Done! 30 May 2008
Posted by kaitharshayr in Gaming, University.Tags: exams, games, keyboard, orange box, portal, shopping
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So yesterday I had my last exam!! (Maybe my last exam ever? Although I thought that when I finished my undergrad degree, and it turned out to not be the case.) I’m glad thats all over now, now I just have to do my project and I’m done. Quite relieve that the majority of the stuff is over though, although I’m not quite sure just how much the project counts towards my final grade. :/
So as my last exam finished at 12pm, yes its an odd time considering that all my lectures and other exams were at 6pm, but that’s because a partner college in Sri Lanka was doing the same exam. After that was done I met up with C and we hit Oxford street. I did have reasonably grand plans of getting some new shoes, a dress, a bag, a book and a game, alas the trip was not so successful. I couldn’t find the Agile Web Development book for Ruby on Rails in Borders, so looks like I may have to get it off Play.com. And alas the dress and bag I had liked didn’t look as good in real life, ah well no biggy, saved me a bit of money its not like I needed them. I did however invest in some sandals, (2 pairs in fact), and it seems like my feet have shrunk, I know that you can go slightly smaller with sandals but usually I’d get a 6, not a 5 1/2.
And then I did a silly thing, I bought Portal, now don’t get me wrong I really want to play this game, but I sort of thought I didn’t want to bother getting the Orange Box, because well I’m not too interested in playing Team Fortress 2, and someone already gave me their Half Life 2 and Half Life Ep1 from the Orange Box so I wasn’t sure if it would be worth it. But then I do want to play Half Life ep 2 and I remembered (after I’d purchased Portal) that the Orange Box also has Peggle Extreme in it, and currently its only £24 on Amazon, soo when you consider I’d get 3 games, and would probably have tried Team Fortress 2, then I really should have gotten it. Well no problem, I thought to myself, I haven’t opened the packaging on Portal I can just return it to HMV.
So that’s what I went to do today. Or tried to. Apparently HMV only do exchanges on unopened PC games. Joy. And unsurprisingly my local (rather small) HMV did NOT have the Orange Box available. Thus I am now presented with 2 options.
- I trek to Oxford Street (30 min journey) and attempt to exchange my copy of Portal for a copy of the Orange Box (price £30).
- I give/sell Portal to someone else, and buy the Orange Box of Amazon.
Hmmm. :/ Really not sure. 1 is cheaper but its a little bit of a hassle JUST to exchange a game. 
Ugh so anyway back to yesterday, I decided that going shopping after you’ve had an exam really isn’t a good idea, its really exhausting! I was wiped out by the time I got home, couple that with the fact that I haven’t been sleeping too good for the last few days. Oh well maybe now exams are done I can sort that out.
In other news I did get a hair cut today. Yays! It is now jaw length, and layered (I have thick, curly hair, I have to have it layered otherwise it just goes all poofy. So now it is funky and short, although the hair dresser did decide to do weird things when finishing up, it was going curly and he decided to straighten the very front bits but to leave the back curly. Very strange. Ah well I do intend to dye it purple over the weekend (hopefully).
And finally my new keyboard did arrive. Although the size of the box it arrived in did amuse me, especially when compared with the size of the box for the keyboard. It was all taken up with those fancy bag’s of air. 
I took a pic of it against my old keyboard too, the size difference doesn’t look too bad (its barely noticeable in some ways). And hopefully you can’t see how dirty my old keyboard is either! 
Eurovision 25 May 2008
Posted by kaitharshayr in Uncategorized.Tags: eurovision, political voting
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Ahh Eurovision, a night of pure cheese maybe but I do enjoy it (most of it at least). Watching some of the silly songs and crazy lyrics is always good for a laugh. And actually, despite what I think I said in a previous post, when I listened to the UK entry compared to some of the others *cough* Latvia, Spain, Russia *cough* to name but a few, we had an all right entry. So Latvia had some pirates singing about how they are going to take Eurovision, Spain had the most bizzare song about a dance called the ChikiChiki, Russia had some awful ‘power’ ballad type thing, Germany’s entry sounded off key, France had some guy singing in English about Chivers (??), and Bosnia Herzegovina had some wired song where the backing singers pulled out large knitting needles near the end and pretended to knit. There were a couple of songs I thought were quite good, Azerbaijan had a pretty decent song for their first ever Eurovision, Finland going with power metal again, I enjoyed Turkey’s too.
Still, as per usual, the worst bit of the night was the political voting, its got even worse in the last few years I think. It used to be that only the countries competing on the night voted,which was usually around 20-25 countries, then whoever came last got relegated and wouldn’t be allowed to compete next year, giving someone else a chance. Except for when the UK came last, they couldn’t relegate us because along with Spain, France and Germany we put the most money into the event. Now however, there are two semi finals before the final everyone (43 countries this year), except the UK, France, Germany, Spain and the winner of last years contest (I think that’s it) competes and then on the night of the final 25 countries compete. But all 43 countries get to vote at the end, it just means that the political voting has much more of an affect than it used to.
I mean Iceland and Denmark trading 12 points, Spain and Portugal, pretty much all the Baltic & Scandinavian states giving Russia 12, and I’m pretty sure that, these days, even if the UK sent a truly awesome song that could be number one for weeks, we would still get f-all points. (Thou thanks to San Marino and Ireland for at least giving us some points so we didn’t have nil. We still came last though, along with Germany and Poland. Yes that’s right Spain’s truly dire song got a hell of a lot more points than us, I’m sort of of the opinion that Spain and quite probably France and Germany just don’t really care any more (because of the political voting)? I’m pretty sure Spain had a really odd entry 2 years ago too. (I missed last years Eurovision).)
Do I sound like a sore loser? Maybe. But you know it’s tiring and BORING watching the same thing happen every year. Oh look every one is giving all the high points to the countries they are nearest to. There’s no tension, no excitment over who might win, there were occasions a few years ago where the voting used to be tight, it would go down to the last few votes.. but not these days. Russia made a killing with the points this year.
Its just depressing. Why do I keep watching it then? Year after year?
Oh yeah.. cause you get a right laugh at some of the crazy/stupid songs that are there! I should learn to turn it off when the voting starts.
Moving & other things 23 May 2008
Posted by kaitharshayr in Computer, University.Tags: keyboards, exams, moving, ruby on rails, oxford street, shopping, Gaming, logitech G15
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I’d forgotten how exhausting moving, even just a small move, can be. Wednesday I helped C move what small amount of stuff out of the place he was renting to my house. It was no where near an epic move, hell I did that EVERY time I went back to uni, that was epic, I had so much stuff that I filled my dad’s Peugeot Estate! I mean everything I had was kind of ‘necessary’ I had my PC, base unit, monitor, speakers, printer, then my tv, game cube, and of course a bag of dvd’s/game cube games. A suitcase with clothes, another with sheets, pillows etc. A bag with text books and folders of notes, a bag of living essentials, washing up liquid, washing machine powder, extension cords, a mirror.. etc. And of course my 2 potted plants and bags of food… Gods that was a lot, somehow my friend, who had almost as much stuff as me, managed to fit everything in his mum’s car, which was a fair bit smaller than mine, it was most impressive.
But anyway I digress. C was renting somewhere which was only about a 5 min walk from where I live, its amazing how long that can feel when your weighed down with bags, it didn’t take that many trips though. A part of me thinks it would have been so much easier and quicker if my mum had brought her car around, it would have taken one trip, and she did offer. But then.. its ONLY 5 mins, and I’m hardly helping the environment if I use the car for such a short trip. Ah well.
As of today I have now completed 4 of my 5 exams, and last exam is next Thursday. It can’t come soon enough, I have decided to treat myself to a rather large shopping trip afterwards. (The benefit (or is a a curse?) of having a university near Oxford street.) There are some things I want to get from Marks and Spencers, and I need to get a book to teach me about Ruby on Rails. Its basically an open source frame work that allows you to develop database backed web applications. And from what I’ve seen of the tutorials and such it is supposed to be really easy to do as there is minimal coding involved, and is supposed to be easy to learn. So I’ve decided to learn. I just hope that one of the book shops on Oxford street has the book I want.
I have also finally decided on what keyboard I want. I think I mentioned ages ago in another blog post that I would invest in a new keyboard in the summer, well I am going to get one soon. I have to say it was a tough choice. Originally I was torn between the Logitech LX 710 Laser and the Logitech Cordless Desktop Wave. Both are cordless, and both came with mice, the former has more buttons functionality than the other, but the latter has that curvy look which is supposed to be better for people who get RSI, which I do occasionally.
So I thought it was a tough choice, and both were about the same price on Amazon so there wasn’t much in it.. until I stumbled on Logitech’s Gaming keyboards. Well that did it.. I wasn’t aiming to spend more than £40 maybe £50 on a keyboard. But then I saw these two. Logitech G11 Keyboard and the Logitech G15 Keyboard. Now.. granted the G11 is JUST below £50, but it’s the G15 that is the neat one, and after reading a review that compared the new G15 with the old G15, it just sounds really neat, plus my friend has the old G15, and he says its pretty damn good. However unfortunately neither of these are wireless, nor do they come with mice, now to be far I wasn’t really looking for a new mouse, my basic Microsoft Optical one serves me fine. Plus my current basic keyboard is also wired, so it’s not going to make a huge difference to me, although the size might. For some silly reason the Logitech site doesn’t give you the dimensions of the keyboards, the G15 is 19.5″ long and 10.5″ wide, my current keyboard is 18″ by 7″ so its pretty big! At the moment I can push my keyboard up next to the monitor if I want to write note on to paper and such. I don’t think I’m quite going to have that luxury with this new keyboard, I’m also going to have fun when I want to break out my graphics tablet. I really wont’ have much room at all! But, I’m a gamer geek and well, it’s a gaming keyboard. I’ll figure something out!
Too many projects 20 May 2008
Posted by kaitharshayr in Knitting.Tags: DROPS, Juno Regina, Knitting, lace, Lace Leaf Scarf, laminaria, shawl, tops
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Oh look a flurry of blog posts.. 3 in 2 days? What is the world coming to? 
Anyway, I think I have a mild case of what I’ve seen termed as Knitter’s ADD, in laymen’s terms, I have more than one project on the go, I have 4. Which while not terrible is a fair amount.
Laminaria - (Pattern link) Haven’t touched this for the last few weeks, firstly because its quite time consuming doing a row now that its getting bigger, and secondly it was causing my hands to hurt slightly, and as the next row is one where I have to increase 3 stitches to 9… well not quite looking forward to it.
Bottoms Up - (Its in Yarn Forward #1 and by the looks of it is also now a free download on Ravelry) Actually I’m further on this than that picture suggests, I should really update the picture, I’m almost at the bit where I split to do the front and back. I think this may be sort of hibernating, knitting on 4 ply on small needles takes ages! I’ve also knitted the last section a lot longer than the pattern says. In fact I’ve knitted each section longer, and it’s still not quite long enough for me to split for the arm holes, I need to try it on again really to see, but all that putting stitches on to holder, trying it on, putting stitches back onto needles is time consuming. :/
DROPS 105-2 - (Pattern link) The new project I started a few days ago, a MUCH quicker to knit than Bottoms Up (well it IS double knit yarn on size 4 needles!). The colour is quite yummy, I’m just hoping that a) I have enough yarn, (not quite sure 950yards will be enough!) and b) that it fits, it seems a little small at the moment, but then it should relax a bit when blocked.. I hope. I really should have done a swatch to make sure, but because I was worried I wouldn’t have enough yarn I have just blindly cast on and will hope! I think once I’ve joined the front and back piece I’ll be better able to judge.
Lace Leaf Scarf - (Free PDF download from Ravelry) No pictures of this because I have yet to enter this into Ravelry because I’m not sure how far through it I am. I’m using the pattern to use up my left over Malabrigo yarn from my Juno Regina Stole. (Huh I don’t seem to have posted a picture of the final blocked stole.. I shall do so at the end of this post ;)) Anyway I’m not sure how long this scarf is going to be.. I have what I *think* is about half a skein of Malabrigo and the patter recommends a whole skein.. so.. we’ll see!
And heres my mum’s Juno Regina in all its glory.
Exams & size 19 May 2008
Posted by kaitharshayr in University.Tags: exam technique, exams, java, overweight, press, stupidity
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Whoo well I’ve got 3 exams behind my belt but another 2 to go. The next one is on Thursday (6pm) and the final one the Thursday (10am) after that. So I should have a decent amount of time to revise (I hope). About two posts ago I made a rather annoyed post about revising for Java, well that was the exam I had today and I actually feel like it went ok. Although it always worries me when I feel like that, its the pessimist in me, that I’ve actually done a lot worse than I thought. Like I think I’ve answered the question when in fact I’ve missed out keywords or some such. The java exam did seem ok, the coding was the same as some of the tutorials, which I had sensibly gone through a few days ago, so am hopeful.
Funnily enough I’d almost done the whole paper an hour into the two hour exam.. actually that’s sort of nothing new for me. When it comes to exams I look at the questions, and if i know its something I have to think about for more than 20s I skip to the next question. It generally means that I’ve at least read through the paper and made a start on all the questions roughly an hour into the exam, but to day I think I’d almost answered everything in the hour.. but I decided to stay for the full 2 hours. Why? Because then I don’t’ remember something alter on and go ‘Damn!’. Boring it maybe but at least I can push as much of an answer out as possible in the time.
Also in other news this pisses me off. The press have claimed that Princess Beatrice is overweight… WTF..?! Have they lost the use of their eyes as well as their intelligence..? (The press.. being intelligent.. hmm?) She’s a size 10! I mean hell even if she was a 12 or a 14, that’s NOT fat, and its most definitely NOT overweight! God the words perception of size is getting even more ridicules! I mean we’re buffeted with pictures of skinny/anorexic looking models/actresses, there are shows dedicated to making anorexic people put on weight and for making overweight people lose weight. And now… NOW the freaking press are having a go at someone who is a normal size, a size which is in fact below the UK average (which I think is a 14 or 16). I mean what the hell is their problem? Go find some actual news to publish! Its not like there isn’t enough of that in the world.
Technology is just annoying 19 May 2008
Posted by kaitharshayr in Computer, Technology.Tags: Computer, exams, grapihcs driver, install issues, portal, service pack 1, vista
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I think technology took a dislike to me this weekend. I tried to install Vista Service Pack 1 on Saturday morning, it would get all the way through, do the last restart, when its supposed to configure the install and then just say “Install failed, reverting back”.. Well.. how nice. As per several troubleshooting suggestions I ran a couple of system scans, turned all extra programmes off and … it still didn’t’ install. I have yet to try the suggestion to try and install it with things like the virus checker turned off, I think I may wait till after my exams to sort this out.
Vista however has also started to do other really crazy/annoying things.. The compute window.. it groups things by drive type, and with the computer drives it very helpfully had a little green bar that showed you how much space you’d used/had free. Or at least that’s what its SUPPOSED to look like (see example here). I really appreciated it too. But now… now mine looks like this:
Can you see that?? Its grouped them alphabetically!! I mean WHAT?! And don’t any of you dare tell me that I can change it back to sorting by Type by right clicking and selecting the sort by. I will have you know I’ve done that TWICE, and yet after a restart or two it REVERTS BACK to this alphabetical sorting….. Not to mention that I have no idea how to get those nice computer icons back with the green bars to tell me how much damned hard drive space I’ve used. I really appreciated those!
I also ran out of black printer ink on Saturday, I had to use my dads printer.. which was almost out of black ink too, so it should be fun getting the rest of my lecture notes printed off from which to revise from.
Oh well.. at least I’ve actually managed to fix one issue! Dany wasn’t going into standby mode after having the screen saver on for 10 mins, but I updated the graphics driver on Sunday and that seems to have fixed it. I also discovered that because I have a NVIDIA card I was entitled to a couple of free stuff chapters so a demo Peggle, the first few levels of Portal, and some HL2 chapter things. Neat! I may have to invest in Portal now… it was fun.
I also have a few suspicions that it MAY have been this graphics driver issue that was preventing SP1 from installing.. but like I said I’ll try to install it again after my exams. In fact I need to go revise, I have another one at 6pm today. The fun never ends(!)
Java 15 May 2008
Posted by kaitharshayr in University.Tags: annoyed, exams, java, revision
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Excuse me if I come across as a little pissed off, that would be because I am. I am currently trying to revise for my Java exam on Monday, so I’m going through the tutorials to remember some stuff, and well I have decided that whoever decided to set all the exams in May (and none in Jan) was an absolute genius!
I mean first of making us learn in 12 weeks, what I learnt in 2 years in my first degree but had forgotten, is worthy of a medal.. but then, THEN to set the damned exam 5 months, yes that’s right 5 MONTHS later.. well splendid, you really deserve lots of medals now. I think I should find you and thank you. I mean theory subjects, with an exam 5 months later? Oh well that’s hard all those facts to learn and memorise but Java? Oh no problems there at all.. I mean its just learning a whole language after all! I’m sure people could totally learn French in 12 weeks, not touch it for 5 months and then sit an exam. I mean.. really.
I think some people out there have had to much crazy juice. Grrrrrrr.
Oh the weather, its is most peculiar 7 May 2008
Posted by kaitharshayr in University.Tags: exams, hot, summer, sunny, superheroes, weather
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Ahh Rafiki is funny, makes me want to watch the Lion King again, actually it’s been so long since I have watched it that I’m not even sure if I’ve quoted his line right! But anyway, yes the weather, I’m going to be terribly British and complain about the weather but, ack its tooo hot! Highs of about 23C, which I know, as C keeps telling me is not that hot, but I find it waay to hot. Between 15 and 20C thats my optimal temperature. Hells, even though I seem to have developed bad circulation in my fingers and toes, thus making them cold a lot, I even prefer it when it is colder! Its easier to dress up warm than it is to keep cool.
Whats more depressing is that May = exam month, I have 5 exams, starting this coming Monday, the weather is being nice and a lot of my friends have finished uni, thus making me jealous as I don’t finish till sept. I would like a summer and I would like a job. I know in the long run I’ll appreciate this MSc, and in some ways I do but.. please I would like it over? Thank goodness I’m not doing it part time!
On a side note C is thinking of running a Heroes game one day, (not Heroes the TV show but the RP Heroes system) but I honestly have NO IDEA what I’d want if I had superhero powers, there’s just too many options!
Iron Man 4 May 2008
Posted by kaitharshayr in Film.Tags: Iron Man, marvel
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Me and C went to see Iron Man last night and it was absolutely brilliant. One of the best superhero flicks I’ve seen in ages apart from Batman Begins. For what is roughly a 2 hour film it actually feels a lot longer, you get a good feel for the characters and I have to say the casting was fab! There’s a great mix of humour, action and seriousness. It was.. hmm i want to say great again, but I’ve already used that word.. lets see.. it was fun being able to watch Stark build his Iron Man costume, specially as he tried to figure out the flying part, a painful process! Plus his helper robots were awesome and dare I say cute! 
Also if you haven’t seen it yet then you must stay till the end credits! Highlight the section below for a mini spoiler:
Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury is going to be so awesome! I mean its Samuel L Jackson! 
Also it looks like they are going to be doing a Thor and a Captain America movie.. so after that I’m betting we have some kind of Avengers movie.. although they will have to be careful they don’t have toooo many superheroes in that, it’ll get too confusing. C was reading through the first bit of his Marvel Superhero encyclopaedia and almost every Marvel superhero has been in the Avengers at one point of other.
Some people in the cinema were really low on their Geek points. At the end of the movie they were going
“Cool, if they have an Avengers movie they’ll have the awesome superheroes like Iron Man, Wolverine, (lists a few others) Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman.. (continues listing superheroes)”
Now hang on a sec and back up .. Batman? Superman? Wonder Woman? Aquaman? *le sigh* Thats DC, not Marvel, DC. Different universes my uninformed friend.
I want to move 3 May 2008
Posted by kaitharshayr in Uncategorized.Tags: london mayor
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Boris won.. Boris freaking Johnson bloody won the London Mayor election. I just.. I don’t feel I have the words to describe how I feel.. well.. I do but most of them will be swear words of some description or other.
The conservatives winning is one thing, I don’t like them but if it’d been another candidate who’d one, fine I’d be disappointedly but whatever. But it wasn’t another candidate it was Mr Boris foot-in-mouth-buffoon Johnson. This is they guy who insults entire cities multiple times and hell even entire countries. So this then is the man now in charge of London?
We’re so screwed.
