Kermit's Blog

Right-e-o.  Time for another blog update on all things etc & stuff.

Just took an anti-hayfever pill.  Hopefully that will stop the pollen in the air from inputting the cheat codes to make my eyes infinitely itch as well as giving my nose a blackbelt in sneezing.  It’s supposed to be a high ‘RED ALERT’ pollen count for today and tomorrow.
Being attacked by hayfever is SOOO annoying.  It’s a joke of an allergy, yet it can totally put you out of service when it hits hard.

I’m super dooper loving the current Fifa World Cup 2010 South Africa.  Like I said in a previous blog, generally I’m not that much of a follower of Football, but for international tournaments (especially the World Cup) I get super glued too it.  I just love the Worlds greatest gathering together to settle things via a great sport.
There have been some shocking surprise results, some great matches, and a great atmosphere.  It’s a shame it’s over half way over now, but I’ll be cherishing whats left through the knock-out stages to the final.

Had some social fun times to speak of this week too (which has been a rare treat for me as of late, with my recent broke-ness).  Earlier this week I headed over to some of my friends (from Uni), watched some World Cup, and had some good laughs.  Good times!

Then Friday night my friend Sam (from Liverpool) came up, and along with my local friend Drew, we played “winner stays on” at Super Street Fighter IV from about 8pm to nearly 3am.  Sounds insane when you think how long we sat there gaming it up, but with such a great game and some good competition the hours just fly by.  Last night I was at my friends Drew’s, watched USA vs Ghana last night, had Domino’s for eats, and then played a few more hours of Super Street Fighter IV.

It’s been pretty damn hot here in England recently too (hot for England anyway).  It’s been quite a problemo for myself, because as you may know from some of my YouTube videos, or previous blogs…I have a very small room here at my parents place.  I’ve packed in mucho technology though, with my big screen, surround sound, games consoles, etc…  Also the houses boiler is in a cupboard in the back of my room too, so because I can’t really be preventing access to that I have my TV by my window.  Now…collectively quite a lot of heat comes from my TV and any cool air that may come in from the outside goes through that heat, so my room doesnt seem to vent too well.

Snapshot of my room

I did used to have a good sized desktop fan that I had by the couch at my old place, but in moving, and storing some stuff in my Grandpa Toms garage, some son of a bitch (presumably my uncle Graham) has taken my fan without consent, and due to my recent broke-ness I’ve had no money to buy a new fan.  However, I do have this tiny little USB fan working it’s ass off for me, it does very little to cool the room down, but I’m thankful that it tries.

My Usb fan

So yeah, as the blog title says.  Today is June 27th.

Not tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow… but the day after the day after tomorrow will be the 30th of June.  Which will be my 24th birthday (and Mike Tyson’s 44th).  I’m not doing anything special for it (as far as I know).  I’ve kind of been out of the social loop with a bunch of my friends recently, due to money, (not me being anti-social or being a square).  Plus I don’t really feel like having some cliché night out and potentially wasting a bunch of money on alcohol, and starting 24 off with a hangover.

Hopefully I’ll get some cash or vouchers off a few family members, enabling me to perhaps purchase a few video games to fill the free hours at home over summer, I need to send some stuff on my parents tax details to student finance that they’ve requested, so there’s small hope that eventually I’ll get some money off them (money I should’ve technically been receiving from September 09 onwards), so if I got that that would be awesome and would allow me to make more of my summer, but I won’t hold my breathe for that.

Anyway, on the mention of money I’m going to go spend the last of the money I currently have (£2.50) on the 2 bottles for 1 offer a shop near me has on 2 litre bottles of Diet Coke.
So yeah…I’m off out.

Finito Blogo

I’ll have another one out soon aimed more generally on the people here.  So that’ll be some views of mine dropped when that comes.

Until then, thanks for reading.

Adios Amigo’s

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Kermit is currently/ recently:

Current Mood: Fine

Playing:

• Super Street Fighter IV (xbox 360)
• PES 2010 (Xbox 360)
• Crackdown (Xbox 360)
• Bully: Scholarship Edition (Xbox 360)
• Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party 2 (Wii)
• DDR Mario Mix (Gamecube)
• Tonema Sanner (Wiiware)
• Pokémon Heart Gold (Nintendo DS)

Watching:

• Fifa World Cup South Africa 2010
• Seinfeld (nearly finished with the shows entirety :( but I’ve loved the ride through)
• Short Circuit 2
• Zombieland

**2 of the photo’s in this blog were animated gif’s, which some RSS feeders won’t display, although you can see them on my actual blog page at: www.kusohappens.com/blog/

EXPLOSIONS!!  CAR JUMPS!!  PEOPLE RUNNING IN SLOW MOTION!!  COWS CAUGHT IN TORNADO’S!!  GIANT SHARKS TAKING OUT AEROPLANES!!

The above is a random screenshot of me from when approximately 10 years ago.  Me and a few friends had this old go kart, and we made a jump out of a parking cone and a piece of wood.  Managed to get maybe about 45cm off the ground thanks to it.  Was kinda fun back then, although the hard plastic seat was no comfort when landing.

Ok so I’ll stop with the capitals and the action packed words to get readers.  Although if you come across this blog via a random google search, then high five to you, you search with style brother! (or sister).

It’s currently Six Twenty Two AM in the morning right now as I type this sentence.  As I have stated in my previous blog, my uni year is now over, so I’m on “summer break” or “summer holidays” and not only that, but I’ve already totally lost any right of being able to say I have a sleeping pattern.  Coincidentally when I was back in high school, my summer holidays would often be spent in a similar way of staying up all night playing video games, killing time.

The only instance where I really pay attention to the time recently is for watching important world cup games.  Although as I have free time pretty much any game I seem to deem as ‘important’.  Plus I tend to only go big with watching football every 4 years when the World Cup comes along, so I’m making sure to get a good dose of the action .

Whilst on the topic of football though.  There is this campaign in England going on where guys are to grow beards in support of the England national football team in the World Cup.  The idea is to not shave until England either win the world cup, or at least until they’re eliminated.

The campaign started on this “World Cup special” tv show thats on going at the moment.  The host of the show (James Corden) kind of annoys me normally.  He seems like one of those annoying people who you’d find in a group job interview scenario, being overly loud and having to always get a word in, as if to try and get noticed.

So yeah, I’m not on board with this thing because of him, I’m just down with the fact that it’s a mass public facial hair growing campaign, plus my girlfriend is in USA over summer so it’s not as if this hair growing can really annoy anyone (except me…cause it currently itches like mad).

Photo of the growth so far…

I’m currently drinking a cup of tea (PG tips) and eating some cereal (Shreddies) as I type this.  The first thing I had to eat after waking up yesterday was a Pasta Bake.

PeeBee

Simply because I woke up in the afternoon and didn’t get around to eating anything until the evening when I made said epic Pasta Bake for me and my lil sis to chow down on.

Pasta Bake is pretty much my one and only speciality when it comes to cooking.  I need to add some more dishes to my cooking repertoire at some point though.

Anyway, I ought to be getting some sort of nap or sleep happening soon.  I’m getting to the end of my abilities to stay awake,  plus there’ll be some more World Cup action in a few hours for me to wake up to.

I’m pretty sure I had more things to write about in this blog, but I’ve been sort of writing this blog in the background whilst watching an episode of Seinfeld (currently into season 8, and loving this show mucho’s).  So I guess I got sidetracked on the stuff I was going to get t’blogging about.

Expect me to spill some more text onto the internets soon though.

Adios Amigo’s

Kermit

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Currently/ Recently:

Watching:

• 2010 World Cup (like 80% of all the games that have been on so far)
• Seinfeld
• E3 2010

Current Mood: Happy, in my Pyjama Pants.

Playing:

• Crackdown (360)
• Serious Sam HD (360)
• PES 2010 (360)
• Nintendo World Cup (NES)
• Winning Eleven 10 (PS2)
• Super Smash Bros Brawl (Wii)
• Mario Kart Wii
• Super Street Fighter IV (360)

As of now, I am free from University till the next year starts in September. So…I guess I could say my summer has begun .

Although the downside right now is that thanks in part to Student Finance I am hellaciously broke when I could’ve been fine, and will remain broke for a while yet.  Thus killing off opportunities to fill my time with social outings with friends .  Bummer.

Another “bummer” of sorts is the fact that my girlfriend has today flown to America (to work at a girls summer camp), and will be gone for 11 weeks.  No doubt she’ll have an awesome time over in USA , I know I would.

I could try and turn that into a positive on my end by thinking of it as like 11 weeks of being free to hang out whenever with friends etc, mindlessly lose my days playing video games, watching TV shows, or whatever. …However, my girlfriend isn’t the clingy type in the first place, so regardless of her being home or away doesn’t really make much difference to my ability to do things with friends, and vice versa. I’m already missing her as I write this, but it’s not something I’m gonna be putting myself down with, and I hope she’s doing the same there.  I mean, sure enough it sucks that we’ll be apart for a few months, but our feelings for each other are still very much the same, and they’ll remain the same until she’s back.  There are no trust issues either, so there’s no biting of nails before going to bed at night imagining the other person is cheating, so our minds are free to just focus on good things rather than be weighed down with worry. Ideally both our summers will be awesome and the time will fly by

So yeah, today is Friday the 11th of June.  It’s apparently Ryan Dunn (MTV Jackass, CKY, etc) birthday, Shia LeBeouf’s (Disturbia, Transformers…) birthday, a Hawaiian national holiday, the 55th anniversary of the Le Mans Disaster, but most importantly to myself…it’s the start of the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Any friend of mine, new or long term, probably doesn’t really associate me with Football/ Soccer, as I’m not really that vocal about it.  I used to be a big fan of football when I was younger, and had a season ticket for my favourite team “Blackburn Rovers” for 3 seasons back to back when I was 11-14, as I grew older though I kind of eased off being a follower of football.  Although when an international tournament is going on my interest grows mucho’s.

Especially for the Fifa World Cup.  It’s great seeing a bunch of foreign nations gather together their current top players, and compete against each other in the worlds biggest sporting event.  It’s also great to see the atmosphere of the supporters and the whole carnival-esque spectacle the World Cup usually brings with it. Seeing as I currently have no job and university is over, it means I’m pretty much free to watch the world cup in it’s entirety.  Starting at 1pm with the opening ceremonies (although nothing will ever beat the 2008 Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing ), followed by the opening game “South Africa vs Mexico” at 3pm.  Then pretty much everyday for over a month will contain 2 – 3 matches.

I’ll also use this time to play some Nintendo DS too, as I can easily play some DS whilst watching the games in the background for matches I’m not as engrossed in. Another bonus of the world cup is how the supermarkets generally have offers on my favourite beers (usually ASDA selling Budweisers for cheap), ice cold Budweiser + international football = good times (imo).

Here’s a handy web page from the Telegraph showing what time matches are and what TV channel (UK) they are on. >>click here<<

BBC Sports Top 10 World Cup Controversies [Click here for Video]

Also, I was just checking to see how much it would cost for a full size “Fevernova” (The World Cup 2002 football) as that is perhaps one of the coolest footballs ever in my opinion. cheapest I see them on eBay is like over £100.

Me with my 'mini' Fevernova

Makes me wonder if Official Adidas World Cup Footballs are an investment?

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Touching on World news for a second…

It was quite shocking to hear in the news that a guy went on a killing spree in the UK just over a week ago.  [Cumbria Shootings].  It’s really sad to hear of people being killed in such horrific rampages, although I do find it somewhat interesting (as do many) to try and find out why someone would do such a thing, what there motives were, and so forth.

Personally I believe the issue is always related to a persons sanity and mental health in cases like this, so it pisses me off when the media try and blame these sorts of things on movies, music, and video games.  Such as how the Telegraph has tried to involve a Steven Segal movie that Derrick Bird watched the day before he committed his crimes as being related to what caused this.

Anyway, through related stories I heard about the 1996 Dunblane Massacre where a sick bastard went and killed a bunch of children in a school.  Although worst of all from the ones I read about was the Port Arthur massacre, which to read about was quite horrific and somewhat frightening to try and picture it happening.

Whilst on the topic of crazy people, but bringing things away from such tragic events.  I read about Jack Churchill the other day online.  A World War II Lieutenant Colonel who was quite colourful to say the least.  Read and see why —

So…I’m going to wrap up this blog now.  Things to do.  Expect a regular random blog to come over the next few days though.

Adios Amigo’s

Kermit x

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Kermit is Currently/ Recently:

Current Mood: A-Ok

Playing:

• Crackdown (360)
• Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
• Tatsunoko vs Capcom (Wii)
• Super Street Fighter IV (360)
• Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Dreamcast)
• Melty Blood: Actress Again (PS2)
• Kung Fu Panda (360)

Watching:

• Seinfeld – Epic Epic Epic
• Street Fighter The Animated Series (USA) – So 90′s, so cheesy…and as bad (story wise) as the Van Damme movie.
• Kung Fu Panda – Watched this about 4 or 5 times now, like this movie
• Youth in Revolt – It was like a Fight Club (jnr), I enjoy Michael Cera’s movies though and enjoyed this film .
• Enemy at the Gates – Not watched this for a while, but indeed it be a good WWII movie.

In January this year, I FINALLY (4 months late) started to get my Student Finance money, to help me through the year whilst I studied at University.

At this time I was made aware that I could be eligible for a maintenance grant too, so I enquired about it with Student Finance over the phone.  They asked me if I worked before I went to Uni (which I did), so they asked me to send them my P60′s or equivalent info regarding my earnings for the 3 tax years before.

I obtained this info, sent it to them, had to wait over a month for them to actually scan it on the system (fair play…they were busy), and then from there on I got nothing back from them.  I called them every other week for an update only to be told “it’s with the assessors”.

Today.  I couldn’t wait any more with such empty information from them, so I explained the situation (always politely…I’m never a dick on the phone unless someone starts being a dick to me…as I’ve worked in a call centre before).  The guy on the phone looked into it, and eventually we solved the mystery.  I apparently hadn’t earned enough money in 06/ 07 to be classed as “self supported”.  So…I now need to get evidence of my parents income for the tax year: 07/ 08.
I’m not sure how long it will take for them to get that…as if they don’t have the payslips filed away somewhere, then they’ll need to phone up (when they can) to obtain the info from the Tax office.
THEN!
I need to send there info to Student Finance, which will no doubt take them some more precious time to scan on and process, and then eventually I may get my maintenance grant for the year 09/ 10 (after the whole uni year has passed).

I REALLY need to find away to get a part time job or something at the moment as I’m soo broke.  I’ve been expecting this lump sum of student money for a while …seeing as they kept giving me assuring “it’s being assessed, you should have it soon” type answers whenever I’d been calling for an update.
It’s also due to this assurance that I took a short term loan out (for about £300)  last month, to help me get in the meantime, but due to STILL not having this money, I couldn’t pay that loan back…and now I’m being chased for that money.

This really sucks because I’ve already got debts from the past as it is…due to a combination of losing a job, moving out of a joint apartment yet being stuck with a lot of things to pay on finance, and then going through depression.  It was a surprise to me that I was accepted for the short term loan I got last month due to my bad credit history.  So this company that trusted me to pay them back has now been let down by me and will no doubt not be willing to re-lend if I needed too.

I have about £3,000 in back debts to pay off, but I’m an unemployed student.  I can’t claim “bankruptcy” because apparently I’m not in enough debt to do so.  All I can do is either let these people I owe money take me to court and see my bank records and such as to how broke I am, or the courts will just have to like freeze those accounts for me, and let me pay them back in minimal amounts as and when I can afford too.  It’s not like I have assets (like a house or flashy car) for them to take to pay things off, so I’m stuck.

It REALLY sucks being broke right now though.  As a few of my friends are finishing their last years of university, and will soon be moving away and back to there home town’s etc… so right now I’m having to miss out on having any farewell nights out or parties with them because I can’t even afford to get a can of Diet Coke from a shop, never mind a box of beers.  I can’t even remember the last social outing I’ve had with friends, as it was months ago.  The most I’ve been able to do is play video games at near by friends houses and vice versa (which I’m not complaining about), but that’s as far as my social life has gone recently.

It sucks not being able to buy the little comforts in life too, like perhaps stopping by Subway one day to get a nice footlong for lunch, or even just being able to reach in the fridge for my favourite refreshing drink (Diet Coke).  Last week my girlfriend brought me 2 cakes from her work (super nice of her), and that’s pretty much the nicest treat I’ve had in months.

Cake!

Last week I had to walk about 6 miles (approx 3 miles each way) to the Postal depot to pick up a letter (that I wasn’t in to sign on arrival)  I walked because I had no bus fare.  I had zero cash, so I made the entire journey on a hot day without any sort of drink on me, or without the ability to buy one.  It’s those sorts of scenarios that I face all the time with having no money.

Thankfully it’s not TOO bad being stuck at home thanks to being able to play old video games, or watch some of my favourite shows and stuff, but I’m really in need of some sort of fortune to come my way to pull me out of this shitty lifestyle I’m stuck in right now.

Anyway, I just had to blog this all out as it was really weighing on my shoulders.

Expect a non-money related/ less negative blog soon.

Adios, Kermit.