Month: March 2004

Looks like I may be shortly taking on the role of lugmaster for Lincs LUG. It kind of died and I’ve been offered the job if I want to try and make a go of it. Of course I don’t have time for it right now, but come the end of June when I have time on my hands it could be an excellent project. Going to need help though.

mchicago: fancy hosting the IRC?

of course, if the discussion topics end up like those of ALUG’s…
#alug
[23:29] [tola] the main reason I want to go to uni has nothing to do with education or job prospects
[23:29] [quinophex] tola++++++
[23:29] * tola falls over
[23:30] [quinophex] you want to shag cute girls? (or boys)
[23:30] [stuman] maybe he wants to be drunk for 3 years?
[23:31] [tola] well, not exactly. It's something I want to experience. The student life for a few years. If that happens to entail shagging then so be it. But I'll cross that ridge when I cum to it
[23:31] [tola] :P
[23:31] [quinophex] that almost deserves a quote file entry

My maths test didn’t happen today which means I get to worry about it for a bit longer. Also have a load of integration I’ve just realised I should have done.

Pah.

It seems my brother is dating a girl with the same name as my girlfriend, both forename and surname. I’m assured they’re not the same person.

Can the world really cope with two…? 😉

http://www.uwm.edu/People/srcicero/links.htm <-- why oh why? moving on... Cool night out "pubbing and clubbing" on Friday (you know, that room with the sticky floor the call a nightclub). Managed to con a free half pint of Guinness out of the barmaid in the Angel (I don't want to sound like that was a highlight of my evening or anything). lauperr stopped the night afterwards. I think she may be mentally scarred from the experience as she’s started worrying about the most odd things like “Getting squashed by trains” and “Standing on tropical fish”.

Spent the rest of the weekend researching and pondering over what I should do next year and my choice of Uni. Lots of evil plans.

I’ve now started reading a fourth book and am starting to feel like I should finish one. I’m currently simultaneously reading ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’ by Bill Bryson, ‘Windows NT Server Training Guide’ by Tod someone, ‘The Universe in a Nutshell’ by Stephen Hawking and the last book of ‘Schrodinger’s Cat Triology’ by Robert Anton Wilson – but I’ve kind of given up on the last one. I actually literally fell asleep after reading a chapter of the NT Server book, but it’s been sat on my shelf for a long time and after Mr C’s experiments with Server 2003 I felt strangely compelled to read it.

Gah, headache. Time for bed.

bouncykaz: What was that comment about regarding UEA and the people there?

Dear Mr Francis,

Thank you for attending the Department for interview. Adrian Bors was impressed by you and as a consequence I am pleased to make you an offer of a place on our Computer Science programme (G400) subject to the following conditions relating to your forthcoming examinations (any previous examination resutlts having already been taken into account):

Grade A in Mathematics A-level, grade A in either Computing or Design and Technology A-levels, grade B in another A-level (in any subject).

—

Let’s just revisit that key point there. No not the fact that I’ve been given an offer (although quite an achievement in its own right), I’m talking about the maths grade they want. An A in Mathematics. Considering I got a U last year and I’m predicted a C, do they seriously think I can get an A? OK so I’m retaking all the AS modules this summer along with the A2 modules, but putting York down as a firm offer when they want an A seems too much of a risk to me, by any stretch of the imagination. A B I can at least dream of getting, and there’s always a (small) chance I will be let off on a grade below that at most Universities, but an A is just too much stress for me. Maths is going well this year, but nobody can seriously expect me to…

OK, I’m going to stop ranting now and go to school.

Pretty uneventful week, except some progress on job applications and djkoa has contracted mild pneumonia!!! Poor thing.

Grandma and Grandad took me to a visit day and interview at York University yesterday, damn that course is good! They have a great balance of hardware and software with digital electronics modules and other cool stuff in the electronics labs. They program Z80 chips with Assembler and make realtime systems and… cool stuff. In short, the course is probably by far the best I’ve seen so far, but it’s so damned far away compared to the other universities I’ve applied to. About 114 miles, not as far as that Welsh place djkoa likes though 😉 Grandma RAN to a bus stop in York, yes that’s right, RAN. I couldn’t keep up. I don’t think she fancied standing around in the cold for half an hour!

The interview went much better than I was expecting. I had ample chance to explain the reasons for my maths grade last year and they seemed satisfied that I’ve improved enough since then. I was asked some maths questions on a white board which I’m pretty sure I got perfectly right.

mathsbit

Yesterday I hand delivered an application form in Peterborough when we finally found the place. Looked nice enough. The application was complete with a froody cover letter written by Mr C. Helped mum cook a roast dinner and generally chilled. I reckon it’s going to cost me £100 a month to commute to Peterborough every day which is going to have to be a major consideration when thinking about accepting a job. Gah.

Got some quite decent work on Computing coursework done at school and after school today and my maths lesson went suprisingly well considered I missed last lesson because of the olympiad. I think mechanics may be one of my stronger areas.

Mum had her first day at her new job today and despite being 15 minutes late it seems to have gone very well, thank goodness!

I have an evil masterplan involving pseudo code and cooking which will probably never be pulled off, but it’s amusing none the less.

15 new artists’ albums got added to magnatune today and I’m loving Grayson Wray – Picassos Dream and Falling You – Touch is pretty good too.

Yey, kazzy is online!