Well strike me down and become more powerful than I can possibly imagine - wasn’t The IT Crowd great last night?! I’ve been looking forward to it since a billboard went up opposite Focus just down the road. (Around New Year methinks.) It was Richard Ayoade’s face that did it, as I’m a huge, huge fan of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace. Plus of course, it’s about computer geekery.

Talking of computer geekery, yesterday’s episodes reminded me massively of my Ri@ days. (That’s the Ravenswood Internet/Intranet Association, obviously - of which I was a founder member.) Apparently, I’m not as bad now as I was then. Apart from my hair, as Hob McD. proclaims.

Anyway, The IT Crowd gets a thumbs up from me. And I love the title sequence too.

I think one of my tutors thinks I was having a go at him earlier. He was being all cocky, giving it all that. So I gave back. And he went quiet. Ha ha.

In other news: Steve P. - my good, wall-punching friend from RWS (and Racodac for a short while) - can be seen on Channel 4’s The Friday Night Project tomorrow night at 11:05 PM… jumping on one of the presenters of all things.

Some people never change, eh?

My GCSE DT folder flopped open on the market research page when putting the Christmas decorations away today. Nostalgically, I read back over my work and found great amusement in the following statement: “And I only asked 3 fans of Red Dwarf, the others were normal people.”

Great days.

I very nearly fell off of my new swivel chair a short moment ago. As soon as it happened a scene from something entered my mind. But before I remembered enough details to establish what production the scene was from, my wonderful memory of Rob B. & Hob McD. ramming me off of a swivel chair at RWS popped in there.

Clip hopefully coming soon. WHEN HOB FINDS THE TAPE.

A whole year after last seeing him, James N. from the RWS days stopped by my house earlier today just to give me a hug and invite me to “Wales”.

Bless.

My new Racodac timetable is jam-packed except for Wednesday mornings, which they seem to have forgotten about. As such, I only went in today for Context Studies at 2:00 PM - something that I’m hoping to make a regular thing of doing for the rest of term.

Context Studies was all about Dogme 95 - a manifesto that I covered in considerable depth in Film Studies at RWS. So other than going in for a new project brief (which requires me to write my own manifesto) and getting to walk in with Karl A, I could’ve had the whole day off. Bah.

The third and final term of my first year at Racodac has begun. It’s hard to think that I’ve nearly done a full year there already - I’ve still got the taste of that horrible milk in my mouth from my first day at primary school. Yet here I am knee-deep in university bits.

(an aside)
Sitting waiting in a dentist’s waiting room today for a friend to finish her treatment, a mother told her young son to “Leave that man alone.” I was the man in question, and the boy was kicking my leg. Still, it didn’t half feel weird being called a “man”. I know, of course, that I am one. But she could’ve said “young man” or something.

Talking of Racodac, we were set our first project for the new term today - a branding assignment for the BBC’s Young Musicianage 2006. The requirements are stupidly identical to those of GNVQ IT (which we *had* to do instead of GCSE) at RWS. Only this time, we have to make a title sequence too.

# Fun, fun, fun…

Instead of a day of culture and poetry and chess, I’ve been sitting here vegetating in front of Emmerdale [Farm] like a poor, sad peasant.

I’ve been seriously lacking inspiration and motivation for a short while now. Well in fairness, the motivation aspect comes from not being inspired, as when I have a good idea, I’m almost always enthusiastic about it. Whatever - I’m giving serious consideration into ending the updates of my websites.

Better dead than smeg

The main idea behind it is to go out with a bang - none of that fizzling out nonsense. I mean, everything will probably remain as it is - it just won’t be updated again. Other than this blog, that is, as I’m quite keen to carry this on as a sort of diary. A legacy, if you will (as sad as it may read most of the time, and as sad as the idea itself may sound).

Nothing’s concrete at the moment. I just feel that it could be the time to move on. For a start, updates are becoming a bit of a chore. But more importantly, I have achieved far more than I ever set out to, so when/where do I draw the line?

On the other hand, I don’t want to abandon my sites - particularly the Red Dwarf one because of the time and effort it took to get recognised. And after four years of success, I don’t want to break the chain all to realise a few months later that I should’ve kept it going.

Realistically, none of this actually matters. I’m just thinking that if I do finish with my sites, I can focus more on new projects. My short film, Sleep, was perfect. I made the film, I made the site and that was it - end of. I want to do more standalone things like that.

---

I really lost interest at RWS towards the end, but stuck it out because I don’t like to waste time - and giving up would’ve been a big waste of two years. Now at Racodac, I’m similarly ‘bored’ already. And in honesty, this may be swaying my way in thinking at the moment - wanting to do new things to compensate for the excitement that should exist but doesn’t.I’m not alone in feeling disheartened about how things are at Racodac. And knowing this is fuelling the hope that things will pick up soon.

Let’s hope so, eh?

Going in to Racodac today was another waste of time. I could’ve returned home literally a minute after arriving, as nothing was going down.

Having spent so long on the bus getting there, I opted to do some digging about on the ‘net for Amazon rainforest information. Danny P. kindly gave me a copy The Man Who Planted Trees, which I was all set for ordering for just under £10.00 last night. I wouldn’t mind, but the full story doesn’t even take up a full five pages of A4 in 12 point font. What a rip-off.

The only reason I didn’t order it last night was because it made sense to check Racodac’s library first - it wasn’t listed. And not that I can remember why I was searching, but I did find Small Objects of Desire: History of the Sandwich in the library catalogue. Oddly, it does have some relevance to my previous post about Luis Buñuel. But I’ve actually mentioned it because it reminded me of one Mr. H’s DT lessons at RWS: His process of buying a sandwich.

After talking with Zehra A. & then assisting Jordan A. with his Flash animation for a couple of hours, I made my merry way home.

And now I’m going to watch The Bill. Good old pigs.

Three things of importance today:

1. Honking her horn at two chavs at the bus stop this morning, Ms V. (of RWS) then saw me standing next to them, pointed in surprise, smiled & waved.
2. My final Typography 1 project was received remarkably well. In fact, mine was one of only two that got a laugh from tutor, Keith G.
3. I bumped into Ian J. when leaving Racodac for the first time since he moved courses two months ago.

Guess what I’m doing tonight? Yes, more of the comic.