Richard Hammond Update and Thorpe Park

Well, it's been a couple of days since old Richie, affectionately called "Hamster", was admitted to hospital, and since then he's made great progress. Yesterday he smiled at Jeremy Clarkson and had a short conversation with James May, both co-presenters of Top Gear. Today, he was well enough to share a joke with his wife and even got up and walked to the loo, while enquiring about what had happened. So far so good, though the doctor's say the first 10 days are crucial moments, especially since he's sustained significant injuries to his brain.

However, if he's well enough to walk around and chat, deep in my heart, I know he'll recover fully. I'm still going to be praying and wishing him well, until I'm sure he's in the definate clear.

In other news, regarding yours truly, I'm in pain. Incredible pain. Not cool. Yesterday I made my way to Thorpe Park for my friend's 23rd birthday. I went despite feeling incredible, but with a sore throat and a barely audible voice. I had a good time and there were 5 of us in the beginning, with a 6th joining us later on. We went on a lot of rides I wouldn't normally go on, like Colossus, Slammer and Nemesis Inferno. It's not like I hate rollercoasters, it's just that they take advantage of my fear of heights. My coping mechanism? Close my eyes. Although whenever I opened them, it was always at the worst possible moment. I now know why Grissom, or CSI: Las Vegas/Crime Scene Investigation, rides rollercoasters to deal with his emotions after an emotional case...well at least I think I do. One of the scariest rides I saw was Rush. I thought it was okay, because all it does is swing you back and forth, going higher and higher each time, but when I saw that the only support was around the waist...I turned tail.

When I think about it, who on Earth designs these rides and names them? There's Stealth that takes you from 0-80 miles per hour in 0.3 seconds, and Detonator that takes you high up and pauses for a couple of seconds, then rushes you straight down, slowing at the last moment for safety purposes. Ah well...I'm a chicken, but I survived. Oh and I was never too keen on the Samurai either.

Two of the funniest moments were:

1) on the Rumba Rapids, we were allowed to go on it twice as a birthday treat for my friend. The first time around, we were taken by surprise by the waterfall, and the second time around we all clambered to the dryest side and pretty much dodged the waterfall. However, we almost capsized the raft in the process.

2) on Logger's Leap I was sitting at the back, because I wasn't sure if all five of us could fit in boat, but we did. The lone male was in front of me and to make an awkward situation socially acceptable, I realised I could rest my knees on the bottom of the boat, so that was okay. On the way down the second ramp, a female friend sitting in front of the lone male, had her poncho blown up by the wind and covered the three of us so when the camera took our picture, you can see the two girls at the front and a big blue blob at the back. I started laughing as soon as the poncho blew up and when we splashed into the water, I think some of the splash went into my mouth. Oh yeah, by then it had started raining, so to save ourselves, we bought poncho's. Not the coolest accessory out there, but we had no other choice.

About my throat, it was the result of an infection...something I don't know how I got, and I wasn't sure if it was contagious orally or not. I let the group know that I had a sore throat, and I felt really bad that I couldn't hold a conversation for very long. Plus, when I tried to talk it felt like I was stammering, but in fact I was trying to make it so that when I started to talk my voice would actually be heard. Anyhow, the lone male who was by now no longer the lone male, since we were joined by the 6th member of our group by then, had bought a Double Espresso and asked if I'd like to try some when he found out I was a coffee-drinker. Sadly I had to turn him down, and tried to explain why, but wasn't sure if he took offense. I really had his best interests at heart, I mean, I would hate for anyone to catch what I had.

When we were all going our separate ways at the end of the day, it turned out he didn't know what was wrong with me, so I had to explain to him. He only got curious when our friends wished me well and hoped I'd get better in time for Uni. Apparently he hadn't noticed a change in my voice, which is understandable since I hardly spoke to him. We only just started speaking towards the end of the 2nd year, even then it was few and far-between.

Richard Hammond, Pull Through

Fans of Richard Hammond, if you're unaware, he was admitted to hospital today for extensive injuries that resulted from a crash. He was driving a jet-powered car, and upon having broken the land speed record and deploying the parachute to slow down, the car veered off the track and overturned.

He is currently in critical condition and is still unconscious. I pray that he pulls through. Please make it Mr. Hammond, my prayers and those who love you are with you.

Man that sounds painfully cheesy, but I love him and the energy he brings with him.

Name Change

Well, I've finally decided upon a new name for this blog. It will now be known as Devious Undergrad! Bow before its might! Or rather, just acknowledge the name change and update your links.

Right, Devious because we all know how Devious I can be. Undergrad because that's what I am. I am an Undergraduate student, and am officially enrolled onto the 3rd and final year of my BSc Course in Internet and Multimedia. Wish me luck peeps/homies/random visitors.

If you scroll down much further, you'll see I have a new button. I've joined BritBlog, like any self-respecting British Blogger Citizen would do. If you too are British, a Blogger and a Citizen, you should go do that too. Notice how I also used BBC? I swear to you that was an accident!

I just have to wait for a confirmation e-mail regarding my joinage, but I'm not sure if I'm gonna get one, because like...the address I signed up with was apparently deleted by MSN. NOOOO!!! My correspondence e-mails with my overseas buddies!!! The horror!!! Yeah, that's what I was like for a good while and then kicked myself, it was my own damn fault that I forgot to sign into that account last month. Gaming is an evil, evil, EVIL addiction, but in the end, I have nobody to blame but my dumb-butted self.

God that's depressing, and especially after the very good and sweet memories I made yesterday with a very dear and special friend of mine. Nothing romantic, we just had a good time catching up and talking about current events and the woes of society, as well as learning a little bit more about each other.

On that note, I would also like to say that I have completed Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse. That was like last Saturday I think, and have since been completing the after game bonuses. Right now I'm trying to pay of the outrageously high Captain's Debt of 10,000,000G. I've only got 8,930,000G left! So I'm trying to steal more Awakening IV's from the "last" boss, which is a kick in the non-existant nuts because there's no way to skip the credits! Since I have another 17 battles with the "last" boss to go, I'll practically know the ending off by heart, and if I'm lucky, the lyrics to the song too!

I want to start Shadow of Memories!!!

*sigh* Time for me to go, I'm watching True Movies, so in the meantime, Ride Free Citizens!

By the way, I had no idea Kristin Kreuk of Smallville played an Indian girl. The movie is called Partition and I only checked it out because of the hawtness that is Chenier Hundal. I also have yet to watch that movie...

NB: For those of you who don't know the acronym BBC, it stands for British Broadcasting Corporation

Riding Strong

Back in the 80's the world was introduced to, what would soon be a phenomenon, Neon Genesis Evangelion. Almost everybody has heard of this anime, well more likely those who watch anime. The title of most known anime would be Akira, or so I like to believe.

I'm not going to go into a long spiel over the enigmatic awesomeness of the series, seriously it plays with your head and the movies aren't any better. They just leave you with more questions!

But to make the long speech short, they're pumping out 4 new Eva movies. Yup, looks like old Eva is still riding strong. The first of these movies is due for release mid-late next year (2007), with the last three coming out in 2008. I'm really looking forward to them, maybe then my questions will be answered and no more will sprout.

That's wishful thinking. Why? Because the previous installments answered questions that cropped up in the series, while leaving some open and giving you a whole lot more to ask about the series.

Also, if you have a LiveJournal or something, check this out a follow the link:

anime is love

rpgs are love

manga is love

erutanxiku is love

brought to you by the isLove Generator

I refreshed it many times, and the most common one that came up was "Anime is Love"...methinks it's trying to tell me something...

Oh and there you have it folks, I am love. ErutanXiku is my webname, for those of you who didn't know.

Intense Personal Stuff

So uh yeah, I said I'd make a post on the 11th, but meh. I didn't get around to it, my excuse? I had some intense personal stuff going, to be more specific a continuation of what I mentioned two posts ago.

Basically, my mum made us make up...sort of. Well she was the catalyst. So yeah, everything's cleared up and I was gonna write about it, but felt there was no need since this is going straight into my biography.