Day 59 - Sammy "Three Times" Johnson Q.

I managed to get most of that group theory sheet done, and went to the class at 5pm. I also MUDded, ate lunch, and watched an Antonio Banderas film, where he taught ballroom dance.

[Through the electronic ether comes Daniel's cry of FAIL!]

Day 58 - Some Things Stirring

After punching in some numbers and crunching some digits using my Secret SuperComputer (ssh, don't tell anyone), I can produce the following numerical analysis of my 24 hour MUDathon.

In 24 hours of MUDding, I...

Gained 42 quest points, 3 achievement points, 4 guild levels, 550 in rating, died once, gained a spare life, and shifted my alignment from Good to Neutral.

I gained 2 levels in stealth.inside, 3 in stealth.outside, 8 in manipulation.passing, and also in manipulation.palming. 1 level in casing.place, and 11 in covert.points.
8 levels in culinary.baking, 23 in instruments.wind, 29 in melee.dagger, 10 in ranged.thrown, and 38 in defence.dodging.
10 levels of valueing.gems, and another 10 in valueing.jewellery. 11 in climbing.rope, and a surprising 25 in acrobatics.balancing.
1 in other.perception, and 4 in other.points. Finally, 4 levels in spoken Djelian, and 1 in written Djelian and written Agatean.

I gained a total of 49 TMs, averaging to just over 2 per hour.

That shows just what you can do with 24 hours on the MUD. In fact, if you were more efficient and numberchased like crazy, you could do a heck of a lot more. I had fun though, and did plenty more quests!

Day 57 - Tinned Avalanche

Dear, oh dear, oh dear. How can it get to my bedtime with me forgetting to blog? My carefully engineered plan, statistics, log of the MUDathon, all laid to waste by my prevarication.

I'm not even sure if that's a real word.

I've been struggling with my Group Theory problem sheet this evening, being distracted throughout by Brasseye, the Simpsons, and various constructions and games involving the buildup of Diet Coke cans in my room. Most of my mathematical energies have been spent trying to prove a formula. It's so annoying, that I now suspect that the question has a typo in it, since this can surely not be done by any mortal mathematician.

Day 56 - Don't you think that you're a winner?

Sorry for not blogging over the weekend - my epic 24 hour MUDathon did take place, finally, after 8 years of waiting. Thinking about it, however, staying at my laptop for 24 hours means that I have even less of an excuse as usual for not blogging, so I shouldn't have told you that. Where's the delete key?

Never mind, can't be bothered. After the MUDathon, I slept for 3 hours, woke up for a very confused half an hour in which I ate some food and watched Zero Punctuation video game reviews, and then slept for the next 11 hours. Woke up this morning feeling very refreshed. Had a philosophy tutorial, played on the MUD some more (still love it!) and found out I have a problem sheet due for Wednesday.

Julia is fetching me cups of water and lemon squash. She's now back, glaring at me until I relinquish my metaphorical hold on her internet kingdom. I should go, before she stabs me. I'll post a detailed analysis of my MUDathon tomorrow.

Day 53 - Cut by the Cards He Sought to Shuffle

Two very exciting events are looming (in a friendly way) over the horizon:

1) After this blog post is complete, I'm heading over to Mark's room for a crazy boy's night. This is a response to the girl's night that the girl's have organised, on the "Anything their gender can do, our gender can do better" principle. There will be beer, films, Gamecube gaming, and other male things. Like KICKING ASS.

2) Hopefully, tomorrow morning, I will begin an 8 year old ambition: to play the Discworld MUD for 24 hours solid. Surrounded by drinks and snack foods, I will revel in internet geeky luxury. Will it destroy my body? My mind? Looking forward to finding out! Plus, Julia is hopefully doing it as well! Julia = Best Girlfriend in the World.

I will chronicle this heroic feat, logging my thoughts and state every hour.

Day 52 - Would you like some tea in your milk?

Again, little was accomplished today. Whenever I have a lecture at nine, I feel that my work for the day is over by ten, and so spend the rest of day trying my best to avoid anything which would actually be useful.

I am currently watching an episode of the Simpsons featuring Homer in erotic photographs. Point proven. In these 52 days (ish) of blogging, what have I really said? What have I contributed to the world of words and ideas? Less than most, more than some. Every little counts, etc, etc. Something original?

"He grabbed the world by the hilt and stabbed at the stars."

Boo yeah.

Day 51 - Merry Propositions

Happy Prime Day, everybody!

Today, I have been ill. Women in my audience will be scoffing, and muttering cruel words under their breath at this point. "Ill? Ha! Try giving birth to a child!" The men, on the other hand, will be nodding wisely and sympathetically, fully aware of the special viruses that seem to target men to the exclusion of all other genders.

Sexist, inaccurate, and wrong though this portrayal is, it's still sadly all too true. Why, Julia barely pitied me at all, meaning that I had to make up the slack with a bucket load of self pity. And self pity shouldn't come in bucket sizes.

My nose is aching, and my joints are running. My throat is congested and my chest is sore. Oh, woe is me. Fear not, gentle reader, as you go into the dying of the light - my constitution is strong, and I shall overcome. Though my body be weak and shattered, a mere husk, a remnant of the proud man I once was, I will recover. I will replenish my strength, and avenge myself on those who mocked me in my weakened state.

Pity not me, but these poor fools. For it is they, not I, who shall rue the events of this day forever more.

Day 50 - Yes, Yes, Oh Yay

In celebration of this exciting landmark of my blogging spree (2.5.5!), I have retreated to my secret bunker, from where I am sending this blog over a secret location.

I am hiding from slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and the laser rifles and nuclear warheads of curious fate. Send your scathing criticism, and it will bounce off the walls of my concrete fortress like so much badly written tapioca.

Today, I managed to finish my final Galois Theory sheet, and hand it in a mere 27 hours past the deadline. I scare myself sometimes (in a good way, obviously). I also attended the second of my Palin lectures on Algebraic Number Theory. It's scary (also in a good way) - they must be some sort of duplicate identical clones.

Day 49 - A Fare Gronde Attraction

Behold, the wonders of the two minute blog post.

I have had an extremely lazy day today - I had a bath at 8pm, and I'm still wearing my pyjama top. I went to an Algebraic Number Theory lecture at 9am, and used this as an excuse to do no work for the rest of the day.

I introduced Julia to the Discworld MUD last night, and she's played over 15 hours since then. She doesn't do things by halves. Or even wholes. There's at least 159% in her obsessions and crazes.

Finally, happy birthday to Daniel, my second oldest friend, and definitely the one with the best facial hair. "Best" being, of course, a subjective term.

Day 48 - Sensing Returns

Partially at the scornful derision from a friend over my last two blog posts, I feel ashamed. First I miss two days completely, and then I give two vomitings of words that probably never deserved to see the light of day.

Yet I have been doing quite exciting things recently; I stayed in Bristol for one night, then in Warwick (well, Coventry) for two nights with friends. I've walked the rough pavements of Gloucester Road, and eaten in the Greek pizzerias that glitter invitingly down its back passages.
I've slumbered in oddly placed beds, and watched Teachers TV while attempting to stack balloons neatly. I've been inside the Chaplaincy, and seen strange, wonderful and terrible sights within. I've met new, wonderful, terrifying people, and had exciting conversations in which I was labelled as "a boring man". I've toured the Warwick campus in both night and day, and left a trail of drool around its glistening (even more so, now) maths department. I've Mudded in odd places, and been to the birthday ball of a girl I've never met.

I've seen Nick in a sequined mask.

Oh, what things I've done.

Day 47 - Oops, Another Gone

Still ain't dead. This blog can serve more useful purposes than a mortality log, but what could be more important? I mean, really?

Day 46 - He Pokes Holes in my Testament

I ain't dead.

Day 43 - Signs Within Signs

This blog comes from Bristol. That's right, for tonight and tonight only, I'm in that happy town of maths, slavery, pizzas and pens.

"That's a fair description" - Nick, typical Bristol 'studen'.

As I am about to say, "I always enjoy quoting myself." Wise, wise words.

I came down for a PhD open day, which was educational and entertaining. *thinking*...

Well, after all that thinking, this is a very disappointing sentence. More details on Bristol tomorrow.

Day 41 - Grand and Terrible, Terrible Objects

My second day back in Oxford, and I really like Blues music. The two are not related, but I'm being conservative with my sentences. Blues is perfect both as background music when I'm doing something else, or when I actually want to listen to music. The refrain (melody? tune? I don't know the terms) is usually repetitive, but not in a boring way. More in a trance, relaxing way, that just opens you up more to the music.

Similarly with the lyrics. Most Blues lyrics are repeated often, but they're good. Some examples:

Robert Johnson:
I got ramblin
I got ramblin on my mind
I got ramblin
I got ramblin all on my mind
Hate to leave you my baby
but you treats me so unkind

BB King:
Everyday, everyday I have the blues
Ooh everyday, everyday I have the blues
When you see me worryin' baby, yeah, it's you I hate to lose

John Lee Hooker:

When I first thought to hobo'in, hobo'in,
I took a freight train to be my friend, oh Lord
You know I hobo'd, hobo'd, hobo'd, hobo'd,
Hobo'd a long, long way from home, oh Lord

OK, so they don't look great down on the screen. But you gotta listen, man, you gotta listen to the whole song. You gotta get the blues in the soul, in the gut. That's where you 'preciate it proper.

Day 40 - Flying Through the Etherene

This really is quite disgraceful by now. What is the use of a daily blog that says nothing of value? I must be the only blogger who posts pointless posts at the moment. I look at brilliant posts like this one right here, and I feel miniscule.

I'm back in Oxford! We went to Nando's for some chicken, the bar for a drink, and my room for fun conversations. Now I must go.

Day 39 - Towering Over the Hummers

Sad news, first of all. My beloved scruffy tabby cat was just savagely killed by a stray dog on the streets of Sto Lat. Don't worry, though; I will soon find a helpful priest who can restore both my cat and my swamp dragon (who had exploded earlier) to a better state of mortality.

Tomorrow, I will be returning to Oxford. Tonight, I need to pack. Right now, I need to go to bed. Read tomorrow, for more exciting quandries.

Day 38 - Sunshine and Tickle Gangs

My time is running short, and I don't have long left. The mission has gone disastrously wrong; I'm not sure whether or not I'll be able to complete the circuit. The spirit may remain unquiet, the elements unmodified. This can only mean bad things for us all.

Day 37 - Pressure Rises in the OmniDome

Tada! This blog post is done.

Day 36 - Create, Prosper, Collaborate

Today, I'm leaving on a secret mystery of great mystery. Hopefully I can get to the computer tomorrow, to do a cursory blog post. Is the proper phrase "blog", or "blog post"?

I'm in quite a rush now, getting everything together, anyway. The monkeys are acting up as usual, the death ray's in pieces on my laboratory floor, and I'm losing more and more henchmen by the minute. The mob is battering at the door, while the friars are mobbing the gates. The affairs of state are an intolerable state of affairs, and while I'm trying to attend to the matters at end, interfering heroes keep turning up and busting my drugs cartel - they're always rescuing the heroine.

Geddit?

Day 35 - Angled Towards Annuity

I'm currently watching Scrubs. Well, more accurately, I'm watching an advert for the current Double Showings season on Paramount Comedy, but you won't begrudge me some looseness in my speaking.

Scrubs is now back on, so I was distracted, explaining the temporal lag between this paragraph and the previous one. As the Assassins Guild has taught me, routine leads to death, so I'm going to make sure that I keep being unpred

Day 34 - In with a chance?

It's Monday the 5th of January so, naturally, it's Reader's Request Day. Today's question comes from Mrs C. H. Greahams of Reading, Arizona:

"What do the titles of your blog posts actually mean? They never seem to be very relevant to the actual post. [Long, boring middle section cut out.] Please let me know."

Well, Mrs Greahams, that's a valuable question, and one I thought would be coming up around now (I'm sure you know why!) The answer is quite simple. When I was eight years old, I was visited by one of the travelling wise old sages that seemed to frequent my house a lot around that time. This one was different from most of them, however, since he was awake, and taking an interest in me.

For one blissful afternoon, he took me under his (figurative) wing and taught me many things - of sailing ships and sealing wax, and whether pigs have wings (turns out they don't). All too soon, however, it was my teatime, and he had to go and fight...something...or possibly stop somebody else from fighting something. To be honest, Power Rangers had just come on, so I was fading in and out.

As he left, he rummaged in his backpack and pulled out a crumbling tome; its bindings were loose and the pages moth-eaten, but I somehow felt that this was something very important. I reached out a trembling hand for this treasure trove of wisdom. He leaned forwards, and then suddenly pulled his hand back, holding the book close to his chest. He peered at me, and teared a couple of pages from the front.

Winking with both eyes, he gave me those pages, and tucked the tome back into his backpack. Looking down with disappointed eyes, I saw that he had only given me the table of contents. Five hundred chapters, and all I had were the titles. He smiled, said "Like the rolling monk, everything circles the sun," and left.

I was not sorry to see him go. Twelve years later, and converting these chapter titles into blog post titles is the best I've been able to come up with so far. Jerk.

Day 33 - Granted, it never flies

Surf's up!

That was a subtle allusion to the fact that Julia and I (bodacious grammar there) just watched the film "Surf's Up", quite honestly one of the finest films I have seen in a long time. I loved the style it was filmed in, all of the characters, the writing, the jokes, the music, and the spectacular animation. Better than the Godfather.

As if that was not enough, there were even more activities in my day today. This afternoon, I began the laborious task of transferring our old home videos onto DVD. Thinking about it now, I'm not entirely sure why this should be done, but it is definitely a Good Thing. You know, one of Those Things Which Should Be Done (Julia is an expert on those sort of things, and reminds me of this often).

Unfortunately, I have no Universal Machine which can do this easily, efficiently, at the push of a button. Instead, I have to go to Julia's house (a trial in itself), play the video, while simultaneously recording it with the DVD HDD Recorder. This modern technology boggles me.

Day 32 - They're Everywhere!

In just a few short minutes, I'll be leaving this house to drive to my father's. Pay close heed, for I tell you for several reasons:

1) If nobody hears from me in the next few days, and people start to worry, at least they know where to start looking.

2) I am fully aware how much more interesting than yours my life is. In your lonely existence, at least you can live vicariously through my exciting deeds.

3) My father's internet connection and computer were both engineered by incontinent squirrels, so I probably won't be able to blog this evening. In a fit of cunning so astounding I giggle girlishly whenever I think of it, I have reworked this warning about not being able to blog into an actual blog.

PS - This blogging website's spellcheck marks both "internet", "blog" and "blogging" as spelt incorrectly/not actually words. Go figure.

Day 31 - Falling Through the Epsilons

Only seven minutes to go; I have no ideas of what to write right here. I have great ideas earlier in the day, but I can never be bothered I remember what they were by this point.

That sentence made sense, I promise. It's just your mind playing tricks on you/mugging you in the dark alleyways of your subconscious and the boardrooms of your conscious.

I just played another game of 40k against Nick; he still outnumbered me, albeit by a paltry 2:1 this time. He massacred me, but I put up a good fight. My Lootas were the men of the match, laying down a withering storm of fire at anything that moved, whether friend or foe. They're an enthusiastic bunch.

Discworld MUD has become even more addictive with the addition of achievements; they're pointless, time-consuming, and give a miniscule feeling of accomplishment. Yet still I struggle towards them.

Day 30 - Invention and Infection

Happy New Year!

2009 = 7x7x41

As promised, here is my current New Year's Resolution:

Blog Every Day. Come rain or shine, hail or sleet, volcano or riot, I'll struggle, bloodied but defiant, to a computer and hack out some words to please the silent infinite mass that stares back at me. A month ago, I would have secretly known that I would fail at this, very quickly. With my recent very near success at this blogging spree, however, I feel more confident. Perhaps it could actually be done. After all, I did write a diary almost every day for a year a few years ago.

After watching Starter for Ten, I also now want to learn more general knowledge trivia. I'll have to work out a more detailed target for that, however, as with a few other things. More New Years Resolutions to come, don't worry.