Festive blogging
Hey there people in the ‘blogosphere’!
How was eveyone’s Christmas? Good? I’m glad.
I know you were wondering what I had for Christmas so I will tell you. Because my contract was coming to an end I thought it was time to get an upgrade from my HTC Touch Diamond, so what better to upgrade to than the iPhone 3GS? (the actual present bit was that my parents paid for the handset and are contributing to my monthly contract)
Needless to say I am very happy with the decision! It is true that for almost all problems, there’s an app for that. Also needless to say, as soon as I received my new gadget I loaded up the App Store and downloaded pretty much every free app that may be remotely useful between now and the very distant future!
Sad I know, but this post is happening by the grace or the Wordpress app! Hopefully this will mean a bit more blogging from me as I can now blog on the move and as soon as something happens!
To jailbreak or not to jailbreak? That is my new question.
Happy reading.
The thing I am looking forward to most this year
I think everyone has something that they are looking forward to in the year. I bet you can’t guess what mine is!
Christmas? No.
New year? No.
Revision? No.
Going home to Newport? No.
You will kick your self when you realise how obvious it was! It is obviously Iron Fives! If you don’t know what that is, it is an Ultimate tournament in Plymouth where every team is only allowed to take 5 players (that means no subs) for the whole weekend.
It’s not the idea of just wearing myself out that is appealing, but the idea of playing some awesome Ultimate with guys that you want to play with and they want to play with you!
We have been seeded 32nd out of 32 so the hopes for us are not very high, but that does mean that the only way is up! Just need to show people how good we really are by coming a bit higher.
I can’t wait, fuck Christmas, I’ll take two Iron Fives if possible!
The stresses of trying to be nice
Want to know one thing that really sucks?
Giving someone advice that you know is the right advice but hating every word that comes out of your mouth. Yes, I am giving advice to a very good friend and whislt I want to do what I can for them to try and see them through this problem as best as I can, the advice I am giving is no fun for me to give.
Why am I giving this advice you may ask? Because I was asked and I would like to help my friends in an (sensible) way I can. I must say, this isn’t the first time either. I have given this same friend advice on the same topic before and it sucked then. Moral of the story? It sucks to be trusted and to have your opinion valued!
Oh no, they are about to look over my screen, gotta go, bye!
Let me tell you a story
What I should have written about (but have been too busy/lazy to) by now is what I have been doing all summer. In short I’ve been working as part of a summer bursary scheme at Swansea University under my 3rd year project supervisor Prof. (as of October) Matt Jones on projector phones. More on this another time.
Because of my involvement in the FIT Lab and working closely with Matt, I got “roped in” to helping out at the British Science Festival in Guildford at an exhibition show-casing the StoryBank project as part of a larger project called Bridging the Global Digital Divide.
In the run up to the start of the Festival, I was not given any information as Matt wanted to keep everything a “surprise”. We were all (that’s me, Matt, Emma who worked on the StoryBank, Simon the Research Assistant who works for Matt and Ram Bhat who worked closely on the StoryBank project in the field in rural India) meeting at our hotel close to the Festival location (University of Surrey) on Friday evening. After a few delays on the train I make it to our hotel and settle in nicely. At the hotel, I’m told what I’m actually there for; engaging people attending the festival to get them to view and interact with the StoryBank.
Day 1. Nice breakfast. Get there nice and early and set up. Walk around and try to get people to view our exhibit. Interact with the people at the exhibit. Seems like explaining the same thing to people over and over would get dull. I imagine that it would.
The difference here is the interesting conversations you have with the people you speak to. Of course there are people that are not that interested but there are people who are truly passionate about the work that has been done for StoryBank and similar projects and it is great to hear what these people have to say and to talk to them about their views on the project and what it has achieved.
At the end of the 1st day, we had engaged or approached 300+ people and had some very stimulating conversations! After a surprisingly exhausting first day, we all headed off to bed to get some rest.
Day 2. Very very quiet. It’s a Sunday and there don’t seem to be as many events as there were on Saturday, at least not in our building. Not as many interactions but still a few meaningful and insightful conversations with people. After we had finished on our stand, we all decided to go to a lecture by Simon Singh called “Why journalists love silly mathematical equations” , which turned out to be entertaining, interesting and revealing. I suppose these are the things that all great lectures need…
What a time it has been!
I know I said I would deliver a Rimini post and finish off the London one, but if I am completely honest, I haven’t had the time. So there!
At the moment I have the will nor time to do a post on either so I will give a quick run down here.
London:
- Hung-over coach journey (not as bad as it sounds). When I got into London, it was a bit of a bus tour with lots of sight-seeing for free!
- Met Stef in Victoria St. train station and noticed that for all of the food places in the station there was not one rubbish bin!
- Got the tube to Setf’s house and was massively disappointed by the fact that most of the ‘underground’ just isn’t
- Played some Ultimate with the new and emerging East London team. Great fun, learned loads, and ruined my knees somehow
- Dropped my stuff at his and then we were off to visit the infamous Troys. Got there, met Nick and Ed.
- Off to O’Neils (Oh No’s!) for some karaoke action. Good fun all round, walked back through Wanstead. (Also met some more of Stef’s friends: Burke, Mills, Shaun and Chelsea)
- Next day, went to some giant grassy area called Wanstead Flats where we played a little football (I couldn’t do much as my knees were still very bad), everyone carried on drinking and had a nice relax on the field (Met Jen Troy)
- After that, we went to a ‘Spoons called the Wallnut Tree, where I met Alex and Neil. As Neil worked at that spoons, we quickly moved on to yet another ‘Spoons: The Wantstead George. More drinking, stories and all-round fun times!
- Another walk back to Stef’s where I promptly fell asleep on the sofa
- Last day: got up, had some food and then to kill some time before my coach home so we went to the British Museum and I was amazed (stuff like this interests me), but I couldn’t help wondering how Egypt felt about us having all of their artifacts?
- Coach ride home, just a coach really isn’t it?
See, I told you I would tell you at some point.
And now for something just a little more exciting, Rimini!
- Massive fuss packing as I have never packed for myself before (I know, I need to grow up lol)
- Long time on the coach going through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and of course Italy (having a chuck about at every stop!)
- Once we finally got there and settled into the hotel and everything, it was off to the beach for some Frisbee of course!
- First night out: Tight and Bright. It was good until a lesbian thought I was hitting on her girlfriend (which I wasn’t)
- First days games, we played 4 games on the first day and we learned just how hard beach Ultimate is, especially when the pitches were mountainous!
- Second night out: Emergency services. Me, Stef and Matt went as Secret Service agents and if I am honest, it was a short night and it was my least favourite by far.
- Second days games: played some more games and it worked out that we won the Plate! Yay us!
- Third night out: Tour shirts. Matt Plant’s birthday! He got absolutely wasted and spilled lots of drinks over me and didn’t really help with some other stuff too but I still love him…
- Day off: played a little more Ultimate, some volley ball, some football and dug a tunnel in the sand. Good times
- Fourth night out: Rubix and Foam Party. One word, amazing. I had such a good time that night. Me and Hywel ended up stopping a bus in the middle of the road but doing a Mexican wave with a random guy after firstly getting on the wrong bus and ending up miles away from the hotel. Good times!
- Very, very long coach journey back. Lots more sleeping and not a lot of going on the coach really.
I know this was all kinda short and sweet but I have put this off for so long I just wanted to get something down on the page. I met loads of people and made some new friends and had the most awesome time ever. Would I do it again? I’m organising the next one I love it so much!
Just a quickie…
Hey there!
Not long back from the most amazing time ever on Tour in Rimini!
There will be a full run-down, a lot better than the london one that is still in draft mode…
So much to say, but I have an essay to write…
Because I’m lazy
There is a rather large post on it’s way about my trip to London but because I am so lazy, I just can’t get it done. Maybe it is writers block (yeah, I’m a real writer now).
Just going to leave you with the quick update that I am in a terribly good mood today for a few reasons.
Bring on Rimini!
EDIT: I don’t think it is fair to leave this post as it was. It is a bit of a rubbish and pointless post isn’t it? Well, being as I am nice, I am going to leave you with this rather amusing Facebook group called “Your having a graph…”. Give this a click, some of them are obviously rubbish but a few of them may just brighten up your day!
What happens when I’m left to my own devices
Well as many on Facebook have probably seen by now, I am single again.
For me, this is a big thing. I’m not too used to being single. I generally fall from one relationship to the next, so the times between are kind of hard for me.
Having said that, this time I’m doing what I can to keep myself occupied and so far I’m not doing to badly. I’ve been playing a popular MMO (not saying which one to avoid boos and jeers…) and I have really enjoyed my day just talking away to people on Facebook and MSN.
There is one person who I have been talking to for hours now, and it has been really nice to just talk completely unrestricted to someone who you get on with and can trust. I suppose if every day of being single is like this, I don’t think I’m going to be too worried.
If only it was that easy…
Swansea: Britain’s student holiday camp.
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of walking around Swansea for various reasons (mostly girlfriend related if I am honest).
The one thing that I have noticed that living in Swansea is a lot like being on holiday, but not in the way you may be thinking…
Firstly, I have noticed that just like in most foreign tourist areas everyone seems to be talking English the same as you, yet you still have a hard time discerning any sort of meaning from what they are saying. Now this isn’t an attack on the intelligence or any aspect of the local inhabitants of Swansea, there are a many great people in Swansea. This is just what I have experienced in my time staying here.
Secondly, just like France and Spain, every car you see has at least a nice scuff on it. That is, at least. Quite a few have a nice big chunk out of them or are fitted with exhausts so over-sized, the extra metal makes up for the metal missing from some panel of the car. Why not bash it up on the way out of the showroom to just get it over with?
Again, just like Europe, everything here used to be cheap, but just isn’t anymore. Damn economy and rise of the Euro!
A pretty obvious one for foreign countries, but not so much for Swansea. There are lots and lots of foreign people here. I’m not the type of person that thinks Britain should close it’s gates to everyone and not let anyone in, in factI think Britain’s cultural diversity is one of it’s plus points. Its just that when I moved here, I guess I was just a little surprised by all of the people from different backgrounds who all live so close together. I suppose, that comes with the university territory.
Lastly, and most obviously, the access to a beach.
In contrast to being on holiday, I don’t often go on holiday to places where it rains 99% of the time…
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. In every post from now I will include a strikethrough’d statement. (The last statement, if you couldn’t guess, was a lie and a joke.)
Burn baby burn
Hey y’all.
Once again, over the weekend (yes I know this will be posted on the weekend again but I’m talking about the weekend that just passed) I was playing Ultimate Frisbee at a tournament.
This time I was at Bristol for Disco’s Disco Inferno tourney. Here is a quick summary of the weekend on both the Frisbee and non-Frisbee fronts:
- Left on Saturday morning, on the way popped into McDonald’s for some breakfast and for some reason the guy there gave me an extra cappuccino.
- Arrived in Bristol, as usual, just in time to play our first game. (Warming up is for pussies right?)
- Lost 2 and drew 1 on the first day, played some hard teams like our heroes Danger! High Voltage.
- Went to the ‘Sexy Disco’ party. To be honest, not very impressed. Not very sexy, not very disco and not very cheap.
- Day 2, won all of our games and we all generally played well. Came 3rd out of 3 in the scavenger hunt as we were the only non local team to enter and non of us thought that bringing Pogz was a good idea (even though my new and huge bag could have fitted the whole game in). We came away with the bowl (17th) which made us happy as we all played really well and beat some good teams on day two.
- I was chosen as MVP for the weekend and won a cool little photo of the team. I was trying not to be too happy about it but I think most people could tell that it did mean a lot to me.
So yeah, that was Bristol. I know what you’re thinking, why post about that so late in the week, what the hell have you been doing since then? And, why haven’t you blogged this much earlier?
Here is the answer I know you are so desperate for. On Monday I was too tired from Bristol and was putting off doing my graphics coursework and both of those things took over the whole day (apart from Monday training which I obviously went to because Frisbee is awesome!). Tuesday was the hard-core graphics programming day, with slow gamma correction done, there was only convolution left to do. With a few pointers from some friends and an un-relenting need to finish it before midnight, I cracked on and actually did a decent job. Wednesday was another training day, but with a twist. We were on the beach.
That’s right, you heard me. February and beach. Surprisingly, it was fairly warm and enjoyable. Some dude even took photos of us while we played (Not sure why, but hey). Here is a tip for all the beach Frisbee players out there though: when the sand is still kinda wet and all compacted together, its like running barefoot on concrete until it all gets churned up. My feet were on fire for the next 6 hours!
Thursday, doing some more coursework, mainly Compilers. Got lots done. The deadline for assignment 2 is on Friday and I’ve done up to assignment 5 so huzzah for me!
Friday. Friday, Friday, Friday. Of course I had Uni in the day, but then somehow going out for a £3.50 meal at the Bryn-Y-Mor turned out to be a Frankie and Bennie’s with some Revolution cocktails thrown in. You thought that was odd? Leanne nearly got ploughed into the road/a tree whilst in a trolley that Fran had let go of as she had fallen over. And to top it all off, me and Matt had some chocolate eclairs.Yum.
Saturday: I decided to come back to good old Newport to see the good old family. Completely smashed Josh of FIFA 09 (6-0 incase you were wondering.). The sad thing is, I have spent most of my time home not talking to my family and catching up, but learning how to you Trac on top of Subversion for my Software Labs Group Project.
You are probably waiting for me to say something witty or clever, but all I will say is “Are you happy now Andy!?”