Tommy Collison

School’s going well. Christmas results came back this week and showed me where I’m doing well and where needs work. I decided recently to drop Physics in favor of Geography. I’m not a Science-y person, and I doubt I’ll do anything in college that’ll require a Science subject. At the moment, I’m considering English/Media/Writing courses, but nothing’s concrete right now. It doesn’t need to be for another 10 months at least, either.

I’ve hit the ground running with regards to study — which doesn’t leave me with a lot of time for much else. I’m reading a couple of pretty good books recently: 1984, The Luzhin Defence and Empire of the Sun (which is actually our English comparative novel). I’m also toying with a couple of short-story ideas that may come to fruition when I’ve got time to devote serious attention to them. The summer, probably.

In other news, I’m doing a lot of drumming and playing a good bit of chess. Both activities are wonderful as a break from studying. Drumming has a physical aspect to it as well, which is exactly what you need after sitting at a desk for hours on end. If you caught my recent essay, you’ll know how much I love it, and one of my New Year’s Resolutions is to get good at it, competitively.

It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks recently — lots of change, lots of growing and maturing. Exhausting, confusing and sometimes difficult, it’s ultimately manageable and everything’s pretty good.

And if you can say that, I don’t think you can complain about much else.

I don’t know how much of a problem lichess.org/ has with spam in the chat windows of ongoing chess matches, but I got some pretty weird messages during a game earlier:

I’m telling you, Apple has some great music taste.

If you sleep on it; sit on it; type on it or use it for more than two hours a day, you should get a high-quality, comfortable one, to the best of your ability and budget. I say this with regard to quality-of-life, referring to:

• Beds
• Mobile phones
• Chairs
• Laptops
• Backpacks
• Headphones
• Shoes
• Keyboards

Anything else you’d add to that list?

3am.

I love the night. It’s peaceful. I’m the only one awake, nothing to bend to except my own will.

I always think that empty houses —houses that have furniture and food and a Christmas tree; houses that are obviously lived in yet are currently almost devoid of life— belong in an episode of The Twilight Zone. They’re so eerie in their stillness.

The house is currently devoid of life except for me. I’m standing at the kitchen table, listening to whatever the latest Essential Classical Music album I’ve most recently got my hands on. I’m poring over a chess board, a book of Capablanca’s games opened beside it.

I love this. I love the night.

(If you’re interested, the game is a 1901 game between Corzo and Capablanca. The former has just played 14. Qxb6, swapping queens. White eventually loses the match after some surprisingly good tactics from the then-12-year-old Capablanca.)

(If you’re one of those readers who doesn’t like it when a blogger breaks their mould, you might not want to read this. I get sentimental.)

I usually try and do one of these posts on New Year’s Day. If I’m organized, I’ll have done it the day before and I’ll have set it to auto-post at 00.01 on January 1st of the New Year. However, I’m not organized this year. I rang in the New Year with a group of people who’ve become my closest friends over the last month. It was one of those moments when creating new memories was more important than documenting or reflecting on the old ones.

2011 was a pretty good year for me. I came home from America after major surgery and continued my upward spiral of improvement. I start 2012 walking independently with minimal pain and no outstanding problems. I also did the Junior Cert. and came out of them with a set of grades I was ultimately satisfied with. I don’t discuss my relationships at length on this blog, but they too had their place in 2011.

I probably say this every year, but I feel that I’m a wildly different person than I was this time last year. Experienced shaped me and taught me new things about myself and others. I learned.

Here’s to 2012 — I’ve got big plans.

• Phoenix
• Scala and Kolacny Brothers
• Peter Gabriel
• Coldplay
• Sunset Rubdown
• Green Day
• My Chemical Romance
• Counting Crows
• R.E.M.
• All Time Low
• Original Cast Recording of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
• Deadmau5
• Amadeus soundtrack
• Kraftwerk
• Los Campesinos!
• Arctic Monkeys
• Adam Pascal

Wonderful version of a wonderful song.

Marco Arment:

I’m not just about technology, just as John Gruber’s not just about Apple products and Merlin Mann isn’t just about index cards and Steve Yegge can speak briefly and Jeff Atwood enjoys Rock Band and Paul Graham is a great cook and Ted Dziuba likes stuff and pretty people take shits and maybe, just maybe, there’s an area of Michael Arrington’s life in which he isn’t a dick.

Just because I’m a blogger who’s known for tech- and student-related stuff doesn’t mean I can’t post about starlings, natural light, theatre or declining party invitations at 11pm on the LUAS. Like Marco, I’d hate to feel that I couldn’t post something because people expect a different type of post from me. This is my blog, written for me. A not-insignificant amount of people happen to read it too, but I wouldn’t do much different if my audience was just me.

I hate how there’s such a fervor online when it comes to Kindles vs. Traditional “dead tree” books. There’s an “us or them” feel to it. Each side is equally annoying in their endless attempts to get the other crowd to come round to their way of thinking.

• Whoever said that the two were mutually exclusive? I buy all my books on Kindle for iPad — it’s my reading device. That said, Patrick got me a physical book for Christmas and I’m over halfway through it. If I’m waiting for someone in town, you’ll find me in the basement of Eason’s reading the first chapter of some new Stephen King book or something. I prefer Kindle books because they’re easier for me and more convenient, but I’m fond of real books too.
• It seems toxic and dangerous to me to be always focussing on what divides us. I mean, something huge that the traditionalists and the Kindlists share is an obviously large love of reading. Why can’t we focus on that? Instead of bickering over which medium for consuming books is superior, can’t we focus on our mutual love of consuming great literature?