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.