Rendezvous

It's less than 24 hours before New Years, but nothing feels special about it right now. Today has felt more or less like the routine I've always wanted. Wake up with problems, fix the problems, have a few pints then back to bed. Simple. And effective.

I currently have a project that I'm working on at the moment, an Android productivity application designed around convenience and getting things done. The problem with these Apps is that they take as much discipline as their low-tech counterparts, which is something I hope to address.

The problem with my App is that I'm a rookie programmer, and until this morning, struggled to get the menu working. Despite this I feel I've come far, as there is only one more complex piece to the puzzle: SQLite on Android. At the time of writing, I know next to nothing about using this, and this will have to be research for another time. This morning I was quite satisfied with not having the program die on me whenever I was so bold as to load the main menu, and instead load correctly.

I spent the rest of the morning in an unfortunate mental bubble over a situation that arose a few days ago. It nagged at me all the way through breakfast and getting ready to go out. The meeting place was a good few miles away but I decide to walk regardless. I felt I could use the air and exercise, and in any case the bus services here are so chronically poor that I wouldn't be surprised if they were being managed by pure greed.

Before I knew it I was breaking into a run, almost as if my feet were trying to race my train of thought. The emotions that clouded my mind over the issue were receding into irrelevance. I could shine light on the path ahead. This was a much easier environment to find a solution. Before long it felt almost as if the solution was building itself on it's own accord. Done. Done and dusted. And I just reached town to boot.

Ever since I came down to visit a few weeks back, the one thing I have noticed about this town, the town I grew up in, was how dingy and depressing the mood is in the area. Walking to the meeting point I had observed a few individuals, from OAPs to young adults barely older than me, almost resign themselves to the fact that they will live and die in this dreary town, without seeing much of what the rest of the world, heck even the rest of the country, had to offer.

This was very much a contrast to the person I was down there to meet. She was a bright, bubbly individual with a playful childishness almost matching mine. Apparently I wasn't the only one that held a dim view of the town we were in and opted to go somewhere else for the day. A city with a few more things to do. Via the excessively-overcharging bus service. Who charge through the roof. Thankfully our childish behaviour at the back of the bus stopped the journey itself from getting monotonous.

After acquiring a few items from a few shops ( and witnessing her calm down drastically since the bus, leading me to believe her behaviour was purely hyperactivity), we head to one of the many local pubs in the area, had a beer and a best-of-3 game of pool. This is where she seemed she came into her element. she was trash talking, really competitive, determined to win, just shy of being an absolute douche. And I really liked it. I found it much more exciting than playing with someone with a pretense of emotional stability. I suspect this is a genetic thing, as males compete all the time, and its something we can connect to when competitiveness is done by females. Either way it felt refreshing, as this is often the exception rather than the rule. After this, however, things had calmed down a lot as we started to head back.

I got home from the day a little tired, spending a few hours on TeamExtreme Minecraft while absent-mindedly reflecting on the day with 'why this' and 'why that', without which this post would make little sense. Indeed, there are other questions I have that I am yet to figure out answers to, but at that moment they seemed superfluous, and now in my sleepy state they don't feel like they deserve the light of day. With that I'm signing off. Thank you and goodnight.

Prologue

Here I am. Sat at my computer at silly o'clock at night. This habit of mine has become more frequent over the past month or two. A few weeks ago you could reason that this was necessary, after all university tests don't get smashed by themselves. But this is the 30th of December, and I don't know of many educational institutions in the western world with semesters up to and including New Years. Why am I here?

In this sleep-deprived state of mine I don't have a fully formed explanation, in what feels like a first. I could conjecture that I feel the need to communicate the things that are on my mind but this is not an urge that you could characterise me with. My mental exercise involves solving puzzles of a logical nature with a side order of philosophical thought, with the puzzle of bringing together the most effective words to convey ideas more or less relegated to updating my CV, or figuring out what to say during intern interviews. It is likely that those better versed in English Literature have probably come to this conclusion before even finishing the first sentence, in which case I'd give credit where such is due.

This is not a blog about soul-searching or trying to figure out who I am and such. I've been doing that for the past 4 years, and haven't felt need to write about it, and could never be bothered to remember it and write it down here either. Nor is this a boring egotistical fact sheet about myself that will be of interest to no one. There are paper diaries and word editors for that kind of drivel, away from the danger of boring a poor unsuspecting web surfer.

Rather this is about expressing thoughts and ideas on daily life, which I can only do through my own experiences. Knowing me, these will include my opinions on grey areas or controversial subjects. I make no apologies for this, and I am brutally honest in the things I say, even when referring to myself. I hope for it to be enlightening before anything else.

It is now 4.30AM (GMT). How I've lasted this long is anybody's guess. Either way I'd best be signing off for some kip. Enjoy