Bollockpool

I don't normally go for days out, or rather, as much as I used to, but my sister-in-law's parents were up from wales for the weekend so we all decided to take a nice ride to Blackpool for the day. Well, I say the day, I mean we went at two and came home at six, so it was more like half a day, but it keeps me busy and was a pleasant break from routine.

I admit to eating far too much though, I showed absolutely no self control when it came to what I'd eaten, I should definitely start dieting soon, but as its been my birthday I've allowed myself to go a little nuts.

Shockingly, Blackpool's been going through some crazy regeneration lately, I didn't know about this obviously having not been there in a while, but the coast looks really nice, and it was an awesomely clear day so it really was a nice day out.

The Big Weekend

Manchester pride is once again upon us, I've had a brilliant time at the festival site looking through all the cheesy tacky gay merchandise in the gay market and pushing my way through copious amounts of drunken patrons. The parade was a blast as usual, with millions of people coming from all over the country (nay, the world!) just to see me in my lovely dancing outfit. As usual the pride organizers are going to take another month or so sorting through the billions of pictures from the event but as soon as I find some good ones Ill let you know.

I of course have some of the pictures I took myself on hand, being the general photography type, but I didn't have my camera on hand the whole time, just to capture some special images, the best one is a simply image of canal street, just to show anyone who hasn't been to a pride event just how amazingly, stupidly busy it is.

You can imagine the fun one would have trying to get from one side of the street to the other, on any other occasion I would scoff at the challenge, but not parade day of pride. Its fantastic to see that the dear old S.L.U.T.S turned out again to fight for justice and british prudishness, well done ladies!

In light of the jocularity however, I would like to remind us all how commercial pride itself has become, it is the only protest I've ever been to that one must pay to participate in, and of course we had the people from Get Bent protesting on the behalf of people who feel that pride has become a giant money pot for the pink pound, with whom I agree. People like students or younger teenagers, or perhaps the elderly or disabled who can't otherwise afford to pay extortionate prices for stalls or even a wristband to get into the village, or transport to, from and around the event are being left in the dark, are they too poor to be gay? absolutely not. The pride organizers still have allot to learn, whether this is their eighteenth birthday or not.

Salutations to me

Ahh this is finally it, I am twenty one as of august the 24th and I have to say, I don't feel any different from being twenty. I've partied the night away already the friday before my birthday and had a wonderful time dancing and singing with my family and friends!

Thank you to everyone who showed up, I managed to almost completely fill a room with my adoring fans~

That dress looked better on me than on my mother.

Fingers crossed!

So this is it, its crunch time for your dear old host. I emailed the University Of Salford regarding my course, after getting my UCAS clearing passport (which I paid a whopping £15 for!) The admissions tutor has got back to me, saying she will review my application when she gets in on monday.

I'm really really anxious now, what if my qualifications aren't good enough? what if I needed an academic reference? what if the course is filled by then? what if they simply say I'm not Uni material! I'm really scared as to what will happen, my future is quite literally decided on monday by some lady called Janine who doesn't even know me. Wish me luck everyone, the wait of the weekend will kill me, but the results on monday may do much worse!

Goodbye, dear friend.

My computer has sort-of died. I got the dreaded BSOD late on saturday night, and when it restarted the hard drive wasn't being detected, and that's the end of the story.

Or so I would have you believe! Now I need to find out whether its the hard drive or the mother board that's gone, either way its bad for me. If the mother board is gone, it means buying a new motherboard, new case (my old ones broken anyway,) new CPU and new RAM depending on the type of the mother board, and believe me all of that adds up to a pretty penny, but it means my hard drive is still intact and all my data is safe. However, if it is the hard drive, it means I can keep my old parts and simply replace my old drive, but that means losing everything, all my old photo's and pictures and music files, as well as a hefty amount of irreplaceable software.

To be honest, I'm kind of hoping its the former, I mean the stuff I have on that hard drive is worth a lot more than the sum of the parts needed to rebuild a shell, and I could probably knock up a nice computer using my Uni bursary, when I get it. Fingers crossed eh?

The Making Of Us

This video is amazing, it really is! an in depth study into the causes of homosexuality, why we are gay! I urge you to watch this, if you have gay relatives and want to know more about where they come from, or if you think being gay is a 'lifestyle choice'.

[link no longer available] (The above link will die after a few days but I tracked down the program on youtube and it can be found in six parts; part one, part two, part three, part four, part five and part six.)

Up yours fred phelps!

Back To The Future

So the future is hastily approaching, faster than usual it seems but I've been assured that will happen the older you get, and lately I've been feeling life is passing me by as I sit here in my uncomfortable rut.

Since january I have been contemplating moving onto university, I've talked myself in and out of it since then, but there have been a few people rather keen on the idea, probably much more than I was, until now. Last thursday my friends, good friends, spent about an hour after dancing for two hours, trying to convince me to go onto university, and I must say, its worked.

Now I find myself filling in a UCAS form, and looking forward to the next three years as a student. I really can't believe I'm making the jump to uni, its a bit scary actually as Ill be doing it on my own, well, I know one other person going to the Uni Ill be applying for, so I guess its not so bad. I'm really excited about it, anxious though, for i'm a very late applicant, so its still fingers crossed that I get a position, and manage to get funding for it.

Oh, and if your curious, or for future reference, I have chosen a psychology and counseling course, it looks so interesting and I may be able to go on into psychiatry, or being a fully trained counselor, that would be fantastic!

To Be, Or What To Be

I have found now, that people in this country are incredibly confused with this thing they call 'Identity', largely concerning the way they identify themselves, but also with the way they instantly identify others.

People here place to much emphasis on image, on how they look, and in turn letting that effect who they are, which is of course a good things and a bad thing. I would encourage anyone to dress in a way that reflects who they are as a person, that is usually what people are most comfortable in, and in most cases what people look best in, but you will get people dressing to be a part of some social clique, or dressing to impress on a night out, or simply undressing to impress, which I suppose is another side of self image which is strange. Surely you live life the way you are comfortable, be that what you enjoy doing all the time, or splitting it up to challenge or spirit. If this involves little physical exercise and a large amount of comfort eating then so be it.

A very smart rule to live by can be "If it hurts no-one else and you understand the risks, then you can do what you want", This includes weight gain. I'm uncomfortable with how heavy I am, I am 5'11 and weigh 15.3 st, that's almost two stone into the 'overweight' category. Now I understand that my lifestyle is a major factor in this, I get quite a bit of physical exercise but my eating habits simply out weight it pun intended,) the logical thing is to tip the scales, more exercise, less eating, but it is harder than it sounds, and this is coming from a person who has successfully given up a 19 year habit of eating meat.

I suppose its just a further test of my will power, but, and I have always said this, if you believe you can do something, you can find a way, you've just got to want it badly enough.

Heigh Fever

Terrible weather, terrible music, terrible food, terrible security, ah yes its that time of the year, Heigh Hall festival is upon us and all the underage drinkers and shaved chavies are coming out of the woodwork to get drunk and fight, all in the same place.

This is of course rather convenient for me as its a great chance to go man-totty watching. Quite a few attractive muscle bound men walking around with their shirts off, half of them drunk, the other half desperate to show off how manly they are by either playing football with other men within a two metre square of free space, or.. fighting! You've got to watch out for jail-bait though, luckily its easier to spot an underage male twink thank it is underage twinklettes.

I saw two people fall down drunk, got yelled at from passing cars three times, saw one person collapse, countless drunken teenagers both in and on the way to the festival. Oh yeah, and some sort of band was playing at some point, lets face it folks, only twenty percent of the people who go there are there for the musical entertainment.

So I got piss wet through, and after walking it to Wigan, and up to Heigh Hall through the plantation gates, standing around for the three or four hours we were there, we then had to walk back, but not the normal, sane way of walking back, oh no, through Aspul, just to catch the bus. Its alright though, by the time we were ready to leave I was just about ready to walk on hot coals for a good sit down on a bus.