Bloggers Blog Party - August 2016

August 2016 provided a fair selection for the Secret Life of Bloggers Blog Party:

Thursday 4th August: There is a company in Northamptonshire that features these hot pink dumpsters/skips as part of their services. Hot pink isn't a colour usually associated with garbage so this one and others stand out.

Friday 5th August: Speaking of objects that stand out, in all my years in Northamptonshire, I never noticed this yellow donation box near the fire station, mostly because it is positioned on a side street I've rarely walked down, on the side of the street I've rarely walked along.

Sunday 7th August: This was a sunny evening in the town of Rothwell. I walked to this town on most days as a part of catching up on exercise I'd missed out on over the preceding few months.

Wednesday 10th August: Ah...a resting horse and a hungry horse! The one on the right was the first horse I'd stroked since 2009; however, the ones I stroked in 2009 were happy for my company whereas this one was only interested in food - to the point where they were trying to get into my bag.

Tuesday 16th August: During my sole visit back to Nottingham over the summer, I was sure to ride past my old college on the bus. So far, the place hasn't changed much as a result of the ongoing merger between it and New College Nottingham, although the student lanyards have emblazoned on them "student" now rather than "Central College Nottingham".

Wednesday 17th August: These cows were also interested in food but alas, I had nothing for them.

Saturday 20th August: It the centre of this image is a semingly faint rainbow; however, in person it was significantly more bright. It's unfortunate that my phone's camera is often unable to capture the fullness of a rainbow.

Saturday 27th August: By contrast, my phone's camera was able to pick up the blanket-like quality of these clouds with ease.

Tuesday 30th August: This truck spent nearly ten minutes entering the narrow gate to a factory situated out of the photo. Even though it was blatantly obvious to onlookers what was going on, that still didn't stop some people from hooting as though doing so would magically make the truck hasten its entrance.

Final inductions and Ruddington

My inductions at university are now complete. All but two of them were general information talks about the library, the online workspace, travel opportunities, etc.; the remaining two were about English and Media. I have the rest of the week free for the most part before I begin lectures and seminars for my course next week.

As this afternoon was mostly sunny, I used my free time to catch up on some exercise by walking to Ruddington, with the Rushcliffe Country Park being my intended destination. My first visit to the park was in September of last year and until today, I had not returned for a second visit, despite visiting Ruddington since. Yes, a venture to the Rushcliffe Country Park was indeed appropriate.

This is one of the many paths in the park; this particular path is located near to the wooded area along the northwestern boundary.

In this wooded area was this animal sculpture, made from wood and tyres. I think it's a hedgehog? Either that or another rodent coming out of its lair.

Near the centre of the park is this lake, where ducks, fish and swans all reside. The area contains signs that note a ban on feeding bread to the ducks, citing that doing so is of no nutritional value to them and that uneaten bread pollutes the lake.

In addition, I also briefly wandered into the Rushcliffe Fields Business Park, which is home to the Ruddington campus of Central College Nottingham. The business park is within the boundaries of the country park, even though it contains private property.

Once I'd seen the Ruddington campus I walked back to and around the lake and began my trek back up to Clifton. I would estimate, depending on weather and traffic, that it takes about 45 minutes to reach the Rushcliffe Country Park from my accommodation by foot, so it's an excellent walk.

More familiar faces

Yesterday afternoon, I went into the city with the primary purpose being to meet up with a close college friend whom I hadn't seen for over two months. She and I met up, went to the pub and spent a few hours catching up. We then started to make our ways back to our respective homes afterwards.

On my way back to my bus, however, I encountered a classmate from Access whom I hadn't seen since February, as unfortunate circumstances had forced him to drop out. He and I had arranged to meet up next week, anyway, but seeing him a week early by chance was a delight in itself. We walked for an hour talking before before I caught a bus back to the city centre rather than spend another hour walking back.

When walking through the market square, I spoke for a couple of minutes to a friend I had made when I went to see Eddie Izzard back in June; she was with another friend, hence the brief encounter, but it was nevertheless a happy occasion to see her, too.

I saw a few other familiar faces: I saw at least two regulars from Rushcliffe Villager 1, someone I saw around Central during both my years, a member of Central's marketing team and someone I'm fairly certain was a classmate from Pre-Access and is now at university herself. Even today, here on NTU's Clifton campus, I encountered a science student who occasionally chatted to me while I was on Access.

Thanks to all those encounters yesterday, the day truly felt as though I were back at Central.

The Nexus sky

This evening, when returning to my campus after spending the afternoon in Nottingham's city centre (which itself occurred after my induction sessions) I observed this spectacular sky:

It reminded me of the Nexus of Joy in the film Star Trek Generations. On my bus back to Clifton I was sat on the upper deck and two women next two me were also marvelling at this awesome sky.

A face from the last year

During my first induction this morning, which consisted of a general information lecture by course leader, I was sat next to a classmate from my Access from the past year. Like me, he is undertaking a joint honours course and half of both our courses is English, we should be present together in that aspect of our courses.

I wasn't expecting to see anyone from my course at Central to be on my course at NTU but I am delighted that at least one of them is. It's a mutually beneficial development, as it means we'll both see a familiar face as we integrate into university life and beyond.

Second full day

My second full day here at university has mostly been a quiet one. I had a headache in the early afternoon and so I spent a couple of hours sleeping to ward it off. Afterwards, I went for an hour's walk or so around Clifton, both to exercise a little and to purchase a few items that I needed.

Tomorrow, inductions begin. I have a couple of things to complete tonight, which are related to my course, before I head off to bed.

Full university enrolment

Today, I completed my enrolment at Nottingham Trent University. I was photographed for my new student card, signed up to be covered by the university doctors and picked up a wristband for new students, which allows me to join certain welcome events next week.

As of now, I am a university student! I will hold this status until my student card expires in the summer of 2019.

At university

It is done. After both a year at college completing Pre-Access and another year completing Access, I am now at university - Nottingham Trent University. The hard work paid off and I made it to here. Yes!

My aunt and uncle from the East of England kindly helped me to move in to my new accommodation. I spent the afternoon with them and some of the evening with them and my grandparents before I returned to my accommodation less than an hour ago.

I have more hard work ahead of me but for tonight, I can rest a little.

The Northamptonshire departure

It's nearly 10:00 at night and here I am waiting for my relatives from the East of England to pick me up and take me and my belongings back to Nottinghamshire.

The summer holidays are over. Tomorrow, I check in to my accommodation at Nottingham Trent University. As of tomorrow, I will, for the first time ever, be living away from family.

The friend zone redux (again)

Years ago, I wrote a few posts about the "friend zone" (here, here and here). To summarise my thoughts about the friend zone: I don't believe it exists - it's simply a case of feelings/attraction not being returned and not one person randomly or vindictively putting someone in a "zone" of sorts. I also mostly regarded the friend zone as a term that men rather than women use.

Interestingly enough, today I came across an article that was written before I wrote the first of my aforementioned links:

http://thoughtcatalog.com/chelsea-fagan/2013/03/girls-get-friend-zoned-too-and-it-sucks/

The writer, Chelsea Fagan, wrote about her experience of being "friend zoned" and said that the concept is not something that only happens to men (in one of my posts, I did mention that men do reject women). I thought it was interesting - albeit saddening, of course - how Fagan discussed how she became attracted to a friend but the friend rejected her. While she said that those being rejected should not turn into jerks, I also found the following passage from her article fascinating:

"We should never take advantage (as can sometimes happen) of the person who is clearly devoted to us, using them as an ego-boost or exploiting them being at our beck and call. We shouldn’t go out of our way to tell them all about our dating follies when we know that they have feelings for us and are doing their best to be respectful and a friend."

Fagan documented how her friend talked about his romantic life with her, in the full knowledge about how she felt towards him. Long story short, the friendship ultimately ended.

I haven't changed my thoughts about the friend zone: I think it doesn't exist, as I've explained before. Romantic rejection is a sad fact of life but it's not the end of the world. Someone else will come along and in the meantime, it is possible for a friendship to survive - even become a better, stronger friendship - when one person has rejected another. It is upsetting it couldn't happen in Fagan's case.

"This Girl" - Kungs vs Cookin’ on 3 Burners

As I have been listening to Heart Radio over the summer, this has been one of my favourite songs I've heard this summer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y6Nne8RvaA

It's "This Girl" by Kungs and Cookin' on 3 Burners, featuring vocals from Kylie Auldist, an Australian singer. While I only heard the song recently, "This Girl" was originally released back in February. This particular track is a remix of Cookin' on 3 Burners' original track for "This Girl".

Is this what we want?

As has been in the news recently, there was an explosion in New York City. When such an event occurs, you think people would unite and hope that those injured are okay, correct?

Not if you're a die-hard Trump supporter. Apparently, the appropriate response is to celebrate and declare the explosion a victory for him, as it shows he's correct about wanting to ban Muslims (this was said even before anyone was arrested in connection with the explosion), why refugees should be banned and that it's evidence that President Barack Obama's and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's policies in the Middle East have "failed". (I'm not sure what policy they want in the Middle East - expanding drone strikes or sending in the army? Great way to create more refugees and more enemies.)

Is this what we want? People who openly cheer others being hurt (in this case, Americans celebrating violence against other Americans) because it will lead to their political "side" winning? How is this positive?

"Million Dollar Bill" - Whitney Houston

Here is "Million Dollar Bill" by Whitney Houston:
 

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

From 2009, the song comes from I Look to You, Houston's seventh studio album, and is both the last single from one of her studio albums and the last released while she was still alive. I only know the song because it is occasionally played on Heart Radio, along with "It's Not Right but It's Okay" - another one of her later singles (1999) - and her older tracks from the 1980s.

Explanation of "tolerant left"

In online political discussions, I often see the term "tolerant left" (or "tolerant liberal") being thrown about in a derogatory manner. It usually occurs when someone - regardless of political viewpoint - calls out prejudice. The thinking behind the argument - or rather, insult - is that while liberals regard themselves as tolerant and accepting, left-leaning people can't really be tolerant if they don't respect all other perspectives, even if said perspective involves racism, sexism and/or other hatred.

Being a tolerant person is not something that only people on the Left are capable of; being tolerant means that someone accepts people regardless of their nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, etc.; most common ideologies aren't opposed to different demographic groups. Under no circumstances does tolerant mean that someone should accept and respect bigoted viewpoints; no one should be "tolerant of intolerance".

The "tolerant left" meme is also counter-productive to those who use it as an insult because it assumes that acceptance/tolerance are solely a feature of the Left, which in turn would then assume that bigotry is the default state for anyone on the Right. Therefore, those who identify as conservative but mock "tolerant liberals" are foolishly arguing that their own side is bigoted.

In short, being tolerant - whether you're liberal or not - does not mean that you have to be a sucker and respect bigotry. "Tolerant left" is just a made up term that racists, sexists, etc. all use to deflect from their being obnoxious.

(And yes, I have seen cases of when someone who identifies as conservative calls out racism and/or sexism and has the "tolerant liberal" meme thrown at them.)

Now only a week to go

As of today, it is only a week to go before I move into my accommodation at Nottingham Trent University. The university's welcome week begins the follow Monday, when course inductions and events for new students start, and then my classes themselves begin the week after that.

This new move will mark the first time I've ever lived away from family and the first time I've spent a significant amount of time away from any relative. When I went to Poland, that in itself was the first time I spent a night or more away from family and the first time I went a day without any sort of communication to or from them. At the very least, this experience at university will be interesting.