Breakout returns, now with flashy colours!

I got up after a very nice lie in. This was the first Thursday in about 4 months where I had not had to go in for a 3 hour lab. I spent most of the day programming Java, some of it was spent playing DotA and even less was spent running WoA. Java. Well, Java itself is great, the language is fairly easy to understand, there don't appear to be a large number of stupid things about it. The key difference between it and C (what I did last year) is that it's called "Object Orientated Programming" or OOP. C on the other hand is, okay, I don't know what it's called but it's pretty linear. The 1st Semester of Year 2 was all about OOP, I was already mostly familiar with it and as such, I feel very comfortable with it. Alas, I have vast numbers of problems with it. Specifically, they're all related to drawing graphics in Java. I don't know why, but I find I come across many many problems the moment I put in a user interface. As such, one of my suggestions to Ioannis (I think I got the name right this time) will be that in the 2nd Semeseter to have a choice of project that doesn't need a GUI. I think that despite the problems it has given me, learning how Java creates a user interface is important as I believe other languages use a method that's not too dissimilar. Anyhoo, enough about the problems that mysteriously crop up for me and onto the improvements for V0.5 - Download from here - Ioannis mode now works, I wanted to make it activate with a key-press but alas, it just won't work and I think I've exhausted every possibility - There are now unlimited numbers of levels - The fonts are now of various sizes - A proper win sequence (sort of) Also, my last exam is on the 7th of the 6th, my first is on the 21st of the 5th. I'll have a pretty timetable for them up tomorrow or sometime later.

Progress has been made, it's just not very apparent

I got up and wasted an hour and a bit of my life walking in the rain to my Java lecture. Last semester Ionnais was a really good lecturer, I wonder why he's not so good at teaching the newer stuff? On the plus side, the exam will be made from a similar batch of questions from the first semester so that's good to know. Java project wise I spent most of the time trying to get it to draw off-screen in an attempt to make it run faster but alas it eluded me. Likewise, I've not yet had the ability to take in keyboard input but I didn't spend as much time on that and Ryan linked me to a site with a lot of Java tutorials which may even hold the answer to both my questions. This evening there was a BBQ to celebrate the day that Guernsey was liberated from the Nazis. I got back and fixed PHP on my computer (I broke it a few days ago) and also installed MySQL (though I fear that will break itself as it did last time).

Worn out

I got up later than planned I then came close to completing the second section of the Database I'm working on. It's been a lot more problematic than thought and combined with busy days has meant it's still not complete! However, that's going to go on hold for about a week as I work on the Java project again, it's due in week tomorrow! Huw came over and for the first time ever beat me at DotA, as such we agreed he had clearly improved over his constant losses (he's not been playing nearly as long as me). We went online and won a game, then managed to lose the second. I've mostly recovered from my injuries yesterday, though was too sore overall to perform any push-ups or situps (I reckon I can get 7 pushups in a row and 4 situps in a row).

Scavenger Hunt!

Today mostly consisted of driving around with Steve H, Fi and a gentleman called Graham. The purpose of the game was that there were several teams, each with a car. They would drive along a route and gets a series of pictures of various silly things. One of the aims was to get as many different types of carrier bag. I managed to get about 12 for our team, my amazing charm even allowed me to get 5 different ones from Waitrose (the staff there were really nice). While jumping from one rock to another (they were car-sized rocks) I managed to misjudge the distance ever so slightly, that or a sudden gust of wind threw me off. Either way, my foot didn't make as much contact as was hoped for, the rock was at an angle and slippery so I slipped. Luckily I managed to not smash my face into a big lump of rock, rather I grazed my right thigh, bruised my left knee-cap and right palm. It's now mostly okay, though the graze stung a lot when I washed it in the shower. Later was Playzone! It was really good and I reckon that I burned up a lot of energy there, I'm now generally all around worn out and should hopefully sleep really well tonight.

I scare children

First off, the Java project still hasn't been updated. Still, it's located here for those that want a copy. I was not present for most of this mornings church service as I was helping with discoverers. It was quite good fun and very nice to help. After the weekly cup of tea I played with some of the children, running around the pews and generally being immature. At one point I was making silly faces and one of the children whom was rather tired started to cry. Now, I'm aware that I am quite ugly but this was a bit unfair. To make it worse, Brierley laughed! And people say I am horrible! Clearly, Brierley was not laughing at the effect but at the cause. So, I ask you, in return to Brierley calling me ugly, should I come up with some elaborate and probably problem ridden scheme to get her back? Or should I just squirt her with water the next time I see her? Now, I am aware that in the Bible it's written "Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself". Well, if I called someone ugly, I am quite happy for them to squirt me in the face. That's really the interesting stuff for today, the rest of it is warcraft 3 and WoA related.