Sneezing my Brains out - Saturday - 8th of October

I awoke that morning refreshed and ready for a nice long lie in. At about ten-ish I got up, I was going to walk a whole mile to Liddle but Dan was going to Asda anyway so we all hoped in his car and sped off. I restocked on Milk and Bread, tomorrow morning I'm having fried egg and Gammon slices, yum. Throughout the day I managed to completely annoy myself by spending some time trying to figure out why my Othello AI (now called Odummo) was not working. It turned out that I had missed one crucial line that any programmer except the newest would know about. It was quite an un-eventful day, I'll make sure that the Othello game is available for download some time Lesson of the Day - If you think there is a problem, chances are it'll be a simple one

Online at last - Friday - 7th of October

After a whole 6 hours of sleep I awoke strangely fresh. I had a lie in just to be safe, I grabbed some noodles, washed and went to the University. Sometime during the night I had managed to get some form of minor groin sprain. The result of this was that any time my left leg was not pointing away from the rest of my body I was in a good bit of pain, when it was pointing away I was just a little hurt. Still, I can take tough stuff, I was on Britain's Toughest Family last year. The minibus arrived before the normal one so I got on that, you'd be amazed at how much more the bumps in the road become noticable when each one of them sends a jolt of pain through you. After arriving at the city center I checked the net quickly, it appeared that several days ago I had infact done everything correctly for connecting, ah well, I'd have another go later. We attended a lecture about student support, afterwards myself, Steven and Gabriel went and got our Unix accounts, then we popped off to the library, Steven and Gabriel burdened themselves with several kilos of books, I just got two smallish books on web design, prepare to see this page later without tables. After returning to my room, I sat down in my chair and found out that the one single little thing that I missed out was that modems have to dial, I had never told it to dial, I felt so stupid.... Stupidity became annoyance as I re-dsicovered how slow a 40k modem is, yes, we have a 40 not a 56 modem, at least the World of Arl forum is usable on a 40k, my long list of webcommics however is not, It took over half an hour for the phwcomics to load properly, I simply did some typing while they loaded in the background. My floor-mates were going out bowling, there was also a Christian Union BBQ. However I could attend neither as my cold was still being a complete pain, an hour of finishing off the basic game-play of the Othello game and I took an early night. Lesson of the Day - If you have a cold and are getting a sore nose from all the nose blowing, blow your nose over a bathroom sink then use water to wash yourself

I was woken by my mobile phone going off, at first I thought it was my radio alarm as I had set it the night before, I flicked the radio alarm off and still the noise kept coming, very very loudly. I figured that the radio alarm was broken so unplugged it from the wall and struggled to remove the battery. The phone coincidentally stopped ringing when I pulled out the battery. My Dad was the caller and phoned my room phone, this I managed to answer, after my Dad called my Mum called. After a quick chat with her I washed and had some noodles (from the Freshers Fayre yesterday) for breakfast. I went into the center of town and attended a talk on Networks, specifically about the fact that we computer students get to use a Unix system alongside the crappy windowz one. I went to Freshers Fayre, this time to sign up for clubs, there were no people from Taste Europe there with the boxes this time, I joined the Sailing club, the Club of the Gamer and the Christian Universityon. After that I returned a book to the library, spent some time looking to see what else interested me in the Computing section, then, finding nothing, went to the bus stop. Once again I had missed the bus, this time by a margin of 2-3 minutes, still, there was a lady there called Alyx or Alex, she never told me how to spell her name. She was not the most outgoing of people but was friendly all the same, we were collected by one of the minibuses run by the University and had a little chat on the way home. I found her to be as talkative as my good friend Edward Harry from wales (now in Warrick). After grilling her for information in an attempt to 'make converstation' we got off the bus. After dumping my bag in my room I collected my mail, many thanks to my immediate family, Uncle Brett, Auntie Margaret. and to Abbey my roomate for the note on my door wishing me a happy birthday. But that was not all, the rest of the floor held a small mini surprise party for me, it was very kind of them. Having a little free time I decided to look at something we'd be doing for our project this year. Apologies to the Lecturer if you ever read this, but I cannot currently remember your name. We were told that we hadd to make an Othello game complete with AI, after a couple of hours of messing around I had before me a complete Othello game (though I think it has too many squares) for Human vs Human, I plan to get some basic AI in place before monday and then tell the Lecturer that I have a draft copy that I'd love some feedback on ;) That night I found that I don't like that taste of Portsmouth Snakebite, it's a local drink that contains blackcurrent juice, larger, cider and some other stuff. After drinking a little of it and some VK Orange I found that I was feeling very sick so got a bus home rather than pub crawl. That however wasn't the best of it, I was up until 1 in the morning the next day coughing my guts out, though I was thankfully not sick. Lesson of the Day - University libraries tend to be massive, the Portsmouth one has several isles for computing alone

My First Full Day - Wednesday 5th of October

I woke up at 0700 thanks to my old old clock alarm. My day starts at 0900 and finishes at 1800, yes, 9 till 6. I now no longer have a runny nose and a bad tummy, now I have a small cough. Rather than chance it I am going to take a coat and ditch the shorts for the day, it was a hard choice but I managed it. The day included a talk about the lab, then a two hour lab session. I was paired with Mark. Mark is in my course, smart and like minded. We completed the lab session in 45 minutes and went to the freshers fayre, getting on the way some nice baguettes. At the fayre his 'like mindedness' showed itself and we left with not one box each, but four. Working as a team we collected a total of eight boxes and then packed the contents into two boxes. After a talk about learning a foreign language I decided to drop my two large and cumbersome boxes home. I snatched two cookies and left on the bus. The 'Departmental Office + Health and Safety' talk was actually very interesting. The first lady talked to us about how we had to hand in our papers on time, she was a jovial sort of person which meant it was not as bad, plus some of the things she said were actually important. The Health and Safety talk by Dan was excellent, it was over in five seconds flat and there was a laugh to be had on every other sentence. After the talk I walked to the Universityon Bus stop, on the way there noting that the bus I was catching was driving past me, ah well, there'll be one soon, and there was. After getting home I watched some scrubs and did some blogging until dinner time. After dinner myself, Dan, Duane and Sam went down the bar. we stayed there for a little while but returned shortly, Dan went to the Universityon, I got an early night. Lesson of the Day - Busses have really dry air, despite that fact that you feel that you are nodding off, it is just your eyes, they'll be fine when the bus stops

Math Test - Tuesday 4th of October

I got up early enough to enjoy a fried breakfast in the refectory, it was delicious. I travelled to the center of Portsmouth for my Math test, my Secondary School Math teachers will be very happy to know that I remembered how to do most of the questions and got most of those right. The questions were A level grade, but the answers were in multiple choice form. After completing the test I headed back home to a lovely Tuna Fish sandwich. Anybody that knows me from Wales will probably wonder why it took me so long to get one, I admit, I should have had one yesterday, chances are I wouldn't have this runny nose. As I have been living in Wales for several years I am acclimatized to having pouring rain and ice cold gales, I must say that I almost miss them, while everybody else here is complaining of it being too cold for them and walking around in really thick clothing, I am walking around in T-Shirt and Shorts, I told them that if they wanted to be cold, they should wait till the winter, then hold their hands in a 20mph ice cold wind, without gloves, it will be interesting to see if any of them do try when they are drunk. At 1530 I had a student meeting with people in my course and similar courses, that meant that I had some free time, I used it wisely to convert what had been written in a plain-text file into this lovely (at least I think it is) web-page file. The student meeting was very good, I got to know a person called Tom who is staying back a year, he told us what to expect from the different lecturers. Myself, Sam, Duane and Dan went out to the bar that night. We left early because I was feeling poorly and they wanted to play monopoly. I got a good night sleep. Lesson of the Day - People won't believe you when you tell them they you can do something they have little idea about, in my case, I said I could go faster than 20mph on flat road on my bike.

Enrollment - Monday 3rd of October

After almost missing the correct bus (lousy 24 hour clock...) I found that no enrollment stuff happened until a half hour later and that I could actually have been a couple of hours late... After Enrollment I returned to the Langstone Village and was offered a free donut by the Christian Universityon people, we sat and chatted for a while. I am not religious, I do not worship anything and do not intend to. However, The Christian Universityon will consist of people that do not drink heavily, normally non-smokers and also know how to have a good time. They told me there is a BBQ on friday, and the week later they were having a ball pit party, yeah, it 'sounds' rubbish, but I challenge you to play in a ball pit and not have fun. Upon returning to my room I once again cursed the 24 hour clock system as I was going to miss the 'class talk'. I got to the Universityversity as fast as possible and found that a talk was happening right after that one. Upon getting back I had dinner with Dan, Marisa and Sam. During dinner they discovered that I am chronically sarcastic and Dan got the nickname 'Incredible Dan' in return for naming me Tiargo. I took to my bed early that night as I had a light cold, according to someone, this is because I was wearing shorts. I however attribute it to the stress of missing my cat and bike. My cat allows you to hold him in almost any pose, I'll put some pictures up some time so you can see how stupid he looks. My bike because I was not used to traveling on a bus, if I wanted to go somewhere, I cycled, end of story, I didn't care much about the weather. Lesson of the Day - Everybody is still new, despite what you may think by the way they walk in groups

Meet the Neighbors - Sunday 2nd of October

Waking up at about six-ish I lay in bed admiring the warmth and cosiness of my bedding, it was awesome, however, there were things to do, I got up and showered. The shower that I have can get so hot that it'd probably burn the skin off a person, I chose not to make it that hot, my problem was that the shower had a height that appears to have been designed for someone from my year at Wales, short, my back does not ache yet. Also of note with regards to the shower, it has enough driving force to push over a sheet of cardboard, i.e. not much at all. At ten-ish I went down to the cafeteria and found that today, brunch would be at 12, not 10. I met a nice guy called Luke. Luke, Sam and myself walked along the sea front for a quarter of an hour. I went back to the cafeteria and sat down for a while with a guy named Peter. When they started serving food I got some and met a very nice chap called James, we had food with a couple of guys I forgot to get the names of, they said however that they would also be in the Anglesea building so I should meet them later. The food was delicious and the head chef tom/bob is a very funny guy. Later that day Abbey, Dan and Marisa arrived. They are all very nice people and it should be a fun year living next to them. The pub quiz that evening in the bar was great fun, we didn't win but we had fun. Our team name was 'I wear women's underwear', to our great dismay the announcer did not read our team name out. Lesson of the Day - There are free hot drinks in the cafeteria, though it may only be with a meal

Arrival - Saturday 1st of October

I got here, collected my basic apartment stuff and found that I was not living in a tall apartment block, but in what appeared to be dingy flats, I was not as pleased as could be. However, upon looking in my room I discovered that it was very nice, clean, large and had a very nice bathroom, not a wet room. Each floor in my flat has 7 people, there are several flats just like mine. Because of the nice large windows some people have taken to placing things on their window. One person has a Scottish flag and a row of beer cans, I have a black placard with the words 'The beatings will continue until morale improves' which was a very nice present from a friend back in wales My Mum, Dad, Sister and myself went out to get a duvae and pillows as they would not fit in the car, we got some good deals. The bedding is very comfortable and the pillows large and fluffy. That night my parents bought me dinner at the 'Old Customs House'. It was delicious, as I could not eat it all I too home half of my chicken in a plastic bag and several sachets of ketchup and mayonnaise, a couple of people that I told laughed at me, but I actually made an extra two meals out of that chicken, which lost none of it's great taste. Upon returning to the village it was very dark, I saw there was a party going on in the bar and so decided that rather than take an early night (In my defense I was tired) I'd go and join in, the first table that I randomly selected to be cursed/blessed by my presence was full, the next table happened to have all my floor mates on it, a lucky coincidence. We had a drink and then took a bus into the main area of Portsmouth to see what the clubs were like, never having been clubbing before I can't give a very good comparison, Duane however was not impressed, the queues were apparently too long, we caught a taxi back whereupon I began to watch two episodes of Scrubs before falling asleep. Lesson of the day - Always keep your keys on you, otherwise you'll be locked out of your room