Just a quick entry to say that I'm still somewhat alive and kicking, despite the recent absence of blog entries. Last December 27th I wrote an entry here that started like:

Mini-holidays are now officially over. This is going to be insane until mid-January.

I wasn't trying to fool you, dear reader. Perhaps insane is a bit too much to describe it but it has been hard work indeed and that has contributed for keeping me from writing here as much as I'd like to. Not exactly in terms of time available but more in terms of having to focus on other things. Not that I write anything particularly interesting, otherwise, but still. You be the judge of that.

When I said mid-January, by the way, I lied. Not on purpose but the thing turned out to get stretched as I didn't really have time to study for an exam due on 13/01. This led me to forfeit it and attend the alternative date of 26/01. If everything had gone to plan and I had attended the first one, I'd be already off this semester but this way I'll still be on the hook for a few days more. And this one is far from being a walk in the park.

So right now I'm pretty much focused on getting over this which means revising quite a lot for it. I've decided to come back to Evora so I could be completely alone for a few days up to next Wednesday and hopefully this way I'll prepare myself adequately. In the mean time I've been shuffling tasks and so during study breaks there's some new goodies I've acquired and which I've been going through. After having cruised through all of 24's second season, I'm now catching up on the audio commentaries some episodes include (one from each of the 6 DVDs). The best one by far has been the one by Carlos Bernard (who plays Tony Almeida), Sarah Wynter (Kate Warner) and Michelle Forbes (Lynne Kresge). These guys are completely crazy and it made a really interesting commentary with lots of nice insights about the shooting and relationships between actors off camera. Add to that some good humour and it ends up being one of the most interesting and laid back audio commentaries I've ever listened to. Season 3 has just started airing on Portuguese TV (and Season 4 in the States...) and I'm obviously completely hooked. However, I've already ordered the DVD boxset. A few 24 die-hard fans around here, you see... It also helps that all three seasons are 60% off at Amazon.co.uk.

Other than that, bought On Writing by Stephen King yesterday. I'm periodically drawn into King's work, having read From a Buick 8 and The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, Vol. 1) early last year. A few days ago I saw Stand By Me again (review coming in the near future) which is one of his (multiple) adaptations to the big screen and that somehow sparked my interest on him again. So I picked this up from a shelf and have been enjoying it throughout. King is not just terror atall, he can be really funny sometimes (and touching, as with Stand By Me) and he is indeed funny when he talks about his infancy and youth.

Also picked up a couple of good (I guess) DVD deals at low price, Phone Booth and Dark City. While the first is one of the films I enjoyed the most in recent years, the second may just be one of the films I will enjoy the most in recent years, judging from reviews and the general feeling about this movie. I'm especially interested in Phone Booth's audio commentary by Joel Schumacher (shame it's not with Kiefer too!). By the way, have you noticed the pattern? Kiefer Sutherland stars in almost everything I've mentioned so far: 24 (the likeable and resilient Jack Bauer), Phone Booth (as the fantastic Voice), Stand by Me (the cocky badass Ace) and Dark City (Dr. Daniel Schreber). I'm not obsessed with him but Kiefer just so fucking rules.

Last but not least, and getting back to the university subject, I'd like to credit a couple of really good friends (Rui and João) who did a really good job of guidance for me during the early stages of the Logic Programming assignment. What they did was pretty much showing me The Light and I'm in big debt to them for their patience even while they were going through a week long Compiler Optimization exam. That's too much to ask for but they did it. I couldn't really credit them in the assignment proper but I want to do it right here. Thanks, guys!

...and what was supposed to be a "quick" entry turned out to be already too long. Time to sign off for now.