29/11/06 Well that was fun

Work is absolutely frantic at the moment. I am working on systems analysis and net tech. simultaneously and it's running me ragged! Net tech is going pretty well but we're not making quite so much progress on the other assignment. Last night I stayed up until 6am, sustained by blindingly strong coffee (according to Grace I have become addicted ) and hammered out a script to convert my Access database to pSQL. Now we have to do another script to manually enter sample data, then scripts for all the queries including accessor and modifier methods.

It's a hell of a lot of work and I am acutely aware that it is Week 11 next week, and that I haven't even started Data Structures and Algorithms yet. Allegedly I am continually pale and shaky but tbh that's not surprising given how little sleep I'm getting!

Spent most of the day in the Hive with the usual crowd trying to apply myself to work. Suspect I need some proper sleep tonight.

Posted by Alex at 6:30 AM

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27/11/06 The start of a new week

Work today was okay ... few prepping-related problems, no difficult customers to speak of, and less work due to the hot counter still being broken! Frankie was still in a practical joking mood which led to some laughs. Overall I have had worse days at work!

After work I went round to Grace's house for dinner and Star Trek. Bex came home a while later looking completely shattered and rather ill, so understandably did not come to the pub quiz with us. The quiz itself was fun as ever; we had a massive team this week, and despite a rather challenging set of questions we came in third place. I attained a new set of battle-scars from Grace's fingernails, and also the usual mixture of random nonsense written all over my arms. The dear girl had brought a packet of sweets to share round and the wrappers were soon converted into a small army of coloured paper ducks, and also a rather scary and evil-looking two legged orange frog! Grace also stole my watch and tied my shoelaces together causing much humourous jumping-around.

Apparently the general consensus is that we're mad or just enjoy beating each other up or both. Recently Ryan ("Penelope" as Grace calls him ) has also been drawn into the games, and wears his scars as badges of honour! I don't think I've come away from that pub quiz a single time in weeks without physical injuries....

Anyway. I am really not looking forward to this week. My workload is massive, although the lack of Data Structures lectures will make things easier. I am also acutely aware that I haven't even started one piece of coursework, but tbh I just have to concentrate on the two group projects. They're more important.

I am looking forward to week 12 when I can just relax and do my own thing! Grace and I are planning a Stargate marathon, courtesy of Dan's boxed sets ... so far I am still in the middle of season 5 because I haven't had time to sit down and watch any Stargate for ages (other than the 200th episode last week).

Oh yep and I have a new forum avatar, personally designed by me. Decided to scrap my existing one (the skull and crossed ice axes) in favour of a simpler, more retro style avatar. Here it is!

Posted by Alex at 1:10 AM

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25/11/06 lol

We went to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 last night. It's not quite as good as the original but it's still hilarious! Grace was in hysterics at points, particularly when the word 'shiny' was heard.

After the film Frankie and Richie pulled a practical joke on me. I had agreed to pay for the parking that evening, and the machine showed the value £134 when they put the ticket in ... apparently my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets and I sank to my knees! Grace had to help me to my feet. This was of course an old parking ticket of Richie's that had somehow accumulated an enormous charge on it, and they'd been waiting to use it on me for some time. Funny!

Anyway today I have been procrastinating shamelessly, partly due to the awful weather, partly due to the fact that I'm inexplicably tired and shaky despite 10 hours of sleep last night. Apparently I am looking pale. Meh.

Got caught out in a massive squall earlier on, quite possibly the worst weather I've ever seen at sea level: horizontal rain and hail sweeping down the road, and 50-60mph gusts that knocked over a tree nearby, narrowly missing a parked car. ARRG!

Posted by Alex at 5:30 PM

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23/11/06 Just to make things crystal clear

There has been some confusion about a rather emotionally-charged post I made last week. Just to clear things up, it was NOT me "coming out" or anything like that! Reading through it again I can see how it might be interpreted that way but it really is about something else entirely. I had forgotten what twisted minds people like Chris Reece possess!

I am not going to elaborate any further on what it was that actually happened, because it's something private that concerns Grace and me and nobody else. There has been a lot of gossip going around but tbh I couldn't care less.

Anyway ... today has been pretty gruelling, with plenty of coursework to do. I also overslept due to my alarm clock being rubbish.

Posted by Alex at 3:30 PM

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22/11/06 Aaaaaargh!

Have spend the whole day so far secluded in the Hive working away at Net Tech. and Systems Analysis. I keep having to make alterations for the database for the former project due to the fact that I'm continually stumbling across new requirements for the site. It's a right pain and doing all the accessor and modifier queries I need is very tedious. I am not looking forward to writing it up in SQL ... why oh why doesn't MS Access have a convenient export feature that actually works??

A disaster in the Cairngorms the other day has sent shockwaves throughout the British mountaineering community, and in particular, more closely to home, among the hillwalkers and climbers here at UEA. Two university students from Aberdeen aged 18 and 23 succumbed to the weather in Coire an t-Sneachda after completing an ice climb and froze to death walking out. This is particularly shocking because it was through no fault of the climbers that this tragedy occurred. Human life simply could not have been sustained in conditions that bad. My thoughts are with their family and friends at this time. I'll repeat the advice I gave on Facebook: to everyone venturing into the mountains this winter, stay safe and remember that no mountain is worth your life.

Anyway Piratesoc is off tonight because virtually everyone is going to be at Deviate instead. I'm heading over to Grace's house later to watch the 200th episode of Stargate ... should be awesome!

But in the meantime it's back to the grindstone....

Posted by Alex at 3:30 PM

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20/11/06 Fun ... and not so fun!

Yesterday was the weekly pub quiz as usual, which was awesome. I headed over to Grace's house after work and watched a bit of Star Trek, ate pizza, drank tea etc. Apparently 'Shirley' (Mark, their retarded housemate) had some people over the previous night who had a dog with them ... the dog ate Bex's knitting, left fur all over Grace's clothes, and generally made a mess. What's more, it would appear that Shirley didn't even really know these people. He is a strange boy. I have sent the Caltrop Fairy their way, complete with a full compliment of pointed ironmongery, to help out.

Anyway we headed off to the quiz at about half six and met up with everyone else. We didn't do so well at the quiz but I supplied some damn good answers and won a bet as to whether Pluto was the only planet further out than Mars without detectable rings (it was!)

I was also thoroughly abused by Grace and Bex, who seemed to derive twisted enjoyment from grabbing both my arms and then proceeding to steal my watch and write random things all over my arms. I have also come to the conclusion that death by tickling and poking is probably one of the worst forms of death ever devised! Consider my situation ... lying back trying to nap between rounds, when suddenly, out of nowhere, some evil woman starts tickling and stroking your knee or your ear....

Anyway. Today I start the group projects in earnest. I will be focusing on Net Tech this evening and tomorrow. I need to have the database fully working by the lab session tomorrow so will probably spend most of this evening in the library slaving away. I will be working on Systems Analysis pretty solidly on Wednesday; we have to have the Object Oriented analysis done by Thursday afternoon or we will start to fall behind. It's going to be pretty crammed this week I'm afraid.

I am still hoping Grace will be free one evening so we can go and watch The Prestige, but given both our workloads I'm not holding my breath!

Posted by Alex at 1:55 PM

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17/11/06 Back to normal

Things have pretty much returned to normal right now! I have three giant coursework projects hanging over my head, none of which I have made any significant progress on. Luckily two of them are group projects. I work a lot better in groups because then I can rely on other people to badger me to get work done.

I also have a massive piece of seminar prep work to get done for this afternoon. Eeeeevil people setting us work when they usually don't bother ... how is that fair? I am currently ensconced in the Hive and will be here for some time. Gracey will be along in a bit. I am so glad that the recent hiatus hasn't changed our relationship in any significant way, except maybe make us closer (and if that sounds mysterious to most people, then you are welcome to think so ... I'm not going to elaborate any further!)

Anyway I'm really looking forward to the weekend. Saturday is going to be a lazy day in which I will watch a little Stargate, do some reading, maybe some planning for my coursework, and get some serious sleeping done. Sunday is the usual work followed by the ultimate pinnacle of the week: the pub quiz! After that, the following week will be less fun. Coursework is going to have to start in earnest and I am going to have even less time to myself.

Will the coursework never end??

Posted by Alex at 11:30 AM

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16/11/06 Rebirth (apologies if this makes no sense to 99% of the people who read it)

I really can't talk about it in any specific way, but I am looking at all kinds of things in an entirely new light due to what happened a little while ago. It's an incredibly painful process confronting personal demons and aspects of your personality you have denied. But it is also utterly life-changing. I feel I understand myself better than I have ever done before.

There are two parts to me and one of these parts stops me from admitting things to myself. This is me in a nutshell. Tonight we took a long and very detailed look at some of the big things that have happened to me and that shaped the person I am today. I found a massive number of repressed memories, powerful emotions (good and bad), and a great deal of denial and delusion from that little part of me that stops me from being completely honest with myself, and with the tiny number of people I completely trust. I learned so much and the experience was both profoundly enlightening and unnerving.

It takes something massively traumatic for my defences to break down to such an enormous extent. Emotional shock can make it happen, and in this case it did. It's hard to put what went through my minds into words (or at least into words that I'm comfortable with anyone else reading!) I'll just say that these rare moments in life are very painful, but they shape our personalities and our futures.

Grace, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You understand me better than anyone else, and have quite possibly had more impact on the person I am today than anything has.

Posted by Alex at 2:50 AM

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14/11/06 Update!

So far the week has got off to a rocky start! Work on Sunday was interesting, with yet more stuff being left out of date in the fridge. After that the pub quiz was pretty awful. Only had about four people there ... no Frankie and Richie, Bex only there for an hour, and no Gracey at all. We did pretty poorly although the acronyms round was fun!

Yesterday was the usual orrible nine o'clock lecture, followed by Hiveage in which I drank much coffee, had my Sigg bottle stolen, and had "Strange Morbid Prat" written on my hand by Grace. As her specifically appointed servile minion I am pretty aware by this point that resistance is futile!

I think the 'strange' and 'morbid' bits came about due to reading a particular chapter in Whymper's account of his early attempts on the Matterhorn. Since he could find nobody willing to go up the mountain with him, he made an attempt from the Italian side alone. I can identify with this because I've experienced the same thing before: the brazen assumption that everything will be fine and that you're good enough to deal with any obstacles. This was a massive mistake for Whymper. He didn't even have an ice axe and fell 80 feet from a steep corner, bouncing five times before finally coming to rest with huge quantities of blood spurting from wounds in his head.

He writes a very candid description of exactly what went through his mind as he fell, and reading this chilled me to the bone. It was exactly the same as the way my mind went when I fell back in June. I have gone to a lot of effort to put those memories to one side and re-living them was not a pleasant experience.

Anyway the next wave of coursework is now upon us! Chez and I are working on a pretty massive and daunting Internet Technologies assingment, and I also have a big Systems Analysis project and a huge amount of Data Structures and Algorithms to get through too. I should be able to find time to go and watch a film (The Prestige still looks good) later in the week, and of course the pub quiz on Sunday, but other than that I'm pretty much jam-packed from now until the end of the semester!

Posted by Alex at 10:45 AM

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10/11/06 meh

Having an odd couple of days generally. Lack of frantic coursework deadlines is nice, but takes a while getting used to! Yesterday wasn't too fun ... had an argument with Frankie over something silly (just a massive misunderstanding really). I wanted to go into town to watch The Prestige but ended up waiting for an hour at the bus stop in the freezing cold for a non-existant bus. Will have to go and watch it sometime next week if I'm not too snowed-under with the next wave of coursework by then.

Hmm am going back home for a day this afternoon. Will be back in Norwich on Saturday evening. The only really good thing at the moment is that I'm reading Edward Whymper's classic Scrambles Amongst the Alps In the Years 1860 - 1869 ... a testament to the golden age of alpine exploration.

Posted by Alex at 12:50 PM

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09/11/06 A fun evening

After a refreshingly relaxed day doing little but watching Stargate, Grace and I headed over to Chez's birthday party this evening. Poor Gracey is knackered due to the amount of work she has to do and I felt guilty having time off ... I know it'll be all go again next week what with the new assignments, but it doesn't seem fair that Grace is under so much pressure all the time when I'm having a relatively easy time of it.

Anyway I dumped some of my stuff at her house and then we headed over to Chez's place. Chez was already amusingly drunk by the time we got there and had consumed the best part of a bottle of wine. By the time we left at just after midnight, she was on her third bottle! She was having fun bursting balloons by hitting them with a pirate sword, which broke. In an absolutely legendary moment, Chez looked for some superglue to fix the sword but ended up using toothpaste instead.

Grace and I mostly hid snuggled in the corner chatting to Inigo while the evening's rather dangerous festivities happened around us. Half of one of my bottles of Broadside spilled all over the floor which must have made a mess. Chez then rather unwisely headed into her room to post a load of totally random crap on the forums, which was absolutely hilarious! Apparently I'm a Mormon but I have no idea why!

She also said something along the lines of "Oh stop being a married couple, you two!" to Grace and me, which made me happy

Anyway. Tomorrow I have the dreaded two-hour nine o'clock Data Structures and Algorithms lecture, followed by a seminar, followed by coffee in the Hive with the usual suspects for the rest of the day. Really must get some sleep....

Posted by Alex at 2:00 AM

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07/11/06 ALL DONE!

Finished my Systems Analysis piece on Monday--but it was a close thing! In the end I didn't make it into campus mega-early. Made my usual nine o'clock start and sat in the Hive with Grace right up until about twenty to three, working furiously. It's funny but I can never force myself to do work unless she's there. I just think to myself what she'll do to me if she suspects I'm procrastinating, and that's enough to make me do work!

Anyway after another bloody pantomime looking for a stapler I finally handed the thing in five minutes before the deadline, having not even properly read it through. It totalled at about eight pages, which was okay given the subject matter ... maybe a little long. In any case I think I made a reasonable job of it.

Spent a little time in the Hive today despite it being a day off (aaaaaaaah my first day off in ages!) Tomorrow Frankie and I have training at work at about eleven. Tomorrow evening I'm picking Grace up and then we're heading to Chez's birthday party up at Hotblack Road (conveniently 100yds from Grace's house!) I think Piratesoc is off that evening due to essay deadlines and other commitments among most members. But of course we will have the pub quiz on Sunday night ... always the highlight of the week!

This evening I also spent some time helping Bex with her coursework. She's a Medic and so has a fair bit of biochemistry to do. Luckily I could remember a fair bit of chemistry from my A-levels ... it was quite interesting thinking about old favourites like Avagadro's constant, pK, Ka, logarithms, and delta-covalent bonding in highly polar molecules with lone pairs!

Footnote: I continue to log the most bizarre Google queries leading people to this site. Recent ones include "Jack Shannon UEA", "marrow rum", "Ryan Trawlermen", "problems with Venturesport", "Alex Coffee Hive" (Bex, I know that's you! ), and of course the ever popular variations on "Is Grace going out with Alex Roddie?" How these rumours fly....

Posted by Alex at 11:45 PM

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06/11/06 Lots of pressure

Still working away on this damned Systems Analysis coursework. It's driving me mental--have decided to give it a rest for tonight and resume early this morning. I will probably wake up at about half past five and trek into campus to barricade myself inside the library for a while, before piling into the Hive at nine o'clock for coffee.

Anyway today has been eventful. At work, one of the bulbs exploded in the hot counter, spraying broken glass all over Frankie and pretty much everything. We had some really stupid and rude customers which didn't help things either. After work I went round to Grace's house where I was treated to Phoenix Special Brew Coffee (mmmmmmm!) and a cheese and jam sandwich. Then we headed off to the pub quiz where we met up with Frankie and Richie and everyone else.

The quiz was great fun although I didn't manage to keep hold of my watch for very long! Grace wrote "Prannock" and "Servile minion" on my hand to remind me that I am her faithful minion who must always do her bidding. The widespread rumours that we're a couple (and even engaged to be married ) are flying around all over the place now and we can't be bothered to keep denying them, so have decided just to go with the flow. Gave the gossips plenty to whisper about tonight anyway....

After the final deadline tomorrow at three I'm pretty much done for the week, other than training at work on Wednesday. Am going to get some considerable sleeping in I think. I'm also planning to go and watch The Prestige on Thursday: it's loosely based on the exploits of Tesla, which is always fun, and looks like a pretty awesome film all-round. I did invite Grace to come with me but she is uber-busy.

Anyway I suspect we will be spending virtually all of today ensconced within the Hive furiously working. Don't expect coherent sentences out of me until Tuesday at the earliest.

p.s. I actually have permanent scars from Grace's fingernails last week! Evil crazy woman....

Posted by Alex at 2:15 AM

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03/11/06 Pressure

The last couple of days have been manic. I had an essay deadline yesterday at three, and the previous night stayed up until 6am working on it--turned out that the process of writing up my (very) rough first draft was more involved than I had expected. Managed to grab an hour and a half of sleep before scooting off to my nine o'clock two-hour lecture, which was followed by an hour's seminar. After that I drank an entire flask of Grace's notorious 'Special Brew' coffee in the Hive. Which was where I stayed until closing time at five o'clock.

They'd changed the essay handing-in routine in CMP which led to much faffing around trying to find a stapler (I eventually had to go all the way back to the library). I was actually very awake by this point thanks to my ridiculously caffeinated bloodstream, and ended up doing not very much work on my second assignment, due in on Monday. All right I'll admit it, I haven't started it yet!

This is a systems investigation so it's something I can knock up fairly quickly, but it's going to be tight. Having cancelled virtually everything this week in the name of the dreaded essay I am determined to make it to the pub quiz on Sunday (otherwise Grace will have nobody to tickle and poke for one thing ). But today is going to be crammed and so is tomorrow and Monday.

I'm really looking forward to some well-earned time off next week in which I can relax, watch some Stargate, and probably start thinking about the next piece of coursework ...

Posted by Alex at 10:30 AM

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01/11/06 Hectic week!

It's been a busy week so far. I've been working a great deal over the past few days getting this blasted essay done. I have now finished the bulk of the work, and have I think collected quite a lot of evidence and citations and made a pretty reasoned case. However I still need to write it up! And I have Systems Analysis due in on Monday which I haven't really touched yet. I'm hoping I can do the first section tomorrow after the deadline for the essay (3pm) ... assuming I'm still conscious by then that is!

Spent about five hours in the Hive today with Grace and that lot. Drank much coffee, was poked and tickled, had my bottle and watch stolen etc (the usual really!) Actually got a fair amount of work done, but there were also some very strange conversations and even a few intelligent debates.

This morning I also spent an hour manning a stall above the Square for Piratesoc, dressed as Sylvester the Cat collecting money for PACT, an animal sanctuary in Norfolk. It was actually great fun and I got to walk around in the Hive dressed as a giant cat, receiving odd glares and startled expressions from people I knew who didn't recognise me! Grace knew full well who I was but denied any association with 'that weird person'.

I haven't had much sleep over the past few days and doubt I'll get much tonight either. Am missing piratesoc so I can finish off my work. Hopefully I'll get some free time next week.

Posted by Alex at 8:25 PM

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