Where would you sit?...

I went to a house party that was being hosted by an old friend, Marsh, or as I had to teach myself to say Chris as noone in Worcester (where he's currently studying) know him by the old name we used back in school. Anyways, the house party was a lot of fun, although too much drinking led me to forget exactly how it all ended but good none the less. It had all the makings of a good party; drinking, drugs and a large number of strangers to meet.

One rather cool thing that happened which I felt needed to be blogged about was a little conversation I had with this guy Kwan (don't know how it's spelt sorry) about some behavioural psychology which I do find very interesting. Anyways, not sure how we got talking about it but I posed a scenario to him, which I will repeat here:

You get on a bus and there's an attractive girl (or guy, whatever works for you) sitting in one seat. Knowing this, where would you sit?

I posed this to Kwan and I made a decision myself. Make yours and hit "read more" to see if there's some mutual thinking going on. I'd be curious to know what people chose.

It is was rather spooky, Kwan gave his answer: opposite and one row back. It was a proper woah moment, as I thought the exact same thing. I thought that was awesome and we tried to reason why - you wouldn't sit in front of the girl as you wouldn't be able to see her without obviously turning round. But why not directly behind her, or even opposite but on the same row?
It's no secret that I'm a big podcast nut and I would love to find a podcast that discusses this kind of stuff - unfortunately the couple I've tried haven't been that great.

That being said I did ask Chris later that evening, and he replied again opposite, but two rows back. The bubble had been burst but still he half agreed, so I'm clinging on to the victory.

Read full post >>

I'm a drug user f*ck the police! ...2!

The alternative title being "The Le Mans BBQ" but that doesn't get the curiousity tingling as much does it?

Anyways, a while back I wrote about my very first drug experience here. I was invited to a BBQ for the Le Mans 24 Hour race weekend, and there I took my drug experiences upto the grand number of two OMG! But first, the Le Mans BBQ, and what was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend.

It has become a yearly tradition for Will to host a BBQ for the Le Mans 24 hour race. I was invited last year but other commitments meant I couldn't make it, but when the invitation came round this year, I firmly declared my intent of attendance. Now, Will himself will admit far too easily that the timing of the BBQ for Le Mans is basically a wafer thin premise for a piss-up weekend. Looking back, I think we *just about* managed to catch the start and we watched for some extended periods the day after when we were all too tired and hungover to try and do anything else, but you're probably asking what has this got to do with drugs?!?

To go back to the start, there is a National Express bus stop literally a stone's throw away from Will's new place, so the travel down was pretty much pre-determined. I got a National Express coach down from Birmingham, and wow are the National Express coaches awesome. Very large and comfortable seats, with ample leg room which is good for me as whilst I might not be the tallest I do tend to slouch in the chairs. Along with that, they had those infamous circular air con fans along the immediate ceiling, and unlike all the school trips I went on in my youth, the air con was impressive, I was not reqwuired to hold my head within millimetres of the fan to experience a weak breeze, so I was mucho chuffed with that as well.

Dropped some of my stuff over at Will's before heading over to his parent's place for the actual BBQ itself and I promptly made a start on the drinking. To mix up festivities I took along Rock Band minus the drums, so we had 3/4 the fun. Despite the lack of drums, it has proven to be a game that literally anyone can come in and have fun.
What with it being a glorious day we also went and played some American Football, I was hoping for regular footie but it was still pretty cool - I scored the first touchdown but my team lost in the end :(. As I discovered the day after, I took a knock to my ribs, thought it may have been broken but was assured that I had just bruised the muscle. It took like 2 weeks for it to stop hurting when I put pressure on it or twisted it. That was pretty lame as it really interfered with my sleep at first but thankfully that's all cleared up now.

Moving on to the drugs itself and as the BBQ was starting to kick off, this guy Lee (back in the day he was known as Chem Soc Lee, giving it an oriental twist ), who has become a renowned "druggie" as my Nan would pigeonhole, started passing round a joint. I found it a little humourous (although not enough to throw out a snigger) that this girl Claire (very cute btw) passed on the offer which left it to me where I took a few drags, only for her to proceed to do so as well when I passed it on.
Interspersing the yummy food (did I ever say BBQs are awesome?) I had a few more smokes with Lee; getting in to the evening and I popped out for a smoke, so there's just me and Lee there and he asks me if I've ever done ecstacy.

...I was quoting Scrubs where Carla asked Turk to see I love you just like Astro the Dog, so there's me going "Raggy! Raggy! I Wuv you! ...RAGGY! Where are you!"

I replied no, but I was incredibly curious and empowered thanks to a sense of being a combination of merry and high, that I was not going to back down on this opportunity that had presented itself. I was asking what were the side effects I was likely to experience, in particular how badly I was going to crash. Lee could have told me my foot was going to drop off, and I would still have gone through with it, I was that made up in my mind.

Now, Lee actually told me to make the open can of the 'bow I had my last one in order to enoy the E I had just done, but I kinda went against that advice. Now it's supposed to be experienced best at clubs with loud dance music banging away - it made me wonder if there wasn't a rather large placebo effect, or perhaps I was expecting a much greater effect. We popped inside, grabbing some food, sat down some people with rocking out on Rock Band. For some strange reason, I felt the need to do a Scooby Doo impression, aided greatly by a mouthful of burger. It was either that and/or I was quoting Scrubs where Carla asked Turk to see I love you just like Astro the Dog, so there's me going "Raggy! Raggy! I Wuv you! ...RAGGY! Where are you!" I remember it very distinctively, only cos Lee absolutely lost it, to which I kept on going - he was holding his sides by the end of it, I was laughing cos he cracked up so much over it, everyone else looking slightly confused and intrigued to what could have been so funny.

I did bother Lee to perhaps try some more, but the first taste was on the house and he wanted some money for any more. In fact, it seemed like he called pretty much everyone in his phonebook to see if they wanted to come along to the BBQ and purchase some drugs from him - bear in mind at this time it must have easily have been around midnight, if not later :s

In reflection, there is a big environmental factor to the experience gained from E, that was the general consensus I learnt, so it's difficult for me to say whether it was a good or bad experience. That being said, Bill Hicks perhaps has the greatest argument on drugs. He goes on to say that he's had both good times and bad with drugs, but will he give them up? No, his argument being that he's had both good times and bad times with women, but he's definitely not going to give up pussy. Bad experiences are there to build character or so they say.
I am a well-renowned hesitator (so much so I was going to throw out a whole post on it but I binned it) in pretty much all parts of my life, from telling people how I really feel to crossing the street, but it's strange (but satisfying) that I have taken both opportunities for drug-taking. A part of me thinks that I could get into the semi-habit of smoking weed, if only to de-stress from time to time. Thankfully for my health (and my wallet) I am not that well-connected, which is the main reason why I'm making such a deal out of these experiences, as alluded to in part 1.

Other little nuggets about the weekend, I learnt how to play the darts game "Killer", very cool game, very much like Uno where you can get so close to winning and then have it snatched away from you just with less cards and more darts I guess. Also, Will still owns me at Call of Duty multiplayer, especially with low numbers where it becomes a game of waiting and biding your time - I simply don't have enough patience for that - enter me going for many suicide runs down the streets only to get picked off by Will who has been patiently looking out a particular window, waiting for me to break, arg!

(Is anyone else tired of the constant bracket text?)

Read full post >>

I'm a drug user f*ck the police!

The above is of course a quote from the simply awesome Peep Show, the episode where Mark smokes Pot in the toilets at the bowling alley. For those not familiar with the show, OMG! Where have you been all this time?! It's simply a great show, Mitchell and Webb, both the stars and creative geniuses (should that be geniui?) behind the show are finally getting the recognition they deserve. Anyways, we're getting off topic so to bring us back I will start with a simple statement - I have smoked weed. Now, that shouldn't be that big a statement in itself, and it's probably not, but the perception is that I should now be cooler than I was, or at least that's what the World tells me.
I think it all starts with smoking in School, it's seen as a very rebellious act and we all know that rebels are cool, right? Possibly I'm given the impression that people that smoke weed are cooler is that I've known many people that have and it is regarded as something truly special and there's almost an elitism to it. Take University and there were some people on my corridor who would often go "on walks" as they put it, and I was grudgingly never asked to go. There's some thought process on their part going on - I was never deemed "worthy" to join them. Let's actually return to my experience, and heading back home for Easter to see the family as well as some friends. I've texted my good buddy Carl about possibly meeting up for a pint, nothing OTT, just something low-key where we could catch up and have a laugh, the usual. Anyways, thanks to some rail scheduling I happened to get the train back with him and he mentioned a gathering that I should come to. Now I'm usually wary of going to parties/gatherings with all strangers, I wouldn't call myself a people person, and could easily see myself wishing I was somewhere else, knowing I'd be having a better time. Recently I've been taken the more laid-back approach with social gatherings and going-with-the-flow, not getting stressed about meeting up times and just doing whatever, so I said sure "why not, could be fun". 

On to the gathering itself and me and Carl stocked up on the beer before heading over to Kevin's (the host of the party). We boozed up, got chatting and generally having a laugh - having a few beers with friends with nothing on the agenda is a relaxing venture, and something I don't do enough anymore. At one point we got a little heated debate on Macs and how they are in fact now marketing towards the dumb customer, that just wants a stylish bit of kit but no actual substance - that got me worried as I am more and more interested in Mac products - I always thought it was more an elitist thing - you've tried the Every Joe desktop, now you want to try something a little better, a little different. It was later revealed that they were having a delivery, and planning to smoke the rest of the night away. I was asked if I had ever smoked weed before, to which I replied I've never smoked anything before except the odd attempt at a cigar. I must make something very clear, I did not feel pressured into trying weed at any point. Like spending a night camping with a bottle of vodka, it's a very social thing - you take your few sips and then pass it on, knowing that you'll see it again soon enough, and the same applies here. I was offered a couple of times, the first few I passed, but ceasing my chance to become "one of the cool" - one of those people who I couldn't stand for looking down on me but yet yearned to be one of their circle so badly, I accepted the joint. A quick crash-course of smoking later and I was initiated. I was asked a few times if I could feel it's effects but to be honest I was pretty merry from the beer at the time so it was difficult to say if it was the beer, the weed or the fact that I was in a relaxed environment as well that was crucial to the relaxing times.

Yep, so we spent the evening with some beer, some weed, having some chats and generally chilling to music. I can't say if the weed was the ultimate factor on what I would label a good night looking back, or merely a combination of all these things. The one thing I know that it was a good evening and positive reinforcement will tell me an equally good evening can be achieved with those things again. It reminds me of part of one of Bill Hick's routines and how he wished they would report on someone having a good experience on drugs. I will admit here that I had a positive experience on drugs and would be quite pumped to go it again.

Other highlights of my Easter break include almost getting run over by a pony, thanks to Eric and Karlie for letting me crash one night, and of course stuffing my face full of chocolate whilst I watched the F1 at my Nan's. Overall a very good weekend - they always are if they are filled with varied activities - it's so easy I find to simply do nothing after a busy week at work.

Read full post >>

..Being vague and noncommital [Dated 08/05/07]

Hey, I was meaning to post Friday evening, but well it seems very easy to pre-write off the evening before I even attempt to do something productive. Anyways, moving on from my questionable motivation (oh dear!), and Friday was a bit of a weird day.

I don't know what it was about the day, but I was in an incredibly good mood, probs one of the best ones I've been in for quite some time. I don't think it was just one thing, but a number of things - first off the shower, yes the infamous shower has finally been fixed. For those not in the know, I kinda bust the old one sometime last year, so the task was taken up by my Uncle and Grandad. The new shower was a present for my mother at Christmas, and work started after local plumber favourite Mark installed the new shower, only for my Uncle and Grandad to remove it when they gutted the wall - crazy I know. Anyways, about 3-4 days of the week, my Uncle and Grandad would come along and spend about 3 hours working on retiling, buying new shower bases, new shower doors etc, and during that process, discovering new and exciting problems to extend the length of the job through a combination of the "uniqueness" of my bathroom and poor planning on their part.

I moaned about it a lot, and pretty much gave up the hope of having a shower at home ever again, but enough complaining about that saga, as of Friday I was given the all clear by mission control, and off I ventured into territories unkown. The shower feels smaller than it used to be, despite a solid brick wall removed, and replaced by a glass panel. The doors open on the corners which is fine, but I feel sorry if you're a large person, cos well I'm slightly on the large side, and there's not a lot of room. If you're wider in either direction, whether that be across the hips or have a beer belly, then you may have fun getting in and out. There was also a problem with the shower itself as the nozzle didn't actually point down, combined with the new pressure, meant that some parts never got water to put it mildly. But, using my skills, I "attacked" the shower, and taught it a new dimension, so now it does indeed point downwards. That's me 1, shower 0. Anyways, enough of the new shower review, I will end by giving it 3.5 Jonny stars.

That could have been it, but I didn't feel amazing till I got to work. That day, I also started on these multivitamin tablets. Yes, I am/did get a little concerned about my questionable diet at times, so I decided to opt for some of those, to keep me topped up on what the body needs etc. It actually says on the label that it shouldn't be used instead of a well-balanced diet. That's fair enough, it's not a get-out-of-jail-free card in terms of health, but if you did have a well-balanced diet you probs wouldn't need to take vitamin supplements - you would probably get what you needed from your pr0 diet I'm thinking.

I was round Carl's the night before, printing some stuff off and everyone's favourite Sam called, as she does. Anyways, Carl mentioned that I was in attendance, so suprise suprise I recieved a text off her, within the hour, in fact, within 5mins actually *shakes head*. Anyways, without going into absolute detail, she said that she was single and looking for someone, to which I replied that I was the same but had my eyes on some ppl (for new readers, that is hot librarian chick). She assumed that it was someone from work (on a side note, apparently most people meet their future spouses at work, I read somewhere, or it was on the Wright Stuff most likely, back to the story... ), so i decided not to correct her, and have a bit of fun being vague and noncommital - a taste of her own medicine if you will. I asked her to play a game and guess who it is. She went for this and said Becky, and then Vicky when I said no. I thought initially maybe she thought Becky is the most attractive one at work, but slight more thought made me to think that Becky and Vicky are the extent of the female staff that she knows the names of. Anyways, she eventually sent the message saying words to the effect of "I bet you'd like to have your eyes on me". To this, I decided the game had to stop, and I told her straight - not any of the potentially hurtful stuff about her going on and on asking if I like her etc, but the slightly complicated stuff with Carl. Read: Carl and her being exes, and every now and again Carl, wanted to get his end away, arranges to meet Sam to do the nasty, and she has no other, or better offers so she complies cos she's sex-crazy. Or at least that's what I've made out, Carl hasn't said as much, but pretty much confirmed it through phone calls and talking to others etc.

So I told her that I was not interested in starting anything with her while she was still having visits from Carl. I'm in the right, if it's happening before I got involved, there's nowt to stop it happening if and when I do. Evidence to that is Carl continuing to see her every now and again, despite me declaring my interest in maybe seeing her. Although it would be a cheap lay, I cba to put up with that carl business, and her general insecurity would drive me away for sure. I remember reading this drunken rant Marsh did on myspace, one particular part was something along the lines of "If we give you a compliment, don't turn it down, accept it cos we've made an effort to tell you how great you are, and if you keep denying it then we will eventually stop complimenting" - I need to dig that up and with his permission, I'll publish here, cos it is actually fantastic, and I told him so. A lot of the stuff in there I agree with whole-heartedly. Anyways back to the main story, and if after seeing Sam for a bit, and I did say how great I thought she was etc and she kept saying, oh I'm ugly, then I would probably go crazy.


Anyways, this turning down which I'll expand later as I have to go to work soon, came after the comedown of this great mood. I think it all happened when I was chatting to Steve about jobs and the future. Reality hurts I'm afraid, and both of us deciding that going to Uni seems a pointless exercise as we can't get hired by people who can't even form a grammatically-correct sentence, or do their own jobs properly - it's sickening. He also told me that I should move abroad, to Canada we eventually decided the best place being. He also told me not to put too much emphasis on material wealth, him walking out of the stockroom, leaving me to digest these cold, sobering facts - I crashed.

Going back to the Sam adventure, after sending this honest text, she sent back a text simply saying "bye" and then following that up with "me and carl are m8ts jonny and iam single im trying 2 find mr perfectr any way tb"

and then:

"Did carl say anythin about me 2 u plz tell tb iam getting very upset tb"

Do you see what I mean about truth hurting? Anyways, I did my best to clear the waters and replied, saying that Carl didn't say anything bad, just hinted at those two still being very friendly, which is nothing to get upset at, and I actually said, don't worry there's no need to get upset. Anyways, I got this message, now I kinda understand it, but I guess seeing someone who's grasp on the language and who uses text speak probably goes against every core value in me. WTF is "m8ts"?!?!? just type mates, it takes as long, for christ sake.

Anyways, emails pls to what this message actually means pls:

"Me and him r m8ts and have a laugh but i don't think i find any 1 im not pretty or fit tb am i be honnest"

And that's it copied exactly from my phone - lol. I feel a little bad, but I can't help her, and I'd definitely don't want to be dragged into daily calling and inelligable(sp) text messages. The silent treatment sent her away last time, and I can only hope it will this time, and before we forget I'm not the bad guy here.

Take it easy, work calls :s

Read full post >>