We could be cartographers.

Morgan and I drew up a comprehensive map of the centre of Manchester this afternoon.

It's very accurate.

I then ended up spending nearly £75 for a one way train ticket to London due to a mistake in the booking. I was more than unamused.

I've always had a habit of liking the villains more in Disney films

Horrible gale force winds and rain + pulled muscle in foot = not being able to walk very fast and missed train; fail, me. All trains heading to Manchester getting gradually more and more delayed; fail, train service.
Anywho, I'm back in The Ham of Old now having a natter with my mother about the 50 animated Disney features and a rather rubbish list ranking them in order. NO ONE should rank Home on the Range higher than Pocahontas. No one should rank Home on the Range higher than anything really. That film is rubbish. I'll shush now before I ramble about this for far too long. Anyone who knows me well enough will know that my favourite Disney film is The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It is glorious and would be even better if it didn't have the fat, annoying gargoyle in it and if the other two gargoyles didn't sing. Just give Frollo more airtime. More Frollo airtime would mean more Tony Jay voice acting and this is GOOD.

On my way to Preston where I needed to change trains I drew this lil thing:

It's not the best quality image in the world as I took it with my camera as opposed to scanning it (our scanner at home refuses to work), but you get the idea. I particularly love drawing Young Lori. She's sweet.


Another shot is ready and waiting to be coloured. Here's the linetest for part of it:

I ended up redrawing half of this because Lori's hand grew in size from acceptable to GINORMOUS by the time she reached the right-hand side of the screen, and that just won't do. Methinks this works though.

Animation work is going to have to take a slight backseat until the 2000 word section of my dissertation is handed in on Thursday... ugh.

People make me angry.

Okay, so this isn't so much about my work as it is about politics.

I'm sure that most people in Britain have been aware of the by-election that just took place in the Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency. This is my home constituency so the whole thing has been of interest to me (despite the fact that I forgot to register my vote in time...). The previous Labour candidate, Phil Woolas, is an idiot of the highest order and I'm glad to see the back of him. I remember a meeting that was held about the flooding that was occurring down the back of my row of houses and Mr. Woolas droned on, quoting all the usual empty promises to shut us residents up. However, when it came to questions being asked about solutions to the flooding, I distinctly remember my thirteen-year-old self coming up with better and perfectly logical answers compared to Mr. Woolas. The man knew nothing.

This man is an idiot.

Despite all this, Oldham East and Saddleworth has long been a Labour seat, along with Oldham West and Royton and the majority of seats in the Greater Manchester area. I'd have thought that a Labour win for Debbie Abrahams was a foregone conclusion (despite the fact that Labour won by only 103 votes in the General Election this year), but from some of the comments I've read on articles, apparently not. The residents of Oldham East and Saddleworth are 'thick' for voting Labour back in and the fact that the BNP came fifth means we all must be racist.

Now hold on a moment. First of all, what exactly makes the voters thick? If I had managed to register my vote in time for this by-election, I know I would've struggled knowing what to do with it. Because the result was Labour this means we're fools because 'Labour were the ones who got the country into the mess it's in now'. However, if the outcome had been a Conservative victory we would've been called stupid because of all the 'horrible cuts the Tories have brought in'. Vote for the Lib Dems and we would've been told we're moronic because they've 'turned back on everything they promised; have you not seen the tution fees fiasco?'
Can we win? No. Whichever candidate we'd have picked we'd have been told we'd picked wrong. It's simply a game of trying to find the lesser of three evils. I personally feel the parties are all as bad as one another. I don't abstain from voting but I have the hardest time deciding who my vote should go to. British politics is becoming corrupt beyond recognition so trusting anyone with power is a daunting task. I can't help but think that if I had remembered to register in time, I probably would've voted for the Monster Raving Loony Party, the Pirate Party or the Bus Pass Elvis Party. Let's face it, they probably couldn't do a worse job than any of the main parties. They'd probably make more sense than the main parties too.

And to the people who seem to think that the whole constituency is racist because of the votes for the BNP? I will admit, 1560 votes for the BNP is 1560 more than I'd like to see but that's a small fraction of the people of Oldham. Yes, there are underlying racial tensions in Oldham but I know that many people feel sick to the stomach even thinking about the BNP, let alone voting for them. Do not tar the entire borough with the same brush. I'd like to think that my family, friends and I are enlightened enough not to harbour fascist ideals.

Methinks the thing that irritates me the most is that these comments have most likely been made by people who've never set foot in Oldham or anywhere remotely near. We're all backward and live in the dark ages up here, clearly.

Anyway, back to making my film.