Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Update time....

Happy Hallowe'en!
w00t! Over studying. Need to update this thing....

Apologies for the long break. Had other stuff. So this will be a reasonably long post. Pull up a bollard and have noodle.

First up: Birthdays: Brad's and Evol's.

Brad's was last week Saturday (blimey it's been a long time...). So Brad is turning 19. He calls us up and invites us for PIZZA! On him! w00t of note....
After that we decide that we are going for a walk. It's about 21:00 already (I think), but we go to the bot gardens. Strolled along the paths, Evol and I apparently on a sugar high (lies I tell you! Lies!) then decided to go up to the Monument. Sat around there for a while.
Then Brad mentioned this rock. The "BA Rock". So we went looking. Turns out it's right next to the highway away from Grahamstown. Climbed on top and just lay there, looking at the stars for a while (which were pretty good away from town [less light pollution]).
By then it was close to 02:00 so we traipsed back. Leslie was very sweet and walked Tally all the way up the hill, even though there were three of us to escort her. Poor guy. And he lives about as far down the hill as possible.

Next up: Evol's birthday. Was on the very last day of lectures that Evol was turning 19. So we went out to Spur for supper. Crumbed mushrooms.... Nyum-nyum.
After that, and solving some of the world's problems, we moved over to the Old Gaol. Which is an old gaol, now reformed to become a B+B. Kay met us there. :D Yay!
Heehee. Brad was pulling his moves on this girl, who seemed rather nice. Turns out she's a masters Fine Arts student. About as far from 1st year BSc with maths and physics as you can get.... Oh wells. They seem to get on OK and he's been to a party with her so we'll see....
Then on Saturday I skipped bouldering at Alicedale, rather reluctantly (I was looking forward to it) to go to Evol's surprise party, all machinated by the Zo herself, involving an awesome chocolate cake, tons of food, and a kidnapping to get him there.
See, she got Mark, Brad and me to come down early. Then she phones Evol (who is doing maths) and invites him for ice-cream. On her. As he gets near to Allen Gray, we jump out at him (not from behind, none of us want broken limbs) and tie a scarf around his eyes. We then lead him all over the place, including through the GLT, picking him up every now and again in an attempt to confuse him.
When we got to the bot gardens, everybody got in front of him and I untied the scarf. As it fell from his eyes, everybody yelled "SURPRISE!".
As they say in the papers, "a good time was had by all".

That night we had one hell of a thunderstorm. Stu's room got soaked, luckily the hail (!) missed his laptop. I got rained on sitting about 1.5m away from the open window. One thunder crack was so loud it set off a car alarm. It was pretty cool actually. Which caused another problem I'll mention further down. (Also water related....)

What else of note... Kay and I have been going steady for 3 months on the 25. Right before Zoe and Graham's 5 month mark (26) and Tally and Leslie's 1 month mark (I think 27...). Which is all rather freaky.... Actually can't believe it's been three months. Oh wells, they were good.

On Friday I had this drinks thing at the Geology Department. Trying to convince everyone to continue with Geology 2. I'd already made up my mind. I'm doing it. Met James (honours geology student and one of the demonstrators) at the Old Gaol later and he was telling me how he has three companies after him already with jobs. I'll take it to second year at least. Will see what happens after then. It's a possible major, along with comp sci.

I've been studying this week. Had my geology prac exam today. We'll see, but I think I did OK. Next up: chem. Blegh. So over it. All I need (and want) is a pass to be frank. Got this nasty clump: 7, 8, 10 and 11 November. Not gonna be pretty.

I'm feeling reasonably confident about geology, less so about physics (but I'll get there) and totally bummed about chem. Really should have paid more attention in lectures. 20/20 hindsight I guess.

Oh wells.

Heehee. Just had Remy and Sarah come knocking for trick or treat. Had to turn them away empty-handed. I gots no treat. :( Wonder if I can dress up as myself and get some chocolate from someone.... Probably not.

Oh yes, I might be getting up to Jo'berg in December. 10 to the 17. Hope so, Tally said she might be able to organise for me to stay with her or something at Sun City. Failing that, Evol said he has some floor space I can borrow. If that also fails, I think we'll stay in Pretoria or something. I want to get to a Hinis restuarant at least once though....

On a less entertaining sidenote: we have no water. To whit:
"The University and parts of town have no water. On investigation it has been told to me that the power lines feeding the Waainek pump station are down. Municipal electricians are trying to establish the fault and effect repairs as soon as possible. We are placing water tankers around the campus to assist with toilet flushing. I have asked the Municipality to assist in this regard, however the schools also need assistance. I apologise for this inconvenience and will keep you informed of progress."

No sign of anything yet.... Gonna be ugly in a couple days if they don't get something going. [crosses fingers]

Anyway, long post, but a great deal seems to have happened.
*Aston returns to bookses*

Monday, October 16, 2006

Filk, Milkshakes and Tests

Hehe. First of all, I've been burning my quota on Filk. It's a strange genre where almost anything goes, but often has a space or fantasy theme. Of course that's a very general definition. I'll happily talk more to them as wants to know. [smile]

Meantime, try Random Factors to see some of what's available at pretty reasonable prices. (hint at mother: I'm looking into prices to ship to SA, already sent two e-mails....)
That's not everything by any means though, there is far more if you are willing to look around. Of course it's easier in the US where you can get to SF Cons....

I did pass that maths test. :) Got a decent 67% for it too. Got three tests this week though. Meh. Physics on Friday, Comp Sci and Geology on Wednesday and then a Geology prac test next week Tuesday, and Chem multiple guess next week Friday. So over tests. The exams are almost here. Why do we have to write them??

Went and had milkshakes with Kay at the Red Cafe' today. Was really cool. Also saw Lucky Number Sleven over the weekend. Stupid name, but really awesome movie.

Went to Thornies again, this time with Dale and Aiden. Had an interesting moment while traversing: looked down and saw a bolt about half a meter below my feet. Wasn't very high though. As an aside, the place was flooded. The normal puddle is totally covered over.... Can still climb though.

Otherwise, life continues as per normal.

[Aston vanishes behind cloud of ink]

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Baen's Universe and other stories.

Woohoo! Just finished my maths test, went ok I think. Even if Graham didn't share his potion of intelligence with me. (Meanie!) Will have to see though.

The main reason I'm posting this is to promote Jim Baen's Universe, an online SF/Fan magazine that comes out every two months. I've attempted to ram a few stories down various friend's throats, but I thought I might as well do this too, and help the cause.

THE LINK TO CLICK!!!

If you are at Rhodes, it is possible to use their subscription to read it (contact me and I'll tell you how), if not, you'll have to wait till they introduce lower subscription rates for foreign countries, unless you can get PayPal to work.

They publish a wide variety of stuff: SF and Fantasy by established authors, a few serial stories (The Fish Stories are absolutely brilliant), a few factual articles (usually pertaining to space or science) and a column on DRM (Digital Rights Management) [for the record, they are against it].

All in all it's well worth checking out. They also pay the authors and artists well above the normal going rate so it's worth supporting them for that.

Anyway, I need to get back to my Comp Sci.

Have lovely [insert time till next post here] lifeforms, anthropomorphic manifestations or AIs.

[Aston vanishes in cloud of pixels]

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

The Splash Diaries

The events I am about to relate all took place in a small university town named Grahamstown in the ten days between my last letter and this one.

I seem to be posting less. I guess it's because nothing is really happening. Meh.

Monday afternoon was good: Graham, Zoe, Kay and myself went on a sort of double date. I say sort of because it was just an excuse to have some fun. Most of it at Zo's expense funnily enough....
Graham and I were almost forcibly thrown out of the Red Cafe' by Zoe. Kay wasn't impressed either. Philistines. Don't appreciate wordplay.

Incidentally, Red Cafe' make some really nice dessert shakes: Bar One, Oreo or Peppermint Crisp. *shudders in delight*

In other news, I've made it onto the RUMC commitee for next year! Very chuffed, Dale is also on the comm and also chuffed by it. I also got the award for dedication to climbing. Yay! I was the only person to have attended 100% of the internal league fixtures so am rather stoked. Speaking of climbing, I have Montagu pics....



o Dale sitting on the ledge we had lunch on while climbingAnother Day in Paradise. That was one awesome day: 7 pitches (individual climbs after the other) and 165m high. Was just so.... woohoo!







o One of the few pictures I have of me climbing. This was on one of our "warm-ups" to Another Day in Paradise, and was at Sloth Crag. (The name of the route eludes me) Photo credit to Dale Morris.



I had a geology field trip last weekend. It was fun, but I'd rather have stayed in Grahamstown. Caught up on sleep or something. Plus I wouldn't have the write-up to do. Workload is pretty hectic: three write-ups (two Geo, one Physics) due on Thursday and Friday respectively, Physics test on Friday, tut due tomorrow, Maths test next week Tuesday, normal CS prac due next Wednesday and of course the usual heap of pracs every afternoon. Work. Blegh. Gets in the way of having fun.
Meanwhile, lectures continue apace. Chem is still really boring, CS is interesting, Maths goes well, Geology is pretty cool (this stratigraphy stuff is fun) and Physics, well that hasn't gone so well recently. Managed to get 42% despite getting all eight multiple guess questions (worth 48%) wrong, so I'm pleased at that at least.

Somewhere in there I need to put together an entry for the programming competetion. Gonna try and make a binary display clock. Just need to figure out how.... Got some ideas though.

I really can't wait to have only three subjects next year. Going to be so lovely. Will still be a boatload of work, but I'll have more time to procrastinate doing it. So maybe more regular blog updates....

Completely unrelated, I'm going to try move into Piet Retief next year, since all the CB gang seem to want to move. Place won't really be the same without them so I'd rather move somewhere where I know some of the people a bit better than I do those in here.

What else is going on in Splatland? Not really much. I'm still breathing, still making puns, still having the weekly arb sessions on Thursday before maths (the whole bunch of us have a common free which is cool). Means I get another chelsea bun from the blockhouse.

Maybe I should change this blog's name to "The Splash Diaries". What do you think loyal readers? I say this because it's been raining for the last two days. The only reason I'd like to move off the hill is so that I don't have to walk in the rain as much.

I've recently discovered a band called Tunng. Really, really weird, but very cool music. Sort of folk music with electric synths in it. Try get hold of some.

Hope you like the new look by the way.

Aston out.