Hollywood

At last, the time is here and the single of the week that I have been wanting to put up for the last three months is finally officially released! I really hope it does well in the charts on Sunday because her previous release Mowgli's Road didn't get as much hype as I'd hoped. Now that she has come second in the Sound of 2010 poll and is nominated in MTVs 10 for 10 and has racked up a lot of airplay on Radio 1, she should stand a pretty good chance of at least getting into the top 10.

Still no Pens

Still no sign of my whiteboard pens although eBay does say that they've been dispatched which I suppose is reassuring. I had to switch to paper for my scribblings now and am getting through quite a lot of the stuff. It hasn't been too bad though and some of the algorithms are sticking in my head now and I think I nearly have two memorised (touch wood). The worrying thing is that sometimes I have no recollection of some of the lines, as if I am reading them for the first time. Is that what they call brain overload? I hope not!

Sorry, but there is nothing else to really report, I'm trying to keep these posts short for the next week so that I can actually get some revision done rather than whittling away an hour or so writing this. Normal service - rants and all - should be resumed on Friday.

Skins

With hindsight, this should have bee yesterdays blog but nevermind. Today saw the return of Skins to out TV screens and whilst I still don't think the last series was anywhere near as good as the first two, it was still better than a lot of the rubbish that gets churned out in this genre. For me the best part of the show isn't even the pictures on the screen. It's the music that is behind it and the amount of research and passion that goes into finding the right tracks to go with the scenes without simply using the same old songs over and over again.

Revision Techniques

It is exam season so I thought an exam centric post would be quite relevant, yippee! There are times when an eidetic memory would come in so handy for cramming in all of this information that will only ever be useful for a period of up to two hours when I am sitting in the exam hall. I actually cannot think of any possible application for a lot of the stuff I am learning other than perhaps some names and dates that could prove useful in a very difficult and computer science based quiz.

The iPad

I couldn't not really could I? I won't bother going into detail about the specs because if you don't already know then you probably don't care much and if you do then pretty much every technology or news website out there has the details on there. As a technology enthusiast it is my business to know about the latest up and coming gadgets and gizmos and I sometimes feel that it is my duty to learn how to use them so that I can give an intelligent and helpful response when the inevitable questions come my way. I can't see that happening this time though because frankly we have nothing really that new. I can understand where people are coming from when they say that Apple have done marvellous things with their launches and indeed they have, the iPod and iPhones have been a huge success but the thing is that they were developing an already existing product and making it better, at the same time encouraging other manufacturers to innovate.

Some Legal Matters

I have decided that everytime I want to stop work and start browsing the internet, I have to remember three of the formulas on my list. If I get them wrong, I have to do an hours revision and come back to another random three questions. Sadly when I woke up this morning, my brain was in gear and I managed to answer all three with perfect recall and as a result spent about two hours surfing the web. As I did so, I came across an interesting article about the Digital Rights Bill that is being discussed in the houses of government at the moment. It was a university tweet that put me onto it because a law professor had written the article in the guardian.

Revision

I am actually finally starting to get serious with this revision lark now and today is the official start to a week and a half of slogging away with papers all over the desk. Okay so I might have to take a few breaks here and there to keep my sanity but so far it's looking promising. Despite wasting a lot of today trying to reincarnate some of my previous attempts to write a flash cards programme to help me learn a lot of very similar formulas, I think I have managed to memorise a couple and all I need is a couple a day for a week and they should all be stuck (until exams are over when I inevitably forget everything that I have learned in the last six months).

Daisy Dares You

Single of the week time again and I briefly mentioned this lady here when I discussed the long list of nominations for the BBC's Sound of 2010 poll and remarked that she was a "potentially good artist". Since that point, I have been listening to this song on and off and in the last few weeks it has crept up to several times a day at some points. As for her other work, she has fallen down in my estimations with her first single which is a collaboration with Chipmunk - going down the wrong route in my opinion but who knows what else she will do. This song however - whilst not being officially a single, is FREE to download from her website here so under my self imposed rules, it qualifies. It turns out that my initial thoughts on the derivation of her name being attributed to the character from ZZZap! were spot on according Wikipedia although there is no mention of it on her Last.fm profile which you can see here.

Dreams

I woke up this morning after having the most bizarre dream I have had in a very long time. I wish I knew that causes them because for a long time I didn't have any - at least not that I could remember - until about a year ago when something changed. I recently thought it might have something to do with cheese, because I had been eating rather a lot of the stuff over Christmas and the occurrence of the more vivid dreams seemed to be linked to the nights when I had been snacking on some late night cheese and crackers. Yesterday however, the only cheesy thing I ate was some cheese sauce with my dinner - which hardly counts as much so I still don't know.

Deadlines, Treats and Fruit

An odd title, yes, but all will soon become clear. I suppose that is one of the nice things about this blog, it can combine several different topics effortlessly in one post. Much like the One Show I suppose. More work again today but at least it is all over now - or so I thought. After competing the work I had planned to do and still having no luck getting the program to work, I decided it was too late and needed to tidy it up and write the documentation for handin. As I read through the handin instructions, I see that he has extended the deadline to the 1st of February! Other than that small sentence on the page, there has been nothing else to tell us of the change and he made it quite clear at the end of last year that the date he had set was the last allowable date for coursework submission by the department. Well clearly that has somehow changed but it would have been nice for him to tell us that - I could quite easily have missed it and gone on thinking that today was the deadline and miss out on the extra week.

Help!

Apologies if the next couple of blogs are a little bit work centric but I have a deadline looming and very little chance of completing the assignment to any degree of success. It is the most frustrating thing in the world when something doesn't work and there is simply nothing you can do about it. The support online for the program I am using is severely limited and the things that are available are aimed at people who actually understand the theory behind it. I suppose technically I should as well but I have reached the level in maths now where it would require a significant amount of effort over a long period of time to grasp the higher concepts and to be explained by someone who can word it in a way that makes sense to me. If I had the chance to ask questions and build an understanding of it then perhaps I would stand a chance but I cannot see that happening any time soon. All I can hope for now is that I won't have to use too much of it in the remainder of my university course and even less so in the real world.

Damn and Blast

I suppose this was somewhat inevitable and bound to happen to me at some point during university life but I genuinely thought I was prepared for this kind of eventuality never mind accidentally causing it myself. I am referring to losing work on a computer, most commonly caused by lack of power or a crash etc but in my case, caused by my hands working faster than my brain and sheer stupidity on the part of the designers of Microsoft Office 2007.

Too Much TV?

Today sees the start of two new TV series on an already busy Tuesday viewing schedule. I was quite happy with just watching the Hairy Bikers and frankly, I think that is more than enough excitement for one night. But no, the people who write the TV schedules are cruel and mean and instead will try and squeeze all of the decent programmes on one day and leave the rest of the week baron. Okay so maybe that is a little bit of an exaggeration but is there really any need to have two and a half hours of good programming on one evening?

Scary Stuff

We are taking a journey into the darker side of life today so apologies in advance but this post is not a happy one. I first saw a shorter version of this film a little over six months ago now and I thought theat they had done an amazing job of producing a film that really highlighted the potential dangers of driving, particularly for young people. It is another prime example of something the schools can do much better than an outside company who would probably have to be paid several times as much to come up with a lesser quality production. Anyway, take a look and see for yourselves what I'm talking about because if this doesn't put you off texting at the wheel or drink driving then I really don't know what will.

Owl City

My single of the week this week comes from a band called Owl City who I briefly mentioned in my sound of 2010 post here. They didn't quite make it into the top five places but given the huge amount of success they have already achieved in the USA, it is fairly likely that once they start releasing their singles over here they will have a good deal of support. Fireflies is the first single to be released over here and I really think it has a somewhat universal appeal. It is a modern song with an electric feel to it and yet at the same time the soft vocals and tinkly backing track make it soothing and peaceful. Had I have known that this had come out last week, it would have been on here sooner but I cannot find a decent list of the new releases every week. I used to use the Napster list but that seems to miss out a lot of the music that isn't so popular and last week the NME didn't publish their usual list of new releases so I had to go digging around to find something. No such effort was needed this week because this song has been on my list for over a month now, ever since I first heard it courtesy if a tweet by Radio 1 DJ Greg James late last year. It has since been all over the radio and other media and reached no #2 in the charts this week.

To Be Or Not To Be

A wonderful start to the day this morning when I came across this beauty from Alphabeat. A live performance of their hit single The Spell in three parts, acoustic, upbeat and with a Black Box 90's twist. I have linked to the video below and I defy you not to bop along to the beat, Stine's voice is really shown off at the beginning and it is nice to know that there is a pop group out there who can play instruments and sing without having to be manufactured and virtually talentless without the help of a computer.

Avatar

At last, the time has come and today I was finally able to go and see Avatar in glorious 3D at the IMAX. Having waited all this time, with the event being put off - mainly because of the weather and my reluctance to drive - I was simply hoping that the excitement and trepidation wasn't all going to be in vain. Thankfully it didn't disappoint and without going into too much detail so as to ruin the plot and ruin for those of you who haven't managed to get out and see it yet I will try and convey how amazing and ground breaking it actually was.

Swedish Apple Cake

Today has been the least interesting and most boring and pointless day of the holidays so far and I am starting to wish I was back in Sheffield. Not long to go now thank goodness (7 days and counting) and I have made even more progress with my assignment - amongst many other rather random internet browsing and some cooking to pass the time.

Slumdog Millionaire

Finally, I have got round to watching Slumdog Millionaire thanks to Channel 4 broadcasting it this evening. I have been meaning to watch it for about six months now but just never got round to it. It's one of those films that doesn't really work on paper if you know what I mean? Reading the blurb doesn't excite you or make you think that the film is anything special and I think the only reason why it attracted such a huge audience was because of the publicity it received from the critics. If I had seen a list of the films on at the cinema without having heard the hype surrounding it, I would never in a million years have considered going to see it and probably wouldn't even have bothered watching it on the TV when it finally came round.

Misfits

Another TV show that I have been very late to join the bandwagon on despite planning to watch the series when it was first broadcast, it totally slipped my mind every week. It was today however that I happened upon a blog - by the money saving expert Martin Lewis of all people - who mentioned the series in comparison to Being Human in a debate as to which was the better programme. He decided that marginally, the winner was Misfits so from that point on I decided that I should at least watch the first episode and see what it was like. Well that was my first mistake, I ended up staying up until about half past three watching the other five episodes.

Childhood Obesity

Another slow and unproductive day today sadly however, I did find out that my assignment is due in three days later than I thought which is a bonus. Unfortunately, this means that I am now under less pressure to get it done which is a very bad move. A long and perhaps slightly controversial post today since I started watching Generation XXL on Channel 4 and whilst I know some people will agree with me, there will be plenty who don't so please do not be offended.

Unexpected Visitors

A nice surprise this morning when my Aunt and Uncle decided to pay us a visit. I don't get to see them very often because they live near Cardiff but they were down for the night to see a concert at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham. I woke up to the sound of the phone ringing which was them asking for directions to the house so I had to spring out of bed sharpish which was a bit of a shock to the system.

Mort

I was considering using "Death" as the title for this post but after a bit of thought decided that it might have been a bit over-dramatic, especially seeing as no one actually died. The reason I am talking about this is because I have been meaning to catch up with the latest repeat of Terry Pratchett's Mort which has been airing on BBC Radio 7 this week and I finally got round to listening to it this evening. It seems they are running some sort of Terry Pratchett season at the moment and are airing some other books as well. This one is different however, because it has been adapted for radio and is a dramatisation of the book rather than simply someone reading the lines. I guess it is somewhere in between a book and a film or a film without the pictures - which is often quite nice because the extra sound effects and characters give you a little bit more of a hint as to what is happening without needing a narrator to describe all of the sounds that are going on.

Getting Flashy

Yesterday I promised my friend that I would help her with assignment to develop a platform game in flash. It only had to be simple but she was fretting about not having a clue where to start. I've not used actionscript before but have 'dabbled' in the flash environment a few times - without really knowing what I was doing. After a couple of hours however, I started to get to grips with the syntax of it all and we began to make some progress. We got the background moving and looping and the character was responding to the directional keys and the jump command.

Hurrah for Marina!

Big news stories breaking today, not only has the most highly paid BBC presenter decided that he is not going to renew his contract in June but the second place for the BBC Sound of 2010 has been announced. In other news, the comedy gold is one again returning to our ears this week as Just a Minute returns for a new series to give me my weekly dose of laughter and I have made some progress with my impossible assignment.

Improvised Alarm

Seeing all of the various pictures of snowmen dominating my facebook feed at the moment, I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and have a go myself. Sadly however, it was not meant to be, the snow in my garden is too powdery and wont stick together very well at all. Apparently that means that it is still too cold so perhaps in a couple of days when the sun has had a chance to melt it a bit, I might have another go. I didn't give up that easily however and managed to make a snow column, not very impressive from an arty point of view and I've ruined the pristine white covering on the lawn but it kept me busy for a couple of hours and thus fulfilled its primary purpose.

Proper Snow

Compared to the last time we had some snow, that pails into insignificance when compared to this latest flurry. This time the Gods have been much kinder/harsher (depending on how old you are) and we have had a good five or six inches of the stuff here in Brum. I'm still of the age (maybe only mentally) where I enjoy the snow most of the time - as long as I don't want to use the car that is - but it makes me think that perhaps I shouldn't any more. I haven't seen a single status on facebook that is even remotely celebrating the snow and the majority of them are actively complaining about the stuff. It's not like in February of last year where the damn stuff stuck around for several weeks (and was mainly ice by the end of it) and I've only just had it today so I really can't see the problem. Perhaps in a few days where it is preventing me from doing things I might change my mind but for now, I am celebrating the rare weather.

New Year Errands

Another day of no work but a reasonably good excuse I think. A few errands to run ended up taking about five hours rather than the two or three that I had budgeted for. Those are now out of the way however and I hope that once I have inevitably spent tomorrow doing absolutely nothing and watching TV then I can once more stare blankly at my notes and the Pure Data screen, in an attempt to divine a solution to my assignment.

Celebrity Big Brother

It pains me to use that as the title for this blog but seeing as it was the only thing on TV yesterday other than Top Gear, it will take up the majority of this post. I could waffle on about the incredibly difficult assignment that I have due in two weeks and which I have so far got NOWHERE with but I will save that for next week when I am really panicking.

New Laptop

This will be the first blog post I have written using my new laptop and I will say this from the off, I am very happy with it! I could pretend it was a hard decision to finally decide to take the plunge and splash the cash if you will excuse my overuse of metaphors but in reality it is something I've been thinking about doing for a long long time and so it came very easily.

New Years Day

I was only planning to spend the night in Sheffield so today was another travel day. I had to clear out the fridge full of mouldy food because it had been left on with stuff in it over the holidays. I managed to get some milk from the Co-op to have with my cereal thankfully, otherwise I would have been screwed for food. Dry Weetabix is never very nice but the shop had opened it's doors to the new years shoppers and all was fine.