I recently learned about a rather good feature of Facebook: people who are soon to be attending university can join special groups where they can chat online with people who’ll be doing the same course. Through this service, I’ve met and been chatting with somebody and I think the whole thing is pretty good. That somebody also happens to keep a blog, and they told me they’re rather lacking in readers. They rather modestly suggested that I shouldn’t advertise their blog on my own as it would bring down the quality of my own, but I’ve decided to ignore them and post a link to it. Here is their blog. I hope you enjoy it.

Just a quick entry for today, and after today I’ll only be updating this on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Occasionally there might be exceptions, but that’ll be the usual.
    Anyway, one thing that I noticed recently is the rather strange way that language is treated in works of science-fiction. Now, as I’m sure you already know, the language of the past was a lot more formal than the language of today (especially the 18th/19th centuries), but in most pieces of science-fiction, when the future is shown, the language seems to be shown as the same as language from the past. I think what this mainly shows is the difficulty of imagining the ways in which our language will change and so the writer’s thought process is something like this “I wonder how people of the future will talk? Well, if I move backwards through time by a hundred years they talk formally, so if I move forward by a hundred years they probably do the same!” but really I think it’s quite wrong to assume the language will become much more formal, I think it’ll be the reverse of true (not that I think Text Language or l33t 2p3@k will come the norm) but I just think it’ll become more informal in ways we don’t really imagine at the moment. Personally, I think that the way we write will become more and more like the way that we speak, but definitely not more formal!

So, as I’ve told you before on this blog, reading is cool. Unfortunately, it seems to me that barely anybody actually does much reading, especially of anything written over a hundred years ago. As such, I’ll use this entry to try and encourage more reading from people.
    Pretty much every famous author in history sneaks at least one silly and hilarious joke into their work, and for my first example I’m going to use one of my favourite authors- Arthur Conan Doyle. As I’m sure you know, Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes (one of my favourite fictional characters). I’m sure you must think that they’re those serious dramatic detective stories from the 19th century don’t you? Well you’d be wrong if you did. These stories often have moments in them that’re very funny, but to keep this entry short I’ll give only one example. In the Sherlock Holmes short story ‘The Adventure of the Red Headed League’ a ginger man comes to visit Holmes to tell him about a crime that seems to be linked to a gang of ginger headed people (The Red Headed League) who supposedly come together for no reason other than that they’re all ginger. When this ginger man finishes telling Holmes and Watson about this little ginger gang, all they can do is laugh in his face about how silly the whole thing is…
    But I suppose Sherlock Holmes is at least moderately recent, how about something from Shakespeare? I’m sure you think that any humour in this is completely lost due to the fact that the language used in it is now so antiquated. Well you’re wrong again. In ‘Richard III’ Richard is confronted by a woman for his murderous ways and all he can do is flirt with her, making totally unsubtle suggestions that she should just be quite and come and have sex with him (and when I say unsubtle, I really mean it. Sexual innuendos usually go completely over my head, but even I noticed them here…).
    To go even further back in time, and to show that there’s fun things even in books that aren’t fictional, for example The Republic by Plato. The Republic is supposed to be a hypothetical debate between Plato’s dead best friend Socrates and several other philosophers, covering subjects such as politics, morality, the nature of existence and other very serious subjects… Until they all stop to imagine naked old ladies working out at the gym, they find it quite hilarious as it happens.
    To give another non-fictional example, I’ll use The Bible (I know some people would like to argue that The Bible belongs purely in the fictional section, but I’d class it as a history wrapped in poetry and mythology, with a highly controversial label of ‘divine inspiration’ sitting in the maybe pile). Now, I’m not 100% sure if this example is something that was intended to be funny, but it is anyway, so I’ll include it. Basically, an enemy tribe is preparing to attack to Israelites… Luckily for them, God sneakily kills them all in the night to protect them, and after he’s killed them all, it says this “And sure enough, when they awoke the following morning, they were but corpses” make of that what you will.
    These are just three small examples, but really people shouldn’t have such a negative and boring perception of books, especially those which were written long ago. I’m sure that no writer has ever lived who resisted the temptation of putting silly jokes into their work. 

I don’t really think I need to write much of an introduction for the entry (read the one I wrote on part 1) so here are numbers 5-1 of what I think to be the saddest moments in TV shows and films (and internet series).
5. One Foot in the Grave: Things Aren’t Simple Any More
I’m sure you’ll probably have heard of this series about an old man named Victor Meldrew who always seems to get himself into very unfortunate situations, but what you may not know is that in the very last episode (Things Aren’t Simple Any More) he dies. When the episode starts, he’s already dead, and generally it doesn’t really seem too sad as funny things are still happening. Then the story of his death is slowly told through flashback, and the ‘present day’ story has his wife telling people all about several of the crazy adventures he got himself into shortly before he died, but none of these are shown in the flashbacks. The story then gets to a point where Victor is run over and killed while waiting for Margret (his wife) to drive him home… Then the song End of the Line by The Travelling Wilburys plays while we see the, previously unseen, crazy situations he got himself into that his wife was speaking about after his death… Much sadder than it sounds.
4. Jake and Amir: Sick Day Part 3 (Goodbye)
I’ve mentioned before that I’m a fan of Jake and Amir, in fact, it was the subject of my first ‘top 10’ entry. It also is going to make up the only entry on this list that is an internet series (then again, the only other internet series I watch is Marble Hornets, and that’s just plain creepy). Now, I’ll briefly explain what Jake and Amir is, as it’s a little obscure and some of you may not have heard of it before. Basically, Jake and Amir is a series of roughly five minute stories, of Amir (a weird and stupid person) and Jake (a mostly normal guy) working at their office. Amir is utterly obsessed with Jake and often tries, and fails, to impress him through various unintelligent means, usually making Jake like him less and get angry. It’s often implied that Jake utterly hates Amir and everything about him (despite the fact that Amir practically worships Jake). But this episode (Sick Day Part 3) is an exception; this episode is Jake’s last day at work before he leaves for a new job. He hasn’t told Amir yet, and when he does, Amir utterly breaks down and practically begs Jake to stay, but Jake ignores him and walks off to the lift, leaving Amir standing and crying by himself. Then, just before the doors of the lift close, Amir comes in and the two of them hug each other. Luckily, Jake later comes back to his old job and the status quo is resolved, if it wasn’t, this might be a little higher on my list! I strongly suggest you watch this series; it is free and online after all!
3. Torchwood: Children of Earth
I did make a little rule for this top 10 that no TV Show would have two different episodes on different parts of this list, and technically Torchwood is a different show from Doctor Who so I’m going to include this moment from the third series of the show. Basically, the immortal Captain Jack and his boyfriend Ianto storm into the alien base and make some demands. Unfortunately, the aliens ignore them and then gas the place… Jack, while immortal, can still die, he just comes back to life a short while later, so Jack and Ianto slowly die of the gas, holding each other in their arms. Jack later revives and he and Gwen (another member of the Torchwood team) then look tearily down on the dead body of Ianto, who had previously been my personal favourite character in the series.
2. Futurama: Jurassic Bark
Another comedy series on my list of ‘sad’ moments! It seems that comedy series, ironically, are just better at making people feel sad. Perhaps, when a series is really funny, a sad moment creates such a contrast that it seems so much sadder in comparison?
I’m sure you’ve all heard of Futurama, so I won’t bother to explain its premise to you. Futurama actually has a surprisingly large amount of sad or emotional moments, but the ending of Jurassic Bark is by far the saddest. In this episode, Fry finds the remains of the dog he had back in the 20th century before he was frozen and sent to the future. The Professor tells Fry that he can revive the dog and Fry spends the episode preparing to have his old pet back. However, shortly before the dog is to be revived, The Professor tells Fry the dog’s age at its death and it turns out that it lived another ten years or so after Fry left. As such, Fry decides that he shouldn’t have the dog revived as it must’ve had a full life with other people after he left and it had probably forgotten him… That’s pretty sad on its own right? Well it gets worse. Then, as the credits role, we see that Fry was quite wrong. The song I Will Wait For You by Connie Francis plays while we see the dog loyally standing and waiting for his master’s return for the entire ten years. Probably especially effective if you have a dog of your own.
1. Grave of the Fireflies
This is the only film on this list, I think generally you don’t get to know the characters in films as well as those in TV series (due to the fact that film characters just have the film, but TV characters have hundreds of episodes) and so you don’t care as much when something bad happens to a film character. I guess that say something about this film… The story of this film is basically that of two orphans trying to survive in Japan during World War 2, one boy (aged roughly fifteen) and one girl (aged roughly four or three years old). Obviously this doesn’t end well, and the little girl dies at the end of the film, then we’re shown many happy moments of her life while sad music plays. We also know that shortly after this the boy dies too… It has to be seen to be believed, this really is the saddest thing I’ve seen out of any film or TV show.

As you’ll know from yesterday’s post, and also from a post I wrote a few days ago, I’ve been planning on writing an entry about the saddest moments in TV shows and films. This entry is actually slightly broader than the title would have you believe as I’m also including internet series in my top 10 saddest moments. Due to length, I’ve decided I’ll post this over two days as people may not like to read such a long entry.  I should also warn you that there will be spoilers in this post, so if one of the items on my list is of a series you like but aren’t fully up to date with you may wish not to read it.
10. Friends: The Last One
I’m sure you know what Friends is, it’s one of those comedies that almost everybody likes with only very few exceptions. The sad moment I’m using from Friends is from the episode The Last One, which just so happens to be the very last episode. All the main characters are together in the empty apartment where a lot of the action from the series took place over the last ten years, except it’s all empty now because none of them will be living there anymore. They’re all about to go their separate ways and this is true of both the characters and the actors who were all very upset about it being the end, it was the end of an era after all. This one isn’t really any tragedy or anything (unlike some of the later entries) more a bittersweet ending, earning it a spot at number ten.
9. Summer Heights High: Episode 8
You may not have heard of this series, so I’ll briefly explain it to you: it’s a comedy series written by and starring Chris Lilley, showing the lives of three people who attend Summer Heights High School in Australia: Jonah, a trouble making Year 8 boy, Ja’mie, a snobbish Year 11 girl and Mr. G, an egotistical, flamboyant drama teacher. The sad moment in this series is from Episode 8 when Jonah learns that he has been expelled (and for something relatively minor). He ignores his instruction to empty his locker and goes to his lesson as usual, though it’s clear that he’s very unhappy about it. Then a member of staff comes along and drags him out of there, while Jonah strongly resists. It’s pretty sad as Jonah is the most likable of the three characters and you already know that his future looks rather grim as his father says that if he gets expelled he won’t be going to any other school.
8. Frasier: Visions of Daphne
Frasier, the series about two somewhat pompous physiatrist brothers, earns the spot at number eight for the ending of the episode Visions of Daphne. We’ve seen throughout the series that the character Niles has quite a crush on Daphne, and after his wife leaves him, he tries several times to tell her how he feels, but always fails. At the end of this episode Daphne gets engaged to a man named Donny, and announces it to everybody, including Niles who we see sitting miserably on the sofa, unable to express how sad he is because he doesn’t want her to find out how he feels…
7. Doctor Who: The Green Death
This’ll probably be the nerdiest entry on the list, but who cares? I love Doctor Who! It’s great! Now, the episode The Green Death, isn’t a particularly sad one, it’s mainly about giant maggots terrorising the English countryside, but it has a very sad ending. During the course of the story The Doctor’s companion, Jo Grant, meets and falls in love with a young man (I forget the character’s name). At the end of the story Jo gets engaged to this man and everybody has a big party to celebrate. However, this, of course, means that she can’t stay with The Doctor anymore, so The Doctor quietly sneaks out of the celebration party and drives home alone in the dark, having lost his friend to somebody else…
6. The Waltons: The Empty Nest
The Waltons is so good; it’s basically about a family living in 1930s America (and later 1940s America) and makes good use of both comedy and drama. Throughout the first six seasons the grandfather of the family, Zebulon Walton, was played by actor Will Geer, and was probably the most playful and humorous of all the characters. However, Will Geer sadly died before they started filming the seventh season and so the first episode of that series is about the characters coming to terms with Zebulon’s death. At the end of the episode they all gather round his grave and say their goodbyes, the fact that the actor was actually dead and that the other actors probably didn’t need to act to appear to be mourning makes the whole episode very sad (especially as it’s about the status quo of their life changing for all of them).

So that’s 10-6 of the moments I think are saddest in TV Shows and films (though no films are on this list yet). What do you think will be in 5-1? I can assure you that the final episode of the fourth series of Blackadder will not be on the list, I’ve been shown the clip so many times that it’s beginning to lose its effect on me, so it will not have a place in my top ten (if that’s what you’re expecting).

I spent hours writing ‘Top 10 Saddest Moments in TV Shows and Films’ then the page suddenly refreshed and it was gone! Unfortunately, I won’t have time to write it out again today, so the entry is postponed until tomorrow.

Lately, I’ve had a few people despairingly say to me that winter is coming soon and that already summer is coming to its end. Now, it is slightly disappointing that we’ll soon be losing the long days and warmth of the summer, but winter is, in my opinion, underappreciated.
    As such, I’ve decided to use today’s blog entry to talk all about the things that we can look forward to in the months to come. I think the most obvious appeal of winter, is that this is the time of year that contains Christmas, and with Christmas comes the joys of finding great gifts for all your close friends and family, and of course, on the flip side of that point, the joys of receiving great gifts from close friends and family. But rather than focusing on all the really great things about Christmas, I’ll talk about good things that apply more generally just to winter.
    Firstly, during the summer, it’s often so hot at night, that it takes up a large amount of time simply trying to get cool and comfortable before you can sleep, but in the winter, the whole bed is comfortable and you’ll spend a good part of the day looking forward to its warm embrace in the night. Sleeping isn’t as relaxing at any other time of year as it is during winter.
    Secondly, when it doesn’t get dark until around 9 p.m. or 10 p.m., don’t you begin to miss ever having a walk in the darkness? I don’t know, perhaps this point only applies to me, but I think that there’s something that’s strangely peaceful about being out in the dark… Especially when it’s cold out too. Plus, there’s the pleasure of coming into a nice warm house (where all of your favourite things are) which can never be enjoyed during the summer.
    Finally, there’s snow during winter. This may seem like a rather bad point, I mean, after all, snow is a problem: it stops mobility, is very cold and will eventually be very slippery. But there’s a thrill, at least in my case, that you’ll always get when you open your curtains in the morning and find the world covered in pure white snow.
    I hope this has cheered up those of you who are miserable about the end of summer, and I’d also like to apologise for posting this entry so late!

A couple of days ago I met up with a few of my friends at a local pub called The Great Western. It was a nice social affair (apart from my friends Elliott Egan and Mike Wing trying to teach me obscure and extremely explicit sexual manoeuvres) and I had a pretty good time. However, while there, I attempted to do something I perceived as a good deed, but it went terribly badly.

Here’s how it played out:
Elliott Egan: So anyway, to donkey punch a girl you have too…
Danielle Tyler: Can anybody lend me some money?
Me: (Thinking: Thank goodness for the distraction!) Yeah, of course, take what you want…
I then reached into the pocket of my jacket, grabbed my wallet, and threw it towards her. Unfortunately, I’m rather lacking in all hand-eye coordination skills and so my aim was rather off, so rather than landing nicely beside her (as I planned it to) it hit her glass of  drink and all spilled directly all over her and into her hand bag (probably ruining several of her things).
Dani then ran off with one of her friends, she was very angry and upset about it. She was alcoholically impaired at the time, so her reaction doesn’t accurately represent her usually gentle and imperturbable behaviour. A little while later, Dani returned, so I was eager to make my apology. This didn’t go quite as planned either:
Me: (I said this at the same time as Elliott Egan spoke, I’ll write what he said below my own words) Hey, I’m really sorry about spilling your drink I-
Egan: Hey Dani, pyjama party at Karma this Thursday, don’t go to Turkey go to-
Dani: (presumably to both of us) Darn off!
(In case you can’t tell, I’m using ‘darn’ to substitute a different four letter word, as I always do on this blog)

I’ve since been able to properly apologise to Danielle for being so clumsy, but I think you should take away from this the moral of the story: that you should never do anything erratically (like throwing a wallet to do a good deed) things only go well when you plan them out and do them nice and slowly.