Lost Odyssey continues to progress fairly well, much to my constant belligerence upon its completion percentage. Note: it doesn't have a percentage, but I feel like I've self imposed one. And I will strive to reach that glorious 90% number. Now 55 hours into the game, my party has reached about level 48 and continues to kick butt. I found a new area, now that I have received the ability to go anywhere on the world map (cough, RPG clichés!) namely The Temple of Enlightenment. Unfortunately for me, it was fairly dismal in its enlightenment. I got in one little fight, and my momma got scared, she said "You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Tosca Village". The one enemy I did fight, a black kelolon had about 16000 HP, and although I managed to take him down, it did take some doing. And if they were to come in multiples? I'd be screwed. I'll come back later, homes. I also bought Crackdown for a tenner, and me and wormlover played for about six hours straight until 3am in the morning, riding lorries and shooting tires out. Generally, not doing the story of the game and having a blast. Oh man, I can't wait for Grand Theft Auto IV. SPEAKING OF WHICH, the reason I posted today. Well, take this, dude:

Hi Stephen

Thank you for your recent order of Grand Theft Auto IV. We're sure you're looking forward to this Tuesday as much as we are.

We've got some great news. To guarantee you receive your copy on time, we'll now be sending it by Royal Mail Special Delivery.

And don't worry, there's no additional charge for this. We just want to make sure you're amongst the first to get your hands on the hottest game of the year.

Please remember that your delivery will need to be signed for. If the postman can't get a signature, you'll always be able to collect it from your local sorting office.

If you have any questions, as always, feel free to contact us.

Many thanks!

Games Dept,
hmv.com

Man, I was considering going for Special Delivery, and went against it at the time, thinking I would be more blasé about it not arriving on the first day (what with it being a Tuesday anyway). But as the date crept closer and closer, I grew worried about my game, and wanted it the minute I could. Now, this! HMV Games Department, you are gods amongst us mere mortals! I mean... 1000 points plus free Special Delivery? Awesome sauce, dudes, awesome sauce. I will be up early Tuesday (and possibly Monday too) for delivery-acceptance. Can't wait.

Keep on truckin'!

Snorlax, or a Meowth would've been sweet. But no. I get Persian (Meowth's evolution, shucks!)

What Pokemon are You? (The new Quiz!) created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Persian You are an Persian, The normal house cat but with some nasty manners, you like to pounce your toys when they move and mostly bite and claw them... Persian 88% Electrode 75% Vulpix 63% Ditto 63% Snorlax 63% Steelix 50% Mewtwo 50% Togepi 50% Gengar 50% Tyranitar 38% Pikachu 38% Slowpoke 25% Charizard 25% Machamp 13%

Meowth, that's right!

Making Disc 4 of Lost Odyssey has been an achievement long in the wake of my primordial efforts of wanting to actually complete a long Japanese RPG. So many have I started! So many have I invested plentiful, bountiful hours into. So many have I enjoyed, née relished! So many items, spells have I amassed; NPCs conversed; quests completed. Yet I still have a depressingly low complete-rate for JRPGs. Disc 4, however, makes light remarks of that dream. Sure, I may still have 60-odd hours to go before I can even consider having 100% complete rate - especially in the collecting sense. But, for one small moment, I feel closer to that goal, that desideratum.

Hi Stephen

As you may have seen on hmv.com we have sold out of our initial allocation of Grand Theft Auto IV, and are now unable to guarantee delivery for release date on any orders placed on or after 9th April.

The good news is that your order with us was placed before this date, and is secure. We'll be shipping the game to you in time for launch on April 29th, don't worry - your order is safe with us.

Don't forget, we'll also be sending you 1000 Xbox LIVE points and a voucher book with over £130 worth of savings with your game!

We hope you're as excited about Grand Theft Auto IV's imminent release date as we are.

Regards,
hmv.com games department

So today's thrilling instalment in our Professional Issues lecture resolved around morals and ethics. So naturally (of course?) there was quite a bit of discussion on philosophy, and a bit on the history with famous philosophers. Now this was all well and good, as it set up some essential background of western philosophy for the rest of the lecture. Naturally, various names popped up. This, additionally, was also all well and good. But the really good part, the reason I actually bothered to get up and write something today was the effect of these names being spoken. Looking at famous philosophers, names like John Locke appeared on several occasions. And... every. single. time. it. did... there were whispers from the back, mostly involving Lost. There were other names (notably, David Hume, or our favourite renaming, Desmond, brother) which popped up and elicited similar responses. Good god, people!

But, it brings me nicely to this. WHAT!?

This is tearing me apart! Battlestar Galactica - it's waiting there on my hard drive. Praying to be watched. And here I am, without the ability to do so. I got up early (well, early for me, especially on a weekend) at 7:45 hoping to watch me some BSG goodness. I was guilt-tripped into getting some packing done upon finding my mum ironing some of my clothes. Now that she's gone out, HURRAY CHANCE FOR BATTLESTAR. Oh wait, no speakers. And, to be honest, no time.

Well, I have to watch it when the situation is perfect. So basically that's going to be back in Sheffield this evening. I won't even mind too much forgoing Doctor Who, which I'm not really looking that forward to anyway, thank you very much Catherine Tate and missing nearly all of Torchwood.

I've packed a majority of the stuff I'm taking back, and I might as well go and pack the computer now. Sniff, sniff. If I'm fast, I could go about setting up the old computer so that when I come back, as I periodically do, there'll at least be a computer pre-setup for me. And also if I get bored waiting here, I can GIVE IT A WHIZ! Whimmy wham wham wazzle! And thus, this is possibly and probably my last post from Chesterfield. Good night, New New York! Or Chesterfield, or whatever it is you're called.

ssssccaught you sssssmoking there, bud.

Yesterday was a complicated day. Yesterday, I woke up early with the aim of driving to my mum's school (with her, to drop her off) to come back so that the car would be here for my sister. Whom had been taken to, and picked up from, her school by my brother. Then she would take the car I brought back to my mum's school and pick up her car from the garage, and my mum drive her car back. Phew. And in between that, someone thought it'd be a clever idea to go to Sheffield and take some shizzle, pre-emptively before my exodus come Saturday.

What a good idea that was. It was an idea that was originally conceived by me, I will admit. But it was an idea I desperately tried to distance myself rapidly. Because I knew what a bad idea it would be in practice. See, round where I live, not only is there no where to park, there is no where to park in any proximity at all on weekdays. Still, I gave in to demands, and went. I arrived in "Sheffield" at about 11. Trying to find a place to park near my flat failed, as I had expected. I spotted a tiny gap between two cars... on a steep slope. And couple those specifics with my absolute piss-poor parallel parking skills (not done it since test!) I gave up.

And then there was another reason: Outside Tescos' I spotted not one; not two; not three; not four; but five traffic wardens wandering about. HELLZ NAW I exclaimed quietly. I expanded my search a little, around the constructor-truck laden lands of the area. I found the nice road that is usually empty, but of course: Permit Holders only. And considering the traffic wardens convention just around the corner I decided against it.

I expanded further, now including the Broad Lane carparks in my search. Number one: didn't look like it had any empty spaces, so I drove past it. Number two: I went into, found nothing, came out. Number three: clutching at straws I drove in, found nothing and drove all the way around again. Back to number one: drove in, confirmed my suspicions, came out again. 10 minutes had passed, so I drove back around my flat, still nothing, still plenty o' fine traffic warden ass.

Next step: the carparks off of West Street. Number one, two, three: no no and no. I eventually ended up pretty much as far down as Atkinsons... a good 3/4 miles away. I parked, had no money, and could only afford 90 minutes at £1.20 of odd bits of cash. (PS: New coinage, I want it!) I opened up the boot of my car, and discovered the craploads of food/stuff I had packed to take. A freaking heavy bag (stuffed with other bags) and four other bags. Let me tell you now: the heavy bag was heavy. I had to change arms every 20 steps.

I eventually made it, only carrying half of the stuff, and gave up. I came home defeated, and warn out. But lets make things worse: I wake up this morning, to find my load bearing carriers are now bust. It's actually painful to type, but I'm so bored. Programming hurts more than just writing, so thats my excuse. But it does not bode well for tomorrows computer-carrying, luggage-toting fun. No siree.

At least there's Battlestar tonight/tomorrow. Oh by the way, lets get this out in the open, spread it people, spread it:

In the summer, the plan is to get a new bed to replace the piss-poor one I have at the moment. I.e. the squeaky, uncomfortable, spring-popping, metal bed. Of course, since I'm back in Sheffield for a couple more months, there's no rush. But come summer, it'll be more important. So I'm looking up at Shakira, and then I realise: there's a quicker way about this.

INTERSHRED COMFIBED. It'd be a lot cheaper, and I could just live, sleep, crap, and pee in there. I could also store my food! All in one place!

Mr. Driller Online. Okay, so yes, I bought the game, its damned fun and addictive. Unfortunately, it's called Mr Driller Online. And the key here is in the Online. Unfortunately, what this game lacks is Online. Okay, so it has online, but it is so laggy and buggy, that theres no point playing it. Me and Ian bought the game, but it just does not work. The host can play fine, the other peeps? Wallow in self pity!!! Hopefully they fix this, as thats 800 points! Well, the single player is mighty fun, but... lets go back to the name: ONLINE.

We played a game of Poker Smash afterwards, and upon reaching the immaculate Stakes Multiplier of 9860, we were fluctuating between complete win and complete loss. One moment I had 90% of the money, the next moment, I had lost. But it was the closest I had ever come to winning. Net gain for me, I say.

I'm supposed to be going to Sheffield tomorrow, taking some stuff. I haven't got any stuff prepared to take. Well, even if I do go, I've got to take my mum to school in the morning, so uh, yeah, probably going to have to catch the midnight train to SLEEPVILLE. Otherwise, there ain't no way in Hades Hell that I am waking up at 6. Ugh. 6 am. Again. It's the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left.

I don't think I'm ready for war.

My word, there are a lot of things coming out on Friday. Of course, right at the top of everything is Battlestar Galactica, and thats damn sweet as it is. But then lets add on to that the series of Macross Frontier starts (the pilot having aired back in December) and then lets get us some Doctor Who. I had figured there'd be time before Doctor Who wherein I could watch me some Torchwood (having lost interest somewhere around episode 3) which might be good knowledge for the rest of the show. That 'aint happenin' it seems! But to be fair, that show is pretty damn awful.

I got what is probably going to be my last DVD rental from the free trial of LoveFilm today. I signed up for the 2 DVDs or Games package (or the 30 day trial of it anyway) but never once received any games! C'est la vie. I finally received the film I've been waiting to see since the minute I came out of the cinema, namely Stardust. I am so glad I didn't buy the DVD, because in terms of extra content, its awful. And at £15, shit value for money! Special Features: Commentary. Now I like commentary, and is always good for a film you enjoy, but without any other special features, I find it hard to put my money down on it. It's a fantastic film, definitely one of my favourites of the last year, possibly the favourite. But now I've rented it, I'll be happy for another couple of months. And you and your shitty extras ain't getting a buy. That's me taking it to the MAN.

Progress on my project has been slow today. After yesterdays hackathon and its thrilling conclusion (I wrote confusion as a typo first, but I think that's pretty apt too) taking me into the early hours of the morn wore me out. This morning I fixed up some small bugs and left it at that. I've got other things to do too, unfortunately.

Master Surround Center Woofer GO GO GO.

First things first, don't forget today is April Fools. Time for some of the crappiest pranks around as people who only realise an hour before try to create some elaborate scheme, and fail miserably and end up with "So yeah, I've sold the website to my sister and she's going to turn it pink." Yeah, that day. Still that said, the award for the best use of April Fools, thus far, goes to Phoenix Requiem. Epic winz!

( Boring stuff about my project )

Oh manz, what a waste of a day. I guess at least I know a little more about Java. Shame that what I know is there are quite a few libraries that are just plain "teh suck".

Once again, my slumber brought me ideas of grandeur for the developing project. However this morning, I simply could not be bothered to do anything. Try as hard as I could, there was no motivation to do anything. Not even playing teh videogamezzz! (onoz!!!111oneeleventyeleven) After a painful "I better do it or I'll be in trouble" getting on with some website programming, I was then later forced to go help with the supermarket shopping, although did get a few bits I would need for my inevitable return to Sheffield next week. However, when I got back, the spark was back, and I implemented my next user interface feature - scrolling slides! Unfortunately screenshots of this will do it no justice, but believe me, its lovely and fluid, and hopefully intuitive! I personally believe it gives the idea of the slides (when there is more than what can be fitted on to the screen) of actually moving like a film roll - so all's good there!

There's also live updating of thumbnails - or as close to live as humanly possible. It's at about 100ms delay, because resizing the image and then passing it around the model and then redrawing it on the thumbnails takes quite a bit of processing power! Still, I think a project like this, you're going to expect the software to need to use a bit of powah and oomph. Or at least I hope that is the case and the person marking it doesn't have a crappy computer and think its really slow. That would be ultimate PWNAGE.

Fortunately, the feel of the software is really starting to imitate my design prototype, which is liquid gold, because that means I've been able to develop as close to spec as possible. And with the real focus of this application being on the interface, I get to spend most of my time doing the interesting interface niggles. Of course, I still need to work in things like saving and loading, and that is going to be HELL. A project for tomorrow perhaps? If not that, I'll work on undo/redo... or maybe deleting slides... or maybe the write/picture tools... or perhaps the ability to actually PLAY the damned animation? Awwwh. I've still got a lot left to do. But then again... this assignment hasn't actually begun yet. Hopefully that means I'm pretty far ahead! And I've taught myself some neat tricks in Java.

Now I will leave you with the scary mothah' picture thats been on my screen for the last few minutes, whilst the video was on pause. Ker-reeped me out when I got back to it:

(You actually have to click on this one, guys. Come on, don't be lazy, we all know you want to.)

Other than that, today has been pretty much "teh sux". I've been pretty bored, pretty fed up and other than my moment of joy seeing my slides literally sliding left to right, it's been a fairly crummy lonely day. Tomorrow, I have chosen not to wake up at 8:30, but 9:30, of course due to crummy British Summer Time taking back that hour we so lovingly received back in October. You win some, you lose some.

I was planning on spending some KER-WALL-EE-TEE time with Lost Odyssey, but even that couldn't inspire me. And now that I feel like I want to play, its 10, and if I start playing now, I'll still be playing two hours down the line. I'm tired now, and I don't even want to know how tired I'll be then. So, I guess this is it. Farewell, my friends.

WTFUX, H4X!!!!11

There is but seven days until the glorious Battlestar Galactica returns to us. And let's get this into perspective here: the final episode of Season 3 ended March 25th... 2007. That's right, 369 days have we been waiting for the exciting conclusion to "WHATEVER THE FRAK JUST HAPPENED". (Frak is a four letter word, people!) Sure, we had Razor to tide us over, but as a storyline set during Season 2, it offers no reasonable continuation to our favourite Battlestar's current predicament. And even that was 125 days ago (to date) - which is just too long to bare.

Lost helped me greatly these past 8 weeks - especially with its new-found return to form in its fourth season that started stirring things up again. Although now its over, until later April, it's high time for my favouritest show evar to bring it back, old skool. And that means Papadama and the crew must get their funk on! Bring on April Fourth for the Fourth Season, people!

April Twenty-Ninth is also a day to look out for, with the return of Grand Theft Auto, additionally, the fourth (quite a theme) which, as the gods themselves have proclaimed, will rocketh day and night.

Whilst on the topic of video games, Lost Odyssey still holds me close to its wonderful bosom. I have reached Disc 3, at long last, and getting excited about the prospects of what is yet to come. I have promised myself this is a game I WILL finish, no matter what. Even if it takes a thousand years!

Awwh. I made myself cry.

Yesterday I awoke to the serene beauty of the sunrise over the horizon and brilliant fragrance of a fresh new day, ready to inspire, to motivate and to remind every one and every thing of the gloriousness, and frailty, of life as we know it. So I played some video games and watched some DVDs!

So far today, today has been rain and rain. I still managed to persuade my body to wake up at 8:30, somehow. And whilst that might not sound early, I will force you to remember that I am technically on holiday! Big plans today, as during my (admittedly nerdy) sleep, my brain deciphered a cunning way to work on the next big area of my flip book application project.

I know, I know, I won't shut up about it. But it's been my LIFE for the last few days. Okay not quite, but I've spent a fair few hours on it. After implementing the glorious ideas of megasleepz, I now have a fairly fully working drawing application that has... wait for it, multiple pages! And then get this, thumbnail slide indicators! And, what's more, a "New..." slide button, as I proposed in my design document. Additionally, we have a current slide selector, showing which slide is in view and better working buttons. It's all coming into place now!



So whilst I've only been working on it for under three hours (the rest taken up with showering, news reading, and a quick game of Switchball*), I've outed my self-proposed quota on today's development. Every thing's going Milhouse!

* Switchball note: Gorramit, now I'm getting angry with this game, the save points are getting fewer and farther between. And what with my volatile nature, this easily stresses me out. Many expletives have been uttered at this game's expense. Bah humbug!

After strenuously pushing myself, I finally managed to get some basic, rudimentary, simple drawing into my project. It started of all funky - my first stratagem was to interpret the mouseDragged event and draw a 5 pixel oval. Only, the mouseDragged event doesn't happen at every pixel of course, so everything was funkeh. Easily rectified by storing the previous point and then drawing a line from the previous point to the new point, and then saving that as the previous point. When the mouse has been released, reset the previous point. Now I get full lines! Now I've got drawing and eraser tool working. No colours, but thats a simple case. The complicated aspect will be TEH PICTURES and TEH TEXT. And then to make matters worse, the even more complicated matter will be saving it. And then animating it. Ugh!



DOES THIS COUNT as progress?



THIS IS A SPOON would be a false statement here.

Been working on my Human and Computer Interfaces assignment to get a bit of a head start, as the work involved when I go back to uni is going to be pretty intense. It's an animated flip book for primary school children, and has to be developed in Java. Yay for relearning Swing interface again. Yay for horrible, horrible layout managers. Yay for spending six hours just getting the basic user interface sorted out.



As you can see, IT IS GOING WELL.



Oh, LOLZ, PROGRESS.



MORE PROGRESS LULZ!

I, like my fine counterpart wormlover have neglected the old LJ for some too long. Taking a leaf from Dave's book, lets bring it back, OLD SKOOL, with a meme!

Put your music player of choice on shuffle, and then write down the 25 songs that come up and at the end of each title add 'In My Pants'. Bold the ones that work the best. Laugh hysterically. Pass it on.

Better Things in my pants
Kage in my pants
Fable in my pants
It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year in my pants
She's So Fine in my pants
Kabalevsky (Gallop) in my pants
Song for a Friend in my pants
When the World Ends in my pants
Inside Out in my pants
This Is Not a Love Song in my pants
Never Enough in my pants
Electricity in my pants
She's Always a Woman in my pants
Just Tonight in my pants
Gigantes III in my pants
Blood In Three Flavours in my pants
Tubular Bells, Part 1 in my pants
She's Only 18 in my pants
Halfway to the Bottom in my pants
Age of the Dragon in my pants
Kung Fu Fighting in my pants
Let it Happen in my pants
Mr. Jones in my pants
Oceanic 815 in my pants
Life, in a nutshell in my pants

Never got around to the whole "Four Down, Zero To Go" post, so that will come later... at some unexpected date. Last night when I finally got to sleep, I set my alarm for 9am, but this morning I snoozed after snoozing so many times that I didn't actually get up until after 10, and therefore wasn't up (and dressed/ready etc) until 10.30. This was somewhat panicky because I had a lecture at 11... but ONOZ, pwnd myself something good. Just checked my timetable two minutes before I was heading off, and it says 12. Dayuuum.

Over the weekend, me and Han made some brownies, delicious they were! *munch* We also saw The Bucket List on Saturday, and throughout the entire weekend, I was - involuntarily - making horrible slurping noises. Last Thursday on my subsequent Dentist visit, I regaled the dentist of my story of woe about my constant tooth pain, and she said "Yo' foo' you be trippin'! That tooth gotta get outta' there somethin' fast!" She proceed to stick her weird tools in my mouth and rip that "sucka'" out.

Unfortunately, my dentist isn't Mr T (but that would be freaking amazing). The experience, all in all, was freaking bizarre. First the needles - ugh, I hate needles. First one on the top wasn't so bad, but it makes me cringe to think about that sharp thing going in my mouth and then feeling it prick in to my gums - my hands clammed up around the arm rests. The next one was similar, just to the right of the broken tooth. Also, pretty bad, but bearable. The last went underneath my gums, and was l'horriblé! I cannot put words to describe the horrible, combined feelings of "I hate needles" and "Oh my god, that hurts". Sixty seconds later, my mouth felt about the size of a football, so I took that as a good sign I was number than a nun.

The "extraction" was the weird bit - taking about 5-10 minutes (I was not counting). Even though I had some pretty damn strong anaesthetics, I could feel everything. No pain, I could just feel the tooth being removed. And she wiggled it, and struggled at it, and yanked it and she pulled at it over and over. All the time, noises in my ear were going CRACK CRACK CRACK.

Then I suddenly felt a big gush, and it was... out already. And then I chewed on some cotton wool for a few minutes to stop the bleeding. It stopped, but of course the minute I stepped outside, it started again, and by the time I was home, blood was seeping out of my mouth all over the place. Induced drowsiness from the needles and the fact I had a tooth removed made me just want to sleep for forty hours. Lectures were all "Othry, aye 'ad my 'ooth 'aken out" but Friday was pretty crap, with a meeting with our group's client meaning lots of speaking.

Still, several days down the line, I'm sick and tired of the hot salt-water mouthwashes (bleaurgh!) and the constant slurping of surplus saliva, but its starting to kick in, hopefully the weird feelings and pain will reside and the gum will heal over.

Decadency!

So I'm not continuing the pattern, but I'll get back to that come Monday evening, but I'm so bored and angry right now, so I gotta get myself something to do that doesn't make matters worse. This morning has unfortunately started off terribly, I woke up to agonising tooth pain, the very same tooth pain from a month or two back. It seems that my broken tooth's temp. filling falling out probably has a lot to do with it. I'm not sure yet whether to go back to dentists on "emergency" but will consider it if this pain sticks around. My shower got cut short when I had one hell of a nosebleed all over the place, and had to force myself to be lent over the sink grabbing my nose for about 10 minutes, still dripping wet and naked. Then when I finally got that sorted, it was 8am, and from then on in for the next 10 hours, the man from DHL should come.

Typically the last couple of times he's been to Sheffield he's been here at 8.37 and 9.22 respectively, and so I presumed a similar time was to be expected, and thus would be able to go see Cloverfield at 11 today. But no, he keeps me hanging on and on. I wasted the entire morning pretty much rushing to and from my room whenever I heard the sound of a truck outside, which is bloody fricking often because of all the construction going on around here. By 10.40, he still hasn't arrived and I've given up hopes of going and resorted to a plethora of curses. He finally arrives at 11.30, and now I'm so pissed off and in pain, and I just can't get on with any work. The Nurofen helped for all of 5 minutes, before the pain swiftly returned. ARGHASDHADHADasas.lsdfzsd\szdg.

On a lighter note, Lost was awesome, and the latest episode of Bleach was pretty good. And frick I've got an exam. And OUCH freaking OUCH. Oh, and now I do have a headache. Goodbye computer.

Got back from my third exam about 30 minutes ago, and all confidence I had in the rest of my exams has suddenly diminished. The exam itself wasn't so hard, but I fucked up on one question, and it completely threw me off. Question 1 was simple, on Prolog programming, but although I think I answered them exactly as he wanted, I made loads of small mistakes. Looking at the other three questions, of which I had to pick two more to do, the fourth was the most promising, being on proofs, which I can easily handle. Question 2 was on Test and Generate, and Question 3 was on Search State Representation. I thought other than 4, 2 looked the easiest, so I started this one, got half way through it and on to part B, when I suddenly realised, I could not do the question at all. My mind blanked, and I could not answer it. And it completely knocked me off course for the rest of the exam. I left a page and a half blank, and did Question 4, which was easily handled, but having just mucked up the previous one, I wasn't any where near as confident. Then I went back to look at Q2, and still couldn't do it, so decided to do Q3. Which I couldn't do either, for some reason. The first part, I guessed at as much as I could do, the next two parts were easier, but I was starting to forget everything. I finally get to part D, and I've run out of space before my Q4 answers begin. So I've had to end up attaching my answer to part D on to the end of Q4. I finished 30 seconds before the announcer called for the exam to finish, and I don't feel too good about it at all.

I woke up this morning with some backache that I presumed would soon disappear. When I went out to the exam, not knowing exactly where I was going, the cold really got to me, and made my backache a lot worse. Arriving at the Philadelphia Center, well, it wasn't anything like the name sounds, it was pretty much just a warehouse! And on leaving, the cold had really got up. Since I had already decided I would walk home (rather than tram back), I set off in a vague direction I knew had to be some sort of way home. It had gotten so cold by then that my back was in agony, and by the time I got home, I could barely stand it.

And, whoopy-freaking-do, it still fricking hurts!

I just got back from my exam, leaving almost 30 minutes early due to boredom, hunger, completeness and desire to see if DHL, who being the annoying people they are, have delivered my package. Of course, they came just after I had left, at 8.38am, (I left at about 8.15am for my exam) and thus, with no one else being up, my instructions I left to hand over my parcel (with a faulty TV tuner card) and receive their parcel (with a hopefully working TV tuner card) went on silent ears. Which is annoying, in the way only DHL seem to be. Although I do have to hand it to them, their re-delivery system is quick and painless, and hopefully it'll come tomorrow. I was planning on spending all day in the house in a last dash attempt to do some revision, so hopefully, I can hear from them! And maybe, just maybe, if all goes to plan, I'll get my hopefully working TV tuner card.

Regardless to say, the exam today wasn't too awful. I got the usual uneasiness when I saw people leaving 45 minutes in (but seriously, I don't understand how they did it and had a chance to check and correct so quickly) but it wasn't too bad. It was slightly different from every other exam in the fact it had FIVE possible questions (with three to do) rather than the usual FOUR. Which, I guess, is also a nice advantage. That on top of the topic being pretty much self-explanatory.

The first question was on keys, so squat easy. The second question was on relational algebra, and although it looked easy, it had something about "explaining the rules" of it - and I didn't know what exactly I was expected to put for that, so I skipped it and went on to 3. Which was about indices, what they were, what were the best ones for the given scenario, and then adding a new item to a B-Tree (which was fairly difficult, but with paper & pencil, I worked out). The final question 5 had what looked like a super piss-easy "what would this table look like if it were XML" question for 20%, but the others were "Advantages/Disadvantages" of relational over object-oriented and XML, and I thought, naw, forget it, yo' homes to Bel Air! I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8, And I yelled to the cabbie, yo' homes smell ya later' I looked at my kingdom, I was finally there, to sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air!

SO.... instead I decided to do question 4 - explaining why SQL wasn't strictly relational, examples of GROUP BY and HAVING, and then three fairly okay SQL queries to create. All in all, didn't seem so bad. My pen, as always, was the worst of it all! Constantly blotting all over my hands, and my face, and my ruler and UGH.

Still, two down, two to go.