Ben - 50 000 words or bust

Giving NaNoWriMo a go this year. Wish me luck.

Ben - RIP, sir.

Was just at the supermarket, and had Neil Armstrong's obituary was on the front page of every newspaper. Awesome. But not enough. We need to build a statue of that guy on friggin' Titan, ASAP.

Ben - Still making things

My sister asked for a DVD cabinet in the shape of the TARDIS for Christmas.


It took longer than I expected. The outside was easy, but the inside took a lot of doing.

Ben - also making things

Everyone's making maple syrup, balaklavas and babies. Well I made a clock!

Ben - Academics of the Carribean

I am writing a history essay about pirates! The main primary sources are Alexandre Exquemelin (who will, I hope, help me get to know Captain Morgan better than I do) and Captain Johnson's legendary General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates.

In further news shiver me timbers, ye scurvy swabs, etc.

Ben - I made a paper windmill

I no longer require orphaned dolls to power my model workhouse.

Ben - Who ya gonna call?

I must have seen Ghostbusters at least a dozen times over the past 25 years; maybe more. But I only just yesterday noticed that there is a packet of Staypuft marshmallows in Dana's kitchen.

I've really got to work on my observation skills.

Well, that didn't go well.

It doesn't look like I'll be graduating this year. Bit annoyed.

Ben - Internship

Just finished my first week of internship. Nice little school, unusually well behaved kids, and only a 20 minute bike ride from home. Not a bad little set up, all in all.

Ben - Well that's done

Just finished my DET interview. Think it went well.

Ben - Eye of the Storm

Finally, all my semester 1 assignments are in the box and I don't have any semester 2 assignments due until... let's see... two weeks from tomorrow.

D'oh! Lousy forth year.

On the plus side, I've lost enough weight this year that I can fit into my old suit. This will save me either buying a new one, or holding my gut in for the entire hour long DET interview.

Ben - 12 500

This thing's going to cost me a fortune in printing.

Ben - 10, 000

The assignment that I'm doing just passed the 10000 word count, and I still have a section and a half to do.

Join the teachers, they said. See the world, they said...

Also, my fridge broke down last week. For a few days I was eating like a king as I chowed my way through everything in the freezer before it went off. But since then I've been living on food made from supplies from my cupboard. It's surprising how quickly you tire of lentils, polenta, plain spaghetti and pea soup without any bacon.

If only I had a cask of fruity lexia and a bad haircut, I'd be a true student cliche.

Ben- So busy

I've been so busy lately that I forgot to do any shopping this week. So last night, when I went to cook dinner, I found that the only meal I was adequately prepared to make was tuna and cabbage cannelloni in potato sauce.

Surprisingly tasty with a bit of lemon juice and some pepper, but it really could have used a little tarragon.

Ben - thing

Coming to Uni this morning, I saw an ad.

"Be careful putting your lipstick on," it said. "We don't want to have to put it on for you. Drive carefully." The ad was for a funeral parlor.

As if the poor taste wasn't enough, the ad was on the inside of a bus, where it doesn't even make any sense.

Ben - Feelin' good

Okay - It's an hour and a half before the deadline of an assignment. Weeks of work. 40% of overall mark. Suddenly, I can't access files on the network drive, and so I can't get to my
work.

So naturally, I go and complain to the helpdesk person. No joy.

"God damned university computer helpdesk monkeys!" I muttered. "Why are they never any help?

"Wait a second! I'm a useless damned helpdesk monkey! I can do it myself!"

So I fixed it, and now it's printed out and ready to hand in. Also, I helped a couple of other people with the same problem.

So, returning to the post title, I'm feelin' good.

Ben - Computer go boom.

My computer broke down the other day, taking half an assignment with it. Fortunately, it was an easy assignment. Unfortunately, my computer is broken. I've been trying to play Age of Empires with plastic counters, but it's just not the same.

Ben - No longer disembenched!

I've been working on my studies, much of (but by no means all) the live long day. But I've also found the time to make myself a workbench. Which is a damned difficult thing to make, when you don't have access to a workbench. Kind of a Catch 22, I guess.

Ben - Quis custidied quod qu - whatever

Saw the Watchmen today. Mixed feelings. I think they did the best they could with the central plot, and some of the the performances were wonderful. The action scenes were too slick and choreographed, the costumes didn't have that DIY look that they do in the book and - faithful though it was - the main plot really loses a lot from the absence of the subplots.

Anyway, upshot was I went to the movies and don't now feel ripped off. This is at least a minor triumph.

Ben - TKB

My camera stopped working again, and I finally decided to buy a new one. Then I reasoned that, since I was buying a new camera anyway, there was no reason not to try to make it work by hitting it against the table.

My camera is now working again. Here's a picture of my new ride (as per Dan's request), and also a set of shelves that I built (that nobody asked to see). I think my next project should be a proper workbench, the little portable thing I have is too lightly built and also too low for someone of my height.