GAAAHHHHH!!!

This is handy! Really handy! It's 11:00pm and I'm in the computer centre. I have to give my project presentation tomorrow at 10:00am. This presentation is to convince "the panel" that I am on top of my work with my project, that I'm going to complete by the deadline, and that my project shouldn't be demoted to a half unit one.
So, why am I in the computer centre? Because my computer has decided that tonight would be a good night to die!
This is going to be fun!

GAH!

Well, after a highly unproductive weekend which seems to have vanished into nothing, followed by a successful Young Enterprise sales today and Friday, I am now faced with the task of completing a mountain of work, the majority of which is due this week. I have to hand in/present/do the following:
Monday whenever I get it done - Young Enterprise Posters
Tuesday 9:00 - French Written Coursework
Tuesday 12:00 - Weekly Meeting with my Project Supervisor
Tuesday 16:00-17:00 - Man Young Enterprise Stall
Tuesday 19:00 - Photography Society
Wednesday 10:00 - Project Presentation
Wednesday 20:00 - Karate
Thursday 9:00 - French Oral Presentation
Thursday ~14:00 - Computational Optimisation Coursework
Friday - Wander round the Art/PhotoSoc Exhibition and look at my photos

Next Thursday I also have a piece of Compilers Coursework to hand in and at some point I also have to write a letter to France to try to get out of paying the council tax they're charging me for (€266 - more on that when I've got time!).

This is going to be fun!

(Oh, and I've run out of milk for coffee!)

A Reunion

I had a great weekend this, erm, weekend. Friday night we all got dressed up as Pirates for the "Pirates of the Caribbean" night at the union. As usual we got together for pre-union drinks (the music is always more palatable after some alcohol) and, as it was a Pirate themed night, someone had brought rum so there was an interesting combination of drinks on offer. Thankfully I was sensible - I've no desire to recreate my 18th birthday which, for those of you who weren't there, finished with me being unable to walk unassisted.
When we got to the union there was a steel drum band playing. Normally I quite like this music in a relaxing on the beach sort of setting. I'm by no means the best dancer but despite that I don't think a steel drum band is the best choice for a union night. We didn't stay long as a friend of a friend (who was visiting) had over indulged a bit and was feeling quite ill. So, we did the natural thing and went back to order pizza.
I had been a bit worried about Saturday morning. I was going on a trip with the Photography Society and had to be at the station for about 10:20am. I haven't been sleeping very well recently (going to bed at 3am probably doesn't help) and after having been to the union, I wasn't sure if I'd manage to wake up.
Anyhow, somehow I did wake up and made it to the station where I met the others and we waited for a train before running the length of it (in the pouring rain) trying to find a carriage in which the passengers weren't already squashed up to the doors. We did that twice but eventually got to London.
We were going to see an exhibition called "Twilight" at the VA museum. It offered 8 rooms displaying works by 8 photographers. As the name suggests, the theme was of photos taken at twilight and how the lighting portrays different moods and qualities to pictures taken during the day. Many of the works were excellent however, I found the exhibits themselves were too poorly lit in many cases to be able to appreciate the photos. Anyhow, it's inspired me a bit to go around and see if I can take any good photos at twilight around campus. If I do so in time I might be able to submit them for the upcoming PhotoSoc Exhibition at the the Student's Union.
When we'd finished I made my way to Stockwell to meet up with 2 guys (and the girlfriend of one of them) who I lived with in my second year. Due to my year abroad, I am a year behind them now. They have both graduated and have "proper" jobs and seem to be doing pretty well for themselves. I was glad to meet up as they are good friends and we don't see each other enough nowadays. In the evening, we went out and met with another girl we'd shared the house with. We picked up some curry and went back to hers to chat, eat, and drink beer. I had a great time catching up and reminiscing about the antics we got up to that year (turning the contents of her room upside down...and then putting it back again because we thought she might not see the funny side, mowing the lawn in unusual shapes, dropping a plastic duck out of the bathroom window,...). Around midnight, we left to catch the tube back to the guys' house where I stayed the night. We spent Sunday chatting and eating pizza and then I left in the afternoon to head back to uni. I really enjoy meeting up with them all but it makes me wish I was in their position
- earning money, living in London, having free weekends,....
So, after a good weekend, I'd better get on with the work I should have done....

Impossible

It's impossible. I give up!
I had previously never started a piece of French coursework before about 10pm the night before it was due in. I thought that I would try and buck this trend by writing the 600 word comparison of 2 newspaper articles today (today is Saturday, it's due in on Tuesday morning at 9). It's now after 2 in the morning and I've only managed 278 words.
I must stress that this isn't because it's difficult and I've spent the entire day researching and racking my brains trying to work out what to write. Oh no! It's just soooo mind numbingly dull and tedious that I've managed to procrastinate most of the day away into oblivion. I feel so uninspired to write anything that I've decided to leave the rest until Monday night. I even have notes so it shouldn't be too difficult. I'm just counting on the fact that I will have no choice about doing it then will mean that I will have sufficient motivation to put fingers to keyboard and type out some gibberish.
This wasted day has taught me to stick to tried and tested methods. Perhaps this is a lesson that I should not try to change life habits and get work done early.

Flat Forehead Syndrome

Being a student is a tiring occupation, however I've been surprised at just how many people have been falling asleep in class. I haven't done it...yet....although 2 hours of Computational Optimisation will make most people sleepy. What's more surprising is that people aren't just falling asleep in lectures, but also in seminars, when the teacher is only about 10ft away from them.
This reminds me, I need to get hold of some of those caffeine mints...

My Week

I've decided to rename the days of the week to fit my current lifestyle.
The week starts with:

• "Mad Panic Monday" as I realise how little work I've got done, and how much needs to be done, for....
• "Shitty Tuesday", which starts with a rubbish French class at 9, is followed by a 1 hour break in which I try to convince myself that i do have something to show my project supervisor, followed by my advisor meeting, then lunch, then 2 hours of computational optimisation in which I try not to fall asleep (but almost fail). Next is...
• "Weekend Wednesday" because "Shitty Tuesday" is over and, whilst I don't have any lectures I do have stuff to do. I will convince myself that I have a whole week to get work done before next Tuesday (whilst knowing that the majority will be done on Monday). This is followed by...
• "Tongue-tied Thursday" as I have Pratique de l'Oral at 9 am and will be tired and unable to speak French properly from staying up until 2 completing the preparation for the class. Next would have to be...
• "Freedom Friday" as the week is finally over (and it starts at 12). I'll treat myself to an afternoon "off" and do basic stuff like go shopping or do washing. This is predictably followed by...
• "Sleepy Saturday" on which I make no effort to get up before 12 as I'm a student and I'm tired. Finally,...
• "Study Sunday" is spent procrastinating on Facebook with my work laid out in front of me.

And there we are, a typical week.

Like getting blood from a stone

I gave up on the French last night. I read the front of the booklet we were given at the start of term and it said we just had to prepare notes ready to do the synthesis in class. There were 10 of us today. The lecture starts at 9 am which is never a good time for a lecture as everyone's tired. Nonetheless, yet again we had the majority of the class sitting in silence will I and 3 or 4 others made all the input. I can't say my points were particularly good but it got to the point where the teacher had waited so long for someone to say something that I just made any comment about the texts, no matter how poor it was, just in the hope of encouraging some dialogue. I could kind of understand if we were all in the 1st year and a bit shy about talking French BUT WE'VE ALL BEEN ON OUR YEAR ABROAD! We've lived in French speaking countries and spoken the language with natives. Surely it shouldn't be difficult to speak to each other. If she doesn't know it already (she's French), I'm going to teach the teacher the expression "Like getting blood from a stone" so she use it when she describes our class to the other lecturers.

Stupid French

I'm getting a bit fed up of my French courses. Sitting here, at 11:30 pm, the night before a French lecture, attempting to stick together 600 odd words about 2 articles I care very little about, I wonder what the point of these French courses is. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to be studying French, however the modules that I have to do offer very little...of anything.
I have 2 hours a week of French from 2 half unit modules: Pratique de l'Ecrit and Pratique de l'Oral, a writing and a speaking class. Every year the structure of the courses is the same. For Ecrit we have to read an article/text or 2 and write some sort of summary or synthesis by following a strict format. There is very little chance to express anything in the way of personal opinion and the courses offer very little in the way of useful skills.
The speaking class fares little better. The first 2 years were quite good as they involved analysing adverts in the 1st year and films in the 2nd. This year we are focussing on written texts but, as with the writing class, we are forced to follow a particular format in order to gain the marks.
Our coursework for this module revolves around a presentation on a text as well as a debate. The debate this year will be a bit of a farce I expect. There are only 3 people in my class. One person will "chair" the debate while the other 2 of us argue our various points. I can only hope that we have opposing views otherwise the debate will be very short!
The upside to having just 3 people in the class means we all have to speak. In this way, my oral class contrasts nicely with my writing class in which there must be about 16 people...and no-one speaks. We all sit there with our work in front of us and the teacher asks a question about it. I contribute in classes however I don't like to always be the first one to say something.
So, we all sit there until I or one of the few other contributors gets fed up of the silence and answers the question.
I'm certainly not brilliant at either of the classes but it's difficult to feel enthusiastic about these classes especially when the material is so uninspiring.
Ah well, back to work.

Facebook

I think this song speaks for itself and pretty accurately describes how a lot of today's students spend their time: "On the Facebook".
For those that don't know, Facebook is a social networking site grouped into communities of educational establishments. You can see profiles of people at your uni but need outside people to add you as a friend before you have access to theirs. The site recently made some controversial changes which mean that most of your actions - such as posting a message on someone's wall, changing you photo, adding details about yourself and suchlike - are made known to your friends through a sort of news feed. Whilst this has many good aspects as it can make you feel more in touch with all the people you've added as your friend (even though you barely know a lot of them), it does make it a lot easier to stalk people....

It is inadvisable to eat wasps

A few friends came over last night. AS the night drew on, we were getting hungry and decided to order a pizza. We settled on Domino's "Meltdown" which offers three different levels of spiciness. We went for level 2 which, along with the meatballs, Jalapeno peppers, chilli cheese and American mustard, also adds fresh red chillis.
I'm quite glad that we didn't go for level 3 as that would have added chilli flakes which would have filled in the small gaps where there wasn't already something hot.
As it is, after the last slice which appeared to have more chilli slices than pizza, I feel a bit like I've eaten a wasp.

Smarter than you!

The British are more intelligent than the French!
I base this on the fact that, whilst the guy who took over my internship in July (who is now back at uni) has 35 hours of lectures per week, I only have 8. This can only mean that the French are less intelligent and subsequently need more tuition. There's no other way to look at it.

Damn Freshers!

Gah, stupid freshers! Not only did we have a fire alarm this morning (ok, 9:45 wasn't such an unreasonable time I suppose) but I think I'm getting Fresher's Flu. Ok, so it's more like a slight cold but I feel like blaming someone.

Enterprising

I've joined Yound Enterprise this year. I did it in College and i think it's a great scheme. Essentially you set up and run a business for the duration of the academic year. It's great at giving you an insight into how a small business can function and really helps develop interpersonal skills.
At college we made personalised, printed T-Shirts and we are probably going to end up doing something similar this year (although hopefully better). I'm a little dissappointed that there isn't any sort of inter-university competition but we may try and organise something with other local unis.
There is one potential issue: I'm the only guy...in a group of about 10. Ok, on the one hand I'm single,....but on the other hand (and without meaning to be too sexist), how easy it to get 9 women to agree on anything?

Blackout!

Yesterday saw the end of the world! Ok, I'm exaggerating a lot but there was certainly a lot of inconveniece caused. At about 12:30pm, there was a power cut to the university (and to Egham so someone said however this is just hearsay). This meant that, apart from there being no lights or power (obviously) there was no access to the network, and no water (I assume it's pumped everywhere). Some lecturers decided to cancel their lectures but, unfortunately, mine didn't so I had to sit through 2 hours of Computational Optimisation, in a dark room, with, well, lets just say he's not the most charismatic lecturer we have.
Afterwards, I came back to my room, and was feeling quite tired so I decided to lie down for a while until the photography social I was due to go to at 7:00pm. I turned my radio on so that, when the power came back on, it would wake me up....... Eventually I woke up at about 6:45pm of my own accord, slightly disorientated as you don't really notice how much abient light is provided until it's gone. I headed off to see if the social was still on despite the blackout. It was and by then a lot of places had lights back on but I gather the power was restored to my halls at about 7:30pm.
Not quite sure what caused the power to be out for so long but I seem to remember power issues at the start of other years. I'd make some joke about them not paying their bill....but I can't be bothered.

What a way to wake up

Before I went to sleep the other night, I tuned my radio into a random station so I'd wake up to music rather than "Nick Ferrari - God of Radio" (ok, that's not quite his tagline but it sounds like the sort of thing he thinks) on "London's LBC". The following morning, I woke up to Johnny Vaughan on Capital FM interviewing none other than David Hasselhoff! They played his new single which has to be one of the funniest/cheesiest things I've heard in ages. Below is the video for your viewing pleasure.....

Well, I feel safe!

The inevitable happened today. I have a swipe card to access my building, flat and room. When I enter my room I have to put the card in a slot by the door so that the lights work. It's all very fancy but doesn't seem to take into account that people will often want to go from their room to the kitchen without locking their door.
Anyhow, today I did that and accidentally locked my card in my room. So, off I went to the "New Halls Reception" to ask for a temporary card to get back into my room. The conversation went something like this......

Me: "Hi, I've locked myself out of my room"
Receptionist: "Ok, what room are you in?"
Me: "XXXXXX hall, Block X, Flat XX, Room X"
Receptionist: [Looks for number to program temporary card which is on a paper list sitting on the desk] "Ok, here you go. Bring the card back next time you pass"

Note that at no time did she ask who I was, did she verify that the name I gave was that of the person who rents my room, nor did she take note of who she had given the temporary card to. So now I have a card which, now that I've used it to get in my room, can't be used again (it's one swipe only)..........unless I go on ebay and buy a magnetic card reader/writer. All it would then take is for someone to distract the receptionist while I run off with the list of codes and everyone would be receiving second hand laptops and stereos for Christmas!

Obviously it's unlikely to happen, but if one person can think of it then why not more? I'm going to mention it to the manager of the halls if I can and hope it was just a mistake.

The Ice Palace of Temptation

I've just been to Tesco in Egham to get essential stuff like a whisk so I can make pancakes. Whilst I was there I went into Iceland to see what was on offer. I had forgotten what a magical place it was! 2 Pizzas for £1.50, Ready-Meals £1 each, 6 fish fillets for the price of 6! I'll soon become fat from all this frozen goodness.

Stand in line and empty your wallet at the door!

So, this being freshers week, I went along to the Freshers Fayre today. I've decided I'm going to be far more involved with societies than I have been before. Plus, I don't know many people here so I need to try and make as many friends as possible.
This year I've joined: the French Society (£5), the Photography Society (£5), Ninjitsu (£7 with the first training session being free) and I'm going to sign up to Karate (£7 possibly with a free first session). On top of that everyone who wants to join a society has to buy sports insurance (£6), plus I also got some room contents insurance (£79) which is cheap until you factor in insuring a laptop.
I also signed up for the Milkround which is a free service which sends details of carreer and internship opportunities, and some Entrepreneur thing (I couldn't really hear as we were right next to a speaker in the uni hall but it was free). I'm probably going to take a look at joining the Tech crew at the union if I've got any time. They do the sound and lighting for union events and, as well as being interesting, it's also paid!
I didn't do too bad for freebies either. There was someone from The Happy Man (a local pub) giving out vouchers for a free drink, I got some cinema vouchers, a notebook, some Haribo, and some condoms which inevitably get thrown out at student events such as these.

Level Up

I've just been to the language department "Welcome Party". It was mainly attended by final years and it seems that, now that we're back from our year abroad, we qualify for the next level in small talk.
No longer are the first questions someone asks us, "Where are you from?", "What are you studying?" or "Where are you living?", but rather "Where have you been?" and "What did you do?". I could read this as the establishment of a whole new pecking order of who had the most successful year, who went to the most exotic destination, who got the best results and who had the most rewarding experience........but then again, it could be just another topic of small talk.

The Forgotten Student

Computer Science is a normal degree course. French is a normal degree course. Computer Science with French is not a normal degree course and as such everyone seems to forget about me (I'm talking about admin people here). No-one seems to know about my course and so I end up telling the admin people things they should already know. I went to hand a form in at the French office and was told that I wouldn't have to do the oral exam as, now that I've changed to Computer Science with French the year abroad doesn't count. Erm, wrong. I showed the lady the piece of paper from Comp. Sci. describing the courses which clearly states that I have a year abraod between my second and final years which is organised by the French department.
Ah well, it'll all get sorted eventually.