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As a delayed present from one of my sisters, I got the LEGO X-wing using the gift voucher she gave me for Christmas. It is a mighty set, doing all the kinds of things I tried to do in my own various interpretations of the craft, both when I was younger and even more recently.

This brings my total number of LEGO bricks to 13,301, with 7,925 in whole sets and 5,376 as loose parts.

Regarding my next big LEGO project, that I alluded to when writing of the Gay Deceiver, it shall be a LEGO-man-scale version of the Belafonte from The Life Aquatic.

I was being a tiny bit secretive as no-one has yet made such a model, the closest so far being the submarine and the crew themselves. So I vaguely wanted to be first, to not let anyone get in there ahead of me…

But that seems a little silly. A few years ago, I had all kinds of plans and sketches and writings detailing the “perfect” ebook reader (electronic ink display, touchscreen interface, clockwork powered, always-on-internet connection) and I was going to make a website out of it, with the intention that, if I would never make it myself, it would put the idea out there for someone else to. Of course, many other people were thinking along similar lines, and the Kindle is pretty close, only without the touchscreen or clockwork (I’ve since learnt that clockwork provides nowhere near enough juice).

So anyway, if someone else makes the Belafonte before me that doesn’t matter too much. If it is exactly what I wanted to build, then I can simply follow their instructions, and if it’s not then I still have my mighty plans…

I’m writing to Eric Anderson to ask if he has any sketches/drawings I may see, and when I’m next in London I’m going to visit the National Maritime Museum in order to get some plans of the Ton class minesweeper, which is the kind of boat the Belafonte was.

So, that’s one of my future LEGO schemes. Right now I’m in Germany, have a few assignments to work on over the coming weeks, an interview for an internship too.

Ooh, I am a published writer now, with an article on pages 12 and 13 of the current issue of my university’s student magazine, The Courier. You can download a PDF of the issue (59.4) from the Archive and a more in depth version of my piece is online too. Sure, it’s just the post I wrote last November, but now… published!

Ooh ooh, I also finished Guitar Hero III in Expert mode on Wednesday 12th March! After drinking some booze and playing some multiplayer, I was so very much in the zone that I beat the devil first try. Hoo-hah. Now, to play through it all again on the new Xbox 360 Kitty and I will be buying tomorrow…

Exams are over until May and I have a week to catch up before work proper starts again.

The cataloguing of all my old LEGO bricks has picked up steam due to me finding Peeron.com. 1928 pieces have been logged so far, or 392 different colour/type combinations. Still at least double that amount more to go.

For Christmas I was given a lobster, a chess set and a Martian. Ooh, and Kitty and I built the Café Corner we’d been hungering for since summer.

Yesterday, thanks to a tip-off, I bought one huge Batmobile as it was reduced from £50 to £25. It took five hours to build and I listened to the last five episodes of This American Life whilst I did that, so now, in my mind, it is linked with murderous superintendents and Cambodia too.

These last few days I’ve also been watching some films, including The Royal Tenenbaums, The Big Lebowski and The Butterfly Effect. I would also watch No Country for Old Men, Aliens vs Predator 2 and Sweeney Todd, cinemas permitting, and maybe also The Darjeeling Limited again.

Guitar Hero III is nearly finished on Expert, just two songs left; Raining Blood and One. Mike and I also completed the game in co-op career mode, he on Hard and I on Expert, and that made the Metallica song doable. However, it would seem that Through the Fire and Flames doesn’t get unlocked until the game is completed in single player mode, so though I played it over the holidays, I’ve not been able to since getting back to Aber.

There are other things to do, so I would go sleep now.