Well folks, that’s the majority of my coursework handed in. Just two pieces to hand in when I go back along with one presentation and that’s me all done!

Today has been an odd day. I didn’t go into uni until late on (late for me being 1pm). Hung out at the bar for a week while then handed everything in. Went to get the train home with Lisa but discovered that was cancelled so we ended up at the bar at the station- the Chardonnay was nice!

Also heard some interesting information today. Something which I think will need to be dealt with at some point in the future. We’ll leave it at that.

So yeah, that’s me off on holiday for three weeks. If anyone wants to contact me, drop me an email. It’s likely I will still be checking my emails a few times a day. Ok, so I’m not leaving the country or anything but I do want to relax a bit (you know watch cloud shapes go by and all the other usual clichés).

Actually I do have a wee list of things I would like to do-

Make Space Invaders in Java (coursework)

Write up my vcar report (coursework)

Prepare for my VB viva (again, coursework)

Go for walks

Learn more photography skills

Watch lots of Due South

Learn more on guitar

Read more

Get a haircut (sorely needed)

Play lots of Final Fantasy

Meet with friends in Aberdeen

Scrap that, the first thing that should be on that list is to get rid of this stinking cold which I have caught (it’s the reason I’m still awake).

Oh, oh while I remember- the pool comp. Me and Kev have 20 points each. Go me!

Anyway, back to the point of this post. Right this is mainly aimed at the people who I won’t see in person over the next few weeks: I might not be on msn much or check my emails as frequently. I might just be away from the computer *gasp, shock horror!*.

See ya in 3 weeks!

As most of you know, I’m going to see Bryan Adams in May, in Glasgow. Now, I’m even more excited than I was because of the news I heard about the concert he played in Milan, Italy last night.

Apparently there was a B-stage! The rumours are true. The B-stage is back. The show started off on there with “There Will Never Be Another Tonight”, a fantastic rocker (although Bryan chose to play the acoustic guitar for some odd reason). He played a few other songs then walked right through the crowd to get to the main stage. Mid-show, Bryan, Keith, Mickey, Norm and Gary all went back to the B-stage, played more and pulled people on stage to dance.

I *really*hope Bryan keeps this idea for Glasgow. It’s gonna be bloody awesome if he does!

I had a look for some videos of last nights gig because from what I’ve heard, it was really good. I couldn’t find any decent ones so I leave you with a video from 1992 on the Waking Up The Nation tour. ’69 at its best.

Click here to see rocking version of Summer of ’69

The original draft of this blog entry was handwritten as I sat in my back garden, attempting to write a summary report for one of my classes.

Now, normally I love sitting out the back, writing in the sun. Today was a really beautiful day. For one thing, it was really warm even though its only March. The sky was blue with only a whisp of a cloud in the sky and the birds were singing away. Geese flew by overhead and you could hear the general nosies of people going about their everyday lives.

Living in a village sounds idyllic, right?

Wrong.

Every two seconds the peace was shattered by the infernal racket of some idiots (yes, I know who you are boys) riding mini-motos. The worst thing was I could hear this racket despite the fact they were between a quarter/half a mile away from my house! What is the point of them? I know! Why don’t we all buy ride-on lawnmowers and drive around on one of those. On second thoughts, lets not…..that’s just silly. Anyway, the point is, these bikes sound like souped-up lawnmowers.

Why do people who are nearly fully-grown find the need to cram themselves onto these tiny bikes? They look like they belong to a circus and are used for part of an act which involves monkeys doing tricks on them.

Anyway, I will leave my little rant for the moment.

Actually, I’ve had another random though. The weather seems a little odd right now, doesn’t it?

I mean earlier this week it was bloody freezing. We had snow and ice. I was wandering around with layers on- fleeces, coat, scarf, gloves and my awesome hat. You should have seen me today. Big difference. I was sitting out in the garden wearing a pair of old jeans and a bright green t-shirt which should really be in the bin, owing to the number of holes in it (I think the washing machine attacked it many moons ago).

Yes, the weather is a very curious thing, isn’t it?

Gone yet not forgotten,
although we are apart,
your spirit lives within me,
forever in my heart.

-Anon

We were promised wintery conditions at some point this week and I think they’ve finally hit us.

Right now, I’m looking to the west and I can see nothing but large, menacing clouds.  Obivously they’re snow clouds- its blizzarding and the wind itself is gusting.  It’s too wet for the snow to lie at the moment but that could soon change.  If heavy blizzards continue, slush will gather and the snow will begin to lie on that.  Either that or a frost will set in, making an ideal platform for the snow to stick to.

I’m glad I’m in the warmth of my room- just miss that fact that we don’t have a roaring log fire at this house.

PS Pool update…..Kevin 16.  Me- 14….catching up!

Hey folks, time for a quick update me thinks.

Take a look at the very bottom of my sidebar- I have a wee lastfm widget which lets you see the music I’ve been listening too. As I’m typing this, it currently has nothing but the Goo Goo Dolls on it. I bought a few albums this week (“A Boy Named Goo” by the Goo Goo Dolls, “Backstreet Symphony” by Thunder and “Jagged Little Pill” by Alanis Morissette) however “A Boy Named Goo” is so good that it hasn’t left my cd player so I haven’t really listened to the others yet!

I’ve really tried to relax this week even though I know I have a lot of work to do but I felt a little bit knackered. Sure, it means that I’ll have to work extra hard for the next two weeks but it’ll be worth it to get a few weeks off. I’m really looking forward to wandering around in the holidays. Soon, I guess that everyone will have to make up their mind as to which path they will decide to take at uni. We have three options but I’ve narrowed it down to two: Computing or Computing and Networking. Who knows? I hate decisions!

Last night was really good- went out for tea with an old friend. Really good to catch up- haven’t been able to see her as often as I would have hoped with all the uni work. That’ll be done soon though. The food was god but I felt like they were trying to rush us out of the place. They didn’t do that to the gigantic table of annoying kids celebrating a 16^th birthday- maybe I should have just sat at the table even longer to piss everyone off?

Aside from all that, I’ve mainly sat and watched season three of Due South this week. So good! Unfortunately it’s the last series. Think I only ever saw parts of season one and two when I was younger. Watched the classic episode “Mountie on the Bounty”- exactly as it sounds and its one of the most bizarre things I’ve seen!

So yeah- next two weeks will be very hectic. On Wednesday I have two meetings. One is a student rep meeting, the other is a programming discussion (with free food) so that one should be good! At the same time, Wednesday isn’t going to be the easiest day because it will have been 5 years since my dad died (apologies in advance if I appear to be really moody that day). Better to keep busy I guess?

Anyway I think I’ve rambled on enough!

PS Remember the Disneyland Guantanamo Bay pic I mentioned?  Well, there has been public outcry about it and a great deal of media coverage.  I’m not posting a pic here in case Disney are unhappy.

First of all, apologies for not posting a proper blog since the 4^th of March. I had a large piece of coursework due in on Friday but now it’s done and out of the way. It was some Java work and I had to document it (a document which ended up being 33 pages long!).

More on coursework: remember the essay that I mentioned working on over Christmas (who am I kidding, you probably don’t have a clue what I’m on about). Anyway, I finally received my marks for that today and I got an A for the essay and an A for the Boolean logic so I’m quite chuffed with that.

I still have a lot of work to do before I come off on holiday though- I have to complete one more program related to the field of steganography. After this, I have to gather all for submissions I made for that class and write about how it helped my understanding of the subject. This should be alright. I loved that fact we were free to choose which area we studied within steganography and overall I’ve found that particular class rather interesting- I didn’t even know what steganography was before. For those of you who don’t know what it is: “Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one apart from the intended recipient knows of the existence of the message” (Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography).

Aside from this, I have a Visual Basic database front-end to complete. Again this shouldn’t be too hard a task- I’ve done the tutorials in class. I guess creating buttons and what not for each form can be a little monotonous. Perhaps the worst thing about this particular piece of coursework is the related paperwork. It’ll probably be similar to the paperwork I produced for my Advanced Higher Info System project I did back when I was a 6^th year except in that case, I used tools within Microsoft access to create the front-end.

In all honesty, I’ve spent the last couple of days relaxing for a bit (drinking tea, watching Due South, playing guitar, you know the usual stuff). I was stressed over the Java coursework and if you don’t take a wee break, you burn out.

I did see something rather amusing today (and I’m gonna get a picture of it tomorrow if its still there). I got picked up from the train station this afternoon and drove around town. Anyway, there is a building just along from my Great Grans house which has partially been demolished. One wall has been left standing and someone has done an amazing mural entitled “Disneyland Guantanamo Bay: where the fun never ends” which depicts Mickey Mouse in an orange boiler-suit wearing a face mask. I really hope I can get a pic because its awesome.

One more thing before I go. Pool/snooker scores. Kevin-14. Me-7. Seems like I’m getting my ass kicked huh?

I’m still trooping on through my coursework (in fact, I imagine several of my readers are doing the same thing right now).

Anyway, heres something to make you smile hehe!

Did anyone see this evening’s lunar eclipse (I suppose it technically occurred yesterday)?

I popped out to the front garden earlier in the evening to see if I could get a good shot of the moon before the eclipse.  Unfortunately, my hands were quite shaky and I couldn’t hold the camera still- the pictures kept blurring.

My mum and I went out to the back garden around 10.15pm just to see how far the eclipse had progressed.  The moon was more than ¾ covered at this point.  I knew the moon should be fully covered somewhere around 10.48pm so we returned inside for a short time.  I went back out yet again at 10.40pm, wrapped up nice and warm.

The whole village seemed really peaceful for a few moments before the eclipse.  I was out there in the back garden all alone, sitting on the wall, gazing at the stars.  At that moment, for all I cared I could have been the only person for miles.  All I could hear was the distant noise of a few cars and the roar of the sea.  Before I knew it, a dog barked, a car door slammed and the neighbours put their lights on-I was brought crashing back down to Earth.

Just after this, my mum came outside, bringing a video camera with her.  After a lot of fumbling around with it, we managed to capture some footage of the moon (we think).  Most of the footage was taken whilst we were standing up but again, our hands were shaking like crazy.

Before I proceed with what I’m about to say, I’ll just ask; has anyone read “Creation: Life and How to Make It” by Steve Grand?

All the time I had been outside looking at the stars, something which I had read in that book kept playing on my mind.  Within the early chapters of the book, Grand discusses how useful it is to get a different prospective of the world.  He suggests that on a clear night, you should take the opportunity to lie under stars.  On doing so, you should imagine you are hanging above the Earth, looking down on the sky.  This is what I ended up doing for a few moments this evening and it’s an odd feeling.  The other (few) minutes I spent on the concrete were spent taking more footage of the moon.  I’m not convinced that lying on freezing cold concrete in Scotland is a good idea!

The moon itself looked very pretty: it took on a reddish hue.  It wasn’t as good as the one I spotted in the early hours of the morning when I stayed at my old house.  Then again, I’m not exactly living in an ideal location for star-gazing right now.  My old house was great- living down a private road actual darkness and no streetlights.  I fondly remember spending quite a few nights out in the garden when I was younger, all wrapped up and clutching a cup of tea, waiting for a meteor shower.  Once, I was lucky enough to see a large meteor fall in the early evening.  Here, there are too many streetlights and it can be a little difficult to see the stars at times.

Hopefully I might have some footage to show you guys!

Just thought I’d share this pic I took of Dundee Law on Thursday. Ok, it’s not the greatest quality but I was sitting on a settee in the bar in the union when I took it!