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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

What's wrong with a kiss, boy? Hmm?

100% on all homeworks this week.  Happy times.  Everyone's jealous.  I'm about half way through Fermat's Last Theorem too.  I rather enjoy all my time in the library this year. 

The university cinema is having the Fright Night tonight but Liz and I have decided not to bother because last year we missed half the films due to falling asleep in the middle of them and it would mean tomorrow would be a tired and lazy day in which no work was done.  Plus we didn't get cheap tickets earlier in the week; we didn't go to watch Lebanon because we couldn't be bothered with a war film with subtitles and we didn't go to see Sex And The City 2 because the trailer seemed to have all the best bits and it still looked shit.

Since Fallout: New Vegas came out last week I've spent a little time watching Chris play it.  When I started watching I really wanted to get it myself to play but the more I saw the more I was able to resist.  There are so many bugs and glitches and it has already had three patches.  It's a bit pathetic to be honest.  I'll definitely be able to go without it until it gets fixed.  There a plans for DLC to be released around Christmas so hopefully it will be much more playable by then and there might be money off for Christmas.  I've got Fallout 3 to keep me busy until then.

I need more black ink for my printer and I left the plug at home so I've had to borrow Liz's.  The pin board in my room does not like having pins in it so it still isn't in use.  I have the CRB application now and I'm going to need a load of documents to prove I'm me and that I'm a good person.

Mouse < Elephant

I suppose I haven't quite fallen back into blogging frequently now I'm back at university.  I'll try harder; I promise. 

I've had a full week of lectures now.  We have three modules on the go at once.  12 hours per week plus time taken for homework/revision. 
MATH210 is a bit confusing.  It is heavily focused on proving things rather than working out specific cases so everyone seems to be complaining about it because they miss school and college level maths.  Also, no one likes the lecturer very much.  I don't mind doing proofs and having a lecturer who speaks clearly and in an easy-to-understand accent though so I don't mind getting up on a Monday and Tuesday afternoon.  Also, by "everyone" and "no one", I am, of course, referring to the small number of friends I have in maths lectures. 

The first booklet for MATH220 is exactly the same as the first booklet for MATH114 from last year but with bits missed out so I haven't been able to concentrate on anything yet.  Instead of listening, I spend lectures reading through my old notes and filling in gaps in the new ones.  The lecturer seems like he'll be pretty good at explaining the new stuff whenever we get to it so that's something to look forward to. 

MATH230 is Probability.  Our lecturer is Spanish or Italian or something like that so she has a really strong accent and is difficult to understand.  The actual work is easy enough so far though so it isn't too bad.  The first week was mainly revision of MATH104 from last year and was easy enough to follow. 

I was going to write a paragraph about how annoying certain ones of everyone/no one were when they were claiming, with the utmost confidence, that the notes were wrong, that the 210 notes are exactly the same as last year and that if we fail our Masters then we leave university with absolutely nothing but debt.  The notes were unsurprisingly correct and only the 220 notes are the same.  I don't know what happens if we fail our Masters but I'd be willing to bet we get our BSc if we do well enough in Part II, regardless of how we do in the fourth year.  Instead, I decided to write a paragraph about how I was going to write a paragraph about it. 

I don't know where my printer cable is for plugging it in so I'm borrowing Liz's for now while she has no use for it. 

My phone froze today and when it unfroze it had decided to go through a few screens and reformat my memory card so I lost everything that was saved on it. 

Chris and I have played the Halo: Reach Campaign and Firefight game modes to death so we decided to make a Mario Kart style race track in the map editor.  We also made a bouncy cage of death in the middle of the sky for general having a laugh killing each other again and again with swords, gravity hammers, rockets and/or grenades. 

Good, huge food in the White Cross on Saturday when my parents came.  My guitar still isn't fixed because the machine head didn't fit.  Lord of the Rings trilogy before Hazel comes and takes them back home next weekend.  Cemetery Junction tonight at the university cinema.  Bus to campus now before Liz goes mental. 

Taking it like a man.

I've been meaning to write a blog about getting back to Lancaster all week but I've been busy spending time with Liz and playing Halo: Reach with Chris next door. 

It has been a good first week back.  My new room in Chancellor's Wharf is good and sharing the bathroom and small kitchen hasn't been a problem at all.  I've met my flatmates and they all seem like nice people so I don't see why any of us won't be able to get on well all year.  None of them have been having parties at 3 a.m. so  it's an improvement on living with Kelsey last year.  Becky and John from SSAGO live in the flat next door to continue the huge coincidences of people Liz and I know living right there.  

I was able to get a new machine head for my acoustic guitar so my dad is going to bring it up next time he gets a chance. 

Mike Davies hasn't had a great Freshers' Week and has gone home because he couldn't handle not knowing people or something.  I'm not sure.  He's coming back tomorrow before lectures start.  I was under the impression that he was too shy to join in with a conversation and talk to people who already knew each other (so if everyone was talking in the kitchen he wouldn't be able to go in and get to know them) but he wasn't helping himself by pretending not to be in when the Freshers' Rep's knocked on everyone's doors to get them all chatting and getting acquainted.  I had said I'd try and help him get settled in but I have no idea what I could do to help if he won't even talk to people who don't know each other already. 

I'm going to go and play Halo: Reach again now while Liz is busy with arty things. 

"God hates baguettes. "

I've just got back from a meal out with my parents and Mike Davies' (not to be confused with Mike Davies) family.  It was alright.  He's starting Lancaster University on Sunday (he's in Fylde college) so his parents thought it would be good for him to know someone who had already experienced Freshers' Week and could let him know what to expect.  Also it was a chance for them to catch up as they have been friends for about 100 years.  My dad sat in the corner and joined in conversation with slurred speech about 5 minutes after they'd finished. 

I can't wait to be back in Lancaster with Liz because it's much better than being in Garswood without her. 

I started packing today.  Now I've got two half empty bags that are half full with pens and notepads and files and folders.  There is also a bag that has the books Liz brought for me to read last time she was here.  More on that later. I'm going to spend tomorrow packing everything up apart from my laptop so I can go early on Saturday morning and arrive in time to have a decent pick of the kitchen space.

At the weekend I tried to get a new machine head for my acoustic guitar but none of the shops had a spare one for me to buy.  I didn't fancy paying £15 for six when I only need one.  I'll try the shops in Lancaster next week and if I can get a replacement I'll ask my dad to bring the guitar up on his way to/from work.

Over the last few weeks I've been reading and reading and playing Golden Sun and reading.  But I got bored of Golden Sun when I decided I wanted a load of rare items and it was taking me too long to get them.  The Bartimaeus Trilogy was fantastic and I had wished that it wouldn't end and I could just keep reading it forever.  Obviously I eventually got to the end so I started An Abundance Of Katherines.  I'm up to chapter six.  I wanted to like it, really I did, but it's just so silly and the main character is so annoying.  As if anyone would know 19 people called Katherine - none of whom shorten their name in any way and none of them spell it 'Catherine' - and all of them would be the same age as him (or close enough) and all of them would date him (and then dump him).  Even more ridiculous is that he isn't even 18 yet.  19 girlfriends before turning 18 is hard to believe but I could cope with it and call it poetic license.  I think I could accept 19 girlfriends all called Katherine, too, if there was the possibility that some of them shortened their name or spelled it with a 'C' or both.  But K-A-T-H-E-R-I-N-E 19 times?  It's taking things a bit too far.  However, I wanted to like it so I just went with the flow.  Then I found out how annoying the main character is.  He's so depressed because of being dumped for the 19th time by someone called Katherine.  He needs to man the fug up (fug?  Surely that should be fuck?).  If he's smart enough to come up with a theorem that "predicts the future of any relationship", as the synopsis on the back cover seems to suggest, then he should be able to work out that he might be better off trying a girl with a different name.  I know it isn't correct to think that the next Katherine will follow the trend and dump him - each Katherine should be independent of the others - just like it isn't correct to think 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 won't come up on the lottery.  But, despite it having as much chance as any other combination of six numbers between 1 and 49, you'd never make 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 the numbers you pick every week.  Similarly, you wouldn't risk another heartbreak with another Katherine after being dumped 18 times by girls called Katherine.  And that's why it's my pick of the week.

Master Chief's Spartan Laser lets out a howl!

Had my hair cut today.  Then Lucy came to show me her new car and we went for a drive.  We were going to walk around on top of the hill but it was too muddy and we were hardly wearing the right shoes for it so we came back to my house and had a chat in the kitchen.  We would have gone to meet people for a bit but we couldn't think of anyone who wasn't back at uni or busy getting ready to go back or at work. 

This summer I've seen Mike, Laura and Lucy so, with no more friends left to catch up with, there's nothing more to do other than go back to Lancaster. 

Except there is more to do.  I need new trainers, a backpack, slippers and to finally get my acoustic guitar fixed.  I'll try to get an early night so I can go to Wigan tomorrow morning and sort all of those things out.

I'm going to have to do a lot of reading next week if I'm going to finish all these books in time.  I'm bored of level grinding on Golden Sun now though so I don't have as many distractions. 

The Halo soundtracks are making me want to go out and shoot aliens.  It doesn't feel right having such epic music playing while I just sit in my room at the laptop - I should be out saving the galaxy!