My phone broke today. After realising that it still couldn't spell omelette, it committed suicide. I've spent this evening looking at new phones and, unlike last time, I've considered getting a contract phone.
I've never been on contract before and I haven't had a problem. £10 every two months (or just under every two months back when I had friends I didn't see every day) was fine. But the last time I got a new phone was for my 18th birthday and now, two and a bit years later, technology has blitzed past what was available back then. These days a smart-phone is affordable. Sure, it will cost a lot more than I'm used to, but what's the point in having all that money build up in the bank if I'm not going to spend it. It's not like I'd have to forgo a meal every day to be able to afford a £20/month contract, especially with the bursary I'll get from the teaching and the money I'll be given for my 21st in September.
I could go for a regular, boring, ring-and-text phone like the one I had this morning, but there are so many times when I think, "dammit, I wish I had a smartphone." I'd rather pay more money for something better, than pay any money for something I'm going to regret buying at all.
Friday, 1 April 2011
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Training Day
I've just found the blog thing in Word so I'm giving it a go.
I have to go to the SAS training day later. I don't know if I've printed off the right stuff to take with me; the email wasn't very clear on what I am supposed to bring.
I downloaded the 'Mathematics' add-on for word so I can do things like this with only a few clicks.
I don't know if that will have worked. It's still cool though, if a little useless.
I was going to go to Sainsbury's this morning but for once the quickest-route-home bus was there and it doesn't stop at the shops.
I'm probably going to do BEDA because I've managed to get so behind with my story that I have to do it every day just to keep up with the dates. It's getting more interesting to write now though and there's going to be a new character joining the main group soon. Exciting times.
I think I'll probably stick to writing blogs straight onto the internet rather than in Word first.
#EDIT# It clearly didn't work. It was the Fourier series and the graph of y=exp(x) if anyone's interested. I'm sure you're not.
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
Tumblr
I've got a Tumblr account now. I thought it might be a good way to get The Stones of Arzingdale out there into the wider sights of the internet community. It's not just for that purpose though; expect other Tumblr-appropriate posts on there. You can see what I've been Tumblring by clicking on the "Tumblr" link on the left of this page. Or you can follow me on Tumblr itself!
Last week all the lights on my side of the flat were broken. That meant that my room, Chris' room and the kitchen were in darkness. I'd been planning on doing my homework early to get it out the way but obviously I couldn't do any reading in the dark so I ended up sitting in the kitchen for about four hours talking to Chris. It was a laugh talking about The Elder Scrolls - what was good and bad about Morrowind and Oblivion and what we hoped they'd change or put in or take out of Skyrim before it's released in November. It was particularly funny when Nicky came into the kitchen (not knowing that there was any problem with the lights as her room is on the other side of the corridor) and turned around to see us two lads sat at the table. Her scream was rather loud.
I installed Firefox 4 beta yesterday. I had been reluctant to get it as every time I upgrade I lose half of my add-ons to compatibility errors (and how could I cope without mouse gestures?!) but after spending a night looking for an add-on that puts tabs at the top like on Chrome, I couldn't stop myself from getting 4 which has that feature built in already. It turned out that, although I did lose a fair few of my favourite add-ons (FoxyTunes, for example), a lot of them managed to keep up. I did have to swap to Fire Gestures, but how All-in-one Gestures was different, I don't know.
Last week all the lights on my side of the flat were broken. That meant that my room, Chris' room and the kitchen were in darkness. I'd been planning on doing my homework early to get it out the way but obviously I couldn't do any reading in the dark so I ended up sitting in the kitchen for about four hours talking to Chris. It was a laugh talking about The Elder Scrolls - what was good and bad about Morrowind and Oblivion and what we hoped they'd change or put in or take out of Skyrim before it's released in November. It was particularly funny when Nicky came into the kitchen (not knowing that there was any problem with the lights as her room is on the other side of the corridor) and turned around to see us two lads sat at the table. Her scream was rather loud.
I installed Firefox 4 beta yesterday. I had been reluctant to get it as every time I upgrade I lose half of my add-ons to compatibility errors (and how could I cope without mouse gestures?!) but after spending a night looking for an add-on that puts tabs at the top like on Chrome, I couldn't stop myself from getting 4 which has that feature built in already. It turned out that, although I did lose a fair few of my favourite add-ons (FoxyTunes, for example), a lot of them managed to keep up. I did have to swap to Fire Gestures, but how All-in-one Gestures was different, I don't know.
Friday, 4 March 2011
The Stones Of Arzingdale
It's up. The Stones of Arzingdale has finally gone public. Follow the link to check it out. Feel free to leave comments telling me what you think, asking questions about the general world that it's set in or whatever else you might want to say. You never know - you might ask about something I haven't considered and when I see your comment a whole new area might unveil itself for me to think about.
I'll also welcome any ideas you might have concerning the history of the world where it's set. As the main character will be writing in his diary every day he needs something interesting to talk about when not much is happening in the here and now (such as when he's on a big cross-country trek).
I'll also welcome any ideas you might have concerning the history of the world where it's set. As the main character will be writing in his diary every day he needs something interesting to talk about when not much is happening in the here and now (such as when he's on a big cross-country trek).
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Day 346
It has been ages since I last posted in this blog. Sorry. It's because I've been focusing on the fictional blog I started last year (and mentioned in the last post). I've also been busy with this term's maths. It's so much more difficult than what we had to do last term. Everyone I asked had trouble with it. Even the people who asked for help from the lecturer didn't really understand it well enough to explain it. But the lack of posts on here in January has been down to the amount of posts elsewhere.
I think the fictional blog will be set to public (yes Mum, that means you'll be able to read it) on the first of March, and there will be a new post every day for the first two months. After that there will be a new post every two days.
In Y9 English, when we had to write a story entitled "A Knock at the Door", my submission collected the highest mark in the class. The blog is written from the point of view of one of the characters from that story and follows him from about six months before that story was set until about two months after. When my teacher handed "A Knock at the Door" back he said that, if I put my mind to it, I could write a novel when I was older. Studying for a maths degree probably wasn't what he meant by "put your mind to it", but I've liked the idea of fleshing out this A Knock at the Door world ever since. If you read Sahtahp's Journal, a blog I wrote as if it was my character's diary on Oblivion, then you can expect something similar, except this time I won't be restricted by what's programmed into a game. Also, my world will be much bigger and the main character won't be trying to save it from the off so there'll be some nice, relaxed days here and there. I suppose you could think of Sahtahp's Journal as the failed first attempt that I decided to scrap and begin again from scratch.
I think the fictional blog will be set to public (yes Mum, that means you'll be able to read it) on the first of March, and there will be a new post every day for the first two months. After that there will be a new post every two days.
In Y9 English, when we had to write a story entitled "A Knock at the Door", my submission collected the highest mark in the class. The blog is written from the point of view of one of the characters from that story and follows him from about six months before that story was set until about two months after. When my teacher handed "A Knock at the Door" back he said that, if I put my mind to it, I could write a novel when I was older. Studying for a maths degree probably wasn't what he meant by "put your mind to it", but I've liked the idea of fleshing out this A Knock at the Door world ever since. If you read Sahtahp's Journal, a blog I wrote as if it was my character's diary on Oblivion, then you can expect something similar, except this time I won't be restricted by what's programmed into a game. Also, my world will be much bigger and the main character won't be trying to save it from the off so there'll be some nice, relaxed days here and there. I suppose you could think of Sahtahp's Journal as the failed first attempt that I decided to scrap and begin again from scratch.
Tuesday, 28 December 2010
Month 15
I said in the last post that Golden Sun: Dark Dawn would be the best Christmas present I got this year. It was. Not that I don't appreciate the stocking filler gifts and cash from my parents but they don't have the epic-est music ever when you first start playing with them.
I've been playing GS:DD for 22+ hours now according to the info on the save screen and I'm up to the final boss. I have missed a fair chunk of stuff out though such as optional dungeons, bosses, djinn and items. I haven't missed them on purpose, I just haven't found them and I didn't want to look at a guide on my first play through. I'll have to start again when I've finished so I can get everything. I'm sure I could get a 35+ hour save file out of it which is pretty amazing.
I'm going to Liz's tomorrow to spend New Year's week with her. My resolution for 2010 was to read more books. I think I've kept to it quite well, especially over summer when I was reading a book each day for a few weeks. Last year I only read about 3/4 of a book (The Picture of Dorian Gray) so I think the 15 or so I read this year is a good improvement. I'll try to read at least as many books again this year but my new resolution is going to be to try to write more. In March I started a fictional blog, wrote four entries, then didn't know what to do next and left it. Well, in the next few days before 2011 I'm going to try and make a plan of what's going to happen in this story and then my aim is to have at least 150 entries before 2012. I'll let you know when I think it's good enough to set to public. For now, while it's still getting off the ground I'm going to leave it set to private.
I've been playing GS:DD for 22+ hours now according to the info on the save screen and I'm up to the final boss. I have missed a fair chunk of stuff out though such as optional dungeons, bosses, djinn and items. I haven't missed them on purpose, I just haven't found them and I didn't want to look at a guide on my first play through. I'll have to start again when I've finished so I can get everything. I'm sure I could get a 35+ hour save file out of it which is pretty amazing.
I'm going to Liz's tomorrow to spend New Year's week with her. My resolution for 2010 was to read more books. I think I've kept to it quite well, especially over summer when I was reading a book each day for a few weeks. Last year I only read about 3/4 of a book (The Picture of Dorian Gray) so I think the 15 or so I read this year is a good improvement. I'll try to read at least as many books again this year but my new resolution is going to be to try to write more. In March I started a fictional blog, wrote four entries, then didn't know what to do next and left it. Well, in the next few days before 2011 I'm going to try and make a plan of what's going to happen in this story and then my aim is to have at least 150 entries before 2012. I'll let you know when I think it's good enough to set to public. For now, while it's still getting off the ground I'm going to leave it set to private.
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
Greetings Zenem Ether
I had my last lectures of the term yesterday. The rest of this week's lectures have been cancelled because we've finished the notes and the workshops are optional so I don't think I'm going to bother going to them.
Since I had to uninstall Fallout 3 I've got back into Runescape. It had changed a bit in the time I had off so I had loads of dead easy tasks to do and a few harder ones that I'm working towards currently. Also, I've got my character on the high scores for a few skills which is almost an achievement.
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn came out on Friday and it will no doubt be the best Christmas present I get this year. I won't try to describe how excited I am to start it up on the DS and have the most epic music ever playing through the speakers while I start the new game that will keep me sat silently in my room for hours on end. I'm planning on playing it so much that the battery needs recharging at least twice in the first session.
Due to GS:DD being a Christmas present I was able to leave my room and go to see Jason Manford live at Blackpool Opera House on Friday evening with Liz and 10 others from Bowland. It was the first time I've been out in a large group like that in as long as I can remember. As good as it was, I think I still prefer it when it's just the two of us. The size of the group didn't affect the comedy though and it was great. The encore lasted quite a while so we all left early to make sure we were back in time to get our trains.
The other possibly noteworthy thing I can remember to have happened since my last blog is concerning Liz's nonsense of direction. We went for a walk after tea one night and didn't really know how far we were going to go before turning back. So let's just skip all the uneventful, intentionally walking away from Chancellor's Wharf and you'll find us at a crossroads. At this point we were going to head back home and, as always, I insisted that by turning left we will get to wherever we're going. I don't know what it is about suggesting we turn right but I've never really liked it. Left is just a better direction to be turning. Anyway, Liz insisted that we should turn right to get home and, because I wanted to go for a longer walk, that's the way we went.
After following Liz along a few roads and across a car park we arrived at the canal. I was confidently informed that we were on the south side of the canal and so we should go left and follow it back to Chancellor's Wharf. As good as this turning-left idea sounded, it was very cold and I was ready to be back in my warm (less cold) room. I decided that turning right would be a quicker way to get home and sure enough, from the bridge over the canal, Lancaster Cathedral was just about visible in the distance in the direction I had reluctantly suggested. This, the signpost to "White Cross Industrial Estate" and what I must assume to be a lifetime of not knowing how geography works helped Liz realise that I had a better idea about the fastest route home. It took us about half an hour to get back.
Since I had to uninstall Fallout 3 I've got back into Runescape. It had changed a bit in the time I had off so I had loads of dead easy tasks to do and a few harder ones that I'm working towards currently. Also, I've got my character on the high scores for a few skills which is almost an achievement.
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn came out on Friday and it will no doubt be the best Christmas present I get this year. I won't try to describe how excited I am to start it up on the DS and have the most epic music ever playing through the speakers while I start the new game that will keep me sat silently in my room for hours on end. I'm planning on playing it so much that the battery needs recharging at least twice in the first session.
Due to GS:DD being a Christmas present I was able to leave my room and go to see Jason Manford live at Blackpool Opera House on Friday evening with Liz and 10 others from Bowland. It was the first time I've been out in a large group like that in as long as I can remember. As good as it was, I think I still prefer it when it's just the two of us. The size of the group didn't affect the comedy though and it was great. The encore lasted quite a while so we all left early to make sure we were back in time to get our trains.
The other possibly noteworthy thing I can remember to have happened since my last blog is concerning Liz's nonsense of direction. We went for a walk after tea one night and didn't really know how far we were going to go before turning back. So let's just skip all the uneventful, intentionally walking away from Chancellor's Wharf and you'll find us at a crossroads. At this point we were going to head back home and, as always, I insisted that by turning left we will get to wherever we're going. I don't know what it is about suggesting we turn right but I've never really liked it. Left is just a better direction to be turning. Anyway, Liz insisted that we should turn right to get home and, because I wanted to go for a longer walk, that's the way we went.
After following Liz along a few roads and across a car park we arrived at the canal. I was confidently informed that we were on the south side of the canal and so we should go left and follow it back to Chancellor's Wharf. As good as this turning-left idea sounded, it was very cold and I was ready to be back in my warm (less cold) room. I decided that turning right would be a quicker way to get home and sure enough, from the bridge over the canal, Lancaster Cathedral was just about visible in the distance in the direction I had reluctantly suggested. This, the signpost to "White Cross Industrial Estate" and what I must assume to be a lifetime of not knowing how geography works helped Liz realise that I had a better idea about the fastest route home. It took us about half an hour to get back.
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
Oblivious to the gentle waves of empathy.
I spent such a long time trying to get my head around the first question on the Real Analysis homework. Literally about two hours between lectures just looking at it and reading over notes and looking at it again and drawing a scribbly little sketch of what might be happening to a function of x. I'd say my understanding did increase but it wasn't enough to get the answer on my own. In the end I decided to change the inequalities in one of the examples in the notes that didn't quite go the way the question hinted at and not worry too much about what equates to around 0.01% of the year. However, when we went to hand it in I had a look at AK's answer and it seemed to combine what I'd done with the hint from the question so I made a few amendments to my work and hoped it was a good decision. Unfortunately I still didn't understand it well enough to know if I was just making things worse so it's back to not getting too hung up on 0.01%.
I had a look at some recommended mods for Fallout 3 and now it won't let me leave to an exterior cell (or go outside if you don't want to be technical). I tried disabling all the new mods and I've still got the same problem so I'll probably have to reinstall it. That's a job for the end of the month when my quota is about to be reset.
Yesterday I changed my tariff from one that gives me free texts and £10 credit for a month for £10 to one that gives me free texts for a month for £5 but no extra credit. I thought I was still going to get the £5 credit, in which case it would have been loads better, but since I don't get the credit it works out to be pretty much the same as it was before.
I've been trying to learn some songs from The Dissent of Man on my five string guitar but I don't know the lyrics to most of them yet so it's slow progress.
I had a look at some recommended mods for Fallout 3 and now it won't let me leave to an exterior cell (or go outside if you don't want to be technical). I tried disabling all the new mods and I've still got the same problem so I'll probably have to reinstall it. That's a job for the end of the month when my quota is about to be reset.
Yesterday I changed my tariff from one that gives me free texts and £10 credit for a month for £10 to one that gives me free texts for a month for £5 but no extra credit. I thought I was still going to get the £5 credit, in which case it would have been loads better, but since I don't get the credit it works out to be pretty much the same as it was before.
I've been trying to learn some songs from The Dissent of Man on my five string guitar but I don't know the lyrics to most of them yet so it's slow progress.
Monday, 15 November 2010
Just misfit melancholy dregs.
We've full on clamped down on work this year; that's why there haven't been many blogs going up. After spending hour after hour in the library trying to get my head around the latest maths we've been taught so we can get the homework done well before it needs to be in I don't much feel like going through it all again in my head to fish out the interesting bits, especially when they usually aren't very interesting. Of course interesting things happen outside the library but that's when I'm busy catching up on food/sleep/TV/cinema/Liz/etc.
So, if you're one of the one people who don't know that Liz has gone to London to look at arty things, you might be wondering why tonight is a night I have time to write a blog. Well I'm not going to tell you.
Sophie Taylor from school was sat in front of me on the bus home today. Last year it was ages before I'd seen the four people from school who have come to Lancaster (points if you leave a comment telling me how long it was - I'm pretty sure I mentioned it around the same time as the Art meal in summer term). This year it's only Monday of week 6 and I've seen them all. I should play Pokémon again while I'm in the zone.
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time was about as good as I expected it to be considering it's a film based on a computer game. They're always a bit rubbish. Still, I'd pay the full £6 to see big screen adaptations of Zelda or Halo.
After having documents checked for the CRB I went for a talk with the guy who decides which school we go to. I don't think I got anything out of the talk other than the idea that taking more statistics modules next year might be a good idea so I can swap to a Maths and Stats degree if I so desire.
I just looked back at old posts to see what I talked about last time and I realised that with white text highlighting in black does a pretty poor job at censoring. I've gone back through my old posts and fixed any such incidences that I noticed (which should be all of them because a big black rectangle is hard to miss) and I'll try and remember to use white in the future. You get points for leaving a comment telling me if I do it in black again.
I knew full well what I wanted this blog title to be from and when I was deciding which line to have I was inevitably reminded of how bad my throat has been this weekend. Very. I could barely speak at all all weekend. My voice is back now and I just have an occasional cough.
On Friday Liz and I went to Bella Italia for tea and it was really good as time with Liz always is. I had a big posh pizza and the bannoffee pudding.
So, if you're one of the one people who don't know that Liz has gone to London to look at arty things, you might be wondering why tonight is a night I have time to write a blog. Well I'm not going to tell you.
Sophie Taylor from school was sat in front of me on the bus home today. Last year it was ages before I'd seen the four people from school who have come to Lancaster (points if you leave a comment telling me how long it was - I'm pretty sure I mentioned it around the same time as the Art meal in summer term). This year it's only Monday of week 6 and I've seen them all. I should play Pokémon again while I'm in the zone.
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time was about as good as I expected it to be considering it's a film based on a computer game. They're always a bit rubbish. Still, I'd pay the full £6 to see big screen adaptations of Zelda or Halo.
After having documents checked for the CRB I went for a talk with the guy who decides which school we go to. I don't think I got anything out of the talk other than the idea that taking more statistics modules next year might be a good idea so I can swap to a Maths and Stats degree if I so desire.
I just looked back at old posts to see what I talked about last time and I realised that with white text highlighting in black does a pretty poor job at censoring. I've gone back through my old posts and fixed any such incidences that I noticed (which should be all of them because a big black rectangle is hard to miss) and I'll try and remember to use white in the future. You get points for leaving a comment telling me if I do it in black again.
I knew full well what I wanted this blog title to be from and when I was deciding which line to have I was inevitably reminded of how bad my throat has been this weekend. Very. I could barely speak at all all weekend. My voice is back now and I just have an occasional cough.
On Friday Liz and I went to Bella Italia for tea and it was really good as time with Liz always is. I had a big posh pizza and the bannoffee pudding.
Friday, 5 November 2010
0x0=0
I have just finished Fermat's Last Theorem (the book, not the proof). I enjoyed it and I'd happily go on to read another non-fiction book next if it promised to be as interesting and had the same level of complexity. However, I don't have another non-fiction book so I'll probably read Airman next because it has been on the shelf since my birthday.
I'm in the library writing this because I didn't have anything else to do before my next lecture.
I'm mostly happy with my mark for the Probability homework this week but we spent so long on the last question it would have been nice to get ½ a mark even though we missed a chunk out.
I bought Plants Vs Zombies when it was on offer on Steam for Halloween. Best. Game. Ever. I haven't even considered going on Fallout or Oblivion or any of the others all week. I had played it for 16.2 hours by Wednesday night and I only installed it on Monday.
The latest Robin Hood film was good enough at the cinema last night but it's more of a Batman Begins style prequel to the story and I'm sure King Richard isn't supposed to die in France before anything has really happened.
Time to go to 220 now. Pointless going to be honest but I've got nothing else to do and I'm not going to spend and hour blogging.
I'm in the library writing this because I didn't have anything else to do before my next lecture.
I'm mostly happy with my mark for the Probability homework this week but we spent so long on the last question it would have been nice to get ½ a mark even though we missed a chunk out.
I bought Plants Vs Zombies when it was on offer on Steam for Halloween. Best. Game. Ever. I haven't even considered going on Fallout or Oblivion or any of the others all week. I had played it for 16.2 hours by Wednesday night and I only installed it on Monday.
The latest Robin Hood film was good enough at the cinema last night but it's more of a Batman Begins style prequel to the story and I'm sure King Richard isn't supposed to die in France before anything has really happened.
Time to go to 220 now. Pointless going to be honest but I've got nothing else to do and I'm not going to spend and hour blogging.
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