Ben Francis

Programming
So far our Mars Rover Simulator (currently requires password for the interesting bits) consists of 1900 lines of C code and several data files. Needs a lot of polish but all the basic functionality is there so samwwwblack and I felt it necessary to go out and celebrate version 0.09 with a few pints last night 🙂

I also have to program a railway journey planner for another module (anyone remember my A Level coursework?) and a padestrian crossing in assembler.

Predictions
Looks like my “alternative to the traditional office suite” prediction is the last one to come past the post following the big G’s latest acquisition.

And quinophex, yes my predictions were crap but unlike most outlandish technology predictions, they actually came true. Mostly.

Musicalness
Went to Tom’s house to program but ended up spending hours playing with his many guitars. Telecaster and lurvely valve amp, mmm.

Reading
I unexpectedly received a bible through the post today, the New International Version with a leather case and zip. I’m considering reading it from cover to cover, just so that I can say I’ve read it. I don’t think it will beat Hitchhikers on the humour stakes, but a lot of people make a big fuss about it and I’m interested to know if it’s a good read. I’m curious whether it’s possible to read the bible just like any other book but I suspect that trawling through all the tedious history in the old testament will make me lose interest before I get to the good bits like the prophecies in the book of Daniel. It’s weird what contemporary culture can get us interested in.

Earthship
This is pretty neat. I’m working on pie-in-the-sky plans for a hippygeek version 🙂

The morning after the night before

I woke up this morning at 8:30am and I was in Coventry. I had been out clubbing until 3:30am, woke up at 8:30am and had a lab at 10:00am – I actually made it! I think I’m getting good at travelling by train now, I’ve done enough of it, I just sort of think about where I need to go and end up there without realising.

I’d like to say that programming in assembler and trying to do set theory questions is *not* a good combination when you’re still drunk from the night before. My state of mind this morning wasn’t great and the world wasn’t making much sense. It wasn’t helped by Tom trying to convince me that he’d eaten the stuffed toy dog I bought for 99p the day before, I actually started to believe him and was relieved when it turned up unharmed. I was giggly and silly, was severely struggling to concentrate and tried to figure out why there was a very narrow door on the fifth floor that you could only get through if you walked sideways and were reasonably slim. By lunchtime things were getting very surreal as I ran around the Guild of Students trying to find out where the free candyfloss was and I started to worry that I was eventually going to hit the hangover, but instead I just felt very very tired.

I finally got back to my flat at 5:10pm, the second time this week I’ve left my flat in the evening and not returned until the following evening – I am dog tired and really need to touch base, wherever that is. I’m going home this weekend for the first time this term so more train travel tomorrow.

The night before the morning after

Last night I really had an amazingly good time. We started off at a pub called Jumping Jacks where the Guinness was £1.25, two legendary showmen tried to run a Kareoke with 15 people and the barmaids danced on the bar (in a non-saucy way). We were then supposed to go home after last orders but instead we agreed to go on to a club where we consumed copius amounts of liquid (and it wasn’t water). I think there are only two reasons why I think I didn’t have a hangover this morning a) I drank lots of water before I went to bed and b) I was actually still drunk when I woke up.

The stuff I remember about what happened last night was bad enough and I know there’s stuff I don’t remember. I know at one point I was stood in lauperr‘s kitchen with all her flatmates having chips thrown to me, not wearing many clothes and being drawn all over in biro.

The evening after the morning after the night before

When I got back to my flat at 5:30pm I checked my emails and went to bed for a 20 minute nap, I’ve only just woken up at gone 11pm and I’m hungry.

The perpetual webmaster

So much web to weave, so little time. The BurnFM Website went down well yesterday, I have “urgent” changes to make for a choir’s website I look after, it’s about time the Twisted Lemon splash page turned into a Twisted Lemon Website and I have a nice queue of web sites to do for work.

BurnFM starts our month long FM broadcast tomorrow (23rd). You can listen on 107.3FM in and around Birmingham University or listen online via the web site I knocked up in a week – burnfm.com. I didn’t design the logo.

It’s time to burn.

For the first time in a very long time, I grabbed my guitar and got up in front of an audience last night to sing a set. It was the open mic night at OC’s in Digbeth High Street, I did a small 20 minute set and I’m pleased to say it went down pretty well 🙂 I think I’m finally getting back into music, Tom is interested in doing a duet with me and they want me to play again.

I sang one of my own songs which went down particularly well. I can’t believe I wrote it over four years ago, I need some more material.

After last orders I got on a train and in a last minute drunken decision decided it would be a good idea to go back to a flat in Selly Oak for an after party. I was still there at 4:30am talking to people I’d never met before and ended up sleeping in Tom’s flat and still managed to turn up to labs this morning. I’m still wearing the same clothes I was wearing yesterday and I had to take my guitar to all my lectures today, but I feel happy 🙂

Last night I went to an Indie night the Indie society put on which was cool. However, by the end of the night (well, 2am) my drunk flatmate was taking chunks out of my door with a saucepan. At least he wasn’t brandishing a knife this time. One of the girls came down from upstairs to complain about the noise and nearly got a nasty saucepan injury in reply.

We had a “standards commitee” meeting today for our software engineering project. One of the people in the meeting wasn’t happy with a group decision and proceeded to stand up and declare that everyone in the group was incompetent and tried to leave the room. The postgraduate teaching assistant refused to let them leave so they sat and sulked for the rest of the session.

I’ve now set up a froody subversion repository with trac as a front end for use with the project, though I had to read a book about subversion first.

After some interesting… contract problems, I’m now developing a web site for BurnFM in the next three weeks, so more work to keep me busy!

I think I might be addicted to reading. I know I’m technically “reading” for a degree, but I can’t seem to stop it.

When I got up this morning I was reading the course notes for my software engineering project. I decided I wanted to try and use a version tracking system so I was read the installation instructions for trac, then realised I needed to know about subversion first, so I’ve been skimreading the SVN Book. I got bored of that after a few hours so I decided to read the news in my RSS reader. I realised that I needed a break from my screen so I sat on my bed and read a chapter of “The Invisible Computer” by Donald A. Norman. Then I realised I hadn’t left my room for most of the day apart from coffee making, so I went to the Kitchen and talked to my housemate but was distracted by the University Newspaper he was reading, stole it from under his nose and started to peruse the articles.

Now it’s dark outside and I’m reading what I’ve just written.

I think I may have a problem and I feel sorry for my eyes.