Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in brvd_snvrvtrp's LiveJournal:

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Monday, July 17th, 2006
2:07 pm	The luck of the Irish! http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2273180,00.html (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 4th, 2006
5:27 pm	Rah Since the last update: Trip to Scotland with Andrew et al. Went kayaking. Belle & Sebastian night at the Star & Garter. The circle pit was a bit violent for me. Met another bloke wearing the same Sultans of Ping T-shirt as me. His brother knows Karl Marx, you know! I've had my paper accepted for publication (Journal of physics & chemistry of solids) And other boring stuff about the FTIR spectrometer not working... (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 28th, 2006
9:26 am	The gospel is here! Fellow Believers, Our day has finally arrived! The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is at last here. Maybe not inscribed on stone tablets, but it is a book. And maybe not THE Good Book, but at least A Good Book. Delivering His Divine Message is my life’s work, and as I’ve said before, all proceeds from the book will go toward our pirate ship fund. Because as you know, global warming is the direct effect of the declining number of pirates, and His Noodliness, while he endorses boiling pasta, is against boiling the planet. With your help, and with the sails blowing on our bad-ass pirate ship (with flags, cannons, and weevils in the flour barrels below deck), we can spread His Word and save the environment at the same time. Remember that ours is a small boutique religion, but we have BIG ideas (some, arguably a bit al dente) and we must share this rich booty of ideas with others. Within the pages of The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, you will find FSM history, helpful propaganda, scientific evidence of His existence (including the 100% verifiable fact that no one has sued any school boards about us), as well as pictures and illustrations that surely test the limits of copyright law. But as pioneers we’re not afraid of a little controversy. Since The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster goes on sale tomorrow, we must consider March 28th a Holy day. I encourage you to dress in your Pirate’s best—paint one of your pant legs to resemble a wood finish, maybe wear an eye patch or get a parrot, and eat some cacciatore with a side of linguine. Then, go to your local bookstore to let them know that The Church of FSM is strong in your community. I can honestly say that if everyone on this e-mail list goes out and buys the book, it will be a bestseller. That would certainly get some people’s attention. Our future is in our own hands. And in His noodly appendage. Ramen. Bobby Henderson Prophet You can order the book online from Amazon, BN, or Powell’s. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812976568/103-8465385-5745421 http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=0812976568&itm=1 http://www.powells.com/biblio/71-0812976568-0 (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 21st, 2006
3:53 pm	Risk - less than 2 hours long! Yes, the Red army from Madagascar swept through Africa on turn 1 and South America on turn 2 with no-one willing to put up a fight! It wasn't until I sailed through North America and took Iceland (depriving Tom of his 5 armies per turn from Europe) that the others finally realised they had let me become far too powerful. Tom broke our non-aggression pact over the Europe-Africa border by taking Egypt but it was too late to stop the Madagascan communist hordes from taking the game... In other news, Stuart and myself both led our first severes (rock climbing) at Castle Naze last sunday. Preparations are afoot to climb with Richard in the Isle of Skye. Today Mal helped me clean my furnace tube with a bubbling mixture of hydrogen peroxide and sulphuric acid. Gig on friday was all good, we went to see the Family Mahone and the Sultans of Ping FC. :) I can't be arsed making this into a coherent entry. (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 7th, 2004
8:35 am	Since last update.... 1) Been continuing to learn how to use the spectrometer. The low point of the learning process was me trying to change over the optical equipment inside it in the dark (because someone else in the lab wanted the lights off for his own apparatus) and unscrewing the wrong bolt. This resulted in one of the "fixed" mirrors falling off (and fortunately not breaking) It is impossible to screw it back on in exactly the position it was in and is a pretty good achievement to get it even vaguely lined up. The upshot of all this is that I've spent the whole day fiddling around with the adjustment screws on all the other mirrors to try to get the laser beam to go through the spectrometer properly, but still needed help from one of the other students to get it to work. Still, when someone else did the same thing a few years ago they had to phone the supplier's tech support people to ask how to fix it so we haven't done too badly... So the stage is set for me to actually do some work on it tomorrow. 2) Interesting night on tuesday. Supervisor invited his students for a drink in Harry's bar to help assuage his disappointment at the rejection of his latest funding application. Matters made somewhat worse by the fact that he got home 3 hours later than he'd promised his wife... However, someone in the bar told me that there is a new version of transport tycoon out (!!!!!) Must investigate... That's it for now, kiddies... (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 4th, 2004
5:52 pm	Hello hello hello again, here's what I've been doing since last update: 1) Jilly's rockworld on thursday night, nice place but bit big, probably will become regular. Met and lost random people, was accosted by bloke from last wednesday and swapped mobile numbers. Jaegermeister goooooooooooood 2) Ended up in 5th Ave on friday night after hiking club pubcrawl. I thought I was being sensible by drinking only in every other pub but I was actually being stupid because it meant that at 10:30 I was in a fit state to go to 5th ave (as opposed to being too trolleyed to make it there) They have played an identical setlist save for two songs on both the occasions I have been there. I now realise while people in Manchester get bored of the place. Not too bad a night though. This random bloke in a stripey shirt accosted me at the bar, then invited himself into my group of friends, then invited me over to his friend. If it was a gay club I'd have been 100% sure he was coming onto me.... 3) Actually went hiking on sunday. We tried to climb Scafell Pike but turned back while we were skirting round Ill Crag on the basis that we had ran out of time and were never going to make it to the top and back in time, despite the fact that it was tantalisingly close. In any case, visibility was down to 15m and it was raining.... I decided to go in the "slow" group. The "fast" group /did/ make it to the top, despite the fact that they set out the wrong way... After almost climbing England's highest mountain I was semi-tempted to get the bus back from Owen's Park bar after fish & chips and a couple of pints. But not quite... Oh, my mobile phone is broken due to influx of water whilst hiking. Oh yes, so are my glasses after falling off in 5th ave. 4) Horrendous end to the day's laboratory demonstrating. It was 4:45 and two undergrads had just finished. One of them was desperate to get away to his paid job. I started looking through their work and asking them questions about it, as you do. It was when I was about a quarter of the way through that I realised that the other one simply hadn't answered any of the questions you're meant to write down the answers to as you go along, and hadn't even written down all the data in his labbook. I'm not sure whether the one who was in a hurry to leave knew whether to laugh or cry... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 29th, 2004
2:58 pm	Since last entry... 1) Meant to go to to house party upstairs with flatmate on sunday but it was cancelled due to hosts being hungover. 2) Sailing club pubcrawl on monday was an interesting night. There were only three girls there, one was the president or something like that who was one of these laddette types. She was somewhat /too/ keen on the aftershock round. "Aren't you all eager to hold it in your mouth for the full 90 seconds to prove your manliness and masculinity to all?" she barks out. "Not particularly" come the replies. £2.40? You ought to be paid £2.40 to drink one of those things... One of the other girls in the group managed to get her high heel stuck in a drain cover outside Bruin's in fallowfield. We all had to help her out of it, it seemed funny at the time. Can't remember how much I had to drink but I was drunk enough to be willing to pay £3 to get into one of those awful "It's a scream" places and climb a tree alongside Wilmslow road. Bit irritated in that while I was in the mood to socialise, I wasn't in the mood to get slaughtered and felt I was being pushed into it a bit. Ah well. 3) Monday was also my first day demonstrating in the undergraduate practical lab. It was a very steep learning curve, it was throwing myself in at the deep end a bit to try and teach a practical that I never did as an undergrad especially seeing as I've never taught before neither. Having said that, throwing yourself in at the deep end is by far the quickest way to learn to swim. I was getting the hang of the teaching and the experiment by the end of the day and will have it down to a tee by the end of next monday :) the pay isn't bad either... 4) Apart from that, no actual research yet since I have been wading through the vast amounts of bureaucracy and paper pushing that are deemed necessary by the powers that be before I can start. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, September 26th, 2004
2:45 pm	Well, an interesting end to the week. While I was out at Satan's Hollow (yep, dragged there for a second time in one week...) one of my flatmates had a birthday party in the kitchen which consisted of lots of rice wine and smelly chinese food. Apparently he had a smashing time in that the window in the door that opens from the kitchen to the garden is now broken. Must have been from inside the flat since it is double glazed and only the inside pane is broken... He has yet to own up to it. When I fell into a mirror at a house party I offered to pay for a new one... Anyway, I went sailing for the first time yesterday with the Manchester University sailing club. I wasn't out for long since it was only their freshers taster thing but it they sail on this enormous lake near Leigh called Pennington Flash. Can't help but think this will be a lot more enjoyable than river sailing (River sailing starts off fine but gets a bit irritating after you've ran aground for the 15th time) Here you get a bit more wind and speeeeeeeeeed and dare I say it even spray. Much more fun if you ask me. And the sailing club here are really nice people, in contrast to Oxford University sailing club which is full of private school knobhead hooray henry types. (which was why I used to sail with a local club in Oxford rather than the University club) funny actually, I spent the entire journey there thinking how good it would be to get out into the fresh air to cure my post-satan's hangover. Then the moment we get out into the centre of the lake the boat starts lurching up and down as if we were at sea and I realise it was possibly not so helpful after all, lol. Still enjoyed it though :) Oh, one other mildly amusing thing happened. One of my flatmates went to the landlord's office on friday to get a new microwave out of them. He was wearing his tracksuit so looked like a scally and got stopped by the police when he was carrying this microwave through the street lol. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 23rd, 2004
2:30 pm	Last night was the rocksoc freshers do. A good night out at Satan's Hollow, and I've acquainted myself with enough people from the soc to feel comfortable turning up to their weekly night out to Jilly's on thursdays :) Not today, mind you, I am going elsewhere to a free drinks thing but every other thursday :) Satan's Hollow is a great club, superior to anything in Oxford... In other news we have a minor crisis with my formal enrolment at UMIST on monday. There's an important form which needs to be signed by the head of the research group I'm working in. The problem is that he seems to have gone walkabout. What with being a busy professor etc he is always very hard to get hold of. Apparently they used to have an informal practise of his secretary forging his signature but that's been stopped now by the powers that be, lol. One of my flatmates (the one I haven't met yet) returned from China late on tuesday night, only hours after the rest of us had taken matters into our own hands and thrown out most of his food from the fridge. He's no excuse to complain, it was all really out of date and some of it was quite groce tbh. I still haven't met him, I just heard the commotion when he arrived late on tuesday. Can't say I'm in any hurry. Mind you, we still need to take him on about the fact that he's hogging six of the ten cupboards and virtually the entire freezer... Still haven't made an appointment with BT to sort out my phone line. With everything being so stupidly hectic atm it looks like I'll be doling my pound coins out to the cybercafe for several weeks yet... (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2004
11:50 am	Well, I now have a sideline demonstrating in the first year general physics laboratory on mondays to earn me a bit of pocket money. Not only that, but I also have a proper plan of action for the first year of my Phd project consisting of: 1) Helping to get the new apparatus to grow carbon nanotubes working. 2) Analysing the first samples from it to see if it really is working. If it isn't, return to 1) 3) Growing the tubes on substrates with a particular pattern on them, enabling us to use the pattern as a frame of reference so we can look at one particular tube again and again. 4) Trying to get the tubes to grow in arrays all pointing in the same direction, also by using the patterning. :) (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, September 19th, 2004
4:37 pm	Goldie lookin' chain, 2004, safe as fuck Interesting times since the last update, ended up going to 5th Avenue on friday with some people from the physics department, it was never intended actually but was kinda inevitable after a few too many drinks in the bar round the corner from the UMIST building. what Andrzej said about the place, that it is "What Transformations should be like but isn't" rings true. Quite a good night in the end, caught the beer bus home and got a kebab afterwards. They don't have proper vans in Manchester so you have to buy them from a shop instead. The whole social thing is going quite well, and the undergraduates haven't even arrived yet lol. The research (Physics research that is, not bars) hasn't really got going yet, I have a whole pile of papers on my desk I'm meant to wade through as background reading but haven't yet. My main realisation so far has been that most of the peaks I get when I put the new samples in the spectrometer can be attributed to the silicon crystal the tubes are stuck onto. On the other hand, my last flatmate arrives and it turns out he's just starting a phd with the group in the materials science department we're collaborating with. This has the potential to make life very convenient and will save a lot of walking back and forth carrying papers and samples between the two buildings. Oh, and I have learnt to /use/ the spectrometer. But I can't use it officially until I've got a swipecard, a keyfob, had an eye test and watched a laser safety video. *groans* Bloody health & safety.... Went to visit grandma over the weekend (And my parents, they are on holiday near her), the journey from Manchester to Leeds across the Pennines is a pleasant and scenic one but it gets a bit boring for the rest of the way to Scarborough. Still no internet at the flat, I really should phone BT to arrange a phone line. Gonna be a nuisance though since you have to dial 150 to get connected up and you can't do that from a mobile. D'oh!! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 15th, 2004
3:43 pm	Guns don't kill people, manholes do... Was the agreement me, Nat, Matt and some random bloke came to when Matt fell through an open drain cover at 3am while we were waiting for the bus down Oxford road. 'Twas an interesting night actually, to be described in point form due to time being against me... 1) Drinks in the Whitworth. The two closest pubs to my flat are the Whitworth and the Clarence. Having sampled the Clarence with my flatmate and sampled the Whitworth with M + N last night I think I shall officially appoint the Whitworth as my local. Proper beer pumps, leather seats and good jukebox. 2) We felt a bit out of place downing our drinks in Mantos and shouting "Hey ho! Let's go!" 3) Poptastic itself was great, we even (with the help of two random blokes) had a MOSHPIT going at a GAY NIGHT. LOL!!! They were playing some Greenday so a bit of secondary applied vertjourology was in order :D Poptastic is imho a damn sight better than it's London equivalent, Popstarz. Popstarz is in a much larger place and they try to make the main room the indie/alternative room so it just gets watered down ridiculously. We even got to breakdance a bit when they played the mighty GLC, rock on! 4) After that and the obligatory stumbling around outside the club routine we went off to one of the random blokes flat in Withington to smoke weed and watch Family Guy. This went on until 5am, mainly because he took an hour to roll it. Eventually he just fell asleep so we crept out, a text will probably arrive soon saying "Why have I got your phone number, where's my weed gone etc etc" Interestingly enough, I also drank a proper G and T there. By that, I mean (of course) a G and Tea. :D So yes, that's Poptastic. I think it's going to become a kind of Manchester equivalent of Sabotage in that it's somewhere you wind up when you're pissed all the time. Just gayer... (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 9th, 2004
9:47 pm	Micro$h*t I decided I felt like playing a CD on my parent's computer. When you shove the audio CD in the drive Windows Media player autoruns. After much faffing around it plays the CD with pauses every few seconds to let it catch up and added whizzing noises. Meanwhile it turns the PC to concrete under the strain of running a complicated graphic to go with the CD in time with the music. However... If you close Media player and run Winamp instead, the CD plays perfectly and Winamp is completely unnoticeable in the background. Microsoft, eh? Hence: Current music: Greenday - Welcome to Paradise Current mood: Highly amused. Incidentally, my new flat is just down the road from the Indian takeaway outside which the Shirehorses were photographed in the sleeve to "the worst album in the world....ever." Pinkypunkypixie is jealous. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 7th, 2004
2:30 pm	Punk rock is bitchin' Since my Herald account expired on 1st September and my University of Manchester email account doesn't start working until the end of this month I have a temporary email address: john_e_proctor@excite.com I was going to do the mixtape meme but I can't be bothered, also I have to clean the Reading festival mud off the tent, chase up the hotel that charged me twice when I stayed with them in Manchester at the beginning of August (bastards), and do several other tedious and laborious jobs. Having said that, the parting word goes to Reel Big Fish. Punk rock is bitchin'! (Comment on this)
Sunday, September 5th, 2004
7:18 pm	Well, a busy week hence no LJ update for a while. Rushed off to Manchester after half-recovering from Reading festival to pick up keys for new flat. Flatmates as follows: 1) Guy who you can go to the pub with but who leaves the corridor cluttered with his belongings. 2) Guy who isn't there at the moment. His room is being looked after by his friend who sits in the room with curtains drawn all day watching dvds of dodgy Chinese stadium music and who has random people round in the evening to smoke and drink red wine in the kitchen. 3) Boring bloke with little grasp of English. 4) Has yet to appear... So there you go. We are on the ground floor so you'll have your PC nicked by scallies if you leave the window open while you're not in the room. On the other hand it means you can save paying for the bike storage by wheeling your bike through the kitchen which opens onto the lawn, car park and bike storage area at rear. Hurrah! Oh, great weekend playing choo choo trains too. Regards John PS Me & some friends are planning a night out on tuesday 14th September to Poptastic, get in touch if you want to come. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 31st, 2004
8:10 pm	Applied vertjourology field trip report BEST BAND ON FRIDAY Super Furries by a mile, cracking stuff. The very best bands in the world are capable of delivering pure entertainment and being deadly serious and thought provoking at the same time. The SFA are one of those bands. I love the power ranger outfit too :D Apparently they were having a nightmare of a time with their equipment breaking down etc but you'd never have guessed it from watching them, such is their brilliance. BEST BAND ON SATURDAY The Mighty A, it feels so wonderful to have them back in my life, they've been sorely missed since the last time I saw them - at Donnington in 2003. CLASSIC quote from "Jason Perry Lord of rock" in between songs... JP: "Shhh, everyone be quiet, sssshhhhhhh" [crowd slowly quietens down, White Stripes can be heard in the distance] JP: "I can just hear the White Stripes" [boos from crowd] JP: "Sounds like they're having sound problems though, there's no bass in the mix" [laughter] They played all the classics (except Old Folks) and a clutch of new songs which sound (by common consent on the A messageboard) quite Van Halen-esque. BEST BAND ON SUNDAY Greenday! True legends on great form, amazing gig, was at the front for the whole of it. Go me! I think I'll have to invest in their greatest hits and new album. Then I shall become a fully qualified vertjourologist. THE GLC WERE WIKKID Yes they were. Just before they're due to come on stage, one of their voices comes on over the PA saying "Oh stuff this, it's raining. Let's go home and skin up" shortly followed by "Has anyone got a CD player?" Classic! OUR NEIGHBOURS We made friends with our neighbours and shared a campfire with them, they were great. We agreed that booking 50 Cent must have been done as a joke and that it would be funny if A renamed themselves "Busted Seniors" BEST NON-FESTIVAL MOMENT We went for a trip on the riverboat on sunday afternoon since there weren't any bands on we wanted to see. A bloke on the riverboat commented on me ordering a Pimms, turned out he was from Oxford. His 7 year old son kept trying to throw my friend Nat overboard and push me down the hatch into the hold. While the boat made it's way up the river we got large cheers from the adjacent campsite by standing at the bow making the devil salute. LOL MOST HILARIOUS MOMENT 50 Cent being bottled off, true comedy! He even made matters worse for himself by having his own supply of bottles to throw at the punters in case an insufficient number of them landed onstage. He had it coming to him really, what with being a complete moron and all that he was just asking him for it. It can only be assumed that he was booked as a joke, can't think what sort of idiot could think all those Greenday fans would give him a good reception. I still can't stop laughing! CAMPSITE All the paths on green campsite were ankle-deep in mud when we arrived on thursday, just as well it didn't rain much over the weekend. HONOURABLE MENTIONS TO OTHER BANDS Wildhearts, Ash, Young Heart Attack, 80s Thingie, Placebo. Current Mood: happy Current Music: Greenday - American Idiot (in my head) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, August 21st, 2004
8:11 pm	Anyone for the Reading f Well, now only 1 week to go until the Reading festival and only 3 weeks to go before moving house to Manchester, hurrah for that! Anyone (wickergirl?) wanna go for a drink over Reading festival weekend? In other news, my parents have withdrawn funding for driving lessons because I'm not sufficiently enthusiastic about it. I do want to learn but it is hard to be enthusiastic about the most myopically boring thing you have ever had to do in your entire life. Congratulations on passing your test btw, ms_zoe. Anyway, that'll do for now. Cheers, John. Current Mood: happy Current Music: Wildhearts - I wanna go where the people go (in my head) (Comment on this)
Sunday, August 15th, 2004
7:29 pm	Top Fives Yes, I too will list my top five anythings (within reason) if you ask me to... In other news, I have been at work, putting tent up in the garden to ensure it is complete for the Reading festival, reading up about the phonon vibration modes of carbon nanotubes (there are 69 branches or something silly) and also going for a drink with Katie (lj user = pinkypunkypixie) tonight :) (Comment on this)
Saturday, August 14th, 2004
10:07 pm	Ah well, another day at work. The week before last, the mechanical lubricator (the bit that pumps lubricating oil around the engine) broke. Instead of being silent it started making a noise a bit like someone saying "gherkin" repeatedly while it pumped. The boss was a bit miffed about this since the replacement part cost him £950. However, a week later... sure enough it started making the same noise again. This time the boss couldn't face stumping up another £950 so decided to pretend that it doesn't need fixing this time. It still pumps the oil ok, it is just that something is clearly broken inside it and it is obviously going to go completely kaputt very soon. Ah well, it'll probably happen over the August bank holiday while I'm away at the Reading festival :) PS Another reconnaissance mission to Manchester is on the cards for 1st & 2nd of September. Regards John. (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 12th, 2004
3:51 pm	Cancellation of the summer's premier live music event Yes, sorry but it is true. FoDStock has had to be cancelled due to Katie (lj Pinkypunkypixie, see friends list) becoming "The antique centre's bitch" (i.e. having found a job) In other news, I seem to have won my latest set-to with the demon administrator at UMIST. I emailed her saying I was taking "Head of department or research school where you obtained your first degree" to mean the head of physics at Brasenose college rather than the head of the whole University physics department since the latter doesn't know me from Adam so could hardly write a testimonial about me. If she was going to quibble with that interpretation she would have replied to my email to say so by now. And she hasn't :) So far this week I've spent a day varnishing shelves for the kitchen and having driving lesson, a day playing trains, a day playing model trains and a day working on the electronics for the tachometer and speedometer on the new diesel engine at the Perrygrove railway.... (Comment on this)