Artistic Diarrhea

No, not literally. I just wanted a title that was an approximate opposite of the last title. As I originally thought, the ideas are all starting to flow now. As a result I've still not gone to bed and it's 2:39. And it's a bloody good job too, because if I'd been in bed I would have been quite rudely awoken by these drunk twats outside.

We've all been drunk. We've all found ourselves a little louder than we intended to be, but even when drunk one still has to put a lot of effort into shouting at the tops of one's lungs. And I mean shout. I mean shouting so loud you can hear a nice distinct echo 1 to 2 seconds later. Yet that's what these drunk wankers were doing. They're not just being loud because they're drunk, they are making a concious decision to be loud and that's what pisses me off about these people. They do it because they think that they're somehow excused simply because they're drunk.

A minute ago they were screaming the chant: "You're a pussy and you know it and you're gay. You're a pussy and you know it and you're gay. You're a pussy and you know it, pussy and you know it, pussy and you know it and you're gay." There is no physical reason that they should chant something like that simply because they're drunk, which suggests that it is therefore a case of they are trying to adhere to some pre-conceived notion that drunk people have to be loud, obnoxious pricks. And don't get me wrong, I'm not only referring to blokes. The girls were screaming something similar before the lads.

I hate the stupid "drink culture" we have in this country. Funny how all the "civilized" western countries of the world have these absurd drink cultures. The UK, the USA, Australia... It's pathetic and it pisses me off. Something should be done about it.

Artistic Block

I vaguely remember reading about, or perhaps hearing on TV about a famous artist, a painter, who suffered from artistic block. He would go to paint on the blank canvas, but simply couldn't do it. He could see the endless possibilities there in front of him, and he was almost scared to put anything on the canvas.

Today I have more empathy for him than I ever had before. Here I am sitting in front of Gvim. Currently I have one line of code, and this is merely the file identifier. Before me lies an infinite number of coding possibilities, but the second I start writing some code I will be reducing those possibilities down. I want to get it right. I want to get it absoloutely right so much that I am almost scared to write anything. This is the most important piece of code I have ever written, and the first time I've ever had a block.

What makes it even sillier is that I know that once I get the first few lines down it's all going to flow, but I've been looking at the window on and off for the last few hours and I still haven't got any further.

I think I'll go get a snack and a drink and then stare at it some more and wait for my thoughts to gather.

Hung Over

I've not been this hung over in ages. Weird thing is, I've not had a single unit of alcohol in days. Eurgh. Lectures call ...

After an Entire Evening of Faffing...

...I have decided that "Basic Authentication" as a means of authenticating users visiting a CGI script is not a viable form of authentication for anyone who appreciates their sanity. Therefore I am just going to use the old reliable HTML form with the method set to POST and leave it at that. I just thought it'd be nice to do all the logging in with a standard dialog box.

Major Project

Oh yeah, I forgot to announce my new website. CLI-WWW - the project homepage for my CS390 project. When I saw Adrian about it for the first time this morning he said he thought it was a really good idea, and had a lot of scope for expansion. Splendid. I think the fact that it is a very original idea will work in my favour. I'm sure the markers must see the same things every year, so hopefully mine will stand out as being fairly unique.

Plus I'm way ahead of most people. I've near-enough completed the specification. There's a few bits of it that need rewording, and a few more things I really ought to specify, but other than that it's done. That puts me approximately 3 weeks ahead of where the University suggest I should be by now. Splendid. 3 weeks of work in a few nights. I'm happy with that.

:D

Actually I'm in quite a good mood all of a sudden. The car's not in as bad a state as I'd originally thought, my Dad seems okay with the initial reports. I can carry on with CS353, which I really wanted to do, I've had really positive feedback about my 390, and been offered a job. Today is clearly my lucky day.

Car

My parents might be bailing out on paying for the car already. It all depends on just how sick it is at the moment. I've been to the garage with it already today because the noise the clutch was making was so horrendous. It turns out that is part of its ongoing problem with the clutch and so can just be ignored until either the clutch stops working or until the noise becomes unbearable. Personally I'm not bothered about the noise the clutch makes at low noises as long as it's not damaging the car in any way.

While he was test driving it he also noted that one of the bearings at the front has gone. Great. Plus it's well and truly time the rear brakes were sorted - they're completely screwed. I couldn't get the handbrake to disengage when I wanted to go to the garage this morning.

So it's going back on Monday to have a quick check over to decide whether it's worth keeping it on the road or just selling it and cutting the losses because, as I said, my parents aren't keen on the idea of paying insurance on a car that is making unpleasant noises. If the car is going to be road-worthy for another year then it'll be fine. If not I think it'll just have to be sold off. Then I don't know what I'll do. The trains are a rip-off, slow, unreliable, run at stupid times, packed, uncomfortable and generally full of screaming kids.

CS353

There have been problems with this module. I managed to register for it without having taken the pre-requisite module. Dave Price has to agree that I can continue to sit the module, and I didn't expect him to do that as he's never particularly reasonable about these things. I mentioned this to John Nelson (my boss from last year) and he said He'd send Dave Price a reference for me. Splendid. I also mentioned it to Adrian Shaw when I saw him this morning to discuss my major project. Adrian said He'd also have words if necessary.

Surprisingly I received an email from Dave this morning (along with the other 5 who registered without having sat the pre-requisite) saying that we can all stay on the module, but we have to agree that we won't appeal if we perform crap in the module. Back-covering, basically. I suspect Fred Labrosse who also teaches the module had words with him.

Head-Hunted

I've been asked by Wendy Shaw, who I worked with last year, if I'd be interested in doing some demonstrating work for one of their modules. It's all basic spread-sheet stuff as far as I can tell. It looks like I may be able to do all 3 hours for them too, which would mean a nice healthy income of £33 a week for doing next to nothing. I like those figures! Anyway it's not confirmed yet or anything, so I should bear in mind all that stuff about counting chickens and hatching eggs. However, it's looking promising.

Broken Glass

Seems I won't need to crawl on broken glass after-all. Adrian spoke to the person who co-ordinates all of the Major Projects and they've allowed him to take on my project, and my project only! :) Splendid. I've begun work on the specification of the project, and I've chosen to do everything in LaTeX. I decided that the main dissertation would be done in LaTeX because I don't trust MS Word not to lose everything, and because I think it's better for this sort of thing, and I thought doing the specification in LaTeX would be a good introduction to it before I need to use it intensively.

I must say I am impressed by it. It's a very nice way of doing things. I'm going to install all the LaTeX tools on my main computer and all my documents can be written in it from now, because OpenOffice is such a beast of a program that it takes the best part of 30 seconds to open - much longer than I like. Plus it eats memory and hogs CPU time. LaTeX you write as a text file (so needs very few resources) and build it into a PDF or PS file or whatever when you're finished. Very nice.

Anyway, I'd better get on. Things to get done.

Hmmm

Having problems with my major project and I haven't even started doing anything on it yet. Adrian Shaw, who was going to be my supervisor, hasn't been allocated any projects this year. He says he will talk to someone in the department and see if he can take on just mine, because otherwise I will be forced to ask Dave Price and I think I'd rather crawl over broken glass than do that.

I emailed Reyer Zwigelaar last night. I've not met ... them ... before, and last night was the first time I'd spoken to ... them ... by email. When I got a reply I was hoping I might get some sort of indication as to what gender they are at least. No such luck. ... They ... couldn't take on any more major projects anyway as ... they're ... currently over-subscribed.

So now it's a case of seeing if Adrian Shaw can take on my project, and if not finding lots of broken bottles. I've been reading the timetable for the major projects, and this whole "poster session" thing sounds a bit weird to me. The idea is we print off 4-6 sheets of A4 which adhere to a standard layout as decided by the University, and then markers come and ask questions about it. Weird.

Giddy

I went to the doctors earlier. He tells me that whatever it is that's causing the sudden diziness it isn't likely to be anything too serious. My blood pressure and all that seems normal. He reckons it's most likely to be one of two things: An inflamation of the inner ear where all the balancing is done, or a form of mild vertigo which is caused by debris floating around in the balancing mechanism. It's more common when holding the head at a certain orientation, and more likely to occur when stressed or tired. It's nothing to worry about. He's given me some tablets that I have to take 3 times a day for the next week which he says will stabilise my balance (as I am still getting the odd "wobble").

Car: Fuck. Shit. Bollocks.

Something is very wrong. Very very wrong. It seems it's still leaking a little, it's running at high temperature, and it has started making a nasty grinding noise when it's in 1st or 2nd gear. Strangely enough putting my hand on the gear stick stops the nasty noise, but I can hardly drive around like that all the time. Plus when I rounded the corner on my way back into PJM it made the most apalling grinding noise, and again when I went around the last corner before I reach my house. It's going to have to go to the garage and I don't even want to think about the cost.

My Dad emailed me asking how much money I need in order to clear my over-over-draft, and he says he'll transfer the money tonight. That's great, but I'm not sure he's going to be best pleased if I tell him that my gearbox sounds like it's completely fucked. He's having enough trouble paying for my Mum's car as it is, she bought a new one (after writing her old one off) and he paid for most of it. She still hasn't paid him back for the one that she wrote off, most of which he paid for again. It's not even as if She doesn't work.

A Letter From The House of Commons

It would seem the House of Commons fancied a chat. When I got home I found a letter which had printed, in very stern and serious looking letters, "House of Commons" across the top of it. It turned out that the contents were from one Simon Thomas, MP; the MP for Plaid Cymru. It was in response to a postcard I sent from The Summer Sundae asking for an immediate improvement to environmental-based travel issues such as the building of cycle paths and encouraging people to walk etc etc etc. I never in a million years expected a reply! But sure enough he replied and explained that he is pushing for an amendment to the Government's 10 year plan for travel. Once again I am impressed by Plaid Cymru. Their computing skills may leave a hell-of-a-lot to be desired (one of my friends worked for them in his year out) but they certainly seem to be doing the right thing in terms of politics.

Anyway I'd better get dosed up on these anti-dizziness tablets and then head back to the University in search of my coat, which it seems I must have left in a lecture. Arse.

Long Hard Drive

It pissed it down from the moment I got in the car in Newbury until the moment I arrived in Aberystwyth. At times the rain was pelting down so hard that I couldn't see the car in front of me, I could just make out the blurry haze of their lights. At various times the car aquaplaned slightly. There were patches of fog (which led to the revelation that my fog-light(s) don't work) and vast puddles everywhere. Although the roads weren't very busy, the few people who were on the road seemed to constantly be in a hurry and so would tailgate for miles with their lights dazzling me.

Talking of being dazzled by lights, there was an unusually high number of people who drove past without dipping their headlights. No idea why.

There were also lots of frogs in the roads, they must have been loving the rain. Lovin' it, lovin' it, lovin' it. Right up until being spread over a few hundred yards of road by a lorry.