Who watches the Wedgeman?

"Who are you?", "What do you want?", "While you are here, do you have anything worth living for?"

In some ways, these are questions that changed my life. In other, rather more literal ways, I appreciated hearing them on Babylon 5 and then forgot about them. I was introduced to three rather different questions yesterday by Mel Kohlke, my English tutor when I helped out guiding new people around for the Open Day. My group was hastily taken around the university and grounds. We got as far as Sketty Lane (to see the sports centre thing), Singleton Park, The Pub on the Pond and nearly as far as the beach. She said there were three things all undergraduates needed to ask: how will I be taught? How much choice will I have about what I learn? And what can I do in my free time? She then went on to say how wonderful Swansea was for these things. Remarkably enough, she wasn't just selling the university to these people (though there was an element of that), she was actually telling the truth. I have had lots of choices and things; I do love the environment (part of the reason for taking the potential people as far from campus itself as I did).

While we're on the subject of 'things that changed my life, but didn't really, but I still thought they were cool', I decided to re-read Neil Gaiman's 'Dream Country' (a collection of short stories from the Sandman series) and was blown away again by how very, very good he is. The story of Calliope and how Ric Madoc is eventually driven to madness by all of the ideas he has (and they aren't just throwaway things, there are genuine novel concepts in therre - "A man discovers a library card to the Library of Alexandria" being a personal favourite) thrilled and moved me again. And the tragic tale of the death of Element Girl (a truly second-string character in the vein of a female version of Metamorpho), struggling to maintain a normal identity. Death was characterised perfectly, as she always is, and everything about Gaiman's writing screams 'brilliance'. It's come to the point where I'm beginning to doubt if I prefer Gaiman to Moore. Perhaps when I re-read Watchmen (as I tend to do on a fairly regular basis) my mind will change again.

Looking at my life from a different point of view, things seem all exciting and stuff as I approach yet another party (I didn't get proper sleep for 56 hours after the last one due to... stupidity and sleep deprivation mainly) as well as the now-staple Red Dwarf Night and a brand new evening of roleplaying on Tuesdays next week. Hurrah. I can't help but feel there's a Kosh-like figure looking over me somewhere and thinking (as he always does) "The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote." We are all the pebbles in the avalanche that is human existence, and it is always too late for us.