I do not like strangers because I do not like people I have never met before. They are hard to understand.
Christopher Boone (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time)

For possibly the first time in my life…

…I’m actually looking forward to New Year’s Eve.

Most years, NYE for me consists of either staying in and doing absolutely nothing or doing something semi-boring with my parents. About a week ago I was discussing this with one of my uni housemates, who responded by telling me he’d been invited to spend the night in Southampton with some of his friends but couldn’t really be bothered with the expense/effort. I half-seriously suggested we should go back to Leamington and play video games instead. Now, our entire house is heading up to Leamington to do precisely this. I fucking love my boys.

Today I painted this plate. Let me explain:Before I went to uni, my cousins, uncle, father and I went through a period of making regular excursions to Vale away games. This would generally consist of getting a train perilously early (I’m talking 9, 10am for a 3pm kick-off), going to a variety of pubs both before and after the match, before finishing up with (usually) a curry. The absolute best kind of day out. On one such day (my cousin and I think it was Shrewsbury, but my dad is convinced it was Kidderminster. This doesn’t affect the story but I love detail), we were walking through a market in the town centre. I spotted a stall selling jars of cabbage and beetroot (???) and misread the sign for them as “carnage and beetroot”. My cousin John and I decided this would make a fantastic band name, and spent a lot of the rest of the day with one of us half-growling “CARNAGE” at the other, for them to reply with “BEETROOT”. The absolute highlight of this was while walking through the train station, John (at this point, it is worth saying, he was either 30 years of age or rapidly approaching that milestone) ran up to a gaggle of 15-year-old girls and shouted “WHEN I SAY CARNAGE, YOU SAY BEETROOT, CARNAGE” to a slightly confused and muted response of “…beetroot?”So, John and his girlfriend make their first trip back from Singapore (where they are living and teaching) in 18 months and she decides we should go and paint pottery at Emma Bridgewater to celebrate her birthday. John and I decide this is the opportune time for the first official Carnage and Beetroot band merchandise. This is my plate. He made a similar one. So stoked for it to actually become usable.
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Today I painted this plate. Let me explain:

Before I went to uni, my cousins, uncle, father and I went through a period of making regular excursions to Vale away games. This would generally consist of getting a train perilously early (I’m talking 9, 10am for a 3pm kick-off), going to a variety of pubs both before and after the match, before finishing up with (usually) a curry. The absolute best kind of day out. On one such day (my cousin and I think it was Shrewsbury, but my dad is convinced it was Kidderminster. This doesn’t affect the story but I love detail), we were walking through a market in the town centre. I spotted a stall selling jars of cabbage and beetroot (???) and misread the sign for them as “carnage and beetroot”. My cousin John and I decided this would make a fantastic band name, and spent a lot of the rest of the day with one of us half-growling “CARNAGE” at the other, for them to reply with “BEETROOT”. The absolute highlight of this was while walking through the train station, John (at this point, it is worth saying, he was either 30 years of age or rapidly approaching that milestone) ran up to a gaggle of 15-year-old girls and shouted “WHEN I SAY CARNAGE, YOU SAY BEETROOT, CARNAGE” to a slightly confused and muted response of “…beetroot?”

So, John and his girlfriend make their first trip back from Singapore (where they are living and teaching) in 18 months and she decides we should go and paint pottery at Emma Bridgewater to celebrate her birthday. John and I decide this is the opportune time for the first official Carnage and Beetroot band merchandise. This is my plate. He made a similar one. So stoked for it to actually become usable.

Today I’ve been playing this game a lot. It’s called Costume Quest and it makes me genuinely glad Tim Schafer is still making video games. Here is a screenshot. It is a giant mech and the statue of liberty fighting (effectively) a goblin. Need I say more?

Hi tumblr. I am back in Stoke for Christmas so we might become friends again for a little while. I hope you don’t mind.

So today my friend was working at the freshers’ fayre on campus signing people up to some mailing list. This involved her having to ask people their course and year, and in doing this she informs me she met a lot of 3rd year maths students. Apparently, very few of them knew “Adam” but a lot knew of “the guy with the brightly coloured jeans”, and yesterday I met a guy who told me he sees me in lectures and keeps an eye out for me. It kind of weirds me out that I am noticeable within the maths department. There are a whole bunch of people who I actively notice around the department and notice the absence of, and it’s odd to think that I am one of those people to others.

I wish you were real.
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I wish you were real.

I’m listening to this album and reminiscing something rotten. There was a good period of time when this band were my favourite thing in the world, and I do listen to this and their debut album from time to time (after this though, they basically might as well have just fucking given up). They’re both still awesome albums, and I’m very glad I saw them live back when they were still doing tracks from I Brought You My Bullets… which, fortunately, included the magnificent Headfirst For Halos. I miss this band a bit, and I miss nerding out over them. Here’s a fact for you: Frank Iero has a tattoo on the inside of his lip that says NJ.
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I’m listening to this album and reminiscing something rotten. There was a good period of time when this band were my favourite thing in the world, and I do listen to this and their debut album from time to time (after this though, they basically might as well have just fucking given up). They’re both still awesome albums, and I’m very glad I saw them live back when they were still doing tracks from I Brought You My Bullets… which, fortunately, included the magnificent Headfirst For Halos. I miss this band a bit, and I miss nerding out over them. Here’s a fact for you: Frank Iero has a tattoo on the inside of his lip that says NJ.

This song is my evening.

Hi tumblr. I am waiting for my pizza to cook in the oven. This is boring for me, so here is my face and the timer.
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Hi tumblr. I am waiting for my pizza to cook in the oven. This is boring for me, so here is my face and the timer.

The Twist

So I’ve been looking at modules to do this coming year at uni (we decide ours super-late) and have come up with somewhat of a list. If I did this selection, I’d have marginally more than the required amount of CATs so that’d be boss. I’m going to write the list out here in case I lose the paper I’ve written it on, and also you guys get to laugh at silly maths words.

  • Galois Theory
  • Introduction to Topology
  • Random discrete structures
  • Combinatorial optimization
  • Commutative algebra
  • Fractal geometry (YES, FRACTALS ARE THE BOMB)
  • Problem Solving
  • Philosophy of mathematics (this is possibly my favourite, it looks fascinating)
  • Groups & representations
Awesome.
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Awesome.

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(via retrostarwars)

Source: inavonlamk

I just finished watching series 1 of The Wire and now I finally understand all of the hype that surrounds it. Wonderfully paced, densely layered, immersive, and just brilliant. I need series 2 so much. And then probably series 3-5. My housemate has them all (it was his series 1 I’ve been watching) but doesn’t know where 2 is. I pray he finds it soon.
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I just finished watching series 1 of The Wire and now I finally understand all of the hype that surrounds it. Wonderfully paced, densely layered, immersive, and just brilliant. I need series 2 so much. And then probably series 3-5. My housemate has them all (it was his series 1 I’ve been watching) but doesn’t know where 2 is. I pray he finds it soon.