Hallowe'een

Well that has to be one of the most disappointing Hallowe'ens ever. I expected something to happen, anything even but it turns out nothing did. I just sat in the house gradually building up rage which has subsequently been partly expressed today and I expect the rest will soon follow tomorrow. Its a bit frustrating really because I hate seeing myself like this. 99% of the time I'm a happy go lucky sort not really bothered by what goes on around me. If something does annoy me or a do get angry, it doesn't last more than a couple of hours before (most of the time) all is forgiven. However this week has been particularly bad and the consequence of letting one small annoyance build upon another has lead to the state I'm in currently.

Football

This is probably the only time that I will ever mention this topic on here so make the most of it. The last week seems to have been particularly filled with football and it's starting to get to me. It is one of my pet hates - along with most other sport to be honest, I simply cannot understand the attraction of watching a group of grown men kick a ball around a field. Obviously there is something to it because it is the most popular sport in the country and millions of people tune in every week to watch the games - not only for their own teams but for other teams as well.

A Schoolboy Error

I cannot believe that I made this classic mistake this morning, I was all set to go for my dissertation meeting at 11:00, and arrived slightly early for the meeting. When I arrived, there were a group of students standing outside the door as if they were waiting to be seen and my tutor was in her office talking to someone. I thought that they might just be waiting for their friend who was just finishing his meeting but after a couple of minutes, when he was done, another student went in to be seen. At this point I felt really stupid, had I got the right day? I had got it into my mind that my meeting was at 11:00 as it had been on the previous two occasions. What I failed to check was whether it was any different this week - which it was, 11:30. I had made an effort to get out of bed and walk down to university and I was half an hour early. Nevermind I thought I've got a few errands to run so I can do those beforehand rather than afterwards as I'd planned.

A Somewhat Productive Day

Either due to some unknown mystical black magicesque influence or something dodgy in the water, something has given me the strength do finally do some work. It wasn't much but its a start and from here on in - as Yazz would say - the only way is up. I've finished my machine learning assignment and it's not even due in until Monday; I've done some more research for my dissertation and soon I might even be able to put pen to paper and actually begin to write some of the expected 20 - 25 pages that are expected from me before the end of the semester. I've found about 20 research papers and journals on the topic and have spent this afternoon trawling through them - first of all to find out whether they are relevant to what I'm doing or not and secondly to understand them and inwardly digest the content. I also spent some time trawling through the vastness that is Google Scholar trying to find the papers that have been referenced by the most relevant papers I have seen so far. Its really quite annoying trying to gain access to them though because whilst the initial search is fairly simple - especially if you know the title of the paper you're looking for - actually viewing the PDF is almost a degree in itself.

Pizza and Good TV

Well I managed to survive the horrific two hour lecture this morning, still suffering from last nights disturbance. It wasn't actually as bad as I thought it was going to be and I think I managed to take in some of the information. I found myself daydreaming rather a lot though and it seems to be happening more and more often recently. One minute I will be paying attention and then the next minute my mind will have gone off on a tangent and I will be thinking about something completely unrelated like pizza or tigers. At some point during this daydream I regain control and realise that for the past goodness knows how long I have been in another world and have missed everything the lecturer has said. Thinking about it, that's probably why this lecture didn't seem so bad; I spent most of the time daydreaming without any conscious perception of time so it seemed a lot shorter.

An Unexpected Visitor

Today has been a catchup day somewhat, getting a few jobs done here and there, avoiding work (again) and generally being quite lazy. I'm getting slightly concerned about the amount of work I've been doing (or not) for the past couple of weeks. I have a meeting with my dissertation tutor on Thursday and in the two weeks that will have passed since our last meeting I have accomplished absolutely nothing.

The Dangers of Memory

I've never had a particularly good memory but on the odd occasion I do remember something, it is usually a piece of completely random information that wouldn't be of any use other than a particularly obscure pub quiz or its a vivid memory of something entirely unimportant. I tend to associate the strangest of things together for example over the summer I was being driven down 'the Bristol Road' for the Brummies (the A38 to everyone else) and I had a really strong memory of being on the road before going to Cadbury's World. The last time I went to Cadbury's World must have been about ten years ago at least so why I would remember that piece of information amazes me. Other things similar to this happen all the time and it tends to be the smaller pieces of information that I remember and I don't recall the bigger (and generally more important things).

XFactor and FlashForward

As an advanced warning, I am going to be discussing FlashForward and therefore, the following few paragraphs may contain spoilers. For this reason, I have hidden them by default and with a bit of luck, clicking the show link will reveal them. I will be discussing episode 5 so if you haven't seen it yet, you have been warned!

Royal Mail

I'm finally starting to settle down into my timetable now, I can actually remember my timetable - something I'm not sure I managed at all last year although seeing as I have less than half the number of taught hours that makes it a lot more reasonable. The weather has been pretty miserable again today and Autumn is definitely on its way yet the cold hasn't begun yet. This is slightly annoying because if it is tipping it down with rain then my first instinct is to reach for my coat but I know that if I wear it I would die of heat exhaustion before I got to the top of the hill. It's a catch 22 situation really and either way I would end up dripping wet! Not that I want the cold to come mind, I quite enjoy being able to walk to the shops in just a hoodie without needing to wrap up in hats, gloves and scarves.

Question Time

I couldn't really not mention it could I...? This whole week has been leading up to the controversial decision by the BBC to allow BNP leader, Nick Griffin onto Question Time. First of all, I cannot see a reason why they could have made any other decision. We live in a democracy where everyone is entitled to their point of view and hence free speech. It is one of the most fundamental underlying policies of the modern age and restricting this would only be a step backwards. Obviously you have to be careful not to confuse free speech with verbal abuse or breaking the law because if someone is shouting racial abuse at the top of their voice in the middle of London then clearly that should not be tolerated but they are quite within their rights to have their own opinion on the matter. I still believe that as a society as a whole, we are becoming far more racially tolerant but the generation where this is not so common is still around and they are unlikely to change their minds so easily. It is very easy for the youth of today to accept multiculturalism as the norm because that's what they've grown up with and they don't know any different. Unless their parents / guardians attempt to force their views upon their children then they should grow up in a multicultural society and learn to accept it as how it is going to be.

Finally Finished (for now)

It has taken me the best part of a week, but I have finally caught up with my Machine Learning notes. I have condensed 9 lectures worth of material into 20 typed pages of beautifully formatted notes, complete with professional equations and whilst it all looks very nice, I am not sure I have understood any of it. Ah well, that will be the task for the Christmas holidays.

I can see!

A fairly lazy day today by all accounts, I failed to make my 10 o'clock lecture after yesterdays late night but that was to be expected. I had every intention of going but simply couldn't bare it when my alarm clock went off at half past eight. For some reason I had a particularly restless nights sleep and remember tossing and turning and I seemed to have a purpose to it if that makes sense. It seems weird even trying to describe it now but it felt like there was a good reason for this strange behaviour as if I had to turn over and shuffle around in order to achieve something. One thing I definitely didn't achieve was a decent nights sleep thats for sure and I am paying for it today. I have now broken my record of 100% attendance but four weeks is pretty damned good taking into account my previous form.

A Long Day

Today was always set to be a long day, as Mondays always are however today was set to be a particularly long day as it was yet another birthday. October seems to be a very popular month in my circle of friends and thankfully there are now no more until next year. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the celebrations but when you have one a week for three weeks on the trot, it can get a little bit exhausting.

The Spell

Single of the week time again and any one who has been following this blog might be able to guess at what this weeks single will be. Ever since I heard Fascination on the radio, I have been a huge supporter of this band. Pure pop perfection is how I would describe them, something that has been lacking quite a lot during this decade of music. In the 80s and 90s it was all the rage but something happened to music in the last 10 years, maybe it was the dawn of the millennium or just the turn of the decade that signalled a change in the music industry. Either way, I'm glad that someone has managed to bring back the fun from those times because some recent songs have lacked that fun factor and have become far too serious. The latest single from this wonderful band does not disappoint and although it took a couple of listens before I fell in love with it, I am now totally convinced that it is one of my favourite songs of all time. Right from the off, it just makes you happy and gives you the urge to get up and dance. The only way to fully appreciate this sort of music is to fully embrace the jollity of it all.

I Did It! (Warning Rant Alert)

I think a minor congratulations should be in order for me today as I successfully managed a whole days (virtually uninterrupted) work. In response to falling very quickly behind in my Machine Learning lectures, partly due to the fact that they are so very boring that it is difficult to listen to him drone on for any substantial period of time, the content is quite wordy and the appalling use of the projector.

Must Try Harder...

This week has seen a distinct lack of work and general concentration. I would love to be able to blame it on some external influence outside of my control but the truth is I'm just lazy. On the sort of plus side I have now come to the sensible and long overdue decision to dump my old sluggish laptop in favour of my sort of shiny and not quite so new PC. I think I've got everything installed on it now - my excuse before was that every time I tried to start doing some work, the piece of software I wanted to use wasn't installed. This meant that I had to then install it - which required me to go online - which meant I got very distracted and somehow caused several hours to pass unnoticed.

Sleepy

After another late night last night, I was regretting arranging an appointment to see my dissertation tutor at 11:30 this morning. The last thing I wanted to do was get out of bed and the weather outside was grey and miserable and it couldn't even be bothered to rain properly - instead choosing to drizzle all morning. After resorting to the old 'roll onto the floor' trick to wake me up I managed to get myself ready just five minutes late which seemed to go unnoticed.

An Unproductive Day

Why is it that sleeping for long periods of time just makes you more tired? Maybe it's just me but if I stay in bed for longer than about ten hours, sleep seems to have a detrimental effect on my state of alertness. Today was one of those days and I decided I needed a lie in - which I now regret because come 10 o'clock when we are due to go out, I was wanting to be tucked up in bed. After finally getting up, I decided it was about time to start on my chores list; I had to buy milk and eggs and a new bulb for my lamp that I broke a couple of weeks ago. The problem was that this is no ordinary lamp and therefore takes no ordinary bulb. The inventor of this lamp decided it would be a good idea to use a bulb that no one sells so after trudging around and visiting no less than three hardware stores the area, I still have no bulb and have now had to order one from eBay. Thanks to the forthcoming postal strikes, it is unlikely I will see this bulb until late next week at best.

Back to the 90's

Tonight I went back to the 90's - well sort of, in fact it was a visit to a 90's themed nightclub. Nonetheless, it made me realise just how long ago the 90's actually were. When I refer to the 90's in music terms I normally mean the late 90's as it was at this time that I was just at the age when music started to play an important part in my life but also because music has the wonderful ability of being able to form strong links with memories whether they be good or bad. Now if I were a scientist, I could pretend to understand how the memory works and how music strengthens the synapses and creates extra links but I'm not and I'm not even sure that last bit was any more than nonsense. The music of this period mostly bring back very fond memeories of primary school and how simple life was back then. The most complicated decisions we had to make were what to wear to the disco or what sort of sweets to buy. I also remember wanting to be older all the time and how horrible it was to be young; everyone always said that these were the best days of your life and to make the most of them - but you never do.

Windows 7

Haven't managed to get round to doing any actual work yet this evening and am unlikely to at this time. Only (slightly) early start of the week - 10am but I always find it very difficult to concentrate at that time of the morning. I guess I've got used to just waking up at about 10 o'clock so anything earlier than that is out of the ordinary. This evening I have been avoiding work like the plague, so much so that I've actually switched on my PC (rather than my laptop) and used it for an extended period of time. Why didn't I do this sooner!? Up until now, it has been acting as a glorified external hard drive and the only thing I've been using it for is storing backups and large files. I got a copy of Windows 7 the other week thanks to the Microsoft partnership with the university but only got as far as installing it without using it for any length of time.

Movie Night

Last night got pretty boring and I decided that I'd done enough work for one weekend. As a reward I decided to watch a film, G.I. Joe and it wasn't as bad as I had initially expected. I had a bad feeling as soon as I heard Christopher Eccleston attempting a Scottish accent in the fist scene. It's a shame because no matter how hard he tries I always see him as Dr. Who and it will probably haunt him forever, which is slightly ironic as if I remember correctly, the reason he left Dr. Who in the first place was to prevent being type-cast. Getting over that initial preconception, it turned out to be a half-decent movie. A few interesting characters popping up: Mr Eko from lost for example, this time sporting his native cockney accent and it was nice to see the UK getting some representation in what is usually an all American hero movie. I think they went slightly overboard on the tech front as well which made it slightly unbelievable, especially those blue ray guns and the super suits.

A Bit of a Slow Start

No lectures today! A good enough excuse to waste away most of the day then. Woke up at about 1pm, trundled into Crookes to get a joint of meat for tomorrow and some milk for breakfast. It was the first time I'd been into that butchers and he was very helpful and I managed to get a nice joint of pork for a fairly reasonable price. On the way back I came across a newsagents selling cheap milk as well so a fairly good start to the day really.

Thank Goodness It's Friday

And so ends another busy week, I still haven't done much work and I can't seem to work out where all the time has gone. The evidence is mounting very quickly that the third year isn't going to be quite so much of a breeze as the previous two have turned out to be. The problem with having two years of not having to put in too much effort and coming out with a decent grade is that it makes you somewhat complacent. I have managed to beat my record of lecture attendance, having not missed a single hour yet! That part I'm impressed with but I'm not sure how beneficial they actually are. If I don't end up doing any work outside of the lectures then the only way I will learn anything is to actually pay attention in the lectures. That is something that is definitely easier said than done and at the moment I'm relying on subconsciously absorbing some of the information in the hope that I will actually remember some of it.

The shower has been fixed today thankfully, a pretty speedy turnaround really and the letting agency have made their way back into my good books. That is definitely one of the major advantages of having a company handle everything because a private landlord can sometimes take a long time to get this sort of thing fixed.

I managed to get my dissertation handed in so I've got to wait until Thursday to hear the outcome of that. I've somehow managed to empty my iPlayer library during the course of this week, which may explain why the time has gone so quickly without having done any work. Perhaps I'll find some time to do some this weekend.

Disaster!

For the past week or so, there has been a strange smell of fish about the house every time someone has a shower. We have been scratching out heads as to what it could have been, naturally assuming it was the drains. We tried cleaning everything, pouring bleach down the sinks and drains but it just kept coming. Well today, someone finally put their sensible head on and decided to Google it. Turns out that smell was burning plastic and that the main shower switch was overheating every time the shower was used. Had we have left this any longer, we would be at significant risk of starting a fire. This sort of thing kinda puts everything into perspective really and one of my housemates is fuming that he didn't spot it sooner. I've no idea why, I wouldn't have expected anyone other than an electrician or plumber to spot that kind of thing and whosever idea it was to make this burning plastic smell of fish should be shot! That is probably one of the last things I would have thought of so I certainly don't blame myself!

Toy Story is Back!

Thankfully I had the radio turned on a just the right time last week and heard the announcement that Pixar were bringing Toy Story back to the big screen but this time in glorious 3D. To paraphrase Thin Lizzy, 'The toys are back in town'. It was for one week only and I actually managed to convince someone to come with me this time! This shocked me a bit because usually they can't be bothered or as was the excuse of the other two housemates, "Toy Story is for kids". That sort of thing really annoys me and even though I do sometimes consider myself to be a big kid, I think that most Disney films are suitable for people of all ages. Especially the new Disney / Pixar films because most of the time they have been written with both old and young in mind and there are jokes that only kids will understand but there are also plenty that only adults will get, double entendres and specifically adult humour. I also think that is important to exercise you inner child now and again because it helps keep you young and prevents you from being miserable all the time. Needless to say it was brilliant seeing a personal favourite in 3D and it was very well done as well. Some of the 3D films that I've seen haven't really exploited the 3D to its full potential so I was really glad that they had made good use of it.

A Bit Behind

As I write this, it is actually Friday. I have been that busy all week that I haven't been bothered to find the time to sit down and write. Now regretting that decision a lot because I've not got the horrible task of trying to remember what I did for the past week. Thanks in part to twitter updates and sms messages received and sent, I think I have pretty much pieced together what happened so lets get started!

I got round to watching the fist two episodes of Criminal Justice which I really enjoyed last year and I am really liking this new concept of showing a whole series in a week. Not having to wait a week for the next episode is brilliant (if you've got the time to watch it). They did it with Torchwood for the latest mini-series as well and it certainly helps when you've got a long story line so that you don't forget what happened.

FlashForward

I'm a little bit late to this game but after hearing a lot of hype about it, I decided to take the plunge. I am slightly regretting that now because as with most semi-decent dramas on the TV, I am now officially hooked. Not that this is in anyway semi-decent, I'm putting it up there with the likes of Lost and Heroes and from what I've seen from the first two episodes - it's going to be just as gripping and always leaving you wanting more.

As with the new series of heroes, I won't be putting up any spoilers so don't worry too much about that. I may from time to time post about how good or bad an episode was but I'll try not to reveal too much.

It was nice to see some familiar faces in the cast, something I've noticed a lot of TV programmes doing recently, pulling faces from other similar genre shows and putting them into their own. I had to check on IMDb to find out where I recognised Olivia from - turns out she played Penelope (Desmond's wife) in Lost; and a cameo role from the one and only Seth McFarlane (of Family Guy fame).

On an entirely unrelated note, I finally got my contact lens check-up today and I'm slightly worried that the new prescription won't be quite what I expected. I'm really happy with my new glasses and my vision has never been better but when the optician tried to replicate this with my lenses, I was still having double vision and was struggling to read the test card - something I have always managed to do without problems. They have ordered in a trial pair of the new prescription for me to try however, so with a bit of luck they will be fine when they are in my eyes.

The Morning After

When we decided to get up the following morning, his mum had laid on yet another feast for everyone. Toast, bacon, sausages and scrambled eggs - the perfect start to the day and a wonderful hangover easer. The journey back was a little bit better, following a decent set of directions and still managing to take a wrong turn when the SatNav took over. We got home in good time though and after a quick trip to the shops and a nice nap, I still feel shattered and my throat is getting progressively worse so I'm not at all looking forward to a very busy day tomorrow.

A Secret Event

As you may have read, it was my friends birthday on Thursday and his girlfriend had organised a surprise party this weekend at his family home. We set off at about 17:45 to aim to get there just before 19:30. Apparently the journey takes between an hour and an hour and a half but because I was following the SatNav (something I am not very good at) and we had no idea where we were going, we managed to stretch the trip out to an hour and three quarters. It was the most difficult journey I have ever driven on - not helped by the fact that we took about eight wrong turns in total causing the SatNav to play up and try sending us down a bridal path. It turns out that he lives in the middle of nowhere and the roads leading up were horrible to drive in the dark and were so steep and tight. At one point, just after ignoring the bridal path instruction, we came face to face with a bus. There was barely room for the bus to drive, let alone me alongside so I had to turn into a field to let it pass.

It was worth it though, a great night and the spread that his mum had put on was amazing. I discovered I like baked Camembert cheese and they had the most amazing brownies and meringues. We had a wonderful game of pass the parcel, something I haven't played in years and everyone drank far too much. I felt slightly sorry for his family when my friend decided to play the piano at half past three in the morning, just as everyone was trying to get to sleep.

The night didn't involve much sleep as half of my friends are suffering from freshers flu - something I have avoided so far this year but my throat is very sore at the moment. This meant that one of them was coughing all night and another was making the house vibrate with his snoring.

The End of Week 1

Well, that's it - the end of the first week of the third year. Already I feel like I have several weeks worth of work to catch up with although, after today's lab session I feel slightly more confident about being able to learn python reasonably quickly and without too many problems. Pure Data is something I am much less sure about, as the lecturer was explaining some simple examples, he kept mentioning words like "simple", "easy" and "basic" and the whole process seemed somewhat alien to me and I have never seen a program that works like this before. I don't really know a lot about waves and sound and that was always the area of maths that I struggled to understand, the only reason I picked the module in the first place was because for some reason, speech recognition fascinates me and I am very interested to find out how it works - whether I will understand and be able to replicate that is a different matter and something that I will probably find out very soon.

Birthday

Not mine yet but a friend of mine who I lived with in halls during my first year at university. He had come across a restaurant on west street that had a two for one offer on pizzas and had invited us all out for a birthday meal. Not only were the pizzas a really good price in the first place but they were really really tasty. Made fresh to order, the speed of service was much faster than anywhere else I have been and they managed to cater for the eighteen of us with no problems at all. The pizzas were proper Italian ones as well rather than the dominoes/pizza hut style we are used to. The dough was thin and crispy and the toppings were real rather than horrible processed rubbish. It also gave everyone the chance to experience a proper pizza (which it turns out many of them had never had) without the American influence and the garlic and herb dip.