... as usual.

So on the 21st of June 2008, a Mr Brendon Burns will be performing at the Wellingborough Castle theatre. "Ah!" said I, on discovering this. "A comedian I am curious about in my somewhat-immediate vicinity! I should like to observe his brand of humour."

The Wellingborough Castle is not far away from me. Wellingborough itself is not far away from me. Google Maps tells me that it's 17.8 miles away and takes about half an hour to get there. Right, fine, grand. The bus I get to university goes past the Castle, even. So you'd think that'd also be fine and grand, right?

WRONNNNNNG

Of course, the last bus back from Northampton is 5.50pm, meaning that it'd go through Wellingborough back home for about, I don't know, half six or so? In any case, as usual, by the time any comedy gig (or any gig of any kind) is over, there are no buses running (most of them stop running before the gigs start). There are taxis, but it would appear that getting a taxi from Wellingborough back to here would be in the region of £40+, which is sort of, you know, kind of extortionate (that is, one time late last year the parent had to get a taxi back here from Kettering in the middle of the night. Kettering is closer than Wellingborough, and that ended up as about £36). I lack the means of transporting myself (much as I wish to spend this summer learning to drive, I question how far I'll be by, you know, next month), nobody in this house who can drive will drive once the sun dips beyond the horizon, I don't know anybody who can and is willing to drive and I'm not well-aquainted with anybody who lives in the Wellingborough regions. That's me out of options. Because, you know. Would rather like to see Brendon Burns but I'd rather not have to be spending so much WHEN HE'S PLAYING A GIG WHICH IS ON MY FUCKING BUS ROUTE. JESUS CHRIST. Trying to save for Edinburgh and everything, you know. (Possibly it would just be easier to wait until August and see if he's at the Festival...)

BUT DO YOU NOT SEE HOW RIDICULOUS THIS IS

As you can see, it was clearly fate that drove Mr Ed Byrne to perform at the one venue I can actually get a reasonably-priced taxi back home from :P

Anyway: Thoughts, anybody? Most of mine are to the tune of "FOR FUCK'S SAKE".


(Also: Comedy Cuts icon ♥♥♥)

So like. I know you fellows in the US have been enjoying Phoenix Wright for a while. You got Phoenix Wright before us, Phoenix Wright 2 six months before us, now it's been seven months since the Phoenix Wright 3 release and there's no sign of it in the UK. Originally, it was slated to come out the 21st of March, but then around the 20th of March I checked and noted that the Nintendo website just said "2008", which isn't promising. But still listed Apollo Justice as having a May 9th release. They still listed Apollo Justice as May 9th even after Phoenix Wright 3 was slated for the 30th of May. I laughed about this. "Wouldn't it be a monumental fuck-up," said I, "if they were to release Apollo Justice before Phoenix Wright 3! Ho ho ho, what merry japery".

So like. We still don't have Phoenix Wright 3.

Look what you can get from Amazon.co.uk?

...

SERIOUSLY. WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THIS SHIT. OH HAY LET'S NOT RELEASE XENOSAGA. LET'S RELEASE XENOSAGA II. OH LOOK XENOSAGA II DIDN'T SELL WELL FOR SOME REASON, LET'S NOT RELEASE XENOSAGA III. LET'S FUCK UP FIRE EMBLEM 7 JUST FOR OUR EUROPEAN MARKET. OH LOOK, TALES OF THE ABYSS IS MAD FUCKING POPULAR, LET'S NOT RELEASE IT IN THE EUROPEAN REGIONS. OH SO YOU KNOW HOW CHRONO TRIGGER IS LIKE THE BEST RPG EVER? LET'S LET EUROPE ONLY DREAM OF WHAT IT MIGHT BE LIKE TO PLAY THAT GAME. YOU KNOW HOW WE LOVE KATAMARI'S PLOT IS BASED ON THE FIRST KATAMARI GAME? LET'S NOT RELEASE KATAMARI DAMACY, BUT RELEASE WE LOVE KATAMARI IN LIMITED SUPPLIES BECAUSE WE'RE SO ZANY LIKE THAT.

FOR. FUCK'S. SAKE.

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Despite all this capslocking, there are still no words for how much the European game release schedule pisses me off. It has always been so, and it seems it always shall be. Bringing The World Ends With You out here days before it came out in the US does not make up for this, it does not make up for it at all. FOR FUCK'S SAKE.

Related linkery:

http://www.dsfanboy.com/2008/03/29/capcom-europe-objects-to-sequential-order/ "There's no spoilers in Apollo Justice that would stop you enjoying Trials and Tribulations if you played it afterwards though."

http://n-europe.com/news.php?nid=11815 "... and now it's looking very likely that Europe won't be seeing the game at all." "I think Capcom quietly addresed the issue a few weeks back admitting that a UK release is unlikely." "Yeh, cpacom, a few weeks back, went on record saying that the game probably won't be released in Europe."

http://www.cubed3.com/news/10000 "According to fansite Court Records, via C3 reader Superlink, there's a strong suggestion from both Capcom and Nintendo that the title will not see a release over here. Rumours suggest that because Trials and Tribulations couldn't receive a 12+ PEGI rating and be suitable for younger children, it may not fit in with previous installments." (meanwhile Neku bitches and cusses his way through a 12+ PEGI rating for The World Ends With You. I was pretty surprised by the level of language in that game. Show me a young child who can play TWEWY and understand the concepts. Go on. For that matter, show me a young child who can't wait to play their way through a lawyer simulation game...)

I haven't been importing the Phoenix Wright games because, you know, I wanted to support the UK market and got excited seeing the games on our shelves and all, but jesus fucking christ. Anybody able to point me towards somewhere to import PW3?

I'm going to go and finish Hotel Dusk.

I'm terrible, it's been ages since I watched The Daily Show... but omg The Colbert Report in the UK omg omg omg

I wasn't prepared for the beauty of actually being able to actually properly see it on the television *_*

It's been that long that this is my only appropriate icon, ahaha XD

How was your Saturday?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Also: He was lovely. And still has The Most Amazing Voice In The World. And I freaked out Kayleigh with my ability to squee over a 79-year-old man.

I also got some Pleasing Swag, but I'll go into that after Who!tiems.

YOU KNOW WHEN YOU LOVE LIFE? I LOVE LIFE RIGHT NOW. LIFE IS AWESOMES.

Ohoho~~

Spoilers BIGGER THAN WALES under the cut.

( ... )

The biggest mystery of the game is still "... so who does Joshua remind me of--?" because I still can't figure it out. Hm.

So I'm at THE FIIIINAL BOSS. And it keeps kicking my ass, ahaha. So you know. Thought I'd get down some thoughts before I manage to beat the bastard...

( Again, spoilery~. )

Well, I'm going to go and see if I can manage to not get my ass handed to me on a plate this time.

Because I was playing it more today and NEED TO GET THIS OFF MY CHEST even though I don't think anybody else is actually playing the thing, ahaha. Also, gratuitous icon post, because JOSHUA. JOSHUA. I LOVE YOU JOSHUA.

SPOILERS.

I MEAN IT.

FUCKING GAME. *cries into a pillow*

( To the end of the second part and most way through the third part... )

I'm torn between playing more tonight or playing more tomorrow... if I played more tonight I could probably at least finish off this part of the game (don't know if there's anything after it), but on the other hand, I'm rather sleepy and think that I'd be better-able-brained to cope with whatever the plot throws at me after some sleep.

Plus possibly I want to write Joshua/Neku before I sleep tonight. Just to see if I can.

♥♥♥♥♥ HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HANAshiroibaraONEESAMA ♥♥♥♥♥

Taurus!soeurs that are not for D:rama FTW. HANAONEESAMA WE'VE NOT SPOKEN IN AGES. WE SHOULD SPEAK MORE. I DON'T KNOW IF YOU'RE BACK FROM THE HOLIDAYING YET BUT WHEN YOU ARE, WE SHOULD TALK MOAR ♥♥♥♥♥. But yes. Hopefully you had an awesome holiday and a wonderful birthday ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. *continues to pack this entry with hearts ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥*

*♥♥♥♥♥ LOVES ON THE HANAONEESAMA ♥♥♥♥♥*

♥♥♥♥♥~!

♥♥♥♥♥.

♥♥♥♥♥~~~!!!

So now I've got a chance to breathe I thought I'd make this post I've been meaning to make for a little while, ahaha. The first few days I had it I played The World Ends With You (now TWEWY) like mad and got to the second part of the game, then Last Days of Dissertation happen and I didn't have the opportunity to play, sadface. I intend to rectify this after I've slept tonight. TOMORROW I SHALL PLAY VIDEOGAMES AND NOT MUCH ELSE. Except writing, maybe. Writing would be good. I have too many unfinished fics (don't I always?). Anyway. Without further ado,

( My thoughts on TWEWY. Spoilery, naturally. I'm up to... the third day of the second part, I think? So don't spoil me either, ahaha. )

Possibly I have more to say but I'm really rather quite sleepy, so I'll sleep now and see if there's anything I forgot in the morning ♥. Basically I just wanted to get my impressions out while they were still reasonably recent~.

I JUST HANDED IN THE DISSERTATION.

OH YEAH

OH YEAAAAAAAAHHHHHH.

\o\ \o/ /o/

Now, let's see. Kayleigh isn't free until later on and Amanda isn't around today. I've not yet seen anybody else I know around. I need to pop over to Park campus to see if I can catch up on Philosophy notes re: not knowing anybody in my Philosophy lessons who isn't Amanda to bum notes from, but then I'm freeeeeeeee and I wonder if it's too early for JDCoke from the Avenue student union, ahaha.

BUT. MY POINT IS THIS: WE LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE ED BYRNE SWEEPS OFF HIS GLASSES ON TELLY. And dissertation. DISSERTATION. HANDED IN. FREEEEE I'M FREEE YAY

( Potaaaaaato potato potato CHIPS )

Now BBC3 being all sexy and uncut with their Top Gear (*glares at Daaaaaaave*) and then moar Byrning ♥♥♥. BBC is kind, Byrning four days in a row ♥♥♥♥♥ (well, the latter two are extended repeats of the first two. But that's still new!Byrning.)

YEAH BITCHES.

So. Since I'm sat at home right now it's fairly obvious I didn't go into English today. I'll catch up with Charles later. I've had about three hours light sleep and have managed to persuade the grandparent to drive me to uni, but not back from it. This does at least half the chance I'll fall asleep on the bus and end up in Milton Keynes/Peterborough, and knocks an hour off the journey I suppose. I can also try and sleep on the way there. I'm not actually as tired as I feel I should be right now, but I feel that this will hit in once I'm stranded at Park and when I'm waiting 40 minutes for the bus at the town centre, but oh well.

MY POINT IS THIS: I HAVE EMAILED EVERYTHING I NEED TO MYSELF, IT'S ALL SPACED AND PARAGRAPHED AND PAGE-NUMBERED AND REFERENCED AND THE BIBLIOGRAPHY IS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER AND ALL THAT KIND OF THING. ESSENTIALLY, FINISHED Y/Y??? NOW I JUST NEED TO PRINT IT OFF AND HAND IT IN. Need to print off three copies. Possibly most of my time at Park today will be spent hunting an elusive working printer with a hundred spare pages in it. Sigh. Oh well, just today to get through and then BYRNING ON THE BBC and then SLEEP OH GOD SLEEP I love sleep. I love bed. Don't you just find that life is a series of events conspiring to get you out of bed?... ... ... (zzz)

9,167 / 10,000 (91.7%)

So... utterly... almost... finished...

(The observant amongst you might notice that this is an entire 1% more than the last time I posted a word meter. However, in the meantime I've blitzed and rewritten so much that for a while the whole thing then clocked in at about 8, 000 words, ahaha. Now I just need to meat up the conclusion...)

I got The World Ends With You in the post this morning, noticed it as I was rushing out of the door. So I was quite looking forward to getting home and trying it out.

In the meantime, I'm exhausted and sleepy and ah kya need sleep but can't stop playyying the seeeex

Also, I turned over to Daaaaaaaaave and MtW 3.5 is on. I love it when I turn on just in time for these things XD (tuned in just in time for the cock discussion XDD)

"Whyyy won't you help me, Tony Blair?!"

I have a headache and laughing isn't helping but this episode is A Beautiful, still ♥♥♥♥♥

Haa~, so I'm here on Park right now~. Feels a bit nostalgic to be here at this time of the day, but then, it was only halfway through the first year that coming home at the end of the day to Park changed to going home to Avenue... but still, as I came up to Grendon, there were a huge amount of students coming out of one of the lecture theatres. And as I was coming up here on the bus I thought about the students we picked up - are they first years? Is this their first year of university? Now I'm coming to the end, and it feels like a long time since that time. But also not really at all, you know? I don't know, I just felt an overwhelming wave of nostalgia as I was coming through to here. I wonder what it's like for those first-year students.

Saw Kayleigh today, which was nice~. Haven't seen her for a while so I was able to catch her up on the things that have happened since I last saw her, ohoho~ (which basically includes all of the recent Byrning). Kind of reminded me how odd but happy my life is at the moment. Then I saw Lorna (the dissertation tutor) who says that the part I sent her this morning is "going in the right direction", which is I think the most praise I've had from her ever. So that felt good, too. Now I'm on Park because I wanted to find out about binding the dissertation - it seems like it'd be fine to do it on Monday (the due date) but that seems like leaving it a bit last-minute, you know? But, it's not like I can come in on Sunday and do it, or anything. The best idea would be to have it finished for Friday, and that is sensible, but then it's like... couldn't I use the weekend as well? Well, we'll see what happens. I'm not planning on going into Creative Writing this week, so I basically have Tuesday-Thursday to nail this bastard. And if she likes what I managed to rustle up in a halfhour this morning after not sleeping and procrastinating for hours then that can't be a bad thing, ahaha.

Despite all the dissertation stress I feel pretty good at the moment... stress usually does funny things to me but it's like... all of those odd but happy things? I can't feel bad, remembering those things. And even if there are people I'm somewhat upset with at the moment with that upsetness threatening to make me feel bad, it's like, I can't, you know? It's a different kind of strength, but it still feels powerful, if that makes any sense. Likely doesn't, I'm running on about four hours sleep right now. But it feels different to times in the past where any little (or big) thing would send me off into a depressive thing, you know? So maybe there are annoying things, stressful things, people that piss me off and things that can fuck off, but there are good things too and great people I know and things that always make me smile to think about them. So that's nice.

Okay, I should probably run and see if I can not miss the last bus home. If possible I'd like to sleep tonight.

Perhaps the most fortuitous horoscope evar. Now if only I could believe it. (Well, the 'you always do' part is true, I suppose...). So it's almost 2am and I'm still working on this. I'm seeing my tutor at 3pm tomorrow (and Kayleigh at 2pm tomorrow, which is nicer - haven't seen her since before Easter) so I need this done by, well, in time for me to email it to her before going to catch the bus at 11.30. Haaa~, these last days of the deadline were never going to be easy, though. Good lord, the last days of the deadline? Ah-yup, eight days left. Where has 2008 so far gone, again? No way is it most of the way through April already, I refuse to believe it. NEXT MONTH I GET OLDER. I AM NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO IT.

♥♥♥♥♥? :3

RIGHT NOW I SHOULD GET SOME SLEEP SO I CAN RANDJ IN THE MORNING. AND THEN DISSERTATION. *grumbles about*

So I finally got around to checking out when my exams are, ahaha.

* LIT3027: Romantic Literature
Monday 19th May
2pm-4pm
Benham Sports Arena

* PHI3003: Modern Moral Philosophy
Wednesday 21st May
2pm-4pm
Benham Sports Arena

* PHI3001: Theories of Knowledge
Friday 23rd May
2pm-4pm
Benham Sports Arena

I'm pretty pleased by this - they're all on the one week but I get a day between each of them (I know some people have like, two exams on the same day, and I'm sure I probably had the same in previous years), and I also like it because, well, they're all in the same week which gets it all over and done with pretty quickly ♥. In the first year there was an exam on my birthday (fun stuff \o/) and on the second year I'm sure all of my exams were around the same kind of time apart from one which was randomly about two weeks after all of the others for no reason whatsoever. So yes, I'm pretty satisfied with that ♥♥♥

The only problem is that, with them finishing at 4pm means I'd have to hot-foot it to catch the last bus home... the last bus from Northampton bus station is at 5.45-5.50, so... hm. Not sure how that'd work out. (That is, it leaves the bus station at that time, but the exams are in Benham Sports arena which is off the back end of Park campus, which takes about half an hour to get to the bus station, and it'd probably take me twenty or so minutes to get from the sports arena to the Park bus stop...) Maybe I could persuade the grandparent into picking me up afterwards. We'll see.

Apart from that, I approve of this timetable ♥

So when I got the bus back today, an art student sat in the seat directly in front of me. At first I noticed him because he was particularly tall and rather striking, not particularly in an immediate 'this fellow is good-looking' way, but he was dressed in a pretty unique sort of way. Kind of a horn-rimmed glasses and tweed sort of way. He had a long stray hair that didn't look like one of his caught under his collar, but I thought it might be a bit much to try and surreptitiously pick it out, even if it was distracting me quite a lot while he was on the bus. And he got out his iPod with big muffler-type headphones, and it was during that I noticed that his hands were dirty - then I looked a little longer and realised they weren't dirty dirty, but utterly ink-and-paint-stained. Mostly inkstained. He went through the music on his similarly paintstained iPod and, having gone past things such as Led Zeppelin and The Mighty Boosh, settled on one of Beethoven's piano concertos. He just put that on and leant right back into the seat and all I could think was ah, lovely.

Later on he was changing the music on his iPod and seemed to realise the state his hands were in. He turned to the shiny side of the iPod and tried wiping it clean, but it was too beaten up and scratched for that to do much good. Instead, he smudged a smily face onto the back before rubbing it out, and that moment made me do the face in my icon, I have to admit. Too adorable.

I found the fellow striking enough that I took notes on him in my notebook, but they don't seem enough somehow. Ah well. I do wonder though, from his attire and everything, if he was perhaps a tutor or a teacher rather than a student? His face looked fairly young, though. Couldn't have been very much older than me, I don't think (but I'm horrendous at judging ages). I suppose we'll never know.

(Clearly I should have talked to this man. Or, you know, offered him my Splitter. If I had one.)

Turning it over in my mind in a self-centred sort of way, while I was hawkishly observing his every move the way one does on the bus, I couldn't help but feel a little jealous of him, for how interesting I found him, if that makes sense. Though on the other hand, it's not as if the fellow knew that I found him that intriguing, so if anybody in my day-to-day life noticed similar things about me I suppose I'd never know either. I do remember a school trip one time, us coming back on the bus and me sleeping, except I was just sat there with my eyes closed since I couldn't actually sleep, and one of the boys I thought hated me remarking about how I looked sweet when I was asleep. That amused me. Though me appearing to be asleep when I'm not actually is a bit of a double-edged sword, for on several occasions I've overheard things that clearly I wasn't supposed to on account of the others thinking I was asleep. Ah, it's harder for me to get to sleep than you'd think, you with your hushed conversations. You'd know if I was actually asleep, I'd be snoring.

Across the road from my house, there's a pub. Next door to this pub is a cottage with a thatched roof. Sat downstairs today, I suddenly panicked on smelling smoke; I checked the parent's half of the house and the grandparent's half of the house and it wasn't coming from either direction. The sofa I sit on is directly under the window, which is at the front of the house; I checked out the front door, and the street outside seemed just full of smoke. Went and got the grandparent, we investigated. So too were a bunch of patrons from the pub stood outside the thatched cottage; smoke was billowing from the chimney and there were a lot of sparks flying from it which, if I were in possession of a thatched cottage, would worry me somewhat. However, the occupants of the house had been notified and didn't seem very concerned and the grandparent mentioned a time before where something similar had happened and they hadn't seemed very worried then, either. It's been quiet since then though, so I assume they're fine. I mean, we haven't had fire engines go by or anything, at least.

http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2008/04/09/6619/colbert_report_comes_to_uk?rss

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Well, that made my morning 1000% better.