JP's Corner of The Blogosphere

I'm the Radcliffe Science Library! There's not a whole lot to say. You're scientific, and perhaps just a little dull. Half of the University doesn't know you exist, and the other half rarely visit. On the other hand, there's far more chance of you being involved in curing cancer than your artistic counterparts, so it all balances in the end. From Cherwell 24 Dull? DULL? Scientific maybe, but I refuse to believe that I qualify as being dull... Take the test, and comment below to let me know how you get on. It'd be interesting to see if there is any trend amongst my (less chav than me) readership.

No, this is not another post whinging about a person on a bus or train who has earned themselves a special mention here for being annoying but instead a response to this article . "John Kiel Patterson, of Louisiana, is suing Apple in the US District Court in San Jose, California. He says his iPod is capable of generating more than 115 decibels, a dangerous noise level, and is not safe for prolonged use." The simple solution to the problem, Mr Patterson, is to make sure that you avoid using your iPod for prolonged periods of time, or - better still - turn the volume down a bit. Muppet. If you were genuinely that concerned you would not have bought an iPod in the first place. It's as bad as these silly people who move to a house near an airport and then lobby about excessive noise levels. Honestly. I might not be blessed with the world's greatest amount of common sense, but I am perfectly capable of living without warnings telling me that a packet of peanuts "may...

My parents went walking in the vicinity recently and my mum remarked that the guitar playing she heard coming from a large house they passed "was probably somebody famous". It turns out she was right-the house in question belongs to none other than David Gilmour of Pink Floyd fame. Sweet.

Apparently I live opposite/sort-of-next-door-to the bad guy from the 1970's BBC Sci-Fi series Blake's 7. Yes really. Oh come on, someone must find that impressive...

Randomly this morning I came across a link to the website belonging to a couple who do voice-overs.  If you’re wondering who the voice behind the commercials, the station announcements and the corporate voice-overs is then look no further than www.sayerhamilton.com .  I’m sure that there are some of you who will be amused for hours by the free samples available (especially if you come from a Welsh backwater and have nothing better to do).   However, the reason that I have decided to give the site a mention is because it has quite simply the most random line I have ever seen on a professional or corporate website.  According to the main page “Sayer Hamilton also make babies” and you can even click on a link to some baby pictures (which doubtless some of my female readers will find unbelievably cute).   Weird.   I guess that the gauntlet is laid – can anyone find something which tops that for sheer randomness? ...

I had an optician’s appointment the other day (bear with me…), and it turns out that one of the causes of the irritation I was experiencing was a misplaced eyelash (for want of a better word).  The solution, obviously, was to have the offending hair removed, and although it wasn’t actually painful, having a pair of tweezers in such close proximity to your eye is pure torture. I took it like a man however and life goes on.

If you read my last two posts, you may be wondering why I was on a train needing to undertake an epic dash across London in the first place. I was going to write about it at the time, but I got sidetracked by a classic episode of The Simpsons and Bruce Almighty – which incidentally is a quality film now rated as one of JP’s All Time Favourites. Anyway, I had been to Lincoln, and before that, Stamford. Brasenose College has some historical links with these places, and a trip was organised on Saturday for those of us who wanted to find out more and enjoy exploring some new parts of England’s green and pleasant land. Stamford is a beautiful market town which has retained a lot of its medieval character – the Lord of the Manor at the time prevented the Victorians from developing the town, and there is a distinct lack of red brick. Even the newer buildings are very much in keeping. Personally I was rather taken with the small mansion half-way up Barn Hill and I might make it my ambition to ...

The adrenaline rush was weakened slightly by the fact that we arrived in Kings Cross 8 minutes early but everything worked out beautifully, and this comes from the comfort of my seat as I await departure from Victoria.

On my way home from Edinburgh on Tuesday I needed to cross London from Kings Cross to Victoria. There was plenty of time until the train I was due to get, but I wanted to get an earlier one - which left 18 mins after arrival in to Kings Cross. It was the most frustrating journey - I arrived on the Underground platform as a train pulled out and then arrived on my platform at Victoria as the train doors shut. The man 10 seconds in front of me made it, and if this wasn't a Corner of the Blogosphere for the whole family I might not be too complementary about him. So, half an hour to kill time at Victoria it was. "Exciting" I here you say sarcastically. Worryingly it may actually be more exciting than some of my more recent posts but let's gloss over that and let me get to the point of this post. I am once again on a train in to Kings Cross. Once again I will have 18 minutes to catch a train out of Victoria, and this time the stakes are higher as the next one is an h...

Some of you may have heard recently that part of the roof of the much publicised Scottish Parliament building fell in. This is somewhat surprising for a building which cost £430m. £430m which could have been invested in the health service, education, public transport... I had the dubious pleasure of seeing the building myself on Tuesday and I just could not believe it. Some things are said to look better in the flesh, but I was honestly not prepared for how cheap, nasty and plain ugly this monstrosity is. Nothing comes close, especially for something meant to be so prestigious. "Cheap?" I hear you say. How indeed can something which robbed the public purse of so much be cheap? Well, for a start I have it on good authority that the wooden structures and trimming are notorious for coming off. And then there is the small matter of the roof. I find it very ironic that just down the road from the multmillion pound Scottish Parliament building lies the Royal Yacht Brittania....

Chatting in to the early hours of the morning whilst drinking copious amounts of tea is something normally associated with being a student. I have very fond memories of such evenings in my first couple of years at Oxford, and very occasionally it still happens. I did not expect it to be a feature of my visit to Edinburgh, but I was proved wrong and enjoyed putting the world to rights and learning some family history from my Great Aunt. Truly legendary. I was looked after extremely well - how nice to be in the position where the important question is "do I like my bacon grilled or fried?" Edinburgh itself is beautiful, with some very impressive buildings and lots of old cobbled streets. The surrounding scenery is breathtaking and even the centre is hardly any distance from the Firth of Forth and the coast. It has one or two less impressive parts, such as the Scottish Parliament building, but that is so bad that ranting here won't do it justice; so I'll write about ...

When travelling on public transport it is important to consider others and have a bit of social awareness. The man with his MP3 player in my coach on the way back in to London yesterday clearly lacked such skills. He was sat some way away from me, and yet I could still hear the tinny drum beat over and above what I was listening to on my MiniDisc player (and yes I know that an MD player is so 1990's but that's an aside). Honestly, it drove me mad, and I was on the verge of going over and asking him to turn it down. Quite how those sat closer to him managed not to strangle him is beyond me. I would say that such people shouldn't be allowed on the train but then they'd all end up on the bus, which has to be endured from time to time as well. Such as when I took the dreaded X5 to Cambridge. This time the bloke behind with his headphones on full volume was competing with the portable speakers belonging to the girl in front. It was very kind of her to share her music w...

If there is an etiquette about who should be allowed in First Class and who should remain in Standard then the woman and her kids currently residing somewhere further down my carriage have clearly breached it. I have been prompted to write this little rant by the fact that one of the kids has not just been running up and down the aisle a couple of times - which would have been annoying in itself - but her preferred method of propulsion is a kind of leapfrog, using the arms of the chairs either side to swing herself forwards. To be fair the kids have otherwise been quiet, but their mother did annoy me twice earlier. Firstly there was her need to blaspheme loudly when the train veered round a bend as she was coming back in to the carriage. And secondly there was the melodramatic "Oh my. Just a few days ago I was on the motorway and an accident had occurred just yards in fron of me.........." when the train manager was talking about "an incident" on the line earlie...

It's a while since the word chav appeared, but it still retains it's popularity; probably because it is somehow beautifully descriptive and very useful. Anyway, in some idle time recently - probably when I was faffing whilst "writing up my project" I came across a link to a "chav test" online. So, if like I was you're wondering how chav you are, point your browser to the following link. http://www.getlippy.com/play/quizzes/chavquiz/ And please, especially if you score more than 15% leave a comment below to let me know how you get on. It'll be interesting to see how chav my readership base is anyway but if anyone is more chav than I came out to be I'd be grateful to hear from you. In fact, if anyone is as chav as me (15% in case you hadn't worked it out) then please let me know. Somehow I have come out to be more chav than all of my friends who have taken the test thus far. More chav than even Mr "Pearly White Trainers" Stacey ...

Push your way through the weeds which have sprung up throughout this deserted corner of the Blogosphere and across the wasteland you will at last see signs of life once again. Life beyond snippets from Shaggy, of all people. The lack of posting has been down to the pressures of being a final year student-notably my project which was submitted as a first draft at the end of last week. Doubtless it will need more work when my supervisor gets back to me, and finals are looming but I will make the most of the time I have to ramble and talk about some of the more bloggable events in the sadly rather unblogworthy last couple of weeks. I am currently speeding North at a rate of knots to Edinburgh, where I shall be staying with my great aunt (legend) and visiting the University. I have been made an offer for an MSc course there and need to check it out before I come to any decision. Deciding what to do next year is hard; I am in the verry fortunate position of having offers from three plac...

Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd say. But there I was listening to Shaggy's 'Why Me Lord?' and at the beginning he says "And you should remember God in your every day doings, not just when it get's bad". I'm not sure if he was being sarcastic or not, but either way the words ring very true. Even if it is sometimes easier said than done. On with my project. More regular posting will hopefully commence again soon.

I have just read this article in The Times, which talks about yet more meddling and intervention by our beloved government in the railway network. For those of us who have no option but to rely on public transport it is yet another kick in the teeth, and makes a complete mockery of the government's alleged plans to encourage people out of their cars. I don't drive for medical reasons, which can be an inconvenience and it'd be nice if sometimes my life were a little easier. But how long before the services are cut so much that those who have an alternative such as the car use it, regardless of environmental conisderations? I'd advise reading the whole article, but here are a couple of choice snippets. "The Department for Transport last week tried to blame First Group, Britain’s biggest train company, for a series of cuts across the West Country. But a document obtained by The Times reveals that the cuts were ordered by the DfT, which is trying to reduce the £5...