I finished reading The Da Vinci Code not so long ago. I must have been living under a rock for the past year or so when it came to books, because this thing has been huge, and for quite a while I never really knew about it.

I found the subject matter of the book interesting. I liked to think that I didn't need to learn about the history of oppression in Christianity from something like this, but apparently I do. I found the potted history of the Catholic Church quite an eye-opener, and it confirmed some things I had already known for a long time, namely that half of the Bible is a load of horseshit and is, to understate it substantially, a lop-sided historical document.

I remember a long time ago, when Gay Byrne presented the not-quite-so-shit-as-it-is-now Late Late Show, he had a guest on who questioned the historical accuracy of the Bible, saying that it was (oh the insurrection!) just a story that was not necessarily set in stone. The point being made was quite valid, though he detracted from it by telling everyone that the reason he was dressed in his rather brightly coloured tracksuit was to 'ward off negative energy and spirits'. Not unsurprisingly, he was regarded with bemusement by the studio audience and my parents, and by not unreasonable extrapolation, probably all of the nationwide audience that night as well.

Looking back, it was most likely that he and the circle in which he moved were looking at us with an even more pronounced smirk. It's not difficult to see why. Pope John Paul whatever enjoys the unquestioning support of an audience for which any politician would bend over. I'll repeatedly make the point until I die that the validity of a movement depends largely on its followers, and Catholics (especially Irish ones) are amongst the most unquestioning group of people there are. It goes without saying that as soon as I reached the age where I was able to think critically, it went out the window for me.

While regarding organised religion with skepticism is healthy in this day and age, what is depressing is that the Pope has turned quite a lot of people off having religious faith altogether. He certainly did for me, until I began to realize that his status as 'Messenger of God' was more than just a little dubious. The way I look at it now is this. Statistical biologists have (so they say) managed to calculate the probability of spontaneous occurrence of the chemical reaction that resulted in the creation of DNA as 1 in over 4 billion. It is not outrageous, then, to believe that there was some external guiding hand there somewhere. That's my outlook.

And the only reason the Catholic priesthood has such a high incidence of paedophilia is because the requirement of celibacy acts as a convenient cover for the sexually skewed. If this requirement existed in any other denomination, the occurrences would probably be just as frequent.

My only gripe is that this take-it-or-leave-it attitude cannot be applied so readily to education as it can be to spiritual faith and looking back, I still feel there are few christian brothers I came across who should have been allowed their position as teachers.

I'm digressing again...

It's been quite a while since I read a book of this kind, and while it's well researched, it's not very well written, which is surprising given Dan Brown's credentials. Compared to Wotshisface who wrote the Pelican Brief (John Grisham?), he doesn't pull you in half as much. But I rarely read that kind of stuff these days, so it'll probably be some time before I do it again. You could always save yourself some time and go for this instead.

Would I recommend it? It's an easy, enjoyable enough read, not too taxing on the brain. Something for the bedside table.

Next up, Fast Food Nation.

The Semester 1 exam results are in...

Chemistry: B
Maths: A (a rather nifty 96%!)

Yeeeee-Haaaaaaaaaaah!

I also got the results back of some other assessments I did, and they were in the 'A' category as well. This more than makes up for the horrible Tuesday I had, and the rather horrible hangover I got from going out last night. Gym workouts and hangovers do not go together. Ugh!

Off the bed, for a contented sleep...

Agony, but no ecstacy: Memoirs of a disaster area

Well, I had my first ever chemistry laboratory exercise today, and it was HELL. HELL!!

Things got off to a bad start when I walked in and found that my lecturer for organic chemistry was also the main supervisor for the practical exercise. I couldn't really do justice to him here, suffice to say not only did he not offer any help, but marched up and down the room with marksman eyes, and terrorised my bench for the whole morning.

I never had any experience of practical chemistry before, having done the subject in one year at a cram college, and so when I walked in to do my thing this morning at 9am (Calibration of a pipette, and titration of oxalic acid with sodium hydroxide), I was clueless. The night before, I ironed a newly washed set of clothes, including my lab coat, and had a shave, hoping that if I looked well on the day, I would feel well, and therefore perform well. Who in God's name was I trying to kid? Among the problems encountered:

1) Out of all the pipette fillers that I managed to get my hands on, only one of them worked. The first, ooh, SEVEN that I tried all had something wrong with them, but because I hadn't used them before, I thought the fault lay with me. The problem was rectified approximately 90 minutes into the lab.

2) My titre results varied wildly, but NO-ONE explained to me that this is normal when using different indicators. Did you know that methyl orange and methyl red change colour at pH 4 or pH 5, but bromothymol blue changes at pH 7, and Phenolphthalein at pH 9? I'll bet you didn't, dear reader, but that fact is now burned into my brain for all eternity.

3) We broke for lunch at 12. When I came back at 1, it was pointed out to me in mid-titration by a lab technician that my burette was blocked. This explained the fact that only one drop issued from it every ten seconds or so, but once again I had known no better. At this time, almost everyone else had gone, having finished up during the first period.

Among the many acts of stupidity I committed during this time was:

a) While using two identical beakers, constantly forgetting which of the two contained water and which contained acid, thus having to pour them all down the sink and start again,

b) Spraying an electronic weighing scales with water from a high powered tap. Mercifully no-one saw me so I quickly covered my tracks, and if it transpires that the thing is broken, I shall be at the back whistling nervously. Apparently you're supposed to report accidents like this. Ha!

And the coup de grâce…

c) Topping up my burette with the acid, when it already contained the alkali.

Overall the process could be likened to childbirth, though against all odds I collected my data, and my analysis worked out pretty much the same as everyone else’s. The report has now been handed in, and I can breath again. At least the assistant was supportive, saying that I should be fine from here on in. I don’t care. All I know is that I don’t have another one for two glorious weeks.

Unfortunately, I have that nazi at 10am tomorrow morning for a lecture.

Science. Believe the hype, it is something to scream about.

Hunter S. Thompson.

It has come to my attention that Hunter S. Thompson has died. Considering the kind of man he was in life (at least, going by his writing), the manner in which he has departed us seems at odds with his persona. Then again, maybe it wasn't, as Old Age is the one thing that would have got on top of him.

I still think this 'better to burn out than fade away' shit is bollocks though, but I was always able to take it or leave it.

I read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas years ago (my brother bought it, and I subsequently nicked it off him, before buying my own copy) and for me it was memorable for the fact that it mentioned drugs that, at the time of reading, I didn't even know existed. That he never really wrote much about the event he had been sent to cover just sailed over my head (Was it a car rally? The fact that I can't remember says it all), and instead I just enjoyed the druggy manic careering from here to there to everywhere. I subsequently filed him under 'Must check out some more of his stuff' but never really got around to any more of his books. Maybe now is the time.

I always liked the idea of what he did in Fear and Loathing though. It wasn't a bad idea at all.

Nothing strange or startling...

As much as gmail is better than hotmail, I find that it has a tendency to suffer from access problems. At the start, it happened once in a while, but now it is FUCKING HAPPENING ALL THE FUCKING TIME, AND I AM GETTING FUCKING SICK OF IT!!! Now when I sit down to log into it, there is over an 80% chance at any given time that I will be met with a blank screen after typing in the necessaries at the user/password screen. This needs to be fixed. Pronto.

The first week of Semester two has finished, and it looks mainly like a continuation of what I've done already, with extra laboratory classes thrown in for good measure. One thing I've noticed is that some of the modules have misleading titles. For example, last Semester we had 'Introduction to chemical and molecular sciences'. This really should have been titled 'Chemistry so cruel it shall make you weep'. This semester we have the follow-on 'Fundamental chemical and molecular sciences'. As some progression in difficulty from the last course is implied, I shudder to think about what I am going to have to deal with. But otherwise, everything looks as it always does.

My grant cheque was 'mislaid', and now has to be reissued. I finally put my misgivings aside, and rang my father this evening to ask him for some cash to tide me over. At least that wasn't a problem.

We got iMac G5s in the library. They are sumptuous. I want one.

Other than that, I feel as if I am at a slightly low ebb. Uuuuhhhh! I need to win the lottery or something. It has struck me that I haven't been out all that much since I came back after Christmas, and you know what? That suits me just fine for now.

Later...

My first proper gay rights rant...

Well, my work cheque came this morning, but because it was crossed, I had to lodge it to my account, so I won't be able to access the money until early next week. This puts the kibosh on my plan to visit my friend Sarah in Wimbledon this evening, and pretty much puts paid to the weekend as a whole. Poverty, thy name is a third-level mature student!

And still no sign of my grant...

With Semester 2 beginning next week, my chillout period is almost at an end, and I am (almost) proud to say that I did absolutely nothing for it except spend half the time in bed. I did get my 4 month old gym schedule redone yesterday though, so next week should see me incapacitated with stiffness as my body adjusts to it.

And now to go off on a totally different point.

Some blogs I've been reading at the moment are caught up in arguments over whether or not same-sex marriage should be allowed, or legitimised, to look at it another way. Most of the parties concerned are Canadian, as certain court rulings there are making it a topical issue at the moment. It's not something to which I've ever given a great deal of thought. Anyone who reads this will see that I don't generally campaign on behalf of the gay camp all too often (appalling pun unintended). Well maybe it's about time.

The main point that have been made against gay marriage and gay unions in general are that it's 'unnatural'. This reminds me of something...

A couple of years back, I saw a programme on television presented by a gay man whose area of expertise was in animal behaviour (at least, that's how I remember him), and he was interested in how frequently homosexuality occurred in the animal kingdom. As part of his investigation, he looked at swans, sheep, and others, or more accurately, he waited to see if any of them engaged in same-sex 'relations'. He collected some pretty illuminating data and presented it to some government figure who was charged with indirectly determining the curriculum of school age children. His argument was that homosexuality, rather than being a fringe concern, was a widespread variation in sexuality across all species, and as such, instruction on it should be provided in schools alongside 'normal' sex education. Rather unsurprisingly, he came up against a brick wall.

This is what gets me. If such instruction was approved, it would enlighten shool children immensely. Homosexuality is not some weird anomoly, it is a natural variation in human and animal sexuality. It is widespread in the animal kingdom, so it follows that it should be common amongst humans as well. The very term that is often applied to it, 'unnatural', is WRONG, plain and simple. It is completely the opposite. It has been around for centuries, meriting mention even in that oh-so-credible source of history known as the Bible:

"If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."

My...er...favourite. Leviticus 20, Verse 13, apparently. You have to hand it to the Bible for strident and hysterical use of language.

Then there are the points made by some bloggers against gay marriage. I won't link to them directly, as the blogs as a whole contain some of the most appallingly smug, self-satisfied online writing you'll ever come across. Left-field politics in general are railed against, and a point of crusading against 'sloppy liberal thinking' is made (Three words, boys. Pot. Kettle. Black.), so I shall spare you. Here are some of the points, each accompanied by my view.

- Legitimising gay marriage will undermine the institution of marriage as a whole, and could lead to other structures such as polygamy becoming the norm.

The institution of marriage holds nowhere near the sway in society that it once did. It's hard to say what exactly caused this, but the advocates of gay marriage came on the scene long after the rot set in, so they can't be blamed. Having said that, there is still life in it yet, and it is certainly something worth aspiring to. It will not be rocked to it's very core by permitting gays access to it. What may happen is that a process of its re-evalution may happen, but all things considered in these current times, that may well be what's needed for it.

As for polygamy becoming the norm, please spare me. First off, it is already the norm in certain countries, and that is down to the pervading culture of that country. It is not the Western norm now, and for that reason will not become the norm after the introduction of gay marriage.

- Marriage is an institution, not a right, and therefore gays are not automatically entitled to it. As such, all arguments that have the concept of discrimination at their core are redundant.

Whatever. You can nitpick with terms all you like, the fact remains that marriage is the single best way of gaining legal and social recognition of two people as a couple, and as long as it is denied to gays, something is wrong. Pure and simple. It has also been argued that marriage exists mainly as a unit within which to raise children, so seeing as gays will not produce children, they should not have it. That is merely ONE aspect of it. And who says gays aren't going to raise children within it anyway? (More about this later)

- Granting gay marriage equality will lead to a corresponding reduction in respect for religious freedom.

Granted, some people have been sacked as they have refused to perform same-sex unions, and others have been taken to court for the same reason. If I was vengeful, I'd probably feel like doing the same, but the moral of the story here seems to be this: Find a minister who is sympathetic to your cause. It's not that hard to make discrete enquiries beforehand. Myself, I may or may not get married, but if I did, I certainly wouldn't do it in a church of organised religion.

The flip side of this coin, and what I really believe is at issue, is that if gay marriage becomes legitimised, religous bigots might feel more marginalised. Oh poor them! It may be fair to say that gays have grown intolerant of organised religion in general, but when it (in particular, Catholicism) has persecuted them for centuries, it's not completely without reason, is it? Here, the two sides just need to live and let live, and of the two, religion seems to have a bigger problem in this regard. To my knowledge, Mardi Gras and Pride marches don't have an anti-religion-themed float, do they? Religious freedom can sometimes be construed as the freedom of religions to restrict the freedom of other groups as part of their agenda.

- Gay marriage? Next stop, gay couples adopting children.

Well, it sort of follows, doesn't it? To be honest, I'm still not 100% sure about the whole issue here myself, but for this exact reason, I'm going to keep my mouth shut, except to say that the only way to find out how children grow up under gay parentage is to let them grow up under gay parentage, and who knows? Inconceivably, they might just turn out to be normal, well-adjusted adults themselves. But we won't know until we try. And there are plenty of people, both parents and children, willing to give it a shot.

There's nothing quite like a young conservative, is there? The lack of life experience coupled with the fog of delusion that makes them believe that they know it all is...um...bemusing. And that's being diplomatic about it. I always thought it was rather creepy. You can understand it in someone of the previous generation because it's usually down to the fact that they simply haven't changed with the times, but on a young person? What's their excuse?

Anyway, I've noticed the term 'liberal' and 'leftist' being tossed around in America and Canada with more contempt these days than usual. These people acknowledge their position on the political spectrum and boy, are they proud of it. I remember Kurt Vonnegut, in his essay Cold Turkey, sarcastically summed up the differences between left and right, and it could be inferred that assigning labels to a bundle of extreme political views, such as those espoused by the right, legitimises those views. Well, let's have a look at what is usually typical of a right-wing stance:

Abortion: Don't want it for anyone.

Divorce: Didn't want it for anyone.

Gay marriage: Don't want it for anyone.

All of the above involve the Right restricting the choices of other people. This is what gets me as well. In a democracy, these options, as unpalatable as some of them may be to some, should be available to all. It is then upto each individual to decide whether they want to opt for them or not. But at least they have the choice. If they are available, a person who is pro-life can forgoe an abortion, while the person who wants/needs one can avail of it. Everyone catered for. But no, the Right will have it that their byline becomes everyone elses as well, through the imposition of the above. Democracy, my arse.

In one sense, that's why I believe the availability of the above three should never be put to the public vote. It's also why I think 'Right' should be dispensed with, and 'Restrictors' used instead. Of course, there are areas in which these people argue for less control. Guns, and rights of corporations. Duh!

Lastly, the characterisation of liberals and The Left has always been as limp-wristed ineffectual 'weenies', merely because they tend not to talk so tough, knowing that in the face of complex, near insolvable problems, doing so is a load of bollocks. Now though, that characterisation seems to have been strengthened more than ever, and is fast become the biggest and most moronic fucking cliché that exists in political discourse today. It's like we're regressing, going backwards. Sometimes I despair, I really do.

Fingers crossed that 180 degree turn comes soon.

Hindsight...

Have you ever grown up with a certain musician figuring strongly in the background of your life (courtesy of an older sibling), and suddenly realising years later that they were actually very, very good?

Prince Rogers Nelson.

I never paid him much attention when I was growing up, being a dedicated indie kid, but my sister dug him in a big way, and it's only in the last couple of months that I'm realising that all the praise that was heaped on him during the 80's wasn't all for nothing. I'm currently sitting in the library computer room chilling out to Purple Rain ('Darling Nikki' at this exact moment, which has one of the most killer climaxes I've EVER heard in a song) and wondering how the hell I ever discounted something like this before.

One group of people I remembering paying him a great deal of attention were my parents, who deemed him nothing short of a pervert, and the local clergy in Mallow, where the Monsigneur of the parish pronounced him the Purple Prince of Pornography from the pulpit, around the time the Artist came to play live in Ireland. Naturally, this made my sister love him all the more.

Purple Rain was bought on CD for £5 in a cool independent record store over the weekend. I asked them yesterday if they needed someone to work part-time there, but they didn't. Woe!

This brings me to my next point. In my bid to find a new job that I can actually look forward to without a feeling of impending dread, I called to 17 places yesterday, asking if they needed anyone to do any part-time work. 13 said no directly. 4 expressed doubts, but took a CV from me anyway. Isn't job hunting FUN?! I desperately need more money though, I have officially run out of it, and am now dependent solely on the £45 that I pull in from my current Saturday job. I had always dreamed of abstaining from alcohol, but I didn't think it would happen like this.

The 4 that didn't rule out employment completely are The Body Shop (Should be able for that, I've bought enough of their stuff over the years), Halfords (A bike and car accessory shop. No way), Waterstones (Should be alright), and Blockbuster (Ditto).

Today, I got two maybes out of three, which happened to be two cinemas. Fingers crossed....

My grant still hasn't come through, and I am fit to commit MURDER. I think Mardi Gras was on in Brighton today, but could I go? Oh no. That requires cash! Grrrrggghgghhhh!

May my work cheque come through the door soon. Please God the Almighty Father...

P.S. Kill Bill 2 very good. Better than the first one, in my opinion. That fight between Daryl and Uma: Kick-ass!

Ooooohhhhhhhhh again....

Well, last night was quite a feat at some level. A full 12-hour day of boozing after an all-nighter of studying trends in the periodic table, and now I am suffering the consequences. No grant yet, and I spent a load of money last night, so that is now officially it for my love affair with alcohol. Have I said this somewhere before? This time it's for real...

On holidays until the 14th of February now. Not sure whether I should go home or not. Will probably stay here for the duration.

Nothing doing tonight. Staying in and finally watching Kill Bill Vol 2.

Ooooohhhhhhhhh.........

There is nothing quite so hellish as pulling an all-nighter the night before an exam, but it was merited in this case, the trial in question being chemistry. Being an MCQ, it's one of those annoying ones where you honestly can't really tell how well you did after you come out, and worst of all, while knowing sections of the course will obviously help, there is a point of acquaintance with the material, if past which you proceed , you might actually hinder yourself from doing very well. In short, there is not enough time to do everything, so your best bet is know the material that relates to two-thirds of the exam, and fly through the rest of the questions, ticking a/b/c/d/e at random. I don't care now anyway, I'm done with exams for the moment, and Semester 1 is out of the way. I am one eighth of the way there, as one of my classmates put it.

I'm still doing the promotion for the Food Waste Digester^TM and it is seriously doing my head in as time goes on. Now that I have some free time on my hands, it's time to start looking for something else, with no small sense of urgency.

I should go home and sleep, but sod it, the lads are going to the pub. Off I go. Liver, I promise it'll be the last time...