Labs today was great. It was about audio recording and editing. I really enjoyed doing it and am looking forward to tomorrow’s continuation.
Other than that today is just more lectures and work. It’s not that it wasn’t interesting or that I don’t was to talk about, It’s just late and I’m tired.
Just thought I’d check in.
All is good.
Lectures yesterday we’re good, great even. Nothing to complain about there. Finished programming, where the demonstrator said I was “very good, very good”. So that’s… good?
I went to climbing club and ended up staying for about 2 and a quarter hours, very good session. Then off the infamous comedy night. It was probably the best comedy night I’ve been to. The acts very hilarious and just got better and better.
Today I had one maths lecture at 9am, then I was free for the rest of the day. Tried to do some lab prep and failed miserably. Will try again tomorrow…
Did some electronics questions and made Lasagne! It took 3 gruelling (or should that be grilling) hours, but looked and tasted great! YAY! Love lasagne.
Damn, I love uni. But, to give this post some dynamic, I have the following quote:
“If everything’s going your way, you’re in the wrong lane.”
Love you and leave you.
So, on one hand this has been a bad day, and on the other it has been a good day. You decide:
Bad Day
Good Day
I think it pretty much evens out.
So yesterday I was working all day on my Presentation I have to give on Monday. I’m doing it on the history of wireless power and the technologies around TODAY that mean wireless power will soon become a reality. I think it’s really interesting stuff.
Today I’ve been taking a bit of a chill pill because it’s been one hell of a week.
Looking at the week ahead, it should be slightly easier, but I still have Lab Prep to do for Thursday (again). However, this week’s labs are on using Sound in the Media Lab! Finally, something media-ish! Can’t wait. Shame I still have to do the prep…
What else for the week ahead? This is the plan of action:
Hope all are well, and I'll catch up with you tomorrow to tell you how the presentation went.
So today’s labs managed to nurse the sick and dress the wounded from yesterday’s train wreck and pull out an A. Got to say i’m surprised, but pleased.
What else happed today? More maths, this time Taylor and Maclaurin series (and for those following along at home, they can be found here). Also got a bit of Circuit Theory, this time how to simplify large circuits into teeny, easy ones.
This evening I’m out celebrating a friend’s 20th…
That’s it, just checking in really…
“Sound is the adiabatic process of perturbating particles propogating longitudinally with no loss of entropy using pressure and velocity fluctuations detectable by the cochlea”
I refuse to believe it’s Thursday already. Which one of you has been changing with my clocks? I blame Becky for getting me a backwards clock for Christmas because this week has just flown by.
S Club 3 went brilliantly yesterday. I managed to get a video recording of them on stage with sound, which means I can watch it again, anytime, at my leisure.
The setup went well, in the end I had 5 cameras to use (although one was focused on the DJ so I didn’t use that while S Club were on. It was so great to be back doing video, I missed it so much.
As for today, I had an “Electrical Science” lecture this morning (AKA Physics), but the difference with this lecture was that the lecturer was a woman. I know, what’s all that about!? Up till now all our lecturers have been men.
After that it was back to the male lecturers with Digital Electronics. After a spot of lunch (and an episode of Lost) it was time for (DUN, DUN, DUN!!!!!) labs.
What a train wreck of 3 hours that was; but, nevertheless, everything should come together tomorrow (maybe).
After another episode of dinner, another episode of Lost, work and then talking to mum, dad and bro on the Skypes, I figured it would be time to write in my blog.
Got back about 4pm on Sunday. To be honest I wanted to write this on Monday, but I haven’t stopped.
Monday: Found out what’s happening with labs this semester (basically the same for the first few weeks). Then had our first Maths lecture with our new lecturer, he’s really good; does loads of examples and explains everything really well.
Did some Lab preparation for Thursday’s lab. Then the stage crew meeting: I’m set-up to work today (Wednesday) for S Club 3.
Then I made myself some Tostadas, very nice (thanks Victoria for the recipe in the book)!
Tuesday: Started lectures at 9am. Signals & Communications was really hard last term, but it looks like this semester we’re covering lots of the topics I did in A-Level Computing, which should be interesting and moderately easy.
Then we started on Harmonics and Acoustics. Then the hardest lecture so far, Analogue Electronics. Doesn’t look like it’s getting any easier this term; oh well, you can’t win them all!
More lab preparation…
Programming! God I missed this! So much fun and very useful.
Leftover Tostadas for dinner while watching Obama being Inaugurated.
Climbing club was next, so good to be back! Did a few walls and got into the swing of things.
Came back, finished the Lab prep.
Wednesday: More maths, the lecturer was still good. Did a bit more work then had a lecture on presentation skills. I’m going to have to present for 10 minutes about a topic of my choice. I guess I’ll have to think of something then…
I’d love to go into more detail, but I’ve got to get going… stage crew are expecting me…
Speak to you all soon!
That’s it! Christmas is over. Tomorrow marks the day I return to university life. Am I excited? Hell yea! But I’m also aware that this term is going to be hard work…
I face 10 weeks of lectures before my next break for Easter, and after that, it’s Exams all the way. That, to me, is a daunting thought. It means that, even more than last semester, this one needs to be very carefully balanced between having fun, relaxing and working. It’s the hardest balance of all to maintain.
I was lucky last semester because, if I felt like the work was too hard I could rest assured I had plenty of time to figure it out. This time, its all got to start coming together so I'm thoroughly prepared when the exams roll around.
My timetable is approximately 23 hours of lectures a week. That still includes 6 hours of lab work. It works about the same as last semester, with the odd lecturer change here and there.
I’m most looking forward to Stage Crew again, but also getting back on the climbing wall. It’ll be great to see everyone again as well.
Here’s the lowdown:
Here’s a picture of Becky and Jordan ice-skating on Thursday. I was trying to skate backwards and take a picture of two other people on skates at the same time. Don’t try it, it just doesn’t work…
I think it’s time for the return of the “in-brief-o-meter”:
So, not much of noteworthiness has happened the last few days. I’m at my sisters up north again, building a computer. Actually it is now built and working very well. It is the fastest computer I’ve ever built.
Going ice skating this evening. Will be fun…
In case you think you’ve been sold out by the shortness and, lets face it, boring nature of this post, I’ll let you enjoy this video about “The 4am conspiracy”…
Quote of the day:
Jordan: “Well, I fancy Harry Potter in the first movie…”
While I was preparing my computer for installing Windows 7 on it, I managed to delete everything on one of my hard drives. This included the following, precious memories:
As you can imagine this was pretty distressing (to paraphrase). It was almost worse to know that all the files were still there, on the disk, but couldn’t be read because the table telling the computer where all the files where had been wiped. Its like having put all your most valuable memories in a safe, and then forgetting the combination to the safe: its all still there, you just can’t get it.
So, continuing with the safe analogy, I set about finding a tool that could break open the case without the combination. I tried a program that I had used before (Recover Files), but that found nothing.
Then I tried a program called Pandora Recovery, that said that it could get back most of the files, but none of the videos. Oh, and anything it got back would not have a name or the folder structure. Essentially, I would get a single huge folder with thousands of files with random names.
I looked for a better solution. I came across a program that cost £70, but would do a scan for free (I know, sounds dodgy). That actually managed to find a lot of files and videos, but still didn’t have file names or folders. It also cut up the videos into little 10 second bits; not good when most of the videos were supposed to be over 1 hour long.
After 24 hours of trying to get these files back and failing, it didn’t look hopeful. The best outcome seemed to be being able to get back some files, but then having to spend the rest of my life sorting through the mess. There had to be a better way. I looked in dedicated forums for this sort of thing and kept finding people recommending this free program called Recuva. Nothing to loose…
After taking 5 hours to scan the hard drive (no exaggeration) it came back with the results. It had found files, lots of files, with names, and folders, lots of folders, with names. Videos, full and uncut. Wow!
I managed to get about 90% of my files back. It wasn’t perfect, some files were named wrong, like: “000000235$NOTES~1.DOC” which should have been: “Notes.doc”, but that was easily changed. I lost a few things: receipts for computers I’d built for people, some old emails, a few old programs and the odd word document here and there. But considering I’d managed to format my hard drive, all the important stuff was recovered.
So what can be learned from this experience:
So there you have it. I tell you this so you can be aware, but also because its therapeutic for me :)
Quote of the day: Designer Vagina!
(Don’t ask because you’re not going to like the answer!)
So I have been following the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas since Wednesday afternoon. Its been very good so far so I thought I’d give you a few of my highlights:
Alright. That just about wraps this up for now. That’s just a small look at some of the cool stuff I’ve found so far at this years CES.
Check back with you all soon.
Note: If you’re getting this post via Email then you won’t be able to see any of the videos I put in it. If you want to check them out, just head on over to http://charlesuni.blogspot.com.
Wow! Now that’s a big gap between posts. Sorry Becky, I' suppose I should explain myself.
Since I made my last post (last year!!) I managed to catch a really rough headache, sore throat and stomach-ache combo, which while forcing me to dock my new year’s plans, also managed to render me pretty much bed ridden for most of 5 days last week (30th to the 3rd).
So, you say, that doesn’t explain the lack of a post as soon as I felt better on Saturday. Well, between travelling back to Balham, organising my things so I can get some work done this week and catching my breath, I haven’t really had any time.
Now I’m sorry to those people who still (despite it being the holidays) still checked this site on a daily basis, but I’m also disappointed that in all that time only 1 person seemed to notice that it was a bit quiet here!
And if you were one of the people who looked every day for an update and were disappointed, can I suggest they sign up to get updates via email, then you’ll never have to worry about missing another post.
After that blatant advert, I can finally get down to business. For New Year’s I ended up staying in watching the TV with my cousin. Boring, I know, but we did go out to a party at the Manor down the road for about 20 minutes over the midnight part, so we got a bit of the party atmosphere. It wasn’t all lost.
This week is an opportunity for me to catch up on some things I’ve been meaning to do for a while (like sort out my computer) and do some revision of the mind-boggling work we’ve done so far.
Also, and obviously far more importantly, its the Consumer Electronics Show this week! For the uninitiated, it is basically a big trade show where all the year’s best gadgets will be shown off for the first time by 2,700 of the biggest tech companies: Microsoft, Sony, Panasonic, Logitech, Toshiba, HP, Cisco, Motorola, Intel, …
You get the idea. I love this show and look forward to it every year. I expect to see plenty of:
Can’t wait!
Here ends the SPECIAL BUMPER EDITION POST on my blog to compensate for no posts in a week
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BUT WAIT! ADDITIONAL BONUS CONTENT!!
If you thought that was the end of the post, then you thought like an idiot!
Here’s two pictures of me and Jake (my cousin) at some random derelict iron works somewhere. And, yes, it was very cold.
OK, so that is actually the end this time :)
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
