"All Star Wars Characters Have Stupid Names"

A few weeks before my aunt and cousin took me to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens, CollegeHumor released this parody video of the film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbLqiKg9JkA

It portrays the film's primary antagonist, Kylo Ren, becoming increasingly frustrated over the "stupid" names that inhabit the galaxy. I really enjoy this video; CollegeHumor usually creates hilarious clips but this is one of their best, in my opinion.

1701

According to my "Published" panel, upon saving this will be my 1701st blog post. The number 1701 carries a certain significance in society thanks to a long-running television/movie franchise. Unsure what I'm talking about? Much as I hate telling people to "Google it" when I can easily tell them myself, in case, I recommend Googling the number.

Chips, pizza, croissant

I purchased this delicious meal combination in the college canteen yesterday,

Chips (large fries), pizza and a croissant! The canteen, as far as I'm aware, serves chips every day but the pizza is rarer and the croissant I had never seen at all until yesterday afternoon. For £3 this made a worthy lunch.

Two conditional offers

I sent my university application to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) in the first half of last December and, in turn, the organisation recently submitted my application to my university of choice, Nottingham Trent. I have wonderful news: I have received conditional offers for two of my five choices. For now, I have been offered:

English and Media

English and TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language)

Both offers are "conditional" in that I need to pass my current Access course in order to fully secure either course. In addition, I still have to wait for decisions on my other three choices before I can do anything else. That being said, conditional offers are still something to celebrate and I am delighted to have received these two so far.

Summat, summit and something

I posted this to Facebook in the late evening:

"You can tell when you've lived in an area for a while when you start, without even thinking, picking up the local dialect. An example of this is earlier when I said "summit" in the place of "something", which is common among people from Nottingham and the surrounding regions."

It's unsurprising that "Nottinghamisms" have crept into my vocabulary, given that I've had abundant interaction with the locals since September 2014. It's not just the occasional word that has appeared in my speaking, sometimes pronunciations manifest themselves, such as when I've said "bus" the way people from Nottingham do.

The five routes

Without setting off with the intention to do so, yesterday I rode on five different bus routes. Not just five buses but five routes - I never rode the same route twice. I took a second visit to the towns of Kimberley, Giltbrook and Eastwood to walk around them for the afternoon. My bus journey is as follows:

Home to Nottingham city centre: Rushcliffe Mainline.

Nottingham city centre to Kimberley: Rainbow One.

Kimberley to Hucknall: Amberline - this route was unexpected. I forgot that Amberline runs from Derby to Hucknall and that Kimberley is one of the towns on the way. When I was waiting for my Rainbow One bus back to Nottingham, the Amberline was closer and so I rode that to Hucknall instead.

Hucknall to Nottingham city centre: The Threes.

Nottingham city centre to home: Rushcliffe Villager (while the Mainline and Villager overlap for much of the journey, they are separate bus routes).

As far as I can recall, this is the first day on which I have ridden on three or more buses and each of them was a different route.

Here is Amberline, at its last stop in Hucknall - the library. Amberline shared the same colour as The Threes and Hucknall's Connect.

The Force Awakens (2)

Yesterday evening, I wrote that I had just come back from seeing Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which is the first of the sequel films and the first Star Wars movie since Revenge of the Sith was released in mid-2005.

Other than that I thought there were more comedic moments present compared to all the other Star Wars films and the fact it lacks "Episode VII" in the title, I have no complaints about The Force Awakens. Unlike many modern science fiction productions, I did not think the film relied on flashy special effects to make up for poor acting and weak storyline. I felt that the characters, new and old alike, were interesting; I did think that perhaps Kylo Ren, the film's primary antagonist, needed some additional development but I expect to see that in the next film.

I prefer it that The Force Awakens is indeed a continuation of the Star Wars story rather than a reboot. The Star Wars universe is expansive enough without the need to reboot the saga. The ageing of original characters with new ones thrown into the mix, as has been done here, is all that's required.

Ending the film on a cliffhanger was a wise decision. When The Force Awakens was approaching its conclusion, there were several unanswered questions remaining, few of which would be addressed by the end. The anticipation builds interest for the next film, as well as gives a suitable end for the current one.

Overall, I was satisfied by Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It is a worthy sequel and I expect the next films to be equally as fulfilling.

The Force Awakens

My Nottingham aunt plus my visiting cousin from Hong Kong took me to see the new Star Wars film this evening. I shall write a short review of the movie tomorrow, as I have only just returned from seeing the film after a long day.

The cashier's good wishes

I posted this to Facebook earlier. I purchased a few items in a Tesco this evening and had this (slightly condensed) discussion with the cashier who served me:

Tesco cashier: "How has your week been so far?"

Me: "It's been good. I've been excited to be back at college."

Cashier: "I haven't heard many be happy about that! What are you studying?"

Me: "An Access course to get me into university."

Cashier, giving thumbs up: "Hope you get it, champ."

I was already in a good mood this evening but the cashier's words only served to strength my positive resolve. He had also been talking to me about putting Cadbury's Daily Milk on Ritz crackers and thought that my putting said chocolate into cooking was a worthy idea. His words were welcome, especially in light of yesterday.

Man of the past

Was there anything strange about my blog posts over 2015? Perhaps yes, perhaps no? Is there, maybe, someone nearly completely absent from the 365 posts I wrote last year, whom I used to refer to frequently from Air Nice-to-Livelands' beginning? This person has only been mentioned in four posts this past year:

* Liveland History: 29 March 2012: A reflection piece in which I discussed a visit to Nottingham from three years ago, at the time.
* Phone armour: Wrote about my phone's armour and asked my readers if they remembered my post about this other person's kickstand phone case.
* Bloggers Blog Party - August 2015: This person appears when I wrote about seeing an advert in an old book of theirs. I never disclosed why I looked through the book.
* Americans and their passports: A brief end-of-paragraph sentence about this person's travelling, in the context of the post being about travelling Americans.

Dad is missing. Over the past year, whenever I travelled between Nottinghamshire and Northamptonshire, my grandfather or an aunt/uncle drove me - there was nothing about Dad driving me. Whenever I was in Northamptonshire, I only mentioned my brother and mother - Dad isn't there. Whenever I was up in Nottinghamshire, there were no visits from Dad - no random drop-ins, no car service appointments...nothing. Finally, in my New Year's Eve post - my last post of 2015 - I made references to certain events I wish had "never happened" and a "stark contrast" in emotions over the year.

Dad's been dead nearly the whole time.

That's the horrid reason for his absence in my blog. A few days into 2015, while I was still recovering from that vindictive cold/flu I caught the previous December, he unexpectedly collapsed at work and was taken to a hospital, where the doctors were unable to save him. He wasn't even 52 and his and Mum's 25th anniversary was approaching. Dad's death was a sickening blow for a multitude of reasons and Mum especially has had to pick up the pieces of the resulting aftermath, which is an ongoing process.

Today is the first anniversary since his death. Only now have I felt ready to say something here, as this has long been a post that I haven't wanted to write. I've been crafting my blog carefully to avoid mentioning mere hints of his death, although I'm sure there's a post somewhere that says "mother and brother" or some other variant. It's not because I've been insulting his memory - it's because writing about the death of someone close to you is hard. It was difficult enough years ago when I wrote in a diary about the deaths of my cats but a parent...

I still find it unimaginable to think that he is gone and that he has not seen any of the progress I have made since Christmas 2014. Nor, for that matter, has he seen anything my brother has done. The last time I saw and spoke to Dad was Christmas 2014 but I was sick and could barely talk, so conversation was brief. The last time Dad and I properly conversed was on my birthday of that year, in November. 2015 is the first year of my life during which I never saw him - only some texting occurred between us in the days leading up to his death.

Dad's death is a major contributor to why I zealously attend college every day, even when I am not officially required to be in, and why I was so upset the day I overslept and came close to missing a lesson. I completed my first college course, despite what happened, with 100% attendance and I want to finish this course with that same figure.

I went into college today to complete some work; I had no official lessons but, as always, I found it beneficial being present. I had a chat with my Employability teacher from my previous course, talked to a couple of my classmates and was amused by some of the comments from the library staff. My teacher was concerned about me prior to the break and she was pleased to hear that Christmas for Mum, my brother and me was, all things considered, okay.

Dad did so much for Mum, my brother and me in the time he was in my life - for me...and my brother...to succeed will mean that all the work he put in for us paid off in the long run. It's beyond a shame that he won't be able to enjoy it or anything else.

Executive actions on firearms

Frustrated by Congress' constant inaction on cracking down on gun violence, President Barack Obama has taken matters into his own hands and issued executive orders:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-35236630

In response, self-described "supporters of the 2nd Amendment" and Republican candidates for president have opposed his actions, saying that they are "unconstitutional" and should be repealed; however, a look at what the actions contain shows that the 2nd Amendment is not under threat, despite what a vocal minority seems to think. Here are some of the provisions:

"Background checks for all gun sellers, overturning current exemptions to some online and gun show sellers"

This seems entirely reasonable and in line with what the public wants. A Pew Research Center poll from last August found that 85% of Americans, including 79% of Republicans, support greater background checks for weapon sales.

"Increased workforce for the FBI to process background checks, hiring more than 230 new examiners"

This means that any backlogs relating to gun backgrounds checks will be cleared more quickly because of the increased staff. Theoretically, people waiting to buy a gun might be able to purchase them quicker.

"Congress being asked to invest $500m (£339m) to improve access to mental healthcare in the US"

The aforementioned poll notes that Americans support limiting weapon sales to mentally ill people; in addition, many of those against gun control measures are also in favor of such a limit. Asking Congress to improve mental healthcare seems like positive step to make; I don't see why anyone would be against this.

At any rate, no president can unilaterally nullify an amendment; it requires the states themselves and Congress to perform such an action. Firearms are not being banned - if President Obama really were the "dictator" his opponents make him out to be, he would already have banned them by now. He wouldn't be bothering with executive orders that are short-term fixes.

It is entirely possible to be pro-2nd Amendment while also supporting measures to exercise caution during gun sales. For example, the poll notes that 79% of Republicans support stronger background checks; this is significant because Republicans are generally more hostile to gun control than Democrats. From personal experience, most of the gun owners I knew in the United States supported background checks on the sales and were distrusting of buying weapons from unofficial venues.

Finally, regarding any such actions or legislation pertaining to firearms sales being "unconstitutional", it should be noted that at least three amendments (the 15th, 19th and the 26th, in particular) all defend voting rights. Using consistent reasoning, any restriction on voting rights is also unconstitutional and any state with voter ID laws or other methods to limit voting is going against the Constitution.

The Comet

This afternoon, a new addition made it onto my list of Trentbarton routes on which I have ridden:

It's the Comet, which travels between Derby and Chesterfield. I was free today because college starts again tomorrow and I had received a free ticket from Trentbarton last month as a result of a driver mix-up, so my Red Arrow to Derby, Comet to and from Chesterfield and Indigo ride back to Nottingham were all covered by that ticket. Unlike the last time I visited Chesterfield, the rain was light and infrequent rather than constant.

On to the second term

As of this afternoon, I am back in Nottingham now that the Christmas break has concluded. I do not feel that the break trudged along or zipped by - it passed at an appropriate pace. Now, I can jump into my second term of my second college course.

"The Guy Who Won't Stop Talking About Jar Jar Binks"

Given the recent release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I thought this was an appropriate video from CollegeHumor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMW3gIu2C_s

It mocks people who still, after all these years, complain about Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace, believing that his character ruins the film and, thus, all the prequels. Even for The Force Awakens, some people protested about a potential return from Jar Jar Binks (I haven't seen the film but to my knowledge, he is not present).

New Year's Day 2016

This is the New Year's greeting I posted to Facebook earlier:

"Wishing everybody a Happy New United States Presidential Election Year. If you enjoyed 2015's season of the political show, with all its eccentric and fun-filled characters, 2016 is guaranteed to be even more action-packed! Watch partisans from all sides slug it out against both each other and supposed "moderates" in a metaphorical arena of ideologies. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that never seems to end!"

Happy New Year!