Posts Tagged ‘University of Leeds’

I opened my curtains this morning.

That is a big event.

Not the act itself, but what it represents. For the first time in about two weeks I was doing something offer than arriving home, going to bed, getting up and going to uni. I normally go quite a while between opening my curtains (it generally happens once or twice a week at best) because I’m so busy normally but recently it’s been over 2 weeks since I have had them open.

That having been said, I’m a little disappointed that the weight has not really been lifted off my shoulders. I still have huge amounts of work to do and a to-do list trailing onto three pages. Plus exam revision starts soon, then working at whatever job I take. Maybe there is no magical break coming in the next few months, do we actually have to wait to retirement now?

Still, who cares, I actually feel rested for the first time in ages having spend 7 and a half hours in the pub yesterday and slept for a good 10 hours this morning. Good times.

Having pretty much finished the first draft of my FYP on Friday I made a few tweaks to it today and handed it in to my supervisor to have a look over.

This should probably be a time for celebration but given I need to do some more work on it as well as sort everything out for Rationalist Week and do my AI23 coursework I’m not really celebrating. Not because I think I shouldn’t but because I just don’t feel any different from having handed it in.

I mean, it’s 2am, I’m tired and I’m going to bed. But not to sleep. I’m taking work to bed again. Somehow curling up in a nice warm bed isn’t quite the same when you know you’re going to spend the next hour starring at a laptop screen trying to get some work done.

I notice Mr. O’Shea is going to the theatre rather than coming to the pub night. I suspect however it’s just a clever ploy to get out of buying me the drink he bet me thatwhen claiming I wouldn’t dare put a lolcat on my FYP during my demonstration to Tony Jenkins at my progress meeting.

Of course, the doubters in DEC-10 were wrong…

I wanted to go out with a bang so I submited this item to the staff student forum agenda. Brandon kindly accepted said submission. Have a peak.

Roger Boyle our head of school even approved the plan. Although he added that it only really works when the person you name something after has passed away. Still, phase one complete, just phase two to take care of now…

Having received an email through regarding the upcoming TKD grading I feel I need to express my appreciation for Mr. Smith’s blunt and to the point style. Allow me to pick out some examples…

2. ‘Ironed’ means that that you get a household electrical appliance called an ‘iron’. If you haven’t seen one or used one get a friend to help. After you have ironed your dobok fold it as neatly as you can to take to class. If you stuff it in your bag it isn’t ‘ironed’ anymore.

…

If your dobok is heavily creased or grey or dirty you will be killed before the start of the grading.

…

5. If you try to wear any other type of tshirt with a fun/music/anything print on then you will be killed.

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7. ‘I don’t trust the internet’ is something your grandparents would say. I will ridicule you if you say it.

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9. If you completed the form less than 3 weeks ago and you email me to say ‘you said to email you I hadn’t got my licence book through’ I will come to your house and throw bricks through your windows.

10. If you completed the form less than 1 week ago and you email me to say ‘you said to email you I hadn’t got my licence book through’ I will come to your house and kill you in front of your housemates.

…

13. Unless you have already been spoken to about an assessed grading and you ask if you can double grade because you missed the last grading then you will be killed and left in the corner of the hall out of the way until the bin men come.

Enjoy your grading and try not to get killed.

Good advice all round I feel :D.

Michelle has just gone home meaning that I am the last remaining person in DEC-10.

I don’t see the point in going home really, I have to be back on campus for like 8:45 so I figured I would feel worse if I went to sleep. Still I have a really full today – I’m booked up almost solidly until 9pm which should be lots of fun. Still, only 40 minutes until I can have my last Red Bull (I’m rationing until the shops open again :D).

I haven’t posted for a week. A week! That’s a long time for me. Though I have noticed that I have been blogging less lately. Some would say it’s because of how busy we are all are a the moment but then I’m always busy and it has never stopped me before. Others would argue my life is just a little less exciting a the moment. Myself, I remain unsure.

Perhaps it is the inevitable doom of FYP. The fact that we also have plenty of coursework deadlines on top of that (I have another 5 before the end of semester 2) not only doesn’t really help the situation but also explains why I’m in the lab at 4am. And glad to be here. The hardcore nights are back :D. It’s good we get one more run in before we graduates.

Because quite frankly, this could be the last time. I mean what is there after this? Once I get these courseworks out of the way and given our software demos are next week (mine is on Monday so I won’t be pulling all nighters for it next week) there is really just report writing to be done which I doubt many people (though I would like to think a few of us will) will be writing up in labs. And in any case, doing write up isn’t the communal experience you gain from late night coding sessions.

We really need one more for old time’s sake. And get some chair races in too.

Kieran correctly pointed out earlier today (well, technically yesterday now) that things are getting a little too close to graduation. Today was our last staff student forum meeting (at which it was agreed to go ahead with my proposal to re-name of the school to the Chris Worfolk Institute of Computing Excellence but only if I was dead). There are a lot of things coming up that will be the last of something. It’s actually getting scary.

On the plus side the provisional exam timetables are now out and I don’t have an exam at 9am the night after I go to Manchester for a gig. Which is quite a nice bonus. It’s also quite a nice bonus that I seem to finish before everyone else which makes a big chance – indeed last summer I had an exam on the Friday of week 3 – the very last day of exams.

So yeah, that is my late night rambling on what’s been happening recently. I’m sure I’ll think of more as soon as I hit publish. Luckily, you shall be saved that fate ;).

The season is upon us again.

With the general workload being very high this year anyway it’s easy to forget how manic it gets when coursework deadlines start looming. And they have. I found out today that the first AI23 coursework was in fact due in this morning. And it’s formative. So yeah, dropped the ball a bit there. Luckily it’s an easy enough piece of work that I get it done today – after all, I have 19 hours from my lecture finishing till 9am tomorrow :D.

Meanwhile my IS coursework is quickly approaching, GI32 is due in at the end of next week and SY32 is due in the week after along with the software for my final year project. There will be a second piece of AI23 coursework due in some time as well as the final report for my FYP and in between that I have to fit in planning for Rationalist Week, putting on a rocky horror night, a school disco, my TKD grading, writing One Life sessions and a to do list which is still over a page long. You’ve gotta love it :P.

Before I throw the 25 January edition of Leeds Student away, which I have been keeping around for this quote, I should mention the article entitled “wash your hands od extremism” which appears on page 4. The article notes…

The University of Leeds has recently spent £50,000 on the Islamic Centre, more commonly known as the Green Room, a place where Muslims can go to pray, and which has washing facilities.

As Gijsbert has previously pointed out, given the student body is mostly composed of atheists (or at least non-theists) where is the atheist centre?

For those who read through the list of referendum motions you may notice that one of them was particularly concerned with freedom of speech on campus – not renewing the union’s “no platform” policy in allowing everyone to come and speak on campus (though not recruit for their cause) to encourage debate and prevent minorities being excluded which leads to extremism.

This motion failed to get through union council but is currently at secure petition (which means it needs 330 signatures to be forced onto the referendum). Given that freedom of speech is very important, especially on a university campus, I would encourage you all to go sign the petition. You just need to take your student card to the union reception desk and ask to sign the no platform petition – the deadline is 2pm tomorrow.