I’ve been meaning to write another update for a long time now, but every time I find a moment to do it I can’t be bothered. So here it is, a reluctant post. A forced entry, if you will.

Enjoying doing absolutely nothing this evening. The past few weeks have been filled with things to do every night, but with the week over, and St Paddy’s day on monday, I now have 3 days in which to relax, get caught up on things and maybe start some new tasks.

We had new doors fitted in the flat on thursday. While the white colour certainly brightens the place up, it now means the dirty-white of the doorframes stick out like a sore thumb and will therefore need painted. I may start that this weekend. May.

May indeed. The month of May is coming up fast and there are just 7 weeks till the wedding. If you ask me it’s all organised. If you ask Carol the most important things (hair, make-up) are still to be done. In any case, organised or not, both of us just want it to be here now. This whole being engaged thing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

In an effort to fill my belly and satisfy my longing for sweet things during Lent I’ve been gorging on raisins, sultanas and dried apricots. Sometime’s it’s great, sometime’s you just feel like you never want to look at dried fruit again. Everyone told me that being off sugar in tea and coffee over Lent would make me used to the taste and I wouldn’t go back. Those people don’t know what it’s like to be me. The first thing I want once Lent is over is a big mug of sugary coffee (preferably with cream) and a double chocolate chip Tesco finest cookie. Mmmhmm. My mouth is watering. As if I’ll ever get used to not eating sugar! But I like that I chose something difficult to give up. Had I just gone off chocolate it would have been easy. But there’s nothing like sugary tea after lunch. I think the only thing I would have struggled more with is potatoes.

I caught an interesting (to me) article on digg this week celebrating the 10th birthday of the mp3 player. I love the fact that I owned one of the first mp3 players in the Rio pmp300 before any of my friends had even heard of the term mp3. I remember all the exclaimations about it being the smallest radio / minidisc player they had ever seen and the confused faces when I explained it was neither of the two. Ha! Minidisc - where are you now?!

I also remember buying it on impulse after hearing my big brother talking about this new technology. It’s not like me, and when I got it home and discovered it could only store a few songs at a decent bitrate I (like a little boy would) went and complained to a bemused Dave that he’d given me faulty advice (sorry, Dave!). I soon learned to reduce the bitrate and fell in love with the little beauty. They still don’t make em as beautiful if you ask me, though my little gunmetal muvo (which I haven’t used since I got my free nano) certainly turns the heads too.

There has been a real lack of good new movies recently, but one I’d been waiting for since I saw the trailer last year was The Bucket List. I highly recommend it if anyone’s thinking about venturing to the cinema but doesn’t want to waste money on tosh like National Treasure or Rambo.

Nigel introduced me recently to Explosions in the Sky which is nice music to have on in the background while doing stuff round the house. Similar in style to the wonderful (but now overly popular) Sigur Ros they don’t quite hit the heights of the Icelandic group, but entertain me enough to stay in my collection.

With the choice of music in work being wither silence or Radio 2, I’ve been forced to listen to two things I wouldn’t normally allow. And it has led to some odd discoveries. Ignoring the fact that it’s the same tune as their previous release “She’s So Lovely”, Scouting for Girl’s “Elvis Ain’t Dead” is a fine sound. Add to that the truly magnificent “A&E” by Goldfrapp and I’m quite surprised at the things I enjoy listening to. But when I find myself liking a Gwen Stefani song I start to freak out. But, quite frankly, Early Winter is about as good as it gets.

Next thing you’ll know I’ll be liking Kylie Minogue. No, wait. I have ears don’t I?

Finding myself…by myself…for the first time in a while I figured I could use my time wisely. Instead I’m writing a blog update. Silly me.

New things this week;

Cloverfield - This was finally released in Northern Ireland on Friday night and I of course was anxious to catch up on the americans (I’ve been avoiding spoilers on sites such as digg since previews began before it’s american release on 18th January). My response at the end of the movie was to put my thumb in the air Gladiator style-ee.

Really well made, you felt like you were there with them. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend you do so while it’s still in cinemas.

It was worth the wait.

Lost Season 4 - This premiered on Thursday night and I got to watch it as soon as I got home from seeing Cloverfield on Friday night. Two long awaited screenings one after the other.

I like that we are now into flash-forwards rather than flash-backs, but it wasn’t the explosive beginning to a season that we’d been promised. More mysteries to pile on top of the many unsolved ones still hanging from the first 3 seasons.

It wasn’t worth the wait.

Piano - Carol’s piano was delivered to the flat on Wednesday and I’ve been enjoying tinkering at it. So far I’ve figured out a crude rendition of The Scientist but I’m hoping I can pick up the basics to be able to put together a few basic bars for some songs. That or become a musical genius and pull songs like A Thousand Miles out of my ears (rearrange letters as you please).

Rewatched Walk The Line last night when we had Jiggle (Jayne and Nigel) over for dinner and I have to say (on my fourth viewing) it hasn’t lost any of its appeal. Definately up there amongst my favourites. Any movie that makes me like Reese Witherspoon has gotta be somethin special.

Been listening to a bit of Michael Jackson as it was on in work and have concluded that he only ever released 4 great tracks, but boy were they great. Check out the sidebar to see what they are. Go on you Wacko. 

OK I’m bored of this now. I’m away to eat some home made meringue

It is new for me to think this much. I’ve always thought a lot, but never so much that my thinking gets in the way of everything else. Everything else.

I spent a wonderfully relaxing evening with my parents last night as a little celebration for my 24th birthday. Of course there was steak, chips and french fried onions, and even more, baked alaska (calm yourself andrew). But last night I found so much more.

See I’ve always felt like the child in my family. I am. But I’m also 24. I’ve always felt, whether they mean it or not, that my family have treated me like I’m still that same wee boy who used to kick the football over the fence every 5 minutes. Well I suppose if I had the chance I’d still do that but anyway.

Wait, did I say I was 24? Are you kidding me? I’m still a student (for another month!). My father lovingly reminded me that he was married at 24. My response was my brothers were married at 21. What’s your point?!

I am 24. I see it every day when I’m in uni. I love my friends. But I’ve been noticing I’m older than them. You can see the difference. I don’t mean in looks (I’m still a pasty little boy you know) but in actions. In conversation. In how I want to meet up for coffee and have a chat rather than run around the beach flying a kite.

What I’m trying to say is I’m older than my skin suggests. I’m older than people think when they meet me on the surface. Those who know me best know my age because they know my heart. They know how I think, and the things I like to talk about. Yeah of course I want to talk about how awesome United were when they tore Roma to shreads, or how someone needs to swing for Frank Lampard and not miss. Of course I want to yell “This…is…SPARTA!” at every opportunity. And yes, every once in a while I enjoy a bit of mattress diving down the stairs.

But my conversation has turned from Grand Theft Auto and Fantasy Football to God and Life. I’m building Depth of Field Adaptors instead of watching TV. I’m searching my soul and finding I’m unsatisfied with life as I know it. I’m trying to figure out who I am and what I should try next.

More than anything I want a family. Uber congratulations to Pete and Laura, who’ve recently celebrated the birth of baby Alexander James Thomas and also to Dave and Kirsi, who are also expecting their first in October. I’m excited for you all. Only a wee bit jealous

But these things don’t just fall into your lap. In the meantime my focus has to be on living life as I am. I can’t really plan as I don’t know what’s round the corner. But I have to assume that for now at least, any plans I make will be for one.

Back to last night. I think for the first time in a conversation with my parents I felt 24. Well, it is the first time I’ve spoken to them since my birthday but you know what I mean. They consulted me on a decision. Asked my advice. Well maybe they didn’t, but I gave it to them and they took it on board. I was considered mature enough to be able to make a decision. To be able to have my say in a rational unselfish manner unlike a child might. We spoke as adults. We spoke as a family.

Most of you know that one of my favourite musicians is John Mayer. And most of you also know that I haven’t listened to him in almost a year and a half because of what his music reminds me of. But recently I’ve started listening to some of his music again. Only some. And I’ve got his latest album, Continuum. I’ve been looking for new music recently, and I think this constitutes new music. It’s different to his old stuff, and yet still holds that character that I love about him. If someone was to ask me who my favourite song writer was, I’d say it depends what you’re looking for. I think Dave Matthews has an incredible way with words as you know, and the music he writes just mesmerises me at times. Chris Martin writes stuff that blows me away musically (although I’m not sure how much of that is the band rather than him). But if you’re looking for raw emotion put into words that speak with pin point accuracy and developed into melodies that carry you away into that emotion, then I’d have to say John Mayer is the best songwriter I’ve ever heard.

Two tracks stand out for me on the new album. One is the title track for this blog entry, and the other is “The Heart of Life”. Listen, enjoy, spread the word. John Mayer is finally back in my cd player.

Maybe, at 24, I’m finally growing up.

Scuppered by two posts in a week by Kirsi, my avoidance of academical work has had to be put on hold to write something of an update here on rockshore (I can’t be outdone by a girl).

So, back at uni and work piling up, not to mention plenty of other commitments, but you don’t want to hear me moan about that, do you?

Instead I’ve decided to tell you just how great some things are, and in a fit of journalistic excellence, some things that are lacking in greatness.

How great are Train? For me It’s You was my most listened to album in 2006, and as always Drops of Jupiter has been doing the rounds in my car cd player. If you don’t love these albums you’re just wrong.

Arf and I went to see Smokin Aces a few weeks back. There was very little hype abut this movie and the only advertising I saw of it was in a trailer before Apocalypto (also worth checking out, if you like the idea of Ronaldinho running from spears and arrows and using his jungle know-how to outwit his enemies - top notch stuff!). I’m surprised by this lack of marketing, because having seen it, I think it could have become a cult classic on the scale of Pulp Fiction. Now don’t get me wrong, the whole thing was ridiculous - mindless violence and mass destruction, interspersed with overly dramatic emotional moments. It was awesome. One of my initial reasons for going to see it (other than the superbly put together trailer) was the casting of Ryan Reynolds as one of the lead actors. What a legend. I wish I could grow a beard to that standard (Sam will appreciate that I’m sure). The whole thing was pointless escapism. I loved it.

Of the numerous other movies I’ve watched in the past month: Shaun of the Dead - fun, Grudge 2 - creepy, Date Movie - awful, Confetti - barely watchable, Reeker - ridiculous, Tristan and Isolde - not bad, The Wicker Man (1973) - disturbing (Christopher Lee dancing around in woman’s clothes is enough to put anyone off their dinner), Se7en - not as good as I’d hoped, The Pursuit of Happyness - best new film I’ve seen since Walk the Line, Little Miss Sunshine - thoroughly entertaining for the most part, disturbing final 10 mins.

Honey Mustard is great, Lemongrass is not. My new Nikkor 50mm f-1.8D AF lens is amazing for portraits and random artistic photos with shallow depth-of-field, not so much for landscapes or extreme close ups. Nachos with salsa and cheese are one of the greatest foods ever invented. Dolly Mixtures that taste like banana are not. Spearmint is the devil.

Really now. I have to at least do some work today.

Yesterday turned out to be a pretty full day, after having lunch with Natania, Ormo and his friend Lawrence at the Ginger Nut (read tree) restaurant, I was paid a surprise visit by my good friend Samwise. As soon as Samwise had left I got a message from John-Boy Mullan that he was on his way round, and after sitting chatting to John for a while Alison showed up unannounced at the door. No sign of furious dave though!

So John and I had dinner and then headed out to the cinema to meet Sam, Hender, Pete and Pete’s friend Colin. The boys were keen to see “Severance” which I must say looked appalling to me from the trailers on tv. But I was pleasantly surprised! Much funnier than I anticipated for a british comedy, and the horror and suspense was much more believable than I would have expected for a ‘comedy-horror’. Still, all in all it was a pretty sick movie!

After the movie we headed out to the boy’s house in Monkstown and chilled there for a while. There was also a fearsome round of “this is a spoon” - ask me about it if you haven’t played before!

So it’s just a couple weeks till I start back at uni. My timetable looks pretty chocablock without adding in all the extra CU stuff (fresher’s week in particular will be pretty busy) but right now I just can’t wait to get started. I was chatting to Dave and John last night about committee (these two are my predecessors for the evangelism role so have been getting plenty of advice from them) and am anxious to get started and really try some wacky creative things this year…what that may be I’m not sure yet but I have a few ideas I could set in motion. Adam has done a great job with the new website - if you’re a uujer you should get yourself on the message board to welcome the fresher’s in! I’m off to do that now.

Well hello, i know I haven’t written in a while, lets not call it laziness, we shall from now on refer to it as “blog-writing-aversion”. Or laziness.

I have spent the past few days cleaning the flat, and this morning clearing out the rest of the junk left behind in the spare room because today is a special day - Clive moves in!! Well actually he’s just moving some stuff up today but nevertheless it is an exciting prospect.

The kitchen, too, is looking rather spiffy - new floor tiles layed and fridge, cooker, and washing machine back in position after being removed for said tiling. I still have to choose a colour for the walls but I’m thinking something similar to the bathroom would look well. Again, photos coming soon!

I’d also like to take this opportunity to say I miss Tesco. Am back in Asda tomorrow for work, but I might have to drive out to Tesco after to do my shopping. Nothing compares to it’s greatness, particularly Newtonabbey’s fine store. Have considered this week ordering a delivery but have been put off by the £3.99 delivery cost, but if I don’t make it out tomorrow I may have to use the service. I’m growing tired of an empty fridge.

I understand this has been an odd post, but I’m in an odd mood, after yesterday’s shocking transfer news affected me far too much for my own understanding! Furious Dave got the brunt of my moaning! We tried to take my mind off it by going to see “Snakes on a Plane” but the stupidity of a movie that appeared to have been thought up and written by a 13 year old didn’t do much good in cheering me up.

I think Clive has just arrived so I’m off to help him unload!

Last night Laura and I went to see M Night Shyamalan’s “Lady In The Water”. Being a big fan of his work I was very excited to see it, but perhaps I had built it up to be something it was never going to live up to.

While it was a good watch, it was a little odd. I know he normally deals with things out of the ordinary; kids seeing dead people, aliens, superheroes and monsters in the wood, but usually there is a sense of real life before odd things begin to happen. “Lady In The Water” seemed to just jump right into weirdness. Perhaps because the main character was alone - usually there is some kind of family dynamic to learn more about the way the main character reacts in normal circumstances - we didn’t really get a sense of who he was other than a 2 dimensional stuttering lonely guy.

I did enjoy the movie, and the score (similar in style to that of “The Village” - one of my favourite movie scores) did bring some intensity and emotion to it at times, but it won’t be one I’ll be exclaiming to people and recommending they go see. Laura did enjoy it, so I’m forcing her to watch “The Village” next time she pays me a visit (John you can come too!!).

Title taken from “Lady in the Water”

Now I’ll admit to being someone who’s only just jumped on the Johnny Cash bandwagon since “Walk the Line” came out in cinemas, but I wanted to share with you the video for his cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt”. So here it is:

“Walk The Line” immediately went into my top 10 movies of all time when I went to see it with the boys in the cinema a while back (if anyone wants to buy it for me on dvd you can be assured it will be well used!), so much so that I went back to see it a second time, and last week sat down to watch it on tv with my parents. Reese Witherspoon (who normally I can’t stand) fully deserved her Oscar, but it defies comprehension why Joaquin didn’t even get a nomination. 

Joaquin Phoenix has been a favourite of mine since I first saw him in M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs” and then again in “The Village” by my favourite director (looking forward to seeing “The Lady In The Water”). Even still I was blown away by his performance in “Walk The Line”. To act those scenes is difficult enough, but to do so while also putting on the voice and personality of Johnny Cash, along with singing and playing in his style is quite a feat. I don’t think anyone else could have pulled off this role to such an extent.