mephisto5

mephisto5 @ 2009-11-08T07:40:00

2009-11-08T07:42:05Z

Debates like this are simultaneously infuriating and exhilarating.

I HAVE SEEN OPERA

2009-08-26T21:53:02Z

...and it is crack. Seriously. As a general rule, the amount of time sent singing about something is inversely proportional to its relevance to the plot.

I'm basing this purely on a production of 'The Magic Flute' performed by the Cambridge Shadwell Opera. The basic plot synopsis is:

Singing
Whores
More singing
Freak covered in feathers
Singing
Evil rapey demon- one of the more interesting characters
Page boys
Singing
Half naked young men painted blue with lipstick and CDs on strings round their necks.

Intermission.

See prev.

There is a plot, but it's unecessarily convuluted and in any case is completely unintelligible unless you have a little booklet telling you what they're actually singing about. The house lights will of course be down, so you need to memorise this before the show begins.

Anyway, I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone in Edinburgh this week, particularly any rocky horror fans as the costumes seem to be pretty similar.

Accomodation

2009-04-06T21:53:44Z

I've decided that I want to buy a houseboat.

I admit that it's a slightly unusual decision for a student to make, but under the circumstances I think it's a fairly decent solution to a number of problems; namely the shitty quality of college accommodation, the difficulty/impossibility of obtaining property without a mortgage and my dearth of patience for communal lodgings. The student rate for mooring is under £500 a year. Houseboats themselves may be bought for as low as £10,000 though reasonably decent ones are more in the £20k - £40k range. I'm sure there are noise problems- college VIIIs during early morning outings etc. but I'm also pretty certain that it can't be worse than my current domicile which overlooks one of the biggest nightclubs in town. I'm not sure of the details surrounding fresh water, sewage treatment and fuel but given the preponderance of narrowboats I assume that there are satisfactory solutions to all these problems.

I honestly can't see any major downsides, which worries me slightly. Any thoughts?

Boat Race

2009-03-21T21:26:15Z

Race is tomorrow.

To be honest, I'm more worried about the weigh in than the actual race. I'm the heaviest in the crew by about a kilo (also the tallest and the fastest on bowside, so it's not all fat). I've just had my first hot bath in four years, not to relax, but as a poor-man's sauna to try and sweat out as much excess as possible. Other strategies used by people in the squad include liquid diets (no fibre), spitting and slight senoket abuse. Our cox, for example, lost 1.2 kg in one sitting. Not bad given that she's 50kg in several layers of kit plus shoes.

Fun times...

Spiffy stuff.

2009-03-14T19:48:57Z

13 days...

2009-03-10T00:25:59Z

...to the boat race. It's incredible how much this one event, barely 7 minutes, affects your life. 12 training sessions a week since september and months of less well regulated sessions before that. Hopefully it'll be worth it- after this is over I'm never eating sugar free jelly, rice cakes or celery again.

Anyway, to the brits: let me know how you're doing and when (after March 22nd) you can go out for food, we need to catch up.
to the yanks: let me know how you're doing and when (after March 22nd) you're going to be online; I need to catch up on all the fics you have undoubtedly been so dilligently writing. :P (this applies to you too Fern)

The perils of being a lightweight

2009-02-22T14:24:26Z

Saw stomach in mirror today.

Am one set of chin-muff away from being king leonidas.

SPAAAAAAARRRRTTTTAAAAAAAAAAANNNNS! AROO! AROO! AROO!

Summer fun

2009-01-12T17:11:57Z

Signing up for this as part of the Cambridge Uni rowers team. We aim to win the bastard.

Reading list

2008-12-25T16:19:29Z

"The last amateurs" is a truly awful book.

mephisto5 @ 2008-11-12T19:36:00

2008-11-12T19:37:21Z

Caught something nasty from the Thames. Now on a forced leave of absence from the lightweight squad to get better + prevent me from infecting anyone else.

So.... now that I have several spare hours, any new internet memes I should be aware of to distract me from the endless drinking of lucozade?

Writer's Block: Poetry

2008-10-07T13:43:54Z

No, but 'Howl' certainly is. Bloody awful poem.

Coffee

2008-10-06T00:23:01Z

I am never allowed coffee after 7pm again.

Blue & Green

2008-05-01T09:19:46Z

Our entire boat have been told we should trial, or at least do blues training camp. Unfortunately, one of us has to go back to swedon to do their reasearch project over the summer, but with luck we could get a mostly christ's college boat in the light blues....

Other news: I'm now allowed to go out on first aid duty. Covered 'Natural Born Raver' and the LGBT nights at cambridge's single moderately hardcore nightclub these past two weekends. 6 ft 6 trannies are v. banter and a LOT easier to deal with than tripped out townies. I probably won't cover any more duties until after exams finish, then it's yay for Strawberry Fair. *shudder* At least I'm on runner duty, so the chances of being vomited on are significantly decreased...

Snow! ...and snufkin.

2008-03-23T09:55:23Z

Picture from my window. :)

In other news- Charlie's managed to unleash a new obsession in the form of the Moomins. Their intro music is so terribly addictive...

mephisto5 @ 2008-02-27T08:27:00

2008-02-27T08:29:09Z

GAH! Why must bumps start today? It means I go to bed early the night before and miss arguably the coolest event in Britain this year.

Cartooning

2008-02-03T18:53:09Z

Got fired from TCS for being too off topic in my cartoons, their exact words were "The most on topic cartoon was the one where we didn't actually show you the article". XD

Ah well, more time for first aid and sculling.

mephisto5 @ 2008-01-03T22:32:00

2008-01-03T22:34:24Z

Your results:
You are The Joker

The Joker		87%
Poison Ivy		76%
Venom		75%
Mr. Freeze		68%
Dr. Doom		66%
Apocalypse		66%
Riddler		64%
Dark Phoenix		62%
Magneto		57%
Green Goblin		55%
Lex Luthor		55%
Mystique		47%
Juggernaut		47%
Two-Face		47%
Catwoman		45%
Kingpin		41%

The Clown Prince of Crime. You are a brilliant mastermind but are criminally insane. You love to joke around while accomplishing the task at hand.

Click here to take the Super Villain Personality Test

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!

More Boatie Chat

2007-11-30T19:47:18Z

We appear to have won fairburns....

... and all of our other races this term.

How novel.

In other news, I've been inducted into the hippolytans, the college's 'premiere female sporting society'. Not entirely sure if this was a good idea. I have no desire to get utterly sloshed at least once a week and they have no desire to discuss the finer points of solo-ing FF1. I get the feeling we may not mesh too well.

Daily Haiku

2007-11-24T14:38:54Z

Bicycle stolen.
Lock broken, left on pavement.
Why? Bike utter crap.

Boatie Chat

2007-11-03T08:19:54Z

A couple of weeks ago, our W1 VIII was fortunate enough to win the Autumn head race (for those not obsessed, it's a 2.8ish km timed race). There weren't many other crews entered because it was so early in the term, but it was a good, solid row with nice technique and we felt rather good about it.

Yesterday, we won Uni IVs, a side by side sprint of 1.2km. Admittedly, quite a few boats scratched, but not any of the "Big Three"- First and Third Trinity, Lady Margaret Boat Club and Caius. I may be labouring the point, but being the fastest boat on the river in *any* competition is quite a novelty for Christ's.

Anyway, I now have a shiny tankard, a medal and the promise of a university blade. :)

Website

2007-08-30T16:57:45Z

Is veryveryvery nearly finished. Doing the banners this morning was fun.

and a spoof, because it amused me:

Foot and Mouth

2007-08-04T13:49:16Z

Bloody hell not again.

It's just down the road as well.

I other news; my foot is getting better, as is my juggling. D&D tomorrow looks to be fun, I'm playing a fifth level mindflayer/rogue (aka ninja squid). If anyone knows how to make a quick and easy flagpole for placing outside one's window then any advice would be greatly appreciated. The flag in question is about 2 ft broad by 3 ft long.

Results and Roskilde

2007-07-09T22:12:04Z

Very frustrating week. My results were meant to be published on the 28th June and they were.... outside the senate house which happens to be in a different country to my current location. Hence I had to depend on Camtools to find out what they were. They were eventually emailed to me in a word document a few days ago. Wonderful. I couldn't open it. Roskilde has internet access, but doesn't allow downloading of any files to the communal computers for obvious reasons, hence I've had my results for four days and haven't been able to read them.

GAH.

That said, once I did, they were ok. Upper second overall with a first or close to a first in the two subjects Iwant to do next year and reasonable marks in those I don't. I also may have got the highest upper second in our year, but I'm not certain of that yet. I need to check the letter.

Needless to say, checking for my results, bucketloads of rain and random attacks on our tent didn't really make Roskilde as pleasant as it could have been. We did however get to see (in alphabetical order):

120 Days
Akron/Family
The Answer
Arcade Fire
Arctic Monkeys
The Ark
Basement Jaxx
Beastie Boys
Björk
Boys in a Band
Carion/ Svin: Blowbeat
Datarock
Fanfare Ciocarlia
Flaming Lips
Holly Golightly
Hayseed Dixie
Kal
Klaaxons
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba
Muse
New young Pony Club
Queens of the Stone Age
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
The Sounds
Tunng
The Who
Wilco

The Who were probably the best, closely followed by Arcade Fire.

Bumps

2007-06-16T13:46:19Z

Things have not gone well today, in fact, they have gone spectacularly badly.

M4, who looked set for blades didn't bump.
W2, also set for blades not only didn't bump, but because they were positioned slap bang in front of a bloody out flow and couldn't straighten out in time, went straight into the bank in five strokes.

We had better bump Churchill today- I am not rowing over again and I am not being bumped by Catz; arrogant little shits.

So close

2007-06-08T20:25:45Z

In approximately 19 hours, I will never have to do physics ever again.

There is a certain amount of antici...