't-prepared-for-this fashion. Greek tomorrow will require me having prepared some Plato, death of Socrates (hackneyed? JACT? as if!). I went to a great houseparty the other day involving a lot of different alcohols, which I abused before cycling home pissed. The hangover the next day was unpleasant, but remedied witha fine fryup. I have promised people a homecooked curry, which will entail some hours spent slaving over a hob, but will probably be worth it. It has now ceased to be halloween (I dressed as a ninja. I always dress as a ninja, it's cheap) and is all saints'.

Anyway, I should cease my ramblings and hit post before I do any damage. Good night all. Classics > comp sci. In fact, bit shift - Classics << comp sci. And it was tasty.

Good night.

F*xed

2006-10-24T15:50:00Z

.

2006-09-22T00:39:00Z

I have just moved to Liverpool, and I rather like it. The traffic lights are few and sensibly phased, and it all seems very friendly. I can get from my halls to the centre of town in about fifteen minutes, which is nice, and for a large city the roads are really quite clear.
But as I was heading home this afternoon - about four o'clock - I was beeped repeatedly by the lady behind me 'for being in the centre of the road'. I wasn't holding her up - there was a bus a few feet in front of me - but she felt that I shouldn't be where I was. I gave her my best outraged 'what are you on about' shrug and look. She remonstrated with me: what was I doing in the centre of the road? didn't I know I had to keep left? I explained that I was perfectly within my rights as a vehicle. She demurred (impolitely), and attempted to run me off the road by pulling sharply out and in again so that she was alongside me and crushing me into the kerb. When I inquired as to her purpose, she looked smug and said that I should be at the side of the road. I repeated that I had vehicle status, at which point she looked even smugger: there was, it seemed, a flaw in my argument. I couldn't possibly be a vehicle, because I had positioned to overtake the bus when she beeped at me in case it abruptly stopped.

Why is this sort of thing acceptable? Do people in London think like this but are simply too frightened to say anything? It did seem odd that she'd chosen to have this argument with me when it gave her no advantage on the road and left her open to further conversation from me. It seemed odder still that she'd chosen to do it with her young daughter in the front seat. She was convinced of the validity of her argument and wanted to educate me, although this rapidly turned to irritation when I refused to be cowed. I think that we are seen as kids with toys rather than as vehicles, and this sort of thing really irritates me.

Update

2006-09-15T22:41:00Z

Well, what a calamity! My beautiful bendy bike is now rather more bent than the designers ever intended. I was filtering between a bus and a line of stationary traffic waiting to turn right when suddenly a passenger in an elderly Micra flung his door open. I didn't see it happen - it was too quick, I was alongside the vehicle as it opened - and it clipped my right handlebar, throwing me into the bus and then onto the road. The front end of my bike is a bit of a wreck - the handlebars are bent, the front wheel is bent, and the forks are bent. I achieve more in one crash the Sunil achieves in two! PWNED!
Anyway, I couldn't get the driver's insurance details cause the passenger took my bike away to the pavement (without my consent) and the driver drove off. I found the passenger, who appeared to be the village idiot, attempting to put my obviously pringle-shaped velo back together again. He looked like an asian version of Yogi Bear, except he had a wall eye which gazed off disconcertingly into the distance. He couldn't give me his details because his english was appalling, and insisted on wringing my rapidly swelling hand in apology, which hurt like anything. I twisted Â£50 out of him which will go some way to covering my costs, but it isn't as much as I'd like. The police are their usual helpful selves - I have to attend in person and fill in a form which they will doubtless file away in the unsolved cabinet.

So: my stiff finger (oo-er missus!) has now reduced itself to a twinge, my shoulder aches a tad when my left arm is raised but is unnoticable most of the time (Considering it put a large dent in a bus, that's pretty good) and the gravel rash on my palm is now just an interesting speckle effect on the callous which saved me actually getting hurt. My bike is in need of:

Handlebars - Â£14
Bar tape - Â£6
New wheel - Â£18 plus time spent building it
Unbent forks - Â£5 labour by the bike shop (hopefully!)
front tyre & tube - unknown. Probably expensive because it's a non-standard wheel :(

So I'm down a few bob but nothing too drastic. I'm sorting it this weekend as well as filling in lots of forms, posing for passport-sized photos, and getting my bank account set up (joy!).

And come Tuesday afternoon, I arrive in Liverpool, my new home for three years.

Eek.