Who said Plagarism never paid off...

http://www.redbrickonline.co.uk/news/compensation-payout-for-lost-exam-papers/

http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2010/10/28/compensation-for-university-of-birmingham-students-as-exam-papers-are-lost-in-the-post-97319-27555292/

Seem familiar. I actually think its quite flattering really. 

Bonfire Night...

...I haven't written for a while, its been a hectic month and this is a few days out of date but oh well.

I've always found Bonfire Night a little bit peculiar. Not necessarily in a bad way but I do think its odd that thousands of people gather on mass to cheer and celebrate an effigy being burned. Yes, I suppose its a celebration of the triumph of democracy over religious extremism but it is still a bit weird if you really think about it. Its a recreation of a incredibly horrific death and considering as a  society we get in a moral panic if someone tries to potray it on TV after the watershed, it seems weird that such a practice is viewed as a perfect family event.

I'm not saying its a bad thing or that it should be stopped, its actually quite enjoyable (even though its far too cold) and I love the fireworks. Its merely an observation...and I highly doubt that celebrating the fact that parliament didn't fall its going to be too popular for people after the past couple of years in the media that MPs have had.

I also think there is so amusingly British about celebrating failure even if success would have through the entire country into anarchy.

Note to Self: Stop Navel Gazing.

I've had a funny few days. As I have been welcomed to the world of a second year Arts student I've found that instead of finding my free time liberating, I have simply found it boring.

I know I should be doing something productive and go apply for more part time jobs to heal the gaping wound in my bank balance that Tanzania inflicted but once you get stuck on the boredom and procrastination path,its hard to get off. Especially considering, not only will no-one employ, they won't acknowledge that I've even applied for a job. Of course, this is partly due to everyone looking for any kind of employment and our modern job market where you practically need a MA to wait tables.

In my relentless hours of sitting around doing nothing, I've had time to ponder my future and realise just how screwed I really am. I have no idea, really, about what I want to do with my life; I thought I did but now I'm not so sure and even if I ever do it is highly unlikely that I'll ever get it. I probably will not have the money or the luck. All I know so far is what I don't want and it is looking like all that I'm going to have to settle for. Which is frankly just depressing and almost encourages me to do something incredibly reckless and follow a stupid romantic fantasy of leaving uni to run away to Paris, get a job as a waitress and ride around the Left Bank on a moped with a hot Parisian artist.

Because things like that always happen.

 

 I also got to thinking about this whilst I was watching the new series of the Apprentice and although the kind of crap they came out with defied all previous examples of proverbial prattishness, you have got to admire their tenacity.

I highly doubt I'll ever have the courage to introduce myself as 'Caroline Mortimer- The Brand'; of course I'd never have the stupidity either but that's a moot point. Maybe they are the kind of people that get ahead in life (though I have no idea in that case why they want to work for Amstrad) and I should try taking a few more risks so that my future will look a little less bleak.

I really need to get a life.

Cavegirl reporting...

For the past week I have been living in the Dark Ages...metaphorically speaking of course. Despite being equipped with electricity, ridiculous amounts of free time and a functioning laptop I lack the vital necessity of the internet.

 Its weird how much we rely on the internet and utterly fundamental to our lives it has become. I am not even a particularily technology dependent person; I do not have internet on my phone (or I do but I have no idea how to turn it on), I could go a week at a time without using the internet in Tanzania without batting an eyelid and I didn't get Facebook till just before university. Yet despite this, I find my self going ten minutes up to uni several times a day because I can't do anything on my laptop except watch the O.C. ad nauseam.

I can't use Skype; so I can't call my parents (terrible I know), I can't use Spotify properly (I can only use the music that is already on my itunes- what is the point of that) and my automatic file backup won't back up without an internet connection. Whenever I used this things before, I didn't even know I was connected to the internet necessarily.

It wasn't till I was five that I even used a computer for the first time, I was about nine when I worked out how to use the old style dial-up internet, was around eleven before we got broadband and almost nineteen when I got my own laptop. Its amazing how in the past ten years our entire lives have begun to revolve around being connected to the outside world 24/7 and how cut off we feel without it. I have, on several occasions, watched old TV shows and films where characters are trying to find something or work something out and in a moment of huge stupidity, wondered why they can't just google it.

I'm not saying our dependence is a bad thing because it a sign of humankind's progress but I do wonder sometimes how I've got to this point where I cannot cope without being connected to the web constantly. I had a life before Facebook and was perfectly capable of managing my social life yet now I resent having to text people to meet up. I hate having to walk 5 minutes up the road to the library to check my emails and I've had to go cold turkey on my iplayer addiction.

There is much point to this post I suppose, its more a sense of reflection on how sad and pathetic I am to be so dependent on something that I probably could live without and did so up until a few years ago. Its amazing how something so much in the background and disrupt your life so irrevocably when its gone.

Guess Who's Back....

I have returned from my summer in Tanzania in case you hadn't already noticed and I am currently sitting in my bedroom in Harrogate watching my already light tan fade in the face of a tepid Yorkshire September. I'm looking forward to getting back to Birmingham so I can start doing something again. I'm not very good at not going crazy when my mind isn't occupied.

I have no work to do, my friends from Harrogate are in Scotland and I have no money. I'm not normally one to sit around and feel sorry for myself but the gloomy, grey weather has put me in a bad mood.

I don't need to go back to Tanzania but if the weather could come to visit for a while that would be nice.

I tried booking train tickets up to Glasgow for the weekend to see my friends but with the collusion of the well known axis of evil that is the Pope and National Rail, I cannot book a train ticket under £35 (with a railcard) unless it leaves either early in the morning or late in the evening and connects via Leeds, Manchester and sometimes even Preston (I am not entirely convinced I known where that is) for the very reasonable price of £30.

Its not all bad though, its nice to be home and catch up with British television, Western food and hot showers. Maybe after the co-codamol I took for my headache half an hour ago kicks in and I actually get to Glasgow and back, I may stop being such a miserable cow.

Here's hoping.

I did try to make this blog post sound positive, but as you can see it didn't really work.

And I'm off...

Tomorrow, I'll be flying off to Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania and will stay there for 7 weeks. My bags are (nearly) packed, I've started taking my ridiculously expensive malaria tablets and I'm running around trying to get the last few things sorted before I leave.

Until then, this blog will be on hiatus and you can follow what I get up to at:

http://carolineintanzania2010.blogspot.com/

So until September 22nd, goodbye!

The Obligatory World Cup Post

(Disclaimer: I do not pretend to know anything about football)

Congratulations Spain. Although Holland was one of ‘my’ teams since the beginning, after the 7th man got booked I thought they were aiming for the full set of yellow cards. Still I’m not going to dwell on the performance of particular teams and instead going to tell you what I’ve noticed during this world cup.

First of all there are awards to go to the players with the best names: Kevin and Jerome Prince-Boateng (Ghana and Germany) come in a close joint second with Giovanni van Bronckhurst of the Netherlands (purely because his name is Giovanni) but the winner is: Julio Cesar of Brazil for a name with an unfortunate historical precedent (by the way, I know its pronounced Hulio but it still works).

Then there is the award for the best quote of the World Cup which goes to my mother who said suddenly towards the end of the Uruguay-Holland game ‘Oh its a number board- I thought Hublot was playing in a lot of games’.

Stupidest moment: me not realising until the England-Germany game that the man I thought was Michael Owen was in fact Steven Gerrard.

Now onto my theory about the skill of teams like Spain and the South Americans in particular but this also can include people like France and Portugal. Take a look at these players:

 :Carles Puyol (Spain)

:Diego Forlan (Uruguay)








  Both supposedly good football players (or so I’m told- I’m no expert) but what else do they have in common? Ridiculously stupid, long hair. Now what is the significance of them both having a hairstyle that was best left in the seventies I hear you ask? Well, it seems to me that of the top teams in the world only one has players that don’t sport long hair as far as I’m aware (Germany) and during the high point of his career David Beckham had famously wavy locks. Therefore I have come to the conclusion that football players must be like Samson; their strength comes from their hair. After reaching a certain skill level they can progress to wearing an Alice-band; a symbolic halo of footballing achievement. Break it and you break their hold over international football.

Now look at the England players:

:Wayne Rooney

:Frank Lampard

:Steven Gerrard (who does slightly resemble Michael Owen if you squint a bit)









  Notice anything they have in common; short hair. Maybe during their winter off they should consider a new look. By 2014 they should be unstoppable.