5585 Words ...

I handed the report in at 1:45 (15 minutes before the hand-in period began) at a whopping 5585 words. I hope it's okay. The finishing stage was, admittedly, a little rushed.

Also, I had my first two lectures as a returning student today. The first one was okay, although it seemed a little like they were pointing out the blatantly obvious a lot of the time. Mind you, I've felt that about a lot of lectures. It seems the key to success in University is to be able to filter out all the unimportant dross that lecturers talk about and instead pick up on, and really learn about, the important bits in-between. The subject looks fairly interesting though: Interactive Multimedia with the emphasis being on interactive. There was one smart-arse at the back of the lecture though and I just couldn't help but smirk at them.

The lecturer asked if someone could describe a form of Multimedia. The smart-arse reeled off some spiel about "responses to stimulii" and other such crap. Seriously, they said something involving words such as "stimulus, response, perceived". Can't remember what it was now. It sounded really impressive with only one small drawback: They were completely wrong. I had to fight back the urge to burst out laughing.

Later on I had the "Professional Issues in Software Engineering" lecture. Oh my, it looks like it's going to be a long Semester 1. Still, I'm quite proud of myself for following the lecture all the way through to the end without switching off. Taking notes on the laptop seems to really help. I find I concentrate more and think more carefully, rather than just scribbling doodles all lecture. No paper, no temptation to draw doodles. I'm not about to start trying to doodle in Paint with a track-pad.

In about 10 minutes I have to go to the Wine and Nibblies (<EddieIzzard>"Must. Have. More. Nibblies!"</EddieIzzard>) evening, and then around 8:30-9:30 I shall be heading down the hill to meet all my ex-colleagues on their night out. They're having an Indian in the station and then heading out for a few beers. I wasn't going to go, but John (my ex-boss) rang and persuaded me. The words "I'll buy you a beer" cropped up after I'd explained my cash situation and somehow I felt inexplicably drawn to meet them after their meal. I've no idea why ...