Oh I wish I was a Punk Oscar with flowers in my hair

Hi all

Its that time again for me to update the blog, and it indeed looks like it will be a genuinely interesting one, as, my week has been, a genuinely interesting one. Three things of note; the 26 hour charity dance marathon hell, the deeply odd religious undertone Internship application, as well as the all important Oscars. I also bought some very nice new shoes, but im sure Ill intergrate that into the blog later. Ok, so on with the blog...

The 26 Hour Dance Marathon
As seems to have been the way since about the age of 17, I have a tenancy to put myself out extrodinarily, all in the name of charity, some of you will will remember Malawi child, or sleeping rough for a homeless charity in December. All of you will remember Ecuador. Anyhow, I would suggest that this time, even for me, this severely pushed it. In October time I signed up to dance for 26 hours, to support Pediatric Aids. There was a minimum amount that each registered dancer had to raise of $225, and, I thought, with the exchange rate being as it is, I could easily raise it. Anyhow, last week involved frantic last minute fund raising. I say last minute as if I had raised the majority of my money prior to this. In fact, I raised pretty much ALL my money last week, and only just nudged myself over the target in time for the Saturday morning deadline.

When I was told it would be a 26 hour dance marathon, I quickly learned was infact more like a 26 hour dance marathon, as well as two hours set up prior, and one hour after, so arguably a 29 hour dance challenge. I also didn't train at all for the marathon, apart from eating more in the lead up to the marathon, as well as sleeping more. Essentially letting my inhibitions of sleep and food aside for one week. It was not enough training.

OK, so the event had many different elements and rules, which I will go into in a moment. Before that I need to underline how absolutely, totally, exhausting it is to be dancing for 26 hours, I have never never never been so tired in my life. Ever. Even my roomate Francis who has trained in the Marines felt shattered by the end. I also need to underline the fact that apparently Americans enjoy industrial amounts of Hip Hop, as in industrial amounts. This was at the sacrifice of many song which you would expect to be fundamental to dancing, such as Franz Ferdinand 'Take me out', or even some White Stripes. Hell, even Christiana Aguleria hit the cutting room floor, all because of the sodding hip hop! It was painful, and I do not think I was alone in believing the music choice was floored. The one moment Kelly Clarkson did actually play, the dance floor went wild. When Hip Hop played, many resigned themselves to a very long, very tiring fate.

Another rule was that every three hours, people had to change their outfits. Apparently in the name of 'fun', it could also have been related to hygiene. Anyhow, in true 'oh god, not the photos' style, here is a quick talk through my outfits;
1) The Dance Marathon T Shirt;
This was a free number, worn int he first hour of the event, it was not part of a theme, but instead an introduction to the next 26 hours.

2) The first theme of the day, and a relitivley easy one. That of 'School Days'. This being hours one through four, spirits still high, novelty still fresh;

3) The UCLA Pride theme. Note the use of UCLA coloured face paint, as well as a rather exclusive (yet luckily for some half price UCLA hoodie). By this point, it was slowly sinking in that, even at the end of this part, there would still be TWENTY hours to go;
4) 90's Night. I didn't really know either, hence this look;

5) I have forgotten what this one was about, but suffice to say it involved an overly revealing vest. Luckily for me however, I was given some free Henna Art from the crafts stall at the back of the dance hall (see my left arm). Notice also how the smile by this point is noticably more forced;

6) The sports look. I opted for a rather fetching YMCA Basketball 2004 T Shirt. Genuine. Possibly Vintage

At this point I had been dancing for upwards of 18 hours, and I had a good 8 hours of dancing left ahead of me. I didn't want to change anymore, so the next costume change section went out of the window, only to reappear for 'Career day'. I feel that, as with My Unicorn in October, this final costume was misjudged by me. I was dressed in a genuine US Military jacket. I would suggest that, it would perhaps be valid form someone to take offense at an American wearing a British army top, especially if they were part of a danced contest. Anyhow, I think I got away with it, but it had uncomfortable moments, and not just because I had been on my feet for 26 hours... The image shown is at the end of the marathon;


Ontop of the costumes, there were many other elements to Dance marathon including;

1) Many people coming out on stage to say how ill they were or how they knew someone who was affected by Aids. When people were unavalible for comment, (as in overnight) we had videos. Whilst quite effecting, it did mean the whole event suffered from some very tight mood changes. "Ooh, it very sad. Oh well, on with the music!"

2) We had dancer captains; each dancer was assigned a captain, which then lead to a group of dancer 'teams'. About four hours into the marathon there was a quiz, which revolved around general aids related statistics. Due to the 'quiz' and competition element however, there was a very odd situation created, that went something like this;
ANNOUNCER; How many children die of Aids a day? A)1500 or B)1650
(Teams confer)
ANNOUNCER; The Answer was B, 1650 children die of aids Every. Single. DAY
Teams; HOOOORAH!!!!!
(This was only made worse by someone saying "oh, I don't think we should be applauding" as it made him look super miserable. It really was a lose lose situation)

3) The event was accented by many a celebrity. This included, but was not limited to;
A) The baddie from the first Spiderman, whom took a shine to a member of his captive audience
B) Kiberby Locke, (that would be the person who came third in American Idol 2. If she were from Britian, she would be 'Sam' from Pop Idol 2.
C) Someone from the OC. Im not sure which one.
D) By far the most exciting woman was this one however;

She came fifth in American Idol 1 I believe. She now presents the TV Guide Channel. When I told her I really didn't have a clue who she was, she laughed and said that she appreciated my honestly. Indeed, as the picture indicates, she seems to be enjoying herself. She didn't however have to dance for 26 hours...

Having danced for 26 hours, and been throughly indoctrinated into the belief that AIDS really is a bad thing, we all went home. I have however learn't three very important life rules form this event;

1) Don't ever dance for 26 hours. Unless forced to. At Gun point.
2) If in doubt play Sean Paul. No one absolutely hates Sean Paul, yet no one actively likes him. Seeing him in concert may just be as dull as drinking a glass of water.
3) A fundamental of Hip Hop is an Air Raid siren. I don't understand why.

Perhaps the best memento of the weekend is this image of my good friend Gen, taken at 6am on Sunday, that would be after 19 hours of dancing, with seven to go;

Dr.Phil Mugs

Hi Again

Two posts at once, like a bus, you wait for one for ages, then two turn up at once, or if you live in LA, you wait for a bus, and it just doesn't appear.

Essentially the last post was not the most exciting (I must confess I wouldn't read it) however, I would read this one as its more interesting I would suggest.

Before I start I just need to say that if you click HERE you will see photos of the stuff I talk about in the blog post below this one.

Ok, so this week I have been held up in bed because I have a cold. It was perhaps not the best idea therefore to get up at 5.50am to go and see Dr Phil again, however I had promised my good friend Gen (from Australia) that I would go with her, as her friend, also from Australia was in town, and apparently loved this sort of thing. I was also contacted by the audience department assuring me that I would receive a preferential seat should I attend. I had also entered into tense negotiation with an audience recruitment lady, who used a pink font in her e-mails. I didn't want to let her down, and you know I reasoned with myself, its for your degree and possibly your internship potential.

Anyhow, having got up, and re accounted the, perhaps inevitable story of 'how I used to get up at this time to work my deli', we arrived at the point where we were meant to get onto our connecting bus, the deceptively titled 'LA Dash' The concept of which was simple ( A bis based in LA that would dash you form one location to another in a short area, in a short space of time for a very low fair) The bus however took a very long time to arrive (their fault) and we caught it going in the wrong direction (Our fault). We then had to wait a very long while to get back to our starting point, to then walk to see Dr.Phil.

As was the procedure last time at Dr.Phil the audience allocation is a bit rubbish. Unlike last time however, I didn't have a VIP ticket, so it was a lot of effort to get a seat. Net result, we were there for an early taping, but were put back to a later taping. This meant that we were going to waiting about three hours or so with little nothing more than free coffee to keep us going.

A little known trick of the trade at Dr.Phil is the fact that no members of staff talk to one another, and that all members of staff believe they are in control. Once this is taken into account, bending the rules to suit your needs is easy. Waiting to go through the first security check in for example we smiled at a security guard for some free coffee. He invited us under the barrier to get some thereby totally undermining the need for a security scan at all.

According to 'the rules' that were oh so flouted on my first trip to Phil, one is not allowed to leave the parking lot, however as hunger set in, two of us went to get some food, whilst third member waited. We were allowed out because we nursed the ego of the security guard, and re entered using the same tactic. We bought a few burgers and the like. In fairness they did smell rather good, however everybody in the queue was also starving. What followed was a little bit like seagulls around a bag of chips, with EVERYBODY in about a 50m radius gravitating towards the food. everyone who walked past also gave the food an evil look. There were mutters of 'I thought we were not allowed to leave the parking lot', and one pensioner actually LUNGED at the burgers in what she later suggested was a joke....

(On the subject of 'the Rules', one of them is 'thou must not wear beige as its not good on camera'. There was a woman dressed in head to toe beige. As in She could not have been more beige if she had tried; beige trouser suit, bronze makeup, and cork shoes with fake beige leather surround. I would not have mattered so much if she were not an absolute arse annoyed that she was potentially not going to get the best seat available to her in the studio)

Anyhow, having seen Phil before I was none too excited about the prospect of what was to come. As we entered the studio however, the mood seemed a little different. The audience was pretty bouncy, and Gen's friend was almost crying in excitement, it was something fun to bounce off of. The first warm up man was received generally very well. This time Robyn came out BEFORE the Dr Phil mugs did. She was also positioned just behind us. Ill explain why this is important....

Essentially the lure of a free Dr Phil book if I screamed was not enough for me this time, as I already have one from last time, and it remains unread. A Dr Phil mug however I was keen about, so, despite the fact I had a cold I was screaming at the top of my lungs at the man running around giving them out. All three of us were screaming and waving our arms, due to the boisterous audience we had to this especially vigorously, to the point where it looked as if we were convulsing. The guy kept ignoring us, But Robyn didn't, eventually pulling the guy over, pointing us out and indicating that a mug should be given. Whereas last time I compared her to Cher, that day Robyn tuned into a very special figure, moving into the category of Davina, Oprah, or Margret, (depending on when it is you know me best from...) Upon receiving said mug we waved at Robyn, she waved back, we toasted her with out mug, and she toasted back (albeit with no mug)

Then Dr.Phil came out and the audience all went wild, as in Dr Phil had to pause for a moment to keep the fans from ruining is first line.

The show followed, and it was an especially good one. The first person one was rejected from American Idol, and she was upset, although no one way quite sure as to what the reason was. On one hand Paula Abdul was not there and she loved Paula. On the other hand apparently Simon Cowell was not nice to her. One the other hand apparently her small town had all been behind her, and she had let them down. On the other hand her mother drove her to the auditions, and did so by using up all her sick days, so then her mother had to do to work sick which sent her into yet more tears. I felt that a verbal slap would have worked, and indeed Dr.Phil must have heard because he told her to shut up wining and to get over yourself (in a nicer 'If you talk to me your gonna have to be honest' way of course).

The next people came on with the usual 'I want my daughter to be famous' type story. Nothing too exciting apart from the professional in the audience suggested that she save her money and put her child into counseling in such a genuinely harsh manner that I was like "thats a little un-nessecary" out loud. The man in front believed me to be Simon Cowell.....

The show went on, and Taylor Hicks came on to do a song or two. For those of you who don't know, and I appreciate that this will be most, if not all, Taylor Hicks won American Idol 5. Like Kelly Clarkson, only not as good, or as young. His band set up, and he did a song which sounded an awful lot like 'i'd do anything for love but I won't do that' by meatloaf, only with worse mixing (we couldn't hear the man) not that that seemed to matter much. The audience all loved him anyhow. (Indeed Dr Phil seemed to love him. Even when the cameras were not on he told Robyn that Taylor was 'a great guy'). Dr. Phil then went onto the set to thank him for the performance, but the audience were screaming for another song. Taylor didn't seem to respond all that well, but then Robyn started piping up rather loudly, and things started to happen. We were promised another song, or rather we were promised THE SAME song.

For a moment the audience changed from ' I love Taylor Hicks, I Love Dr Phil' to 'Well, we did wait over three hours in the parking lot, the LEAST he could do would be a different song'. Mutiny was averted however, when Taylor, realizing his mistake changed his mind and did a different song.

As the second song played, our possy turned to face Robyn to try and communicate that one mug into three simply wouldn't go. She realized, and assured us, through makeshift sign language that she would get us more mugs before the end of the show. Now, I know that, at the end of a show Robyn and Phil walk out arm in arm, never to return, and that she was not going to be able to leave to get our mugs. This meant that, when Robyn walked out with Phil at the end I called after Robyn 'Where's my mug?!' in such a way that she visibly twitched though her smile when leaving alngside her husband. (Unknown to me there was a happy ending in that Robyn had set someone out the back to aquire our extra mugs, presented to us after the show. So, all in all a rather good day. Below are one or two other little bits of the day that I cannot be bothered to integrate into the rest of the blog;

• We all got a free copy of Taylor Hick's new album when leaving the studio
• It had a hole in one corner of the cd package, so we couldn't return it to a record store for cash
• Phil messed up a peice to camera, apparently 'the firs time in over 5 years of Dr Phil'. I doubt it
• I waved at Taylor when he was setting up. He waved back, everyone else thought he was waving at them and so waved back and started screaming.
• Over 60 million people voted for Talor Hicks. That more than the population of Britain. of course it could well have been just 10 people on redial....

In other, very brief news unrelated to Phil;
School in Arizona grew suspicious of a pupil. He was in year 7. .They thought he may be being abused. On closer inspection he was TWENTY NINE! They didn't realize. To cover for him, he had too unrelated paedophiles posing as his uncle, and as his grandfather. They all had sex together. Apparently in court the older men were 'visibly shocked' to learn the age of the man. They have been charged with attempted paedophilia, for, although they didn't have sex with a minor, they believed they were doing so, and thus INTENDED to have sex with a minor. The best line however came from the teacher who found out the whole thing 'We always treat adults on the premises with suspicion. Now, perhaps we need to do the same with the children.' Indeed so. Or perhaps just look at them and realize that they are NOT IN FACT CHILDREN

Hilary is running for Whitehouse hoorah! Interesting that she launch her campaign online. Sign of the times etc etc, and you can see all the fun HERE

I can assure you this is more fun than my other post....

Everybody goes to Hollywood?

Hi All

The blog titles are getting desperate. There will soon, I fear have to be some form of financial incentive for people to offer me new titles for blog entries. I cannot keep it up for another year.

I am very sorry that it has been forever since my last blog update. To be honest since the last blog entry everything just exploded, ands I don't think i have ever been so busy in my life (that's not an exaggeration!) to the point where I ended up collapsing last Sunday, and, amongst a huge laundry pile I ended up with a snotty nose and a cold. I then lay in bed for about a week, only emerging for lectures, and a second visit to Dr Phil (more on that story later). With the pile of things to say getting bigger by the second, the prospect of sitting down to fill in the blog was a prospect I was not relishing. Indeed, reading this you may not be especially excited to know that this blog entry could go on forever. Ill try to make it as brief as possible.

If your reallly stretched for time I will simply let you know that I am well. I will also let you know that, if your reading this, then I'm thinking of you on a regular basis, although I do not contact nearly enough, and that I miss you. That sounds a bit wet and insincere to be honest, but I do mean it, so its staying. Hell, its my blog Ill write what I damn well want!....

Last time I spoke it was Christmas. We then went onto Pennsylvania to a place in the middle of nowhere for my step mothers sup rise Birthday party which was excellent. It is here where the 'good bad or other' section shall begin.

1) Going to excellent house in the middle of nowhere for Birthday party type even EXCELLENT
2) The house, in the middle of nowhere having a cellar that used to be a speakeasy EXCELLENT
3) Mulling over the contradiction that the house was in the middle of nowhere, and yet apparently a commercial success as a speakeasy CONFUSING
4) The fact that the house was very old, but also had a state of the art Jacuzzi with lights that changed colours to reflect one's mood (big Brother style) or would flash every 2 seconds or so as if one were in a watery disco EXCELLENT
5) Going into the Jacuzzi after drinking Egg Nog (a little bit like baileys, only with more cream and cinnamon, but also alcohol) and letting it curdle in your stomach NOT GOOD

(The next night, it was discussed how the house was not excellent as first discussed but in fact a little bit oppressive, as if people who had lived there before had just never left. As an example my step sister in law mentioned a Victorian child's dress left on the door of her room, as if the child had just walked out and never returned. After this I wound up back in the Jacuzzi, and, after others had left I stayed in for a bit. Getting out I realized I really was in the middle of NOWHERE, and that if I were to be killed by a man gunman, or indeed the child returning to salvage her dress I wouldn't be able to do an awful lot about it. I then went to get into bed generally freaked out by the whole thing, and was doing the thing where you listen to every creak which is futile in a house as old as the one we were staying in. It was then that my door creaked open. Evidently unhappy at this point I presumed it was just a latch, but then a small black object came out from the bottom of the door. I was at this point about to die from self induced fear, threw the light on, only to realize it was a cat. After negotiating with said Cat about the possibility of leaving the room it started hissing at me. This was my breaking point, and I instead ran to lock myself in the en-suite for circa 15 minutes) BAD

6) Having Christmas at Step Sisters/Step brothers in law, with father and step mother NICE

7) Being able to hear the queen on Christmas day albeit it at the more civilized hour of 10am TRADITIONAL

8) Went to see Niagara falls which were surprisingly EXCELLENT ( I though they would be BAD, but I liked them..)

9) The coffee shop next to Niagara being a reasonable price and quality EXCELLENT (Tim Horton I love you)

10) Popping into Canada, and seeing a poster saying "Its all about the flavour' PROPERLY AMAZING

11) Vising Thousand Islands (the ones the dressing was named after) NICE

12) Going to a bar in the town we stayed in and meeting 'the locals'. Conversation of the evening went something like this;
Man 1 (on me) This kid 21?! He looks about 15!
Man 2 I service government Agriculture equipment, like fiberglass on tractors and the like
Man 3 (Very drunk) I love my brother (Being Man 1) blah bhah bhah and this was this one time where I hit a guy, and I killed him I think.
Me Can I have another drink please?
(I think he actually did which made the whole thing worse, and I didn't really know what to say to him, I don't think he meant to, confusing...)

13) Visiting the Birthplace of the Mormons EXCELLENT

14) A Mormon attempting to convert me to the religion via the medium of a sign up card;
Mormon; Oh, you just need to fill in your details
Me; Oh, I can post it to you can I?
Mormon; Well yes, but I have a pen, and you can do it now
Me; Oh, well there does not seem to be a suitable surface (we were in a Victorian cottage)
Mormon; Oh, anywhere will do
Me; It looks like a long form, ill do it later
Mormon; Oh no, it will take two minutes, and we can send a Mormon round to visit you
Me; Oh I live in California, I don't think it would necessarily work out
Mormon; Oh, there are loads of Mormons in California

Putting fake details down to keep the Mormons happy - BAD

(as a note Mormons were created in Northern New York, Mr Mormon believing that the Angel Gabrielle visited him, gave him some scripture in hieroglyphics, and suggested that white Americans were the first to America, and that the native Americans stole it off the white Americans, therefore taking America was in fact just taking America BACK. They used to allow more than one wife, but then banned that about 100 years back, they also have a ban on all hot drinks, apart from cocoa, which apparently is not a hot drink. Coke and Pepsi are grey areas. There is a Mormon standing for President from the Republican side. Donny Osmond is also a Mormon)

15) Downloading Nelly Furtardo's album 'Loose'' AMAZING!!

16) Nelly Furtardo's New video featuring Los Angeles in the background BRILLIANT (you can see it HERE if you want to)

17) Getting back to LA LA land in time for New Year INDIFFERENT

18) New Years Eve - Generally a let down, however, this years was a particular let down due to the fact that Los Angeles simply could not be bothered. Out XL Pizza was too small. The TV showered a time shift of times Square at midnight (despite the fact the ball had dropped 3 hours previous due to timezones). Going onto the apartment roof to see firework was rubbish as it was cold, and there were no fireworks. Even the version of Auld Lang's Eye was a rubbish version. New Years is always rubbish, but this years was AWFUL

After New Year's Eve, life appeared bleak indeed, however.....

19) Steffen's friend hiring a car AMAZING

20) Actually managing to secure a car SUPER STRESSFUL. Here is why; (You can skip this bit if your in a hurry)

• it took over 5 hours
• The first place we tried to hire a car from promised us $300, it cost $450 when we arrive. The price jumped up and down, until we arrived at $380
• We then got into a row with the company over signing a blank cheque (apparently a standard procedure. Steffen being of both German and an Economist begged to differ, suggesting that signing a blank cheque was asking for trouble)
• An employee thinking he could lighten the mood by listing all the German swear words he knew. I have now learned that there is no way to wind a German up quicker than listing all the German swear words you know.
• We then stormed out, with Steffen and salesperson refusing to even look at one another
• After going to another company, we were quoted $800. This was too much, so the woman on the desk whispered another company, and that, if we just sat and waited someone would come and pick us up.
• We were indeed picked up by a random woman from the major car rental people (At this point I considerd slipping one of credit cards into my underwear, so that, if we were all mugged at least I could get us a taxi home)
• Luckily it all worked out, and we got a nice car, but it was a lot of effort!

With the car now in our grasp, we did a lot of fun stuff;

21) Going to another premier. Waiting 2.5 hours to see anyone BAD!

22) A very loud, irritating woman screaming at celebrities I have never even heard of, such as 'Angel from American Dreams' or 'Angelina Jolies Dad' BAD

23) Meeting Justin Timberlake SO SO

24) Buying a pen shaped like a fish for Justin to sing his autograph with, as well as a nice postcard depicting a cocktail in an airplane for Justin to sign his autograph on. Surprisingly NICE

25) The Pacific Coast Highway - The reason people come to Los Angeles AMAZING!

26) Malibu - (The place not the drink) BEAUTIFUL ALSO
(N.B Cher lives around these parts. I was excited)

27) Walking up the back of expensive houses on the sand. DULL

28) The Santa Monica mountains - Where they filmed mash, and where you can see the sea and mountains, and a very nice 'Nature Centre' EXCELLENT

29) The fact it rained this day EXCELLENT (not so exciting in retrospect, ill explain why soon)

30) Going to the Queen Mary - A very nice boat in long beach. It sounds DULL, but was in fact AMAZING. Here is why;

• We got into it for free, because the doorman/security guard liked us
• You can recreate that bit from Titanic on it
• A slightly surreal coffee shop
• You can go pretty much anywhere in it, and you feel like your exploring
• There is a Russian submarine next to the boat declaring 'Communism Sank, but the submarine rose!'

31) Next to the old Queen Mary boat a real cruise liner was getting ready to leave. I wondered across to the entry people to see if I could have a look around. The woman laughed and said that I was too late, I should have asked before 9/11. AMUSING

32) Having lunch in 'Hooters' a little bit like a Hungry Horse, only more expensive, and with 'Girls' wearing revealing outfits who serve you. I didn't know where to look. BAD

33) Going to Walmart - It didn't sell any food apart from dried goods such as 'candy' and carbonated drinks. It had a Mc Donalds attached that you could purchase your food from at the checkout OBESE AND BAD

34) Going to Ikea, and buying a big fat blanket for my bed for about 7 pounds (on the downside it was 'used'. I did however wash it) WARM AND EXCELLENT
(NB, The potential/definite global warming thing has meant that its been really cold and wet in LA. It snowed here a few weeks back, which is literally unheard of. My roomate took a photo of the hail to celebrate. Someone used the understated phrase 'Its the best day of my life' to express the joy he felt to be COLD!)

35) The ease of doing laundry in this country EXCELLENT

36) University starting again BAD

37) My new classes;

• The Media strategy class - also know as the 'why television and adverts are bad for you' class. Just shut up! I like adverts and television thank you.
• The Russian literature class - Good, but far too many books to read. They are dense, and take forever to read.
• Analysing California - On the face of it fun and varied. In reality DULL

I have come to the conclusion that I'm working at a GCSE level, only with 4-5 times as much work. As a result I am continually annoyed with my work, and under stimulated. Having said all this however, it is interesting to see how it all works, and fills out my time quite nicely. And I am able to do modules that I would never get a chance to do in the UK. And there is a potential I may do a fun photography project, so its not all bad news. Ill settle for the word OK

38) I realize now that irony does not work at all well on Americans. BAD

39) Being able to download Celebrity Big Brother in America - BRILLIANT!
(In America the newscaster places their opinion onto the news. Imagine Hue Edwards or similar half way through a broadcast just stopping the show to say how he felt about the whole thing. Its an interesting concept, and, as an avid Big Brother viewer of some time I think I may attempt to do this on the whole Shilpa thing. If you don't want to know then move on now)

What I think about the whole Shilpa Poppadom thing
It's all a little bit late for the Carphone warehouse to get an arse on about the content of Big Brother. If this is the case then it has supported extreme emotional manipulation (BB7 when Richard's mother wrote to him to say that she was getting over her cancer, played for maximum emotional impact) Potential violence (BB5 Fight) as well as bullying in the form of Big Brother itself. If you get into Big Brother then I guess its sort of part of parcel, but for Carphone Warehouse to get an arse on because of racism is I believe hypocritical, and indeed the media getting an arse on only now really is pushing it a bit. Rant over

40) On day 5 of CBB, the realization that over 500 pounds of hard earned laptop, years of development, and the world of information technology has gone into me being able to see Jade Goody's Mother fart on my laptop in California

The first week of term the weekend was consumed with;
The weekend road trip!
41) Five people in a really rather small rented car INTIMATE

42) Stopping at the most bizarre service station in the desert which featured a converted train carrage now a Mc Donals, and the most surreal giftshop ever, including Nelson Mandella and Bill Clinton action figures, as well as 'I love my German Sheppard' socks PRICELESS

43) Stopping past Las Vegas and eating a 'Cadbury Chrunchie' imported from, randomly, Australia EXCITING

44) My first vision of Vegas being a Bingo Hall, an old Bingo hall AMUSING

45) Going to Vegas through the 'coldest winter ever' COLD!
(An interesting fact is that when the air is freeing and your wearing lots of layers is that there are about 1bn potential electric shocks to be had BAD)

46) Ending up in Utah, home to 70% of America's Mormons surprisingly GOOD

47) Attempting to go to the Grand Canyon, then learning its closed so going to Xion national park, a stunning natural mounties area EXCELLENT

48) It being freezing and snowy FREEZING

49) Eating snow and icicles EXCELLENT

50) Climbing a mountain in the freezing cold in little more than a pair of Converse, Tesco Value jeans, and a Marks and Spencer moleskin jacket STILL FREEZING

51) Being tutted at by some professional mountain climbers who are wearing the proper attire for a freezing cold mountain ANNOYING

52) Almost slipping off the mountain on the descent AMUSING

53) Attempting to go and see a Canoyon as the sun sets, temperatures plummeting, no street lights, and being pulled over by police for apparently having too many people in the car (We didn't) NOT FUN

54) Realizing that 'plummeted temperature' in fact meant -20C! SCARY

55) Deer running across the already pitch black road, and thick freezing fog billowing across the road MORE SCARY

56) Arriving back at hotel GOOD

As you can tell by the 56 bullet points, a good time had by all, well, good time had by David indeed. What has followed recently has been work catch up, the realization that I had a dissertation to write (I have just bought 12 back issues of Oprah's magazine for just 5 pounds delivered, a big fat Oprah book, and I have just discovered that UCLA had 1500 back episodes of Oprah, I believe that one can have too much of a good thing sometimes)

I also discovered that next quarter I can get an internship, as in unpaid work for some place in LA. Now, this was exciting enough for me (I need to bulk out my CV a bit, I want to get a job when I graduate, American Studies won't sell itself!) But then I found out that only the Dr Phil offers sodding internships! I was just in the process of converting my CV for an American audience when I fell ill with a cold, and sort of stopped for a week. Not good. When ill I did manage to drag myself to a job fair type thing for Internships, however it was rubbish, mainly because if it were held in the uk it would turn very quickly into the 'how much free stuff are you prepared to give me' game, but here its 'how pretentious can I be with my leather bound Cv's to offer you' game. I left very annoyed, writing it off as a 'Not in the mood for America day'

Anyhow, if you have got this far, well done, the other blog post is better isn't it?