I had my exam (resit) on Tuesday.

It was in Inverness at the Ramada Jarvis hotel so I was the best part of two hours traveling just to get there. Pizza Hut before hand didn't real help the stability of my stomach, so by time I got to the building I was both ready to sleep and erupt with vomit. Fortunately neither event happened. but I couldn't take the pressure any longer so I went into the building and played Wario Ware on the DS for about an hour- trust me, popping virtual balloons is really therapeutic.

The exam was much the same as it was back in October, with the addition of a few new questions and the subtraction of the questions I had been hoping to answer. All of them were very similar to the kind posed as Assessments month in and out, albeit without the weeks of analysing and dissecting the question beforehand. Not all of them had to be answered and you were only allowed to pick three- a difficult choice considering the majority of them were rock-hard and based on obscure German artists briefly touched upon in the coursework, but I got three answered nonetheless in some capacity. I wrote something outlining support and opposition for the academic values, umm, a short piece on how Giorgio Vasari propelled the status of the artist into that of genius, and something about female subject matters and gender issues within art history which I made an absolute ****ing mess of. That last one was really difficult, and the question was hard to understand from the outset.

I'm glad it's all over because now I concentrate once again on my current studies instead of moving backwards, but for this weekend i'm doing nothing but chilling. I think I owe myself some time off, but also, i'm having a real hard time adjusting between the two courses. Having bought Final Fantasy XII this past week, that struggle to study might be something of an ongoing dilemma.

Similarly frustrating, are the lack of UK women in the top 10- so basically another flawed poll with clearly the wrong winners...

From New Zealand digital designer Grant Robinson, montage-a-google is a quick easy way to create mosaics, simply from a Google Image Search. If you get the right results back the montage is a great way to overload the brain with pleasure, but at the same time, it's a novel way of finding and displaying images.

I made one based on Maggie Grace, formerly of LOST Season 1.

"Street Fighter: The Movie" was on ITV4 last night.

It's universally accepted that the film is the worst of all time, and as far as bad videogame adaptations go it's at the top of that list, but despite this still I decided to watch it, and it was pure nostaligic fun throughout. From the double-act hilarity of Ryu & Ken, to the transformation of Blanka and with bad production and dialogue in between it really is a bad film that should never have been released. It's hardly the film you want to see if you're a fan of the series, but for complete nonsense and joy, it's a really good film, albeit one that shouldn't be taken too seriously. I mean, it's got explosions, good vs evil, humour, speedboats and fighting. That's a twelve year old's dream come true!

Like all videogame adaptations, Street Fighter: The Movie could have been good with the right production and thinking behind it, but unfortunately, like all other vg adaptations, it fails miserably. From what I hear Dead or Alive isn't much better...

If this degree in Humanities doesn't work out, I want to study LOST.

Via TV Squad-

An earlier podcast recap revealed that Tufts University offers a class based on Lost. This week, The Boston Globe posted an article covering this unusual one-credit course. The course's title, "The Future is Lost: Economic, Social, and Technological Impact of a Cult (and Cultural) Phenomenon," makes it sound far more advanced than simple TV watching.

Lost fans also make it into the course's discussion topics. Students examine what effect, if any, that fan blogs and comments have on the overall outcome of the show. They also discuss the decline in viewers that the show has experienced this season. Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have been aware of the course for several months, and even held a conference call with the class recently.

What an awesome idea! LOST is already renowned for hardcore fans, but this just shows how obsessive the show's fans can be, and I want to be one of those people!

"Sound of Silver" is the second outing from producer James Murphy's side-project LCD Soundsystem. The fact that they're merely a side-project and have released their second album is certainly admirable, but with a confident sound and production throughout all of their work (and indeed Murphy's in general), it's easy to see how they've made the transition from "bit of fun" to a fully-fledged dance-rock outfit.

But despite being a follow-up album, Sound of Silver is still an incredibly fresh experience, bringing to mind an idea that the band are now a side project of themselves. Naturally the record is a lot more mature than their previous self-titled album, and also surprisingly a lot more downbeat, so much so that lead single "North American Scum" is something of a false indication of things to come. Tracks like "Someone Great" and "All My Friends" show this idea well- sweeping progressive anthems with a constant beat throughout, admittedly not all that different from the sound of The Secret Machines. There's no mistaking the influence of this new direction, and while these songs are very much down-tempo and reflective, they're still really positive, and most importantly of all, something you will dance to.

People coming aboard this album following on from past singles such as "Tribulations" and "Movement" are likely to be disappointed, because there is a general feeling of there being less rock in this record. That's not to say there isn't any at all however, with many tracks still carrying the traditional retro-dance-punk sound of yesteryear most notable in the band's debut singles, fans searching for this angle should look no further than "Watch The Tapes", but are still likely to come away feeling hungry.

"Sound of Silver" is very much a mixed beast. In some areas it continues to build upon the foundations of the previous record and the outfit's general sound, but it's obvious at many points throughout listening to the record that some aspects have been exaggerated for this record while others have been toned-down. Something worth noting is that this isn't an album for everyone, and depending on your musical tastes, and indeed, your experience and preferences with this band in general, there's no saying whether you'll like this new record or not. In a genre where currently all Rock and Indie music is about tight-fitting jeans and long hair Murphy's project continues to be a breath of fresh air combining many styles and themes before completely turning them on their head, but if you want something to really combat stale music and revolutionize your preferences, frankly, the debut record is a better place to start looking.

Trust the Daily Mail to blame videogames for the notion that no children climb trees outside anymore, and then label them as being more dangerous than our foliage outside. The fact that the UK is under a rule of safety first and nanny law where the daily thought of parents everywhere is "better not let the kids outside", presumably, has nothing to do with the outcome of this report.