Another post!

Good evening, whosoever should be reading this.

It's been a busy week so far. I mentioned my seminar with Justice Day O'Connor in my last post, so I shan't bore you with any further details, but since then I've continued to be rather occupied, what with one thing and another.

After returning from the Sheldonian on Tuesday evening, I found myself in College Chapel, listening to Keble's Orchestra and Choral Society performing Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony No. 8, and his Mass. It was an extremely good performance, and I say to those involved: bravo, I wish I had such talents.

The Christmas feeling has gradually been growing on me recently, despite my reluctance to yield to it while we are still several weeks from the date. My resistance was not helped by the University-wide Carol Concert I went to last night, which was all rather jolly, and was followed by Keble's Christmas Pantomime. The latter show was simply a triumph, with in-jokes at every turn. It was particularly hilarious to hear our Hall and Bar Manager (in charge of the organization of meals, etc.), a highly distinguished man, yell to the other players from atop a platform: "You enormous scrotums!"

I must also give a brief mention to the performance of 'The Bacchae' which I went to see at Hertford College - a remarkable piece of theatre by actors so young. The minimalism of the production only served to highlight the sheer quality of some of these budding thespians. If you're unfamiliar with the play - it is an ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides, telling of the fate suffered by Pentheus, King of Thebes, who blasphemes against the god Dionysus, with terrible consequences. Obviously, no drama has quite the same impact on the page as in performance, but this story is still (in my view) well worth a read.

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In other news, I can't wait to come home on Saturday. I've enjoyed this term at Uni immensely, but I must confess there comes a point when one is thoroughly ready to go home and have a break for a bit. I am approaching that point apace.

I'm sorry this post is turning out to be all about me, rather than a rant or rave about a story or subject which might command wider interest than simply what I've been upto, but for a change I seem to have nothing to be angry about!

I'll try and post something more about comment than commentary soon, but for now I leave you with this:

Quite something, I'm sure you'll agree.

Over and out,

Aidan.

A few musings

Good evening! It's been a little longer than I intended since my last post, but the last few days have been a bit hectic if I'm honest.

The first thing to be done is to wish you a Happy December! I've come across many people wishing each other a 'Happy Advent' from today, but naturally Advent began on Sunday. Such a mistake isn't a major issue in itself, of course, but nevertheless it would be nice if people got it right. I am aware that we live in a secular age, but I think that even if people don't follow any particular religion, they would do well to respect those faiths for whom Christmas, and the season of preparation preceding it, are so important.

On a happier, less pernickety note, I'm really beginning to get excited about Christmas now. This is happening rather earlier than usual, but the reason is primarily that we had a Carol Concert and Christmas Dinner in Keble on Sunday, which was all jolly nice. I found myself seated in the choir stalls in College Chapel, which is something I never thought I would do with a singing voice like mine. With the end of term nigh, I look forward immensely to returning home and spending some time with my family, not to mention visiting The Buck I'Th' Vine 'pub in Ormskirk, as is our wont. It's going to be great!

Earlier this evening, I was lucky enough to be able to attend a talk and seminar by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, at the Sheldonian Theatre. Justice O'Connor was the first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court in the USA, and held the post for twenty-five years. It was a most enjoyable event - Justice O'Connor offered some good insights into the judicial and legislative system in her country, and made well-argued points suggesting that the US and UK systems could have something to learn from each other, as they seek to improve. For what it was, the talk went into reasonable depth about certain points, and was awash with informed opinion, humility, and commonsense. If only such qualities were so abounding in the characters of past (and possibly even present) Presidents of the United States.

There is probably more I'd like to talk about, but I don't want to take too much of your time, and this post has already approached a fair length, by the looks of things. In future posts, I'm going to try and include, likely at the end, a link of one kind or another to something of interest, amusement, or whatever. I might do some "top tens" or something along those lines, as well, and I'll try to be as original as possible. The thinking behind this is that it might be nice to have something other than my waffling on here.

Anyway; thanks for reading and I'll write again soon.

Cheers,

Aidan

http://www.canterburythankyou.com/ ~ This is a decent little band I came across. Some of the songs on their album I really liked, others weren't too much to write home (or indeed blog) about; but with it being a legal free download, there's not much to lose by giving their album a try :-)

Beginnings

Hey,

I've decided to make a genuine attempt to enter the blogosphere and actually stay here, rather than blog once or twice and then forget about it, as I have done in the past.

I'd like to start by thanking you, whoever you may be, for taking the time to read. This will be a place of humble observation (sometimes), bombastic opinion (more commonly), and general comment about my life and many other facetious things.

Sadly, my life as a blogger has already been one of frustration and travail. Some unkind souls had already taken my preferred names for the blogspot URL, and so I eventually resorted to the acceptable, though unoriginal, one that you see in the address bar of your browser.

Anyway, I have a bit more reading to do for an essay now, so I shall bid you farewell, but I will post something else soon!

Later,

Aidan.