I'm about to hit the sack, after an hour of battling with my suitcase getting it ready for the trip back to aber in the morning. Roll on New years eve 2003!
It seems that becky is safely on her way over from the states... I'm actually quite impressed how much information you can get off the internet about flights in progress:-
Information as of 0300Z
FlightID: BAW298 (Commercial, Jet)
Status: DEPARTED, ENROUTE
Company: BRITISH AIRWAYS
Country: UNITED KINGDOM
Radio Call: SPEEDBIRD
Ground Spd: 407 kts (Assigned: 462)
Altitude: 190C(hundreds of feet) (Assigned: 330)
Type: B/B772 ((Unknown Type))
Origin Apt: ORD CHICAGO O'HARE INTL
Dest Apt: EGLL HEATHROW
Departed: 0248Z ETA As Filed: 0926Z
Distance Fm: 48.43 NM To Dest: 5259.44 NM
Only 5259.44 Miles to go eh becky... Enjoy the free bar ;)
A Computer Scientist's Attempt at (un)Creative writing. Ok, well it's not, it's a Blog.
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Saturday, December 27, 2003
Happy Winterval
Winterval, as you may know, is what Birmingham called their "non-denominationally specific winter break" festival period a few years back, so I hope you all enjoyed yours... :o)
Anyway, the last few weeks have certainly been quite eventful, and I've crammed quite a lot in so far, to be honest I'm now behind on where i wanted to be with my work for uni, so I'm going to get all my procrastination out of the way by blogging and then get down to it!
When I first got back home, I was pretty much straight out of the door the next morning on the way to work for a morning... Basically I was saying hi to people, and testing the water about possible future employment prospects. Then in the evening it was my department christmas meal, which i was very kindly invited to attend... It was good to catch up with people again etc, but afterwards people headed to this club in worcester called "Drummonds" which was completely packed and it really wasn't my scene, but it was a good night nontheless.
The following weekend was a bit quiet, didn't really do much apart from get my first lie-in in ages, which was good :)
This week was quite excellent actually. On tuesday or monday (i forget which) I met up with friends from school at a local, was a bit annoying as i couldn't have some of the nice ale they have as i was driving, but nontheless it was a good evening. Christmas eve, again i went to go and see some friends, this time in a different pub, however this time my brother came along, which was a bit strange, as I haven't really been to a pub with him before... He drove, which was great, but he did look a bit like it wasn't his scene.
Xmas day was spent at home with the family, and had to be the best christmas day for quite a while, mother excelled herself with the food again :)
Anwyay, will ad more later, but i think i should do something useful for the rest of the evening
Winterval, as you may know, is what Birmingham called their "non-denominationally specific winter break" festival period a few years back, so I hope you all enjoyed yours... :o)
Anyway, the last few weeks have certainly been quite eventful, and I've crammed quite a lot in so far, to be honest I'm now behind on where i wanted to be with my work for uni, so I'm going to get all my procrastination out of the way by blogging and then get down to it!
When I first got back home, I was pretty much straight out of the door the next morning on the way to work for a morning... Basically I was saying hi to people, and testing the water about possible future employment prospects. Then in the evening it was my department christmas meal, which i was very kindly invited to attend... It was good to catch up with people again etc, but afterwards people headed to this club in worcester called "Drummonds" which was completely packed and it really wasn't my scene, but it was a good night nontheless.
The following weekend was a bit quiet, didn't really do much apart from get my first lie-in in ages, which was good :)
This week was quite excellent actually. On tuesday or monday (i forget which) I met up with friends from school at a local, was a bit annoying as i couldn't have some of the nice ale they have as i was driving, but nontheless it was a good evening. Christmas eve, again i went to go and see some friends, this time in a different pub, however this time my brother came along, which was a bit strange, as I haven't really been to a pub with him before... He drove, which was great, but he did look a bit like it wasn't his scene.
Xmas day was spent at home with the family, and had to be the best christmas day for quite a while, mother excelled herself with the food again :)
Anwyay, will ad more later, but i think i should do something useful for the rest of the evening
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Another year
Well, another (calendar) year is drawing to a close. I feel even older than I ever have right now, my university career is drawing to a close, I'm doing scary things like looking at Jobs.... And I feel about 50 sometimes!
That aside, I'm enjoying the course at the moment, as I've had a lot more say about what modules I actually study, and pretty much without exception at the moment, I am interested in the modules I'm doing and I can see how the whole course has "fitted together".
Other things are that it's bloody christmas again, really particularly badly timed this year, as I have a requirements spec to finish and then a shitload of coding to do in about the next month, not to mention the exams late January. However, I'm lucky on that front... I only have two and one of them (information society) I get the paper five days in advance to do some research :o) The other exam is internet architechture, and i'm fairly confident that with a bit of study i can get on top of that module pretty well, but we'll see.
Things seem a bit better at home, however, so Christmas should be a lot better than the last one, but as I've been so busy with one thing and another (and i must admit an awful lot of procrastination thrown in there) I've hardly had chance to think about, yet alone even acknowledge christmas, which means i've been very slack with making plans. Then again, not having any plans could very well be a good thing!
Also, I've been having a bit of a debate with myself about Instant Messaging (IM) I've decided that it is taking up a hell of a lot of my time (perhaps admittedly due to my own lack of discipline when using it) so I'm considering dropping using it for a while, at least until I've learned better time management! Well, this may never happen (rather like the exercise program) but we shall see!
Learned: Live life as fully as you can, as tommorrow it will be different and you'll think you missed out
current mp3 Dido - White Flag
Well, another (calendar) year is drawing to a close. I feel even older than I ever have right now, my university career is drawing to a close, I'm doing scary things like looking at Jobs.... And I feel about 50 sometimes!
That aside, I'm enjoying the course at the moment, as I've had a lot more say about what modules I actually study, and pretty much without exception at the moment, I am interested in the modules I'm doing and I can see how the whole course has "fitted together".
Other things are that it's bloody christmas again, really particularly badly timed this year, as I have a requirements spec to finish and then a shitload of coding to do in about the next month, not to mention the exams late January. However, I'm lucky on that front... I only have two and one of them (information society) I get the paper five days in advance to do some research :o) The other exam is internet architechture, and i'm fairly confident that with a bit of study i can get on top of that module pretty well, but we'll see.
Things seem a bit better at home, however, so Christmas should be a lot better than the last one, but as I've been so busy with one thing and another (and i must admit an awful lot of procrastination thrown in there) I've hardly had chance to think about, yet alone even acknowledge christmas, which means i've been very slack with making plans. Then again, not having any plans could very well be a good thing!
Also, I've been having a bit of a debate with myself about Instant Messaging (IM) I've decided that it is taking up a hell of a lot of my time (perhaps admittedly due to my own lack of discipline when using it) so I'm considering dropping using it for a while, at least until I've learned better time management! Well, this may never happen (rather like the exercise program) but we shall see!
Learned: Live life as fully as you can, as tommorrow it will be different and you'll think you missed out
current mp3 Dido - White Flag
Saturday, December 13, 2003
Right, ok I admit I haven't blogged in a month. The truth is i've been head-splittingly busy with work and stuff, basically, yes, the final year is more manic than ever :o)
Had a good final night out at the union last night before getting down to a few days of dedicated work on my major project.... My biggest problem i've decided is keeping focus.. I look at how much some people can acheive in a day, and I find that i have difficulty sticking to the task in hand, and end up talking on messenger, (or maybe even blogging ;) ) instead, and I end up not getting anything done.
Anyway, will write more when I think what needs mentioning!
Had a good final night out at the union last night before getting down to a few days of dedicated work on my major project.... My biggest problem i've decided is keeping focus.. I look at how much some people can acheive in a day, and I find that i have difficulty sticking to the task in hand, and end up talking on messenger, (or maybe even blogging ;) ) instead, and I end up not getting anything done.
Anyway, will write more when I think what needs mentioning!
Monday, November 10, 2003
Monday, November 03, 2003
Thursday, October 23, 2003
Monday, October 13, 2003
Tuesday, October 07, 2003
Hmm, can't sleep (again) and spent the last 20 minutes looking at flamewarriors, I'm not sure which I am, which leads to the worrying conclusion that I might be all of them.
Sunday, October 05, 2003
Anyway, now much more settled and am on my 3rd day of freshers flu for the third time... I've just this second got my sense of smell back and can taste the vegetable curry i made this evening :o)
Still seems strange that I'm in my final year of university... There are so many options it's difficult to decide what to do, but it has to be said that certain uncertainties at the moment are making a decision more difficult.
In geek news today, sucessfully managed to work out how to export to PDF files from Word (For my final project) to do this see here (under construction) (Needs ps2pdf or access to a system with it)
Still seems strange that I'm in my final year of university... There are so many options it's difficult to decide what to do, but it has to be said that certain uncertainties at the moment are making a decision more difficult.
In geek news today, sucessfully managed to work out how to export to PDF files from Word (For my final project) to do this see here (under construction) (Needs ps2pdf or access to a system with it)
Saturday, October 04, 2003
Oops, I should have posted this two weeks ago *sheepish look*
Back in aber
Well, I’m finally back in Aber again. Somewhat in a mess though, as I only really started packing 48 hours ago, and I’ve only really just had my first proper night’s sleep in a few days, and I tell you that’s welcome after a whole day of lugging stuff to and from cars!
As I said in my last blog, last week was a bit unusual. I’ve spent the last three months at home essentially doing nothing, and seemed to do the most socially within the last week, which seemed odd for some reason…. Dunno why. Caught up with some school friends, which was really nice to see them all again, but now I have phone numbers so hopefully we will be able to keep more in contact, I’m not sure why but I seem about the only one who spends any significant time in my hometown out of my old schoolfriends, then again I suppose I do make an extra effort to go back for my job.
New house in the student village is very nice, we still have two people to join us that we don’t know, which should be good to get to know some new people, I just hope it’s girls otherwise the house would be a bit “unbalanced”. Don’t have internet access until Monday as apparently they “need” a week of having the network offline while they set up a PHP script to let us register our own MAC addresses…. Somehow I think it’s a cover for not having a full speed link until Monday also, ah well, I will be forced to drink lattes in the arts centre while using the wireless then ; ).
Actually, I think a few days away from the internet will do me good, I’m getting chance to write a long blog for one, and I’m hoping to spend some time this afternoon writing out my final project outline, which should mean that I won’t have too much to do in October when it’s actually due.
I got a phonecall last night while attempting to unpack. The guy from the parish council wants to put an article about my broadband campaign in the parish magazine, which should be interesting... Perhaps all this being famous (if you call being in the local paper twice and a feature in the parish newsletter fame, that is) will bring me a fortune? Who knows.
Anyway I have lots of little things to get from the shops, and also I’m going to have to go and try out the new sun workstations in computer science, so that’s all for now.
Back in aber
Well, I’m finally back in Aber again. Somewhat in a mess though, as I only really started packing 48 hours ago, and I’ve only really just had my first proper night’s sleep in a few days, and I tell you that’s welcome after a whole day of lugging stuff to and from cars!
As I said in my last blog, last week was a bit unusual. I’ve spent the last three months at home essentially doing nothing, and seemed to do the most socially within the last week, which seemed odd for some reason…. Dunno why. Caught up with some school friends, which was really nice to see them all again, but now I have phone numbers so hopefully we will be able to keep more in contact, I’m not sure why but I seem about the only one who spends any significant time in my hometown out of my old schoolfriends, then again I suppose I do make an extra effort to go back for my job.
New house in the student village is very nice, we still have two people to join us that we don’t know, which should be good to get to know some new people, I just hope it’s girls otherwise the house would be a bit “unbalanced”. Don’t have internet access until Monday as apparently they “need” a week of having the network offline while they set up a PHP script to let us register our own MAC addresses…. Somehow I think it’s a cover for not having a full speed link until Monday also, ah well, I will be forced to drink lattes in the arts centre while using the wireless then ; ).
Actually, I think a few days away from the internet will do me good, I’m getting chance to write a long blog for one, and I’m hoping to spend some time this afternoon writing out my final project outline, which should mean that I won’t have too much to do in October when it’s actually due.
I got a phonecall last night while attempting to unpack. The guy from the parish council wants to put an article about my broadband campaign in the parish magazine, which should be interesting... Perhaps all this being famous (if you call being in the local paper twice and a feature in the parish newsletter fame, that is) will bring me a fortune? Who knows.
Anyway I have lots of little things to get from the shops, and also I’m going to have to go and try out the new sun workstations in computer science, so that’s all for now.
Thursday, September 25, 2003
Hmm, been annoyed about this for some time now.. It seems that the new Dido album will be "copy protected" meaning that I will not be able play it on my PC most probably :/
Anyway was registration today, which wasn't amazingly fun as it was basically two hours of queing, just as it is every year. Perhaps my systems analysis module will mean that I can work out a more efficient registration system.
Anyway was registration today, which wasn't amazingly fun as it was basically two hours of queing, just as it is every year. Perhaps my systems analysis module will mean that I can work out a more efficient registration system.
Monday, September 22, 2003
Sunday, September 21, 2003
Thursday, September 18, 2003
Stuff now sort of packed for back to aber in the morning... Bit of a strange week really... will blog more about it when i'm back in aber... basically finished work, then met up with a few old school friends, and now *boom* it's the end of the holidays :o
Found a good site about mobile phone history here
Found a good site about mobile phone history here
Saturday, August 30, 2003
Well, almost two weeks since my foot operation, not really going too great as I think that my nail is going to fall off soonish, it doesn't look very well after the onslaught. Was a bit worried yesterday so phoned the chiropedist, and she said for me to pop in for her to have a look at it, apparently it is ok, but she said that if the nail does go it will grow back... i'm not 100% convinced of this to be honest!
For the gory, again here's updated photos:
25th Aug
27th Aug
30th Aug
As you can see it's slowly improving, but the nail isn't looking too hopeful... definately less red today than yesterday.
Otherwise things are pretty much as normal... work..sleep...work...sleep you get the idea.
Went to a "murder mystery" evening on thursday set up by one of the other students, I played the part of "mustapha m'stache" so this provided an excellent oppertunity to dress up as a comedy terrorist.... :o)
Dido seems to have finally released a new track "white flag" just had a quick listen and it seems that she's doing a good job once again, it's a shame to have heard so little from her since she was shot to fame by her inclusion in Eminem - stan.
Oh, and only two weeks left at work now... better get my skates on.
For the gory, again here's updated photos:
25th Aug
27th Aug
30th Aug
As you can see it's slowly improving, but the nail isn't looking too hopeful... definately less red today than yesterday.
Otherwise things are pretty much as normal... work..sleep...work...sleep you get the idea.
Went to a "murder mystery" evening on thursday set up by one of the other students, I played the part of "mustapha m'stache" so this provided an excellent oppertunity to dress up as a comedy terrorist.... :o)
Dido seems to have finally released a new track "white flag" just had a quick listen and it seems that she's doing a good job once again, it's a shame to have heard so little from her since she was shot to fame by her inclusion in Eminem - stan.
Oh, and only two weeks left at work now... better get my skates on.
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
802.11 codes.... Sort of for my own reference
802.11a 5GHz OFDM PHY
802.11b 2.4GHz CCK PHY
802.11c 802.11 bridging
802.11d International roaming
802.11e QoS/efficiency enhancements
802.11F Inter AP protocol
802.11g 2.4GHz OFDM PHY
802.11h 5GHz regulatory extensions
802.11i Security enhancements
802.11j Japan 5GHz band extensions
802.11k Radio resource measurement
802.11l Skipped (typographically unsound)
802.11m Maintenance
802.11n High throughput PHY
802.11a 5GHz OFDM PHY
802.11b 2.4GHz CCK PHY
802.11c 802.11 bridging
802.11d International roaming
802.11e QoS/efficiency enhancements
802.11F Inter AP protocol
802.11g 2.4GHz OFDM PHY
802.11h 5GHz regulatory extensions
802.11i Security enhancements
802.11j Japan 5GHz band extensions
802.11k Radio resource measurement
802.11l Skipped (typographically unsound)
802.11m Maintenance
802.11n High throughput PHY
Friday, August 22, 2003
Foot update
For those who want to keep up to date with my gory foot.. And again standard warning, these pictures are gross:
on tuesday the 19th
on friday the 22nd
So it's getting better, sort of.... check up on thursday the nurse put this gauze stuff on it.
For those who want to keep up to date with my gory foot.. And again standard warning, these pictures are gross:
on tuesday the 19th
on friday the 22nd
So it's getting better, sort of.... check up on thursday the nurse put this gauze stuff on it.
Tuesday, August 19, 2003
Well, finally got my toenail "done" on monday, it's going to be sensitive and need a bit of care for the next week or two, but afterwards i'll be able to stub my toe without intense pain - sounds a little odd, but ask any ingrowing toenail sufferer.... For the gory at heart, and I know you can't resist looking (it's a bit like a car crash, here's a before picture and an after picture. Please note these pictures are very very grim.
Big presentation tommorrow, basically doing a subset of the last one to a smaller number of infinitely bigger cheeses. Suppose I'd better iron my shirt (singular)......
17 days left at work, better make the most of the time left and the money available i suppose!
Big presentation tommorrow, basically doing a subset of the last one to a smaller number of infinitely bigger cheeses. Suppose I'd better iron my shirt (singular)......
17 days left at work, better make the most of the time left and the money available i suppose!
Saturday, August 16, 2003
Why is it that the third or fourth thing that the americans on this page complain about is their lack of air conditioning? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/3152557.stm
Thursday, August 14, 2003
Long time no blog
Well, it’s been ages since I’ve bothered blogging, there are no apologies really, as I’ve been having quite a stressful and busy summer.
The lowdown is this, a few weeks ago mum went into hospital for a planned operation, so no huge panic, but the operation is of the sort where she needs lots of rest and relaxation afterwards, which has been encroaching into my spare time.
Previously to this, I’ve started a broadband campaign which is going well, we now only need 17 more registrations and, finally I’ll be able to get broadband at home, which will be nice as then I can host a server – yay!
Had a big presentation at work, had to present my finding this summer to a whole load of bigwigs (about 30 in all).. went really well, had a free lunch – woo. In fact it went so well that I’m presenting it to a smaller group of infinitely-bigger wigs next week – erk! All this during a summer placement too, which can’t be half bad I suppose.
Bought myself an amp and speakers from some people at work, starting to think about using them for my pc instead of the dedicated mp3 player as I originally thought, who knows, but currently quite nice to have some speakers with real power.
Anyway, creative juices running dry, more when less busy
Well, it’s been ages since I’ve bothered blogging, there are no apologies really, as I’ve been having quite a stressful and busy summer.
The lowdown is this, a few weeks ago mum went into hospital for a planned operation, so no huge panic, but the operation is of the sort where she needs lots of rest and relaxation afterwards, which has been encroaching into my spare time.
Previously to this, I’ve started a broadband campaign which is going well, we now only need 17 more registrations and, finally I’ll be able to get broadband at home, which will be nice as then I can host a server – yay!
Had a big presentation at work, had to present my finding this summer to a whole load of bigwigs (about 30 in all).. went really well, had a free lunch – woo. In fact it went so well that I’m presenting it to a smaller group of infinitely-bigger wigs next week – erk! All this during a summer placement too, which can’t be half bad I suppose.
Bought myself an amp and speakers from some people at work, starting to think about using them for my pc instead of the dedicated mp3 player as I originally thought, who knows, but currently quite nice to have some speakers with real power.
Anyway, creative juices running dry, more when less busy
Sunday, July 20, 2003
Random politically motivated blog
I'm starting to worry what this world is coming to.
Last night I watched a program on BBC news 24 about how America is getting paranoid about terrorist attacks, and heard of shocking abuses of power by the government all in the name of preventing terror attacks. Wooden bullets being fired at peaceful protesters against the iraq war. Peace activists getting on FBI 'no-fly' lists, and only being able to get on planes after repeated searching and humiliating questioning. Apparently the patriot act rushed through after the incidents of 11th of September 2001 (i refuse to call it 9/11 anymore) means that people on this list are not told why, how, when or even who maintains this list, understandably these people are taking the government to court. More worryingly, the patriot act II which is under construction, will mean that people are encouraged to spy on their neighbours, and also people can be detained without being told why, additionally, relatives will not be allowed to know if or why that person is detained.. is this the land of the free?
As the commentator they had brought in said, "the sort of police state America that will help prevent terrorism will not be the sort of america that americans want to live in."
And here, across the water, I feel that we are slipping the same way, and are not immune to the abuses of power by the US police/government. This morning i was reading Richard Stallman's website (not normally a man that i aggree with as he has quite wacky ideas about free software, and quite frankly i think he's a nut) and he had a link to the following article about shocking treatment of Innocent BRITISH nationals so much for President Blair and Prime Minister Bush's special relationship. (did I get that the wrong way around? not sure...)
To quote stallman:
"The choice of citizens of various allies as the first batch to be threatened with execution seems to be a calculated gesture of contempt towards those countries, a demonstration to them that they have to take a kick in the teeth from the US. I hope that the pressure in the UK builds up to the point that Blair will be unable to keep supporting Bush. "
Chilling stuff.
And now, from my view it looks as if the suspicious death of someone involved with the Iraq dossier "sexing up" has been brushed under the carpet by Blair with what amounts to him saying "I'm your prime minister how dare you question my rule"
Fatherland security... Homeland security.... what's the difference?
I'm starting to worry what this world is coming to.
Last night I watched a program on BBC news 24 about how America is getting paranoid about terrorist attacks, and heard of shocking abuses of power by the government all in the name of preventing terror attacks. Wooden bullets being fired at peaceful protesters against the iraq war. Peace activists getting on FBI 'no-fly' lists, and only being able to get on planes after repeated searching and humiliating questioning. Apparently the patriot act rushed through after the incidents of 11th of September 2001 (i refuse to call it 9/11 anymore) means that people on this list are not told why, how, when or even who maintains this list, understandably these people are taking the government to court. More worryingly, the patriot act II which is under construction, will mean that people are encouraged to spy on their neighbours, and also people can be detained without being told why, additionally, relatives will not be allowed to know if or why that person is detained.. is this the land of the free?
As the commentator they had brought in said, "the sort of police state America that will help prevent terrorism will not be the sort of america that americans want to live in."
And here, across the water, I feel that we are slipping the same way, and are not immune to the abuses of power by the US police/government. This morning i was reading Richard Stallman's website (not normally a man that i aggree with as he has quite wacky ideas about free software, and quite frankly i think he's a nut) and he had a link to the following article about shocking treatment of Innocent BRITISH nationals so much for President Blair and Prime Minister Bush's special relationship. (did I get that the wrong way around? not sure...)
To quote stallman:
"The choice of citizens of various allies as the first batch to be threatened with execution seems to be a calculated gesture of contempt towards those countries, a demonstration to them that they have to take a kick in the teeth from the US. I hope that the pressure in the UK builds up to the point that Blair will be unable to keep supporting Bush. "
Chilling stuff.
And now, from my view it looks as if the suspicious death of someone involved with the Iraq dossier "sexing up" has been brushed under the carpet by Blair with what amounts to him saying "I'm your prime minister how dare you question my rule"
Fatherland security... Homeland security.... what's the difference?
Sunday, July 13, 2003
Week in, week out
Well, there goes the end of another week, it's far too bloody hot today!
Meal out on monday was very nice, had duck in some really nice sauce hmmmmmmmmm, can really reccoment "ostlers" in Worcester, and considering the quality of the food, it's reasonably priced too i suppose.
Wednesday was a bit of a news day for my broadband campaign which i have been trying to set up, finally, our exchange got an ADSL trigger level! and only 150 at that, and we already have 90-odd pre-registrations so only 50 or so to go! Put up some posters around the two villages covered by the exchange, and visited a couple of local businesses, will contact the school next week, and BT will have hopefully sent me some free leaflets by then to distribute.
Otherwise the week hasn't been that productive, had a pre-run-through for the big presentation at the end of the month, and it seemed that me and my colleague were the best prepared for out part, dispite me having only written the slides while the person beforehand was presenting their material!
Got my results on thursday night (early, as the published date was friday) and got an average of 65%, so hopefully if I can get my finger out i have the potential to get a first, but am on-track for a 2(i).
Speaking of the final year, I have made some contact with a tutor about a topic for my final project, and he seems initially keen with the title I have suggested, and there is also a prospect of some invlovement with work, which could potentially mean that they can supply some kit for me, splendid.
Can't wait to be back in aber now, want to get the third year underway.... Planning a trip over there at some point, but with a few commitments around here, I am not totally sure when that is going to be now, hopefully this coming weekend, but i'll have to enquire about who's going to be there, and also floor crashing availablility.
Well, there goes the end of another week, it's far too bloody hot today!
Meal out on monday was very nice, had duck in some really nice sauce hmmmmmmmmm, can really reccoment "ostlers" in Worcester, and considering the quality of the food, it's reasonably priced too i suppose.
Wednesday was a bit of a news day for my broadband campaign which i have been trying to set up, finally, our exchange got an ADSL trigger level! and only 150 at that, and we already have 90-odd pre-registrations so only 50 or so to go! Put up some posters around the two villages covered by the exchange, and visited a couple of local businesses, will contact the school next week, and BT will have hopefully sent me some free leaflets by then to distribute.
Otherwise the week hasn't been that productive, had a pre-run-through for the big presentation at the end of the month, and it seemed that me and my colleague were the best prepared for out part, dispite me having only written the slides while the person beforehand was presenting their material!
Got my results on thursday night (early, as the published date was friday) and got an average of 65%, so hopefully if I can get my finger out i have the potential to get a first, but am on-track for a 2(i).
Speaking of the final year, I have made some contact with a tutor about a topic for my final project, and he seems initially keen with the title I have suggested, and there is also a prospect of some invlovement with work, which could potentially mean that they can supply some kit for me, splendid.
Can't wait to be back in aber now, want to get the third year underway.... Planning a trip over there at some point, but with a few commitments around here, I am not totally sure when that is going to be now, hopefully this coming weekend, but i'll have to enquire about who's going to be there, and also floor crashing availablility.
Monday, July 07, 2003
Well, quite a lot has happened in the last couple of weeks, and I've not really had the time nor inclination to get around to getting this up to date.
After a lot of mulling over the options, I decided the most useful thing to do with birthday money would be to put it towards a new PC, so I splashed out (possibly irresponsibly) on a whole new PC, complete with splendid 17” TFT :) It arrived on friday well in time for my birthday today (I'm writing this at 2am).
We opened presents earlier tonight, got some nice things including a really cool glass cube with a 3d image somehow inexplicable etched in the middle of it :) Tonight we are going to really nice little restaurant in Worcester for dinner (nothing like playing happy families eh?) the same one that we went to for my 18th all those many moons ago.
Strangely the first birthday greeting i got today was a spam from “mypoints” hehe. Anyway, got to get some sleep.
After a lot of mulling over the options, I decided the most useful thing to do with birthday money would be to put it towards a new PC, so I splashed out (possibly irresponsibly) on a whole new PC, complete with splendid 17” TFT :) It arrived on friday well in time for my birthday today (I'm writing this at 2am).
We opened presents earlier tonight, got some nice things including a really cool glass cube with a 3d image somehow inexplicable etched in the middle of it :) Tonight we are going to really nice little restaurant in Worcester for dinner (nothing like playing happy families eh?) the same one that we went to for my 18th all those many moons ago.
Strangely the first birthday greeting i got today was a spam from “mypoints” hehe. Anyway, got to get some sleep.
Monday, June 23, 2003
Ok, not having a go at anyone in particular, as this has happening with increasing frequency, and at least twice today from different people:
Will people who prefer to use [nameless unix based operating systems] please stop asking me how to use Windows applications, and somehow conveying that it's my fault when they don't work as expected/percieved... Presumably as I have a balanced view to using computers (i.e i don't instantly rubbish a Microsoft product just because it's Microsoft) Set yourself up the online help, which, Microsoft are acutally very good at *shocker*
Will people who prefer to use [nameless unix based operating systems] please stop asking me how to use Windows applications, and somehow conveying that it's my fault when they don't work as expected/percieved... Presumably as I have a balanced view to using computers (i.e i don't instantly rubbish a Microsoft product just because it's Microsoft) Set yourself up the online help, which, Microsoft are acutally very good at *shocker*
Thursday, June 19, 2003
Well, I’ve been my usual slack self at blogging. To be honest, I have kind of lost interest, so blogging may or may not be more sporadic from now onwards, who knows to be honest : )
Well basically, I’m now back at work after a bit of a mad few weeks of frantically moving house, sorting things out and dealing with whats going on around here.
The long and short of it is this:
Bought myself a leather chair, got an interesting project at work, ordered ISDN which is now installed, bought a wireless access point and ISDN card (which I am yet to install). PCMCIA wireless card ordered and arrived. Got myself a nice wireless network, but not really had chance to sort out the security side yet, so it’s switched off when not in use :P
I’ll write a better blog when I do some interesting things : )
Oh yeah and had a good night out on friday in aber before i left finally to move back here, which in itself was a story as i didn't think that all my crap was going to fit in the car... In the end it did though, and made pretty good time too.
Well basically, I’m now back at work after a bit of a mad few weeks of frantically moving house, sorting things out and dealing with whats going on around here.
The long and short of it is this:
Bought myself a leather chair, got an interesting project at work, ordered ISDN which is now installed, bought a wireless access point and ISDN card (which I am yet to install). PCMCIA wireless card ordered and arrived. Got myself a nice wireless network, but not really had chance to sort out the security side yet, so it’s switched off when not in use :P
I’ll write a better blog when I do some interesting things : )
Oh yeah and had a good night out on friday in aber before i left finally to move back here, which in itself was a story as i didn't think that all my crap was going to fit in the car... In the end it did though, and made pretty good time too.
Friday, June 06, 2003
Thursday, June 05, 2003
Last Full Day In aber
Spv arrived on tuesday, it's quite reasonable but the battery life seems crap so I am reserving judgement until tuesday next week which is the last day I can send it back if i don't get on with it.
Been packing and sorting things out ready for moving back on saturday.... Landlord is coming tommorrow to inspect so i finish work at lunchtime.... All ready to get everything moved back on sat...
Will blog more when less busy
Spv arrived on tuesday, it's quite reasonable but the battery life seems crap so I am reserving judgement until tuesday next week which is the last day I can send it back if i don't get on with it.
Been packing and sorting things out ready for moving back on saturday.... Landlord is coming tommorrow to inspect so i finish work at lunchtime.... All ready to get everything moved back on sat...
Will blog more when less busy
Tuesday, June 03, 2003
Sunday, June 01, 2003
Thursday, May 29, 2003
Gah, just lost a blog - grrr!
Well, it seems that the blades of the blender that was this last weekend or so have slowed for a while, however, I am fairly sure that things will be back up to speed by next weekend.
Got things back in gear today, started on the mounting pile of paperwork that needed to be dealt with since before the exams, forms sent off, details entered, documents filed... Hmm I need a slave/secretary/cook… It just remains to sort choose another 30 credits for next year, seems that management isn’t a real option as they all have prerequisites of some level one management module, possibly looking at geography or information studies (possible noddyness in some parts) will sort that out tomorrow.
James has come up for a day or two after returning from the US, but Chris has an exam in the morning, so we couldn’t pester him too much.
Well, it seems that the blades of the blender that was this last weekend or so have slowed for a while, however, I am fairly sure that things will be back up to speed by next weekend.
Got things back in gear today, started on the mounting pile of paperwork that needed to be dealt with since before the exams, forms sent off, details entered, documents filed... Hmm I need a slave/secretary/cook… It just remains to sort choose another 30 credits for next year, seems that management isn’t a real option as they all have prerequisites of some level one management module, possibly looking at geography or information studies (possible noddyness in some parts) will sort that out tomorrow.
James has come up for a day or two after returning from the US, but Chris has an exam in the morning, so we couldn’t pester him too much.
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
Extremes of a weekend
That walk on sunday turned out to be quite unexpectedly long... me and mark walked to clarach, then a bit further and decided to go all the way to borth and get a bus back as it was quicker than turning back.. Finally made it to Borth at about 3.30, looked for a bus timetable, noticed there was no sunday service listed so asked at the tourist information... No busses from borth on a sunday. Bugger. The next and last train was at 7pm, which would have got us back too late for the film (see below). Phoned lots of people i knew with cars, but for various reasons they were all unavailable which is fair enough (they all lost out on their fiver). Ended up getting a taxi back for £11, after the idea for a "jog" back failed as we got halfway up the first (not very steep) hill. Upon investigation it turned out to be 5.8 miles anyway... so that would have ended in death or failiure, or both.
After a soak in the bath, went to see the Matrix Reloaded, to be honest it wasn't all that great, perhaps i'm a bit confused by it as they seemed to have a lot going on, and the fight scenes I thought were very drawn out, and to top it off, they did the "to be continued" line at the end as it's now a trilogy. Yes, it might work for lord of the rings, harry pothead etc, but this is the matrix. don't fuck with the format, please.
Next day was not as good, had some news over lunch that I am not going to go into here, but we shall see what becomes of it.
Learned: There are no buses in Borth on a sunday
Current MP3: Scooter - weekend
That walk on sunday turned out to be quite unexpectedly long... me and mark walked to clarach, then a bit further and decided to go all the way to borth and get a bus back as it was quicker than turning back.. Finally made it to Borth at about 3.30, looked for a bus timetable, noticed there was no sunday service listed so asked at the tourist information... No busses from borth on a sunday. Bugger. The next and last train was at 7pm, which would have got us back too late for the film (see below). Phoned lots of people i knew with cars, but for various reasons they were all unavailable which is fair enough (they all lost out on their fiver). Ended up getting a taxi back for £11, after the idea for a "jog" back failed as we got halfway up the first (not very steep) hill. Upon investigation it turned out to be 5.8 miles anyway... so that would have ended in death or failiure, or both.
After a soak in the bath, went to see the Matrix Reloaded, to be honest it wasn't all that great, perhaps i'm a bit confused by it as they seemed to have a lot going on, and the fight scenes I thought were very drawn out, and to top it off, they did the "to be continued" line at the end as it's now a trilogy. Yes, it might work for lord of the rings, harry pothead etc, but this is the matrix. don't fuck with the format, please.
Next day was not as good, had some news over lunch that I am not going to go into here, but we shall see what becomes of it.
Learned: There are no buses in Borth on a sunday
Current MP3: Scooter - weekend
Sunday, May 25, 2003
Munted
Liz' birthday today, absolutely great night was had by all as far as I can tell/remember. Started off in scholars with a buffet layed on and everything, lots of people came over to Aber for it, so it was a great oppertunity to meet up with people I've not seen for a while.
There were worrying numbers of cameras around for the evening (I knew this would be the case and didn't take mine), and in true compsci style the photos were all on the internet before 3am, after I had long gone home due to not feeling so good. Having a browse this morning, I look truely awful in some of the pictures... Oh well..
Anyway Happy Birthday liz and i'm off work off all that drink :S
Liz' birthday today, absolutely great night was had by all as far as I can tell/remember. Started off in scholars with a buffet layed on and everything, lots of people came over to Aber for it, so it was a great oppertunity to meet up with people I've not seen for a while.
There were worrying numbers of cameras around for the evening (I knew this would be the case and didn't take mine), and in true compsci style the photos were all on the internet before 3am, after I had long gone home due to not feeling so good. Having a browse this morning, I look truely awful in some of the pictures... Oh well..
Anyway Happy Birthday liz and i'm off work off all that drink :S
Saturday, May 24, 2003
Finished!
Exams finally over! Wahoo! Last exam wasn't as nice as the rest have been, to be honest I think it's basis on a 10 year old ISDN position paper was a bit flawed, but they claim it does take account of the internet, they just didn't mention it for political reasons - pah!
Ended up in the union last night... got quite drunk as usual.. But got a phone call from Mum at 9pm saying i am insured on her new MX-5 until the insurance runs out in June!! :D
Ended up being quite an eventful night, most of which i was unaware of due to drunkennes - hmm this has happened before.
Exams finally over! Wahoo! Last exam wasn't as nice as the rest have been, to be honest I think it's basis on a 10 year old ISDN position paper was a bit flawed, but they claim it does take account of the internet, they just didn't mention it for political reasons - pah!
Ended up in the union last night... got quite drunk as usual.. But got a phone call from Mum at 9pm saying i am insured on her new MX-5 until the insurance runs out in June!! :D
Ended up being quite an eventful night, most of which i was unaware of due to drunkennes - hmm this has happened before.
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
Exam Horror
Third exam this morning, HCI, went better than expected to be honest, managed to get a lot of points accross, and even wrote a rather conspicuous "plan" at the top of one of one of the essay questions - maybe that will get me a few more marks :o)
Promised myself an early night as i have to cram a bit in the morning due to extreme tiredness this week, 5 exams in a week all at 9am each day is quite draining... Brain getting like spaghetti.
Third exam this morning, HCI, went better than expected to be honest, managed to get a lot of points accross, and even wrote a rather conspicuous "plan" at the top of one of one of the essay questions - maybe that will get me a few more marks :o)
Promised myself an early night as i have to cram a bit in the morning due to extreme tiredness this week, 5 exams in a week all at 9am each day is quite draining... Brain getting like spaghetti.
Tuesday, May 20, 2003
First exam was earlier today - data structures... Don't think it went too badly, was quite nice to know that I pretty much went in there with the module pass mark.
Went for nice coffee and lunchtime with a friend, was nice to see "The Mecca" for the first time (it's usually too packed) had a nice latté - i've really started to get into the things :o)
Tommorrow mornnings exam is Databases, and I am not sure that I have really done enough prerparation, i spent all of today moping about trying to focus, but i think that it was too soon after the previous exam to get my teeth into it really. Got a few hours of half-hearted cramming done later this evening, wether it is enough we shall see.
Went for nice coffee and lunchtime with a friend, was nice to see "The Mecca" for the first time (it's usually too packed) had a nice latté - i've really started to get into the things :o)
Tommorrow mornnings exam is Databases, and I am not sure that I have really done enough prerparation, i spent all of today moping about trying to focus, but i think that it was too soon after the previous exam to get my teeth into it really. Got a few hours of half-hearted cramming done later this evening, wether it is enough we shall see.
Saturday, May 17, 2003
It's that time of year again... Exams start monday and run right through with one at 9am each day until friday - woo!
Got offered a free phone upgrade last week, the Orange SPV have seen some mixed reviews on the net after a bit of searching, several reports of crashing and other things going wrong. Decided to order it anyway as you are given 7 days to send it back if it's crap... Watch this space!
Ironically it didn't arrive on friday as it should have done due to a software glitch meaning they thought it was in stock when it was in fact out of stock... what a good start :)
Had a bit of strange night out last night, I'm going to attribute it to exam stress and drink.... Realised I quite like Jack Daniels... must mean I am getting older.
Spent far too much time avoiding revision this afternoon reading 'tardblog' some excellent tales of things witnessed by a special needs teacher. Not too sure if it's true or not, but it's a great laugh :)
Got offered a free phone upgrade last week, the Orange SPV have seen some mixed reviews on the net after a bit of searching, several reports of crashing and other things going wrong. Decided to order it anyway as you are given 7 days to send it back if it's crap... Watch this space!
Ironically it didn't arrive on friday as it should have done due to a software glitch meaning they thought it was in stock when it was in fact out of stock... what a good start :)
Had a bit of strange night out last night, I'm going to attribute it to exam stress and drink.... Realised I quite like Jack Daniels... must mean I am getting older.
Spent far too much time avoiding revision this afternoon reading 'tardblog' some excellent tales of things witnessed by a special needs teacher. Not too sure if it's true or not, but it's a great laugh :)
Saturday, May 10, 2003
May ball
Feeling much, much happier as C project was finished by friday morning due to a sudden realisation that we didn't have to do half the work i thought we did. I battered out all the code in one night :D
Went for a run first thing on friday morning, was intending to go all the way around town, but once i got to the castle i was almost dead so headed back.
Landlord didn't fix cupboard - *unshocker* Decided to fix the pull cord on the light in the bathroom myself as i couldn't be arsed to report that one to him and be ignored - replacement cord switch only £1.99 which seemed reasonable.
Decided to get some coffee flavourings this afternoon and made myself a vanilla latte - hmmmmmm. However, managed to spill sticky vanilla flavoring everwhere when the milk boiled fiercely when i left it to froth while washing up :/
Quite a hectic social schedule now that assignment is done, people seem to be having birthdays all over the place, in fact, I'm off to the pub now as a may ball replacement activity :)
Feeling much, much happier as C project was finished by friday morning due to a sudden realisation that we didn't have to do half the work i thought we did. I battered out all the code in one night :D
Went for a run first thing on friday morning, was intending to go all the way around town, but once i got to the castle i was almost dead so headed back.
Landlord didn't fix cupboard - *unshocker* Decided to fix the pull cord on the light in the bathroom myself as i couldn't be arsed to report that one to him and be ignored - replacement cord switch only £1.99 which seemed reasonable.
Decided to get some coffee flavourings this afternoon and made myself a vanilla latte - hmmmmmm. However, managed to spill sticky vanilla flavoring everwhere when the milk boiled fiercely when i left it to froth while washing up :/
Quite a hectic social schedule now that assignment is done, people seem to be having birthdays all over the place, in fact, I'm off to the pub now as a may ball replacement activity :)
Wednesday, May 07, 2003
Maybe I'll Survive it
Well, can't really say this week is getting any better, still not got any sizeable amount of C done, spent the day at work today, so i suppose that will bring in some pennies for my possible ipod purchase, maybe, possibly, i don't know.
To top things off, last night i went into the kitchen to get a biscuit... Opened the cupboard and it sort of became loose as i opened it, next thing i know, everything is all over the floor and i'm holding it up stopping it crusing the plates on the draining board. Unsurprisingly the landlord didn't arrive today to fix it like he said he would.
Hoping to feel less crap when C is finished - ololololololol
Operation BurtFit news: I will go for that run i've been planning for aboutm weem
Well, can't really say this week is getting any better, still not got any sizeable amount of C done, spent the day at work today, so i suppose that will bring in some pennies for my possible ipod purchase, maybe, possibly, i don't know.
To top things off, last night i went into the kitchen to get a biscuit... Opened the cupboard and it sort of became loose as i opened it, next thing i know, everything is all over the floor and i'm holding it up stopping it crusing the plates on the draining board. Unsurprisingly the landlord didn't arrive today to fix it like he said he would.
Hoping to feel less crap when C is finished - ololololololol
Operation BurtFit news: I will go for that run i've been planning for aboutm weem
Tuesday, May 06, 2003
Monday, May 05, 2003
Sunday, April 27, 2003
Dispondancy
(Possibly strange mood warning)
It's that time of year again, the time where I start considering the end of the achedemic year and the things that implies. Basically, a change of friends, change of home (I hate moving back and forth now) and change of scenery (no more seaside), oh and not living 2 minutes walking distance from 10 pubs :o)
At the moment I have three major Assignments to be completed in the next two weeks, and it would seem that I am bored with all three of them without having started one of them, for some reason I have this urge to just turn off all my computers and run away. I suppose I am looking forward to this summer now, then getting my Final year of Uni underway, err, hang on a minute, Final???? What the f*ck happened to the last two, err, three, no, maybe four years? hmm.
Right, well I have decided not to sleep until I have finished most of the Java assignment, so I suppose I had better get started on it again before I get too tired to implement that last type of sort.....
Operation BurtFit news:
Hasn't started yet - *unshocker* Chippy for dinner, which i'm sure really helped too.
(Possibly strange mood warning)
It's that time of year again, the time where I start considering the end of the achedemic year and the things that implies. Basically, a change of friends, change of home (I hate moving back and forth now) and change of scenery (no more seaside), oh and not living 2 minutes walking distance from 10 pubs :o)
At the moment I have three major Assignments to be completed in the next two weeks, and it would seem that I am bored with all three of them without having started one of them, for some reason I have this urge to just turn off all my computers and run away. I suppose I am looking forward to this summer now, then getting my Final year of Uni underway, err, hang on a minute, Final???? What the f*ck happened to the last two, err, three, no, maybe four years? hmm.
Right, well I have decided not to sleep until I have finished most of the Java assignment, so I suppose I had better get started on it again before I get too tired to implement that last type of sort.....
Operation BurtFit news:
Hasn't started yet - *unshocker* Chippy for dinner, which i'm sure really helped too.
Saturday, April 26, 2003
Utter Bollocks
Well I don't believe this for a second, there is no way in this world Tony would give up his presidency^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hposition, he likes power too much.
Well I don't believe this for a second, there is no way in this world Tony would give up his presidency^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hposition, he likes power too much.
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
One Year On
It would seem that I have been blogging over a year :O Ok well maybe i haven't been the most consistant blogger, but I hope that it will provide some record for me to look back on, even if it is suitably vague in parts :)
Decided I need to get fit, as looking at one of those height-weight chart things i am officially in the "overwieght" to add insult to injury, I just received the following spam with the subject: "Christopher, your diet is ready for shipment. You owe $0." Scarry. Not sure of the plan of attack yet, but i think it may have to involve the gym, or possibly - horror - A bike.
Have got a couple of assignments to do, and am struggling to remain interested with the C assignment, it really is dull.
It would seem that I have been blogging over a year :O Ok well maybe i haven't been the most consistant blogger, but I hope that it will provide some record for me to look back on, even if it is suitably vague in parts :)
Decided I need to get fit, as looking at one of those height-weight chart things i am officially in the "overwieght" to add insult to injury, I just received the following spam with the subject: "Christopher, your diet is ready for shipment. You owe $0." Scarry. Not sure of the plan of attack yet, but i think it may have to involve the gym, or possibly - horror - A bike.
Have got a couple of assignments to do, and am struggling to remain interested with the C assignment, it really is dull.
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
All Blogged Out
Well, that blog I just posted took me A week because I am slack, and I now have a mountain of work to do. And yes, I know it's boring :) - Not feeling very creative writing wise.
Not done much useful in the last week really. Arrived back in aber yesterday afternoon as I need to do some work on the uni computers for this damned C assignment, and I refuse to use SSH over a modem. Ended up going out and getting pissed, not what I intended to do. Hmm absinthe never good, seems like pete was riding the porcelain bus :/
Sleep patterns have been a little fucked since arriving, going to go to bed at a reasonable time tonight though, and gettting up in the morning to sort out the association form for next year.
Learned:
Don't attempt big blogs.
The world is a very small place when you have a 747-400
Well, that blog I just posted took me A week because I am slack, and I now have a mountain of work to do. And yes, I know it's boring :) - Not feeling very creative writing wise.
Not done much useful in the last week really. Arrived back in aber yesterday afternoon as I need to do some work on the uni computers for this damned C assignment, and I refuse to use SSH over a modem. Ended up going out and getting pissed, not what I intended to do. Hmm absinthe never good, seems like pete was riding the porcelain bus :/
Sleep patterns have been a little fucked since arriving, going to go to bed at a reasonable time tonight though, and gettting up in the morning to sort out the association form for next year.
Learned:
Don't attempt big blogs.
The world is a very small place when you have a 747-400
Chicken or beef?
On Wednesday, after what seemed like an age of travelling I arrived back home from Waukesha, USA after visiting James and co. All in all it was a great week, so thanks are due to James and Gerwyn for putting us up for the week, and special thanks to Becky for driving us around places when we were there, as we wouldn’t have seen half as much without her help :)
I’ve never been to the USA before, and before that I’d not been abroad (do we count Wales?) since I think 1996 to Cyprus, so it was great to have a break in somewhere new.
On Sunday evening I drove down to Chris’ then on to his Nan’s house as she lives taxi distance from the airport, made quite good time, getting down to Chris’ within 50 minutes, and then 1 hour 45 to his nan’s.
Monday
Next morning, our taxi arrived on time after the driver initially phoned to say that he was going to be a bit late due to traffic, strange, but then again I suppose it is London. Checked in on arrival, went pretty much straight through security, then had some time to kill airside for a while, browsed the expensive shops and drank coffee in Wetherspoons, it being late morning it was a bit to early to start drinking overpriced beer.
Plane was a 747-400 affectionately named “vomit comet” as it was one of the ones with the old BA tail-fin designs that looked like someone had had an unfortunate accident all over it. Being my first long haul flight I was quite imtreagued/impressed with things overall, the Seat back LCD TVs are funky, I must have spent several hours just staring at the amazing GPS map with things like current altitude, speed and time of arrival etc. Enjoyed the food too, had the nicest chicken korma I have had in a while, not to mention the free bar :o)
Made good time and arrived at O’hare at I think 3.30pm, wandered down to immigration and wondered why exactly the guy who directed people to the available desks needed a handgun, but I suppose this is America.
We wandered outside following the “unique” map that James had emailed us, the weather was freezing with snow about 4” deep across the road from the airport exit, hadn’t seen this much snow in a long time. Sure enough the bus arrived, then we made our way up to Milwaukee General Mitchell airport, bus was $37 for a return which I suppose wasn’t bad!
Arrived at Milwaukee, and hung around in the terminal at the place we were supposed to meet jimmy and becky, but then for various reasons decided to walk up to the bit where people were being picked up from outside arrivals, which meant that when they arrived to pick us up they didn’t see us, as they parked up and walked over and not drove to the pick up point as we guessed they would, if only I had taken notice of the other map James sent :)
Anyway, here we were, and we made our way to the uni via subway as Chris and I needed something to eat, I was completely knackered as I was reaching the end of a 32 hour day, so don’t remember all that much! We had a campus tour from James once we had got our stuff inside, also had a nice latte… hmmm vanilla caramel.
Tuesday
First full day in the USA :o Went for a walk to downtown Waukesha, saw all of the “sights” (Waukesha is kind of a more spread out Malvern, but without the excitement of the hills). We wandered into the salvation army “thrift store”, which is kind of like a UK charity shop, but with the American touch of being a huge shop full of people’s old crap, as opposed to a small shop filled with people’s old crap, didn’t buy anything, surprisingly.
After lunch at the college canteen type thing, Becky took us to the Mayfair mall which I think was about 20 minutes away. It was quite a big place, say about half the size of Merry Hell (Hill) I think, It also had the first Apple store that I have ever been to. Spent a while looking over the new powerbooks, and also at an iPod that I have been considering for a long time, didn’t in the end as I realised that it was only say £40 cheaper than in the UK and it would have the wrong power adaptor, guarantee etc so would not be as saleable if I ever wanted to sell it on. Had a good browse of the shops including the cool massage chairs that almost all the electrical shops seemed to have, ended up not buying anything, but then again anything I did buy I had to get back to the UK. Saw some real in-the-flesh Oingo Boingo albums that you would never see in the UK, but didn’t buy them because “little girls” wasn’t on there…
Wednesday
James Chris and I went to Brookfield mall on the bus, which is perhaps a little too much shopping within the space of 24 hours, but it turned out that the journey itself was entertaining enough. We caught the bus from downtown Waukesha, and after a while we turned a corner past a petrol station, only to have a car pull into the petrol station in front of the bus requiring the driver to slam on the anchors. Normally this wouldn’t have been so much of a big deal, but a small girl travelling with her mother on the back seat fell on the floor and started crying quite loudly, at which point the driver got worried and made sure the girl was ok, and radioed back to base to tell them what had happened. The driver was then informed to get the passengers to fill in incident report cards, of which there were none where they should be on the bus, so we were asked to fill in details of what we saw and contact information on the back of bus timetables, fun eh? I presume that this was so if someone sued, the company would have a record of what happened.
Anyway once we arrived, we spent some time looking around the shops, yet more massage chairs in all the electrical shops. Didn’t get much apart from a T shirt ($4) and a jumper ($3) , very much doubt you could find all that for £5 in the uk. bargain.
In the evening we went to Becky’s aunts house for dinner with Becky and Chris, had a very nice roast chicken dinner and watched TV for a while. Was quite unique to see an American home, something that I don’t think would really have been a possibility on a more conventional holiday.
That evening we watched a video and went on duty with Becky on her rounds around the halls, something I shall probably write about later
Thursday
After getting up relatively early we got the bus to ‘Goerke's Corners’ which is a park and ride centre type thing and a stop for good old Coach USA (who we seemed to see quite a bit of during our stay) Which took us down to O’Hare so we could get the CTA Train thing, which is kind of like the tube, but more overground than underground, it also runs on the central reservation of what I think was a freeway for some of the way, which was fun.
We got to central Chicago and headed roughly in the direction of the Sears Tower, which took us a bit to find, but got there relatively quickly. Was $9.50 to go into the Sears Tower, was quiet it being midweek, we were lucky that by this stage the snow had all thawed and the weather was getting warmer and it was a perfectly clear day. The lift to the top was very fast, and they had a cartoon thing for the duration of the ride with some information about the tower, where they make the interesting claim to be ‘the world’s tallest building’ which is an interesting claim, I was sure it was those towers in Singapore. But its probably due to an intricacy of the wording and the rules governing building record attempts, for example the sears tower most definitely has the highest occupied floor. Did the Japanese tourist bit and took * loads * of photos, some of them came out ok and will follow on the web somewhere, but not necessarily public.
Walked around for a while trying to find Chicago Rock Café so Chris could by a T shirt, however, ended up giving in and getting a taxi. Also had a Starbucks at some point, hmm Coffee.
Friday
Today we decided to “do” Milwaukee that I though was a really nice city, and would quite like to go there again someday. After lunch Becky decided that she would come with us and after a sneaky phone call rescheduled a meeting that she had due that afternoon – naughty girl ;)
The weather by this stage was getting quite warm and an interesting comparison to the 0 degrees snow when we arrived. We all got the bus from central Waukesha into town. We saw the art museum(www.mam.org) which was designed by the guy who designed the Sidney opera house it has “wings” that open out, unfortunately we didn’t see them open, but even so the building was amazing. Went for a walk down the shore of lake Michigan, it was quite strange to be on the coast of a lake that seemed more like an ocean. After that we wandered around a mall and a few shops and had something to eat, however this time there wasn’t an apple shop : (
After returning that evening we went to the cinema and saw “Phone Booth” almost a week before it came out in the UK * gloat * (ok, ok I’ve never done that before so it was a novelty for me, ok) I thought it was a good film, if perhaps a tad predictable, reminded me of a cross between Speed and Swordfish, I was gripped throughout the film and the fact that it had ended came as a bit of a shock. Afterwards we went to this place that serves frozen custard, which I think is just like smooth ice cream, a bit like a thicker version of Mr Whippy but flavoured.
Saturday
Saturday was a bit of a quiet day, didn’t do much apart from Chris, Jimmy and I went to K-mart and Pick n’ save to pick up some supplies (namely Hershey’s and a few other bits). Random Rip-off Britain rant: Ben and Jerries was $3.50 in pick-n-save, checking yesterday the same stuff was £4.39!
Sunday
On Sunday we went to Wales, yes Wales WI, wholly for the irony purposes, but I did get a good photo of us all under the sign on the way in that I shall have to put up soon. Also took some cash out at a machine, got a reciept with “Pick n’ Save, Wales” on it, OK so call me sad, but I think it’s amusing. We then had lunch at a nice restaurant somewhere, sort of log cabin type affair thing, did a really nice chicken grill sandwich thing. I also tasted Becky’s Root Beer, which I expected to taste of ginger ale, but in fact was more like… Mouthwash.
Burt’s Secret Root Beer recipe: Take one glass of Coke, add two tablespoons of Plax antibacterial, hey presto.
After dinner we went to a place called “Pewaukee” which is a small town by the side of another lake (a much smaller one this time, we could see the other side )again the weather was great and we spent some time wandering around and skimming stones, took quite a few pictures.
Monday
Me and Chris went for a walk around Waukesha while James was reportedly going to do some work, we walked down to the river and there were loads of people out as the weather by this stage had got to 25 Degrees!
Later that evening we went to a Baseball game at the Miller stadium, which was very new and big. It was the first non-school sporting event I have ever attended, and I don’t think that it has made a sports fan out of me, but it was a good few hours to admire the architecture of the stadium which has a very funky closing roof. Oh yes, also spent quite some time smirking at the prats on the front row who didn’t support the Brewers or the other team playing (I forget the name and the ticket is back home), so they came to heckle (they couldn’t be bothered to go and support the team they actually supported) and they were both pissed and annoying. You could say a lot like a stereotypical football supporter in the UK, they were being loud and smoking when it’s a non-smoking stadium and such, they got a few choice sarcastic comments from the older couple sat behind us. But they did behave better once the cops had a “word” with them : )
Tuesday
Last day in America :/ Got up relatively late, and didn’t do particularly much before Becky took us to Milwaukee General Mitchell airport to catch the coach down to O’Hare (thanks Becky). Journey took a bit longer than expected and arrived at the airport 4 minutes before the bus was due to depart so goodbyes were a bit rushed, but we made it.
Coach got us to the airport in good time, so we went straight to check-in, asked if we could have emergency door seats, but the counter lady said they were not available, instead she said that we could have a window, aisle and vacant seat in the middle as the flight was so quiet. So we went through security, which I have to say seemed like it was an add-on at O’Hare, as a lot of the stuff that would be behind the scenes at Heathrow (for example initial baggage checking) was at the front in areas cordoned off with tensa-barriers, quite possibly recent extra security measures were not designed into the terminal or something.
When we sat down to wait in the gate area, I got called to the desk, thinking that there was a problem with my luggage or something I was a tad worried, but it turned out that the checkin desk woman had remembered we had requested the emergency door seats, and when they became available – Another Brownie point for BA.
Flight back was pleasant, managed a couple of hours sleep, we had the GPS map on the spare centre seat monitor to save switching all the time. We arrived in Heathrow at 11am after flying right over Windsor castle.
Drove back after getting a taxi back to Chris’ nan’s, the taxi cost £5 more then the diesel for driving to London and back via Bristol! When I finally got home was completely knackered but stayed up to avoid screwing sleep patterns too much.
Well after typing all that I’m starting to lose some steam and I’m already seeing things I’ve written that don’t make sense so I am going to stop there. What I will say is thanks to everyone for a great week, see you all soon!
On Wednesday, after what seemed like an age of travelling I arrived back home from Waukesha, USA after visiting James and co. All in all it was a great week, so thanks are due to James and Gerwyn for putting us up for the week, and special thanks to Becky for driving us around places when we were there, as we wouldn’t have seen half as much without her help :)
I’ve never been to the USA before, and before that I’d not been abroad (do we count Wales?) since I think 1996 to Cyprus, so it was great to have a break in somewhere new.
On Sunday evening I drove down to Chris’ then on to his Nan’s house as she lives taxi distance from the airport, made quite good time, getting down to Chris’ within 50 minutes, and then 1 hour 45 to his nan’s.
Monday
Next morning, our taxi arrived on time after the driver initially phoned to say that he was going to be a bit late due to traffic, strange, but then again I suppose it is London. Checked in on arrival, went pretty much straight through security, then had some time to kill airside for a while, browsed the expensive shops and drank coffee in Wetherspoons, it being late morning it was a bit to early to start drinking overpriced beer.
Plane was a 747-400 affectionately named “vomit comet” as it was one of the ones with the old BA tail-fin designs that looked like someone had had an unfortunate accident all over it. Being my first long haul flight I was quite imtreagued/impressed with things overall, the Seat back LCD TVs are funky, I must have spent several hours just staring at the amazing GPS map with things like current altitude, speed and time of arrival etc. Enjoyed the food too, had the nicest chicken korma I have had in a while, not to mention the free bar :o)
Made good time and arrived at O’hare at I think 3.30pm, wandered down to immigration and wondered why exactly the guy who directed people to the available desks needed a handgun, but I suppose this is America.
We wandered outside following the “unique” map that James had emailed us, the weather was freezing with snow about 4” deep across the road from the airport exit, hadn’t seen this much snow in a long time. Sure enough the bus arrived, then we made our way up to Milwaukee General Mitchell airport, bus was $37 for a return which I suppose wasn’t bad!
Arrived at Milwaukee, and hung around in the terminal at the place we were supposed to meet jimmy and becky, but then for various reasons decided to walk up to the bit where people were being picked up from outside arrivals, which meant that when they arrived to pick us up they didn’t see us, as they parked up and walked over and not drove to the pick up point as we guessed they would, if only I had taken notice of the other map James sent :)
Anyway, here we were, and we made our way to the uni via subway as Chris and I needed something to eat, I was completely knackered as I was reaching the end of a 32 hour day, so don’t remember all that much! We had a campus tour from James once we had got our stuff inside, also had a nice latte… hmmm vanilla caramel.
Tuesday
First full day in the USA :o Went for a walk to downtown Waukesha, saw all of the “sights” (Waukesha is kind of a more spread out Malvern, but without the excitement of the hills). We wandered into the salvation army “thrift store”, which is kind of like a UK charity shop, but with the American touch of being a huge shop full of people’s old crap, as opposed to a small shop filled with people’s old crap, didn’t buy anything, surprisingly.
After lunch at the college canteen type thing, Becky took us to the Mayfair mall which I think was about 20 minutes away. It was quite a big place, say about half the size of Merry Hell (Hill) I think, It also had the first Apple store that I have ever been to. Spent a while looking over the new powerbooks, and also at an iPod that I have been considering for a long time, didn’t in the end as I realised that it was only say £40 cheaper than in the UK and it would have the wrong power adaptor, guarantee etc so would not be as saleable if I ever wanted to sell it on. Had a good browse of the shops including the cool massage chairs that almost all the electrical shops seemed to have, ended up not buying anything, but then again anything I did buy I had to get back to the UK. Saw some real in-the-flesh Oingo Boingo albums that you would never see in the UK, but didn’t buy them because “little girls” wasn’t on there…
Wednesday
James Chris and I went to Brookfield mall on the bus, which is perhaps a little too much shopping within the space of 24 hours, but it turned out that the journey itself was entertaining enough. We caught the bus from downtown Waukesha, and after a while we turned a corner past a petrol station, only to have a car pull into the petrol station in front of the bus requiring the driver to slam on the anchors. Normally this wouldn’t have been so much of a big deal, but a small girl travelling with her mother on the back seat fell on the floor and started crying quite loudly, at which point the driver got worried and made sure the girl was ok, and radioed back to base to tell them what had happened. The driver was then informed to get the passengers to fill in incident report cards, of which there were none where they should be on the bus, so we were asked to fill in details of what we saw and contact information on the back of bus timetables, fun eh? I presume that this was so if someone sued, the company would have a record of what happened.
Anyway once we arrived, we spent some time looking around the shops, yet more massage chairs in all the electrical shops. Didn’t get much apart from a T shirt ($4) and a jumper ($3) , very much doubt you could find all that for £5 in the uk. bargain.
In the evening we went to Becky’s aunts house for dinner with Becky and Chris, had a very nice roast chicken dinner and watched TV for a while. Was quite unique to see an American home, something that I don’t think would really have been a possibility on a more conventional holiday.
That evening we watched a video and went on duty with Becky on her rounds around the halls, something I shall probably write about later
Thursday
After getting up relatively early we got the bus to ‘Goerke's Corners’ which is a park and ride centre type thing and a stop for good old Coach USA (who we seemed to see quite a bit of during our stay) Which took us down to O’Hare so we could get the CTA Train thing, which is kind of like the tube, but more overground than underground, it also runs on the central reservation of what I think was a freeway for some of the way, which was fun.
We got to central Chicago and headed roughly in the direction of the Sears Tower, which took us a bit to find, but got there relatively quickly. Was $9.50 to go into the Sears Tower, was quiet it being midweek, we were lucky that by this stage the snow had all thawed and the weather was getting warmer and it was a perfectly clear day. The lift to the top was very fast, and they had a cartoon thing for the duration of the ride with some information about the tower, where they make the interesting claim to be ‘the world’s tallest building’ which is an interesting claim, I was sure it was those towers in Singapore. But its probably due to an intricacy of the wording and the rules governing building record attempts, for example the sears tower most definitely has the highest occupied floor. Did the Japanese tourist bit and took * loads * of photos, some of them came out ok and will follow on the web somewhere, but not necessarily public.
Walked around for a while trying to find Chicago Rock Café so Chris could by a T shirt, however, ended up giving in and getting a taxi. Also had a Starbucks at some point, hmm Coffee.
Friday
Today we decided to “do” Milwaukee that I though was a really nice city, and would quite like to go there again someday. After lunch Becky decided that she would come with us and after a sneaky phone call rescheduled a meeting that she had due that afternoon – naughty girl ;)
The weather by this stage was getting quite warm and an interesting comparison to the 0 degrees snow when we arrived. We all got the bus from central Waukesha into town. We saw the art museum(www.mam.org) which was designed by the guy who designed the Sidney opera house it has “wings” that open out, unfortunately we didn’t see them open, but even so the building was amazing. Went for a walk down the shore of lake Michigan, it was quite strange to be on the coast of a lake that seemed more like an ocean. After that we wandered around a mall and a few shops and had something to eat, however this time there wasn’t an apple shop : (
After returning that evening we went to the cinema and saw “Phone Booth” almost a week before it came out in the UK * gloat * (ok, ok I’ve never done that before so it was a novelty for me, ok) I thought it was a good film, if perhaps a tad predictable, reminded me of a cross between Speed and Swordfish, I was gripped throughout the film and the fact that it had ended came as a bit of a shock. Afterwards we went to this place that serves frozen custard, which I think is just like smooth ice cream, a bit like a thicker version of Mr Whippy but flavoured.
Saturday
Saturday was a bit of a quiet day, didn’t do much apart from Chris, Jimmy and I went to K-mart and Pick n’ save to pick up some supplies (namely Hershey’s and a few other bits). Random Rip-off Britain rant: Ben and Jerries was $3.50 in pick-n-save, checking yesterday the same stuff was £4.39!
Sunday
On Sunday we went to Wales, yes Wales WI, wholly for the irony purposes, but I did get a good photo of us all under the sign on the way in that I shall have to put up soon. Also took some cash out at a machine, got a reciept with “Pick n’ Save, Wales” on it, OK so call me sad, but I think it’s amusing. We then had lunch at a nice restaurant somewhere, sort of log cabin type affair thing, did a really nice chicken grill sandwich thing. I also tasted Becky’s Root Beer, which I expected to taste of ginger ale, but in fact was more like… Mouthwash.
Burt’s Secret Root Beer recipe: Take one glass of Coke, add two tablespoons of Plax antibacterial, hey presto.
After dinner we went to a place called “Pewaukee” which is a small town by the side of another lake (a much smaller one this time, we could see the other side )again the weather was great and we spent some time wandering around and skimming stones, took quite a few pictures.
Monday
Me and Chris went for a walk around Waukesha while James was reportedly going to do some work, we walked down to the river and there were loads of people out as the weather by this stage had got to 25 Degrees!
Later that evening we went to a Baseball game at the Miller stadium, which was very new and big. It was the first non-school sporting event I have ever attended, and I don’t think that it has made a sports fan out of me, but it was a good few hours to admire the architecture of the stadium which has a very funky closing roof. Oh yes, also spent quite some time smirking at the prats on the front row who didn’t support the Brewers or the other team playing (I forget the name and the ticket is back home), so they came to heckle (they couldn’t be bothered to go and support the team they actually supported) and they were both pissed and annoying. You could say a lot like a stereotypical football supporter in the UK, they were being loud and smoking when it’s a non-smoking stadium and such, they got a few choice sarcastic comments from the older couple sat behind us. But they did behave better once the cops had a “word” with them : )
Tuesday
Last day in America :/ Got up relatively late, and didn’t do particularly much before Becky took us to Milwaukee General Mitchell airport to catch the coach down to O’Hare (thanks Becky). Journey took a bit longer than expected and arrived at the airport 4 minutes before the bus was due to depart so goodbyes were a bit rushed, but we made it.
Coach got us to the airport in good time, so we went straight to check-in, asked if we could have emergency door seats, but the counter lady said they were not available, instead she said that we could have a window, aisle and vacant seat in the middle as the flight was so quiet. So we went through security, which I have to say seemed like it was an add-on at O’Hare, as a lot of the stuff that would be behind the scenes at Heathrow (for example initial baggage checking) was at the front in areas cordoned off with tensa-barriers, quite possibly recent extra security measures were not designed into the terminal or something.
When we sat down to wait in the gate area, I got called to the desk, thinking that there was a problem with my luggage or something I was a tad worried, but it turned out that the checkin desk woman had remembered we had requested the emergency door seats, and when they became available – Another Brownie point for BA.
Flight back was pleasant, managed a couple of hours sleep, we had the GPS map on the spare centre seat monitor to save switching all the time. We arrived in Heathrow at 11am after flying right over Windsor castle.
Drove back after getting a taxi back to Chris’ nan’s, the taxi cost £5 more then the diesel for driving to London and back via Bristol! When I finally got home was completely knackered but stayed up to avoid screwing sleep patterns too much.
Well after typing all that I’m starting to lose some steam and I’m already seeing things I’ve written that don’t make sense so I am going to stop there. What I will say is thanks to everyone for a great week, see you all soon!
Thursday, April 10, 2003
Hols
This isnt a proper blog its bullet points for me to fill in later, it will be filled in when i get back :o)
Airport etc, nice curry on plane got some photos
Freezing chicago weather
24 hour adult book stores - no less than three of them
Meet airport - not seeing them
Mad blind woman and accident - "if you pray hard enough maybe jesus will restore your sight. Maybe if YOU pray hard enough jesus will restore your brain"
Need to take more photos
This isnt a proper blog its bullet points for me to fill in later, it will be filled in when i get back :o)
Airport etc, nice curry on plane got some photos
Freezing chicago weather
24 hour adult book stores - no less than three of them
Meet airport - not seeing them
Mad blind woman and accident - "if you pray hard enough maybe jesus will restore your sight. Maybe if YOU pray hard enough jesus will restore your brain"
Need to take more photos
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
Holiday!
Well, It's now april! Been really slack recently with blogging, but I think understandably so as I've been so bogged down with things. The long and short of it is the following:
Group project finished
Second C project finished - didn't go great, but better than pahase one!
Now I'm in the process of preparing for my holiday, i'll be in the states a week from now :o
Well, It's now april! Been really slack recently with blogging, but I think understandably so as I've been so bogged down with things. The long and short of it is the following:
Group project finished
Second C project finished - didn't go great, but better than pahase one!
Now I'm in the process of preparing for my holiday, i'll be in the states a week from now :o
Monday, March 24, 2003
Thursday, March 20, 2003
WAR
Part one of the C project was due in this afternoon, managed to get myself stuck with a stupid segmentation fault error, left it too late with faffing and ended up handing in something that was not finished and didnt run.. Went outside to get in the car to take it up the hill with 4 minutes left, and found road cones and a barrier all around my car. Great. Ended up being late, and with a piss poor handin.
Used the rest of the day finishing it properly, and i can now start on part II :)
Have been watching news 24 all day and watched the first attacks on Iraq start at 0245, i get the feeling i may remember this day for a long time to come.
Must sleep now, got to finish the group project project plan.
Part one of the C project was due in this afternoon, managed to get myself stuck with a stupid segmentation fault error, left it too late with faffing and ended up handing in something that was not finished and didnt run.. Went outside to get in the car to take it up the hill with 4 minutes left, and found road cones and a barrier all around my car. Great. Ended up being late, and with a piss poor handin.
Used the rest of the day finishing it properly, and i can now start on part II :)
Have been watching news 24 all day and watched the first attacks on Iraq start at 0245, i get the feeling i may remember this day for a long time to come.
Must sleep now, got to finish the group project project plan.
Saturday, March 15, 2003
Dvorak
In between avoiding work and not doing work today, Dvorak keyboards were brought up by someone. Decided to try and make one from a spare keyboard i found lying about..... Not too bad really. Takes some getting used to, and felt strange to be starting from the beginning with keyboards again.
Parents coming tommorrow, and I'm knackered so going to attempt to get to bed soon.
In between avoiding work and not doing work today, Dvorak keyboards were brought up by someone. Decided to try and make one from a spare keyboard i found lying about..... Not too bad really. Takes some getting used to, and felt strange to be starting from the beginning with keyboards again.
Parents coming tommorrow, and I'm knackered so going to attempt to get to bed soon.
Monday, March 10, 2003
Wednesday, March 05, 2003
Sunday, March 02, 2003
St David's Day
Alternative title: post going out non-sleeping ramblings
Right, have just woken up after getting 2 hours sleep after a night out. Saturday was St David's day, and seeing as I have been living in Wales for say the best part of 18 months now, I think that means something. Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus! hmm.
As an aside, I've been reading a bit of the BBC wales website, and think it's rather good. Then again I do generally have a high respect for BBC sites, I don't think that so many services would be a available were it not publically run, in fact I think it's the best public service there is in this country.
Alternative title: post going out non-sleeping ramblings
Right, have just woken up after getting 2 hours sleep after a night out. Saturday was St David's day, and seeing as I have been living in Wales for say the best part of 18 months now, I think that means something. Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus! hmm.
As an aside, I've been reading a bit of the BBC wales website, and think it's rather good. Then again I do generally have a high respect for BBC sites, I don't think that so many services would be a available were it not publically run, in fact I think it's the best public service there is in this country.
What a load of old blog
[This blog was actually written a couple of days ago but i've not been bothered to post it ]
Well, here we are again, to be honest I’m getting a bit stressed by everything at the moment (again) and my life seems to be getting more and more busy. Compsoc on Monday night was quite good, turnout seems to be getting better, maybe we will get there eventually… who knows.
Was less than impressed on Tuesday morning when I returned from lectures to find a group of random people standing in our hallway. It seems that our landlord had brought some people to show around for next year, when challenged he did say “oh, I’ve sent you an email” I hadn’t got one, and nobody else around said they had. Turns out that an email had been sent to the two people in the house who check their mail the least often! Oh yes, and also only 1.5 hours in advance… hmm thought they had to give 24 hours notice.
Anyway I have acres of coding to finish off and I want to get started on the final report this evening.
[This blog was actually written a couple of days ago but i've not been bothered to post it ]
Well, here we are again, to be honest I’m getting a bit stressed by everything at the moment (again) and my life seems to be getting more and more busy. Compsoc on Monday night was quite good, turnout seems to be getting better, maybe we will get there eventually… who knows.
Was less than impressed on Tuesday morning when I returned from lectures to find a group of random people standing in our hallway. It seems that our landlord had brought some people to show around for next year, when challenged he did say “oh, I’ve sent you an email” I hadn’t got one, and nobody else around said they had. Turns out that an email had been sent to the two people in the house who check their mail the least often! Oh yes, and also only 1.5 hours in advance… hmm thought they had to give 24 hours notice.
Anyway I have acres of coding to finish off and I want to get started on the final report this evening.
Saturday, February 22, 2003
Speed Blog
Right, i have to leave for the pub in 5 minutes, so this is going to be an UberQuick one... Had a manic week or so and not been bothered to blog. Looks like compsoc next monday could be the best so far this term, starting to get a good feeling about it again.
Had a great night last night, ended up in the Bay, and started having Absinthe, things degenerated when the 36 Year old university employee wouldn't leave me alone :O
Had a quiet day today, and no hangover :) Tommorrow I have to do all the work that I have been avoiding!
Right, i have to leave for the pub in 5 minutes, so this is going to be an UberQuick one... Had a manic week or so and not been bothered to blog. Looks like compsoc next monday could be the best so far this term, starting to get a good feeling about it again.
Had a great night last night, ended up in the Bay, and started having Absinthe, things degenerated when the 36 Year old university employee wouldn't leave me alone :O
Had a quiet day today, and no hangover :) Tommorrow I have to do all the work that I have been avoiding!
Friday, February 14, 2003
Well, thats almost another week gone, got a big day tommorrow, seven hours :/ Going to talk to another tutor about the whole course thing - starting to get a bit sick of not knowing what to do. Seems that everything went off today at gatwick and heathrow seems like some sort of war or something is brewing, who can say.
Anyway, as I say busy day tommorrow, so that's it for another while!
Anyway, as I say busy day tommorrow, so that's it for another while!
Monday, February 10, 2003
Sunday, February 09, 2003
First Week Back
The first week back in lectures has well and truely ended, it's been quite a productive week, and I really am getting into some of the modules that I am doing at the moment. Attempted to blog at some stage during the week, but I took my time writing the Blog, and it didn't submit when the time came. Have finally sorted out the colour scheme/template of this, and I think it now at least sort of fits in with the rest of the site.
As I have said, enjoying modules at the moment, and some of them, especially the Internet related module seems to acutally be related to what I want to do in my future carreer. Started keeping lecture notes on laptop too, with the hope that I will acutally keep decent notes!
The first week back in lectures has well and truely ended, it's been quite a productive week, and I really am getting into some of the modules that I am doing at the moment. Attempted to blog at some stage during the week, but I took my time writing the Blog, and it didn't submit when the time came. Have finally sorted out the colour scheme/template of this, and I think it now at least sort of fits in with the rest of the site.
As I have said, enjoying modules at the moment, and some of them, especially the Internet related module seems to acutally be related to what I want to do in my future carreer. Started keeping lecture notes on laptop too, with the hope that I will acutally keep decent notes!
Monday, February 03, 2003
Exams out of the way now, last one was a bit of a bitch, and the room was freezing which didn't help matters.
Went out friday night for what turned out to be a very random night out, awoke on saturday with an "ARI" - alcohol related illness - nice alternative description ;)
Tommorrow going to be a manic day, presuming I acutally get any sleep.
Went out friday night for what turned out to be a very random night out, awoke on saturday with an "ARI" - alcohol related illness - nice alternative description ;)
Tommorrow going to be a manic day, presuming I acutally get any sleep.
Thursday, January 30, 2003
Tuesday, January 28, 2003
Last minute cramming never works
I am writing this when I really should have been in bed hours ago on the night before my second to last exam, which is at 9.30. I have just spent the last four hours cramming, as over the last three days, I have (yet again) managed to faff around consistently and do nothing that is really useful. Really have to manage how much I do this.
This morning at 3am, the dsl line magically died again, and didn’t come back until 4pm, although this could have meant that I was not distracted by MSN and ICQ and could therefore get more work done, this was not the case, and I managed to waste all my time on the phone to Demon convincing (the initially quite unhelpful) person on the end of the phone that it was indeed their fault. They logged a fault at around 3pm, informing me that it would be looked into the next day; the reason as to how it came back at 4pm is a total mystery.
After exam tomorrow I have shed loads to do, so best get the best sleep I can today, going to bed in quite high spirits : )
Current mp3:
Obsession – always on my mind
Learned:
That I need to improve my time management considerably
I am writing this when I really should have been in bed hours ago on the night before my second to last exam, which is at 9.30. I have just spent the last four hours cramming, as over the last three days, I have (yet again) managed to faff around consistently and do nothing that is really useful. Really have to manage how much I do this.
This morning at 3am, the dsl line magically died again, and didn’t come back until 4pm, although this could have meant that I was not distracted by MSN and ICQ and could therefore get more work done, this was not the case, and I managed to waste all my time on the phone to Demon convincing (the initially quite unhelpful) person on the end of the phone that it was indeed their fault. They logged a fault at around 3pm, informing me that it would be looked into the next day; the reason as to how it came back at 4pm is a total mystery.
After exam tomorrow I have shed loads to do, so best get the best sleep I can today, going to bed in quite high spirits : )
Current mp3:
Obsession – always on my mind
Learned:
That I need to improve my time management considerably
Friday, January 24, 2003
Tommorrow is first exam, maths, am braced for failure, didn't really do enough revision, as always, but then again the content is very uninspiring. Got to go as precious revision time is being wasted.
Faxed my MP - Michael Spicer about the fact that it seems that the enlgish are not getting as good a deal as the Scots and the Welsh after devolution, i.e tuition fees and the WDA funding broadband subsidies. Quite a funky service, but it took a few attempts to get it working.
Really must go and finish revising now, normal blogging service will resume next week.
Faxed my MP - Michael Spicer about the fact that it seems that the enlgish are not getting as good a deal as the Scots and the Welsh after devolution, i.e tuition fees and the WDA funding broadband subsidies. Quite a funky service, but it took a few attempts to get it working.
Really must go and finish revising now, normal blogging service will resume next week.
Monday, January 20, 2003
Examining things
Quite a lot has happened since my last blog, and as it’s been so long I don’t think that I could even hope to remember it all. To be honest it hasn’t been all that an exciting time.
Now back in aber after the usual stress of packing and finding that your stuff is spread about the house, not something that I ever enjoy. Seemed that I had taken way to much back home with me, mainly because I kept thinking “oh and I’ll need that” “oh and perhaps that…”. Next time I shall just take a small suitcase and computer with me!
Exams are looming and my knack of completely avoiding doing any useful work and faffing around for hours instead has shown itself once again, really need to sort out my time management skills. Been working from home and managed to get a fair amount done over xmas, it being a welcome diversion from everything else that we have been doing.
I have borrowed some wireless network adaptors off a friend (USB and PCMCIA) for server and laptop, getting the USB one working was relatively painless once I realised that I first had to find a card with an identical chipset and THEN search for linux drivers. Went ‘wardriving’ around aber tonight, which was entirely unsuccessful, but on returning I found that we had a setting wrong and it would only find my home network!
As I said before, exams are looming and they start on Thursday with maths, which is one of the modules that I really would like not to be taking. In the next few weeks I also have to sort out housing for next year, which is a real bind and not doing anything for my stress levels.
Learned:
Blog more regularly
Friday, January 03, 2003
Happy New Year
By the time it got to new year time things were much less stressful, and went back to aber on new years eve. Chris, James and a couple of his friends came came up from their relative parts of the country, and while it was not a usual bunch of us really, ended up being an allround good night. Introduced people to Tequila Vodka Redbull, which is quite possibly one of the more foul concoctions that I have been known to drink, possibly scared them :) Only realised it was the new year when I recognised that people were singing some song that I recognised, then I dawned on me it was Auld Lang Syne (spelling of that I haven't got a clue on). Unfortunately I was too drunk to be successful catching up with people from #aber which really annoyed me, I believe we were in the same pub for a time, but I think at opposite ends! Suppose there is always next year.
New years Day was quite possibly one of the most civilised I have had for a long time, dispite dodgy stomach. Met up with some old work colleagues for lunch at Half one, then took them back to the house for coffee, to tell you the truth I felt terribly old!
Set off back home on new years day evening, however once underway I noticed that I only had 1/4 of a tank of fuel, now normally this would have just about done, and I could have picked some up at another garage, but they would definately be shut buy the time I made it accross the border, so I went around all the petrol stations in aber, all shut - damn! Decided to use the WAP "where's my nearest" feature, which was very sucessful in finding me all the open stations within a few miles. Naturally it found all the ones that I had already been around, but there was this one that seemed to be out in some tiny village in the middle of nowhere, so I gave them a ring, and the phone was answered by an oldish sounding woman who said they would be open for the next half hour, I head out in entirely the wrong direction thinking that it was north of aber, but after a bit of aimless driving I realised my mistake, and headed back to aber, at the same time giving them another ring to ask for directions. It turned out that after about 20 minutes of aimlessly driving around a tiny villiage a way off the main road that I didn't even know existed, I just about managed to locate them - phew!
Today my cable arrived to connect the Mp3 player to the head unit, was quite neat, as It has the exact same connector as the transfer tape I was using on the Ford head unit, only problem is I think I need a new audio cable from the boot as all i can hear is bloody alternator! and the sound is a bit "flat" too. Might start looking at some sort of interference filter if a new cable doesn't do the trick.
Current MP3:
Oingo Boingo - Little Girls
Learned
Stock up on fuel early on bank holidays!
By the time it got to new year time things were much less stressful, and went back to aber on new years eve. Chris, James and a couple of his friends came came up from their relative parts of the country, and while it was not a usual bunch of us really, ended up being an allround good night. Introduced people to Tequila Vodka Redbull, which is quite possibly one of the more foul concoctions that I have been known to drink, possibly scared them :) Only realised it was the new year when I recognised that people were singing some song that I recognised, then I dawned on me it was Auld Lang Syne (spelling of that I haven't got a clue on). Unfortunately I was too drunk to be successful catching up with people from #aber which really annoyed me, I believe we were in the same pub for a time, but I think at opposite ends! Suppose there is always next year.
New years Day was quite possibly one of the most civilised I have had for a long time, dispite dodgy stomach. Met up with some old work colleagues for lunch at Half one, then took them back to the house for coffee, to tell you the truth I felt terribly old!
Set off back home on new years day evening, however once underway I noticed that I only had 1/4 of a tank of fuel, now normally this would have just about done, and I could have picked some up at another garage, but they would definately be shut buy the time I made it accross the border, so I went around all the petrol stations in aber, all shut - damn! Decided to use the WAP "where's my nearest" feature, which was very sucessful in finding me all the open stations within a few miles. Naturally it found all the ones that I had already been around, but there was this one that seemed to be out in some tiny village in the middle of nowhere, so I gave them a ring, and the phone was answered by an oldish sounding woman who said they would be open for the next half hour, I head out in entirely the wrong direction thinking that it was north of aber, but after a bit of aimless driving I realised my mistake, and headed back to aber, at the same time giving them another ring to ask for directions. It turned out that after about 20 minutes of aimlessly driving around a tiny villiage a way off the main road that I didn't even know existed, I just about managed to locate them - phew!
Today my cable arrived to connect the Mp3 player to the head unit, was quite neat, as It has the exact same connector as the transfer tape I was using on the Ford head unit, only problem is I think I need a new audio cable from the boot as all i can hear is bloody alternator! and the sound is a bit "flat" too. Might start looking at some sort of interference filter if a new cable doesn't do the trick.
Current MP3:
Oingo Boingo - Little Girls
Learned
Stock up on fuel early on bank holidays!
Right, it’s been a while since I have blogged, and it’s also been quite an eventful week or so, which means this one is going to be a long and particularly badly structured one :)
Christmas
Christmas day was alright minus the customary family-in-the-same-room-for-too-long stresses that occur every year but were amplified this year for various reasons that I won’t go into. Got some money a few clothes and a few bits, while Christmas will never be as fun and awe-inspiring as it was when I was a child, this year seemed particularly non-christmassy, I was talking to becky (from the US I met online via James) and she said that she felt the same this year, we have provisionally put it down to age. I mean this is my (quickly does sums in his head) 19th Christmas, probably my 10th that I really knew what was going on, suppose it's natural for my view on it to change.
Well, thats the slightly more gloomy part out of the way, otherwise I have been quite busy avoiding all the work I should be doing seeing as the exams are creeping up on me. The Saturday after Christmas, me, pete and few local (ish) friends, a couple of which I haven't seen in ages decided to go to Worcester for a night out. overall it was a reasonable night, managed to randomly meet up with Duncan, a friend I have not really seen properly since the end of Secondary school. The main difference between worcester and aber has to be the fact that Aber is almost always student-friendly no matter what time of year it is, prices in 'The Postal Order' the Wetherspoon in Worcester were comparable to Aber prices, but as soon as we got into the club, the difference hit, THREE pounds for a pint?!! come on, I ususally pay a maximum of that to get into a place yet alone for one drink!
Oli, one of the guys who went with us very kindly gave me some speakers for the car (Sony Xplod 6x9 for those who care), which then enticed me to make the trip into worcester again and buy myself a new head unit to go with them - ended up getting a Blaupunkt one, as they are available with CD and external input for the MP3 Player - more on this later!
It turned out that that Sunday after christmas was an even more expensive flights, as I have booked my flights to America when me and Chris go and sleep on James' floor in Milwaukee for a week. Quite looking forward to it, seems like a trip to Chicago for the weekend is on the cards, and few other things. Flights heathrow - Chicago were only £237 - Bargain!
New years to follow!
Christmas
Christmas day was alright minus the customary family-in-the-same-room-for-too-long stresses that occur every year but were amplified this year for various reasons that I won’t go into. Got some money a few clothes and a few bits, while Christmas will never be as fun and awe-inspiring as it was when I was a child, this year seemed particularly non-christmassy, I was talking to becky (from the US I met online via James) and she said that she felt the same this year, we have provisionally put it down to age. I mean this is my (quickly does sums in his head) 19th Christmas, probably my 10th that I really knew what was going on, suppose it's natural for my view on it to change.
Well, thats the slightly more gloomy part out of the way, otherwise I have been quite busy avoiding all the work I should be doing seeing as the exams are creeping up on me. The Saturday after Christmas, me, pete and few local (ish) friends, a couple of which I haven't seen in ages decided to go to Worcester for a night out. overall it was a reasonable night, managed to randomly meet up with Duncan, a friend I have not really seen properly since the end of Secondary school. The main difference between worcester and aber has to be the fact that Aber is almost always student-friendly no matter what time of year it is, prices in 'The Postal Order' the Wetherspoon in Worcester were comparable to Aber prices, but as soon as we got into the club, the difference hit, THREE pounds for a pint?!! come on, I ususally pay a maximum of that to get into a place yet alone for one drink!
Oli, one of the guys who went with us very kindly gave me some speakers for the car (Sony Xplod 6x9 for those who care), which then enticed me to make the trip into worcester again and buy myself a new head unit to go with them - ended up getting a Blaupunkt one, as they are available with CD and external input for the MP3 Player - more on this later!
It turned out that that Sunday after christmas was an even more expensive flights, as I have booked my flights to America when me and Chris go and sleep on James' floor in Milwaukee for a week. Quite looking forward to it, seems like a trip to Chicago for the weekend is on the cards, and few other things. Flights heathrow - Chicago were only £237 - Bargain!
New years to follow!
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