nickthejones42@orange.net

Orange have decided that anyone who doesn't have an orange mobile number can't use their email service any more. Hence I am locked out of this email address, so don't try and contact me there because I won't get it.

The last five weeks have been the busiest and most difficult I think I've had since I've been at uni. The work got very difficult, I was doing 11 hours of lectures a week across 3 modules and the usual coursework every week and trying to do the stuff in Chaplaincy that I normally do. Hence I have had no time to blog and at the moment most of it seems not to be worth it.

My parents have had some difficulty doing up 4 Gordon Street so my room is not ready yet and I will be going to stay at my grandma's house in Doncaster at the beginning of the holiday, I don't know when they will have my room ready.
posted at 3:07:00 pm

Legomania

Possibly the most entertaining computer demo ever.
posted at 11:05:00 am

Friday evening Spent three hours on overcrowded trains travelling to northern leg reunion. I arrived at about 1930 and walked through the streets of Leicester navigating my way to the place by memory not wanting to get my map out because I would look lost in the middle of a city. I managed to get it right until I walked into the actual church rather than the old school house, but there was someone there who helpfully showed me the rest of the way. When I got there Matt Neville, Michelle and Chantal were there and we sat around talking and eating spaghetti bolognase while people arrived before going off to the pub(the Hind?) leaving a note telling people where we were. We all sat round a table at the side and I was talked into coming to watch the rugby final in the pub the next morning, having not up until this point ever followed rugby at all.

Saturday morning Everyone got up quite early and hurried down to the pub to watch the rugby except me who needed tea, Fay and Damien who had stuff to do. I had some breakfast there and eventually strolled down through the rain with Fay and got there in time for the end of the second half. Everyone was sat around the TV in the pub quite fixated on the match and the pub was serving breakfast but had run out of bacon. I didn't really get into it at first, but because it was so close at the end of the match, going into extra time, that I did. We stayed around for England to recieve the cup and then went back. Because it had gone on so long we went straight out again to go to another pub for lunch, and hurried down to the bus station but the bus was 20 minutes late. The pub was still serving lunch when we got there.
posted at 4:11:00 am

Just when you thought it was safe to settle into a routine...

Your timetable changes. Well actually that's not the vital thing, because I still have no lectures on Wednesday, however my deadlines have changed so I have to hand work in on Thursday so it won't *really* be a day off. Hum. I've finished the first half module now, so I've got 5 more hours of lectures a week. But I kind of got a weekend of between the two so it's not that bad...
posted at 11:21:00 am

Last night was fireworks at the castle, and I went with Tomoko to help her try and take pictures with her digital camera. We arrived very early had a look around and took some photos of the priory, which seemed to be quite successful. After wandering around a bit and waiting for over an hour for the fireworks to start, I found out the didn't come up from the direction I expected them to so setting up my mini tripod to do it. I got a fast film to do it , but I took far too many photos considering I don't even know how well it would work. Afterwards we met Helen, LizM MattP and Melissa on our way out and said hello to them, but didn't hang around with them for too long and headed off into town in search of a pub(or café) to get a hot drink. First we walked round to the Penny Bank which was absolutely packed. Then we went to the top Wetherspoons (the Sir Richard Owen) and found that was worse. We pushed through the crowds of people to get out the other side to try H20 'Café bar' next door, only to find it was a 'café bar' that doesn't serve hot drinks of any kind. The lady behind the bar gave us directions to the Chicago Rock café, which was full noisy and quite unpleasant and when we came out we saw Laurie and Gilly who suggested the Water Witch, which was also full. Outside the Water Witch we saw Ella, who has come to back to visit Lancaster and LizS and ChrisA At that point we gave up and caught a bus back onto campus and went to Furness bar which was empty and forgot about having a hot drink and had a look at the photos on Tomokos' digital camera.

In a strange way that evening summed up Lancaster for me a bit, because we couldn't actually do what we wanted to, but it didn't matter that much because we kept running into people we knew.
posted at 1:27:00 pm

I have been very busy in the past week, the third year work makes it seem like I have hardly any spare time compared to the last two years. Nonetheless I went to Hadrians wall on Sunday, and got back in time for the end of Martin Stutzers farewell service, and the chatting in the flat afterwards.

This evening I am going away on Chaplaincy Time Away, which means that during the last couple of days I've been trying to fit in the work I would normally do over the weekend, and had to miss Christian Fellowship as a result.

I have got my time table for the 2nd half of this term which starts a week on monday, and I'm going to be even busier with 4 more hours of lectures a week, so I probably won't be going away at the weekend again.
posted at 5:13:00 pm

Wednesdays have become my sundays. Really. I don't have any lectures, and over the weekend I have to do work to be in each Tuesday, as well as doing the PA in the chapel on sunday, so Wednesdays are my only real day off. I keep expecting everywhere to be empty, because I forget that everyone else is having a weekday.

Woah, I now realise I have a whole month left unblogged.

The house has not been too wonderful. The landlord had not fixed the light, cold tap and deep fat fryer like he said he would, and in addition to that water occasionally drips from the bottom of the water boiler onto the work surface, and the curtains in my room have fallen down such that I can't put them back up. I haven't been able to go to Doncaster and get my TV and VCR, but fortunately Helen brought her TV. The picture is a bit fuzzy however, I think the houses' aerial is dodgy.

The Maths has been very difficult, but fortunately I don't have too many lectures this term. I don't know what it will be like next term.

My Computer has behaved itself since Dad fixed it. I've managed to get a 16Mb AGP graphics card for it which is better, because there is now point in having a 32Mb slow grahics card when my monitor only goes up to 1024x768. I might try and get a graphics card with a TV output so we can play DVDs on the TV in our house. MY computer is not connected to the internet because my housemates have decided it's not worth connecting the landline.

Money has been tight, as I didn't do any paid work over the holidays. I have resorted to shopping in Aldi(a sort of German version of Kwik Save). Hence the TV out graphics card idea is unlikely to become reality...

My parents are moving house to Wakefield, and so that's where I will be going home to at Christmas.
posted at 4:27:00 pm

I spent this morning working in the Cancer Research UK charity shop in town. It really didn't go that well, I even gave one person completely the wrong change. When I got there at the start of the day, some of the plates and stuff were broken on the pavement - people are only meant to donate things when the shop is open, but this isn't made particularly clear in the window. I'm doing tomorrow morning as well, and that's the last I'm going to do because I go back to university on Thursday.

My parents have decided to move away from Haywards Heath after I have gone back to university for the next term. This means that when I go back to university on Thursday, I will be leaving the south indefinitely. The only people who I will still know down south are a few of my relatives and some friends from school(but even some of them have gone to university up north). That's kind of weird because I quite expect that if I come back down after I've been away for any length of time it will seem strange.
posted at 9:48:00 pm

I have found a version of LaTeX for windows. It's called MikTeX. This should mean I can do more work off campus next year.
posted at 9:14:00 pm

I got my results from my resits today. I passed all three! That means my overall result is now a III, with a IIii in Statistics and probability. More importantly it means I've got a much better chance of getting a IIii next year. I will probably switch to a Statistics degree, or at least a Mathematics with Statistics degree.
posted at 10:49:00 am

Wednesday I caught the train to return to Lancaster at quarter past four. I'd booked a journey with an hour to change at Watford Junction, it was a choice of one hour or five minutes and I've done the five minutes option before, it's very hard with a suitcase. I thought I would get bored at the station so I took my mums copy of Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix to read, but when I was actually at Watford Junction I just read Gary Larson 5 which I bought at the Cancer Research UK shop where I've been working in Haywards Heath. All in all the journey was relaxing more than boring, the only bad bit was lugging my suitcase up the hill to Langley road.

Thursday Began to wrestle with the massive task of tidying my room in order to get at my desk to revise for my resits. When I'd got all my food out I found that I'd filled more than my fair share of the kitchen cupboard space with tins of chicken tonight and economy beans etc. So I'm going to have to eat all that. I went into town to buy some chicken and I noticed that most of the no.2 buses had been replaced with new double deckers, so getting to and from campus by bus shouldn't be so hard in the new term. After I'd got back to my house and had eaten, my parents unexpectedly phoned to tell me they were coming through Lancaster and to ask if I wanted to come out for a meal. I told them I'd eaten but invited them round to the house for a cup of tea, as Mum hadn't seen the house.

Friday Did a little more tiding early this morning and had breakfast and came onto campus on one of the new(er) double decker buses. Unfortunately there were road works at the junction with collingham park so it was very slow. I'm going to check the department noticeboard and look on the web to see if I can book rooms in Youth Hostels to go walking in the Lake District after I've done my resits.
posted at 10:13:00 am

Actually, Fujifilm have made one with a 2 inch screen too.
posted at 8:23:00 pm

Kodak have made a digital camera with a sensible size screen. The days of people crowding round a tiny camera screen where they can't really see the image may be coming to an end.

Tomorrow I will be going to the CIXen barbeque. I haven't actually been going on CIX, but it should be a laugh.
posted at 8:08:00 pm

What threat to the Bush administration are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

posted at 5:45:00 pm

I was meant to be going over to meet the brides parents today, but as soon as we got out of the flat, Dad started being really ill. I've added some more photos to the website, but I can't put any more on now, because the free services has a limit of 50 photos.
posted at 9:34:00 pm

I have made a webpage for my photos here.
posted at 6:34:00 pm

My resits will be on 26th,27th and 28th of August, so I will have to go up especially, and probably won't stay up until the start of term, as that is a month later. I also have to pay £55 for the resits, but I should be able to move into my house for next year so I don't have to rent on campus accomodation.
posted at 12:43:00 pm

OK, apologies for no blogging, been revising, going over to Oxford to talk about stuff for my brothers wedding and stuff. My blogging probably won't be regular again until I go back to Lancaster for resits.
posted at 3:02:00 pm

I have discovered to my irritation that I have left one bag of stuff in Lancaster. Unfortunately it was the one containing my electric shaver, phone charger and camera film. I have managed to blag a camera film from Mum, but the other two things are a problem.
posted at 8:00:00 pm

Tuesday Continued clearing stuff up and carrying it over to Langley road.

Wednesday Went to Langley road to meet landlord, and got shown round the house and he brought some of my stuff over in his car.

Thursday Continued clearing stuff up and carrying it over to Langley road.

Friday Dad drove up and helped me finish the job off, packed the stuff that I was going to take home into his car, and drove as far as Chester and stayed at the Youth Hostel.

Saturday Went and visited Chester Cathedral in the morning. Drove home in the afternoon. When we got home we (me, mum and dad) went out to the Taj Mahal indian restaurant. It was only while we were talking about stuff there that I found out that my brother has set a date for his wedding, the 2nd of August, which is during the time I had arranged to be in Taize. This was exteremly bad, because firstly I had been stupid enough to completely forget to check when his wedding was going to be when I booked the trip, and as I'm also only going to be at Lancaster for three years now, it could be the only opportunity I get to go gone. As soon as I got back I emailed Matt Neville who is organising the trip.

Sunday Went with Dad to the local URC church. Afterwards Dad found that the car wouldn't start because it had run out of petrol from fetching me down from Lancaster. Also when he got back he tried to install something on Mum's computer and it went so badly that he had to completely reinstall Windows. It is absolutely roasting hot here (24 C according to BBC weather). Not my ideal weather, but fortunately it is a bit cooler in our house.
posted at 4:33:00 pm

Tuesday was Lonsdale extrav, now a fairly distant memory. The queue at the bar was massive and I really liked the Madness tribute. Gina G did about three songs, and I'm not sure I even recognised them by that point. There were some people in the crowd booing every act except the Queen tribute at the end, which everyone seemed to like, although a lot of people had left by that point. I stayed until about 3am(?) and jogged most of the way home with Daffy and Laurie.

My photos of Lonsdale extrav are on the web here

Wednesday evening A load of us went to the top Wetherspoons with Beckie and Jo to celebrate their graduation. After a bit of a faff trying to find a table big enough for all of us, we eventually managed to sit together. Some people went to Liquid afterwards, but I didn't.

Thursday evening Was the last Christian Fellowship of the year. It was led by people who were leaving, and they kept playing clips from Grease, which annoyed me. We split into groups and had to say something nice about another member of the group, who then had to say something nice about another member of the group, and so on. At the end, people hung around in the Chapel for quite a while before eventually making their way to Lonsdale bar before going to Bowland extrav. I stayed in Lonsdale bar for quite a while saying goodbye to Rachel, Rachel and Kim because I knew it was the last time I would see them, which was sad. Afterwards, I went and caught up with people at Bowland extrav, where the Oasis tribute band was playing their last few songs. We all went into the other bit of Bowland and had a few matches on the gladiator type thing, and Jim, Daffy and Laura(? and someone else?) each had a go on the rodeo bull. I took plenty of photos of this, so I will get my memory jogged as to who did what. Afterwards we went to Alex square and Gilly brought all the alcohol from her room, and we sat on the steps drinking it. I drank a four pack of Fosters ice as I was the only one who wanted it. Afterwards, some people went home, and the rest of us went back to Chaplaincy to (quietly) get our stuff before going to Pizetta. I shared a chicken and sweetcorn pizza with Daffy, and walked home, by this time it was light.

Friday actually began somewhere in the middle of Thursdays post.

Friday afternoon I finally went to get my results. My results from the exams in the first week were very poor, and I will have to come back for resits. My best results were in the Statistics exams, so I will do more Statistics modules next year than I had planned to. In the evening I went to Gradstock, which wasn't particularly exciting, and there was no real hope of getting to the bar. At about 11:35 I went to get the bus home because my legs were aching especially after dancing to Madness on Thursday. However, I know from Phils blog that at 1145 people went back to Martins flat anyway, so that was bad timing.

Sunday Went to a Chaplaincy service with no music group, no PA, no hymbooks and about ten people including Chaplains. Which was different.

Monday Spent most of the day clearing the stuff in my room up ready to move to my house for next year. I can't get my key to the place until Wednesday.
posted at 11:40:00 am

Saturday I got a large bundle of photographs from Truprint - 4 sets and a photo CD arrived in the morning, about 3 days early. I went onto campus in the early afternoon to do some work, and then looked at my LUECU 'party by the pond' ticket and realised that it ran from 2 until 6pm and it was 3:30ish, so it would be a good time to go. Liz Murton and Melissa Pearce were there when I got there, and Daffy and Laurie were doing the bungee run. There was five a side football, where people were split into colleges and then people were moved about to make five in each team. My team won their first match and lost their second and so came second place. Our prize was a tub of cadbury heros. After the first match was played, we got food from the barbeque, I had a sausage and a burger.

A bit later the DJ stopped and a speaker spent a few minutes talking about the parable of the rich fool(Luke 12:15-21), and asking people wether they were 'winning the right game'. The DJ seemed to be taking a break, because after that they just stuck a Daftpunk record on. He came back later though.

Afterwards I was invited to go round Laurie, Daffy, Jim and MattB's house to watch a video. Chris A and Jilly chose it, it was Rat Race. We ordered Pizzas and stuff from a fast food place, and while we were waiting for it to arrive, I got my photos out for everyone to look at.
They managed to look through all of them before the food arrived. We ate food and drank wine and then watched the video. It was stupid, shallow and hilarious. And I did like the ending, unlike the reviewer in the link. By the time it had finished it was about 20 to midnight and me and the first years walked up to Bowerham and caught the bus home.

posted at 10:01:00 am

Blogger have without warning improved their service. I have to say I feared the day they would meddle with Blogger because it's so good, but so far the new version is better.

Last night was mission meeting, led by Gill and Nikki. They started by getting us to talk about our stereotypes of certain types of people, and then to discuss in groups the difference between mission and Evangelism, which was pretty much the opposite difference to what I thought it was. It was supposed to go from 6:30 until 8:30 but in practice it ran until about 9:15 because we had a really big discussion. Everyone brought food to share, there was lots of pizza, ice cream and cake, and I brought all my leftover crisps and tortillas, because I've bought far too many during the year. Some people went to the Water Witch and then to Liquid.

posted at 12:09:00 pm

It's uncharacteristically beautiful weather here in Lancaster today, but unfortunately I've had to spend most of today in a computer lab preparing handouts in Latex for my oral presentation on Monday.
posted at 3:42:00 pm

Friday night was the Christian Aid bar crawl. It was supposed to be fancy dress three legged, but in practice nearly everyone was in fancy dress, but noone went three legged. We started at 6:30 and spent 20 to 30 minutes in each bar, and got from Graduate to County. I'm pretty broke by this time in the term, so I couldn't afford to drink much, and no-one got ridiculously drunk or threw up, but I think some people (Jo?) managed a drink in every bar. We carried collection tins round the bars, trying not to get people who were also on bar crawls more than once, and putting in 20p for each drink we had. We raised £164, which is more than last year.

Last night a group of us from Chaplaincy went to Father Steves' in preston for a barbeque. It was however raining, so the food ended up being cooked on a grill indoors, but it was still good. Matt Neville and Melissa brought their photos from this year and we all sat around drinking, talking, eating and looking at photographs. Rui brought some amazingly good port, that went down well, and quickly.
posted at 1:10:00 pm

Went to Rachel, Rachel and Kims last night and watched 'The Sound Of Music' with them. I enjoyed it more than I really expected to.

I was going to buy a blogger T-shirt because they only cost about £5, however once you include shipping and tax they cost about £50, so I think I won't.
posted at 12:31:00 pm

Got my photos back today, even though I gave them the wrong credit card address. They didn't come out particularly wonderfully, but there are some good ones from Clougha and Student Cross.
posted at 4:22:00 pm

Friday:
Did nearly all my work in the 11am lab. I went back had lunch, and got my stuff for retreat. It only took 20 minutes to finish off in the afternoon, so I was back in Chaplaincy in plenty of time to go with the early group, who were setting up and getting salad ready for the barbeque. We went to Abbeystead in the forest of Bowland. There aren't any photos in the Chaplaincy gallery yet, and I haven't got mine developed yet. We did worship outside by the war memorial where Matt Briggs, while playing the guitar was attacked by midges. We had a barbeque on the patio aout side, where Martin Stutzer wasted about 5 cans of Carlsberg by pouring them on the barbeque. Matt Briggs beat Matt Neville at Cambodian stick fighting. I took a ridiculous number of photos. as I photographed nearly all the landscape in the sunshine and then at sunset, and about 6 photos of the Cambodian stick fighting.

In the evening we sat around playing Cluedo, doing a jigsaw, talking and drinking Matt Nevilles Whisky(Bruichladdich if I'm remembering correctly).

Saturday
Remarkably, no one had drunk enough to (have to admit to being?) be hungover at breakfast. We had cornflakes, (imitation) weetabix and fried egg, sausage, baked beans and bacon at breakfast. In the morning, Matt Neville did prayer in the church, using something from student cross, with 5 readers describing the forming of the world, as understood scientifically, as God's creation.
Lunch was basically sandwiches and the salad made for the barbeque.
posted at 1:30:00 pm

Kodak are doing a special offer where you can get 10 free (small) prints. I sent off for them to do some of the photos from the Chaplaincy gallery, I hope they're high enough resolution.
posted at 10:57:00 am

Cathsoc yesterday evening was led by the Christian Fellowship exec., and was on one of the passages were Jesus heals people, I can't even remember which one. By Christian Fellowship exec., I mean Chris Atkinson, Matt Briggs and Helen Whatley, because no-one else from the CF exec. managed to show up.

Afterwards, after some debate we went to Furness bar because it has a beer garden. Well, a patio above the spine between Furness and Fylde. It was also observed that by some coincidence me and Ella were both wearing Cathsoc Tshirts and bright red Cathsoc jumpers, so it appeared I had done a better job of dressing as Ella than Phil did at Matts party. I realise now that I am wearing the same things today, so I hope Ella isn't because I will probably see her at Christian Meditation.

My timetable quite clearly states that I either have a lecture in the A1 lab of Fylde lecture theatre 2 now, but both rooms are empty.

The photos I posted off had the wrong address on the label for the credit card I'm trying to use, so Kodak said they would either print them and then ask for the money back or return my film to me.
posted at 10:18:00 am

I have to do an oral presentation in Math390 now. This must be to make up for last week being easy. I have posted off the film I finished on Clougha.
posted at 11:36:00 am

Walked up Clougha with Christian Fellowship on Thursday evening. It was good weather most of the way up, but at the top, just as Hedley was doing a quick sermon before the Communion it began to rain. It was dry all the way down as well. Partway down we encountered an overly frienfly cat. Not that I don't like cats but it was getting dark and I was trying to get down a hill, and when I tried to walk away from it it darted past me at incredible speed and stopped in front of me wanting to be stroked. I couldn't get rid of it until the people behind me caught up.

Went to Matt Nevilles house party on friday night. It was a crazy evening. I had had two bottles of Becks before I got there and took several with me and carried on drinking it. Phil and Ella had beaten me to it, because they had got off the bus earlier and gone a different way, so the party was starting when I got, there sitting in Matts room chatting. Phil had attempted to dress as Ella, borrowing her favourite shirt. However, he hadn't managed to get his hands on a wig so they attempted to make one from string. It was not terribly convincing. No one realised Phil was meant to be Ella, and Jayne Dickinson thought they must be going out because Phil had borrowed Ellas clothes. There was plenty of drink available, a 5 litre bucket of punch, a barrell of Timothy Taylors, the 'barrel of death', a barrel of bitter, and an unknown quantity of homebrew.

There was music playing in the front room from the start and a few hours in people were dancing quite enthusiastically especially Jayne Dickinson. I spent most of the time with Rachel, Rachel and Kim.
At about 2:30am we went on to the Ashton Memorial, and Matt insisted on taking the barrel of Timothy Taylors, even though it was empty. By the time I got home it was 4am and daylight. I took about 25 photos which should help me to remember more when I get them developed.

I'm on campus blogging this now, because I thought I had a lecture now, but I don't.

On Saturday I got up slightly hungover in the afternoon and eventually went to Asda.

Sunday evening was open house at Gills and we went for a walk by the canal, which was nice, but I didn't take any photos so it will be longer before I finish my film and have my photos of Clougha and Matts party.
posted at 10:19:00 am

Mondays lecture was exceptionally easy, and they basically gave us no work to do, so there was no point in turning up for the afternoon lab. I did my laundry, lounged around a bit and tried my computer just to make sure it still doesn't do anything, and it blatantly doesn't of course.

Math 390 has not turned out to be particularly difficult so far, which is good. We are learning LaTeX which is a mathematics mark up language, it is what you use to type mathematics into a computer to create a document with instead of a word processor. I find it quite easy, having learned to program BASIC on a ZX spectrum aged about 8 I don't find doing things like this on a computer that difficult. I basically have 1 lecture and 1 compulsary lab in the morning, and a two hour lab in the afternoon is available(but not compulsary) ifI need any help. Today I got quite into it and at the end of the compulsary lab went to the john Nelder lab to finish it off for about 45 minutes. I couldn't finish it,so I went and had lunch. After lunch, I went to the afternoon lab and found out what was wrong, and finished it in about half an hour. I was so just getting used to it that I went home, picked out some old homeworks at random and brought them onto campus to type up for practice. When I was in the John Nelder lab doing it, I heard someone say that they had been in there for 3 hours,so I'm guessing that not everyone found it that easy.

Afterwards I went home and quickly had my tea before Cathsoc(so quickly in fact that I was still eating cheese on toast as I walked to the bus stop). At Cathsoc we were doing the laying on of hands, and someone called Katy who had never been before came because she heard them say what it was at the service in the Catholic chapel. We split into two groups and each group sat in a circle with one person in the middle. The person in the middle said how they wanted us to pray for them, i.e. what they wanted us to pray for God to give them, and then we all layed our hands on them. There was quiet Taizé music playing in the background so we couldn't be distracted by what the other group were saying. I really got quite deep into prayer during this. In our group, Stephen Hoyland would indicate we had finished by saying the same thing each time, but I can't remember what that was now. Afterwards, one person would anoint the person in the middles hands and head with oil.

After Cathsoc, we went to County bar and there was an England match on the big screen. It was against Serbia Montenegro, and we won 2-1. We went outside and co-opted Phil Younger onto the Cathsoc exec. Also, I gave Daffy the account book to use to forecast next years expenditure at a meeting we have with LUSU tomorrow.
posted at 10:44:00 pm

Went to Laura Barbers confirmation last night. I had to do the PA. Afterwards, there was free food and wine and a load of us stayed to finish off the wine, and then went to Lonsdale bar. Hence I am slightly hung over this morning and woke up at about 4am. There's still a quarter of an hour until the library opens(not that I have any work to do there yet) three quarters of an hour until morning prayer, and an hour and a quarter until my first MATH390 lecture.
posted at 8:49:00 am

Just finished my last exam. I should be happier about this fact, but it was a totally crap exam. The only question I could really do was B4 which is supposed to be the hardest question on the paper and only counts for 20%.

I now have to go on a mission to find the cheapest pair of trainers in Lancaster to replace my falling apart ones. Or I might go back to bed, it is saturday.

The Faraday lab is air conditioned, so I might stay here a while. I have at least 20 Student cross yahoo group emails to read.
posted at 11:51:00 am

Well, I guess on good thing about having an exam on a Saturday morning is that there is plenty of space in the reading room. Unfortunately, it's Hilarys birthday today and she's having a birthday trip to the Sugarhouse, which I'm going to have to miss in order to revise.

The new name for free church society will be 'Christian Fellowship' which I did not vote for. I will *not* go into my reasons for not voting for it here.
posted at 5:25:00 pm

Last night my computer stopped working. It just hung and so I switched it off. I swtiched it back on and it wouldn't do anything. I switched the moniter to the on-board graphics to see if the tiny logo came on, but it didn't, and the power light doesn't even come on properly, it only comes on amber instead of green.

I also thought for a while that something was stuck to the bottom of one of my trainers, buit there wasn't, the sole is split so it had bent back and I was treading on it. There is now only socks and insole between part of my right foot and the ground.I guess I wore them out on Student Cross

My exam earlier today was very difficult, but not the worst, and not as bad as it might have been. However I got the impression from the kind of hubbub of disbelief from people coming out of the exam that a l ot of other people found it difficult, so I might not have done that badly relative to other people.

I'll be going to Free Church Society this evening where, hopefully, it will be decided what the society will be called from now on.

They've also decided to close the Faraday lab for an exam until Saturday 31st (sounds like a long exam(!)) and so I have to blog in the library where there are hadly ever any computers free, and the monitors aren't as good.
posted at 6:23:00 pm

Just had Math 225 exam. It was probably the most doable of them so far, and seeing as the last 2 are statistics, it'll probably be the most doable of all of them. Unfortunately I ran out of time. When I first did it through, I forgot the Criterion for a subgroup (identity, products and inverses), which I needed in three seperate quetsions. I remembered it at the end and went back to do them, and that was when I ran out of time. Unfortunatley, I also think I might have used it instead of the propertied of a group (associativity, identity and every element having an inverse) in the first question, and so also messed up an easy question.

Anyway, I am now quite agitated, because I ran out of time instead of finishing the exam in which case I would just be worn out.
posted at 4:45:00 pm

Ooo-er been neglecting my blog a bit. Well, yesterday was open house at Gills house. She was out the room when I came in so I came in quickly and sat down so we could see how long it would take her to notice when she came back. She noticed quite quickly.
Saturday night was Jim's birthday pub crawl, and I only foun this out when Jo texted me to find out if I was coming, because I hadn't checked my email. They were all in the top Wetherspoons (the Sir Richard Owen) when I got and Piano Dave was pretty drunk. He was just sat around belching and apologising repeatedly at that point. I had a pint of Fosters there. After that we went to Paddy Mulligans where Daffy bought me a pint (Thwaites smooth beer) and Piano Dave managed to knock over Chris Atkinsons Coke, and later his own drink spilling it all over the table and over Helen Whatley. When we decided to move on to the Penny Bank Laurie told Piano Dave we were going and not to get another drink, but he was chatting to someone and refused to come, so we went without him.
The Penny Bank was pretty crowded but we managed to find a table, but not enough seats for everyone. Jim was quite drunk, and readily admitted it at this point. Piano Dave caught up with us a while later, and eventually was escorted home by Daffy and Laurie. Fortunately, they managed to get back in order to take Jim home.
posted at 11:58:00 am

Todays exam was a bit better. Section A I could mostly do, but section B was as bad as the first exam, and A counts for 40 marks and B for 60. Nobody turned up for meditation today, so I shall meditate at home later.
posted at 6:01:00 pm

Yesterdays exam wasn't too wonderful, but then again it was one I had difficulty with in the lectures and didn't do very well on the coursework, so I'm not too surprised.
posted at 10:05:00 am

I have an exam this morning at 09:30. I woke up at 05:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. I am now on campus, basically waiting for it to happen. I'll probably go back to bed afterwards.
posted at 7:42:00 am

Cathsoc was a trip to LUECU main meeting last night. They had a speaker in who was the dirctor of UCCF for the area, and before that they had several peoples testimonies saying how great LUECU had been for them. He referred to Phillipians 1:1-10 and chapter 3, and talked about us not going for an easy Christianity that was a minor thing in our lives, Christianity should be more important than 'being cool' in his words. He kept slagging off mobile phones which I found quite annoying, it is very easy to scapegoat mobile phones for the way some people use them. I felt like throwing mine at him once or twice. But other than that he gave a good talk.

Afterwards we all went to Lonsdale bar, but in hindsight the Chaplaincy people didn't really mix with the LUECU people as much as they might've there,so that wasn't as good as it could have been.
posted at 10:11:00 am

Went to Catholic open house last night. Paul had cooked Lasagne, which was good. It was nice with people sitting around talking, but the video we watched was 'Bend it like Beckham' with which I was not overly impressed.
posted at 10:07:00 am

How did I fail to notice that you can get a bus to Asda?

I've been shopping in Sainsburys which is smaller and (slightly) more expensive all year when Buses I can take to Asda, with my Bus Pass it would seem were right in front of me all along. They leave from the bay opposite where the 2's,3's and 4's leave for the university and do have 'via Asda' written on them. I spotted one the other day and checked the timetable online yesterday, and found that they were one an hour. I went into town and got on one and asked the driver wether I could use my Bus pass on it, and the driver said 'probably not but get on anyway'. So I did. coming back an hour later with a backpack full of shopping I asked the driver said 'yeah' apparantly without thinking. So I'm not entirely convinced wether wither of them knew. The bus was only a minibus type thing so I do wonder if anyone else knows about it.

I have a leaflet which tells me where the limits of the unirider are, but that doesn't make it clear which services the pass can be used on, and I don't know where many of the places in Morecambe on it are. It also doesn't tell me anywhere on the Stagecoach website where I can use it, so I don't know how I can find out except by trying it.

I remember now that there used to be a free bus to Asda, but they axed it before the beginning of my first year (and at the end of my first year, they axed the free Sainsburys bus as well), so I guess no-one has ever needed to know wether they can get to Asda using their bus pass.
posted at 7:53:00 pm

Just been to Free Church Society where the people who went on mission were reporting back by getting us to do the stuff that they did with the 6 to 11 year olds. I thought it was quite fun, they had a pantomime type play which was the bible story set in a computer game as the world with Jim and Chris Atkinson playing the villians.
I came into the Faraday lab to enrol for my courses for next year and found it full! I guess people have cottoned on that they've put new computers in here. It would normally be practically empty (and hence nice and private) at this time of night.
posted at 10:09:00 pm

Last night was Anglican and Free Church Comittee social at the Spaghetti House was last night. I enjoyed it, and went along to Wetherspoons with people afterwards, but I decided I wouldn't go to Liquid, I was feeling way to tired at that point. I haven't been into Chaplaincy yet today, so I haven't seen any of the people that went to Liquidso I don't know how that went.
posted at 4:51:00 pm

My revision session for Math 230 this afternoon has been cancelled, so I'm going to have to think for myself to work out which module I revised(I think I'd planned 215 before they scheduled the session). I'm going to go home for lunch now, and I'm going to walk because it's really sunny.
posted at 12:12:00 pm

Got a moderate amount of revision done today. Had the unhealthy lunch of fried fish fingers and onion.
I'm happy now because I saw Rachel Baker for the first time this term and she told me she's read my blog. I will go to the Bowerham this evening, and her housemates will probably be there, so it'll be good to see them again too. I haven't seen them yet because I wasn't at Free Church Society on Thursday.
posted at 6:46:00 pm

Okay, a quick round up of what I have failed to blog in the last few days:
On Thursday I missed Free Church but managed to join them to go to the bar.
Friday was a mediocre day of revision.
Saturday I had to go into town to get a new strap put on my watch because the original one was split more than halfway across and was probably going to fall off fairly soon.Unlike last time I went to do it it was much cheaper to buy a new strap than a new watch which is probably as it should be.
Today it was my turn handing out leaflets as Steward in Concourse and the hymnbooks in the Anglican and Free Church chapel, and I didn't stay for Lunch because I have food that needs using up at home, and I wanted to write this. There is a Chapel comittee meeting at 2pm today, and there is football (North versus South, border at Halesowen) meeting in concourse at 3:45pm, so I will be going to that.
posted at 1:09:00 pm

Got remarkably little revision done today, went to Stewards meeting, where Gill got us to agree who would go to the AFC comittee meetings this term and to talk about how to be more welcoming and not just hand out leaflets to people, and Lit planning for united worship where the discussion somehow got onto the trinity, and now I can't even remember what exactly we were planning a service about. After that I went to Christian Meditation but unfortunately found it rather difficult because it was not only hot, but the radiator was on in the Catholic flat. I now need to go to Sainsburys, so I can't really get any work done this evening , but nevermind.
Actually, I'm thinking along lines of tomorrow being busy, but it's not because there's no revision lectures tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get some work done then.
posted at 6:34:00 pm

Met with my tutor at noon today, and he told me that I had been doing much better in second term than first, I was getting 60 to 70 percent in coursework instead of 40 to 50 percent. This is good news, and it also gives me some idea which modules I need to revise.
posted at 2:52:00 pm

Had a day of half arsed revision and lunch in chaplaincy yesterday, and also went to prayer group for the first time (I had a lab at noon monday for the last two terms). Had a good evening at the Bowerham pub quiz, where once the question along the lines of "what vegetable is pickled to make a Gerkin?", it transpired that Amy Burton believed that raisins grew on trees. Anyway, better go to morning prayer.
posted at 9:28:00 am

I've just joined the Northen leg of Student Cross yahoo email group, having missed the invitation the first time. Apparently there has been a ridiculous number of emails being sent on it, so I wonder what I'm letting myself in for.
posted at 10:23:00 am

Chaplaincy service was quite good, Kev was talking about Thomas Didymus for most of his sermon, won't go into exactly what he was saying. Don't *really* have money to stay for lunch, so I will have to be a bit anti social and go home for lunch. I'm sure I'll see chaplaincy people during the week. The computers in Faraday A35 have been upgraded to Pentium 4's which is strange because the keyboards are soft and so the complete opposite of the clicky keyboards they had here before. A plus though is that they now have huge monitors.
posted at 12:59:00 pm

Bloggers being troublesome and won't come up, so I'm typing this in notepad. (27/4/03, 11am).
The LUSU training thing I had yesterday(I still can't remember what it's actually called) went on from 10am until 6pm officialy, so I was rather surprised when I found that out when I walked in George Fox 1! It wasn't as bad as it might have been because they put societies of similar types together, so as well as Daffy, Abbs was in our group, and we were led by Flora Hoori(JSoc pres. and something important in LUSU I think) who was very enthusiastic. We got told stuff about Duty of Care, what information about the societies finances we needed to give to LUSU and so on. It didn't go on until 6pm, most groups finished about 4:30pm, and we finished about 5pm. Afterwards I went to Sainsburys(again). When I got back I found I was still the only person that had bought any milk in our house so far, so we are still on Sainsburys 'low price' UHT.
posted at 12:55:00 pm

I have just discovered to my extreme irritation(to put it mildly) that I have to go back into lectures in week 6. The course is a prerequisite for some of the third year courses, however as I am doing 'mathematics with statistics' it's compulsary.
posted at 9:45:00 am

Well, Ellas blog, James Preeces' drunken theology and the chaplaincy message board kill a whole 10 minutes...
posted at 9:11:00 am

When I went to Sainsburys yesterday to buy mostly ingredients to cook with I spent £20, so my attempt to cook things for myself to save money does not seem particularly effective. However, I find I never really know until I get my bank and credit card statements at the end of the month. Anyway, this morning I was going to go back to get some stuff that I'd forgetten and to get a replacement strap for my watch because it's beginning to split, but when I came onto campus to check my email I found that I'm supposed to be going to George Fox at 10am to go to some LUSU thing with Daffy for Cathsoc, so I've got to work out what to do for the next hour.
posted at 8:58:00 am

Got back to Lancaster OK, lugged my suitcase and backpacks onto the bus and got back to my house. Found there was no milk in the fridge, even though Louise had been back several days. Found I had some 'Sainsburys Low Price' UHT milk. It wasn't as bad as I expected so that meant I could drink some tea and eat some (low price) breakfast cereal. Louise got back. Drank some more tea. Came onto campus to check my email in the library while it is nice and empty. Off to Sainsburys to buy food. Blogged way too efficiently. It's good being back in Lancaster where I have unlimited bus travel with my pass.
posted at 6:27:00 pm

My cold is much better this morning, so I'll stop going on about it. Only a couple of hours until I get the train, and Dad has given me money to get food on the journey, which is good. Unfortunately there aren't any changes where I can really get food, so I'll only be able to get what they sell in the buffet car on the train which won't be too wonderful. Iwould say I'd keep it to the other end, but I don't think I can go 5 hours without food or at least a cup of tea.
posted at 9:02:00 am

I later remembered that I have a suitcase with me. This makes carrying my stuff more practical. I'm still not sure I'm going to manage to change trains in 5 minutes tomorrow though.It would be good if I had something to do until tomorrow morning except sniffing and sneezing, but of course I've packed all my stuff(books etc.) away to take back so all I can do is surf the web.
posted at 12:29:00 pm

I just had a go at packing my stuff. My textbooks and notes fill one large camping rucksack and my clothes another. This is going to be fun to change trains with.
posted at 10:25:00 am

Feel slightly minging again this morning. I've foolishly booked my ticket back to Lancaster to leave Haywards Heath at 1015, so I have to do all my packing today and get up at a sensible time tomorrow. I also volunteered to go to some kind of LUSU meeting/thing with David Lees for Cathsoc, so I'll have to find out when and where that is.
posted at 8:55:00 am

Got a rather bad cold today. Had a bath a lemsip and slept for three hours, and still feel a little grim. I just hope it's gone away by the time I go back to Lancaster, because I really don't want to pass it on. I would probably have minded less if it had been when I was working, because it wouldn't have distracted me that much, but I'm supposed to be relaxing. This is annoying.
posted at 5:35:00 pm

Apparently according to Mum, Lancaster has been on the radio news because people are worried about sars being present when people go back to uni, because there are a lot of Asian people at Lancaster. Can't say I'd noticed there being unusually many Asian people at Lancaster Uni.
posted at 10:00:00 am

Just had dinner in the the Chinese restaurant I mentioned on April 07, I can't remember the name. My Brother goes back to Oxford now, I think that's why we went, but I'm not actually really sure if there was a reason.The lemon chicken is still good, and I think I ate more food in total than last time.
posted at 11:41:00 pm

"Here's one two three jolly lads all in one mind
We have come a pace egging and we hope you'll prove kind
We hope you'll prove kind with your eggs and strong beer
for we'll come no more nigh you until the next year"

One day I'll get the songs from student cross out of my head.
posted at 7:24:00 pm

Heres a website that's amused me quite a bit: We Love the Iraqi information minister.
posted at 7:14:00 pm

I wonder if I should be blogging this private conversation?
posted at 7:06:00 pm

They are discussing other regions that could become serious superpowers as competition to the US.
posted at 7:05:00 pm

Now their talking about immigration into American and wether they should let more unskilled people in. I wonder what the bits of rubber in the bottom of this laptop monitor are for?
posted at 7:03:00 pm

They're now talking about the lack of American tourists in Oxford recently, trying to work out why. Is it down to the amount of things there are to see inside the USA? They're now talking about the urban planning in LA, and various problems there.
posted at 7:00:00 pm

Finished doing all the revision I intended to do during the holidays! Not necessarily sure if it's enough, but what the hey. I'm going to take it easy for the last few days of the holiday. I think. Hopefully. I go back to Lancaster on Friday on the train, and I have the joy of changing within five minutes at Watford Junction(if I remember correctly) carrying all my baggage which will include all my clothes that I've brought down, and nearly all my lecture notes for the last two terms to which I have added while revising over the holidays. That should be fun. I seem to remember there is a fairly large staircase to get between the platforms at Watford. I seriously hope they have a lift. My parents and my Brother who has come over to visit from Oxford are having a conversation about contracts, and employment law and other things I should probably be listening. I got my Easter eggs on Sunday evening, and I'm so far doing a reasonably good job of making them last. Can't make them last too long, because I don't want to be carrying any extra stuff back to Lancaster. My families conversation has moved onto the American class system, and to what extent it exists.
posted at 6:54:00 pm

Grrr... Blogger won't publish! Okay, if you're reading this then I've fixed my template. This is the trouble I bring upon myself messing around with html when I've never used it before. Hopefully I will put some more about Student Cross up here at some point. I fear my blog may be a bit lame until I get into it again.
posted at 3:38:00 pm

I just did a personality test here. Apparently I have personality type INFJ which I share with Mother Teresa, Mohondas Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Oprah Winfrey. They give descriptions of my personality type here and here.
posted at 12:09:00 pm

Lord of the Peeps has moved.
posted at 10:38:00 pm

Now, if I had any sense I would have kept a normal log of Student Cross with pen and paper and then typed it up when I got back. However I didn't. Anyway, I have variou bits of music and songs that were played and sung in the evening going through my head still, especially Karma Chaemeleon and a childrens song about five purple elephants. Some people took digital cameras and the leader , Peter said that they would be able to send their photos to be put on the Student Cross website, however I don't know when that's going to happen. I'll scan mine in and send them by email when I get them back, and leave a link here to wherever they are on the web.
posted at 6:04:00 pm

I'm leaving to go on Student Cross in a couple of hours, so my blog will probably be dead for the next week.
posted at 12:51:00 pm

Lord of the Peeps is back! This is good. I tend to get annoyed when things disappear that I expect to be there.
posted at 6:28:00 pm

I'm sure I feel worse after doing the same amount of exercise on a treadmill than if I actually walked somewhere. I'm starting to go off the idea of the gym. Just as well I'm going to be walking outside in only a couple of days when I go on student cross.
posted at 6:16:00 pm

My mum made me tea this morning which was nice of her. Unfortunately I fell asleep and the tea went cold. Not the best start to the day.
posted at 10:04:00 am

The Lord of the Peeps has gone! It's disappeared! When I searched in google for it all I found was links to it from other peoples blogs. I find this really bizarre because I'd never even heard of a blog until a couple of weeks ago when Phil emailed me the url of his. Where did all these blogs come from? Have they all just appeared in the last few weeks or have they been there for ages and I've just not noticed? What is going on? I am confused.
posted at 8:46:00 pm

I have now emailed the student registry(after mum pointed out their email address on the website) to ask them to fax proof that I'm a full time undergraduate to the leisure centre in a bid to sort out my membership. I hope they'll have done it by the time I go this afternoon. My Dad wants a word with them now, because he thinks they are being extremely silly and bureaucratic because both my parents are paying members and will vouch for me being a full time student, so he thinks they should take that as enough proof.
posted at 4:05:00 pm

My Dad just declared that the earthing on the six way adaptor in the living room is inadequate. Apparently he could feel electricity when he very gently touched the side of his PDA.
posted at 11:13:00 pm

Went to the gym again today, and spent at least 35 minutes on the treadmill, which should be good training for Student Cross. However, when my Mum tried to apply for a concession annual membership which costs £10, then £4 to get in, compared to £50, then £6.50 to get in there was a problem. They wouldn't accept my NUS card. Seriously. They argued that too many people had come in with fake NUS cards. So I showed them my library card. That wasn't enough apparently, because it didn't prove I was a full time student. Apparently I have to get a letter from my College tutor, which could prove difficult because I've never met them. I missed the meeting at the beginning of first year, fell out with my corridor, and subsequently didn't bother about meeting my tutor. My dad is quite happy because what he's been doing at work for the past week has been a success, so we went out to a Chinese to celebrate. We went to one that I hadn't been to before, and joy of joys it had an allyou can eat offer on.I am now very full. I think I can just about fit a Coffee in. Their lemon chicken was addictive.
posted at 9:25:00 pm

Hurrah! managed to get a comment system onto my blog. Should be able to go to the Gym again today, but I have to wait until two hours after lunch but avoid the sort of 5pm ish rush of people coming after work. This could prove tricky.
posted at 12:43:00 pm

Just watched the Blues Brothers. I hadn't seen it before, and I found it pretty funny especially as I've seen no spoilers or clips or anything, so that was good. Quite funny. My parents have got it as part of a 2 disc set with Blues Brothers 2000, and I'm not sure if I want to watch the other one, because I don't expect it to be that good. But then again if it is it'll be a pleasant surprise. Anywaay, I should sleep now...
posted at 12:07:00 am

Blog first - read emails later. That's something I've got to remember, because by the time I've read my emails and get to blog I've forgotten what was on my mind.
Anyway, I've just spent an hour in the gym in preparation for student cross. It was my first time in a gym, and I actually liked it more than I expected to(which wasn't very much). I'm thinking I might start going in Lancaster, but it does seem a little nonsensicle(?) to buy a bus pass so that I don't walk onto campus and then go to the gym! Yes. Walk onto campus more. Another thing to remember. The treadmill had a chart to tell me what my heart rate should be if I'm exercising properly, and most of the time I was at risk of it being above what it should be.I should probably have gone on for longer, but I was afraid of my legs being stiff tomorrow. I'll have to do some stretching and see if it helps. Afterwards, I went to Sainsburys and bought some economy jam tarts, which I normally ate after cycling hard when I was 11/12ish.
posted at 3:58:00 pm

Woah, didn't wake up until after 10:30am this morning, which is a bit late even for a saturday during the holiday. Woke up thinking about people from back at uni. This holidays getting a bit long, I'm glad I'm not stuck here for all of it. Less than a week until student cross!
posted at 11:48:00 am

My mum bought me a sleeping bag and walking trousers for student cross which is good because it means I might have some money left over for beer etc. I was a bit worried about being able to afford it because the ticket to Nottingham cost £30 (compared to £9.90 to get to Lancaster), with £15 coach plus £8 train to get back.
posted at 12:39:00 pm

Just a random message to see if something with Blogger has worked
posted at 3:08:00 pm

Watched England v Turkey match. Bit fraustrating to watch for the first 70 minutes, but a pretty decent victory in the end.
posted at 10:05:00 pm

Dad's computer was being a nightmare because it refused to print in black and white and the colour ink cartridge was running out, which was a bit bad. My Mum's answer to this was to think about buying a new printer, however when I installed the drivers onto her computer, it started working properly. Just windows XP being a bit crap I guess...
posted at 2:12:00 pm

Watched the film Evolution this evening on video. Very silly, quite funny. Extremely Americanised perspective - when the scientist predicts the aliens will have taken over North America an army general comments 'at which point we become extinct'. I hope you didn't need to think about that one.
posted at 12:20:00 am

Blimey, I'm almost getting the hang of this...
posted at 5:59:00 pm

Now that I've read the help and actually realised what it means to make a blog public, I don't think I will. The question is when I let who know it exists.
posted at 5:57:00 pm

My copy of Grub on a Grant by Cas Clarke arrived today. It's an old cookery book aimed at students, written by someone who learned to cook at university in Sussex, which my brother used a lot when he was at university. He didn't want to give me his copy because he still used it. I hope I will use it when I get back to uni 'cos I seriously need to spend less money on food!
posted at 5:54:00 pm

Ah ha, just remembered this thing exists. My plan is to when it's term time and things are actually happening I might make this public. However, today was just revision and a trip to the Sainsburys for Mum.
posted at 5:38:00 pm

Just avoiding revision by setting up a blog...
posted at 5:55:00 pm