Cleaning Effort

I got up somewhat later than would be optimum, but, I was well reseted. I did some work on the database (going to be called Daan) and then decided that since I could no longer see the floor, tidying up might be a good idea. I made sure to take regular breaks (otherwise I might strain myself) and then decided that if I was going to clean the floor, I might as well rearrange the furniture to suit my new requirements. The chest of draws was moved next to my desk and my speaker tower placed on it. The main computer desk was also rearranged, now the area directly behind the computer is free from clutter and the speakers themselves went there, this somehow provides a nicer sound. I even took pictures! As can be clearly seen, I now have enough room to do some pushups and sit-ups, I've noticed my stomach is no longer quite as trim as it was a year ago. I'm probably eating less but snacking more. Though I'd have thought I was doing more exercise, either way, some sit-ups and pushups might be good for me, then again, maybe they'll kill me? There is a mug on my desk, a glass, a bottle and next to the desk another bottle. The mug was holding some tea until I drank all the tea, it was very nice. The glass is holding water, one of the several pints I have had today. The small blue bottle holds water which I use to wash my hands. If I use the computer a lot, especially while gaming, I find my hands get greasy and thus a quick squirt of water will solve the immediate problem. The bottle on the floor is one which holds water, I normally place it by my bed while I'm sleeping incase I get thirsty at night. Over half the books in the corner are programming related. The other half is a mix of Dale Carnegie books and books related to Christianity. The laptop is propped up on two printer cartridge cases, I find it helps to keep it cool. The mint imperials from Asda are very nice and only 30p a pack! I would have included a picture of me performing a pushup, however, as soon as I let go of the camera it fell to the floor and smashed into lots of little pieces. Luckily with my amazing skills I was able to put it back together again and repeat the mistake (hey, I wanted to make sure it wasn't a fluke!)

More PHP

Most of today consisted of making a PHP program, one for WoA. It's coming along really well and I hope to have the 2nd of 3 stages working tomorrow. Still no word on my placement. Tomorrow should be somewhat more interesting, I'll think of a reason why tomorrow.

Group Project

Well, it went a lot better than I thought it would. I was one of the most smartly dressed (Hassan told us it might get us more marks) and so that was good. Hassan took into account that Tom was in our group and also ruined our group. I don't think we failed. Afterwards I went to my last lecture of the day, then home! I got back and decided I'd like some lunch, I decided that with my newfound wealth (I got a pittance for some of the websites I'd done, technically this means I am a professional web programmer) I decided I'd like to have some nicer bread. You know, the long sticks of bread, it's really nice. So, I strolled down to the Co-op to get some and also some sausage rolls for later. Alas, they had no sausage rolls and were charging £1 for a couple of tiddly sticks. Well, I just carried on up the road to Asda. Granted, it turned a 3 minute shopping run into something more like 20 or 30 minutes, but it was a nice warm day, I was wearing shorts and had my trendy sunglasses on, as shown around this paragraph. Said glasses were £2 and are really good, they pass the "Teifion test" for sturdiness. They also block out only the glare of the sun, so I can see clearly with them even in a low light setting! If I'd bought the Sausage rolls and a full sized stick of bread from the Co-op, it'd have cost about £2.50. For £4.50 from Asda I got a huge stick of bread, a lettuce, 3 packs of dipping crisps, some mild salsa dip, 2 litres of lemonade and 4 good packs of Custard Creams. In warcraft 3, the most annyoing thing is not losing, no, it's leavers. People that leave a game just as it's getting good, usually because they are not winning as well as they'd hoped. PC users have a program available for free that allows them to list these people and add them to a banlist. This banlist works by remembering the name of the user, not very useful in the long run as people can make new accounts. There may or may not be something that records the internet location, but that's not hard to fake. Note that that only works for the PC. I have what is called a "Packet Sniffer". It's not user friendly for what I want to use it for, but it records the serial number (Mac address) of the users connection. It's not very easy to fake and the only other way around it is to get a new computer. I've gotten a command that performs packet sniffing and am slowly working on something that'll record who connects to my computer and when. It will also record when their last connection was, at the end of a game I can run through the list, compare times and add them to a list. So, that was my day, see how productive it was? (I also had a 3-4 hour nap).

Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday involved not a vast amount happening, that's the second reason nothing was blogged. I saw David Ndzi but I'll cover that in today. In the evening I went over to Steve H's to see Phil off, he's moving somewhere-or-other. I played with the Wii and won some games yet lost others. I also managed to peg Phil quite a few times before he started to watch me carefully. Today I got up and went to the Faculty Board meeting. There was just about nothing there to discuss but I brought donuts and lo and behold, the cookies they supplied were rubbish. As such the Donuts went down well. Pity I don't actually have any real favours to ask of them yet. Stuart from the IS (Information Services) department of the Uni was there and mentioned how they were understaffed and that was causing most of the problems. They were understaffed, they did not have enough programmers They did not have enough programmers I am a programmer So I asked if I could perform my student placement with IS! I've emailed Stuart a copy of my CV and we'll see what happens as he's sending it on to his boss. It'd be quite nice to work for IS, I'd get to stay at Uni yet have all the perks of a Student Placement! I then went to the lab and tried to work on the Group Project thing. I'll be honest, I'm rubbish at this hardware stuff and I'm sick of it. We're being assessed tomorrow and if I fail I'm kicking up the biggest fuss about it possible, I'll list the problems with it if I get failed. I attended Prayer Lunch which was very good and encouraging before returning to Uni. Today I got an email from David.       "Teifion, I need to see you asap" So, I went to see David and lo and behold he wanted me to make another website. However, I've decided that I don't want to have the hassle of making websites while still looking for a placement. David is now aware of this and has made a few enquiries, he likely realises that if he finds me a placement he can use me as cheap programming labour. I've not got a problem with it, I enjoy programming and as long as I've not got a deadline the next day, should be able to do what's needed.

Empty

Today I am too tired so the blog spot will remain empty. Tomorrow I shall write a full account of today and tomorrow.

PHP is fun

Today's lectures were not amazing, pure and simple. After the lectures I went home and checked up on WoA stuff and then returned to Uni for the Student group that make websites (there's a name for it but I cannot remember it). David Ndzi knows that I can write PHP and MySQL and so while the rest of the group are working on something for a company called "RM Marketing" I was asked to create a user registration system for a conference. Users could register and then login to upload documents. David: When do you think you could have it ready? Me: I've got a group project thing to do for Thursday, so I'd say that Friday or early next week would be quite possible David: Could you have it for tomorrow? Me: Ummmm, I can try... Now, I know how fast I can write stuff if I put my mind to it and I reckon I can have it ready tomorrow. I plan to ask for some money for it (in the words of Martin Cripps "the word 'pittance' springs to mind") or the possibility of a Student Placement for someone making websites. I then journeyed to CU. As you're likely aware, I am currently in the middle of a phase of attaching pegs to people. On Sunday one of the ladies I pegged was (and I assume still is) called Sarah H (so not the Sarah R that is normally mentioned). Last night on MSN (after I had pegged her), the following was said... Me: see you tomorrow Sarah: yeah. night night xx Me: and I'll peg you without you noticing too :P Sarah: wanna bet?! Me: no, betting is wrong, but I'm sure I'll manage it ;) Sarah: lol Me: and then I'll blog it too :P Well, the gauntlet was thrown down! I pegged her once and left her alone, this was all part of my cunning plan, she'd been watching me carefully any time I came near and it took several tries to get this one peg near her without her noticing. Of course, after that peg was pointed out by someone else I waited a little then attached 6 or 7 pegs to her in the space of a few minutes. In the end Lawrence felt pity for her and went over to explain that she had been well and truely pegged. So, as we can see, I won. Becca was intent on not getting pegged yet tried to peg me at least once. However, years of being a computer nerd have sharpened my hand-eye coordination to the point where Lawrence said I was like a ninja (I'd just successfully put two pegs on Becca). I repeatedly got Becca for the rest of the night. Sarah R seems to like watching, yesterday she dared me to peg someone over 40. Some funny stuff happened but it was more of a "you had to be there" sort of thing so loses a lot in retelling. I'll post tomorrow regarding what happens about this database project, most of it is already done.

Energizing!

I got up nice and early and got to Siän's house for 0830! There I got a lift to Church for 0900 where all the students had a big fried breakfast. Andy and Cora not only organised it all but did the cooking. It was really really nice, very much appreciated and all around awesome. The service itself was about following Jesus and the cost of it, how Jesus rearranged priorities and that he knew what he was going towards yet still went. After the service I went home and did WoA stuff for a bit before leaving for the International Christian Students Fellowship meeting. There were lots of people from all over the world there and most wearing very bright clothing native to their country, it was really nice. The service started with something similar to the singing from the Blues Brothers. I came close to expecting some people to start somersaulting to the front to dance! There was a sketch about how God works and then a guest Pastor spoke. He explained how Jesus made an offer. And to illustrate his point he held up a £10 note and said that it was there for the taking. After 3 seconds I started to vault the chair infront of me (I was in the second row and the front row was empty) but as I did so Chris Brough thought to himself "I can't let Teifion get that" and ran ahead of me. However, when the pastor held up a book I got that so it worked quite well. The book is currently in the possession of Justin as I asked him to hold onto it for me and forgot to get it back later. After the talk and some more (slightly more coherent) singing there was some free food served. I went to the loo and when I came out I asked where I should go (assuming I'd be told where to join the queue). I was sent straight to the food so that worked out really well. What didn't was that almost all the food was laced with spices and/or vegetables. I left holding a few cans of coke and went to see Greg get Baptised at Kings Church. Kings Church has a much louder and more "modern" band, as it were, than Eastney. I don't know that it's better as such, but it is nice to have a change in style of singing. Overall I see Eastney as being a very family based Church while Kings seems to have a much larger youth population and so works differently. It was really good to see Greg be baptised and be there to show my support. The speaker there was a guest speaker from Australia. He had some odd things to say, however, the crux of the message he brought was that if we give and pray on behalf of others, God will act. He had some stories to tell explaining it all and drew from the Bible too. Afterwards there was a load of prayer stuff and I asked to be prayed for which was really good, I then went home and went to bed feeling closer to God than I have in the past few weeks.