Journal Entries
Well, goodbye house...!
Posted Jul 5, 2003
It's the end of the year, and it's time to move out of this House of Craziness:
Goodbye broadband (I wonder if I'll get you again next year 
)
Goodbye trains going past my window (I won't be sad you've gone 
)
Goodbye falling to bits house (maybe flying pigs will fix you 
)
Goodbye Quentin, and Mr. Pastry Man (and don't forget the Duck Popper! 
)
Goodbye anime; Goodbye home network; Goodbye multi-player gaming; Goodbye mass Debian installs; Goodbye piles of floppy drives; Goodbye pasta bakes; Goodbye chatting randomly in German; Goodbye always being in the same place in the kitchen; Goodbye whole-house coursework all-nighters; Goodbye bikes in the hallway; Goodbye...
Goodbye housemates, it's been good living with you (and hello next year's, who I haven't met yet 
)
Goodbye house. I'll remember you fondly.
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Latest reply: Jul 5, 2003
Oh, for an easy life...
Posted Jul 2, 2003
Outside my window, I can see a beautiful tabby cat, curled up in a circle, resting on my neighbour's lawn. I'm jealous.
That cat doesn't have to worry about coursework deadlines, exams, final projects; it doesn't have to think about where it's going to live next year, and who its house-mates are going to be; it doesn't have to work out what food to buy, and cook - it probably literally gets its food handed to it on a plate every day! It probably has no thought of where it's life's heading at all...
I know it's pointless, but sometimes I wish my life could be at least a bit like that. The world's such a complicated, convoluted, difficult place; full of stressful, circular, meaningless systems. If only things could be just a little bit simpler. If only there was an easy way out...
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Latest reply: Jul 2, 2003
Be ++
Posted Jun 17, 2003
I get knocked down, but I get up again...Eventually!
I don't know if it was the fresh air and change of scenery, or whether the time had just come, but I finally got myself started again today. 
I went into town, successfully bought a present for my dad's birthday, some food, and some chemist-y bits and pieces (and I deliberately avoided giving Sainsbury's too much custom cos they're taking over the town centre 
).
I then came back, and rushed hotly off to see someone about my project who I sort of had an appointment with, but didn't have time to see me (cos I was late); and saw my project supervisor instead, who had cancelled an appointment with me (but I was later than that, too). And things finally began to take shape in my head: this project could well "rock"...
Admittedly, I failed in my plan to spend the rest of the afternoon playing with and getting to grips with C++ & OpenCV, but I had an excuse. We had a new computer being built, and a large amount of installing going on. Incredibly, this means we now have twice as many *working* computers in the house as we do people! Also, if we get a cable or a [un-]cross-over adapter, we'll have filled our 8-port switch!
So yeah,
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Latest reply: Jun 17, 2003
Did you know?
Posted Jun 15, 2003
OK, I've remembered the other thing I was going to put in my last journal now, and I'm dying to mention something else too:
LEGO bricks are manufactured to an accuracy of something ludicrous like a thousandth of an inch (or even smaller, maybe). They have to be, so that they can guarantee that LEGO bricks from all ages and all over the world can all fit together perfectly and click together. 
But since a normal digital camera can't see anything nearly that accurately, this makes them ideal for making test data for Computer Vision applications (such as my project supposedly will be), because you can know *exactly* how big your model is, and where bits are in relation to each other! 
The Flaming Lips once released an album on 4 CDs *to be played simultaneously*! You actually need 4 CD-players to listen to the full thing - and 4 people to press play, presumably... They just won a Webby award [http://www.webbyawards.com] for their website [http://www.flaminglips.com] - from which I am currently listening to their latest album. They are very, *very*
PS: 
I just looked it up, it's "2/1000 of a millimetre", according to their website at http://www.lego.com/eng/info/profile/didyouknow.asp - which also mentions "There are 102.981.500 different ways of combining six 8-stud bricks of the same colour" I wonder how many of those I excitedly showed my parents when I was a kid...
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Latest reply: Jun 15, 2003
And now for something completely trivial.
Posted Jun 13, 2003
In a change from my usual doom, gloom, and over-verbose ramblings, here's a journal entry containing a few completely useless nuggets from the world around us...
- Reading (where I am sitting as I write this) has won, by a landslide, the opportunity to star on its own Monopoly board - beating Windsor and Slough, of all places. 
I know it's sad, and I should probably be cynical and say its just exploiting the customers and what have you - but how is that? I want one; I want to play Reading Monopoly; and I think I may actually have to ask for one for Christmas... 
- The line from the Buffy musical about "When I get so old and wrinkly / That I look like David Brinkley" finally makes sense. OK, so it's because he just died, so I shouldn't be too happy, but it's been bugging me. Apparently he was a famous News "anchor" over in the US of A - I found it on Wikipedia: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brinkley
- For some reason http://nicecupofteaandasitdown.com is suddenly in the news. My brother sent me there ages ago, and I wander over in bored moments occasionally. I particularly like the idea of a Bourbon as a unit of measurement (for describing how long ocean-going marmot tankers are, of course ) But I'm still on the unsuccessful lookout for chocolate Ginger Nuts - let me know if you find any!
- Y'know, I'm sure there was something else equally trivial I wanted to shove in here, but I have absolutely no idea what it was - ah well! 
Instead, I'll you with the news that scientists have accidentally discovered a coral reef "the size of Jersey": http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,12070,974838,00.html So there.
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Latest reply: Jun 13, 2003
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Researcher U110916
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