Science Sung

http://www.science-groove.org/Now/Most impressive must be a very entertaining lecturer.

Seem to be surviv...

Seem to be surviving the damn cold that won't leave. Have actually been busy this month between lots of people viva-ing and visiting amadou_a's housewarming party. Mostly various viva's have gone well but one of my friends failed (not out right but effectively), she's fighting tooth nad nail to appeal the desion last I heard. Have established that crafts are the new rock and roll after a discussion with ghostpaw and luckyka at the aformentioned housewarming, I've been trying to think of crafty type things I might try that don't involve workshops, lots of tools and much concentration - can't see me knitting I'm afraid either before anyone suggests it.Have also begun thinking about my january social events new year and birthday, I suspect new year will be dull as per usual but can't deside weither to come back to guildford for it or not. Was most impressed with the various banquete posts, would love to do something like that myself at some stage. It's a pitty there are no meadaries (cornish medievil style restaurants - eat with your fingers drink mead etc) in guildford as this would be fun to get people along to for my birthday, found a few medievil banquete things done by castles and the like but there websites only give xmas/new year info (bloody expensive too).

Ah Maths standards are slipping!

Just did the bbc's math quizhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4263590.stmI am somewhat dismayed to discover 2 of the 20 questions where incorrect, the square of a negitive number is the same as the square of the positive number a basic fact anyone should know - giving one question two correct answers. And as a physist the idea that if you roll a ball with twice the force you will have twice the velocity over a greater distance worrie me a little might be true (I can't be bothered thinking about it too deeply, need to assume a constant deceleration due to friction I guess - not really a math quaestion in anycase).I am really looking forward to my up coming escape to cornwall, holiday yay. there are lots of touristy type things I'd quite like to do but a large part of my knows I am never going to get round to them will just slob out at my parents and do a few coastal walks.On the yay front have managed to get tickets for a bath-gloster rugby match so have a day trip to bath coming up, hopefully see a few of my uni compatriots.My coding is finally going quite well (I am just trying to restrain myself from a rewrite to use some nice new techniques I've found), may even get something publishable soon (which would be long over due and fabulous). So back to it.

taste of paint

They're redecorating our section of the building, arround us while we're working - naturally. And I can't get the taste of paint out of my mouth (and no I havn't been licking the walls), must find something to neutralise smell or else throw up over all their hard work in protest.

random giddering about recent activities

Well thought it was hi time I posted something again. My war with the ants continues apace, the major problem is they don't apear bright enough to spot something that'll kill them. I often have a glass of water by the bed at night, woke up the other morning to find 50-100 ants had climbed into said glass and drowned - SO glad I didn't reach for a drink in the night!!!I have been wilting in the heat as have the office plants I purchaced last week :( I have the reverse of green fingers, plants left in my care die quickly.A week or so ago I went to a conference in holland v.interesting conference but I didn't get a chance to see much of utricht, trying to draw a certain amount of inthusiasm from the conference and work seems to be almost working - fingers crossed simulation results bear some passing resemblance with real life.Everyone I know is moving house at the mo so next weekend I am helping move a friend to guildford, being careful not to stuff up back. Should be good, may mean there are more people arround to socialise with/ have the odd pint with.Spent saturday under a tree reading harry potter and sunday walked out to a nice pub in shalford called the seahorse, had a pork pie ploughmans and walked home, not the most eventful way to spend a weekend but pleasent.

Invaded

Got home last night to find my bedroom invaded by ants hundreds of the little beggars, squashed lots insecticided the logical entry point and washed the floors. Just praying they get the mesage and stay out.

Building Site

They're currently refurbishing the building in which I work, In a wonderful work round it type way. Its really starting to get on my nerves, on monday they closed off the main entrance to my section of the building after i had gone in for the day, with out mentioning that they were going to, leaving the only access to my coridor through labs, which technically I shouldn't be wondering through since I have no safety gear (and haven't been in a lab for five years). Eventually they opened a new section of coridor so I can wander through a building site instead (while there is building work going on). To add insult to injury though the entrance they closed includes all the toilets for the building - what fun.I am going to need a serious drink soon!

Happy Easter

Just thought I'd say a quick happy easter to everyone, I am braving the british railways tomorrow to get home to cornwall for a few days break, no net access.

Happy Easter

Just thought I'd say a quick happy easter to everyone, I am braving the british railways tomorrow to get home to cornwall for a few days break, no net access.

4 year old driver

Just had to link this in case people missed it, got to be the youngest joy-rider ever. I suspect a career in motor sports later in life.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4246189.stm

The last week or so

I had a fabulous evening jumping up and down to rock music last tues, throughly good way to celibrate ones birthday. Most of the rest of the week was fairly quiet, shopping on saturday where shockingly for me I actually brought some cloths (I have been looking for cloths I like for about two months and generally not finding anything). Sunday was a lovely day here an Em and I walked out to godalming and onto a country pub for sunday lunch with J. Found a wonderful country pub, beer was excellent, expensive roast but very good, cm thick slices of meat lots of vedge. By the time we'd walked over we had definitely worked up an appertite, best sunday I have had in ages and one I hope will be repeated soon.Work continues to drive me mad, I just want to make some progress and interact with a few more people (office to me self/ research group onf one not really helping progress). Oh Cornaidd I was taking to someone about doing a holiday walking the inca trail, since you're a regular in that part of the world I was wondering if you knew anywhere to look for good holiday deals?Anyway back to the grind stone.

Comedy Store

Went to the comedy store last night and witnessed some brilliant improvisation, from the comedy store players (mostly people who have done who's line is it anyway). Very good night out, recomended particluarly since is cheap for such top flight comdians (£13!!). Not particluar other news, am hoping tuesdays trip to the rock night will be good.

You scored...

You scored as Lust. Lust56%Pride38%Sloth38%Wrath25%Gluttony25%Envy25%Greed19%</td>Seven deadly sinscreated with QuizFarm.comrather suprising really expected to get highest score for sloth and glutony

Rain

You know they say the eskimos have 50 words for snow, it occured to me yesterday english should have more words for rain after all we get enough of it and there are very different types. As far as I know we pretty much have "rain" and "drizzel". But we actually get all sorts of conditions, in the west country we get horizontal rain, you sometimes get that rain that seems to avoid all obsticals just to drip down your neck, I always rather liked the hollywood type rain lots of really fat rain drops falls briefly then the sun comes out.If anyone can think of new words (or old ones I am unfamiliar with) for the types of rain we get let me know, might try and work them into everyday usage:)

magpies

Just saw 8 magpies together, I wonder if this has any meaning according to the rhyme, I think it only goes as far as 7 (sorrow,joy,girl,boy,silver,gold,secret).Maybe it's luck

Work is driving me nuts

I have a simulation that takes sufficiently long to run that I seem to spend most of my time waiting for it to finish working, and when it does I am not at all sure it's giving me the correct results. I really need to be busier the frustration of waiting for this thing to run is seriously driving me over the edge. It doesn't help that I can go all day without speaking to anyone, I share an office with one person who is very nice really but about the quietist person I have ever met if she is in we may exchange all of 5 words if she isn't at least I can have the radio on for company. I really feel like screaming and/or breaking something at the moment. I think the last straw may have been trying to back track the derivation of configurational temperature (while waiting for a run to finish of course) only to find they're using a peice of mathematical notation I have never seen before without explainantion (a : ) since my maths is pretty good this must be from some field of mathematics I have never studied - really helpful.Oh for some progress - just a little - anything.

Nothing In particular

It's about time I posted something I guess.Nothing particularly news-worthy been happening for a while. Have managed to increase my sociallising somewhat and have found a few places in guildford doing live music, which is nice, one bar has a most impressive guitarist/singer playing tuesday nights plus one of the uni bars has started doing an open mic night on mondays with a pretty high standard of partisipants (I am sure I have spelt that wrong oh well). Was also treated to dinner by a couple of friends on thursday, tried venison for the first time, I am not a big fan of red meat but this was lovely, surved with asparagus with I can only presume I have had overcooked previously as I haven't liked it before. Have found that there is a two-weekly comedy night on here, so am hoping to go to that next sunday or two weeks after that. Saturday am hopefully bound for an exhibition on optical illusions in london. A mate is down for a few days at the end of the week so should have a few good evenings drinking:).Has anyone else noticed halloween seems to have been swallowed by christmas this year, it doesn't seem to have made much of an impact this year, I always like halloween but if you weren't looking hard arround here you'd never know it was coming up.

Y...

Your Years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Name Age House GryffindorHufflepuffRavenclawSlytherinFamily Line MugglebornHalf-BloodPure-BloodDated Hermione GrangerYou are well known for Excelling in QuidditchPercentage of student body you shagged - 67%How do the staff and students feel about you They HATE you
This quiz by lady_ameily - Taken 193234 Times.</a>New - How do you get a guy to like you?

tired of being tired

Been a while since my last update, nothing much momentous has happened. I had a great weekend a few weeks where I got to catch up with lots of friends (everything always happens all at the same time). I then hurt my hand in aikido, something went crack very loudly so have not been able to do that for a week or two.At the moment I am suffering from the heat, I know one shouldn't complain given how infrequently we get nice weather but my operating temperature is quite low. The closer we get to 30 degrees the less able to function I am, at the moment the main problem is that I don't seem to be getting much sleep and as a result am staggering through my days half asleep. I am really hoping it will start getting colder at night, I love blue sky's and sunshine but really need some sleep.

aggrieved

Things are generally going quite well have gotten to the stage of going for a few drinks after work with people from my department, building a social life and guildford is feeling a little more like home.I went to the cinema last night to see eternal sunshine of the spotless mind which is very good btw thought provoking and well put together. Anyway I am walking home about 10:30 not doing anything particularly offensive that I can think of when some *****(insert expletive of your choise) hits me with a rotten egg, I am prepared to admit hitting me from a moving car consitutes good aim but it was really fucking unnecessary. If I'd gotten the license number of the car I would have been inclined to report them to the police.It's amazing how many moronic people there are out there who end up so bored that they think this kind of thing is funny, the same sort of arse who goes out and gets drunk on a friday/saturday with the express intention of starting a fight. I don't know whether I feel sorry for such people or just really wish they never ever crossed my path.sorry about the rant but it is really annoying when this sort of thing happens without even any provocation.

Shaun of the Dead

brilliant go and see it!reminded me why I loved spaced which i must now buy on dvd.

Movie Reviews

I have not updated for a while so I thought I should really post something but as I have not really done much except attend polymer science meetings and spend a week in cornwall at my parents. About the only interesting thing from my cornwall trip was going to one of the gardens (with mum and gran), I can't remember the name their all tre-something anyway, the gardens where impressive but what was great in my view was that they had peacocks, which where tame enough to be cadging food off people I really wished I'd had my camera they are very impressive up close. I also hadn,t realised that they like to perch in trees, it must be a remarkable effort to drag that tail up into a tree.Anyway to pad this out I thought I'd include my opinion on a few films I have seen resently:-Welcome to the Jungle - mindless action film but fun, similar to 80's arnie films but trying to be more comic, dialogue and characters motivations are a bit rubbish but action enjoyable + christipher walken scary as every.Master and Commander - pants, I couldn't much empathise with any of the characters, you got no real sense of the wider reasons for their actions so sort of like a documentary on naval history without any political context - not my cup of tea.Kill Bill Part 1 - enjoyable, feels at times like the names were invented by a thirteen year old (deadly viper assasination squad) and the scenes don't feel as connected (sort of a comic strip effect) as they might but most of the scenes are fadulously shot/set. So of the scenes of the brides recovery where a bit unnecessarily unpleasent I felt and could have been cut.Antway off to see shaun of the dead tonight I have high hopes since I loved spaced.

Mobile Phones

My current phone is getting on my wick, its a fairly new and shinny samung but and this is imporant its let down in two key areas which seem to be common to most samsung phones the T9 predictive text engine is horrible to use and since I send a fair number of texts this is important to me and the damn thing only rings at an audiable level two seconds before putting people through to the answer phone (maybe this is a feature of polyphonic ring tones but its v.annoying to constantly be too late to take calls).I was wondering if any one has used a sony ericsson phone, are they any good?I would like to go back to nokia but can't find a phone of theirs that suits me at the moment, are their any other brands/phones anyone would recomend?Also I am thinking of switching to O2 as their Pay&Go package looks superior to orange, but I have no idea what O2 is like as a company any info anyone has would be a help.cheers

guildford

I have been here for a few months now and was trying to think how I feel about the place in particular compared with where else I have been. Cardiff was a very vibrent city there was always something going on, somewhere new opening etc a great place to be an undergrad. Bath was quirkier on the one hand very conservative but on the other filled with interesting and slightly odd places, a very comfortable city and one I would definietly like to live in again. So far my impression of Guildford is that everything feels a little temperary, like everyone knows they are not staying that long and so don't really put their mark on anything. Maybe it's just that I have not found the right places in town yet, the university social facilities are all excelent which is so far a saving grace.

snaok (situation normal all ok)

Am bruised and tired from Aikido and my knee feels like it may go at some point soon. Does anyone know any good knee strengthening exercises? as I exercise I find that the tendons loosen (I reckon anyway) and then at some point the knee cap goes out of place. I need to find a way to tighten those tendons.On a massive up note, I can finally calculate the viscosity from my program, I have spent the last two weeks looking for the error in my program which turned out to actually be a combination of two subtle errors fixed now yeeeeeeeeeeessssss!!!!!!! don't have to bang my head against that wall now.

I am genius

hmm not sure I agree with the jealous treat I would say I have plenty of worse trates and am not particularly the jealous type. Also not good at acting crazy, stay with being calm or running away I think. Your True Nature by llScorpiusllUsernameThe quality that most appeals to you:CreativityIn a survival situation, you:Act crazy as a diversionYour hidden talent is:ResourcefulnessYour gift is:GeniusIn groups, you:Feel uncomfortableYour best quality is:Your insightfulnessYour weakness is:Your jealous natureCreated with quill18's MemeGen 3.0!

Nakered

I am trying to increase my activity levels, getting fitter and meeting more people at the same time. For some reason I was under the impression that exercising was supposed to make you feel more energetic, It certainly isn't working for me I am not in good shape my arms are particularly aching and I am trying to get enthused enough to go along to the climbing club this afternoon.I must admit that I am feeling a little fitter if more exhausted.A well back to my search for the errant factor of three.

snow yeah!

At last its snowed here, everything is that magical white and the sky is a gorgeous blue. I know lots of people don't like snow because it makes their lives a little bit more difficult but I love it when it snows, probably because growing up in cornwall it only snowed about twice when I was a kid. The only down side is I want to go sledging rather than do any work ho hum.I have escaped guildford on the past too weekends the weekend before last to do computer upgrading, sadly enough quite enjoyable, followed by a good staurday night out and the opertunity to demonstrate my complete lack of skill at pool.And last weekend to a friends 30th in bath, great food, lots of drink, good company alround a great evening. Only a slight headache the following morning although this was not aided by my walking ino a very solid beam first thing in the morning.Bath definitely still stands as a special place to me, I think I'd like to live there again sometime.Getting away has helped me get a bit more inthusiasm up for work. I have developed a new plan for dealing with the mountain of papers building up in my office (100's of the damn things). insetead of trying to read them in depth and really understand each one I am going to try and start reading them as I read novels, get a sense of what their saying but don't sweat the details. My sub-consious should absorb more information this way, its very good for physics type problems and mulling things over in the back of ones mind. I often suddenly realise the answr to something I am working on while doing something entirely unrelated.I just need to improve verbal reaction time and body langueage reading ability, both of which I think have a strong element of subconscious thought in them. By verbal reaction time I mean things like comebacks, teasing and flirting all of which about ten minutes after I should have said something funny, flirty whatever, I think of the prefect thing to say by which time it is too late and to try and say it then would just make you look stupid. Particularly a problem with flirting as my inability to read body langueage often means a five ten minute delay before I realise I should have been flirting.I think I'll start reading some books of quoteations stock up on other peoples wit and use good quotes as tactical conversation weapons.Ah to work, I wana go play in the snow.

cool I want to go to canada

You're Canada! People make fun of you a lot, but they're stupid because you've got a much better life than they do. In fact, they're probably just jealous. You believe in crazy things like human rights and health care and not dying in the streets, and you end up securing these rights for yourself and others. If it weren't for your weird affection for ice hockey, you'd be the perfect person.Takethe Country Quiz at the Blue Pyramid

No Much Happening

Very little has happened over the last week or so. I continue to try and verify my program is doing what I think it is but I am having much trouble geting to grips with the maths of viscosity and other rheological (the study of material stress, strain stretching etc) properties. About the only other thing I have really done is arrange a trip to Bath for a friends birthday. The Trains pleasently suprised me in that since I as prepared to specify trains it only cost £18 for a return, not bad really, maybe I will do a little more travelling in the near future, go visit my brother, I have been meaning to for a while.Need to start acting on my intentions!

anti-social holidays

I was thinking about *ing valentines day, I really don't like valentines day much, but a large part of this could be because I am single and alway have been. But I think Valentines day is the worst holiday in the calendar because it pretty much makes sure to rub single peoples noses in it. You can't move for couples holding hands, windows full of aweful pink s**t etc. Even if your part of a couple and so not being reminded what a sad bastard you are for not having a girlfriend from what I can observe its not that great as there is lots of pressure to show your other half how much you care etc. I can't think of any other holidays like this, christmas has part of the exclusivity in that it is a family holiday, and I can see that it would do the nose rubbing thing a bit if you had no family (hence hi suicide count i guess), but this is some what countered, or should be, by the christmas spirt where its good will to all etc.Yep I think *ing Valentines day is a rubbish holiday, about the only bonus I can see is the posible increase in ones chances of pulling, but that really isn't enough to have to put up with all the pink stuff.Hallowine now there is a good holiday, essentially no drawbacks, or it was until the americans introduced trick or treating, or small scale extorsion as it might more accurately be described.

A first attempt

I suspect I will update this journal only very infrequently as I have never been much for keeping diaries and the like, and there really isn't much happening here at the moment.I have moved to guildford a few months ago and am still getting to know the place + my poor skills at meeting people mean I don't know that many people round here. I am working on remiding this but as I said not very good at it.I started Aikido two weeks ago which is proving interesting if slightly painful (too much arm twisting etc) but I am going to try and stick it out, since I have always wanted to learn a martial art and this is by far the most promising I have tried. I wish the class was on slightly earlier it must be said since hanging around work until 8 is a pain.Other than this I have been looking for hobbies, something to occupy my brain a bit thats not work:)Reading a lot, had to raid the kids section to find much worth reading at the surrey library last time, and watching plenty of films. Went to see "Big Fish" which is great, enjoyable and uplifting.I wish I could get the client program to install on my pc would make life easier, maybe I will eventually feel its worth the effort of installing all the dependencies but not for a while I suspect. I am having enough trouble getting my laptop to do what I want, looks like I am going to have to re-install the operating system, pain in the arse.Best do some work now I guess.