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(editors note: The archives read bottom to top. There are entries between this and the start of the weblog, but they've been lost. the weblog begins here)
21 February, 2000Who would have thought that writing was so difficult?
Well, I would. It took me 3 months to design and write the 25 pages of Top5, admittedly most of that was done in 3 days. Now I have 90 books to write about, I'm managing to group them up into blocks of 5 or 6 at the moment, which is only... 15ish bits. The problem is that 5 or 6 s an average, and I can sometimes summon 7 or 8 - or even a whole series - in one piece. It has to be a fairly long piece though so I supose it averages out... So it's not saving me much writing. Last night, as yesterdays entry attests to, was interesting. The flatmate who suggested it didn't even make it out of the flat. I think I'll go home next weekend and talk to the people I havn't seen since I failed my exams. Unless I have to work... Heh, heh, heh.
Gah. I have just come back from Manor Quay, the Student Union nightclub, it is 1am and I left early. Why? That is the reason for this entry, so stay awake, young grasshopper, and you may learn something.
The most commern question I am asked IRL is "Why are you at Sunderland University" and the direct result to that is my other most asked question (apart from "how do I...?") which is: "How the (flick) did you fail the exams?" This has many answers. The first is the standard answer "They are all essay based and I am (not good - ed) at essays" which is a cover for the real answer, which is "I didn't work hard enough". I'm sorry, I'm dirgressing. I do that when I'm drunk, and I am reasonably drunk and so am digressing. It's odd, My co-ordination gets worse when I drink, but my balance and agility get better. Very strange. Sorry, I'll stop digressing now.
The next reaction I get is "How did you cope?" and this is the clincher. Over the past 19 years I have had great sucess in putting my hatred, fear and general depression into things. For example, when I failed my exams, all of them as far as I was concerned, the first thing I did was go to the cinema with my friends. We watched Austin Powers 2, then went to Mc Donalds, then bought a couple of bottles of wine and watched Labyrinth, and all the energy I would have put into being depressed went into that.
There is, there always is, a down-side, and in this case it is the fact that from then on, every time you see/hear/read the film/CD/Story you put the troubles into you will be reminded of exactly the reasons in the first place. And when Sunderland Univerity Student's Union's Nightclub decided to show AP2 tonight, there was no way I could spend my night there. Especially on the birthday of one of the people I went to that fateful showing with.
And so I came home, by taxi, at 12:45pm. I know it is technically Saturday, but there was no entry for friday, I haven't slept since Thursday, and I might want to write an entry tomorrow. In the meantime, G'night everybody, and, before I go,
Happy Birthday Kate.
(Note that even drunk out of my skull I write more valid HTML then some people :-)
I S'pose it pre-dates the Internet boom, but then so does Bagpuss.
*sigh*
Site stuff? The site map continuing apace, but Aquarionics constantly evolving - I added a Java/IRC Applet to The Eddings Section just yesterday- faster than I can be bothered to update the map :-)
Although doing it in Perl might be better... Hmmmm...
I have been accused of a heinous crime, lethargy.
As a student I, apparently, "Sit on my arse all day playing computer games". So I present my day for your perusal:
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8:00 |
the strains of Chumbawamba's "Amnesia" revive me from slumber. |
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Wake up, get out of bed, drag a comb across my head and collect my bag. |
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8:30 |
The one and only bus from my flat to uni leaves. 90% of the time I am on it. |
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8:40 |
Find some kind of cup of coffee and drink. |
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9:00 |
Collect E-Mail, Get up-to-date on various web-sites |
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10:00 |
1st Lecture |
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11:00 |
2nd Lecture/1st Tutorial (depends on day) |
(all times after this depend on day. I am using today (Wednesday) not my busiest day)
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11:30 |
Read AFE and chat on #eddings while starting work |
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1:00 |
Work on Visual Basic exercises, manage to crash Windows NT while attempting to win bottle of champagne. Pity crashing NT wasn't the criteria, or else I would be very drunk by now :-) |
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2:00 |
It begins to snow |
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2:15 |
Catch the bus into town and go shopping. |
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2:45 |
Stand in town awaiting the same bus to take me closer to home. |
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2:47 |
Realise, standing in the snow, that walking would be faster. |
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2:50 |
Get overtaken by bus. |
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3:15 |
Frozen solid, soaked to the bone, looking like I have a terminal case of dandruff and having discovered that my left shoe isn't water/snow proof, I arrive back at the flat. |
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3:16 |
Get cup of tea. |
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3:17 |
Sit down and study. |
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(ok, so I'm studying the pages of Gormengast, but nevermind) |
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4:30 |
Start watching childrens TV |
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5:00 |
Start cooking dinner |
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5:45 |
finish dinner (Old El'paso stuff) and start diary entry. |
And here I am. You will be amused to note that my typing speed has decreased by about 75% this week. Mainly because I finally got an erganomic keyboard and am desperatly trying to remember all the touch-typing lessons I ignored (I could always type faster with my method than by touch typing, but this keyboard is harder to use for me :-)
And as for people (person) who moaned about my spelling, I am now writing the diary entry in Word 97 before exporting as HTML and losing all the usless crap that it puts in. As for my grammer and use of commas, you can just go suck a neutron star. K?
I GOT A VALENTINE'S CARD!!!!Ahem
Sad, isn't it? I go to all the trouble of creating new graphics, Poems, Splash Screens, etc. for a big "I Hate St. Valentine's Day" thing, and then don't upload it.
Why? Well, there is a Simple reason for this. The Sims, Maxis' new game from the creator of SimCity. Unless you are a writer, a student, or some other person with too much free time on your hands Do Not Buy This Game. I spent nearly 30 hours on it from 1pm Friday (i.e as soon as it came out over here) to 10pm sunday night. The game is a sort of "Sim House". You must design and build a house and people to go in it, and then manage their daily lives. And it is addictive. There is no way in the game to measure how long you have been playing. Unlike in SimCity, Themepark Worlds (Sim Themepark in the US), Rollercoaster Tycoon or any other god/stratergy games ever, you cannot look at the date on the interface and think "Gosh, I've been playing for ages" because the only rhythem is a day which lasts about 1-20 minutes depending on what speed settings you use. The only change is when every three days a post-person arrives with the mail, or your gardener comes every 3 days. And you get into the game and you don't get out. Which is why I didn't get to do the half-hour walk at the weekend to upload the site. K?
The Valentines card is another interesting point. It arrived this morning. It is, in fact, the first Valentines I've ever got that I only have a vague idea who sent it. Ok, so I think I know, (very few people have my address here), but I'm sure as hell not going to ask in case I'm wrong. Hmmm.
Site-wise I think I have a new idea for the 5th Top5 game, as well as a whole host of games I am following and will do a T5 on as soon as a) I have enough info, and b) I have a space in the 5. They are, infact, Sid Meier's Dinosaurs, and Sid Meier's Civ III (sequal to another game that got me hooked), as well as Elixr's Republic, Lemmings Revolution, Lionhead's Dojo, Whatever Will Wright (Of The Sims and Sim City) does next, Whatever Lost Toys comes up with, Shiny's Sacrifice... forevermore. And maybe a couple of "where the hell are they" type games, Daikanta (or whatever it's called) TF2, and Duke Nukem Forever. And whatever Carmack does next, of course. Hmm, I may be busy...
You remember what I said about Green Drinks?Yeah, well, erm...
Ok, so the "sharing bottles of stuff with Simon Clay" thing seems to be the quickest method of me being drunk beyond my wildest dreams of this time last year. Yes, I went to another meet, the full details of which I will post in the Eddings section as soon as I scan the pictures in. Needless to say, There are pictures of me around the internet now that I would be happyer not to be, but my face is obscured...
...in all the ones I've seen, anyway...
...and the pictures I have mostly remind me to get a better camera :-)
Seriously, I really do prefer that kind of weekend to my normal one. Everybody I know seems to have difficulty in beleving that I can have an interesting weekend, mainly because it seems I can only have one without them. Which worries me.
I would have updated this yesterday, but I was terribly busy being totally depressed. On top of news I have heard recently, and the fact that St Valentines day is coming (You may wish to avoid Aquarionics on the 14th, it may not be pretty), I am getting pains in my wrists. Either it means that I have sprained my wrists at tEC3 (I don't remember falling down that badly) or I have the beinginings of RSI. Which is, based on a two month recovery period for an operation, not good professionally speaking.
To be quite honest, I am terrified. I havn't been to a doctor for what must be almost 10 years now, half my life, mostly because I don't want to know if I am dying. I am overweight, the son of a diabetic, and basically, don't want to know. At All. I couldn't cope with dying, or the possiblity. When I was about 8, I was terrified of going to sleep, because I didn't know if I would wake up on the morning, a psycologyst might say I never recovered.
Gah, By the rules I set myself to in this diary, If I type it, I must post it, but I'm really tempted to delete that entire paragraph because it is far too deep for this diary. Hmmm.
