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.)
Another fun day.
Woke up at 4.30am today to claim facebook.com/samuel, but was too slow. Therefore, I have http://www.facebook.com/samuel.maycock instead, which isn't that bad.
I then tried to go back to sleep, which didn't happen. Which then set me up to go in to Derby for an Open Day on three or so hours of sleep. Not the best, but it's about normal for me anyway.
Had a letter inviting me to the Great Wyrley Performing Arts High School Oscar's. For my contribution to the arts. I'm not sure where that happened. But I'm sure I'll find out soon enough. Very exciting. Click on the image to the right to see the text of the letter.
Left the house late, so we arrived at Derby late, obviously.
Got on an accomodation tour for Peak Court, as it'd be nice to see where abouts my actual room will be in about three months and a week. Turns out it's very nice. Rooms were very similar to York's rooms, just a bit shorter and a bit wider. Bathroom was identical, and the kitchen was bigger, so it's all good. Not far from anywhere either, which is also nice.
As we were late, we had no chance to go talk to the course leader before the talks started, so we decided to go to the Computing talk for the third time. Thought it was great that my mom could identify Project Natal when others in the room couldn't. Talking to the course leader and some students made me feel less terrible about me probably not getting my target grades. Which is still killing me. Gonna try hard to do as well as possible next week so I can get a few more marks. Maybe even a C? That would be nice.
Went into the city centre afterwards to have a look around, which looks fun. Lots of fun shops. Went home. Now I'm home. And off to revise. So I can maybe get a C.
Farewell. =)
Things are going alright.
For once. It's quite great, I do have to say. Had a lie-in this morning, exam was good, I've gained lots of money, my record of achievement has reappeared, and I've gotten two free songs off of iTunes.
ICT went really quite well. Which is obviously the only exam where I'm going to come out thinking that, with C4 and PA10 next week. Most of the questions went really well, apart from a few.
And that database question was awful, mainly because it wasn't normalised! It annoyed me so much.
Anyway, I hope I've got a B there, which will hopefully get me an A overall, the only decent grade from my A Levels. Unless I do get a D in Physics, which is what I'm expecting. Not really a good grade, though. Especially not good enough for my university choices.
Off to Derby again for another open day to go see Peak Court and talk to the course leader.
Weird that in 93 hours I'll be done with exams. Eep, should probably start learning C4 soon.
Farewell. =)
Well.
It appears that I have forgotten to blog this past week.
Maybe because it was just that uneventful.
Had a few highlights though.
Friday evening was just simply fabulous. For Sophie's Birthday Meal we ate in 95 High Green in Cannock. Lovely soup, lovely steak, lovely treacle tart. I might even go as far to say that it was divine. Good evening, anyway.
Also, have been allocated a room at Derby Halls. Which made me really happy. Room 3, Flat 6, Ground Floor, Peak Court. Exciting. =D
Actually, I think that was it.
Plenty of not so good things though. Another four hours of my ICT exam been and gone, even more C4 maths that I'm not totally following, the student finance application process, and having to appreciate that at the time of writing I have 883 hours until my last exam starts. Even worse is the fact that my first exam is in 183 hours time.
Yikes. I should get started with the revising.
Ah well, Sophie's party, Eurovision Semi-Finals 1 & 2, and the Eurovision Final in the next week. But then it's my first exam. Agh.
Oh well, three of my exams before half term, then half term, then I have a free week, then all of my exams within two weeks.
Then drinking, prom, Elliot Minor, my Open University deadline, and then university moving in itself.
Oh, as a side note, I like the word parallelly. I think it is fabulous.
I need to post more regularly.
I really do. As otherwise, I say nothing, then I have really long and silly posts. Like this one.
For university, I have two offers of 260 UCAS tariff points to Derby and Sheffield Hallam, and I have been requested to go to an interview for a potential offer for Teesside. However, the interview is scheduled right on top of my exams in January, which in all honesty, is quite inconvenient. However, I do have an offer for my favourite university, which is awesome.
Hmm. In Burnout Paradise, I got my Burnout License. Only 105 events to go until I get my Burnout Elite license. Yayy. Something like that, anyway.
I was quite ill last week. And to anyone that was wondering, that still doesn't know, I was asleep in the week. I just felt completely dead, and was coughing up blood and stuff like that.
Nationwide finally sent me the cheque for their silly accounts merger thing. Therefore I have £50, which should be nice to spend on something. Rock Band 2, or maybe some dollars. As it's Vegas in eight weeks.
That kind of scares me, however, as that means exams are in five. Two Maths modules, one Physics module and one ICT module, plus a General Studies module that'll finish my AS off. I've got some good resources though, all of the ICT and Maths papers with Physics coming next week, as well as a very useful ICT textbook.
However, I am currently not learning from the resources. They just exist. Like, I have a Maths mock in the next few days, and I am still not aware of C3 trigonometry. Or, on the coursework side of things, I've done very little towards the ICT that was due in on Friday, (to be honest, I was really ill, to the extent that I wasn't on the computer for most of the week) and absolutely nothing at all towards the stuff that's due in this week. And overall in Physics, I haven't really thought about it.
I should probably do some Maths or ICT now, but blogging about not doing it is much more interesting.
Hmm, other things. In World of Warcraft, I hit Level 80. And I'm slowly gaining Level 80 gear that's replacing my outdated Level 70 gear, which is good. 2800-odd achievement points too.
Fall Out Boy's new album is quite fun, not really enjoying it yet. I'm sure I will soon.
Bowling for Barndardo's tomorrow. I don't have a sponsor envelope yet. I could see that being a problem to be honest. I do have all my money, so I just need to sneak into the office and get one. Should be fun.
I think that's everything, to be honest. Should be fun seeing someone tomorrow, haven't seen anyone since Wednesday two weeks back. Awh.
That was a random day.
The first "session" or whatever it was that I went to involved a man who, in half an hour, said nothing much relevant at all.
The prospectuses were fun, well, "fun".
And the barbecue was tasty, fun 30 minute queue, well, "fun", again.
So many commas.
Above I mean.
Hmmdehmm.
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