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....

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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!

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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.

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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.

Ack!

Argh! Argh! I say again: Argh!

I have four tests in a week already. This time next week I will have written four tests. Painful, especially on top of tuts and pracs. Can't wait to be able to drop a couple subjects. Been thinking, I might take geology to second year, along with comp sci 2 next year while I finish MAT 1E2.
Cockamany way to set up a degree but anyway....

Holiday was good at least. Led a 21 (onsight flash *does happy dance* [means I did it without falling, but with some advice]). Dale and I also did a 165m high route. Seven pitches. That was a totally awesome day. Have a pic or two from then that I need to get from Mike and post here.
Was just a brilliant vac. Going to take a break from serious climbing for a while though, I have a suspicion that I'm going to bugger up my wrist soon.

What else is going on...?

Not much really. It's back to the daily grind of lectures and pracs. Might get to the beach on Sunday, which will be nice.

Kay seems to be feeling better. She went home in the holiday, which seems to have done some good.

Anyways, I'm sure many of you will agree, I need my beauty sleep and plenty of it *meaningful glance at Chiqua*, so I'm going to hit my lovely clean sheets now.

Aston out.

Holiday and Post 30!

Woohoo!!! Flee at rast! No more work for a week.

I'm going to Montagu! *skips around room for a minute*

*calms down* Ahem. Not too much has happened. Or rather stuff has happened but I've been too sleep deprived to write it down.

Let's see....

Mark almost fainted at the Old Gaol. Think it was the Amarula reacting with a Degoran he had taken that morning. Still not really certain though....

I passed a maths test! Woohoo!!! That's actually great news it means I can maybe get into 1E2.... hehe.

I think I placed reasonably well in the internal league. Not sure but I think I finished in the top 10 so I'm pleased.

Geology is still cool, chem is still boring the pants off me, comp sci has become a lot more comprehensible now that we have a new lecturer, physics is still the shiznizz.

Res is so empty right now. Feels really weird.... Tristan's left, Stuart has moved into digs for the vac, Geoff left this afternoon, Zoe this morning, Graham this evening, Mark, Joe and Marceleno all leave early tomorrow. Kay is still here and will be for the whole vac. Feel sorry for her. Can't find enough space in my luggage unfortunately. And to cap that off, she's sick. Hope she gets better really soon.

As for myself loyal readers, I leave tomorrow morning at 05h00. Far too early for a student, especially me. Actually, what the blazes am I still doing up? It's too late for me to think coherently enough to answer that question.

Term Summary:
Was a pretty good term: I found a girl crazy enough to like me (a future Fort England case I believe), my climbing has improved, my marks are still decent and I actually managed to find the time to finish a novel somewhere along the line....

So all in all, despite not actually knowing where all my time has gone, this term was great.

I am so keen for this holiday: a week's worth of climbing. I think I'll need another holiday after that.... Must see what I can organise....

*Aston vanishes in cloud of sparkly lights and chalk dust*

One of *those* days....

Ever had one of those days where nothing seems to go right? And ever written a test on one of those days?

At least today wasn't one of those.... *evil chuckle*

Wrote three tests today. That's right, count 'em. In order:

1. Geology (DAWNIE) was OK. Went a bit blank on the structural side of it but I should still pass.
2. Computer Science was also OK. Despite not really being sure what's going on with Java, I still seem to have gotte similar answers to the others, so I think I passed that one too.
3. MATHS *cue wailing and gnashing of teeth* Hopefully passed. Answered a lot more than in the past at east. Need to work on optimisation though, I bombed on that section a bit.

So, of three tests, I'm happy about two and think I did better than I have done in the past in the third. So it's all good.

Montagu saga: seems that we have lost all our official transport, since they need the busses on the days we need them for all the people to get to the airport and back. So we need to make a plan there. Means we might go on the train, or get a bus, or use private cars.

Dale and I practised multipitches on the climbing wall the other day. We did three pitches on a 10m high wall. Rather sad really.... Even more sad, thereare no holds on the wall for this reason:

There's a big comp on Saturday. Might take part, but with some of the best climbers in SA expected to show up, I doubt I'll place. Will have to see since Dave has said "there's a charge of R20 for entering the comp - this is to ensure that we don't get random poor people climbing :) Actually I think most of it goes to charity - basically we rob the poor to give to the poor-er :) Anyway, to cut a long story short the registration is gonna happen from 9 to 10 at the wall on Saturday... Oh ya, there's a R500009803.27 entry fee if your name is Martin."

Wonderful no? Puts me out of the running a bit. But I think I'm definitely getting better with my climbing, I managed a 100 point haul yesterday, my first. The routes were a bit easier though I think.

What else is there...? Lectures continue apace. Two more tests to go. Then vac. Woohoo!! Climbing!

Gonna miss Kay though. And all the other people. Gonna be so stuffed when I get back, I'll need a real holiday.

Ah well, physics tut calls....

Aston, out.

Hall Ball

Had our hall ball last night. Was lots of fun.

Pics:

Ashley-Kate and I.
Dale is evil. I'm sure of it....
The CB guys before the ball. (left to right) Tristan, Stuart, Joe, Geoff, me.
Geoff did take the hat off before the dance though. As usual I'm the odd one out. In fact, of the males at the ball, only one other didn't have a black jacket. Nice to be unique ne?

Not much else has been happening really. Just the usual grind: lectures, pracs etc.

Hope to get to Montague for the vac though. Climbing the whole holiday. *does tentative happy dance*

Anyway, I got works to be doings.

Aston out.

Woohoo!

I got high this last weekend! Major fun. *does happy dance*

To be a bit more serious and come off of my high, I went climbing this weekend. I managed to miss out on the whole Trivarsity malarky. Apparently we won, which I gather means that Rhodents drank more per capita than the other varsities (Nelson Mandela Metroploitan University and Fort Hare for the record). Well done guys (and gals).

*evil chuckle*

To get back to something that vaguely interests me (heehee), the climbing was fun: vertical tilted strata so it got interesting depending on which side of the rock you were on. Lead most of the climbs I did at least, which I am pleased with. I'm getting better.

I almost got benighted. *shudder* That was not cool. I was cleaning a route and it got a bit dark a bit faster than I had hoped. Needed a torch to get back to the campsite, luckily only about 20 meters away.
Then yesterday, we got chased off an interesting looking climb by a bee hive: Kev stuck his head around the corner and almost into it. We waited a bit but they weren't calming down so we abandoned three draws and admitted defeat.

On the way back a tire went flat. (Not fun.) Then we had to get the spare off the bus. (Even more not fun.) Got back a little late.

And the library has a subscription to Baens Universe! *does happy dance at the thought of short SF that I can read in a few minutes*

Anyway, I have to go. Life awaits....

Aston out.

Update time!

I haven't been giving the blogs the attenton they deserve recently. Been rather busy.

Anyway, Tri-varsity is coming up this weekend. So I'm getting out of here. Drunk students all over, too much noise.
Not my scene. So, I'm going climbing. Which will be waay more fun. And I have the whole of Friday afternoon off to do what needs to be done which is unusual.
I just hope that nothing like last year happens, apparently there were a few rapes.
Which is one of the most sick and twisted things you can do in my opinion. (That's a whole 'nother rant...)

What else has happened...?

There was a special Neko showing on Sunday in collaboration with Amnesty International to commemorate the 61st (I think) anniversay of the first nuclear weapon to be used in anger.
(Today is the anniversary of the second if memory serves.)
They showed a movie called "Grave of the Firefies".
Whoah. It was something. t's one of those movies that just its you throught sheer emotion, rather than violence and gore. If you think war is OK, watch this.
If you still think war is OK after seeing it, retire from the human race please.

I'm not getting much sleep recently, work and other stuff is keeping me up way too late. I'll have to do more when I have time, rather than letting stuff slide till evening.
Anyway, lectures go OK. Geology is really cool at the moment, so is physics and comp sci. Maths is soo much slower than when Mr Shepard was lecturing. Guess it's for the best. Chemistry I'm getting really bored with.

It's so annoying: I have never read less fiction in my lafe than I have here at Rhodes. I need to make time to read what I want to. I'll do some this evening actually. At least 1/2 an hour every day if I can manage it. Should be able to get something done in that time.

Anyway, I'd better get going, I have lectures to attend.

*Aston vanishes in flash of light