MrMaycock.com The blog of a nineteen year old university student

October in Derby, in words.

Soo I'm in Derby.

And have been for 38 days now. Mad really.

Anyway, I appeared to not be bothered to post all through October, so I thought that I'd just do a retrospective today, on my birthday. I'm 19 now. =)

Since the last post, I've done quite a bit. The shopping centre lockdown being one. It wasn't very good. Did get some free Schuh bags, loads of free pretzels and lots of free Vitamin Water though. And I did see Vernon Kay from a distance.

Next thing was the following Thursday, October 1st, as we went out to see The Final Destination. Which was as hilarious as Final Destination movies are. However, that day was also pretty shit as I had spent the day running around Derby, Keddleston and Halls, causing me to lose my debit card and therefore access to my money. Clumsy idiot.

Friday brought another Mosh, which was also great fun. Saturday did not bring a Ghost Walk, as the SU fails.

Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday brought socialising at Mr. Adam Biddulph's, of course. Tuesday was extra interesting as Sophie, Ryan and I went into Derby for food and shopping, they had mexican food, I wish I did. Then the socialising afterwards was mainly based around watching Eden Lake, to which I will withhold my opinion.

Friday was another evening at Mosh (with Police and everything), then I had a nice, calm weekend. When I felt quite ill. Fail.

The next Monday (12th) was a day in Derby town with Adam and Dave, then Adam made stir fry which was nice. Wednesday the 14th was a great day, as we went to see Up at the cinema. Aaand, this was also the day my replacement debit card arrived, so I could start spending money on food again. Good times. Up was brilliant, by the way. Pretty damn stupid it aired in America in May, in my opinion, but whatevers. =)

The day after that was pretty eventful too. This was because I was in university from 11-8, then I was drinking from 9-1. I'd have to say that was the most drunk I've ever felt, probably was the red wine I downed. Anyway, I then fell asleep around 4am, which probably wasn't the best idea knowing I had to be in a lecture at 9am the following day. Even worse was that the lecture was quite interesting but I really couldn't pay much attention. Ah well.

That weekend was also pretty eventful. Spent almost all of Saturday at either my flat, Sophie's flat or Add's flat, and my Sunday was spent out with my parents, or out drinking with Adrian Harris for his 19th birthday. Good weekend. =)

Tuesday 20th was a fun day, loads of us went down to Westfield to enjoy some Noodle bar goodness, but I couldn't cope with that, so I had a Chinese box, which was still scrummy.

Thursday was then another mad evening. As Beth came up for the weekend, Sophie had a little get-together that was to evolve into a night out in Derby, which it never did. Ah well. Lots of people consumed far too much alcohol, but good times were still had, and it was really nice to see Beth again. Also, pizza at one in the morning is awesome.

The Friday was not so good to start with. As I didn't leave until about 3am, I didn't really fall asleep until after 4am, and as always I have to be in Keddleston on a Friday for 9am. So I get up at 7am. I did get up at 7am, but then I fell asleep. Whoops. I got up 15 minutes before I had to be at university, thank fuck the bus arrived on time I must say. =) However, one problem with so little sleep was that through the oh-so-very detailed and complicated lecture, none of it made any sense. Bit of a fail. Did get better though, scored 100% in the second BMT test and got myself a score of 324,350 on Bejewelled Blitz (proof biznatches), which was awesome. Then I hurried back to halls, got everything ready to spend a weekend at home. Which was different, as in the past five weeks my room has been completely redone, with me now having a double bed, wardrobe, new carpet, new colours. Madness. I also had my hair cut so it's no longer madly long, thank fuck.

Then the Saturday was great fun, went over to Lichfield with parents and sister, nom nommy breakfast in Wetherspoons. Then the evening was spent in the Garam Masala in Chadsmoor. Gawd, I ate so much food. But it was so gorgeous. Back to Derby on the Sunday. And Sunday evening was spent reinstalling Snow Leopard and Windows 7 retail (both sexy operating systems baby).

Monday the 26th was a nice lie-in, then went into Derby with Adam, Dave, Peter and Sarah. Bought the last part of my Halloween costume (beard and moustache), another sexy sexy Ferrero Rocher milkshake from Shakin' It, and just a generally nice day out. I also made an omelette. I decided that it was nom nom, therefore and om nom nomelette.

Yesterday was quite standard, did head over to Add's for a bit to talk with Dave and Sarah.

But now it's my birthday. As I'm actually writing this at like one in the morning, I'll put what I expect to be doing today. At 7am I'll wake up, watch Diggnation, get ready then head over to Nottingham with some people (Adam, Sarah, maybe some others) for today's GameCity stuff. As recommended by our Ludology lecture, we're going to see Something Splendid. (event), then maybe having a look around the IndieCade gallery and I really wanna play some Projector Games. I'm then heading around Nottingham going shopping for a bit, then heading back for Computer Architecture. I then think people might be coming to my flat for cake, Lips and Rock Band, then we should hopefully be heading to the cinema to watch something. Then I'll rest.

How close that'll actually be followed I'm sure I'll tweet through the day. =D

Anyway, I'mma now gonna talk about what I've been doing in my university modules. As I feel I should.

In alphabetical order, Basic Mathematical Techniques is first. So far it's been quite simple to me, and I'm so glad I took A2-Level Maths. Gonna start getting harder soon with differentiation, but I'm sure I'll cope. =)

Computer Architecture is next. Has been some interesting lectures in it, but it's also hella confusing. It's all about how data is stored and how computers function, which is quite interesting, but difficult when we're programming some processor. Maybe, I must say, haven't done it yet.

Third would be Ludology. I'm really enjoying Ludology, I must say. So far, I've learnt how to use Game Maker (sort of), given two presentations (one about Perplex City which was successful, one about the SNES which could not have gone worse) and created an iPhone prototype game, an accompanying economics report and a pitch video. It's great fun. Apart from the SNES presentation, that was so embarassing. 45 minutes to prepare a presentation about something no-one in the group doesn't know about when lots of other people in the room do know is mean. Ah well.

Fourth is Software Development I. This is probably my favourite so far, as I love the programming. Doing completely mad and random things in it, but it's really quite enjoyable.

And finally, there's The Computing Environment. Nothing much to say here, I see it as useful as my A Level in ICT.

Anyway, more stuff!

If you so wish, you can download a copy of my Game Maker iPhone prototype game from here (Windows only, I don't claim to own the images). Promise I'm not trying to give you viruses. If you're so interested to find my pitch video, you can find it here. I refuse to show you my economics document. =)

As I'm sure my friends from Wyrley and Derby know, I love videos, and I prefer them to photos personally. More life. Anyway, so far, I've created two and a half videos from my time in Derby, with the half becoming whole this weekend. The two videos are below (or this link and this link).

To finish off, I'd like to say thanks to UoD for letting me on the course, a note of if you want to survive at halls you really need an ethernet switch, Facebook and Last.fm on the Xbox are awesome, and finally I love my friends. =)

(I need to do these more regularly, as I'm probably forgetting big important things. Ah well.)