Caffeine! Caffeine! Exam! Wandering! Poi! Yay!
Well, the exam went alright.
I went in a little early, swung by Tesco in the hope of picking up a can or two of Relentless (Red Bull knock-off that comes in pint cans) ... but they didn't have any, let alone any nicely chilled like Sainsbury's does (but, of course, you pay almost 20% extra for the refridgeration -.-) What they did have, however, was 'Kick': looks vaguely like Red Bull, tastes like Red Bull, has a similar effect to Red Bull, costs a quarter of the price. I took this as an invitation to buy and consume four times the amount (on top of my two double-strength coffees in the morning...) Possibly a bad idea: the combination of tiredness, caffeine and exam concentration made me feel pretty light-headed by the time I left the exam hall. Not to mention being absolutely bursting from all the caffeine. That said, it did make me feel pretty damn sharp - not bad for about three hours' proper sleep and a couple of hours of interrupted dozing.
The exam itself wasn't too bad: some theory I wasn't too clear on, but I managed to guess most of the bits I didn't know. There was one bit which was a six-mark question part, but my answer only looked like a two-mark answer - I have no idea what was actually expected. I'd studied AI fairly closely for the practise test a few weeks back, which really paid off: it freed up a lot of time to study Distributed Systems, which I have on Friday.
After the exam, nobody was about - in fact, the Uni was absolutely dead. I remembered my 'take more videos' resolution, and did some tests: turns out the firmware patch for my phone actually both improved the video resolution, and enabled unlimited-length videos. So I wandered around with my phone for about half an hour, walking around the campus and visiting the various places I'd frequented during Uni. Unfortunately, all the lecture rooms were shut, so I didn't get a peek inside those.
I did, however, wander around the Union and into the Annexe. I pressed my camera up to the frosted glass door of the MSA to see if I could get a vague impression of the interior - I don't have any photos from when SURGe used to play there - and was rather surprised when someone opened the door in front of me. I ended up having a friendly chat, and getting to wander around and video the inside of the MSA, which was rather nostalgic (it was only a couple of years ago, but it feels like forever.)
My video tour ended up taking me through the John Street arch and down onto the Trongate. I put the phone away, since it was rather busier, and sort of gravitated towards St Enoch Square. There was a large bus there with a massive Muller logo on the side, and they were giving away free Mullerrice - two per person. So I sat in a gorgeously sunny St Enoch Square and ate my Mullerrice, which was rather awesome. Had a fish supper after that - the fish was nice, but I haven't had a supper for ages, and my stomach's no longer used to that much grease.
Just before heading home, I popped into Borders and picked up Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things in paperback. I kinda wish I'd bought the hardback now - it was really pretty. However, the book is still very good regardless of its format.
I mentioned poi a couple of entries back. Well, Mike mentioned that he'd made his own. So, not to be outdone, I decided I needed my own set. However, I didn't have any tennis balls, so I was forced to improvise with what I had: a needle and thread, some string, rice, plastic bags and several feet of extremely furry purple fabric. I'm now the proud owner of two purple furry poi - possibly the gayest poi in existance.
They need a lot of tuning before they're really useful - turns out that an amount of rice that feels good tossed about in a little bag is actually far too heavy when it's swung around on the end of a string. Also, the strings I'm using really dig into my hands. At some point I'll get around to making proper cloth handles for them. However, I tested them out in the back yard, and I can do a nice three-beat weave without them bursting or flying off the string (except when the string slipped off my finger, leading to one of the poi having a brief flight of freedom before getting lost on a bush.) However, they don't hurt too much when I hit myself with them, which is nice.
Oh, because I didn't mention it earlier: I uploaded the Genesis drum sample I was working from here. In the actual song it's pitch-shifted one semi down (to make it easier to track to: the original is in D flat, so I re-pitched it to C) and as a side-effect slowed to 82.35bpm. It's also been put through a Scream distortion unit (god, I love those) for some extra punch, the bassline's been doubled using a synth bass (again, extra punch, plus it allows me to do bass-only breakdowns) and I also separately sampled just the snare and hat to use for fills and for the build-up to the outro, where the snare/hat are doubled for even more emphasis.
I went in a little early, swung by Tesco in the hope of picking up a can or two of Relentless (Red Bull knock-off that comes in pint cans) ... but they didn't have any, let alone any nicely chilled like Sainsbury's does (but, of course, you pay almost 20% extra for the refridgeration -.-) What they did have, however, was 'Kick': looks vaguely like Red Bull, tastes like Red Bull, has a similar effect to Red Bull, costs a quarter of the price. I took this as an invitation to buy and consume four times the amount (on top of my two double-strength coffees in the morning...) Possibly a bad idea: the combination of tiredness, caffeine and exam concentration made me feel pretty light-headed by the time I left the exam hall. Not to mention being absolutely bursting from all the caffeine. That said, it did make me feel pretty damn sharp - not bad for about three hours' proper sleep and a couple of hours of interrupted dozing.
The exam itself wasn't too bad: some theory I wasn't too clear on, but I managed to guess most of the bits I didn't know. There was one bit which was a six-mark question part, but my answer only looked like a two-mark answer - I have no idea what was actually expected. I'd studied AI fairly closely for the practise test a few weeks back, which really paid off: it freed up a lot of time to study Distributed Systems, which I have on Friday.
After the exam, nobody was about - in fact, the Uni was absolutely dead. I remembered my 'take more videos' resolution, and did some tests: turns out the firmware patch for my phone actually both improved the video resolution, and enabled unlimited-length videos. So I wandered around with my phone for about half an hour, walking around the campus and visiting the various places I'd frequented during Uni. Unfortunately, all the lecture rooms were shut, so I didn't get a peek inside those.
I did, however, wander around the Union and into the Annexe. I pressed my camera up to the frosted glass door of the MSA to see if I could get a vague impression of the interior - I don't have any photos from when SURGe used to play there - and was rather surprised when someone opened the door in front of me. I ended up having a friendly chat, and getting to wander around and video the inside of the MSA, which was rather nostalgic (it was only a couple of years ago, but it feels like forever.)
My video tour ended up taking me through the John Street arch and down onto the Trongate. I put the phone away, since it was rather busier, and sort of gravitated towards St Enoch Square. There was a large bus there with a massive Muller logo on the side, and they were giving away free Mullerrice - two per person. So I sat in a gorgeously sunny St Enoch Square and ate my Mullerrice, which was rather awesome. Had a fish supper after that - the fish was nice, but I haven't had a supper for ages, and my stomach's no longer used to that much grease.
Just before heading home, I popped into Borders and picked up Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things in paperback. I kinda wish I'd bought the hardback now - it was really pretty. However, the book is still very good regardless of its format.
I mentioned poi a couple of entries back. Well, Mike mentioned that he'd made his own. So, not to be outdone, I decided I needed my own set. However, I didn't have any tennis balls, so I was forced to improvise with what I had: a needle and thread, some string, rice, plastic bags and several feet of extremely furry purple fabric. I'm now the proud owner of two purple furry poi - possibly the gayest poi in existance.
They need a lot of tuning before they're really useful - turns out that an amount of rice that feels good tossed about in a little bag is actually far too heavy when it's swung around on the end of a string. Also, the strings I'm using really dig into my hands. At some point I'll get around to making proper cloth handles for them. However, I tested them out in the back yard, and I can do a nice three-beat weave without them bursting or flying off the string (except when the string slipped off my finger, leading to one of the poi having a brief flight of freedom before getting lost on a bush.) However, they don't hurt too much when I hit myself with them, which is nice.
Oh, because I didn't mention it earlier: I uploaded the Genesis drum sample I was working from here. In the actual song it's pitch-shifted one semi down (to make it easier to track to: the original is in D flat, so I re-pitched it to C) and as a side-effect slowed to 82.35bpm. It's also been put through a Scream distortion unit (god, I love those) for some extra punch, the bassline's been doubled using a synth bass (again, extra punch, plus it allows me to do bass-only breakdowns) and I also separately sampled just the snare and hat to use for fills and for the build-up to the outro, where the snare/hat are doubled for even more emphasis.