I'm off from Stourbridge to London today to meet up with my brother. From now on updates will be a little spotty (as if they haven't been already). Not much to say other than that really. See you on the other side . . .
So here I am, back in Aber for the day. I came to visit with Bernard one last time and his girlfriend, Dindi, who's visiting him from Bots. And now, here I am, back in the computer lab . . .
Tomorrow, Alec will be getting in to London around 8pm, and then we're starting our Whirlwind European Tour (or just, WET, for short). We'll be spending the first few days in Scotland, then we're off to Amsterdam, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and France, before we end our trip with a quick jaunt to Ireland. That's all in a three week span too. Whew. I hear from my mom that Alec is massively excited though: I gather he's been 'bumping' into my mom and dad both constantly for the last week or so. Oh Alec.
At the end of the day, I've eaten a ton and watched a mediocre b-movie starring Samuel L. Jackson. How many of those can that guy have and I still think he's a fantastic actor? It's like no movie can ever take away his acting integrity for me.
This will most likely be my last entry from the University of Wales in Aberystwyth computer lab. It's been quite a semester here, lot's of ups and downs. I packed up my room yesterday and moved practically everything (well, everything that I didn't throw away really) to Mark's house in Stourbridge. That was an odd feeling. It was especially odd when I got back into town here and my room was eerily bare. I may have trouble going to sleep tonight. Hopefully, the alcahol I drink tonight will put me out.
Tomorrow morning I turn in my key and move on to a month of living out of my backpack (as if the whole semester hasn't felt like that in a slight way). At least Alec will be coming out to travel with me, that should be pretty fun. And he's bringing my Mom's banana bread.
Incedentally, Stourbridge, which is just southwest of Birmingham (and directly south of Wolverhampton), is the original romping grounds of Ozzy Ozbourne. It's scary to think that there's a whole community of people that sound just like that guy, but there you have it, and I'm in the middle . . .
I just got finished planning out the last details for my brother's visit out here. Were doing all sorts of plane, train, and bus hopping around, and in fact, I'd say there are only a couple days total out of that three week period that we won't be travelling somehow. What a way to end a semester though. It should be a good time, if exhausting, but who cares? - I'll be home right after, so no worries.
In fact, I found out that my episode of Insomniac will be airing sometime in July, which means that I'll most-likely be able to watch it's premier run myself. Who knows if I'll actually be on it, but it's a fun story anyway. Either way, Ben developed his pictures from Dublin recently, two of which featured Dave Attell addressing the crowd while I stand, looking dumbfounded, directly in front of him. Not to mention the pics from the rest of Darcy's Ireland trip featuring the fat bruise on her left cheek. Oh what fun.
Last night turned out to be pretty interesting. First off, the fatcakes were a fantastic catastrophe according to Bernard. I thought they tasted alright, but he assured me that they should be much better than that. I guess he just couldn't match the fatcake lady.
Then, as we're cooking some spaghetti to make up for it, he starts telling me about his youthful adventures as a member of a dancing band. See, in Botswana, back in the day, Ben would wander around town with his buddies, and one of them would have a boom-box blasting out funk on his shoulder. If they ever ran into another 'gang' doing the same, the boom-boxes would drop, and a fight would begin. I started laughing simply because I couldn't handle this image - it's just too much like 21 Jump Street or something. But Bernard informs me that it's not like I'm thinking - the fights weren't fist-fights, they were dance battles! It's just too much like one of those campy eighties movies where all the kids run around in gangs with neon colors and hammer pants on, getting into major breakdance battles/rivalries with the other locals. Bernard's a funny guy that way.
Today I just hung out and watched some good british humor with Rich. Man, some of the stuff they laugh at is bizarre, I swear. We did watch a couple AniMatrix clips also which were really cool, and I tried my hand at Vice City for the first time. Good times chopping heads off and blowing people up with Apache missle launchers. Though, I have to say, I still enjoy the first two better.
I've spent the last few hours now putzing around with the site and haven't made any real changes, but I do feel a bit more in the know with .css stuff. I'm shutting down for now though. Bernard has promised to show me how he makes his infamous 'fatcakes' tonight. Their like pancakes, only bigger and fried as far as I can tell. He says they're good for keeping your skin from drying out in the hot African desert, or something like that.
Incidentally, Bernard has many anecdotes involving 'what happens to you while in Africa' that are quite amuzing. Stuff about aligators being thrown in trees by elephants and snakes spitting full cow skeletons at you while you walk past. It seems Africa is overun by animals that pose a risk to any person uninformed of the perils. "Don't laugh big Andy, this is serious stuff!" Who knows, maybe this will all help me if I ever get out to visit him in Botswana.
After consulting Eric a few times, I was able to make the first changes of my own to the site. Now, although the colors may not blend as well as before, it's easier to read with the black words and the links that don't blend perfectly with my shirt.
I got my haircut this morning. This was after just about everyone that I hadn't seen in a while tried to hide their shocked expressions at my sideburns. Even big Steve, who normally seems to be an advocate of all things 'out of the ordinary,' made a comment on their length and bushiness. When I did get into the salon, the lady asked what I wanted done, and before I could respond, she pulled the hair in front of my ears out to its full length and said, 'Well, this obviously.'
I know what you might say too about the fact that I went to a salon and not a barber. See, everyday when I walk past this place, I see a row of old men sitting inside bullshitting. I figure that, combined with the lack of any real barbers in town, makes my choice of this place pretty legit. Get off my back Andrew.
Alright, so I'm totally confused as to how I can change the background and colors of my site. While the one that exists is perhaps the most humorous option (as opposed to blank white or different shades of gray which really aren't funny at all), it seems hard to read what I've typed on top of my own grinning face. Hopefully, I can get something worked out soon, perhaps including the picture still, but not in such an obnoxiously overwhelming way. I'd especially like to get rid of it on the comments screen that pops up. For now though, my power of web manipulation remains with posting new entries.
Anyway, Jack took off this morning to head for Borth where he had some business to attend to at the local hostel. Then he was meeting his friends before they continued on to London and Amsterdam. Borth is an interesting place though. It's a town that consists of one long road that runs along the beach there (a sandy beach in Wales, go figure), and then the shops, homes, and hotels that are along the road. Probably the most unique thing at Borth though, is The Animalarium. It's basically a small zoo, consisting mostly of farm animals, and then some oddities like an aligator, a couple of different monkeys, and a porcupine, to name a few. If you go at the right times, you can watch them being fed, and even feed some of them yourself, and then the farm animals are open for petting all the time. I just can't get over the name though. I think I'm going to call all zoos 'Animalariums' from now on.
Right on.
. . . sort of. So I realize it's been about a month now since Eric got this site started for me, and I'm sorry for the neglect I've been showing it. Around the fourth of July is when I plan on really getting this whole thing up and running, but before then I have plans to run around Europe a bit more with Alec, so I definately will not be updating regularly.
I was spurred to finally post something when I saw that Bobby B had his own sister site to mine, called The Benefits of Communes, as well as plans for Trent to have one soon also, who then completes the boys from last summer in Flagstaff. Soon the inside jokes will be flying thru our sites like Mr. Dupuy on his way to see The Cranberries . .
It's about that time now, I'm off to eat some dinner with Bernard, Jack, and his buddies from home, and then it's to the Commodore Cinema for the Matrix Reloaded. Be back in a few days hopefully . . .