What do you feel before you think?

I was going to go off on a rant about how university should be for the able, not just the rich; an entitlement, not a privilege. Many universities in England and Wales want tuition fees to be raised, and pretty significantly at that (between £4000 and £20,000 per year), which is bad news for the majority of students, and especially for those from low-income families like me. However, I'll spare you the rant, step down from my soap box and instead give you a link to the government petition opposing these raises. Thank goodness I'm looking at Scottish universities, eh? Speaking of which (I say that too much), I accepted Edinburgh as my firm university and Glasgow as my insurance last night. Despite the fact I have no intention of going to university this year, I should keep my options open.

I used to be able to draw. Actually, I'm going to modify that statement and instead say that I used to be able to draw pre-existing things; in particular, photographs. Asked to draw a bowl of fruit or a scene and I would have been hopeless. Asked to draw something from my imagination and the proportions would have been all over the place, resulting in an unidentifiable, child-like scribble. Put a photo of a person's face in front of me, though, and I would've been able to come up with something that actually resembled that photo, and pretty darn closely, too.

You'll notice that I'm talking in the past tense. The last decent picture produced by these digits was in late 2004/early 2005. Perfectionism got the best of me. I can only imagine what my skills would be like now if I'd have carried on. Sylvia Plath was right when she said that 'The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.' That self-doubt is still with me now. I need to escape it.

The UK's first annual Veggie Pride event takes place 12 days from now in Birmingham (Victoria Square, 10am - 6pm on the 16th May for anybody who's interested). Think Gay Pride but with less meat (?) Haha. I'll admit, the vegan food is what lured me in (vegan fish and chips!) - I'm a fat person in a thin(nish) person's body. The promise of music, jugglers, poets, clowns and dancers didn't hurt, either.

I want to get my face painted while I'm there. Any suggestions for what I should get done? Be creative! Let's give the face painter a challenge.


Sexy: Scottish accents. I used to pretty much abhor them, but they've grown on me. Probably a good thing considering my university choices.
Unsexy: Guys who wear way too much aftershave, especially if it has that Lynx-esque 'man smell', as I call it.


Days 'til my birthday: 23.