The One-Upmanship Complex

It doesn't take very long before university students get down to the conversation of how good their respective universities are. If there happens to be a group of people coming together from various establishments then that particular conversation tends to occur sooner rather than later. The usual spiels relate to some kind of ranking system where someones university is 3 places above another out of 1000000 and for someone looking in from the outside it just wouldn't make any sense but I've come up with the reason why people do it. It's not because they want to make other people feel bad about their university, it's not even because they are going to gain anything from it; it's because they are proud of their university.

Re-igniting my Passion for Something Lost

It usually takes something fairly major to shift a few things around in my life. The recent 'major' thing in question is obviously my return to university and all of the fun things that come with that - yes, I'm trying to have a good time! It has moved a few things around for me which I'm not going to get into but one of the many positives that have come out of the last week and a bit is that I've discovered my long lost passion for writing poetry. I can hear people groaning at the thought of more things being written by me ('the blog is enough you ass!') but I've actually got quite an interesting back-catalogue of poetry from about the start of 5th year until the end of high school which I occasionally revisit - sometimes for a laugh but for other reasons as well.

Could Face-to-Face be Phased Out?

As the dulcet tones of one of my university lecturers echoed through the corridor of my flat this afternoon, it dawned on me that personal contact isn't quite as important as it maybe once was. We (that being myself and 2 of my flatmates) had a lecture today that was replaced by a recorded lecture which was online. It was the same stuff that we would have been told had we all trudged over to the lecture theatre as our timetables tell us to but this week the lecturer in question was unable to attend and so made a digital version instead. It's a curiosity of the modern era that, in a time when we are told as youngsters to get away from the computer screen and become more sociable, we are being fed more and more information via the internet. Personally I like it because it adds a new level of flexibility to your day - something that I'm starting to feel is essential after only 3 days of 2nd year - but its long term affects could be perilous.

First Day Back at Big School

It's been a bit more than 3 months since I put down my pen in my last exam and set my sights for home for a long summer away from the textbooks and lecture theatres. Today it all started again and it's almost like I've never been away. My writing hand is a little stiff and my head still feels a stifle stuffy but I'm back and I'm where I belong again. Some people pine after time off so that they can 'relax' and do nothing with their endless days and, I must admit, at the end of the last academic year I was positively parched in the holiday sense. Speaking a few weeks ago you might have caught me saying that I didn't want to go back to university yet and that I felt that the holiday had flown past; looking at it now, I'm delighted to be back and, if anything, the holiday might just have been too long.

Embrace Debt for an Easier Life

Apologies for not posting yesterday but last night was my flat-warming party and I couldn't find the time to post. But anyway here I am, slightly worse for wear from last night and ready to post again. Today's post is about something that I noticed today (yes, that means that I didn't even have an idea for a post yesterday!) when I was walking through the university campus. It's freshers week at the moment and so the central area of the campus is very busy with students of all ages. What that then means is that you catch small chunks of a lot of conversations as you walk past people. It's usually quite funny when you catch little parts of other people's conversations because you don't have any context as to what they are talking about and the words therefore take on potentially wide ranging meanings. The thing about today was that I noticed one word come up at least twice in conversations that I passed that can't really be misconstrued - debt. It appears to be the word on every student's lips at this time of the year because this is when we start taking it on, safe in the knowledge that one day it will all have to be paid back. 

Euphoria by Night

I've been meaning to write this post for a while now - well over a year actually - but it only ever seems to pop into my head just after I've done my blogging for the week, stays there until the weekend and then I forget about it by Monday. It's actually a little strange that it ever slips my mind because it's something that I do think about quite a lot and it also fascinates me as well - the memory moves in mysterious ways. Picture the scene: you go around to a friends house armed with a 4 pack of beer with the intention of slowly sipping through them. You don't of course because when you are talking and having a good time you're drinking arm often slips into over time and before you know it you've got 4 empty cans and a slight gassy feeling. This has happened to me on a fair few occasions (although, let's be honest, I don't often only take 4 poxy beers to someone's house) but there have been a couple of times in my life when it's turned out to be a good thing and it is those times that today's post is based around.

Wounds That Might Not Heal

The sad reality of life is that you have to witness or suffer loss before you can truly appreciate what you have. I wrote in my last post about 'reality' and the pitfalls of ignoring it but I suppose when it's sad and negative it's often very tempting to turn a blind eye to it. The inspiration for today's post (even though it's a bit crass to be inspired by this) is the fact that the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks is in a few days time. There have been lots of programmes on the TV this week and the newspapers have been packed with pictures and stories which are as harrowing as they are important. I've read a few of the stories of survivors, people that lost family and friends in the attacks and of course the rescue personnel and each of them pulled at my heart strings. Some of the pictures that have been brought back into the media is recent weeks speak a thousand words and then some more - still images that will be burned into the memories of victims and onlookers alike. If there is one thing that I've learned in the past week from all of the coverage of the anniversary is that the wounds from 9/11 will take many year to heal.

Reality Bites, But Only Because It's Hungry and Needs Attention

Much has been written recently (by myself more than most) about the impending rebirth of the university/college drag and today's post is going to be very much along the same lines. After all it is just around the corner for most of us and therefore the feelings are running a little bit higher about it than at any other point in the summer break. For me, today signals the 2 weeks notice until I pull myself out of bed at some unfamiliar hour for lectures that are going to twist and stretch my brain power to the max - this year never said it was going to be kind to me. My timetable for the year ahead was released last week and it looks pretty ugly - think Shrek after being hit over the face by a thick textbook. The reality of my situation is that the days are going to be longer and the stress levels are going to be elevated. The thing is that I knew it was coming and that's the reason why I think that I'm going to be able to take it in my stride. This is where I'm coming from in today post: if you prepare yourself for the reality of your situation and don't ignore it, it won't be quite as hard to deal with.