A new post is coming, I've just been quite busy

But I'll catch up this last week or so pretty soon.

So have a dance and check back in a bit..



If you want the full experience, go to the actual clip and click "watch in HD" for a rockin' time.

COGS LAN (except I'm not going to write about that)

So last Saturday was a fairly large (20-something people) LAN party held at the student union through the computer gaming society. I participated, and it was grand. I think that there will be a big PVK II following for the next one, as that game rules.
Here is what it looks like (about half the room):


But, I lost interest in this as a topic after I received a package in the mail. Luke, my flatmate, let me know that I had a parcel, and I was confused. I wasn't sure who even knew my address. So I opened it and here's what I found:


It's a U of A bear with HUG ME written on the front from the 2008 Japanese exchange students at the U of A. Today was a horrible day for homework, but this lightened up my spirit and continues to make me smile. I take its advice regularly:


So Megumi, Sachi, Mizuho, Yurika, Tetsuya, Yuki, Yoshiki, and Aki, Thank you for lovely gift.

A new favorite

This Wednesday (today) I went to the Climbing Academy. While it lacked a home-grown feel to it that LCP radiates, it was new, clean, and extremely varied in routs available (with small variation in hold types...most were from the same company and had the same feel between beginner and advanced). Here are a few pics:







Btw...Chris Sharma is giving a lecture there next week or so. I'm not sure I'm up for paying £20 to see him, but it could be entertaining.

This was just too cool

Oren Lavie - Her Morning Elegance
Uploaded by IgnitionVM

That's Life

Here's a little music for you while reading (video unimportant...also, the uploader disabled embedding, I'm deeply sorry).

Whoops...need to go wash clothes...there are 2 washers for 120+ people so you have to sign up a day in advance (and my time is in 10 minutes).

Ok. Where was I? Ah yes, the Alkaline Trio. The music itself wasn't bad, but the crowd dynamics really made the concert quite fun. We had front-rail spots on the 2nd floor. With an amazing view of the stage and no sweaty punk kids pushing me everywhere, I could enjoy the concert and the flow the crowd. It was packed indeed:


Some of the little brats were shifting 2m at a time, and nobody stood still (except the crammed ones at the very front).

On another note, here are my roommates (or at least the ones that I talk to on a regular basis...one other never talks to anyone and the other isn't around much):


Left to Right on Computers: Mike, Serena, Luke. Turned around: Francesca

Finally...CURRY!


I'll leave with that sitting with you (or going through you as you sit)..

That was a crappy joke.

The Horror, the horror...

...of a little snow. It's mostly slush by now outside, but it was enough to scare my AFTERNOON classes to be canceled, but not my morning ones (hear growl and see sad face here).

Song(s) of the day can be found in the zip file here. The primary song of the day is "Swan Together." Next is "When will my cheated heart." Give them a listen. The rest of the CD isn't that bad either. This is free mash-up.

So I walked through a seedier section of town on my way home from climbing in a cathedral (har har be jealous you cathedral-less yanks) and saw some people who were almost gangster-esque. However, there's this aura of being English that surrounds many of them which makes them less scary than their American counterparts (also here you don't get shot, you get stabbed, so their range is limited to an arms length [I know the article is a bit old indeed, but you get the picture...and it's worse now]). I asked my roomies about this phenomenon and they pointed me to the term "chav." I found it on Wikipedia and encyclopedia dramatica (WARNING TO ADULTS/UPTIGHT PEOPLE: encyclopedia dramatica is a very perverse site. It is Wikipedia without moderators run by racist nerds. If you are easily offended, do not follow that link. Also, if you do follow that link and are a first-time visitor, don't click ANY links on the web page. Simply read the article and close the window. I cannot vouch for anything outside of the article). I thought the chav concept was interesting (and sadly a little funny). I know knife wounds aren't funny, but blinged-out cracked-out white British posers with knives are.

Just wear Kevlar when you walk at night.

Bristol Climbing Centre

So I thought I'd post a little video of the climbing centre I went to last week.

Pretty cool stuff for being inside a cathedral.

OMG SNOW...and other things

Pre-PS: Play the song at the bottom while you read. It's the song of the day..."I Wonder" by Aretha Franklin.

Well..It's been a while (if you measure "time" by what's happened in the past week). I'll try, in the next string of characters, to give you somewhat of an account of my life here in Bristol.

How should I start? How about with Winky? I like cooking for myself. It's cheap and never dull. I've had many sandwiches, as well as some crazy cheap mashed potato/tuna/corn/cheese mess that was pretty clutch. Well I'm tired of talking about Winky (Winkworth). It's a fun close play to live from campus.

Here's a little of the places I go.


So I'm been asked to describe the classes I'm taking in a little detail. So here goes the cake and the pudding (without the sauce)..

1. Database. Dr. Julian Gough. 3rd Year Computer Science. This class is pretty cool so far. We get to use the Superfamily database that he created. It's a lot of fun. I'll learning MySQL and Oracle and general database theory in the class. It looks like it'll have a manageable workload.

2. Computational Complexity. Dr. Richard Jozsa. 3rd Year Computer Science. This class gives my mind a titty-twister, if that's possible. It's about expressing everything in a turing-machine-like environment and assessing how hard all of the problems are. This is an epic class and the professor is happy to no end. This is my wildcard class in terms of difficulty.

3. Symbols, Patterns, and Signals. Dr. Andrew Calway (my favorite professor...seems like a genius of a man just by having some one-on-one time with him). 2nd Year Computer Science. I get to learn Matlab in this class...Can you believe it? It looks pretty interesting. We'll be learning how face-recognition works and how to test for likeness between photos and the theory behind other means of data comparison.

4. Intro to Philosophy. A bunch of professors. 1st Year Philosophy I'm going to record one of these and put them online. This is some interesting stuff. Right now we're on ethics and metaethics. Not much practical use, but it is interesting wrapping your mind around well-argued falsities. The work load will be minimal here. 1st Year classes are centered around giving the students time to drink rather than study it seems.

I'll also insert a few pictures.

Here's my house:



Here's Park Row, a big hill:



Here's a cathedral about 100 yards from my house: