A small day spent thinking about big ideas

I'm making an early start on this post because I want to get to bed early and I don't want to have anything else pressuring me while I do Physics revision later. Also, I don't want to do said Physics revision now and this is as good an excuse as any.

It's been another fairly slow day. I haven't got much homework done which is going to be annoying tomorrow but I'll deal with it. The fact that my shoulder's been hurting like hell for some reason hasn't helped. I certainly doubt I could have used the computer constantly enough to make any headway with my Computing project. The deadline for which might be Tuesday. That's not going to work out well.


Okay, so it's an awful lot later now. My shoulder is feeling a bit better, or at least it was until I tried typing this, but I've still not done a lot of my Physics revision. I think I should be able to get by with doing some before I go to bed and some in the morning but I can't be sure. It's not a hugely important test...

Crap, I need to stop rationalising away my laziness like this. I may screw up this test completely but it'll at least provide an incentive to study harder for my prelims...


Anyway, I finally managed to find somewhere online that could get me an Eee PC delivered in time for my birthday. It was slightly more expensive than the other places but I didn't really want it arriving after my birthday since I knew it would probably just distract me while I tried to revise and so on.

I'm still trying to find somewhere that has the accessories for it, particularly the extra battery and the mouse, but I can live without them. I could probably live without the whole thing, to be honest, but it's a birthday present so why not.


As I said above, today's been pretty slow. I moved around my computer setup so that the iMac is now at the better desk, which is a lot more comfortable and gives it better lighting. It's not a final fix but it'll do for now.

I got some stuff in the mail from the University of Edinburgh either this morning or yesterday morning. Can't really remember, which speaks volumes for the attention I've paid it. I also have some stuff from St Andrews lying around from weeks ago that I need to take half an hour and read through but I just haven't had enough time.

I'm also trying to put the whole university thing out of my mind, at least until after the prelims are over. Otherwise, I'd be dealing with four “big” things at the same time – prelims, learning to drive, deciding on my entire academic future and, of course, the only pain in my ass that isn't metaphorical.

All falling around my birthday.

Well, no sense whining about it here. I've got to go and do that Physics revision as well as do my whole “shifting all the crap off my bed that gets put there during the day because I have no freaking storage space in my room because all the shelves were either taken down when it was redecorated or are taken up by other people's unwanted junk I mean honestly why do we keep that giant box full of McDonald's toys in my wardrobe of all places not to mention the old printer that's up there why do we hang on to that thing I don't know if we even have a computer that'll connect to it” routine.

So have a nice day.

A Good Day

There is nothing quite like the feeling you get when you finally rip apart someone's testimony in Phoenix Wright. And there's nothing more infuriating than knowing where the contradiction is but not knowing what exact combination of evidence the game thinks will prove it.


Today's been a damned good day, actually. I'm hugely enjoying playing Phoenix Wright (we'll go with that title now, for the sake of simplicity) and I'd recommend it to any fool who hasn't tried the series yet. I'll undoubtedly play more tomorrow and I'll have to try to pick up another game with which to pass the time.

Most of the gifts I ordered for Christmas were delivered today. I'm still waiting on a book and some action figures for my little cousin but among the things that did arrive were the Master's laser screwdriver and the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. I was planning to give the laser screwdriver to the elder of my two little cousins and the sonic one to the younger, but it occurred to me that, since this model of sonic screwdriver doubles as a UV pen, it might make more sense to give it to the one that can write.

Doesn't matter much in the long run – I'm sure they'll share whatever they get anyway. Assuming I don't give in to temptation and keep the toys for myself... I've been trying my hardest not to rip open the packages and run around shoving the psychic paper wallet in people's faces before ageing them until they look like a house elf.

...What?


Further brightening my day was the fact that I received another confirmation of an unconditional university place. This time, it was Computer Science at St Andrews, the course I was really hoping for. That's me got all my offers back save for the Comp. Sci. and Physics joint course at St Andrews, which will presumably take longer as it has to pass through two departments.

And that's more or less been my day, apart from the usual humdrum existence and the daily morning trip to the hospital. That's become ridiculously routine now, so much so that I can be halfway to the hospital before I properly wake up. As inconvenient as the whole thing has been, it does get me up a lot earlier in the holidays, which makes me feel better, given my usual tendency to sleep in annoyingly late.

That said, once it's all over, the first thing I'm going to do the next morning is lie in until it's the afternoon.


Oh, a couple of other things. It looks like Duke Nukem is still alive, as are his “unique” brand of humour and his liberal interpretation of the word “deadline”. This isn't the first time a trailer for the game has been released so it's not worth anyone getting their hopes up. To be brutally honest, I'm hoping it's never released, just so I can keep making jokes about it.

And while we're on the subject, here's The Duke Nukem Forever List again. Always worth a look and a laugh.

This, as with all such stories about politicians not doing their research before jumping on the video game hatred bandwagon, both depresses and amuses me.

I bought some USB rechargeable batteries in the same order as all my Christmas presents and they just finished charging, so I'll give them a go tomorrow and then report on that.

Yes, reviewing batteries. I really can stoop so low.

One way in which I'm disimilar to Garfield

Well, another near-lessonless Monday, come and gone. I took my old laptop into school today, the one with no battery. Managed to get some Visual BASIC done for my Computing project, in between watching Monty Python DVDs. When I started doing the latter, I said that if anyone asked, I was programming in Python. Rather depressingly, out of the five or so people in the room, Skippy was the only one who got such a geeky joke.

I got a fair bit of actual work done, though I would have liked to get more done. The basic groundwork is certainly in place and I just need some advice from my teacher on how to link together a few parts of it. Assuming I don't come under much more pressure from tests or other projects, I should be able to get it done by the end of term deadline.

Unfortunately, I have utterly failed to do any other homework, including the large amount of Maths that's either overdue or due in very soon. I did manage to rattle through some Physics, but since it's due in tomorrow, I didn't exactly have much choice in the matter.


Beyond that, several people, myself included, got some university places confirmed today. I mentioned before that I had got a couple of unconditional offers for Edinburgh's Computer Science and Physics courses but I hadn't quite realised just how impressive that was until I mentioned it to a girl in my class. She pointed out that only two people from our school got accepted into Edinburgh last year and promptly gave me a large hug.

Then we both got confirmation of places at Aberdeen, which was where she really wanted to go, so that led to much screaming and joyous phone calls while the rest of us just stood around looking somewhat bemused.

What this means for me is that I'm basically just waiting to hear from St Andrews, which is where I really want to go, though I haven't entirely ruled out Edinburgh yet. In turn, this means that I'll probably be using my iPhone a lot more at school, checking my emails once a minute.


Oh, come on, NeoOffice. How can you not have a problem with “email” but think that “emails” isn't a word? Bah, nuts to it.


I think I'm going to sign off now and head to bed. I'll probably have to spend a fair chunk of first two lessons tomorrow trying to do Maths homework and revision.... And I've just remembered that I'm going to be getting in late. Possibly problematic, methinks...

Ah, well. It'll sort itself out. See you tomorrow, when there should hopefully be more information on this whole GameSpot firing incident.

The Good, the Bad and the Bloody Painful

It's been a long day so I'm going to keep this short.

First of all, my wound seems to be healing up a bit. The pain seems to be a bit milder, which means I've been able to cut back on painkillers, which is good in itself because I generally dislike taking painkillers, as much as they help in this particular situation. Also, one of the side-effects of these painkillers is constipation, which also makes cutting back a nice prospect.

Today was another largely mediocre day at school – there's still the occasional joke (in good taste from my friends and bad from the assholes in the school, also known as “nearly everybody else”) about my joggers and my surgery and trekking around my classes has proven to be a bit of a hassle. Still, I got my Computing project more or less working, simply by overcoming a silly mistake that I should have noticed days ago.

In other news, Billie Piper and her character of Rose Tyler are apparently making a comeback (more here) in the next series of Doctor Who. This should be quite good because, unlike a lot of other characters, Rose and her family had plenty of time and effort put in to develop them and I quite like each of them. And, of course, if the Doctor can finally get some closure then maybe he can quit whining about everything that isn't Rose and start saving the universe in his inimitable happy-go-lucky style again.

It'll be tricky to do, since there was so much emotional investment put into her final scenes and the whole arc was wrapped up so well and tidily that I have a hard time believing that they can pull it off again. Not to mention that with three female companions, at least two of whom are explicitly in love with the Doctor, in the TARDIS at once, there are going to be a lot of ridiculously emotional scenes going on and I don't much like them. I'm not against them as such, it's just that they often seem to jar with the rest of the show.

Still, all I can do is keep an eye out for new information and hope that they manage to pull it off properly.

But this “short” post has, thanks to various angry interruptions, taken almost half an hour, so I reckon that I probably ought to end it now. My final point for today, and one that rather cheered me up, is that I have had an unconditional offer to study Computer Science at the University of Edinburgh next year, not more than a couple of weeks after sending my application away.

Of course, I also got an email telling me that UCAS had just set up a new web tool that let you compare information and ratings for different establishments to help you before you apply. Thanks a load, guys...

Why don't any spell checkers think that "combust" is a word?

Well, the trip to St Andrews was very interesting and informative. I got to know the town a bit better and learned a lot about the university itself. I also got to see the computer science building and meet some of the staff there – everything seems to be well-equipped and the staff are very friendly. They had a room full of iMacs that would have made Skippy spontaneously combust with joy.

I'll probably discuss that more at some other point. Or maybe I won't. My track record indicates the latter, but I certainly haven't got the time now. I had to get up at 6:30 this morning and I've been either stuck in a car or walking around St Andrews for most of the day, so I'm pretty damned tired. And I've got a headache too, probably related to the lack of sleep.

The journey there and back did end up taking about 3 hours each way. Of course, on the way back, we had to drop Sam off somewhere in Glasgow to see a play as part of his AH English. And, also of course, he had no idea where or when he was meant to be dropped off. This resulted in an awful lot of phone calls being made as Sam tried to contact somebody who might be able to give him the phone number of one of the people he actually needs to talk to.

It eventually all worked out but I didn't get home till after six o'clock, by which time my headache had already set in, so I've done none of the homework that I really need to do... Screw it. I'm going to bed.

Have a nice day. More tomorrow. Etcetera.

Another short post undeserving of a capitalised title

So that discussion of the TV Links debacle (yes, NeoOffice, it is a word) that I mentioned yesterday and was planning to do today? Seems like it's not gonna happen.

My excuse is thus: a visit to St Andrews University decided to creep up on me. This involves getting up ridiculously early and then having a nice, long (approx. 3 hours), boredom-filled drive up the road to St Andrews. There's then a tour around the halls of residence, etc., and then a big long gap until Sam and I attend a Computer Science lecture for half an hour. Then we leave.

So I've got to get to bed and I have little else to say. I'm also in a bad mood, for some fairly obvious reasons, and some other, less obvious ones.

But you know what always cheer me up? Star Trek parodies of inspirational posters! Go on. Have a look, they're funny.

And that's it from me. I should have more to say tomorrow but there's no way of knowing how tired/annoyed I'll be when I get back from St Andrews.


Oh, and here's a trailer for a rather weird looking animated movie based on the Turok games. I remember the original Turok. Never owned it, but I played it at a friend's. I recall there being more fog.

It's been scientifically proven that Mondays pass more slowly than any other day

Another slow Monday. I did get some of The Grey Line written and I'll probably cut this post short so that I can write more and get it posted. I also handed in the second draft of my personal statement, which is a weight off my mind for another couple of days. Still need to fill out some forms to go to the St Andrews University open day on the 24th. Not that I particularly want to go to the open day, I just have to. The Edinburgh one was fun, but only because it was me, Sam, Jimerson and Skippy and we spent more time in Forbidden Planet than we did in the lecture.

Anyway, I've just wasted fifteen minutes watching Weird Al music videos on YouTube and now I'm watching Bill Bailey, so I'm a little distracted. Did you notice I actually managed to get a woodle up last night? I'm practically on a roll. Well, a wobble that could, with appropriate wind conditions, carry on to one side or the other and turn into a roll.

I've been watching Black Books on DVD again recently. Really funny Channel 4 sitcom, considered a bit of a sister series to Spaced, which you should also watch.

I've just realised that it's a little over a week until Half Life 2: Episode 2 comes out (in shops and in the UK; it's out on Wednesday on Steam and in the US). I'll have to remember to preorder that at some point. And add it to the huge list of games that I keep meaning to play and finish. I'll do them all one day. You'll see.


Okay, got distracted by Weird Al songs again. And this news story about the woman fighting that case against the RIAA over downloading songs. Good on her, I say. Kick their asses.

Unfortunately, that made me want to watch Don't Download This Song a couple of times. Curse you and your musical talent, Yankovic.

More tomorrow, as their shall be for some time to come yet. I'm off to write some fiction stuff, I hope.

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?