Andrew’s Blog

So it’s January again and the department is only just now starting to get back up to full steam. I’ve been back in since the 2nd in order to give myself plenty of time to get going again while it’s quiet. I actually quite like it like that. For most of the first week, there were very few academics in. Notably, Phil was around (the mark of a good head of department) and Marian was also in towards the end of the week. Other than that, it was pretty much just me, Monika, Kirsty and a few other VT students (Henry and Maslita then Mohammed and Ali on the Friday) around our part of the building.

Henry spent most of the time trying to finish sorting out his new accommodation and, most importantly, his Internet connection. It seemed like a good idea to go with the discount O2 gave him via his existing mobile contract in theory. In practice, their website was obviously designed by idiots and caused no end of problems. Why should we have to tell the web site that we’re logged in? Surely it should know!

Ibby also made an appearance on the Thursday (although much later than I expected from his phonecall the day before!) and Henry suggested some post-birthday drinks which was very nice of him. We spent a couple of hours in the Swim, having a good chat before going home.

This nice little spell of quite winterdom was over by the next week when people started to reappear en mass. There still weren’t enough people to warrant a postgraduate seminar session though, on the Monday, so it was cancelled much to Ramsay’s dismay at the loss of pizza. Most of my time over the last two weeks has been spent on getting the Sun stuff going, of which you can ready more on my other blog; other than that, it’s been lots of nice chats over cuppas as usual.

The biggest event of the last couple of weeks has to be our impromptu night out. Last Thursday, me and Henry bumped into Emily in the kitchen (she having returned on Monday, when we sadly took all the Christmas decorations back down) and were given a rather strange invitation to a night out. You see, she didn’t ask us if we wanted to join her but rather if we’d meet up with her if we were already going out. Kind of bizarre. We weren’t sure what to do, given the short notice. I know Em would never go out at such short notice, so it seemed a bit cheeky her expecting us to.

In the end, we decided to go and I texted Em to let her know. We were forewarned it was apparently a ‘girly night’, whatever that means, but even without any mascara, we still decided to go. Unfortunately, we were a little late in getting across to the Varsity and when we got there at 9, Em had left. We stayed for a drink anyway, then went across to the quieter Cavendish for another. As usual, the Varsity was playing loud music for the very few customers it has, while it was noticeably quieter but packed with people in the Cavendish. After some interesting chat, the two of us headed down to the Leadmill, again via the Globe, having agreed to meet Emily there.

The streets were desolate, with the Cavendish seemingly having the majority of tonight’s party people. To say we got to the Leadmill later than we have before (about half eleven), and yet it was still nearly empty, it shows how much the night-going population of Sheffield is dominated by the students, who were all still mostly away on Christmas vacation. We spotted Em and friend not long after getting there, but there seemed to be little hint of the girly night we were told about. Rather than interrupting her, we waited until she spotted us as well and decided to come over.

The night was a bit different to what I remember the last Thursday at the Leadmill being like. The music in the main room was way more cheesy than before, being a smattering of all sorts of pop music, while room 2, rather than being the usual indie stuff, was playing house music. Sadly, as always popularity surrounds the worst music, and the poor DJ in that room had very few people on the dancefloor. These kids today just don’t have any taste — I mean, Peter Andre? The guy kept repeating tracks too which always annoys me. 3 Britney Spears songs (1 twice)?

It worked out well though, because I think the DJ in room 2 realised he didn’t have to play to the crowd but could just play what he fancied. We went back and forth a few times; I got Henry to join me in there the first time, then the second time he initiated us going in there after hearing that the guy had moved on to playing some trance. The main dance floor was a joke. Not only was the music not too good, but the majority of people there weren’t even dancing and seemed to take it badly that some of us wanted to actually enjoy ourselves. They’d rather just stand there like idiots and get drunk.

Towards the end of the night, there were people falling all over the place, so I escaped once again to the other room, especially when I heard the DJ was now playing some drum ‘n’ bass! That made me very happy, even I was one of only about three people in there, while the rest were staggering around in the other room to Whitney Houston. Admittedly, it was commercial drum ‘n’ bass (Pendulum’s ‘Slam’ followed by Puretone’s ‘Addicted to Bass’) but this was still a league above what the annoying wedding DJ was doing in the other room. It’s always a sign of a bad DJ when they feel the need to talk to their audience and tell you what tracks they’re going to play. Honestly, it was like listening to Hallam FM or something.

The DJ finished the night with some old skool stuff, and then I met up with Henry again and we walked back up towards his house. I was in no rush to get back and I didn’t want to leave him until I knew he was cognoscent enough to get home okay. All in all, it was a good night and I enjoyed the chance to have a good chat with Henry. He’s a really good friend.

This Week’s Tunes: Mini-Mixes by Anti Chris, Basement Jaxx, Mark Ronson and The Rapture

It’s been quite a busy week and a half. The big news is that the lab has changed face again. After six months, things start to get rather boring. On Tuesday evening, myself, Mahmood, Zubair and Mohammed removed the two redundant desks between myself and Ibby (seating Idoru) and Ramsay and Azman (seating dopefish). We then moved the desks in front back, and placed two new ones at the front, where Ali and Mohammed were then ensconced. It took a while as first Kirill came in to observe the chaos, resulting in a chat about monitors and the Information Commons, and then we needed a break and some food (kindly provided by Zubair) after having to move the refuse pile that was Ramsay’s desk. At least, I guess there was a desk under there somewhere — something moved anyway. I just hope it wasn’t alive. We, of course, removed the many additional power cords that seemed to run all the way to JD’s office.

We were entertained in our endeavours by Emmanuel, who serenaded us with tunes from Zubair’s laptop. He’s still waiting on TC to provide feedback (average now down to 1.5 chapters a week), although I did let him know that he has plenty of work to do after seeing only part of Chapter 1… The move provided much needed party space at the top of the lab, which an enraged battle with Ramsay on the Thursday turned into a nice little communal area, which now houses drinks and food. Fran was interested to hear of the news, although I assured him that his desk was still intact — got to be one of the best in the lab.

Jumping back a bit, Wednesday morning was a bit chaotic when we tried to get everything powered up and working again. I don’t think Rams was happy about us unplugging his cables, but he was motivated to at least clear his desk. I eventually got to the Machines and Languages tute, although turnout was again low (but at least, not non-existant this time). On arriving back, I found that Mahmood had received a message from Alice; appears our phone number is the number of Lab 3 — whoopsy. Three guesses what the call was about — Turnitin of course. A student was having problems getting in, but we eventually found this to be down to him accessing the US version by accident.

This week saw Henry and Simon returning to the lab, sans various bugs and illnesses. Actually, to be accurate, Henry returned in time for last Friday’s Java tute, which I didn’t realise until he texted me just before. Unfortunately (for him) it means I didn’t tell Chris he was about and fortunately (for me) I snagged a role pretending to be Steve Murphy (last week) and Mike Holcombe (this week). That was really enjoyable and hopefully something I’ll get to do again.

It was last Friday evening that Emmanuel and Henry rolled off to the opening night of Embrace (formally Kingdom) with VIP tickets in hand, only to see Henry turned away — poor guy. At least the swings were still open at the local playground. This age things really piss me off, and I don’t think these places deserve custom if they’re going to treat their clientele with such little respect. I thought it was innocent until proven guilty… they should be trying to show that Henry is under 18, not vice versa.

Anyway, this resulted in a discussion with Emily in the kitchen (which certain members of our lab refused to believe actually happened) and the organisation of a VT lab + secretarys night out at some point. Probably the 17th. It should be great fun, although Emily has strictly banned me from using any form of photo-taking device… Seems we will have to find some other way to redecorate said kitchen. Come on guys — get doing something fun again!

Zubair, or Zed to his mates, officially now our movie mastermind, also has a trip planned to see the new Spiderman movie. That’ll be this Wednesday, provided I remember to send out the appropriate mail, cajole appropriate people, etc. Summer is coming, so I guess there will be many more we want to see — the new Pirates and Simpsons movies spring to mind.

This bloody GRADSchool thing has become a pain. Not only is it timed badly itself (have they never heard of semesters???), but they now want ridiculous amounts of rubbish beforehand. Well, I did the best job I could but time is limited at the moment. When not reorganising the lab, I’m doing various teaching and marking duties which actually pay… GRADSchool thing take note. I’m not exactly encouraged to spend a large amount of time applying for a fake job — doesn’t exactly inspire enthusiasm. In the meantime, I’m trying to arrange a chat with Leila at Google and that could possibly lead to something real… I just need to remember about things like timezones and international calling codes.

What else? Well, I’ve unfortunately only seen Ibby once this week, but we did have a nice lunch in the Swim. Not sure how happy he is with his new seat just yet, but I like mine much better (although I would also like to convince Henry to shift as well). My enhancement has finally been arranged after much a debacle, and that’s jutting on the GRADSchool thing too. Fortunately, I checked with Monika and the board is the week before. This time, I have plenty of things to bring up (if Amanda doesn’t get there first). Stannett has just returned from Italia where he and Frank have been spending many an hour shouting ‘Ciao, bella!’ at the locals I guess. I’m now awaiting his blog to find out the details. Lots of marking has been completed for Siobhán — nearly there now.

Anyway, comments, suggestions, etc. welcome with a stamped addressed envelope to the usual address. The bin needs to be full, you know.

A later start than I expected today, but it seems to have been a good day. Movement of the VT clan is still very much on the agenda. Sarah definitely wants to move to the research overflow lab, and Shaukat and Ali seem to want to go too. The problem is, according to Tony Chilton, it might not even be ours to use; he thinks it might be reserved for SpandH and NLP. I’ve contacted Phil to find out, but he’s away at present — so they are in limbo to an extent.

After finding out that we needed some tables that were imminently for the rubbish tip, myself and Mahmood grabbed them and moved them into the lab, thus making a start on the movement already. As a result, the two biggest issues have been sorted; both Emmanuel and Azman now have a proper desk and Emmanuel even has a machine. I also moved Frank over to the back table, which is eventually going to just house the printer, and moved Fran’s simulation machine to its rightful home. Things should thus be a bit simpler tomorrow.

Neither me nor Ibby met with Mike, as, with us working on the reports, there isn’t much point. He did drop in at the end of the day, and spotted my CDs, which he seemed interested in. Also, as with most people, he was perplexed by my crazy diagram of the lab — not to scale or aspect ratio! Yet more transfer reporting, but I think the end is in sight now — just djoin, biology, pi types, p systems and bigraphs to cover I think. Hopefully, some will be clear prior to tomorrow’s move, which starts with a lunch at 1ish.

In other news, there is likely to be a postgrad meeting next week, and I’m trying to recruit people to apply for Google’s pizza ambassadorship, to increase the likelihood of it happening at Sheffield… busy times. At least, one thing is off my mind. I was delighted to see a friendly face pop up on MSN today; a jet-lagged Fran appeared briefly who I’m happy to say arrived safely and will be giving his presentation tomorrow. Best of luck, mate — VT is rooting for you.