Midweek Thoughts, April 2008

What a fun week this has been. The return to school proved to be as much as a pain in the ass as I predicted. I'm only back three days and already the 'novelty' of getting up at 6:30 every morning is starting to wear off... not to mention wear me out! That didn't stop me heading to an extra special screening of Pulp Fiction on Monday night, however. Must've been about the 10th time I've seen that movie but it was one of the best, nothing can compare seeing it on the big screen. It was almost like the seeing the movie all over again for the first time.

April looks to be a relatively uneventful month, bar a few concerts/trips here and there. The days are getting longer, it's getting warmer and I'm noticing it's getting progressively more and more sunnier... which is good. Also, there's only 8 weeks of school left and counting. The Summer never seemed closer.

After a bit of deliberation over the last couple of days, I've decided to get a job. Although I don't like the idea of a job and school together, I believe the pros just about outweigh the cons. Besides, an extra bit of money to finance my weekends and the upcoming Summer wouldn't go astray. So, I put together (if I don't say so myself) a kickass CV and got in touch with my various contacts in the retailing world (not very impressive work but I'm an unqualified student, guess I gotta start somewhere). I'm happy to say it's looking likely I'm down for a job in HMV, a Music/Film/Game type of store for those who don't know... which suits me down to the ground. Either way I'm going to try it out and if I can't find the time or don't like how it pans out, I can always leave. I'm contemplating right now the thought of me with regular income - madness!

In other random unrelated news: my significant other has been influencing me with the wonders of Sci-Fi TV. I'm slightly ashamed to say, thanks to his influence, I've become hooked on Battlestar Gallatica. Yep... nerd and proud!

Similarly random news: The new South Park Studious website is up and get this: you can watch (at quite good quality) every episode from every season, legally and free. Yes you heard me correctly - free! Beats the illegal streams on Daily Motion, eh? Also the new South Park Avatar Creator is pretty good. Unlike older versions of the Creator, you're allowed save the picture directly to your computer. Better than the old and annoying 'take screenshot and crop' method. As you can see, I've already updated my avatar. My old South Park avatar was getting a bit, well, old. Anyway, check out the site: Linky

Lastly, this week has been a busy week for politics. My very own Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Bertie Ahern resigned today. Came as a bit of shock, should be interesting to see the politicians argue over who should get Bertie's position... perhaps we could even have our very first woman Prime Minister. Who knows. Exciting stuff, eh?

I've also been following the Zimbabwe elections carefully. For those who don't know, my country of 'expertise' (so to speak) for Human Rights, Politics and Economics is Zimbabwe. News of these elections is quite well publicised in the media actually, which surprised me as I'm not used to hearing so much about Zimbabwe in the media - guess it must be a slow week I am surprised to see that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party has apparently won the parliamentary elections. Although Mugabe's party still insist that it is 'early days' in the results process and that the votes need to be held for 'verification'. Corruption is a major problem in many legal and political areas in Zimbabwe and voting is sure one of them. Even if MDC somehow manage to claim victory in the Parliament, I highly doubt that this victory will be a 'cure all' for Zimbabwe. The country has too many problems that a simple, 'democratic' election can't change. Also I imagine Mugabe is thinking of trying every trick in the book to maintain in control, he isn't going to step down that easily. He still has a lot of power over, and as a result support from many people and officials. Even if he loses the party elections, he's still going to win the presidential. I wouldn't be surprised to see that man rule to the day he dies, and I'm confident he will make damn sure of that. Before I'm accused of being pessimistic, I'm amazed to see the 'winds of change' are finally coming to Zimbabwe and that this small Democratic victory will mark a step in the right direction for the future of the country, which still remains in dire affairs. Anyway, this is an ongoing affair that I hope the media don't loose interest in. Zimbabwe needs all the coverage and publication to the outside world it can get. I'll keep you posted on the election results as they come out, but for now enough talk of Zimbabwe - afterall, I've been discussing Zimbabwean affairs in depth with like minded individuals for the past 3 days!


So there's my midweek thoughts. Now if you excuse me, my fingers are getting tired and I've just noticed the time. I have to install Vista Service Pack 1 (which quietly got released this week) and I have some joyous school work to take care of before I can relax, eat some food and watch some more Battlestar Gallatica. Yay.

That's all for now folks! ^_^