It's been a while, hasn't it?

So, despite what my update schedule may imply, I'm still here, meandering angrily through life.

I can't even remember what my last blog was about, before the Arthur C. Clarke one. Huh. A completely random post in early March about my Computing project. Well, I've finished that, after some more difficulty. And my Physics project. And my exams. And my whole school career, in fact.

As of early June, I've been done with Sixth Year and done with my secondary education. Next up, tertiary, but I'll get to that a little later. I spent the time after that mostly hanging around at home, occasionally going in for the odd event. Went in to help with the odd event as well as play Laserquest and some practice for my last ever house marching. Didn't go the prom, again. Still can't see the point.

I wrote a decent Sixth Year Show, something I've been looking forward to since Primary 7, when I first saw the fun the S6s had making fun of the teachers on-stage. I had some good jokes and everyone I showed it to seemed to like it. They did karaoke instead, since apparently a few of the precious shows have offended teachers.

It was, quite frankly, one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life. It wasn't just the fact that it was karaoke, which is gut-wrenchingly horrible at the best of times. There was the feeling that I could have done so much better, if I'd been given the opportunity. There was the knowledge that the experience and the feelings would be some of my last memories of Wellington School, a place I've known for over a decade.

I did what any sane man would have done in the situation - I listened to my iPod. A couple of people noticed but nobody whose opinion I actually cared about thought it was anything other than funny. I don't know if any teachers noticed but none of them called me on it if they did. Unfortunately, I still had to traipse up to the front of the hall with everyone else and sing, or at least pretend to from behind everyone else. I have a funny feeling that I will never again be able to enjoy "Bohemian Rhapsody".

But then it was over and it was time to go home. The next day was Speech Day, where I got to sit and listen to the usual droning on from the school governors about fiscal years and fee increases, the usual preaching from the headmaster about commitment, teamwork and how it all came together to make Wellington fantastic at playing rugby and the usual overly-long prayer, thanking God for every little thing that had happened during the year. The guest speaker wasn't too bad this year, compared to some.

I think it's now one of my goals in life - to get good enough at whatever I do (writing, video game design, comedy, whatever I wander into) to be invited back to speak at one of those things.

Anyway, before the main thing (and for a few days previously, in fact), all the leaver's books had been getting passed around. I'm always useless with things like that - it's hard enough for me just trying to conjure up something emotional or deep, let alone doing so under pressure and on paper. So in the first one I was handed, I wrote:

"Bye.
- Alasdair"

This apparently wasn't good enough for the girl who'd asked me so I thought about it some more and wound up writing a couple of paragraphs. I wrote some more generic stuff in some other people's books - mostly just people who were doing the rounds and getting everybody, I think, along with some more joking entries for people I'm confident I'll see again.

I even got one myself. Well, kind of. I happened to have a notepad with me which I took out of my bag, scribbled "Alasdair's Impromptu Leaver's Book (and waste of a perfectly good notebook)" on the front of and got a few people to scrawl in.

But back to my main point - my last day. I grabbed some photos of the common room and savoured the smell one last time before I left. Maybe I'll share the photos at some point. Then it was down to the town hall, some last minute writing and chatting in the chairs on the stage (I'd managed to grab a seat relatively hidden from view, allowing me to play around on my iPhone or read Private Eye if I got too bored) and the speeches I mentioned, then I walked up to get my books (Dune and The Time Machine for the Advanced Higher Maths and Advanced Higher Computing prizes respectively... I'm starting to get an inkling about why people call me a geek).

Back to my seat to sit some more while more people received more prizes (as I did more wondering just how many awards for sporting achievement one school needs). There were some tears and lots of hugging once it was all over. Just to be clear, I was only involved in the hugging, and somewhat reluctantly so at that.

And then I went home. To play Smash Bros Brawl, which had just come out.

I think I'm going to leave the narrative here for now. I may follow up with more tomorrow... or, more accurately, later today. Ah, the joy of not having to do all my posting before midnight. Anyway, there'll be more at some point, if I can be bothered.

RIP Arthur C Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke, one of the greatest writers and thinkers of the 20th and 21st centuries, has died in hospital at the age of 90.

I have only read a few of his books (I read, and greatly enjoyed, 2001: A Space Odyssey and then something distracted me before I finished 2010: Odyssey Two) but he has had a huge influence on my life, if only as a byproduct of the influence he has had on the world as a whole.

He was among the first to think about and formally propose the concept of a geostationary satellite, a technology that is the basis of almost all global telecommunication systems, and he was always at the forefront of scientific knowledge. He also brought the concept of space elevators to his audience, an act he believed would leave a far greater legacy than even the satellites.

Really, there's nothing more I can say. He was a great man. Read all the tributes and, more importantly, read his books and you will undoubtedly see why I and so many others think so.

Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a bookmarked copy of 2010 lying around here somewhere that needs read...

Completely Random Post

I know, I know, I've not done anything for a week. I've been taking it easy and mostly enjoying it.

This likely means nothing but it seems like something I ought to write down so that I can remember it and laugh. Who knows, it may even amuse you. Whoever you are.

You know the Computing project I've been stuck on for weeks, possibly even months, now?

Well, I just solved the last bug that was stopping it from working properly (it's still a little dodgy but I can get on with the basic testing and so on) and iTunes, working it's way through the playlist marked "Other", switches from Still Alive to What a Wonderful World.

Seemed strangely appropriate.

Not Done Yet

I really should have spent more time today trying to write this thing. One year ago today, I wrote this. Now here I am, one year later, challenge more or less fulfilled, and I can't think of anything to write.

Would it be suitably ironic if I just called this a crappy post and left it at that? I don't think I have it in me tonight to write much more. I'll at least try to do a woodle for tomorrow.

Something's happened now that hasn't happened in a while – I have too many ideas. There are a lot of thoughts swirling around in my head, some related to my experience with TWToday, some related to my various fiction projects, even a couple of solutions to my Computing project code problem (which I really need to work on tomorrow).

The problem is that I don't feel like I can do any of them justice in the time I've given myself, especially given that I'm now very tired and can barely type a sentence without at least three spelling errors cropping up.

I think that's the problem with this one post a day strategy. I'm naturally lazy and keep leaving things too late and even if I didn't, I don't think I'd have enough free time in one day to write some of this stuff down the way I really want it done. That ridiculous sentence is probably the best example of what happens when I get rushed.

Or is it ridiculous? It seemed that way at the time, a mere moment ago, but surely with a bit of proof-reading and editing, I'd be happy with it. Maybe I'd be happy with it now if I simply read it over again. Maybe I could have been happy with it before had my poor typing and tiredness not been putting me in a bad mood already.

Was that the right tense?

I don't care. I can't be bothered going back to fix it.

Okay, I've made a decision. Tomorrow, I'll spend some time collecting my thoughts and writing them down. If I don't have them in a form I like by the end of the day then I'll simply save it, go to bed and work on it some more the day after. I'll also try to find some time to make a woodle and start writing The Grey Line again*. And I have to get something done on that Computing project I keep mentioning.


Crap. I went away for a minute and completely lost my momentum. Anyway, that's the plan for now. Hopefully, it heralds some better quality updates around here as well as the completion (or, more accurately, start of) several other plans and projects of mine.

And with that, I bid you goodnight.

Because I was really starting to get sick of that other catchphrase.







*Those paying attention (which at this point is probably just me and even then only for about half the time) will have noticed that I deleted the all the posts at Corbett's Fiction. I wasn't happy with them and I've decided to go for a whole new method, just as soon as I find the time.

On prelim results and some other stuff too

Despite all my worrying and total lack of proper revision, I seem to have done okay in all my prelims. Enough to secure three A's, anyway. I got 70% in Computing, which doesn't sound too great until you consider that everyone else was getting 50-60%. Fortunately for us all, our teacher knew that the paper wasn't great quality and he even said he'd been fairly harsh on the marking, so that seemed to be okay.

Maths was a pleasant surprise – 84%, a mark which meant I was tied with two other people for top marks in the class. I really didn't see that one coming, I figured I'd screwed up a lot more than I actually had. Ditto for Physics where I managed to get 79% somehow.

So that's that over and done with and I'm fairly happy with how it turned out. Now I can move on to dealing with the myriad of other problems, crises and decisions that are fast approaching.

One of those will undoubtedly be what to do about my update schedule for TWToday. Though I think I've done my full 365 posts by now, this being the 366th, the anniversary of my challenge is actually tomorrow due to the leap year.

As we've once again had to postpone the Key to Time marathon (reminding me once again just how bloody inconvenient these constant hospital appointments are), I should have some time tomorrow to flick through the blog archives and ponder what's happened over the last year. Then on Sunday... I don't know. Maybe I'll update, maybe I won't.

I've been getting sort of lax with the daily schedule lately. I know I manage to get a post done each day but I keep leaving it far too late and they have a tendency to come out like rushed diary entries. My current thinking is that I'll keep blogging but I'll take my time with each post and try to have something interesting to say in all of them.

Hopefully, I'll also be able to devote some time to my other projects on a regular basis. After all, the entire point of this little exercise was to prove to myself that I can stick to a schedule if I want. I suppose the next logical step would be to stick to a schedule and produce something of consistent quality.


Well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. You know, I reckon that if I stick to this idea of only posting when I have something interesting to say, meaning that there's no pressure to post late at night, this may well be the last time I round off a post with the fact that I'm going to bed.

Anyway, I'm going to bed. Have a nice day.

End of the Prelims

Physics... went reasonably well, I guess. It's kind of hard to gauge, looking back on it. I managed to get through most of the mechanics section without too much difficulty, then I started to struggle a bit with the electricity and magnetic fields and was more or less completely stumped by the final waves section.

That was just on the first pass through, though. I think I managed to fill in a few blanks as I went back over it. In the end, I was just flicking between the pages, looking for conspicuous gaps in my answer sheet, so it's a bit hard to remember what exactly I got right or wrong. I wouldn't have minded a few more minutes to do some extra checking but any more than that would probably have driven me nuts as I sat there, racking my brains for facts I didn't know.


Anyway, for the first time in weeks, I feel like I've got no pressure on me. Other than my Computing project... and my Physics project... and the need to learn to drive and to choose a university... Bah. It's a lot less pressure anyway, so it's still a good feeling.


I decided to take my free time today and spend it playing one of those games I got last week. I decided to go with Eternal Sonata over Final Fantasy XII, for no particular reason other than the fact that it was already on my desk.

From what I've played so far, it seems pretty good. The battle system is interesting and the plot seems to be fairly deep. Developer tri-Crescendo still seems to be having some trouble with localising their voice acting, as they did on Baiten Kaitos. It's not all bad and I think I will leave it on sometimes, since the cinematics are now fully animated, meaning that if it wasn't on I'd just see the characters mouths moving to the subtitles.

I'll hopefully get some more of it done tomorrow.


Nothing much else to say tonight. I should be able to think about my prelim results tomorrow and I'll hopefully be able to spare some time to consider the end of my little one post a day challenge.

Or maybe not. Who knows?

Have a nice day.

Almost There...

I think I've reached the acceptance stage now. The point where I'll be willing to flick through my notes a few more times, and I certainly will do when I'm waiting in school before the prelim tomorrow, but I know that it's not going to make a huge difference and I just want it over and done with.

More colloquially, the acceptance stage is also known as the “fuck it” stage.

Seriously though, I'm not quite sure what to do now. I know that there's stuff I don't know, stuff I almost certainly ought to know, but I just can't be bothered looking it up and trying to memorise it at this point. I'm not sure it would even help if I did.

It's just coming up to ten past eleven as I write this, so if I finish this off now, I can go to bed early. Well, early for me anyway.

To round things off, here are a few links.

Seems an executive at Sony doesn't like the Eee PC very much. While I can sort of see his logic, it doesn't really make much sense to me. I might talk about this some more when I have more time and I've done more with Eridani. For now, draw your own conclusions.

Just because I happened to come across it today, here's a clip from the movie of the old Batman series with Adam West. I actually had this film as a kid. I'd say it made more sense when I was that age but it really didn't.

Finally, I shall maintain until the day I die that this is one of the funniest scenes in television history. It builds up slowly but watch it through to the end or you'll be robbing yourself of a classic piece of British sitcom humour.

And that's it. I'm off to bed.

Wish me luck.

Nothing At All

It's six o'clock on Tuesday and I believe I've finally entered panic mode for Thursday's Physics prelim. I've given up on doing my Computing project since I reckon I can get away with it and I need to give priority to my Physics. I could have easily done both if I stopped being so lazy but, hey, I could also have done both if I had a team of Visual Basic coding monkey physicists. One's about as likely to occur as the other so there's no sense speculating.


It's later now, almost half past ten. I didn't get much further with my studying, just a couple more questions on a past paper. Seems that panic mode was, unfortunately for me I suspect, a false alarm. I'll probably do more revision tomorrow. Probably.

I think I've reached the stage now when I just want these prelims out of the way. I still want to do well and I know I'll be kicking myself later if I do badly because I didn't revise but all I'm really after now is less pressure and return to normality. Same goes for my constant hospital appointments, though I won't go into that right now.


I've really done absolutely nothing today. I've just been flitting between being bored out of my skull and checking my usual roster of websites. I've been trying to avoid starting any new games or DVD sets since I know it'll just distract me but I can't be bothered doing any work either so I just sit around being bored and miserable.

Which really isn't a great state of mind to write in or, for that matter, about.


I think I'll just call it a night.


Actually, one thing first. It's just occurred to me that I'm days away from meeting my original challenge of one post a day for a year. That's... kind of scary, actually. Well, with any luck, I should be able to find some time and energy from somewhere to mark the occasion properly. The exact date falls on Saturday, I think, so I might not get much done then. I'll probably be too busy recovering from my prelims and watching Doctor Who. Maybe Sunday. If I don't spend the whole day doing my Computing project...

I'll get round to it eventually.


Okay, now I'm actually stopping.

A fairly small post in which nothing remarkable is said

I managed to make some progress today. Nothing much but it's a start. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about my Computing project – looks like I'll be working on it over the weekend at the very least. Well, on Sunday. Saturday is still Key to Time marathon day.

I figure I'll go into panic revision mode sometime tomorrow. The one semi-advantage to these constant hospital trips is that I have to get up early in the morning, which seems to help me get work done. Sort of.


Anyway, nothing much else happening today.

Like, nothing. At all.

Seriously, I've nothing to say.

My mind's just completely blank. I think the effects of going to bed at two in the morning and getting up at seven have finally caught up with me.

I think I'll call this a mini-post. That means that I need a few things to link too...

This old comic from the 80s, starring none other than Chuck Norris, is absolutely hilarious. I really have a hard time believing that anyone ever took this seriously or even thought that it would be a good idea. I suppose there must have been at least a few people for it to get published but still...

And... uhh... hold on, I'll find something... okay, no I won't.

I'm going to bed.

Have a nice day.

A day of little things

I finally completed Mass Effect. That's kind of like doing something productive... right?


Well, it's the end of the day now and I've not really done much else. Woke up too late, I think. That always upsets my routine.

Come to think of it, my routine largely consists of doing nothing so it doesn't really upset it so much as it encourages me to follow it through rather than doing any work.

My hastily revised plan is now to work on my Computing project tomorrow as well as look over my Physics notes and identify any problem areas. With any luck, I should be able to get the coding done by Tuesday and, no matter what happens, Wednesday is constant Physics. If I still can't get it finished, I can always stall on Friday (we'll probably spend the lesson going over the prelim anyway) and have a go at it after the Key to Time marathon on the weekend.

I'll muddle through somehow. Just let me enjoy my ever-so-brief respite.


A couple of other interesting things happened today.

Some friends of mine randomly appeared on a certain very popular website that I won't link to because it's really not a very pleasant website most of the time. It seems it was a photo taken from someone's Bebo page though no one's quite sure how it ended up where it did. It could have just been a coincidence or it could have been a joke by someone who hasn't owned up yet.

Either way, it was extremely funny for reasons I won't go into.


I don't know if I've said this before, but the wireless network in our house tends to suck. It's like the walls are made of lead sometimes. We figured we'd solved the problem a while back by setting up Home Plug stuff so that I could wire my room and then adding range extenders so everyone else's computers would work.

It's a setup that's worked fairly well up until now, when one of the range extenders died last week. We had someone come out and look at it and he thought it might have got knocked or dropped. It didn't really matter since it was under warranty anyway and it was just a matter of sending it off to Netgear and waiting for a replacement. In the meantime, we moved the second range extender to where the first had been, since it was that one that gave my brother's room and the kitchen wireless access.

Then the second one died. It stopped working yesterday, apparently due to the same fault as the first. We know that this one wasn't knocked or anything so our best guess is that it has something to do with the power supply, which we left in place when the first one died and used when we put the second one it its place.

Since my brother doesn't like being left without internet, this necessitated a trip to PC World to find a Home Plug adaptor for his room that he could use as a stop-gap measure. We eventually picked one up, after having a little difficulty finding them and then more difficulty finding just a single one rather than a more expensive pair. Hopefully, once the extenders get fixed, he'll stop needing it and I can steal it off him to use with Linus and my Beaten Up Old Laptop^TM, neither of which are near enough to my current adaptor to connect easily.

While we were there, I took a chance to poke around the monitors as I still need to pick one up for Linus and the PC I'm planning to build. There were a few good deals, especially the ex-display ones that were going cheap, but I figured I ought to see if I could get anything better online first. I'll probably get round to that later in the week.


It's getting close to my arbitrary midnight deadline now so I'll call it quits for tonight. With any luck, I'll have got something useful done by this time tomorrow.

Day Off

Another lazy Saturday almost over and done with. Not very productive but I'd already decided that I'd be taking it as a day off so that's not a problem.

Finally got round to going into Ayr this morning and trading in some old games that I never play. Some of them were pretty worthless but a couple of Wii and 360 games were worth enough that I ended up with £60 of store credit. This was, of course, promptly spent on Eternal Sonata and Final Fantasy XII, along with a plush Sonic doll.

I had heard of Eternal Sonata and dimly remembered good reviews of it so, since it was on special offer and I tend to like RPGs, I figured it might be a good deal. I originally bought my second-hand PS2 purely to try out some of the vast RPG library, something which I've singularly failed to do, so a new Final Fantasy game going cheap seemed like a good idea. I don't really have a reason for getting the Sonic plushy.

So I guess I can add two more massive RPGs to my ever-expanding list of games I need to complete. Maybe once I get my prelims, projects and hospital visits out of the way, I can go on a total gaming binge for a week, see how much I can do.

Well, even if I don't (and, knowing me, I probably won't), I can at least try to get a bit more done once everything serious is out of the way. I'm also way behind on my plans for a few other things, like VersusCOM and The Grey Line.

Anyway, no point dwelling on that now. This is my day off.

Which means that tomorrow is my first day back on again. I'm hoping to have a shot at tackling my Computing project so that I can get it out of the way and focus on Physics revision for the rest of the week.


It's just occurred to me that I've once again forgotten all about the woodle for this week. Never mind, I'll definitely have one ready for next time. It's relatively simple and my “artist” should find it fairly easy to draw, which means he'll probably do it. If he remembers.


I think that's about it really. Nothing too deep or interesting but there rarely ever is.

Oh, actually, there is one last thing. I bought a copy of Hey You, Pikachu! off eBay earlier. It's an interesting little game that the Wikipedia article can explain in more detail than I can be bothered to do. Unfortunately, it only ever came out in the US and Japan so it's an NTSC version and I don't have an NTSC N64 or a convertor, so until I get one of those, all I've got is a £17, voice-recognising paperweight.


And that's really it for today. I'll be back tomorrow, I guess.

Two Down, One to Go

Computing actually went quite well. I showed up about forty minutes before the exam to find that the other three guys in my class had been there for a while. Two had been in all day. Judging from the amusing panic that ensued before we left for the exam room, they'd spent that time doing anything but revision.

I'd spent the morning trying to decide what to revise. I glanced over my notes but they're all either in a huge PDF or in single paragraph, Flash diagram-laden web pages that I really couldn't be bothered looking over. In the end, I skimmed through some of the presentations I'd made for class, which basically just summarised the notes and added some amusing pictures.

I didn't get to finish looking over them at home so I took them in on my USB key and Sam and I spent a while alternating between chatting, panicking and glancing at them on Deimos and Eridani*. We were mostly chatting and panicking about how screwed we all were if certain topics came up (mostly algorithms of any kind).

Once it began though, I (and presumably the others as well) were able to relax a little. There were a few annoyingly vague or badly worded questions but it never really got much harder than the tests we do each week in class. Of course, there was still the usual assortment of errors we've come to expect from these commercial prelim papers (missing question numbers, schedules showing projects ending before they begin, etc.) plus the usual annoying pop culture references (an example database full of Harry Potter characters).

Timing wise, it was a mercifully short (though constant writing made it seem a lot longer) one and a quarter hours. I was never really rushed but I finished pretty close to the deadline. I wouldn't have minded a couple more minutes to check over everything but it's better than sitting around for twenty minutes going insane over unknown answers.

Like in my Maths prelim.


Still, as the title says, that's two down with one left to go. I figure I'll take tomorrow off before starting on Physics some time on Sunday. Between now and Friday, I also have to find the time and energy to scrape together a solution to that problem with my Computing project that's been bugging me for weeks now.

I've a couple of ideas and it'll hopefully be pretty straightforward once I remind myself of how everything works. As for the Physics revision, I've got a pretty good idea of what I need to look up and practice. Once I skim through everything, that mental list will probably double in size but meh. Better than being unprepared.


That's all for tonight. I'll try to get a woodle up tomorrow, unless I get distracted by another five hour session of Mass Effect. Which I probably will.






*Our respective Eee PCs, in case you haven't been paying attention.

Maths Make Brain Hurt

Maths could have gone worse, I suppose. There were a few things that I just completely blanked on and a few others that I got by trial and error but, overall, I think I did okay. A solid B at worst.

Still, no matter how well it may or may not have gone, three hours of Maths has left me kind of drained. I've spent most of the afternoon and evening just lazing around, browsing websites, playing Mass Effect and catching up on some TV shows*.

I know that I probably should have done some Computing revision but I just can't for some reason. Let's called it tiredness and stress combined with natural laziness and arrogance and leave it at that.


Bleh. I'm trying to come up with some kind of interesting point to make about my prelims and what it was like sitting them and so on but I think it'll have to wait until I'm less braindead.

I've also been meaning to go through all the news that's been coming out of the Game Developer's Conference over the past few days. Just check out all the coverage at Joystiq.


You know, I don't want to call this a mini post but I do want to go to bed now and I can't be bothered adding much more...

How about some links? That always helps justify stuff... somehow.

Anyway, this has basically sealed it – I am buying Rock Band.

And... uhhh... there must be something else I can link to... I haven't mentioned the Doom comic yet, have I? Well, here's the Doom comic. Don't ask why, don't ask what. Simply read it and either laugh or go insane.


That'll do for now.







*I've started using the BBC's iPlayer service. Our Sky+ is still on the blink, usually to the point of being incomprehensible, so it's the best way to catch up on show's I missed. Used it for Ashes to Ashes and Torchwood, mostly.

Mostly Nonsense

Well, I shaved off my proto-beard.

...

Now my chin is cold.


Anyway, it's getting late in the morning and I haven't done much in the way of revision yet so I'll go do a prelim now. I may end up doing one of those “blogging throughout the day” posts that I haven't done in a while. I'll probably try to post it early as well, so I can get as much sleep as possible. I get the distinct impression that I'm going to need it.

Oh, and since it's almost 11:30, Sam should be in the last couple of minutes before his English prelim ends. I'll have to ask him how that went later.


Huh. Judging from the fact that it's now half ten and dark outside, it seems that plan didn't really work out so well.

I'll have to finish this off pretty quick now. I'm actually seriously completely determined to get to bed before midnight tonight.

But first, I have to do some more Maths revision. I've been meaning to look over complex numbers (an accurate title if ever there was one) for the past week and I've no idea why I left it until now but I did.

I really have no idea where I'm going with this. I'm fairly sure my brain's been fried by Maths and stress. This time tomorrow, it'll have been fried by Maths, Computing and stress. I'll hopefully have recovered by Saturday, at which point the cycle can begin anew with my Computing project, Physics and stress.

I reckon that from here on in, I have two options: become accustomed to my situation and approach it calmly and logically or go slowly insane. I have yet to determine which will help more.


Okay. That's it. I'm going to bed. I know this post has been kind of rambling and incoherent but that's really just a reflection of the mood I'm in and there's no sense in trying to change it.

Actually, first, I need to pack my bag and make sure I've got everything ready for tomorrow. And I might glance over that stuff on complex numbers.

Crap. Well, whatever. I'm ending this post so that I can get on with that other stuff and then go to bed.

I really think I'm addicted to Mass Effect now

So it's a little after three o'clock now and something just occurred to me. My Maths prelim is the day after tomorrow.

I'm going to go do a practice paper. That way, I won't be lying next time someone asks me if I've done any work.


Well, that was frightening.


Anyway, I'll finish that paper off tomorrow, then do some last minute panic revision on the stuff I think I need to know... I'm getting the distinct impression that this isn't going to go at all well for me. Sometimes I think I have a handle on it and then the question just throws up some obscure little rule I'm meant to have learned in S3 and everything goes nuts from there on in

I'm still hoping that Computing won't be too bad. I've almost forgotten about Physics for the time being. Ditto for my Computing project.

Nothing much I can do about all that now, I suppose. The plan for tomorrow remains Maths, Maths and more Maths. I've managed to clear enough desk space in the study that I can work in there, where it's normally pretty quiet. Only other person who goes in there regularly is Erin to do her homework for a while each night. But that's just for a short time and if I'm still studying at that point, or worse yet, if I haven't started, then I'm probably completely screwed anyway.


You know, I only have a couple more weeks until I reach the one year mark with TWToday.

Lately, I've become a little despondent over it. Partly I feel the quality is sliding due to my own laziness and partly I think I've just not been up to it lately. Over the last few months, I've been putting up with this stupid pilonidal sinus, or rather, I've been putting up with the effects of the surgery to have it removed, which have proved to be a far greater and far more literal pain in the ass than the original problem.

Then over the past few weeks I've had my birthday, quickly followed by my prelims and people telling me I have to decide where and how I want to spend the next four years of my life and that I need to learn to drive or else I'm doomed...

All in all, I've not been having a great time over the last few weeks, and the quality of the last few months has been less than average.

I'm hoping things will pick up in a while. Once the prelims are over, I'll be able to relax more and that may well coincide quite happily with the end of my hospital visits as well, the way things are going. I intend to spend the entirety of that first weekend off watching old Doctor Who serials. Specifically, that Key to Time marathon that Sam and I have been planning to do since I got the boxset at Christmas.

I refuse to delay it again.

Of course, me saying that I refuse to do something doesn't necessarily mean it won't happen (see yesterday's promise not to play Mass Effect today). And me saying that I will do something doesn't necessarily mean that it'll happen either. Like my promise to my mother that I would shave off this strange proto-beard I've been growing over the holiday.

Actually, I probably will do that.

Oh, and if I say I'll probably do something... well, then you're getting into some serious crazy quantum stuff and it's way too late at night for me to explain that.

I'm going to bed.

Have a nice day.

Not even worth titling properly

Well, I managed to get some work done at least. It wasn't much but it was a (very late) start. My plans have now shifted to a combination of Maths and Computing tomorrow, then panicking for Maths on Thursday.


I really have completed wasted my day. I flicked through some notes, played some more Mass Effect*... and that's about it really. I've no idea where the time's gone.

I suppose my lack of concentration isn't helped by the fact that my wound has been acting up a bit, making it very uncomfortable to sit in my chair. And my neck still hurts. There's not really anywhere else in the house I can go to be undisturbed, or to sit in a comfier chair and be undisturbed. In fact, my brother's started making a habit of coming into my room to play TimeSplitters, so even my inner sanctum can get noisy without my own intervention.


Aaargh. It seems like the more I think about my day, the more depressed I get and the more my head and neck hurt. Maybe this is stress. Or some other kind of psycho-babble. I don't really care at this point.

I'm calling this a crappy post and going to bed.

Have a nice day.








*I really need to stop playing that for the next week or so. Maybe I should do what I did with my iMac's power cable before the last exams and just tell my sister to hide it so it can't distract me.

On revision plans and ridiculous names for budget laptops

Once again, I've spent the whole day doing nothing. I could normally justify taking the weekend or even just Sunday off but that would only be possible if I were taking them off from doing something.

My current plan, and I'm absolutely sure I'll follow through on this one, is to do Maths revision tomorrow, Computing on Tuesday and then more Maths on Wednesday. I'll have some time after my Maths prelim on Thursday afternoon to do any last minute stuff I need to do for Computing. Then I'll probably take Saturday off and go from there, working on my Computing project and Physics revision.

It's not a great plan but it seems reasonable.


Nothing much else to say. I was meaning to do a woodle but I haven't got round to that. I might do one for next Saturday but I know there's one I definitely need to do for the Saturday after that, since it needs to stay pretty current.

I'm still playing my way through Mass Effect. I'm starting to get into the swing of things now, having got to that bit that shows up in most games like this where you're pretty much free to wander around and advance the plot at your own pace. Still not quite sure how the biotic combat powers are supposed to work but I'll figure it out.

I'm still working on my Eee, adding software and looking into mods. Oh, and I figured out what I'm going to call it – Eridani. Technically, Eridani, or Eridanus, refers to the constellation, which contains the trinary star system of 40 Eridani. Within that system is 40 Eri B, the first white dwarf star to be discovered.

So Eridani is basically a nickname for my laptop, whose full name is 40 Eridani B.

Interestingly, the 40 Eridani system is also usually thought to be the home system of the Vulcans from Star Trek, although that fact has never been explicitly stated on screen. There's just some corroborating evidence involving distances and some mentions in non-canonical books like tech manuals. But hey, fanon has to start somewhere.


Well, it's getting late and I've said everything I need to.

Have a nice day.

Titles are easier when you have topics

Holy crap. It's just gone past four o'clock and I feel like it should still be the morning. I got up just before noon and had just enough time to turn on my computer and have some lunch before I had to have my shower and go into hospital, wait for about half an hour, have my dressing changed and then come home.

All in all, I didn't get to actually start my day until just after three.


As a consequence, I've done absolutely nothing of any consequence. That's really making me very worried now. Tomorrow, I'm determined to do at least the equivalent of one Maths prelim paper and to look over some of my Computing notes. With any luck, I'll also have time to sort out the design for my Computing project.

That might just be wishful thinking but I've got little else at the moment.


I've no idea why but I'm feeling quite tired. And my neck is still sore. Still, I've got a couple of points to get through before I wrap this up.

First of all, it's more or less official now that Toshiba have killed off the HD-DVD format. This has a number of important repercussions, the most important being that I now owe Sam Stafford a tenner. We made a bet a couple of years ago over which would be the victor – obviously, he supported Blu-Ray while I went with HD-DVD.

The fact that we were planning to settle the bet on January 1st 2010 shows just how much of a surprise the sudden departure of HD-DVD has been. In the last few months, Toshiba's lost many important allies to Sony's format, mostly due to the resurgence of the PS3. I know people who are buying PS3s purely to use them as Blu-Ray players. That'll probably stop once prices of standalone players come down but Sony is probably hoping to have enough of a foothold by then to get by on profit from software sales.


Our second item of news for tonight is that I'm trying to come up with a name for my Eee PC. As you may or (more likely) may not know, Sam and I have a system for naming our computers. Old or second-hand systems are named using jokes, usually puns or funny references. Hence, my seldom-used Linux box called Linus (a reference to Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux) and my Mac LC called Lucy (Sam was originally going to call his LC Lucy but I convinced him to use Luke instead once I realised the potential for a Peanuts reference).

New computers follow a different pattern. Sam names his after moons (his Mac Mini, which he'd just got when we started the system, is called Luna) and I name mine after stars, hence why I occasionally refer to my iMac as Deneb. Moving outwards towards the edge of the solar system, Sam named his Eee after the smallest moon of Mars, Deimos, and I'm currently examining white dwarf stars for mine.

I should have a name by tomorrow.


Bah. That's it for now. You know, when I get my priorities sorted out and start doing these earlier in the day again, I've got a few things I want to wax lyrical about. The current weather, for example. Sort of not quite winter and not quite spring. I like it.

But I need to get to bed. I probably won't because I'm having a discussion about the mysteries in Life on Mars which may drag on but it's the thought that counts.

Have a nice day.

More of all the stuff I usually mention

If my day were a game and hours were the points, Mass Effect would have beaten revision 5-nil.


And now you see why I never use sports metaphors.

I did play a lot of Mass Effect though. Five hours is probably a good estimate, with a little rounding. Sadly, nil is a good estimate for my revision time as well.

On the bright side, I did spot and dig out from under a pile of my other crap some more Maths notes, including my practice prelims and the sheet which tells me what topics are going to be in my exam. It's not exactly pulling an all-nighter but it's progress nonetheless.

I was reassured (mildly) by Sam telling me that he's done no revision at all. I say mildly because a) Sam doesn't take Maths, just its way easier, no-need-to-revise-for-it arch-nemesis, English, and b) he's a lazy git.

Turns out that one of the many reasons he hasn't done any work is that he's got himself an Eee PC as well. He went with the 2 gig version and spent the extra money on an SD card to make up the memory and a DVD rewriter since he needs an optical drive to put Windows on it and he apparently wanted one for his Mac Mini anyway.

All he really loses out on with his version, other than the memory, is a small increase in processor speed and the inbuilt webcam. It seems he was willing to sacrifice those to get it a bit faster (the 4 gig version, of which mine is one, is still out of stock almost everywhere). Last I saw of him, he was copying a cut down version of XP to a thumb drive to try and boot from that. I'll have to ask him how that went.

As I hate being outdone in the general geekiness department, I decided to enable the desktop mode on my Eee while he was doing that. All it required was a few command lines and some package installation and it now has a full desktop GUI, though I may set it to boot up into the simpler one just for convenience.

Now that I can install and access non-default applications, I've also added GIMP (the image editor), Audacity (everyone's favourite open source audio editor) and versions of Bejeweled and Minesweeper (because I have way too much time on my hands).

I'll probably play around with it some more tomorrow, after I get through with (or when I need a break from) doing some actual revision. Now that I have the sheet saying what I need to do, Maths doesn't seem quite so daunting. I figure it'll start being daunting again once I start actually doing the work but I may as well enjoy this brief respite while it lasts.

I also need to get on with my Computing project. As I can't be bothered using my Beaten Up Old Laptop^TM every time I want to work on it, I've decided that I'm going to steal the little Thinkpad that my brother got for university a couple of years ago and which is now only used by my dad for his office connection once every so often.

I could theoretically work on it on another computer but, to be completely honest, I just want to sit at my desk and have two laptops and my iMac in front of me, running all three major operating systems. I'll probably laugh maniacally to myself and pretend I'm some sort of hacker supervillain.

I can but dream.


And that's it for tonight. Nothing much else to say, except that I'll probably have a woodle up tomorrow. Now, I'm off to bed before this headache gets any worse so...

Have a nice day, I suppose.

My neck's better but now I've got a headache

I really need to tidy my room. I was just looking through some drawers to find a packet of Blu Tack so I could stick up my exam timetable when I came across my provisional driving license. I'd totally forgotten I had that thing.


So my exams start one week today. In fact, looking at my timetable, this time next week, I'll just have come home from my Maths prelim. With any luck, I'll have had time to recover a bit and have some lunch before needing to start last minute Computing revision.


My head's still killing me so I've sort of given up on revision for now. Making last minute use of the BBC iPlayer to catch up on Ashes to Ashes so that I can watch the second episode tonight. It can only go back 7 days so at first I thought I'd missed my chance, since the day selection only went back to last Friday. Turns out the content from Thursday was still online though, assuming it was on at a later time last Thursday than the current time. If that makes any sense.


Okay. Watched Ashes to Ashes now. A bit meh, to be honest, but it has promise. I don't particularly like the new main character but she may yet grow on me. The second episode was on tonight, so I'll watch that tomorrow and see if it gets better.


I think that's all I feel like saying tonight. My headache has yet to subside and I really need it to be gone by tomorrow so that I can get on with my studying, so I'm gonna head to bed earlier than normal. By which I mean, before midnight. I'll call this a mini-post and those traditionally end with some amusing links so...

Ah, Doom. King of all shooters, according to some. Didn't really work out so great as a comic book though.

And speaking of amusing comic books, here's a few more over at the appropriately titled Stupid Comics.

You know what? I don't link to Superdickery often enough and it seems to fit with the theme I've got going here. So go there.


That's all.

Another post about stuff I did during the day

Things that tell you you ought to keep you're desk tidier number 1013:

Moving an old copy of Retro Gamer to discover several pieces of unopened mail marked January.


In addition to the aforementioned tidying, I also managed to get some revision done today. It wasn't much, just going through a Computing prelim that I don't think I even have the answers for, but it was a start. I expect to get more done tomorrow, now that I've finished watching Life on Mars. Well, after I've watched the first episode of the sequel series. And the Torchwood episode they showed on BBC 3 tonight.

Speaking of Torchwood, it was pretty good tonight. They toned down the melodrama a bit, which made the characters a whole lot more likeable than usual. There were a few similarities to a certain Star Trek episode (and I'm sure it's been done in other media as well... come to think of it, I remember a plot synopsis for a Torchwood novel that had a similar basis) and an episode of Red Dwarf, of all things.

Still, it was pretty good overall, if you're willing to pave over a rather large plot hole involving the character of Rhys. Which I am, since I rather like the character of Rhys. He was a jerk in the first season (then again, so was everyone else) but now he's been rounded out a bit, it's become clear that he's the only person in Torchwood who doesn't have some kind of glaring mental defect.


What else have I got to talk about...

I said yesterday that I was going to talk more about Assassin's Creed but I ended up not playing it any more so that'll have to wait for now.

I didn't play any more of Mass Effect either, though I did play some more of Link's Crossbow Training and a couple more Advance Wars missions. Crossbow Training is actually a lot of fun, if fairly easy. It certainly fulfils its simple purpose of showing off (and justifying the price of) the Wii Zapper.

Oh, and I've done a bit more writing on the background of The Grey Line. It's funny how just sitting and bashing out ideas on the keyboard can help me solidify them. Maybe it's because I have them all there in one place, rather than drifting separately into my mind from time to time. I've been able to combine a few plotlines so that it hangs together better as a whole and I've sorted out a few problems with the physics.

I'm not going for hard science fiction or anything, but I do want it to be internally consistent. The problem came up because, while I don't want time travel to be a regular or easy thing, I did have one story (from the earlier, more carefree days) that I didn't want to give up but which required a form of time travel.

Also, trying to do more writing about them has made me realise that about half the cast don't actually have names, or at least not full names. That's probably something I should work on.


That's everything I think. Now, if you'll excuse me, my neck has been killing me all day and I deeply desire to rest it upon a pillow. Although that may just make it worse.

We shall see.

Revision, Assassins and Miscellaneous

You know, it's on days like this, when I'm sitting at my computer, sunlight streaming into my room, casting intricate shadows on the floor, that I realised just how dirty my windows are.

Seriously. They're filthy.


Well then... that whole revision thing... yeah...

I didn't do any. I moved some folders around and slightly cleared up a desk so that with a little more shifting of stuff I can use it as a work surface but other than that, I did nothing.

I'm determined to start properly tomorrow. I figure the best thing to do would be to try out some of the prelims to see what I need to learn and then focus on Maths and Computing, since those are my first two exams. I'll probably have to look more at Maths but I'm determined to do more than I strictly need to for Computing.

I've managed to get a prize every year for about nine years in a row now and I'm not failing my last chance. I figure Computing's my best bet since I won it for Higher last year, beating out the rest of the class in the prelim, and... well, I don't reckon I can do it in either of my other classes to be honest. I'm not bad but I know there are people better than me who deserve it more.


Anyway, let's forget about revision for now (because if I think about it any more it's just going to depress and annoy me).

I played Assassin's Creed some more today. Assassin's Creed is apparently one of those games that you either love or hate. Most reviews indicated that it's pretty repetitive so if you like the kind of stuff it does, you'll get plenty of it, but if even one section annoys you, it's all going to go downhill very fast. I hadn't liked it very much when I played it at school but I figured I might like it a bit more when I could hear the dialogue and take my time with the game.

Turns out I was wrong.


You know what? More on Assassin's Creed tomorrow, or maybe some other time. Turns out I have an awful lot of ranting to do. I may even turn it into a proper review. For now, here's Zero Punctuation's look at it.


I figure I'll try to divide up tomorrow between sessions of study and sessions of Mass Effect for balance. No idea if that'll work out well or not. I might also try to get a bit more writing done – I've taken some time today to type out some of my thoughts for The Grey Line, the first time I've done so in a long while. I think I've mostly resolved, in my head at least, some of the problems of the sci-fi and fantasy elements residing in the same universe.

Which may have just given away some of the plot. Or maybe not. We shall see.


For now, I'm off to bed. I was told today, after yesterday's more optimistic view, that my wound may still take a few weeks to heal, which means it almost certainly won't be done before the end of the prelims. Calling it “incredibly annoying” would be a gross understatement.

Still, nothing I can do right now, unfortunately. Well, nothing except get some more sleep and get up early tomorrow morning again.

Have a nice day.

Insert Title Joke Here

I hate short holidays. I take a day to relax and I feel like I've wasted time that could have been much better spent on something else. And that feeling basically defeats the whole point of taking a day to relax in the first place.

Other than the odd late-night feeling of despair and hopelessness, today's actually been a pretty good day. Went into hospital in the morning and got some good news – I should be done in about a week. Nothing definite but a lot closer and a lot more specific than anything I've got in the past. At the very least, I should be done before my prelims start, albeit cutting it a bit close.

Sam came round in the afternoon and I gave him those revision sheets I was keeping for him – fat chance he'll use most of them but at least it's one task done for me. We spent most of the time either playing Link's Crossbow Training or watching Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged and Homestar Runner on my Eee. That thing really is becoming ridiculously useful.

We also dug out and watched a Simpsons episode which came up in conversation for some reason. It was that brilliant one with Hank Scorpio. I'm trying hard now to remember why we were all thinking about it but I honestly can't – I just keep reminding myself of scenes from it and laughing.

Other than that I've mostly just been browsing the web and watching Life on Mars. Still, that counts as a good day in my book.


I've also had a few good ideas regarding some of my creative endeavours. Sam agreed to do a woodle more-or-less weekly so I'll get him a precise script (I already gave him a rough description this morning) and the first one should go up next Saturday.

I've solved a few problems and come up with some more background information for The Grey Line. One of these days, I may actually write some of it down. On an even more unusual day, I might just show it to someone.


Anyway, I think that's about it. Haven't really got through much of the list I set out yesterday but... ah, well. Time to go to bed.

Have a nice day.

More things to do

11:09 counts as the morning as well.


I really need to change my sleeping habits. Getting up late is all well and good for a couple of days but I always feel like I've been wasting my time afterwards. It's back into the annoyingly normal routine of going to hospital in the early morning tomorrow so I'll have no choice but to be up and about by eight at the latest.


Aargh. I just finished a session of Link's Crossbow Training. I'm getting pretty good at it now but playing it for about an hour straight does tend to make your arms a bit sore. I may as well keep typing because it's just going to hurt anyway and I want this out of the way.

I've got a few things going round in my head that I want to do so I think I'll take a second* to write them down, in no particular order.

1. Revise. Obviously.

2. Tidy my room, if only so I can find my revision notes.

3. Write thank you letters for my birthday presents, however much it may annoy me.

4. Something else which I remembered a few minutes ago but has now slipped my mind again.

5. Do some work on The Grey Line.

6. Make some woodles. I may even do one later tonight if time permits - I realised as soon as I had posted yesterday that I'd forgotten to do one then.

7. Figure out what number 4 was.

8. Do something, anything, about VersusCOM. Write a sketch, think about game news items, scribble something on the back of an envelope. Well, maybe not that last one - Mum gets a bit touchy about wasting envelopes for some reason.

9. Sell some of my junk and unwanted games. Come to think of it, that was probably what number 4 was meant to be.

10. Strike number 7 off this list as I've now probably done it.

11. ...I'm sure I had an 11 but my Eee crashed on me and the document recovery only got me back to number 6. Not sure why it died but it's been running, albeit mostly in sleep mode, for most of the day. Got pretty hot too - I had to do some impromptu air cooling. By which I mean holding it at an open window.

12. Take slightly better care of my brand new laptop. This includes such things as turning it off more often and not holding it at open windows, as well as generally trying to avoid situations where the latter becomes necessary.


I think that's about it for now. Not much else to say and not much time to say it in. Revision starts on Tuesday so I probably ought to try to get the most out of tomorrow. Well, I say revision starts on Tuesday, no idea if I'll hold myself to that. I certainly hope I will.

We shall see, I suppose.



*Re-reading this, I find that statement particularly ironic seeing as it was written at around one o'clock and it's now fast approaching midnight.

First Day of a Short Holiday

So it turns out that the Eee's version of Open Office does have languages other than UK English. The spell check still seems a little off though - it wouldn't let me select any other languages last night (I found another way this morning) and now it doesn't find anything wrong with the phrase "Englash is awexome". Maybe it'll catch on to it later.


Ah, the first day of the holidays. Remember, even if the clock says 11:48, it still counts as getting out of bed in the morning.

I finally got around to playing Mass Effect last night. I played for a couple of hours and got a pretty good feel for it. The conversation system is very interesting but I've yet to be completely convinced by the combat and "talent" systems.


Okay, so it's a lot later now. I haven't really done much all day. As I said, I woke up late so that there wasn't much point in starting anything much before my hospital appointment at two o'clock. I hate going into the ward (rather than the normal treatment room) but I have to at weekends. The afternoon appointments do give me a lie in but it's usually a longer wait and the nurses up there don't see it so often and usually seem to put in a bit too much packing.

Today's appointment was pretty quick but I got the whole "it's looking much better than last time" speech again and I'm really starting to get sick of it. If it's getting so much better each and every bloody time, why isn't it bloody well healed yet?

Bah. All I can really hope for now is that it'll be done before the prelims start. I'm determined not to become complacent about it. I tend to ask every couple of days and as soon as I get told that I could probably just put the dressing on at home, I'm done.


Enough of that. It's getting very late in the day now and I tend to get more complainy around then. Doesn't help that the alarm just went off downstairs for no particular reason. It seems to just be a fault with the phone line but Mum's still being paranoid about it and insisting on checking everything. She just called me through to ask if the lights on the wireless range extender were all right, as she'd never seen them like that before. I had to patiently explain that one was the power light, one showed the network cable was plugged in an one showed that the Wi-Fi was active – and that all were perfectly normal and always on.

Other than the things I feel like complaining about, I've not done much else all day. Haven't really played any games – did a bit more of Advance Wars in the waiting room but I haven't touched Mass Effect, Link's Crossbow Training or any other of the half dozen or so games I keep meaning to play more.

My Life on Mars DVDs arrived this morning so I've been watching them a lot. I quite like it but I'm not entirely convinced that it's as great as everyone says. Maybe it's just backlash from the hype. Oh, well. I'll keep watching all the same.

And that's about it. I'm basically just resting up now because I know that I'll have to start doing revision and so on at some point soon. Probably on Tuesday, since I want to spend tomorrow playing some of the games on my list and I was thinking of having Sam round on Monday, if only to give him some revision sheets that he missed getting on Friday.

I really have to wrap this up now. I've no idea how it got so late but I have to get this post up within about fifteen minutes or... well, or nothing really. But I've got nothing else to say and I want to get to bed so I may as well stick to my self-imposed, arbitrary deadline.


Oh, and one final side note. Today, my mother dismantled Citizen Cane. He shall be sorely missed by all who knew him and who had used him to remove objects from high up areas.

Which reminds me... isn't there still a flying disc thing stuck on the roof from a while back? Did we ever get that down?