More Pictures

I went for another wander last night to take some more pictures of the sea etc but with the lovely weather there were too many people on the beach to get any interesting photos. People don't like it if you point a camera at them, so there were very little photo opportunities. Instead I decided to go to the abandoned farm-house out near Blaenplwyf. The map showed that it wasn't possible to get closer than about a mile away from it so I had to park and walk down.

The problems began before I even got there. The map I have of the area is often very misleading. It's not rare for the map to report one thing and for the world to present a very different picture. Several times I drove past the turning I wanted until eventually I bit the bullet and drove down the tiny one-car-width road.

When I finally started walking down to the house I was worried that the path seemed to have lots of off-shoots that weren't marked on the map and there seemed to be houses that weren't marked on the map. So I was rather pleased when I could finally see it in the distance.

It was possibly one of the spookiest places I've ever been. Despite the fact it was bright and warm it just seemed un-nervingly quiet. Anyway I got lots of pictures which I hope come out well. On the way home I stopped at a lovely little church with a hugley overgrown graveyard and got some black and white photos. All being well I should have some nice photos. When they're developed I will put them online.

So that's why the blog was down

Turns out there is a gaping hole in the Linux kernel (versions 2.4 and 2.6) which lets anyone with shell access crash the server. The server I am running on is a free shared one. They had to take it down to patch the kernel. I need to patch mine really, but recent events mean I will have to resort to my zip drive in order to take stuff home with me.

Ah Well

I spent my first night in the new room. Carrying all my stuff up the 3 flights of stairs nearly killed me, but I got it all in and then decided to relax a little. I couldn't muster the strength to start unpacking straight away so I went for a wander along the beach and took some photos of Aber. This is something I've never done in all my time at Aber. I've never taken any pictures of the sights.

When I got back I started unpacking and assembling my room. During this process I discovered that my little TV/stereo unit has S-video inputs on the back of it, which means I could connect my little Namco TV-games thing that Liz bought me for my birthday. I am now hopelessly addicted to Bosconian again.

I've calmed down about the whole no-Internet thing. Thinking back I've managed for the last 20.5 years without an Internet connection in my bedroom, so I can survive until September. It'll give me a chance to get some productive stuff done rather than spending my time communicating. Oh, and Quasi... Please read this

The only other problem is my room is a lot noisier than my last place, but then it's still a hell of a lot quieter than the place I had in Portland Street and it's certainly quieter than the place I had in my first year. Sadly it would seem I barely get a phone signal either. It makes me feel VERY cut off, but it could be worse.

My Sister got out of surgery last night, she had a major operation on her spine. The surgeon reckons everything went really well, so she should be fine but she's going to be in a lot of pain for a long time as it is very intrusive surgery.

Also I found an envelope with a cheque for £100 in it! Turns out my Dad had sent me my birthday present money (I didn't want to sound rude by asking if he had sent it or not) but that I'd not opened the envelope. It was on my shelf all along. I must have bunged it on there when I was in a hurry one morning or something. I emailed him to say thanks and explained why it had taken me so long. He replied and said

Thanks Dad. :-/

In other news ... I have a GMail account! :D 1Gb of storage, baybeee! lowemasterpro@gmail.com

"311 rooms out of 361 have a connection"

They specifically chose to put a Computer Science student in one of the 13% of rooms without a connection?

In case you hadn't noticed I am extremely pissed off. And now I have to go move all my stuff into my new flat where I will be disconnected from the world.

Well That's Just Fucking Brilliant

Just got a reply to my request for my halls connection.

Thank you so very fucking much. Just bloody brilliant. Nice of the accommodation office to mention that it's not on the network. It's got wall sockets and everything, clearly I.S. just can't be arsed to hook it up to the seafront wireless connection that goes up to the main campus. There had to be something wrong with the room - being bigger and cheaper really didn't make any sense.

Fucksakes.

Well it's looking like this is going to be my last blog for a while. Adieu.

Information Services

They really need to fix their crap website. I've spent over half an hour just trying to find a suitable number to ring them on. At one point I clicked a "Home" icon that randomly appears and disappaears every so often and it opened a mailto:operator@aber.ac.uk email window. I was a little confused by this, so I tried the other buttons in the navigation on that page and they ALL pointed to mailto:operator@aber.ac.uk! It is one of the most patchy unpredictable and most difficult sites to navigate ever. They should be ashamed of it.

Now to move the rest of my junk. Eurgh.

Half Way There

I'm going to bed. I've shifted half of all of my stuff, and now all I want to do is sleep. I'm shattered. 3 flights of stairs and lots and lots and lots of bloody heavy boxes. Tomorrow I will have to move the remaining stuff, including the computer. I hope I.S. pull their bloody fingers out of their arses and get the DHCP settings transferred across so that I don't have to mess about much tomorrow waiting to get the machine connected.

The good news is I finally found my bloody phone charger. It went missing the last time I moved and has just turned up again. Now I just need to make sure I don't lose it in this move...

The new room is great though. It's massive. I thought the room I am in now was big but this one is about double the width. Plus - and this really is the most important point - it has a sea view. Yes. I've wanted one all the while I've been in Aberystwyth and now I finally have one. I can step out of the halls any time, nip across the road and go sit on the beach; providing the tide isn't right the way in.

Now I really need to sleep. I've got to have completely moved out by 10am tomorrow. Arse.

It's HUGE!

Yes it is. It really is. It's of monsterous proportions, at least twice the size of any I've ever had before. It's opened my eyes I can tell you. I'll never be able to go back to little ones again. Big all the way for me from now on. Never accept anything small when you can have something so huge. Liz will really like it too, I'm sure. There's just so MUCH of it, and the desk is really big too.

What? I was talking about my new bedroom ... what did you think I was talking about?

Laughing 'Til I Cry

Which kind?

I've been laughing so hard at this that my eyes have been watering. Utterly hilarious.

Essential Viewing

This is an utterly stunning website. The author's english isn't great, but She manages to convey her meaning and the pictures speak for themselves.

Kiddofspeed - GHOST TOWN - Chernobyl Pictures