A Full Account - Friday and Saturday

Friday morning dawned bright and early at 7am for me. I was up and on my way to the Prayer meeting nice and early as usual. It was very good and encouraging to see that numbers during the week had lowered by such a small amount that it being a Friday was unlikely to be the cause (more likely to be 9am lectures). Of course, we went for a nice big breakfast (maybe that's why numbers have been so high...) and had fun with quietly putting ketchup packets in Michael's hood. He tried to throw them back, failing to catch on that he was simply re-arming our table. He did catch on and we got on with eating our breakfast (or the remains of other's in some cases :D). I didn't go to my Haskell lab because I'd already talked to the Lecturer about it yesterday and found that I was quite allowed to do it at home when I wasn't going to be missing a nice breakfast. I attended a Java lab earlier in the day rather than later and then went to Gunwharf with Sam. We went to the Cadburys shop and talked about Sam's placement. Afterwards we went to Greg's (where Sam was staying) and watched some True Lies before going to the Lunch Bar and recorded Michael talking again. I've uplaoded the mp3 versions of him talking to this location. They're about 30mb each. Soon there will be some video clips of him speaking but the quality is much lower (so as to get the size down to something reasonable). Huw came over my house and we played a fair bit of Warcraft 3 then went to Burger King and then onto Bar 38 (we got two meals for the price of one at BK because Huw had a coupon). After the cafe night a group of us went to see Hot Fuzz. I'd seen the trailers and it looked good. I've not seen Shaun of the Dead but I'd like to now. Hot Fuzz is basically an Action Movie where everything is taken too far. Sarah noted that it was rather similar to Monty Python and thinking about it, I agree. It was really good and really funny and I really enjoyed seeing it. Today consisted of a massive lie-in and a day of programming some changes to my Database that Colin suggested in my interview on Thursday.

Full Report - Friday

It's 0250 on a Saturday and I'm tired. I will blog tomorrow (well, later today anyway). I am up so late because I went to see Hot Fuzz.

Tired but still a Geek - Thursday

I managed to get out of bed at about 0700 today, hopefully I can make it tomorrow. I'd hate to miss the Prayer Meeting. After the Prayer Meeting I enjoyed breakfast with the CU that managed to turn up (acutally, attendance is still pretty good, most of us were expecting it to fall as the week went by). After the breakfast I went to my Group Project lecture, nothing amazingly blog-worthy there. After the lecture my group had a group meeting, I was the odd one out as I had a shirt and tie on (for my interview later) and so had some jokes made at my expense, I clearly didn't care. We sorted out a load of things for the project such as what each of us were to do first. I am in-charge of creating a system that sends semi-random test data to the system we create. After the meeting we had Software Systems where I was going to invite people via yelling. Well, bad news is I didn't. Yeah, I know what you're likely thinking, "Ha, now he's just proved that Prayer doesn't work!". Not quite, I've just proved that it doesn't always have the effect you expect, it occours to me that yelling might not have been the best idea. After the lecture was of coruse the Lunch Bar, I knew that today would be popular as it was on the subject of Science and "Doesn't it disprove God?". Michael spoke very well and answered their questions with great tact and clarity. I've recorded the thing and want to see what I can do about putting it on the internet. Afterwards was my job interview. Thanks to all those that prayed for me (apparently one guy got his entire Church to pray!). The interview went really well, it was an hour long (well, just under) and consisted of Colin (the Gentleman interviewing me) asking me about my experiance of programming, me having to figure out what two pages of code did and then me explaining some of the code printouts I'd brought. I then asked Colin a load of questions about some of the things that His company has done. This evening was the CU Pub Quiz in Bar 38. Steve H and myself took some sound equipment along and then discovered that the food was stupidly expensive, we're talking £3 for a bowl of soup. So, we went to Burger King, I got a large meal for £4.50 and was very happy. My team didn't win the quiz but I had fun and spent a lot of time talking to Huw about WoA.

Not Temptation! - Wednesday

I got up and shortly after that, collected India. We then collected Siän and woke Ceryn up. At the time I thought she was just being a little lazy but I now know that her cold is slightly more severe than I thought and realise it was a mistake. Sorry Ceryn. We collected Helen and went on our way to the Prayer Meeting, joining up with Pete, Sarah, Brierley, Becca and Luke on the way. It was a good Prayer Meeting and afterwards I had the tough choice of Java Lecture or English Breakfast. Java Lecture, English Breakfast. So, I went and had a nice breakfast (it also meant I didn't miss the last part of the Prayer Meeting) and had a good time talking about various things. Afterwards myself and Sam went to Anglesea and he spoke to a couple of people and I found that the Student Website thing is starting very soon and that I'll have an email shortly. That's good news. It got better. AMT Data Technologies phoned, they want to interview me. I didn't arrange it then, I sorted it out later today but I'm going for my interview tomorrow (or "today" as you read this in all likelihood). All Prayer is appreciated. Sam needed to get some cards for some birthdays and I needed some food so we walked to Tesco and Card Shops. Sam has been on placement so I've not seen him and it was really nice to catch up with him. However, the winds were so strong that my Umbrella broke. I bought a new one for £5 because I think I will actually use it and this time plan to take more care in higher winds. I'm going to call it Durandal. Sam and myself returned to the Union where I showed off my new computer, we watched some trailers, some True Lies and enjoyed a pint of coke. We tried to do some flyering but Sam is not gifted in that area, anybody he tried to give a flier to moved away as fast as they could. I had some success but the real winner was Siän. Not only could she give out fliers faster than I could hope to, she was also amazingly good at getting people to sit down and do a questionnaire. I filmed the talk and will be uploading it to the net sometime within the coming week. After the talk I walked home, sorted some stuff about my interview out and then began cleaning up my code. I was asked to bring some of my code to the interview and after being told that some paper print-outs would be a good idea, I did some maths. A generic page of code was 12KB in size, it took up 3 pages of paper. Phil the Database is 788KB in size and so equivalent to 65 of these pages or 195 pages of A4 paper. The main site (over 130 actual web pages) is 2600KB in size, otherwise stated as 216 times the size of this other file (some of the pages are pretty long) or 648 pages of paper in length. With that in mind I went through 4 of my files and added in comments, cleaned out unneeded code and generally made it look a bit better. I then printed them out (complete with colour coded syntax) and have them in a plastic sleeve. I also put a copy of the WoA site onto my USB stick (minus the file that contains the Database password) which might come in handy if they would like to see some of my work on their own system. I will of course take my computer but only because it's a good backup and I can show them the code at work on it. After doing this I did some more stuff on the Web Pages (standard pages I'm not planning on showing off, they're a bit standard and nothing special) and then went to bed. Tomorrow I hope to advertise the Lunch Bar in the Software Systems lecture, prayers that I would be confident are welcome (as are any about the Interview but the Lunch Bar thing comes first).

I'm more awake than you are! - Tuesday

I got up between 0615 and 0630, washed and used the internet. I began the Prayer Crawl at around 0730. First stop would be India's but she was apparently tired, she'd texted me the night before but hasn't texted me tonight so I'll be round there tomorrow at the crack of dawn to see if she's up. Shortly afterwards I was on st Andrews road on the way to Siän and Ceryn's. Michael had only just gotten up and so had to walk alone, he said he likes to walk alone in the mornings so won't be part of tomorrow's crawl. Siän was almost ready but was then offered a lift so accepted it. Helen was in and so the two of us formed the sum total of the crawl on the way there. It was kind of useful that there were just the two of us as it was raining and my umbrella can only cover so many people. Becca and Luke were up and we met them on the way. There were not quite as many people at the Prayer Meeting as yesterday but it was still good, we even had a bigger room. I decided to not go to Salem's lecture (and it turns out that like last week, it was only half an hour long) and instead went to the breakfast thing. After that I went into uni and met with Chris and Gareth (who were not overly glad that they actually went to Salem's lecture) and did some stuff for the Group Project. Several times Michael had suggested we tell entire lectures about the Lunch Bar. You know me, I never have a problem with confidence do I? Well, for once I did. I don't know why but in the last 5 seconds I was simply unable to yell to an entire lecture that there was a Free Lunch and a Free Talk on "Doesn't all Religion lead to war?". In case you don't believe my earlier claim, at the start of a lecture yesterday, myself and Gareth were doing a two-man Mexican wave and laughing about it, whenever Victor (the lecturer) mentioned a mexican wave we did another one. I reckon some people thought we were stupid. I walk around with an Umbrella sheathed across my back like a sword because it's practical, apparently it makes me look weird but I don't care. If I see friends in the street and I want to get their attention, I am quite happy to yell loudly to get their attention, I grab as much free-stuff as possible and I don't hide it either. I listen to Game Background Music and tell people I do. I had a spate last year of offering cookies to people (mostly ladies), I got 24 fairly obvious flowers and tried to give them to a Siän simply because readers of this blog voted her, she didn't want them so I gave them to Ceryn. If you've met me personally, no doubt you can think of more. So, why on Earth would I flinch at doing something that might make me look silly, also, why would I balk at the opportunity to make a LOT of noise in a lecture theater? No doubt you've heard of Christians talking about the Devil, this Satan guy. Well, he does exist and he does try to do stuff. Here are a few of the things that the Bible claims he does. - Dishearten followers of Christ - Blind the hearts and minds of those that do not follow Christ so they cannot see the truth - Help us commit Sin Now, I've never had a great feeling of spirituality. I've never ever felt as though the Devil were crouching at my door. I still don't, which is further proof that my emotions cannot be trusted. Logically this is the only reason I can think of that meant I would not yell about the Lunch Bar. So, how on Earth am I meant to defeat this Devil guy and holler in all the lectures I want? Well, lets suppose you were me, the army equivalent is soldier with a stick, also, that stick is broken. Well, that's a bad start but lets look at the opposition. I think that the Devil would be well represented by a guy in full camo-gear hiding in a forest with a sniper rifle. Yeah, that soldier isn't going to be doing so well all on his own is he? Behold the Armour of God. Yes, I do literally mean the Armour of God, if you don't believe me, it's in the Bible. So, what is the Armour of God? Well, I'd say it's something like a Tank. The Devil can do everything he likes against it but he'll have no effect. In the end, all the Devil can do is run and hide or be crushed. So, how do I put on the Armour of God? You might have noticed that most shops don't sell Tanks or anything called "The Armour of God" (actually, I once saw this site about Armour of God Pajamas, it was atrocious). To get the Armour of God you need to pray. I am a firm believer that Prayer Works and would appreciate anybody praying for me. You don't even have to be a Christian to Pray, Prayer is simply you talking to God. I believe that with enough prayer, I can stand up in one of my lectures and tell people about the Lunch Bar. Looking at my timetable I see that the Software Systems lecture on Thursday is well suited for it as it's just before the Lunch Bar. The rest of the day was totally naff unless you like hearing about PHP and MySQL programming.

Stiff upper lip? No, more like stiff upper neck - Monday

Only the second half of the name has any relevance whatsoever, and why so, well, you'll find out soon enough. Last night I faced a problem, I had to be out of bed in time to arrive at an 8am prayer meeting, we're talking an 0700 start here, this is a serious challenge to any true student. Now, assuming I went to bed right after blogging, I knew that I would stand a far better chance of getting up in time, yet, I knew that at the same time I hadn't read the Bible and Prayed, yes, I am aware that you don't have to but I enjoy it, it helps me learn more about God and how I should live my life. I being a logical person soon came up with a logical conclusion. God wants me to attend the Prayer Meeting (well, it's assumed so anyway) and wants me to learn more about Him (again, assumed). So, therefore, if He really wants both, He will happily help me if I make a sacrifice for Him. I decided "If God really wants me at the Prayer Meeting, he will ensure I am up in time for it, even if I read the Bible and go to bed somewhat later". I set my alarm to possibly wake me quietly at 0600 (assuming I was in a phase of light sleep) and hopefully wake me at 0700 and definitely wake me at 0715. I read the Bible and Prayed, then tried to get to sleep. At about 6am I woke up, at 0610 I got out of bed and within ten more minutes was wide awake and ready to go. Y'see, when God wants to help you, He goes the whole way. Not only was I able to have a relaxing shower and suchlike, but also catch up on the WoA stuff I missed last night by logging off the net early. I then started the Prayer Crawl. I collected India, then Siän and Ceryn, then Helen, Abi and Stephanie. On the way we met Sarah, Brierley and Pete then Becca and Luke. It was great. Better yet, when I met people they were tired, within ten minutes of meeting me, they were awake. The Prayer Meeting was good, it enthused us all and afterwards we went to have a breakfast at Weatherspoons. For £2 I had a pretty nice English Breakfast, better yet, we're doing this every day of the week! So, God had blessed me with a short but restive night sleep and a nice breakfast, surely I wasn't going to get much more, for a start I wasn't even asking for anything in particular. Well, no, God is gracious and loving. I attended my Digital Electronics lecture and didn't understand vast amounts of it. Hypothetically you were me, you have an hour break, then an hour of Formal Computing, then an hour of Digital (again) and then a Formal Computing Test. Would you give out fliers for a Lunch Bar thing you would not even be attending or would you do a little revision, bearing in mind said test counts towards 20% of your Formal Computing final mark. Well, Jo of all people thought I should be revising, yes, Jo who has a whole two hours of lectures a week and studies art. Lets face it, art, you draw pictures, why is she trying to give me academic advice? Okay, to be fair, Jo does a lot of work and probably tries harder than me, art is just a really easy subject to mock. So, after ignoring Jo's advice to go study I gave out fliers, then went to my lectures. Lets do some Maths on the possible test results for a minute shall we?       20% - Half Pass Mark, 4% of the Final Mark, Not very good at all       40% - Pass Mark, 8% of the Final Mark, Acceptable       60% - A 2:1 - 2:2 borderline, not too bad       70% - A first, very nice and I would love one So, where along there did I land? Go on, make a guess THEN read on Tell you what, I'll first tell you why I have a bad neck It's because I danced, yeah, now you're really curious huh? I got 15 out of 15. Yes, I got 100%. If I do this well next test then I am assured of passing the unit as I will have 40% overall after just two tests. As you can well imagine, I was mildly happy with this turn of events and feel I should be giving out fliers more often, heck, I might even manage to pluck up the courage to invite an entire lecture to the Lunch Bar thing we run, currently I don't feel up to it. This evening I did some programming and then went to the Band Night. The music was very very loud and a load of us danced without being drunk, we had a great time. I didn't get a chance to talk to the band because I left early, because of my neck. Now, why would I get a bad neck from dancing? Well, as clearly shown here and here, I am "blessed" with a long neck, just like say, a Giraffe. Now add to the fact that I'd had two pints of coke (i.e. a lot of sugar) and was slightly tired, you can imagine that I might be somewhat hyperactive. Well, more Hyperactive. Basic physics tells you that when I "rave" or "headbang", my long neck means that my head applies more force to my shoulders and lower neck. Getting the idea yet?

Full to bursting point - Sunday

I got up, got to Siän's house and walked her to Church. Becca was at home this weekend and Ceryn was "ill". Yeah, "ill". The morning service was about how to be a Christian is to be a stranger to this fallen world and was interesting but I didn't find a specific point (or points) to come away with except that I should expect to be treated like an outsider when I make people aware that I am a Christian. For Lunch we went to the Thatched House where I had a Roast Dinner, or at least, most of one. Afterwards I went home and did some work on Phil the database, another bug had been found. The more bugs found now the better. Also, I recently viewed some pages on the Apple Standard of Coding and decided that it did make the code more readable. Now I have started to use this, the stuff I wrote so long ago is much harder to understand, it's amazing how much of a difference a month or two of not looking at some code can make in understanding it. In the evening I walked Siän to Church, Ceryn was again "ill". Apparently she was too tired to walk to church, well, that to me was a challenge and so I said that I could solve the problem. I offered to carry her. For some reason that too was turned down, yeah, strange I know. The evening service was on the book of proverbs and it was incredible how much information Jonathan could pull out of the first seven verses. After church myself and Siän went to Immanuel church for a pre-mission week CU meeting. Just before we went something happened which Siän really doesn't want me to blog so I won't blog it today. I know that she doesn't normally read the blog on weekday so I'll wait till sometime this week... Ceryn was at Immanuel so I made a big deal about her being healed. I thought it was funny and I think Ceryn appreciated the humour but was too "ill" to laugh. After the talk I went home, blogged and went to bed. I have an early morning tomorrow, there's a prayer meeting from 0800 - 0900, yes, 8 in morning.

Rugby - Saturday

I got up after a lie in, played some Warcraft 3 and did some programming for Phil the Database. There were a few bugs but they were easy enough to fix. The main event of the day was the Rugby over Ceryn's house. We watched all three of the Six Nations games. Myself, Ceryn, Graham and Siän were not happy at the outcome of the Wales game. I had a great day and lots of fun, I even did the washing up. Ceryn stuck a load of amusing photos on Facebook.