Ho ho ho.... kneugh.

Xmas day has come and gone.

So, what did St Nick gimme?

Well.... Tom got me a mini pool table.

Bracchi got me a car cleaning kit and talking Homer punch thingy.

Sister got me a procrastinator doodle book with a 'Chillin' t-shirt.

and..... some money from parents/aunt and uncle.

Xmas eve was spent with my mum, we watched Shrek 2 in cantonese.

Dad came back from his pub crawl, came in living room for a few seconds, then went upstairs. Later, I found the upstairs toilet floor + landing partially covered in his stomach lining.... :| :S
Me and mum weren't impressed. Our facial towels got a piece of the stomach lining action too...

He must've had a good evening out with the locals.:D

Xmas day came, and dad woke up without signs of an expected hangover, but he asked me to drive the family to Sisters house..... (oh yea, i forgot, we were going on a European Escapade, staying at hers overnight before getting onto the Eurostar at Waterloo International).

On the drive to Guildford, it snowed, and snowed, and snowed, and oh... it snowed some more. Didn't reach above 40mph. 20mph was too much for my car to go around some corners. When I reached the A30 dual carridgeway, I just put the car into 5th gear and let the idle engine torque take us to Exeter :) Good ol' diesel engines.

As soon as I reached A303, the snow was replaced by wet roads, so i stepped up the pace and got to my sisters in no time :)

The European Escapade - London Waterloo International -Eurostar-> Lille France -Coach-> Brussels (Chocolate, Waffles et mmmm....pis) -Coach-> Trier Hotel - Sleep -Coach-> Luxembourg -Coach-> Heidelbourg -Coach-> .....
I'll stop there, because more time was spent on a coach than sleeping in a hotel room or seeing much of the sights of Germany or Frances cities. Twas nice, but still sucked. 3 days and 2 nights of.... pap.

Was good to be back home. Slept well, after many hours drive, and a proper dinner cooked by parents. :P

Opened up the takeaway the following day, the customers missed us, so they flooded in with their orders and wotnot.
Why is it that chefs have really short fuses? dad just can't stop talking bollox.
He said something that really pissed me off, he accused me of lying over something quite trivial, and i f*cking had a go at him, and said i'll leave the house and go back to uni early if he didn't take it back. The kitchen atmosphere became heated. He just said that if i didn't mess up in the first place, the situation could've been avoided. Fucking prick.

Anyway, something really important has come up. As you must've heard on the news. Tsunami's in Asia have killed 115 thousand at the time of this post, and is still increasing.
When this news came to light, for those that suffered the wrath of the tsunami in Asia I personally see no purpose in looking to religion.

I'm 21 year old male that got very upset and honestly cried when I saw the graphical images of corpses lying on the streets on the news.

you're either dead,
or you lost one or more of your loved ones,
or you lost your livelihood.

Why would you believe in a god of your religion that inflicts this suffering upon you?

or is this a case that your God says,
"hey, sh*t happens",
or
"God just wants to create equilibrium on this earth, therefore he kills (and takes them to a peaceful place) because he is god",
or
"God can do as he sees fit, you don't question him" ?

This I believe is sure to change (probably even destroy) peoples views in their religion.

Over 115,000 people are dead, and it wasn't because of bombs being dropped, or people being shot or anything War related.

This was a Natural Disaster.

Those affected countries weren't developed enough to see this coming.

Some people will regard this as an Act of God..... my ass.


[END OF (Probably Unreasonable) RANT]

Note: Apologies to those who took offence.

My Sincere Condolences go out to those who have lost their friends, families, treasures and livelihoods.

I is back home for Xmas.....w00t?

Lo peeps.

Been back home in Devon since last Thursday afternoon.

Had to drive computer gear and stuff back. Better than lugging it all on the train.

Halfway down the M5, i realised i forgot to pack one crucial thing......The power lead for my computer. DOH!!!

Anyway, I've been up to various things since my last blog entry about MPH '04 @ Earls Court. sorry about that, but i decided that I really can't be arsed to take screen shots of the 2 hour footage that i've got from the event. Every minute of that show was brilliant.

Unfortunately, chawmps (my mate) server is down and out. so you won't see any pics for the blog. ah well, when i decide to find some hosting that i know is always on, i'll get the pics working again.... when i can be assed.

For these few weeks that I'm home, i shall be mostly working in the takeaway with parents.

Finishing off these assignments; 'Thoughts' video, Group Design Project, WWW Tech and Authoring 1. Along with revising for the exams that I have..... which I don't know what I'm supposed to be revising for.... (not a great start really), thank fully, I'm in contact with Tim J (my cool lecturer). So i hope he'll bring me up to speed on things.

Also, within these few weeks, I shall be on an escapade in Europe; France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany with my family. (expect a blog entry on it when the time comes.... and when i can be arsed).

These few weeks, i've been buying(+downloading legally) quite a few albums.

Eminem - Encore. My review.... It's okay. Some funny tracks on there especially the 'Just Lose It' track. but this didn't give the lasting impression that his previous albums gave.

Il Divo - Il Divo..... (I like it! I don't care if you think I'm a loozer for getting this. I say it sounds good). Soothing, Beautiful. I approve, its just that no one else in my student house does!

U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. - Not a great U2 fan, but there are a few catchy gems in this album.

Jay-Z vs. Linkin Park - Collision Course - Superb!! The Linkin Park boys have done it again, and made a wicked remix album that you initially would've thought impossible to be good. Its only 20 minutes long for an album, but it's truly geneous (however you spell it).
I'll look forward to the next MTV Mash Up releases. Oh, the DVD which came with this album is quite good too. Very Inspiring.


Anyway. Gotta catch some sleep. You can see some dark patches under my eyes. Been working this evening with parents in the takeaway.

Note: Never work in a chinese takeaway unless you're able to take substancial amounts of shit from the boss/chef. In my case, it was dad.

It was like; he gives you an order to do something whilst you're in the middle of something else, afterwards, when you're done with your current job and are about to start the order that he given you, he just yells another one at me and tells me that i'm stupid and slow......

I'm just like....what ever, ffs. and just carry on with the work, not answering back.

Ending on this dark note. I bid thee fairwell for now.

Good night!

Ladies and Gentlemen.... Welcome to the MPH Show 2004

Greetings all, in my latest blog entry, you're in for a treat, because i'm going to tell you all about the superb MPH'04 event that I went to last Saturday.



it begins with a fit babe with a top hat walking on stage



then a pair of TVR's fly in and do some donuts on stage



then 3 presenters drive in





Hammond Stares at my camera.... scary



Jeremy Clarkson with his Spyker



Richard Hammond with his lime green dodge charger



and Tiff Needell with his Ariel Atom



some random guy does some spinning of sorts





after that, hammond calls on for some spinning, MPH stylée...

then some dude drives in with some bike engine powered hot rod and starts doing donuts



and jumps out of and off the car while the car still does donuts without a driver, runs back behind stage, and comes back out with a red TVR and does the same



then finally comes out with a Saab convertible. and does reverse donuts with it



so.... 3 cars. doing donuts without driver



random guy still doing his plate spinning thing...



next. Heath and Safety man comes out from his caravan at the side of the stage, and stops all the action.



the 3 presenters hate the health and safety mans guts

suddenly a single man hovercraft comes out on stage and does a few spins



and the car show resumes

out comes a Noble M400 GTO



then a Farboud GT



then a Lotus Exige



then a Vauxhall Monaro



clarkson challenges needell to a race around a figure of 8 circuit around the stage...



Vauxhall Monaro vs. Lotus Exige




The Monaro wins.

"Ladies and gents, i present to you the worlds fastest blue wale!" says Clarkson

next, Tiff gets pushed on stage whilst sitting in a Lotus F1 car.

unfortunately, not allowed to start the engine of the F1 car because of the health and safety man....

Richard Hammond loses his cool, and runs towards the H&S mans caravan and kills him



Not finished....
To be continued.....

Edit...... sorry. i can't be arsed to finish this off..... its gonna take forever to finish off the blog.

Meanwhile, Go here MPH '04 Highlights

Need For Speed Underground 2 Rocks, Period.

Since i got the game on Friday, i reckon a good guestimation of how many hours i've spent on this fine game is in the region of 30 hours plus......

30+ hours of twidling the joy pad controling my mad vehicle....

I'll stress this.... IT'S A BLOODY GOOD/GREAT/SUPERB GAME!!!!

Anyway, I feel like showing off my current car....

BLAH

This is now the 3rd time i'm typing this god damn blog entry...

First time, I accidently closed the window,
Second time, my computer gave me a BSOD (blue screen of death, for those of you that don't know)
Now, attempt numero trois. (backed up on notepad, just in case).

First off, appologies for the earlier blog entries with broken pictures.... you know why? Virgin NET terminated my account due to arrears. bugger. Sorry.

Today is Geeta's 23rd birthday. Had lunch with her and 4 of her mates at pub in the pond. lovely stuff, but expensive :S

Oh my f*cking god, I just saw on Top Gear, Jimmy Carr beat the lap record in the reasonably priced car.... by 0.2 seconds off Simon Colwell.... mad.

Anyway, hows work @ the Institute? Quite good. Work is plentiful, but there have been a few hiccups. One task we were set, we had to do stuff with 2 types of lighting to show 'normalness' and agressiveness.... fine, I did that, edited it, and presented it....
Dave Morgan had a go at us, why? because he was dense and didn't spot that we filmed 2 types of lighting shots. some people.... ffs.

Any other hiccups? well, we were supposed to do a radio play with Dave as well, in the end, nobody did it, even they had a month to do it.... ah well.... i'm thinking that this says something about Dave... never mind.

Oh my god, I just saw the coolest footage of a car show ever! Clarkson in Aston Martin DB9 S, Steve Coogan in Ferrari 565. loads of high-speed-camera footage, super cars flying past a camera car. just awesome!

I've currently got my parents in my bad books, why? because they prefer me to work in a local egg packing factory, than to go work in Disney Florida over the summer.
I had the opportunity presented to me on a plate, Disney were ready to take me in their open arms, all they needed was a passport and birth certificate (they were both at home in the family safe).
Did parents approve? NO!!! they simply refused, because they didn't want the trouble of getting worried because I was in the USA.
I'm 21, and have had 3 years of living away from home, and i'm not allowed to do what I want, don't you think thats f*cked up?
One quote from mum was, "If you go, I won't be your mum no more", basically, they will dis-own me if i went.
I just stayed quiet and thought, 'whatever'. nevermind then...

On a different subject. I've aquired a awesome game! Need For Speed - Underground 2.
I'm sure that this game is going to be a great hit. I spent hours playing on it, yesterday, i woke up, played on it, had a shower in the afternoon, played on it, had lunch (because i was so hungry), played on it. Went to bed. So addictive, I don't think its possible for me to be bored of the game!
So, whats new in this installment compared to Underground 1? well, there are so many new options for you to tinker, you have body kits that actually affect handling, you can tweak the components of your car like the ECU and Turbo for each type of race.
One major thing about the new game is that you have the access to the entire Bayview city. just like in the GTA games, but a lot more prettier. :) Buy the game!!! Buy it! Buy it! Buy it! Buy it!

I'll leave it at that, I'll just play some more on Underground 2. Currently no sign of finishing the game after many 10's of hours of playing. Superb.

Yes, i know, i suck...

Don't worry, i promise to put up a new blog entry really soon....

everything in life is going a bit manic at the mo, so please bear with me, k?

Well... its like...

I went to this...

ffresh

Took some of these...

my photos

Smoked some of this...








Not really.

Bought one of these...



Ended up like this....



Later!!!

Me.... staring into space....

Sorry for the long time without any entries. I've been quite a busy bunny since my birthday.

I'm currently on the delayed 1430 train from Swansea heading towards Bristol Parkway to get my ass home. Delayed by quite a long time i might add.
It has been a long day but I will catch up with whats going on in the next few paragraphs.

Anyway, since my birthday....

i've been sorting out my stuff with the institute, enrolment is all sorted out, and i've got a queer looking student ID card. :P
Also, our house at Rhyddings is looking good with 5 people in it, Ben, Bracchi, Tom, Rach and I are living quite happily together.

Ben was already in the house over the past few months, Bracchi moved in right at the beginning of september, then me, then Tom, and finally Rach.

During the first days at the institute, i've seen some incredible visuals in the lecture theatres. 3D animation, really impressive, but nowhere near pixar quality :P

I've been out on a social with the multimedia group that i've been mingling with. Some real cool people about. Went to Oakwood. Got soaked. Won tickets to see Man On fire. Superb film as expected of (Tony?) Scott - the director.

I finally completed my first weeks timetable on the 2nd year of the BSc Multimedia course. What a timetable!
Lectures everyday except Wednesday and Friday. I've got a hectic Tuesday full of lectures from 9am till 6pm. Wonderful.

I've got about 23 minutes before the battery runs out on this laptop, so i'll just press on as far as i can go...
Just left Bridend after a 48 minute delay.

There is currently a f*cking annoying Jamaican woman that talks loudly on her phone.... adding to that i'm on the quiet coach. so no phones.

Just ate lunch..... a costly cheeseburger and fanta orange.... typical train food.

Anyway, i should continue with how my first week went.
Got my first group assignment on tuesday. To produce a 40 second TV commercial which advertises a fictional product or service. My group consists of 2 Multimedia, 2 Music Tech and 2 animation groups. Many ideas were flowing between us, I suggested many action type scenes, but the women just weren't interested. But we finally decided on an idea for a doorstep clothes washing challenge.... 70's style....... i have a bad feeling that we're not going to get along with each other... :S
We'll see how it goes.

been doing a bit of AV Acquisition with Tim and Dave and Karen... Karen is an interesting teacher.... she teaches theory of the multimedia world. I hate theory... it sucks. She gave out another coursework :( Using photos and sounds, represent the Swansea Institute in our own way.... "oh boy..." comes to mind.
OMG went to the sound studio and I must say: "I've never seen so many knobs"

Also did WWW tech. with Tim and Arthur.... i was shocked to find that the 1st year students didn't learn HTML and went straight into Dreamweaver... First lesson by Arther was boring. I knew most of the html tags that he taught. so....boring.
Timmy came into lecture underprepared.... taught us about image storage formats like BMP and JPEG and GIF.... stuff i learned in Computer Graphics last year... handy. but Tim didn't know anything without preparation.

Nothing much to say about the course really. It hasn't kicked off at full speed. Should do by next week.

At the house, I have been mostly sleeping, watching anime, and playing on the xbox. Exciting.

--------Interuption before arrival at Bridgend caused me to change trains from the ones i was supposed to go on.-----

Blog continued on from Sunday... the journey back.

I'm wondering why I bothered coming back home.... Didn't do much on Saturday, just watched TV and helped out a bit in the takeaway. It's all worthwhile when mum puts a few wads of the queens face in my wallet :)

I'm currently continuing my blog whilst in the waiting lounge on platform 5. My usual 1327 train got cancelled.... and I have to wait an hour before my next train arrives.. the 1415. about 3/4 of an hour to go...



god damnit, the lounge is starting to fill up.... i thought i could have an hour to myself... but nooooo!!!!

Anyway, before rushing to the train station, the family had lunch at the usual place.... the Embers Inn (aka 7 Stars)

It poured with rain on the drive there, so i drove at super granny speed.... a bit faster than 50 but below 70.

I'm going to end this blog with my thoughts on the BSc Multimedia course.
It's gonna be hard.... but hey! if it ain't hard, why is it a BSc? Need to put in a lot more this time compared to last year.... I'm sure i'm gonna succeed. :)

Right, there is a baby screaming in my ear in the lounge.... i'm outta here.....L8r!

Resuming blog whilst on the bus from Cardiff Central to home via Bus.

At Bristol Temple Meads station, I spotted a really fat/fluffy one legged pigeon. I was in a nice mood, so i got out a pack of boaster cookies and fed it. It was eating its crumbs literally next to my foot, I had its trust. I guess it was a tamed pigeon. didn't see those leg rings things on it though....

7671 days old today.....Another 365 till my 22nd! *hint*

Yep. It my birthday! Woo!!!

What have I got? so far....well.... a fairly big Swarovski crystal pig....


A Tiffany's & Co. Pure Silver Pen


Whatelse.... nothing much.....ya'know...
a Panasonic 37" Plasma TV.... nothing much. ;)

Err... no, dream on!

Quite a few things have happened this week.

I got my first fan mail from someone that came across my blog! (Thats you Steve!) j/k ;)
This chap was going to do the same BSc Multimedia course I'm doing but starting from first year.
Upon reading his blog, for some reason, he kinda resembles a younger me... I dunno why.... I'll find out soon when I get to meet him since he's currently resident in the Brynmill area.
Anyway, expect future entries in this blog to have some mention of Steve in it.
Also, have a look at his blog in my 'Other Blogs' linx section. *Points*

After a moan and a half at the Institute over the course of the 2 weeks, I finally got what i wanted to hear.

"I am please to offer you an Unconditional place"
Woohoo!!! I got direct entry to the 2nd year of BSc Multimedia!!!

I'm over the moon. and i couldn't give a monkeys about what parents think. I'm going back to Swansea in the next 2-3 days.


Saturday: Sister comes home because of some family business to sort out with solicitor, nothing much else really.

Sunday: Sunday lunch with the entire family at the Carridges Hotel, Exeter. Mmm... good stuff, Also had time to look at some Mercedes cars and BMW's in that industrial estate area (known as Marsh Barton Industrial Estate). Sis wanted a good look at the Smart ForFour. I didn't think much of it. :P The Mercs caught my attention.

After a bit more food shopping in Exeter, dad gave me the keys to the Benz, and I drove the family home.....great fun plus I got the know the car a lot better. Esp with the brake pedal. I didn't use it much before. :) I've now got a better feel for it.

The Benz was in a bit of a state, with bird poop on the passenger side door, so I spent the best part of an hour to clean her up spick and span. It was all well worth it, omg, it was such a nice day, the sun was beating down with such force, I was adding my sweat to the sponge to clean the car!

Anyway, nothing else significant has happened. So I'll conclude this entry for now.

Happy 21st Birthday to me!
Now, lets see who else can remember my birthday....?

Plenty done

It has been a while since my last entry.
Quite a few things have been going on over the last weeks.

Gimme a moment to gather my thoughts....

Right, I've been in Swansea for 2 weeks to sort things out with the course transfer at the Institute.
Ya know, the usual things like filling in the long cryptic application form, getting referee's to fill it out and sign it. That kinda thing. Personally submitted it in person to the registry before the A-Level results came out (before the Clearing traffic happened), and it's coming up to its second week since then, and no word from the Institute. I went there again the following monday, and they said they had a back log and didn't start processing since last friday and I should expect something by next thursday/friday.

Next thursday/friday came. still nothing, <>
Gave them a call, went straight to the longest answerphone message i've ever heard. It was about 45 seconds of english followed by another 45 seconds of Welsh before i'm able to hear a beep to leave a message... After over a minute of answerphone message, i forgot what I wanted to say, so i just hungup. and decided to send the bi-atches a fax using my tablet. (just to make sure they can read my crystal clear text.)

Academic stuff aside.....

I've been visiting Matt D alot. We've been going out to various places in Wales, like:
Margam for the Volksfest. - a VW car festival.




Llangenith for Bluepool - a 20ft(ish) deep rock pool to dive into.


At one point, I thought I lost my phone at the pool so me and matt spent a good 20 minutes running back to find it. Nope, nowhere to be found, later found it back at my house.... I got some stick for that :P

I also went on a night out in Wind Street with Matt's mates because they got their A-Level results.

Met one of Matts female associates, Leanne, Gorgeous red hair, and a hot body. Oh, she's a very nice person too. :D

Went to cinema with Matt to see: i,Robot (great film!) and The Village (an alright film).

i,Robot - stars Will Smith, excellent flic, reminds me of The Second Renaissence from the Animatrix episodes. Will get this on DVD when released.

The Village - ermm..... slow at first, kinda builds up, quite freaky at some bits. Good concept for film, but didn't satisfy me that much.


Hmmm... what else....

ah, Doom 3!!! I got my own copy, and can only play it on Matt's PC until I got home because I only had my inadequate tablet pc with me. Doom 3 is so awesome! It's such a scary game, it really does put fear in you because of the way it portrays the levels and the atmosphere. Even before you see any zombies or demon's you're jumping out of your seat and you start to sweat because of sudden power outages which make the game levels dark, or the inexplicable sounds. Such a superb game.

Shame I can't run it on my PC. I've got a 1.33Ghz oc'ed Athlon Tbird with 1gb of ram and a ATi Radeon 64. It just can't cut it at all.
Ah well, it gives me a fairly good reason to upgrade my system :D
Min Spec for next system must be a Athlon 64, with PCI-Express slots (preferably 2 of them so i'm able to upgrade to a pair of nVidia SLi-able super graphics cards). super mad system indeedy :)


Went down to Blue Pool again with Leanne, Matt and Chris (one of Matts mates). Chris drove. OMG, he had awesome driving skillz. I gathered that he recently been on a Rally driving course. Didn't phase me at all. Significantly agressive compared to my driving style, but it was similar. We went there just as the tide went out, and we had hours of great fun with the sea. The strength of the tide was immense. Matt, Chris and I were fighting against it. Everyone got wet including Leanne..... I'm such a perv ;)

UrbanDictionary.com/townies

UrbanDictionary.com/townies

LOL!!!
I couldn't stop laughing when I read this.

Lets hear it for the birthday boy!

Today is Marks 21st Birthday!
Happy Birthday to Mark

No presents or card from me, just this blog entry and a text message :P

Hmm.... I'm bored....

I've been bored for the last few weeks. I've done all that I need to do from home:
Contact LEA, contact Institute.

All I'm waiting for is a reply from anyone to tell me what I need to do.

These few weeks, i've:
Gone to the beach with dad. and had a chat about things.
Done various uninteresting things with computer.
Worked in takeaway.
Took car out for a lonely drive out to Cookworthy forest.
Get bombarded with snubs from the parents at least once a day.
Pretend to be 'working' in my room when i'm actually napping.

You know, the usual.

The weather has been fine these few days, close to the 30's C.
Nice 'n' pleasant.

I've downloaded the latest Doom 3 trailer yesterday.

OH....MY....GOD. It looks soooo amazing.
I'm sure to kack my pants if i played that in a darkened room with surround sound.
It appears that Doom 3 is like the movie Event Horizon, but significantly better,
bloodier, scarier and Interactive.
Need to save up for a machine that plays it though :(. my 1.33ghz Tbird and Radeon 64 can't cut it.
I'm sure i could play it, but need to turn off a whole bunch of features that you really shouldn't be without. i.e. Bump mapping, and the specular lighting.
without those things, you will not fully enjoy the proper doom3 experience.

I'm not going to upgrade my computer to play doom 3. i'm just saving up for one of these bad boys :)
Liebermann Super Computers
I'm guessing that I need to save up at least £5k for one of these setups.

Is your computer up to Doom 3's requirements? Read this site to find out.
HardOCP Doom3 Hardware requirements article


I've got back into playing Need For Speed Underground. Playing everything on hard skill level.
Playing on a well configured gamepad makes such a great difference.
Quite handy that I've got a USB playstation controller clone.
Turning off Stability control really does rack up those drifting points during those uncontrolable sessions,
just need some skill getting the car back in control ;).

Can I pick your brains?

I'm currently bored out of my skull, and I pick up a new edition of New Scientist.

There is this question thing which appears simple at first sight, but is quite difficult.

Just wondering if anyone can figure this one out.
I'm just a bit brain dead here... spent about an hour trying a bunch of calculations but to no avail.
If you got some spare brain cells and time, lets see if any of you could make anything of this.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------

A pipe manufacturer ships pipes of three different radii in the same square section box.
The pipes just touch each other and the box as shown above.

If the middle sized pipes have the radii of 4 centimetres,
what is the radii of the smallest pipes?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's proof that I didn't make the question up:

Source: NewScientist - Issue 24th July 2004 Bottom of Page 51

IT'S OKAY! I'M STILL ALIVE!!!

It has been a week since I let parents know of that news.
That Saturday afternoon was filled with shouting/yelling/cursing. It was to be expected from my parents.

Next day, I didn't seem to exist. Parents just gave me evil looks every time I glanced at them.
I didn't know what was worse, getting nagged at, or just null-communication.

Monday came, dad asked me to help him out to rebuild a brick wall.
Whilst we worked, we had a calm, father/son chat. It was good.
Somehow we managed to talk about getting myself a girlfriend/'wife'!!

Went to the pub with dad later that evening.

Mum still didn't talk to me.

Finally, a reply from the uni...

"....decision to be upheld and that you be advised to withdraw..."
Hmm.... bollux. So I got no sympathy for my letter. Heartless f*cking bastards.
Ah well. Sux to be in 3rd year of something I don't fully enjoy.

Didn't sleep too early last night, had something on my mind.
Spent ages thinking about it.

Do I actually like programming?
Not that much.

Do I like maths that resembles A-level stuff?
Not a single bit.

What do you like then?
Being creative. Making media. Films, music, pictures.

Why don't you change course to suit what you like then?
Oh, why didn't I think of that before?!?!?

Sorted. ZZzzzz.....

Spent a while searching online for a course that I could do.
Came up with 2. BSc Multimedia at the Institute. or BSc Multimedia Technology at the Uni.

Both the websites didn't give much info on these courses. So I guess I have to ring up and have a chat with them really soon.

Argh. Need to contact LEA too. Let them know that I've withdrawn from the course.

Here's what could happen.

1. I transfer successfuly to a Multimedia degree. and thats that. I graduate in 2-3 years time.
2. I fail to transfer, so I have to find a job in Swansea so I can try again the following year.
3. Either of the above happens, and parents decide not to give me anymore privileges. (i.e. I get kicked out of house). I have to survive on my own 2 feet from then on.
4. LEA decide not to give me anymore money, so it'll make my life in Swansea a tad bit harder.


Whatever happens, I have to be in Swansea, because I already paid in full for the house there. And I won't want to let my housemates down by dropping out. Especially Rach, I can't leave her in the house with those 3 boys she hardly knows... :P

Mum came into my room whilst I was typing this blog, and asked me about the letter. I told her that the Uni don't think i'm good enough. I'll tell everyone after lunch. All she said was, "Your father is going to kill you."

If after this blog, I seemed to have disappeared off the planet, please give me a call to see how i'm doing...

Cards as weapons

Find yourself in a hairy situation with lots of scary not very nice people?
Also with a pack of playing cards in your pocket?

Arm yourself with the info from this website!
It may save your life! ;P

Card Throwing Technique

studying hard, and actually taking it in! :O

Currently studying Algorithms and Complexity, which isn't as bad as I though. Just going through Dr OK's notes, and also reading the extra material from the big ass Intro to Algorithms book to support revision...
Was studying it yesterday, and got so into it, i didn't realise it was 2am already... oops.
Need to goto next stage of studying this by actually answering past papers.

Anyway, what have I been up to since last week?
One's older sister had paid a visit over weekend. she also bought along with her 2 furry feline companions; Jack and Alfie.

Because of dad, they were confined to the toilet.
Dad doesn't like pets. They smell and break stuff if you let them loose around the house.
I don't think so.

How am I? Well.....

Currently just sitting and waiting for stuff to happen.

Meanwhile, I'm restarting revision.

Ever had one of those days where you need a soundtrack for it?
Well, the soundtrack from now on is: Nine Inch Nails - We're in this together

Its me, and my notes. Not much is going to get in our way.

you and me
we're in this together now
none of them can stop us now
we will make it through somehow
you and me
if the world should break in two
until the very end of me
until the very end of you

Now you know why the soundtrack. :)

...from that moment on...

Something in my mind had stopped.
It was that time when I crept downstairs at 9am. Picked up my mail, and carefully cut open my results letter.
"...Advised to Withdraw...." Followed by the 12 module results that were mostly below 40%.
My time had slowed down, my senses were heightened, I could feel the entire deep beats of my heart in my head.
I silently went back upstairs with the letter, and went back into bed.

I cried in my mind.

Am I worth anything? Should I go on with my walk of life towards the sun with this crooked 'shadow' following behind me? I have not met the expectations of my family and my friends. I will be marked as a lowlife by my parent, not worth anything to anyone.

I did not see this coming, I increased my efficiency of revision by a significant amount during the 2nd semester because of how crap I did in my first semester. All that amounts to nothing. The university sees no more value in me.

At this point, the reader of this blog must be thinking that I have given up.

YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!

I'm not going to give up 2 years of uni getting towards my degree just because a letter tells me to sod off...

I'm going to write a letter, and put my heart into it. I want my degree damnit!
Don't deny me access to it by telling me to get lost because I won't.

If I have to take a significant number of supplementary exams, then so be it.
The 3rd year is within reach. I just need to run up and jump across the gap to get to it.
I will not re-do my second year. Upon getting to my final year, I swear on my life that I will give it 100%, I will significantly reduce my social life if need be. Priority one will be my final year modules. Minimal or no karate, no joining of society's with a very good reason.
apologies in advanced to my future housemates, I'll be a boring person to live with. I may have to sacrifice a decent friendship or 2 so I can have more time devoted to my studies. Because, I know that I'm on my own in the 3rd year, no one can help you.

Parents were right, if you had a long thought, and put the components of university life in priority, the degree must come first, then friends following close behind. Your friends will be alongside you when you're all holding that piece of paper in your hands at the graduation ceremony.

Anyway, I feel better after thinking things through, I will appeal, and do the supplementary exams. Get to 3rd year, and put foot to arse. 'nuff said.

...Such a boring day

indeed, it was a boring, dull day.

Why did I bother getting out of bed? X_X

Woke up. had sweet spag tong shui for brunch.
Watched a bit of the F1.

Washed dad's Benz.

Played a bit of Splinter Cell. Chatted online for a while.

Whilst browsing the web, I accidently came across some really cool videos. :)
Observe: Japanese Drifting

I decided to look further onto the subject of japanese drifting events, then i came across the following.

The Jap's are absolutely wild with their super cars, here's a website with lots of videos of their jaw dropping antics.
Ex Vi Termini

You're gonna see the Japs do speeds of mostly 190mph+ or 300km/h on private events and on the public road.
You have to see to believe! So incredible.

On a related subject. I'm going to safely say that i'll be buying Need For Speed : Underground 2 when it's released in November this year. It looks damn good. and also it looks to have so much more than the 1st incarnation. I'll be looking forward to the Free Drive mode where you can explore the entire area 200km+ of the game. just like GTA3 and GTA:VC. I'll be waiting....

...rewind.... lets start again.

Since last time.

I've moved back home,


I've moved house in Swansea (with a few problems I might add),

I've also done a bit of driving around Wales.

Currently, I'm looking for a part time job over the summer. I've re-typed up my CV and submitted to a few places.

How odd, a few weeks have passed, and I'm sure I've got plenty to say.... but... I don't remember much details from the last few weeks... :S

I've found out today that a few of my mates from the course have got their results today. So... I better get out of bed earlier in order to pick up the mail before parents do.....Well.... there's a different story altogether...... shhh.....

I want a job badly... parents don't want me to be around.....

Oh, If you're an employer looking for a computer d00d with some skills, then contact me!
Here's my CV too.
My CV

It's been a while... So here's a big blog!

lo peeps.
as the title says, it'sa been a while.
Been busy driving around Wales and up north!

I'm back home with parents now. It's good to be back I think, but i would've prefered to stay a bit longer in swansea because i'm the first person to leave the house.

I don't like saying good byes, Mark, Russ and Dicky have got their degree's, and are outta here. No worries, i've still got Rach, Tom and Bracchi to graduate next year with :)

Lets work backwards, wot haz i been up to?

Well, was packing as much as possible into my car, leaving stuff that doesn't need to be taken home.

Went to Pembrey Country Park for a BBQ with Russ, Mark, Bracchi, Dicky and Eels. Played a bit of footy too. Drove Bracchi's car abit too, 'tis a supercar in my eyes. :)
Played Golf, and Crazy Golf.
Here's some shots from the day:
Note: Mouse over the pix to give a small comment.









Went to Oakwood - sadly no photos were taken, twas all documented on video.
Oh, nope, i was wrong, there's this photo:


Drove Bracchi for 4 hours to someplace up North near Preston so he could go inspect a good deal on a car. A Peugeot 306 GTi-6 in metallic Diablo Red. Good deal, £3025 for the R-Reg. My god, it goes like sh*t off a shovel. Faster than my dads 3.2 V6. Bracchi's now aquired something quite evil. and i don't think anyone should mess. I had a hard time keeping up with him on the return leg, average speed was above 80mph. I hit 105mph, He hit 130mph but ran out of road and people to chase.

Went to Rhossili with Mark and some of last years friends.





Also went to the National Caves with them too.



Later that day, I took the long road back and went the black mountains road. Such a nice road, the views on the road were breath taking