False Statement

Today has been another busy day. As it draws to a close, I still have several things I planned to do left undone. I managed to finish my personal statement, something that I really needed to do for university applications and to stop a number of teachers from killing me on Monday. I got some Physics revision done but by the time I got to that, I was already kind of worn out, so I may do some more before I go to bed and in the morning.

I've noticed recently that I have a bit of a reduced work ethic towards school. It's probably because I'm doing less work, compared to last year, so I feel less motivation to do the work I do have, if that makes any sense. Which I suspect it doesn't. Basically, since no one is forcing me to do lots of work, I feel compelled to do very little.

This has worked well enough so far, but I really need to get it together over the next few weeks for the various tests I have coming up and the projects that I have to begin for Physics and Computing. Not to mention the fact that I need to do some more stuff outside of school, particularly Corbett's Fiction and finally learning some C++ and building my own PC.

Just so you know, I claimed to be doing those things on my personal statement. Which is kind of true, I guess. I certainly intend to have them done by the time I start university, so what difference does it make?

And, just so you know even more, I didn't mention TWToday on the statement. I can justify it by saying that it has no real relevance or something like that, which it really doesn't, but it's also something that I don't tend to like telling people about. Plus I've not liked it so much recently, since I seem to be becoming a bit more whiny. No idea if that's true, but it feels that way. Plus, I'm putting more energy into Corbett's Fiction and generally stretching myself a bit thin and this site is kind of low on my priorities list right now.

But I'm still updating once a day, every day.

Actually, I've thought of a better reason not to mention TWToday on my application. I've admitted here that I made up half the stuff on my statement and that I consider most of the “teamwork” and “qualities” stuff to be utter bullshit.

Yeah, don't want any admissions people reading that.


Just realised, another week goes by without a woodle. I'll try to think of something for next week. By next Saturday, I also hope to have The Grey Line updating again and I really need to write some stuff for the MacTake. Since I mentioned that on my statement.

Well, maybe it'll get cut when the teacher in charge reads over the first draft. You never know.

Actually, I could live with a lot of stuff getting cut from that statement. Like the on-hiatus podcast. It'll come back by mid-October, I promise. With some new comedy sketches that I claim to have written.

Holy crap, I really hate talking about myself and the stuff I do when I know it'll actually affect anything. Or when it'll affect nothing. I really have no idea why I talk about myself so much on here. It's probably because I'm exceptionally arrogant and self-centred.

Forbidden Planet > University

I can't decide if today's trip to Edinburgh University's open day was a waste of time or not. On the one hand, the presentation we were given was fairly interesting and I got to see the area a little. On the other hand, I'd pretty much already decided to go to Edinburgh (as a first choice for applications) anyway, based on my previous knowledge of the city and it's excellent reputation for Computer-related courses.

I'd have to say that the best thing about the day was just passing the time before and after the lecture with Skippy (you remember Skippy – the guy who technically co-writes this blog?), Sam and Jimerson. After we'd heard the lecture we decided to go to lunch rather than having a tour of the building or seeing anything else. Everyone else had something at KFC and I just skipped that particular meal.

Actually, I'd just like to say something about being hungry right now. Being hungry is fairly unpleasant. Getting something to eat after feeling mildly hungry for several hours is one of the best feelings in the world. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog post.

We saw someone with a Forbidden Planet bag and ended up wandering around for 15 minutes trying to find that. When we did, we spent at least half an hour in it. I think we spent more time in there than we did in the lecture hall. After a long car journey home, we spent the rest of the day discussing school and playing Halo 3.

The biggest problem here is that Sam, the last to go, didn't leave until 9 o'clock, when I still hadn't read my daily webcomics or done any of my usual day-to-day routine. Which is why I'm writing this at half past 11.

I'd like to say more but I don't really have the time.

I think the biggest thing I got from the experience was the ability to say that, yes, I've been to a university open day and blah, blah, blah. Apparently, I also need to go to one in St Andrews and Glasgow. I haven't the faintest idea why the second is so important, since I have no wish at all to go to either of the two universities in Glasgow. No particular reason, I just don't.

I'm beginning to really hate this whole university thing. As always, I may discuss it more at a later date, since I'm too tired and tight for time to do it now. Probably not tomorrow, since I have to do revision, homework and the first draft of my university application personal statement. And maybe a peer review for a friend who's applying for college in America. If I find the time, I'll probably focus on Corbett's Fiction more than anything else.

I always seem to end posts nowadays with something along the lines of “have a nice day” or “I'm going to bed now”, don't I?

Universities and so on

It's been a long day. I suspect tomorrow is going to be longer. To be honest, I just want to go to Edinburgh, listen to a lecture about studying Computer Science and then go home. I really don't care about information booths detailing student life and seeing the halls of residence. Actually, I've already seen the accommodation, when my brother lived in it.

I am incredibly apathetic about this whole university. I've basically made my choices already, I just want to get the paperwork out of the way and move on, enjoying my last year of school and getting on with all the other stuff I want to do.

But, no, my parents are insisting that I visit all these open days and collect as much information as I can... I think I've really gone into whiny teenage blogger mode now. At a tangent, and to inject some humour, does anyone else think that Whiny Teenage Mutant Bloggers would be an awesome TV show? Okay, so I don't either. I was just testing you.

Anyway, the whole thing just bugs me on some level... I might try explaining it tomorrow, after I've been, probably with a slightly more balanced view. For tonight, I need to get to bed. I also need to tidy a single small section of my floor for some obscure reason, as decreed by my mother.


I'm doing far too many short posts these days, aren't I?


One final note. You know what's great? When people leave the copyright warnings on videos they've ripped and posted on the net. You just have to love that attitude.

Workload

It seems like I've got a load of work coming up in the next couple of weeks. I have several Maths tests (tests for several sections of a unit and two levels of tests for the whole thing), a Physics test (everything we've done so far), a Computing test (again, pretty much everything so far) and my university applications to write up. Plus all the usual work and homework that I need to do for school.

As such, I'm putting The Grey Line on hold temporarily. While I obviously have a clear idea of the path of the story, I want to take some time and work up a larger written buffer as well as put the details together at a smaller scale. While I'm doing that, I will try to keep Corbett's Fiction updating at least once a week. Think of it as a warm-up period.

I should have some time to work on it at the weekend, though I expect I'll also be doing revision and I really do need to get that application done.

Oh, and I'll be spending a fair chunk of Saturday in Edinburgh, at the eponymous university's open day. I'll be seeing a lecture and possibly touring the facilities along with several friends. The fact that university now seems so close is actually very, very scary. It seems like it was barely yesterday that I was in an S2 Careers lesson, pretending I wanted to be a lawyer just so the teacher would stop asking me questions.

It also means that I have to write a personal statement that will have a large effect on whether or not I get accepted into my courses of choice. It's another one of those things where I have to pretend that I have interesting hobbies and then make up nonsense about learning “skills” and “qualities” from them.

I've said this many time before, I know, but I just find that very hard to do. On some level, I guess I consider it lying. I don't find that my hobbies and activities have any deep profound effect on me. If anything, I do the things that I do because of my personality, rather than the other way around. My brain just doesn't like dealing with such abstract and intangible qualities, that are pretty much nothing more than a matter of opinion.

Which, incidentally, was why I always hated English. As evidenced by my A in the prelim and my C in the actual exam, getting the questions right (and getting the right questions) is largely a matter of luck. Admittedly, a lot of people fell down on the English exam and it's caused a few rumbles in the education community. Even the English teacher handling the appeals for my school said she wasn't happy with how the whole process was going. I was lucky enough to get back up to a B on appeal.

Still, that's neither here nor there. I've got to go and post some stuff on Corbett's Fiction. Nothing much, just mentioning the hiatus and then maybe doing some work on the characters bios and so on.

Have a nice day.

Written in under five minutes, while Halo 3 was paused

Well, the 360 is still running behind me and has been since about 5 o'clock. During that whole time, both my friend Jimerson and I have been online and a few other people came on a bit later and haven't left yet either. All, I presume, are madly playing through the campaign mode in one sitting. I'm going to go back and do that now.

But, since I'm here and you're also here, reading what I'm writing while I'm here, or when I was here by the time I post this and you read it, I'll point you in the direction of the Bungie website. The front page has some Halo 3 statistics for you to amuse yourself with.

You know I have that afternoon ritual of coming home and whatever chunk of the 106 webcomics I follow has updated almost immediately? All the tabs are still open. I haven't even read Garfield. Too busy with Halo 3. God, it feels good to get some serious gaming done.

Almost cancels out the headache I've still got and all the crap I'm getting about planning for universities and going to open days. Still, that's for another time. Now is Halo time.

Actually, one last thing. You know how when you're ill, people will tell you to just get into bed and have a good night's rest to make it all better? Well, lying down apparently exacerbates my headache and I spent several hours last night tossing and turning. Yet more evidence that common wisdom is often wrong and has many exceptions.

Crap. I still need to update Corbett's Fiction for tonight... well, I'll see how it goes. And, just as I'm running through this, spell-checking and formatting, I've realised that I didn't mention Halo 3 in the first paragraph, possibly making you wonder why the 360 was on and what campaign mode was running. It's Halo 3, just so you know.


Edited at 23:48: I just completed it. Awesome ending. Only thing wrong was that I pressed A to early and accidentally skipped the credits, and the inevitable little cutscene at the end. Unwilling to wait for a day or play through the last level again tonight, I just looked it up on Wikipedia. I figure I deserve a bit of rest now. Good night, all.

I'm Sick and I'm Tired

Please, please, please, tell me that I'm not falling ill the day before Halo 3 comes out.

No, I'm fairly sure I'm getting ill. Headache, sore chest, tiredness... definitely symptoms of illness. And I've just remembered I've got a Maths test tomorrow (very easy stuff but still) and I need to do a presentation on using Audacity in Computing club during lunch.

I reckon I'll just have to wing it.

That's really all I can stand to do right now. I'm going to bed. Seriously, this time. Don't expect much out of me tomorrow, either due to illness or Halo-ness.

Have a nice day. Somebody has to, to keep the balance.

Ah, long rambling posts, how we have missed you

So, I've just come in from school and realised that I need to update Corbett's Fiction sometime today. It's weird having another burden like that. I guess I'll ease into with a buffer for a couple of days, but I need to have Friday's done before Wednesday. Because, you know.

Actually, I've just realised that Halo 3 comes out in America tomorrow. I reckon I'll have to steer clear of the internet for then. Since everyone on it is a spoiler-loving @!%$£^@&!. No offence.

I've proposed an agreement at school, among those of us buying Halo 3 at launch on Wednesday. We do not talk about the plot until Monday. No discussion whatsoever. Most of us will probably have it done by Friday afternoon at the latest but nevertheless, we keep our traps shut, just in case.

Same thing tends to happen with Zelda games as well, like when Twilight Princess and Wind Waker first came out. We actually have three games of Wind Waker being played through right now in the common room on the Gamecube. One guy bought his own Gamecube just so he could keep playing his file at home, in between coming to me and Sam for advice on the second dungeon. Another one is kind of a joint file, where we just take a go at playing it for a while in a free period and get as far as we can before someone else wants on.

There's something similar going on with the N64 I brought in. Between us, we've managed to scrounge up all the requisite cables and some functioning controllers (most well-used N64 controllers have very loose analogue sticks, making play that much harder) and it's now become just as popular as the other consoles.

Well, that's not strictly true. There's still a bunch of tossers through in the other room with the Xbox who seem to play FIFA 200X non-stop. But Goldeneye has become suddenly popular again as everyone remembers just how awesome it was at the time. Then they quickly realise that they've forgotten the controls, get their asses kicked and don't want to play any more.

Sorry, just read back a little bit and realised I didn't elaborate on the “something similar” going on with the N64. We're playing through Ocarina of Time, the authentic way because that's the best way. Well, that's not strictly true either. We wanted to use the Gamecube re-release version, just for convenience, but the TV we're using doesn't support 60Hz. Or one third of component video cables, either.

Playing through Ocarina and Wind Waker again has made me really familiar with each and every bit. Ocarina I knew pretty well since it was a big part of my childhood. Loved it. Never properly completed it though, something I'm rather ashamed of. Wind Waker was an excellent game, still is, and I now know it back-to-front after helping people through it. I think we'll have moved on to Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess in a couple of weeks.

All this gaming in a confined space has brought to light a few things about a few people. It has re-affirmed my belief that the vast majority of people who greatly enjoy FIFA games are assholes. It's fine if they like something else but, like I said, nobody else can get on the Xbox. And they're using my controllers. Liking FIFA games doesn't automatically make you an ass, there just seems to be a very large overlap, enough to make it indicative.

Another thing I've learned is that graphics in a game really don't matter. I've always known that, too be honest, but playing Street Fighter and Goldeneye and all that again has just brought it to the fore of my mind. But something that really bugs me is people who dismiss games based on being them being old. There's one guy who always comes in and if we're playing anything other than Timesplitters or F-Zero (both, admittedly, good games), he declares it “shite”. Ocarina of Time, regularly voted one of the greatest gaming experiences of all time, should not be played because it is “obsolete”.

I'm serious. Every time he comes in he says he doesn't understand why something's good “just because it's old”. And then we patiently explain that it's not like that, it's good because it's good, age doesn't change that. Then we impatiently explain it to him again and he goes away for another while, to great relief.

On the other hand, this guy dislikes Monty Python for the same reason and once said that it was irrelevant because it was “like, 80 years old”. Yeah, he's in touch with reality.

Actually, I've also found that there are people in the world who haven't seen any Monty Python films at all. I've seen them all and keep meaning to buy the show but I don't think it's out on a full series box-set yet. I intend to show them the error of their ways using a DVD player, a couple of free periods and a lunch break. Also, a TV that accepts SCART input would probably help as well.


And that's what's been going on in my life recently. Not all of it obviously. I can't tell you all of it or I'll have nothing left for tomorrow. Not that that's likely to happen. I could expand each paragraph here into an entire essay of ranting and raving and reminiscing. I could fill a book about that guy who hates Monty Python.

I normally say around now that I'm going to go to bed, but I still need to update Corbett's Fiction, pack some more games for tomorrow (Mario Kart 64 = Win), finish watching a stand-up comedy DVD (Jack Dee, very funny man) and then read another chapter of a book on game design.

I quite like having this thing done early. Early-ish. I don't know why, but I haven't been enjoying this very much lately. Just pouring this kind of stuff out of my brain seems to make me relax. The things that make me need to relax... well, they're a different story altogether. I'm going to post this now. It's so long and incoherent that I doubt I can be bothered spellchecking it, just in case you find any errors.

Weirdly Good Day

I'm keeping this short since I'm just about to go and make the first post over at Corbett's Fiction and I want to work on some other stuff over there as well.

Today has been another relatively unproductive day but for some reason I feel better about it. Sure, I've not done anything great but I've written an introduction to The Grey Line for Corbett's Fiction, made arrangements for some university open days I've been meaning to go to, watched some of Excel Saga, done some Metroid Prime and done a little of my Physics homework... which is for tomorrow.

On the bright side, I did in about two minutes flat a pair of questions which had apparently stumped a few friends. So, go me.

I think my main problem when it comes to getting things done is boredom. So long as I have something to keep my mind occupied, I feel good. It doesn't matter if I'm writing, gaming or talking to my friends, I feel productive so long as I'm doing something. But, once I start feeling bored, I fall into a bit of a rut for the rest of the day. It's kind of strange, I know, and I'll have to give it more thought.

I also tend to feel fairly listless if I sleep in too late, which I didn't this morning, for the first weekend in a while. So, all in all, I'm in a pretty good mood. I've just remembered that I haven't done a woodle for the last couple of weeks, so I'll try to have one ready for next Saturday.

Ugh. You know what? Listing the things that I have done depresses me because it makes me remember the things I haven't. I still have to do some writing for the MacTake... I'll try doing it tomorrow.

Have a nice day.

Nothing here really deserves mentioning in the title

Today was another one of those days when I just didn't get anything done. I kind of like those days, but they always make me feel a little bit guilty if I didn't plan to take a break like that. It also makes it harder when it comes to do this sort of thing, since I have even less to discuss than usual.

You know what? If I don't have the introduction to The Grey Line (my long-planned, never-started, only-just-named work of fiction) online by the end of tomorrow, you have permission to hit me. I think once I've got that going on a regular basis, I should be able to push myself more. It may mean cutting back slightly on TWToday though I still intend to keep up my one post per day challenge for another... 160 days. Meh. I'll see how it goes.

Other things I need to do tomorrow include booking university open days, researching university courses in slightly greater detail, playing more Super Paper Mario (and finally playing Dragon Quest), discussing the European iPhone details for the MacTake and putting together a short Audacity tutorial for the kids in Computing club. Oh, and some Physics homework. Admittedly, only the university stuff is truly urgent but I want to get at least some of the rest done as well.

In order to do all this, I'll need to get up fairly early. Certainly earlier than I did today, when I crawled out of bed around noon. Actually, I need to get more sleep in the coming days, in preparation for Wednesday night. But, back to my original point, I'm going to bed now and I need a way to round off this post...

Random Mathematical Trivia Time!^TM

A twin prime is any prime number that differs from another prime number by 2. Other than the pair (2, 3), this is the smallest possible difference between two prime numbers. Examples include (11, 13) and (5, 7).

Things that Bug Alasdair #5762

You know what bugs me?

People who, when trying to say that they don't care about something, say “I could care less”. What they mean to say is “I couldn't care less”. If they just thought for a second about what they were saying, they'd realise that “could care less” makes no sense in context.

Imagine if you put “caring” on a scale from 1 to 100, 100 being the most caring and 1 being no caring at all. There is no level of caring below 1 and none above 100. So if you “couldn't” care less, this means that there is no level of caring beneath yours. You are at level 1 and you don't give a shit about what happens to the subject at hand.

If, however, you “could” care less, then you are at any level other than 1. You are somewhere between 2 and 100, which is hugely unhelpful. In fact, if you think it through logically, you are likely to care more than average. 50 is the default level and, since there are more levels between 50 and 100 than there are between 2 and 50, probability indicates that you care more than normal about the topic you're discussing.

The whole thing seems to arise from some slurring together of the two words during speech and a collective lack of attention when writing. You can't defend it as a “quirk” or a “regional pronunciation” thing. It's a not a saying like “daft as a brush” which doesn't make sense now, but did in the past, due to cultural changes.

It just doesn't make sense at all. People will understand what you're trying to say but don't expect them to be very impressed with you if it seems you don't think about what you're saying. There's no excuse for it. Sure, maybe you did hear it wrong a few times. But if I hear someone say “so them ramshackled a zebra” I tend to realise that this doesn't make sense and assume that I heard wrong. The same goes for this example.

Incidentally, the phrase “daft as a brush” seems to derive from young Victorian chimney sweeps falling on their heads and receiving some, often very nasty, brain damage. This meant that the fatality rate among sweeps was fairly high and skilled sweeps were, in fact, something of a rarity. In some places, it is still considered good luck to run into a sweep.

Too Much Mystery

I've just finished watching the whole of the first season (volume?) of Heroes. Which, incidentally, is the reason that several of my posts this week have been late and rushed. That show is very, very good.

I'm not going to talk about it at length, since it hasn't finished showing on TV in Britain yet and I don't want to mention any spoilers. And I want to encourage anyone who hasn't seen it to watch it, so no spoilers for them either.

But I do want to talk about that particular genre. A type of show with an ensemble cast, each with their own plot lines which inevitably tie into a complex arc. There are a few minors examples, often cancelled early, but the most prominent ones are Lost, Prison Break and Heroes itself. I'm obviously a fan of Heroes and I watched some of Prison Break on DVD and keep meaning to catch up with it. I watched some of Lost but I really lost track of it and don't much feel like catching up.

You see, in my opinion, Lost fell into the trap of over-complicating things. There were too many questions and not enough answers, to the point where you felt that no conclusion could properly resolve all the mysteries. If you don't quite see what I'm getting at, think of it in terms of some other genre.

Take a whodunit. The author takes you along with the detective as he discovers clues to solve the main mystery, a murder for example. Along the way, smaller mysteries will crop up. Why is character y in the house? What was character x doing on the night of the murder? What was in the hidden safe that the murderer had crowbarred open?

These smaller puzzles are solved simply as a means of getting to the final conclusion. If it turns out that y is here because she is in love with x and that they were together on the night of the murder, then that eliminates them as suspects. Perhaps the open safe was a red herring, installed years before and never used. But that false clue must have been planted by someone who knew about the safe, which means it could only have been the long serving butler.

Now, to put a Lost-style twist on it. Character y is at the house because she is in love with x and x is the father of her child, z. Unfortunately, z has gone missing, y thinks x has him and now y has come to confront x, who has completely forgotten about her due to receiving head injuries in a car accident. This accident was caused by a drunken v (an alcoholic, traumatised by an event in her youth, probably involving her millionaire father), the butler's old sparring partner from a fencing club he frequented as a child living in village A. Incidentally, y's mother comes from village A.

Before reaching the denouement, the detective must unravel all of this, probably meeting at least three minor characters for each main character, each of whom have their own stories that will only be told in the spin-off graphic novels. Eventually, you, the reader, are informed that the butler did it.

You think to yourself “Ah-ha! The butler did it! What an excellent ending!”. Then you start wondering “Wait. What did the butler do?”. It just gets worse from there on in as you realise that the author has put themselves in a position where not even they know what's going on. Even if they do know, they seem to have completely failed to convey the facts to the reader.

Then the novel gets unexpectedly renewed for a second series and it turns out that the butler was a polar bear.

And that is the ultimate pitfall for these kinds of shows. Maintaining the balance between questions and answers, particularly when trying to craft a long-running TV show with many characters and tight continuity, is a delicate and difficult task. Heroes, it seems, has managed it.

And that's all I have to say.

Ahoy thar!

Yarr, me mateys. It be International Talk Like a Pirate Day today. Have ye been swashbucklin' an' keel-haulin' all day like good pirates should?


That's enough of that. As fun as talking like that every September 19th might be, typing it is pretty hard. I've had a long day but it's been relatively productive on several fronts. Vague optimistic assurances aside, I don't have much to write about tonight for about the fifth night running.

I mentioned last night that I was going to write about the cold and the beginning of autumn but then the weather had to go and get warmer just to thwart me.

I'm still getting ever closer to starting my fiction writing stuff but homework and university applications have been really taking up my time of late. The irony here is that getting the writing done regularly would probably look good on my applications.

I've been playing more of Super Paper Mario. It is, without a doubt, an excellent game (glitch aside) and I'll probably write more about it later in the week.

I finally got that program I'd been working on in Computing done. It was fairly simple but I had to overcomplicate things to make sure it counted as Advanced Higher work. Once I'd got the program working, I looked at the next instruction on the sheet and it said to provide screen captures of the debugging process. Even my teacher laughed at the implication that I should add bugs back in just to get the images. Anyway, you'll be glad to know that this is the last you'll be hearing of that little venture.

I really hate to do this so short so I figure I'll round off with a joke.

Q: What is a pirate's favourite element?
A: Arrrr-gon.

I actually came up with this one last TLPD, while I was bored and in Chemistry. A friend who generally hates puns guessed “gold” as the answer and genuinely laughed at the punchline so it's stuck with me.

I always worry about putting jokes out into the world, since they sometimes seem so obvious that I think someone else must have come up with them first. Maybe they have, maybe they haven't. Doesn't change the fact that I came up with it on my own, I guess.

To do lists, bane of my existence

Turns out that that Visual BASIC stuff I did last night doesn't quite fit the criteria (it wasn't overcomplicated enough) so I'm having to go over it in class. Still without the function the task was apparently designed to utilise.


I had something else that I wanted to write about for today but it seems I don't have the time to do it justice. I'll try and get it done tomorrow but it was largely about how I like the autumn and the colder weather that comes with it. I think I wrote something similar about spring and the warmer weather it brings a few months ago. I don't know if that makes me a hypocrite or an optimist.

Either way, that took up a chunk of time and I still want to write a post tonight for the MacTake about the European iPhone details. Actually, I've been meaning to write more for the MacTake, in addition to writing anything for Corbett's Fiction (I think I have the introduction I want to do figured out though) and some other stuff.

Actually, I'm going to make today another one of my to-do list posts. Let's rock.


Sell stuff on eBay, particularly the old consoles I keep meaning to unload and my brother's DVDs

Write that video game competition sketch I've been mulling over for a few weeks

Sort out university courses and open days

Write more at Corbett's Fiction and the MacTake

Restart the VersusCOM podcast

Do more work on the various books I've been trying to read (C++ for Dummies and The Game Maker's Apprentice, guides for C++ and Game Maker, respectively)

Finish tidying my room

Do my Physics Outcome 3 report (you would think I could remember this more easily, but nope)

Work on editing that Superman 64 footage that I recorded a while back

Play more of Super Paper Mario, Mario Strikers Charged and Dragon Quest. They're all good games and deserve my time.

Get to bed earlier and actually get some sleep


That seems to be it for now and I've even been reminded of several things as I put together that list, so it's been a useful little mental exercise. I think I'll go and work on the fourth and last items now, not necessarily in that order.

200th (lack of a) Post

So, I've apparently been at this whole blogging malarkey for 200 days now. I wonder just how many of those posts were like this one, where I have to apologise for not making a longer post or having anything interesting to say.

Oh, right, I haven't mentioned that yet. I have to apologise for not making a longer post or having anything interesting to say. See, I kind of have some Computing homework to do...

Don't look at me like that, it's hard.

Well, it should actually be relatively easy but, thanks to a combination of factors, it doesn't look like it will be. Basically, I have to design a piece of software that allows the user to enter numbers in a 3x3 grid (sudoku-style) and then save, load and display these grids. Problem is, the version of Visual BASIC that I'm using (and that the school has) doesn't support the grid tool. I found it online but it wasn't recognised as a registered ActiveX component or something and I can't be bothered finding out why.

So I'm having to create a workaround using a bunch of text boxes. Problem is, all the tutorials that I'm working from (some of which I've yet to do the whole way through and some of which contradict and confuse each other) are all based on using the grid control, so I have to go through them and figure out what I need to substitute and where. And then I need to write in the code and then do the design, because I've no chance of making a workable design if I don't do it backwards.

I get the feeling that I'm infuriatingly close (I can create the file, just not make it store what I want it to store) but that last little leap may require some concentration and late night coding.

Which is what I'm off to do now. And probably for the next couple of hours, surviving only on that weird influx of energy I get when I'm working on a technical problem. Kind of a super geeky adrenaline rush.

Have a nice day, since I almost certainly won't.



Later edit: It's quarter past 11 now and I've got all the program stuff working. It's a fairly rough prototype and it's having some trouble displaying the records I'm loading but it'll do for now. I can't quite decide whether to call it a night or persevere and produce the design... for the program that I've already made. I figure I'll at least make a start on the design stuff so that I can finish it off in school tomorrow without too much fuss.

Or maybe I'll just give in to my pounding headache and go to bed. Yeah, that sounds like a better idea.

Bleh.

As I said I was going to do yesterday, I spent last night at a friend's house after a party of his. Despite only going to bed at about 2:30 – still significantly earlier than everyone else, from what I can gather – I actually got a relatively good night's sleep.

Still, it wasn't great and I do want to get to bed so I think I'll keep this short again. Not as short as yesterday's but don't expect any essays.


Okay, it's about 20 minutes later and I've just remembered that I'm still writing this. I probably should have written it earlier, as always, but I didn't have any urgent homework or much else to do, so I figured I'd take the day off.

Actually, time seems to just be flying by now. Ever since the summer holidays, 8 weeks of glorious free time, weekends seem pretty darned insignificant. It maybe doesn't help that I've been doing various irregular activities this weekend, but it definitely doesn't feel like Sunday night at all. I feel like I could stay up longer and just lie in tomorrow before doing my homework. But I can't because tomorrow is Monday. Admittedly, I have all of one lesson on Mondays, but I still have extra work to do during my free periods.

I still haven't found the time to write up anything for my fiction blog. Not even an introduction. I may try doing that in school tomorrow, depending on how busy the common room gets.

...

You know what? The whole “going to bed at 2:30” thing is really starting to catch up to me now, so I'm going to call it a night. Normally, I'd promise something super special awesome for tomorrow's 200th post but, honestly, I promise nothing.

Actually, I've had a rather amusing chunk of dialogue in my head for a while now that involves the phrase “I promise nothing”. And no, you can't see it now.

Since it's becoming my catchphrase and I have nothing more conclusive to say, have a nice day.

Hey, that sorta rhymes.

And that was sorta conclusive. As is this.

Too Short to Title

This is just going to be a very quick mini-post since I've not got much to say (I got up late and haven't done anything interesting since) and I'm going to be away tonight, staying over at a friend's house.

I mentioned yesterday that I might talk about Super Paper Mario on Monday. I may still do that but I may delay it to Tuesday, since I've just realised that Monday will be my 200th post on TWToday. In keeping with tradition, though, I may simply ignore it and carry on as usual.

Until tomorrow, here's some stuff I've found on the internet and been mildly amused or intrigued by:

This is an amusing video/song about Halo 3 hype.

More iPhone unlockery.

The time has come. Google is invading the moon.


I think that's more or less it now. I've got some stuff I need to do before heading off so I'm gonna go do that. Have a nice day. And for once, “day” doesn't mean “next half an hour”.

A heapin' helpin' of unbridled rage

I know, I haven't updated Corbett's Fiction. I've been busy with Super Paper Mario, which I'll discuss at greater length once I've played it more. I'll probably do it on Monday, since I have some stuff planned for the weekend. Which don't include a woodle, I've just realised.


Have I mentioned that I'm doing Maths mentoring at school? I think I might have, but it basically involves heading along to a class with younger pupils and giving some particular ones help whenever they need it. I help out with S2 Maths once a week and other people in my year do something similar for their respective classes.

I have a funny story about this, actually. I, along with the rest of my class, got asked to help during the first week of term. Pretty much all of the class volunteered (my Maths teacher turned one guy down on the basis that it would be “like the blind leading the blind”) and we've been going along ever since.

Then, a few days ago, the whole year got told to stay behind after assembly so that they could sort out the rota stuff for other classes. I was already doing Maths but I had to go along anyway and I thought I might do something else as well, like Computing or Physics. Well, I like to keep my Monday fairly bare (one lesson, allowing for what is pretty much a three-day weekend with one day spent playing video games in the common room) and I didn't want to have fewer than two study periods any other day. So anything after Tuesday was out.

All the good stuff for Tuesday got taken and I had to stay sitting there while they spent ages going over each lesson of every day. Colossal waste of time.

Actually, assemblies in general tend to be a colossal waste of time. They thankfully reduced the number of them this year (two a week instead of four) but this means they have to cram more nonsense than ever before into each one. Today was the day they decided to have every single office-bearer in the school (Head Boy and Girl, Art/Sports/Music/House Captains, their respective deputies, all prefects, etc.) come up to get a badge and a handshake from the headmaster.

This, along with two long announcements and several other awards, ended up taking about half an hour. Half an hour. With most of the school sitting on the hard wooden floor of the gym hall, squished up against each other, bored out of their skulls. Half of first lesson missed just so that some Sixth Years could walk slowly up to the front, get some half-hearted applause and a badge and then walk slowly back again.

If it was just the Captains and the Heads of School then maybe it would be tolerable. It might be good for the school to know who those people are. But all 40-odd prefects? Nobody wants to or needs to know who we are. That's why they give us the freaking badges! No little primary 7 kid who's lost blood flow to his legs cares that I'm a prefect. I barely care that I'm a prefect. Maybe if every single person in the year wasn't a prefect or a captain of something, it would be more feasible. Maybe then the positions and badges would actually mean something, instead of representing easily shirked, part-time duties that you can lie about on your university applications.

Every one knows the Heads already. Anyone who needs to know who holds any other positions would presumably know now already, if they've been paying the slightest bit of attention. Nobody cares about the prefects. They could have just left a bag of the identical badges sitting on a table at form time for people to take.

But no, everything has to be overly ceremonial, time-consuming and meaningless. I hate stuff like that. In theory, disliking stuff that wastes my time is a good thing. In practice, I just get angry at an awful lot of things that I'm largely powerless to change. And that makes me even angrier.


This rant has gone off at a complete tangent. But I like letting off some steam like this now and again and that's kind of what TWToday is for. I hope it made you think or at the very least made you laugh, either with me or at me.

I'm gonna post this now and I'm not sure I can even be bothered spell-checking it. I'll probably read it over tomorrow morning and either laugh at myself for getting so worked up or just get angry again. I think “anger” is my default mood.

I might write more about what I'd intended to write about tonight, tomorrow. Until then, have a nice day.

Mind Gone Blank

I need to stop leaving this so late. It's not until I actually start trying to type that I realise how tired I am and that I have nothing to write about.

I think I've fallen into a rut again. I come home, read my comics, have a snack then force myself to pass the time on the internet until I need to either watch something on TV or write my daily blog post.

I'm even putting off homework to a ridiculous degree. I have Computing first lesson tomorrow and I still have to do some homework for that. I've done some and all I really need to write is a paragraph or two, but I'm also behind on some other stuff.

I know this is starting to sound really whiny but there is a point to all of it.

I hope.

I started this blog in order to prove that I could do something creative every night. It hasn't worked entirely but I'm fairly proud of it. But I feel like I ought to be doing more writing as well as various other things, since I feel like I do very little.

So, literally just a few seconds ago, I created Corbett's Fiction. By Monday of next week, I intend to have made a start on writing some ongoing fiction that will update regularly. Initially, I'm going to try Mon-Wed-Fri and maybe some other days with different content.

I'm not sure how this will work out but I've been meaning to do it for some time so there it is.

Now, I have to go do that Computing homework.

Hey, Firefox's spell checker doesn't work in this little title box

The GP2X is a very flexible and interesting device. The problem is, it's also extremely obscure so every time I take it into school, I end up using the phrase “an obscure, Korean-made, Linux-based games console”.


I've just been struck by some serious inspiration, hopefully enough to get me past my apparent writer's block. Would anyone object if I forgot about the topic for tonight, called this a mini-post and went off to write a short ten minute parody of life in Sixth Year and/or the Rocky movies?

You would? Okay, what if I link you to this ridiculous song from Infogrames? It's all explained in the article and it's rather amusing.

Still not happy? How about a surprisingly non-HD-gun-fight-based advert for Halo 3 that I may discuss later?

Well, would you do it for a Scooby Snack?

Good. I'll be off then.

Have a nice day.

The Good, the Bad and the Badly Written

I can't decide if today has been a really bad day or a really good day. I guess it's possible that the good experiences cancel out the bad, turning it into a mediocre day. I'll let you decide.


First, the bad. I had to hang around in Ayr instead of going home after school since I needed to wait for my sister to come out of art club. Since we had to take a friend of hers home afterwards, this meant I didn't get home from school till half past five. Once I did get home, we got a phone call from my Dad – he had broken down. In the car that he just got less than two weeks ago. So Mum had to go and get him and they both had to wait around for a tow truck. Then they had to wait for a bigger tow truck.

That took a little under three hours, during which my sister and I had no dinner. Eventually my brother, coming home from archery practice, got us a McDonalds and we ate that. Normally, that'd be a good thing, but I didn't like the chips and one of the McNuggets tasted kind of weird, so I'm putting that under bad.


Then the good. While I was in Ayr, I managed to get in to GAME and Gamestation where I got the latest Retro Gamer and managed to pre-order various upcoming games. I also got Dragon Quest, one of the games I bought my PS2 to play, in GAME. For 98 pence. I picked up a £12.45 copy off the shelf but they had a different one behind the counter that had been reduced to 98p for some reason, so I jut got that instead. That's definitely going on my big list of “best game bargains ever”.


And... you know, I think that might be the only good thing about today? Still, it's a damned good thing. The last bad thing though, is that all this (getting home late and eating even later) has thrown off my timing and left me with too much to do and no time to do it in. I know I said I was going to write about something specific yesterday, but these were most definitely unforeseen circumstances and every promise I make has a silent clause about those.

So that's all for today, ladies and gents. I have to go edit some audio stuff, maybe some video stuff and possibly even do my homework stuff. All before getting some sleep stuff.

The amount I talk about sleep in these things should really make me realise just how close I'm cutting it with this “one post a day” thing.

Podcasts and... something else I talk about that begins with "P"

Nothing kills productivity quite like BBC 7 repeating the Eighth Doctor audio plays. I never even finished Shada last time it was on, so that's something to look forward to.


For the first time in a while, I've come across a post topic that I think is going to take more time to properly write than I have available to me. I might have been able to do it if I hadn't spent a good 20 minutes showing my dad several Weird Al music videos on YouTube. I'll have to try to get that post done for tomorrow, since it relates to Wikipedia's 2 millionth article and thus will seem more out of date and irrelevant as time goes by. Much like my father, who inspired the thoughts I plan to outline in it.

Anyway, to satiate your no doubt boundless hunger for some of my creative genius, and also any hunger you may have for incoherent sound clips, bad audio editing and movie trailer background music, I present this:

The trailer for Series 2 of the VersusCOM podcast!

I think I mentioned this a couple of days ago, but I can't be bothered checking, so here's the story. Sam and I were intending to make an episode of the podcast when he was round at my house last. We left it too late but, acting on the advice of my brother James, we decided to make a movie-style trailer. We recorded some random sound clips and I stuck them on to a fairly generic background track to produce what you can hear above.

This isn't necessarily the final form of the trailer, but I rather like the way the speech and music line up so I'm rather reluctant to change anything else. That said, I still have several minutes of recorded speech that I never got round to using, so this may not be the final version. Incidentally, the voices you can hear are myself, Sam and Erin with James providing some ridiculously good ad-libbed narration.

I guess I should probably be focusing on recording the actual podcast rather than worrying about the trailer, but that's just the way I am. Deal with it.

Speaking of editing, I still have some Superman 64 footage that I've been meaning to edit, so I might get some of that done tonight. Depends on when I go to bed, which might be fairly early. Last night, it seemed like I was just drifting off and closing my eyes when my alarm clock went off. I can't tell if that means I slept really well or not at all.

I'll need to practice video editing for the short 5-10 minute film I'm considering recording. I think I can make it fairly practical and funny without needing too much in the way of work or complicated effects or editing. Which is good, because I don't like any of those things. I'll work on the script some more tomorrow and see how that goes. May never get done but I've mentioned it to a few friends who seem interested and inspiration struck me during a free period today, so I actually have a decent sized chunk scripted, in addition to the standard complex plan in my head.

That's all I've got for tonight. So...

Have a nice day.

Malicious entity that runs the universe - 1, Corbett - 0

Why must everything be so freaking hard?

I try to send an email to my little cousin congratulating him on winning a race and then Thunderbird asks for a password to connect to the SMTP server. It's set up to receive emails fine but somehow sending them doesn't come into the ordinary account set-up process. Fair enough though, I think I can still remember the password so I try it and a few variations. No luck.

I then check with my dad, who remembered it last time, but he can't recall it either. But, luckily, I'm sure that I wrote it down last time, since I had so much trouble tracking down the damned settings without using any importing functions. So where would the piece of paper with this precious information be?

Uh-oh.

Chances are my mum filed it. This meant having to argue with her for several minutes, listening to complaints about why I should be able to remember a password that I never came up with and that's probably been put in only once since we switched ISPs and then eventually getting the keys from wherever she hides them and going downstairs to the filing cabinets. After 5 minutes of scrabbling around in there and being blamed for every technical problem in the house, I gave up and went back upstairs.

Then I figure, hey, I'll just boot up the old Windows laptop and send it from there. I know it works because I used it for my ISP email account before I set it up on my iMac. So, I copy the message over, re-insert the image I want to use and hit “Send”.

Hurray, I think. It's over.

No, says technology. It isn't.

A few minutes later, I get an email telling me that the message has not been delivered. I know that the address was right – it was a redirect and the failure message tells me that it came from the Hotmail address it redirects to – so I have no idea what went wrong. I don't think I'd sent any emails off the laptop before so maybe it needed a password as well and, for no good reason, decided not to tell me.

I'm going to try one more time using my Gmail account because I don't want to disappoint the little guy, who's been told by his dad that I'll be sending him an email. Apparently, he doesn't use email a lot and my uncle wants to convince him to do so more often. Anyway, if that doesn't work, I'll give up, go to bed and lie awake, marvelling at the lengths the universe and software developers will go to simply to inconvenience me.

Well, that didn't work. I got the same failure message back so I'm just going to give up now. I'll probably end up walking Hamish through setting up a Gmail account over the phone tomorrow, if I can't make this work.


Ranting about technology aside, I'm sure I had some topics for today's post, some of which were actually interesting and had surprisingly little to do with the apparent ancient conspiracy to keep me miserable.

Ah, well. They'll keep till tomorrow. For now, I need to follow through on my plan and go to bed. Writing the above has helped me work off some excess rage, so I should be able to get to sleep.

I guess it's just a perfect example of how a well-planned and simple thing can go ridiculously wrong and screw up a load of other plans in the process.

I spend too much time writing about my inability to write

I have an incredibly annoying habit of telling myself over and over again that I'm going to do something and then never doing it.

Take today as an example. Sam came round and we were determined to record the next episode of the podcast, dub some footage of Superman 64 and discuss that video we've been meaning to record for Computing club. I was also determined that I'd get some fiction writing done and do some of my other homework.

Needless to say, none of this got done. There were a variety of reasons for this. One is that Sam brought with him Budokai Tenkaichi and I finally got round to hooking up my second hand PS2 so, Sam being the Dragonball Z nut that he is, we spent a great deal of time playing that.

Another is that both of us are very easily distracted, particularly when faced with what looks like work. I wanted to look up some videos of the animated Superman series on YouTube to see if they had the actual voice actor for all three lines of dialogue in Superman 64, which I doubted. We ended up spending 15 minutes watching a documentary about how the makers adapted traditional comic book villains into animated forms.

Plans were also scuppered by my continuing addiction to Weird Al music videos and by Sam's desire to watch Ghost Light the whole way through. This would be my fourth time (once normally and once each with production subtitles and the commentary track) and I can more or less understand the plot now. The first few minutes went slowly but once we realised that we'd be there for the rest of our lives if I tried to explain every bizarre thing in the plot, it sped up.

Still, the day wasn't entirely unproductive. It seems that if I push my self to do absolutely everything, I'll fail but I'll still manage to get some stuff done. We did mess around on Superman 64, collecting about an hour's worth of footage and some insight into the seven circles of hell. Which, incidentally, there are nine of in the original Divine Comedy. Unfortunately, we never got around to editing much of it because iMovie decided to screw with the sound every time I tried to add subtitles. No idea why.

We didn't get the podcast recorded either. We kept putting it off more and more until Sam's mum was due in 10 minutes and we seemed to have no more time. James, my brother, then suggested that we record a quick trailer for the next episode rather than trying to do the full thing. Sam, Erin, James and myself quickly made a start on this idea. It would seem my brother has a hidden talent for ad-libbing humorous trailer voice-overs. Sam and I tossed in a few inexplicable one-liners, Erin did some even more inexplicable one-worders and James provided some music he'd downloaded to put behind the voices and over-dramatise everything.

You can probably expect to hear that tomorrow.

And I've just realised something. For all my blabbering about productivity or the lack thereof, I haven't done the woodle for today. I vaguely recall planning to get Sam to draw something for it but it seems like I forgot about that.

Oh, well. I'll try to do something about that in the morning. And write that post for the MacTake. I'm actually pretty useless, aren't I?

Time Flies When I'm Sitting Down

You ever have one of those days when the time seems to just fly by? I have no idea how it went from half past 4 to 11 o'clock so quickly. Logic tells me that it took over 6 hours but my mind and experience tell me something different.


On the bright side, I have managed to do some relatively constructive things during however long it was or seemed. I've got some writing done, unfortunately not for the MacTake (I still need to write about those new iPods), but a few standalone comedy sketches.

Speaking of which, if all goes according to plan, I should be able to make a couple of these things before the end of next week. One involves something for school and the other involves Superman 64. Every time I play that game, I find more things to laugh at. Anyway, the latter should be getting done tomorrow and I'll have to have the former planned pretty thoroughly by Monday morning if everything's going to go on schedule.

Plans for my other fiction writing are progressing... slowly. I'm still kind of swamped with school work at the moment but I just figure I can get up some momentum over the weekend (assuming time passes normally) and be ready some time next week.

I also just got a huge stack of books from Amazon today which I truly intend to read through. And these are some seriously thick books. Two of them are designed as textbooks* for university courses on video game design so I may or may not be able to follow them. I'll certainly be making a start on the one about building my own PC and I probably ought to do the one on Game Maker so that I can help the wee ones with it in Comp. club.

Actually, I reckon I'll go start reading one of those now, before I go to bed. I feel like I haven't slept properly in a week... which, school being what it is (early), I probably haven't. And it's now quarter to midnight as I write this, so I really need to get it posted.

Where did the time go?





*This literally just occurred to me: how the hell can you have a book without text? Isn't “textbook” a tad redundant?

The Other Great Divide

Just watching a video of Tabula Rasa. I've never been hugely interested in MMOs but this has actually piqued my interest. I'm also disappointed by the official cancellation of Metroid Dread, at least in 2D form.


I've been having some trouble coming up with post topics lately, even with things going on at school, which was my hope for picking things up after the holidays. Sure, interesting stuff does happen to me at school and at home, I just rarely think of it as something to write about. And sometimes I will think it's worth remembering at the time and in hindsight, it doesn't seem so good.

That hindsight tends to occur when I get home from school. Even with homework (which I still have to do some of tonight), I seem to draw a very clear mental line between home and school. At school, I'm compelled to work. I talk to various different people in my peer group and get annoyed at many others. Computers at school are for working and for complaining about when the filter blocks almost every damned website worth a damn.* If I'm going to play a game, it's very often a multiplayer one so that others can enjoy it.

At home, I have a much greater degree of control over what I do. I don't need to be annoyed by other people's music* since I can listen to my own, or watch a DVD. I can do anything I want to do on the computer, reading my comics, watching videos and using Google Image Search without having to use Klingon Google. If I talk to people at all, it'll be closer friends over some kind of IM or Skype, rather than the extended social group with whom I can hold a casual conversation at school.

For these reasons and others, I occasionally feel like school and home are two different lives. Obviously linked and deeply intertwined but nevertheless distinguished from one another by the way that I act and the things that I do.


Another thing that separates the two is the way that school drags on and on and time at home seems so very short in comparison. I swear I shall get some more of my Visual BASIC homework done tonight and some fiction written tomorrow. I have a plan to launch a blog-style thing where I update with short chunks of prose several times a week (possibly on the semi-traditional Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule) and maybe some other stuff on weekends.

Forcing myself to stick to a daily schedule here seems to have worked out well enough so I figure it's worth a try.

Now. I have to go do some work... and possibly read some comics and think up comedy sketch ideas. But mostly work.

And curses, I forgot to write that article for the MacTake that I meant to do. Meh. I'll just blame it on Skippy.






*Even some of the sites that teachers access for educational purposes are getting blocked. And I don't necessarily consider it “worth a damn”, but the MacTake is seemingly blocked as well.

**For reasons that you can probably surmise on your own, S Club 7 are now on my list of people whose parents I'm going to kill if and when I figure out time travel.