Summer = Drama and misery. Seriously, having undergrads as friends is great fun but oh the drama... (insert assorted stress and frustration noises)

Anyway, new profile pic from Summer Darkness in Utrecht last year (I'm the one on the far right if you've forgotten what I look like). Unbeknownst to Robin (the guy with the platinum hair and tie) he's sitting in bird poop... I really wish I'd gone this year but given how poor everyone was there wasn't much point since it would have meant going solo and, as nice as the festival is, I was a bit sick of being leered at by Cybers all the time by the end and that was with friends present.

Enough about me, how are you all?

Updated: 17/09/10 because I can't be bothered to make a new post and this one was too short.

Apparently anon loves me again. Lets be honest this is probably just a marketing ploy by SGHQ but I don't see any harm in dropping by for the next 3 months so thank you big sister/anon.

Anyway, on with the pointless chit-chat. I've recently read Jonny the Homicidal Maniac which is probably one of the best bits of Graphic Fiction I've ever encountered. If you haven't read it do, especially if you have depression issues, it's incredibly powerful, going from pure cathartic anger to being a wonderfully introspective journey about feeling apart from the rest of the world.

In case anyone reads this and remembers who I was, this is me in 2010:
- I have glasses now and as such actually look closer to my age.
- I'm still a PhD student, hopefully with a paper out soon (if it ever gets back from review). I'm also part of a major EU project on pollinators (but this isn't really the place to advertise that).
- I got a new house with a nice landlady... unfortunately we had a shit of a housemate but he's gone now (and has been ritually cleansed from the Xbox) so I now have 3 very good friends for housemates.
- I'm president of the Games and Role Play Society, which is stressful but great fun. We did a Cthulhu live LARP last month which was utterly hilarious and universally applauded as a great afternoon (unfortunately we didn't succeed in driving my house mate mad enough to believe that he was a sea lion).
- Since I used to angst/vent here enough I think it's worth stating that I've finally made real progress whit my depression, thanks massively to a few very good friends.
- I've drastically cut back on gigs and completely cut out festivals, largely because I've seen most bands I want to see now and I'm sick of all the bullshit that goes on in scenes. I know we were all young and angsty once but even when I was 17 I wasn't as bad as a lot of the people I've encountered in the Metal scene.
- I started listening to Brighter Death Now.

Well I'm back (all 0 of you who remembers me:p) for 3 months c/o anon (thank you whoever you are... and give me a shout through PM so I know WHO you are for that matter).

Since I haven't been here for more than a year: I now have a PhD started at Reading, which is awesome since it's a great project (Quantifying the Economic Value of Pollination in the UK) with 3 good supervisors and student life here is amazing. As with any PhD it's a massive uphill struggle to get anywhere and do anything and it is truly soul-crushing, but thanks to assorted wonderful undergrads my life is bearable (and those of you who know me... well AnnaLee... will be able to attest how obsessed with getting a PhD). This aside I've take up LARPing (Live action Role Playing), gained an interest in 80's Metal, a very big interest in Industrial/Electro/EBM and some interest in Drone.

Other than that I'm still the same old lunatic I was, I'll probably think of some other crap to spew forth in the near future but for now, I've just herded an exceptionally drunk undergrad home in a Jeep and it's about 1am... I need sleeps.

Currently Listening:
The Axis of Perdition: Urfe
Fen: The Maldiction Fields
Herrschaft: Tesla
:Wumpscut:: Wreath of Barbs
VNV Nation: Judgement
Rakoth: Jabberorks
Diabolicum: The Dark Blood Rising
Skinny Puppy: Mythmaker
Velvet Acid Christ: Hex Angel
Thee Maldoror Kollective: A Clockwork Highway

I'm applying for this. Wish me luck 'cos that's the only shred of hope I have...

I'll do a proper update on Monday (now that my friends have got me hooked on facebook I'm actually on the 'net for a good amount of time.

Oh and the Harry Potter book launch was fun, here's a video made by one of Roxy's friends (ph34r my umbrellas).


Currently Listening to:
Lunar Aurora: Mond
Nyktalgia: S/t
Paysage d'Hiver: S/t
Paradise Lost: Symbol of Life
Mayhem: Ordo Ad Chao
Shining: V - Halmstad
Darkspace: Dark Space I

Well a few days turned out to be over a month. Why? Because this sucks, I hate having a single beacon of topic that gets used as a nexus for semi-personal talk, even messenger programs are better than just leaving one "what's happened in my life" post and hoping that enough of your virtual friends will say something to justify checking back every few days... The Internet is killing the act of conversation and that's coming from a major introvert like me, if it weren't for the fact that I'm vaguely attached to this site and some of you on my friends list are very cool (notably, but not exclusively, the two of you I've met in person) I'd seal this off as another wasted venture.

And after that pointless rant... Well after handed in my coursework May turned to shit rapidly nowhere wants a volunteer that'll be about for less than 6 months, I'm under-experienced and under qualified to get a relevant job so I've just spent more and more time hacking away at my dissertation in the vain hope that I may get it published given that my data are quite good and no-one in the UK has done this sort of thing in the same manner before.

A combination of mental exhaustion, stress, various Suicide Black metal bands and the sheer insanity that is Serial Experiments Lain (recommended to all but especially those of you who love stuff that fucks your mind something royal) I'm up to 20 "lyrics for a band that'll never be" which I'm actually quite pleased with. Other than this I've been browsing about various PhD ideas including a rather brilliant idea of mine to investigate the vector potential of cleptoparasitic bees. I'll also be in Roehampton's 2008/09 Postgraduate prospectus as a (rather deformed and awkward looking) living testament to my Uni'. I also did some spring cleaning and got rid of some of the CD's in my collection (mostly Death Metal since I'm so sick of how 1 dimensional the genre has been in the last 5 years, give me Dismember of give me Death... the band I mean).

As I now have the time to dedicate to replying to people online then, irrespective of my loathing of this as a means of communication, please feel free to update me on your situations.

EDIT: Gabe and Tycho deserve a medal for this one!



Currently listening to:
Silencer: Death - Pierce Me
Sterbend: Dwelling Lifeless
Nyktalgia: Nyktalgia
Paysage d'Hiver: Die Festung
Darkspace: Darkspace I
Lunar Aurora: Zyklus
Ulver: Perdition City
Shining: III: Angst

I'm not going to BS anyone, the following is copied and pasted from my LJ, I'm still burnt out form a) Oslo, b) updating my website and c) doing coursework. I'll be back in a few days to say something more profound (probably along the lines of "borf"). In more tragic news Arcturus are no more, this is a black day for me not only because I adore their studio output but because they were hands down the finest live act in the world. Hopefully I'll get back to being able to actually reply to people again (I thought I was doing ok too...).

"Long overdue but here's what happened in Oslo:

Firstly I almost got arrested at Stansted, my crime: having an extra 25ml of toothopaste... seriously. Mercifully I got let off light although Gib managed to slip through security in his Terrorist T-shirt (we have photographic evidence!). Anyway when we got to Oslo I found that I couldn't check-in at the Hostel until 3pm, which was abummer since it was 12:30 and I had bareley sleptin 2 days...

Well anyway after finding the shop closest to heaven for Metalheads (Neseblod - or Nosebleed in English) and watching Gib spend about 600NOK I finally got to crash out, this year my room-mates were a traveling mexicn, 2 very un-neutral French speaking Swiss guys and an Irish guy... indeed the Irish guy was going to Inferno too and quite to my surprise was in town with Irish Dave and John who I'd shraed a room with last year.

On the first day of Inferno the organisers had rente dout one of the local clubs so we could buy merch, have stuffed signed and just chill out for a bit, which was cool of them. After deciding that Shagrath from Dimmu Borgir is a complete nob we bumped into Vera... who immediately whent downstairs and did a line of coke in true Vera style. We also encountered Irish Dave from last year who was once again the only Sober Irishman more incoherant than the drunk ones... still he's a great lauigh. Gib was bouncing off the walls to discover that not only was Mirai from Sigh in the building but actually staying in his hotel. We also ran into some people from the Inferno Forum who we hung out with fir the rest of the fest. The fest itself is all burbed about on my site so I'll leave you all to not read it.

Second day and it turned out that vera haddn't slept and had instead spent all night sitting up on acid listening to music so she went back to the hotel to crash out when Gib returned to fetch his camera. While we were waiting in the hotel lobby we happened to spot one of Gib's aquaintances: Jonathan Selzer - thee ed of Terrorizer... of course Gib being talkative as he is... we also spotted Hellhammer which reminded us of how small he is. Anyway we went to both signings, first time about was Obsidian C (Keep of Kalessin) Samoth (Emperor/Zyklon) and Steiner (Spiral Architect), so we got some stuff signed and got some signed photos off them courtosey of their guitar sponsors which was nice. The second signing was embarassing, Apollyon signed my Cadaver and Dodheimsgard inserts but Abbath thought my copy of Pure Holocaust was a botoleg, it was actually just the crappy print that The End were using so his roadie cleared that one up for me (it's always a good idea not to offend the band you're seeing). There was a 3rd signing at the fest itself, namely Nattefrost of Carpathian Forest (who's also really small) and one of my favorite songwriters Niklas Kvarforth of Shining, since Nattefrost had written the Lyrics to one of the songs on the only Shining album I owned at the time (I bought Shining III: angst when I got home) I had them both sign that insert (although Kvarforth had to remind Nattefrost that he'd written the lyrics...). We had Expected Kvarforth to be really hostile, given his tendancy to be somewhat suicidal on and offstage (the guy has some really deep scars on his arms and has been in and out of institutes for years) but he was absolutely one of the nicest guys ever. During the course of the day however it struck us that we haddn't seen Vera at all, which was disconcerting.

Third day and with no expo to go to Gib went to the Dark Funeral signing... they were a bunch of arrogant wankers as we'd expected, with still no sign of Vera we just went on with things (we had no way of contacting her) but were obviously somewhat concerned by he continued absence. Well the day went on as usual, no signings or anything so we just hung out with Dave and other bods for a laugh.

Coming back we found Vera and her mum at Torp (the airport), apparently Vera's acid endulgence (she'd snuck 6 tabs through the airport) had left her in a major freak out for 2 days (she was still shaking badly when we found her), but as her mum was a hippy back in the day she was alright. The flight back comprised of me sifting througfh the 944 pics Gib had taken oer the 3 days... we kept 404 of them. Well before landing I remarked that I;d finally ben to a festival without giving myself head trauma... as we grabbed our luggage I hit my head on the overhead baggage compartment... the circle is complete."

My Website's reviews and pictures. There's also some stuff from Taake last month, including some superb pics that Gib managed.

Currently listening to:
Darkspace: Darkspace I
Shining: III: Angst
Sigh: Gallows Gallery
Dodheimsgard: 666 International
Nocternity: Onyx
Enslaved: Isa
Deathspell Omega: Si Momvmentum Requiris Circumspice
Code: Noveau Gloaming

I always think its funny to look at the blank slate that is an empty blog post box, if on;y it knew what terrible angst it was going to recieve...

Well its not, I don't feel like rambling about this to my IRL friends never mind people who don't really know me. So fuck that. Here's what happened this last month +:

*I did 2 presentations for my uni classes and managed to both pass and fuck up at the same time.
*I saw Decapitated for the7th time, it was great
*I saw Rotting Christ on Saturday
*I ended up doing the university phoneathon (more on that later)
*I spent £15 on a Paysage d'hiver album which to my surprise came in an a5 digipack inside a sealed black emvelope with the Pd'H logo embossed on it (?!)
*I won a Gallhammer shirt from Peaceville
*I managed to arrange everything for my Oslo stint in April so that I can travel with Gib (rather than being bored out of my mind like last years treck).
*I got Stand Alone Complex 2nd gig and then wrote an angry leter to Manga complaining about the sloppy translation and unprofessional presentation.

Anyway the phoneathon, this was cute, basically Roehampton's applications were down something trivial (~3%), but now they're panicking about this and the other BS so existing students who had volenteered to work at the open day ended up on this instead... calling prespective students and answering questions they may have about the university. Seriously. I got £45 worth of Asda vouchers and free pizza out of it but still... The best thing was when one girl had to stop calling for 5 mins to get over one call, it went something like this:

Caller: Hello is this [girl], we're students calling from Roehampton university to answer any of your questions about the university or student life.
[girl]: *breathing heavily* sorry can you say that again, Mark get off me!

I thought that was rather amusing but since the Christian union was involved then well sex is evil and ungodly and blah blah jesus crap (there's nothing more innane than happy Christians).

Eye of Horus is revealing itself to be severely understaffed; seriously look at our list of upcoming gigs... I also found out that I could probably have got press passes for Infero owed to actually being a member of the press in some vague capacity (in which I'm not but there you go) since poeple who don't even have webzines are being dolled out with them... but still its Gib who does the photography, I just BS a lot.

How are ye vagrant netfiends?

Currently listening to:
Koldbrann: Moribund
Nocternity: Onyx
...And Oceans/Havoc Unit/The Sin Decay: 3-way split
Paysage d'Hiver: Schattengang
Code: Noveau Gloaming
Rotten Sound: Exit
Deathspell Omega: Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice

...and now that same box just looks sad.

Pah, somwhow I managed to go a month without saying anything... Borf.

...in more insignificant news, I've finally finished all impending work and done the last exam I will ever have to do ever ever ever. Which is an even greater relief than the continuation of Death Note fansubbing (prod me if you need Ep 15/16). Ultimately the few days between finishing everything and now have been partially invested in much needed updates to Eye of Horus including reviews of Iron Maiden and Cradle of Filth (I didn't go myself before the inevitable torrent of abuse occurs) as well as reviewing Therion's gig on the 21st. I also finally managed to sort out my editorial, resplendant with snide social commentary.

This aside I've spent the mainstry of my time asleep (I'm down something like 40 hours even now), watching Great Teacher Onizuka and other assorted anime and of course listening to Metal whilst palying Breath of Fire III (Best game EVER) on the PS Emulator I DL'd in November. Of course I now regret such frivolities as I can't seem to focus on my dissertation and when I do get in the right maindset then I end up spewing forth infinite realities worth of alternative ideas as to how to do the bloody thing.

Also I finally wrote a lyric that I am happy with... albeit based around an obscure reference thatmost of you may not have ever even heard of.

...you may also have noticed that I'm increasingly talking like a pretentious lunatic (seriously I'm actually saying this jargon, not just typing it)... I have no Idea as to why I am doing this (although sleep depravation no doubt plays some considerable part) only that I cannot seem to stop myself and am afr to apathetic to o back and correct myself...

How are all ye merry net-fiends?

Currently listening to:
Negura Bunget: Om
Code: Noveau Gloaming
Celtic Frost: Monotheist
Arcturus: La Masquerade Infernale
Anaal Nathrakh: all albums
Primordial: The Gathering Wilderness
Root: Madness of the Graves
Gallhammer: The Dawn Of

Well thats the end of the road.

in me news, Daisy (my Guinea Pig) died in the small hours of yesterday morning in her sleep, she was 7 and I'd known her literally all her life. I came back to uni on the 29th.

I've been all but totally inactive on her of late due to uni work (and in all fairness I'm just posting this now to avoid working for a while) and my lecture-mates generally lazy attitude doesn't help.

Gig wise things look a bit better tho' Decapitated have just confirmed a gig in Feburary, Celtic Frost are back in london in March and Taake are doing a 1-off show in London the day after that. Primordial and Anaal Nathrakh have been confirmed for Inferno and a few days after that the No Mercy traveling fest is coming to London, TBH I wouldn't go if it weren't for Root, everyone else on the bill is in the "Ok but not exactly what I'd shell out for" catagory.

My Website'll be celebrating its 2 year anniversary soon with a new feature... me ranting about stuff in a snide and comedic fashion (currently working on a "fabulous offensive girlie shirts" featurette for Feb, any suggestions welcome) ... I'm also doing another site to host my various anime ventings.

Hope you all have a good new years, I'll probably be able to say something... better, in late January. All the best.

EDIT: for new years here's a pic of my favorite deity... Haruhi Suzumiya who'se escapades are currently smothering my woes with delicious, addictive absurdity. W00t!

Well having been back at uni proper for almost a month now I can honestly say that MSc's are seriously mind-bending... and we've only just been set coursework.

Now things that have been established:
Flatmates: Well there are now 8 of us on my floor, for a while ther was only 6 but we've had 2 new arrivals to fill out the no shows rooms, currently ther's me, Laura (who'se Spanish), Sofia (from Greece) Lucia (From the Czech Republic), Yosuke and Kyoko (from Japan), Grace (from Tiwan) and Raul (from India). They're all really nice people and very quirky in their own ways.

Lecturemates: Raul (the guy I ive with), Indris (another indian guy), Aude (an english chick), Tendai (who'se from sunny Zimbabwae... I think thats how you spell it ) again all nice, all mad.

Gigs: well I finally have my site fully up to date and everything, its had a full make over and soon we'll be adding scrolling pictures to ease up on the amount of space things take. If you've not been there already then this is my website. Recently I've seen Enslaved, Zyklon, 1349, Satyricon, Keep of Kalessin, My Dying Bride, Onlsaught, Insomnium, Vried, Brainstorm, Mael Mordha, Spellblast, Machine Men and Omnium Gatherum so there's plenty of reading there. Seeing Red Harvest next Friday too and best of all I secured a 3 day ticket to Inferno 2007 with Immortal headlining! Fuck Yeah!

General: Well I've managed to accumulate £6 in library fines already... Other than that calling the misses was a nightmare, we got a net phone from Tesco only to discover it wa sdefectiive after her mother had thrown out the recipt... So I'm using internaional calling cards as a way of keeping in touch (we can only call freephone numbers from our hall's phone). I've been struggling to listen to all the CD's I got in the aftermath of Golden Lake'[s demise but I'm somehow managing it, got new Xasthur and Amon Amarth too. I also (in case you haddn't noticed on the Black/Death forums) have been plugging and pre-ordering the new Negura Bunget album which sounds incredible from the promo track on Code666's myspazz. I'm also working on 2 new Demo's with my ambient project and trying to actually record the one I finished 4 months ago... My Brother's past his Driving test and got a great new job with Egg (the credit card company) both on the same day too so he's hapier than he has been in ages. Roxy's freaking out about Uni even though she doesn't have to choose her first choice for another 5 months... LOL ah well... I alsofeel intelectually intimidated by more and more people as of late but I'm generally not so dperessed these days.

Work: Well I'm sorted on my Dissertation, I'm doing an anlysis on why people value certain species over others when it comes to conservation, it'll be a simple survey with lots of cool animals and plants involved so that'll be fun... although I have to do 15-20000 words... Other than that I have Statistics, Ecological Methods, Ecology of Threatened Species and Principles of Ecology in lectures (you can have a guess as to what we do in them...).

Currently on rotation:
Amon Amarth: With Oden on our Side
Centinex: Hellbrigade
Shining: IV The Eerie Cold
Skepticism: Ethere
The Legion: Unseen to Creation
MP3's by Negura Bunget, The Axis of Perdition and StrommoussHeld.

Oh and another random Youtube clip, ok you probably know the story here but HIGNFY just makes it all the much funnier... Enjoy:


How is all?