The Minestrone Mystery February 2, 2010
Posted by Sharny in : Ramble,Rants,Scraps,Thoughts , add a commentThere is a great mystery that currently confuses countless in this country. How many times have you reached for your variety pack of Cup-a-Soup (or generic brand Cup Soup) only to find unwanted packets of minestrone? Like a plague that haunts our cupboard, minestrone is rife among these variety packs and is almost guaranteed to sit for years at a time, fermenting and stagnating.
No one likes minestrone (Source: me and 4 of my friends). Or at the very least, everyone likes all the rest of the better. So why do they keep appearing? Surely there isn’t a big difference in cup soup production costs, I can’t imagine that chicken and vegetable, mushroom or tomato are more expensive to produce than minestrone.
I’m not asking for much here, just some variety packs that don’t include minestrone, cause I’ve got about 5 packets still left to get through, and they’ve been there for as long as I can remember. Many people are left enraged and frustrated by looking to a relaxing cup a soup after a long day at work and only finding minestrone. This plague upon our land must stop, for the sake of all our sanity.
Ain’t life grand? December 14, 2009
Posted by Sharny in : Essay,Life,School,Thoughts,Work , add a commentSo this is the updatery and depressive post that will explain why I’m posting here again and why I have relaunched durka. It’s not exactly going to be much fun but I kinda want to write some things not addressed to myself and explain the sudden reappearence of posting.
As planned, this year I started higher education at Nottingham University on the 21st of September, after moving in the day before. Things didn’t exactly have the easiest start, you hear tales of university being so much better than school before hand and people really finding themself and such. I didn’t get so lucky. All of it was a massive struggle and it was all a very depressing and downtreading time. As a few weeks went by and routine began to set in things did get better, as they surely do.
Then, something rather unexpected happened. Essentially, in the space of a day I realised that Chemistry was not the course for me. It was a real epiphany moment, and not a moment I wanted to have. There were other doubts around it, including ones about whether being at University was even the right thing for me to be doing. Through talking and thinking and thinking and talking some more I got some plan of what to do.
Able to buy corkscrews August 19, 2008
Posted by Sharny in : Life,Music,Thoughts,Work , add a commentAmong a few other things of course…
Wow, finally 18, I almost thought it would never happen. One thing that I had forgotten about which I quite liked was this:
The following is an e-mail from the past, composed on Wednesday, September 20, 2006, and sent via FutureMe.org
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -Hi. I figured this would be an appropriate time to send another of these, once every 2 years seems good. Once I get these my future will be sealed, hopefully good A-levels and off to university. Wow, this will go past so much work and so many decisions, kinda funny to think. Once this arrives the future shall literally be unfolding out before me and I hope that 6th form has been a very enjoyable time. Well, not gonna make it an essay, at this point I’m 1 month from quitting RS except for the fun aspects.
Oh yeah, happy 18th birthday too
Essentially I was right, my A levels got me into Uni and my future is pretty sealed and even better than I could have imagined back then, I didn’t expect what I got. Having enjoyed receiving it so much I immediately went and wrote one for this time next year which I think will be saved till then, I can’t imagine things will be as better than I thought then, if they were I would probably explode with happiness.
Also, I don’t know why but I’m really connected with Dredg today, I bought their album A Catch Without Arms on the strength of…um…0 songs, I think I just listened to the preview and bought it, a risky move really but it turned out good. Something about the style of it just works with my mood today, I’m personally categorizing it (along with a couple other bands I’m checking out recently) as “Indie Prog”, which probably isn’t very accurate given that I don’t know enough about Indie to really comment, although I like to think I know it when I hear it. With Dredg I hear indie but also kinda atmospheric proggy stuff, which makes it sound cool.
Given this post is mostly ramble anyway, I’m also getting on ok at my first jarb. Things were pretty darn scary at first but they’ve settled down a bit now and I’m getting comfortable. I still seem to think they’re gonna turn around and realise they didn’t want to hire me at all, I dunno really why I find it so difficult to think that a company would actually employ me but there we go…
I must away, raving calls…
The best thing in the world August 2, 2008
Posted by Sharny in : Life,Ramble,Thoughts , 10 commentsIt’s worth warning that this post is likely to be an ill conceived and put together load of rubbish. However, it remains truthful in defining my desires and that is all I really want to convey.
The best thing in the world is far from universal, for some it may be success or riches for others, a big family and loving spouse.
I guess really, I’m not all that far away from those standard dreams, except perhaps in how specific I am.
I know that really, the chances of the best thing in the world happening are low but I also know that I’m going to do everything I can to make them happen.
So what is it then? What is the best thing in the world?
It’s a future, surrounded by my friends, our families intertwined. It’s difficult for me to describe exactly what’s in my head when it comes to this but I’m going to try.
The best thing in the world starts with the preservation of what I have now. What that is may well be a few steps away from perfect, or more specifically, a good few miles accross the county. There are other things but that doesn’t stop life as it is now being the best that it has ever been. I don’t want to lose any of that and for the moment I don’t see any obvious reasons why it would be lost. This is, of course, something I have thought about, I can’t dream of the best thing in the world if I can see obvious road blocks, if that thing is out of reach.
Of course, there are always unpredictable events, things that test people beyond the strains of day to day life. All I can do when it comes to these occasions is to fight as best and hard as I know how to maintain things.
Given that foundation, I want to grow something special. So far, I’ve seen a decent chunk of it in my head. When those images flood my mind, I can’t help but feel excitement and happiness that I’m not sure I ever knew existed. The people who have come into definition in less than the past half year are nothing less than family to me. Of course, I have blood relatives but unlike some people, they aren’t really located anywhere. My actual family have spread themselves accross the globe. Kinda handy if I ever want to go traveling but to feel a sense of unity and home it’s not so good. So a guy has to think on his feet.
There’s a reason why we’ve assigned each other roles in our group family and ultimately it comes down to a feeling of family. I have no other better way to describe these people and I can’t think of anything more appropriate. It almost seems to hasty, and in some ways it is. I just did the maths, on average I’ve known each person 4.25 years, although not been friends with them for all of that period. It’s long enough I think.
I have been tentative with this so far because I’ve jumped to conclusions about stuff like this in the past and ended up disappointed but barring anyone holding up large lies I don’t think anyone has intentions of breaking off from this.
For all I’ve said so far I’ve not really said much about the best thing in the world. Or at least, it might not seem that way. Most of what the best thing in the world comes down to preservation and my biggest fear is to lose what has been given.
But anyway, I’ll continue on as if I get my way, as if things don’t go wrong.
In the nearer future, the best thing in the world involves doing things. Traveling, playing music and relaxing in various locations. One thing I really want to get going is a Skiing trip. It’s gonna have to wait a few years due to the ongoing grip of parents. One of the downsides of hanging around with people mostly younger than you is that you can do things way before they can although honestly it’s more down to how relaxed the parents are. I will get us out there though, there’s little more I want to share with my friends than skiing. The closest of trip possibilities comes next summer, which I really wish was this summer since I’m getting some serious beach cravings but a guy can’t have everything.
I would like for opium toad to be established enough for us to be able to travel around playing music but I don’t really expect any fame or fortune on a large scaled. It would be nice, as a band we’ve agreed we want to take it as far as we can, it’s just a matter of how far that limit is.
That’s part one of the best thing in the world I suppose, although I never really thought about it like that.
The next part is probably the most important. It involves the rest of my life really. The best thing in the world is to keep my friends to close, to find the perfect girl, to have kids and be uncle to the children of all my brothers and sisters. It’s quite a lot isn’t it? I get the feeling these aren’t the normal thoughts of a nearly 18 year old.
It’s difficult to really describe in any more detail than that, it’s not like these images come with a handbook. They are just what I want from life, getting them may prove more difficult.
What I would really love to do is to create a community in itself, containing our intertwined families, giving our children people and places to call home, much larger than that of your average child.
In an ideal world, we would find more people to join our group of varying nationalities, backgrounds and beliefs but even if the group didn’t change at all between now and this future I would still consider it to be the best thing in the world.
I’m not sure there is a great deal more to say on the subject, or more specifically there’s probably a whole load I could say but mentioning anything more specific is getting into the realms of the purely silly.
Anyone reading this would have a right to be skeptical about the possibility of this happening and yes, it is rare. But it does happen.
Why not us?
Decisions Decided April 27, 2008
Posted by Sharny in : Life,School,Thoughts , add a commentThat big ol’ decision has now been made.
After speaking with the band it was made quite simple. They are serious about Opium Toad and want to try and get somewhere with it and after presenting my predicament they pretty adamantly told me to stick around, in as many words.
That was it really. Nottingham it is.
More than that, I have now gone through the accepting and declining of offers process, there is no going back now, no way to change my mind. If the band collapses tomorrow I will still have to live with the decision. If they decide they are better off without me during the five or sixth months I’m going to be away then Nottingham will still be where I’m going.
For better or for worse, so long as I get my grades, I won’t be leaving Nottingham (save for sixth months in the US of course).
That’s that then.
Over a year or What this blog is really for April 23, 2008
Posted by Sharny in : Blogs,Internets,Life,Thoughts , add a commentI hadn’t realized that I started blogging that long ago and of course I’m very glad to say that no one is reading this blog still. I never set out with the intentions of becoming some big blogger, not at all, I don’t really know why I started other than perhaps because I’ve always loved writing and at the time I had no outlet for all the thoughts and opinions buzzing around in my head.
More recently I’ve come to realize that actually the point in this blog is quite simple.
It documents my life in these nuggets of text but unlike an actual diary it’s on the internet so it’s at least possible for people to read it. Because of that fact, I have to organize what I write into something internet friendly but perhaps more importantly I can’t write anything really stupid that I would never want to read again. That’s the massive risk with me and diaries, massive exaggeration of feelings and events so as to make myself look unbelievably stupid if anyone (or even myself) where to read them.
So yes, in twenty years I can look back at the posts in this blog and remember the chunks of my life I am experiencing now, the things I might forget such as the fun of my first gigs with opium toad or my feelings approaching my A level exams.
That’s what’s important to me about this, the fact that it’s on the internet just means I can use it to maybe get things indexed on google…
