Ok....after my last blog, I'm kind of considering quitting this whole thing. I'm beginning to think the whole thing is a bit pathetic.

If anyone reads this, and thinks otherwise, get in touch. Othertwise, in my current frame of mind, this might be my last blog.

Yusss! Went to the gym as planned. Legs still ache, but it's another session in the bank. Awesome.

On the drive into Inverness I was kind of thinking about just why I have this blog, and why I started it in the first place. I think I really just use to express some things that I really wouldn't usually tell people, as well as just talking about stuff that no-one else is really interested in listening to. Which is sad but true.
To anyone who reads that, don't take that the wrong way, I know there are some people I talk to a little bit, but I don't really have any good, close friends to talk to about some things. Hence, this blog.

I don't know if that makes sense, but nevermind...

I've added the Only Ones to the playlist, because I've heard "Another Girl, Another Planet" no less than 3 times today, which is unusual. It's a great song, and has been covered loads of times, and was the last track that blink-182 recorded before announcing their hiatus.

I always become hugely inconsistent with my blogging habits towards the end of the month. It's a bad thing.

Know what else is a bad thing? Amazon.co.uk, that's what! It just stole a TON of money from me. They emailed me to say they're gonna send me a bunch of CDs in exchange, but I mean, come on! What's that you say Amazon? I can even choose the CDs I want to receive? Well, I still don't think it's fair that you want money for them....but I did get a pretty spectacular pay last week...

MC Lars tweeted me a few hours ago. Pretty big moment in my life to be honest! I had earlier tweeted about being not sure about going to see him next week. I won't go into details, but I'm now thinking I will. What a legend he is.

Been having a few bad dreams recently about some people from an old life. Not too nice. The worst thing is waking up and thinking about them for the next few hours. It's a really unpleasant way to start the day. Plus, it makes me think about things like, do I need some sort of closure or something? I can't explain it very well. I mean, I'm totally over all that, but when I dream about that sort of thing, I wonder to myself, have I really, properly moved on? Ah, who knows? I know there's only a couple of ways to solve the problem, and I know which one I'm opting for (not my Dexter-esque one, as previously blogged about!!)

Tomorrow, I WILL go to the gym!!

No blog for five days?! Criminal I say!!

Shutter Island was a gooood film!! It's one of those films where two people could have a completely different idea about what exactly happened in it. That perhaps sounds kinda stupid, but it's true.
Also, 24 FINALLY got kinda good. I think that happened at the 11am-12pm episode, so it's definitely a slow starter!! FYI it started at midnight and each new episode represents another hour of the day.

What else has been happening? Man United beat Liverpool today while Chelsea drew with Blackburn, so that was doubly great. Park Ji-Sung scored the winner for United, so I will share my favourite United chant, about the South Korean, to the tune of Lord of the Dance:

Park, Park, Wherever you may be,
You eat dogs in your home country,
But it could be worse,
You could be a Scouse,
Eating rats in your council house.

Sheer poetry, I'm sure you'll agree.

The last few days have contained work, filling out various forms and job applications, oddly bizarre and sexual dreams (sorry...you know who you are!), going out for a meal as a joint celebration of mother's day and my dad's birthday (I had a haggis starter, haddock main, and a heavenly toasted gingerbread with vanilla ice cream and butterscotch sauce dessert).

Talking about that epic dessert reminds me; you might remember that diet thing I mentioned about a month ago. Well, at the moment, I can't get to the gym as much, but only because I'm doing longer hours which means a lot more walking....so it kind of balances out. Anyway, all my jeans keep falling down on me....which is sorta annoying, but it does mean I've lost weight. Which is good. Obviously. It does mean I now need new jeans though....unless I start using a belt all the time....which I'm not used to. I digress.

One day of work, then two off. Bring it!

Why do I almost always blog so late? It's always like the last hour of the day that I remember to blog. Oh well...

Right now I'm halfway through watching Shutter Island with Leonardo Di Caprio. It's pretty compelling. It's set shortly after WW2, and revolves around two US Marshalls who are investigating a disappearance in a facility for violent mental patients, on a remote island. The marshall played by Di Caprio is suffering from persistent migraines and flashbacks to the war, particularly his actions when his squadron came across a Nazi concentration camp.
I'm not going to give anything away, but a storm has hit island, cutting out all the power, so some patients are running lose, and Di Caprio's character is suspicious of foul play, and beginning to wonder if he was set up to come to this place.

Di Caprio is probably one of my favourite actors, along with Brad Pitt. Usually, these are the sorta guys that piss me off, but I think they can pull off really difficult roles so well, and so convincingly. Pitt especially, has portrayed some of my favourite movie personas, but at the same time, he's been in some really awful awful flicks.

I went to the gym for the first time in a couple of weeks (I've been working a lot, ok?!) and hammered out a 40 minute run, which I was quite pleased about.

Chelsea got knocked out the Champion's League tonight, thanks to Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan. I'm actually a bit concerned because I think Jose might have just helped Chelsea win the Premiership. They now have a lot less distractions than United or Arsenal, and will have fresher legs for their games. Damn you Jose....

I'm uber bored so I'm gonna bash out a quick blog to pass some time.

I've started watching 24, gotta say, really not that impressed. I mean, it's ok, but I'm really not all that interested in any of the characters, and the storyline travels at a snail's pace. I might explore some other suggestions tonight.

Work was kinda awesome today. This new round I'm on is really pretty straightforward, and it is so much extra money for me. I kind of love it. A few people had told me how it was the best delivery round, but I didn't really believe them, but now I'm seeing their point. One of the biggest differences is the general cheeriness of people to see you. You actually feel welcomed, as opposed to being treated like some sort of criminal within the actual village. I have tomorrow and wednesday off as a result of being on this round. Again, awesome.

Found somewhere locally that does guitar tuition...I'm just doing a bit of research before signing up for it. I like to have a good idea of what I'm walking in to. It seems to be some kind of group lesson thing, which I'm pretty unsure of, considering my total beginner status.

Almost forgot the thing I've been wanting to talk about for about a week or so now! This is something I've been fairly conscious of for a few weeks now, but has been pretty obvious from looking at my overall Last.fm charts. Since you're reading this, you'll probably be well aware that my favourite band is blink-182. Now, I'll be the first to admit they are a really immature band, and more suited to 16 year old rebelious teenagers....maybe with the exception of their last album. I kind of feel as if they shouldn't be my favourite band anymore...I mean, I don't really like the idea of being a 35 year old guy who still listens to "Fuck a Dog". If I had to choose a replacement for them at the top of my list it would be a toss up between Jack's Mannequin and Something Corporate. These bands are 2nd and 3rd in my Last.fm charts, and considering I only discovered them a few years ago, I have listened to them a phenomenal amount. They have done a formidable job of catching up to my number of blink play counts. I think one day, one of these bands will be my all time favourite bands. They are both fronted by Andrew McMahon, who I think is such an amazingly talented lyricist. As a demonstration of what I mean, I've added SoCo's "Watch the Sky" to my playlist....it pretty much captures my mood right now. Sometimes I feel completely lost at sea, and I feel like there's only a couple of people....one in particular, who can rescue me. I just think the imagery Andrew uses is just so unprecedented, I honestly can't think of anyone who is able to paint a picture with a song, quite like him.

Sad times. Dexter is finished. Pretty awesome show I thought, and I'm looking forward to season 5! I was completely gutted at how season 4 ended. I think I've got quite a wait till s5, because the lead actor is undergoing treatment for a form of cancer, so I'd assume they will have to wait for his hair to grow back before shooting restarts. Think I'm going to start watching 24....even though it reminds me of bad times in my first flat at uni. We'll see how it goes...

I am now officially covering a colleague will he is on sick leave, which means I will be working full time, but only for 4 days a week. Which is kinda awesome, because it will still be a lot more money than I usually earn, and I'll still have a decent bit of free time.

The past few days have been pretty packed, I've worked about 65 hours this past week, so needed to catch up on a fair bit of sleep in my downtime. It's kind of weird because it makes me forget a lot the things a regularly think about when I'm not doing anything else. I think a lot of that caught up with me, and I remembered how completely hung up I am over a girl. I would love nothing more than telling her, but the situation is far from ideal. She has a smile that convinces me everything in the world is ok. Urgh. I'm so completely pathetic. I'd be totally overjoyed just to spend like an hour with her. Nothing sinister in that, just hanging out and talking and that.

Definitely a contender for my dumbest blog yet.

There's something I've been meaning to blog about for ages, tomorrow, I will definitely do it. Promise.

Hmmmm...the website that posted the blink-182 tour dates in Scotland has removed them from their site. Mysterious....

Anyways, past two days I've been getting trained on a new delivery round. It's pretty tiring. I really hate the whole process because it is just a total mindfuck for a week or so until you really get to grips with what you're doing.

Terrific win for Man United tonight. AC Milan were well and truly thrashed. To make it even sweeter, Real Madrid got knocked out by Lyon. The same Real Madrid that bought Ronaldo, Kaka and Benzema for £80 million, £56 million and £40 million respectively. I find that hilarious. In total they spent £215,000,000 last summer, and have fallen at an early hurdle. Manager sacking on the cards me thinks....

Not much else to blog about right now...off to watch some Dexty :)

Oh
My
God

At long last. It's been 5 long years since I last saw them. The 1st of December 2004 is a date that I can instantly recite as my first concert. Now, at long last, it seems that blink-182 will return to our shores.

Dates have slowly been announced for European shows and festivals in august and september, but today SCOTTISH TOUR DATES emerged. And not just the compulsary Glasgow visit, but they will actually be appearing in Aberdeen!! I'm seriously gobsmacked!

I mustn't get too carried away, neither date has been officially confirmed, but they fit perfectly into what tour schedule there already is. Amazing.

Lianne, I kind of love you a little bit for breaking the news to me. I know, gross. Euw.
Laura, I'm sorry I got a bit excited in Tesco. Had it been official I might have danced a little bit. Probably a la David Brent.

I had actually planned what this blog was going to be about today as well. With this sort of news, I am more than happy to deviate however. At one point, back in the days of +44, I really didn't think blink would ever reunite. Which completely sucked.

I am so, so psyched at this. I still remember that cold, dark night at the start of December 04. Arriving in Glasgow to see Nathan for the first time since we started university. The quick fish and chips before heading to the gig. The mad taxi man asking about the Inverness pussy. The sheer overwhelming number of people when we arrived. The insane movement of the crowd. How much the first supporting band, The Kinison, sucked. How awesome the second supporting band, Sugarcult, were. How thirsty I got. The black blink-182 flag waving before the drums kicked in for blink's opening song, Feelin' This. Mark knocking Tom's guitar out of tune. Tom skipping half of First Date and them having to re-do it. Mark's closing drum solo. The hoardes of people leaving the arena. Having to jump a fence to get back into Nathan's accomodation.

I've added Feelin' This to the playlist. It was the first single from the self titled album, and has a fantastic energy to it. It was written by Mark and Tom, who went into seperate rooms to write, and when they met up, discovered they'd written about contrasting viewpoints of sex. Tom captured the lustful side, and Mark the romantic aspect. There's something about the video that I just love, and I can't put my finger on it. It just seems to capture the whole song, band, and genre perfectly, in a sense. Plus it has a giant inflatable baby and pig in the background. Awesome.

Decided to blog before the dying hours of the day, for a change. I'm not sure why...perhaps I want to record my current emotions.

Might as well start at the start, turned up for work with no idea what round I was meant to be doing, so just went about my usual one. A while later my boss texts me apologising for texting me on a day off and asking me to come into work because someone has called in sick at the last moment. Again. So I reply telling her I'm already at work, and that's that for a little while. She then replies telling me to do this other guy's round as well as my own. Fantastic. I didn't text back, and went on and got both jobs done.
I've just received this week's rota....a tad late you'll probably agree, and I'm getting trained on a new round this week for 3 days, then doing it by myself the next 2 days. No day off, and no asking me if its ok to put me on that round.

My CV is now printed out and ready to be handed in to a potential new employer. Which will probably happen tomorrow.

In my travels around Drum today I noticed a plume of smoke coming from the far end of the village. Turns out someone's caravan had gone on fire. They had gone out, so no-one was hurt as far as I know. It's usually pretty quiet around the village, so it was kinda amusing seeing all these people driving around the place to see what was going on. Fire perverts.

An old woman also tried to give me her phone number. I was scared. Obviously there is a story to this, but it's so stupid.

Lastly, I bumped into one of the few people I'd regard as my friend in this village. I think I sounded like a bit of a whiny, emotional bitch to him, but I hadn't seen him in a long time, and he actually gives me some really good advice from time to time, so it was good to see him. Today he said something which hit the nail on the head perfectly:

"Drumnadrochit is a really shit place to be, when you don't want to be here"

Poetry.

I meant to mention yesterday, I feel about 5 years younger all of a sudden. When I was off work I didn't shave at all, which resulted in a considerable beard formation. The upsetting thing about my facial hair is that is seems to consist of about 70% ginger hairs, and 30% dark hairs. I really don't like it. Needless to say it looks really weird. Anyway, that's all gone, so now I feel all baby-ish again.

I'm going to add a Rocket Summer song to the playlist. The Rocket Summer is Bryce Avary, and he writes and produces all his own music, as well as playing all the instruments featured on his tracks, which must be quite the workload, and he only uses a band when he's on tour. Talk about a work-aholic! The track I've added comes from the similarly titled album "Do you Feel?" and the video has a sort of PostSecret theme, dealing with real people who have real problems. It also features cameos from members of Paramore, Jack's Mannequin, MxPx, Forever the Sickest Kids and The Cab. A very good crowd!!

Oh yeah, the real I added TRS to the playlist, he's just announced a UK tour, see you in may in Bryce ;)

Damn you Megavideo!! 20 minutes left of the Dexter season 3 finale and I have used up all the minutes you can watch without paying a suscribtion. Gah!! I have to wait 54 minutes to watch anymore!

Today was relatively productive. Sorted out my CV a bit, and put a bunch of old console games on eBay. 4 of which have already been bought. Awesome.

There have been a couple of recent developments in the Ferguson household. Number 1, the boiler broke a couple of nights ago, all I can say is, thank God for my electric blanket. Secondly, we're all on some sort of detox, low fat diet, which is being overseen by mother. I'm not hugely against it in truth, despite a few complaints, we've actually enjoyed some pretty awesome home made meals. Plus it might hopefully contribute to my get fit campaign thing.

The worst thing is, I've recently discovered the awesomeness that is the Hairy Bikers. They are a Geordie pair of bikers who have a TV cookery show. They are epically funny. I think it's a Geordie trait: to be hilarious. Anyways, they have some pretty gorgeous looking, indulgent recipies. I currently have a craving for their maple syrup and walnut scones. Nom nom nom....

Right, 25 mins left....I'll go scour ebay or something I guess...

Blog time muhfuckas. I'm almost forgetting to do these, but not quite. Go me.

Today was actually awful. I won't bore you with details, but basically a colleague phoned in sick, so I had to do 2 people's rounds today. I wasn't asked, I was told. Spent the rest of the day walking around Drum, delivering post, cursing my luck, and planning my resignation letter. Again.

Trying to find a light at the end of my gloomy, dark tunnel is getting really hard.

Anyways, the result of all this is that progress will be made with my escape plan tomorrow. A full scale assault is in order I think.

I might as well mention, I found myself practicing a Dexter-esque, murderous stare, while I was going round the village today. For those of you who aren't in any way familiar with Dexter, the protagonist works for Miami Metro Police Department, in the blood spatter forensics lab. And on the side he's a serial killer. Which leads to all sorts of problems and complications. The compelling part is that is that he has morals, and a "code" that he follows for each kill, ie, each one of his victims is "deserving" of what they get. Usually his victim will have somehow wrangled out of a prison sentence due to some loophole in the judicial system, when they really shouldn't be walking free.
Anyways, it got me thinking about who I would target if I was Dexter. Trust me, when you're all alone delivering post for so long, you ponder all sorts. One of my colleagues has described someone I used to know as my "nemesis". A bit extreme in my eyes, no-one has ever really managed to get under my skin to that extent, but I can see where he's coming from. That seemed like the obvious place to start imagining. Safe to say it amused me for a while. The thought police would run riot with me.

Talking of thought police, check this out. Scary.

Right, back to my Dexterathon.....Dexathon....I think Dexathon sounds better....

I'm taking a break from my Dexter marathon for this blog. Just got to a cliff hanger as well. Curse my dedication!!

I think my last blog was a bit thought provoking. That's actually kind of satisfying.

I had football training with the primary kids today. First time I've done it in weeks, with being in Glasgow, being ill, and snow days. I can't say I've missed it. I was sort of in charge today, which I don't love, but at least I can actually do some form of actual coaching.
There's this one kid, who I swear must have ADD. He is absolutely nuts. I suspect his mother feeds him mouthfuls of sugar before coming. In fairness, it doesn't surprise me. I knew his eldest brother fairly well when I was growing up....safe to say we didn't see eye to eye, but he was a bit....erratic, as well.
I had literally walked through the door of the astroturf and 5 seconds later I had kids complaining about him and grassing him up to me. I don't want to say I can't stand him, I don't think that's right, but life would be a lot simpler without him.
I'm starting to sound like Dexter now....
This kid also used to piss me off at work. His mother made a complaint about me and the "excessive" speed with which I drive up to her house. From then on, whenever I saw the kid he told me to drive at "Five miles an hour". Which is taking the piss to be honest. I know it sounds petty, because it is. This kid is near the end of the delivery round, and the last thing you can be arsed with at that point is a kid lecturing you.

Rant over.

I never did buy any new CDs from Amazon. I added a few to my shopping cart, but never followed through. I'm thinking about getting Windows 7....but it feels like a hell of a lot of money. Oh, and an external hard drive.....for all my music. So yeah, I'm weighing all that up in my mind. If anyone has any advice it would not go amiss.

Off to find out what happens to the D-man now! I could well finish season 2 before morning. Awww crap, I'm working tomorrow. Gutted. I'm gonna be rough....

I don't really have an awful lot of subject matter to work with tonight, so go easy on me.

I'm into season 2 of Dexter now. I love websites where I can watch this kinda stuff. No adverts, no waiting a week for the next episode, just perfect. Thank you Ninjavideo. You are a (illegal) Godsend.

This little flashback is kind of fresh in my mind, after I read some group that a couple of people have joined on Facebook, but it's something that obviously resonated with me for some reason or another. I guess I must have been about 10 or 11, and me and my best friend at the time were talking about girls. My friend by this point had already had a couple of girlfriends, whereas I was still stuck in the world of having crushes on girls and doing nothing about it. Easier times. I think we must have been talking about girls that I used to be keen on, and I was making my case for no longer liking them, and he said "Once you love someone, those feelings never completely die". Powerful stuff for a prebuscent kid, but like I said, I still remember that, and I'm still curious if it rings true. I think that in a lot of ways, this theory is right....with a few obvious exceptions.

I have a craving to buy some CDs. I'm heading over to Amazon. Peace out dudes.

Ok, so after complaining about lack of sleep yesterday, I stayed up till like 3am watching Dexter. It's rather good. I squeezed in 3 episodes last night, 2 today, and another 1 just before writing this. I'm already halfway through the first season! Yikes.

I've had a lot on my mind lately. I guess with all these days off, I find myself lost in my thoughts a lot more than usual. Part of it is trying to work out the next stage of my life. Another part is down to regret and missed opportunities. And another part is about some people who used to be in my life.

I think about people, in general, an awful lot. I think I over-analyse what people say, and when I see a photo of someone I know, I'll try to understand the theme and mood of the moment.
Psycho talk? Perhaps.
The unfortunate thing is that I think by doing this, I tend to develop a dislike towards some people for no real reason. I've kind of talked about this with one of my friends, who I think in some ways, does the same sorta thing.

In saying all that, there's people in this village who have made it quite clear they have something against me. And I have no idea why. I don't consider myself to be a bad person.

Oh, mum added The Audition to her "Music that is too cool for me but I still like it" list. I thought this was a bit weird considering I was listening to "I love the way that you move" at the time. Nevertheless, I donated an Owl City album towards the cause, since I had two copies. Don't ask.

I had a song in mind for the playlist today, but I'm going to savour Audioslave for a little bit longer I think. It's just that good.

I'm absolutely shattered. For the past 3 nights I haven't been able to sleep until at least 3.30am. Not long ago I took a tablet to make me sleep easier, and I'm really feeling the effects. So hopefully I don't fall asleep writing this.

One thing I meant to talk about a long time ago, is Lost. It's one of the very few tv programmes I'm hooked on now. It's going to be finishing in may, which is carries some mixed emotions. Obviously I'm sad to see it end, but ever since the very first episode, Lost has mystified and confused it's viewers, and revealed very little. When one of the mysteries in the show is resolved, it's done so very gradually, and often just leads to more mysteries. I'll try to explain; the show follows the survivors of a plane crash on a (what appears to be) remote island, after stumbling across some sort of throwback, indigenous tribe, they discover a metal "hatch" in the ground. The survivors used dynamite (found on an abandoned shipwreck in the middle of the island.....another story!) to blast the hatch open, to reveal a station full of computers and equipment, and a man who had to enter a sequence of numbers (4 8 15 16 23 42) into these computers every 108 minutes or the end of the world will occur. This was all in the first two seasons, and we are now into the sixth.
A lot of people have sort of given up with Lost, ie, they watched the first couple of seasons and got sick of the mysteries. I can understand this, it can be so frustrating at times, but my God, what a tremendous story it is.

I have to write a personal statement for something I'm applying for. I rather hate doing this sort of thing. It's like doing that "About Me" section on Bebo, except it has to be professional. Erk. At the same time I'm sorting out my CV because I asked someone for a job and they wanted to see it. Super fun.

I was listening to Audioslave today, and my mum popped her head in the door to ask who it was, and remark at how good it was. She want on to tell me she liked a song on the radio that she thought was in the charts, about flies dancing at night. My mum likes Owl City and Audioslave. This disgusts me.

Nevertheless, I'm adding Audioslave to my playlist. I never knew I liked them, but I have a couple of their albums on my hard drive. I'd put "Genius Mixes" on iTunes while I played Fifa 10 online, and this song came on. I instantly recognised it as a song from Scrubs. It's funny how many songs remind me of Scrubs, it's not a hugely musical show, but they do use some outstanding music, particularly to capture poignant moments, where the shows humour is maybe not as relevant. Anyway, it's led to listen to some fantastic tracks and artists, such as OK Go and Rhett Miller, to name a few.
Audioslave were formed when Rage Against the Machine disbanded, and contain 2 of RATM's members. They were originally described as RATM with a different vocalist, but their second album forced people to change this opinion. I really love this track. I think it's really empowering. Be yourself, it's all that you can be.

I'm going to watch Dexter. Never seen it before, but apparently its good....

Hello March!!
This year is flying by. Somehow!

I was back at work today, and feeling a good bit better. I was dreading getting back to work, but the amount of good news that was waiting for me made everything better. Firstly, I got a brand new pair of work shoes (which I had ordered in about september of last year!!), and yeah, they're not just crappy work shoes, they're proper Cat shoes. Seriously cool. Well, for the Royal Mail at any rate. Then my boss came in, which doesn't happen very often, and told me I'm not working again until saturday. Sweeeet!!

The weekend also went fairly well for me. I completely forgot to blog any of it, but Man United won the Carling Cup, and Man City thumped Chelsea. Admittedly I hate both those teams, but City did us a bit of a favour. Plus, it was great to see Wayne Bridge get one over John "I'm a total cunt" Terry.

I think I mentioned before that I am slogging my way through every episode of the X-Files. I'm finally onto the last season (9) now, but I got a huge shock at the end of season 8, because Mulder and Scully kissed(!!!!). I totally thought that they didn't have that sort of relationship in any way, I mean, I knew people made a big deal about them back in the day when it was on tv, similar to Ross and Rachel in some ways I suppose, but I really thought nothing happened. I realise this sounds quite sad, but I have been watching X-Files for almost 3 months now....I'm pretty heavily immersed!!

Again, I probably do have other stuff to talk about, everytime I write one of these, I remember something I intended to talk about, but for now, my head is empty.

Goodnight peoples.

Genuinely feel like crap today. Just watched Scrubs - Medschool, and X-Files. Played a bit of Football Manager. I also slept for a large portion of the day. Exciting day. I have to work on monday. I'm actually dreading it.

I have no idea how many people actually read this on a regular basis, but I do know that every time I blog the page visits goes up....so that's sorta cool.

I started watching the new Scrubs episodes today, that is, season 9. Sacred Heart has been torn down and replaced with a Medschool, all the original characters have played some part so far, except Carla, which I don't think is a great loss. I think JD leaves after a few episodes, but the storylines follow a new intake of trainee doctors more than anything else. I feel as though I should say I don't like it, but I kind of do. It's got the same humour, but it's sort of refreshed. Plus, Denise (the grumpy blonde from season 8) is still in it, and she is hilarious.....and hot....in a dark sorta way. If you ever watch these episodes, episode 2 has a fantastic moment were JD dresses up as a cat....do not miss it.

Elsewhere, still feeling like crap, lots of snow, I got a cool new Hurley backpack because my 5 year old Atticus one broke and I made scones. Bleurgh.

I'm ashamed at my recent lack of posting. I have a bit of catching up to do I guess.

The Boys Like Girls gig was brilliant. It was in the G2, which is like a side venue of the Garage I guess, really small, so there was only like 200ish people there. It was such a good show, despite Martin, the lead singer having some asthma and requiring his inhaler. I think the shortened the show as a result actually, but promised they'd be back again soon. I would definitely go see them again. They mixed it up a bit by performing "Dance Hall Drug" as fast as they could, and for the last song (5 Minutes to Midnight I think) they pulled loads of members of the crowd up to the stage. Which looked fun.
I was one of the tallest people at the gig....and definitely in the minority as far as genders go. Super. Went for a few drinkies afterwards, which involved apple-tinis. So that's one life goal achieved. I <3 you Dr Dorian.

Not too sure what's happening with the 10km run I signed up for. All the places for it have been filled before Miss Donald signed up. She is a knob.

I'm currently on a couple of weeks holiday from work, and I have an epic cold. It's horrible. On the plus side, it's snowing, so I'm hugely thankful I'm not working.

I'm sure I have other stuff to talk about, but I'm too sick/tired/lazy to think what they are. Peace out.

Right now I'm downloading "The Lovely Bones" to watch before I go to bed. It looks fairly decent, and is apparently sad or something. We shall see. I also just downloaded The Inbetweeners soundtrack, and can't wait to listen to it tomorrow on the train. It's 2 CDs worth, with some snippets from the show in between the tracks. Awesome!!!

Yeah, train tomorrow down to Glasgow. Apparently there are gonna be strikes on saturday.....so that's something to look forward to. Why did I decide to get the train again?! The last few times I've driven down, but I just don't feel like it this time. My car will probably appreciate it. I sense it doesn't like big cities. I'm really excited to see Boys Like Girls tomorrow. Their first album was superb. Second album was not as great, but yeah....AWESOME!!!

OH!! The big news, I won a Rage Against the Machine ticket for their celebration gig in London in June. I know one other person that's going I think, who lives near there, so hopefully I can catch up with him. The gig is allegedly kicking off at midday, and lasting right the way through to 11.30pm. That's crazy!! There's all sorts of speculation about who will be supporting them, my personal favourite rumour is Cypress Hill.......that'd be an added bonus!

No idea when I'll be blogging again.....sunday night should be a safe bet. Ciao for now!!

I've had very little to blog about lately. I've been exploring a couple of options in order to get the hell outta this village. I'm not going to talk about it in great lengths on this, I don't want everyone to know about it. All I will say is, that it's nothing I've not mentioned before. I'm just actually doing something about it now. A pretty large part of me wants to do the whole university thing again. I think I made a total mess of it first time round. I didn't really embrace it as such. There's people in my life I could blame for that, but that'd be stupid, because it's as much my fault as anyone else's. I think it would be good to do it again in many repsects, my only concern is how old I'd be when a re-graduated!!

On sunday, and yesterday, I went to the gym. Which is possibly the first time I have ever gone to a gym on consecutive days. Plus, I didn't really feel considerably worse for wear. So I'm pretty pleased. It's just a case of keeping this up, and constantly pushing myself.

Referring to my last blog; I think it was a mixture of niceness and stupidity. Which is not bad news I suppose.

I'm pretty psyched for seeing Boys Like Girls on friday night in Glasgow. I'll have to give them a good listen tomorrow, I've semi forgotten a lot of their material. I kind of have an urge to drink a bit more than I'm used to. Which is hugely unlike me I think. So I guess that's a warning to you Lianne, if you read this. Make sure I don't need you to walk me back to wherever I decide to book for the night. Really should do something about that actually. Tomorrow...

Also, I may have discovered the benefits of going to sleep before 2am, in that I can actually get up in the morning relatively easily. I may try this technique out again tonight. The crazy fool that I am....

Rage Against the Machine tickets go on sale tomorrow. If I remember I will apply via internet on my phone. If not, nevermind. I can't really see me going. Especially by myself. Gutted that so few people I know have a similar music taste to me. Another reason to get the hell out of here and meet new people. No offence :)

Goodnight.....and may the (mass times acceleration) be with you.

Also, pineapple.

That is all.

Today kinda sucked. I've been feeling kinda down lately I guess. I think that's to be expected when you pretty much have no local friends to talk to, or spend time with, or just open up to. It's been getting real hard lately. Not that it's not something that's new to me. In many ways I'm fairly used to it, I'm a fairly private kinda guy, and I'm an only child, which plays some part. I just really wish some of, or even one, of my good friends from High School was still around. If any of you read this, I miss you and appreciate you more than you will ever know.

Anyways, not much else to say about today really, other than, I did something that was either completely stupid, or kinda nice. I may not even find out. In which case, stupid it is....

Wow. Drumnadrochit is actually Hell on earth tonight. Could this place actually be more mind-numbingly depressing? Probably......but it's pretty bad as it currently stands.

Facebook is driving me pretty nuts at the moment. Before the new site layout I had it on a setting where I logged in and only saw people's status updates, and had to click on the News Feed in order to see what groups people have joined, and pictures they've uploaded. I don't seem to be able to do this anymore, and it's driving me crazy. Why must some people join 20 stupid, pointless groups every day? Why must you upload EVERY photo of yourself posing and gawking like a complete moron at some nightclub. Bearing in mind you've decided to photograph yourself with almost every other person in the place. I think I'm going to be cutting down on my "friends" pretty soon. Sorry, no offence, I just can't cope with some of you.

Apparently I'm going to be able to download the new Angels and Airwaves album in less than a couple of hours. I kind of don't care, but I will stay up to listen to it. I thought their sophomore album (I-Empire) was awful, with at best, two good songs. I thought the first album (We Don't Need to Whisper) was pretty fantastic, but from the snippets I've heard, the new album "Love" is going to be a lot more like their second release. Which is a shame.

While I remember, I had a good laugh to myself at some guys in the gym the other day. They musta been about 45 or so, and they had both obtained pirate copies of Avatar. One of them had spent £25 on it!! It was just pretty funny hearing them talk about "6 foot high blue monsters and people in wheelchairs". Ah, the older generation. Gotta love em.

Rage Against the Machine have announced the date of their free, celebratory show, which they promised, if they reached Christmas number 1 for 2009. As a result I've added them to the playlist. I want to go so much!! It's bound to be absolutely immense. "Sleep Now in the Fire" is an awesome song, about greed, slavery, and various actions by the US Government in wartime, such as the bombing of Hiroshima and the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam. There's a pretty special video to go along with it, which shows them illegally performing the song on Wall Street, New York, and as a result the New York Stock Exchange were forced to close at midday. The video is directed by Michael Moore, who was detained and almost arrested by police. The video also shows the resulting news show, where RATM are described as being "anti-family and pro-terrorist". Good old America.

I'm going to bed now. After today, my legs feel like I've been beaten up. Roll on a full day of work tomorrow...

Some people need to sort their lives out. Take a good, long hard look at themselves.

I'm one of them.

Anyways, today was a pretty good day. It was kinda weird actually, every something happened that was like a little nugget of joy. Work was surprisingly really good, only one person stopped me to discuss the sad state of affairs that is Royal Mail. Plus, there wasn't much mail, and what there was really brightened my day. It's fantastic to feel that good, before 8am. It doesn't happen very often.

I'm kinda impressed with the Rock Ness line up this year. The Strokes, Plan B and Enter Shikari would be pretty cool to see. Still, the rest of it is mostly not to my taste :/

I'm watching X-Files right now. I got the box set containing all 9 seasons in november or december, and I'm still ploughing through them. It's a brilliant show, which I think never really took off in the UK, to some extent. The episode that's on just now has been pretty deep. Apparently there's been various periods of mass extinction in the Earth's history, and it's basically querying how long till the next period (ie, human life is extinguished) and what triggered the initial spark of life to form the first single cell. Apparently over 97% of species that have ever lived are now extinct. That's pretty terrifying if you ask me. When you consider that all forms of life are really guests on this planet, it's horrific how we abuse and mistreat it.

Ok, I'll jump to my song of the day. This has been stuck in my head for the past few days. And it's pretty easy to get ma groove on to it!! Haha!! I first heard "I Don't Feel Like Dancing" on the radio in the car, while I was waiting in the car while my parents were in a funeral directors. It's funny the things you remember eh?

Finally:
1.Holy crap....I've listened to Motion City Soundtrack 107 in the past week. That's dedication. Go me.
2. Good luck tomorrow Becca :)

I had a really quiet, uneventful weekend, hence the lack of bloggage.

I'm kind of dreading tomorrow. Dispatches on Channel 4 just had an episode where they went undercover in the Royal Mail, and highlighted what a useless joke of a business it is. I shall have all the people on my round tomorrow making the exact same jokes. How fun. Oh how I hate working for them. It's embarrassing now.

Just after I made my last blog, Fabio Capello stripped John Terry of the England captaincy. Definitely the right decision. I'm delighted to see Rio replacing him. He'll do a good job for them. By the way, don't get me wrong, I won't be supporting England in the World Cup, I just like to see the Man United players doing well. And I hate John Terry!!

Another gym session today. Its actually quite cool seeing how much more I can push myself from session to session.

I've been reading over some of my old MSN conversations with people. Some if it's really funny, in retrospect. People are such a fickle thing.

I'm going hill walking with my dad on thursday, my day off this week. Possibly some sort of bonding experiment? I actually think he's pretty bored and lonely these days, as he's cooped up in the house. I should definitely get some good photos. I kind of want to get into hill walking a lot more. Is that unusual? Dad actually bought me a magazine for walkers, and some of the places about Glen Coe are really spectacular.

Oh yeah, just a minor side note. I've been feeling pretty crap over this. A guy I went to school with blocked me on Facebook, and declined a friend request. I'm pretty sure one of your siblings will read this. We were sort of friends, but I guess we didn't really see eye to eye a lot of the times, and I guess I was a bit of a dick. If you ever read this, I'm sorry. I was a prick to you, and your friends, at times, but I'm sure we had our fair share of laughs now and again. I didn't really think you'd not want to associate with me again, I thought the stuff I did was just harmless fun, I realise it wasn't, so seriously, I'm sorry. So J, best wishes to you in whatever you do.

I actually had part of yesterday's blog typed up, but due to various circumstances I got majorly distracted, and then fell asleep. Pretty good excuse I feel....

I went to see Avatar 3D on wednesday night with Farquhar. It was good! I mean, obviously it was, considering all the various awards, nominations and broken records it's achieved. The CGI was mind blowing. I thought the storyline let it down a bit.....fairly predictable and done before. In saying that, I remember my English teacher from High School telling me that every story line will roughly follow, or be based on, one of four themes. I forget what those were, but it's obviously something that stuck with me.

Ok, so I looked this up, and, bear in mind there is some debate to this, there are only seven types of story plots in the whole world. So the theory is, that any type of story will fall into one or more of the following categories:
Tragedy
Comedy
Overcoming the Monster
Voyage and Return
Quest
Rags to Riches
Rebirth

That's pretty cool right? Or is it just me that thinks that?

Gym again yesterday. I seriously hammered it. Definitely feeling the effects today, but in a painfully good way.

I emailed my boss and her assistant yesterday about booking holidays, and asked for them to get back to me asap. So to be clear, the same email to two different people. Over 24 hours have passed, with no response. It's things like this that really piss me off. I mean, one of them MUST have checked their inbox in that time.

I have football coaching tonight for some primary school kids. It's the first session of the year, after all the snow we've had. To be totally honest, I really don't do much coaching there anymore, it's just become an excuse to go and kick a football about. Don't get me wrong, I'd happily get involved, but I'm not really given the opportunity anymore, and I can't explain why that is. I'm only really there to help out, and there's another coach in charge, and he doesn't really have much interest in actually teaching them all that much anymore. I don't blame him, he almost quit last summer, and I expect he will actually follow through with that this summer. The kids are just a bit too much of a handful. Being a kid has changed since I was that age. In fact, the attitude of kids, and particularly teenagers has changed dramatically since I was that age. The way the majority of them act, and treat other people, frankly sickens me.

I'm currently listening to Frightened Rabbit. I've not really listened to much of their stuff, but I've heard a ton of good things about them. I really suck at hearing about the upcoming Scottish bands, but I did hear about Twin Atlantic aaaaaaages ago, and gave them a listen, but they didn't really float my boat, at the time. I'm liking a few of their tracks now though. And then there's Biffy Clyro. I actually kinda tried to avoid them I think, when they really exploded on the scene. Since hearing "The Captain", I really like them too. I just need time to be won over by a lot of music.

Holy crap this blog post is getting pretty long!

I shall wrap it up with a new song on the playlist. I like to try and choose something that's a bit different or diverse, so that I'm giving you something new for your listening pleasure. I've made an effort to avoid my favourite band, because I don't want to be constantly raving about them and boring you. I've seen you roll your eyes at me when I start going on about blink, I know, I'm sorry, I really can't help it. Today though, I have given in. However, I've gone with a really not well known track, which is a Billy Idol cover. The track has been in my head, due to the abhorration that is Glee. Every bloody day on the radio I was hearing the Glee cast murdering Journey's "Don't Stop Believing", so when I saw their album in the shops, I sneaked a peak at the track listing to see what songs they would be attempting to cover in future episodes, and was pretty surprised to see "Dancing with Myself". Despite Billy Idol's explanations to the contrary, this song is often accused of being about masturbation. Something that blink-182 probably fueled. Idol insists the song is about seeing patrons dancing by themselves in front of mirrors in a Japanese nightclub, whilst on tour there, but I get a good laugh about the other connotations the song has. Judge for yourself.

I am sooooo excited to be seeing Motion City Soundtrack next month. Last night I stumbled upon some of their live bootlegs, and last december they did three shows in Chicago, and dedicated each night to one of their albums, and played it out in it's entirity. Fantastic stuff. I'm very jealous of those that got to attend.

I'm a bit annoyed at myself, because I've opted to mix up my gym routine. I'm going to see Avatar 3D tonight, so I could have either made two trips to town, or gone to the gym before the cinema. Neither are ideal, so gym tomorrow, and either friday or saturday. I'll play it by ear. In some ways doing it this way, means I have another trip out of the house. Which is good.


I had an interesting discussion with a couple of people today, about the John Terry thing. It's the first time I've heard someone say he doesn't deserve to lose his England captaincy, because his private life is his private life, and is seperate from his career. There is a degree of accuracy to that, but when you start fucking your team-mate's partner, you're taking your private life to work. If I was Fabio Capello, I'd strip him of his captaincy and drop him for the next England squad. It's just my opinion that the guy needs to have it hit home that he is a huge role model to thousands of people.

I had a bit of trouble deciding which MCS song to add to the playlist today. I love so many of their songs. I think in the end I opted for "Everything is Alright". Apparently it's based on Justin-Pierre (the lead singer) and his struggles with OCD and memory loss.

I've been formulating some ideas of what to do with my holidays I need to take before April. There's a few front running ideas; cycling the Great Glen Way, walking the West Highland Way (apparently cycling it is horrendous), and an intensive 2 day snowboarding/ski-ing course down in the Nevis range.

I really want to start getting guitar lessons. This thought has been niggling away at me all day today. It's an instrument I've always wanted to learn to play, since I started listening to real music, at least!

I'm really wishing I'd gone to see All Time Low and The Blackout tonight. Gutted. I've already seen ATL twice, so I wasn't that fussed when it was all announced. Since then I've discovered I quite like The Blackout, and what else am I doing tonight?! Exactly. Nevermind eh?

I went to the gym again today. All the cardio machines have a little television attatched to the top of them, so you can plug your headphones in and watch what you want. Today I discovered the best things to run to are: episodes of Friends, and music videos by Paramore. Friends is really good at distracting you from the pain in general, and Paramore.....well, Hayley.....need I say more? Mmmmmmmm

I only got pissed off with dad once today. Pretty good I thought. I've got a pretty full day at work tomorrow, so he'll probably enjoy having the house to himself.

I've added Paramore to the playlist. This is my favourite song off their new album, and apparently is about a long distance relationship. It's got some really deep lyrics I think, and some that I can really relate to. Plus it's kinda poppy, which is always good!

Gooood day. Apart from Andy Murray getting absolutely thumped by Federer. Federer was just a class apart, and didn't give Murray too many opportunities. Andy's time will come though.

Manchester United had a big game at Arsenal today, which I wasn't too confident of. However, Nani, Rooney and Carrick put on a bit of a masterclass, so much so, that I felt a little sorry for Arsenal. I'll be backing them next weekend at Chelsea! If United can keep this form up, we should have a couple of trophies come the end of the season!

Some bad news from today was that my dad has the next 3 weeks off work. My dad and I get on ok, to an extent, but in all honesty, I think I can really piss him off. As a result, I spend a lot of time staying out of his way, because frankly it just isn't worth winding each other up. So yeah, him having 3 weeks off work inevitably means we will have more interactions, and henceforth more arguments. Damn.

I've pretty much bummed myself out now. Considering the fact I was pretty chirpy when I started writing, that's pretty impressive.

I have the day off work again tomorrow. I'll definitely be hitting the gym. I think I'm going to try and go on mondays, wednesdays and fridays, and see how it goes from there. I have a couple of good incentives to work towards now, which helps tenfold.

I almost forgot, my big achievement of the day!! I'd noticed my computer was making a much louder whirring noise than usual. I remembered when I first got it I could barely hear it, so I decided to take the plunge and try to clean out the fan. So this meant I had to dismantle the laptop. Quite frankly, even the thought of doing that terrifies me. Nonetheless, I did it. Sweaty palms and all. The side of the vents leading to the fan were caked in a thick lining of dust, and now, the computer is so much quieter. More to the point, it's still working!!! It was actually pretty cool looking in at the innards of my beloved machine.

I'm lacking a bit of musical inspiration today, so I'll just refer back to yesterday, and add some Boys Like Girls. "The Great Escape" was their second single, and comes from their self-titled debut album. Which quite frankly, is brilliant.

First of all, I fully intended to blog yesterday, but from 9pm, I was KO'd on my bed until 2am. At 2 I actually managed to get into my bed and slept until 9am. Definitely felt the better of it, but I never unintentionally slept for so long before. I was totally confused when I woke up at 2. I initially thought I'd slept in for work!!

I blame my tiredness on the gym! I went again yesterday. Woo! Go me!! Huge contrast to today. It was my day off work, so by rights a lazy day! I semi-tidied my room while watching Lord of the Rings.
Oh!! That reminds me. There's an event in Eden Court in february, where they are screening the full LOTR trilogy in one day, starting at 11am. That would be sooo cool!!! Pretty long, and I guess approaching the end, a bit tedious, but I'm really tempted. I know, I'm a total nerd.

Lots of pretty interesting football news lately. For starters, John Terry, the England captain, was sleeping with the mother of one of his team-mate's child, and at the time girlfriend. That's horrifying. Wayne Bridge broke up with the woman in question last month, but John Terry is no stranger to that sort of behaviour apparently. Seriously. Google it. It's disgusting.
In other news, some "Super rich" Man United fan is getting advice on launching a takeover bid for United. Music to my ears. United are quoted at being £617 million in debt. From where I'm sitting, the future of the club is pretty grim.

There's so many good gigs being announced at the moment. Boys Like Girls, Bowling for Soup and MC Lars have all recently announced headlining shows. It's at times like this when I wish I lived nearer Glasgow, or even better, Manchester.

I've added Bowling for Soup's "Two Seater" to the playlist. I only realised how much I like this song when I saw BFS last year, and was treated to an exclusive acoustic performance before the main show. I know they're a bit of a goofball band, but their lyrics and guitar work was really impressive. It's a shame they're labelled as a "one hit wonder" by so many people.

I found out today that I have 18 days of annual leave left, to use up before the end of march. Whether or not I will actually be able to use these is one thing, what the hell I'm actually going to do if I get them is another!!
I've had a couple of ideas which were pretty much ridiculed by everyone I mentioned them to, so I don't know. All I know is, I can't sit around my house for 3 weeks. I'll try getting in touch with my boss and see if/when I can take them, and take it from there.

MC Lars has literally just announced a UK headlining tour, which consists of England and Wales. Super :/ As a result I'm pondering a trip down to Liverpool to see him. Never been there before. It's pretty close to Manchester so I'm wondering if I could squeeze in a Man United game since I'm down. I'll look nearer the time, but from the information I've got, there's a 1 in 4 chance there could be a Champion's League game at Old Trafford the following night. That would be simply awesome.

I'll add MC Lars into my playlist. "Guitar Hero Hero" is about all the people who played the likes of Guitar Hero and thought they were awesome because of their guitar skillz, but really, they wouldn't have a clue. Guitar Hero were actually enquired about using the song on a new version of the game, but then they kinda realised it wasn't really putting across the best kind of message about the game. Enjoy!

Oooooh, totally lost track of time. I really shoulda written this blog a good few hours ago.

The gym was alright in the end. When I was sitting waiting for my induction to start, a couple that I deliver mail to were just finishing, and then shortly after my local GP finished his work out too. By the way, awesome head band doc! But it was kinda awkward. The induction itself was kinda gash. It was more like a whistle stop tour of all the equipment, with a fellow gym inductee constantly asking what points to breathe in and out when using each bit of kit.

After that was done I did a 4km run, and then went on the cross-country machine until my calves couldn't take anymore punishment. Which wasn't very long! It was a brief workout, but it was a start.

When I got home my new phone was waiting for me. If I haven't told you my new number let me know. The phone itself seems pretty awesome, but I haven't really sat down and fiddled about with it too much yet.

And of course, thank goodness, United prevailed over City. Only just mind you. Good old Wayne Rooney. I love that man. You can tell he just loves playing for the club. He's been my favourite player for a long time, mainly for the level of passion and determination he plays with. I know he's hated in many circles, but to me, the guy is a legend.

I woke up this morning, kind of hoping that 10K run thing was all a bad dream. Alas, it was not. Dammit.

Breaking news. The following may contain violent, or disturbing images. If you are of a nervous disposition, you may want to look away.

So it's been 10 days since my last blog. My bad. I knew it was an inevitability though. I've been hella busy at work. Hopefully things will be different this week....

Every so often I think of things to write about in this, but now I sit down to write, my mind goes predictably blank.

My parents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary this weekend. A milestone that seems to be rarely reached in this day and age. I guess I'm thankful to them for achieving it. I think love is something that is under appreciated, and misunderstood by a huge number of people.

I like to think 2010 will be full of change for me. Pessimistically, I doubt it. But that doesn't stop me from dreaming. I dream about all sorts. Some of it I'm not inclined to share publicly!! One of my main dreams is about moving. I've thought about moving to all sorts of places; Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Sydney, Los Angeles. Unfortunately, I just don't have any real reason to move to any of them. That is, I would have no job. I could also say I wouldn't know anyone in some of these places.....but to be honest, that's pretty much the same situation as here.

Right, so I've added a new song. The music player does still exist after the new design, it just doesn't show up to well. It's in the right hand column now. The song is by Calamateur, and I genuinely love this song. Since reading what it's about, I'm not sure that loving it is such a good thing, but it is a great song. I probably won't explain this properly, but I'll try, Calamateur is the stage name of Andrew Howie, whom I have worked with for about 18 months or so now. He has his own blog here, and if you want to listen to more of his music, it can be found here. The vast majority of the music is free, and "Perfect Moment" can be found on his "Jesus is for Losers" album. I'm still holding out for a part on his next album.....the outlook is bleak.....

Today I've felt distinctly......I don't know. The only way I can explain it, is by comparing it to Pete Wentz. A guy who I used to think was a complete twat.

When Fall Out Boy really took off, I didn't really understand Pete's deal. He was just the bassist, and background vocalist, but he got all the limelight in the band. I wasn't a particularly big fan of all the promotional work he did, or of the photos of him that circulated the internet.

I soon realised that some of my favourite FOB lyrics were penned by Pete, and that the only reason he played bass guitar was due to his idol being Mark Hoppus. I also learned that Pete tried to kill himself in 2005 after isolating himself more and more.

After following him on Twitter for some time now, I kind of feel as if I understand the guy. He regularly tweets about feeling as if he lives in a world full of robots, or as if his life is all a surreal dream, and that he will wake up anytime soon.

I'm not saying I regularly feel like that, but sometimes I kind of do.

I don't really know where I'm going with this, other than the whole "Don't judge a book by it's cover" thing.

The song I've added today, I heard a few years ago, when I discovered Pandora.com. It was like an internet radio facility, which would play music it thought you would like based on your ratings to previous songs it had played. Unfortunately the site became restricted to US residents only. Today I finally received Jettingham's only major label album released before they broke up. This song also featured in American Pie 2, if you're perhaps wondering why it sounds familiar.

Motion City Soundtrack obviously read my blog. They read it, and thought, hey, let's make David's day, and sort out a UK tour. Well, thanks very much guys. Tickets ordered!! :D

I've been a bit gutted today, after hearing the news that one of my favourite colleagues has decided not to work in my sorting office anymore. I'm kind of jealous for her at the same time, but I'm going to really miss her.

Hopefully I won't be too far behind her, in going out the door.

It's kinda fun driving on ice. Admittedly, in a 4x4, and not my own vehicle. Otherwise I probably wouldn't go faster than 2mph. But seriously, there's a bit of a thrill to it. I've never had a really serious skid or slide, and I've always been able to counter any times I have felt the van start to go, but there will always be that part of me that thinks "You're Colin MacRae!!!". You know, apart from the fact he's dead. I just don't know the names of any other rally drivers. There is a serious thrill to it. Which is sort of a bad thing.

Yeah, so anyway, I actually finished work on time today, for the first time ever, on that round. Admittedly, there's like 50 people picking their mail up from the Post Office because they feel their drives are too dangerous for me to get up to, but it totally still counts. Oh, and I was meant to wash the van in that time. Which I did not.

I got a load of new tunes today, mostly John Mayer. Man, that dude makes some chilled out music!! There's a real Jack Johnson vibe to the guy.

I just saw a trailer for the new Alice in Wonderland movie. It looks pretty fantastic, surreal, and creepy. In the 5 seconds that Johnny Depp was in it, he looked brilliant. As to be expected. The soundtrack looks good too: Avril Lavigne, Owl City, Motion City Soundtrack, Mark Hoppus & Pete Wentz, All Time Low, Metro Station etc etc.

Also, the snow does seem to be, finally, melting. At last!! Hopefully I'll be able to go out running again soon!

I'll throw in an Owl City song today. I fell in love with this the moment I heard it. It's just sublime, and they are tipped to take the UK by storm in 2010.

Yes, I admit, I thought yesterday's and today's dates looked kinda cool. Computer programming language, right? I can't remember my High School classes that well I guess.

I think I kinda love iTunes. It knows me so well now. I know certain people will be disgusted with that, but it really is top notch. It has created new Genius Playlists for me, whose genres include Teen Pop, Emo, Nu-Metal, Alternative Pop/Rock and Mainstream Rock. What else could a guy ask for? Thanks Apple. I <3 you.


Last.fm has finally fixed it's image host problem, so below you can see my most listened to artists of the last week. Crazy stuff. I'm surprised at how far ahead blink and JM are, in the play count. I wish more people used Last.fm, I think it's a pretty awesome tool.

I'm not going to lower myself to another's level, and publicly bitch about other people. That's just not me. I will however, respond to them.

If anyone regards my actions in the past few months as sad, pathetic, childish, or immature, they may well have a point. However, I have only ever dealt with my break up, in the best way I could, for me, and while some people might disapprove with my methods, sorry, but I don't care. It's been a time for looking after no. 1.

I'm not going to divulge all the background information publicly, I still have some respect for what I had. However, I was completely in love. Maybe I was slightly askew with some of my interpretations of what love is, but in my head, I was 100% dedicated, until I died.

Since then, while being obviously heart broken, I feel as though I have been publicly shat on, and publicly humiliated. Obviously this person cannot see that, and feels like we should still be best friends or something. I'm sorry, I have no interest in sitting down and spelling this out to her. I'm not entirely sure why I should make the effort. Especially after what happened in the last few months of our relationship.

I just felt this needed addressing. After being talked about all over this dump of a village, I thought I should actually go some way towards defending myself.

I'm not going to link a song or picture to this post. I don't want to associate any with it.

I fell asleep listening to that John Mayer song last night. Yeah, I'm cool.

Another good thing that happened yesterday, was that I amended my lack of upcoming concerts. I ordered tickets for an acoustic Bowling for Soup performance at King Tut's. I've never been there before, but I've only heard good things, and that it's nice and small. Should be good. So long as it doesn't get upgraded.....

I remembered to take my camera to work, but it was pretty misty at all the usual good view points. I thought this was a really cool scene. The overhanging, dead looking trees look really foreboding, but in a breathtaking way.

I've been thinking a lot about future plans. I'm totally sick of my current situation in almost every way. I know that only I can fix this, but it is easier said than done.

I've had the new single from Dashboard Confessional stuck in my head for the past few days. They're a really awesome band, who I first heard on the soundtrack to Spiderman 2. Their new album is really impressive, and have released a deluxe edition of it, with a bonus CD featuring acoustic versions of all the album tracks. A real touch of quality I think. I had ticketes to go and see them in 2008, which they postponed, then after 8 months of waiting for a new date, cancelled. Sad times. Hopefully they will venture back to these shores sometime soon though!!

Not a good day, so really not in a good frame of mind for this blog. Got messed around again at work. Majorly sick of this shit.

On the up side, there's some gorgeous scenery up these hills, with all this snow. I might have better photos tomorrow, if I remember my digi camera.

Also feeling completely love sick. Even though I'm not in love.


The song today is one I just rediscovered about half an hour ago. Completely forgot about this. Might have to purchase a John Mayer album.


Keeping it short and not very sweet today.

Alright, I posted the lyrics to yesterday's "Song of the Day", after a couple of requests. I had to download Google Chrome in order to use the paste function in this blog writer thing. Yeah, that's the extent I go to for you people!!

Man, I'm so cold and so tired today. Bad times!!



Yesterday was a bit of a landmark day for me. I don't want to go into detail, but it was something I should have done months ago, but only recently felt up to it. A chapter of my life is closed forever now.



It's like -10 degrees celsius today, and apparently it's going to hit about -20 by friday. Seriously bad times. It really is baltic. If anyone that reads this has a really warm house or flat, can I come live with you? Please? I'm really not that much trouble. Promise!!



I'm getting really sick of my job these days. For a variety of reasons I guess. It's a job I only intended to do for a year, and I'm now in my 19th month of it. I was even mentally planning my resignation letter last week. Realistically however, there isn't that much else available at the moment. Anyways, I have some Drumnadrochit related plans this summer, so I don't want to venture too far just yet. Until then I guess I just grin and bear it. Like my dad always used to tell me: no pain, no gain.



Ok, so referring back to the first paragraph, I've kinda decided to reward myself a little bit with this. I'm a bit unsure about telling people about this song, but I think that maybe it might help someone else through a time of difficulty.

My most listened to song of 2009 was "Seventy Times 7" by Brand New. The song is written by Jesse Lacey, the lead singer of the band. Jesse had been best friends with John Nolan, one time guitarist/singer of Taking Back Sunday, that is, until John slept with Jesse's girlfriend. They had a row over the phone which ended with Jesse saying:

"Is that what you call tact? You're as subtle as a brick in the small of my back, so let's end this call and end this conversation."

Which is quoted in the lyrics of the song. These lyrics are again used in Taking Back Sunday's "There's No "I" in Team", which was John's response. "Seventy Times 7" has such hate filled lyrics, full of disgust and injustice at how his friend treated him. Jesse and John have since made up, and the song's title is in some ways a reflection of that. Jesus' parable of the unforgiving servant, originates from someone asking him:

"How many times must I forgive my brother that keeps sinning against me? Seven times?" But Jesus' response was:

"Not seven times, but seventy times seven", which is basically intended to be an unlimited amount. This song is fantastic for those times when you really need to vent over someone or something messing you about. Trust me.



Wow, deep stuff. Sorry about that!! Enjoy this fairly amusing picture of my dog Brin, to end things on a good point!

Right, don't get me wrong. As a kid, I loved the snow. I have very fond memories of snow days and school being cancelled, of sledging down the awesome hill at Nathan's house, of trying to build the most amazing snowman. However, this past couple of weeks have been a bit of a snow overload.

There's at least a good 14 inches of snow, still lying, in my garden. Every morning my car has another white blanket covering it.

My job is perhaps one of the worst in the world, in this weather. It would of course help if the council made some sort of effort to clear the snow on the pavements, or at the very least, make some sort of clear route. This is apparently a no no. The snowy slush in car parks in the village is disgusting.

But whatever, nothing I can do about it, so I will shut up about it. Enjoy my photo of the snow, as seen from my bedroom window.

I tried to insert a chart of my most listened to artists of the past week, from Last.fm. But it doesn't seem to be working for some unknown reason. It woulda been kinda interesting!! This past week, I had some major cravings for some good old pop tracks from when I was like 14 or so. Back then my musical knowledge was nothing more than what MTV and the "Now Thats What I Call Music" CDs contained.


Thank God that changed.

Although there's nothing wrong with the occasional listen to 5ive, Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, S Club 7, Boyzone and Robbie Williams. Right?
Right?!


Oh, and referring back to my first blog, I switched my phone back on today after a good day and a half of downtime. I tragically missed some calls from the Post Office. Which didn't open yesterday due to the owners travelling back from London, and their cover calling in sick. Oh dear, what a pity. Oh well, nevermind.


Shall I add another song to my playlist? I might as well. I guess it will have to be something retro and poppy. Everybody Get Up by 5ive? Yeah, I dare you not to love it.

Hello, and welcome to my blog!

I doubt this will be a daily thing, because frankly, some days I have very little to talk about, but I guess I will try to do so.


First of all, I genuinely want to thank, and apologise to, my friends. 2009 was easily the worst year of my life. I'm sorry for being a depressed pain in the ass for the latter half of it. But on the flip side, thank you for putting up with me and supporting me. Even in the smallest way. It meant a lot.


It's now 2010. I genuinely feel so different. In the past week or so, I have actually felt a sincere level of happiness that I haven't for a long time. In some ways, I haven't felt this way for at least 7 years. Right now my hopes and aspirations for 2010 are plentiful. And perhaps slightly stupid and unrealistic, but hey, I'm gonna give it my best shot.


Today is my day off. Yussss. Another 4 day weekend. Gotta love it. My phone is switched off. I'm rather sick of being asked to work at the last minute. So I'm sorry to anyone trying to get in touch with me.


I think, already, I have had more dreams in 2010 than the whole of 2009. Just about crazy stuff, like repairing a Ferris wheel and having my heroes analysing my CD collection.


Talking of music, I'm going to try to include a song on this page by Jack's Mannequin. I first heard of Jack's Mannequin years and years ago, but I only heard some of their material in late 2008. In 2009 I managed to see them live twice. The first time, myself and Laura travelled all the way to Manchester, just to see them. It was genuinely beautiful. The Manchester Academy 3 is a tiny venue, with no security guards. The performers are literally within touching distance. As you can see from the picture. It was pretty surreal, and one of my favourite concerts ever. Andrew McMahon is one of my favourite artists of all time. His lyrics are, at times, breathtaking. Anyway, the song I will have hopefully embedded, really moves me. I think it's a really inspirational song, and with the way he manipulates the music, you can practically hear the waves crashing against the shore.
I could actually talk about Andrew and Jack's Mannequin for ages, but I will try not to bore you in my first blog!!

Right folks, I am going to leave it at that, and try to do something productive with my day off!!

Thanks for reading.