Fly Yellow Moon

Most of today has been spent working on my dissertation in preparation for taking the weekend off on account of my birthday. The good news is that I have now nearly finished and thanks to some feedback from my mum, I should be able to get it all finished on Monday.

A Different Type of Training

A long day today including a meeting, a lecture and some non TSC training. First up the lecture and whilst I wouldn't usually mention a lecture, this one was particularly useful for a change and pretty much told us what we were actually meant to be doing for our assignment. I hadn't been giving it much thought until now - mainly because my dissertation has been taking up pretty much all of my time.

FOH and Mons

I remember being at the first TSC meeting not having a clue what people were on about when they were referring to FOH and mons. I now realise that FOH means front of house and that they are the people standing behind a large desk controlling the sound that the audience hear. Mons on the other hand is short for monitors and they are in charge of what the band hear out of their monitors. Makes sense when you know doesn't it. Anyway, today was all about how to set these two tech positions up and have a brief introduction to what the buttons and knobs on the big scary desks actually do.

Group Confusion

I have come back after Easter to find that one of the members of our group has left the course leaving us with only two people. AS there are a few other groups left in this situation, several of the groups have been merged. The problem with this is that the group we are supposed to merge with officially has three members and the group size limit is four.

Oops

As the end of the year approaches and the assignment deadlines start looming, I seem to be losing the will to actually do anything. I missed my first lecture of the day - although in my defence it was probably utterly pointless as it has been for the past few weeks. I did make it down to the union for the TSC meeting however - and I'm quite glad I did because it did turn into a very fun meeting.

Bleurgh

As I expected, last night's events have drained every ounce of energy from my body and today I am too tired to do pretty much anything. I went through the usual routine of trying to listen to the radio or watch TV but always ended up sleeping through 80% of it. No matter how much sugar and caffeine I consume it makes little or no difference. You simply cannot beat a good nights sleep!

The Night From Hell

Tonight was a busy night at the union. There were a couple of events going on at the same time which always makes things a bit difficult but one of the events was the International Cultural Evening which is a massive event joining together a huge number of international students and the various societies and committees that represent the vast number of countries with students at the university.

Fake Empire

Today is the day of my penultimate dissertation meeting which is a scary though when put into perspective. I have been working on this project all year and it is all coming to an end. I have had another tester email in offering to take part which is nice and brings the total up to six. It's not quite as many as I'd hoped for but my tutor seems to think that will be enough and understands how hard it is to find people to agree to take part in these sort of things.

Barbecue

Today's volunteer was the most difficult person to track down. For all of the others, one phone call to say "I'm outside" or simply recognising each other from the description I emailed was enough. Today however, not only was he slightly late - so much so that I was just starting to walk back home when he rang but when he did ring, all I heard was static and then nothing. I tried phoning back - nothing, I sent a message to the number (which was not a UK number so probably cost me quite a lot of money) and the reply came that it was indeed my tester.

Two at a Time

Two testees today so I had to haul two laptops and two mice down the the Information Commons (the library). There wasn't room in the bag for two power bricks as well and as luck would have it, one of the laptops ran out of batteries towards the end of the session.

Victim Number 1

I met my first testing volunteer today in a somewhat strange arrangement that consisted of a series of emails exchanged with regards to our respective appearances so that we could identify one another outside the library where we had agreed to meet. I was slightly concerned that the testing session would go horribly wrong and that it wouldn't be very beneficial but that couldn't have been further from the truth.

The Week Ahead

Today was a somewhat organisational day. Lectures in the morning were nothing special as usual but the rest of the day seems to be preparing for the rest of the week. I will be working Pop Tarts again this Saturday, which seems to be becoming a regular occurrence these days and I attended the Computer Science Societies AGM.

A Sleepless Night

Despite working last night and thus by definition I should have got home and collapsed into a wonderful slumber, tonight was possibly the worse night's sleep I have ever had. It was almost daylight by the time I got back to the house which didn't help but then the torrential rain rattling off the roof prevented me from drifting off.

A Smoky Event

TSC work will start to get a bit repetitive from now on as I've worked at least one of each of the regular events now. Tonight was another Pop Tarts but thankfully there were some interesting happenings to keep me interested. During the set up there was a problem with a few of the lights and I still don't know what is wrong with them but it is being looked at on Monday. Despite this the lights still looked pretty impressive - something I'm always aware of for when I start venturing into the tech positions. For the mean time however, being a general crew bod means I can get a little bit of work done during the event with only a few interruptions.

Testing Times

Today has been surprisingly successful for a change. I did forget to add myself to the payroll for TSC but that can wait until Monday. I finally got round to doing some shopping and gave the car a bit of a run at the same time which is good. As usual, I went a little bit mad and now have enough food to last me several weeks but nevermind, that's why they invented freezers. A very noteworthy bargain though - sadly on a non-list item: a five pack of Crunchies for £1 a potential saving of somewhere in the region of £1.50.

#LeadersDebate

Tonight sees history in the making, the first ever televised debate between the three main candidates for the job of Prime Minister. Despite other countries such as America having done this sort of thing for nearly fifty years, this is the first time the UK media companies have managed to convince them all to appear together, unscripted and answering questions that they have never seen before.

A Taste of What's to Come

The only event planned for today was a presentation on the Genesys Solutions module that we have the option of taking next year. Basically, it gives the students the experience of running a software development company which is a subsidiary of the University of Sheffield. It was one of the main reasons that I decided to do my degree in Sheffield and I've been quite looking forward to it for a long time. I had however, forgotten that this talk was happening today and although we received a reminder yesterday, I was reminded by a course mate at the TSC formal on Monday night. Had it not been for this I may not have even noticed the reminder email.

Missing Time

I managed quite well this morning despite lasts nights escapades and got through an hour of presentations and even wrote a half decent abstract (I think). It was then off to the lab for a couple of hours and here I managed to get the modelling program we are supposed to be using to work before the demonstrators had arrived to show us how. When they did arrive they repeated the exact steps I had taken so I was pretty impressed with myself as nearly everyone else seemed to be struggling.

TSC Formal

As if I hadn't had enough TSC in the last week to last a couple of months, today was the AGM and the formal. With my first and only lecture over and done with and with the added bonus that our second assignment is not due until week 15 - I thought the last week of term was week 12 so this means it would be due during the exam period which is practically unheard of, why can't all lecturers be this laid back? - I put in my vote and opted to work next Saturday's PopTarts. This should give me time enough to catch up with all my work and this event doesn't require a huge amount of effort so Sunday shouldn't be too bad either.

A Much Needed Rest

After all of the previous four day's activity, today was a much needed rest day. I caught up on some TV and some much needed sleep. I have also remembered that I haven;t posted a single of the week for ages and so here is one for you that I heard yesterday. I was slightly early - by about 45 minutes - when waiting for the crowd before PopTarts yesterday and heard this on the speakers. It was a wonderful cover of Jump in the Pool by Friendly Fires and so after some YouTubing and Googling, I managed to track down the artist.

The Final Training Day

It is all nearly over and I'm slightly sad to see the end of it. The twelve or so juniors who may only have spoken to each other once or twice have got to know each other really very well and have become part of the TSC family. Today's training was much the same as yesterday but this time in the Fusion. The set up in here is on a much smaller scale than the Foundry and a lot of the equipment is permanently installed.

Day 3 of Training

The next two days are split into four sections and we have been divided into four groups so that we can rotate between them all. Today we were Foundry based and the first section is lighting. After yesterday's Perl training session, today was more focussed on rigging the lights and making the physical connections. Our group seemed to develop a rather bad habit of wireless communication - which (for obvious reasons) doesn't work.

Day 2 of Training

Today's training is all about lights and focuses on how to use the lighting desk - the Perl. When you are confronted with something that looks like this for the first time it can seem incredibly daunting. Thankfully, we had a professional trainer on hand to teach us all how to use it and once we had grasped the basics, it actually became quite intuitive.

Day 1 of Training

So today begins my four day Easter training for TSC. The hope is that at the end of this I will be able to fill the technical positions at disco events (a disco event is anything without a live element to it i.e. a DJ). The topics for today were health and safety and sound. The first bit was obviously not as interesting but very necessary as we will now be working much more closely with the equipment and can be held responsible if anything should go wrong.

To Sheffield

As always with a travel day, there are only really two things that happen. The first being packing and therefore, the second is unpacking. There is of course the driving bit in the middle but seeing as that is just me sitting in the car listening to music then as far as I'm concerned, that's juts a dead period in the day.

As of now there are four out of five residents in the house - all back quite early (mainly due to lack of work or boredom of our respective locations but as we are now nearly all back, I don't think the productivity side of things will improve too much.

As far as the travel bit went, it was probably one of the best journeys up to Sheffield I've ever made. The sun was shining in the sky, the music was all very good, the traffic light and the journey pretty quick and problem free. If only they could all be like that, life would be so much easier.

Tomorrow marks the start of my four day Easter TSC training course which also means an early start sadly but I hope to learn lots during that time so it should hopefully be worth it.

Catchup

This will be my last full day in Birmingham until the summer now and so being typically disorganised it was a last minute rush to go round organising some sort of gathering before I departed for Sheffield. Usually in this case I have been far too organised, tried to set up everything in advance and then ended up cancelling it as people gradually decided they were no longer able to come. Endless rearrangements later and some pathetic compromise has been met and we have to live with that.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! I hope your day was filled with food and chocolate as mine was. Only one egg this year but then that beats last years grand total of zero. On the plus side however, Easter lunch was a feast to remember somewhat akin to Christmas - although on a slightly smaller scale.

Dr Who?

Today marks the debut episode of the new series of Dr Who with Matt Smith at the helm. Overall impressions... very good. The first episode is always an important one because it has the difficult task of being the introductory episode where all of the characters have to be introduced, the new doctor has to be introduced - not just to us but to himself as well. All in all, with one or two exceptions, I think a good job was done by all.

A Brummy Birthday

The highlight of today has been my friends birthday party and a chance for me not only to leave the house but also to venture out into the scary land that is Broad Street in Birmingham. Despite having lived in the city for most of my life, I have only ever been there twice and only once to a club. Compared to Sheffield, it seems like the scariest place on earth with visions of drunken violence and crime so I have always steered clear of it before, preferring a quiet visit to the pub or other activities outside of the city centre.

Winter Bites Back

Just as we thought spring had sprung, old Jack Frost rears his ugly head again and decided to bring winter back. Subsequently, I have spent most of today shivering and am thoroughly looking forward to the warmer weather staying for a much longer period.

Today has been a sadly fairly boring day but the dull necessities of food shopping and visiting dear old Granddad have to happen at some point and make those days when something exciting does happen all the more special. Saying that, I do sometimes enjoy food shopping, especially in this case when there are special events to buy for such as the two dinner parties over the weekend and the more luxurious Easter food in general - notably of the egg shaped chocolate variety. I feel quite conned by this years eggs and as much as I would love a KitKat mug, I can't bring myself to spend £6 on Nestlé chocolate and a bar of KitKat senses - especially seeing as I don't like them. I remember several years ago when they bought out a limited edition orange KitKat chunky with liquid orange goo inside. A small taste of heaven that has been replaced by some nutty rubbish much akin to a Kinder Bueno from what I can see. Anyway, we decided to go for the cheap Cadburys Creme Egg eggs instead. Much nicer chocolate, hopefully a Creme Egg and a fraction of the price - although still hugely inflated compared to a standard bar but there is something much nicer about thin chocolate that you only get with an egg so I'm willing to pay a small premium.