Journal

Don't even think the 'b' word. I hate it, I don't really know why, but I do. This is an 'online journal', ok? Just somewhere to share some random thoughts about what's going on in my life (ok, and possibly a few rants too).

Speaking of the 'b' word, here's a few of my friends': Anton, Chris, James, Iain, Lewis, Matt, Michael, Paul.
Old journal posts can be found here. If you're looking for my Sun b***, it's at blogs.sun.com/lamsey.

To add this journal to your newsfeed reader or website, use this address: http://www.lamsey.co.uk/journal.xml

Settled in
Sat 28/6/08 (Link to this entry)

The past week has gone in pretty quickly. I had forgotten how fast the days go in when you're working full-time - it seems like once I've cycled home, showered, cooked and eaten, it's already nearly time for bed. Accordingly, I've spent most of today slugging around the house (I had intended to do some work but that's going to have to wait till tomorrow). Despite that I still somehow managed to miss Doctor Who (first part of end-of-season special, too, dammit)...

I've been quite surprised at how easily I've slipped back in to routine down here. Working in the lab is all flooding back to me more easily than I'd expected, which is just as well given that we've been short of numbers most of the week. That's due to change shortly - Anton's back next week before heading out to France, and the following week will be the first for the new interns. Jay should be around next week too, which should hopefully result in some badminton. Between all this and living with James, I'm definitely not going to be lonely down here :-)

Catchup
Sun 22/6/08 (Link to this entry)

Well, I'm now back in Camberley for my three-month contract with Sun. I've spent the last couple of days getting my room sorted out and catching up on all the stuff I've been having to leave until I could get access to my main PC and server. It's going to be fun staying here, even if it is the first time I've not had alpha geek status in my place of residence! Below you can see my room - once I'm gone it'll be an office, but in the meantime I get to plunder the use of the big desk :-D

Now, a couple of items which have been on my to-do list for a while (along with the archery websites, which I'll be getting stuck into later today). First up is a daft video cobbled together from two pool-playing sessions with my mates Gus and TC. My intention was to get a good collection of snazzy trick shots, funky camera angles and impressive examples of break-building; in reality, the blooper reel has ended up being the best bit of the video - due in equal measures to my propensity for potting the white, Gus' oft-outrageous jam, and TC's lack of respect for the traditional two-dimensional approach to the game.

The other main bit of catchup I've done today is sorting out my photos from the Arrochar Alps, in particular the panoramics (with which I am rather pleased). These are the pictures from when I climbed The Cobbler and Beinn Ìme with my dad as I described two posts ago. As is my custom, I've put together a page of my best snaps from the day in my Photos section - do check it out, I'm quite pleased with the panoramics in particular (I'm slowly getting the hang of taking the component shots properly).

After a couple of fairly relaxing weeks for me, it's all go from now on. I'm in work bright and early tomorrow morning and I'm expecting a busy week reacquainting myself with all the pleasures that the Camberley area has to offer (mainly good company, the town itself is a bit crap really) :-D

Camping stories, photos, and videos
Sat 21/6/08 (Link to this entry)

Note: this post was written on the 6th but I forgot to upload it before packing my PC up to send it down south (as described in the "Argh" post here), which is why it's about two weeks late :-p

I'm back from camping and saw James off on the train today (only to be driving down to his place tomorrow with stuff to be moved down south - seems crazy when you look at it that way). We had a great time out in Glen Etive, back at the same place where we went last year. This year ended up being more about doing crazy stuff than clambering up hills, but there's plenty of time yet to bag some Munroes this year.

l. to r. Ford, Fraser, James, TC, Gus, Sròn na Creise

The above was taken during one of our slightly quieter moments; the rest of the trip seemed to mostly involve doing dangerous and/or stupid things whilst getting munched by swarms of midges. The daft stunts were great fun but the midges were less so, with the result that we ended up abandoning traditional firelighting methods in favour of quickly producing some smoke to drive them off. You can see how (and more) in the video below.

One of the nice things about Glen Etive is that it's almost totally devoid of any human influence; a single-track road and a telephone line were just about the only man-made things within about three miles of our campsite (apart from the cable bridge, which was close by). It's a nice change from the urban wastelands that are modern cities and towns (and also the reason we could get away with driving around with firewood hanging out the back of a car). I've whacked a few pictures from the trip onto my Glen Etive photos page, so you can see some of the wilderness for yourself.

Climbing up a needle
Fri 13/6/08 (Link to this entry)

After the disappointment of not getting to go hill-climbing during last week's camping trip, I was very pleased to be offered the chance to go and climb The Cobbler with my dad yesterday. The Cobbler is one of the Arrochar Alps, a fantastic set of mountains which is only around 35 miles from my front door. At 2,900 feet, it's not a 3,000+ foot 'Munro', but it's actually more difficult than many Munros since you start at sea level and it's pretty damn steep in places.

The Cobbler's Needle, with Loch Long in the background

One of the unique features of The Cobbler is the 'needle', which is the highest point of the summit. It's a large rocky outcrop with a hole in the middle (hence 'needle') through which you must pass in order to climb to the top. I've been wanting to climb the needle ever since I first climbed the Cobbler - I wasn't allowed to go up that day since I was too young. A video of my ascent follows courtesy of my dad (who can briefly be seen in the first section):

Since we were doing well for time and energy, we decided to make the most of our morning climb and head across the bealach and up to the summit of Beinn Ìme, a 3,317ft Munro which lies to the north-east of The Cobbler. Annoyingly, my camera's battery had died by that time so I don't have much in the way of pictures from Beinn Ìme apart from a few snaps from the summit, such as the moody-looking one below which looks out along the A83 towards the head of Loch Fyne.

Looking east from the peak of Beinn Ìme towards Loch Fyne

Further pictures will be appearing in my photos section once I've had time to try and stitch together the panoramics, which will probably have to wait until I am reunited with my main PC late next week. On that subject, it looks like I'll be heading down there on the Friday, so I've got exactly one week left up north before I disappear down to the land of the Sassenachs...

4th year exam marks
Wed 11/6/08 (Link to this entry)

I wasn't expecting to get them unti the end of the week at the earliest, but I found out my fourth-year exam results today. Still no coursework feedback yet (grr), but at least I now know what I've gotten for the year.

Despite it saying "Final Year Board" above, I actually still have another year to go, this being the fourth year out of five for me. If it had been a final Honours year then those marks would have been good for a first, so hopefully I can keep that up in fifth year to get a distinction in the Masters (which requires a weighted average of 70% or above over the final two years). All in all, I'm pretty damn happy with those results, even if some of the specific marks are a bit surprising (I was expecting the placement report to be higher, but the DP mark to be lower - it all evens out, I guess).

Argh
Sat 7/6/08 (Link to this entry)

So there I was last night, frantically knocking out a journal post about my camping trip before packing up my PC to ship it down to Sheffield on the first leg of its journey to Camberley (long story). I finished the journal post (and related photochopping / video editing) pretty late, and ended up getting to bed around 2am (only to have to get up at 6am). So did I remember to actually upload the *$@#£! post after writing it? Did I hell. It's now stranded on a hard drive about 250 miles away.

Bugger. :-(

Heading for the hills
Mon 2/6/08 (Link to this entry)

This post is just a quick note to say that I'm going to be camping up north for a few days and won't be around. I'll have my mobile with me but I can't guarantee I'll have reception, so text messages are probably the best way to get a hold of me. Photos, videos, etc will be forthcoming upon my return.

Camping, moving house, and surfing sound waves
Sat 31/5/08 (Link to this entry)

I've had a mix of good and bad news lately. The main bad news is that since James and Kim are going to be moving into their new house during the week that we had planned to go camping, we now won't be able to go. This is mitigated to some degree, however, by the fact that James at least is able to come up this coming week, so he's going to be accompanying myself, Ford, TC, Gus and Fraser to Glen Etive on Monday. I'm looking forward to it and if the weather today is anything to go by, it should be great fun.

A week from now, I'll hopefully be transporting some stuff down to Sheffield so that James can transport it down to Camberley, where I'll be staying with him (and latterly Kim) during my short summer contract with Sun. This is great as it means I don't have to worry about arranging a short-term lease, and I can help James out with the rent while Kim's not there (she's going gallivanting around the world).

So, all in all it looks like the next week or two are going to be really busy for me. With that in mind, I'm thinking it maybe wasn't a good idea to buy Audiosurf last night. It's a very clever arcade/puzzle game which generates tracks based on your music. You feed it an mp3, and it creates a sort of rollercoaster-like racecourse which rises and falls in line with the intensity of the music. It's a very clever idea and quite fun, even if I do suck at it.

The above is an attempt at the easiest kind of course on the medium difficulty setting (made more difficult by the fact my PC isn't really up to full-screen recording whilst playing the game). The idea is to catch clusters of the coloured boxes whilst avoiding the grey ones. This is easy in the quiet bits of the track (Default's It Only Hurts), but the choruses are a bit mental. I particularly like the way it bounces to the beat during the verses. It's quite fun feeding different kinds of music into it to see what each does - acoustic guitar stuff is pretty laid-back, while the likes of Joe Satriani or the Foo Fighters are not for the faint-hearted!

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