I'm back

I've been away for ages. Not from Oxford, I mean, but from the blog. EXAMS.

That says it all really. They came and went and they were ok.

Last stages now of the MSc. Writing my thesis. Busy with Stata sorting out all that data. But that means I'm at my computer a lot again so I can type some stuff up now and then. Cool.

Been reading all about gangs and inner-city American poverty and that kinda thing. Well into the "conscious" hip-hop nowadays, wondering how we can harness ourselves to help the people in Sri Lanka. The Tamil people I mean.

What else? Still got my ESRC at Cardiff but thinking about staying in Oxford. It's all a bit complicated and so I'm avoiding thinking about it.

Saw my old maths department last night - good and bad memories of teaching are in my mind now. Seen the same people, doing the same thing really, but enjoying it.

Thought I'd post this one as I liked it. It's the intro from Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liqour album.

Food and liquor stores rest on every corner
From 45th and State to the last standin Henry Horner
J&J's, pale chicken, good finger lickin
While they sin, gin, sin sin at Rothschild and Kenwood Liquors
The winos crooked stagger
meets the high stride of the youth searchin for the truth
They rebel and raise hell across alleyways and in classroom settings
They get high off that drum bass and 20/20 rims
They rock braids, Air Force Ones and Timbs
They drink Hennessy, Hypnotiq and 40's
They call they women hoes, bust downs and shorties
They keep funeral homes in business and gunshot wards of hospitals full
Prisons packed, bubblin over in brown sugar
They keep empty, Westside lots crowded, hype's powdered
The well is running dry, the days of Malcolm and Martin have ended
Our hope has descended and off to the side
Waiting for the reinstallment of the revolution
Because we are dying at the cost of our own pollution
But God has another solution, that has evolved from the hood
I present one who turns, the Fiasco to good

5-aside cuppers champions!

Finally! I can say I've won football cuppers competition. Yeah!

Some great games and great team spirit. Was especially good to beat LMH/T in the semi-finals. A conclusive win really all the way through though. And we got to play Keble again in the finals, woo!

The come-down from playing all that football then having to return to studying hit me pretty hard yesterday. On the plus side, I dedicated my time to working on solving the cryptic crossword from Monday's Guardian. We'd been doing it for three days, but we completed it yesterday! Hoorah! I am going to keep practising at that.

So now I have to get properly on the revision train. It seems possible. Kind of.

Also very pleased that Barcelona won the Champions League final last night - they are good team and I agree with their ways.

Lots of sports!

A whole weekend of sports, am pretty achey! Played korfball for Wolfson, which was totally awesome - it's kinda like a netball/basketball cross over but boys and girls can play together and the net is huge. It's still hard to throw the ball in though! We came fourth (out of four!) but it was lots of fun. Then we played an epic game of cricket against ChCh, which was really close, but they beat us with just 10 balls to spare. Shame but was nice to hang out in the sun.

Yesterday we completed our group games for 5-aside and finished top of our group. Today we have the quarter-finals (ironically against the team in our group we beat yesterday to come top) and then with a bit of luck a semi-final and a final too. Am excited about that a lot.

There is a giant fat robin eating at our bird-feeder right now, it's totally exciting! Although I just moved to try and get my camera to take a photo, and it flew away. Maybe it'll be back? Oooh I can see him sitting on the fence nearby!

What else? Have learnt that it's much harder to sleep by myself now - I'm very used to having X around. My revision is going ok, still not doing that much work, but a bit now and then. Finished Gang Leader for a Day and also The Namesake (which I've just found out has been made into a film too!), both of which I enjoyed, the first because gangs and ethnographies are very interesting to me, the second because I love stories about second generation Asians and identity. Now reading Outliers, which is very good in terms of concepts, but annoyingly is written in a really popular science style with a very sensationalist use of statistics.

Ok back to work. Fingers crossed for the football!

Monday 4th week

It's mid-morning. Just settling down to Social Stratification revision. Not really feeling too much in the zone, but am hoping to cover the income inequality topic.

Mostly been spending my mornings campaigning for the war in Sri Lanka to end. Writing to MPs and MEPs, newspapers, commenting on articles, signing virtual petitions, feeling sad for the Tamil people there. They say the war is over now and that the LTTE have been destroyed. But the Eelam dream is still alive, the Tamil people want their freedom and their own land, and they will keep fighting for it.

There are thousands of people (some reports say upwards of 250,000) in displacement camps in Vanni at the moment, where there isn't enough food or water or medicine. People live in cramped conditions and don't have freedom of movement. Once you're in the camp, you can't get out, and while visitors are allowed, it's a bureaucratic nightmare to dissuade visits. Further there is still no independent media access or access to the war zone by NGOs. All so the government can continue their dirty work without having anyone question them. It's a terrible situation, poor Tamil people in Sri Lanka...it's like the Jews except here the Tamil people were caught between the LTTE and GoSL - a rock and a hard place it seems. I only hope it gets better.

Aside from Sri Lanka my time has been occupied with revision and cricket - played my first game last week and while my batting was terrible (1 run!), I managed to bowl someone out in one of my five overs, and also bowled a maiden over (where no runs are scored), which is cool for me! I'm enjoying that a lot.

Ok I will get back to work now. Exams in 5 weeks!

Thursday 2nd week

Been working on my thesis and revision. Thesis is going ok. Had a meeting with my supervisor on Tuesday (after a lovely long weekend at home) and have some changes to do but think it'll be ok. Ignoring it for now as she recommended spending most of my time revising.

Have two exams (nothing compared to finals!) so trying to figure out which topics to revise etc.

Home was awesome, first BBQ of the year! Saw lots of family and ate really well :) Saw my Granddad too - he's back in the country for six months, woo! He's 89 now and still going strong, which I'm really grateful for. Played poker with the girls and 304 too, good times.

Made plans to go to Washington for a week in August with my Dad and my brother - it's my cousin's wedding. Will be good to see all the family over there as it's been a while.

What else? X is home full-time - woo! Good work ethics will hopefully rub off on me with regards to revision and stuff. Been watching a lot of football. Controversial football for sure. Poor referees in the Champions League - they are making all sorts of mistakes. My brother made a strong case for video referees in the box when I was watching footy with him on the weekend. Now I'm really starting to agree with him. Wrong decisions in the penalty box happen far too regularly. Poor Fletcher will miss the Final for the red card given because of his excellent tackle. Shocking decision and even worse that it can't be appealed against. He behaved really well though - the Chelsea players could learn a thing or too about respect in football from him. That's the other thing, football doesn't have any respect in it, people dive and complain and argue with the ref all the time. Yesterday Ballack was actually chasing and flapping at the ref! There needs to be a system like in rugby where only the captain can talk with the ref and also if people show dissent then decisions should be reversed or they should lose ground on the free kick or something like that. The FA and UEFA and FIFA all those groups need to sort out the refereeing and get some respect back in the game because players and fans are acting like thugs.

Rant over. Saw In The Loop last night, which was great, so funny and actually satirical. Would recommend it for sure. Also click here for Pizza Express vouchers, which are buy one main course get the second free.

Ok I will get back to reading the sequel to The Knife of Never Letting Go. It's called The Ask and The Answer - harrowing stuff, kinda like the situation in Sri Lanka at the moment for the poor oppressed Tamil people caught up in the war zone. I hope this book has a happy ending. I hope in Sri Lanka there's a happy ending too.

1st week

No classes this term! This should be a good thing. And indeed it is. Except it means that all structure to my life has gone. Well, as much as it can go for a semi-serious Virgo like me.

So I have revision for my 9th week exams to do. And I have my thesis to do. And both of them seem due so far away, and both of them are such big tasks (in my head) to even start, that I am failing to do anything properly productive. I know that once I am in the zone of things it'll be sweet, but just getting started is so tedious.

I think it's error working at my desk in the flat. I need to be somewhere where other people are working. That said though, I am loving having this kinda free time. It all feels like I'll get it done someday, so in the meantime I'm just gonna enjoy things.

Finished The Knife of Never Letting Go, which was so awesome. Am very glad that X can get me the sequel before it's released (good stuff those bookshop proofs). We're going to see X-Men Origins:Wolverine tonight, which am pretty psyched about, I love X-Men and Wolverine and Beast are my faves. Sometimes I wonder what I'd like to have as a super power, and I reckon it would still be Prof X's and Jean Grey's ESP-style powers, I mean, they seem really useful in whatever situation.

Was listening to Asher Roth's Asleep in the Bread Aisle - really funny album, would totally recommend it. Now listening to his mixtape The Greenhouse Effect, which I reckon is even better than the full on album! So we will see how the work goes today then.

Nice holiday but very bad in Sri Lanka

I am back. Lille was awesome, lovely beers and mussels and fun all day, I loved it!

Thesis presentation went well this morning, I'm pleased. Will crack on with revision and thesis tomorrow. Exam dates in 9th week - Monday 22nd and Weds 24th.

Horrible things happening in Sri Lanka, hope it all stops soon, those poor people. Saw some terrible terrible photos of dead people, it's so sad. Worse though are the ones that are still alive in those concentration camps, they're alive now as I type this, and as you read this, suffering in a hell-hole. I don't know what to do. There's a mass protest again in London tomorrow, but even when other government's put pressure on Sri Lanka, they just keep doing what they want, they don't care about whom they kill along the way. It's heart-breaking.