Ben Francis

Amsterdam
Amsterdam December 9th-11th, be there or be less poor.

“The biggest student tour to Amsterdam this year” including 3 days and 2 nights of fun, return travel and accommodation, £89. Anyone want to come? I’ve booked in me and lauperr.

They say visitors to Amsterdam always go back and they’re right 😛

Fire Alarms

I’ve been at Uni a month now and I’d say there’s been more nights with a fire alarm going off than not. It started at Shackleton by the lake and has slowly been getting closer and closer until it was two blocks away from me one night, one block away and then finally it was our turn. I’d just been to the train station to wave laura off and walked back along the canal to my flat. I unlocked my door, sat down and it went off.

On the way out I looked at the fire alarm panel which tells you exactly what flat in what block has triggered an alarm anywhere in Maple Bank. Someone in the flat above me had been cooking with door open and not closed it quick enough and it set off the alarm in the hallway. A member of staff turned up, followed by the fire service and they were all very cross.

This is just a week or so after my department was evacuated because something set fire in the printed circuit room because of a dodgy thermostat and we were stood outside for an hour and a half waiting for the alarm to be reset.

In other news…
Today we were shown the circuit diagram to make a broken numerical display, useful kind of thing to know. Two hours of digital logic makes my brain ache, soon I will be thinking in binary all the time. I’ve soldered together a light flashing device and programmed a PIC chip to make it count in binary like my binary clock which is quite nifty. I was sat in the lab after everyone else left, programming the damned thing (in Assembler) until it ran out of memory and begged for mercy. Ben 1, PIC chip 0.

I’m hungry.

It seems my University internet connection has been labelled as an open proxy by LiveJournal, interesting.

Three weeks of University
I’ve reached the end of my third week at the University of Birmingham and it’s been brilliant.

I’m living in a flat with Duncan who’s studying medicine and has a skeleton called Ernie, Fernando from Peru who drinks cocacola for breakfast, Bayo from Nigeria “Stop your jibber jabber” and Hugh. The flat is great because it was completely refurbished (and I mean completely) over the summer so everything is brand new. There were a few teething problems like the inspired person who put our front door’s lock on the wrong way around so when locked people could get in but we couldn’t get out. My accommodation is a 20 minute walk from my department which is a bit of a pain but at least I’ll be getting *some* exercise! The 35Mbit Internet connection is nice except for the *ludicrous* 100Mb per day download limit, but I’m working on that.

I’ve been chucked completely in the deep end cooking cleaning and ironing for myself (OK so it’s three weeks in and I haven’t unpacked my iron yet). I’ve only really had two cooking disasters which I won’t talk about, but I did eat them. Shopping, cooking, cleaning is very tedious.

More interestingly I’ve been out in Birmingham a great deal including a club tour of Broad Street, the Freshers Ball with DJ Spoony and Colin Murray and a night with Scott Mills, The Works which is my favourite and countless bars. We’ve had flat parties with the people in my block and I’ve met sooo many people. I’ve got lost plenty, including the time I left my flat, walked for 20 minutes, looked up and I was back at my flat.

The course is brilliant and exactly what I was hoping for. Despite finding the maths and electronics hard I’m very glad they’re part of the course and the Psychology aspects are fascinating. I get to learn C (though I’m miffed the Bioinformatics students get to use Linux and GCC and I’m stuck with Visual Studio) and I’ve made a circuit board with a PIC chip on it and soldered lots. The work load is going to be hard but I don’t mind it so much when I find it all interesting.

Something that really struck me when I first arrived and we were all in someone’s kitchen upstairs was that people were having conversations with the words “Physics”, “Maths” and “love” in the same sentence. People were having intelligent conversations but nobody was accused of being “sad” or “square”, because we’re *all* geeks!

I’ve tried to join up with societies and the one I want to be most heavily involved with is BurnFM, the radio station. I’ve missed out a lot on that front a bit because they have a four week FM broadcast and due to a bout of Fresher’s Flu and not being at Uni for two weekends I haven’t been able to take part much. I was shown their brand new studio and got to play with it and volunteered to help with the technical side, both sound engineering and web development. I’m helping with some poster distribution tomorrow to try and get back into it though.

Research
I’m bursting with ideas at the moment and addicted watching very interesting events unfold in front of my eyes on the Internet. I’m keeping a note of everything (a wiki actually) but I’m struggling to articulate the things in my head into words. I’m selfishly hoping I get to actually tell people about it before others do it all before I get chance. I’ll be happy if it happens either way but I’m dying to tell people my ideas. There’s a competition for business ideas at the University in a couple of months which I’m thinking of entering. Being around researchers doing fun things is inspiring me (which is bad in some ways because I was showing signs of obsession months before I even got here, here that kind of behaviour is actively encouraged!)

Work
Today I was in London doing an installation with a five-strong Twisted Lemon team and I’m very happy how it’s going. 6am start this morning was hard after going out last night but hey. There’s also the possiblity of some part time work in Birmingham if I want it from one of our major clients. It was really great to see the team again and it’s going to be brilliant working with them.

Also I still seem to have a steady trickle of tolatech work coming out of nowhere which I can’t keep up with.

Coventry
I’ve spent a weekend with my Laura and she cooked lots of real food for me. I met her cool flat mates and we went out in Coventry. Missing her. That’s all I have to say about that.

Alton Towers
Went to celebrate Big Sis’ very special birthday with a trip to Alton towers which was brilliant despite feeling ill. So nice to see her and J again. Met Ellie properly for the first time and I think she’s great *big friendly wave in the direction of sfr* and of course the rest of the group – Lou, Sigh and attachments. Btw, 0-100mph in 3 seconds is *fast*.

I have a to-do list the length of three arms and need more sleep, more vegetables and more exercise but I’m in good spirits and loving my new life though sad for things I’ve had to leave behind. It’s comforting to know they’re still there when I need them though 🙂

I want to write letters to so many people but I just can’t find the time, why can’t everyone use Email? I find it much easier than this putting ink on bits of dead tree thing. I don’t even have a working printer at the moment so I have to do it manually.

With love from Brum.

OK, 2 and a half weeks into University. Am I sober enough to make a LiveJournal entry yet? No.

Magical Experience
I had quite a magical experience on my way to work this morning. I love the drive to work in the morning as I drive through extremely beautiful Lincolnshire and Rutland countryside and today was the last time I’d do it.

There’s a hill on the journey which has a fantastic view when you come over the top in your car, it looks down over Rutland water with patchworks of fields all around and the town of Oakham in the distance. Today though, it was especially fantastic. At exactly the moment I came over the hill, Radio 1 started to play “Long and Winding Road” by the Beatles and I looked down into the dip in the landscape to see the most brilliant, clear, huge rainbow I’ve ever seen in my life to the side of Rutland water and a huge flock of white birds flying across the sky with the early morning sunlight glinting off their feathers.

It was as if someone had arranged it all for me, as a friendly farewell, I suddenly felt all goose pimply, warm and fuzzy inside. Then I hit the traffic and reality kicked back in 😛 It reminded me a little of a moment in one of the Animatrix films where a girl is in a “haunted” house where the laws of physics are breaking down and she falls to the ground as a white dove flutters upwards but suddenly gravity changes and she floats to the ground with a warm hum and watches the bird in flight in slow motion.

Goodbyes
At lunch I had “the last supper” in the usual Friday pub then went back to say my goodbyes.

I’m currently still packing my life into boxes and its 11:15pm. My computer should be all disconnected and ready to stick in the VW camper tomorrow morning but instead I’m on LiveJournal writing more drivel 🙂

I’ve had a great gap year, learnt an awful lot about life, computing and everything and hopefully it’s now the end of an era and the beginnng of an ever bigger, better one. Stuff the people who want to mess things up for us, they will fail. I’m feeling optimistic but it still hasn’t sunk in that I’m leaving home and it’s tomorrow in a few minutes!

University of Birmingham, here I come!

I’m going to do the whole LiveJournal Drivel (TM) thing now, so get comfortable.

Yesterday – now I know they’re here to stay
Yesterday was a rollercoaster of a day at work, starting with apathy, sheer glee in the middle and ending with that sick, nasty feeling in my stomach. A major cause of these emotions was things happening with money, which is something that bothers me. I have more money coming in now than I have ever had, but it’s also the first time in my life I’m going to start having more money going out than coming in – because I’m going to University. I actually have to care about money, something which I hate over all else. I also have to care about mundane things like cooking, cleaning and ironing which I generally avoid at all costs.

Feeling
I’m experiencing a lot of self doubt and a reasonable amount of stress, but apart from that it still doesn’t feel like leaving home in a couple of days is actually real. Y’know, the town I’ve lived in since I was born.

In a suprising twist I’m being treated like shit by senior people at work in the last week of my mostly great job, but only because I’m caught up in the rivals of others. The urge to speak the hard truth and leave utter devistation in my wake is irresistable but I have to try and not.

Memories
I’ve just been going through my things – the box I have under my bed with all the precious things in it, not valuable things, things with memories. This above anything else has made leaving home feel real. I think about all the people in those memories and what they’re doing now and I’m reminded of life’s habit of running away when you’re not looking. Interetingly there’s not a single photo in that box.

Collecting
I was emailed by one of the Polish girls I met whilst interrailing today and a while back was emailed by the two Lauras from Spain. This has given me a sudden urge to collect the addresses and phone numbers of every person I know or have ever known!

If you know me, please please send me your address and phone number. I will probably never use it, but it will make me feel much better knowing I have it there. email tola at hippygeek dot co dot uk.

I’ve had urges like this recently, urges to collect things, to back up hard disks, make lists of things to remember and things to do, to document everything so I don’t forget. A shrink would probably say it’s all down to repressed feelings about leaving things behind.

I wrote a poem last night, the type of drivel you write all in one go but actually means something to yourself. The poem was called “Obsession” and was a reflection on how obsessive my personality is – towards ideas, people and objects. I’m not sure whether it’s something to worry about or try to change or what.

Busy
My to do list on the computer has a very long scroll bar next to it. Very long. Added to that I have my finger in more pies than Weebl could eat in a month and a strong desire not to take any fingers out and actually do something I’m “supposed” to be doing. There’s so much going on, I just don’t want to miss anything.

Laura’s in Spain, that’s kind of weird though I think all this would be even harder if she was around 😐

0.375 ounces of Gold
I’ve just found out that a “tola” is 0.375 ounces of gold in India, thank you Meghna Nayak.

Edit: Apparently a tola is also 10 grams of hashish, it gets better 😛

Free Culture UK
Attended my first phone conference with Free Culture UK this evening (minutes). I’m thinking of starting a Free Culture Society at the University of Birmingham.

Ideas Wiki
I’ve started a public wiki at ideas.hippygeek.co.uk

“I hope for this to be a kind of breeding ground for some of the ideas I’ve had for web sites or projects. I have a private wiki full of ideas and I thought it was about time I put some of them up for peer review and comment, with a view to building communities around the projects to push them further.”

Of particular interest is the proposed Digital Convergence group which I hope to be a research group feeding into development projects elsewhere.

See also, the Student Cookbook, feel free to contribute!

Twisted Lemon
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this here before but things are going well. Twisted Lemon is a startup company my friends and I are kicking off. We’re soon to become a limited liability company and it’s all very exciting.

Web Site Changes
Nobody apart from me cares about this, but I want to change hippygeek.co.uk in its most drastic change since 2001 by moving to a Drupal based site and migrating my blog in-house.

TOAL
I will post some more of my travel blog entries soon, I really will.

In other news
Laura and I took Penny to Rutland Water for a picnic which was very cool 😀

Other than that, I’ve been doing lots of coding, some cooking and washing and working on more projects than I can keep track of, it’s great!

In a break from my Trip of a Lifetime postings…

IEE Competition

The results are through from the competition I entered my paper into and I didn’t win, or get a runners up prize (which was the one I was aiming for). But, they did give feedback on all of the papers entered and I’m very proud of the positive feedback I got, especially after reading the feedback for all the other entries as well.

It reads as follows…

Benjamin Tola Francis

Digital Convergence in a Connected World

The Judges felt that, although this entry was not of degree standard, it
contained a well developed argument with a clear purpose and a natural
flow, was interesting to read, with a good structure. On the whole the
Judges were impressed with this entry and the thorough research that had
gone into the essays production. The Judges noted that the topic was of
general and wide interest and, although the essay is not particularly
technical, it offers quite a grand vision and suggested that, with some
editing, the paper may be suitable for publication.

University Accommodation

I’ve been put in Maple Bank, Block 4 Flat 28. It was one of my choices and was completely refurbished this summer. However, it is 2km away from campus which is quite a long way to run in my dressing gown to get to a lecture! Seriously though, it’s all starting to feel very real. Now I just have to find over three grand to pay for it.

Back to our normal programme

Yes, I am actually back from my Trip of a Lifetime (after three weeks, 7 countries and 26 trains) but you haven’t heard the last of it yet!! Oh no. I still have lots of entries to copy to my blog, some of them are almost interesting. Now stop complaining about me flooding blog planet sites with travel entries and embrace the democratic publishing medium that is the Internet and damned well read it!