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!!

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'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.

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...

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 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.

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.