Learning the process

Greetings.

I’m currently on a training course for work. It’s for the ITIL framework. No, I don’t expect any of you to understand or care what I’m talking about. Anyway, it’s interesting and it means I don’t have to go into my work office all week!

Marika and I went to the Future Music Festival last weekend. It was decent but felt too short and getting there and back was a total nightmare. In the end it was still worth it as we fit to see Die Antwoord again and even New Order, who naturally played Blue Monday! Yay.

I’ve been doing P90x, the workout regime, for the past 5 weeks. I’m not even halfway through it yet but I’m seeing and feeling the benefits. I just wish I could do proper pullups. Actually I just wish I had a place to simply attempt to do them. Our flat is the least accommodating exercise centre.

I bought a Scanpan grill pan and some other cookware last night just before bed. Regular price was about $1200 but I’m getting it all for about $300. Thanks, online shopping.

My Tintin collectors book arrived yesterday, too. Haven’t opened it yet but looking forward to it. The original two comics that I haven’t read are in this volume. Very exciting.

Time to go back to class.

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Teary corner

We’ve been getting so many mixed reviews at the moment that it’s doing my head in. To make it worse, people staying here that I know have had a blast aren’t leaving reviews, so it makes things even worse. I’m not sure what I’m meant to do to fix it, either.

It feels fucking hard for me, at the moment. There probably isn’t much anyone can do about it, though.

Unfortunately it just seems to be one of those times where I’ve got plenty of shit on my mind and only a fraction of them are positive.

So, instead, let’s talk about the new Incredible Hulk movie. It’s good. Very different to the first movie (which I actually enjoyed) and overall it did a great fan service with its little nods and winks to readers of the comics. The Avengers tie-in, similar to Iron Man also helped develop a decent bit of saliva. The only thing I didn’t like was Hulk’s lack of strength increase in proportion to his rage, although I realise it probably would have fucked up the plot if it occurred.

I’ve been on a bit of a revived comic binge of late, due to all these lovely movies coming out. I could list them off, but no one would give a shit.

After months of deliberation I finally picked up a few blank DVDs in order to boost up our movie selection. People probably won’t want to watch some of the movies I’ve picked up, but fuck them. I made a crowd pleasing one, kind of. Well, I will. Or something.

So, I watched True Romance (I can’t believe I hadn’t seen it before, although I did know of it. Alabama reminds me too much of Marika, whether or that’s a good or bad thing I don’t know), The Prestige (ok but I believe it to be very overrated), Raging Bull (I’m sure it had more of an impact when it was created, but it just reminded me of Rocky with better acting and worse fights), Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (cute but still has nothing on the show). I still haven’t put on Arrested Development yet. Fuck, no one’s even seen it. Jesus.

Before anyone jumps in on it, yes, I got the movies. I guess I just get more critical about dramas or character-driven plots or something because I don’t actually care too much about other peoples problems. It’s just a simple lack of sympathy and empathy. Tough shit. I’ve got enough to worry about without having to get emotionally involved with fictional characters for 2 hours.

I’m meant to get up soon. I don’t want to. Waah.

Itchy noggin'

I need to wash my hair again, methinks.

I’ve spent a few hours the last few days plodding through my old LiveJournal posts that I imported to this blog. Basically I’ve decided to categorise all of them. I don’t know why. I just feel like I should. It’s nice taking a trip down memory lane. There’s only 120 entries left to do. No problem.

For some reason I’ve been feeling really, really tired this last week. Maybe it’s because I’m eating shitty food. I’m not sure. Maybe a little bit of me has died inside since my beloved tofu left Estonia. Maybe it’s because we have a big group of students staying in the hostel for 2 weeks. I really don’t know. It’s nice to curl up and nap, though.

Marika has exams. Lots of exams. I hope she passes them all. I’m sure she does, too. Maybe I’ll get a chance to go down to Tartu with Tim in the next week or two. That would be nice. He’s drinking like a maniac lately. I can’t keep up. It hurts.

So, instead, I think I’ll go running tomorrow and yes, wash my hair. I like the route I take. I run around the outside of Old Town, through the park and up the hill to Toompea then back down and through the Old Town itself. It’s fun jogging over cobblestones. It’s not fun jogging up the bloody hill.

I forgot to mention I won a foosball tournament that the kids organised here. I was in a team with Thomas. He was mainly inspired to play because apparently there was 500 EEK in prize money. In the end we weren’t awarded that, but I was happy anyway. It wasn’t really a fair competition, we were all over them. I’d have felt embarrassed if ended up taking money from them. I don’t think Tom was too impressed, however.

They did, however, give us funny little gold medals. A nice souvenir.

I got drunk last night and fell down some stairs after Bella (new girl volunteering at Monk’s Bunk) asked me if I had a bed while I was walking around in the dark. It sounded like a proposition but it was only intended innocently. I realised this at the time but it didn’t stop me giggling at the situation. Falling on my arse down three stairs only made it worse.

We were drinking what I call White Estonians. It’s like a White Russian, but with Vana Tallinn instead of Kahlua. Potent stuff. Quite tasty when done right. Nearly lethal, too.

The other day I read through The Watchmen. It was cool. I should read it a second time but I’m probably too lazy to get around to it. I also have a shitload of e-books to read that I haven’t even started yet. Not to mention I got all three series of Arrested Development again so I can show people how good it is. Now that I just googled for that link, I see I could have just watched streaming versions. Fuck. Oh well.

Frosties are a fucking awesome breakfast cereal.

Berserk.

My latest violent addiction has been a manga titled Berserk. After playing the game based on the comic months ago on Scott’s Dreamcast, we finally managed to see the anime series. Last weekend we watched all 25 episodes back-to-back.

Unbelievably hyped up about how good it was, I spent some time trying to obtain the entire manga (comic book) series. The manga has been running since 1989 and is only up to the 30th volume out of (apparently) 50. The anime only covered volumes 4-13, so there was plenty more to catch up on.

Well, now I’m in withdrawals, as I’ve just read all of the available chapters from the 30 volumes. Now that I’m up to date, I have to wait for each release as they come. :(

Now I have to watch through Fruits Basket with Scott, too. I don’t think that one is completed either (at least the manga isn’t). Damn it, nothing I like has any closure!

It’s kind of good having some things to be following again, though. It’s only a few more weeks until Smallville starts up again, too.

It still bums me out that I have to wait for each installment. Boo.