Darlo's World

Has been a bit of a while hasn’t it. So what have I been up to? Not a fantastic amount to be honest, but thing have certainly been happening (in other words, I’m not dead). I guess first of all I should announce that the Learn With Anna auditions closed and an auditionee has been selected for the narrator role. After a very tough choice from a wide range of styles I decided to choose Wushubabe, who saw the post on the Voice Acting Alliance website. Congrats Wushubabe, and I look forward to working with you.

The bins! Oh yes the bins. Finally I’ve had my bin emptied by someone (not sure if it was the actual binmen or the contracted collectors), and so the mess outside my house is gone. However I think the strike is still going on, which is going to suck the big one come the time our bins fill up once again.

And finally, I have taken up the Japanese martial art of Iaido. I went to the Leeds University Iaido Club give it a go session on Monday and really enjoyed it, so tonight I’m heading to my first proper session. Though I could give you a full insight into what Iaido is, I’ll just give you this quote from the Wikipedia article.

Iaidō (居合道) is a Japanese martial art associated with the smooth, controlled movements of drawing the sword from its scabbard, striking or cutting an opponent, removing blood from the blade, and then replacing the sword in the scabbard.

On Thursday I had the privilege of being elected as the Anime Officer of Leeds University Anime Society, in a pretty closely heated election right before the weekly showing. The committee position involves the maintaining of the society’s anime & manga library, including keeping records of who has what and (with the treasurer) issuing fines to people bringing things back late. There also have the responsibility for buying the anime and manga for the society.

Four of us decided to run for the position, which normally changes annually, so we each announced why we’d make a suitable candidate. In front of a lot of people I ended up initially forgetting to mention the fact I’d previously set up and ran an anime club in Shropshire, and other things I thought after would have swung votes my way. Votes gave a two-way tie between myself and a well known society member. A second round of voting, for which we were asked to leave the room for vote by show of hands, also resulted in a tied vote. However after yet another re-vote (and what I can only imagine as a lot of luck, for which I’m very grateful mind you) I won the election.

As for the Cesspit remarks, no I’m not talking about my failing progress in classes (for once). I’m talking about the ongoing strike action taking place in Leeds in regards to refuse collection. Rubbish is piling up all over the place causing bugs and other nasty crap to emerge from every street-orifice in a fashion resembling the zombies emerging in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video.

I open my front door and across the road there’s a matress and a fridge, both dumped there from one of the neighbouring restaurants/landlords. Cheeky buggar initially put the matress to rest on our house; we put it right back. I look to the right from my front door and 10 meters down the road there’s another matress, sodden and covered in oil from a restaurant and the recent rain. But worse is when I turn the corner of the house. Full wheelie bins and bags of crap lying in wait to be collected by someone, anyone!

The council (apparently) have contracted private refuse collectors for now, but collections are few and far between. It didn’t really help that people walking by from the takeaways would use our bin anyway, but now it’s seriously getting nasty. The advice the council have given is

Residents should continue to put all their bins out – black, green or brown – on their normal scheduled collection day.

If your bins have not been emptied by 8 p.m. (please note new time) on your day of collection please take them back into your garden or yard and put them out on your next scheduled collection day.

If your bins are full, put any extra rubbish into bags, store them safely and put them out next to your bin on your next scheduled collection day.

You can also take any excess recycling or waste to your nearest Household Waste Sorting Site. More containers have been provided for both recyclable waste and rubbish at Household Waste Sorting Sites – please check for a full list of our sites and their opening times.

but this leaves a few problems. We don’t have a yard or garden, and we’re sure as hell not having this crap in the kitchen or living room. I’ve also looked at where these Household Waste Sorting Sites are and unless I fancy carrying bags of shite for miles, I’m not budging. I also don’t think I could take a bus with them either. I’m not going to pretend like I know all the ins and outs of why the binmen are striking, but as long as they’re holding the city of Leeds at randsom, it’s pretty hard to sympathise with them.