Happy Friday everybody!

The majority of new years eve celebrations that I have attended have been family affairs, not always my family, but still a steady slope into drunkenness whilst the young teens get hyper from blue WKD and I gorge myself with Iceland party food. But this year, for the first time, I get to spend midnight with my best friends. Alas not my Lincoln ones though. (I have two groups of best friends, they only differ in my mind by geography)

I'm hosting a tiny gathering at my Mom's house (cause she's awesome like that) which shall be filled with drunken frivolity and fighting over who gets to sit in the beanbag.

Myself and Openshaw headed to Morrisons earlier to get the supply of alcohol (with a list of requests from people) and it was genuinely amusing to see how many peoples trolleys were full of alcohol. Not that our shopping was very classy.

omnomnom (note this is for more people than just me!)

Plastic cups and a plentiful supply of alcohol made it quite clear to the woman serving us how we intended to spend our evening. Ooh, that reminds me, I must find a pack of cards out.

So cheers, everybody. I hope you enjoy your new year's eve as must as I intend to, I hope over indulge and I hope you don't start 2011 with a raging hangover. Love you all.

Essay blues and an extensive post script on the subject of fried chicken.

 was so positive walking to the library earlier today. For once I was actually keen to do an essay. I found the subject interesting and I felt I could get it all done and dusted in time to chill for a couple of days before heading home. All I wanted to was to eat, drink and be merry. But no, why did my subconscious have to lie to me? All this confidence (so I thought) but secretly my subconscious was running round in circles, having no idea what to write, whimpering something about Christmas puddings and cheese.



If I'd had prior warning of my impending writer's block, I could have prepared! I could have done more work on Saturday (instead, I nearly ate a chicken's spine*) and maybe I wouldn't have been so confunded today when faced with a blank word document.

I suppose I'd still be in the blasted library now if it hadn't been so cold. I suppose if I'm not doing work, it's better to be not doing work with a duvet and christmas lights, than on my own in a cold library. But hey, this is why I find myself writing a blog at this time. Once I get writing this, I get to writing my essay. At least, that's the plan.

*Cue anecdote: So, myself and the Joe went to KFC yesterday evening, because y'know, everybody loves fried chicken. After ordering a mahoosive pile of chicken we tucked in. Only for Joe to find, within a few minutes, a complete and miniscule spine within his fried chicken wing. Rendering it inedible and a waist of chicken. After investigation we discovered that my chicken had the same er... affliction. This of course, was not meant to happen. Damn creepily small chicken bones. *shivers* Damn kfc for being so tasty... I was certainly not as disturbed enough as I should have been on finding a teeny tiny spine in my tea. o.o And I could go for some popcorn chicken right now. :/

YoYos review

Did this review for my online project and was rather proud of it. Here you go! A review.

One Chinese buffet is much like the rest, don’t you think? You go in, you eat too much and then you feel a little sick when you collect your second helping from the chocolate fountain. Then after all that you can’t move and you feel like that third plateful took with it your soul. (Though you do smile with pride because you know how to use chopsticks)

But no. Yoyos isn’t like this. With the cheap price of £5.95 for lunch you don’t feel the need to “get your money’s worth”. You can even turn the Chinese buffet event into a quick lunch or a birthday celebration with Yoyos’ smorgasbord of cocktails.

In my opinion (Chinese food being my favourite food) the Yoyos buffet is one of the best I’ve been to. There is a wide selection on the buffet and in the evening you can request different varieties of noodles from the Noodle Bar. Unlike a few buffets I’ve been to the food is always hot and is frequently replenished by one of Yoyo’s army of waiters. And the food itself is delicious, miles above your standard takeaway. There is a strange and delicious beef rice which I’ve never seen anywhere else and is frankly fantastic. It has a rich flavour, nice chunks of beef and the rice is cooked to perfection. I also recommend the dumplings, though if you eat more than about three, you may not be able to move for the rest of the day. Tiny bundles of ridiculously filling yumminess.

One issue I have is when ordering drinks. Ignoring the rather pricey drinks menu the waiters seem to take forever to finally bring your (rather small) drink to the table. And of course it takes a good while longer if you order the free tap water. Not that I’m saying the staff are rude. The staff are all very friendly and willing to help, just not the quickest at bringing you refreshments.

Another uniqueness that Yoyos has is the takeaway option. If you feel like Chinese food but you can’t afford to buy a good range of dishes from a takeaway and sitting on your own amidst families and groups of friends doesn’t appeal to you then you can just get a takeaway box. At £3.80 in the day and just a pound more in the evening the takeaway box is the cheapest way to get a such a tasty range of Chinese food.

All in all I think Yoyos is great. An all-you-can-eat buffet will never be a classy affair, and most of the time you’ll find that you’ve eaten far too much. However Yoyos is a cheap, easy and thoroughly enjoyable place to eat.

"I could pull better copy out of my arsehole."

Since doing my online assignment I've become used to scrutinizing people's work. This also goes for times when I've proofread a friend's work. My own work as well, though i'm not the best at editing my own writing unless I leave it a few days and forget about it.

Though I haven't been one of the main editors for our group project, I've been dragged across to look at a paragraph from time to time and I'm rather getting into this editorial lark. It's clear when and article is unedited, there's a typo or two, maybe a spelling mistake, a couple of sentences that don't quite work. This is why we have editors. If you want your publication or website to look professional you need good editors. You can't just shove the article online and hope no-one will notice. Especially if the article is so dreadfully written that no amount of editing could have saved it.

Hmm. I suppose it just enrages me. I take pride in my writing but I don't expect it to be perfect every time. That's why I edit, edit, edit.

Damn those "lazy" protesters!

Lazy, binge-drinking students should be working, not protesting

Hilarious headline from the Halifax Evening Courier that I found during some casual Googling. Quality local journalism they've got there in Halifax. This man is incredibly stupid. He blames the current economic climate on the fact that the people to blame (business men, politicians, yadda yadda yadda) used to be students.

According to Mr David Regan the current protests shows "the poor standards of some of the students attending universities today." I'm sorry, what?!

Mr Regan also asked some very (air quotes) "important" questions:

• "Does Britain need all these universities?" David can't be doing with these new-fangled university things!
• "Do we need all these students?" Nah, uneducated morons like you are all we need
• "Are the right type of courses being provided?" I'm just gonna go with "yes". Maybe you should try one.
• "Are too many foreign students being taught in Britain?" This is clearly relevant to the point you're making. Gotta love some casual racism in local news.
• "If students are concerned about their money for education and all their other costs, who paid for trips to London etc to demonstrate?" It doesn't cost and extra £6000 to get to London, my dear chum.

A final warning to those students out there not wanting to offend Mr Regan. Please do not appear to be "dressed inappropriately for supposedly educated people". He gets awfully annoyed at this.

Urgh. there are some frightfully stupid people in the world.

Read the full article here if you can stand it.

I asked you to dance at the disco but you said no. Why did you do that, you heartless bitch?

If I were to time travel, after the inevitable sightseeing (Renaissance France, sightseeing from an airship, quick hello to Shakey etcetera) I would return to early 2000, kidnap Charlie Simpson, preventing him from ruining joining Busted and therefore putting Tom Fletcher in his place. Then everything would be well in the world. Busted would still be together, Matt Willis would have never been on I'm a celebrity, get me out of here and McFly would have never existed. Perfection!

Yes, if you hadn't noticed, I was listening to Busted earlier. Oh teenage nostalgia.

I do love that no matter how long it's been since I've last listening to Busted, I still adore them and I still know every lyric. AND THE SONG WAS CALLED CRASH AND BURN NOT YOU SAID NO!! Why did they break up?! Bloody Charlie I'm-in-a-crap-band-called-Fightstar Simpson. *ahem* I think I have some unresolved issues with Busted. Oh well.

I rather miss these boys. Not Charlie though. Bushy eyebrowed gitface.

However, during some casual Googling just I discovered this article. New Busted material?! Though with them being 27 I'm not sure they can cope with the boy/man band switcheroo. Also, when I read the words "it's quite 80s, quite synth-based" I worry. I am worried. But excited. Any excuse for me to see those lovely boys again.

Oh the early 2000s. *sigh*

The future's students are gonna be in more debt but also it's Christmas soon.

And this happened on the interwebs.

Yes, that is Snoop Dogg.

This is exactly why I love the internet. Yes, I love the people I've met and the fascinating things I've learnt and the wonderful writing I've been entertained by. But this THIS is Snoop Dogg in a freaking snowman jumper!

(This blog comes with a free joke! Why does Snoop Dogg carry an umbrella? .......fo' drizzle!)

I'm somewhat discontent.

According to this handy widget I know that it's -6 outside. That's -6 in early December... and the UK. I'm sure I don't remember weather this cold before. When I woke up this morning my friendly widget pal was telling me it was -11 outside. If only I have a thermometer in order to continue my new found temperature obsession away from my computer.

Anyway.

I never moaned about the snow because I loved it. Every little bit of it. The cold, however. I will moan about. When it is too cold to snow, and therefore, play and go for pleasant walks in the snow then I do not approve. In the atrium at uni earlier I could see my breath in front of my face. This, my friends, was just not cricket.

But onto the main point I wanted to make. Though it is horrible and icy outside the roads are now clear. All the ice is confined to side streets and paths. Basically a big "fuck you!" to pedestrians. So why the hell haven't our bins been collected yet?

The bins in the courtyard of my accommodation (Brayford Court)

It's nearly two weeks since the bins were last collected and I just wish the council would be a bit better at sorting out the backlog. Carholme road is absolutely clear of snow and ice on the road so I see no reason why they haven't sorted this out. It's bad enough that the courtyard is horribly icy but it's really not to pleasant having a growing bin bag mountain.

Hmmm... I sound like a bit of an old lady moaning about this. But I want the nice snowiness back, not un-emptied bins and DEATH ICE.

Now excuse me whilst I retreat back underneath my duvet.

I still think Spongebob is a paedophile.

My default picture not a cartoon character, this means I want to abuse children. However, I did just donate £5 to the NSPCC so who knows?

Change your Facebook profile picture to a cartoon character from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same, for the NSPCC. Until Monday (December 6th), there should be no human faces on Facebook, but an invasion of memories. This is a campaign to stop violence against children.

What is this really trying to do? Are you really telling me that every person I've seen change their default picture on Facebook to that of a cartoon has really donated to the NSPCC? I really don't think this ridiculous so-called "campaign" is going to do anything. It's not as if child abuse is a cause that needs more awareness. We know that there are terrible terrible people in the world who do terrible terrible things to children and we have two major charities that deal with this. Children in Need and NSPCC. What about charities that don't get as much publicity? Don't we care at all about them?

I just think it's ridiculous. This isn't going to help anyone. This just means that when I look at Facebook chat I've got no idea who half of the people online actually are. No, you are not a Disney anthropomorphic creature, you are a university student who should be smarter.

This just gives people a chance to pretend they're doing something good for charity. No you're not, not unless you've actually donated or actually done something worthwhile.

Some sense from Reddit via the Daily What.

My fellow blogger, Jamesy McPollitt shared his thoughts on the subject on his own blog.

And let's end on a brilliant quote from Jonathan Holmes Esq.: "we could all change it to pictures of our arses to raise awareness for bowel cancer..." Just as ridiculous as the cartoons, I think.