Moved

The blog has now officially moved! Click here for the new blog

SPLAT!

My eating habits are not too bad, I eat with my mouth closed, I try not to slurp too loudly with my drink and keep most of my food on my plate when it's not on it's way to my chasm-like mouth. So I ask the question, if a fly lands on your forehead at dinner time and you whap your hand against your forehead, thus splattering the fly across the palm of your hand, is it rude? The blog is moving soon!

The Potato Theory

So, what is a potato theory? Well quite simply it's a theory involving potatoes. It's all about love and how it's shown and what it means. Lets suppose there was this really nice young lady I liked, I'd met her and liked her quite a lot and wanted to ask her out (or maybe she wants to ask me out). I could do this with a rose, ladies apparently like them. What does a Rose signify? What does a Rose stand for? Why use a Rose over say, a lump of grass? Roses are pretty Roses smell nice Roses are symbolic So, we can say that by giving a rose to a lady you are saying that she looks nice, smells nice and further reinforcing your intentions by giving an item that is symbolic of what you are trying to say. However, how long do Roses last for? Well, if you can manage to make it last 2 weeks it'll start looking a bit down by the 1st so we'll say 1 week. Now, lets look at a Potato. Potatoes do not look pretty Potatoes do not smell nice Potatoes are not symbolic Potatoes do however have inner goodness Potatoes last longer than roses Potatoes are very versatile, there's a load of things you can do with them So, by giving a potato to someone you say that they have inner beauty (it's called a personality), that this inner beauty will last and that they're a really cool person that can do whatever they put their mind to. Now, I'm sure you've at some point been told by a lady to stop being so superficial, to stop judging by looks and to start judging by personality. They clearly want to be given a potato, or do they? While the theory is spot on, it doesn't account for one very very important fact. Ladies don't make sense, they tell you not to judge on physical appearance yet they want to be told they look nice Armed with this crucial bit of information we can see why despite making complete sense, the potato gift idea is doomed to failure. But now that leaves us with a huge problem, if we want to be true Gentlemen then we can't just give out a rose, it gives out completely the wrong message (i.e. that are obsessed with physical appearance). Thus I propose a new theory. The Strawberry Theory! Granted a Strawberry isn't symbolic and doesn't last for as long as a potato but it does taste awesome, looks quite nice, has lots of inner goodness and can be quite resilient (you try getting those seeds out of your mouth). Alternately, Rosmary suggested simply using a whole rose bush. I still however think that's rather superficial thinking. Remember, the blog will be moving soon.

New Blog!

I've decided to move my blog completely to my server (the woarl.com one). There are a few reasons for this. I can customise more of the way it works I like the Admin Interface more It's no longer one of the fixed width templates that waste screen space I will continue to post here, it's quite possible I change my mind about it. The new blog is located at http://woarl.com/blog. Tomorrow I plan to create an entry fully explaining the Potato theory and where it works and where it doesn't.

Cheltenham (Long Post)

Day 1 - Arrival : Wednesday I got a lift to Jon and Becca's house for 0900 and then we packed the car and left for Cheltenham. Jon is the pastor of Ammanford Evangelical Church and Becca (His wife) is the leader of the youth "expedition". Becca remembered halfway there that her Bible was in one of the many many other bags in the house. It wasn't a problem as all the rest of us had Bibles, of course, we mocked her for the whole time. We got to Cheltenham and managed to find out where we were and what room we were using, I did a lot of running that day as I found out where various things were and went to get stuff. It looked like we'd have around 80 children (we had a capacity of 120). Our accommodation was called "Hunters Lodge", Jon, Sam, Rhodri, Tim, Tom and Myself had entered the room and seen 35 beds, all bar one being bunk beds. I claimed the single bed for my own very quickly and we looked at the loo. We discovered 2 cubicles a latrine, 2 sinks and 1 shower. We looked back in the main dorm room and yes, there were 35 beds, oh, this was not going to be nice. As the providence of the Lord would have it (I don't believe in Luck) there was nobody other than us in that room so we were all okay. Evening 1 - Food : Monday I saw Becca from CU and went to the local area for some food, it was very tasty and the company was good (though they completely failed to understand the Potato theory). My group planned to have a meeting at 2100 but due to locked gates I was the only one that made it (I seemed to have a natural ability not only to run everywhere but also to find doors that were not locked, I also tried climbing them and wriggling under them). We eventually managed to have a very short meeting but we cut it short because it was so late. Day 2 - Eugh! : Thursday Becca, Ceri, Charlotte, Jen and Laura were the female members of our team and they joined us for an early breakfast in the Panorama Restaurant. Suffice to say, the food was not up to the standard I'd expect myself to cook (and that's pretty low). In retrospect, eating very little for breakfast might have been a good thing as you will soon see. Our theme was called "Big Bother" and based a little around Big Brother. I was one of the 4 Youth Leaders that were "in the house". Day 1's challenge involved food, nasty food but that's okay, we were blindfolded. I managed to spit the Anchovy into the audience (about 80 children) and not throw up at the smell of the muscles (though it was a close call). I didn't even bother doing more than licking the Chillies or Ginger. The Baby Food however was actually rather nice (tasted of marmalade). The message for the day was about inward and outward appearance and how it doesn't matter what the World thinks of us, it's what God says that is important. I had a nice greasy burger for lunch (it was really nice) and met some of the group from Portsmouth, I also saw Becca from the CU but she's mentioned later today. The afternoon involved a Bible Study on the theme of the day. The Children gave very good answers, the sort of answers I'd expect from a much older group. I had another burger for dinner (along with a selection of doughnuts I'd charmed from the staff of the Arkle bar), it was very nice and I enjoyed it. Evening 2 - I need a Man! : Thursday I went to the Ceilidh (pronounced "Kay Lee"). I turned up late because I'd attended a talk on Bible Handling skills. I saw only one group of people I knew there, Becca and her friends. After the song that was in progress Becca ran up to me and said "Will you be my Man?". Here are some facts that'll help you to put the situation into context.      I am single      Becca is not single So, we can instantly see that clearly there is something wrong. And that is that I've not explained the 3rd point (which you probably guessed anyway) is that it was for the duration of a few dances, that Luke was not there and that it was not in an intimate setting or manner. I of course danced (making many a joke such as saying "Wow, I'm holding hands with a lady!") fast and vibrantly. I got back to my room and had expended so much energy that I had to take a cold shower to be able to think straight. The Woodpecker Band were really good and my favourite entertainment group of the whole festival. If you want to listen to some of their music, they have 3 samples here. Day 3 - Jaws : Friday I got up and realised that after wearing my red volunteer t-shirt to the Ceilidh last night, wearing it now would probably not earn me any friends. Thus, while the rest of my team went straight to the Burger van, I took a slightly longer route in hunt of a new t-shirt. I got to the Burger van and was separated from my group by another group of volunteers. I got chatting to them and they invited me back to their table. In a bid to make new friends I accompanied Tom, Leanne and Anna back to their table (bringing with me my burger of course). I got chatting to them and their friend Hannah. My co-leaders completed their meal and then left, barely nodding at me as they walked past. I thought nothing of it. During the rest of the day they started calling me Jaws. Apparently I was "sharking" or "going for the ladies". This wasn't my intention but they seemed convinced it was. Today the "housemates" had to put on some makeup. However, we were not doing it ourselves, we had the "aid" of some of the children. Specifically blindfolded Children behind us. To the right is a picture of me with said "improvements" performed. Several of the children dared me to keep it on for the whole day. I decided not to (it was not very comfortable in the heat). Today the theme was about Peer Pressure and weighing up what your friends say and what God says. Originally only Jon, Tom, Rhodri and Tim were calling me Jaws. However, by the afternoon Becca had joined in (she tried to get me to go to the church mission for the sole reason of meeting young, single, christian ladies), sadly other than point out a continuing lack of Lady Friend there was naught I could do to silence them. Phatfish are a Christian band and were playing on the Friday, I went to see them. Jon and Becky from Portsmouth had sat right at the front, they had a space next to them and were quite happy for me to sit there next to them so I did. It was really nice to sit there with them and also very amusing to see a completely new side to Jon. Normally Jon acts in a manner that you would attribute to a "wise" man, he acts in a thoughtful manner that suggests he has contemplated what he's actually doing. However, while at the concert he acted in a much less restrained manner, it was nice to see this side of him. Day 4 - Water Bombs : Saturday Yesterday I spent a lot of time filling up Water Bombs, today I continued to for our morning event. We got all the children onto the grass (today there were around 60) and played some rather messy games and then we brought out the Water Bombs. All of it was completely planned by the leaders, we planned for me to be the one that was pelted (I came up with the idea) and I got completely and utterly drenched. Becca, Jo, Rosemary, Pete, Kathryn and Jacky very kindly invited me to their BBQ for lunch and it was really nice (and very yummy). The evening session was good, I got to lead my first Bible Study and all the children were really really well behaved (maybe because of the way that I gave out Cola Bottles in a very stingy manner). It was around this time my name changed from "Jaws" to "Jaws with Dentures" because apparently I was still after a Lady but was rubbish at it. Evening 4 - Concert : Saturday I have negative musical talent, I cannot clap in time to a song and sing it at the same time. Worse yet, when I do clap out of time, I'm a varying amount out of time. Suffice to say I am unable to play any musical instrument and have apparently got a terrible singing voice. As such I like to listen to music for it's rhythm and sound rather than lyrics and clever melodies. So, perhaps that is why I didn't enjoy the Stuart Townend Concert as much as I thought I would (I once again got front row seats). The picture is taken from Steve Haskew's mobile phone. After the concert I went back to my room with Jon and read the book of Ruth, Jon then went through it with me and explained not only what the book was about but how to realise that's what it was about which will help me next time I try to figure something out. Day 5 - Hectic : Sunday We got up late as we had an 1100 start. Some extra volunteers turned up and we did lots of games but because we'd not realised we had to run today too we didn't plan as much so had to improvise somewhat more than normal. We had a quiz, one question in particular was quite amusing. Becca: What Month was Teifion Married in? *I stand up so everybody can get a good look at me* Becca: The answer? It's a trick question! He's not married, note the lack of ring Jon: He's single, so if you've got any older sisters about his age, send them over Nobody took him seriously but we all had a good laugh about it and you can too. Then began the fun task of clearing up, I was tasked with deflating two inflatables about the size of a 5 year old child. There are several ways of deflating things. Firstly there's the age old method of sitting down holding open the valve and hoping someone kind helps you (only works if you're lucky/attractive enough for help to arrive), the second method (my normal one) is that you hold the valve open and sit on the inflatable. However, today I figured out a better method, get a pointy object, the lid of a biro works well, and poke it into the valve. In doing this you open it up far more and it can deflate several times faster than my normal method. Where next? Several people have commented that I am gifted with youth so I've decided to start volunteering for more things. A group from my CU is almost certainly going to Word Alive and I'll be looking into volunteering there. Jon of Wales reckons that I'd be better with the age group just below what we had at Cheltenham (we had 11-14 year olds). And according to Amanda from Portsmouth, some of the Children were talking about me while in their tents at the campsite. It's quite rewarding to know I've made an impact on them (I am going to assume it's a good one). So, what's the next big adventure going to be?

I get to lead a Bible Study!

Today myself and the rest of us going to Cheltenham all met up, I get to lead a Bible Study we do (I've never led a Bible Study before, should be fun). The Bible Study I'll be leading is titled "Love". Becca has organised it all and the subject it'll be on along with the Bible verses to use so that'll help me a lot, still, I'll have to read the verses in advance and make sure I understand them. Today I drew an interesting difference between Jonathan in Portsmouth and Jonathan in Wales and the way that they preach. Jon from Portsmouth is a lot more formal in his manner than Jon of Wales, he looks into the Bible verse a lot more and requires us to think more. Jon of Wales however is a lot more informal and preaches in a much easier to digest manner, or as I put it "Preaches as if to a group of slightly dim people". Jon from Wales found this funny. Overall my task for helping with the Youth was categorised as "Door Watch", we figured this translates as "Bouncer" much better. However, I'll be doing a few more things than that and it should all be good.

Should I take a career in teaching?

Friday morning I got up, I as per usual did some of that World of Arl stuff, played a little Warcraft 3 and generally relaxed. I then did some more World of Arl stuff and it was still before lunchtime! Then, my sister who is not even at Secondary School yet asks me a question. Cerys: Teifion, how do I make a website Me: You write out some stuff and the computer turns it into a webpage Cerys: Can you teach me? Me: Sure, it's really easy 11 Hours later Cerys was making websites, I think I'll make a set of free tutorials about learning Web Design. I did a quick hunt on iTunes and looked at the selection of pod-casts on HTML and it's pretty poor, looks like it's my time to shine! Today I mowed the lawn and yay, I found more wildlife. I found 2 toads and a frog, though I only bothered to catch the first toad, in retrospect I should have gotten at least the frog too and kept the very small toad I found.         Click for slightly larger versions For much larger pictures, click for Toad on Rocks and Toad on Hand.

Did I miss a chance?

I returned from Portsmouth and I think the exams went well, however I can't make that last an entire post and if I did, it'd likely be boring. What I can tell is a story of my manly charm, swashbuckling manner and downright awesomeness of myself. Yes, a most magnificent tale, I shall tell it. The Hackers had very kindly allowed me to stay with them and rejected any and all attempts at me to offer them money. Well, I wasn't going to let them win, a thank-you gift was clearly in order, left in the room just before I left so they couldn't try to return it. I wasn't sure what to get them, they are so content and happy with what God gives them, reminds me a lot of the way Paul writes in his letters, minus the whole imprisonment stuff. Anyhoo, I decided that if they wanted something, Argos would probably sell it and there's an Argos near the Tesco I was buying my lunches from, so I sauntered over to the Argos. At this point it must be noted that I was wearing trousers, I forget why, I think it had something to do with rain, must have been feeling ill from all that revision. Me: I would like to buy a gift voucher please Young Lady at till: We don't do gift vouchers any more, instead we have gift card things, it's the same result, just a different system Me: (confused as to why this would matter in the slightest) - Ummm, okay, I'll have one of those then Young Lady at till: Is it for a special person or occasion? Me: Not really, some very nice people have let me stay at their house for my resits and I wanted to thank them Young Lady at till: Oooh, well, feel free to stay at my house any time you like! Me: Really? Give me your number and I might call you sometime Young Lady at till: Here you go Me: (Leaves store smiling) - Now, lunch time! Okay, I didn't ask for her number and I'm glad I didn't (no matter how funny it'd be to look back on or how much it'd boost my self esteem if she gave me her number). I would never have called her, she probably wouldn't have expected a call (we're assuming that I actually got her number, it's quite possible she'd have said yes) but if she had then I'd have been a letdown, it'd be a cruel joke which she'd suffer for. No, I am a true gentleman (ignore any comments that Emma or Lorna post saying anything to the contrary) and draw a much better and longer lasting satisfaction from it. Anyway, I felt you'd like to hear that story ;)

A good reason

I decided that I'd blog one more time before going to Portsmouth and possibly being without an internet connection for a week. Today at Church Jon talked about opposition when spreading the word of God. Normally any service on evangelism will focus on the good things and try to encourage you. Jon did encourage us, he just spent 95% of the time telling us about all the opposition you can face telling people about the word of God. He did reference the Bible well and explain how the Lord will stand with us, he also read a bit of a book I think was called "Fox's Christian Martyrs", I probably have the name wrong. Later today I then cycled to and from Ammanford to drop off a form to Becca for the Cheltenham Bible Festival which I'd managed to forget several times. Speaking of Becca, she was a bit disappointed to hear I would not be attending the Mission week/fortnight thing the Church is running, still, she tried to provide me with a good reason. You'll understand it better if you're familiar with the "why I joined the Christian Union" part of my testimony. Below is the exact reason that Becca thinks I should go to the mission. There will be lots of nice ladies there, maybe you could find a Girlfriend Granted, it's almost certainly not word for word, and yes, I have noticed that Christian events and settings tend to have a much fairer Lady to Guy ratio than my lectures (about 1 - 200 or more). I responded by informing Becca that though I at some point would like to meet a lady that likes me enough to date me, I've yet to find someone like that. I suggested that maybe if they were a little geeky it'd help, I then suggested asking them if they know the Fibonacci sequence or indeed, what it actually is, that's a good start. I'd write about how Becca then managed to embarrass Emma but I don't think Emma would appreciate it, suffice to say that Becca might not have thought it through completely.

Long Journey

I've completely forgotten to blog for the last week! On Wednesday I went to see my Dad affirmed as a probational police officer. Friday afternoon I found when my Referrals are, Tuesday, Monday and Tuesday. Yes, there's a week gap between the 1st and 2nd. However, the Hackers have very kindly said that I can stay at their house (thus solving the biggest problem of accommodation). So, the odds of me blogging over the next week and a half are very low as I'm going to be trying to revise a lot.

Structure and Organisation

Yesterday I didn't go to Church! I went to the Sunday School instead to help. In Portsmouth the children leave mid-way through the service, just before the main talk. The children in Portsmouth that I help with are a few years older than the ones in Wales and there was a marked difference. For a start, we're in a different building so the Children run around a lot and make as much noise as they please. Secondly, because they were younger and were allowed to run around a lot, they were quite chaotic. There was a very vague structure to it, we watched a DVD thing where some (admittedly fairly good) music was played along with dancing. At first I thought "Oh great, it's another rubbishy music thing with cheesy songs that hurt my ears with their sheer lack of quality". The first song was quite good, the second not very good and the third okay so I was surprised. After that there was a story from the Bible, Becca explained the story of Solomon and his many wives. Then there was a quiz and colouring in. In addition, Becca and I helped ourselves to some of the sweets used as prizes for the quiz. It was good. Filling out a form to be a helper at the Cheltenham Bible Festival I found something quite funny. Section 5: Emergency Contact Details Next of Kin: Address of Above person: Contact Details: Okay, I know why it's needed, however, I laughed a lot and thought you might too. In the evening my extended family came round and we had a big dinner. It was lots of fun and really nice (

Blogger isn't letting me put a proper title on this post...

Today I mowed out the front of the house again. First off, I found a hedgehog. It made something crossed between a grunt, a sniffle, a snore and a snort. I sprinted back to the house (it was a good 100 - 150m away) and returned with a Camera and Cycling Gloves (you'd be surprised how thick they are). Suffice to say he was a prickly customer and even through the gloves it was quite possible to feel the spines! I got some nice pictures of him. All the pictures are larger than my screen so there's a chance they're larger than yours. The best way to get them is to right click on them and select "save image as" or "download image as" depending on what browser you use. Normally I'd put up thumbnails but there's a lot of pictures and the thumbnails tend to take up a lot of space on the blog. As such I've got a list. - When I found it - Close up, just before it curls into a ball - Distance shot of it sitting in grass - In a ball after being rolled onto it's back - Sniffing gingerly at the plate on which we put some cat-food - Closer up version of the previous - It's thinking about making a break for it after deciding cat-food wasn't good enough A bit later I found a frog. It took be about two minutes to actually catch the thing and then it leapt out my hands again, I managed to get it slightly faster the 2nd time and then got my Dad to take some pictures. Warning, they're pretty big pictures. Also, someone that studied physics fancies themselves as a wildlife expert and reckons it's a toad. On general principles I will both disagree and compromise with them. - Me holding the Tog - Close up of the Froad My Sister managed to find a Newt so we got some pictures of that. - Good overall picture of it in my sister's hands - It makes a break for freedom - What you'd think is a shot taken just before the last - Newt on the palm of my sister's hand - Close up of the Newt's head - Close up of the whole newt - Newt crawling over my finger - Closeup Newt in the palm of my hand - Newt in a (muddy) white bucket thing with water, again, it's first response was to try to escape We released all the animals into their preferred environment after taking the pictures.

FlyGesture

I watch a page called "I Use this". It's a site that lists new Mac software, lots of said software is freeware. Most of the stuff that appears there isn't of interest to me, however, once in a while something really cool appears there. That was the case with Fly Gesture. I saw that it was a mouse gesture program and thought to myself "this could be cool, odds are it's horribly hard to control and results in your quitting all applications by mistake". From my experience, mouse gesture things are not the best way to control your computer, mostly because they're not very easy. However, FlyGesture seems to work nicely. It takes a bit of getting used to, I suggest setting no modifier keys and starting it from a mouse button. There are a load of actions already there that you can edit or remove or add to as you wish. With Fly Gesture, you push a key or mouse button (you set which one it is) and the window shown to the left pops up. You connect the dots and it tells you underneath what you will be doing if you click. The window is actually a little larger than that on the left, I shrunk it to look nice on the blog. The disadvantage of a fast computer is that I cannot tell you how good it is on lower end computers. However, as luck would have it, I garnered access to a slower computer (768mhz with 600Mb of Ram, should be slower than most Macs) and it ran fine. I did have one incident where I was playing warcraft 3 and pushed the middle mouse button by mistake, when Warcraft 3 crashed about 20 minutes later I found that there were yellow lines all over the screen and Fly Gesture sucking up 99% of the CPU power trying to catch up with the mouse (you don't have to push and hold the button, just push it once). I needed to go into Activity Monitor to quit it as it doesn't show up if you Command + Tab your way through the apps (though by default it does show up, I just prefer it not to).

What it's like in my house

Well, with one thing or another I've forgotten to blog. Firstly, my house is inhabited by Coel, Gethin, Brecon, Cerys, Mum, Dad and Taz (Cat). Coel is home all the time as he's finished his first year of Uni, Gethin is also home having done all his A Level exams. Brecon and Cerys attend school so are missing for the middle of each day. My Mum is also home all day while my Dad has recently started his new job. I sit in a room on my own using my computer most of the day. Apparently thats a bit "sad" or "boring". Well, I worked on my CV today so hopefully that doesn't count as either of the above two (I found it a little boring). Additionally, no matter how old we are, we still manage to act like infants. Take Coel for example, today he had scrambled egg on toast and brought in some brown sause from the kitchen to put on it. We found brown sauce on the floor, walls, door, Coel's elbow and sleeve. We're not sure if he got any on the plate but we all laughed at him a lot. My music tastes are a little "odd", I like a wide range of music yet I also only like a few bands from each part of it. People will say "hey, you like so and so, odds are you'd like this group" and despite them sounding fairly similar, I don't. It's really odd. Recently I've been listening to Dance music. Is it sad and boring that I don't dance to it?

How to win at Twister

I believe that if you follow these simple steps you are sure to win at twister. 1) When a colour and limb is called out, make sure that you end up spread out as much as possible, ideally you want to have your legs at near opposite ends of the mat 2) When you move, be sure to push over all the other players, you'd probably not be surprised how bad the balance of some people can be 3) Be sure to play with people smaller than yourself, that way they can't push back very well Yes, I won all 3 games of twister I played at the youth group today, I won the first just by putting my foot onto the mat at which point they screamed that my leg had hair on it. I wasn't aware it was such a bad thing to have hair on your leg, they reacted like it was Bubonic something-or-other! I suppose I should give tips for the Animal Game 1) Be as loud as possible 2) It's impossible to actually win so make sure you at least leave everybody else with hearing problems And because I know that you will need this information at some point, I'll explain how to win a water fight! 1) Find out what your opponent is using, now make sure you have something that works in a different way, if they have a gun, get a bucket, if they have a bucket, get a gun (or hose) 2) Work out what the plus and negative point of each is, if you have a bucket and them a gun, they can out range you but you can deliver a lot more water in 1 second 3) Move in such a way that you can deliver more water to them than to you, if you have a bucket, move forwards, if you have a gun, sidestep or run in random directions 4) Before the fight, get a bucket-like implement of water holding (the large open top is the key part) and "deposit" water over someone you want to make sure you beat 5) Repeat 4 after the fight if possible, preferably with the "group refill" pot as then they cannot get you back I hope these tips help and I hope that my next blog entry will be just as helpful to you.

What a lovely day

The day was bright, the sun shining, there was tell of impending rain but the sky was clear and the day lovely. A gentle breeze carried the Moth towards it's next landing point, it rested gently, folding it's wings onto itself. Suddenly, there was a tremor! The thrumming noise grew louder and louder! Slowly, a great shadow began to fall over the Moth, the breeze had vanished, replaced by a roaring wind pushing in all directions, the sun was blotted out by this massive monstrosity! The Moth leapt into the air to fly away, it began to flap but alas, the pull of the giant engine of darkness was too fast for it! WHOOOMP! Today I cut the lawn out the front of my house and out the back, I killed about 6 months (or maybe they were all the same moth that reincarnated?) and a Bumblebee (it tried to fly away but I was too fast for it). See, when you think like me, even mowing the lawn can be fun!

Typical Student

Felt you might find this story funny and/xor amusing, warning, it is a little messy so if you're eating, you best not read it just yet. It was a Sunday morning, this morning as I write to be precise. Church for me in Wales is a good 4 and a half miles away, that's about an hours walk and getting a lift means I have to get one back and basically, it's a lot of hassle compared to a 20 minute cycle ride. Yeah, a lot of hassle. Anyhoo, my dad is currently in the middle of a big "get fit" sort of thing, those that have seen him will note that he doesn't look particularly unfit, well, he's been doing a lot of exercise and said he'd cycle with me. It started off well, I'm lightweight and built for cycling. However, it was cold and my airways decided that a healthy layer of mucus would insulate them very well against the cold. My Dad wasn't having a problem and for the most part, neither was I, keeping up was however proving harder and harder. My dad suggested going up a mountain on the way there, yeah sure, why not? It was 0955 and Church didn't start until 1030, I had loads of time! I got to the top not feeling amazingly well, I'd had to wash my mouth out on the way up because of all the stuff from my nose and throat. It was pretty icky but there's a lot of vegetation on the mountain, some of it now has my snot over it (I'm polluting!). We cycled down the mountain and my Dad challenges me to go as fast as possible, I don't have a speedo but I think I broke the 30mph speed limit, it was pretty good. During this speeding exercise, my legs moved pretty fast, infact, they were about as fast as I could go. I got to the bottom and really started to feel bad, I managed to turn onto a main road and BLEUGH! Yep, I threw up, a big load came out and I thought that might be it, but no, more came out, and some more. I somehow managed to remain in a straight line but also managed to hit my left leg and shoe. I pulled to a stop on the pavement and decorated it with what was left in my stomach. Now see the difference between a city and a town. A man came along and stopped (he was driving) and wanted to know if we were okay, the Firebrigade (we were just outside) all came along and gave me a bottle of water to wash off the worst of it. In the end I got a lift home from my Mum as I was feeling a little rough at that point. Once I got home, had a shower and had lunch I was fine again. Of course, that story becomes a lot funnier when you condense it a little so it looks like this. Teifion didn't go to church because he managed to throw up over himself while cycling, typical student...

Home

I am now home and enjoying the home cooked food a lot, it's also been nice to see the people at the youth group from my church. When something noteworthy happens, I'll post it here.

I'm helpful (yeah, I know it's not easy to believe)

Friday involved me ummm, getting up very late. I've got no exams and so had no motivation for actually getting up that day. I spent the day a little with WoA, then I went over to Huw's and played various Warcraft 3 maps until about 0100 Saturday. Walking home Friday night is never plesant, as it was however now Saturday morning there was no problem so it was all good :) Today I got up quite early, I think it's because Portsmouth is so hot right now, it's really quite a big problem for me. I was working on WoA, for one of the pages I want to create a small tutorial that explains very simply what the game is. I have two options. 1) Use several pages to break up the content 2) Use one well formatted page to break up the content 3) Use Javascript and do something like this (click the left and right arrows) Well, number 1 wasn't a very nice idea as if the server was a little slow or the internet connection of the user was dodgy it'd be horrible. Number 2 just didn't appeal to me, it's what I'm currently using and I think that suddenly seeing a page of text just looks "eugh". So, number 3. Of course, looking at the Javascript that Panic use I noticed two things. 1) It was amazingly complicated 2) I wasn't allowed to copy it So, I decided to make a very naff version of it using some Javascript I'd already written. It achieves the same effect but without the pretty scrolling visual. That is todays web-design message, now for the reason for the blog title. Celestine is one of the ladies at the CU. Today all the students have to move out of halls. Celestine had a problem, namely that she was a Lady and she had a lot of stuff to move, thus, she asked me for help. Seeing as my plans for the day involved "listen to Techno remixed Classical Music while being a geek" I decided that it was probably what I should do. I arrived and went to the 2nd floor to Celestine's room, noting that there was a lift, me being the "can do" sort of person that I am decided that it might be fun to use the stairs on the way back when carrying stuff. First however the last few things had to be packed. Surveying the items I wish I'd brought my camera, however, I think I can list them. 3 large bags you could fit me into 6 regular carrier bags 1 large suitcase you could fit me into 1 small suitcase you could fit a child into 2 small boxes about the size of a small TV 2 large boxes, I could just about curl up into 1 broom, dustpan + brush, mop In addition, a lot of it was heavy, so my fun plan of the stairs was right out, infact, I had to figure out how to get the stuff from Celestine's room to the front of the hall, safely (specifically without it being stolen). First we moved it from her room to the lift, then I put a load of stuff into the lift with Celestine and sent her to the ground floor, I raced the lift (I wasn't carrying anything) and managed to win, we then got the stuff out of the lift and I raced back upstairs to the stuff (which was still there) and then loaded that into the lift. From there we were fairly close to the door so it wasn't too hard. However, I'm worn out and knackered after that. I might have to abstain from being helpful for a while...

Time for an Update

Sorry, I've been rather busy with exams and then last night, a party and as such have not blogged! Tuesday involved an exam which I think I passed, wednesday was involved with revision for my least favourite exam, that exam did not go amazingly well, however, I feel that I passed it (hopefully). There was then a party yesterday where I had great fun and spent most of it not dancing like a looney but instead talked to a guy called Luke about many different things, he lives in Swansea (so that's two Lukes I know from Swansea). I sort of regret going to the party, Lorna tried to get me to go to the Union dinner or something or other (she didn't try that hard). The reason I didn't go is that it was £25, granted there was a three course meal but I weigh so little the odds of me enjoying it for it's full worth were pretty low. Luke, Becca, Lorna and Justin went (only because the CU were nominated for a prize) and came to the party at the end. If I'd gone then I'd probably not have met Luke and gotten to chat with him as much, however, if I had gone, we reckoned that I'd have come back with a lot of free stuff. Overall I'll take a new friend over free stuff so I'm happy with my choice.