New day in old town

My, my, it has been a while, hasn't it? I don't think I've written a blog in well over a month. Which is not to say that I didn't think about writing one. I guess I just didn't find the time to do so. Things have been crazy around here for a while now. But I'm back for good, I hope, and I feel I should give you some sort of sitrep of my life so far.

First of all, major kudos should be awarded to me for not having failed a single course this exam period. I can honestly say I was pleasantly surprised to see not one grade below 10. I guess all those hours I spent feeling trapped and isolated in the library really paid off.

Secondly, I can happily inform you that Project Sheffield is well under way of becoming a fixed reality. The only thing missing is my motivational letter and some minor paperwork (oh, and the approval of the Erasmus committee, of course). After that, it's fingers crossed, a couple dozen Hail Mary's, some lucky charms and all the candles you can light up to get me into Sheffield University! As always, I'll keep you posted on said mission.

Another important something that happened to me during this incredibly long hiatus is the fact that I got my first article published. Well, maybe not so much published as uploaded to the world wide web. My first assignment was writing a review on the game Tron Evolution. I have to say, I didn't really love the game, but I mean, there were a couple of noteworthy elements. Still, I wrote about it in all honesty; I mentioned the faulty controls, the monotone world as well as the wickedly great soundtrack and the high-tech ambience.

When I uploaded my article, I knew editorial would still have to edit it, because, well, that's what they do isn't it? But that's where it went wrong. You might think it cocky of me, or even downright arrogant, but they completely f'ed the article up. They changed the title, did some cut-paste hack job on the structure of the text and thoroughly tore down the entire feel of the article.

Now, since I'm not an editor or something like that, I don't know whether or not what they did was justified, but I like to believe that, being a 2nd year student of Language & Literature and having been writing for such a long time, I should know a thing or two about writing an article or whatever. So you could say that I'm sort of totally disappointed with the way editorial handeled my article.

On a more positive note, I did get the chance to see some awesome new stuff that I really think you should know about, but I'll put it in my next blog, so as not to completely drown you in this flood of information.

Play. Pause. Stop. Reboot.

As with so many things in life there are the things you should do and the things you shouldn't do. I'm fairly sure little Pandora was tempted by this exact dichotomy back in the day. She was given this amazing gift, this fabled box with the warning that she mustn't open it. But really, can we blame her for opening up that little gizmo and unleashing all this supposed evil onto the world? I don't think so. I think what she did, was inevitable. It was almost mandatory. Should she therefore be crucified forever? Locked in her eternal state as a punchline for 'acts you shouldn't have committed'? Poor little Pandora deserves no such fate. She deserves our compassion and all of the understanding we can muster up.

Yesterday, I think I opened up my very own Pandora's Box. Granted, it wasn't exactly the first time I opened up this particular model. In fact, I think I already opened it three or four times already and as you can all plainly see: I'm still here, the world hasn't ended, there has been no such apocalypse. So I should have no problems whatsoever in having opened it a potential fifth time, shouldn't I?

I can't really explain my actions leading up to the removing of the lid, but I can't help but feel like we're nothing less than 'star-crossed lovers', as I already told her yesterday. I mean, the thing is, even when we're apart, it doesn't feel like that. She's always there, lingering, waiting, hesitating. To conjure up the image of a person with just one song, one movie scene or even one word seems too good a thing to pass up on, wouldn't you agree? Of course, I could always be slowly turning mad, driven so by this desperate impasse of ours, but the line between sanity and insanity has always been one so scarcely defined that I'm not worried at all. So what if I'm bonkers, so what?

I don't know where this seemingly never-ending cycle of rebooting will lead me to, but I'm always the optimist in saying 'You can only have so much bad luck until you're bound to come across some good luck for a change'. And who knows, this time might be Lucky # 5! If we can do the mambo to number five, then surely, love can't be too far behind? The truth is, it can end in tears or it can end in bliss. Whichever might be the destination, I don't care - not for now at least -, because all I want to do is give it another try. Where's the hurt in that?