Archive for the ‘Life’ Category

It’s rare that my computers get turned off. It’s almost an even these days. Tonight is one such of those events. I got my UPS at the start of January and on Friday my extention cables finally arrived for it along with yet another massive surge protected multi-socket, so having picked them up today I’m going to be wiring everything in tonight.

While everything is off I will be completely re-arranging my electronics, turning everything off and swapping everything round (on top of my UPS I now have 2 4-ways that come off the UPS, 3 regular 8-way multi-sockets and another 2 regular 4-way multi-sockets due to the fact I’ve currently lost one of them or it would be 3 and of course everything is a surge protector).

I’ll also be bringing my server back online (if I can lol; I don’t know why it won’t come online as I don’t have a monitor for it) and giving everything a good clean as it’s hard to get in and dust when everything is plugged in, let alone turned on.

It’s a shame really as I was doing so well. Mr. O’Shea still has the edge with his now 100 days of uptime but I’ve now reached 69 days which I like to think is quite impressive for a Windows machine. It’s wierd to think it’s been on since October. Still, I’ve now add Windows moaning at me to install some updates for over a month now.

So, where was I? The bulk of exams are over but stress levels are still running high – AI22 isn’t going to be an easy exam, housing still needs to be sorted for next year, Atheist Soc needs some quality time spent with it and my online ventures are also desperate to get some development time.

While many people have taken the weekend off to relax I was working yesterday and I’m closing tonight so that will probably take out most of monday. That gives me Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to get a bit of work done before the exam on Friday, then we’ll probably go out Friday, sleep through most of Saturday before Wendy then I’m working again on Sunday. Bring on term time.

Akismet is getting beaten. Still I guess it’s still quite a small percentage that are getting through compared to how many I get hit with.

Since my DB exam I had two on Thursday, AI21 which didn’t go well at all, border line pass if that and then SE20 in the afternoon which went fine. I managed to start a question with “No, you’re wrong, I’m the developer here!” so it’s all good. Then this morning I had SY21 which went without problem. So just one more exam to go now.

It would be nice to not have to do anything for a week now but sadly I’m not in that situation. I have work tomorrow which will take up most of the day (and looks like my other plans for tomorrow may have fallen through) and I’m working Sunday which is a close so I’ll probably sleep through most of Monday. Then by the time I’ve revised for AI22 it will be the exam itself, I’m doing a close on the Sunday after that and then I’m back in lectures for semester.

Had the work’s Chrismukka party last night. Was alright, won at MP3 player as part of the star of the shift competition. Didn’t win it, came joint 4th and obviously it’s not going to be an ultra-quality MP3 player but it can hold a gigabyte of stuff so it’s decent enough if only as an extra UMS device.

Just got back from my first exam, DB21. It went quite well, there was some topics I knew we had covered and I didn’t really know but for the most part I think I managed to struggle through it and get the important parts. What mark I will get I don’t know but I’m sure I’ve done more than enough to keep me well clear of the failure line.

Most people were still working when I left, about an hour and twenty into a two hour exam. I wasn’t the first to leave by any means but people were either writing a hell of a lot or really struggling. I’m hoping for the really struggling option though I don’t put too much faith in that being the case.

Ah well, only four more to go.

They are upon us! As in, I start my first one in less than an hour. I don’t really care though, I just want to get it out of the way. That’s not true, I do care, but I’m struggling to care enough to really get motivated for it. Trying to map out my final revision sessions is interesting. I have tomorrow off and two exams on Thursday but I also need to go over the material for Friday’s exam. That’s in the afternoon though but I am going out with work the night before so it’s also add it on to Wednesday or last thing before the exam when I get up on Friday.

Then at least we have a nice long gap before AI22, not that anybody has a clue what is going to be on that exam.

All in all, once they are over and done with I will be pleased. I have several coding projects I am iching to get on with but I’m trying to keep away from them as I know if I start coding I’m just going to forget about my exams completely.

No room ever in the entire world has enough power sockets. Right now I have a 4 way multi-socket in one wall socket, 2 8 way multi-sockets in two other wall sockets, a 4 way multi-socket coming out of one of those and I’m now having to remodel my entire room to fit everything in. I’m going to have to order at least 3 more multi-sockets this week to cope.

The amount of sockets I need is silly. I mean, hypothetically if I was using everything at once…

1. UPS
2. Old laptop
3. Scanner
4. Desktop
5. Monitor
6. Sound system
7. Wireless access point
8. Switch
9. Router
10. Old desktop
11. External hard drive
12. External DVD-RW
13. Playstation
14. SNES
15. TV
16. Freeview box
17. DVD player
18. Old DVD player
19. Scanner
20. USB hub
21. Laptop
22. k800i charger
23. k700i charger
24. Lamp
25. Other lamp
26. Guitar amp
27. Stereo
28. Camcorder mains lead
29. Camera charger
30. Toaster
31. TV arial

Of course, I wouldn’t use everything at the same time but most of that stuff wants to be plugged in all the time, it’s mainly chargers that wouldn’t ideally want a dedicated power socket. Even when you take all of that stuff off – that is a hell of a lot of sockets.

My UPS will soon be able to feed my computers though which will help a bit, especially if I can get regular multi-sockets to go into it though I will probably have more electrical equipment arriving over the next 6 months to take up even more sockets.

Things are finally getting back on track. People are back in Leeds. Thursday night I met up with Si, Kieran, Matt and Kat for a few drinks in the evening. Then yesterday I went down to the station with Si to pick Michelle up. I’m still not getting any work done though and our exams are now 3 days away.

I’ve not been massively on top of things either. My inboxes have well over 1,000 emails in them. Most of it is spam but still it’s a lot to download. I may need to consider activating some server side spam solutions but the kind of processing power they take on the server is far from negligable.

Hopefully once everything gets settled down and probably it will require our exams to be over too, I can get back into the swing of things.

I earned over £100 yesterday.

How awesome is that?

After New Years Eve close I was in work the next day for 10am which was almost an open (we opened at 9, the first staff came in at 8) and I was supposed to be on until 5:30. Fate however seemed to have different plans. The closing team was Rich, Hannah and Haris. Rich is a kitchen closer (though can do front but doesn’t really know what he’s doing that well), Hannah isn’t either and Haris might be able to manage kitchen but doesn’t really know what he’s doing that well. So it wasn’t the best situation ever.

Then Hannah phoned in sick. They were now down to two closers and you need at least three (preferably four). So somehow I got talked into staying on and doing the close. We got out at 2:30 meaning that I worked a 16 and a half hour shift. That took some Red Bull. I wouldn’t have agreed to do it but it was time and a half yesterday so when you take off my breaks I got 12 and a half hours at time and a half and 2 and a half hours at premium (after midnight) hours. Not bad.

Afterwards we headed over to Amanda’s party. Well, I say party, I think we missed most of it as when I got there I found both Dannys and Chris there as well as Amanda passed out on the sofa. We spent most of the night watching movies then went for breakfast at 6:30 as soon as the restaurant opened just to annoy Rob :p. Well, and also because we wanted food. I ended up getting back home about 1:30pm ish. It’s been a long few days.

By two middle aged men.

Ok, I know what you’re thinking. Not because you should be thinking it, it just means you have a dirty mind but because when I mentioned it to other people, that’s what they thought. Well, joked upon at least, they didn’t actually think it. I didn’t, it was all sweet and innocent when I said it.

So what am I talking about? Getting pulled over by the cops of course.

New Years Eve was crawling with cops. I rarely see them around when driving around (though I don’t drive as nearly as much as most other people) but I saw at least half a dozen just on my travels on New Years Eve one of which was following me for about half a mile then disappeared on the roundabout. I couldn’t work out where it had gone but 100m further up the Mad Mile it suddenly appeared again lights flashing.

They just asked me questions like had I been drinking, who the car was registered to, where I lived, etc but they seemed to have an odd attitude. I was a little daunted at first and they pressed the drinking question. After they asked it yet again I eventually ended up saying “I’m not going to risk it tonight am I? There’s cops everywhere.” I hastely added “not that I ever would” but this small sign of confidence (or possibly cheek) seemed to get them to back off and leave me alone. I guess they are looking for the people who have been drinking and are mega-nervous they have just been busted.

It was a little daunting at first but I was fairly certain they didn’t have anything on me. I was doing 45 in a 50 zone and it wasn’t like that was suspicously slow as it had just turned from a 40 to a 50 zone so I was still accelerating up. Everyone else gets pulled over all the time so it was just a random spot check. It was 3am after all.

Anyway, speaking of New Years Eve plans, I did the close at work with Martin (our store manager) who got us out at 5 past 10. Though we closed 20 minutes early so it was a 1:25 close, compared with James Martin’s 1:20 on Christmas Eve. It was an irritating night though because a lot of the things I had been taught to do on a close we weren’t allowed to do because we weren’t supposed to be doing them (things I genuinely didn’t know we weren’t supposed to do).

After the close we headed off to Danny’s and flicked out way through music channels and the countdown on BBC1 until about 2ish – 2:30ish when I headed back to see if the party in my street was still going on. I found everyone had gone to bed when I got back though so I decided to get some sleep given I’m now up for work.

Something struck me as quite interesting the other day. A few weeks ago the union held a housing talk which said if you went outside of the student areas you could get even cheaper housing of like £40 a week which I presumed would be just as low standard as typical student housing. But there is a much bigger difference.

Take this for an example. The houses my friends live in go for between like £48 and £60 a week and are student houses. That means they suck. Don’t get me wrong, you get some quite nice student houses in comparission to others. But I have yet to see a “nice” student house. IE, a house that as a non-student you would think, yeah this is quite a nice house. In terms of student houses there are different standards but compared to other houses they are very low standard housing. All of them.

Secondly they are in really bad areas. Hyde Park, Woodhouse and Headingley are some of the most burgled areas in the entire country not to mention the string of friends I could reel off that have been mugged. And the area itself is just a horrible area I mean you have Woodhouse Moor but generally they are dingly streets filled with terrace housing and very little greenary.

Ok so let’s say that is like £55 a week plus add on another £20 for all your utility bills (water, gas, electricity, phone, internet, TV, etc) that comes to a total of £75 a week.

Ok now imagine this. 3 bedroom semi-detached house to share. It’s nicely furnished in terms of the standards of a a real house – ie, nice enough that it would meet up to the standards that your parents would live in. Kitchen, dining room, lounge, bit of a garden, nice big drive enough to fit about 6 small cars onto. Nice area too both in terms of aesthetics with plenty of green and indeed a lake literally over the road from you and in terms of crime, or the lack of it.

So you basically have a nice house, in a nice area, without the crime you get in student areas. How much would you pay for that? Presumably a lot more than the crappy student house in the crappy student area right?

How does £25 sound? All bills inclusive. I kid you not. (Disclaimer: this figure comes from a real offer made to me. But a damn good one. I’m not saying they are all quite this good but my point still stands). It’s like, well in this example it is exactly, one third of the price of a student house. And about a million times nicer. The only thing you don’t have is location (in terms of student housing being near town and uni). Other than that it’s a no-brainer. Seriously think about that. Your paying three times as much for a house of no where near as good quality in no where near as nice an area, so you can get around a little easier. We’re getting raped.