Archive for October, 2008

So, I’ve been at the glorious university that is Imperial College London for just over a week now, and I have to say that I’m in love with the place.

For a start, the location is absolutely beautiful. The campus is slap bang in the middle of South Kensington, one of the most affluent areas of London, a stone’s throw from such attractions as the Natural History Museum, Science Museum and the famous Hyde Park. My halls are located in Chelsea, which is possibly even more affluent than Kensington, and it really shows. As I’m sure you will know, I am a petrolhead, and as a result I have a love for fine automobiles, but living here is making me start to feel almost saturated by them. If you’ve ever visited the Vatican, you’ll be able to draw a parallel here - there’s only so much fine art you can see before you stop noticing it. Looking out of my bedroom window, the cheapest car I can see is a Mercedes A Class; on a typical walk from here to campus I normally pass 2 Audi RS4s, a brand new Jaguar XKR and at least one Aston Martin DB9.

I’ve only had a couple of lectures so far, but I’ve been amazed by the quality of the teaching here. The lecturer I’ve seen so far is Tony Fields - a man who genuinely loves his subject and delivers his content in a lively and exciting way, and somehow manages to keep everyone interested despite the skill range of his audience reaching from ‘What’s programming?’ to ‘I have run my own software company’.

The main thing that’s struck me about this place though, is that it is incredibly refreshing to be surrounded by people who have a genuine passion for what they are studying, have a thirst for knowledge, and are interested to know what interests you - basically geeks - and it means that I’ve found a place that I can call my home.

Still, for some reason I can’t sleep at night. I don’t know whether it’s because I’m trying to get this summer out of my system still, or if I subconsciously miss my parents/friends, or if there’s something wrong with my health. It could be all of these things, or none of them, but what I do know is that I need to sort it out soon before it affects my study - I can’t keep relying on exhaustion to send me off at night. Right now it’s 3:45am, and I don’t even remotely feel like sleeping, yet I have a lecture at 9am.

In other news, the Scottish judicial system has decided in its infinite wisdom that a guilty plea and a means assessment isn’t enough to reach a verdict as to how sodomized I’m going to get by it’s long, hard dick. So, I have been summoned once more to Peebles court. If I can’t get the case transferred to a local court, then I’m going to have to somehow get from London to Scotland ready for 10am on Wednesday the 22nd, following a 6pm finish at university the previous evening.

I know I’ve written this post hundreds of times before, but time I’ve actually put my plans into action. About 5 minutes ago, I started working on a new version of my website which promises to be cleaner and better suited to my needs.

Given the new amounts of free time I’ve acquired as a result of starting at uni, I actually believe I stand a chance of finishing it this time. The downside is that I do need to design a new skin, and write a shit load of code, but I’m prepared to do all of that.

The whole thing is an exercise in abstraction and good, clean code writing. If you have any suggestions as to what I should include on the site, please let me know.

Watch this space!

(001) on 03 August 2008 on the A702 Edinburgh - Biggar road, at a part thereof near Medwyn Mains, Scottish Borders being a length of single carriageway road, you James Edward O’Brien did drive a motor vehicle, namely motor car registered number **05 *** at a speed exceeding 60 miles per hour, namely 118.09 miles per hour; CONTRARY to the 70 miles per hour, 60 miles per hour and 50 miles per hour (Temporary Speed Limit) Order 1977 Paragraph 3(b); the 70 miles per hour, 60 miles per hour and 50 miles per hour (Temporary Speed Limit) (Continuation) Order 1978 and the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 Sections 88 and 89.