It's rare I get to just write about something that isn't boring, or my daily life (what's the difference, eh?), but Scott Pilgrim vs The World has just moved its way into my Favourite Movies of All Time list. So right now I figure I need to get back to my bass, start up a shitty garage rock band, and get me my Ramona Flowers.

As a film, Scott Pilgrim is everything I've ever wanted. It's a comedy, it's got action, it's got romance, it's got nerdy references and a great soundtrack. Even though I hate Michael Cera films, this one is the exception to the rule. I probably should have read the original seven Scott Pilgrim books, but like most people I only discovered this recently - and I'm kinda glad I did. Blown away doesn't quite cover it.

Admittedly, things that are 'integral' to the Scott Pilgrim story are glossed over, like Ramona's travelling through subspace - sure, it's implied and she mentions it once, but when you know it's a part of what makes her "her", then you should maybe include a little bit more... Aside from that, it's just brilliant. If you're a nerd, anyway...

And since I'm such a fanboy, I've gone ahead and messed around on the Scott Pilgrim Avatar Creator. Sadly, the only thing I don't own is the Parka, otherwise it would be a damned accurate depiction!

As yet another week has passed me by, it's high time I actually started doing something. At least, this is the thought I should have had for the last two months. Instead, this has probably been one of the lamest summers in the history of lame, and I've yet to find one to surpass past summers which have involved trips to Canada, to Barcelona, and generally doing something more than sitting indoors being antisocial.

So, news. News, news, news. There is very little news, as ever. I've spent my nights playing Empire: Total War, perhaps one of the best strategy games going - so much depth, so little time. Currently running a campaign as the British, and the entire world is 'hostile' towards me - lovely, war with Spain, distrust from the United Provinces, a shaky alliance with a hostile France, and a shattered one with the Maratha Confederacy. All-in-all, I'm a real diplomat!
Still on the gaming front, my days have been sucked dry by World of Warcraft. Luckily, it's still free - free trial, one month free on purchase, free trial of Wrath of the Lich King. Twenty-six levels in, and I've yet to spend more than the cost of the game itself. So much for a subscription-based model, eh Blizzard? As we speak my level 26 Demonology Warlock is sat in an inn, waiting for me to come back so we can wreak havoc across the land. [sarcasm]My life is awesome![/sarcasm]

It turns out, while we're on the subject of awesome, that I'm awesomely underprepared for Italy. The next seven days are going to be part of one long string of phonecalls, forms, and emails all in the hope that I can sort out every last thing before I leave. So, that's sorting out my contract with Orange, extending my overdraft, applying to L'Universitat de Lleida, finding out how Pavia expects me to pay them for halls, and generally having a good old stress! Lovely stuff.

I'm also awesome at getting drunk enough to be cordial around people I know, but a total dick to those I don't. In fact, last night I received a Facebook friend request, and was at the stage of drunk that made me immediately go 'I have no idea who you are!" - instead of waiting until the morning, when I actually figured out the link between us, I decided to message the poor lass. Tragically, it probably gave off one of the worst impressions I've managed to present to someone. In the words of FTHC though: Well I'm not the only one who regrets the way they act, but I seem to be the only one who's honest with the facts.


I suppose that's it. You may leave now, filled with the sense of having accomplished your weekly charitable act by making it seem like my life is interesting enough to warrant reading about on a semi-regular basis. Ciao, tutti.

With two weeks remaining until I saunter on down to Italy, the pressure is really on to get things sorted before I leave. There are a few ‘issues’ I need to really start sorting, like my Lleida application, and my phone; as well as figuring out what I need to take, and what I don’t need to take. Overall, the main issues are going to be money (having to pay €800 on the first day is not looking at all fun), and language (since I’ve not exactly brushed up on my Italian for weeks!) – I reckon I can survive though. It’s not like I haven’t managed for the last two years.

A point of note, regarding this post, is that it’s being written with Live Writer rather than Blogger. I don’t know how it’ll turn out (hopefully as close to the blogger standard as possible), but, if I like it then it’ll stay as the path of choice for updating this blog. So far, I like that I can see the background, rather than just having a box to fill up, but, it almost seems like I’ve lost that ‘security net’ of bland old Web 2.0. So, a reason for this post being uber-bland, aside from my lame-ass life, is the fact I wanted to test this out ASAP.

Aside from all that – not much going on in the life and times of a poor student. The only thing aside from Italy that I have to look forward to is the UK release of Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Right now it’s the only thing that I’m totally psyched about – even if it does star Michael Cera, a guy that I’m not too keen on. In the words of a critic, on the original Scott Pilgrim comic: “It’s perfect if you were weaned on music records and nintendo games” – with a giant ‘in-joke’ jumping out in the form of Sex Bob-omb, I think it’s perfect for me (though I do want to get hold of all the original comics soon, having not read them…).

I think that’s about it, with no AOB floating around this week. Shame.

What to say; what to say?

First up: I have a shiny new laptop! Yay me! For those curious of the specs, we're looking at a 2.27GHz i3 processor, 2.87G RAM, 250GB HDD, and a fair number of USB ports (well, maybe not - there's an HDMI connection, a SATA hi-speed USB port, and two rear USB ports), and room for an SD reader too. Sweet. Windows gives it a 4.4 rating, as a baseline (which is based on the graphics being 'average'), and the highest score is a 6.4 for the processor. All-in-all, pretty sweet!

So, what with this new powerhouse at my fingertips, I've started clogging it up already! Daily doses of Sim City 4 have become the norm, with my eye on getting Empire: Total War in the near future. The rest of the time, I'm sitting scribbling pretentious 'essays' on my tumblr which is now totally language oriented - if there isn't some lengthy piece on languages on there, there's a video, or a song. It keeps me busy, and lets me blather on about things that would bore 90% of people, and get 10% of people annoyed as I don't reference my sources (Wikipedia, for those of you who care...)

In other news: We are down to 2 weeks, 4 days until I ship off to Italy. I still have to complete my forms for Lleida, because I really don't want to be doing those while I'm away on foreign soil. Part of me is starting to get nervous about it, but the rest of me is still 110% up for it. Let's get away while we can, eh, boys and girls? There will no doubt be a pre-leaving blog up on the Saturday (28th) or Sunday (29th), dependent solely on the state I get into on the Friday night. And, much as I've said it before, I will try my damnedest to try and update 'on the road' - I have a feeling the hotels won't have wifi, or they'll be at extra cost, so it may just be a case of "Hey, I'm alive!" when I get to Pavia. We'll see - early days yet!

I'd like to think that this pretty much covers everything of importance. So, we'll move on to the AOB:

1. I've got my mind set on a certain picture I once saw, but I can't seem to find it. This is a request: if anyone knows where one can find a photograph of Cwmparc at night, taken on a long-exposure from the road over to Nantymoel, please let me know!

2. I really need to head to Spillers before I leave. I've probably said that before, but, it's worth seriously noting. There needs to be a trip, and there needs to be a purchase - for too long have I gone in, browsed, and left. Now they're set up in their new building, it seems like the right time to start a new era in my musical collecting.

I've been itching to blog all day, as if my life is somewhat important (or as if I've done something vaguely interesting in the last seven days). I can, in fact, confirm that neither is true. So, really I'm just spamming up your RSS feed and providing the internet with yet more drivel from the "blogosphere".

I've turned into a right lazy son-of-a... lately. I've been drinking up to six cups of tea a day, sometimes interspersing it with coffee. I've been getting up later than normal - I actually got into a routine of bed at 9.30, awake by 8am, and then lost it somewhere along the way. Shame, really. All day I yawn, and that's not very polite, is it? I'm also getting very bored with this mundane routine of wake up, drink tea, surf the net, make lunch, drink tea, surf the net, play games, (maybe go for a walk), make tea, surf the net, have dinner, make tea, surf the net, make tea, go to bed. Suppose living in the doldrums is on my "to change" list.

I really have nothing interesting to say. It's quite a bad excuse for a blogpost really. We'll just skip to AOB:

1. Finally, I've got a shiny, new laptop on the way. It has all that I wanted as minimum specs, so that is good. It was ordered on Dell as a "Ships in 24 Hours" laptop - that was three days ago. It's not due for another three. Obviously, Dell is based in a factory travelling faster than the speed of light - twenty-four hours for them being six days for us...

2. I think I've practically invited half the world to visit me in Italy. "Just pay for your flights, I'll put you up." - think I'm going to have to check out the 'rules' of living in this place. Who knows, Italian halls might be a lot stricter than Cardiff when it comes to visitors.

3. Five weeks, four days until I hit twenty-one. Then I'm pretty much of legal age to do everything in the world, within reason of course. I suppose I should count that as a new stage of my life, and try to sort myself out appropriately. Go from mopey teenager, to cynical adult. All that jazz. It'll be amazeee.


And that...until I do something exciting, or get my new laptop, (whichever comes first)...is that. Itch satisfied.