Carrots and sweetcorn.

On Saturday Liz felt ill.  We came home and the car journey knocked her a bit iffy but after some fresh air and a bit of lemonade she felt much better. 

On Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I felt ill.  I even threw up on one day.  The rest of the time I was either sat in the bathroom waiting to explode or lying in bed asleep.  Wasn't fun at all but at least I wasn't ill when I had the end of module tests like Andrew was. 

Due to the illness I didn't get up to much at all; I just sat around and played computer games and listened to Harry Potter.  Elizabeth did much the same but with more eating in between, less XBOX time (she has to be bad at something and it turns out it's using one thumb to move and one to look around) and she read out Harry Potter rather than listened to it.  She has, however, now spent over 24 hours on Pokémon.  Watching her has made me want the new(ish) HeartGold/SoulSilver. 

Something that we did not do while I was ill is go on the internet.  It decided to break almost as soon as we got home on Saturday and no amount of turning it off and then back on again would fix it.  That's the reason why there have been no blogs from me as of late.  Of course I could have stolen some unprotected NETGEAR internet from somewhere else on the street but I think that's cheating.  And as if I could have been fussed to write a blog while I was so ill. 

I'm about to eat something now for the first time since Saturday.

Dammit, Matt.

The Probability test was terrible.  In my opinion anyway.  Some people said they thought it was easy but I disagree.  On the bright side I got my results for this week's Linear Algebra coursework and test - 100% and 73% respectively.  I even beat Mike on the coursework; he only got 65%.  We'll just ignore the 98% he got on the test.

Not much else happened today.  I went to the final lecture of this module for Universe as an Art but I didn't have my glasses and by the time I'd realised I wouldn't be able to see anything we had sat down in the middle of the very back row.  Too late to move, I just tried to listen rather than watch the PowerPoint.  I ended up daydreaming on more than one occasion but at least I was one of the 24 people to turn up rather than begin the Easter holiday a couple of hours earlier. 

Dirty clothes shall be washed tonight but much later when the laundrette will be empty.  We'll have no trouble staying awake because AJ has Spotify blasting out of his room full blast and his door is open so they can hear it in the kitchen.  To be fair it is Rick's birthday and it's not like we wanted to go to bed yet so they can enjoy themselves for now.  If they're still having lots of fun after laundry then it might be sensible to sleep at Liz's tonight so that we can be up in time to go home tomorrow morning.  It'll be the first time in quite a while.  We'll probably see Matt on the way to Liz's room because he is ALWAYS THERE.  He's there so often he stores food and drink in the fridges! 

-t|x| ≠ |-tx|

The end of module test went better than I expected it to.  Not that I'm expecting a brilliant mark but I managed to answer every question.  Whether I got them right or not is a different matter but at least I didn't skip any entirely. 

In the workshop Adam, Matt and I decided to look through the Probability notes to try and guess what the questions would be on the test tomorrow.  We found some likely candidates but nothing is certain.  The strange man with long fingernails explained why (n C r) + (n C r+1) = (n+1 C r+1) but he didn't use any maths so it was a bit of a waste of 10 minutes. 

The rest of the day has been spent making revision notes and procrastinating.  As I've already done the workshop questions in the workshops I don't have any questions to practise on before the test so I'm just going to have a good read over the notes tomorrow morning and hope for the best. 

Pizzetta or chippy tonight.  We forgot to get chicken out to defrost so we'll have it tomorrow as the last proper meal we cook before Easter. 

B=P'AP

With end of module tests happening tomorrow and Friday, today was a day packed with revision.  Apart from a short break when I had a chat with Chris and the guy who lost his keys twice during freshers week and whose name I have never learned, and a slightly longer break with Liz and dinner, I crammed as much Vectors and Quadratic Forms as I could before I wanted to jump off something high.  Such a feeling came over me before I could move onto Linear Transformations but they're easy enough (touch wood) and we covered them most recently so it should all still be fresh-ish in my head. 
Despite the hours of last minute revision I am still not at all confident for the test.  It will all depend on the questions asked.  If it's similar to the past paper we looked at in today's lecture but with different numbers then good times.  If not then I'm in the soup. 

We're in the soup.

I spent some time in the Slaidburn kitchen today.  At first it was just to get help with the silly probability homework from Adam but then I stayed for almost two hours just chatting to people in there.  People came and went and Alex's mind was blown when he found out our banabar cake had Mars bars in as well as bananas.  Later on my mind was blown to learn that people mix jam into porridge!  That wasn't the strangest thing though - Andrew sprinkles oats - that would normally be used to make porridge - onto his porridge.  He might have been joking but if so then it isn't a fun story so let's just pretend he was being serious.
We also laughed at the amounts of failure our probability lecturer brings to the lectures.  Something I've never quite understood is why people who get a nervous stutter talking in front of people decide to become teachers or lecturers where they have to stand up and talk in front of people all the time.   That's like me, someone who can't learn another language for toffee, getting a job abroad.  At least I think it's like that.

Back in my own kitchen; this morning when I went in to make some toast before my first lecture I entered to find my cupboard door left open and my two glasses on the table and dirty after the party that woke Liz and myself up at 3am (and kept us awake for a good hour).  The only person who has permission to use my things is Liz and she definitely wasn't at the party which means someone else used them.  I find that thought quite disgusting - they could have any kind of skanky disease in their mouth, such as chlamydia.   I gave them a good, angry wash before heading off to start my day.
When I was back in the kitchen for tea I took the leftover chilli from the fridge.  If you've read previous posts then you might guess what I'm about to say next.  Yes, that's right - some of the chilli had been stolen!  There was a clear line around the box where the chilli had stained the plastic but the actual level of the meat was about a centimetre lower down.  Someone must have come in and scraped off a layer of food!  Who would do that?!  I wish I knew because ever since Sam told me people had had food stolen I've noticed a lot of mine go missing. And food isn't the only thing that goes missing - pans do too. I started the year with three pans - a small one, a medium one and a large one. They all had their own lids too. Some time last term I lost the medium size lid but I wasn't too bothered by it. I expected it to turn up eventually; perhaps someone had taken it by mistake, after all, three people including myself have the same set of pans.  Then today Liz went to get the medium size pan out to cook the rice in and it had disappeared.  Quite angry, I decided to just steal someone else's medium pan and let them deal with finding another.  However, there don't seem to be any medium size pans anywhere in the kitchen.  I've got my small and large on my shelf in the shared cupboard, Chris has a small and large in his own cupboard, there is a large on another shelf in the shared cupboard and there is a small waiting near the sink to be washed.  On the bright side I did find a medium size lid so I washed it and hid it away.

If I become president I'll give you a sandwich.

Round two of the Maths and Stat's Society elections happened today.  There was a tie for president and social secretary positions last week so we had to vote again for those.  Katy, Mike, Vinny and Tom gave speeches on why they would make the best social secretary (Kate and Mike)/president (Vinny and Tom) and then everyone voted.  Voting by email was allowed to let any society members who couldn't make the meeting have their say too.  This meant that we didn't find out the victors until tonight.  The winners were Mike and Vinny. 

After the Maths Café I started this week's probability homework, but it was very hard and confusing so I only managed to do one question.  I'll have to get some help with it tomorrow.  Then I'll have to get some more revision done before the end of module tests on Thursday and Friday.  I'm not looking forward to them one bit but at least they mark the end of the term. 

While I was waiting for Liz to pop into Spar to get some peppers to have with our tea and then come over, I caught up with some of the people from my flat whom to I haven't spoken in a good long while.  We laughed at the tiny fire extinguisher, which doesn't look old enough to be able to put out a fire, and the very faint writing on my door that had gone unnoticed for 20 weeks and simply says "fish murderer". 

Tea was nice and afterwards I was in the mood for a 5 minute chocolate mug cake pudding.  If only I had had some milk in the fridge. 

We're Burning Sunshine, Marine!

Yesterday Liz and I made the 5 minute chocolate mug cake for breakfast and it was amazing. 

We got the bus into town to do some food shopping so we can last this final week of term.  I was also going to get another controller for the 360 but it totally slipped my mind.  We shall have to journey to St Helens over the holidays instead.  I'll be able to get Halo:ODST in the same trip too so it'll be good.  We're planning to play through all four Halo games on co-op while we're at mine; I just hope Liz doesn't get bored/annoyed with them.  If she does we'll have to make even more food instead.  We plan on making bread, jam and fudge, but that list keeps on growing.  I can't wait to get home now.  After listening to the Halo soundtracks I really want to play the games again.

Back in Fylde, Liz read the final chapters of The Picture of Dorian Gray aloud to me so I could say I'd finished at least one book this year.  So much for my New Year's resolution to read more - month 3 and I've finished a total of one.  It was really boring though.  The language Oscar Wilde uses is too...descriptive?  Every little detail that didn't need explaining is explained.  It sort of felt like he had a story but it was too short so he needed to pad it out - like in school when an essay isn't quite long enough so you put random waffle in to bump up the word count. 

For tea we grilled the burgers we had bought from the butchers in town.  I thought they were brilliant.  We have some more (but a different kind) for tonight and I am very much looking forward to them.

Avatar was on at the university cinema.  We got there 20 minutes before doors even opened to make sure we got our seats but we still weren't the first to arrive.
The film was epic.  I was totally engrossed in it.  When Jake was giving the big "This is our land!" speech and all the Na'vi cheered I had to stop myself from joining in with the cheering.  I liked the characters I was supposed to like and I hated the characters I was supposed to hate.  The only thing I didn't like was how Jake just got rid of his alien pterodactyl thing for the big red and orange dragon monster bird.  There was some emphasis on how the alien pterodactyls stay with their rider for life and then it was cast aside just like that, never to be seen again.
When we left the cinema Liz and I said that despite it being an awesome film we wouldn't go to see it two nights on the run.  Now, however, a day later, I think I would go and see it again tonight if there was nothing else to do.  But there will be something else to do so that's irrelevant.

Feed me, woman!

Mike and Andrew invented a new drinking game in the maths lecture yesterday.  The rules were you had to take a drink every time the probability lecturer repeated herself or said "um".  I thought it sounded like a good one although it would be very expensive and everyone would be too smashed by the end of the recap to learn anything. 

Following the lecture was the workshop where I got my Linear Algebra homework back.  I got 95% because my tutor in that one is nice.  I only dropped half a mark because I had a 2 that should have been a 4 appearing through half an answer.  If the other guy had marked it I'd probably have failed. 

On the way home from the lecture we bumped into Adam, Alex and Matt.  Adam convinced me that by not going to Universe as an Art my weekend could start now!  So I went to get a butty and milkshake from Spar and then popped up to see Liz.  Then we went on a walk.  We saw the guys playing footy and I sort of wanted to join in but Elizabeth didn't let me; to make absolutely sure, she stood in a load of mud so she had to go and clean her shoe. 

Where The Wild Things Are was on at the cinema and it was sad.  I think I was expecting it to be better than it was but it was quite sad all the way through and there weren't enough happy bits to balance it out.  All the characters were angry at each other and then upset with each other and then really angry at each other and then the giant chicken's arm got ripped off.  

I ate all the fudge before it started.

The gig last night was amazing.  It was worth the money just to see the guy who played guitar while people were arriving and Jimmy McGhie but then we got Andi Osho and Jon Richardson too! 

Liz told me it started at 7:30 so we arrived in good tome to get a decent seat.  We could have had any of them.  We could have chosen our own chairs and put them wherever we wanted to because they were still setting them up when we got there.  It turned out that doors opened at 7:30 and the gig started much later.  But that was fine. 

When we showed our tickets to the ticket people I saw a guy I went to primary school and high school with in front of us in the queue.  I knew he was at Lancaster but I'd gone 19 weeks without bumping into him around campus so I didn't expect to see him in the last 10 weeks.  Despite not having seen each other since the end of high school years ago, an "o-reet" and nod of the head was enough of a catch up for us. Now there's only one person from school I am yet to encounter. 

The gig finished after 11 and then it was bed time. 

Induced Sample Space = {-2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 4} is the Induced Sample Space.

Today was going so well.  I went to both lectures, went for a walk with Liz, had dinner, and got to my workshop on time.  Then it all went down hill.

My tutor gave back my assessed questions and commented on some of my answers as is the usual practice.  Once again he said I hadn't written enough explanation.  Usually I can sort of see where he's coming from but this time it was ridiculous. The question had given some information and then asked

"Find the induced sample space for R"

My course notes say

"The range of values taken by the random variable R defined on Ω, that is {R(ω) : ω ϵ Ω}, is known as the induced sample space for R and is written as S"

Which basically says S is the symbol for the induced sample space so my answer to the question was

S={-2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 4}

I should point out that Matt's answer was the same.  Also that Matt got the marks.  I, however, did not get the marks.  My tutor had a right go at me and said I needed to explain that S was the induced sample space, despite what is written in the notes.  He said I should have written

S={-2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 4} is the Induced Sample Space.

Which to me would read "The Induced Sample Space = {-2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 4} is the Induced Sample Space."
That's just silly.

It reminded me of the X Y is X meme.  From Encyclopedia Dramatica, 

X Y is X (XY=X) is the horrendously overused and clichéd algebraic format that *channers use to express their feelings towards something. Whether it be <3, h8, elation, sadness, or even a strong sexual urge, this textual meme is a convenient way for you to say what's on your mind without actually having to use it...The general idea is that by repeating yourself and being unnecessarily redundant, your arguments and ideas will make more sense and will cease to be completely idiotic.

(Be warned that all links go to Encyclopedia Dramatica pages that are probably full of swearing and inappropriate pictures and advertisements)
Here are some of the examples given on Encyclopedia Dramatica:

• Obvious troll is obvious.
• Long cat is long.
• Redundant phrase is redundant.

I need to go see some live comedy to reduce my anger at losing marks despite getting everything right.  Oh look, Jon Richardson is doing a gig at the university tonight and I've got tickets.  That's fortunate.

Facebumlump

'Nuff said.

At least it was enough until we saw Wookielips.

Liz and I were looking at the names from a Random Name Generator and there was an option to generate insults.  One of them was Facebumlump.  Can you imagine getting so annoyed at someone that you finally  snapped and screamed "YOU FACEBUMLUMP!"?

Since no other randomly generated insult could top facebumlump we moved onto 'mushy names'.  Apparently it would be a compliment to call someone "wookielips".  Who knew?

Your Mum.

Linear Algebra was actually quite interesting for a change.  I can't remember any of what we were learning but the lecturer will almost certainly spend 20 minutes of tomorrow's lecture recapping.  I was surprised to see a lot of my friends there considering it was a 9 o'clock start.

After the lecture I helped Adam with the probability homework even though he wants to do statistics next year; he really shouldn't be getting stuck on anything in this module after his A-level Stat's. 

On the way home from handing in my assessed questions I saw someone from the rowing society going to hand his work in and, as has been the case ever since I left the club, I was ignored.  Seriously, it was as if I wasn't even there.  There are a measly two people (and a half - was Simms giving me a nod or just agreeing with the friend he was with?) out of however many were in the club when I was who still acknowledge me if they walk past; the rest seem to have forgotten I was ever there.  But I don't mind, it means I have less people to be polite to.  Anyway, that was not my point.  My point was that this guy I walked past was talking about rowing training to his friend.  His friend did not seem interested.  I chuckled to myself inside. 
Later, on the way into the lecture, I passed the two of them again.  The rowing conversation was still in full swing.  The friend did not seem any more interested now than he had done before.  I belly-laughed to myself inside.

Bacon sandwich for dinner and then a big walk to the post office for a Mother's Day card, to the doctors for Liz to get a prescription for more moisturiser, to the comedy night venue so we know where we're going tomorrow, to mine for the bananas to make a banabar cake that we ended up not making, to the post box to post the Mother's Day card, and finally back to Liz's to listen to the Dave Gorman podcast. 

After eating the mince and returning to my room I checked Blogger to see if there were any new posts.  What I saw excited me immensely.

That sensation when something reminds you of something else
posted by Haze

Hazel promised to write a story blog for me so, naturally, that's what I expected this to be.  As I read, however, my heart sank.  It sank a little more with every word I read as I quickly came to realise that there was no story.  But I stayed hopeful - perhaps the story would follow the this-is-what-I've-been-up-to-since-I-last-posted bit.  It did not.  I was upset.  I felt betrayed.  I didn't know what to think or who to trust any more - I had so easily believed a lie; fallen victim to a cruel, cruel joke at my own expense.

Oops, I just finished a packet of biscuits.

The homework was hard.  I'm not entirely confident with my answers but I've given it a good go and that's the best I can do. 

The final lecture of my day consisted of more lame 24 references and creme eggs than physics.  I, however, did not get a creme egg.  If it's a choice between standing up in front of everyone and eating a messy treat or staying sat down away from the focus of everyone's attention then there's very little chance I'm going to move. 

Liz and I dined at Pizzetta Republic once again.  I chose a ham and pineapple pizza and Elizabeth went for a jacket potato with tuna and sweetcorn.  The potato took so long to cook that I had finished my pizza before Liz's plate had even appeared.  Good job I hadn't been polite and waited for her meal to arrive before starting mine! 

At 7:30 Liz headed off to her SSAGO child themed party and I wrote up my neat copy of the homework.  I miss the days when I could do everything right straight away and produce a neat enough first draft to hand in.  Now it can take as many as three drafts.  As I did this Hazel began talking to me on Facebook chat and we had a pleasant, if a little short, conversation. 

Banging in the seminar.

Woohoo, it's Tuesday.  I have just got in after four hours of things.  Lecture, seminar, lab test, lecture. 
Neither of the two lectures kept my attention for the full 50 minutes. 
The seminar taught us that we have loads more time to do our project than we thought - we've got about 7 weeks more than we expected.  Also I nailed the rest of the track down (with a hammer; hence the title) but another group was using the Stanley knife so we couldn't do the very last bit. 
The lab test was OK but I got different answers to some people so I'm not 100% confident.  Some other people did get the same as me though so fingers crossed. 

Now it is time for me to do my homework.  Hopefully I'll get it all done today and won't have to miss any lectures tomorrow to get it written up. 

Give me some of your tots.

Even more milkshake has gone.  But whatever, I wasn't going to drink it anyway; not after the first time their skanky mouth touched the bottle. Still, if whoever is stealing our stuff is reading this - STOP STEALING OUR STUFF!  Go find your own!

Anyway, with that out of the way, today was the Maths and Stat's Society elections.  Mike was running for Social Secretary so we went and voted for him.  He tied 17-17 with another candidate so we'll have to vote again next week.  I ate lots of free biscuits. 

Now I am going to draw some pictures for Stones while I decide what happens next.  

"I can get behind THAT!"

The walk into town was cold.  Still better than getting the bus and feeling ill though.
We got into town about an hour before the film was due to start so we bought some food from Gregg's and ate it on the bench next to the fountain.  There was a strange man playing loud music from an ancient looking boom-box that had cassettes in it rather than 20th or 21st Century technology. 

As we finished our dinner there was still a fair while before the film but we decided to spend the rest of the time waiting in the cinema rather than out in the cold.  Good job too as there was already a queue and by the time the film started there were no seats left in the room!

The film was great and the 3D was good - there were a few occasions when I closed my eyes because it looked like something was flying straight out of the screen.  But in the end these moments were few and far between and weren't enough for me to think it was worth getting a massive headache for.  My headache was quite bad and by the end of the film I just wanted to close my eyes and put my head down.  I think the problem came from how my eyes tried to focus on the images that they were tricked into thinking were 3D but were all just on the same two dimensional plane.  The camera would dictate which parts of the film you were allowed to focus on and, just as with 2D, anything that was nearer or further away than what was being focussed on was blurry.
So all in all a very good film was slightly ruined by a technology that is becoming increasingly popular these days.  Why it's becoming so popular I'm not sure.  I agree that 3D is a lot better than it used to be but just because it's better doesn't mean it's good.

Let's get naked!

I thought Twilight 2 was good.  Of course it would have been better if Edward had burst into flames when he stepped into the sunlight rather than sparkle; and if Bella had stopped being such an emo; and if Jacob had realised that getting naked wasn't going to heal a cracked skull...
The list goes on now I think about it. But unless I think about it too much I shall consider it to be much better than I expected and quite enjoyable to watch.  Especially when compared to some of the films we've seen this term (cough cough Goodbye Solo cough cough). 

Twilight was followed by QI XL was followed by bed. 

Was followed by Heroes.  I like Heroes but when the credits roll I always feel like I've spent 40 minutes watching nothing happen. 

Soon we shall walk into town and watch Alice in Wonderland 3D. 

Sugar Rush.

Lazy day today.  But as brilliant as sleep is, the banabar cake was easily enough to lure us out of bed.

Breakfast cake was followed by pancake dinner which was all going fine and well until Elizabeth decided to make a tiny pancake before the pan was hot enough.  She tried to convince me that, because the first pancake is always a bit rubbish anyway, she was wasting less of the mix on it and then there would be more left for good pancakes.  It seemed to make sense but the second pancake (the first normal sized one) was just as bad not-as-good as the first pancake usually is. 

With hours and hours to fill before going to see Twilight 2 at the university cinema I decided to have a crack on RuneScape.  It had been a while since I last logged in (although not that long; perhaps four or five days?) and the first thing I noticed was another player's character do 47 damage!  This both amazed and scared me as my max. hit was a mere 11.  What scared me more was that, according to the health bar, the monster he had attacked was nowhere near dead! 
Just as I was about to teleport to safety I noticed that my health was at 500 rather than the 50 I remembered it being.  I later found out that everything to do with health and damage had been scaled up by a factor of 10.  This was so new players would do zero damage less often which, as I remember well, is extremely annoying.  So a thumbs up to the health update. 

Tea was not as sugar-filled as I might have liked but the stir fry was good nonetheless.  At least we thought so until we noticed that some pieces of chicken was still ever so slightly pink on the inside.  After spotting this we became fairly reluctant to eat any more without thoroughly inspecting it first.  Oh well, we had enough yoghurt and biscuits to fill the small gap left after finishing the meal sans chicken. 

But the biscuits and yoghurt are cinema snacks.

BIDMAS?

In maths this morning Matt asked me a question.

"Do you add first or times first?  Each way will give different answers"

I couldn't believe he had asked me that.  From about the age of 10 people are taught that you do brackets, powers, division, multiplication, addition and finally subtraction in that order.
Everyone in a Y7 maths lesson knows the acronym BIDMAS (or BODMAS. The I and O stand for indices and order respectively).
So after that question Matt has failed his degree.  Poor Matt.

In other news, someone drank my milkshake! It made me angry.  You may remember reading in a previous post, Lecture? No. Lecture? No. Bacon? YES., that my flatmate Sam had mentioned a food thief in the flat.  At the time I hadn't been able to think of anything that had gone missing besides a crust from a loaf of bread.  However, since the conversation I remembered that a slice of my home-made flapjack had mysteriously vanished from my shelf in the fridge.  At the time I'd shrugged it off and put it down to me forgetting that I'd eaten it but after finding out there is a food thief I began to wonder whether or not it was the correct conclusion to come to.
So with all the talk of food thieves, when I decided to put a half empty bottle of banana milkshake in the fridge I thought it might be a good idea to draw a line on the bottle so I knew exactly how much was left.  Indeed it was a good idea; today when I took my milkshake out of the fridge and checked to see how much was left, I found the level to have dropped by an inch!
I have been struck by the food thief too!
I decided to draw another line on at the new level of the milk and put it back in the fridge without drinking any myself.  As if I want to put a bottle that someone else has drank from against my lips.  Maybe I should fill it up with bleach to the level it was at when I first put it in the fridge and hope that they have another sneaky swig.

2 x 65% = 130%

Having to be ready by 9am is actually painful.  Physically painful.  But I managed it.  Didn't understand anything in either of my lectures though so I'd have learned just as much if I'd stayed in bed all day.  I feel guilty if I miss lectures though and they are kind of the point in being at university so it's generally better that I don't miss too many in a week. 

After my second lecture with Michael McIntyre Martin Lindsay I was asked by the man himself to stay behind with all the other people who were unfortunate enough to be sat at the end of a row while he asked us some questions about how we're finding the course and if he could make any improvements to his teaching style, or if we needed to spend more time on certain ideas to make sure we understood them fully, or anything else along those lines.  The group seemed fairly reluctant to speak to him.  There's just something about lecturers that makes us not want to talk to them directly.  Especially if they have a nose which is this shade of purple.  A terror comes across us and we fully expect to make a Freudian slip and make a reference to the sheer brightness of the nose. 

In the two hours before my workshop I started a draft for my fictional blog, The Stones of Arzingdale, and came up with a much better first post than I had done originally.  It made so much more sense and didn't start it all off in some silly way that felt typical of something a 10 year old would write in primary school English lessons. I only got about half way through before I had to leave for the workshop but I was still very pleased that I have found a way to start it off that makes sense in the context of the world it is set in.  There is also an excuse for the character to be keeping a diary so I don't have to have that question looming over me.  Good times. 

Post-workshop Adam and I went to collect the portfolio for our Universe as an Art project that we have been working on this term only to find that it had the lowest mark in the class and half the pages were missing.  Our tutor clearly hadn't looked where he was supposed to to find our contributions and had marked it based on what was there.  We want a remark.  Hopefully we'll get one.  If not then we wasted about two hours working on it and we'll be angry.  Adam might even punch someone. 
Having  said that, we did get 65% after only handing half the work in.  If we do get a remark and the missing half is as good as the 65% bit we'll be on 130%! 

No film tonight because we aren't fussed about seeing Paranormal Activity.  Instead I continued the draft of the first post in Stones while Liz used her über art skills to draw pictures of places mentioned in it.  Happy with my work, I typed it up and published it.  Yay!
I'll aim for two posts per week on there and hopefully they will all have at least one picture with them to give a little more idea what the areas visited are like without filling the text with descriptions of scenery that wouldn't realistically be written in a diary. 

Lecture? No. Lecture? No. Bacon? YES.

I finally managed to crawl out of bed at about 8:15 this morning.  The plan was to have a shower and get ready for my 9 o'clock lecture, then afterwards I would come back and write up the neat copy of my homework, then another lecture, then do the online assessment, then the psychology study, then bacon. 

However, by the time I was out of the shower it was already too late to consider going to Math114; instead I did my homework. I even did the last question that I'd previously given up on, albeit at the expense of missing my second and final lecture of the day.  And I wasn't the only one to miss that lecture.  At 11:45 I wandered over to hand in my work and I bumped into four of my friends and I was asked if the lecture had just finished.  My reply was a comical shrug and a grunt that almost sounded like a "dunno". 

After a quick walk around the pond outside the Statistics building to look for the ducks, Turtle and Rabbit, and after spending some hard earned money on milkshake, I headed to my kitchen and had some cereal. 
My flatmate, Sam, asked me if I'd had any food mysteriously go missing.  Besides one crust from a loaf of bread that disappeared a few weeks ago nothing had gone so I was quite surprised to learn that nearly everyone else in the flat has had food stolen.  No one seems to know who the thief is but I can't help feeling that people might start to suspect that it's me if I'm the only one who hasn't had anything taken.  I am most certainly not the one taking the food though; I have enough of my own.

The psychology study was about memory for word lists.  Not much else to say about it really. 

Went straight to Liz's from the study and she made bacon butties for dinner.  They were good.  After that we walked to art so she could buy arty things and then we ate a pineapple. 

My fictional blog had its first post published yesterday afternoon but by bed time it had been deleted because it would have set the story off in a direction I'd rather it not take.  I'll let you know when I've decided how to get the ball rolling and kicked it off properly. 

Project Status: Complete

Today was the busy day.  Always is.  I have lectures from 10-12, then a break, then 1-2, then another break, then 5-6.  There's a lot of break in there to be fair but compared with some of my other days (such as Monday when I've only got one hour of maths) it feels like a lot. 
Especially since my lab110 group met up for an hour too.  Although that time flew by and we got everything started and finished and working and tested and submitted within the single session because Scott is a genius and just typed it out and got it right first go.  Glad someone in my group knew what they were doing because the rest of us would have had no chance.

I was very tempted not to go to my seminar at 11 but the possibility of carrying on with the group work was enough to persuade me to show up.  MISTAKE.  We didn't do group work; we did a silly quiz in which we had two lists of physicsy phrases and we had to match up the words from one list with the words from the other.  Similar to the kind of exercise you do in primary school. 

Other than Liz taking very close up photos of my face for her art project nothing much has happened today so goodtoodliebyes. 

Apologies for the inconvenience

The film A Serious Man was supposed to be on at the university cinema last night but when we got there we found a sign on the door that said

TONIGHT'S SHOWING OF A SERIOUS MAN HAS BEEN CANCELLED

Liz and I were very disappointed.  Especially since the Monday film isn't repeated later in the week. 
Instead we came back to my room and watched Enchanted on DVD; one of the presents I bought Liz for Valentine's Day.  Good times.
We didn't have a proper tea for tea though because neither of us felt hungry enough so instead we ate some pasta that I'd had in the fridge for a while and three sausage rolls.
After the film I gave Liz a massage because her muscles were aching and then we went to bed.

Now my alarm has gone off for the second snooze time and if I don't get dressed now I'm going to be late for my lectures. 

Looking them up.

Do you ever wonder how to do something even though you've known how to do it for years? I certainly do.  I'm not talking about things that aren't done very often and hence aren't practised as much as might be necessary to keep it as a tip-top skill, for example cooking a certain meal.  I know the technique to cooking a stir fry just as well as the next guy, but I'm sure I'd make more delicious meals if I made them every day, simply because I'd get more practice at it.

But that's not what I'm talking about.  I'm talking about things that you do do every day, without even realising that you're doing them.  Then one day, when you have no reason to expect any extraordinary events unfolding, you notice that you're doing it.

You can't help but focus all of your attention onto this action no matter how mundane it is.
You become obsessed with it.
You notice the way other people do it and how their way is ever so slightly different to yours.
You begin to wonder - "which way is the right way?"


Now there are three options:

1. Carry out a study and see how most people do it.  Then if a significant majority do it a certain way it's probably right.  The example I was thinking of while I was writing this was how people hold a pen.  Most people hold a pen the same way but we all know someone who holds it between the wrong fingers or with their hand upside down or something even more crazy.  
2. See how a professional does it.  If you want to improve your breaststroke technique then watching the breaststroke world champion can't be the worst idea in the world.
3. Look it up online. By far the easiest for most 21st century folk.  There's a website for anything you can imagine and if you can find a few different websites telling you to do something in the same way then it's not too hard to convince yourself that that is how it should be done.  This example is very fresh in my mind as it was how to write a good blog.  Most of the websites I visited said the same things such as use a real language rather than internet speak or something similar in which many letters are missed out or replaced by numbers or punctuation marks.  Now that is something I didn't need to be told but I felt the example got my point across well.  

So there. 

Let me know if any of you have had the same experience of wanting to know the 'right' way to do something that you'd never had any trouble doing before, or if you've suddenly forgotten how to do something that you've been doing since childhood (lots of people say they occasionally forget how to walk for seemingly no reason). 
One last thing to say - I'm going to be starting another blog soon.  Won't be anything like this one.  Instead it will be a Fictional Blog.  I got the idea when I was researching for this one and thought it would be an interesting project. 

Anyway, it's time for the cinema so away I go.