Nazgul00

It Is Over {7/7}

2007-05-15T23:59:00.001+01:00

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.

Modelling and Simulation
Embedded Software
Digital System Design
Parallel Programming Languages and Systems
Parallel Architectures
Distributed Systems
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}

2007-05-10T23:12:00.000+01:00

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}

2007-05-04T23:20:00.000+01:00

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}

2007-04-25T23:49:00.000+01:00

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

2007-04-21T02:12:00.001+01:00

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

2007-04-04T22:23:00.000+01:00

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!

2006-10-04T22:49:00.000+01:00

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

2006-09-27T19:59:00.000+01:00

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

New Camera Shineyness

2006-09-24T01:55:00.000+01:00

I went out for a short wander with my Panasonic FZ50 which arrived earlier on this week. So far it seems a really nice camera, far superior to my old Kodak DX4900. The zoom is fantastic (one of my main reasons for upgrading) although I am still managing to take squint photos. I ended up taking the first set of pictures from Downing Point, however i didn't stay too long as I hadn't worn a jumper and with a moderatly strong wind I was freezing.

First pic with my new camera

The first week back at uni was enjoyable and it looks to be a really good year. My first semester timetable is (surprisingly) compressed with everything taking place in the mornings which actually allows me to go home for the afternoons :) The courses I'm enrolled for look interesting and hopefully will provide a nice challenge without being too nightmareish.

Song of the Day: I Want You Now - The Feeling

Knackered

2006-09-21T22:45:00.000+01:00

Uni is back and in full swing already. I had intended to have posted a few more entries over the last few days but I've simply been too busy or tired. Hopefully over the weekend I'll get round to posting a few of them in retrospect.

So apart from being pretty knackered the SD card arrived from my camera allowing to actually be used as such, not that I've actually had any time to have a play with it (this is also on the agenda for the weekend).

My fourth year course choices seem to be working out pretty well so far although Digital Communications is still coming across as scary. On the CS side Distrubuted Systems seems an interesting module with a cool lecturer. Hopefully the other CS module I'm signed up for this semester (Modelling and Simulation) will turn out to be as interesting.

Song of the Day: Love It When You Call - The Feeling

Flickr

2006-09-16T04:27:00.000+01:00

One of the reasons I had neglected this blog was a lack of facilities to host and properly show off the many photos I manage to take. MSN spaces allow for many albums to be held but the images have to be resized to a tiny 600x400. Picture hosting on blogger allows for larger images to be hosted bit without transparent controls on those images after they have been uploaded.

Since I've decided I really quite like Blogger, more so than MSN's offering, I've finally got around to finding and setting up a proper image hosting account with Flickr (linky). Currently there are only 7 photos uploaded including the fireworks one which is possibly the best photo I've taken to date. Over the next few weeks I intend to time-travel through my photo archive and upload a selection of the less blurred, well aligned and properly composed photos I've taken.

Song of the Day: Protect Me from What I Want - Placebo

Out of Hibernation

2006-09-14T03:31:00.000+01:00

I have rather neglected this blog in favour of my MSN space. This in turn is not helped by being unable to think up something to post and even when I do my acute lazyness normally prevents anything from being posted. Hopefully this time around I'll post slightly more regularly with a less angsty, more happy outlook.

I'm still wandering around the place with my camera taking the odd nice photo. My favourite time for photography is at night when things seem calmer and there less people about (it also helps that I'm actually awake) though I've not done any night photography for a while. I think I'll try before I go back to uni and have all those early starts and wonderful 0900 lectures.

Below is a picture of the Forth rail bridge I took recently at dusk near Preston Hill. It's an area I remeber from my earlier childhood but which I had completly forgotten about until I found myself there (my memory can be funny that way).

Forth Rail Bridge

Song of the Day: Half Right - Jimmy Eat World

First Wander of 2006

2006-02-20T02:24:00.000Z

It had been a very long time since I'd gone out for a walk and I've been feeling a bit misrible this weekend thats to a touch of the flu, however I decided to go out and mess around with my camera for an hour or so. It was a nice night and some of the stars were visible. It has cleared my head and I feel better prepared to take on the week and all the coursework that that entails.

Looking across the Firth of Fourth towards Edinburgh.

I also finally got round to making another minidisc, only took me 2 weeks to make time to do so. It should help clear my thoughts, destress and give me more to think about. Anyhows I should probably get some sleep now, laters.

Song of the Day: Nightswimming - R.E.M.

Associative memories are fun!

2006-02-17T08:33:00.000Z

The ability to grab reams of data from a single trigger is pretty amazing and exceedingly useful. However every so often I always seem to find a something that will cause a landslide of random thoughts that perturb my mind for the rest of the day. Oh well, just going to be another one of those days.

Pretty Satway circuit diagram has to be in today, so with a bit of luck I'll be able to concntrate and get that done on the uni comps. The software on my machines was just being a royal pain and I decided that sleep was more important (for once).

Song of the Day: The Astronaut - Something Corporate

Another Year Dawns

2006-01-01T10:02:00.000Z

So I spent new year messing about with my camera and tripod out near Burntisland . I still need practice with using the tripod to get level pictures, mostof them seem to be ok.

After some very good lan parties my sleep patterns are now completly destroyed. Freeciv is a great game, but takes forever to play. {We haven't actually finished a game yet, AI keeps dominating the board as well.} Hopefully with a bit more non-sleepingness I can kick my sleep pattern back into something semi resembling normal. {Well normal for me anyhows.}

Shot of the neigbours fireworks.

On a side note it has taken me ages to write this, even more so than usual for one of my written compositions. I started wrting this at seven and then somehow it was 12, just goes to show books, dvds and modeling can be absorbing activities. Lack of sleep probably didn't help much either.

Song of the Day: Just Watch the Fireworks - Jimmy Eat World

Exams are Over (Week 12)

2005-12-08T09:39:00.000Z

I meant to post this last night but I fell asleep instead.

The two exams for this semster are over, the other modules are assesed at the end of the second semester. Microelectronic devices went ok but the electronic engineering exam was a bit nasty, not so sure about that one.

Can't relax too much however, two major pieces of coursework are due in on the 16th so I need to be getting on with them asap. The most daunting of which is probably the OS essay, though hopefully it will be easier to write than than the professional issues essay earlier on in the semester. The individual practical design exercise should be interesting although time constraints are going to put a bit of a strain on things.

Song of the Day: End of Nothing - Funeral For a Friend

Not Happy (week 7)

2005-11-04T12:51:00.000Z

A depressing end to a depressing week. Almost everything I've tried to do has been a complete failure.

The latest to be added to the list of stupidness is the MED simulation assignment which should have been about 2-3 hours of work, simple and done. Instead I spend most of that time last night just getting the right transistor models, then after a bit of sucess and things looked like they were going to work out, the software decides it really hates me and refuses to change the channel widths (integral to the whole exercise). So that was due in today at noon and my woefully incomplete submission is waiting in the box to be marked. Although it doesn't technically count for anything it's still really annoying and drags me down ((not that I really have much farther to be dragged).

So everythings going just about normal for me at the moment. The operating systems practical is giving me a headache, pi essay is due in next week (the fun that will be) and so is the second part of the ip which was another of those things that I failed misribly to make any progress with this week. I'm staying here {uni} for the tutorials where hopefully {with a bit of luck} I can make a bit of advancement and learn something, taking away something positive from this week and throw the mistakes into the sub concious learning pile and try not dwel on them too much {unlikly, but possible}.

Song of the Day: Blister - Jimmy Eat World

Lethargy

2005-10-28T08:53:00.000+01:00

So I’ve got a cold/flu thing which is just great because I have a mountain of work to get through and all I want to do is sleep.

To make matters even more annoying I managed to miss the introductory Niceway lecture yesterday. I blame this on the fact that there was no explicit email, though it was mentioned on the lab week timetable webpage. (So no excuse really which just makes it all the more annoying.)

On the plus side the Verilog code is done and all that remains to be done for the first Gateway assignment is the report write-up. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I’ll have that finished as well as the signals and systems assignment, circuit theory assignment and a professional issues essay plan.

Today’s tasks are to get some of the operating systems practical done and out of the way as well as to get hold of a copy of the Niceway labs manual.

Song of the Day: I'm Not Okay (I Promise) – My Chemical Romance

Halfway There Already (Week 5)

2005-10-22T22:01:00.000+01:00

Having a nice relaxing day off after another busy week at uni. My last post was during week 0 and thanks to my uncertainty on posting I have managed to neglect my blog. I’m feeling slightly less stressed now thanks to the following week being a lab/reading week, allowing time to concentrate on practical work and ensure an understanding of the first half of course modules.

Current to-do list:
Verilog assignment
Professional Issues essay plan
OS practical reading and first part
Circuit Theory assignment
Signals and Systems assignment
PSPICE assignment
Individual practical reading

It’s funny how fast time passes when you’re gainfully employed as opposed to being depressed and moping about all the time. I think I’m happier because I have resolved many of the problems I was referring to in the 2005-07-17 post. In another 5-6 weeks we’ll be having electrical engineering exams and then the first semester will be over, both an impressive and scary concept.

I’ve altered my course slightly to avoid doing the SDP and took the individual practical and computer security modules instead. It overloads the first semester but in the long run it should be much less stressful than carrying out the SDP. I am now taking the following modules:

1st Semester (70 credits):
CS-SE Individual Practical
Operating Systems
Professional Issues
Electronic Engineering 3
Microelectronics 3

2nd Semester (50 credits):
Communication Engineering
Compiling Techniques
Computer Architecture
Computer Security

Song of the Day: All The Rage (Funeral For A Friend)

I don't feel a single thing

2005-09-14T15:18:00.000+01:00

In the Appleton tower labs at the moment. Both this machine and the ones in JCMB are working for me properly now {Appleton's weren't towards the end of the summer term}. The machines have now been switched over from RH9 to FC3 the upshot of which is my USB mem stick works nicely, so no more messing about with floppy discs.

Earlier I meet with my DoS and selected my courses for the coming year. I'm pretty pleased with the selection but I'm still a bit worried about the System Design Project (SDP), though less so than I was to begin with.

Enjoyed my wander down to KB in the morning, I've missed it over the holiday. It allows you time to think, chill and wake up in the mornings. Plus it always helps to do a bit of exercise.

Another thing I missed over the summer was the cheese rolls from KB, they're just great.

Right I'm outta here, need air and a drink before I fall over.

Song of the Day: Night Drive (Jimmy Eat World)

The only voice I want to hear is yours

2005-09-13T23:45:00.000+01:00

Akasa HDD enclosure arrived today and it looks so cool. Currently residing is a 160Gb hdd which should give me plenty of space to play about with my scanner and store all of my random digital camera pics.

Tomorrow I'm meeting with my Director of Studies (DoS) to confirm my attendance to third year and choose my course modules. My choices havn't changed since I posted them up on the 31st. However I've had plenty of time to think them over and they seem to be sensible enough so far. I still have no real idea what I want to do when I leave uni, but the courses interest me {well professional issues didn't at first} and so thats whyI plan to do them.

Song of the Day: For Me This Is Heaven (Jimmy Eat World)

All day Bowling – 2005-09-08

2005-09-11T06:46:00.000+01:00

Last Thursday Daz, Menzies and I went all-day bowling at Fountain Park. We managed to fit in 16 games before we had to leave due to increasing amounts of injury, though it is safe to say Daz kicked our asses well and truly.

My bowling is still pretty terrible, but it has its moments. Scores and stats listed below.

Game	Spares	Strikes	Score	Won By
1	1	0	70	Daz
2	1	1	82	Daz
3	0	1	86	Daz
4	1	0	67	Menzies
5	2	0	91	Menzies
6	0	0	72	Daz
7	0	0	75	Daz
8	2	1	96	Daz
9	1	3	117	Daz
10	2	1	94	Daz
11	2	2	126	Myself
12	2	0	85	Daz
13	1	2	117	Myself
14	2	1	102	Menzies
15	3	0	78	Daz
16	1	1	95	Daz

Totals:

Spares: 21
Strikes: 13
Points: 1453
Average: 90.8

Games won:

Daz: 11
Menzies: 3
Myself: 2

Highest Score of the Day: 147 (Daz)

Song of the Day: One Week (Barenaked Ladies)

EDIT: Table formatting was pretty horrible, sorting it the now.
EDIT: Properly formatted the table (2005-09-12-0356)

When your heart is broken

2005-08-31T22:28:00.000+01:00

I’ve been using my msn space a bit more recently and as a result I haven’t posted here in a while. However I prefer the layout of this blog and so I’m going to try and post here more often. My trouble is coming up with interesting and worthwhile things to say. Plenty of random nonsense is still available so here goes.

On Friday I finally got round to getting a new scanner. Mainly this is all Dave’s fault for talking about comics and scanning in general. So now I’m scanning in a lot of my random stuff :)

Cut the grass yesterday and my attempt at correcting my circadian rhythm back into something “normal” suffered a tiny setback when I only woke up at around 6 today {just couldn’t find the motivation to fully wake up :s}. It’ll have to be normalised soon though seeing as I go back to uni on the 11th (technically, teaching begins the week after). Currently my main priority is to decide which CS modules I want to take in 3rd year, my course choice so far is:

1st Semester:
Operating Systems
Professional Issues

2nd Semester:
Computer Architecture
Compiling Techniques
Software Development Project

I still need to see if anything else grabs my attention and how it will tie in to fourth year but I’m glad I’ve started looking into the details now.

Returning from my wonder in Ed yesterday.

Random:

Eye Colour: Blue
Archetype: Scientist
Character Orientation: Hoarder
Personality Description: Caustic
Favourite:
Metal: Titanium
Mineral: Obsidian
Colour: Red
Currently Reading: The Fear of Freedom (Erich Fromm)

Song of the Day: It's Only Me (The Wizard Of Magicland) - (Barenaked Ladies)

A quick note

2005-08-30T13:35:00.000+01:00

Whoo, thats the grass cut. Hopping back across to Ed to do a bit of wondering.

Song of the Day: Thanks That Was Fun (Barenaked Ladies)

Drag me out into the cold rain

2005-07-28T20:03:00.000+01:00

I went out for a walk last night, nice fresh air and a spot of gentle rain. It allowed me to put a few ghosts to rest (probably not permanently but at least back into proportion). I’ve been pretty miserable the last few days with little or no reason behind it. Sometimes I don’t think and others I am thinking too much. Neither extreme is particularly useful but each has its place I guess. I’ll see if I can get a few more pictures uploaded and finish the tweaks I have planned for my fractal program. Get some constructiveness on the go.

Song of the Day: Night Drive (Jimmy Eat World)

Lyrics that are occupying my skull at the moment

2005-07-25T23:00:00.000+01:00

I wish you only knew how good it is to see you

Sorry but I can’t just go turn off how I feel

I’ve been sleeping with ghosts

I’m sure your kiss remains employed, am I only dreaming?

There was never any place, for someone like me to be totally happy.

I lost an arm, no one harmed, you diplomatically alarmed.

And men can do terrible things. Yes they can.

The closer I get to feeling, the further I’m feeling from alright.

Some days all I do is watch the sky.

You’ll sit alone forever if you wait for the right time, what are you hoping for?

I won’t always live in my regret

We once walked out on the beach and once I almost touched your hand

The photograph reflects, every streetlight a reminder

I wish to stay, to be here with you. You were my strength, how can I go on?

I feel like a cartoon brick wall.

Consider this. Consider this. The hint of the century

Mean cats eat parakeets, and this one's nearly dead

I cried the other night. I can't even say why

You are not alone

Song of the Day: The Great Beyond (R.E.M.)

Re-writing Mandelbrot {again}

2005-07-24T21:29:00.000+01:00

Over the weekend I’ve been re-writing my Mandelbrot fractal program in order to get it running more smoothly and to add some interesting colouring routines as well as a few other features. The whole project is a result of stuffing up a first year java practical {the Julia-Fatou and Mandelbrot part anyways} due to sleep deprivation silliness (the maths got done though). However I didn’t want to leave it at that seeing as I liked the concept and thought they looked neato. The practice with C++ hasn’t hurt much either.

Above is a close up of the Mandelbrot set coloured using the red spectrum. Though while surfing the net I saw a greyscale version which looked pretty cool so I’ll try and get round to implementing that in this re-write.

Song of the Day: Electrolite (R.E.M.)

Mandelbrot Fractal

2005-07-23T15:27:00.000+01:00

Song of the Day: See You (Foo Fighters)

2005-07-20T14:08:00.000+01:00

Forth Road Bridge

Song of the Day: In Your Honour (Foo Fighters)

Conscious

2005-07-17T10:58:00.000+01:00

Simply because it seems I cannot be happy for more than a few days, here we go again…

I look back on my life and I’m amazed at the things I’ve done, any way you look at it the wet wiring in your head really is a remarkable piece of kit. However what gets me more than anything seems to be how cracked my world view is and how dimly conscious of my existence I have been for most of my life. Sure I’ve been alive for 20 years, breathing and absorbing information about the world around me. Objectively though I would say I’ve only been “awake” for the last three years. Before, I knew exactly what I was doing and where I was going. Then somewhere amidst the winds of change an entire part of my psyche snapped.

I’ll say here that I don’t want to state the obvious because I’m not sure how obvious it really is. However I’m not sure how long I can ramble on through a post about something and remain vague enough about it without making the post completely unintelligible. Perhaps that’s the way I want it to be, to say something without actually saying anything. I have an idea what different parts of my mind want but as a whole I really aint that sure.

It’s probably a misconception but everyone else seems to have plans and knows what they are doing with their life. I’m still lost, whatever certainty I had in what I was doing has been blown right out of the building and I’m left dazed and confused with my own life, spending more and more time thinking about it or refusing to think about it.

No matter how hard I search my past, I find it hard to want any of it to change. There are things I wish had turned out differently but that is knowledge for the future and to change it is a silly request, for in doing so you would change the person you are now.

In some respects I want to be back at uni ASAP, bury myself under my work again and hide from all these things that bother me. Though after all this time my doubts are growing about that particular tactic. It’s been nearly two years and I’m still looking for answers. My main problem is that I’m completely unsure of where I want to go from here. While there are many potential outcomes, the few that I have deemed unacceptable distort my thinking and until things become clearer it is a risk I am not confident in taking. I’ll get it all sorted out eventually, I’m in no rush.

If you know what this post was all about, congratulations you get a gold star and some wine gums. Right now I’m off to get some food and then disappear into a book for a while.

Song of the Day: How To Be Dead (Snow Patrol)

Finished

2005-07-17T09:10:00.000+01:00

Ok so it's a little bit late and I still aint been to sleep yet, but I blame feeling so crap and sleeping most of yesterday for that. I've finally gone through all of the T in the Park pictures on my MSN space captioned and ordered them into something resembling order. Overall I'm pretty pleased with my cameras performance, lots of nice pictures to look back on.

Song of the Day: How To Be Dead (Snow Patrol)

2005-07-15T16:16:00.000+01:00

Sunset over Black Sands - Aberdour

Song of the Day: For Me This Is Heaven (Jimmy Eat World)

Out for a wonder

2005-07-15T04:06:00.000+01:00

Boats out in the sun on the Firth of Forth.

Song of the Day: For Me This Is Heaven (Jimmy Eat World)

T in the Park

2005-07-13T22:09:00.000+01:00

So a few days later and I finally get round to writing about T in the Park. In short it was amazing. The music was good, weather was pretty amazing (more on that later) and I was with a great group of friends (and me bro :) ).

This was only my second T in the Park but it seemed so much busier. Though as a growing music festival it’s to be expected but the stage layout may also have contributed to the busyness. Also, as seems to be the usual, there was the standard complement of neds and people getting far to drunk to walk. But hey, who am I to spoil their fun. Just not something I would do personally that’s all.

Sooo many sunburnt ppls though :s (I’m not overly keen on sun cream myself but it’s much better than the agony and annoyance of burnt skin)

Musicians of Note:

Jimmy Eat World: Fantastic to see live and I was singing along {probably really badly} quite happily. These were the guys I was wanted to see the most and were the highlight of the weekend for me, however Green Day’s act outshone everyone else’s by a long way.

Green Day: Put on one hell of a good show, obviously having fun on stage. Definitely the best act of this years T in the Park.

Foo Fighters: These guys were pretty good, even heard a few songs I recognised. Probably will try and get my mitts on a few of their albums in the near future.

Travis: Not a huge fan of Travis but their show was highly enjoyable. Always nice to see a band having fun on stage.

Of course there were many other bands present, though only a handful of which I would have gone to see. There are a few other bands we saw that I don’t know very well so I just let their music wash over me and thoroughly enjoyed being there.

However I did have to miss two artists I wanted to see because I was (or had to go into) hiding from the sun: Audioslave and Biffy Clyro. I hadn’t heard of Biffy Clyro before, but the first few songs they played I quite liked. I’m annoyed that I had to leave and seek shelter from the sun.

My camera was present at T this year and has seen more usage in the last 3 months than it has in the 3 years I have owned it. :$ The new 256 MB memory card I got has helped with that enormously allowing me to take as many pictures as I want without having to worry about spatial restrictions. Some of the pics are really, really nice and as usual there are a few of the sky and the sunset. A selection of them is up on my msn space though I’m still sorting them out and enlarging a few of the images. The hardest bit so far has been trying to think up interesting and accurate captions for all of the pictures.

As has been hinted at previously the only real downside of the event was the weather, specifically my incapability of coping with it. Thanks to my genes I have no sweat glands (a contributing factor in my gauntness). So while the weather was awesome, it was just too hot for me and as a result I was overheated on both days. Annoyingly so on the Saturday and horrendously so on the Sunday. See the cold I don’t mind as much, it’s easier to handle and it seems to take a larger drop in temperature to affect me than an increase in temperature does. It’s such a horrible feeling when I get overheated. I feel my consciousness slowing down and my mind slipping away. Thinking in syrup, with the knowledge that unless I do something to remedy the situation properly I’m in a lot of trouble.

While I’m ranting about my characteristics I may as well mention I have an auditory processing disorder which can make audio communication difficult at the best of times. Add any loud background noise and it’s even harder for me to understand what people are saying. The cognitive shutdown caused by overheating makes it even worse. This is the main cause of my problems with English and in learning any other language. I’m sorry for not being very talkative at these things, it’s not because I don’t want to. I really do. However no matter how hard I try I’ll only hear gibberish instead of what you’re actually saying. Generally agreeing with what is said while processing the information usually works well, though I’ve been caught out before. Like when someone asked if the person standing next to me was my girlfriend. :s When that clicked my blood turned to ice, still does occasionally.

While I dislike these aspects of myself and all the problems they bring into my life I wouldn’t change them for the world. They define a large part of my existence and without them I would be a completely different person from the one I am now. Sometimes I hate myself but for the most part I am happy with myself and who I am.

“You take what is offered and sometimes that must be enough.”

So despite the major depressions caused by my physiology it was still a great weekend. I couldn’t have asked for better company and the music was excellent. Although I do apologise if I worried or scared anyone.

Song of the Day: Wake Me Up When September Ends (Green Day)

T in the Park

2005-07-11T02:14:00.000+01:00

It was amazing and has put a huge grin back on my face. {Despite the horrible overheating I went though on both days, particularly the Sunday} I'll say more later because right now I am absolutly shattered.

Song of the Day: Salt Sweat Sugar (Jimmy Eat World)

2005-07-07T14:44:00.000+01:00

Sunset over Dunfermline 2005-07-04

I've been sleeping with ghosts

2005-07-02T05:04:00.000+01:00

Just finished sorting through the bowling pics on my MSN space removing some of the ones that weren't so good. The bowling night was great, just nice to be out with friends. My actual bowling however was all over the place with some good shots and some that are best left unmentioned. Claus is the bowling king! {Best score of the night @ 170}

Finished sorting out my room. It's now all nice and organised, though I doubt that will last for long. {Technically its always organgised just sometimes less so than others...}. The pics I took from Edinburgh on Wed have also been uploaded to my space but still need a bit of reordering. Eventually I intend to caption most of the pics on my space, however I don't know when I'll get round to it.

Song of the Day: The Astronaut (Something Corporate)

It's too late, to save me

2005-07-01T17:24:00.000+01:00

Currently my room looks like a warzone. Probably about time I sorted that. Got a few other things to get sorted as well {such as getting the pics from ed posted up} .

The router is up and running allowing both me and my brother to be online at the same time. :) Yey no more arguments as to whose online. :)

Right time to sort out the disorganised living space that is my room.

Song of the Day: Stockholm Syndrome (Blink-182)

Returned

2005-06-26T01:45:00.000+01:00

(8) I'm so lost
I'm barley here
I wish I could explain myself
But words escape me
It's too late
To save me
You're too late
You're too late (8)

Just back in from Inverness. Was nice to get away from here for a few days. Tis calming up there :)

Song of the Day: Hall of Mirrors (The Distillers)

2005-06-23T20:23:00.000+01:00

This pic pretty much sums up the day.

New petrol lawn mower is pretty neato though. :D

Song of the Day: Hear You Me (Jimmy Eat World)

It's Over, They've Found Me

2005-06-21T23:59:00.000+01:00

I used to know what I was doing and what I wanted to do. Decisions were made, and for a time it was good.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Either that or it consumes you.

So here I sit, too scared to make a move, contemplating the possible outcomes of actions I do not know how to take. Projecting my thoughts onto a reality where they do more harm than anything else and probably do not belong anyhow. For being a complete git I apologise.

Song of the Day: For Tonight You're Only Here to Know (The Distillers)

Exam Results

2005-06-17T19:23:00.000+01:00

This should technically have been posted on tuesday, seeing as that is when I actually found out the last remaining results {CS and ECD2}. However I got a bit distracted and so I've only got around to it now.

ECD2 {Electronic Circuits and Devices 2}: I thought I'd done well on this exam and had really enjoyed this section of the course. Result was very good :)

CS2B: This exam I felt I'd totally fell apart on, with the question on threads throwing me quite a bit. After much worry and depression the result has come back far better than I thought was possible. Another item crossed off the checklist of depair, finally I can relax and start enjoying the summer properly.

Either on the previous thursday or friday the results for the other not so nice exam {Electrical Power Engineering EPE2} again exceeding my evaluation of what I'd done and actually yeilding a nice mark. :)

Song of the Day: I've Been High (R.E.M.)

I've been up for days, I finally lost my mind, and then I lost my way

2005-06-07T03:09:00.000+01:00

Headed back into Edinburgh today to correct a mistake made the week before when I bought the wrong perfume for my mum. Should have the right stuff now and hopefully won't make the same mistake again.

My books were dispatched from amazon today, so should arrive sometime tomorrow. :) Yey some more science fiction to read :)

[rant] And why is it that Big Brother is so popular? Big Brother is supposed to be something that you are afraid of, not want to watch on TV! [/rant]

Song of the Day: Bittersweet Me (R.E.M.)

Exam results (it begins)

2005-06-01T13:53:00.000+01:00

Yey, both maths results were released today. Passed nicely :). However these are the exams I thought I had done well on, it is the others I'm more worried about {especially CS}...

Song of the Day: Overdue (Muse)

2005-05-27T04:39:00.000+01:00

Sunset 2005-05-26

The photograph reflects, every streetlight a reminder.

2005-05-23T02:26:00.000+01:00

Another long pause in posting to the blog, mainly due to lazyness and not knowing what to type.

The exams are over {last one was on the 12th}. At least until the next set. The majority went pretty well, however power engineering went badly and computer science went even worse. Won't know anything for certain until the results in June, but my hopes aren't high.

So uni is finished until September and I am left with plenty of free time to think and do as I want. Therefore all the things normally confined to the back of my mind have come forwards, again causing depression and uncertainty. I am falling to peices and am still no closer to fixing these things than when I last properly thought about them.

Small steps...

Song of the Day: Thinking, That's All (Jimmy Eat World)

You wake up in the morning, and fall out of your bed

2005-04-08T12:15:00.000+01:00

Futures CD by Jimmy Eat World arrived today. Seems pretty good from the first listen through. Some very nice songs. Most of this morning has been spent revising the first part of Electronic Circuits and Devices course (ECD2), which is going well. I can remember most of that part of the course quite clearly. Also I'm looking over the Mathematics for Electrical and Mechanical engineers (me4) past paper, which looks quite straight forward but my knowledge of the earlier parts of the course is a bit blury. Hopefully before the day is out I can finish revising the first part of ECD2, do the tutorial questions and revise some of the earlier me4 subjects {the chain rule}. Alternativley/as well I might look over some of the Algorithms and Data Structures lecture notes for Computer Science.

Song of the Day: Parakeet (R.E.M.)

2005-04-07T22:35:00.000+01:00

Quoted from bash.org

#414593

DragonflyBlade21: A woman has a close male friend. This means that he is probably interested in her, which is why he hangs around so much. She sees him strictly as a friend. This always starts out with, you're a great guy, but I don't like you in that way. This is roughly the equivalent for the guy of going to a job interview and the company saying, You have a great resume, you have all the qualifications we are looking for, but we're not going to hire you. We will, however, use your resume as the basis for comparison for all other applicants. But, we're going to hire somebody who is far less qualified and is probably an alcoholic. And if he doesn't work out, we'll hire somebody else, but still not you. In fact, we will never hire you. But we will call you from time to time to complain about the person that we hired.

2005-04-07T20:55:00.000+01:00

The sky on fire over Rosyth

2005-04-07T18:03:00.000+01:00

Clouds from the old kirk

2005-04-07T18:02:00.000+01:00

The old kirk

2005-04-07T18:01:00.000+01:00

The old kirk

2005-04-07T18:00:00.000+01:00

The old kirk

Not impressed

2005-04-07T11:47:00.000+01:00

It’s the third day in a row I’ve had little to no energy. It’s annoying and depressing as there’s so much stuff I need/want to get done but just haven’t {like posting here}. On the plus side, I did actually get round to opening the books and started revising for the exams yesterday. If I can just stay conscious and get some more done I might begin to feel a bit better {hopefully}. That said thinking of the exams doesn’t help. I like exams as they allow me to show that I am achieving something, but they really stress me out.

On another {depressing} note I have taken to using my Doomsday timer prog to count the tie down till my birthday. It’s scarily almost a year since I wrote it. My current programming project, a picture manipulation program called Wardani {for archiving, scaling and basic viewing of pics taken with my phone or digital camera} is shaping up quite nicely. Could do with a bit of reorganisation though.

Song of the Day: Clarity (Jimmy Eat World)

Good book

2005-03-27T03:02:00.000+01:00

Finished woken furies yesterday {well Friday now} after reading the last quarter non-stop. I thought it was really good and it's now my favourite of the 3 books with ex-Envoy Takeshi Kovacs. The DeCom command datatech in particular caught my imagination. Though it's definatly not a book for children as it contains lots of violence and swearing. Think I'll give it another read through before the holidays are out :D.

Song of the Day: Original Sin (Meat Loaf)

2005-03-24T17:52:00.000Z

Wraith

2005-03-24T17:41:00.000Z

I was ecstatic on the train home

I'll lick my wounds, could you pass the salt?

2005-03-24T11:50:00.000Z

Well thats the dealine for the CS practical just ticked by. Everything came together at around 0930 though :) At that point , everything was in the files that they were supposed to be in and the style sheets and xquery progs were running properly. Now all the stress, tension and worry is bleeding out. Adrenaline, endorphins, painkillers and some neural barriers will probably wear out soon, I'll probably need to crash when I get back home.

There 's a few pics and interesting stories I want to {back} post but haven't managed to due to all the time I poured into the CS practical. Should post them up later on today/tomorrow.

Song of the Day: Never Do Anything (Barenaked Ladies)

2005-03-23T22:00:00.000Z

Power Engineering Lab

2005-03-23T21:59:00.000Z

Power Engineering Lab

2005-03-23T21:57:00.000Z

Power Engineering Lab

Maths and labs

2005-03-22T10:51:00.000Z

Maybe supernoodles for breakfast wasn't such a good idea, I've wanted to be sick ever since. :( Even without that I'm generally feeling ill. :( Forgot to take painkillers before I left the house as well , so that'll help {doh!}.

On the plus side I've actually managed to start the computing practical {finally!}. The written questions and XSLT sections look ok, but the Quip question worries me a bit. Today's plan is to complete the last me4 assignment, fix the total mess up of a EPE2 lab and get as much of the CS practical done as possible {get at least the written and XSLT sections out of the way}. With a bit of luck {read: due care and attention} the lab will hopefully not take too long to put right. It has been a useful learning exerercise, although somewhat depressing. It's usually ok to make mistakes, just as long as you learn from them.

Song of the Day: Letter Never Sent (R.E.M.)

Oh what a great start to the week...

2005-03-21T18:13:00.000Z

After a restless night with many failed attempts to fall asleep I finally calm down enough to sleep properly at around about 6ish (the joys of circadian rythms). This is brilliant as I normally get up at 7 to go into uni. Luckily it is the final teaching week of uni and so most of the lectures are finished for the semester. Therefore I decide to be lazy {again} and sleep a bit longer as I don't actually have to be at uni til 1110 for CS. What happens, I manage to sleep through a myriad of alarms and sleep in by 30 mins. Resulting in a rush to uni and wondering into the lecture 25 mins late. Not too disaterous I guess, but not a goot start. Still, got to read my book on the train and Woken Furies is shaping up nicley.

Making things a bit worse I wanted to get a lot more work done but just couldn't get myself into a working mentality. So instead I spent most of it sleeping and getting depressed about the failed power lab and getting no work done. Productivity at its best...

Song of the Day: For Me This Is Heaven (Jimmy Eat World)

Tales of My Dark Life {Part 0}

2005-03-20T07:07:00.000Z

As I said I am going to try and use this blog to get to grips with some of the twists in my mind. To aid in restructuring the neural barriers I have installed in my head. I want to try and be as frank as possible and to allow anyone that is interested a glimpse of my mind. However there are some things I still don’t want to talk about, and some that I certainly don’t want to get into the specifics of. As a result some of my thoughts and memories will not be committed to these pages.

Yet there is so much I have wanted to tell people, but not known how. Therefore some things that should not have been are locked down deep inside. Every so often they break loose and wreck havoc on my mental landscape. I apologise in advance if this post is a bit fragmented or confusing. My English has never really been that good (might explain why in another post) and it’s not an easy subject for me to write about. So to the beginning of it all…

If you want to understand almost anything about me you need to go back 9 years, to when my father died. A Saturday morning in July, dad’s home from the hospital, mum telling us the news, a blood soaked mattress. That was a very large part of my life destroyed. Gone. Although the death was horrible, I am “happy” with this end. Better quick and painless at home than some of the other options. We are defined, one-way or another, by our pasts. It is from here many of my beliefs and outlook on this world stems.

Pain. Fury. Love. Despair. Rage. Relief. Hatred. Sorrow. It took a while to accept, a long while. I did a lot of stupid things. I think I severed a lot of ties in that transitional period. I had stonewalled the event, occasionally thinking it over, but mostly refusing to consider it. It was still too raw and my rationality had torn itself apart. Eventually I found a way to cope, al the pain and emotion was directed to my work. To do well. To understand the world. My work is my life. I didn’t want to do anything else. I didn’t want to think.

This approach has worked quite well. It achieved what it was supposed to do and as a consequence forced me try my best. Everything was going well until 6th year, when another environmental change was on the horizon. Roughly around this point a part of me awoke from its hiding place and started searching. It was what it had been told to do after all. What I think it found threw me. I still have trouble accepting what it found and it is this which is responsible for a lot of emotional tearing and turmoil going on in my life at the moment. Some people have seen its effects; for example the rant on the 3rd March. I am deeply sorry to anyone that has been hurt by such an outburst.

I have no long-term plans; almost everything I have done was planned in second year. People ask me what I plan to do once I leave university. The truth is I haven’t thought that far ahead. Currently I’m leaning more towards doing a postgraduate degree or a doctorate. The career isn’t what is important to me, being absorbed in the work and my other intellectual interests is. Do I want to make a difference? I don’t know if I trust myself to make a beneficial difference. I feel that I am apt at destruction and hurting others, and I have little or no confidence in my abilities to do the opposite.

I cannot recall with absolute certainty what my religious views were back then. But I think they were leaning away from religion. With what happened the balance was tipped fully and since then I have been an Atheist. That is I believe God does not exist. I have faith in science and that it can and will explain most, if not all, of what goes on, has gone on and will go on in the universe. I do not feel the need to invoke a divine Creator to explain our existence. It is still a possibility that some sort of creator exists, but I think it is doubtful they would be as described by any of the holy texts. However the question of whether something is possible is usually not as important as to ask what is it that is probable. I have no problem with other people believing in different things, but when they try and force other people to agree with them, that is when I have an issue.

Song of the Day: If You Never Say Goodbye (P.M. Dawn)

Boneheaded

2005-03-18T22:24:00.000Z

Ok so I have kind of messed up the power lab today. Too slow. Far far too slow. 3 hours to wire up a switching box, and probably badly. Managed to wire OUT the MCB! Going back in on Tuesday to get it sorted and tested. Probably a good 90 mins of work to do.

So instead of having a nice relaxing weekend and working on CS I'm gonna be kicking myself repeatedly and worrying about this. At the same time stressing about CS, the upcoming exams and other stuff. Great... :(

Song of the Day: Your New Aesthetic (Jimmy Eat Wold)

Tired...

2005-03-17T18:01:00.000Z

Hmm well the last post was a bit longer than I thought it would be. Just goes to show you can write alot when you put your mind to it. Currently I'm feeling really shattered, spent hours getting the me4 maths questions to work out to something sensible (ish). So hopefully there aint any boneheaded mistakes, though if there is at least its beter to make them now before the exam so I can learn from them.

:) On the way back to the train station I picked up a copy of Richard Morgan's latest book Woken Furies. It furthers the story of the Envoy Kovacs. Should be a good read.

Song of the Day: A Praise Chorus (Jimmy Eat World)

Today was a good day...

2005-03-16T21:24:00.000Z

Although this is really a double post for both yesterday and today. I was meaning to post something yesterday but it was a pretty busy day and I unfortunately never got round to it {:$ I accidentally fell asleep a bit early :$}

Yesterday, as with most days had good and bad bits. It was mainly good since I finally got my hands on a copy of Werewolf: the Forsaken RPG. :D The concepts seem very cool and interesting so far, the book itself is just awesome. Well worth the wait. All I need to do now is to come up with a few more good plot idea and get on with STing a campaign {something I have been meaning to do since the start of second year. Just not really found the time, oops}.

Unfortunately yesterday also involved going to the dentist. Which was hampered by repeated attempts by fate and the train network to make me late for it {well two, the train didn't want to start and near Dalmany a train broke down in front of us}. Now I don't mind dentists, they are nice people, but I don't like going to the dentist for two main reasons. Firstly it serves as a reminder how strange I am, although I normally take this as a good thing it can sometimes get me a bit wound up and depressed. Secondly I can still remember quite clearly when I decided against getting a local anaesthetic on my teeth when they were doing some drilling work. Never again!!! As much as the anaesthetic was not nice, the pain that drilling caused was severe and the nerves still twinge a bit from time to time.

Another good (and numbing) aspect of going to the dentist for me is the routes I take there and back. For those of you ho don't really know me, I like my walking. Apart from the fact its good for you by keeping you fit, it gives me time to think and listen to music. The thinking time is much appreciated as it gives me time to straighten out some of the twists in my mind, especially of late. It is numbing because I (deliberately) walk past my old secondary school and then take a scenic route back home via the quarry and coastal path {and usually half way round the bay as well}. This brings back all sorts of memories, good and bad. My thoughts usually end up with musing over all the possibilities that could have been. Its a bad habit in some respects, especially when in a depressive context. however when viewed in a constructive context I can find it quite helpful. If we are to even attempt to mould our future, we must understand the past {IMHO}.

Today was nice. Nothing really special about today, apart from being really tired and taking about 4 hours to wake up (:$ fell asleep in CS for 10 mins :$). The tired bit wasn't the nice bit of course, I was just in a happier mood than normal. Getting some study done (maths due in tomorrow, although line integrals and flux integrals are beginning to get slightly frustrating), power lab tomorrow which should be interesting and I aint as angry at this world as I was during the previous two weeks. :) With a bit of luck I will stay in this mental state for a bit longer.

Right that’s enough time deferred, time to finish the maths.

Song of the Day: Daysleeper (R.E.M.)

2005-03-13T22:50:00.000Z

Cadian Kasrkin with plasma gun {still painting this guy, hope to actually finish it this time...}

2005-03-13T22:48:00.000Z

Cadian Kasrkin with plasma gun

Phones out :(

2005-03-10T13:24:00.000Z

Just in case anyone is wanting to contact me though my mobile (unlikely, even more unlikely that they would be reading this post) but my phone battery has died on account of me forgetting to charge it. Ooops.

:D Werewolf: the Forsaken should be out in 4 days :D Given my current mood that will be quite interesting...

Song of the Day: Only Ashes (Something Corporate)

2005-03-09T17:24:00.000Z

{temp}

Thinking, that's all - Music List

2005-03-08T16:02:00.000Z

{Jimmy Eat World}

"Thinking, that's all", rockstar, caveman, robot factory, hear you me, "if you don't, don't", the authority song, salt sweat sugar, a praise chorus, the middle.

{Snow Patrol}

How to be dead, spitting games, chocolate, run, somewhere a clock is ticking.

{Something Corporate}

The astronaut, straw dog, drunk girl, cavanaugh park, globes & maps, konstantine, only ashes, the runaway, watch the sky, break myself.

{Muse}

Time is running out, stockholm syndrome, hysteria, the small print, sunburn, muscle museum, cave, showbiz, escape, overdue, new born, bliss, space dementia, darkshines.

{R.E.M.}

She just wants to be, i've been high, disapper, imitation of life, great beyond, losing my religion, me in honey, harbor coat, so. central rain, driver 8, life and how to live it, the apologist, walk unafraid, daysleeper, parakeet, the one i love, nightswimming, leave, bittersweet me, "so fast, so numb" , monty got a raw deal, try not to breathe, everybody hurts.

{The Zutons}

Pressure point, you will you won't, nightmare part II, don't ever think (too much).

{Greenday}

Good Riddance (Time of Your Life), homecoming, jesus of suberbia, Macy's Day Parade, Boulevard of Broken Dream, Basket Case, Minority.

{Franz Ferdinand}

Auf achse, take me out, michael, this fire.

Song of the Day: So. Central Rain (I'm sorry) {R.E.M.}

2005-03-08T08:36:00.004Z

{temp}

2005-03-08T08:36:00.003Z

{temp}

2005-03-08T08:36:00.002Z

{temp}

2005-03-08T08:36:00.001Z

{temp}

2005-03-08T08:36:00.000Z

{temp}

2005-03-07T17:02:00.000Z

Its a light suspended from the sky...

Recovery...

2005-03-07T13:54:00.000Z

Well thats the end of what was, on reflection, a nightmareish weekend. A strange week in general really. I might post more when I've had a bit more time to think and figure out what was going on inside my head. {comments on the rant?}

Finally got the java pactical to some sort of completion, still a few annoyences cropping up, but seems to be working ok. However, it is really annoying how, with 28 mins left to the deadline, an email is circulated extending it by 24 hours. Thats good for all the ppl having major problems and needing the extra time to get stuff sorted. Yet for those of us who were working really late ino the morning to get stuff done its a bit of a pain that the email wasn't sent out earlier. I might tinekr with it to fix one of the bugs that have surfaced since I handed it in, but now that i'm absolutly shattered I might just leave it alone. Also code has a tendency to die, tear itself apart and inside ou if your not reall careful when making the last minute changes.

On the plus side my uni email account isn't going to be deleted, a rougue script sent out deletion notices to almost all of students here. The problem has been sorted and an apology issued.

Tutorial time, then home... I need some tea and rest.

Song of the Day: Make It All Ok (R.E.M.)

2005-03-07T06:58:00.001Z

Its not sad, its useful...

2005-03-07T06:58:00.000Z

Skillfully hiding

2005-03-07T06:56:00.000Z

Apparently I don't appear very serious in many photographs...

2005-03-06T05:29:00.000Z

Shadows...

Song of the Day: Nightswimming (R.E.M.)

2005-03-06T04:04:00.000Z

Maelstrom

{Ranting}

2005-03-03T01:57:00.000Z

I'll probably regret posting this in the morning but...

You spend several hours attempting to talk to someone, not really knowing how or what about, and they hardly even acknowldege your existence. Then they just dissapper without a trace. Tis just depressing...

But anyways, there is not much I can do about it now, maths still needs to be finshed off, want to do some blendering but the CS Java practical deadline is looming ever closer.

Current plan: Sort out paperwork for tomorrow, sleep, wake up, goto and do more uni stuff.

Song of the Day: Hear You Me (Jimmy Eat World)

2005-03-02T01:28:00.000Z

In another one of my thoughtful moods, this pool of water struck me as interesting.

Song of the Day: Driver 8 (R.E.M.)

2005-03-02T01:26:00.000Z

Just looking throught some of the random pics I've taken recently, it's another sunset.

2005-02-25T18:39:00.000Z

Mr. Anderson {Caz}

Random Update

2005-02-25T18:19:00.001Z

It's been a while since I've posted something {again!!!}. Until I can think of something more insightful to say here's a link to my mate Caz's MSN Space:

http://spaces.msn.com/members/cazsco/

Song of the Day: Robot Factory (Jimmy Eat World)

Tea tea tea tea tea tea tea tea

2005-01-18T13:11:00.000Z

In the CS labs doing maths for my tutorial, really, really {really} want some tea just now. :):S:(

Song of the Day: Another Brick In The Wall [Parts 1-3] (Pink Floyd)

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters

2005-01-18T10:27:00.000Z

Chapter One: I walk down the street.There is a deep hole in the side walk.I fall in.I am lost... I am helplessIt isn't my fault.It takes me forever to find a way out.

Chapter Two: I walk down the same street.There is a deep hole in the side walk.I pretend I do not see it.I fall in again.I can't believe I am in this same place.But it isn't my fault.It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter Three: I walk down the same street.There is a deep hole in the side walk.I see it is there.I fall in... it's a habit.. but my eyes are open.I know where I am.It is my fault.I get out immediately.

Chapter Four: I walk down the same street.There is a deep hole in the side walk.I walk round it.

Chapter Five: I walk down a different street.

© 1993 Portia Nelson From There's a hole in My Sidewalk Beyond Words Publishing, Inc.1-800-284-9678

Song of the Day: Another Brick In The Wall [Parts 1-3] (Pink Floyd)

Extreme Weather

2005-01-12T09:36:00.000Z

It's not really a good sign when you get to the train station and the car park is devoid of almost all life at 0800 on a working day. Furthermore when the only ppl at the station are leaving almost as soon as they get there, something is definatly wrong.

The reason is posted on the station monitors:

"The current extreme weather conditions have resulted in all First ScotRail services being suspended until further notice. No alternative transport is available."

The Fourth Road bridge was also closed in both directions to all vehicles due the extreme winds. {it has since re-opened to most traffic but remains closed to high sided vehicles}

So looks like I won't be able to get into uni today, weather is supposed to be calming down, but that aint until the afternoon and all my lectures will be over by then. :S {looks like I coulda played cube for a bit longer then, dang sorry Alan}

Song of the Day: The Astronaut (Something Corporate)

The world from the Study0

2005-01-12T09:32:00.000Z

swindow0

The world from the Study1

2005-01-12T09:30:00.000Z

Study

2005-01-12T09:26:00.000Z

And this is where I'm currently hiding at the moment...

2005-01-10T18:06:00.000Z

Craig

2005-01-10T18:05:00.000Z

Craig with clothepegs all over his face :s

2005-01-10T17:23:00.000Z

I haven't fallen asleep in this photo, just blinked when it was taken (oops).

2005-01-10T17:21:00.000Z

Civil Alan

2005-01-10T17:20:00.000Z

Blurred Claus