It Is Over {7/7}

The exams are over. Seven annoying, stressful panic-inducing bits of paper have been dealt with and the results should be out sometime towards the end of June. Overall there were two real slip ups, one whose wordy bits I'm a bit unsure of and the rest went pretty well. I would rate my exam performance as follows, from the best to the worst.

1. Modelling and Simulation
2. Embedded Software
3. Digital System Design
4. Parallel Programming Languages and Systems
5. Parallel Architectures
6. Distributed Systems
7. Circuits Engineering

And so my fourth year of university is essentially over. There is still 20 points of work still to do for the first phase of my MEng project, but that's integral to the project itself which I count as a separate entity. The project starts next week and it should be good fun with a fair amount of hard work. Getting used to the whole nine-five thing again might be a bit difficult but with an interesting project I'm sure I'll cope.

My shooting scores finally seem to have stabilised somewhat which is probably in part to sorting out my position such that I can actually see more than a blur past the third diagram. I lost the first round of the individual competition by a point but there are plenty more to go before the outcome becomes certain. Hopefully I'll at least be able to improve my average

Perth Summer League round 1: 93/94
Perth Summer League round 2: 94/95

Song of the Day: The Astronaut - Something Corporate

Out of Time {6/7}

So the real silliness is over. Four degree exams in four days. All in all it went better than I expected. There was the odd slip up but nothing (hopefully) truly major for the first three out of the four but after the two exams yesterday I was pretty shattered. Circuits Engineering today was a bit of a struggle, mainly due to switching context from the other courses and trying to get back up to full speed before the exam. The actual exam was ok but a few of the questions caught me a bit (I'm not too good at drawing graphs) and as time ticked down I got bogged down on working out the component values for a Sallen-Key filter. Eventually time got the better of me and a significant chunk of marks disappeared, comsumed by blank space.

:) Only one more to go! This one even has a nice period of revision time before it so I actually have time to relax and focus my mindset properly into that of embedded software. Hopefully I'll end the fourth year diet of exams on a high point.


Song of the Day: How To Be Dead - Snow Patrol

Luck {2/7}

Another one down and it went much better than Distributed Systems (it would have been pushed to be much worse). I enjoyed the Modelling and Simulation topic (maths and models are fun) which just made me stress out more about doing badly in the exam. However, I've decided luck plays a significant role in these things. Hard work and preparation are of course still essential, but some things are just remembered better and some questions jump out at you while others, no matter how hard you concentrate, are lost in the mists.

Next week is when it gets really silly with 4 exams, including two on the same day which should be fun. More panic, more stress, yey...


Song of the Day: My Poor Brain - Foo Fighters

Laptop is Back {1/7}

Well the day got off to a good start with Scotrail cancelling the train because it broke down at Dundee. After standing about for a while I eventually get into Edinburgh and to the exam venue 20 minutes later than planned, which isn't too bad considering (sometimes it pays to be paranoid). The actual exam, Distributed Systems, didn't go as well as I had hoped. A portion of the stuff I had taken extra care to revise for never showed up in the exam and one of the things that was niggling at me featured prominently in one of the questions. Thankfully I didn't feel as pressed for time as I have in some previous exams but my hand sure hurt a fair bit after all that frantic writing.

On the plus side I have my laptop back and nothing was found to be really wrong with it. While the fan still makes more noise than it used to it seems to be behaving better since I got it home and I'm now monitoring the temperature estimates and it seems to be doing its job of preventing the silicon from melting to slag.


Song of the Day: What a Letdown - Barenaked Ladies

Laptop is Elsewhere

So my laptop is off getting looked at to see if it's going to die any time soon. Hopefully there's nothing really wrong but since the cooling fan has started making noises I've been getting paranoid and it sounds like the fan is on its way out the door. I've only been without it for a day and it has been strange, just goes to show how easy it is to get used to a single way of doing something, like checking your email while eating breakfast and watching TV.

Next week has the first in my summer diet of seven exams. While I'm almost always stressed out about these things, they tend to go ok in the end. Hopefully all the work and revision I have put in will pay off and I can settle into my project without worrying about the results too much.


Song of the Day: Call Me When You're Sober - Evanescence

Oldness

I'm feeling a bit old at the moment, but in a good reflective sort of way I guess. Fourth year seems to have flown past, similarly it hardly seems any time since I was in first year - all young and naive. It's been a blast so far and I'm really looking forward to the challenge of my MEng project. Before then I've got seven exams to overcome, some of which are a bit too close together for my liking but hopefully with the right prepreation their close proximity won't cause too many problems.

Night shot of Edinburgh from Braefoot Point.

As usual I've been wandering around with my camera and I think I've managed to capture a few good pictures. It's definatley heading into summer though :(, today was pretty warm and I was half eaten alive by insects yesterday evening.


Song of the Day: Maybe Not - Barenaked Ladies

Moomins!

Thanks to problems lecturing in classroom 10 there is a possibilty of the Digital Signal Analysis lectures being moved. This perhaps could have been a good thing if it were just a simple location change however it would seem that's not possible. What is on the cards is a timeslot change to 5-6pm ruining my nice 1pm finishes. More annoyingly this would bring it directly into conflict with my games club night where I was hoping to start an Exalted Dragon-Blooded game within the next few weeks :'( With a bit of luck the lecture won't be shifted. If anything I'm more awake in 0900 lecture than I am by then end of the day.

Shooting wise the winter season is nearing and I should have made one of the teams. My scores are still a bit tempramental but quite close to being good cards.

Practice 1: 89
Practice 2: 92

Song of the Day: Same Old Stuff - The Feeling

Scotrail

The train ride into uni was eventful this morning. Happily the train was on time and, as is sometimes usual, had to pull in and stop on layby track to allow one of the express trains pass. Unfortunately one of the trains ahead had its breaks fail at Inverkeithing resulting in a nice 45 minute delay. So that kind of ruined my normal calm wander down to KB and I had to bus it to get to my lecture on time.

Courses are going well so far. Digital Comms has still got me a bit worried, the course text is pretty comprehensive (and also huge and heavy). Digital Signal Anaysis and Large Scale Integrated Circuits are both very interesting but could get quite complicated later on in the semester. CS wise, Modelling and Simulation should prove useful and the Distributed Systems practicals (involving Java) should be good fun.


Song of the Day: Easily - Muse