M. Willis Monroe

I was just hanging up laundry in my room and listening to Radio One (as I do on occasion). When MIMS’ new single “This is why I’m hot” came on. It is just about the worst song I’ve ever heard so I texted that to Radio One and then did some googling and found this great article dissecting the lyrics of the song.

This is why I’m hot
This is why I’m hot
This is why, This is why,
This is why I’m hot.
I’m hot cause I’m fly,
You ain’t cause you not.

The genius that is MIMS.

Yesterday I baked some more pita bread and biked down to Victoria station and met up with Sam, Hannah and Neil and we boarded a train for Eastbourne. Once there we walked through the quaint town to the pebble beach. We all decided to go swimming in the decidedly cold water. Normally I’m quite adverse to cold water but I for some reason it didn’t affect me. Then we had lunch on the beach while we dried off.

After lunch we walked down the beach and started on the path towards Beachy Head. The scenery was amazing. The stark white cliffs and the little light house. Here’s a photo set.

We walked back down and took the train back to London. I met up with Ed then and we had a drink and tried to catch the tail end of the “Nuits des Musees” but unfortunately we were too late.

Last Thursday Anna and I went to a concert at the Scala, her flat mate Lili had bought some tickets and then realized she couldn’t use them. The first two acts were ok, one was a folkly female lead band, and the other was a droney country rock trio. The last act however wasn’t very impressive; Sondre Lechre. He obviously takes a lot of influence from Elvis Costello, but his music was just a bit boring. Plus the sound was way too loud for the type of music he was playing. Oh well.

Oh and my Hittite exam was on Wednesday that went quite well I think. I knew everything I was writing down which was good now I just hope what I knew was right. Akkadian next Wednesday is going to be much harder.

Ohx2 I’ve started working for Scott again. I went over Friday to do some shopping and help out a bit. I’m returning again today probably to do some cleaning.

I just got back in the house after a nice walk around Chesnuts park and the neighborhood with Anna. This neighborhood does have some quite nice streets and an excess of public green space that is so common in London.

In the park I managed to jump onto a bench then from there onto tree limb that i swung off of and slid along the wet grass and landed on my back. Also managed to cut my hand on the tree, but it was exhilarating.

Just having some dinner with Peter and then I’m going to do a final review of my Hittite material for the exam tomorrow and maybe play some fiddle and guitar.

I cycled in this morning in the rain and met with Karen Radner at UCL. She thinks I should apply to Cambridge for at least the MPhil if not further PhD work. I’ve downloaded and printed off the application and requested my transcripts now I just need to get two references and finish filling it out. Cambridge does look like a very nice place to study, especially with the broad and somewhat similar interests of Nicholas Postgate.

I got into SOAS later than I expected. But I still managed to get in a good day of Akkadian; about seven hours. Then left and walked from SOAS down to Waterloo bridge taking pictures along the way as the light was quite nice after the rather grim start to the day. I hopped on the 341 at Waterloo bridge and headed back up to this neighborhood.

I heard an interesting conversation on the bus on the way back. Two girls got on and one picked up the society supplement to the guardian.

Girl 1: What is this shit?
Girl 2: It’s one of those for knowledge.
Girl 1: Fuck this I just want to read my star sign.

It brings up an interesting classification of papers, some are just for entertainment and some are for “knowledge”. The guardian is apparently the later.

I’ve been cooking polenta and egg for breakfast recently. Four slices of polenta around the outside of the pan and two eggs in the middle. It’s a great way to start your day.

My head is buried in Akkadian grammar these days. I’m trying to complete Huehnergard’s book. It’s supposed to normally take a year of study but I’m trying to see if I can do it in eight days. Considering that I’ve been taking Akkadian for three years now, you’d think it was possible. However I’m finding I don’t know nearly as much as I should. Working through the extensive exercises is teaching my quite a lot though. I have my first exam on Wednesday, Introductory Hittite. I’ve done quite a bit of revision for it so I’m not too worried.

The weather’s been a bit gray recently. The Radio 4 weather man said on Saturday morning “it’s going to be a horrible weekend” so much for optimism. Yesterday was ok, but today looks a bit dire. I didn’t go into meeting today I’m going to spend the rest of the day in the SOAS library. This past weekend I’ve been managing about eight to ten hours a day in the library. It’s almost like a full time job, imagine that.

Anna and I went to the 12 Bar Club this evening. We walked down from SOAS got some falafel in Soho and then headed to the venue. When we got there we realized we had an hour or so till the music so we went out walking and visited Trafalgar square and saw a bit of the Thames before heading back. We stayed for two acts. The first was a female singer song writer, had a nice voice and was pleasing to listen to. The second was a more raw two piece female rock band, reminded me sorta of UrDog but they had some good bits as well. Weird venue though definitely interesting. I’ll have to check the gig listings every so often I wouldn’t mind returning in the future when I have more time.

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See: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/07/howto_own_a_128bit_n.html.

I got up early this morning and attend morning worship at Britain Yearly Meeting which was held at Friends House. Afterwards I walked down to SOAS to do some work till lunch. Then I went and scouted out this cafe that has folk nights; I’m thinking of going tomorrow night. Then off to Oxford street to visit the new Primark which was packed (it being a bank holiday). Then the tube home. Spent time over at Anna’s as she just got back from a family weekend. I’m going to start cooking dinner in a bit for Ether, Dave and me. My neck’s been hurting all day.

Haven’t written in a while.

• Finished my dissertation. I spent a lot of time working on it and I’m pretty happy with the end result
• Have finished all my classes for my B.A.
• Have pretty much decided to goto SOAS for the MA next year.
• Baked a load of pita bread for potluck at meet this morning.
• The plants on my table have grown an slightly frightening amount (picture forthcoming).
• Thinking of taking a day trip to the coast soon.
• Going to try to get into the Britain Yearly Meeting morning worship tomorrow morning. Rumor is that their quite strict on required membership.