I’ve been battling with the new version of MSN Messenger for the last hour or so. I haven’t been on for ages because of Racodac work, and since then a new version has been released which I *had* to install before it would let me sign in. Once in, I now get a warning message that has no text, all of my contacts appear as blank entities and I’m “unable to start a conversation” with anyone.

It’s a known issue, apparently, but I wouldn’t mind betting that (what with my Racodac bits) it’s going to be a while until I do actually get to talk to people.

E4 will be available on Freeview from 27th of May, which means that I’ll be able to pick it up in my bedroom. Of course, I’d rather it was UK Gold, but E4 does tend to have some good stuff on show. And beggars can’t be choosers.

On the subject of Freeview - does anybody else occasionally pick up channels that they aren’t paying for by changing channels back & forth very quickly? I find, in my bedroom at least, that a bit of picture sometimes slips through and sticks if you time it right.

Go on, someone ask me a question about The Cutlery Channel - I’m an expert.

My self-assigned day off of Racodac today was scuppered by a lecture on The History of Animation. But I shan’t complain, as the day has been full of smiles.

• First of all, I had another lie-in. Only an extra hour, mind, and that was to recover sleep lost through watching tele into the early hours.
• When I did leave for Racodac, the slow moving traffic allowed me to have a brief conversation with Atul K. from his car as he drove past.
• On my long walk to Racodac from the bus stop, I ran into the delightful Steph ¿ on her long walk back to the bus stop. And we had a wee chat - our first, I do believe, after months of polite smiles and “hello”s to & fro. And she surprisingly asked if I wanted to join her at an event over the weekend.
• The History of Animation lecture was more a screening of numerous animations through the ages than anything else. I did lose interest towards the end - perhaps because it was a Friday afternoon and we’d got through a lot of examples. But all in all it was great. There was one animation in particular that I really want to get a copy of. Only bugger is, the lecturer didn’t know what it was called.
• I’m going to see Through the Olive Trees at the National Film Theatre in a couple of weeks, and I’ve just found out that it’s going to be introduced by Laura Mulvey - a film theorist whom Mr C. taught us about in Film Studies at RWS.
• I’ve not long heard from Matt L. that the highly inappropriate text message that I sent him this morning was received during a training session… and with his phone set to loud, the trainer heard the message alert, read it, then made Matt read it out to everyone else. Excellent.

Making the most of the colossal waste of time at Racodac today, I got a big chunk of my animation project done. At least that’s what I thought until I found out that this effort was just a “practice run”, and that I’ve got to do the real thing again from scratch. How annoying.

I don’t mind re-drafting work, but I could’ve done without it on this occasion - especially considering the looming deadline.

Still, I did have many a laugh with Elliot S. And by the end of the day, I’d even seen Jordan A’s scrotum too.

My morning off of Racodac involved nothing more than a big fat lie-in. I *was* going to justify this in saying that I was up late writing that essay. But I finished the essay quite early, and just didn’t get up because I didn’t have to.

When I did go in, it was only to submit my essay and work with my group on the manifesto. But being the only member of the group in attendance, I knocked that on the head shortly after arriving.

Instead, I pulled up a chair next to Serena B. and sat for a while talking more about life, the universe and everything.

And now at home, I’ve got to start work on my animation otherwise it’ll be a rush jobby after The Bill.

Da, da-da, da, daa, dum.

In the formative critique for my animation project at Racodac today, the tutor said that my story (and performance of it - in front of everyone) was “very good”. Then again, the tutor said the same thing for everyone else’s too, so it’s not as if I’m on the verge of anything groundbreaking.

The one area that did let me down was my pose sheet, as the opening four poses weren’t as strong as the subsequent ones. This, I argued, was because I’m not a very good drawer, so the earlier drawings were simply me finding my feet, as it were.

In order to start animating our sequences for the grossly optimistic deadline of next Thursday, we were given a wad of special animation paper and an industry standard lump of plastic. And that’s not knocking lumps of plastic, for my most prized possession is a fragment of plastic framed on my bedroom wall.

But that’s another story…

Racodac was a COMPLETE waste of a day. I could go off on one in saying exactly why, but this sums up the charade rather well:

How can an application that’s bundled with the operating system be out of licences for goodness’ sake? And Notepad of all things.

Something else that really annoyed me today - a deaf chap got on the bus on the way home and asked everyone the way to the hospital (via the address on a scrap of paper). And not one of them would help him.

I was the last person he asked - probably because I sit at the back and because of my hard man image (no, really) - and I helped as much as I could. But why couldn’t anyone else have done the same?

I’d planned on finally getting that essay done today. I’ve been putting it off for a while - waiting to be in the right frame of mind. But it just hasn’t happened, so I’ll *have* to do it tomorrow or Tuesday regardless of how I feel about it. It’ll be a shame if I don’t snap into the mood, as I prefer to feel something for the work I do.

It’s weird, I’ve been feeling really fed up and generally unfulfilled for a while now and it won’t bloomin’ budge. Today has been particularly unpleasant - not least because it’s a Sunday. I don’t know - it’s as if I’m waiting for something to come into my life and make things great. Red Dwarf: The Movie would suit nicely.

In cheerier news: I’ve solved my website dilemma in ditching various bits and redesigning The Launchpad. Go see.

Instead of doing that essay as intended, I’ve spent today moving things about on my site and making silly animated GIFs for a redesign. I’m dead chuffed with my Red Dwarf one in particular, as it looks just like the real thing.

But you can wait until tomorrow to see it because I’m a twat.

I had the day off of Racodac today, as Fridays this term is an extra day of software training for those who feel they need it. I’m sure that I can manage without, so hopefully this means that I can have Fridays off every week (except for next, when I’ve got a lecture).

Running around Brommers today with my mother - sorting out legal documents for passports - was not how I expected to spend the day. But getting a different bus, I noticed something a bit pointless…

This different bus had what I presume to be the word “stop” written in Braille on the stop/bell buttons. Why? Surely blind people will have to feel up the pole to find the button - is that not indication enough? It’s not as if there are any other buttons, after all.

I’ve always wondered, you see, why they have the word printed on the buttons of buses that don’t bother with Braille. So to me, today’s inclusion is just rubbing it in (for blind people) that they can’t see.

Or am I being stupid?