Episode 1113: First Amazon Purchase In Ages!

Was chatting with Naomi before today's seminar, and we agreed that EN974 last Friday was pretty intense. Like I said, I'm giving myself another week's worth of seminars to decide which one I'm switching to auditing, between EN974 and EN978. The only thing that's holding me back is that I don't really know what kind of essay I'd write for EN974, whereas EN978 would just be a portfolio of fiction plus commentary, which I'm used to putting together by now. I still can't help but have misgivings about writing for a younger audience though, despite stating a preference for the older end of the age spectrum we're dealing with in the module (which sort of shades into early 20s anyway). Ah well. I'll figure it out eventually, like I always do. I've finally got around to ordering those books that I've been meaning to since before I flew back here. Have yet to find out where my mailbox is though. Might have to go explore the other entrances in North Court. Next thing to figure out is how to walk to the laundrette in East Court without having to trudge into the open, which should technically be possible since Heronbank North and East Courts are actually joined together. Just a matter of working out which corridor(s) to wander down! Probably do that on Thursday. Also, I can now bake my frozen fish and chicken from Iceland because I have oven gloves. So thanks John!

Episode 1112: Competitions?

Am thinking of submitting my PWP, or some version of it anyway, for The Poetry Business competition. Closing date is 1 December for online entries. The PWP in its full length is too long for the competition, which asks for 20-24 pages of poetry, so I'm going to have to drop the comparatively weaker poems in the sequence. There are a couple of other pamphlet competitions with deadlines in November that I'm thinking of entering, so it's a question of whether I have enough poems that can also be put together in a sensible fashion. Entering competitions is one of the things I told myself I'd do this year because I've been told before that it's what I should be looking into doing at this stage. It's my last year in the UK, so what the heck, I might as well give it a go, right? I do wish the people behind the Oxfam anthology would get back to me about my poems though, as there are a couple in the ones I sent them that would be great to build pamphlet-length sequences around. Mostly I just want to know if I've been accepted or rejected, since Google indicates some acceptances have already been issued.

Episode 1111: New Hurts Fan!

Found a couple of EN978 books in the Schools Collection of the Library (thank goodness for postgraduate student loan limits!), so I might be able to put off going to the library in Coventry or Leamington for a while more yet. I'm still in two minds about which module I should switch to auditing if my dissertation proposal gets accepted, EN974 or EN978. The former is definitely going to be more of an intellectual challenge, and I'm starting to think I might relish that, but I also kind of picked the latter to avoid that in the first place. Choices, choices. Guess I'll be able to make up my mind after another week of seminars? One thing I don't have to make up my mind about though, is liking Hurts. Their debut album Happiness is one of the few where I like every track, and can listen to the whole thing without skipping tracks. Only other recent albums that have the same distinction are Simon Curtis's RΔ and Take That's Progressed EP. Reviews I've read so far have been lukewarm, but then I've seldom allowed my musical preferences to be swayed by reviews, or I wouldn't listen to some of the pop music that I love.

Episode 1110: Catching Up...

Right now, I'm watching the episode of How I Met Your Mother where Lucy Hale plays Robin's younger sister. Just when I thought I couldn't like this show more! Community is still my favourite airing comedy though. Should probably be catching up on my reading rather than a TV show, but I guess I haven't snapped out of my holiday mode yet. Anyway, it's the end of my first week back at university, and I'd say this morning's EN974 seminar was a good way to go into the weekend. Never had Thomas Docherty as a seminar tutor before this, and honestly, I think he's one of the best I've had in four years. (Yes, I literally picked this module because he was teaching it.) Tempted to ask him if I can audit the companion module to this one next term. It would mean sacrificing a free day though, right smack in the middle of what would otherwise be a five-day weekend. I've also been making a conscious effort to speak up in seminars this week, where previously I'd have been content to go through an entire seminar in silence. Granted, now that they're twice as long as they usually were in my undergraduate days, it's a bit odd not to say anything at all for two hours.

Episode 1109: Most Insane TV Show Ever?

Downloaded Connectify, so I've got WiFi in my room as long as my laptop is switched on. Borrowed a stack of books today, all from the list of recommendations Pablo Mukherjee added when he sent my proposal back. I've requested that the Library purchase Neil Lazarus's The Postcolonial Unconscious, but if they choose not to, I guess paying £17 to get my own copy isn't too pricey. Anyway, I've just watched the pilot of American Horror Story, and this show is gloriously insane. If you only ever knew Ryan Murphy as the creator of Glee, this should be an eye-opener for you. (To be fair, he created Nip/Tuck before Glee, and that show was pretty crazy too.) The show piles on so many horror tropes in under an hour that if it weren't done with such manic confidence, I think the whole show would simply collapse under the weight of all those clichés. It's too early to say if this show can ultimately deliver a satisfying conclusion, but hey, it looks like it'll be a wild ride. Incidentally, Dylan McDermott is a ridiculously well-preserved 50-year-old, even by the standards of Tinseltown. I swear he looks practically like he did when he was on The Practice, and that was a decade ago. Also, I woke up to the news that Steve Jobs had died. What a way to divert attention from the flak surrounding the iPhone 4S, huh?

Episode 1108: Fridge/Freezer Space Claimed!

Went down to church to help Sarah key in some data for Kidz Klub. Then I went back onto Central Campus to hand in the card with my MA option choices and pick up my NUS card, before doubling back to Cannon Park for groceries. Now have the bottom compartment of the freezer staked out, which I don't feel guilty about because it's half the size of all the other compartments. Fridge space is a bit more problematic, but it's okay, since all I need is somewhere to put my cheese and Innocent smoothies (and cherry tomatoes). Now it's just a matter of maintaining approximately the same amount of food and drink, so that I don't lose the space I've claimed. Haha! Spent the rest of the afternoon and evening catching up on TV, when I really should have been reading Montaigne and Descartes for Friday's EN974 seminar. I've started on 'De l'expérience', and I'm definitely going to be able to get through it and Descartes's 'Discours de la méthode' tomorrow afternoon. You know, sitting in Costa, sipping an overpriced blended coffee. On second thoughts, it might be too crowded. On the other hand, I want to go back to Iceland/Tesco to get some snacks, and more of that canned chicken in white sauce that takes three minutes in the microwave, and there's a Costa outlet in Cannon Park!

Episode 1107: First One Bites The Dust...

Re-read the MA handbook because I was still confused about what exactly is meant to happen regarding dropping modules for people doing a dissertation. As far as I can tell, I should be able to do both my Spring Term modules, provided I drop something this term. Since EN973 apparently counts for my Critical Theory requirement (which wasn't made too clear on the department website. if you ask me), I don't actually have to do EN974 Aesthetics and Modernity 1: The Question concerning Experience. I still want to though, so I'm thinking that I'll switch to auditing EN978, since there are a couple of people doing that anyway. I could just stop going, but then Lucy would probably kill me. I'm having fun reading children's books anyway, when I'm not trying to keep up with too many TV shows. Speaking of which, the first cancellation of the new TV season has happened. NBC has dissolved The Playboy Club, citing low ratings. Shame, I was just starting to warm to the show. At least it lasted one episode longer than Lone Star last year. Am back to doing administrative stuff for Kidz Klub starting tomorrow morning, after which I'm going to head to Tesco and finally claim some fridge and freezer space for myself! It's a bit too late for the fridge, to be honest, but the freezer still had completely empty compartments when I last checked, and based on eating habits from the last two years, I typically require freezer space more anyway.

Episode 1106: Plus Ça Change, Plus C'est La Même Chose

David Tait forwarded me half a dozen submissions this evening, so I'm going through a couple of them before bed. So far, all the stories I'm reading definitely need a lot of work, but I can't offer much in the way of suggestions for these writers beyond first editing down their work for greater economy, and then we can proceed from there. Frankly, I'm guilty at times of overwriting too, so I don't feel like I'm being unduly harsh by telling writers that they need to cut back. Anyway, it's been a pretty busy first day. I'd quite forgotten how much you could get done just by waking up earlier. Got up around 8.30 am, so I had time to watch an episode of Hung and Wild Boys each, shower, pick up my new student card and collect my DFP Affaires B2 certificate (avec mention très bien!), before heading to the IACS for my DR@W experiment. Then I had my first EN973 seminar with Emma Mason, which was great. Caught up with the other creative writers who've stayed on to do various MAs in Curiositea, and it was nice seeing everyone again! Had some sort of induction meeting too, which wasn't terribly useful, to be honest, and drinks and nibbles after. Chatted to some new people who're doing the Writing MA, and then I went to The Dirty Duck to catch up with church friends. So I'm pretty tired now, otherwise I'd finish reading all of the submissions David forwarded.

Episode 1105: Settling In...All Over Again

Moving all my stuff into my Heronbank room was surprisingly less of a hassle than I'd expected. Even collecting the stuff that was in storage was made easier by an obliging taxi driver, who pretty much helped me carry most of my boxes. So here I am, all unpacked. Now I just need to get rid of the boxes, although it seems such a shame, since they're all still in perfectly usable condition. Well, at least the recycling point isn't too far away. Heronbank, by the way, is lovely, especially the ensuite bathroom. The season finale of Doctor Who is insane by the way, and not in a good way. It tries to wrap up all the loose ends, going way back to our first encounter with River Song, but in so doing, it also channels the worst thing about TV/film, which is having twists for their own sake. Now the whole of Season 6 just feels like it was shoehorned into a superficially elegant narrative arc that would lead to this finale. Except all the subtlety is gone. Rose's 'Bad Wolf' motif was so much better. Heck, even the cracks in the wall from last season were better. The Silence? Very interesting to begin with, but once they started getting explained, I couldn't help thinking the whole thing was more and more ridiculous and disappointing. On the other hand, I greatly approve of the season premiere of Merlin! This epic Facebook comments thread between me, Lizzie and Nick Marshall (found here) should explain why clearly enough. Time for bed now, even though I still haven't watched the newest episode of Wild Boys. Had nearly forgotten I have an experiment to do at 1 pm!

Episode 1104: Wow, That Was A Horrible Flight

Watched four movies during the flight, and the first three were pretty terrible. First I saw Monte Carlo, which was a real stinker, despite a cast that should have been a hit. Come on, Katie Cassidy, Selena Gomez, Leighton Meester and Cory Monteith? It's like a casting director plucked names off a TV schedule. The movie was just plain bad though. It wasn't even funny, which is saying a lot, given that films involving cases of mistaken identity usually don't have to try too hard to get laughs. Disappointing! Then I watched Something Borrowed. Even since Colin Egglesfield got axed from the now-cancelled Melrose Place reboot, I've been wondering what his next acting gig would be. Unfortunately, this romantic comedy is stunningly underwhelming. It's based on a book, so now I'm wondering if the book is just as bad, or is the film just not very faithful to it, considering the bizarrely compressed-but-full-of-twists ending. Next I found myself shaking my head at the cheesy CGI in The Storm Warriors. Okay, so the point of the film probably is for Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok to look broody amidst a lot of ludicrous special effects, but goodness, could the plot be any thinner? Not even going to rehash it here. Last movie was Green Lantern, which I'd wanted to watch when it was in the cinemas, but now I'm glad I didn't. It was obviously nothing more than a vehicle to showcase Ryan Reynolds's body and offer Blake Lively a step up the film rung. Sadly, the movie actually just confirms that she can't really act. This movie was obviously gunning for a sequel, but apparently it was a box office dud, so those plans may be scuppered. All in all, a boring flight then, and this is not even considering the fact that I spent the last two hours or so of it in misery, possibly from something I ate. Props to the air stewardess though, for being concerned when I told her during the breakfast service that I wasn't feeling well.