Where did the day go? - Friday

Up and about nice and late, managed to have breakfast by 1030 or so. After doing random Computer based things I went into town on a bus to get some bread and a package from the Royal Mail place (someone didn't pay enough postage). Due to some sprinting on my part I managed to get the same bus back, wow, I'm getting fast. Getting back I laughed at some of the stuff in the Private Eyes and started work on some stuff. I've done most of the ECE KTG website thing, just gotta alter the layout slightly and copy+paste a couple of pages in. I'm several levels ahead in Marathon and that's about it for "before dinner". During dinner we talked about next week. It should be interesting. Sam is going home and so Duane and I have agreed that whatever we were going to do to Sam, we'll do to Jack. I think it's probably good that Duane and I are not going to do stupid stuff to each other, I can see it getting out of hand quite fast (Duane's got some very good ideas). Sam also said that he's immune to any kind of fooling, that was the wrong thing to say to Duane and Myself. Notice that he for one forgot to mention the word April at the start of that statment. There's only one problem, I won't be meeting anybody from the CU on the Saturday so can't play all those excellent jokes I was planning... The evening was spent writing a massive tutorial for WoA, playing a very little Marathon and doing a small number of Push Ups. Pranks What is the best prank you have ever played on someone. Actually, make that pranks, I'm sure that most of the people reading this have no stories to tell whatsoever...

Bigots - Thursday

Up early for my 0900 lab. By the end of the lab we had just about all our main hardware sorted out which is really good. David and myself are doing it differently because we can get more marks like this. Rick says that "You just have to be different". He's a laugh that Rick... I went to get a Mothers day card sorted then got the bus back. Between slacking, Marathon (Level 11 or so) and of course WoA I didn't get an awful lot of stuff done. I did however look at the bike. It's had a flat tire for a long time now and I don't know why (beyond having a puncture). The problem is that it's a really slow puncture, however the edge of the back outer-tube is sort of split so I think that's got a large part of the blame that's going somewhere. That said, it's possible to cycle on it. It's just not comfortable going over bumps, the rest of the way the wheel turns fast enough that it doesn't need to be pumped up again. I also gave the bike a really really good clean. I cycled in for the C lab, normally I'd have gotten the bus, however, Brierley was ill yesterday and so I figured I'd not be walking her home, the bike would be a big time saver. The C lab was okay, we still need to sort out exactly what I'm writing. My current idea is that they send me the code and I write an analysis of it, I'm good at that. At the end of the lab after almost everybody had gone I just spent time talking to the research student Matt about computers. On the way out of the building I was wearing my "flash and go" jacket while walking next to Nick Savage. He didn't even comment on it which I was surprised about. I got to Christianity Explored (CE) nice and early. The only company I had for a while was Lizzie and she wasn't very talkative and asked me not to try to embaress her (despite the room being otherwise devoid of people). So I played Quake. When Sam got there he played Quake, he got very involved in it very very fast. So far all of Christianity is fitting together in a completely logical and provable way. Currently there's a high chance of me becomming a Christian. The strange thing however is that I understand it all, I have faith in it all but I don't feel any different. Brierley did turn up (despite being ill) and so my plan sort of flopped. CE finnished in time for Brierley, Lizzie and Greg to get the bus, I spent the time keeping up with it for most of the way before a combination of the semi-flat tyre, cold air and dodgy front brakes (they were sticking) forced me to actually stop and have a break (i've started coughing as it is). Once I got back I chatted to Sarah, Brierley and Sarah's floormate called Amanda. Sarah was doing some funny jig half the time. Amanda said "She's cold and got wobbly knees because she's in love". I'll say no more on that... I've also started looking at a game similar to WoA called Nationalism. I've discovered that half the players from from WoA, so it should be a good laugh if I decide to stay. Bigots If think that's the term I'm looking for. Forget any kind of bias I've got against drunk people, that's nothing compared to what I think of people that insult you or your friends and their ideas, then don't back it up with any proof and prove impervious to any kind of debate. As the person competely ignored almost all my questions and just droned on I was forced to ignore him. In retrospect I've now blocked him.

Nothing amazing - Wednessday

Yet again, I got to bed at about 0200. This however was because I was disscussing Christianity with AJ and then later, with a lady in Bath Uni. It was quite an interesting discussion but bed called and so I had to stop conversing after a while. I got up a little later than yesterday, but not by a huge ammount. I got in awake and attentive for my 0900 Internet Apps lecture. Sadly it was going over stuff that I did in A Level about Databases. Very useful for those that didn't know it, but not so useful for me. Misha's lecture went right over my head (again). After the lecture we went to see David Ndzl. Gareth and Chris came along and they're going to join in. It's looking good so far. After that I met up with Sam, Richard and Philip (their housemate) and we went to 'stores'. It sells used Uni computer stuff. They've got loads of G3's there (300mhz ones) and buckets of other very old stuff. Richard walked away with a new printer for £5. Sam and Richard are going back after easter because ISO will be getting rid of their old servers. Another Sam and a guy called Ed from the CU also arrived and Sam gave me a lift back to Sam, Richard and Philip's house. From there I walked to Langstone. I got back to langstone and played Marathon until dinner (there wasn't long). After dinner I made a start on some WoA stuff that I would have liked to have done earlier this week as it affects the players a fair bit. Later I went and got free food from the refectory. Two chickein legs, free. I'm going to try to think of something to get the refectory staff to say "thank you" for all the free food I get and because they do a good job. Hall Group was quite good, we side-tracked a lot, but they were fairly breif. Importantly however Lawrence came up with a solution to my dilema. Lawrence and Sarah are getting married later this year, on the 17th of June. This is after I have to leave Halls (by about a week) and therefore I'd either have to miss it or have a massive train journey down and back. Lawrence suggested that I find someone who's in a house and staying here for a while and ask if I can lodge with them for a week. Assuming I can find someone, the only forseeable problem is that I'll have to transport a lot of stuff from my room to this other house, it'll just have to take several trips. Lawrence did offer that if he and Sarah found a flat (they're going to try to stay in Portsmouth) that I could kip on the couch for a week. The problem is that I'd not be able to get back to the flat after the wedding as they'll be on their Honeymoon. What this also means is that I'll be taking my massive bag with me to the station to bring back anything I don't need (less to carry later), just gotta make sure it's not too heavy or I'll miss the train and that's not good. Sarah and... Sarah (not the one getting married) made a rather large mistake about an hour ago. She joked that she was going out with someone (there was a name but I've omitted it). Then she said she was joking. Rather than "admit defeat" I proved impervious to her "truth telling" and insisted that I should make a blog mention about it. I've only mentioned this because I had nothing else to put here and because Sarah needs to know that I think it's a joke. Don't want her worrying too much.

I'm tired - Tuesday

I got to sleep at about 0200 this morning. Under normal circumstances this would be a bad thing, I have 0900 starts most of the time. Today was sadly a normal day. I knew that I'd have trouble being awake so I set my alarm for 0650 and then moved all volume controls well out of the way of my bed. As a second thought I also got lots of stuff ready for when I got out of bed, such as clean clothes. That was a the plan. At 0700 I was trying to work out why very hot water doesn't wake you up instantly after only 5 hours sleep. After getting dressed I had a short kip, to ensure I didn't actually fall asleep I sat in the most uncomfortable position I could. It worked and by the time I turned up for my 0900 math lecture I was very very awake. If you look back three or four weeks you'll find that I actually missed a math lecture because I was so tired. The strange thing is that I've had less sleep this time. From this survey I draw the conclusion that getting up early is a good idea if you've got an early start. Otherwise just waking up early is enough. Maths in two weeks time will be worrying, we have advanced Trigonometric Integration, yay. After the maths I sat down and talked to Brian Dyer about REALBasic. He teaches foundation year students basic programming languages to give them an idea of what it's all about. He needed something that was able to do lots and easy to write. It turns out that REALBasic is acutally too powerful and simple, it'll not teach much. The Computing lecture was nothing special, though seeing Tom walk in 15 minutes late and then realise he had to walk ALL the way to the other side of the room for a seat made me smile. I know that it's not nice to smile at that, but to be honest, I'm not that fussed. He knew we had a lecture, it was at 1100 so he had plenty of time and he's late to almost every lecture I see him in. Anyway, enough about Tom. I spent the next hour mostly playing Marathon in-between trying to see if David Ndzl was in his office (he wasn't). B122 was a little boring. About halfway through the lecture my lack of sleep decided that because I was bored it'd tell me to shut my eyes. I managed to keep the eyes open, but alas, my brain became fogged and I didn't manage to get good notes. Feeling as I was an understanding none of the maths while awake I decided to go home early. On the way to the bus I saw David Ndzl and so spent a while talking to him instead. We actually talked for an hour, mostly about his plans for the ECE KTG and how it'll help students. After getting back I played (yet more) Marathon and did the standard WoA stuff. It's hotting up and the conclusion round is soon. Some people from my course have said they'd like to have a team next game. Unfortunatly they've failed to take heed of the fact that they have to have experiance of the game before they're allowed to start a team (we've got lots of people wanting to start teams) and decided not to start playing about a month ago when I suggested it. Ah well. I spent the evening getting onto the fourth level of Marathon Infinity (though I did bump the difficulty down on the second level from "Total Carnage"). I also carried on with the website for the ECE KTG thing. We're meeting tomorrow (Gareth and Chris are comming too which'll be good for them) and David Ndzl said that I should have stuff by the end of the week to show the person. I Figured that tomorrow is a good choice. Coaches The 0830 bus drops me off at the stop I like at around 0850. Today at 0855 we were stuck in a traffic jam a good distance away (and so all got off early) because a coach was blocking a lane in the road. I can accept that it may have been broken down (if it wasn't I think people would have been annoyed) but there was a side road just meters from it and the driver wasn't even trying to get someone to tow the coach a little way for him. I emailed the company and they're going to talk to the driver. Yeah, I realise that this isn't of staggering interest to most people, but if you word emails the correct way, companies listen.

Psychological vs Physical - Monday

I did not have to go in for the morning, but I did because I wanted to revise for an assessed lab. I spent the bus ride talking to Lawrence about Halo and a little Marathon, it was quite interesting. I found some other people who were revising for the lab and joined them, it was looking a little worrysome. Before the lab we had a lecture from Victor. The first half was about planning and organisation, the second half about how we're having it easy compared to last year and having to do less of it in something that's completely new to use (called VHDL). After the lecture I attended the lab. The first part was a multiple choice test of 8 questions, I got 5 of them correct which isn't too bad, it's better the 55% I got for the labs in the previous semester and it's much harder. Then onto the actual questions. They were hard and all about stuff that doesn't come naturally to me. Then, we had something I was good at, the questions everyone else found impossible I found easy once it was pointed out what we had to do (I missunderstood the question for 15 minutes). Suffice to say that the 3 marks I lost in the pre-lab test were the only marks that I lost and I've got a mark of 85% for that lab, excellent. The research student went around marking people as they finnished. There were a pair of guys that finnished before me, but got marked afterwards. Nobody could come up with a reason why, I'm remaining with it being becacuse of my dashing good looks and sheer attractiveness. I'm sure you're all nodding your heads in agreement, right? Aaron had driven in, and because there was a good 10 minutes until the bus arrived I figured it'd be faster to get a lift with him. Owing to traffic we actually got back over 20 minutes after the bus. Still, we had good fun glaring at a lady that kept edging forwards towards the side of the car, despite the fact that we were not moving. The funniest part was when the front of her car went over the edge of a bump and she looked mortified that she might have hit the car. Dinner was an excellent stake and kideney pie. After dinner myself, Brierley, Gareth and Graham went to the CU. At the CU I meant to ask a question that I'll save for in person and also to ask some people their testimonies. Instead I was sidetracked by a game of Chess against Siän (with a little help from Graham). I managed to lose both games. I also found that responding in completely the opposite way to be expected is great fun when someone insults you. Lizzie managed to call myself, Sam and Gareth "geeks" in an offensive way when we were all just across the table from her. Normally my response in that situation would have involved the pack of peanuts I had, balistic skills and Lizzie being a (possibly moving) target. Instead today I decided on a new track. I waited for her to say something else, I can't remeber the complete context, but it was to do with CRTs "doing eyes in". I said "You know what my eyes like?" while looking at her in a very "flirty" manner and raising my eyebrows suggestively. She went bright red and sat down the other end of the pub. However, the excellent tale of laughter and mild humiliation does not end there. Lizzie made the mistake of leaving her coat at the table. I decided as a laugh to wear it and see how long it'd take for her to notice. About 5 minutes later she came and sat down near us again, though not in direct line of sight to me. A whole 10 minutes later she still hadn't noticed. Someone dropped some chocolate on the floor and seeing as nobody else would even touch it I grabbed it and ate it. Lizzie then noticed the coat and leapt up in shock and horror. What Lizzie at the time did not know is that as a practical joke I'd written a "love poem" and hidden it in the pocket. The idea being that in a week she'd find it and be completely and utterly confused. However, Sam Groves, the one who suggested the idea in the first place told Lizzie as he left and she noticed it (going bright red again). Overall I feel that psychological 'violence' is much funnier than the physical type. For some reason none of the ladies would accept being walked home by anyone (not just me). In the end we had to force them to accept it. It's really worrying that the ladies would walk home alone as one of them (she's now happy to get walked home) was almost kidnapped recently. Apparently it's because the ladies do want to be walked home, they just don't want to impose on us. That's good for me because it means that rather than faffing about and asking pointless questions stuff gets done (I'm not a fan of faffing about). Why? While the CU stood around outside the Union after the meeting but before the pub Chris and Adam from my coruse (sort of) and also members of the Rugby social came up and said hi. Here the difference between the two groups became apparent (though there were just two of them). The rugby group go to get drunk and the CU go to socialise and have a good time enjoying each other's company (maybe less so when they find out what I'm like). The question that bugs me is this, "Are the lives of these students so bad that they need to drink to enjoy themselves?". I can't see why. I'd like to point out that I have nothing against alcohol, personally I dislike the taste but I've nothing against it. What I have got something against is people that go to get drunk out of their minds and do stupid stuff. And yes, I'm well aware that lots of people reading this are students.

A sunny day - Sunday

I was going to get up at 0900 so I could grab a slow breakfast (plus wash) and also do things such as check mail. However my body decided that because it'd woken up at 0600 it didn't want me to realise the time, luckily I got out of bed in time to actually go to church. The morning service was about the temptations that Jesus went through. The point I've picked out of the service is that in today's culture we depict the devil as an almost mischievous creature, when in reality it should be somewhat more serious. After the service I stood around and chatted to people for a while. Mathew very kindly gave me a biscuit that he'd made in the sunday school, this was because I made him the othello game and I thought it was really rather nice of him to do that. Myself, Joe (I've just thought, it's a lady, should it be written as Jo?), Siän, Brierley, Steve (now called Stuffedpig as a nickname...), Andy Ward and Andrew (I don't know his surname) went to the pub for a meal. After a 40 minute wait to get in (it was busy) we had to wait maybe 15 minutes for the food. It was excellent though a little pricey by my standards (I probably verge on the stingy side). We stayed for a long time and I had a nice time talking to Siän and Jo(e). After the lunch we sat in Brierley's room (I'd have offered mine but it's probably not a good idea) and chatted about things. I supplied Chocolate :) The Evening service was about Church leadership and I'm not really able to comment on it at all so I won't try. It was in no way however boring. After the service Brierley and myself walked back to langstone whereupon I went to my room, checked WoA, blogged and went to bed. Apologies I apologise for yesterdays blog. I should have thought before writing the clearly offensive and insulting comments. It is yet another reminder to me that I'm far from perfect and need to think of HWFIP more often. To Anonymous, whoever you really are, sorry for the offense caused.

I feel like a professional - Saturday

I awoke at 0810, but managed to not realise time goes fast when you're meant to get up. Long story short, I started doing results half an hour later than usual. Today it wasn't too bad and the results were done in good time. I was going to have gone jogging with Brierley at 0800 but she was out all last night and wasn't really up for it (she'd phoned me the night before). Hence the excellent lie in. I ate both the remaining cumberland sausages, that combined with the massive fry-up I had this morning means that I must have eaten enough for tomorrow as well, maybe I should go hungry? During the two short breaks that I had in results I got onto the final level of Marathon 2. Played though it on the hardest difficulty (though I did skip one level that had a bug in it). I spent the evening talking to a lady about my potato theory, sarcasm and also wooing people. Now, as I clearly haven't got enough stuff today for a real blog, I thought I'd make it more about someone else. Queue "Anonymous". This person appears to have a problem, specifically he can't just accept that he's better than me. No, Anonymous has to go and prove that he's better than me with well thought out and backed up arguments such as "I dont think anyone would consider me a geek dude". Yes ladies and gentlemen, this person is an amzing debater. For more information on his message, go here. That however is not all. He is in fact so much better than me that when writing messages for me he does not have to use correct grammar. Yes, I refer to his well constructed line "You are a geek nothing particualry wrong in it. but you are". As a low-life like myself I would have placed a comma after the 'are a geek' and replaced the full-stop with a comma. I would also, in my complete and utter lack of English language ability have replced 'but you are' with 'you just are' as that would in no way be an easier read. However folks, that's not all, there's a third thing that he completey surpasses me on. The ability to understand Time! Yes, Anonymous is acutally living at a different speed to me. I draw this staggering conclusion from his line "Hence why you get old realll fast." As it was a comparisson it must mean that I get older, faster. So, he has either found out how to control time or managed to find the elixir of life! So, ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Anonymous. Before someone as stupid as Anonymous is inteligent points out that I'm being sarcastic, I'm not. I mean every single word of the above three paragraphs. My advice to you would be to accept that Anonymous is just better than me and, quite possibly, all of us. Why do I feel professional? Because for the ECE KTG project I've got one big folder with three smaller folders in it, several sheets of important looking paper and some sketches. For some reason shuffling through it makes me feel "cool", "hip", "professional" and sometimes "hyper-active" all at the same time.