…cut it out! That’s the motto of dermatology, or at least it’s the approach taken when it comes to suspicious moles and other skin cancers. It has been a busy week in Antrim, and scattered all over the Northern Trust, but it has also been fun. I managed to get back up to Belfast to fence in the intervarsity try-outs, which went less than favourably for me, but it’s all good. It can only get better after that performance! Aside from that, most of my time has been spent sitting on public transport or in taxis to a faraway clinic, and collapsing into bed earlier than ever before. Antrim accommodation is definitely quiet, as there was only one other person from my year staying up there, Niall. I did get my Christmas dinner in the canteen though, which is always nice.

Now the hunt for a new TV is on again, and everything is vaguely reminiscent of last year, when I went through the same headache of hunting through review sites and magazines searching for the best value set. There are endless model numbers, feature lists, reviews, and prices. It doesn’t help that the best choice is no longer available, and was for sale when I was last looking last year. That was a Panasonic plasma TV, which was an excellent set, though there are a lot of LED backlit screens available now for the same sort of money. The choice really is overwhelming particularly in Currys when all the sets are lined up side by side, and you have the chance to scrutinize the picture quality, and look for any tiny differences that may or may not exist. When you’ve been staring at them for that long you start to see things, and spending too long there can drive you insane! At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter because you become accustomed to the TV you watch day to day, and for the past many years we’ve had a 21” in the living room so anything is an improvement.

I’m working on my phone at the moment, installing the QWERTY keyboard, though I’m struggling thanks to a less than perfect case and approach to the whole thing. It will come together, though the hardware keyboard takes some getting used to after using a virtual one for so long. Plus the layout isn’t exactly staggered, so it’s trickier to type. I’m still debating whether or not to sacrifice the back cover or not, and attach the keyboard permanently. For the time being it will be fixed with screws, double sided tape, or Velcro and I’ll do some day-to-day usage testing.

Breaking Bad is amazing as usual, and now the final season is airing at the moment. There are few shows better shot and with better storylines than Breaking Bad.

My eldest brother, Keith, started a website selling Berkey water filters a while back along with his wife Joanna. Berkey filters make some pretty big claims, including the removal of viruses, bacteria, chlorine, and many other chemicals; in theory making them excellent tools for filtering water in a survival situation. To test the claims of the manufacturer and show the value of the products they have started a web series, “Will it purify?”, and he has already made two episodes. So far he has purified river water from the Willamette in Oregon City and water from the pond the ducks bathe in, with good results. We may well be making an episode for it, probably filtering water from the river Lagan. Thankfully the manufacturer’s claims seem to be backed up by lab reports, which appear to be legitimate. Here’s the first episode of the webseries: