From here on in.

"Shurrup Stoopid"

That's the way to do it; Jack Bauer - obviously the greatest man ever to be shown on television - said it best when he kicked the gun out-with the reach of a junkie and laid the smackdown on bullet wounds, trying to pick up some threads on Ramon Salazar. Sometimes I wish I was as ruthless and to-the-point as Jack is, but then again, if we were all more like the people we admire from the realms of fiction, things would inevitably be just as boring as the present.

In the non-ficticious world it's not every day someone has a genuine epiphany, but it just happened to be one of those days. A massive reality check in the cunning disguise of an essay plan landed in my lap. Galbreath reminded us that not only does this essay count as part of our final Grade for the MA course that we'll have spent four years on by the time it's completed, but it can actually be the foundations for a career in the subject and a chance to put something new into the world of academics.

Sounds a little far-fetched? Probably, but if some attention was paid to the cards we're dealt in this lifetime, there's no reason why anyone shouldn't be able to rock the world, or at least do something good with their hand. It kills me to see good friends from the past wasting their youth because they played their bad cards or folded too early. I guess we'll just put their decisions down to human nature.

Back to the 'Chase', it's pretty obvious what my calling is; organised crime and the drugs trade in Latin America. It was a gut reaction to shout it out. Perhaps it was because I’d just watched season 3 the day before, or because I was fanatical about the drugs essay I wrote in first year, maybe even both, but I’m sure this is what it's going to be for at least the next few years. What could be more interesting than studying gangs like the Salazars?

Exactly.

As for the last entry, it's increasingly obvious that it's impossible to 'have your cake and eat it'. Funny how a saying so passé that it should be banned is as true today as it was when our grandparents were saying it, but as the next one goes, 'the old ones are the best' and it's so true.