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Welcome to this Researcher's Journal. If you'd like to comment on anything they have written here, just click the relevant 'Discuss this Entry' button. Heck, I forgot to think up a title
(Jan 6, 2010)
Nigh on two years later. That prediction was pretty much bang on! 
Hello to those who may read this.  I hope you're all well and haven't given the BBC too much grief. Things can't be too bad, as I gather h2g2's getting ready for an update of some sort. It takes a little while to get one's bearings here after a long absence; DNA is so very different to everything else on the Web!
Let's see, what have I been up to? Everything's really come together in the last year or so. My PhD plans have been put on hold, I can't say for how long. I'm just enjoying the process of earning money! My job (still at the same company) has moved away from testing and into more development, which gives me the chance to be creative that I often crave. I'm developing the management software for our frontline hardware product. Single-handedly, I might add, but as we all know the company will get the credit. 
Web development has halted almost entirely. As ever I have a long list of projects I should tackle, but sadly can't find the motivation any more (that and my computer's been broken for months. The company laptop I use at home at the moment isn't exactly ideal for graphical work and it doesn't have my resources). If I ever glance in the direction of Web development it's related to The Matrix Online, which sadly closed a few months ago. I had planned to create a site to follow the community post-MxO, kind of a hybrid forum/fan-fiction archive, but I'm not sure if I'll ever finish it.
I finally learnt to drive a few months ago, so I'm tackling my first winter on the roads! Last night was certainly an experience, spending two hours on a slip road trying to get off the M27 on a trip which usually takes twenty minutes but yesterday took a total of four hours! I also have a nice new flat now in Southampton (renting; heavens, I won't be able to buy anything for years yet) in which I've been enjoying my freedom for the past nine months.
Best of all, my arthritis is getting better. Infinitely better! They put me on a drug called adalimumab as soon as I moved back to Hampshire. I was at the front of the waiting list when I left Hampshire for Wiltshire when my parents moved house a while back, and as it turns out Wiltshire are useless when it comes to paying for medication so nothing happened while I was there. Now that I'm on it though, it's working wonders. I don't ache in the mornings (it used to be quite debilitating on occasion), all my movements have improved and I've been told my walking looks much better. I'm always going to have some swollen joints, but they won't restrict my movement much any longer.
Anyway, that's enough from me. I'll see if I can stick around for a while. I have far fewer online commitments now, so it's seems likely!
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(2 replies,
Latest reply: Jan 12, 2010)
Alive Still
(Feb 10, 2008)
Uh, well, that failed. Good grief! My last post was over two years ago!? *Smacks forehead.* Time flies, and it's clear that I'll never be able to return properly.  Ah well, I'll at least reassure those few of you who might chance upon this page that I'm still alive and still up to no good. 
I've finished my first degree at the University of Durham (which now insists on calling itself Durham University for some asinine reason). Henceforth, if you're so inclined, you may refer to me as:
Mr Chris Tonks MSci(Dunelm) AMInstP
Or Chris. Or Tonks. Or That Shifty Looking Guy With The Beard.
Utterly exhausted by university, I'm taking a two year break before trying my hand at a PhD, ideally in something to do with computers, cosmology and simulations. (Not that I'm picky or anything...) But no, I won't be embarking on a round-the-world trip or anything as clichéd as that. :P At the moment I'm working at a company specialising in telecomms systems (network timing equipment to be specific), testing their latest inventions. I've previously worked there helping to develop firmware for one of their older devices, and even designed the Web site for that division; which was promptly ignored by their HQ in the US in favour of one that offered little more but for which they paid umpteen thousands. *Shrugs.* Their loss. Heh, I got paid, so I don't particularly care!
I've been doing a fair bit of Web development in the past few years, which should come as no surprise to anyone. Haven't tried making money out of it before (barring the aforementioned exception), so I'm going to try to launch my own business within the next year. Not just a Web development house, of course - no, I've got something a little more unique planned. We'll see how that turns out.
Healthwise, things aren't particularly groovy. Arthritis is a pain (literally, most of the time), but at least I'm through the outer layers of NHS bureaucracy now, so things are happening to slowly change that.
I hope you're all doing well. And I apologise for all the events I've missed, the highs and lows. You probably won't hear from me again for... eh, two years going on previous experience. So I wish you all the best. Keep it real, kids! 
PS: h2g2 really needs updating. Discussion forums that don't let me add italics? Good heavens.
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(3 replies,
Latest reply: Feb 11, 2008)
And You Thought I was Gone for Good
(Nov 6, 2005)
Yup, sorry guys, I'm back. And no, I don't intend to disappear tomorrow. So you'll just have to get used to it.  I am, however, still lazy, so the below paragraphs are taken from my, uh, comeback post in Lil's Atelier.
I see the last time I posted was before the start of my first year in university. I'm now a few weeks into my third! I'm still in charge of the Web site belonging to my college's student body (known as a Junior Common Room, oddly enough), and am aiming for my third year as Editor this December. You may see the fruits of my labours over at http://www.st-aidans.com.
The course itself is getting a lot harder, but is still manageable. I've finally been given the option to stop doing laboratory work and take more maths modules instead, so the course title 'Theoretical Physics' is quite accurate now.  Thus far I've been averaging a 1st (70%), which is exactly what I'm after. I've also decided on my career path: I want to enter the world of computational cosmology. Durham just so happens to have the Institute for Computational Cosmology which, along with the Max Planck Institute in Germany, is the world centre for the subject. In particular, I've got my eye on the large office on the top floor.
Last year I was living in a house I rented with five fellow students. Quite an experience! The house was nasty (not to mention frightfully expensive), but we got by. This year I'm back in college again where they've renovated the rooms - very nice indeed.
Not much to speak of about home - everything pretty much the same there. Dad's still working on the extension, but the bottom floor's done now and the top floor's coming along nicely. I'm still having to paint and plaster things whenever I'm home, but my brother's taken over responsibility for the lawn.
Internet-wise, my network has been totally inactive while I've worked on the JCR site. I have, however, joined a faction in The Matrix Online, so I manage their site and participate in the roleplaying events in the game. Very fun indeed. I've even been offered a DJ'ing position for one of the Net radio stations that caters for the game, which I'd be only too happy to accept if it weren't for this university firewall I'm stuck behind. Can't get into the game or broadcast radio while I'm in college, so I'll have to wait until the Christmas holidays.
As for my intentions now, I aim to get back into h2g2 a bit - hopefully with more luck than my last two attempts, brief as they were. I'm not sure where RP (VR, I should say here) is going to take me, but it's definitely going to change. As Lil so nicely put it, my position was 'lacking in prospects': creating an almost God-like character isn't as fun as you might think.
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(3 replies,
Latest reply: Nov 11, 2005)
I'm heading up North
(Aug 14, 2003)
Well then, time to add my contribution to the growing number of A-Level results-related journal posts out there.
I got the perfect grades. Couldn't've asked for better. An A in each of my main subjects (computing, maths and physics), and a U in General Studies, a totally useless (to me at least) exam that I was forced into against my will.
My first choice of university was Durham, which needed a tough AAB - so I'm off there at the end of the holidays!  Off to study physics.
However, I'm a little annoyed about other people's results. Mine are fine, so I'm not going to lodge any complaints, but the results of certain intelligent friends of mine are proving that, once again, foul play is afoot on the exam board front. Especially in physics, it seems. The first exam we did in that subject last term went really well for just about all of us and consisted entirely of simple questions. However, a great many people, myself including, have received terrible scores for them, and a lot of people have lost entire grades because of this.
I'm not sure what's going on this year. Probably an attempt to make it look like it's the fault of the people who do the actual marking, rather than the management like it was last year. I hope it gets resolved for everybody.
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(5 replies,
Latest reply: Aug 15, 2003)
No Holiday for Tonxey
(Jul 15, 2003)
Grr. Bl**dy extension. Bl**dy money problems.
Well, looks like yours truly is going without any holiday this year. At all. My parents' insistence that we have the extension built onto our house has now, finally, led to serious money problems, which are now affecting me!
Apparently, I'm not going to survive at university if I don't spend about 40 hours a week (yup, full-time) this 'holiday' earning money. So then: no programming, no more going out, no leisure time at all - it's working all week, and then getting on with house work at the weekends, no doubt. I finish college and my A-Level exams, and /this/ is how I'm rewarded!
It's all their bl**dy fault!
 
Please direct all complaints about my prolonged and frequent absences to my parents.
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(3 replies,
Latest reply: Aug 14, 2003)
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Also, I notice that every external link is referenced in the list on the right, even if it appears twice. How silly.)
