August 18, 2004
I miss that thing I used to call my hair
Been going through all my photos putting them the right way up etc so I can back them up with my lovley new DVD rewriter. I am currently onto November last year and can see my hair getting longer and longer. I miss it. Some times I still reach back to reach that tangled overgrown mass of hair and find its not there.
My hair needs a trim at the moment but I am very tempted to begin the rebirth of bad hair.... If and this is a big if, if I grow it this time I may get it trimmed here and there as then it may take some shape. Need some sort of poll wether I should grow it or not.
Posted by shendry at 11:32 PM | Comments (5)
August 02, 2004
New PC
After a long time of saying it today I brought a new PC. Below is what I brought. Cutting edge no, but a vast improvement on what I have! Hopefully compiling Java wont take ages now.
- Shuttle SN41G2 v2 250W SilentX PSU
- AMD *OEM* Athlon XP 3000 + *333 FSB* Barton (2.17 GHz)
- 2 * Samsung 512MB PC2700 DDR333 184pin Original Memory Module
- LG 8x DVD DUAL R/RW/RAM Int Ide Burner - Oem
- Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 200GB 2000JB ATA-100 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-002-WD)
Came to 542.52 with vat and p+p. Not to bad any way. Just got to wait for it to come.
Posted by shendry at 10:40 PM | Comments (1)
July 26, 2004
DVD player a little broken
I have somehow manged to break the front volume control on my DVD player (Goodmans dvd4000PKT) . It just wont turn up the volume (or down for that matter). Its not a big problem I can still control the volume from the remote but I always seem to loss that down the side of the bed, under my stack of paper etc etc. May check to see if I can get it fixed, something must of gone inside the box hopefully just a loss connection which I can fix. I enjoy taking things to bits did with the main hous DVD player see how I feel in the morniung not into work till 1.30, Joy!
Posted by shendry at 09:53 PM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2004
Pushing computers to the limit
Reading my news on bbc.co.uk and I came across the follwoing article on pushing computers to the limit. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3920311.stm
One part which stuck out to me was the part on quantum computer's. An area where I will google on when I get a spare moment (they really need to introduce a new day to the week (thinks of Futurama Commentry joke of Blernsday (the Futurama crew didnt feel they had enough time so David X Cohen (I think) introduced this to help them)).
One thing I remember being told in A Level was computing that there was a limit to how fast and and how small computers go could. The speed of light and the size of an atom. This now looks like not to be the case. Further reading is needed I think....
Posted by shendry at 10:35 PM | Comments (1)
6 a side
As another Sunday came about it was time for another trip down to Lloyds Park to play some football. Today our numbers were ok, not as big as I would of liked, 3 people I thought were coming didn't show (shame on you Donkey, Peter & Mark). This left us with Tommy, Dan, Oli, Chris and for the first time my step brother Craig. I have not played football with Craig for a long time looking at around 7 years so it was definatly the first time playing with him as my step brother.
In the end these lads chalanged us to a game. An hour and 15 minuite non stop end to end battle followed with our team WAVM UTD comming out on top. I have not played a game like that in a looong time. It was competive no doubt about that but it was clean which was good. There were was not one bad tackle in the whole game.
My fitness rate is low so I was pushed to the limit but some of the moves our team produced were fab. The way the ball ziped around we easily went into the lead. It was however like playing play ground football. It was non stop full pace action. No one really had any great time on the ball at all. I am used to playing the relaxed games we play i.e. run for the ball, get tire,d walk about for a bit or stand in defence. Chris James told us to slow the game down whcih we did and i I begain feeling alot better.
In the end we won, we scored more than them and also we scored the last goal so we coverd the alst goal win rules. I was surprised that I ended up top goal scorer for our team with 5 but that reflects the hard work my team mates put in setting me up. I would only claim that one of my goals was a true solo effort. Past two defenders on the left wing pulled into the center and tucked my shot away in the bottom right hand corner leaving the goal keep stranded. o yes! Back of the net (Spice world, Jurasic Park, Smell my cheese, Knowing me knowing you ... AHA, cashback (bonus point if people can name the show it is from)).
Craig has invited me to play 7 a side on Tuesday night in a Power League type thing, I will think about it, my body feels so much better than after Wednesdays game.
BTW Out Keepy upe record was bad today highest score at 22 a long way off our record of 55 set on Wednesday.
Posted by shendry at 10:18 PM | Comments (1)
July 19, 2004
Dumb Criminal
Woolworths does not attract the world mastermind of criminals but thiefs we do have. Today beautiful sunny day outside when I left for work at 8.30 today I was wearing a jumper and even then it was to hot. Today while moving the garden furniture from the main shop window to a 4ft bay at the back of the shop I noticed a man wearing a big puffer jacket. Well this of course seemed odd so I kept my eye on him while I was moving furniture. A new he was a little dodgy as he kept looking at me to see if I was looking at him. I saw him picked up a fan, he saw that I saw that he picked up a fan then I saw him place it back down with the other fans. When I next disappeared to the back of the shop he was gone I thought no more about it.
About ten minutes later Lyn (an older lady) said that she saw him walk out the shop with a fan past me and Matt (who was in charge for the first time today (well with me there)). I personally doubt that he walked past with me with it as I had been keeping an eye on him but the question running through my mind was, why didnt you ring the bell to get some one else there, or call out to us or something, not let him go, let 10 minuets pass by then blame us. Apparently he was called Jason and our store is taking him to court about pinching our stock.
5 mins later I was off for lunch to the chicken shop (this is so not a good diet but my body can do with putting some weight on and it is the Cheapest thing in Selesdon). Walking to 40 yards up the road guess who I saw, Jason in the puffer jacket holding a Woolworths fan in his hand. He saw me and began walking up the road (at no great pace). I caught up with him and said Can I see the receipt for the fan please?. I of course expected him to say its his fan and give me some lip, peg it, punch me etc etc. Instead he said He found it. I then took it off him and he insisted he didnt take it. I wasnt to worry got the fan back.
Now stealing is wrong but you think thiefs would have some common sense. If you pinch something take it home, stash it some where then go and get some lunch, or at least get it some where else not in a small little high street. Some people hey
Posted by shendry at 09:33 PM | Comments (1)
July 12, 2004
Sunday's Rock
I had a really nice Sunday yesterday, I did work in Woolworths which is not the best thing in the world (am getting a little fed up with it all now, just want free time to relax and get things I want to done). This eveing how ever I had thelads round :-)
I have been told while my Dad and Marion was away I was not allowed people round, o well. Meet up with AJ after work and he came down into the ghetto of Addington Village (Rob will agree with my description as we were looking at some photos of the surounding area). Nice to catch up with Andy again.
Later we were joined by Dixon (may I big up his band site www.over-ride.tk I have there album and they are very cool!), Mark, Tom and Oliver. We left my home around 7.00 and we played football till around 9.30. The normal games of 66, 3 a side and keepe upe(how do you spell that?). Set a keepe upe record of the summer at 28 (Dixon, Hendry, Chris James, Mark, Tom). During playing football Oliver left us for Chris James sporting a very nice new haircut.
When we finally returned to my house AJ left us and we proceded in wathcing numerous shows of "Have I got News for You" which we all enjoyed. Fran (little sis) also joined us. During this Chris went to get Donkey from south Croydon. Just so you remeber Chris, Donkey owes you at least 20GBP.
Kicked them all out about 30mins ago so I can some rest for work need to leave the house at 7.20 :-S Back in Oxsted for 2 days. So not going to be able to get up.
Apart from the work wish more Sundays were like this, chilling with my mates, Ashame the rest could not be there, that would be a grand game of football. A BBQ would of been good as well. Maybe having one of them at Chris's house next week. Also tonight found out that at least 3 of them read my blog :-)
Side note: HAPPY BIRTHDAY Craig(my Step brother)
Posted by shendry at 01:16 AM | Comments (1)
July 09, 2004
CMS
Last night I decided to put on hold the plan of writing my own Content Management System aka a CMS. After talking to Rob it was decided I was reinventing the wheel. I however dont think this is strictly true. I have still not found a perfect CMS yet, and I doubt I never will. Allot of CMS's do some things I want while others do the rest but none combine to do it all.
Coding my own CMS would give me exactly what I wanted (hopefully anyway) but for my first PHP venture it is probably not wise. I want numerous elements in my CMS which at this time I do not know how to code. I cant go live with a site which will not give me the basic features an all ready establish CMS will. I will still pursue making my own CMS and it will defiantly be a hobby of mine however the next incarnation of WAVM will not be using it.
I currently feel that WAVM (our group of friends from back home) is beginning to split. Since I been back I have only really seen Tommy, Donkey and Chris James properly out of the lads and Mark a few times. Girl wise all I see is Steph. Last time of counting there was I think 22 people (there may be a few more it is late). The only person I can excuse for not trying to make more of an Effort is Kyle who lives in the good old US of A. More effort is needed all round. Hopefully at some point this week I can get the lads round mine. My Dad & Marion (step Mum) are away so it just leaves Fran (younger Sister), Craig (Older step bro) and I at home. I have been banned from having people round mine mind. Only I have banned which is a little unfair I think. O well what the worst that could happen?
Little side tracked there
Anyway, the new site is hopefully going to be built using the Xaraya CMS. One of the top points for me about this CMS is that it validates to XHTML 1.0 Strict. I am into web standards at the moment so this is a big plus. Also it is built not using tables as I am again trying to move away from tabled designs.
Completely Database-Driven Site Engine (PHP-ADODB Compliant)
Extensible through a wide variety of Third Party Modules
Powerful Security Module for multi-level User/Administrator Logins
Fully editable & manageable News, Links, Downloads, and FAQ Sections
Customizable Layouts
Dynamic Forum/Poll/Voting Booth for On-The-Spot Results
News Feed Manager - Access to thousands of RSS-compliant news feeds
Banner Ad Manager - Sell & track advertising on the site
Site Statistics - Tracks Browser & Operating System, Top News & Articles, and more
Distribute workload using the Users/Administrators Manager
Easy install on most Unix/Linux and Windows Platforms
The only thing I think Xaraya lacks really is the gallery part. Apparently its not that hard to write modules so I may give it ago. Need a good script as I have several Gig of photos to upload not including other peoples.
Not writing my own CMS does free up some time so I can finish my other projects.(Not in any order)
- Plan KUCA meetings for next term, need to contact guest MP speakers etc.
- Make the KUCA website
- Make Pltuos Revolution (a band) website
- Make Jeez Cards website for Steph parents
- Finish my own site shendry.co.uk I think a little face lift and some stuff about me may be in order
- Meet up with all my other friends from back home and try and meet up with some of the uni crowd.
- Work at Woolworths to earn money for new PC and maybe new digi cam
not much then :-s
Posted by shendry at 11:43 PM | Comments (2)
July 08, 2004
Gmail invite
If anyone is intrested I have a Gmail invite going spare. If you want one give me and email and you can have it. I wonder how much they are going for on ebay....
Between $1 -$5. Not to bad for jsut sending an invite.
Posted by shendry at 02:46 PM | Comments (4)
July 07, 2004
Freedom
A very short post! No work till probably Monday! Going to be ncie to have some time to myself to get a few things done i.e. web and kuca stuff. Also I can have a lie in :-)
Posted by shendry at 11:26 PM | Comments (2)
July 06, 2004
More work
Today it has been nearly confirmed that once again I will be working next week. 20 hours in Selsdon which is my noraml store and 20 hours in Addington. Going to Addington will be the fourth store I would of worked at in 4 weeks which I think is some achievement.
Thinking it may be time to leave Woolworths I need more money really per hour and I woudlnt fancie some new training increase my skill set and all. May go cv handing out on Thursday as tomorrow is my last day in Redhill. Woudlnt mind working at Dixon's think of the discount!! (I do have commet discount at the moment (off to web site now))
Posted by shendry at 09:58 PM | Comments (0)
July 05, 2004
Up up and away
High jump hints may come in handy if I continue with Athletics when I return to UKC. Be good to get back into the old highjump not done it in a while sure I could beat my PB. Not sure what other sport to take up if I decide not to continue with athletics, Amercian Football was one idea not really the build for it.
Posted by shendry at 11:02 PM | Comments (0)
July 04, 2004
Shrek 2
Tonight I saw Shrek 2. Shrek 2 is the sequal by Dreamworks studioes of the orginal Shrek which continues where the first film left off. Shrek and his new wife Princess Fiona with Donkey in tail inbark to the Kingdom of Far Far Away to meet Fiona's parents.
It's a really good film. It would take a second viewing to judge how it would relat in terms of Shrek. I do feel that the second film was looking for more obvious jokes compared to Shrek. THe music once again was class. May invistigate looking at the soundtrack at work tomorrow.
Shrek 2 introduces a range of new cast members the most popular with the guys I went with is Puss... In boots. Cool spanish cat who kicks ass. Also a brief cameo of Dragon got worried that she would not be in it.
Heard there is going to be a Shrek 3 and Shreck 4 which is going to be a prequal. I am looking forward to them but alot of people onlien any way are worried that it will be to much.
In the end I will give this fim 4/5 and iI highly recomend it to any big kids at heart like me (yes I rock!)
Posted by shendry at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)
My poor body
Today I played football for the first time in ages we are talking a good couple of months here at least. After thinking I was having a mild heart ataclk after about 30mins I recovered and played fairly well. Felt good at the end of it managed to keep playing for just over 2 hours. There were few of us in numbers but I felt we all got a good work out. I relied on my normal game of, in doubt punt it and sprint after it. It normaly work as I am fatster than mosts or they are too lazy :-)
Must do this more often its fun. Also it will get me back in shape!
Posted by shendry at 11:17 PM | Comments (0)
July 03, 2004
Gospel Arts Concert
Tonight I went to the Albert hall for the annual Salavtion Army Gospel Arts concert.
"This year marks the 125 anniversary of Salvation Army music making and to celebrate this event The Salvation Army will recognise significant events that played a part in the movements history.
Participants include the International Staff Band, International Staff Songsters, the Household Troops Band, the Territorial Youth Band and Vocal Soloist Marjory Watson."
Its the third year in a row that I went with Steph's family and once again I had a nice time. It was also Andrews (Stephs Dad) birthday. Aparently my present for him is to make him a website. I will add it to the list :-s
Tomorrow should be a fun day I am conducting a photo shoot for Tommy and Oli band Pluto's Revoultion. We need some photos for the up coming website (once again being made by me). Also it will be the first time in ages that I will of played football.
One last thing there is the small thing of the Euro 2004 Final. Not sure who to support yet....
Posted by shendry at 11:55 PM | Comments (0)
July 02, 2004
More work
Well I thought my employement may of come to end today but I at least three days of work next week. I am working in Redhill Wollworths Monday to Wednesday 9.00 till 18.00. They are paying my travel costs which will mount to over 30 pounds over the week. Sadly I will be doing stock work again. Just got to remind myself to think of the money. They may employ me Thursday and Frifay but it depends on how we do. Do we work hard so they think yeah lets keep them. Or do we work slow and leave more work to o so they need to employ us. Answers on a postcard or in a comment!
Posted by shendry at 11:47 PM | Comments (0)
July 01, 2004
Virgin Radio
My blogging for last month was not good at all soiI will make an active effort to blog more about thing I am doing or thinking etc.
At work the week I have been listening from 9:00 till 5:30 to Virign Radio. Never really listened to it much before I have always been an X FM kind of guy. THe station is not bad at all, lots of music nota lot of chatting just what you want. Sadly they play the same songs every day. I can understand with stuff that is new or is in the chart but the play the same old songs as well.
I love Creep by Radiohead its a great song but hearing it every day devaules it. Guns N Roses are one of my top bands and they have many good songs (pinched my sisters Greatest Hits today it rocks, plenty of air guitar going on :-) ) but even I can get fed up of them i just needed a change at work.
The only album which has done anything for me recently is the new Avril Album. Yes I know I am cool. It's really good, I may think about buying it who knows....
Anyway may try and tune the radio to a diffrent station at work tomorrow, only 7 hours before I need to get up :(
Posted by shendry at 11:05 PM | Comments (0)
June 30, 2004
Life update
At the moment I am currently working so I am finding it harder to post as I am out at work and nota lo really is going on.
Currently working in Oxsted in Woolworths. It's slightly weird not being in my local store of Selsdon but its a nice change. The people are really nice but the best thing is that I am left alone to do my job. In Selsdon I find that I end up doing 99 other jobs as well as the one that I am ment to be doing. THe work however is not that exciting. I am working in the stock room which has no real natuaral light brining it up to "green standards". Which means taking verything out of boxes, poutting it in its correct department. Not a hard job except for the fact you have so much stock to fit into such a small space so you need to be creative.
Finish working in Oxsted on Friday so not sure what I will be doing after that. Hopefully I will get some more work in a different Woolworths better email my normal boss to find out if she has found anything.
My CMS is still in the planning stages I have got side tracked into making a site for Tommy and his band Pluto's Revolution. Not a big job but we have hit a big block, we have no pictures of the band. Hopefully at some point this week I can take digi cam out and take some snaps and finish off the design. This is mt first design where the outcome is not for me. It will become intresting later when Tommy has the final look on it. Fingers cross he likes it. He likes it so far :-)
Got my results in the post the other day. I got a distinction which is cool. :-) With the amount of work I did for them (which was not a lot :-s ) I am very pleased. Roll on year 2.
Posted by shendry at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2004
Eng vs Por
As you can imagine I am not in a great mood after the result. I am tired and need to leave the house at 6.20am in the morning for work but this deserves breaking my posting drought (its hard to find time to post when you are working 5 days a week, see your gf the other day and then have a day to catch up on sleep and rest).
Ok we lost on penalties. No complaints with Vassell his shot was on target and some one had to miss. No complaints with James (with the penalties). Goalies are not first choice in this situation saving is mostly down to luck. I do have complaints with Beckham. If the penalty was saved, thats fine but to miss the target is not on from some one who is famous for being a dead ball specialist.
Second thing. Never ever defend a 1-0 lead with 87 mins of match to go. Get a 2-0 lead fine 1-0 is way to risky. As we saw tonight. The best form of defense is attack.
Third thing the ref. Urs Meier is well I dont want to say what I exactly think of him now as it is less than flattering and there will be a few **** and **** you get the point. I got very hyped up for this match and may take me a while to calm down. Correct me if I am wrong (which I am not) the ref is from Switzerland, which England beat in the group stage. Surely there is a conflict of interests. Why couldnt they put a ref in which had no ties with the group matches? Also he is the biased ref I have seen. Everything went to the home team. And disallowing that goal is criminal.
I could ramble on for hours now but I wont, I need my sleep but I am not a happy boy. Tried out a new pub tonight it was nice. With some of me boys (Mark, Donkey and Tommy) and two of the girls (Steph and Kat) which was nice. I cant believe it.... Ahggggggggggggggggggggggggg!!!! (That felt good).
Backing the Swedes or the Dutch now. My second and third favorite teams in Europe by a long way. Looking forward to that match I cant lose!
Posted by shendry at 10:48 PM | Comments (1)
June 03, 2004
Morocco here I come
Well today I am off to Morocco for a week so I doubt I will be blogging at all.
First off if any one stumbles across my blog while I am away. I am looking for work. I am experienced in retail but will do pretty much anything. My attempts so far to get work are not going well. My old work cant afford to pay me wages and much as I would like to work for free I cant afford to. May on the way to the airport pop to another store where I have a tip from my old manger that they need some help. Fingers cross. Also have another possible testing job in the pipeline but not heard anything from that since the initial email asking if I can work. I can :
Looking forward to going to Morocco. I do believe its my first trip to Africa so looking forward to that. Most of all looking forward to going to the airport going to look for a new digital camera. This is the one I have in mind DSC T1 . If I can get it for sub £300 I will probably get it. If not it will have to wait.
O well this time tomorrow I will be in sunny Morocco. (Well it may rain on Saturday and Sunday so maybe not so sunny)
Posted by shendry at 11:44 PM | Comments (1)
May 30, 2004
Glad all Over:: Crystal Palace 1 vs 0 West Ham
Yesterday was a fabulous day for CPFC as they beat West Ham United 1 with Neil Shipperley's scrambled 4 yard tap in the 61st minute. Palace now around £30 million better off are once again in the big time, the Premiership. It has been six long years since we have been there but we are back.
Palace are now the only club to appear in the Premiership on four separate occasions which does fit into out image as being a yoyo club. Will we find it hard next year in the big time Yes. Will we be favorites to go down Yes.
Well done to Ian Dowie's men and hopefully over the next few weeks we will Strengthen our team for a dog fight till the end.
Posted by shendry at 01:13 PM | Comments (3)
May 27, 2004
Exams are over: Party time
At last the exams are over :-) Last two didint go to well and the last onewas by far the worse but who cares they are all over.
Got a friend from back home called Mark who is staying with me till Friday which is very call. Went out last night a bigger group then normal. There was alot of CS students at the venue. Afterwards however between 5 of us we ended up with six 12" Pizas and two 9" ones. Way to much.
Weird having free time on my hand not sure what to do... I need a job (but not just yet)
Posted by shendry at 11:05 AM | Comments (2)
May 22, 2004
Exam update number 3!
Today's exam was hit and miss. A two hour exam three questions. The database question followed the normal pattern of previous exams which is cool. Relational Algebra is nice and simple. I would like to recommend Dr Gordon Russell which was an aid in learning relational algebra and Normalization. Sadly I had forgotten what Matt had gone through with us a few weeks ago but that was ok.
Question 3 was also fine. Followed the same pattern, a little bit of creative license was used to flesh out some of my answers.
Question 2 Stunk. This was all on design, GUI, etc. Sadly the question area was very narrow which made most of this learning redundant. I have no problems having an essay question I cant answer if there are a few marks to be earned on simpler questions which covers the whole topic. This sadly was not the case. We see how it goes.
Finished this exam in 58mins so I had a nice relaxing afternoon which is cool. Sadly got to brush up on my Maths for most of tomorrow. One small thing of the FA cup final as well :-)
Posted by shendry at 01:12 AM | Comments (0)
Blogs I read: Liam
New blog added! Liam Shelley is a fellow CS student at Kent and also a future housemate of mine. Its worth a read!
Posted by shendry at 01:02 AM | Comments (1)
May 20, 2004
Exams again...
Had electronics on Wednesday and it didn't go to bad. Looking back at it one question which seemed straight forward wasn't so but won't get caught up on that I had all ready passed.
Friday brings on the CO313 exam which I have also passed. It's a mix and match course of things we should really learn so they stuck it all together and held it under the title of Information Systems.
It mixes Database, Design principles analysis etc and Information systems. The course was interesting at the time (except the DB stuff) but looking back now the course is filled with allot of information which is not really needed. There's allot of meat around the bones of it. Learning the bones would be a simple task but trying to get there evolves copious amounts of reading. Not gone through all the module in revision, really should of started before to day but hopefully I can use common sense to bluff my way through... We see how's it go.
Posted by shendry at 10:19 PM | Comments (0)
May 18, 2004
Exam Update
Had my first exam today, Java. Think it went ok. Could of been worse but then again it could of been alot nicer. Not going to take any exams paper out fot he exam hall, its far to tempting to go through what you done wrong.
Tomorrow is electronics which I am not looking foward to, but I have passed it :-D Might have to make some of it up, knew after today the exams would go down hill. I really need to start revsion and actually do some, I waste far to much time. Even when I am revsing not alot happens, o well....
Posted by shendry at 10:41 PM | Comments (0)
May 17, 2004
Glad all over: (4)Sunderland 2 vs 1 Palace(4) pen 4-5
Yes! Palace scraped through to the First Division Play off final tonight with a 5-4 win on penalties. This match completely ruined my Java revision but it was worth it. My heart hasn't had such a workout in ages.
When we(Palace) went 2-0 down just before halve time I thought we may struggled. We were all over them didn't think we had much a chance. The second halve past away and nothing. Then in the 86 min Gray was sent off. Palace down to 10 mins. Then in the 90th min Darren Powl scored, the dream was alive. Extra time past and then it was down to penalties.
It was 4-4 and Palace had the last pen and we missed :-( Sudden death. Sunderland shoot; they miss we shoot, we miss, they shoot, we score, and a yell of joy left my lips, which Kola my Nigerian housemate heard and thought was a bit strange.
This win means Palace will be in the Play Off final. I will probably leave uni before I was going to, which was June 1st but the Palace game I think is the 31st May (game in Cardiff) so would probs need to leave here on the Friday... who knows. Got to see if people would be up for going to the game. Glad Tommy is unemployed can send him down for tickets ;-)
O yeah first exam is today :-( o dear....
Posted by shendry at 11:51 PM | Comments (1)
May 16, 2004
Fun in the sun with Tom...(and some others..)
Yesterday Tommy came down from the ghetto of Croydon to watch Kent vs New Zealand in the thrilling game of Cricket. I meet up with Oliver and Tom in the evening for a bit. The main course of action was to change my NUS to have a picture of Tom on rather than mine. It just about worked. He made it into the Venue any way. I declined on going with Tom, Oliver and Andy as I wanted to get up early and revise...
Revision went down the pan today really. I managed to get most of electronics finished off but soon Tom and Oli were round again. After a good chat on deciding if WAVM is breaking up (future post I think) I convinced them to take me Asda (we had to cars for a change). We also quickly popped into town to buy a football to make the most of this lush weather.
Had a little game of football managed to Kola playing with us three along with, Mark who left his revision (and has not got back to it 5 hours later) and Greg. I am so unfit, playing in this heat was not a good idea got dehydrated felt dizzy. Must get in shape.
Seeing Tommy was Shiny (don't think that world will take off Tom but we can give it ago), right must get up tomorrow and revise, first exam is on Tuesday :-s My room is like an oven at the moment making revsion harder than it was before. Think I may flop big style... O well
Posted by shendry at 08:24 PM | Comments (1)
May 12, 2004
Our first BBQ
Today has not been a very productive day for me. Didn't feel that well for most of the day which really stopped me from learning (not revising) electronics. However through it all number 22 did manage to have it first bbq :-)
It wasn't the best bbq ever. We kind of had it penciled in for today but no one was sure if we would cancel it or not. We did proceed in the end. After having all the frozen which was a bit of a mistake we had a nice bbq, could of done with a bit more food. The next one we have will hopefully be allot better with more people, after the exams I think.
After bbq went to woodies till closing time which again was nice, not very busy got a seat. Did manage to convince a few people to get a take away :-) Large kebab and chip was good but feeling a little rough now :-S Another plus point about tonight I ended up with an extra a bottle of coke win win.
Some of the talks of the evening included, are my shoes gay (no they are not), am I a conservative shit (that a possibility), and trying to figure up what sport I should take up next year at uni, at the moment American Football is calling to me. I Imagine I could be a wide receiver, my running is pretty good. Don't think I could do athletics again. I can't do high jump at Kent and I seem to spend more time warming up then sprinting. Could always take up climbing, I do enjoy that. Who knows any ideas?
Posted by shendry at 01:07 AM | Comments (1)
May 08, 2004
Recomend a book
In just under a Month I will be going on my summer holiday to Morocco. I really should take a book to read. If anyone can recommend me a good book then leave a comment here or email me :-D. Be warned the last book I read from cover to cover was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Wouldn't mind reading a good computing book increase my understanding (It needs it).
Posted by shendry at 09:47 PM | Comments (5)
Right, Revison time
On the 18th of May I take my first of my six exams. That leaves 9 whole days of revising. So far I have done zip. That is not good. The panic reaction has also not set in yet. I have never been a reviser, a quick skim of my notes the evening before an exam is usually the best it gets. The problem is this has not failed me yet. I really don't want to rely on this technique again.
Tomorrow I am going to try and revise for as much of the day as I can. I really want to study as much of the Java as I can this is my first exam and should be one of the most straight forward. Also going to meet up with Patrick and do some Maths revision. Hopefully I will stick to this. Must get up.
On a side note I now have the Simpson's season 1,2,3 on DVD so I am not revising you can guess what I will be doing.
Posted by shendry at 09:30 PM | Comments (0)
May 07, 2004
The morning after the night before
Last night went out with a few first years and a few post grads just for a little meet which turned into an all night drink fest (not drinking of course so sober steve in effect). May I just say the post grads did an ok job of keeping up with the freshers but I do feel they were a little worse for where. I know Rob was a little drunk as when he is his voice becomes all husky. Patrick must of been wasted he refused a take away and he is the king of take away that when you know something is wrong. The others... One packed it in when we went to woodies he had the most sense of all. Another did well but departed before take away. Another was fairly gone but recovered over the take away, and he still made a fair amount of sense. The other was in a bad way, but he had not eaten and had matched every one else so he did well, don't think his girlfriend was too please with the drunken mumbles answering the questions.
Ended up rolling into bed at 4 and I have been awake since around 8:30 and I just want to share with all those guys I feel great :-) I am not even tired :-)
Off to a Java class now. Got to tidy my room later (imagine a bomb hitting it then add some). Also need to prepare for our BBQ tonight weather looks good so far.
Posted by shendry at 08:38 AM | Comments (1)
May 05, 2004
Conservative Future
This evening I meet up with James Taghdissian who is Kent Conservative Future (CF) Chairman and newly appointed local area leader James. It's the second time I have meet Mr. Taghdissian he did find it hard to recognize me without my medium length hair (I refuse to call it long). It was an informal chat but It was good to meet up with these guys. Any help/ support I can get with running the Kent University Conservative Association (KUCA) the better. One plan for this term is to try and have a BBQ for the local CF area. James is planning on coming to KUCA on Monday to Introduce himself and she what the member base wants.
James seems a good bloke and sure I will be able to work well with him just hope Freshers fair goes well and we get our Membership up. Paid membership is good however the amount of members who turn out is not so good. Think we lost allot of people at the start of the year before we had a full time chairman. Hope I can do a better job. Time to fire off some emails to let people know that Monday is an important meeting. Need to get a fresher fair crew together. Must meet up with Oliver to see what he thinks not seen him in a while which is weird. Hopefully Kent CF and KUCA will be heading off to the party conference in October, fingers crossed anyway.
Posted by shendry at 09:15 PM | Comments (0)
May 04, 2004
25 years ago today...
Margaret Thatcher took over the running of our country after defeating James Callaghan. You either like her or you don't there's no real middle ground unless you don't care in politics. Surprise surprise I am in the, I like her camp.
Margaret Thatcher in her time in power did so much to put the great back in Great Britain. Nicknamed the Iron Lady she implemented policies which changed this land for ever (in a good way).
Some of her greatest moments include:
- Falklands War When Argentinean forces invaded the Falkland Islands April 2nd 1982 Margaret Thatcher unleash the British arm forces. By the 14th June Argentine surrender. One of the reasons this war was over so quickly was that it was a range war. The Argentina guns fired 9km and the British guns fired 17km, this meant the British ships anchored 10km away and fired from there... The results of this war gave the nation a wave of patriotic enthusiasm.
- Right to buy A great scheme where people who lived in council houses had the right to buy them from there local authority, this giving a sense of being part of the nation.
- Reduced Trade Union power National Union of Mineworkers went on strike in 1984. Due to Thatchers foresight she had stock piled mines so life went on as normal. Due to NUM striking without balloting public opinion was with Thatcher, the miners ended up with nothing,
- Privatization The Privatization of utilities such as BA to create a more efficient product.
- The birth of Thatcherism
Thatcherism is characterized by a free market economy perhaps more closely associated with Victorian Liberalism in the United Kingdom, monetarist fiscal policy, Privatization of state-owned industries, low taxation, opposition to Trade Unions and a check on the size of the Welfare State.
wikipedia
Baroness Thatcher I salute you!
Posted by shendry at 07:03 PM | Comments (5)
Passed 3 Modules
Am In a good mood have found out I have passed three modules before I need to take the exams :-) I will still need to revise for them but at least the pressure are off. The modules I have passed are CO312 (Case Studies) , CO313 (Information Systems) and EL307(Digital Systems). This means I should focus my revision on Maths, Java and the Foundations of CS. Just got four words to say.
Back of the net!
Posted by shendry at 02:18 PM | Comments (0)
Futurama
Last night I finished watching all of Futurama on DVD. That is 72 episodes of animated gold. Now allot of people would say that is a waste of my time especially with the exams ever looming in the background the worse thing is that I have also in the space of the last few weeks seen all 72 episodes with Directors commentary. So in total I have spent around 55.4 hours watching it :-)
One thing I must say is how good I thought the Futurama commentary is. I found it very interesting and it's amazing how much thought goes into it. The crew who worked on the show had a range in degrees mainly focusing in Maths, Physics and Computer Science and where possible they have stuck to the laws of these disciplines. Some parts of the plot didn't stay consistent but just in case anyone noticed they had got a theory for why it was so. The shinning lights of the commentary were Billy West (Fry, Farnsworth, Zapp, Zoidberg and others), John Di Maggio (Bender and others) , David X Cohen (executive producer) and Matt Groening (creator and executive producer). Watching all of Futurama it's a shame that Fox has cancelled it. There is always hope Fox did resurrect Family Guy which pound for pound is the best animated show, sadly the DVD's don't have commentary on.
Speaking of commentary began watching season 2 ofPhoenix Nights with the commentary on sadly after listening to Futurama the commentary didn't hold up. I am a big fan of Peter Kay so will give it another chance at some point. Garlic Bread (you will either get that or you wont).
Was expecting Season 1,2,3 of The Simpsons to come today but doesn't look like the postman likes coming out in the rain :-(
Update:
The postman did come but not with my DVD's :-(
Posted by shendry at 09:09 AM | Comments (0)
May 03, 2004
WAVM update
Within 5 mins of sending my generic text out about the website I had received a text from one Mr. Muncey asking what has happened to wavm. I presume peter was really asking had shendry.co.uk replaced wavm.co.uk. The answer is no! shendry.co.uk is a site for me, it where all you guys can find out what I am up to, a bit like my email updates when I started uni. This site has no plans to do what wavm.co.uk i.e. all the pictures I take wont be on here they will be on wavm (when it is up).
Another question I can imagine people are asking, how come I can make this website and not wavm. Well I all ready had this website all I have done is brought a domain name and also give it a face lift (with some orange flowers).
OK time to settle the score with wavm. Over the Easter Vacation I rebuilt the web server which wavm ran on. I installed apache and configured that correctly. After that I installed the Content Management System (CMS) Geeklog after installing numerous plugins I hatched a design for the site. With all this done I moved on in integrating a photo album. I first tried in incorporating 4images. 4images however did have some major problems. Users could not make there own categories which is in my eyes a major problem. It also didn't allow a batch upload of pictures without going through a long process to find the unique id of each album then uploading via ftp. A few hacks would of sorted the category problem out but as It was all ready hacked to work with Geeklog the other hack would not work without more hacking...
My next port of call was to move onto Gallery. Gallery does meet most of the needs of wavm however I am not a big fan on the admin mode or how gallery looks.
I was going to settle for gallery but during the installation of my ftp server the web server broke. After several reinstalls it would still not work. As time ran out before I returned to UKC the server was left to gather dust in the corner of my bedroom.
wavm will not be up while I am still at uni, I will need to investigate what is wrong with the web server and from there build on that. During the remainder of my time at uni I can look into finding a CMS which meets all my needs. One Idea I do have is to write my own, but that would involve me learning either PHP or Pearl... Something that I want to do but starting a project which could turn out to be big would be daunting.
Any ideas what you want with the new site drop me an email or post a comment.
Posted by shendry at 08:52 PM | Comments (0)
May 02, 2004
Site back in action!
After a few months out of the world of the bloggar, my Blog has return with a new look and a shorter address. shendry.co.uk . You will still find the site at the long address cs-ed.org/blogs/shendry/.
Before I go on first of all I would like to thank a few people. Rob and Patrick for all the MT help and with a few CSS issues. Also thanks to Matt who enabled me in having this account at cs-ed.org and for all the annoying emails I have sent him :-D
This Blog is where I will comment upon well anything that takes my fancy be it stuff at uni, wavm or the latest news So check back regularly to find out whats going on in and around my life.
This will also be the main source of information about the new wavm website. More details of this to follow it deserves a post to itself. Lets just say what I was doing went pear shaped.
I know this site has flowers and no Rob that does not make me gay. The design is not fully finished I need to change all the other pages bar this one really. Just to anyone who cares this is my first website which meets W3C standards. Hopefully all future websites will also meet it. Also all this site is coming to you through CSS and not through my traditional table layout.
Please leave comments, at least then I know people are reading. Also bookmarking this site would be a very good idea. Take care!
Posted by shendry at 09:11 PM | Comments (7)
February 08, 2004
WAVM
Ok at last I have decided on the specification of the WAVM site. Why a complete new site? Two main reasons
So now that we have that sorted I will move on to the specification. Any comments at this stage would be great!
The new WAVM website is going to have one common look throughout. The many elements will be intertwined together to give a constant view.
The site will be able to be updated by any member easily through either an online user interface or through a program on your own PC! This means if you want to have a regular feature i.e. Bob's reviews you can. You can even have your own blog(site) where you can post your own point of view!
Photos can be uploaded by any one to form the biggest collection of WAVM photos ever!
Re vamp of the current design
Did you ever want yourName @ wavm.co.uk now you can! But now it wont just forward it to your current email address it will be held on the new WAVM server. Not only will you be able to receive it in your email client but you can also get accesses to it through through webmail (i.e. Hotmail style)
As the new site will be using CSS for layout this means there is room for the development of new styles. customize the look of WAVM the way you want!
All these new features will be held on a new server (not new hardware). All the new software should provide the backbone to making WAVM great.
Posted by shendry at 02:20 AM | Comments (1)
February 04, 2004
Happy Birthday Steph
Just want to wish Steph my girlfriend a happy 19th birthday!
Posted by shendry at 09:54 PM | Comments (1)
February 03, 2004
Haskell!
Just to let you know I have done a question for my course CO312. I have spent over 10 hours on this small recursive function, but at last it works. I fell very good at the moment :D Kebabs on me! (not really I am cheap)
In the words of Alan Partridge....
"Back of the Net"
"Jackankanorie"
"Spice World"
"Smell my cheese"
"Jurisc Park"
Posted by shendry at 04:12 AM | Comments (2)
KUCA my first meeting as number 1
Today(well yesterday its around 4am at the moment) was my first meeting as the Chairman of KUCA. IT was weird being in control of the group but ti was a nice weird. Hopefully I can get it moving.
Been very good done all the things I said I would do (bar one but its getting late). Set up a msn community at http://groups.msn.com/KentUniversityConservativeAssociation. Has any one use done of these, it looks OK and is the sort of thing I want to happen with wavm. But of course it will be my design and have all the features I want.
One thing I did suggest was paintballing between us and the Socialists that should be good if it happens. Hopefully my enthusiasm wont die for KUCA. I know that sometimes I can be lazy. WAVM2 any one :) BUt hopefully I can keep it going, as long as getting wavm back up. Will need to begin looking into that tomorrow (well today). Also must get more active in cscs again not even began coding for that....
Posted by shendry at 04:08 AM | Comments (0)
February 01, 2004
Super Bowl Sunday!
O yes its one of the biggest sporting events in the world and it is live on Channel 5 and Sky Sports 1 today. It's Super Bowl XXXVIII The Carolina Panthers take on the New England Patriots 70,000 Reliant Astrodome in Texas. Its going to be a great event not only for the American Football but also for all the entertainment!
Pre Game
Aerosmith, Toby Keith, Willie Nelson, Walter Suhr and Mango Punch!
Anthem
Beyonce Knowles
Half Time
Janet Jackson, P. Diddy, Nelly, Kid Rock
I am going to be surporting the Panthers in the game, got it right last year with the Buccaneers can I repeat it muy sucess? Ashame that we cant all be togetehr again to watch it. I enjoyed it last year when we played in the street pre game. Sadly (and I do mean sadly) I wont be able to watch the game live as I cant get Channel 5 or Sky Sport1. Hopefully Steph will be sending me a recording tomorrow :)
Posted by shendry at 07:23 PM | Comments (0)
January 26, 2004
WAVM's future
Thanks for all the replies. I have given it over a week before I have made another comment. I have my idears for the next step of wavm. But I am still workng on the finer issues of it.
The first thing I need to do is get WAVM going is to buy a new hard drive. I am looking at buying a 40GB drive they cot around 40pounds. If you would like to donate to the course please click on the button below. There are over 20 of us and if we all donate 2pounds each we can buy that hard drive for WAVM.<
Posted by shendry at 01:47 AM | Comments (1)
January 18, 2004
the future of www.wavm.co.uk
At the beginning on Janury I renewed the domain name wavm.co.uk but was it worth it? Is wavm dead?
Background for all you who dont know. WAVM is a web site primarly for my group of friends from back home in Croydon. I wont bore you guys with the history of wavm or the site history (unless you want me to post a comment).
In my opinion if people want www.wavm.co.uk to carry on I need help. Simple as that. I personaly cant do it all by myself. Its no longer fun for me i cant motivate myself to do it. I'm not talking about help with the technical side as I know only Donkey has the depth of knowledge to help me. I need help with ideas and the promiss that people will contribute to the site once its up.
Let me expand.
What the point in me implementing an idea I have if no one will use it? A great example is wavm chat on the first site and also the board on the current site. Niether has really ever been used. If people will use something I will slog it out and get it working, but if its not going to be used whats the point?
Currently I have the means of other updating the site, but there has been no takers. Infact I dont know if anyone still looks at the site any more, I know Tom has looked at the site he has emailed me about it, apart from that all I know that Steph and Oliver as I have regular (Steph may disagree with me on that) contact with them. But apart from them how do I know if any one checks the site out?
www.wavm.co.uk has reached the stage of either a regeneration or death simple as that. If it is to carry on investment needs to take place on the hardware of the site (mainly a new hard drive) which I dont mind doing (donations excepted :-) ) but at the moment I see no point.
Do have some ideas if people are willing to get behind me... Yes but it involves alot of work
What do you guys want? Leave a comment or email me and we go from there.
Stephen
Posted by shendry at 11:51 PM | Comments (9)
January 11, 2004
My 10 Best British Sitcom's
On BBC tonight there was Britians 50 best Sitcom's of all time. The BBC top 10 have some similar to mine here are my top ten!
1) Black Adder
2) Father Ted
3) Alan Partridge
4) Red Dwarf
5) Fawlty Towers
6) Phoenix Nights
7) Only Fools and Horses
8) Vicar of Dibly
9) My Family
10) Office
What is yours?
Posted by shendry at 12:01 AM | Comments (1)
January 06, 2004
3 Years
Just to inform everyone it is mine and my girlfriends (Steph) 3rd year aniversary today. I hope there will be many more.
Posted by shendry at 02:21 AM | Comments (0)
January 05, 2004
Long time no Blog
Today (well yesterday) I returned back to ukc and nothing seems to have cahnged. Much of my time so far has been concerned with unpacking (just finished) and catching up with friends.
Hopefully I wil blog more now that I am back at uni, need to get into a good habit of doing it. Tomorrow got 4 hours work of lectures and classes (2 hours maths fun!), might have a KUCA meeting. ALso would like to add some more Photos and begin looking itno changing the layout.
Posted by shendry at 02:00 AM | Comments (0)
December 17, 2003
LOTR: Return of the King
Today Duncan, Nat and myself went to see third Installment of LOTR. I must say it is a great film and I think more so as i had not read the books so I did not know what was going to happen. Duncan told me that the ending skips a part and I had heard this aas well but think they filmed it so it must be in the extended dvd comming out around Nov next year.
One thing that happened while we watched the film was that near then end (around 15 mins to go) the film reel was spliced on upside down. They had to stop the film :-( but we got a rfund and we also got to see the end of the film which was great.
Other news from today is that I now have perl running on my webserver look out for a wavm change soon...
Again only a short post I have a 12 hour shift at work 2moz :-(
Posted by shendry at 11:19 PM | Comments (0)
December 15, 2003
Early morning
Just a very quick blog because today I got up at 7. I dont think Ihave been up this early since I went to V in August. Mucking up my Kent body clock of late nights and lay in's. ANother 8 start tomorrowbut have wednesday off :-)
Posted by shendry at 11:14 PM | Comments (0)
December 14, 2003
Student Loan madness
Sadly as I am in the world of work my daily blog will get smaller :-(
Got some letters given to me from my Dad which I was sent while I was at Uni. Opened one letter and it was from the Student loan company saying roughly that my national insurance number could not be found. Fare enough. What seemed stupid that they sent me a letter 3 weeks later telling me that I should of reply. Fare enough again but common sense should tell them that as I have a student loan it is more than likely that I am staying where my Uni is so the letter they sent and the reminder I would not get until I returned home. Grrr. Sending the letter back tomorrow not sure if I should write a little note or not.
Not looking forward to tomorrow working 8:00-18:00 :-( but money .... :-D
Posted by shendry at 09:46 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2003
Home again...
Today markedthe end of my fisrt day back at home since leaving good old kent yesterday with my father. With my first full day back came my first full day of employment. Started again at Woolworths and spent all day (9:00-19:00 (bar 90mins of break)) sorting out the stock room at work. The whole stock room was a dump it was hard just trying to move around it let alone find anything.
My primary task was sorting all the dvd's we had into alpha order then trying to makr ethem fit on hardlry and shelvine. Didnt finish but is it surprising with over 1000 DVD's? Going to finish it off hopefully tomorrow then move on to videos. Really dont want to CD's there must be 1000'swhich need sorting. What really annoys me is that when I left 3 months ago that store room was spotless. Myself and the Manger at the time got everything cleared and in its palce. Since she (my manger) have left there most of been no stock work done at least it means I have lots of hours this week.
Working all days this week except mayber Wednesday might work that depends how I feel.
Nice little side not by Kebab shop man asked where I had been as he had not seen me fora while. Off to bed now need sleep before work.
Posted by shendry at 11:18 PM | Comments (0)
December 12, 2003
Crackers
Well a few days ago I was not in the most Christmas of moods. This is beginning to change On Wednesday I attended the Athletics Christmas Social and the KUCA Christmas meal and below are some of the great jokes I collected from the crackers.
Q What did the fireman's wife get for Christmas?
Ans A ladder in her stocking
Q What is grey, has four legs and a trunk?
Ans A mouse going on holiday!
Q Which fish wears a cowboy hat and two guns?
Ans Billy the Squid
Q When is it unlucky to see a black cat?
Ans When you are a mouse
Q How many weeks belong to the year?
Ans 46. The others were only Lent!
Q Where do snowmen go to dance?
Ans A snowball
Q What has four legs and an arm?
Ans A happy pit bull
Q What did the stamp say to the envelope?
Ans Stick with me and we will go places
Q Who invented fire?
Ans Oh, some bright spark
Q Who was the first underwater spy?
Ans James Pond
Q Why is Russia a very fast country?
Ans Because the people are always Russian
In now the immortalized words of Donkey "Oooo Tough Crowd!"
They were really bad please add any more to the comments page.
Posted by shendry at 02:55 AM | Comments (0)
December 11, 2003
Pink Elephants...
One thing that will stick in my mind today is something that Dr Eerke Boiten said in out CO312 class.
In mathematics and logic, "a universal quantification over an empty set is
always true", i.e., if we're asking if all members of a set S satisfy a
property P, and S turns out to have no members at all, then the answer is
"yes" irrelevant of what P is. You could read that as: every time you show
me a member of S, I will prove to you that it satisfies property P. I'll
only be able to keep that promise because you're unable to show me
any members of S anyway.
The common-sense argument against this assumption is: how can you say all
members of S satisfy P when you can't point out a single member of S that
does?
Now for anyone who does logic that makes perfect sense, if not I highly recomend this book The amusing bit for me when some one questioned If this was indeed true, If you have an empty set it should be false where asDr Eerke Boiten thought it should be true he decided to illustrate it by
Lets take a green elephant, wait no pink. All pink elephants can fly. (So P is "it can fly"and S is the set of all pink elephants). The first objection was an
empirical one: the student said he wasn't sure whether there weren't any
pink elephants that he'd never seen; so I constrained S to the set of all
pink elephants that he'd ever seen.
Now for you non computer scientists that did make me smile today. Just he way it all came about. Don't know If it comes across as funny as It did to me at the time. Dr Eerke Boiten also came up with a tope quote before about GLT2 about why the seating is so dodgy. It went something like this. The sating is dodgy because at night all the seats are put away to allow music groups to practice then latter in the evening the little elves come out and dance around.
May I thank Dr Eerke Boiten for typing up his pink elephant argument and sending it to me via email. He's very good like that.
While on the subject of logic I think its a good Idea if qoute Dr Keith Hanna
For example, let:p mean "The widget has twitched"
q mean "The flipflops have tumbled"
r mean "The spike is dendled"
then
((p -> q) ^ (r v %q)) ?->(p ->r)
%= not
means
If the widget has twitched implies that the flipflops have tumbled, and if the spike is dendled or the flipflops haven't tumbled, then if the widget has twitched, the spike is dendled.
the joys of logic :-)
Posted by shendry at 12:51 AM | Comments (0)
December 10, 2003
Pre Budget Report part 1
As many people know Gordon Brown announced his Pre Budget Report. Here is my first part of the disection of the Pre Budget report. There are numerous discussion points but one of the bits which caught my eye the most was in the change in which Interest rates are measured.
Currently the RPIX is used to measure Inflation. The RPIX is devised from the Retail Price Index (RPI) which
"measures the average change from month to month in the prices of goods and services purchased by most households. The pattern of spending on which the index is weighted is revised each year, using information from the Family Expenditure Survey. The expenditure of a few higher income households, and of pensioner households mainly dependent on state pensions, is excluded. As spending patterns change over time, so the weightings used in calculating the retail price index are altered. The RPI is compiled using a representative selection of more than 600 separate goods and services for which price movements are regularly measured in 146 areas throughout the UK. Some 130,000 separate price quotations are used each month in compiling the index, which is published each month. "Tutor2u
The RPIX is the same but excludes mortgage interest payments. Gordon brown in the summer announced that Britain would move away from the RPIX and instead use the European measurement the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (Hicup) which does not include housing. This move was to show a greater economic integration with Europe which to me means we want the European Single Currency. Today he renamed Hicup CPI which I can presume means Consumer Price Index. However today there was not just a change in name but due to the change in measurement means that there need to be new targets.
| Target | Current | |
| RPIX | 2.5% | 2.7% |
| CPI | 2.0% | 1.4% |
As the table clearly shows, the current RPIX figure is above what the current target. The migration to the CPI sees a drop in the new inflation target however the current level of inflation in CPI terms is much less than the target. This shows the government is trying to cover the inevitable rise in inflation by setting a target which is allot higher, hence when the budget comes along the government look like they are meeting the predicted figure rather if measuring in the old terms they are over.
One key thing which hit me was no mention of Gordon's Brown 5 economic tests to join the Euro. The UK economy must:
With no mention of the tests surely this signifies that there will be no referendum on joining the Euro before the next general election. In my opinion a referendum is clearly needed to once and for all lift the cloud hanging over the British Economy.
Look for my second part some time tomorrow.
Look for my second part some time tomorrow.
Posted by shendry at 11:54 PM | Comments (1)
Pre Budget Report 2003
As many people know that I do like me economic and today if the world of economics was the Pre Budget Report.
Below are a few links I have found and a little later I will dissect them to give my view. In my opinion it is interesting reading.
Some links for who like it simple
That will do for now. Enjoy!
Posted by shendry at 02:25 PM | Comments (2)
Wrapping up the term
As each hour ticks by its an hour closer to the end of term. All ready I see things changing, our house is one member less now as Rob has departed back to Southend. We will all soon be returning home for Christmas but to me it doesn't seem like it...
My room (note to self take some pictures before I go home) has no Christmas decoration, the same goes for the rest of the house. The only hint that Christmas is near is Rob fairy lights in his room which with no doubt stay there for the rest of the year. The campus numerous drinking venues have tried with decorations but I still have the feeling of bar humbug. Am I just a grumpy old man..... Yes. Maybe returning home will lift this cloud which is preventing me getting in to the Christmas spirit, or perhaps not. Christmas is a busy time, hopefully I am working most days at Woolworths will this get me into the Christmas spirit. I will probably where a Santa hat but that's mainly to cover up my hair (please note it is still growing, not that long yet :-( ) but it will be hard work. Christmas is the busiest time of year and I am 3 months out of practice at work. Hopefully I can jump back into the swing of thing but being thrown in on Saturday the busiest day will be a nightmare. It will be a long long day.
Have I grown out of Christmas? For the last few years my body didn't automatically wake me up with that funny feeling in you stomach saying its Christmas. I fear that this year will be the same. I cant even think about what I would like for Christmas yet, nothing springs to mind (except a new pc but that's out the question as the spec I would want is way out the question ). Not even thought about Christmas presents for people yet. Just now reflecting on what I have typed Christmas does not fill me Joy...
Note to friends: If you want to have a fun Christmas maybe I am not the best person to be around
Saying that probably when we get the gang together again I will perk up :-)
Posted by shendry at 02:30 AM | Comments (1)
December 09, 2003
Am I Ann Franks?
Ann Franks the 15 year old Jewish girl who kept a diary while hiding from the persecution of the Nazi's. She spent each night in complete darkness to prevent be captured.
Role on 2003
Stephen Hendry the 19 year old male computer scientist who kept a blog while hiding from the persecution of his housemate who wishes to copy his Proof Assessment. He hid in his rooms with all the lights off trying not to make a sound as he typed his blog in fear of being caught and spending the rest of the morning explaining proof.
Ann sadly was killed, I will just ruin my eye sight looking at a monitor with no lights on. As you can see we could nearly be the same person.
Why is it when ever you want to get some work done there are always distractions. There I am sitting on my bed working how to prove
The sum of n (r*(r+1)) = (n(n+1)(n+2))/3
r=0
then i get "Steve.. Steve what did you do for question #? " If that wasn't bad enough I try to help then he says it's wrong. O well maybe I am just being picky as I am tired. Now time to sort out my future....In the dark :-(
Posted by shendry at 02:55 AM | Comments (4)
December 08, 2003
LOTR Return of the King
As you may know that the 17th December is a very important day the releae of Lord Of Ring: Return of the king which is the thrid part in this epic triolgy. I of course would would like to see it on the day of release and hopefully some people would like to see it as well. I of course will be Croydon by this time. Here are a selection of times that the film is showing on the 17th.
Grants
10:00 11:30 14:15 15:45 18:30 20:00
Vally Park
10:30 11:30 14:45 15:45 23:15
the other times are sold out!
It is vital that we move quickly to decide what we are doing!
My personalchoice would be to get togetehr tuesday night watch the first 2 films back to back then go to the 10:00 showing at grants. Just need to have a venue for it (hopefully mine but who knows)
What you guys think leave a comment or text me ASAP
Posted by shendry at 07:21 PM | Comments (5)
The day which slipped through my fingers
The day started off constructively had a CSCS meeting at Woodies (pub) at 1 where we discussed a possibility of a future grant opportunity. Being my normal quite self I took in the various points of information coming from the different sources and luckily the end outcome agreed with my own personal judgment :-) We decided that we would not go for this grant to get 30,000 euros but instead to carry on with our current project BOTNET.
There was no doubt in my mind that If we as a team worked together we could tackle this head on and succeed, but what if we don't work together? We as a group have not tackled one project by ourselves yet let alone a project which most of us have little to no experience in which we must get results or need to repay 30,000 euros. As a group we still have not really got to know everyone, personally speaking I think a social would be worth while, preferably with a ban of talking computers to get to know other people interests (if they have any!). Just sitting here typing the ideal thing would be a weekend away, or a day away team building. I remember the one we had at Tenison's when we still did not know every one yet, it brought the year together and formed strong bonds, which still in some cases have not been broken.
The rest of the day went by as a blur not really doing anything constructive. I however do have a To Do List to do when I wake up.
TO DO
Hopefully I can get them all done! Its amazing how you can waste a day when you have nothing to do. Hopefully tomorrow will be more constructive.
Please note I know currently the comments don't work my housemate pointed this out. I will be on the case ASAP trying to sort it out. Also as you can see I have a temporary colour scheme going on to take it away from the default
blandness.
Posted by shendry at 02:50 AM | Comments (1)
December 07, 2003
I Christen this blog Ghetto Life, good luck to all who read it!
As you can see this Blog now has a name. Ghetto Life! Why Ghetto Life? Ghetto Life was the first rap which Tom and I composed and set the general tone of WAVM. WAVM is very dear to my heart there has been many a good time and sure there will be, under a week till I am back, hope you are ready to party (when I mean party I mean go to some one house I don't like Croydon and we all know how lazy I am).
When I return I must take a list of everyone primary email address allot of them are not working at the moment mainly Duncan and I don't have Sangs new one. Must go to bed now!
Posted by shendry at 02:29 AM | Comments (0)
December 06, 2003
Welcome!
As you can see at the moment the layout of my Blog (yet to be named) is not that great. I will be working on it soon. Trust me (I know I said that about the wavm site but everything will be sorted out when I get home) As a mix of people will be reading this from my "home boys" from the ghetto of West Addington Village, my new found friend at the University of Kent and other random people who I have mailed this to, it is probably best If I give a quick introduction to myself.
My name is Stephen Hendry and I am a 19 year old male born on the 3rd October 1984. I am still going out with Steph who I have been with for jsut under 3 years. I am currently in my first year of doing a Computer Science degree at the University of Kent situated in the not so sunny Canterbury. I originate from the Ghetto of West Addington Village which is found In Croydon. I am kind of the founder of WAVM (West Addington VIllage Massive) which is basically my friendship group from St Andrews (my high school) which evolved at Archbishop Tenisons into the group it is today. We do have a web site wavm.co.uk which has not been updated since the last design but that will change when I return home on Friday and quickly tweak the design.
At the University of Kent I take part in numerous groups. I am part of the Athletics society which I am trying to get back into some sort of physical shape (its not working). I am the IT Officer for KUCA (Kent University Conservative Association) and my current project is designing and producing a web site. I attend the Christian Union on a wednesday and am part of a Cell Group. Last and by no means least I am part of CSCS which stand for Cool shit stuff in computer science which is kind of lead my Matt (when I say kind of him and Christian lead it but they are not in charge no one is).
Please leave a comment if you can!
Posted by shendry at 10:41 PM | Comments (0)
