Don't look like a Geek - Friday

First thing of the morning, get up nice and early for my math test. It went really really well. I answered all questions, didn't rush, couldn't find anything that I'd have made a mistake on and double checked that I'd included things like adding "+c" at the end of integration. So, if I get bad marks on it I'll be confused. I got the bus back to Langstone (almost missed it, it was pretty close) and sat down to do some WoA stuff. I've been working on some new teams for a special thing that we're trying and they're now complete. If you play WoA and don't know where they are, well, they'll become linked to on Saturday. After a nice lunch of noodles I went back into Uni. The ECE KTG had a meeting. And by meeting I mean that myself and someone else turned up. This was expected and quite okay (it's a small room). I'm going to be working on the front end of a site for a "Consultancy in Automotive Eletronics and Wireless Communications Systems". During the chat, I made a comment about Lisa doing a site in Dreamweaver. It was probably something along the lines of "Phhhp, that's a rubbish way to do it, cool people use a text-editor". David then said "You don't look like a Geek, but the way you talk about computers and the types of things you know, you are a Geek". He didn't mean it in a harsh way at all and I wasn't insulting Lisa, I'm pretty sure she knew that. I thought it interesting, yes I know I'm a geek, but I didn't realise I look completely unlike one. Seeing as we can't charge (under University rules) we need a cunning plan to get money from the people. David has a cunning plan, we do what they first outline (about 5-8 pages). Then when they ask for more we ask how much money they'd like to donate. David has a lot of sense and doesn't let the people meet us students until that stage because they'll try to take advantage of us and also not listen to feedback we give (some of the ideas they have are rubbish). After the chat I got the bus back and then finnished that WoA stuff that I mentioned earlier. Dinner was very good today, I managed to hide Jack's pudding and he never noticed until it came to time to eat pudding (he's a bit slow sometimes). After dinner I played some Marathon and then, at almost 1900 I went back to the kitchens. I got three massive Cumberland sausages (now have two left) for the weekend. They just let me take them because they were left-over. And it was Tom's day off! The evening was spent starting work on the website for this guy and talking to a gentleman about people not wanting to go to Uni. Why anybody'd not want to go to University is beyond me, it's an excellent time and so far 99% of the people I've seen have agreed with me. Dealing with people that don't know what they want I've been giving some tips for dealing with people as it says in HWFIP. What tips would you give for dealing with people that have none or little clue about something, yet are telling you what they want in it (such as web-design, one guy gave us a pantone colour conversion because he wanted to act like he knew what he was talking about)

Woe is me - Thursday

Got up in time for my 0900 lab. It went okay, we're doing well and it looks like we'll manage okay. After the lab I walked back to Langstone in 40 minutes. My shin still hurt a little but it wasn't too bad. Like Graham said, I need to do more walking to exercise the muscle. Getting back I had lunch and did the usual bout of WoA stuff. That evening I went to a B162 tutorial. Misha Filip was going through some questions. Now that I've gone through questions with him it's much easier to understand some of the stuff and hopefully the lectures will be easier to understand. If they are I'll make sure to tell him so. After that lecture I got a load of maths revision in. Chris helped quite a lot and that was really nice of him. After the maths I went to the programming lab. It now turns out that there's almost no need for any programming. There's so little that Peter is doing it all (though he's going to ask me for help if he gets stuck). My job will be to help with the write up. I'm probably also going to write a Neural Network, just over the summer when I've got more time on my hands. After the lab I went to Christianity Explored (CE). It was very interesting and made me think about Heaven and Hell. If I can't disprove the Bible, and therefore can't disprove Jesus' existance and can't disprove that he was the Son of an Omipotent being. I can't disprove his words about Heaven and Hell. Currently I don't believe in any kind of an afterlife, Sam and Lizzie asked me what my thoughts were on it and after a very beif answer along the lines of "I don't believe in anything after death" simply sat looking at me as if expecting me to say more. After CE Sarah gave us a lift home and I got on with math revision for my test tomorrow. The woe is me part of the title is because the 15" wouldn't wake up from sleep and had to be restarted. It needed to install some system updates anyway. Still, 49 or so days of uptime isn't bad for a 5 year old computer. Don't Add or Take away During the talk in CE I asked a question that's more factual or historical than spiritual. In the closing paragraph of Revelations is says that anybody who adds to or takes away from the book will be in serious trouble. my question, is there any historical evidence of anybody ever adding to or taking away from it? Heck, adding to or taking away from any of the books in the Bible?

ECE KTG - Wednessday

I got up nice and early. Rather than go to the 0900 math lecture I went to the Web Design lecture I was meant to. It's just about to reach the stage where I'm going to have to turn up to the Web Design (B144) lectures on Wednessday or find some another time. This is annoying as it means I can't get the extra maths in unless I read ahead about what's being talked about at the lecture. After B144 we had the second part of the unit I've failed. It's not at all easy to concentrate. Thankfully 20% of the whole module is in one off little lab sessions. My plan is to revise for those and get 15%-20% of the whole module before the test. This'll make it a lot easier to pass, it's clearly the unit I need to try hardest at. While the rest of the slackers went to get the bus I went and chatted to Matt. He's the third year who knows loads of stuff about programming. We talked about basic physics, mostly the physics behind dropping a big rock on a city (I was thinking of a possibility in WoA, imagine how funny it'd be if someone did it). After chatting to him for a while I went to see a lectuer. Dr David NDZL (in the email I got his surname is all capitalised). He's started up a group called the 'ECE Knowledge Transfer Group'. From what I can see it's a group of people who know how to make websites that make websites for companies. It's not paid and it'll not get me more marks, but the companies are encouraged to make donations to the students. The most important thing is that it will get me work experiance and make me much more employable. After the chat I looked at the time, it was 1300 and there was no bus for another half hour. 40 minutes later I was almost back at Langstone, my shins were aching a lot and it hurt to put any preassure on them, and the bus caught me up so I got on it. Once I got back I helped Nathan by downloading some drivers for his computer, the Uni wireless has been acting up, Aaron can't connect either. I spent the afternoon doing some WoA stuff, then dinner then more WoA. The Hall group this evening was quite good. We spent a very short ammount of time playing "Honey I love you" and also the "Animal Game". We also spent some time looking at Revelations (that's the end bit of the Bible). Now, I've been a little deprived of sleep recently so I'm going to bed a little earlier tonight, heck, it's a lot earlier. Why Guys Don't Show Emotion Well, one reason. It's something we talked about in the Hall Group. We figured it's because ladies spend their time being told they should look a certain way or they're ugly. Hence, place a lot of importance on physical appearance. Men on the other hand do not have much preassure put on them, therefor they don't feel very self concious, therefore are not offended.

Goodbye Pete - Tuesday

Early early start for my 0900 lecture. I got up at 0700 so that I'd have time to get ready, make breakfast and even log onto WoA. The first lecture was maths and I failed to understand any of it. I was still very tired so decided not to go to the optional math hour. The Computing lecture was interesting. Chi told us how to use some of the stuff and where to get it from. I spent that lecture using my laptop to connect to the University computers and do what Chi was telling us to do. It felt a little cool :) Lunchtime was good, I'd packed myself a tuna sandwhich and enjoyed it a lot. I spent the rest of the break playing Marathon and demonstrating real physics, i.e. you fire a rocket launcher and it jumps you in the air, you fire it again and due to lack of friction, it propels you across the map. The B122 lecture was not bad either. After the B122 lecture I went to Chris Clarkson's math lecture. He did a much better job than Charlton and I now understand a lot more. I didn't turn up to the B102 lecture. I've found that I'm about 3 marks away from passing the unit as it is and we've only done 50% of the unit. Heck, if I revise for the exam I could get a massively high mark and bump up my average. Currently, due to my lower than wanted B161 mark I'm going to make sure I do well in B162 (B161 part 2) and get a good overall mark. That way they'll say "Umm, he must have been ill on that day, lets let him pass". Dinner wasn't amazing, sadly. I started work on some very good WoA stuff after dinner, but not for long. Today was Pete's last day before he went back home. So we were throwing a sort of party for him. In total, Sarah, Brierley, Stuff, Chris, Emma, Siän, Lizzie, Andy Ward, Hannah, Pete, Phoebe, Colin, Andrew and Sam all managed to fit into one room. We played loads of very good games and had great fun. First off we played Mafia. Round one saw me as the narrator and in round two I was a Mafia. I survived until the end at which point I was voted off by my own team-mate. Thanks Sam. Mafia is hard to explain simply so I won't try very hard. It's similar to Big Brother, but you've got a special night-time vote by the bad guys. It's far inferior to something I played online called "Cultists Among Us". After Mafia we played the "Animal Game". That was very very good fun, but due to my loudness and the fact that I was a Lion my throat is now sore. The Animal Game is very simple. You have a circle of people, each seat is an animal and you have to make your animal noise, then the noise of another seat while looking at that seat. If you forget the right noise then you go to the end of the circle and everyone moves up. After the Animal Game we played "Say G'day to Bruce Bruce". I was appalingly bad at it. It's a variation on the Animal Game, but you always talk to the one on your left and every time someone gets it wrong the name changes. It very fast becomes a nightmare to remember names. After that we played a very very funny game. "Honey won't you Smile?". "Honey won't you Smile?" is a very simple game. Whoever is 'on' has to go around the room, sit on someones lap and say (roughly) "Honey I love you, won't you smile for me?". The 'defendant' must then (without smiling) reply, "Honey, I love you, but I just can't smile". It is very good fun and very hard to keep a straight face. After that we played the mumble game which was a bit rubbish. The objective was to talk in a certain pattern, but you could never show your teeth. I did well, but didn't enjoy it very much. We stopped all the games and went home at about 0040. Though, most of the people went home before that (wimps). Now, to get some sleep before an 0900 lecture tomorrow :s HWFIP Quote of the Day From the amazing mind of Charles Schwab I am hearty in my approbation and lavish in my praise. When saying something is good, go the whole hog, say why it is good and why you like it. Tell people a reason why you're complimenting them and it'll not even appear similar to flattery which is not a good thing.

Potatoes - Monday

I got up and did my laundry while downloading more movie trailers. I've finnaly gotten the second V for Vendetta trailer to download, it's very good. Pirates of the Carrabian also looks good, though not as good as VfV. I also got from Tom a potato. At this point I'd like you, without reading ahead to guess what I'd do with it, specifically a 'who' would be useful, then tell me when you next see me, it'll be interesting to hear. Now, we'll come back to the Potato later, I went to the B122 lecture, the only really intersting thing that happened there was when Rick turned up the lights in the middle of the lecture (we were sitting at the back, there's spare light controls there for some reason) and all of the people looked at me (or maybe Rick). After the lecture Peter and myself walked to Tuleys. I handed in some proof of thing that I'd done at Natwest, basically I've gotten everything for the house sorted for now, there'll be more later, but for now, it's all ready. Again, I got off a bus, went to Tesco and got the same bus back, this time without running. My shins were none too happy about it, but, tough cookies on them. Dinner tonight was excellent, I had a sausage roll, chips and gravy. I don't like potatoes and the ammount of ketchup I normally have isn't good for me. Gravy seems like a good idea and tates nice too. Thank you Jack for telling me about it. I left the refectory at 1725, the bus normally leaves at 1535 so I had a cup of hot chocolate in my hand. I am very very glad about the timing that occoured, I just about managed to catch the bus. It turned out that there was only one bus running because one person was off ill and the group that organise the busses hadn't done anything about it. So Dave was not waiting around. Then for surprise number 2, I got to the CU and found that they'd all gotten there at 1500. Clearly they don't need my help. During the singing and talk Steve H and myself were in charge of the lights, it was quite good fun. After the service I played my joke on some people. The joke was that, holding the potato in my hand so that they could see it, I'd go up to a lady that knew what my theory was, and say to them "There's something I've been meaning to ask you for a while, but until now, I've never known what to say". Then I'd pause for three seconds to let them put 1 and 1 together. Then, "What's your favourite colour?". Here are the results of what people did before the 'punchline'. Brierley - Ducked head into coat neck and looked worried Lizzie - Went slightly red and looked alarmed yet expectant Siän - Stunned Silence and look of incomprehension on her face (it took her 2 seconds to see the potato) Joe - Forgot what I meant with the Potato, assumed I was giving her the potato and said "I'd prefer a flower" I'm taking that four person survey to mean that I've no chance with any of them and should never even try to "woo" them. Siän came up with the idea that carving the potato into the shape of a rose would solve the problem and have all the plus sides of a Rose, the Potato AND also be something I'd put time and effort into. Now, despite what you'd think, I can carve a potato into a Rose. The trick is very simple and taken from Dilbert. To carve a rose from a potato, simply remove all parts of the potato that don't look like a rose. How can I fail with advice like that? In the pub I had a talk with Graham and for some reason he advised against using the term "woo". However, Sarah uses the term and has given me 6 very good tips, I'm going with her advice. In the pub we also talked about making catapult-morters. I'm making one with water bombs and aiming at the tower. On the way home myself and Garath leaned around the corners and sung loudly. Basically we for some reason acted as if we were drunk, I blame the bar of chocolate that I shared around and the pint of coke. I think that I should really be careful about how much sugar I take in and use... Coincidence? I've noticed it already, but tonight really showed it, recently all stuff to do with arriving on time for the CU has really just 'worked'. The timetable of B102 labs and now my B162 labs is really good, it allowed me to get to the two big and important CU events that I had to be there on time for. Tonight I managed to catch the bus, 10-20 seconds later and I'd have missed it. I'm wondering if it's more than coincidence.

Answers - Sunday

I got up in time to do some WoA stuff, including finding out that the Australian guy is feeling a little better and isn't dead or anything like that, so that's a good start to the day. The morning service looked at family trees and wasn't the easiest thing to follow. After the service I asked Johnathan some questions. It would have been the questions asked on Thursday but Lizzie forgot her notebook and I forgot some of them. However, what I could remember was answered by either Lawrence or Johnathan. For someone that says he's "Not very bright" Lawrence is very smart. Me: What happened to Jesus when he died, if he was a sinner then he'd have gone to hell? Lawrence: Before going anywhere you are judged, and as Jesus was blameless he would have gone to heaven Me: How can we be sure that Jesus wasn't the son of the Devil trying to trick us? Lawrence: Angels cannot create anything, only God can. As the Devil is an angel, he can't have a son so Jesus must be either a Man or the Son of God Sadly, either because of the type of question or his inexeriance with such questions, Johnathan doesn't give the best answers. He put them in somewhat better words than here. Me: If God can't have anything to do with Sin, and Jesus was also God, how could he have accepted the Sin of the world onto him? Johnathan: All through life people have tried to find metaphors to explain the father-son-holy spirit area, and none of them suffice. I can't really give you an answer here sorry. Me: If God is omnipotent, why did he take 6 days to make the world and need a day of rest? Surely he could have made it in an instant? Johnathan: He could have, but he chose not to. The only thing I can think of is that 6 days of work and a day of rest is a very good arrangement for humans, if you try to work 7 days a week you don't last long. From this I thought (though Johnathan did spark the idea off) of a sort of lesson that'd be worth applying to religion. "All through life we go around accepting things, such as how a washing up liquid enzymes work, how a computer works, why those things happen. Sometimes in Religion we don't know the answer and we just have to accept it." After the service we went round to Phoebe's house (it's her Birthday) and had a BBQ. I'd gotten her a massive load of Chocolate (thanks for the suggestion Brierley). The BBQ was very good, though it was a bit chilly. Afterwards we went to the beach and played a single game of Capture the Flag, made some (rather rubbish) human pyramids and generally got very cold. I think that "Stuff" (We've got so many Steve's that I'm calling them nicknames, this one is the new Presedent, name suggested by Lizzie) got frostbite. On the way back from the beach, Steve H drove past beeping his horn loudly, so I sprinted back to the house and beat him back. In the evening we played various games around the table and I suggested my potato idea. The evening service finnished off the story of Esther and had a very biblical message. Part 1 doesn't apply to me in the normal way though part 2 does apply compeltely. 1 - It shows that perseverance will produce victory through God. For me, I'm going to take it as that I need to persevere more often 2 - It shows that we need to be reminded of past events and not forget them. For me, that tells me that I need to think back about where I've done well and done badly, then change my methods to solve the problem. After getting back to my room I didn't do a lot of stuff, mostly WoA and PHP. Well, it's been a long day and I get to have a lie in tomorrow. I've got a cunning plan for tomorrow's CU which'll be lots of fun to write about :) Roses and Potatoes When you give someone a Rose, as far as I can see you're saying the following "Roses are very pretty on the outside, you are very pretty on the outside, it won't last long, but it's what I like about you". Now, a Potato, "This is a Potato, it's full of goodness and will last me a good bit of time. It's what's inside that I care about. I like your personality". For some reason the ladies disagreed with my logic (not sure why), though some of them at least like the idea behind it, still, if I were trying to woo them then they'd rather a rose.