Blog: The Life Of A Supreme Ruler

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— orudge @ 29/09/2005 9:30 pm

Well, what a week… what a week. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything quite like it.

For those who don’t know, I am now a student at the University of St Andrews, studying Computer Science with French, although this semester I’m taking modules in Computer Science (CS1002), Discrete Mathematics for Comp Sci (CS1010), Management (MT1001) and Philosophy (PY1001). I’m living in Albany Park, which is a 1970s concrete park with rather small rooms, but on the plus side there’s a nice community and it’s cheap! On the downside again though, it’s a long way from Albany to my lectures on the North Haugh, which is conveniently located on the other side of town. However, my purchase of a bicycle today should make that less of a problem. 🙂

Now then… what have I been doing? Those who do not wish to know/should not know what I’ve been doing, look away now. Hm, well, Saturday 17th was the day I arrived. We (Dad and I) set off at around 5.30am, and got in St Andrews around 11am, which was ahead of schedule, I think. On the journey, I got a phone call from Tom telling me I’d managed to leave one of my bags – conveniently the one which contained most of my clothes – at home… oh dear. We got to St Andrews, anyway, and managed to find Albany Park. Rather nervously, I look for the office, collect my keys, and we try to find house 22. The house numbering scheme in Albany is totally illogical, by the way. Unload my huge pile of stuff into my rather small room, and basically abandon everything and head for the welcome tent. We were one of the first people there, and I was there issued with a huge pile of bumf – leaflets, handbooks, flyers, free sweets, you name it. Dad had a cup of tea before heading back down south and I had, well, a drink, and spoke with the committee who were there welcoming us. Other freshers arrived, random discussions were had, more drink was drunk, and everyone was merry. That evening we had a pub crawl where we went around a few random pubs – I honestly can’t remember which, not due to being drunk but simply because so much has happened – and finally we ended up in the union, where I met many of the sinner lot – Duncan, Richard, Douglas, Rachel, Jen, Steve, Will, etc, etc. Much fun. Ooh, yes, now I remember. Ended up in the bop after that with Will, Rachel and Douglas, and it was actually really fun. For those who don’t know, the bop is basically the closest thing St Andrews has to a club I guess, and usually plays pretty cheesy music for people to rave around to. Not something I thought would really be my thing, but it was good. 🙂 Ended up stumbling back to Albany – ooh, yes, I remember now, haha, I won’t tell that story just now – and getting to bed. Of course, I hadn’t quite made it to Woolworths to buy a duvet cover, pillowcase, sheets and so on by then, so it wasn’t the most comfortable night, but I managed to get to sleep pretty quickly.

The next morning – after getting to sleep at around 3am, I was woken – oh, wait, no, this was the Monday. Oh well, woke up at some time or other, and did… something. Can’t really remember. Went out shopping with a couple of my housemates, I think. Did some random stuff anyway, vaguely sorted out some things, and ended up on the Albany three-legged pub crawl in the evening. My partner unstuck us a couple of times, meaning Caroline and/or Chris had to come back and tape us up again, but it was all fun, and after the 2nd pub I think most people were unstuck anyway! Ended up in the Vic I think where I bumped into Jo, a girl from Orkney who I knew who started at St Andrews last year – and had a good chat to her. Then, I ended up in the union again for the Sara Cox event in Venue 1, where I met with Ann (my academic mum, THE mama smurf!), Emma (my aunty) and Bobbie (my uncle). It was a while before Sara actually came on – until then, Graeme (Ann’s boyfriend and DJ Convener in the union) was getting the crowd going, and it was actually a bit of a let-down when she came on. But, she got better (apparently it was her first live show in ages, and she didn’t know how the equipment worked!), and it was generally a good night. 🙂 At the end of this night, we ended up back at Ann’s house, I think (also conveniently located on the other side of town, vaguely at least), had some fun there meeting more of my extensive academic family, and then back to Albany, where my bed was slightly better, but still not properly made. Went to sleep, had a bit of a weird dream IIRC, and all was fine…

… until 7.30am or so when my brother phoned me up to tell me about the stuff I’d forgot and that Dad was posting it up, and so on. In fairness, Tom had his navy interview that morning, which explains why he was up that early, but I could have done without the early wake-up call… Oh, yes, of course, Dad had tried to phone me the previous night in the bop – if you’ve ever been to the bop, you’ll realise why that didn’t quite work. He probably wouldn’t have heard much that made any sense. Ehm, yes, so… Monday. *consults text messages and orientation guide* Oh yes, there was the Campus Moviefest thing in the afternoon, that was good fun, a number of us hope to take part in that if it happens this year. I must have ended up in the union again that night… ah, yes, that was the hypnotist! Oh, indeed, I remember now. I was happily playing away here on the Internet, when there was a knock at the door and I was invaded and taken away by Steve, Duncan, Richard and Anne, my very nice academic sister from Canada. Ended up at Duncan’s house, randomness ensued, then Duncan and I went off to the hypnotist. We met up with Kat (another of my sisters, this time from the USA) and went in, and it was a very good night. The hypnotist was Chris James, and it was an enjoyable affair – Kat was hypnotised, and it was very fun night, and got me rather intrigued and interested in hypnosis, something I’ve not followed up on yet, but maybe one day… after that, I don’t really know what happened. Oh yes I do! Randomly bumped into Lyndon, who was in some of my classes at KGS – I’d forgotten that he was going to St Andrews, actually. So I decided to go to Ann’s house – the gathering there was this night, not Sunday night, and take Lyndon with me. Lyndon was soon adopted by Ann, and a generally good night was had by all, at least until Ben (I think?) locked himself in the toilet claiming to be fine, but wasn’t really. Dot dot dot, etc, everything ended up OK, walked back to Albany (it’s a long way!), the end.

Woke up the next morning to subject talks or something, or a welcome from the principal, or something of the sort. It was fine enough, anyway (except what was up with that lion? It seems to be a regular feature, but nobody knows quite why…) This is Tuesday, by the way. Just so I can keep things in track. Can’t really remember what I did during the day, but I passed the time somehow. That night it was the Gatty (Albany) pub quiz, and we didn’t quite win, but it was fun anyway. Our team didn’t do too badly at least! Then met up with someone – Melissa possibly, who was someone I met who’s staying here at Albany, and eventually ended up in the Union, where I finally met Sarah (Smiles) and had a generally very enjoyable night. Also met many random people in the union – Ann, Jazz, and probably others. We all ended up back at Duncan’s, where I appeared to consume rather a lot of liquid of an intoxicating nature, not helped by Duncan (my academic dad, by the way). In the end, Caroline and Lee(?) walked me back home, and that was all good and nice. I had to then get up earlyish – well, maybe about lunchtime, thinking about it – to be advised, and matriculate. I matriculated before most people, so there were no long queues that everyone had warned me of. 🙂 That night was the comedy night I had planned to go to, but instead I ended up going to the debate with Sarah and some of her housemates – “This House Believes An Arts Degree Is A Waste Of Time”. In the end, the popular vote was for the opposition, but it was a good debate and I enjoyed it. I then went to the union, intending to go to the comedy, but it had sold out. Met up with Eleanor there, had a brief chat, before I went off and finally had that early night I’d been planning on having for days… well, earlyish, at least.

Thursday, Thursday. The week seemed to go so quickly! Ah, yes, I remember now. I won’t go into very much detail on this day. Basically, met up with Sarah that afternoon and went over to Fife Park to meet her housemates, and generally had a lot of fun there. There was a barbeque happening over there, so I helped myself to some free food and drink. 🙂 A bit too much of the latter, perhaps. Anyway, had much fun, sent a text message to someone I didn’t mean to, things happened that weren’t meant to happen, blah, blah, etc, etc, don’t ask, ended up at the union again briefly, before making my way – a bit late – to Ann’s magic-themed birthday party. Had more fun there, met more family and other random people, slept, woke up, found my jumper had disappeared (still don’t know what happened to that!), went back to Albany, and… whatever happened next. It all seems so far away, somehow. This week too has gone very quickly, but I’ll get to that in another 20 pages or so time. Friday now, anyway, and Friday night is bop night. Had a generally good night, although something happened at the end that was a bit meh, but let’s not go there again. Back home then, and that was that.

Now, after Friday came Saturday, and with that came the sports fayre, which I briefly attended and ended up putting my name down for fencing and archery. Not actually done anything with these though, yet, not had the time! Will see how things go, and there’s always the future when I’ve not got quite so much on! Met up with Rachel in the afternoon and my academic grandad on her side, and had a nice little chat. Saturday night I went to see Aberfeldy with Eleanor, who were performing in venue 1. It was a good performance too, although the guys that were on before weren’t quite so good in my opinion. Saw Douglas there too, and Rachel again, which was nice. Went back for another quietish night, which was welcoming! Sunday afternoon was the societies fayre, I put my name down for a few too many societies, including WiredSoc, The Sinner, Ents, Rogue Productions, St Andrews Radio and possibly others. More about that later. Sunday night, now that was a good night – ceilidh. Coming from Orkney, we have a lot of ceilidhs, although we just call them “dances” up there, so it was interesting to see how they did them down in St Andrews. It was generally a lot of fun, had a few random dances with random people, and then finally did the good ol’ Orcadian Strip the Willow with Rachel – the Strip the Willow (we don’t call it “Orcadian” in Orkney, funnily enough) has always been my favourite dance, so it was nice to dance it here! Went back home, and that was the end of freshers week! An absolutely insane week it was – I met so many people, forgot so many names, but it really was an absolutely brilliant week, it really was. 🙂

Monday came, and that meant enrolment for modules, and lectures! 10am was Comp Sci, got enrolled for that, and had a basic introductory lecture. That afternoon I had enrolment for Management, which was also fine enough, and Tuesday brought enrolment for Philosophy, as well as introductory lectures for CS1002 and CS1010 (the discrete maths module), and a start to work in Management. Tuesday night was “Boozeday Tuesday”, which basically means cheap drinks at the Vic. A good night was generally had with the sinner lot there, in the union, and at Duncan’s house, so that was good and nice. Getting up for 10am lectures the next day was not quite so fun, but it wasn’t impossible. That’s yesterday now, by the way. I had two lectures yesterday – none in the afternoon – so that was quite nice. That evening I had the first meeting of Ents – the group who set up all the sound, lighting and who generally run events in the union. It looks as though it should be good fun – a few of us will be behind the scenes at the bop on Saturday to see how that runs – setting up, starting everything up, the event itself, and so on. So that was good. Today, I had a couple more lectures, a comp sci practical, and a meeting of the STAR group (St Andrews Radio) – that also looks like it’ll be good fun. Oh, and I bought a bike yesterday, picked it up today, it makes things so much nicer. I had a little cycle around St Andrews tonight, means I won’t have to walk 1.6 miles each way, twice a day, to lectures alone, any more…

Hm, and that’s what’s been happening with me recently, summed up in a neat 2,400-ish words. What a long ramble. Oh well, I hope you enjoyed, please do leave a comment, and feel free to get in touch and let me know how you’re all getting on, those who I haven’t spoken to in a while.

Anything else? Nope? Oh well, I’ll check back in… sometime.

University…

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— orudge @ 18/09/2005 2:58 pm

… is good. Or at least yesterday was. Pretty mad, but good.

More in the coming days.

Magical Trevor 3!

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— orudge @ 15/09/2005 9:47 pm

Magical Trevor 3 is out, and in my opinion, it’s really not all that good compared with Magical Trevor 2, which itself wasn’t very good compared with the original and best… but oh well, thought I’d announce it here, since I announced the other two. 😉

Got my new 256MB PCI Express GeForce 6600GT graphics card today – it plays the AoE 3 demo very nicely. 🙂

Off to uni on Saturday, so I’ll update from then sometime over the next little while. It should be fun!

Updated photo gallery!

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— orudge @ 13/09/2005 5:28 pm

I’ve upgraded the photo gallery software to the brand spanking new Gallery 2.0, which has a very nice new look and is generally much nicer for me to administrate too… be sure to check it out! 🙂

Don’t forget…

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— orudge @ 09/09/2005 11:59 pm

… as reported last year, it is Talk Like A Pirate Day on September 19th, which will be the Monday of freshers week for me… should be interesting! Y’arrr! Shiver me timbers! Maybe I should go to Ann’s party as a pirate…… 😛

TTDAlter 4.3 released!

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— orudge @ 12:00 pm

TTDAlter 4.3 has finally been released! Get it from the TTDAlter page.

Updates on my life, and survey

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— orudge @ 05/09/2005 9:34 pm

I did another one of those silly e-mail forwards today, which I was just about to post when I thought I hadn’t posted anything much on here for a while. But does that mean I have nothing to say? I thought about it, and I will now start a rambling blog about recent happenings, before posting this survey thing. Right. Currently listening to the main titles of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory soundtrack – saw that film the other day, as I will explain.

Right, well, what have I been doing here in Wales-land? Went to visit my mum in mid-Wales for most of last week, that was quite good. Among other things went shopping and got some new clothes and so on for uni, which is no bad thing! Also, the weather was really nice, which was great, since it had been pretty miserable up in Orkney! Then, after that, came back home for a day, before heading off again, this time to Ann’s for her 20th on Saturday, in an exciting little town in Lancashire. Much fun was had, and various amusing/embarassing/random photos and videos were taken, which you can see in the photo gallery. (The last blog here was posted when at Ann’s, if you were wondering about it). Did see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on the Friday night, as I say… my mini-review of that: I thought it was a good film on its own, or if you hadn’t seen the earlier film or read the book, but I personally prefer the older film in many ways. (Spoilers follow) There are some nice things I liked about the new film, such as Wonka’s humour, although I’m not sure that’s how I’d imagine Wonka to be personally. The new songs are nice, but I wasn’t too keen on them. And the whole Wonka family storyline seemed a bit out of place to me. But then, I used to watch the old film every Christmas, so I’ve just seen that one too much, I think. 😉

Anyway, a very nice time was had at Ann’s, and that is basically what I’ve been up to since leaving Orkney. Having a 2Mbps ADSL connection is rather nice too, what with my brother and I having used some 45GB of bandwidth in the past 11 days… having Freeview and a digital capture card on my computer is also nice, although most of the channels are pretty uninteresting! So yes, that’s that.

More news now, I’ve got my accommodation for St Andrews back, and I’m staying in Albany Park, house 22! Albany is pretty cheap at least compared to the other halls, so more money for other stuff! The freshers guide for Albany looks pretty good too, as does the overall orientation week programme. I’m looking forward to it! 😀

Oh, and that survey… click the “more” link to view it, if you haven’t already. 🙂

(more…)

Chocolate

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— orudge @ 02/09/2005 11:15 pm