Journal Entries
Hello everybody!
Posted Aug 23, 2001
Phew... after four or five weeks' hiatus, my computer finally comes back online... only to be snatched away for another week. I'm going on tour with the choir I've been a member of for about two years now, the Portsmouth Methodist Youth Choir. Yes, I am a youth, and yes, I am a Methodist. And no, I'm not planning to join the h2g2 Choral Society, though I might.
In the meantime, my dad has got a completely new computer. This is an 800 MHz Duron with built-in sound, 20 MB hard disc and a USB controller. Bloody useful thing, that - this modem is atached to it. Trouble is, I haven't a clue how to configure it under Linux. Any suggestions?
I also installed my four favourite games: Half-Life, Sim City 2000, Age of Empires II and Tiberian Sun. All of them run well - even Half-Life, despite not having the privilege of a 3D accelerator card.
On another topic, my AS level results arrived last Friday: A for German (all *before* the holiday, remember); B for Computing, which I'm dropping because it's a waste of time (the CS lecturer at Essex agrees!); and disappointing Cs for Maths and Physics. Still, that's 180 points in the bag.
On yet another topic, the holiday went pretty well. The Mosel valley is about the hottest region in Germany, despite which my parents decided to take walks through the vinyards at midday. What was it Noel Coward wrote? "Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun."
I didn't speak as much German as I'd hoped, since the waiters and waitresses tended to look at Dad for the orders, which puts him in a tight spot since the only German he knows was learned in the three weeks before the holiday and that which he picked up on the way. Mum has an O-level in the language - and despite what I said previously, she only failed the oral part.
However, I did drink much more alcohol than I expected. I was surprised by how little alcohol I can actually take without feeling dizzy. I even enjoyed much of the wine. But the beer... Oh, the beer! According to the Lonely Planet guide we had, 80% of the breweries in Europe are in Germany. Regardless of the type of drink, alcohol is MUCH MUCH cheaper in Germany than here - AND you're allowed to drink anything except brandy from the age of 16!
The ice cream is a different matter - DM 3.50 for a branded ice cream is simply extortionate.
Discuss this Journal entry [2]
Latest reply: Aug 23, 2001
TTFN
Posted Jul 20, 2001
I'm going on holiday to some place called the Mosel Valley, in western Germany, tomorrow around midday. Just east of Luxembourg, it's a wine-growing region, which suited my parents! We're going via Dover, Dunkirk and Belgium, and staying in a flat owned by a German lady who speaks no English at all. No, this is a *good* thing - I get good practice with my German. Fortunately, she speaks Hochdeutsch (i.e. Standard German, with no noticable accent) rather than the Mosel dialect, which is apparently as intelligible to, say, a Frankfurter as Glaswegian is to a Londoner.
See you all in about two weeks - or more, depending on how long it takes to fix the computer in my house that has an Internet connection.
Discuss this Journal entry [6]
Latest reply: Jul 20, 2001
Soaking
Posted Jul 18, 2001
I went to college without a coat yesterday. It was nice and sunny in the morning, so I thought it would stay that way.
What a mistake.
When I left college, I wasn't even wearing a jumper. I got a bus - the first bus that came, as I didn't fancy standing in the cold and wind (not rain, as there was a shelter) for half an hour for the one that stops nearest to my house - and walked about a mile, in the roaring downpour, with no protection except the odd tree, none of which lasted long. By the time I got home I looked, to coin a phrase, like a drowned rat.
Therefore, I am now, for the first time that I can remember, not wearing black jeans to college. They still haven't dried out.
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Jul 18, 2001
Resolution
Posted Jul 9, 2001
The hard disc in my dad's computer failed the other day, so I lost a few things, including the ability to play Sim City 3000. I managed to salvage my city, though - which is better than my brother did. He lost several hours of play in Champ.
I moved the video card from that machine into my brother's, and we are now able to play both games on that computer - after a bit of fiddling to fix the odd problem of not being able to get better than 640x480 resolution at 256 colours. I had to change to a generic driver for the chipset, rather than the one written specifically for that card.
So, I continue as Mayor Hotblack Desiato of New Petrograd 
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Jul 9, 2001
New timetables
Posted Jul 5, 2001
I'll be getting a new timetable tomorrow - the one I'll be using in September (and next week). Apparently I already submitted my choices for next year - so I *will* be doing philosophy AS. I thought that slip was just a straw poll. Although it'll be on the timetable, I won't actually do it next week since it doesn't start until September anyway (mustn't have those poor newbies getting behind 
).
In all probability I won't be able to go home at lunchtime on Wednesdays any more 
I also did my Communications Key Skill exam yesterday, which was rather like a slightly easy version of a GCSE English Lang paper. There was a thunderstorm outside. You don't think of thunderstorms happening at 9:30am, do you? It happened nonetheless.
Finally: if I can get to the optician's before it closes, today I'll have a new pair of glasses to show off. They have extremely thin... er... what do you call the things that go from the frame to the ear? Those things are very narrow, and the whole thing's very light. I think they make me look a bit like John Lennon, at least when my hair's down. I can afford them (or rather, my parents can) because I get free lenses on the NHS.
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Jul 5, 2001
Pete, never to have a time-specific nick again (Keeper of Disambiguating Semicolons) - Born in the Year of the Lab Rat
Researcher U151654
Write an Entry
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."