A Fine Frenzy

The weekend was a time to make lots of progress on my programming project and get it finished. Instead it turned out to be a lot of catching up on sleep, the grand prix, walks and my brother.

On Friday evening I did a quick edit for MAD TV’s latest report on the line up for the End Of Year Show.

James, my brother, came over on Saturday and we had a great walk around town. I felt like it was a great time to see James again since we haven’t really sat down and caught up in what seems like years. And with the promise of another outing in my direction this Saturday, I couldn’t be happier.

I also went for a walk with Anne on Saturday evening just to get outside of the four walls that have been home to so much programming the last week.

I went for another walk on Sunday down by the River. Such a beautiful stroll to do and I know I’ll be doing it again sooner rather than later. It was a far more relaxing way to de-stress than spending a few hours on Facebook or going to a party. And the weather was just right to not intrude on my musings.

What was I musing? Who knows what the mind thinks of when it’s unleashed. But I enjoyed the journey it took me on and I feel much better for getting some space to myself.

I know a lot of my friends are busy revising for exams at the moment, so if you’re feeling stressed out, just go for a little walk. You’ll be surprised. And don’t take your iPod or whatever with you either :)

• Happiness. 9 out of 10
• Tiredness. 1 out of 5
• Workload. 9.7 out of 10
• Last Meal. Probably strudel...
• Song of the day. A Fine Frenzy – Ashes and Wine
• Thought for the day. The best feelings are those that have no words to describe them
• What I’m Doing Now. Lab marking tomorrow where Josh and I give a presentation on our Media Project…

Don’t Wear Blue!

I’m on a roll! The maths lecturer for my course this year can often go very quickly through examples in lectures. Trying to follow his logic and write it all down often becomes a two man job, shame there’s only one brain in this head. But today, covering the subject of Z-Transforms (which seem to be the discrete function equivalent of Laplace Transform), I followed every last note and suffix! For those of you who are thinking “but how?” well I can tell you the 3 secrets to being a good student:

1. Sleep! A regular sleep pattern does you a world of good. 8 hours a day minimum! That doesn’t mean start getting ready for bed at the 8 hour mark, it means be in bed, preferably asleep. I know as much as anyone their aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything, but believe me, those hours become so much more productive if you go to bed early.
2. Be prepared. This is hard to quantify. For me, being prepared is spending 10 minutes the night before decided what work I want to do the following day. That alone gives me a mental checklist that I can follow throughout the day. Once again, it’s all about making the most out of the time you have.
3. Doing work. I know it seems trivial, but if a lecturer asks you to look at a problem before the next lecture, then do it. I’m as guilty as the next guy for not doing this, but if you make sure to sleep and prepare then you’re far more likely to actually do it.

I’m not trying to get all high and mighty, I’m only hoping that someone out there will see this and go: I can better my chances of getting a good mark with pretty much no extra effort, I just need to be focused.

Well, I started writing this to say what a great day I had in labs messing around with Chroma Keying, but it’s kinda not turned out that way… ahh well :o)

• Happiness. 9 out of 10
• Tiredness. 1 out of 5
• Workload. 8 out of 10
• Last Meal. Not as exciting as my next meal: BEEF BOURGUIGNON!
• Song of the day. Sara Bareilles – Love Song
• Thought for the day. “The Mac won’t do two things at once”
• What I’m Doing Now. Cooking BEEF BOURGUIGNON mmm yea!

10 Small Loafs of Bread

I want to go to sleep, but I also want to quickly run through what my life currently is:

1. Lectures started on Monday and that meant the start of new topics. So far the first lecture of the term was cancelled (good start…not), but that’s been more than made up by the other lectures that have been really good (so far…)
2. I also started my Digital Media Engineering Module! Yup, that is actually the course I’m doing. And from 3pm until 6pm on a Monday is when I get to do my course! It was a great first lecture, fascinating. I just wish I had more like it…
3. Labs, now on a Tuesday, are as bad as ever. Today we weren’t given all the equipment we needed to complete the lab, and then the demonstrator put up with us all moaning for a good 30 minutes about how bad labs are organised and how bad the course is in general.
4. After that particularly bad lab, we all decided to go and see our course leader to let him know how we feel. We now have a meeting on Friday afternoon to discuss it in detail, so looking forward to finally expressing some of my concerns.
5. Then it was off to a MAD TV committee meeting, where a lot has been happening the last few days. It’s a really stressful few days as it is without MAD TV throwing a wobbly about what I saw as a non-issue, but nethertheless I feel the meeting allowed me a voice to get everything I had to say on the table.
6. Next stop was a quiz night with the Christian Union (and a free curry!). I had a great time and it allowed me to finally relax after such a crazy day of urgh. Topped off by our team winning! (note: team name was 10 small loafs of bread, hence title)
7. Trying to co-ordinate next weekend so I get to see my sister! Can’t wait!
8. Getting organised to ‘Give Equestrian A Go’ today! Another society MAD TV is trying out as part of it’s new series! It’s really great since Lauren, my housemate from last year, is the President of the Equestrian society, so should be a brilliant afternoon!
9. Good news, I have been invited for an interview at the SONY placement! I have two weeks to prepare, and I really, really, really, really, want this placement! So excited and nervous already. Need to make sure I find time to research and prepare… Thing is there is only one place and Josh has an interview there too……

These are only the things I am outwardly doing/thinking about/planning. There is also a lot going on in my head regarding a lot of things, such as Friday night and Monday evening in particular. Trying not to give these too much brain-time is difficult, but talking to my sister helps :)

love, Charles xx

• Happiness. 6 out of 10
• Tiredness. 4 out of 5
• Workload. 9.5 out of 10
• Last Meal. Free Curry (thanks Jesus :P)
• Song of the day. Radiohead – Street Spirit (Fade Out)
• Thought for the day.
• What I’m Doing Now. Hoping I finally get some free time tomorrow on my own to relax… but can’t see it happening… no rest for the wicked

Those 9 Days: Part 3 – Scene Missing

Wednesday 16th December

2 morning lectures to start the day, more things to look over later. Then me and Josh went off into town to do a spot of Christmas shopping. And it started to snow :)

In the afternoon I ended up wrapping presents. Then at 5pm it was MAD TV time. Committee meeting and then the general meeting. Lots of good ideas were put forward. One I really like is a report on international students, how they find surrey,what facilities are available and we plan to get statistics and interviews with people in charge of international societies and applications.

Thursday 17th December

More lectures and more wrapping presents. Then in the evening was the MADsoc Christmas dinner at a local pub. 3 courses for £9.95 spelt a good night :) Another one of those good natured nights just chatting, but the conversation was more lively than crew dinner, probably due to most people being actors.

Friday 18th December

A full day of labs is not a fun way to end the year, but then it had to be done. Fortunately the practical side of the project was mostly done so I spent my time planning the write up and our presentation. Few bits of documentation here and finding out who would do what over Christmas.

At 5pm it was time to leave, and time for the celebrations to begin. At 5pm exactly I had been invited for drinks with other media engineers by our course organiser. Only about 5 people turned up, but it was a good laugh for an hour or so anyway. After that I cycled home for a quick change of clothes before meeting up with Phil, Malcolm and Rob for a Chinese meal in town.

We’d been there once before last year and Lauren and I made the mistake of not ordering the set meal and having to watch as lashings of gorgeous food poured onto the table for Phil and Rob, none of which we could touch. Until eventually 2 small dishes emerged, they were ours… Needless to say this was not a mistake to be repeated, so this time I had the set meal with Malcolm, A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

After the meal I went over to Sophie’s and Julie’s for a spot of cider (Kopparberg to be precise) before heading out to Rubix for the Xmas party!

We arrived at about 10:45pm and went straight to the bar. It was a good night in all, at least what I remember of it, which to be honest is very little. I learnt that Goldschlager is an amazing shot, but takes you away to the fairies in no time!

So that’s pretty much it for the end of term, I had the time of my life and couldn’t imagine spending it any other way or with anybody different.

In the next few posts I’m going to be looking back at the last 365 days, and seeing what made it the best year of my life (so far…)

Those 9 days: Part 1

The last 9 days have been hectic in more ways than possible to describe here, but hell, lets give it a go!

Friday 11th December

It all starts a week and a half ago. A full day of labs where we finished the experiment early and got full marks. That put me in a good mood to go shopping at Tesco. While I was in Tesco there was a power cut, meaning I had to wait ages before the checkouts started working again… on my way back home all the street lights were off, it was very strange. Just as well I’d bought some bike lights from Halfords 2 days prior! Once I got back home I invited a friend over for stroganoff!

Later in the evening I went to Rubix, largely to see 2 of Sophie’s best friends from back home who had come to visit for the weekend. Sophie always talks about Ana and Carina, and they came over last Christmas for a day or two, but with labs and stage crew I didn’t ever get to see them. It was one of those times when I felt like we were friends before we’d even met, and it was great to finally put faces to names and get to know each other. All in all, it was a great night. Sophie’s friends were genuinely such nice people I was taken aback at first and then annoyed at myself that I didn’t find time to see them last year!

Saturday 12th December

After getting no more than 3 hours sleep I was up for a MAD TV meeting to discuss a website that we plan to build over Christmas as a central place to hold all our content. It was an interesting discussion, but had to be cut short because one of the guys had to leave. So I went home and went back to sleep. That evening I went back over to Sophie’s to see her friends again before they left on Sunday morning. Ana baked some cakes and I ate some cakes…

I left there at about 6pm to go to the stage crew Christmas dinner. It was a black tie event, and all of stage crew pretty much go. I don’t have much to say about the dinner, apart from it was a really good night for a few reasons: the food was good, I was bought a lot of drinks, half price drinks in the union was amazing, managed to get to subway before it closed at 3am…

It’s interesting to compare this year’s stage crew dinner to last. Last year I didn’t drink alcohol at all, and I had a good time. But this year was very alcohol-fuelled, and I loved it! It’s not just the alcohol, but when everyone else is drinking and you’re not, it’s never as fun, and I hate to say it but you don’t feel as included in everything. Crew dinner was one of the first times I’ve been out this year and just sat in a bar and talked to people, for literally hours, and that’s what I really liked about it.

There’s loads more to talk about… we’ve got Snow White, dancing, shopping, cake, parties and lots more still to come! Part 2 coming soon!

Wedding, Labs & A First Meeting…

My first ever wedding went great! I loved it. Very personal and cosy, with only 20 or so people there it felt very intimate, which was really great. I filmed it and I’m really looking forward to editing it in the next week.

Thursday was just another one of those days where I had work to do and sleep to get.

On Friday I had labs, which actually went really well. I finished the exercise about 2 hours before the end and just sat around with the Lab demonstrator who was trying to make the last part of the tutorial work. In the end he gave up and let me go early :)

Saturday was another day working at Ascot racecourse. I took 412 sales in 1 day, which is by far the most I've ever done in 1 day. It was amazing fun and I got £7.20 in tips which isn’t bad. And I balanced. Yes, yes I rock…

Sunday was a great day, but since I haven’t been keeping the blog up-to-date with that aspect of my life recently, I don’t think now is the time to elaborate.

• Happiness. 8 out of 10
• Tiredness. 3 out of 5
• Workload. 8 out of 10
• Last Meal. Chicken & Bacon Sandwich for lunch
• Song of the day. George Michael - Faith
• Thought for the day. 10 seconds of Sunday…
• What I’m Doing Now. About to finish my CV!

Fun & Funner

Since the last post…

• Filming for MAD TV’s first news episode of the new academic year! Watch the first episode here!
• More lectures…
• Friday labs are going better than last year’s labs, but are still not how I’d like to spend my Fridays…
• Went to Thorpe Park with my housemates Anne and Viv, my friends from uni Heather, Lauren, Sophie and Phil, and my friends from sixth form, Ben, Kevin and Murat. It was a beyond brilliant day. We had so much fun and as you can imagine the queue’s provided us with plenty of time to catch up on what’s been going on in each other’s lives. As for Thorpe Park itself, the scare mazes lived up to their high expectations and riding SAW in the dark was well worth the freezing 2 hour queue at 11pm…
• Sunday was chill day (for the second week in a row now) and I got nothing done. Other than we had a MAD TV committee meeting and finished the first episode :)
• Monday I did video in the union for Reverend & The Makers, got some brilliant shots thanks to the fresher’s who didn’t mind operating the cameras :P

This week:

• Cranium night on Tuesday
• MAD TV meeting on Wednesday
• Climbing on Thursday (for the first time in too long)
• Nothing planned for the weekend yet other than lots of work, this is catch up weekend in preparation for CRAZY “DO EVERYTHING IN 1 WEEK” WEEK next week! Fun times are ahead everyone…

Sorry for another brief bullet point post, but it’s too hard to construct sentences this early in the morning…

• Happiness. 8 out of 10 (is there a point where I’m doing to much fun?)
• Tiredness. 4 out of 5
• Workload. 7.5 out of 10 (depends what you mean by ‘workload’)
• Last Meal. Channies burger and chips
• Song of the day. Maroon 5 – Makes Me Wonder
• Thought for the day. Need to write my CV…
• What I’m Doing Now. Going to bed, literally in the next 20 seconds…

More Days Work

Sorry for the long gap between posts, I literally haven’t stopped this week.

Tuesday: A very lazy day in terms of lectures, I only had 1 hour. I spent the rest of my time editing the out-takes for the Fresher’s Angel Health & Safety Video, they’re coming along nicely…

In the evening I had two meetings, stage crew committee meeting and a MAD TV meeting. Stage Crew is coming along, we have lots of fresher's, about 40, and we have to train them all in basic health & safety so they can actually do work. As for MAD TV, it’s gone from 0 to 1 million miles an hour in 1 week. We’ve gone from a team of 3 people, to a team of 25! We’re working hard on filming the next news episode, and if all goes to plan it’ll be on the airwaves by this time next week!

Wednesday was probably my first real day of lectures. The course so far seems reasonable, much like last year, but with different stuff. I’m not really sure how the workload is going to do itself right now, but I’m working on it…

In the afternoon, we did some filming for MAD TV, a segment called “What you think” where we ask students for their opinions on a certain topic, this time it was the changes that have happened on campus over summer. We got some funny responses and it should turn into a good segment.

In the evening it was more MAD TV, we had a 3 hour workshop discussing how we wanted to go about each episode. A 2 week turnaround is very tight and is going to require everyone in the team to pull their weight. Looking forward to seeing how it all turns out!

Thursday can be summed up as follows: tiring. After 5 hours of non-stop lectures I was ready to die. I’ve got lots of reading up to do before next week, which is only tomorrow! I’ll admit I’m slightly concerned as to where I’m fitting in work between Stage Crew, MAD TV, eating and looking after the house, but once I’ve got into a routine I’ll be fine… hopefully.

Friday is now my lab day. It was the start of a 6 week project to build a stereo amplifier. Pressure is on!

In the evening I helped set up for flirt with Stage Crew before coming home and sleeping.

Saturday, up at 8am to get in to uni and set up for the Stage Crew fresher’s training. Got lots of the video equipment out to show off to fresher’s and I think it all went remarkably well. While that was going on a few of our new MAD TV crew were filming a report for the next episode. I had to go and assist them a couple of times, basically because I wanted to help too because it’s fun!

Saturday evening I went into town and celebrated Mike’s 21st birthday with him, pictures tell the story…

Today the only thing I have planned is climbing with Phil this evening. Other than that I have to decide which of the 100 things I have to do before tomorrow I should do…

• Happiness. 7 out of 10 (if it wasn’t for the work…)
• Tiredness. 2 out of 5 (the lie-in this morning helped)
• Workload. 7 out of 10 (the return of the workload!)
• Last Meal. Cereal (but it’s time for more food…)
• Song of the day. Paloma Faith – New York
• Thought for the day. I can be who you want me to be, but do you want me?
• What I’m Doing Now. Thinking about work, MAD TV, Stage Crew, climbing, my CV, placements, labs, girls…