Erm.....yeah....? I literally have nothing to really talk about this week. Well that's not entirely true but there's nothing I care to mention at this moment in time. You'll find out eventually but for now I'm saying nothing.....literally nothing. I'm very tempted to post a mostly blank post for the week but my adoring fans (ha!) might get mad.
I did go to see the new Thor movie last week, it was pretty awesome! Definitely better than the first one, not saying that the first one was bad ('cause it was awesome) but this one was definitely better. Set up for the next Thor movie as well as the 2nd Avengers movie brilliantly.
Watching Thor: The Dark World did remind me to catch up on the whole Marvel Agents of SHIELD series on TV. At first it seemed pretty lame. I was comparing it to the movies and expecting it to be on that kind of level which it's not, don't get me wrong it's good but it's not multimillion pound blockbuster movie good and I was a little stupid to expect it to be. After you stop thinking that it has to be as good as the Avengers movies then you get to realise that it's actually a pretty cool show. The characters are great and they keep referencing things that happen in the movies which is pretty cool. Like one of the episodes is set just after the events of Thor 2 which I think is great. Yeah it's to be expected since they're referring to something so closely related to the movies but I really like that they do it. They've also managed to capture a lot of the same humour that's in the movies, I'm not sure if that's because they have the same writers or what but it's great! I'll admit the show is a little slow to get going but once it does then it really does become quite addictive. It's quite a pain really because I've got about 4 different series to be watching at the moment, not to mention Game of Thrones when that comes back and a few others. I have no doubt that I'm wasting too much of my time watching TV than I should be but hey ho! I'm not about to change my ways anytime soon!
Nice and short this week huh? Ah well. Going home this weekend for a bit which should be cool. Hopefully they haven't decorated the house yet, if they have then I'm not gunna be happy. Although to be fair when I head home for Christmas properly then it probably will be....but I think I can handle that. It's gunna be mid December by the time I get there so it better be done by then!
Catch ya later folks
Monday, 25 November 2013
Monday, 18 November 2013
Pseudo-sleep
I had my first exam of my final year at Lincoln on Friday. It's done and dusted. Let's move on.
Everyone that knows me knows that I've developed some kind of sleeping problem since getting to Uni and from what I can gather so have a lot of other people. This got me to thinking about what might be causing it...strangely enough this thought occurred to me at 2am this morning while talking to Lex.
We were talking and being awake at silly o'clock in the morning lead to both of us wondering why the other was still awake. Lex was working on his first essay in 3 years and I was totally failing at this whole sleeping thing. Anyways, Lex had recently spent the weekend off the radar, no phone or anything so that he could enjoy his weekend with his missus (understandable right?) and said that while he was there he could actually rest and sleep properly, it's only when he gets back here that sleeping becomes difficult and doesn't feel like proper sleep. This lead me to thinking, why? What is it that makes sleeping at Uni so different to sleeping at home?
So, being the scientist that I am, cooked up a theory. When you're at home, you're away from Uni, a place all students associate with work and stress. They say Uni is the best time of your life, if not one of the most stressful. It's all deadlines and hard work weighing on your mind. As much as we try to ignore it, push it to the back burner, some part of our minds is always playing with that thought. Gently whispering in our ears that we should be working, or we're not working hard enough. That if we dedicated a little more time to something then we'd make it that much better. Normally I'm pretty good at the whole ignoring stress thing, being relaxed and taking most things in my stride but this year? This is the big one right? This year can make or break a career. This year is the one that we've all been working towards. Our dissertation year, the one project where we can dedicate all the skills and understanding to achieve one thing, no matter what that one thing is. This all adds up and becomes a massive weight on every third/final year's mind.
So when you're at home or away from Uni just trying to relax, it's easier to do it, because you're not here. You're away from that load on your mind, a place of rest and peace, something we all consider home to be. We're able to not just physically distance ourselves from the stress but it seems that with that distance it becomes easier to do it mentally too. We're able to put off all those things that the Whisper is trying to tell you to do as you're not at your place of work, you're at home, your place of rest. You're able to unwind and relax and rest peacefully.
During the day that Whispering thought isn't so much of a problem as our minds are more concerned with the day to day stuff and actually tackling that work load, so the Whisper is either drowned out or is being quiet because you're doing what it wants you to be doing. However as soon as night falls and your head hits the pillow and you're trying to empty your mind, relax into a gentle and resting sleep that the Whisper slowly creeps into your mind and begins to whisper again. This leads to a fake sleep, a pseudo-sleep, where you're not so much resting but just barely listening to the silent Whisper that tells you all the things you should be doing instead of wasting time resting. This pseudo-sleep gives the appearance of a deep and restful slumber but when you wake up you never feel all that refreshed. Instead you feel like you've barely rested at all. You wake up with a mental list of all the things you need to get done, want to get done and should get done. You get up and you start to cross things off of the list, you begin to tackle the workload. Slowly you begin to tackle the mental burden in an attempt to silence the Whisper and get a good nights sleep but somehow no matter what you get done throughout the day, that thought always comes back to pester you, prevent you from resting properly.
Maybe it's just part of being a Uni student and once this is all over then we'll be able to sleep properly. Maybe once the stress of Uni is behind us we'll be able to put that Whisper behind us. Or maybe it's not stress related at all and some people are just not meant to sleep....who knows? Give me another 6 months and I'll be able to discount at least one of those theories. Going back to the original conversation, Lex said that he keeps a notepad next to his bed so that he can write down what's got to be done tomorrow so that "future Lex" can worry about it when he wakes up. It's an idea...not sure how it's working out for him but I might have to start giving it a go!
That's pretty much all I had to say about last week really. We had a couple teams away at tournaments so there was no training on and hardly anyone about. Both my housemates had gone away for the weekend so I was sat home alone revisiting old games I hadn't played in ages in an attempt to unwind and relax before starting my new modules this week. Forensic Toxicology and Applied Forensic Analysis are both set to be a barrel of laughs, I'm sure. Ah well....
Catch ya later folks
Everyone that knows me knows that I've developed some kind of sleeping problem since getting to Uni and from what I can gather so have a lot of other people. This got me to thinking about what might be causing it...strangely enough this thought occurred to me at 2am this morning while talking to Lex.
We were talking and being awake at silly o'clock in the morning lead to both of us wondering why the other was still awake. Lex was working on his first essay in 3 years and I was totally failing at this whole sleeping thing. Anyways, Lex had recently spent the weekend off the radar, no phone or anything so that he could enjoy his weekend with his missus (understandable right?) and said that while he was there he could actually rest and sleep properly, it's only when he gets back here that sleeping becomes difficult and doesn't feel like proper sleep. This lead me to thinking, why? What is it that makes sleeping at Uni so different to sleeping at home?
So, being the scientist that I am, cooked up a theory. When you're at home, you're away from Uni, a place all students associate with work and stress. They say Uni is the best time of your life, if not one of the most stressful. It's all deadlines and hard work weighing on your mind. As much as we try to ignore it, push it to the back burner, some part of our minds is always playing with that thought. Gently whispering in our ears that we should be working, or we're not working hard enough. That if we dedicated a little more time to something then we'd make it that much better. Normally I'm pretty good at the whole ignoring stress thing, being relaxed and taking most things in my stride but this year? This is the big one right? This year can make or break a career. This year is the one that we've all been working towards. Our dissertation year, the one project where we can dedicate all the skills and understanding to achieve one thing, no matter what that one thing is. This all adds up and becomes a massive weight on every third/final year's mind.
So when you're at home or away from Uni just trying to relax, it's easier to do it, because you're not here. You're away from that load on your mind, a place of rest and peace, something we all consider home to be. We're able to not just physically distance ourselves from the stress but it seems that with that distance it becomes easier to do it mentally too. We're able to put off all those things that the Whisper is trying to tell you to do as you're not at your place of work, you're at home, your place of rest. You're able to unwind and relax and rest peacefully.
During the day that Whispering thought isn't so much of a problem as our minds are more concerned with the day to day stuff and actually tackling that work load, so the Whisper is either drowned out or is being quiet because you're doing what it wants you to be doing. However as soon as night falls and your head hits the pillow and you're trying to empty your mind, relax into a gentle and resting sleep that the Whisper slowly creeps into your mind and begins to whisper again. This leads to a fake sleep, a pseudo-sleep, where you're not so much resting but just barely listening to the silent Whisper that tells you all the things you should be doing instead of wasting time resting. This pseudo-sleep gives the appearance of a deep and restful slumber but when you wake up you never feel all that refreshed. Instead you feel like you've barely rested at all. You wake up with a mental list of all the things you need to get done, want to get done and should get done. You get up and you start to cross things off of the list, you begin to tackle the workload. Slowly you begin to tackle the mental burden in an attempt to silence the Whisper and get a good nights sleep but somehow no matter what you get done throughout the day, that thought always comes back to pester you, prevent you from resting properly.
Maybe it's just part of being a Uni student and once this is all over then we'll be able to sleep properly. Maybe once the stress of Uni is behind us we'll be able to put that Whisper behind us. Or maybe it's not stress related at all and some people are just not meant to sleep....who knows? Give me another 6 months and I'll be able to discount at least one of those theories. Going back to the original conversation, Lex said that he keeps a notepad next to his bed so that he can write down what's got to be done tomorrow so that "future Lex" can worry about it when he wakes up. It's an idea...not sure how it's working out for him but I might have to start giving it a go!
That's pretty much all I had to say about last week really. We had a couple teams away at tournaments so there was no training on and hardly anyone about. Both my housemates had gone away for the weekend so I was sat home alone revisiting old games I hadn't played in ages in an attempt to unwind and relax before starting my new modules this week. Forensic Toxicology and Applied Forensic Analysis are both set to be a barrel of laughs, I'm sure. Ah well....
Catch ya later folks
Monday, 11 November 2013
Glad that's over
So last week I was freaking out over my assignment that I hadn't finished and was hating completely. It had gotten to the point that it was beginning to mess with my sleeping pattern. I'm not big on anthropology, it's not that I don't understand it or anything, I just don't find it interesting in the slightest. It's done, it's over so now I can forget about it. It's not going to be my greatest piece of work by any measure but hopefully it'll pass and I can focus on other things. Oh well.
Last week had some awesome moments that took the edge off a bit and made it a little easier to relax and focus on getting the assignment done. The Wednesday night social was a great laugh as always and judging by everyone's behaviour Thursday it was quite messy later on. So lived up to tradition really. Had a really good laugh, which I needed so it's all good!
Saturday was great too! Mr. and Mrs. Spud popped up to visit, first time I'd seen them in months so that was great. We went out and got lunch, did some shopping and caught up really. What sucked was that I wasn't feeling homesick at all really, then they left and that night it hit me! Was just laying on the sofa watching TV and thinking about home and all the things I missed. Probably didn't help that every song that seemed to come on my iTunes was a bit slow and thought provoking. Good job there iTunes! However something happened later that cheered me straight up. The Advert came on.
The Coca Cola Christmas advert has been the sign that Christmas is coming since forever. As soon as it comes on then it means I can start singing Christmas songs and of course, wearing my Santa Hat. I haven't seen the advert yet but as soon as I do the hat is coming out! It's a well known fact that Christmas is my favourite time of the year, 'cause the nights get longer and the weather turns colder and everything starts to feel all cozy. Already heard that it might start snowing soon which would be awesome! Of course the weather always says that and they're more often than not wrong and it starts snowing in January right through to late February/early March. Better late than never though right?
My good mood was slightly stunted after yesterday though. Not sure if I mentioned that I injured the tendon and ligaments in my right middle finger a while ago? Well I did and got told to keep up taking anti-inflammatories to let it heal. It had almost healed as well....then I went and caught a disc badly at training Sunday and boom! Back to where we started from. Barely able to grip anything or use my right hand. I'm having to one finger type with my right hand like a 10yr old again....strange how much of a difference it makes! Going to go out and get some surgical tape and bandages and tape it up. Hopefully immobilising it and taking Ibuprofen will help it heal quicker! I probably won't be back on form for Thursday's Superleague game but can only wait and see!
Well thats it for now folks. Got an exam coming up at the end of the week which is going to be....fun....?
Catch ya later
Last week had some awesome moments that took the edge off a bit and made it a little easier to relax and focus on getting the assignment done. The Wednesday night social was a great laugh as always and judging by everyone's behaviour Thursday it was quite messy later on. So lived up to tradition really. Had a really good laugh, which I needed so it's all good!
Saturday was great too! Mr. and Mrs. Spud popped up to visit, first time I'd seen them in months so that was great. We went out and got lunch, did some shopping and caught up really. What sucked was that I wasn't feeling homesick at all really, then they left and that night it hit me! Was just laying on the sofa watching TV and thinking about home and all the things I missed. Probably didn't help that every song that seemed to come on my iTunes was a bit slow and thought provoking. Good job there iTunes! However something happened later that cheered me straight up. The Advert came on.
The Coca Cola Christmas advert has been the sign that Christmas is coming since forever. As soon as it comes on then it means I can start singing Christmas songs and of course, wearing my Santa Hat. I haven't seen the advert yet but as soon as I do the hat is coming out! It's a well known fact that Christmas is my favourite time of the year, 'cause the nights get longer and the weather turns colder and everything starts to feel all cozy. Already heard that it might start snowing soon which would be awesome! Of course the weather always says that and they're more often than not wrong and it starts snowing in January right through to late February/early March. Better late than never though right?
My good mood was slightly stunted after yesterday though. Not sure if I mentioned that I injured the tendon and ligaments in my right middle finger a while ago? Well I did and got told to keep up taking anti-inflammatories to let it heal. It had almost healed as well....then I went and caught a disc badly at training Sunday and boom! Back to where we started from. Barely able to grip anything or use my right hand. I'm having to one finger type with my right hand like a 10yr old again....strange how much of a difference it makes! Going to go out and get some surgical tape and bandages and tape it up. Hopefully immobilising it and taking Ibuprofen will help it heal quicker! I probably won't be back on form for Thursday's Superleague game but can only wait and see!
Well thats it for now folks. Got an exam coming up at the end of the week which is going to be....fun....?
Catch ya later
Monday, 4 November 2013
Regionals 2013 and One Pitch to Rule Them All!
Last week didn't get a post. I was feeling kinda down and didn't really feel like writing. I'll explain in a few moments...
....now actually. We went to Regionals! I was originally meant to captain our second team and anyone who knows me knows I'm not much of a leader unless the time calls for it. I was however promoted to 1st team for the weekend...which I wasn't too sure how to feel about....I know I'm not the greatest player in the world but equally I'm not the worst. I'm sure I've mentioned how Lex describes me on pitch as "inconsistent" and that's probably the most accurate way to describe it. One minute I can be great and catch anything you decide to send my way, the next I'll drop the simplest discs ever thrown. So yeah, inconsistent. 1st team's usual members were a couple men down (1 being in Lativa and the other in Ireland) so to avoid iron manning it they pulled me from the ranks...must have thought I was good enough otherwise they wouldn't have picked me to go with them right? So I went to regionals on first team...really quite nervous since their level of play is...well a lot better than mine usually is...I went determined not to disappoint and hopefully I didn't...
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| Sam and Chris, the Dynamic Duo. |
Saturday we were doing really well (least I thought we were). I arrived slightly late due to a bit of a fuck up on my part booking the wrong ticket...this actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise since someone (...Lex) left Jack's bag at the train station when they left. So I had to phone the train station which if you've ever tried to phone a train station will know that it's not a straight forward process in the slightest. Managed to get them to find and store the bag for me until I got there to pick it up and hop on my train down to St. Albans. How we ended up in St. Albans for the Midlands Indoor Regional tournament I'll never understand...but hey ho! The rest of first team got there before me due to my cock up and Lex's saving grace and had to iron man the first game for about 5 minutes before I arrived thanks to Georgina picking me up from the station. From there I think we played quite well, I can't remember any of the scores but I don't remember feeling pissed off and disappointed at the end of the day...just tired and achy but that's the sign of a job well done right? That night, Lex, Jack, Lewis, Amy, Chris, Petey and I all crashed in the sports centre we'd been playing in all day....it lead to an uncomfortable nights sleep, especially since I like to sleep in near arctic conditions. We went to get dinner at a "nearby" KFC that turned out to be about 20/30mins walk away, mostly down a dark and creepy track off the college campus. It had been raining most of the day as well which meant the path was strewn with puddles which was annoying when you're wearing clean dry socks and canvas shoes....
Sunday morning we woke up groggy and bleary eyed thanks to the hard wood floor and some American bloke next to us having an intimate conversation with his missus into the early hours. We found out that we weren't playing in the same place as we woke up in and had to high tail it over to the other sports centre for our first game. We arrived well enough, except for some asshole yelling "Bus Wankers" at they drove past...southerners eh? We really needed to win our first game of the day, it was the 8th vs 15th cross over match...if we lost it we would have moved down to 15th and not had a shot at getting to Nationals. We lost. I can't help but feel more than a little responsible, I just didn't seem to be playing all that well at all. We all seemed a bit slow and off form for the first 10mins of the match allowing the Warwick Bears 2nd team to go 7-2 up...we started to bring it back in the last 10mins making it 7-5 on the final buzzer. The guys didn't say much when we walked off the pitch...what was there to say really? I admit I was the weakest member of the team there and then...and personally I felt fucking awful after that first match on the Sunday. Felt like I'd let not only the team down but also the club (cliche and melodramatic but true) since we were there to get to nationals and we didn't make it. It was a team effort and everything but that doesn't change the fact that I was the weakest player there and made more than my share of mistakes...just hope the guys don't think too badly of me for it...I did my best out there and I hope they know that. I felt honoured to be invited to join first team (along with nervous and scared for the reasons above) and I wanted to get us to Nationals as much as they did, why would I not? End of the day, we didn't make it and it's in the past now. Can only learn from my mistakes and hope not to repeat them...We went on to play 2 more matches that day and won them both, finishing 13th out of 32(?). Will said the last game of the day was the best he'd seen me play all weekend, I just replied with "Shame I couldn't do that earlier..." obviously feeling kinda down about the whole thing...
The week after regionals was just like any other week really, can't really remember anything outstanding or amazing happening. Stuff and things and junk. Worked on my assignment. Finished the main storyline on Darksiders II, was a little disappointed by the ending of it if I'm honest. The game was great, don't get me wrong. Just the ending seemed kinda rushed and a bit lack luster to me but that's a tale for another time.
Saturday, November 2nd was the first day of Lex's tournament hosted as an effort to raise funds for his upcoming wedding, entitled "One Pitch to Rule Them All". It was hilariously fun as Lincoln tournaments always are. Lex was stressing out in the lead up to it due to a few drop outs at the last minute lead to him fearing he'd have to cancel due to lack of teams. Luckily some teams came through and made it an awesome weekend. Being a fun tournament the pressure was far less intense than the weekend before, everyone being there just to play some ultimate, have a good laugh with some great company and if they take home a prize then all the better! I was demoted back to Lincoln 2 as joint Captain with Alana. Kinda glad for it really, don't get me wrong, I loved playing with the lads from 1st team the weekend before but I felt pretty bad after we lost that crucial game on the Sunday, so being back on 2nd was a load of my mind. We had a bit of a dynamic and shifting team for the weekend, starting with Louis, Lewis (Huey), Petey, Will Elliott, Mat Shaw, Alana and myself. Then ending the weekend without Petey or Will (he injured his ankle) but the addition of Brick, who had returned from playing in Women's regionals in Norwich on the Saturday. I can't remember details of the days which is bad considering it was yesterday and the day before....ah well. We fought hard against all the teams we played, having some really close games and some not so close games, but being a relatively short team we were at a bit of a disadvantage really. Still we ran hard and gave the rest of the teams a good fight. Played some good fun calls and generally had a great laugh all weekend. We ended up taking home the Spoon for finishing 7th.
This weekend really made me think though, this is potentially my last year playing with the guys...that sucks...how the hell has the time gone so fast!? Best make the most of this year really!
That's it for now folks,
Catch ya later
Sunday morning we woke up groggy and bleary eyed thanks to the hard wood floor and some American bloke next to us having an intimate conversation with his missus into the early hours. We found out that we weren't playing in the same place as we woke up in and had to high tail it over to the other sports centre for our first game. We arrived well enough, except for some asshole yelling "Bus Wankers" at they drove past...southerners eh? We really needed to win our first game of the day, it was the 8th vs 15th cross over match...if we lost it we would have moved down to 15th and not had a shot at getting to Nationals. We lost. I can't help but feel more than a little responsible, I just didn't seem to be playing all that well at all. We all seemed a bit slow and off form for the first 10mins of the match allowing the Warwick Bears 2nd team to go 7-2 up...we started to bring it back in the last 10mins making it 7-5 on the final buzzer. The guys didn't say much when we walked off the pitch...what was there to say really? I admit I was the weakest member of the team there and then...and personally I felt fucking awful after that first match on the Sunday. Felt like I'd let not only the team down but also the club (cliche and melodramatic but true) since we were there to get to nationals and we didn't make it. It was a team effort and everything but that doesn't change the fact that I was the weakest player there and made more than my share of mistakes...just hope the guys don't think too badly of me for it...I did my best out there and I hope they know that. I felt honoured to be invited to join first team (along with nervous and scared for the reasons above) and I wanted to get us to Nationals as much as they did, why would I not? End of the day, we didn't make it and it's in the past now. Can only learn from my mistakes and hope not to repeat them...We went on to play 2 more matches that day and won them both, finishing 13th out of 32(?). Will said the last game of the day was the best he'd seen me play all weekend, I just replied with "Shame I couldn't do that earlier..." obviously feeling kinda down about the whole thing...
The week after regionals was just like any other week really, can't really remember anything outstanding or amazing happening. Stuff and things and junk. Worked on my assignment. Finished the main storyline on Darksiders II, was a little disappointed by the ending of it if I'm honest. The game was great, don't get me wrong. Just the ending seemed kinda rushed and a bit lack luster to me but that's a tale for another time.
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| Lex and future Mrs. Lex (Ally) |
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| The only members of Lincoln 2 who could make the team photo |
That's it for now folks,
Catch ya later
Monday, 21 October 2013
Monday...? Again....? Didn't we have one of these last week?
So....I'm starting to run out of creative titles for posts...
Anyways, this post isn't going to have all that much to it. Last week wasn't exactly the norm but it had one main event and that was pretty much it. Start from the top? Why not...
We started the week with your average Monday, lectures and boredom aplenty. Tuesday however was....different to say the least. As you know I'm a forensic science student so of course we do mock crime scene practicals to show us what work in the field is like. I'm sure I've mentioned them once or twice. This year we are studying Anthropology (that's bones and stuffs for those who don't know) and one of our lecturer's has done a lot of work in Guatemala and other countries working on mass graves. Meaning that we'd naturally have to investigate a mock mass grave scenario. It was your standard out door crime scene scenario just with lots of (fake) bones scattered about the place. Sam, Ant and Sarah formed the team, me playing photographer as always, Ant as CSM leaving Sam and Sarah to dig up stuffs. There's not really all that much to say about this part of the day. We dug stuff out of the ground, laid them out and then documented what we had found. Then we broke for lunch. Lunch is good.
Now comes the disgustingly fun part. Dead pigs! Yeah, you read that right. Dead pigs. To simulate a decomposing body we used pigs. They're dead, they decompose the same way a human corpse does so this one's actually pretty accurate....aside from the fact they're pigs...but shhhhhhhh. Practical being on Tuesday was a blessing really, we got to investigate the pigs to collect maggots and flies and the like when they were still relatively fresh. The smell wasn't all that bad actually which was quite disappointing if I'm honest. I mean I was expecting it be like a wall of smell but it really wasn't that bad. Probably helped by the fact that it was outdoors so the smell dissipated and was really quite bearable. Don't get me wrong is wasn't pleasant but it wasn't all that bad. If anything, visually they were a lot worse. One pig was in the bloat stage of decay and had swollen to the point that it looked like it would explode and coat everyone in horrible pig bits and stuff if you so much sneezed at it. Another one was producing some kind of weird yellow foam, I don't want to know how or why (which I probably should....) but it was there and it was disgusting. They were all laying in a horrible brown pool of stuff (three guesses what "stuff") and all of them were covered in writhing masses of maggots. They all had flies buzzing around them which we had to try and capture and recover so that we could investigate what they were to determine how long they had been there. This proved almost comically difficult to do. At one stage there were three of us all stood around trying to catch one damned fly....in the end? The fly pretty much caught itself by landing on a net and staying there while we caught it. I kinda think it felt bad for us and decided to let us have it....little did it know that we were going to kill it by gassing it so we could examine it with a microscope. Poor bastard...
Aside from that? The week has been fairly standard really. I went to the doctor's to find out what's wrong with my finger, turns out I have some minor tendon and ligament damage. The doctor suggested that I rest it and take anti-inflammatories for a month...regionals are this weekend coming...that's really not going to happen. Maybe afterwards? Still no. Lex has a tournament on in Lincoln, be rude not to play that! The week after that I'll start resting it. Should be back to fighting fit in no time!
That's pretty much it for now folks. Hopefully next week's post will be full of tales of victory from regionals!
Catch ya later folks
Anyways, this post isn't going to have all that much to it. Last week wasn't exactly the norm but it had one main event and that was pretty much it. Start from the top? Why not...
We started the week with your average Monday, lectures and boredom aplenty. Tuesday however was....different to say the least. As you know I'm a forensic science student so of course we do mock crime scene practicals to show us what work in the field is like. I'm sure I've mentioned them once or twice. This year we are studying Anthropology (that's bones and stuffs for those who don't know) and one of our lecturer's has done a lot of work in Guatemala and other countries working on mass graves. Meaning that we'd naturally have to investigate a mock mass grave scenario. It was your standard out door crime scene scenario just with lots of (fake) bones scattered about the place. Sam, Ant and Sarah formed the team, me playing photographer as always, Ant as CSM leaving Sam and Sarah to dig up stuffs. There's not really all that much to say about this part of the day. We dug stuff out of the ground, laid them out and then documented what we had found. Then we broke for lunch. Lunch is good.
Now comes the disgustingly fun part. Dead pigs! Yeah, you read that right. Dead pigs. To simulate a decomposing body we used pigs. They're dead, they decompose the same way a human corpse does so this one's actually pretty accurate....aside from the fact they're pigs...but shhhhhhhh. Practical being on Tuesday was a blessing really, we got to investigate the pigs to collect maggots and flies and the like when they were still relatively fresh. The smell wasn't all that bad actually which was quite disappointing if I'm honest. I mean I was expecting it be like a wall of smell but it really wasn't that bad. Probably helped by the fact that it was outdoors so the smell dissipated and was really quite bearable. Don't get me wrong is wasn't pleasant but it wasn't all that bad. If anything, visually they were a lot worse. One pig was in the bloat stage of decay and had swollen to the point that it looked like it would explode and coat everyone in horrible pig bits and stuff if you so much sneezed at it. Another one was producing some kind of weird yellow foam, I don't want to know how or why (which I probably should....) but it was there and it was disgusting. They were all laying in a horrible brown pool of stuff (three guesses what "stuff") and all of them were covered in writhing masses of maggots. They all had flies buzzing around them which we had to try and capture and recover so that we could investigate what they were to determine how long they had been there. This proved almost comically difficult to do. At one stage there were three of us all stood around trying to catch one damned fly....in the end? The fly pretty much caught itself by landing on a net and staying there while we caught it. I kinda think it felt bad for us and decided to let us have it....little did it know that we were going to kill it by gassing it so we could examine it with a microscope. Poor bastard...
Aside from that? The week has been fairly standard really. I went to the doctor's to find out what's wrong with my finger, turns out I have some minor tendon and ligament damage. The doctor suggested that I rest it and take anti-inflammatories for a month...regionals are this weekend coming...that's really not going to happen. Maybe afterwards? Still no. Lex has a tournament on in Lincoln, be rude not to play that! The week after that I'll start resting it. Should be back to fighting fit in no time!
That's pretty much it for now folks. Hopefully next week's post will be full of tales of victory from regionals!
Catch ya later folks
Monday, 14 October 2013
The old stomping ground.
Anyone remember me talking about Sheffield beginners? Nah probably not, was before I started writing this so it might not have come up...a brief summary goes like this:
Sheffield beginners tournament. I went in my first year at Uni, we played some awesome frisbee all weekend and it got me hooked on playing ultimate! Absolutely fantastic time out there, learnt a lot and had a helluvalot of fun!
We didn't enter a team last year for reasons I either don't know or don't remember (one and the same really...). This year however we did. It was a bit touch and go as to whether or not we'd be going as two/three days before the tournament we didn't have enough beginners willing to attend. Luckily by Thursday night we had enough people say "Yeah I'll definitely be there!" And so we went. This time the freshers didn't have to Iron-Man the weekend the lucky buggers.
We got the train down on the Saturday morning and I spent most of the journey either telling stories or explaining things about how the game works and how the weekend is going to run...pretty sure everyone was getting sick of hearing my voice, but if someone asks me a question I can barely ignore them can I? Anyways we arrived in Sheffield, got changed and played our first game of the weekend. We were against Liverpool and managed to bring home a 10 - 0 win. Some might say it was luck and they might be right but judging by how the rest of the weekend went we had a team of naturals with us. We may have gotten a little too relaxed after that match as our first of two games against Huddersfield was an incredibly tough game! They really made us work. For a team of all beginners, their most experienced players having played 1 match previously before summer an another who had only played for about a year, they were fantastic! They put up a brilliant fight and our freshers rose to the challenge quickly and matched them fantastically! We came out of that match with a 3-3 win, someone, possibly Chris, scoring the Hail Mary equaliser at the end of the match. As a team of pretty much all beginners they have massive potential! We seemed to bond quite well with them over the weekend and hopefully we'll be seeing them around more often!
We then went on to play York, sadly York had suffered a number of drop outs and couldn't field a full beginners team. Luckily the lovely folks at Sheffield Hallam donated some of their beginners to help them out as pick ups. Again we faced a really tough match as to be expected from York. I can't remember the shoreline but I know we won the match and had a nice friendly chat with York afterwards as always. Before the match though we were warming up and one if our freshers, Melissa, was demonstrating how her forehand is a lot stonger than her back hand and subsequently nearly killed one of the York players by hitting them in the back of the head. This prompted us to call her Brick. If you've seen anchorman you'll understand why.
Our last game of the day was against Aberystwyth and was another hard fought and close match. We won this one and finished the day with 3 wins and 1 draw. We hit the showers and then headed off for a team dinner (minus the newly named Brick) before venturing over to where we were staying the night. Whilst in 'Spoons we discussed the first day and then came up with the beginners new frisbee names except Jamie, but we'll get to his later. Amanda became Triple D thanks to her last name, Sam became Sam-wise since he was sat next to the previously named Dildo Baggins by Petey and Co. Lewis became Huey/Newis (Do you like Huey Lewis and the News?) and Jamie was briefly called Scott because he looks like a Scott....this changed very quickly though.
We took two attempts to find our accommodation for the night, a local scout hall in the centre of town, where we prepared our beds for the night. I ended up teaching Sam-wise how to make a makeshift pillow out of all our jumpers and hoodies, after all we have to take care of the old guy. We got ready to head to the party and began our journey. We got lost and ended up in the wrong place but after some swift googling by our navigator Dan, ended up in the right place. Not that we were there long, a fire alarm interupted the evening and forced us all outside, this is where Jamie's nickname begins to form. Once outside in the dreary northern rain with Jamie, Samwise and Triple D we formed our little group and stood talking. Jamie was quickly approached by two girls who said "You look cold, come stand with us." and dragged Jamie off. We informed Tom and Dan when they arrived and leaving Tom to make sure Jamie didn't get hurt we took the chance to go to bed.
Jamie turned up again the next morning at 10.40 at the sports centre after spending the night with Gabby, leading to us dubbing him Gabby!
We began our day by facing off against the lads from Huddersfield once again in the battle for 4th place. Another hard fought and tight match left us all breathing hard and when the match ended 7-3(?) to us we breathed a heavy sigh of relief. The change in the level of their play and ours between the two days was astounding, we got lucky they made some unfortunate drops otherwise things would have been a lot closer!
Our second match of the day was against 1st - Sheffield Hallam A. We knew they were going to be a tough team having seen them play on Saturday, so went into the match expecting to be fiercely challenged. True to form they didn't disappoint, they came at us hard and fast but our freshers came out and matched them holding then off for a long 12minute point. Our attack was as strong as their defence and vice versa. We had some unlucky drops as did they but ultimately (pun slightly intended) they came away with a 5-2 win.
Our last game of the weekend was the battle for 3rd against Hallam B, another strong team that gave as good as they got and I think the exertions of the weekend had finally started to take their toll, leading to them being able to pull away and take the win.
We started the weekend 14th out of 16 beginners teams and ended up walking away 4th! An absolutely fantastic achievement in my opinion and I couldn't be more proud of the freshers! They performed fantastically and only got better as the weekend went on. Sam, Chris and Lewis were making incredible interceptions throughout the tournament, Melissa and Jamie were pulling off awesome passes with Amanda always managing to find the perfect space just when it's needed. As a team they played together brilliantly from the get go and only seemed to get better! They gave it their all out there and hopefully they're as proud of themselves as we are!
I've got an all day practical tomorrow that's going to be a regular laugh riot. Considering I don't enjoy either Anthropology or Entomology, it's set to be a good day.
Catch ya later folks
I've got an all day practical tomorrow that's going to be a regular laugh riot. Considering I don't enjoy either Anthropology or Entomology, it's set to be a good day.
Catch ya later folks
Monday, 7 October 2013
Back into the swing of things
Well last week was the first week of lectures and it's good to be back in the swing of things.
I had my first dissertation meeting on Thursday and have got quite a few ideas to play with and develop, hopefully come up with something pretty interesting to investigate. Sadly I won't be getting to investigate ballistic damage on clothing fibres but hey ho. Guess I'll just have to come up with something else. I've also written the first 200 words of my introduction too. Not sure if they're any good but I'll probably end up going back and rewriting them a couple times but that's the nature of the work.
Been a pretty awesome week with the Frisbee family, we've got a lot of new members who seem really quite interested in joining properly and carrying on with it! We've also got a couple beginners tournaments coming up, the first of which is this coming weekend in Sheffield. I'm going to be co-captaining the team with Dan and Tomo when we get there which should be awesome! Beginners tournaments are always a lot of fun and you learn a helluva lot from them. I'm really quite looking forward to going back there for this one! We've also got Manchester coming up next weekend, for which we're returning champions. Then the weekend after that we've got Regionals! It's looking to be a busy month for us but hopefully it'll be an awesome one! Really looking forward to it! Hopefully my hand heals up before Sheffield, it's mostly healed now so it should be good to play in time! As for Regionals who knows? Can always hope I make it on one of the teams but if not then I'm not surprised, I've hardly been on top form so far this season.
This morning was a bastard. Not sure if anyone has read my post from a couple months back about the hell that is Sleep Paralysis, if not and you're interested then you might want to give it a read. I'm not going to re-iterate everything I said in that post but I nearly forgot how terrifying it is to wake up unable to move or shout. This time was one of the more vivid and intense ones...I could have sworn I felt a hand on my shoulder and hear a voice in my ear. I can't remember what I heard but it scared the living hell out of me...I also distinctly remember a heavy pressure near the base of my spine...The worst part though? Once I could move again I rolled over only to be woken up by another attack of it. The second one wasn't anywhere nearly as bad as the first but still...it's one of, if not the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced. It's been so long since my last attack and I still have no idea what causes it...
Looks like I've got some more research to do later but for now I'm going to chill out and relax before my lecture. Then probably do some more Dissertation work when I get in.
Catch ya later folks
I had my first dissertation meeting on Thursday and have got quite a few ideas to play with and develop, hopefully come up with something pretty interesting to investigate. Sadly I won't be getting to investigate ballistic damage on clothing fibres but hey ho. Guess I'll just have to come up with something else. I've also written the first 200 words of my introduction too. Not sure if they're any good but I'll probably end up going back and rewriting them a couple times but that's the nature of the work.
Been a pretty awesome week with the Frisbee family, we've got a lot of new members who seem really quite interested in joining properly and carrying on with it! We've also got a couple beginners tournaments coming up, the first of which is this coming weekend in Sheffield. I'm going to be co-captaining the team with Dan and Tomo when we get there which should be awesome! Beginners tournaments are always a lot of fun and you learn a helluva lot from them. I'm really quite looking forward to going back there for this one! We've also got Manchester coming up next weekend, for which we're returning champions. Then the weekend after that we've got Regionals! It's looking to be a busy month for us but hopefully it'll be an awesome one! Really looking forward to it! Hopefully my hand heals up before Sheffield, it's mostly healed now so it should be good to play in time! As for Regionals who knows? Can always hope I make it on one of the teams but if not then I'm not surprised, I've hardly been on top form so far this season.
This morning was a bastard. Not sure if anyone has read my post from a couple months back about the hell that is Sleep Paralysis, if not and you're interested then you might want to give it a read. I'm not going to re-iterate everything I said in that post but I nearly forgot how terrifying it is to wake up unable to move or shout. This time was one of the more vivid and intense ones...I could have sworn I felt a hand on my shoulder and hear a voice in my ear. I can't remember what I heard but it scared the living hell out of me...I also distinctly remember a heavy pressure near the base of my spine...The worst part though? Once I could move again I rolled over only to be woken up by another attack of it. The second one wasn't anywhere nearly as bad as the first but still...it's one of, if not the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced. It's been so long since my last attack and I still have no idea what causes it...
Looks like I've got some more research to do later but for now I'm going to chill out and relax before my lecture. Then probably do some more Dissertation work when I get in.
Catch ya later folks
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