Today, I'm 24 and 5/12. Fancy that.

What I have to do to make sure I get enough sleep to function:

• Put the hamster in the bathroom and block any drafts.
• Turn the heating down.
• Not drink coffee past about nine.
• Not think about school.
• Be able to see the time when I do wake up, so I don't stress about not getting up in time.

Actually, I really need to get the hamster out so I can clean out his cage, but he's asleep. No wonder - he's probably worn out by all the gnawing he did last night on the bars.

When the rain clears up (the BBC weather forecast seems to not know about it), I must go across the road and see if I can procure a Christmas tree that my form won't sneer at. They get more ambitious every year.

The looming clouds

This is a very odd time to be writing. Really, I should be at school about to go to lunch (or probably to do more work). However, my chest isn't feeling too good. It kind of feels like someone's pressing a large, flat pebble into my breastbone. The result of a combination of cold last week and seasonal asthma. Having woken up like this, I thought four lessons would make it much worse, so I'm staying here in the warm instead. Also nice to have a decent amount of sleep for once.

Much progress with the small beast. he'll crawl up my arm and be picked up, now. I dreamt last night that I had a whole menagerie of two adult hamsters, a couple of rabbits, a dog, a cat and several baby versions of these all in one cage and they kept escaping. I'm sure there's a metaphor in there somewhere.

One other triumph, thanks to Facebook - I've found Sudeep! We haven't seen him in the eight years since we left school, after he emigrated to Florida.

Monday

A slightly morbid thought: there must be blogs floating around out there belonging to dead people. There's no time limit on posting. It's a bit like all those unused underground stations that feature in Bond films.

Ah - Edmund wakes. He's got very odd sleeping patterns. He doesn't seem to sleep for any great length of time, but naps for a bit, then goes for a run around his tubes, then comes back up to his nest again and curls up. He's nibbling rocket leaves at the moment and bits of wholemeal bread (Jamie brought it yesterday - putting it to much better use than eating it).

In tribute to Dave's tribute:

“Old Professors never die, they just lose their faculties.” (Stephen Fry)

A hamster's progress

Edmund's a quick learner. Woke up to find he'd transferred all his bedding from the ground storey of his palace to the domed penthouse at the top. He's also moved all his food up there. He's especially fond of peanuts.

He's currently learning to run around in his ball, having perfected his tube-climbing technique. Been letting him sniff my hand, but he's still a bit nervous at the prospect of being picked up. Might be able to get him out of his ball in a bit.

Spent afternoon reading the papers with Jamie. He thinks I'm justifiably cross. Doesn't seem to have realised that he can actually help, though. Aghh. Sometimes I'm grateful for school just as a distraction.

My new hero

Elton John!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6140710.stm

Also, I would like to see a representative of the National Secular Society standing with the religious representatives at the Cenotaph next year. Yet another example of the faithful being valued over the faithless.

My new roommate

This is the palace inhabited by Edmund. It took me an hour and a half to build. It's allegedly a fairground, but I haven't put the stickers on yet. Might not even bother. He has a little blue ball to run about in as well. Letting him get settled in before I take him out at all. That and I'm worried about losing him behind the furniture. He's very cute, though. He's currently mixing up his bedding and his food - really useful, Ed.

Am utterly pissed off. At mortally offended, teeth-grinding stage. Apparently I'm more of a social pariah than David. Jamie very helpfully observes that we tend not to be invited to impromptu gatherings, but can't explain why. Having to restrain self from texting Jen to ask whether I've offended her in some way, that she even invited David and not me. That would be mad, bad and dangerous. Wish I had a punchbag. No, really, put the phone down.

This is getting out of hand

How the utter hell have the colour of poppies become the province of religious idiots? We commemorate the dead, whose blood unquestionably flowed red. That's the symbolism of it - not to be tampered with or pulled into this madness in the press. It's not a matter of political correctness, it's a matter of biological correctness.

If one wears a white-centred poppy in honour of those executed with white squares pinned to their chests, then that's fair enough - that doesn't cheapen their honour or memory with religious claptrap.

Here's the link to the article on the BBC - see if it makes any sense at all to you:
http://http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6131464.stm

What the internet is really for: Part II

• Self-publicity
• Watching clips of 80s/90s tv programmes on YouTube
• Entertaining teenagers on Friday mornings
• Ordering shopping so you don't have to go out in the cold
• Distractions from doing actual work (various)
• Finding out about the Syrian hamster
• Looking at the news, because Teletext is too fiddly
• Hopes, dreams and aspirations.

Interesting how those who would condemn the death penalty in their own country quite happily subscribe to it when someone else is in charge of the noose.

Am seriously thinking about getting a hamster.

'ello Dave

Sitting in my new coat until the flat heats up, which may never happen. For an extremely small box, it's remarkably cold. Possibly a result of the two external walls.

Measuring for bridesmaids' dresses for Desdemona's wedding was much less tiresome than I'd expected it to be. It was a case of try on the fitting dress (which didn't fit me by the length of a small continent), have three measurements taken and wait for Des to pay, which took longer than all four of us being fitted. Choosing the colours was far more contentious, until we worked out that if the colours were a little bit darker than pastel, they'd go together much better and no one would have to wear the dreaded peach or yellow.

Des has agreed to a reading challenge. In exchange for her reading Dawkins cover to cover, I have to read 'The Case for Creation'. Know thy enemy, what.