Last night saw my first TKD grading. It was slightly tiring to say the least lol. Lesson one, make sure you eat something that day. Luckily I had had breakfast but not everybody had. These people were easy to spot collapsed at the back of the hall. In the end I passed though with a less than perfect grade but it was a pass none of the less.
Earlier today A-Soc held a support rally for the British teacher Gillian Gibbons. We had quite a decent turn out in that people actually turned up which is always a victory :D. While we were only around for an hour we got quite a bit of interest and got someone new interested in the society so all in all it was a rather successful event. Go A-Soc!
Well you can’t have any. Because yesterday Colton Mill ran out :D. And somebody had to go chasing all the way over to Oakwood to get some. Fun times.
Before I start I’m going to state a few things. I’m going to say something that’s a bit out there, a bit controversial and a bit, at first glace, counter-intuitive. But never the less I am going to put the proposition forward.
Private profiles and turning Facebook into MySpace.
There, I said it. It seems crazy at first, after all the point of Facebook is that you are connecting with your existing real world connections and that it isn’t just an open directory of internet aliases.
But the fact is, this recurrent doom that people keep talking about has failed to materialise. They let Leeds Met onto Facebook, nothing really went wrong. They let the whole world onto Facebook, I’m not going to pretend I am pleased about that but it didn’t turn Facebook into MySpace. They added applications and yes they are very annoying, but you choose to list the people as friends that send you the application invites and you can say no. I do. It keeps my profile nice and clean, it’s still Facebook.
Private profiles however, I would argue are doing some damage. What I truely loved about Facebook was that each university had it’s own network and you could pretty much move freely around that network. You could see new people’s profiles, see what mutual friends you have in common, see the connections. Private profiles prevent you from doing this.
This hysteria about keeping your profile private is ruining the Facebook experience and turning Facebook into the jungle of uncommon ground and paranoia that is MySpace. It’s a slippery slope my friends, a slippery slope.
I love all-nighters. There is just something about spending all night in DEC-10 that is magical. I’m going to miss it next year though I have little doubt that whatever I end up doing will involve all night coding sessions.
Today being the GI31 deadline, myself, Kieran, Sarann, Nima and Will were in here all night working away. I submitted it an hour or so ago though I might go back for a little more work on it. I couldn’t focus earlier but I’m getting my vision back now lol. What I really want to do is sleep though. Having worked the weekend before last I then had Atheist Week, then the A-Soc Weekend Away then I was doing my FYP on Sunday and GI31 late-nighters all this week. All in all it’s really cut into my sleep.
After trying to get hold of my TKD gear for 2 months now due to a combination of either myself or Mr. Smith not being at training I finally got my gear today! It’s all very exciting though I almost missed it. I left training half an hour early due to the combination that a) I haven’t slept properly since before Atheist Week so am exhausted b) didn’t have any sparring gear and c) needed to get back to labs to finish my GI31 coursework but it turns out that Mr. Derrig turned up with my gear just after I’d left! Luckily he phoned me after training and being in DEC-10 I went down to pick it up. So, bring on the fun on Friday.
Told you, you couldn’t do London on a budget… :p
Total cost for the weekend, £171.31.
Last weekend was the 2007 Atheist Society Weekend Away. We went down to London, staying just round the corner from King’s Cross station at a hostel named Ashlee House. It was a nice enough place, predictably we were on the 3rd (and top floor, I always am for some reason) floor but I’m not complaining, it presented a nicer view from the windows.
We headed down on National Express on Friday afternoon and rolled into Victoria station about 5. We hit a club on the Friday night and people got a little too drunk to be honest lol. Saturday saw myself, Norm and Jack disappear off to the Ethical Society and ended up at the British Museum. Sunday saw us hit speaker’s corner and doing some shopping on Oxford Street before heading home.
McDonald’s
I managed to fit no less than six trips to McDonald’s over the weekend. The reason for this was that I slacked off on Saturday, otherwise it would have been higher. I was a little annoyed by the inconstency though, each store seemed to make up it’s own rules and policies.
It is also more expensive in London which shattered my illusions of The D not subscribing to price descrimination. A Big Mac sandwich was £2.49 rather than the £1.99 it normally is.
Roadhouse
We were discussing where to go for dinner on Saturday night. I mentioned I had seen a few nice places on Euston Road but Michelle suggested somwhere named Roadhouse which was a 50’s retro place as “the other places didn’t look that nice” and “this place would be good” and only about £8. Turns out it was £14. We had to send two drinks and Charlie’s food back. Although apparently things like flies and bits of foil in people’s drinks are to be expected.
Incidently on the way back to the hostel on Sunday we stopped at The Euston Flyer, one of the places on Euston Road. The food there looked amazing. Only about £8 too. Really nice place.
Sin City
It just goes to show, you can go to the biggest city in the country, on a Friday night and you still can’t fill a club if you run an alternative night. We hit Sin City at the Electric Ballroom on Friday night. It started with a quite extensive search of everyone on their way in. Which really made me feel lucky I had decided to take my pen knife out of my pocket for the weekend. The music was quite good – it was a fairly Wendy style playlist though they played Linkin Park and a few other bands I love but you hardly ever hear even at alternative nights.
Ethical Society
Conway Hall, home of the Ethical Society was a nice enough place but Jenny, the chief librarian didn’t show up to give us a tour so that was a bit of a bust. While we were there though we did find a book that was basically Humanist Paul in a book. Interesting stuff indeed.
British Museum
Having given up on trying to get to the Natural History Museum because it was too much of a mission we began wandering around to see what we could find and found ourselves outside the British Museum. After having a nice but not quite ultimate lunch at The Ultimate Burger we headed in to have a look around.
It was amazing, you walk in and just the building itself is fantastic. We spent a solid 4-5 hours in there before basically, it closed. We managed to get round a fair bit of it though not in great detail and it would still take us another few days to get round all of it. I’d have liked to go round with my digital camera too as my phone camera, as good as it is, is no replacement for a real one.
Speakers’ Corner
We headed down to Speakers’ Corner on Sunday morning to catch some quality religion debates. When we got there there was an imam who was basically plugging a random political agenda though soon enough a crazy woman who had apparently just made up her own religion and drew our attention away.
Next some Christian preacher named Patrick turned up and so looking for some quality Biblical debate we headed over and he was soon explaining to me how I was a “qualified unbeliever.” Then someome named Nicoli turned up, began heckling him and sent him running. Nicoli began talking with his friend Danny about the double standards of how we find violence acceptable but sex unacceptable.
Finally we heard Danny talking on his own with regards to his “don’t believe anybody including me” speach. By this point we were cold and hungry though so while I would have loved to spend more time there we headed off to The D for some food. Apparently Jay Smith turned up after we had left, gutted.
I did warn people that allowing poor people to go to university was a bad idea.
I was right. Leeds Met Union have declared themselves bankrupt. They were losing somewhere in the region of £80,000 a year and have been for a long time. Because the people who go to Leeds Met are pennyless losers with no future. And now they don’t even have a union. That will teach you to blow all your money on sports facilities!
I learnt a new word today.
Interestingly, when we were in meeting room 5 for the faith & cultural assembly meeting today the previous group (or a group before them) had left there work on the white board. Which consisted of the terms dogging and cottaging as well as a few other terms. Which leaves me wondering who the last group in that room were. Having mentioned it around, it also appears to have left Kieran wondering what the last group in there were doing? :D.