KarmaTsunami

I was in France during the '98 World Cup. We sat and watched the QF between Italy and France in a tiny bar in Bayeux and my Dad was placing bets with the barman throughout the game. The atmosphere after the shootout was magic. My family were staying in this huge old country house in the middle of nowhere and my brother and I played football pretty much every day. That was a great summer. 

I'm getting right excited about the World Cup now. I'm even getting an office pool going. I'll probably end up picking Iran or Honduras out of the hat, but at least I could end up winning my own Wooden Spoon prize.

I spent a whole afternoon here eating myself stupid: http://www.smorgasburg.com/ Especially the 'smores and buffalo wings. That's something I really miss about the US. Amazing buffalo wings and good, decent cheap coffee. Mind you, I miss that about Berlin as well.

Then drank myself stupid whilst playing videogames at Barcade.

This place is also good for ice-cream - http://biggayicecream.com/  - the Salty Pimp is brilliant.

Yeah okay, I'll take Spain. 

Even though it pains me to lose Carrie Brownstein and a kitten as my avatar, I'll change it too.

The first time I ever put money on football was a punt on Spain in advance of the Euro 2012 tournament. I've had a soft spot ever since, even though they haven't really played like that since. My heart says Spain, but my head says probably someone else. Like Argentina or Italy. 

What the fuck happened to the old curriculum?

I was curious and found this comparison table: http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/59033.html

Regarding old posts on social media, I am forever glad that I deleted my old LiveJournal. Some of my old posts on here are supremely cringe-tastic.

See, that's the thing. He can't at the moment. Nobody is supposed to know where Sansa is and she's still married to Tyrion. Peter is going to have a bit of a waiting game on his hands if that's his plan. I think he'll bide his time though, christ knows how long he's been working on his plan to basically throw the whole of Westeros into civil war. 

Lysa was awful. Good fucking riddance to her.

Will be curious to see little Lord Robin's reaction to that. I wonder how Peter will deal with him. I know Peter is essentially Lord/Warden of the Vale now, but he can't still intend to wed Sansa and that little shit. 

That was a fucking brilliant episode.

LITTLEFINGER. Best of the Eyrie/Vale scenes so far. His accent still bothers me but I'm getting used to it. Everything else was very good as well. Pod and Brienne were great, and so happy we got to see Hot Pie again. His wee Direwolf pastry for Arya though. Heartbreaking. As was Bronn and Tyrion's farewell. 

 

Can't believe we have to wait two weeks for that fucking fight. IT'S GOING TO BE AMAZING.

Elementary finale

 

So Sherlock is joining MI5. Not sure what I think about that. To be honest I didn't enjoy the last couple of episodes so much. I like the show most when it keeps it simple and sticks to puzzle of the week episodes. longs arcs are't really its strengh

Yeah, not sure about the MI6 move and the removal of the heroin from its hiding place. I don't know about the long-arc thing though, I thought the Irene Adler/Moriarty thing was really well done, but that could be because I have a massive thing for Natalie Dormer and was happy when she had screen-time. The last couple episodes have been somewhat lacking though. Will be curious to see how Season 3 starts!

I think you might be missing an episode. That was explained last week wasn't it?

And I'm now annoyed I've missed that, but also pleased I have two episodes to catch up on! To the internet!

Actually Mycroft has been one thing I've not liked so much about Elementary.

He annoyed me at first too, but after the reveal last episode I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

Assuming of course he's always worked for a British Intelligence unit and not just acting as some sort of undercover informant who actually was tangled up with the mob. He still used Joan as bait though, and I doubt Sherlock or Joan are going to forgive him for that any time soon.

couldnt believe how good it was. i was really hoping for ward to try redeem himself but nope, the fight with him and may was epic anyway. was that the same fury as it is in the actual films? looked a tad different or maybe its just he never had the eye patch. couldnt believe coulson is the new director of SHIELD, but im really annoyed it ended like that with no fitz as we couldve atleast seen him recovering. im also sad thats it for a while

Yes, it's Samuel L Jackson in that episode of SHIELD - same guy, same character, dressed the same as he was at the end of The Winter Soldier where he also removes his eye-patch in exchange for dark glasses.

I vastly prefer Elementary to Sherlock. It might be unfair to directly compare the two because whilst they're both modern-day adaptations of the same source material, there's a lot more Elementary than Sherlock. But regardless, I prefer it. I also prefer Johnny Lee Miller's Sherlock to Benedict Cumberbuns. It could be because I don't really like Benedict Cumberbuns that much though, but Miller's Sherlock just seems more human.

Actually, I just watched it again and really enjoyed it. I think I was just suffering from Season finale blues.

I think the last episode of Season 2 of Elementary is tonight as well. 

Just watched the Agents of SHIELD season finale. Some parts were really very good. Others, well...just left me asking more questions I suppose. 

The way Garrett was dealt with was brilliant. "Hey guys, I found it! I told you it was back here!" I'm glad Ward doesn't seem to be coming back as he was packed off to whatever maximum security facility he was headed for. It was good to see Nick Fury play a small cameo part too. It leads nicely into next season, but something just felt lacking. I guess because the whole 'Fitz will never be the same' thing just seemed like a bit of a cop-out. I'm glad they didn't kill him off, but would it have hurt to let us see him? All in all, solid episode but I didn't enjoy it as much as I have the preceding episodes. Maybe I'm just gutted that's it for Season 1.

Dogs are fucking great. Our first family dog, Atticus, had to be put down last year after suffering some sort of horrible spinal stroke. 

I've now moved out, but my parents got another merle collie from the same folk they got Atticus from. This is Scout, and he's ace.

I didn't know that one of the membership benefits was shoes that don't wear out. Whoever's in change of marketing needs sacked.....

It's not. I've been gay for fucking AGES and my shoes keep falling to pieces. Maybe it's just one of those 'new members benefits' or something, like what banks do for new customers. 

Hrm. I'm not a fan of split seasons, but as long as Agent Carter's good that'll tide me over.

DO IT!

Mad Men

The ginsberg thing was really weird. It reminded me of the lawnmower incident in season 3 in the way in which it came out of the blue. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about it but there's no doubt that it has a powerful effect because it doesn't fit with the overall feel of the show.

 

The last scene was classic Don Draper. I really hope he gets one over those two guys.

 

Betty does all she can to make you dislike her.

Mad Men

I think the main problem I have with Betty is that she sometimes has these moments with her kids and she seems to think that this redeems all the truly awful shit she's pulled. But you can draw parallels with her and Skylar. At the start, they're both in relationships with men who they think are one thing, but they turn out to be something completely different. In Skylar's case, a drug dealer who turns out to be an emotionally manipulative asshat. In Betty's case, a womanising adulterer who thinks she's the whore. Yet with Skylar I had real problems with some of the responses to her character from people who thought Walter was the hero of the piece. With Betty, I have problems sympathising with her because she doesn't do herself any favours, but then is she an example of a woman stuck in the wrong era? If she had been born a few years later would she be a career-oriented woman similar to Peggy? I can't decide. I'm having feelings that seem overly-complicated for fictional characters...

Finally got the platinum trophy on Skyrim. Should have probably gone for the 'Golden Touch' trophy before mucking about with the houses in Hearthfire though. 

I've gone back to Oblivion since I've never played any other Elder Scrolls game. Quit enjoying it so far. 

Still have The Last of Us to finish but I keep rage-quitting, so that'll probably take a while. I've also got Heavy Rain to play at some point too.

Is it a taught postgraduate course you're looking at doing initially?

If you're going back to Aberdeen you get an alumni discount. All other scholarships and that are here: www.abdn.ac.uk/funding

You can apply for a Student Loan, but that's just more debt really.

I was self-funded, and most of my friends got AHRC funding which is generally arts-specific. Any scholarships applicable would be on the uni funding page in any event.