Aber Zoo

On the weekend of the 18th and 19th of March 6 Chumps went to Wales, Aberystwyth to be precise…for a great weekend of frisbee related fun. I'll keep it short and sweet, it was awesome, we played well, gelling really well as a team. Other teams that were there: Mwnci See, Mwnci Do, Mwnci Ninja Pirates, Lords, Reservoir Discs, Reservoir Diskettes, Duracell, Jesters and one other team (to whom I really sorry I can't remember, despite giving one of their players a lift to the middle of nowhere on the way home.)

We came 3rd, pretty damn good, fun was had by all, many minor injuries were picked up as usual, and apologies go to the rest of my team for being a hungover waste of space for most of sunday ;)

: 20 Mar 2006 16:02 |  Tags: Frisbee |  Comments (6) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Parents…

Now why couldn't I have noticed somewhat (ie 20 years) earlier that asking your parents often provides useful advice, seen as they've usually been there and done it before (albeit usually in amazingly unfashionable clothes)...cue much banging of head against brick wall due to my own stupidity…

: 01 Mar 2006 03:34 |  Tags: Observations |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Opinions

You don't realise how much value you put in someone else's opinion until they offer one that you feel is wrong, even worse if it is based on rubbish that you can't do anything to disprove because the other person isn't willing to look. So why do we still place importance on a completely irrelevant opinion, or rather one that is just inaccurate and you know it to be so? I guess no-one likes to be misjudged, in a negative way anyway. Random after-work rant over…bring on the weekend.

: 25 Feb 2006 03:52 |  Tags: Observations Serious |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Indoor regionnals

The weekend of the 5th and 6th was time for the indoor regionnal qualifiers for the student national championship for ultimate frisbee. Warwick sent three teams, the 1sts and 2nds were picked teams with a 3rds team that was entered to let people get some tournament experience.

The long and the short of it:

(out of 24 teams)
Bears 1 came 5th, booking themselves a place in the Not The Nationals secondary competition.

Bears 2 (the team I was on) came 11th, ending up the 2nd best 2nd team there, and beating a few first teams as well, overall quite happy with the position, though a close result with Oxford was annoying and probably would have resulted in us finishing 9th and winning the plate competition, but that's the way things turned out.

Bears 3 improved massively over the course of the weekend, we always knew it was going to be a tough learning experience for them, and it was but hopefully their players will have learned a lot and be more confident for future tournaments. Finally placing 20th.

Now if only I can catch up on the sleep I didn't get over the weekend (two 6am starts, long days and working saturday night at the union until 2.40, probably not a good idea, oh well.

: 07 Nov 2005 14:43 |  Tags: Frisbee |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Bowling for Soup gig…

Was a good night out must be said, £10 to get in, 4 bands, Army of Freshmen, MC Lars, American Hi-Fi and Bowling for soup.

Army of Freshmen were good for the first act on, lively, lots of jumping around and some good sounding songs, the bad part being that you only realise that halfway through a good song because you've never heard them before. Bravery / Stupidity award to lead singer for diving into the crowd from the top of the speaker stack though.

MC Lars, in his own words a "Post-punk laptop rapper" I think it was, was certainly different, maybe too different for the majority of the audience who were there (A LOT of very young looking people, gotta love those gigs open to general public), but maybe not just the impression I got. Some of the songs dragged a bit but meh, most were fine.

American Hi-Fi, good band, good performance, but nothing that really stood out, some people there might disagree, but just ok. Might have helped if I had known more of theirs songs I admit, I only knew a couple beforehand.

Bowling for Soup, Good performance, but not as good as their one two years ago in my first year, might be something to do with the fact I prefer their older stuff which they didn't play much of, the newer stuff just isn't as catchy. Performance and banter was a bit strained at times, but an ok job done in the end, maybe they're just starting to show their age a bit, they are around 40 now apparently.

Probably one of the better nights out live music-wise for me this year, certainly that's going to happen in the main union and not associated with any of the societies, some of whom will prolly have awesome nights this year, just not in the marketplace. Well, the Subways are probably worth looking forward to anyway…I'm tired, sleep now.

: 19 Oct 2005 01:11 |  Tags: Observations |  Comments (5) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

A year's supply of cough syrup please

Surely fresher's flu / plague should have gone after four weeks? It's getting very boring waking up in the morning (ok….afternoon generally) and spending the rest of the day coughing…lots. It's not excessive drinking I promise, though working at the bars in the union might mean that I just catch every strain of nasty infectious thingy that passes through the place…that's why I'm being a miserable git so far this year, honest. (And if you believe that….)

: 17 Oct 2005 00:05 |  Tags: Observations Whinging |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

What a waste…

Cookie crisp, a brilliant idea for a breakfast cereal, chocolate cookie shaped chunks, it could have been soooo nice, sadly it tastes like plastic, feels like plastic and has a load of ridiculously hard chunks in it that hurt your teeth, but it's stil nicer than the super-duper-econo-brand cornflakes or that I'll end up eating when I start buying my own stuff again. The sacrifices I make to go to uni…

: 14 Sep 2005 15:21 |  Tags: Observations |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The art of blogging…

Right, the art of blogging. Now here's one to ponder, what are the rules of blogging?

Should blogging be spontaneous? Should it be planned in advance? Should you only blog the things that you want people to know or should you blog everything and let people see what you really are? (Yes this article really is a rip-off of the conversation in the comments of the article below but hey…I'm sure I can expand on it.

I'm sure I could drone on for a while trying to answer the question of "what is the point of blogging?". There are many answers that many people will give, but I suppose that it boils down to one thing, wanting to have people read about your thoughts, observations and actions and comment on them. But why do people want to have people comment on their articles? To prove how funny / interlectual / observant or whatever else they are? I suppose it differs from person to person.

Anyway, this article is not "why blog?"...it's "how blog?" What are the rules of blogging?(and I write this mainly for my own benefit because I don't blog all that much and I'm not up on the latest blogging etiquette.)

The Questions

1. Should blogging be spontaneous or should it be planned?
2. To blog everything or not to blog everything?

The Answers (as I see them)

1. Surely blogging should be a spontaneous thing? I do know people that comment on if they miss a day of blogging, but surely if you didn't blog then you couldn't think of something worth blogging…or you were doing something sooooo interesting it'll make good reading in a later blog? The only reason to adhere to a rigid schedule is if you are being paid to blog or something? Could be a nice gig if you have a life that's interesting enough to manage that…

2. Not sure where to stand on this one, I can see both points of view, though personally I prefer to only blog what I want people to see, causes less problems this way, although I admire the courage of some people who are brave enough to post everything and let people judge them for what they are, though in my opinion it can seem like seeking sympathy in some cases although it may not be what they intended. Another sub-question is whether or not to flame bait, should articles that you will provoke a strong reaction be posted just to gain a reaction, I suppose it depends on the seriousness of the material in the end, it's down to personal judgement in the end, where to draw the line between humourous / stimulating conversation and the plain offensive (though I'm sure there are some official guidelines laid down somewhere regarding this).

Anyway, that was far too weighty and serious for my liking (but still quite short, I'm just lazy, I know), and probably makes no sense in the end…nuff said for now.

: 14 Sep 2005 01:25 |  Tags: Humour Observations |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Ideas please people….

Ok, I know this is a bit cheeky seen as it's supposed to be my job, but I'm out to see what ideas people have for socials, how to get people interested, and how to keep it varied to keep them interested.

I'm just after any and all ideas anyone has, because I don't particularly want to make a horrific mess of things. If anyone (and I don't mean just frisbee people) has been to a social that they enjoyed a lot, a social they absolutely hated, anything, what to do, what not to do, things you've done that weren't socials but that might work as socials let me know please. I'll accept any ideas (within reason for those complete weirdos out there…you know who you are)...not that I don't have any of my own…honest ;)

: 13 Sep 2005 23:59 |  Tags: Serious |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Nearly…

It's nearly time to pack up pretty much everything I own and cart it all back to uni, a few more days… I wish I could say I've done something interesting with the time I've had off, sadly working at Burger King to try and earn off my overdraft doesn't really qualify as interesting.

Apolgies now for random sidetrack / rant
It is funny to watch the attitude of people when they have to talk to me at work. I know it's not a respected job but just a little bit of courtesy to people that have to do the menial jobs would be nice. Having someone complain that it was my personal fault that we had no veggie burgers was amusing for a bit, as was having two blokes push their way past me to get in when we were closing, you wouldn't do it anywhere else I'm sure…anyway, enough of the whinging.

Looking forward to coming back, getting back into some sort of routine, and seeing people I've missed while I've been away, roll on the 19th.

: 09 Sep 2005 00:39 |  Tags: Whinging |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem