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.

More Stuff

Saturday was filled with WoA stuff but that's to be expected. Today I went to Church, had lunch, went to a BBQ and got back late. Tomorrow I will be revising all day and all of Tuesday before my exam.

More Examination!

Thursday was not the day of my exam, it was today (Friday). Thursday involved very little revision because     1) It was Java     2) The test questions are in such a way that revision is actually of very little use, you can either program in Java or you can't In the evening I went to see Pirates. I enjoyed the film and am very glad I went to see it, I didn't think it was anything overly amazing but I did really enjoy it and find it both very funny and mostly exciting. I would strongly recommend people that are unsure about it to go see it. Today I went to the Exam and was done very quickly, I then went home. I'm pretty sure I did very well. Huw came over and we played Warcraft 3 as a break from revision. I also have my house for next year 100% sorted!

Examinationism!

Tuesday involved almost nothing but revision, normally there's some warcraft 3 and WoA in there but no, all revision (okay, 5 minutes of WoA while I ate breakfast). Today was the day of the exam. It was hard but I think that I have passed it, I have doubts that I've done amazingly well however I wrote more than some people and normally I write too little so that is surely a good sign. After Prayer lunch myself, Greg and Sam Groves (back from placement for a short holiday) went to see Spiderman 3. I've never been a big spiderman fan, the films are good but not my favourites. I felt that spiderman 3 was "just another spiderman film". I am glad I went to see it, but wouldn't see it again and probably wouldn't have seen it if not for Sam and Greg going to see it and I wanted to relax after my exam.

Stuff

I've been sleeping quite badly over the last few days so while I was going to blog yesterday, I felt tired and decided to skip blogging in the hope that I would sleep better. It didn't work amazingly well. Saturday didn't involve a lot happening, nor did Friday. Sunday it rained a lot and we had lunch at the Thatched House, hmmm, thinking about it I didn't do a vast amount on Sunday either. After the evening service Andy talked to me about a very low level operating system used on Mainframes called "zos". We wondered a bit about why I'd never heard of it, particularly why not in my Software Systems course this semester. Well, I have no found the reason, it's because Martin Cripps isn't mentioning any operating system except in passing. We've covered things that are used in zos but not specific to zos itself. Incidentally, that exam is on Wednesday.

Renewed Hope

The "Company" that I have been trying to get a placement with is actually the University of Portsmouth itself! Yes, I've been trying to get a placement with the IT department (called IS or "Information Services"). Stuart has attended the faculty board meetings and in one of them when I suggested IS did such and such he replied told me that they were understaffed. I know that at least one of their projects is written in Java, hey, I know Java! Stuart said that the idea was a good one and that if I sent him a CV he'd send it on to his bosses. That was done, sadly however there is some internal rule stuff at the Uni I was unable to be employed by them for a student placement. Under normal situations this rule makes good and perfect sense, however, in the present one it does not. I decided that I should find someone who could solve this problem. I emailed the Vice Chancellor of the University, I went straight the top and wrote him an email explaining why I liked the Uni and why I felt this rule was silly. I admit, I was not completely sure of the response I would get, would the Vice Chancellor of the entire University care about a single student that can't get a placement? Odds are he's never heard my name. Purple Doors is a Uni service related to jobs when you leave the University, however, I didn't realise that they also delt with placements, the placements department in the ECE department certainly never mentioned it. The Vice Chancellor has contacted them on my behalf and I have now sent them my CV and hope to meet wit them at some point. So, thank you very much Professor Craven, it's most appreciated and I will most certainly not hesitate to add this to the list of reasons I like Portsmouth University.