*Grumble*

Boring, boring weekend. Nothing but all the revision I could stand (and I can't stands no more). Work, Industry and Society (random philosophy/management studies kinda class) on Wednesday morning and Mass Media on Thursday. Just got to memorise a crapload of stuff before then, but at least its all written out already. After that, my biggest decision will be do I drink thiiis much at the Gilbert & Sullivan Society Summer Ball, or thiiiiiiiiiiiiis much.

Grr.

Come on, June...

Just watched Suzanne Moyer's photos of the triple birthday party in New York recently...

Soon, oh yes - soon...

How to tell when the British Summertime has arrived

Yesterday: Gloomy and overcast > people complaining about the gloomy, overcast weather

Today: Nuclear heat > people complaining about the nuclear heat

Waaaaaaaaaaaaarm

Things I've learnt in the last 24 hrs

1) Don't fuck around when taking penalties (well done Liverpool!).

2) There is in fact a 7am, but it's not so much fun to be around to experience.

3) Corporate expatriation programmes can work, so long as the company gets off its ass and does something with them.

4) More importantly, I can write about this fact for a full hour.

5) I can get a flight to New York for a shade over £200. Which is awesome.

6) That yes, Revenge of the Sith is pretty cool, despite the clunky acting and dialogue (but hey, if you're going to Star Wars for the acting or dialogue, you may very well be in the 1970s).

7) I leave for New York in 3 weeks. 8D

WTF?

OK, this seriously happened yesterday afternoon. My friend and I were walking down a street after a pre-exam note swapping session and ran into this guy who was looking at my IU sweatshirt...

Some Guy: Hey, Indiana! You American?

Me: Half-American, yeah.

Some Guy: Half-American? [shaking my hand] Have we met before?

Me: ...No?

Some Guy: Are you sure? Do you smoke weed?

Me: ...No?

Some Guy: Do you want to? I've got some good shit.

Me: I need an adult! I need an adult!

...OK, apart from that last line, it all totally happened.

Anyway... International Human Resource Management exam tomorrow. So, Yay and all that.

One Down

First exam yesterday wet pretty well (apart from a shaky hour that morning when I convinced myself that I had in fact missed it entirely). I am now free to forget everything I've ever learnt about interviews, learning theories and *sigh* training evaluation. Except for this - AIESEC is (or is moving towards being) a Triple Loop Learning organisation. Maybe. Umm... You heard it here first. Yeah.

Unfortunately, this is the "good" part of my exam period - another 2 hour exam next Thursday, then a delightful period where I get to revise for two 3 hour exams at the same time. Essay-based, and all. But I'll stop there; I think if I complain any more I'll have to change the title of this post to "Chris is such a little bitch-box".

Either way, Homestar Wiki is every bit as wonderful as I'd hoped it would be; I found a website where I can play NES Punch Out to my heart's content, and I'm currently watching a stand-up show on TV that has already made me spray water over myself twice (yeah, it's that good). Still, better me that the lappy.

Oh Shit

I am a huge fan of Homestar Runner, and all that is contained in homestarrunner.com. I spend way too much time watching the new content, and all the old content when no new stuff is available.

I have just found this: Homestar Wikipidia, a nexus for all Homestar information known to man, woman, child and intelligent animals (www.hrwiki.org).

There is absolutely no chance of me passing my finals now. I had even dismantled my Gamecube and left parts of it in the AIESEC Manchester office, all to no avail.

Must... type up... exam notes...

(Dammit I really, really don't want to have to cut my ethernet cable in half...)

The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry

Just under 3 days until my first final (and these are the final finals) and I'm up to my waste in interviews, training evaluation and learning theories. I've been trying to remember why I've taken another crappy selection and training class (crappy selection and training class number 1 I had just finished with this time last year), and as of yet have been unable to remember exactly why. Then again, if there's about 65 hours to go until the class ends, I should probably just get on with it...

Randomly I actually watched some sport over the weekend - my TV is mostly taken up with DVDs these days - but it was nice for a change. The English Premier league just finished yesterday, and it wasn't until the very last few games that the relegated teams were decided (in the most football leagues in Europe and elsewhere, the bottom few teams in each league get relegated to the league below, with the top few teams below coming up). Sad as it may be, I got a warm, fuzzy feeling inside watching Norwich City get beat 6-0 and get relegated comprehensively - I grew up in Suffolk (as in middle-of-nowhere countryside), and Norfolk (middle-of-nowhere-but-just-north-of-Suffolk countryside) and its county-town Norwich remains our greatest rival. All I need now is for Ipswich to get promoted up and the season will be complete.

Not only that, but the Yankees are winning again! About bloody time, too. I figured they found out I was coming to live in New York and started sucking in advance.

A big welcome to AIESEC Manchester great-grand-pappy Adam who's finally joined the Nomadlife community!

*Tear*

Had my last LC meeting with AIESEC Manchester last night - very fun affair, the new EB ran their first GMM (complete with wine and AIESEC quizzes), then out to (of all things) a Molgolian barbeque for food, speeches and awards a plenty. Bit sad to know that it was my last one ever... But still. The important thing is that the LC has some great people to take the LC into the new year. Plus, its time to move on...

*Sound of Chris thinking about the summer*

*Sound of Chris doing the Happy Dance*

More good news today as Fab (who was on the same EB as me and who has been in AIESEC since forever) just got accepted to postgrad studies at Harvard! AIESEC Harvard, anyone? Hmm? (Potential for another good LC rivalry there with AIESEC Yale...).

Last ever class tomorrow - feeling way more happy about that one.

Thank God no-one was watching

I was listening to music on my laptop and an AIESEC song came up - it was half over before I realised I was half-dancing along to it while sitting on my chair.

...

Damn catchy AIESEC tunes...

Oooh, get him

Definition of AIESEC from urbandictionary.com:

"An international student organisation which holds conferences at which the members become enthused with over inflated ideas of their own importance. Bears much resemblence to the Hitler Youth."

Which is of course bollocks; we're far better dancers than the Hitler Youth ever was. Plus our t-shirts are better.

Coach Z, how come you don't dance no more?

(+10 points if you get what the title's going on about)

Looks like its another 4 years for Tony Blah (cheap, I know, but it makes me giggle). In the run-up to the election I did some searching around about the main parties, and I'll admit that there's actually a fair amount of stuff I agree with him on (like making a go of the Kyoto Treaty and urging Clinton and other leaders to act on Milosevic), but ultimately his was still not the party for me. Ah well, as my MSM screen name currently says: "If Blair wins, I'll Leave the Country!".

Recent posts by Sheila Z, Colleen, Emir and Arnaub have reminded me that my last ever GMM is right around the corner - next Tuesday, to be precise. It's weird to think that I've had nearly four years in AIESEC already, and that I may still only be a little over half way through my time with the organisation. I have a sneeking suspiscion that I'm going to rip off Arnaub's cool retrospective post when I get all misty eyed next wednesday... but hey, imitation being the scinserest form of flattery and all that...

CSR-a-go-go

Last night was our LC's first CSR event, and it was great! We had a few companies drop out, which was a shame, but the speakers were great and the delegates all seemed happy if their feedback forms are anything to go by. Plus it means next years events will have a lot of experience behind them, which definately bodes well. Huge congrats to Mike and Rob for all their hard work (especially Mike, who's completely branded hard work can be found at www.sustainablemanchester.org.uk and who has pretty much lived in the office for the past 3 weeks).

So today is the election... meh. It's kinda clear who's gonna win, but still. The UK election is no where near as exciting as the US election, but whaddaya gonna do. Other than that, life is pretty dull, just running up to exams. Got into a row with a (completely shit) seminar leader today - not really worth going into details, but the just of it is that he's a dick and has been for some time. Not sure if I'll complain formally, as I'm graduating and the course coordinator is retiring and I don't think he'd be too bothered about the whole thing anyway. Eh, I'm graduating, that's the main thing.

One thing I have been meaning to write about is my feelings towards the University of Manchester, where I'm now finishing up my degree. The short version is: they suck. Actually that's kinda indistinct; I do not like the way they run the university, put it that way. But then I realised what an utterly crappy thing to do that would be. I've got a university education - how can I complain about that? I remember Suzanne Moyer writing in her blog about how few people you see smiling on the streets when we have so much to be thankful for. So, I'll leave it at that. I don't like them, but the best thing to do is to let it go and get on with it (future t'ai chi student right here).

So, on to the happy stuff - St Cloud have a potential trainee on the way, Jill and Natalie have been absolutely amazing in sending me info about accomodation in New York and life is going to get very, very interesting very, very soon. Fan-fuckin'-tastic.

Election update:

Labour: 2
Conservatives: 0
Lib Dems: 0

To Win: 324

Strap yourself in, it's going to be a long one...

Let's hear it for the weekend

Yesterday was my last ever performance with the University's Gilbert & Sullivan society - bit sad, but it was a lot of fun. Not sure what I'll do drama and performing-wise in the future, but I'm sure Am-Dram will call me back soon enough. Throat's a bit sore today, bt it's my own fault for singing Yellow Submarine so loudly on the way home...

All of which called for a relaxing day today (the fact that I'm in post-dissertation de-stress kinda helps too). Ended up going to see Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which was pretty good. Used to watch the TV series with my brother and Dad ages ago and I've read the book, and there seemed to be a good mix of old and new stuff. Fans will always be difficult to please and its a bit hit and miss in places, but some good funny moments as well.

Either way, revision starts in earnest tomorrow with my first exam in about two and a half weeks, so I best enjoy it while I can...