This was A Good Week.

WAFS lecture by the redoubtable Jerzy Lukowski on war economics was a great return to form after reading week. Practising History lectures have happily stopped existing; I instead have Jacobite Rebellion seminars (lamentably, on Friday at unreasonable o’clock) with the lovely Vicky Henshaw. Starting to prepare for my next WAFS essay, as I still have a whole month… but on the other hand, I only have a month.

Plot not really thickening in our campaign at neckbeardsoc; we (in real life) trudged down to the Gun Barrels because other people had stolen all the rooms in the Guild, (in the lands of imagination) saved a bunch of pseudogypsies from the armies of the oppressor, and I traded some of my teammates’ horses for a PANGOLIN (a baby version of the giant pangoloths the gypsies use as draught animals, so at the moment a full-size pangolin and only going to get bigger). Also, after a run of truly tragic failures last session, I was back on form making heads explode with enchanted crossbow bolts and mocking the highwayman for being ineffective.

I made Instant Mug Brownies according to a recipe I found on 4chan (yes, yes, “recipe for disaster”), but lacking cocoa substituted strawberry nesquik powder. The result was… “mmm goddamn” doesn’t really go far enough. Sticky and delicious. All measures in tablespoons: two vegetable oil, two water, two sugar, two cocoa, four flour, mix up in a mug and put in the microwave for a minute, enjoy sugar rush and heart attack.

I signed for my House; deposit of £250, admin fee £50, and have posted parents a thing to sign in case I bug out on the rent. Dammit, life is expensive.

Scheduled my DSA needs assessment in town at ten in the morning on Friday. Set my alarm for eight to be on the safe side.
Was woken by my phone ringing. Clock said 10:18. ARGH. I need a new clock.
“I can make it down in half an hour? Or should I reschedule?”
“We can probably do it in an hour if you can make it here by eleven. See you soon!”
The next half hour felt like a rushed montage. Dress. Cycle. Train. Sprint. Made it. And since I’d already completed the paperwork (which only needed to be emailed to their HQ; the future is bright) and the person after me was ten minutes late, an extremely nice person called Julia walked me through general needs and failures right on time.

With the result that the government is going to give me:
A laptop (what I had hoped for), with three years’ warranty to last out my course;
A printer (which I hadn’t, but will be really useful);
Proprietary software – antivirus (probably Norton, ugh), a rather cool program which looks like it could be actually useful for thought marshalling; they could also have given me a shiny new MS Office, but I already have a copy and honestly the less money going to Microsoft the better, so said I didn’t need it;
A digital voice recorder (which was cause of some discussion and soul-searching; “if it turns out I don’t need it, can I give it back?” “…not really.” “oh.”) But as agreed with Vikki when doing the university assessment thing, it’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it;
Subsidised print cartridges and internet;
I could also have got quite a few shiny new peripherals, but I didn’t really need them and at that point conscience really kicked in. Though I’d feel a lot worse about this if I knew less about military procurement screwups. After the H&K refit, this is less than half a rifle.
Generally happy and excited feelings as I toddled back home, rewarding myself with a sandvich from Munchies of the Bullring on the way. I hadn’t really understood how worried I was about this not working out… until it did.

Then I went to see the Gilbert & Sullivan society (now under Siz and Megan) production of The Mikado, and still have little lists stuck in my head.

Yes, this was a good week.

Costs:
House: £301.50
Shopping: £15.95
Train tickets: £3.40
Noms: £4
Mikado: £3

Happy Valentine’s Day. I doodled a big black airship and swashbuckled a bit in the library. Forgot to grow a beard, though. Damn.

Presentation on the Berlin Airlift bucked the trend by a) me doing proper preparation for it b) it being not as good as usual. But the research was still interesting. As with a couple of world wars, I’d gone in to the Big Freeze with the preconception that all sides were equally revolting, mostly as an (equally flawed) reaction against the ignorant, one-sided views of popular history in general and Internet retards in particular. Yet just as I’d come out of the Great War better educated on German militarism and Hindenburg/Ludendorff’s proto-totalitarianism (as well as only-slightly-less-repulsive nationalism in the not-quite-democracies, and that good ole Woodrow Wilson was a shocking racist), and come to the conclusion that Imperial Japan deserved everything that hit it and then some… Everything I’ve been learning from actual historians seems to indicate that the Americans genuinely were motivated by altruism as much as paranoia, and that the Soviets generally were the villains most of the time.

Not believing myself qualified to pass moral judgment makes things a hell of a lot easier, let me tell you.

Saw The Hurt Locker with Warsoc on Tuesday. The same style, production values and politically hands-free approach as Generation Kill, and a manlytears-beautiful ending. Can’t be beaten.

The essay due Friday didn’t go so well. I couldn’t get my hands on any of the resources, and had a similar issue as my first essay for Stuart with the whole alternately procrastinating, panicking and self-doubting, as well as a serious lack of motivation (it’s formative and for the first time on a subject I don’t find at all interesting) so I sent a rather worried email to Chris ahead of time. He gave me a week’s extension, meaning that I have reading week (where the books, specific to the past essay, should mostly be back in the library rather than in the grubby paws of my peers) to mop it up. I’m definitely warming to him.

Besides the newly hopeful essay, I will for reading week have a stack of books on Why Wars Begin, Jon, Tom, a 4meg connection, a floating coffee shop, and the other undiscovered delights of Bromingham to explore. It’s not looking to be a bad time; certainly not an empty one. Yes, Bill, Tom will bring the shovel.

Looking ahead, term ends March 26; on March 27, Philip Reeve is doing a talk in Oxford, and Eli will still be in town with a student house at her disposal, after which France. Which will be a very nice reward for finishing all my essays, I think.

Week’s expenditures: £41 (also, I need to renew my railcard.)