Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Cavort

Been having a good few days here in cold, cold, very (oh so) cold Chillcompton. What can I say?

Been sleeping. Watched The Mist (great film, by the way) and saw the Christmas Top Gear and Big Fat Quiz of the Year.

Making new year plans…

Quote of the Day: “I always take my shirt off when I’m celebrating”

Sunday, December 28, 2008

King of the Road

End of Friday: We watched the Doctor Who Christmas special, A Matter of Loaf and Death and the the new X-Files film: I Want To Believe.

Saturday: We did a bit of Scalextric, but the dust had had an effect on the track so it didn’t fair very well. Nevertheless, Alastair seemed to enjoy it… Then I got my train back to the smog of London and back home.

Sunday: After a quick overnight pit-stop, I’m back on the road, this time to Chilcompton to see my cousin. So at the moment we’re catching up.

Now you all get a very special treat, I have a video of Alastair on Christmas day playing with his new guitar toy. Hilarity ensued…

Friday, December 26, 2008

STEELERS!!!!

Boxing day 2008 in pictures:

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Above: Alastair having a silent night. Below: Jordan being mischievous.

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Above: Becky & Alastair enjoying watching the ice hockey game. Below: Alan, Jordan & Barry supporting the Steelers in full force.

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Went to an ice hockey match this afternoon between the Sheffield Steelers and the Nottingham Panthers. Obviously Steelers won 5-2!!

Going back to London tomorrow :-(

But then going to see my cousin on Sunday :-)

Quote of the Day: LETS GO STEELERS LETS GO!

Merry Christmas!

Here comes Santa Clause…

Got a few pictures to show you of our day:

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Above: Barry and Alastair in merriment. Below: Me with my awesome new camera!

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Above: Father and son. Below: Mother and son.

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Above: Alastair giving the puzzle a good seeing to. Below: Becky giving the puzzle a good seeing to.

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Above: Alastair finding musical inspiration. Below: Baby blues.

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Above: Simply having a wonderful Christmas time. Below: Between brushing her teeth and getting ready for bed, Jordan finds time to play with one last toy…

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Above: A cute baby… and Alastair. Below: The “pretend you’re doing something” photo.

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Finally, a Time Lapse video of the days events unfolding. Notice the speed the presents appear, the erection of a tent, and the overuse of the spherical puzzle by me and Becky!

Quote of the day:

Mum: Have you had any champagne yet?

Becky: No.

Mum: We have (giggles).

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Mr. Haircut

Having a great time at my sisters. Arrived yesterday and dropped Alastair off at nursery. Feels like coming home, love it here. Millie and Daisy (AKA “the cats”) are as lovely as ever.

Today me and Baz fought the crowds at the shops (successfully, I might add). This evening I got a much needed haircut and then we all watched 24:Redemption.

As it happens, its actually Christmas Eve!!!!

  • Happiness: 8/10
  • Workload: WHAT?!?
  • Last meal: Pasta (yea!)
  • Thought for the day: Don’t tell me to calm down, I’m sitting on 1,000 pounds of nitroglycerin!
  • Sunday, December 21, 2008

    Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

    Friday: Went through the test. I passed! Won’t tell you by how much, but I definitely need to look over it again when I get a chance. After we’d gone through the test I went to Rubix (the union) to stage crew for the Credit Crunch Christmas Party!

    I ended up having 5 cameras to work with, it looked great and was really good fun. To keep the Christmas spirit we had 1,500 free mince pies! Needless to say I had my fair share. (Don’t tell anyone but I managed to take 12 of them away with me. They went down well with Dad!)

    The party finished at 3am and then we had to pack down the mess we had made outside the union. We had Santa’s grotto on a stage, lighting, snow machines and a gazebo to disassemble.

    Finally left at 4:30am. I knew that I was going home on Saturday and I also knew that if I went to sleep I wouldn’t get up before 1pm. So I did what any sensible person would have done and stayed awake. I packed my bag, did the washing up and read a few blogs.

    At 7am I left for the train station. Staying awake on the train was slightly tricky (that’s were the mince pies came in handy). Got home at 8:30am.

    Time for breakfast and catching up with mum and dad. Went over to church to put up candle stands and then managed to get some sleep (well 2 hours!)

    Had a fabulous night at Victoria’s, great food and great company. Watching Strictly Come Dancing was fun and who’d have thought the result! Thank you Victoria for a fantastic evening.

    Sunday: Caught up on sleep. This evening I’m doing a reading at the carol service.

    Only 4 days until Christmas!

    Thursday, December 18, 2008

    MON THE FRATELLIS!!

    Yea! WOOOOO!!!! FRATELLIS!!! YEAA!!

    OK, so it was wicked! Pictars:

    Brighton (3)

    Me, Dad and Josh on Brighton Pier! Had some lovely fish and chips. Went for a long walk around town, down all the lanes and around the shops. Did it all!

    Fratellis (2)

    Best picture I have. Me and Josh went down into the “mosh pit” and rocked out! HELLS YEA!

    Thursday: Exam, boo! And then setting up for Christmas Flirt in Rubix tomorrow. Only one day left of my first semester! We’re almost there people.

  • Happiness: 8/10
  • Workload: 0/10 (for now…)
  • Last meal: Chocolate (empty those cupboards!)
  • Thought for the day: Christmas, here I come!
  • Wednesday, December 17, 2008

    FYI Tuesday

    Today was a good day. The “Test” this morning went well, got 67% (a 2-1). Also found out that I’m on 71% for Maths this semester. Good, good.

    Sorted out a few things for stage crew on Friday and then did the Comedy Night on my own. Funny as usual and nothing went wrong so I was OK crewing on my own.

    Hope everyone back home is having a good time. I’ll see you all at the weekend!

  • Happiness: 7/10
  • Workload: 2/10
  • Last meal: Pasta (Yup, and salad)
  • Thought for the day: FRATELLIS!!
  • Monday, December 15, 2008

    Stage Crew Party!

    Quick breakdown of what’s been happening over the weekend:

    Friday – Stage Crew for gig in union

    Saturday – Stage Crew Christmas party. Food. Alcohol. ‘Nuff said.

    Sunday – Nothing

    Monday – Nothing

    This week:

    Tuesday – Test thing in the morning. Comedy night.

    Wednesday – THE FRATELLIS!

    Thursday – Test thing in the morning. Stage Crew in afternoon. Dance show in evening.

    Friday – Test thing in the morning. Stage Crew for Christmas party!

    Saturday – Home!

    Monday – To Becky’s!

    Friday, December 12, 2008

    Vidiot

    WOW! What a cool few days.

    Up bright and early on Wednesday to do a spot of Christmas shopping. Bought a few presents in town and then the rest online.

    After lunch I went over to Rubix to help Stage Crew with setting up a big gig on Thursday. The Electronic Engineering Staff Christmas Party where staff bands performed to the audience and a panel of judges to win the coveted x-mas factor champions crown. There were 14 bands in all, 9 of which had at least one of my lecturers in.

    As expected, I wound up doing video which was fantastic because I was the only one doing it. This meant I learnt an awful lot about setting up cameras, running cables, using the mixer and video PC. However, it did mean that I couldn’t have a pit cam (a camera operated from the front of the stage) and that required someone to man that camera as well.

    I finished on Wednesday night with 2 cameras that could be operated with a controller (they were stationary but could be panned, tilted and zoomed) and the video PC to show bands PowerPoint presentations. I’d also set up the projector screen on stage to show the video and PowerPoint’s.

    A 9am start on Thursday morning allowed me to put up another camera to focus on the judges, and tap into a security camera. Then I noticed that someone was planning to film the event with two HD cameras on the balcony, so I asked nicely and found out that one was going to be operated all night. I managed to get the output of that camera into the video mixer so I now effectively had a replacement pit cam.

    With a total of 2 pan/tilt cameras, 1 stationary camera, 1 operated camera, a black and white security camera and the PowerPoint’s, I was well away.

    The gig went very well and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it. So great to work video for 14 very different bands, got to try lots of ideas and styles. My entire cut of the evening (about 6 hours in total) was recorded and I’ll hopefully get a copy at some point.

    Today was a recovery day. I’ve had a headache all day and just tried to relax. I might do some stage crew this evening, I’ll see how I feel.

  • Happiness: 7/10
  • Workload: 3/10
  • Last meal: Cereal (no comment)
  • Thought for the day: If you’re not living on the edge, you take up to much room.
  • Tuesday, December 9, 2008

    Moons and Horror Shows

    (Just a cool name, in no way related to what I want to say)

    My last lecture went fine, boring, but fine.

    Then I helped with stage crew in the evening, was very informative and interesting. I didn’t get to mix in the end, but I helped out and got to see the mixing so I’ll be ready if I ever need to do it.

    Today I had a Meningitis C booster. Not sure whether I’d had it before, so they just gave it to me anyway. That meant that I couldn’t do any climbing this evening. :-(

    Doing some Christmas shopping tomorrow morning and then Stage Crew in the afternoon.

  • Happiness: 6/10
  • Workload: 4/10
  • Last meal: Spag Bol
  • Thought for the day: Really, nothing happened on Thursday.
  • Monday, December 8, 2008

    These Things I’ll Never Say

    This week So it has been a pretty hectic weekend and end of week. My last lectures on Friday were my last lectures, which is always good. Confusing though, so need to definitely do some revision.

    Did stage crew on Friday night, 90’s night. Very 90’s, what can I say. Had a good time. (Sounds promiscuous, but wasn’t).

    Saturday was a wipe-out, as always after a Friday gig. But I did watch “The Pursuit Of Happiness” with some friends, such a brilliant film.

    Sunday I had a day learning how to operate the sound at a gig on a Stage Crew Training Day. Learnt a lot and am looking forward to working the sound desk at the next gig (either today or Thursday).

    This week I have one lecture today and that is it. So I’ve signed up for 2 stage crew gigs and its the stage crew Christmas party on Saturday.

    Haven’t been climbing for a week so will go along to that at some point. I also need to do some revision for my exams next week that don’t count for anything and will be self-marked (AKA “formative”).

    Doing my laundry at the moment, FUN FUN FUN!

    Hope everyone is having a great time and I’ll see you all soon!

  • Happiness: 7/10
  • Workload: 5/10
  • Last meal: Cereal returns! (what do you expect it’s 11am)
  • Thought for the day: Just as well I did enough at the weekend to avoid having to talk about Thursday night.
  • Wednesday, December 3, 2008

    Amazon MP3

    It’s here! This is what I’ve been waiting for since January this year.

    Amazon MP3 is an alternative to downloading music using iTunes. It is VERY cheap, you can download the new Kings Of Leon album for just £3.

    So what’s the big deal? First things first, it’s only downloads, so you don’t get the actual CD. But it is incredibly cheap, whole albums from as little as £3 and singles for as little as 29p!

    This is funny because last week I had a conversation with Dad and James about MP3 stores and I was saying how Amazon had promised an MP3 store in 2008, and what do you know, still 28 days to spare.

    Definitely check it out, its going to be BIG. I promise you now, in 1 years time, this store will be just as big as iTunes, if not bigger. Mark my words…

  • Happiness: 7/10
  • Workload: 5/10
  • Last meal: Spicy Risotto (home-made baby!)
  • Thought for the day: Differentiation, integration and continuity… (that’s maths to those who are unsure)
  • He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother

    Comedy night was gold this week, absolutely brilliant. It was fantastic having my brother there to enjoy it with.

    Made a start on Maths revision, still got some ground to cover tomorrow, but otherwise quietly confident about the test on Thursday.

    Managed to have a good day today, between having a maths lecture this morning and doing maths revision all day, I also had some good conversations with people (how vague can you be!)

  • Happiness: 7/10
  • Workload: 5/10
  • Last meal: Pizza!
  • Thought for the day: You can’t polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter.
  • Monday, December 1, 2008

    MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

    It’s here! Officially! December, the time of advent, shopping, snow and cheap decorations.

    Opened the first door on my advent calendar today, there was chocolate! It pretty much sums up my day, predictable and enjoyable.

    Tesco has now changed the “confectionary” isle to the “seasonal treats” isle and is getting busier (or maybe that’s just Monday evening).

    James is coming over tomorrow for Comedy Night, looks set to be a blast! I’ve also signed up for Stage Crew on Friday, Sunday and next Monday. This is my last week of full lectures before Christmas. But its not that simple. Breakdown:

    1. Maths test this Thursday (worth 16%)
    2. Maths test on the 16th (formative – not worth anything)
    3. Electronics test on the 18th (formative)

    Stuff to look forward to:

    1. Comedy night tomorrow
    2. Lecture free week next week
    3. Going to see The Fratellis in Brighton on the 17th
    4. Christmas!!

    How are you celebrating Christmas this year?

  • Happiness: 7/10
  • Workload: 5/10
  • Last meal: Pie and Chips
  • Thought for the day: “I want to die” (She’ll be at comedy night)
  • PS Seriously, sign up for the e-mail alerts! I have!