Mac Expo!

Well, I didn't get the Macbook Pro but I will be getting it. On the other hand I've gotten several things, possibly of more worth and both were free! First order of the day was to wake up at 0630, then again at 0730 when phoned by my dad (I'd somehow snoozed off!). I washed and ate (not at the same time) and walked/ran for my train. I got there 5-10 seconds too late, it pulled out just as I got there and I could have touched it (it wasn't even going very fast). So, one half hour wait later and I got on the next train. Thankfully my ticket inspector was a nice guy and didn't mind the ticket being slightly incorrect. I got to London Waterloo and met my Dad and Brecon (youngest Brother for those not familiar with my family). We got some trains and met up with Coel, then went to the Mac Expo. The Mac Expo is basically a Mac Convention/sales location. All the companies that make mac related stuff show it off here and often offer special Expo-only deals. I walked around a little with Coel then on my own. Martin (friend of my Dad) arrived late and I didn't see him much. I talked to some stands about work placement. One of them was really positive about it "We don't normally do it but I think that's just because nobody has come up with the idea as opposed to someone actually saying no to it", they took my email address down and will hopefully contact me. I later went to the Filemaker stand where they were giving a demonstration of how to use their software (along with the chance to win a free copy of it). Filemaker is a database creation package, with it you create a database then an application that will manipulate the database, it's pretty snazzy and the Advanced Pro version is worth £250 ($471). The guy showed us what we'd be making, a Rock, Paper and Scissors game (I learnt how to correctly spell Scissors today, because of this). He led us through what to do, I've never used Filemaker before and managed to spot mistakes the guy was making with his Syntax (The guy is really young and likely hasn't spoken to groups like this before, I doubt he usually makes such simple errors). Better yet, the syntax was not too dissimilar to several programming languages so I was way ahead of the rest of the group. At the end of it they gave out a Standard Pro and Advanced Pro version to the people who made the best program (which didn't actually use a Database at all, it's quite clever). I unsurprisingly won the Advanced version (the guy to my right kept trying to copy what I was doing, sadly I typed faster than even the guy telling us what to do so the guy to my right had no chance at keeping up with me). Better yet, I talked to the guys at the end and have their contact details, they're interested in where I do my placement year. Coel won a copy of Adobe Creative Suite 2 or something, it's worth £750 ($1415) and he thinks he won the free stuff competition. It all depends on where I do my placement, if I do it at one of the companies I met here then I count it as being worth more. I got home safe and sound, went over to Lorna's because she wanted to talk to me about the CU website, apparently some people have complained about the pictures and seeing as I left her name there, they complained to her :D I walked back home, my lightbulb blew as soon as I turned it on (yay, now I have to get a new one), I blogged, WoAed, emailed some people from the MacExpo and went to bed.

More productive than Lectures - Friday

I got up, went to my lecture and took some notes. The next lecture was B201. For those that missed last year, B101 (B201 = B101 for year 2) was a complete and utter waste of our time. B201 really does so far appear to be no different. It was a two hour lecture and when the break arrived, 70% of the class (me included), left. I made very good use of the rest of the hour by sitting down with Chris and planning the Java application. I got the bus home with Chris (The timetable said it was Salem lecturing but it was an hour's wait and to be honest, I've had enough of him for a week). Once home I did some WoA, tried some Java stuff out but it wasn't playing nicely so I gave it up and played Halo 2 with Pete. In the evening I played more Halo, had dinner and wrote some more of my Web Design tutorial stuff. Overall quite a quiet day, nothing big going on. Tomorrow I'm getting up at the crack of dawn (0600 or 0630) to get a train to London for the Mac Expo (and likely getting that new Laptop I wanted).

Oh what fun! - Thursday

Nothing in particular today that was fun, just feeling good in general, though I think it's just normal for me. Firstly I got to have a lie in! My 1100 lab went well, Chris my lab partner is much better than myself at hardware (hence why we partnered up, I'm moderately competent at Java). After the lab I went to Tesco for lunch and then went to get my NUS card. After getting that I went to the Union and found that the guy incharge of student rep stuff was away. I went to see John Geddes who is also going to this meeting thingie I've (well, we've got) on Wednesday. He had some interesting things to say. After that I went to see Ionnais but he wasn't there. Noting the time I dashed for the bus, got there quite on time and then got home quite okay. Once home I alternated between WoA, sleeping and also some Java. The other day we badgered Ionnais about our Java project and he informed us it'd be a Chess game. Here's the kicker, two years ago it was a Chess game, only 3 groups completed it. Why did only three complete it? I reckon it's because we have to handle everything ourselves, I think it'll be fun and I've already started reading ahead :) I played some Halo 2 after dinner (Tesco Value Pot Noodles do not taste nice). Also, after posting on this page of Marcia's Blog I remembered the old cookie story. Well, I say remembered, I doubt I'll ever forget it. Anyhoo, the thing is, I read over it and it was LORNA that suggested I get a Lady. If you were (un)fortunate enough miss the whole Cookie and "getting a Lady" event, the two key days are located here and here. In the evening I carried on some work on my Web Design tutorials. Also, I might be cooking a little more now! Yes, my Uncle sent me a Birthday present entitled "Student Grub" (the post here of late has been terrible, my Train Tickets for Saturday didn't arrive until today!) and contains info on how to cook stuff if you're a student. I've not had a chance to look indepth but I've seen an awful lot in the way of vegitables. However, it does tell you how to do everything and assumes that you have no common sense (so tells you how to whisk eggs). In my case I'm sure I have common sense, I just have no idea how to cook (you ever seen a geek cook stuff?).

I win! - Wednesday

Early morning lecture was nothing special. I noticed today that REALBasic the language that I learnt first took loads of stuff from Java. So to recap, Java has syntax similar to C which I learnt last year, it's also similar to PHP which I do as a hobby. Java works in a way similar to REALBasic which I can still remember really easily and therefore, Java becomes pretty simple for me to understand. After the lecture I got some stuff from Tesco and sat down in the Anglesea building and wrote some more of the database for WoA, currently the name that's winning the vote is "Phil". Yeah, you can tell we're a mature and serious bunch of people. The midday lecture was much much better than the last, infact, it was the best lecture of the day. No, it wasn't cancelled, don't be silly, that'd not make it better than a Java lecture. No, the lecturer is not overly good at explaining himself. Those who were reading last year might recall me not being happy about a certain lecturer in a lab, well, he's lecturing me and made a rather serious mistake on one of his slides. Here's roughly how it went. Lect: And that's the answer to that Chris: How did he do that, I think he made a mistake Me (Mubling to myself): Chris, I think you're right, that's the wrong answer, Gareth, Chris, what'd you get? Gareth: I think he might be wrong Chris: He's wrong Lect: And on this slide we have *insert stuff about Digital Communications here* *I raise my hand* Lect: Yes, what is your question? Me: Could you go back a slide, there's something I really don't understand *Lecturer goes back a slide to what is basically a tree diagram, most of the class sigh because they think I'm being stupid* Me: That there, that's not meant to be "11111", it should be "01111" by my reasoning, how did you get "11111"? Lect: You follow this green line I put on it Me: But that green line is wrong, it can't move there because that's not actually a connection Lect: I have answered your question, onto the next slide *Class mumbles some more, they have noticed I was right* I didn't push it any further because it'd have been rude and maybe the lecturer was impatient to get on with the lecture. Seeing as we finished 5 minutes early I decided to ask again at which point he said "It is up to you to see if there is a mistake, if there is a mistake it's for you to find out." Now, it might just be me but I'm pretty sure he should tell us if his lecture slides contain mistakes, they are something we're meant to use for revision. However, I'm not actually going to take it anywhere as it's quite possibly a one off, I don't think it is but I belive in giving the benefit of the doubt. After this I walked over to Siän and Ceryn's house (no, I did not take any flowers, do I look/sound/read like the sort of person who'd buy flowers?) for the Prayer Meeting. I got there a little early but it was okay, I talked to Siän and Ceryn while drinking Lemonade and eating cookies (all of which I'd brought). Justin, Steve, Jo and Lizzie arrived later. Jo brought a new Lady called Celestia. We had some pringles and cookies along with some tea and did some praying. After the Prayer Lunch I walked Celstia to her halls (she didn't know the way back), Siän was going to the library so came along too. I didn't think that maybe it was a waste of time me going too seeing as Siän could have just walked Celestia back, I like to think that it was because Ladies like following me around but some small voice in my mind tells me otherwise. I got back home and did some Java and WoA stuff. Mostly WoA stuff. I messed around with Xcode a bit more, I looked at how to make a screensaver. I came up with the idea for a screensaver that scrolls lines of computer code across the screen, after a search revealed there wasn't one I looked into how hard it would be to create one. I don't know how to make it yet but I think I have what I need to learn how to. I also got a rather nice email from one of the lecturers about the SSCC meeting we had a while back and the rep for the department. There are 5 departments on this page, each gets a special rep that meets in the next level of SSCC meetings. I was one of three people up for voting, the other two are 3rd year, one Guy, one Lady. I won the vote, why? Well, that's just what happens when you pray for stuff. If God agrees with it, it's going to happen one way or another, take Sunday Night Live for example. Overall, it's been a good day. And yes, I am being careful about what I put up on my blog about the lecturer, due to copyright reasons I'd not be able to show you the slide that was used and I take care not to mention the lecturer by name so only people inside the Uni will know who it is. More importantly, I don't distort the truth or in any way say something false.

Annoying Day - Tuesday

It's more the timetable of today than anything. Up early early early for my 0900 Java lecture. The class is either not paying attention to what the lecturer says, sleepier than last time or just stupider (likely a combination of the first two). Long story short, I answered 70% of the questions myself, the room had approximately 100 students in it. I think it'll be quite interesting to see what happens to most of them when they realise that the basics we are going over really are cruical to what they need to do. After the lecture I went to the library with Luke and we both got a book out on Java. Specifically it's the book that the lecturer recomends and there were only two of them. That's the reward for being proactive and going to the library right after the lecture it's mentioned. Like Chris, Luke is not overly keen on programming but is eager to learn, thus more than making up for a lack of present knowledge, I find it so much nicer talking to people who care. I went home and did some more database stuff for WoA, currently we're thinking of calling the DB "Phil", there's a competition going on but if you're not a registered member you can't vote and at the end I will look to see who voted so as to watch for people trying to cheat the system. Talking about cheating, if I had cheated the Google Ads by clicking them myself I'd still have them, as it was I apparently generated too few clicks and have been removed from the system. So, no more Google Ads, they were not making me a lot of money ($3 on average for the last few days). I went in for the Software Systems lecture and it was okay. Then I went home again. I did some more WoA stuff and went back into Uni for my Digital Electronics lecture, then, right after that was another Software Systems lecture. At the start of it, Tom came up to me and asked if he'd missed anything important, I told him no, then told him to go away. Cruel? Not when you take into account that he constantly asks stupid questions of the lecturer and is not fun to sit next to in a lecture. For instance, in the Software Systems lecture we were told specifically that the system we were looking at would not touch the payroll. Tom suggested things that were payroll based three times. After the lecture I went to Tesco and splashed out nearly no money by buying Tesco value Dolphi... I mean, Tesco Value Tuna. I also got some Tesco value Pot Noodles (they're 30p a pack, so I got one of each of the two flavours I thought I'd like) to see what they're like. Then I noticed that they were selling massive scotched eggs at two for 19p, the only catch being they were a day away from going out of date. On the way back home I met some Lady in the street from Sightsavers, she spent a while talking to me about sightsavers and the amazing stuff they do. I informed her that a student is a bad choice of target as they're actually in debt and not normally up for giving to charities. Sadly, I only realised after it was too late what I should have said...           What I should have said... How long will this take? 5 Minutes? In that case I will give you 5 minutes of my time for you to tell me about Sightsavers if you will give me 5 minutes of your time for me to tell you about the Lord Jesus Christ and how he can save your soul. Once I got back, had dinner and watched some American Dad with my housemates. I then messed around with WoA and PHP. I spent a while getting it to work but I now use a new program to edit PHP files (of which I use a lot of). Apple have their own programming suite called Xcode, it's pretty spiffy but doesn't help with PHP. Well, with a plugin it does. It's what I'll be using to write my Java in (because it's got autocompletion and likely some other helpful features). In other good news, the computer I'm planning on getting just had it's performance power increased by up to 39%, basically I'll be getting more than I first thought, not at all bad! PS. Sorry for the late post, I saved it as a draft by mistake.

Problem solved - Monday

I got into my Java lab quite on time, I completed the first exercise in half an hour or so, the rest of the lab was spent helping Chris and Ryan with their Java. After that I dashed to Tesco and got some sausage rolls for lunch, I also procured a water tight bag large enough for my purposes later. I got back to Uni and endured three hours of Formal Computing, I felt very tired during it. After Formal Computing I stood outside the Union for 25 minutes waiting for Steve H to arrive (okay, I got there 10 minutes early). Just as I started walking home he arrived. We saw some Union staff about getting into the room we were using and then transported our stuff there. I walked home and Steve went to his lecture. I got to the Union just as Steve did, however, I now had the flowers. I used the water tight bag to hold the flowers in water, with a little Duct tape I prevented it from unfurling and it was really quite nice. I placed them in a corner and I'm sure I saw people looking curiously at them. I helped setup sound, all the while keeping an eye out for Siän. She arrived just as we started and I came up with a most cunning plan. Rather than walk up to her with the flowers and cause her to go scarlet red and probably cause people to laugh at her (not what was intended). I would instead walk up to her and ask her if she liked flowers, then tell her that she could get the flowers herself or I could present them to her if she'd rather. What would she choose? The service itself was by Dave Fenton, he was our speaker at the last houseparty and is very good. He covered the subject of worship and how there really is no such thing as a "Time of Worship" as all time is Worship when you're a Christian. After the service I had to hurry to pack up all the stuff because we were on a tight schedule, the whole time the flowers lurked at the back of my mind, waiting for the oppertunity. I got the chance, Is walked up to Siän and took a deep breath (okay, I didn't take the breath but it sounds cool and adds tension if I say I did). Me: Siän, do you like flowers? Siän: I've been warned about that, no, I'm not having them Me: Sure?         Siän goes a little red Siän: I'm sure Me: So, what do you suggest I do with them? Ceryn: Ooh, I'll have them Me: Go for it Ceryn: Hang on, why are they over there in the corner, what have you done to them? Me: I left them there because I knew that if I walked up to Siän holding a bunch of flowers the results might be funny for us, embarrassing for her Ceryn: I'm not sure Me: Fine         I go get the flowers and pass them to Ceryn, there is of course nothing wrong with them Overall I thought it was funny, Siän was apparently not overly impressed but I don't care, it was funny and I enjoyed it. Myself and Steve dropped the sound stuff back at Immanual Church (by now my arms were really aching, Steve is adept at "letting" me carry the heavy stuff) and then went to the Pub. For some odd reason Siän and her housemates (Ceryn included) were not there. I sat around with Sarah, India, Steve H and Lorna. We made some Prank Phone calls, apparently when I put on a high pitched voice it sounds quite normal and nothing like me at all. Andrew Ward the old CU presedent didn't cotton on and neither did Colin. Phil from Eastney however did cotton on, he sent me several texts about it later. Sadly he's not important enough to warrent a return text (I have sent a grand total of 2 that were not along the lines of "Mummy and Daddy, you can pick me up now"). He came up with some witty responses but alas, not during the call. I got a lift back with Steve and ended my day MSNing and Blogging.

I have a problem! - Sunday

I got up, went to Church. Today Jonathan was on Holiday so we had a guest speaker. He didn't have a single point to make but covered the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 (actually more like 20000-25000 because it only counted the men). Overall he mostly talked about God Testing us and Challenging us. He also did a cool one man sketch on the miracle (we were all laughing). After Church we went to the Thatched cottage and after waiting for over an hour, got a table. I hadn't eaten anything for the whole day up until that point. I ate just about all of the half roast chicken (partly to prove Lorna wrong, she said I'd not finnish it) and even ate a little left over ice cream that Steve didn't want (I used my fingers too, though apparently this was a bad idea). After that I went home and did some more of my MySQL WoA Database thing (we're having a competition to name it). I re-did a bit of stuff I did yesterday that wasn't working, the 2nd set of code was not only shorter and easier to read, but it also worked! I went to the evening service with Steve H (we and Chris Brough were the only students there). I am very glad I went because not only did I learn about some stuff I didn't know (Old Testament stuff) but it also Challenged me. The speaker (a different guy from this morning) said about how if Jesus returned, those that truely trusted in him would be taken up. Did we really trust in him? It's certainly made me think. Now onto the commedy! Literally. Sunday Night Live is an Evangelical event that I gave out fliers for on Wednesday (I didn't spy the pole climbing lady there). It was proceeded with some Jaz, then some Comedy from a Christian Comedian. It was incredible, the way that he told stories that were hilariously funny yet also merged seamlessly into Christian challenges. There was some free food and then more from Mark Richie (the comedian). I then had two choices, get a lift home from Steve H or help clean up. One of the things that I then remembered from the morning service was "What does Jesus want you to do?" I'm glad I did what Jesus wanted because it is going to be awesomely funny tomorrow if I get enough votes. Yes, votes, you'll read why in a minute (or less if you skip ahead). I cleaned up a load of stuff and chatted with Huw a bit, there was music playing and he managed to record me dancing to it, he wants to post it on the internet, I'm considering it. Justin talked to us a little, Justin was wearing a badge on a piece of elastic. As a joke Huw pulled it back a little and let it snap back, it got the upper half of Justin's chest and didn't make a noise. Justin, for whatever reason, did it himself. He however managed to hit his throat quite hard. It was most amusing. Now the voting. At the end of it there was a bucket of flowers. I managed to get 21 of them. Here and here are two (only slightly) different pictures of them. Emma saw me with them and said... Emma: You need to give them to a lady Me: Umm, I just took them because they were free and look nice, who would I give them to? Emma: Someone you fancy Me: And who do I fancy? Emma: I don't know, you've not told me Me: Assuming I don't fancy anybody, who do I give them to? Emma: Lizzie? Me: Why? Emma: Because she's a nice person Me: Not only has she already left, but she didn't say goodbye, I think that disqualifies her Emma didn't have a comeback to this, but that's okay because I have a solution. While walking back with Huw I came up with the cunning plan of having blog readers vote for whom I should give them to! So, without further adoo, here is a list of ladies I know that are single. Emma and Marcia, lovely ladies that you are you are not on the list as I doubt they would reach you in time. Anybody that votes for Emma or Marcia should also put down someone on the following list or your vote gets ignored. You must post your name, and if you're not a registered blogspot member, in some way prove who you are if you're from WoA. Brierley (She has got a Boyfriend) Helen (Also has a Boyfriend) Jo (Yep, she's got one too) Sarah (She's the one on the right and is married to the guy on the left) Lizzie (Single, if she's chosen I'll make sure there's someone with a camera incase her response is funny) Sarah (Yeah, she's taken too) Siän (Single, again, I'll have a camera, her reaction would be very funny) Karen (As the picture might imply, Karen is going out with Stew) Ceryn (I think she's taken) Lorna (She's taken, you'll probably remember her from this Lauren (My housemate, she's in one of the later photos, she apparently doesn't like these flowers) You've seen the flowers, now lets see some "action" shots (okay, my housemates thought it'd be funny and I had the camera out). This is Gareth posing as me, holding the flowers, waiting for the right moment. This is what happens when a camera flash goes off in your face. This is what I'll look like giving them to a Lady. If I get lucky, this might be a picture of me and {insert name of Lady in question here} afterwards, I might have to apply copius ammounts of chocolate to cover up the problem of being ugly, I might just manage it! So, you need to vote by whatever time tomorrow I have CU or your vote won't count. I do know where most of the people live and it might be funnier to do it like that, however there's something about doing it infront of 20 - 60 people that just says "funny" like nothing else. To vote, post a comment saying who you vote for, why is an optional extra.