The days away

I've spent the last few days away, as evidenced by my inactivity here. On Monday night, my girlfriend and I went to her and her mother's house in Newark from then until this morning, when we had classes again. During my visit there, my girlfriend, her mother and I walked around the area with their dog and visited the local castle. We had a wonderful time and it is the first occasion I've been away since I started this academic year.

I shall be visiting them all again next month, although I'll see my girlfriend several times before then and will see her mother before that time, too.

The joint birthday dinner

This evening, I'll be attending a joint birthday dinner. One of my Access friends had his birthday the other day and mine is also this month; while today is not either of our birthdays, we chose this evening to have the meal.

With us will be at least two other of our friends from Access; I don't know if anyone else is coming but as far as I'm aware, it will just be four Access people in attendance.

The film production team

In my video project workshop this afternoon, every student present had to take part in an exercise that involved us forming a film crew to record a short interview. The purpose of this was to give us feel for what it would be like working in a real film crew, to give us practice with the various forms of equipment and to test out camera angles.

My role was the sound technician. I tested the camera to ensure the sound was working and while the filming was in progress, I wore headphones at all times to ensure that there were no problems with sound. The sound did drop out at one point, which meant we had to reshoot a scene.

It was a lot of fun! The exercise really caused us all to feel as though we were on a proper film set, making a movie or TV show.

Thanksgiving 2017

It's Thanksgiving again in the United States. What am I thankful for this year? For 2017, I am thankful for all the people in my life right now whom I see regularly and those who support me regularly. The latter can be people I see often or those who message me/I message on a frequent basis; having them around keeps me feeling happy, wanted and needed.

Library time (2)

So I spent a first hours in the library last night but I didn't pull an all-nighter. No...once I'd figured out exactly what I needed to do for my assignment, I went ahead and completed it. No need whatsoever to spend all night in the library when a few hours was all that was necessary.

With that assignment pretty much out the way, I have freed-up time to work on other university projects from now until the end of the term in December.

Library time

I'm going to do some work in the library tonight. I have another formative assessment to complete and after working on it at the weekend, I'd like to get it done (or mostly done) after a session in the library for the next few hours.

This formative assessment involves writing an assignment that can be used as one of my four main assignments for this particular Media module, in addition to receiving feedback from my scale-up tutor.

"Closer to Broken Dreams" - Green Day and The Chainsmokers mashup

While I've known about the "Wonderwall of Broken Dreams" mashup for over ten years, this Green Day mashup I came across in the past few days:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We8x_o50MxQ

It's "Closer to Broken Dreams", a mashup of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" with The Chainsmokers' "Closer" featuring Halsey. I found this mashup while searching on YouTube for "Wonderwall of Broken Dreams"; it's a good find and the two songs go surprisingly well together.

Not circled

This afternoon, I was analysing the market research surveys that the other members of my video project group had carried out (it was agreed they'd do the research and I'd do the paperwork). On one of the surveys, I became confused when the respondent had circled multiple - and often contradictory - options on the multi-choice form.

After the confusion, the form then seemed like trolling but once I inspected it more closely, I realised that the respondent had circled the options that didn't apply to them and left blank the ones the did. As such, it became clear that anything they had left unmarked was to be taken as an option that applied to them.

While it was annoying that the person had filled out the form in this manner, they had nevertheless given valid answers and it was simple enough to decipher once I'd worked out the pattern.

"Wonderwall of Broken Dreams" - Green Day/Oasis mashup

After all the years that have passed since I first heard it, this remains one of my favourite mashups:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-PdV61Z8Mg

It's "Wonderwall of Broken Dreams" - a mashup of Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" with Oasis' "Wonderwall". On the pop music station my brother and I listened to in Oregon, it was easily the most played mashup on the station, helped significantly by the Open House Party we listened to every weekend.

"Wonderwall of Broken Dreams" has appeared in Air Nice-to-Livelands before, in a post from over six years ago.

Liveland History: 15th November 2014

So this amusing event occurred three years ago:

http://airnicetolivelands.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/the-sashaying-teacher.html

Yes...I recall that well! My English teacher and I gave a demonstration of a sashay after no one in the class knew what one was. Unfortunately for us, it was the worst demonstration of a sashay, ever! It was much fun, though, and brought about several good-faith laughs.

Annie's Burger Shack

Here in Nottingham, there is a restaurant called Annie'e Burger Shack, which serves American-themed burgers. During Pre-Access, my friends and I wanted to go there but it had a month-long waiting list; in Access, we still didn't go but finally, this past June, my Access friends and I went there for a reunion.

A few months later, I took one of my uncles there and then yesterday, I went to Annie's Burger Shack with my girlfriend and her mother. After two years of being unable or not going to Annie's, I've now been there three times in under five months.

Annie's is notable for being one of the best burger restaurants in Nottingham; I've yet to meet somebody who hasn't enjoyed the burgers there.

The tweeting leader

It wasn't so long ago when the American president didn't make reference to childish insults when discussing a fellow world leader:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41958553

Granted, a North Korean government department called him "old" but if the current president weren't so thin-skinned, he wouldn't have resorted to the tweet he wrote in the aforementioned article.

On the bright side, in that same tweet, he mentioned that he would like to be a "friend" of the North Korean leader. That would be a good thing, if it were to happen.

Have stayed put lately

I've ventured out of Clifton much lately. Part of it is because of when I had my colds, as I didn't feel like walking far or riding on buses when I was as sick as I was. Another reason is because of the  higher workload of Year 2; more reading is required for the seminars and the upcoming assignments.

I've still been walking and I've been eating less, so my weight has been coming down. I dropped another notch on my belt, which feels amazing. Still more weight to lose but I'm making great progress!

"Saving Me" - Nickelback

I really don't understand why Nickelback has attracted a crowd of people who seem to despise them and their music. Nickelback have made all sorts of awesome songs, like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPc-o-4Nsbk

It's "Saving Me", the third major single from All the Right Reasons, which was released in 2005. "Saving Me" helped All the Right Reasons - along with all the other singles from that album - remain in the charts for over two years and is easily my favourite Nickelback song.

Nickelback last appeared in my blog nearly five years ago in this post.

Catching up on comments

I've again been lazy when it comes to approving and replying to comments. As such, either tomorrow evening or at the weekend, I will spend a session approving all the legitimate ones and replying to them. I do enjoy hearing from people who take the time to comment and it's not been fair to them to not approve and reply.

United States 2017 elections

Yesterday, the United States held its 2017 intake of off-year elections. This included various mayoral elections, such as those in Los Angeles and New York City, but more notably featured the gubernatorial races of New Jersey and Virginia.

New Jersey's election result - a Democratic heavy victory - wasn't a surprise. The outgoing, term-limited Republican governor is deeply unpopular and New Jersey is a blue state; the Democratic candidate was expected to win unless they were to take it upon themselves to openly sabotage their own campaign.

The more interesting result was in Virginia. The Democrats took that governor's seat from the Republicans in 2013 and since 2008, the state has voted for Democrats at the presidential level. In the elections yesterday, the Democrats not only held the governor's mansion by a convincing margin but also picked up swathes of seats in the state's legislature. It's an astounding result for a state that was red not so long ago.

Liveland History: 7th Novenber 2012

Five years ago today, I wrote my analysis of the results of 2012 United States presidential election:

http://airnicetolivelands.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/on-results-of-united-states.html

What a truly great day that was - the United States had just re-elected its first African-American president. Those who were determined to cause him to only serve one term had failed and things were looking up. Then, four years later...what happened? America took several steps forward with the election and re-election of President Obama and then leapt twice as much back when it elected the current president. What a severe disappointment.

My new relationship

As this is open knowledge on my Facebook feed - and on someone else's, as will be noted in a moment - I ought to mention here that I have a girlfriend. After meeting a few short weeks ago and dating, my girlfriend and I made it official today and announced it publicly. We are crazy for one another and are breathless with excited anticipation at where life takes us from this day forward.

"Hold My Hand" - Jess Glynne

I'm staggered that I never wrote a post about this awesome song sooner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLyUcAUMmMY

It's "Hold My Hand" by Jess Glynne. Released in March 2015, it is the third single from the debut studio album, I Cry When I Laugh. I listened to this song countless times in 2015, as it helped with cope with the events of that year; while I don't listen to it as much nowadays, I still love it.

While "Hold My Hand" has not been featured previously in Air Nice-to-Livelands, Glynne herself has, appearing in the following posts: (1), (2), (3), (4). I listen to a Glynne song most days, as her music generally puts me in a good mood.

Lincoln visit November 2017

Today, I visited Lincoln to meet up with a close college friend of mine from Pre-Access. She started university at Lincoln back in September and it was the first time I'd seen her since she began.

It was interesting being back in Lincoln. This was the city where I realised it was time to start doing something with my life, back in 2013 when my oldest younger cousin started (and has since completed) university.

The well-tidied room

Now that I've had a tidy room for a couple of days, it feels great having all this floor space once again and easy access to all my shelves, as well as places for my chair to roll to when necessary. If I throw something on the floor, it'll only be there temporarily because I don't want my room to become messy again.

So why will I stick to it this time? It's time to be more responsible, that's why. I don't want to live permanently in a mess. I'll keep it clean and tidy.

Time update for "The cat and college frames"

Yesterday's post, "The cat and college frames", was officially posted past 1:00am today but I edited it to be posted for yesterday and not today. The post was written yesterday but I submitted it after midnight by mistake and intended to change it earlier than now but forgot.

There are a few other of my posts where this has happened. It's not a problem when it happens - the post was written on and intended for the day before and that's where it should be recorded.

The cat and college frames

During my college years and Year 1 of university, I always had out on my window sill or desk my two pictures of the cats my family I had many, many years ago. They were packed away for the three and a half weeks I was at my mother's house and have remained that way until today. There was no symbolic or personal reason for keeping them packed away other than that my room was a mess as a result not tidying it while ill.

Now that I've tidied my room, I've placed the pictures of my cats on my desk. In addition, at the end of Access, one of my friends gave me a framed photo collection of him and me in London with another classmate, the poster of me from college and a picture of me by myself in London. This was one of the kindest gifts I received at college and I really like having it out on display, as the cats are.